Verizon Wireless and TiVo Partner
TiVo, the creator of and a leader in television services for digital video recorders (DVR), and Verizon Wireless, owner of the nation’s most reliable network, announced today an agreement that will allow Verizon Wireless to debut TiVo Mobile, a new downloadable application that lets TiVo service subscribers schedule recordings on their TiVo device directly from their Get It Now equipped Verizon Wireless handset.
“This arrangement will allow the growing base of TiVo subscribers to integrate control of their TV life with the most widespread piece of consumer electronics, the wireless phone,” said Tom Rogers, CEO of TiVo.
TiVo Mobile is a new innovation that will allow TiVo subscribers to schedule DVR recordings and access related entertainment information from the convenience of their mobile handsets. Viewers will be able to schedule recordings on the go via the same user interface that makes TiVo the best-in-class DVR experience.
Starting in summer 2006, in an exclusive arrangement with Verizon Wireless, users will be able to download the application from the Verizon Wireless Get It Now suite of services onto applicable handsets. Verizon Wireless and TiVo will also collaborate on a joint marketing campaign to promote availability of the new TiVo Mobile feature.
“TiVo Mobile will add yet another unique benefit to the Verizon Wireless Get It Now service by allowing our subscribers to be the first mobile users anywhere to schedule television recordings on TiVo using their mobile handset,” said John Stratton, Verizon Wireless chief marketing officer. “As a powerful consumer entertainment brand, TiVo has the ability to help us attract consumers who value the leading multimedia capabilities Verizon Wireless offers.”
Specific terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Samsung SCH-A630 Review
Recently, I was able to get my hands on the Samsung SCH-A630, being in Canada, we don’t always get the latest technology first, but I am still pretty happy with this phone. I did not expect too much from it as it really does not have many of the fancy features that almost all cell phones have these days, but if you need a regular flip phone that does not have many annoyances or features, this might be the phone for you.
The design of the phone is a reasonable size, and it feels solidly built. There is no external display, meaning you have to open it if you want to see who is calling, or what time it is.
The call reception is a little limited as the antenna is built into the phone, and while that makes the phone look a little more slick, you may lose connection in some buildings. Most of the time, when you do have a connection, the sound quality is average. You can tell you are talking to a person on a cell phone, because their voice sounds a little like it is trying to pass through a sheet of tin.
So far the phone has lasted for a fair while, as long as you are not playing around on the phone making the backlight come on for extended periods of time. You can expect around three days between recharges if you don’t talk too much, and around three hours of talk time.
Text messaging with the phone is about on par with other phones I have tested. The key size is decent, and the responsiveness of the phone is rather good. I am able to zip through menus easily, and the phone does not feel slow at all.
The internal screen is really nice and bright. The colors seem rich, and the text is very easy to read. It is a shame that there are no animations or anything for this phone, as the screen feels a little wasted. There are no games on the phone by default, but it can support them. So basically the only thing taking advantage of the color screen is the default wallpapers, and the funky rainbow dialing that was enabled by default.
Samsung SCH-A630 Features
- Vivid 65K-color display (128 x 160)
- 64-chord polyphonic speaker supporting MIDI ringtones
- Enhanced T9 predictive text for messaging via Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), Enhanced Messaging Service (EMS), and Short Messaging Service (SMS)
- Speaker-independent voice recognition with full-duplex speakerphone
- BREW for downloading games, wallpaper, screensavers, ringtones and applications
- WAP 2.0 compliant browser with cdma2000 1xRTT for high-speed data transmission
Would I recommend this phone? It really depends on what you want. If you are looking for something simple, cheap, and for the most part effective, this is the phone to get, but if you want any of the hundreds of newer features built into phones, you will be disappointed with the SCH-A630.
LG S5200 Slider Review
Mobile Burn has a review of the LG S5200, a sexy slider phone from the company that made slider phones popular.
The LG S5200 looks like a cross between a Motorola V1000 (cancelled) and a Samsung D500. The phone itself is a fairly small and solid device, measuring 93mm x 46.6mm x 21.4mm (3.66″ x 1.83″ x 0.84″) - it can easily fit into your pocket. Although the front is made of smooth plastic and is prone to fingerprints, the 95g (3.35oz) weight makes it feel less like a toy. The back of the phone is made of quasi-velvet textured plastic, and this gives the phone a firmer grip, especially when sliding the screen up. Build quality is excellent as the moving parts all click into the right places. On top of that, scratch resistance is above average.
The phone manages to earn a recommended rating thanks to its small size, excellent sliding mechanism, good reception, simple functions and ease of use.
Sanyo MVP Review
Laptop Magazine reviews the Sanyo MVP, a phone they tested with Mobile ESPN.
ESPN’s new mobile service is a touchdown, a game-winning shot, and any other victory-celebrating sports cliché you can conjure. As the first true niche phone service, its innovative interface will surely be imitated by many handset makers.
The Sanyo MVP, a pimped-up version of the Sanyo MM-9000 for Mobile ESPN, does a great job of delivering the ESPN service, powered by Sprint’s EV-DO network. The service is expensive; 450 minutes plus access to ESPN content is $64.99 per month.
The phone gets a rating of four out of five thanks to its fast access to ESPN content, high resolution screen, customizable interface, and the MP3 player with MiniSD slot.
RIM and NTP Settle E-mail Patent Dispute Case
For a while it looked like RIM was going to have to remove its push e-mail service in the USA due to a patent dispute with NTP. Thankfully, the whole thing is finally over, as RIM settled out of court for $612 million US which grants Research in Motion to continue running its Blackberry push e-mail service.
The funny part about the whole thing is that this comes after the US Patent Office continues to review NTP’s patents, and has issued preliminary rejections on most of the applicable patents, including completely rejecting one of the five relevant to the court case. I am sure many are happy though that they will continue to be able to check their e-mail on their “crack-berry” pager system.
AT&T to buy BellSouth
It looks like the Wall Street Journal has posted an article stating that the US telecom giant AT&T, which used to be SBC, is now planning to purchase BellSouth. Since AT&T and BellSouth are the co-owners of Cingular, the largest wireless carrier in the United States, the resulting company will be fifty percent larger than Verizon, the majority owner of Verizon Wireless. The deal is being calculated out to be around $65 billion US. In the past AT&T has mentioned that it had no plans to change Cingular Wireless into AT&T, but now that Cingular will be owned by one company, that may change.
Samsung t309 Review
A quick review for the Samsung t309 thanks to Laptop Magazine. The phone manages to earn itself a three out of five on their review scale due to a nice look, decent camera and a nice display, but the actual audio quality of the phone is what helped knock it down by two points.
With its antenna-free design and two-tone black-and-charcoal body, the three-ounce t309 makes a good first impression. Open this clamshell and you’re greeted with a nicely spaced dialpad and a 65,000-color display that’s fairly easy to read. The screen doubles as a viewfinder for the reasonably sharp VGA camera, and we had no problem sending an image to an e-mail address.
They list the phone as being $99 with a one year contract from T-Mobile.
Sharp 904SH Includes VGA Display and Face Recognition
People keep asking me when they should buy a cell phone, and my response has been “wait a few months, there is this cool thing in Japan that you will want”… And so they wait, and the phone eventually comes over to North America, and they ask me if they should gety it, and I have to tell them to wait as something even better comes out. To prove the point, Vodafone K.K. and Sharp have announced the 904SH, the first mobile with a VGA resolution main display.
The incredible features do not end with the display though, as the Sharp 904SH also includes a 3.2 megapixel camera with 2x optical zoom, Bluetooth, and a miniSD expansion slot. This is all well and good, but Sharp has not stopped here - the 904SH includes two very interesting features that I hope make it out of Japan soon: Motion Control Sensor and Face Recognition.
With the Motion Control Sensor and the Vodafone NAVI GPS navigation service, the handset can sense its motion in 3D, and adjust the display of the map to reflect where the user is facing. Probably the most interesting feature though is Face Recognition - this security feature activates the internal camera whenever the handset is opened, and can identify whether the user is authorized to access the device within one second using eye and mouth facial features.
There is no word yet about bringing this phone to North America, but if Sharp can release a phone with these features, you can expect other companies are not too far behind.
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Google and Sony Ericsson are going to work closely together to integrate Google’s Blogger and Web Search services into Sony Ericsson phones. I am sure many photo bloggers, or bloggers on the go will love such features. The first Sony Ericsson products to offer the new service are the recently announced K610 UMTS phone and new flagship imaging handsets, the K800 and K790, announced today and available in Q2 2006. “We are seeing exponential growth in blogging and consumers are turning more and more often to the Internet as a means of sharing information or images in personal blogs,” said Jan Wäreby, Corporate Executive Vice President, Head of Sales and Marketing, Sony Ericsson. “By working with Google, we’re able to offer a quick and easy way for people users to blog as they discover how convenient it is as a way to share words and pictures with friends, family and beyond. We are also delighted to collaborate with Google, the undisputed leader in Web Search, to provide our end users with relevant Internet information directly to their Sony Ericsson handsets.” “By providing users with direct access to features like mobile search and blogging, we’re able to create a more personalized, user-friendly experience,” said Nikesh Arora, vice president, European Operations, Google Inc. “Today’s tech-savvy consumers are becoming increasingly more mobile and demand access to information on-the-go, whether it’s the latest news headlines or directions to a favourite restaurant.” Additionally, commencing today Google will become the standard search engine for all new Sony Ericsson Internet-capable phones. It has been tightly integrated into the phone’s web experience with multiple intuitive access points. For instance, users can directly activate a Google Web Search option from whichever page they are viewing without the need to launch a new web page to complete a search. With one click, users will be able to quickly and easily access the information they need. Mobile Burn reviews the Pink RAZR V3c on Verizon’s wireless network. The Motorola RAZR V3c is a cool handset, especially in the pink garb that has recently been made available. The device has a good set of capabilities that include Bluetooth, EV-DO, great speaker independent voice dialing, and a megapixel camera. Battery life is pretty much par for the course for a Verizon EV-DO handset, and while Motorola still needs to work on their implementation of the Verizon user interface, most of the bad aspects of the UI are going to be the same on pretty much any new Verizon handset, so you can’t blame Motorola or the V3c much for those. The phone is put through its paces and comes out with an expected recommended rating. They liked the look, EV-DO, Bluetooth and voice dialing, while the slow and quirky UI, and not so great battery or camera performance were in their con’s list.Sony Ericsson and Google Collaborate
Verizon Motorola’s Pink RAZR V3c Review
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