mobile news

The latest and greatest news in the mobile phone market. New phone releases and technology updates. Covering the US mobile market, including Cingular, Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint - Nextel.

Fashionista’s Dream Come True

Prada does cellphones and it’s an LG KE850 - customized.

It’s black, shiny and beautiful. What? Don’t believe me? I have the pictures to prove it.

This beautiful designer cellphone features a unique, touch screen display and a very minimalist design.

The user interface is a simple black and white, but not boring.  The phone comes complete with a Prada leather case (of course!) and will be sold at a price tag of approximately $400-$500 (speculation).

Though it’s not yet available, look for it in 2007. The market will be Europe and America from what I read.

Depending on the official specs, this would be a phone I might consider buying. We’ll have to wait until full details are revealed to find out if it’s just a basic phone or a more ‘jazzed’ up model. It’s interesting though to see that the phone is rather monochrome and sort of “blah”—I’d at least expect a pink version. Wouldn’t you?

More photos after the jump, including display and touch screen shots.

Cherry Blossom RAZR V3 by Ami James

Not sure how I missed this release, but I found a new pink or rather magenta Razr at T-Mobile that is extra special.  It has a cool cherry blossom tattoo design by Ami James of Miami Ink.

So if you don’t already have a RAZR, now you can get a fancy one!

The Motorola RAZR V3 at T-Mobile offers an ultrathin profile, video playback, Bluetooth® technology, and a digital camera with 4x digital zoom.

Do you own a RAZR?????? Which one do you have??? TALK TO ME!

Beam Me Some Cash, Scotty!

Paypal now lets you send money via your phone from anywhere at anytime. I’ve used my mobile on PayPal for a long time, but the “standard” way, so now they’ve made it easier with a ”text me $$$” method. What does this mean for you? It means that you can now send money to your friends with a credit card or bank account and a cellphone, two-way or PDA. It couldn’t be easier, could it? So now, between PayPal and eBay I have an even easier way to spend my hard earned $$$. Lucky me, and lucky you too!  Here’s the 411 -

After you activate your phone, you can send money one of two ways:

1. Text to 729725 (PAYPAL) with the amount and recipient’s phone number. Example: send 5 to 4150001234

2. Call 1-800-4PAYPAL (1-800-472-9725) and follow the instructions.

Sounds pretty easy. Here’s a little visual. I just know you love pictures *smile*

Couture Meets Connectivity????

Simple, Colorful, BOLD. Okay, so they got that one correct.

These are just some of the words that Motorola is using to describe the Motorola PEBL Colors. Can a simple yet colorful phone live up to such hype? Check this out:

“Luxury meets fresh and bold style with the Motorola PEBL Colors.  Stretching the boundaries of traditional design, the colorful PEBL boasts a unique oval shape, distinctive vertical external display, innovative one-handed opening hinge design and tactile soft-touch finish.  And now available in vibrant shades of green, orange, blue, and pink, the Motorola PEBL is sure to be the center of attention everywhere you go.”

Oh and that’s not all, this is the best part:

“Document life on the go with the rich multimedia capabilities of the Motorola PEBL Colors.  Before you buy the latest handbag, get a friends opinion - even when she’s across town.  Simply point, shoot and narrate via MPEG4 video playback, then send via Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS)*.  Visual delights continue with an embedded VGA camera for quality still photography, picture caller-ID* and dynamic color display.”

I’m sorry, this phone is cute and all.. but this what??? What are they talking about? How many fashion conscience style mavens are going to rush out to buy this phone? I honestly don’t know of very many. Hype Hype Hype. Blah Blah Blah. Whatever!  Okay, that’s enough already.. just go read the press release yourself if you want to.

Sprint over to Sprint and Sign up!

Sprint has announced two new plans that would allow its customers to make or receive unlimited calls between their cell phone and a pre-designated home or office number, regardless of their wireline carrier, without deducting minutes from their wireless service plans.

The consumer option will cost $5.00 per month, and business customers with a rate plan of $49.99 or higher could add it for $8.00 per month.

Sprint will also offer Sprint to Home with Long Distance, a free offer for customers who subscribe to both Sprint wireless services and long distance services.

Sprint plans to expand the value of this offer later this year to allow business customers to pre-identify a range of landline numbers - up to 30,000 DIDs - that can be called without pulling from the subscriber’s bucket of anytime minutes. [Press Release]

Razr Phones Pulled from Market

Cingular and T-Mobile stopped selling the Motorola Razr phone this week.  There seems to be a glitch in them that causes the phones to disconnect.

Customers who purchased Razrs with the flip problem can exchange them through T-Mobile and Cingular however at this time the phones have not been officially recalled.

The good news is that Motorola has already solved the issue at the manufacturing level, so there are new phones on the way.

Just so you know though, this problem does not affect Razrs sold through Verizon Wireless, because Verizon uses a different wireless technology than Cingular and T-Mobile.

TiVo Mobile is Hot Hot Hot

No more worries about forgetting to set the TiVo. Did you just realize that your all time favorite episode of Sopranos is on tonight and you’re going to miss it? Hey, forgetaboutit. The new TiVo Mobile has made it easy for you to set your TiVo remotely via your cellphone.

“TiVo subscribers will soon be able to program television recordings straight from cell phones using the Verizon Wireless network.” according to this article.

Verizon subscribers will be able to access TiVo Mobile through its “Get It Now” service menu starting in the early summer. Verizon’s pricing for the service has yet to be announced. Hopefully it won’t be on a per item basis, but then again.. how much are you willing to actually pay for this service?

Now, This is an All-in-One Phone!

Okay, so it isn’t pink… nor is it especially shiny. If you didn’t know better you’d think it was some old phone from 1999. But let me tell you, this phone can rock your world!

The newly announced Samsung SGH-i310 features an 8 gig hard drive and can play back MP3, WMA and AAC music formats.  And it also includes a nice little 2 megapixel camera.  Toss in Bluetooth and USB 2.0 and I’d say this is the only phone you’ll ever need (well, until something bigger and better comes around in 6 more months).  It will run on Windows Mobile 5.0.

Now, if you’re in Korea.. you’re in luck.  If you’re in Europe.. you’ll wait at least 6 months to get your grubby paws on this one. As for us poor techno challenged Americans.. only God knows how soon it will be here. Typical.

Free Wi-fi Hotspots.. Thanks T-mobile!

Visit any of T-Mobile’s 6,500 HotSpot locations on the weekend and launch your Web browser. Visit http://freeweekends.hotspot.t-mobile.com and enter your T-Mobile phone number.  Within moments you’ll receive a free text message on your T-Mobile Phone with a pass code. Enter the pass code and you’ll be surfing for free! It’s called “T-Mobile Free Wi-Fi Weekends.”