If HTC and Beats Audio have their way, we aren’t going to be able to immediately dismiss the headphones that come with mobile phones as being anemic or lame for much longer.

Today HTC announced the first and only phone in the U.S. with integrated Beats Audio™, the HTC Rezound. The HTC Rezound is a multimedia powerhouse with unparalleled audio and entertainment capabilities which allows customers to experience music and entertainment on-the-go like never before.

Its style is unmistakably HTC, but the Rezound appears to have been jazzed up a bit by the addition of a red speaker grill and red capacitive buttons along the bottom of the screen. A flashy Beats Audio logo on the back will also… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Last week my 15-year old son ran a load of laundry. That would be a great thing … except that he failed to remove his cell phone from his jeans! Another phone on the heap of teenage abuse! So when I heard that US Cellular was releasing the rugged PCD Wrangler later this month, all I could think was … THERE is a phone made for my son!

Here is the description:

Rugged and tough, the PCD WranglerTM works and plays as hard as you do. The compact clamshell design has been tested to withstand rain, extreme temperatures, high humidity, dust or sand. The dual-band Wrangler comes fully loaded with a scratch-resistant 2.2″

Is it even possible to have everything? Of course not. But it is possible to have a happy home, well-balanced kids, a loving spouse, and the proper tools to keep things running smoothly or to at least enable an occasional escape when everything gets crazy. The Holiday season has officially begun, and we have a few gift suggestions that can help take the stress out of finding something special for the women we love.

Happy Shopping! =)

Keurig Mini Plus Personal Brewer

Whether she likes tea, coffee or hot cocoa, she’ll be able to brew up a fresh cup with a minimum of effort. And with brewers available in red, black, platinum, green and… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

AT&T is bound and determined to tease those of us who don’t live in major markets with their 4G LTE speeds and the phones that can handle them; today HTC has announced the new HTC Vivid.

Thanks to the dual core 1.2 GHz processor, browsing the web, listening to music, and downloading apps is a snap on the brilliant 4.5 inch qHD display, allowing you to do more – faster. [You can] multitask efficiently—browse the web while streaming video to your TV wirelessly, with zero wait time and no buffering. The AT&T 4G LTE service will launch Nov. 6 in Boston, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Indianapolis and Athens, Georgia. AT&T offers the only smartphones that are able to utilize

Vertu is now taking reservations for the newest Constellation, their first touch-screen model, which bears an uncanny resemblance to the Nokia C7. Okay, the uncanny resemblance is actually an intentional resemblance, as I have it on direct authority from a Vertu rep that this is the phone the Constellation is “most like”. Now obviously it is nothing new for Vertu to offer a phone with many similarities to currently available Nokias (witness the Vertu Constellation Quest), but in my ownership experience there are always a few disparities between the Nokia version and the Vertu version, and it bothers me.

Let’s start with the… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

If you have been wondering when the next member of the EVO family would make itself known, the wait is over, as the fifth member of the HTC EVO family — the EVO Design 4G — is about to be available from Sprint.

The HTC EVO Design 4G builds on the wildly popular EVO line, but brings you more in a sleek new package. The first EVO family member touting World Phone capabilities, the HTC EVO Design 4G builds on many of the “must-have” features of its predecessors, including a 1.2Ghz processor and large 4” qHD touchscreen display, while sporting a slim, pocket-friendly design at an easily affordable price. Capture content with the HD quality video camcorder – and

Today U.S. Cellular announced they are bringing three new Android devices from HTC to the market: HTC Wildfire S and HTC Hero S smartphones, and the HTC Flyer tablet. The Hero is a powerful 1.2GHz Snapdragon powered phone running Android OS Gingerbread, and has a great screen and plenty of memory and storage to handle everything you throw at it.

The Wildfire is a budget phone with solid features and performance at a more affordable price, but still running Gingerbread and plenty capable!

Finally the HTC Flyer earned some acclaim due to the innovative stylus integration – though the pen is expensive ($80) and not included here, just as with… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

One of my students excitedly hurried into my classroom the other day, exclaiming that I had to see her new phone. Kids show me their new gadgets everyday, but this was obviously something special since the other students were just as excited. When she presented it to me she just exclaimed, “3D!”

In her hand was one of the newest Android handsets from LG to sport 3D technology. The LG Thrill is exclusive to ATT and can be purchased for $99. The hardware seemed nice and was similar to other Android phones I have played with, but I really just checked out the 3D features quickly. I shot a couple… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

I can’t even find it in myself to be annoyed that HTC has introduced a phone that is so obviously aimed at women; if they had just colored it plum and called it good, I would have been livid. But no. The HTC Rhyme is a phone that I would have considered carrying anyway … and the bonus is that it just happens to be a lovely plum color.

From the unique plum color that draws on the inspiration from HTC’s designers to specific apps, wallpapers, and ringtones created for the HTC Rhyme, HTC Sense’s presence is seen throughout. Hardware design is taken a step further with available accessories including a wireless Bluetooth headset, wireless charging dock which turns

 I love hearing about devices that follow through with updates to the next version of an operating system, because — let’s face it — there have been many over the years that didn’t. US Cellular users with an HTC Merge, now it is your turn.

Today the Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) update is available, and this is how you can get information about how to get it on your device:

Customers can visit http://www.uscellular.com/android/software.html where they will find information explaining the new features and an installation guide that explains the process and allows customers to upgrade.

via US Cellular PR

So the day has finally come where the official announcement has been made for the Samsung Galaxy S II to hit US soil. The press conference is under way right now (Dan is there as I type), and just as we thought details are slim. A 4.5″ SAMOLED+ screen is destined for AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint, while Verizon is holding off for the Samsung Galaxy Prime, or Nexus Prime or whatever they decide to call it. As I watch the blogging commence I noticed while reading over at TmoNews some of the announced features of the new phone. What caught my eye is the promise of the robust Enterprise features that will be included with this phone… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Image courtesy of Droid-Life

What drives me nuts about mobile carriers these days is that I truly believe they are using new technology against us. Maybe you think I’m out of my mind, but it’s really easy to see the common trend happening with 3 of the 4 big carriers in the US. As mobile broadband and equipment evolve, our data plans seem to reverse direction and impose some serious and costly limitations. If I remember correctly in the past before smartphones were big, you could use all the data you wanted. But let’s remember the hardware was not nearly as advanced and you really weren’t streaming anything over a mobile… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

One of the places that mobile devices so often fall flat is in the delivery of great sounding audio, which is why these new Pantech and DTS collaborations caught my eye. The new Pantech Vega No. 5 Tablet Phone and the Pantech Vega Racer Smartphone will “incorporate DTS technology, bringing a more immersive and dramatic sound experience to consumers’ mobile devices.”

As more and more consumers view content on mobile devices, it’s becoming increasingly important for manufacturers to equally address both audio and visual components. Currently the fastest smartphone on the market, Vega Racer, features Qualcomm’s first 1.5GHz dual core processor—offering speeds up to 30 percent faster than single core—and 1GB DDR2 RAM. Additionally, the Vega No. 5 tablet

So much time is wasted in idle speculation!

Today I, along with a gaggle of other bloggers, was sent an invitation to an HTC press teleconference that would happen tomorrow. Along with the call-in information, the invite said:

TAOYUAN, Taiwan, and LOS ANGELES— August 10, 2011 — HTC CEO Peter Chou will hold a live teleconference from Los Angeles on August 11, 2011 to make a major announcement.

The rumor mill started working overtime, online. Was this for a new device? A declaration of insane losses or profits? Was HTC going to stop making Windows Mobile 7 devices and focus solely on Android? Okay, I made that last… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

If you are a Facebook junkie who can’t go for even five minutes without checking in, then I may have found the perfect phone for you. HTC recently brought one their two Facebook-integrated phones to the US; somewhere along the way, the device formerly known as the ChaCha became the Status. You may  remember that the ChaCha was the candy-bar style Android phone with full QWERTY keyboard that so impressed me at Mobile World Congress — mainly because its keyboard blew away the one on the BlackBerry Bold I was using while traveling.

the phone formerly known