PhoneTalk

It's that time of year, where summer comes to a close and the kids head back to school. We asked Bloggers around the Internet for their thoughts on how a cell phone might help with back to school and types of services that could make the back to school transition a little easier for students. Our first post comes from Vikram Deo. To read more from him, check out his Not Another Mobile Phone Blog.

Mobile phone services can be really helpful for students so that they are familiar with their classes and their mates out there. Students can connect with their would-be friends in the new school using the mobile social network. School or college community on the mobile phone social network would help students in connecting with like minded guys and girls so that they get along well when their sessions actually begin.

Lot of students go to schools and colleges located in places with which they are not familiar, for them mobile maps, locations based services would be of greatest help. Having the location of the restaurants, popular hang-out joints, police stations, hospitals on their mobile phone will help students to easily access these services. Popular weekend spots in that area can also be one of the services. Also locations map of the school/college campus on their mobile phone can be an added advantage for students.

Other value added services can be, students getting tips on subjects they have chosen on their mobile phones. Student can send the relevant data (subject list) to the service provider and in-turn they get tips on how to study these subjects and also links to useful resources, this can make studying a really fun thing to do.

Tags:

Phone Smarts

GPS

E-mail

Comments | More Phone Smarts Posts| Email This Blog  

This week's deal comes from LetsTalk.com's Merchandising Manager, Aaron Horowitz.

What is it? The Verizon Wireless Blitz™, which launched this week, is Verizon's latest step toward true customer satisfaction. The Blitz™ is a compact, text-centric device, with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. It's perfect for big texters and those who want a PDA style device without the expensive business data plan. This cell phone makes it a breeze to blog, web browse, or send messages with a touch of the My Messaging key. The Blitz™ has a bright, high-resolution screen, a 1.3-megapixel camera, and is both V-CAST™ and VZNavigator™ capable. It also supports Stereo Bluetooth® so you can listen to your favorite music or have a conversation hands-free.

How much?Get the Verizon Wireless Blitz™ free out-the-door with the purchase of any Verizon Wireless two-year service plan.

Why is it such a good deal? The Blitz™ is the latest, stylish, text-centric device on the market. It's absolutely FREE out-the-door. Plus, it comes with a free 1GB Kingston MicroSD card.

Tags:	In The Know	Verizon Wireless	Text messaging	Bluetooth
	Deal of the Week

Comments | More In The Know Posts| Email This Blog  

It's that time of year, where summer comes to a close and the kids head back to school. We asked Bloggers around the Internet for their thoughts on how a cell phone might help with back to school and types of services that could make the back to school transition a little easier for students. Our first post comes from Devin Moore. To read more from him, check out his DevinMoore.com notes blog.

1. Easy access to my entire schedule, advisor numbers, etc. on one page. I want to get to one thing on my phone and be able to leave it there to have access to the things I need the most, especially where my next class is and reminders for that next class so I don't miss it playing Frisbee on the green.

2. School class maps. At a big college, it is confusing to be fiddling with a map to where all the classes and rooms are to get turn by turn directions inside the buildings would be sweet.

3. Local search for the college specific functions. I should be able to get access to what's going on, on-campus, for tonight. Without knowing this in advance, the social prospects for new students are greatly reduced because they'd have to go to the building to see the flyers for the event. To post all that in one place and make it available on a mobile makes the events accessible to everyone at any time.

Kids younger than college probably aren't allowed to have their phone in class, but a homework tracker for their classes would be great. I was always having trouble keeping track of which assignments were due when, and that could all be online now.

Tags:

Phone Smarts

Text messaging

GPS

Comments | More Phone Smarts Posts| Email This Blog  

Loyal football followers are probably already watching Monday night pre-season games on the big screen. However, Sprint users have the opportunity to be a little bit more connected to the latest NFL updates this season with the company's NFL Mobile Live application. Basically, this application lets users listen to the live radio broadcasts of every NFL game throughout the 2008 regular season. Users can also watch all eight of the Thursday Night Football telecasts carried by NFL Network live beginning on November 6th. Additionally, users can follow their NFL.Fantasy teams and even have their favorite team's latest information and quick links to live broadcasts for that team on game days to appear first on the log-on screen.

What's the best part about this application? It's included as part of Sprint's Everything Plans or part of the $15 a month Data Pack service, so there's no special subscription fee. Interested? Check out nfl.com/mobile or sprint.com/nfl for more information.

Tags:

Phone Smarts

Sports

Sprint

Cell phone plans

Comments | More Phone Smarts Posts| Email This Blog  

If you're interested in getting a smartphone, but have been intimidated by the idea of one, check out the Palm Centro. It's got all the power of a smartphone with an operating system that's intuitive and easy to use out-of-the-box. To show you what I mean, watch the video below to get a better idea.

Tags:	Phone Smarts	Music	Palm	Camera
	Smart phones	Business Use	E-mail

Comments | More Phone Smarts Posts| Email This Blog  

This week's deal comes from LetsTalk.com's Merchandising Manager, Michael Cera.

What is it?The BlackBerry Curve 8330 from Sprint is the smallest, lightest QWERTY BlackBerry to date. It features the very popular trackball navigation for easier use. This Curve also support BlackBerry Media Player and Stereo Bluetooth headset capabilities so you can listen to music from your BlackBerry through your home stereo. The 2-megapixel camera has a 5x zoom and flash that will take crisp and clear images. There is also a microSD expansion slot capable of expanding up to 8GB for storage of music, video, games, and many more applications. With the Curve, you can spell check your e-mails, get directions with TeleNav Maps, and even travel in over 125 countries with global voice and data roaming. The ultimate smartphone and technology package are all in one device with the BlackBerry Curve.

How much?The BlackBerry Curve 8330 is available for free after a $100 mail-in rebate from Sprint with a new two-year Sprint Everything or Simply Everything service plan.

Why is it such a good deal? BlackBerry's reputation and the technology embedded in this device are only a fraction of what you get with the Curve.

Tags:	In The Know	Music	Sprint	Blackberry
	Deal of the Week

Comments | More In The Know Posts| Email This Blog  

Ever wonder what you can expect to see on you cell phone bill at the end of the month - especially if you're on a family plan? If you have Verizon Wireless, you may not have to wonder any longer. The company's new service, which costs $4.99 a month for each subscriber line allows you to set limits on cell phone usage per line on your account right from the My Verizon web site. Some of the features you can limit are as follows:

• Set thresholds for voice minutes
  
• Set specific limits for text, picture, instant and video messaging as part of pay-as-you-go or message bundle plans
  
• Set time of day restrictions for data use and messaging
  
• Create lists of “trusted” and “blocked” numbers (calls to 911 will always be allowed to connect)
  
• Employ content filters

Tags:

Phone Smarts

Verizon Wireless

Cell phone plans

Comments | More Phone Smarts Posts| Email This Blog  

In this installment of Questions and Answers, we give advice on how to check remaining Sprint minutes from your cell phone and compatibility issues. Got a question you want answered? Submit your question here. Got something to add to the answers below? Leave a comment.

I have a Nextel Motorola ic502 cell phone which is an, but I have nTelos service, how can I use it with my existing service? –Todd

The good news is that the Motorola ic502 will technically work on the nTelos service. However, you’ll need to check directly with nTelos to see if they can program it to work with their service. If it will work with the service, we should note you will not be able to use the Nextel Direct Connect feature.

What number do I dial from my cell phone to check the minutes that I have used on my Sprint cell phone? -Thanks

If you want to check out the amount of minutes you’ve used in your plan for the current monthly billing cycle and find out how many you have left in that cycle, simply dial *4 from the phone application and press send. You’ll get all the information you need.

Tags:	Motorola	Sprint	Cell phone plans	Customer service
	Q&A

Comments | More Q&A Posts| Email This Blog  

This post comes from LetsTalk.com Merchandising Manager Michael Cera.

Another Sprint Roadmap here. This one was found at Boy Genius while searching for more about Sprint’s presence in the news today. Sprint has made some drastic changes in the recent past and it seems like they are going to be doing the same into the near future and through Q1 and Q2 of 2009 with some new and very exciting handsets.

For starters, one of the more exciting devices they will have coming out most likely in Q4 is the BlackBerry 8350i. This is a BlackBerry Direct Connect device that is based off the BlackBerry Curve design. There is an internal antenna, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, Nextel Direct Connect, and a 2MP camera that is optional (they have one with it and one without so you can choose). This will be an awesome cell phone for those looking to keep their direct connect capabilities, but want to step further into the 21st century.

Some of the other cell phone releases mentioned in the Boy Genius blog post consist of the Motorola i950 that will be first, then the Motorola i576 and i776, which are reported to launch in early Q4. There is not much about the i950, but the i576 and i776 will both be built to military specifications and will have Direct Connect, Bluetooth, and GPS capabilities. In early Q1 of 2009, we will see the Motorola Monolith, which is a sure-type device (two alphabet letters per key) that is similar to the Motorola V8, and a Sanyo handset that will be an iDEN/GSM device. Further into 2009, most likely in Q2, there is rumored to be a Samsung slider with music capabilities, the Immersion by Motorola built to military specs, and the Sanyo Pro410. This is going to be a great end to a good year and an excellent beginning to a new one.

Note: We have no confirmation of the dates or products mentioned in the Boy Genius blog post, however, when and if these products become available through LetsTalk.com we’ll be sure to let you know.

Tags:	Observed	Motorola	Music	Sprint
	Blackberry	WiFi	Sanyo	GPS
	Bluetooth

Comments | More Observed Posts| Email This Blog  

The 2008 Olympics will be going on over the next couple weeks, so we decided to ask Bloggers around the Internet for their thoughts on how to best use your cell phone to follow the events. Our final post comes from David Mould. To read more from him, check out his Orient Expression blog.

It's an exciting time for mobile media coverage of the Olympics. For the first time there are a plethora of tools and a real saturation of online access that will allow the closest coverage of an Olympics yet.

It will be interesting to see how the coverage to your phone will be achieved.

Points to consider:

There are three dimensions to the Olympics;

• Event: common and less common events that followers take an active interest in; and
• Country: national pride in supporting your country as it climbs the medal table; and
• Athlete: following your favorite athlete on their Olympic journey

2. Choice of channel will be controlled by timezone, technology choice and cost

• The biggest problem with the ESPN Mobile business model was that the concentration was on American Sport, for Americans in America. Why would I choose to watch my baseball team on a mobile phone when I could watch it at home on cable or over IPTV? Now with the Olympics being played out half way around the world the sport on your handset model would work due to the time shift required between the event happening and where the average American will be at that time, i.e. at work
• Will people choose to watch an event on their handset or simply receive updates? a great service would be a mobile offering of the Yahoo Service that allows me to program my TiVo from the Web. Combine this with watch lists and reminders so I can get an update as say the decathlon progresses so I can record the next coverage to watch later.
• The main driver for uptake will always be cost. In countries where "all you can eat" mobile internet plans are less common any service needs to be cost effective to be value added to the consumer.

The biggest winner in this will be micro blog services, Twitter, Jaiku etc. They all have phone based interfaces and I can see several channels springing up to cover the three dimensions.

• The USA Team channel
• The Fencing or Modern Hepthalon channel
• The Hem Bunting channel

These will become used as typically Olympic coverage is controlled by popular choice (Track and Field, Football) and skewed by broadcasting country (UK follows UK athletes, as do USA, Australia and New Zealand). This leaves minor events and minor countries with little to no coverage.

And one for the kids.... what about the (Read more)

Tags:

Phone Smarts

Sports

Comments | More Phone Smarts Posts| Email This Blog