AT&T is reportedly slated to increase their device upgrade costs from $18 to $36 this coming Sunday, February 12.

Because the overall costs associated with upgrading to a new device have increased, effective Sunday, February 12, 2012, AT&T will change its upgrade fee from $18 to $36

Just my luck. I’m due for an upgrade, and I’ve been chomping at the bit to try a Windows phone, as evidenced by Dan and Judie’s saga of their HTC Titan usage. Speaking for myself, it’s just unfortunate that by the time I want to try out the Titan II or the Nokia 900 I’ll be paying a lot more than I anticipated.

In a message to… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Judie: Our saga began when Dan and I received HTC Titans at a Microsoft sponsored dinner while attending CES; it’s hard to believe that on the 11th it will have been one month ago. You can catch up on our previous posts before starting with this one by clicking the following links:

Considering the Move from an iPhone 4S to Windows Phone Titan

Comparing the iPhone 4s Hardware to the HTC Titan and Dipping into the Windows Phone User Interface

In that month, my iPhone has never left my gadget drawer. Although I can think of a few times I wished I had it – mainly when writing up a cool accessory I had just discovered that was ‘iPhone only’ or when feeling the absence of a favorite app — not once have I missed it enough to retrieve it from the drawer. That’s better than I can say for any other phone running any other operating system that I have tried in the past … but I’m not sure if I’m ready to list the 4S on eBay just yet!

This week I’m having a low-keyed celebration of sorts. You see, as of a few days ago my HTC X7501 Advantage turned four years old. I’ve had my share of mobile devices, but I’ve always enjoyed using the Advantage as a mini-computer and phone. With its huge 5″ VGA touchscreen, magnetic keyboard, internal hard drive and metal and magnetic housing, 3G and WiFi capability my Advantage has been excellent for mobile productivity for me. How I came to possess this particular unit is a bit unusual, so permit me to set the Wayback Machine to October of 2007…… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

There's a dramatic difference between 4.7" and 3.5"!

Judie: For those of you who missed it, in our last article, Dan and I talked about the circumstances behind how we — two iPhone 4S users — each came into possession of an HTC Titan [you can click here to read it]. We also gave some of our initial thoughts about the operating system and why we might have been hesitant to make the change. In this installment, we dig in further into what we like and don’t like about the Titan specifically when it’s compared to the iPhone. Because our Windows Phone experience is occurring on the Titan, the hardware is directly influencing how we perceive everything …… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Motorola stole the show last year at CES 2011. The Moto Xoom and the Atrix with its web top keyboard dock… oh my! They were pretty amazing to see. Francis and I even had a chance to remote log into my iMac in New Jersey using the Atrix smartphone as the “computer” powering the remote access. Sadly, the actual experience of using the Xoom and the Atrix left a good deal to be desired. Judie, Thomas and I all bought one; we all returned them.

Judie and I visited Motorola again this year at CES 2012, and while they didn’t blow us away, the two smartphones we did see were pretty impressive in their own right.… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

The folks at US Cellular are always excellent with great deals on great phones – and now they are going one step further! Instead of mail-in rebates returned as semi-useful debit cards, US Cellular is giving $100 instant savings on ALL Android, Blackberry and Windows Phone devices starting now and running through Valentines Day!

U.S. Cellular is offering $100 instant savings – no rebates needed – on all of its Android-powered, BlackBerry and Windows Phone devices. The Motorola ELECTRIFY is just $149.99 and the BlackBerry Torch 9850 is $99.99. The Android-powered Samsung Repp and Huawei Ascend II are just a penny each.

Right now, new customers also receive double rewards points that

With CES this week, there is even more focus on the state of mobile technology than usual. So I enjoyed browsing this cool infographic from SoMobile.com. Here are a few details:

Having gathered a number of statistics from around the world, our infographic also reveals that around 2.7 million SMS messages are sent in China every day, which is no doubt why 70 percent of Chinese mobile users – all 666,120,000 of them – admit they simply “couldn’t live” without their mobile. In Russia, it seems as if people can’t live without one or more handsets – with each person having, on average, 1.54 mobile phones.

This afternoon I attended a standing room only event in the impossibly small Ballroom A at the Venetian. The purpose was to hear about Nokia’s latest announcement for North America, and what I was hoping for specifically was news that the Lumia 900 (the North American version of the Euro Lumia 800) would soon be available. I wasn’t disappointed.

The front of the room was decorated with color tiles on the wall reminiscent of the live tiles in Windows Phone 7; if there were any doubts about what we were there to see, these should have removed them.

Stephen Elop, President and CEO of Nokia, came out and mentioned the first pillar of their global… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Wow, I am glad that I hadn’t already spring for a Titan from AT&T; today saw the announcement of the Titan II, and this model appears to be even more impressive than the first!

Today, at the 2012 International CES, HTC introduced the HTC TITAN II as the company’s first Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango) device to run on a 4G LTE network. Expected to become available in the U.S. exclusively to AT&T customers in the coming months, the new smartphone is designed to help consumers stay connected while on-the-go with the largest display among Windows Phones, an advanced digital camera and access to 4G LTE speeds.

Equipped with a brilliant 4.7-inch super LCD display, the HTC TITAN II offers

Nokia has long been one of my favorite hardware manufacturers because they consistently have devices with a better than usual build quality, their phones typically have strong radios, and they usually throw in a few excellent features not easily found elsewhere  – like the built-in FM radio transmitters and Zeiss optics cameras many of their media phones sport. Like everyone else, I watched with interest when Nokia and Microsoft partnered up in February 2011; I wanted to see what types of designs these two titans would create, and I hoped that this would mean a bigger (and better) selection of Windows Phones from which consumers could choose… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

The Jawbone Up health and wellness band didn’t last long with me. As much as I initially like it, the product didn’t offer enough functionality to justify the cost. Add in the fact that it needed to physically connect to my iPhone to transfer information and, well it just wasn’t the homerun I was hoping for. It did, however, offer a feature I rather appreciated. If sedentary for a certain amount of time, the UP would signal you to get up and start moving. As someone who spends a ridiculous amount of time either sitting in meetings or in front of my computer such a reminder can come in rather handy. In fact, Judie and I have often discussed the fact that we can spend HOURS in front of a screen without realizing it. You can only imagine the damage to your eyes, your hands, your back… the list goes on and on. And when it comes to mobile technology things go from bad to worse. Just imagine what hours of looking down at your smartphone does over time!

Mezzmer has an interesting infographic that asks the question: Are Mobile Devices Destroying Your Body?

Here’s a look…… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Image courtesy of it’s a small web

I’m often surprised at how easy it is to become accustomed to new tech.  Old pharts such as myself like to talk about How Much Harder Things Were When We Were Kids (but we were grateful for them!), but for me it’s not that things were hard–I lived in middle-class suburbia, and it was just fine, thanks–but that things were ‘way different.  The first car I drove was a 1972 Dodge Dart “Swinger” (really, don’t ask):

(Really, it looked almost exactly like that, vinyl roof and all!)

I mean, compared… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

We’ve seen and reviewed a lot of different external backup batteries for mobile devices. Many of them will be coming to CES next month in the hopes that, for once, we won’t be scrambling to recharge our gear. One of the batteries that will be coming along is the Tekkeon TekCharge MP1580 but calling it an external battery is actually not quite accurate. No, the MP1580 can be thought of as a rechargeable battery charger that can double as an external battery. That means it serves a double function when you are on the go. Priced at under $25 it is a neat little product that can come in quite handy in a pinch. Let’s take a look.

A week ago Michael Anderson posted a thought-provoking article here about the National Transportation Safety Board showing data that tended to support the notion that hands-free cellular use was just as hazardous as using a handheld phone. That the NTSB was mulling a recommendation for total cell phone/hands free ban was dire news indeed, both for automakers who spend huge sums on developing hands-free car technology and for us as the driver/talkers. In an abrupt split from his department however, NTSB Secretary Ray LaHood told reporters on Wednesday:

“The problem is not hands-free. That is not the big problem in America. Most people don’t put Bluetooth or Sync in their cars because they can’t afford it. Everybody

Phones such as the Samsung Repp and HTC Wildfire have shown that low-end devices still have much to offer, and the Huawei Ascend II looks to step in at a somewhat higher level but still be available for free after rebate! This is the description:

The Huawei Ascend IITM with Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) is your entertainment center, GPS navigator, news and weather hub, and your social network connection all in one powerful, pocket-sized device. Stream content from the web or your own media library and view it on the 3.5″ HVGA touchscreen display. Grab apps from the Android Marketplace and snap photos with the 5.0 MP camera. Whatever you want