phone

Ringtone roundup: It's a little bit funny...

Adios, "Adios Amor Te Vas."

The "Pink Panther" ringtone by Henry Mancini swapped with you from No. 3 to No. 1 last week. Now this week you crawled back up to second place pushing Mancini to third, only to be bested by Elton John's "Your Song."

Whether or not Sir Elton John's "Your Song" sans Ewan McGregor is really worthy of first-place ringtone status in America, is a debate for another site.

Still, it's good to be reminded of what's out there as an option for your own … Read more

Two new Samsungs

The DM-S110 and DM-S105 are based largely on the earlier Samsung SPH-M300 and are the first Samsungs for Disney Mobile. Though they sport the same dimensions and the same exterior features Disney put its personal stamp on both phones. The DM-S110 is pink and the DM-S105 is silver, and both have a design of interlocking stars on the front face. Features are standard Disney Mobile with Bluetooth, a speakerphone, a VGA camera and lots of Disney content. Read more about it in our DM-S110 review or take a gander in our slide show.

Zegna's 'iJacket' lets you talk to the coat

In an odd way, the fashion industry may be uniquely qualifed to keep pace with consumer technology. Both fields, after all, can change with the wind--and often do.

Ermenegildo Zegna is becoming something of a poster child for that marriage, as shown last year with its iPod jacket and continuing with such innovations like its solar collar. Now, using "smart fabric" made by Eleksen--maker of such crazy stuff as a double-sided fabric keyboard--Zegna has created a coat that employs Bluetooth technology that can be used for mobile phone conversations.

The "iJacket" is a piece … Read more

Shopping from your cell phone

A new start-up called mShopper has just introduced an application that lets people shop from their cell phones.

The company on Thursday launched its new service that allows mobile-phone subscribers to search and compare prices for more than 7 million items from over 100 merchants. Once they've found an item, people can buy it with just a few clicks on their phones.

It works like this: you enter the first two letters of a brand name or product model. The application finds the item you're looking for and lists prices from a variety of Web retailers. Users can … Read more

Shiny Sony Ericssons in a shiny box

It's been a while since I received any new cell phones from Sony Ericsson. So when the company called to tell me they were sending me not just one, but three new handsets from the last CTIA show I was very excited. But leave it to Sony Ericsson, which takes its handset design very seriously (and to great success) to make the packaging equally as exciting.

While most of the review cell phones that I receive come in the standard box, Sony Ericsson packed the new models and a couple of accessories in this fancy faux leather container in … Read more

More time needed for Palm's Foleo

If you were planning to camp out this week for the launch of the Palm Foleo, pick up the tent and go home.

Barron's Tech Trader Daily blog spotted a research note from Deutsche Bank's Jonathan Goldberg saying that Palm has delayed the launch of the Foleo, a Linux-based "mobile companion" that looks like a laptop but doesn't deliver anything close to a laptop experience. The device is now expected to ship in late September or early October, according to Goldberg. When Palm founder Jeff Hawkins unveiled the device in May at the D: All … Read more

AT&T saves some trees

AT&T has dropped its ridiculously long iPhone bills that quickly became a laughingstock of the cell phone industry. Customers with now get a summary bill that will run about three pages. Full statements will details of each phone call and data transfer will continue to be available on AT&T's Web site.

The first round of iPhone bills quickly became conversation pieces after the first batch was mailed. Because the bills detailed each time the user accessed the Internet, even if the surfing session lasted under a minute, the bills were tens of pages long. Though … Read more

LG Fusic: Not for me, but maybe for my kids.

The LG Fusic sure isn't your corporate executive's cell phone, but for the younger market it's quite nice.

It's compact, looks attractive and 3G makes getting everything quick and easy. Sprint's Power Vision and On Demand kick in along with the music (hence the name) to make this definitely a fun phone. The micro SD card lets you store enough tunes to last you for days. Opening the clamshell is far easier than most, and the call reception is excellent.

Quite unique is the inclusion of an FM transmitter to play music from the phone … Read more

Desperately seeking street cred

In the comments of a previous post, the Macalope was chastised for not "keeping it real" since his move to CNET (to paraphrase Merlin Mann, there goes my former biggest fan ever... again).

You'll have to appreciate the position the horned one is in. Some readers seem to think he should "balance out" their perceived anti-Apple bias at CNET (the exceptional Tom Krazit would probably take, well, exception to that, although on the other hand...) while others apparently want him to be less of a MacMac or an Apple apologist.

But let's face it. … Read more