Phones

Should Scarlett Johansson be banned from calling you?

Still stunned by the tale of a man who called 911 to complain that Subway had left the sauce off his sandwich, I discover another telephony cacophony.

It surrounds robocalling.

Which, apparently, involves some clever and remarkably cost-effective technology that allows millions of calls, many featuring the (scripted, naturally) voices of the famous, to be made simultaneously on behalf of political candidates.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, activists are fighting to regulate political calls in a way similar to the Do Not Call Registry that came into effect five years ago to regulate America's (or, sometimes, Canada's) … Read more

Ready to rock you: Motorola Rokr EQ7/EQ5 portable speakers

In addition to unveiling a trio of new Rokr phones, Motorola announced today the U.S. availability of the Motorola Rokr EQ7 and the Motorola Rokr EQ5 portable speakers. The Bluetooth accessories allow you to wirelessly play your music or take speakerphone calls from a compatible cell phone like the Motorola Rokr E8 and can be purchased directly from Motorola or at electronic retail stores.

The Motorola Rokr EQ7 features four JBL speakers and noise- and echo-reduction technology for better sound quality during phone calls. While it's Bluetooth-enabled (A2DP), there's also a 3.5mm audio cable included in … Read more

The cloud is not a computer

My hat goes off to Preston Monroe, the developer of iCopy, an online service that adds cut and paste functionality to the iPhone's browser and e-mail apps. As you probably know, Apple's handheld computer bizarrely omits this feature.

iCopy is a clever hack that lets you select text or a link from a Web page and paste it into another page, or an e-mail. It gets around the lack of iPhone-native copy and paste by sending selected text to a temporary online repository when you "copy," and retrieving it when you "paste." In operation, … Read more

Apple's Jobs says oops on MobileMe launch

Apple CEO Steve Jobs admitted it was a "mistake" to roll out the company's MobileMe service at the same time it launched the iPhone 3G and other big products, tech news site Ars Technica reported late Monday.

Ars Technica cited an internal memo sent by Jobs to employees that acknowledged MobileMe had flaws and was released too soon. In the memo, Jobs said the launch of the service could have been handled better, the article said. He also acknowledged the service was "not up to Apple's standards." And he said the individual MobileMe services … Read more

Miyowa's InTouch5: Cell phone contact evolved

I remember my first cell phone being the Ericsson KF788. It had a three-line resolution on a black and white screen and an address book that had enough fields to store only a person's name and one phone number. If a friend had two phone numbers, I would have to create two separate entries. That was way back when, well, in 2001.

Cell phones have evolved so much since then, and, along the way, their internal address books have evolved right along with them. In the address book of today's smart phones, you can store almost any information … Read more

iPhone 2.0.1: What's fixed, problems upgrading

On Monday, Apple released iPhone firmware 2.0.1 for the first-generation iPhone, iPhone 3G and iPod Touch. The new release resolves several performance-related issues and bugs found in version 2.0. However, Apple's paltry release notes won't tell you what is fixed, it only states that the update includes "bug fixes."

Among the improvements we've noted so far:

Better keyboard responsiveness Less lag in the Contacts application Faster backups

You can obtain version 2.0.1 by connecting your iPhone to a host computer, launching iTunes, and clicking the "Update" button in … Read more

AT&T adds to international data plans

AT&T added to its existing international roaming packages Monday with a new plan for smartphone users. The package will feature 50 megabytes of data in 67 countries for $60 per month. That's in addition to your normal voice and data plan and any roaming plan for international voice calls.

To help keep track of AT&T's various offerings, the carrier also launched an AT&T Travel Guide where you can input your international itinerary and get specific roaming rates.

Besides the new smartphone plan, AT&T offers other packages for data use while … Read more

Apple releases update to iPhone 2.0 software

Apple has released the first update to the iPhone 2.0 software, with promises of "bug fixes."

iPhone owners were prompted Monday afternoon that the update was available, the first update for iPhone owners since the iPhone 2.0 software went live three weeks ago. AppleInsider appeared to be the first to spot the update, or at least the first with a well-known publishing brand to spot it, and reported that the release notes call out "bug fixes," but nothing specific.

Please let me know, either here in the comments or through e-mail, if you have … Read more

Mophie juice pack 3G promises to extend the iPhone 3G's battery life

Thanks to the iPhone 3G's purportedly sorry battery life, we think the must-have accessories for the iPhone 3G are arguably (1) an extra charging cable, and (2) a battery extender. We've mentioned the Kensington Mini Battery Extender before, but I personally find it adds a little too much length to the iPhone 3G.

MStation, which released the Mophie juice pack battery extender for the first-generation iPhone last December, has just announced its second version of the Mophie just for the iPhone 3G.

Dubbed the Mophie juice pack 3G, this portable charging dock even comes "precharged" right … Read more