I stopped into my local Best Buy this afternoon and was amazed at the great selection  of prepaid cellular phones. As recently as a year ago the prepaid phone aisle was limited to cheap plastic throwaways. Fast forward to now, and the shelves are lined with current model BlackBerry and Motorola phones available on no contract prepaid plans.   Boost Mobile has been one of the leaders in selling affordable prepaid phones that don’t make you ashamed to use them in public.  Last week we looked at the i465 (great texting device and solid call quality). This week we’re looking at the Boost Mobile i9. It’s essentially a Motorola Razr fitted with the walkie talkie feature that Boost is known for. What’s amazing about this phone is that it’s one of the thinnest flip phones that Boost has ever offered. Continue Reading

Full disclosure.  I haven’t touched a Droid yet.  I have an iPod Touch and use a Palm Pre as my everyday device.

Here is my humble opinion.

The Motorola Droid will sell well.  Not awesome, but well.  There is a lot of pent up demand from those locked into Verizon who wanted a serious smart phone, and they definitely get it here.

I see very few people dumping an iPhone to switch to this.  Sure it has a few benefits, but it also has a fair number of weaknesses when compared, and nobody is switching carriers over the differences. Continue Reading

To say the DROID’s release is highly anticipated would be an understatement.  Marketing has gone into overdrive for this handset, making us wonder why there’s no big love for the Eris (yes, they’ll appeal to different users — and the Eris is running Android 1.5, at least for now, but the Eris looks just as capable for anyone who prefers the Sense UI versus the DROID’s Android 2.0 interface).    So Verizon customers looking to finally wield a smartphone that won’t shame them when they’re out and about with their iPhone-toting friends have tomorrow marked and ready.  Heck, even the impatient could have pre-ordered it already from Best Buy (and, if you really, REALLY, want a DROID but just don’t feel like hoofing it over to your local Verizon store in the morning you can order one straight from Wirefly beginning at midnight tonight).

But what about the corporate user?  Should you (and your IT department) be putting the DROID on your company network?  Sure, Android 2.0  now natively supports MS Exchange.  Oh, but before you run out to pick up your very own DROID, and then expect to be using it for work you may want to take note of a few things.  Unfortunately, everything is not puppy dogs, fluffy clouds and rainbows…

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One of Boost’s unique features, in addition to traditional voice and text messaging, is the ability to connect subscribers using a walkie talkie type connection (formerly known as Direct Connect) accessed by pushing a button on the side of the Boost phone.

When the phone’s button is pushed you  connect almost instantly to another walkie talkie capable phone without any need to dial (other than the  unique walkie talkie number of the person you’re calling which is different than their phone number). These phones can also connect to Sprint/Nextel phones, participate in group chats and  work locally as well as nationwide.  Continue Reading

In the time I have been writing here at Gear Diary, I have made it my mission to find the perfect Bluetooth headset.  Although we have tested dozens of headsets, that quest continues.  In fact, considering the rate at which new headsets are developed, I would not expect this process to reach a conclusion anytime soon.  Today, we will be looking at the Motorola H790, the latest entry in Motorola’s already extensive line of Bluetooth headsets.

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Hot on the heels of my review of the Motorola H790, yet another Bluetooth headset joins the enormous ranks of Motorola headsets.  Announced earlier this week, the H17 takes seems to take small and light to a whole new level, with its flip switch interface.  The best feature for me, however, is the use of CrystalTalk technology to suppress background noise.  The lack of this feature was one of my big complaints with the H790.  Keep reading for more from the Motorola fact sheet, or find the whole thing here.

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Motorola announced the addition of a new smartphone handset running the Android operating system. The Motorola CLIQ features a custom user interface called MotoBlur. The handset will be available on T-Mobile exclusively later this year. This announcement realizes the move for Motorola to Android for their smartphone handsets. More details after the break.

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Carson Conant, CEO of Mediafly, Inc.  let us know that Mediafly was recently accepted into Motorola’s special developer program.  The program will promote applications from developers to be featured on Motorola’s upcoming Android handsets.

Motorola has struggled as Apple’s iPhone, RIM’s BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Nokia, and even other Android handsets (most notably from HTC) have grown their smartphone market share.   As the Chicago-Tribune recently noted, “Android’s success is a key pillar in Motorola’s turnaround strategy.”

By implementing Android, Motorola is hoping to tap a community of mobile application developers who are already developing for HTC or Samsung Android handsets.  Motorola has taken it a step further, by providing incentives for developers to have access to upcoming phones to test and design the applications — as well as helping promote those applications when the phones go to market.

According to Jason Shah, the developer behind Mediafly’s Android application:

What [Motorola is] doing is trying to provide tools for free to developers, so those developers will be more inclined to focus on Motorola.

Mediafly already has applications for the iPhone and BlackBerry, along with a host of other consumer electronic devices — and are on track to add their media aggregator and video podcasting software to the popular Roku player by the end of the year.

Full Story via The Chicago-Tribune

Do you want your phone to have its own identity?

Then perhaps it needs a Coveroo case.

Coveroo offers over 2,000 designs that it laser engraves onto the back of your cases.  Or choose a color design and it’ll be applied with a special process that makes it both durable and wear resistant.

You can also choose to truly customize your case by having Coveroo apply your own personal logo or picture to your case.

The Coveroo cases are available for most major cell phones including BlackBerry, iPhone, Motorola, Samsung, Nokia, HTC, Palm, and more!

I recently ordered a couple of Coveroo cases for review.

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A lot of states are joining the growing trend of banning cell phone conversations while driving unless you have a Bluetooth headset or car speakerphone accessory.  The truth is, this is probably a good move, which is likely to save the lives of many drivers and passengers who would otherwise become distracted while talking on the phone, eating a Big Mac, putting on lipstick, and driving all at the same time.  Motorola, today, offered their own solutions to this problem, with the Motorola H790 Bluetooth Headset and the Motorola T215 Speakerphone Car Kit.  Hit the jump for all of the exciting details.

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The Motorola Rival A455 is one of the newest phones to be added to the Verizon Wireless handset lineup.

This messaging workhorse gives you instant access to IM style texting, emoticons, a slide out keyboard, and an on screen touch pad right out of the box.

I had the opportunity to use the A455 over the last two weeks, and here are my thoughts on this multimedia powerhouse.

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Simple rivals or symbols of a culture clash?

There was an interesting blog post circulating the interwebs over the weekend. The author, Tomi Ahonen, posits that the differences between the United States and the international cell markets have influenced what phones find success domestically vs the rest of the world. It’s a very long piece, so take your time…maybe start slow cooking a pot roast. Dinner will be done around the same time as when you finish reading the piece…but it is worth reading.

What I found really struck me was that among the ideas in the author’s main thesis was the idea that “American” phones are not as SMS-centric as euro ones, hence the lack of Symbian love in the United States. He also argues that what worked successfully in the USA (the RAZR, the iPhone), needed to be tweaked for the rest of the world, and that the rest of the world needed to tweak their phones for success in the USA.

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Motorola has officially announced the launch and immediate availability of the Motorola A455.  The device is available for Verizon Wireless.

The A455 is a loaded messaging machine that features one touch access to IM-style texting and emoticons, a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, a touch dial pad and fast EVDO connectivity.

The device is available in two colors: Tin Silver and Purple, and holds up to 500 text messages and then organizes them by contact and displays them in a chat-like format.

When it comes time to make a phone call the A455 features a touch pad for easy dialing.  It features a 3.5mm headset jack and a memory card slot for use with up to an 8GB micro SD card.

This handset supports most of Verizon’s specialty features such as V CAST Music with Rhapsody, V CAST Video, Visual Voice Mail and VZ Navigator.

In conjunction with the launch of the phone Motorola has set up a special game which lets you compete with your friends to see who is a “Thumb Fu Master.”

Visit www.motorola.com/rival to play the game.

The A455 is slated to sell for $99 after a $50 mail in rebate and a new 2yr. agreement.

You can find out more about the Motorola Rival by visiting the Motorola web site.

The Motorola Clutch i465, a qwerty keyboarded prepaid cellular phone, is now up on the Boost Mobile site and available for orders at the not terrible price of $129. The phone offers a 1.79 TFT display with 64k colors and 128 x 160 pixels. There’s Bluetooth and a VGA camera as well as 20 MB of internal memory. Talk time is claimed to be 205 minutes. If you’ve been holding off on Boost Mobile due to their rather plain phone selections – this model plus their bargain unlimited talk/text $50 plan might just kick you over the edge.

PhoneArena

Buy.com has a deal on these Motorola S805 Bluetooth headphones. Listen to your favorite music while you also accept incoming phone calls. This is Bluetooth Class 2 with HF Profiles HS 1.0 and HF 1.2. Music controls available: Jog-dial track/volume, push button for call answer/ play-pause. These headsets weight 5.5 oz with a claimed battery life of 17 hours. Hard to see where you can go wrong — assuming of course you have a Bluetooth compatible device to use these with.

Motorola S805 – $29.99