Windows Phone 7

Sprint revealed today that the Motorola Photon 4G will be available starting July 31 for $199.99 with a two-year contract.

Introduced in early June, along with the Motorola Triumph for Virgin Mobile, the Photon 4G is Sprint's latest Android smartphone and the carrier's first device to feature Nvidia's Tegra 2 dual-core processor.

The Gingerbread device also offers world-roaming capabilities, 4G support, a 4.3-inch qHD touch screen, and a rear-facing 8-megapixel camera with 1080p HD video capture and a front-facing VGA camera for video calls.

Sprint Premier customers will get an opportunity to purchase the phone … Read more

It's said you have to spend money to make money. If this latest rumor is true, Nokia will be betting on a $127 million dollar marketing budget to help sell Nokia-made Windows Phones, according to Marketing Magazine.

The Finnish device manufacturer's six-month campaign set to launch in October would rebrand the company as primarily a maker of Windows, rather than Symbian and MeeGo, phones, according to the report. The timing would also coincide with the release of Nokia's first device for Microsoft's OS--likely this fall, and likely the handset known as Sea Ray.

Although it's … Read more

You know that intense, burning desire to be around someone every waking hour? Before you know it, you're hooked. You're inseparable. You're in love.

Todd Cole, a fashion photographer and music video director, decided to try to capture that lovin' feeling--at Microsoft's request--with a smartphone.

Using a Windows Phone camera, he began filming a couple living in East Los Angeles and synced up the edited footage with music for the official video for Kurt Vile's "Baby Arms" from his album "Smoke Ring For My Halo."

The stars of this very personal, intimate-feeling video are Angel, a graffiti artist, and Danielle, a student.

"I was listening to Kurt Vile's music a lot when Windows approached me about the project. The song is about being in love and having this feeling of us against the world. That was the vibe I got from Angel when I met him. And I think that feeling is communicated in the video," Cole said.

Cole followed the couple's daily routines of going to the market, cooking breakfast, eating in the backyard, riding bikes, hanging out with friends, and going to the skate park.

"Love at that age is usually one's first love and it is a beautiful time. I just wanted to document that," Cole said.

Cole said he liked using a mobile phone for video because because it felt liberating and "less intimidating" than the typical, full set of equipment. It allowed him to just be there and capture images as they happened. … Read more

I wouldn't call myself a spreadsheet ninja, but I do use spreadsheets on a daily basis--and Google Docs, specifically--to track roommate bills, plan vacations and conferences, and keep tabs on work projects.

Today Google updated Google Docs for the mobile phone and tablet browser to make it easier for the tool's users to share multiple documents and sort spreadsheets, text docs, presentations, PDFs, and drawings you create online.

Log in from any mobile browser and you'll immediately see two drop-down categories on the navigation bar. One sorts documents by name, modification date, and the date you last … Read more

Verizon Wireless didn't make many friends earlier this week when it confirmed that staring today, it will end unlimited data plans in favor of tiered options based on data usage.

Though current customers will be grandfathered in with unlimited data, the change may be more than a little confusing for new subscribers eager to trade up to their first smartphones. Forecasting how much data you need is difficult to do on your own, especially with no prior history. What's more, knowing how much data a certain app uses requires a bit of sleuthing on your part.

Thankfully, Verizon offers a number of tools to help put users into the right data add-on. All customers can dial #DATA on their handset to see their usage, while most Android and Blackberry users also can download the Data Usage Widget. And of course, seasoned Verizon customers are probably already familiar with the My Verizon Mobile service.

With tools like this it can't be all that scary, can it? Actually, you bet it is. I spent a few minutes playing around with a fourth tool in Verizon's Data Usage Calculator. Designed to get a feel for how quickly one might chew through bandwidth, it calculates how much data usage based on e-mails sent, Web sites visited, as well as music and video streaming.

I was shocked to learn that watching roughly one hour of high-resolution video per day will put me at 12GB of data. And that's without e-mails, Web browsing, or anything else. Even something as innocuous as letting your child watch YouTube videos could result in massive charges. … Read more

On Call runs every two weeks, alternating between answering reader questions and discussing hot topics in the cell phone world.

It's been a few months since I've used On Call to answer reader questions, but this week offered the perfect opportunity. Being that tomorrow, June 29, is the fourth birthday of the original iPhone, I wanted to tackle a great query on replacing a lost Apple device. Plus, the ongoing AT&T-T-Mobile merger has produced a lot of reader questions on the status of unlimited data plans, and the recent introduction of the Nokia N9 has cause … Read more

Even glancing at U.S. Cellular's smartphone lineup, one thing stands out. With the exception of a couple of BlackBerrys, Android completely dominates. Or it did, until the HTC 7 Pro muscled its way in, a rebranding of Sprint's HTC Arrive.

As staunch supporters of mobile platform diversity and consumer choice, this is a very good thing. The handset, while heavy, has some interesting design elements, including a screen that tilts up when you slide open the QWERTY keyboard. The keyboard itself has rubbery buttons that are easy to press, and the HD video capture and playback are … Read more

The previews for the next version of Windows Phone 7 are out, and overall, the response from the press has been largely favorable, including CNET's. The Mango update brings more than 500 new features to Microsoft's mobile operating system and continues to build on a solid platform, with smarter integration of apps, more-robust features, and a faster browser. It also addresses a number of issues we had with the software when it first launched in November, so Microsoft definitely deserves kudos.

However, as much as there is to love about Windows Phone 7.5, more needs to be done. As our colleagues Jay Greene and Maggie Reardon at CNET News point out, Windows Phone still has much to prove in a market where Android and the iPhone dominate. Below, we talk about five of the biggest hurdles for Windows Phone and how improving in these areas could help the OS succeed. … Read more

With more than 500 new and enhanced features coming to Windows Phone this fall in Microsoft's version 7.5, or "Mango," update, you'd think we'd be hard-pressed to discern the cream of the crop. Not so!

After spending almost a week with Windows Phone 7.5 Mango, we found that five major features stood out above the rest. These features are time-saving tools, clever ideas, or enhancements borrowed from elsewhere, but they all share the properties of making the Windows Phone OS a much better functioning place to be.

Of course, it's not all lovey-dovey. CNET's Bonnie Cha has a list of Top 5 things Windows Phone needs to improve.

But for now, some praise:… Read more