Carving their niche out as the “Business Model” of smart phones, the Blackberry brand has been a constant in the market since their premier in 2003. Famously becoming the first “Presidential Smart Phone” through President Obama’s constant endorsements, the brand has recently come under some major criticism due to a worldwide blackout of servers last October and the pressure of the leaps and bounds made by rival companies such as Google and Apple. Blackberry however is looking to show that they can still compete in the market with a new line of 4G phones, including the new Blackberry Torch 9810 (the 9800’s successor). Blast was recently able to test out the 9810 before its November 9 T-Mobile release date and see what the new model has to offer.

Hardware

Boasting a great deal more power and storage space than its predecessor, the 9810 comes with a 1.2 GHz processor chip (compared to the 624 MHz of the 9800) with 768 MB internal Ram (512 MB internal RAM  on the 9800). The memory has also doubled from 4 GB to 8, with cards allowing for up to to 32.

While the still image camera remains the same 5 Megapixels resolution as the 9800, the video camera has been upgraded from 420p to 702p making it the first Blackberry phone to record in HD. The display screen has also upgraded its resolution from the earlier model’s 480x360px to 640x480px.

The battery is extremely resilient; lasting around 28 hours under heavy strain (phone calls, texts, music, social apps, ect.) with a posted 6.8 hours of talk time. The phone however will begin to lock out functions as the battery dies, which can lead to some frustration near the end of the charge.

Layout/Application use

An extremely streamlined layout, the 9810 divides its apps from the main screen into five different categories.  All: a general view of the app; Favorites: a personalized section for users to save their favorite apps; Media: the music, pictures, and videos of the  phone as well as the camera and video camera; Downloads: the extra apps from the initially installed ones; and Frequent: where your most used apps are placed for easy access.

The media applications are extremely simplified, with the music system a carbon I-Tunes copy and the picture system divided into camera and downloaded pictures. Attached to the phone from the start is AT&T music, Live T.V., Slacker’s Radio, and Youtube for access to online media.

It should be mentioned as a negative point that the web browser does not run a Flash Player and the web browser tends to be all together nonfunctional compared to the competition. Anything that is made especially for the phone however (Twitter, Facebook, Okcupid, etc.) work very well.

The notification system is thinned out into a single section, with updates on your email, text messages, and social sites all condensed into a drop down menu from the main screen. There is also a Social Feeds app that comes standard with the phone that condenses all your social network feeds into one screen (organized by the time they were posted) allowing a quick look at all your social media updates.

There are still flaws within the social network apps. The Blackberry Facebook app for example lacks a way to check your events list. There is also the standing problem of Blackberry phones not including a free GPS app as most of their competition do.

Verdict

The Black Berry Torch 9810 is a great improvement on the 9800 in many ways. It is a straight forward 4G phone with the same simple features that Blackberry fans enjoy. However, many of the complaints that are made about Blackberry phones are still present and it is the least powerful of the newest line from the major distributors, with both new Droid Bionic and iPhone 4S having significantly better resolution, higher quality cameras, free GPS, and more comparable Internet browsers. It does however come in at almost one hundred dollars cheaper with activation than the other two on average, making the power difference less of a hit.

Anyone who is a fan of Blackberry would be well off upgrading to the Torch 9810. Also anyone looking to make a leap to a 4G phone without paying the Droid and I-Phone prices may also find The Torch 9810 worth checking out.

The Blackberry Torch 9810 is available November 9.

The launch of the iPhone 4 in June 2010 hit a bit of a rough patch for Apple, when several customers complained about loss of signal strength and dropped calls while touching the lower left edge of the phone.

Soon after the complaints began, Apple made a controversial statement, claiming that while they understood the issue, many of their competitor’s phones had the same problem and initially offered no other resolve for the problem. Once a lawsuit was threatened against the company and their partners at AT&T for fraud, Apple released a five dollar quick patch, a cleverly shaped band-aid with the catch phrase “Apple made a boo-boo.” Later, they released a free bumper casing for iPhone 4 owners in order to put an end to the complaints.

The technical issue and following actions taken by Apple were named by some online tech-bloggers as “Antennagate” and became a black mark on Apple’s mostly stellar cell phone record.

It seems now though; a permanent change has been made to this flaw, as the newly announced iPhone 4S will feature a pair of antennas that should eliminate concerns about a loss of single and dropped calls presented by its predecessor. The announcement of the new tech was made this passed Tuesday, at the unveiling of the iPhone 4S.

Apple says that the two antennas outside the case intelligently switch back and forth between each other to maximize the phone’s ability to transmit and receive data. This system should also minimize the loss of calls caused by the former problem. The antennas are also placed on the top and bottom sections of the phone, so as to minimize them both being covered by its I Phone users while gripping the phone.

This addition has been heralded by some as the long awaited permanent response to the iPhone 4’s issues, though it was said that by some that holding the phone horizontally with both hands to text or type may result in a similar “Death Grip” situation.

Whatever the result of the change, the major issue of calls being dropped due to hand position seems to be a thing of the past for iPhone users.

The federal government is taking steps to block AT&T and T-Mobile merger on antitrust grounds.

The Justice Department took the step by filing suit to stop the merger, saying it would hurt competition and drive up prices, the Wall Street Journal reported.

At a press conference Wednesday, Deputy Attorney General James Cole said the merger would result in tens of millions of consumers facing fewer choices and lower-quality products, WSJ reported.

The Justice Department added that AT&T can propose fixes in the deal that would satisfy the government.

The massive $39 billion combination of two of the “big four” American mobile phone companies would create a company with 130 million subscribers, surpassing Verizon as the No. 1 wireless company in the US.

AT&T is currently No. 2, and T-Mobile is 4.

The third place wireless company, Spring Nextel Corp., is also against the merger.

AT&T stock was down nearly 4 percent on the news. Sprint was up nearly 10 percent.

Google will buy Motorola’s former phone making division, Motorola Mobility, for $12.5 billion in cash, marking the search engine giant’s largest acquisition to date.

“Motorola Mobility’s total commitment to Android has created a natural fit for our two companies,” said Google CEO Larry Page in a statement. “Together, we will create amazing user experiences that supercharge the entire Android ecosystem for the benefit of consumers, partners and developers.”

Google Android competes directly with iPhone, Blackberry, and Microsoft Windows-based devices. Mobility makes smartphones for the Android, but sales have floundered, especially against the iPhone/iPad.

Motorola Mobility split from the rest of the company in January.

In the sale, Google will pay $40.00 per share, 63 percent over Motorola’s closing stock price on Friday.

The Associated Press reported that Google is likely interested in Motorola’s many, many patents on mobile phone technology, as a consortium of its competitors, which included Microsoft, Apple and Blackberry maker Research In Motion, recently won the chance to buy thousands of patents from bankrupt Canadian networking gear maker Novell.

Starting tomorrow, Verizon Wireless will cap the amount of data its mobile users are allowed to download for its formerly unlimited $30 wireless data plan.

The company will also introduce much more expensive plans for users who want to download more data.

The changes will only affect newly enrolled customers, meaning today is the last day people can sign up for an unlimited plan.

AT&T did away with unlimited data plans last year. T-Mobile still offers unlimited downloading, but throttles down users who download a lot of data. Only Sprint Nextel still offers an unlimited data plan with no strings attached.

Starting tomorrow, Verizon users can buy 5 gigabytes per month for $50 or 10 gigabytes for $80. Verizon will charge $10 per gigabyte after that.

You know the dangers of identity theft and make sure that you shred old bills and receipts before dumping them in the trash, but how do you protect your Smartphone? Since your Blackberry, Android or iPhone device is capable of a whole range of conveniences – browsing the Internet, online purchasing and banking – your Smartphone is actually a pocket-sized holder of all the sensitive information you’ve been trying so hard to keep from prying eyes.

Recent studies have found that modern users aren’t nearly as careful with a phone as they should be, particularly if it’s used for these types of activities. A recent report by CPP found that 54% of second-hand phones contained personal data such as text messages, emails and bank details –a wakeup call for consumers. Loss or theft is a common concern as well, and without sufficient protection, a stranger can easily grab web site logins, passwords and credit card details that can be used to carry out transactions and register for services in your name.

So, what can be done about it? Well, first of all it’s important to start looking at a phone in a similar way you would a wallet, purse or keys – in other words, make sure you know where it is at all times. If you are selling or recycling a phone, make sure any and all personal data is deleted before it is passed on, and don’t forget to remove the SIM card and any internal memory.

While it’s always a good idea to be aware of exactly what type of data a phone can store and take steps to minimize the chance of loss, thankfully the security industry is also weighing in with software that’s specifically designed to protect Smartphones. Using a modern mobile security suite, you can remotely lock, wipe or locate a phone as soon as you notice it missing, and of course it’s a good idea to report this yourself to the provider just as you would with a lost credit card.

Malware is also a concern, because if your Smartphone is infected by one of the growing range of malicious programs and apps that target mobile devices, sensitive data can be retrieved and sent to a third party without your knowledge. Again, security software can help, and with the wide range of games and applications now available across all phone platforms it’s more important than ever to make sure you have a suite installed that can scan these files and protect you from malicious code.

The range of features and conveniences available on Smartphones are only set to grow further as new technologies are introduced, so there’s never been a better time to increase awareness of mobile threats and consider additional protection to make sure you can enjoy using your device with peace of mind.

There’s a lot of talk about cellular service providers unrolling their 4G networks, but most people still don’t know the difference between the new and the old and how it will affect them. For starters the “G” means generation and yeap, you guessed it, we’re entering our fourth generation in technological advancements in the cellular service industry. So now you know why it is called what it is called, but what is the true difference? What can we expect to experience differently from what we are used to?

This may not make a huge difference with you, but the frequency bands are different between 3G and 4G. With 3G, the frequency is usually between 1.8 and 2.5 GHz (Gigahertz = unit of frequency) and can transfer data at a rate around 3 MB/second (about a song’s worth of data per second). With 4G, the frequency bandwidth is between 2 and 8 GHz and can transfer data from 3 MB/second up to 12 MB/second, but with the potential to get up to 200 MB/second. So that would allow users to view streaming video clearly in HD, download their favorite TV shows in minutes rather than hours, and allow for overall faster service while perusing the internet. The types of 4G broadband networks are LTE (Long-Term Evolution), Wimax (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access), and WiFi.

When Verizon created their CDMA platform (the name for their 3G platform) they did not include the capabilities for upgrades to their 3G service to make it faster (unlike Sprint, for example, who was able to update their 3G service). As a result, Verizon is now rolling out 4G service and all of the other companies are soon to follow if they haven’t already. Of the main cellular carriers, T-Mobile has promised to roll out 4G soon (whatever that means), Sprint already has a 4G network, Verizon is in the process with some cities ready to go (like Boston and NYC) , and AT&T promises to roll out 4G in 2011.

So that is the basic gist of the difference between 3G and 4G, so you should be happy and excited to get your hands on a 4G enabled smartphone when you have your next available upgrade and when your carrier has a solid 4G infrastructure in place. I know there are 3G and 4G articles up everywhere, but if you haven’t read the differences just yet, perhaps this shed some light for you.

By 2015, there will be approximately 804 million smartphones worldwide. Lucky for football fans, the NFL and  mobile advertising agency Adzookie.com are already looking to the future, promising that by 2015 the Super Bowl will be streamed live via an iPhone.

Romeo Mendoza, CEO of the Orange, Calif.-based company that plans to handle the advertising, Adzookie.com, said in a statement that “Streaming the Super Bowl on a phone just makes sense. Cell phones already outnumber television sets 5-to-1.”

Given that the 2010 Super Bowl brought in 106 million viewers and earned over $300 million in network advertising sales — that’s $2.8 to $3 million per 30-second advertisement — streaming the Super Bowl on smartphones is a smart business decision. Further, through cell phones, advertisers can run multiple ads at the same time, catering to individual viewers based on age, gender, income and location, something that television ads cannot do.

“Companies prefer to promote their business via mobile ads than other forms of advertising,” Mendoza said.

Because of the increasing popularity of smartphone use and the edge that mobile advertising has over television advertising, viewers can expect to eventually watch all of their favorite shows via cell phones, said Mendoza.

“The Super Bowl is just the beginning,” he continued. “Eventually all programming will be mobile. We plan on being there when it happens.”

TMZ.com reported that on Thursday actor Josh Duhamel, 38, was kicked off a flight from New York to Kentucky because he refused to turn off his cell.

Duhamel had already boarded a flight from LaGuardia Airport to Kentucky. However, when a flight attendant reportedly asked him to turn off his electronic device before takeoff, the actor reportedly refused to obey the regulations.

His behavior allegedly angered the flight attendant and even resulted in the plane getting turned around on the runway and sent back to the gate, causing the flight to be further delayed.

A recent comScore Inc. study of mobile phone usage patterns showed significant differences among Americans, Europeans, and Japanese.

Mobile users in Japan were shown to be the “most connected” of the three markets, with more than 75 percent using connected media (browsing the web, downloading applications, and transferring files/data) in June, compared to 43.7 percent in the U.S. and 38.5 percent in Europe.

Nearly two-thirds of Japanese users accessed at least the Internet/websites on their phones in June, compared to compared to 34 percent of Americans and just a quarter of Europeans. More than twice as many Japanese also used mobile apps as the other two groups.

But the results were flipped for text messages. Europeans texted the most. More than 81 percent of Europeans sent a text message in June, compared to almost 67 percent of Americans and just 40 percent of Japanese.

About 21 percent of Americans used their phones to access social networking sites and blogs, compared to 17 percent of Japanese and about 15 percent of Europeans.

The Japanese were most likely to capture, send and receive photos (63 percent) and watch live TV and video (22) while Europeans listened to the most music (24.2 percent) and played the most games (24.1 percent).

“Mobile media usage continues to accelerate across the globe, driven by advancing technologies and the growing number of content options available to consumers,” said Mark Donovan, comScore senior vice president of mobile. “As we look across markets, dramatic differences in mobile media consumption, brand adoption and user behavior become evident. These differences are even more pronounced than they are for PC-based Internet usage due to the complex nature of mobile — including various device capabilities, operating systems and methods of accessing content.”

The use of cell phones while driving not only poses a danger for yourself, but for everyone else on the road as well. Hand-held cell phone use while driving is distracting and its no wonder many states are prohibiting it while driving.

Currently eight states including: California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Washington as well as the Virgin Islands and D.C now have laws prohibiting drivers from using hand-held cell phones while driving. In Boston, young drivers can’t be caught on a cell phone and no one is allowed to text while driving.

You will need to pickup a hands-free device to avoid a hefty ticket if you get caught.

Moshi feels they have the right handsfree calling solution to keep you safe while driving, allowing you talk on your cell phone handsfree with their Bluetooth Handsfree car kit. So you’re probably wondering what exactly is it?

Basically the device is nothing more than an advanced speakerphone about the size of a standard garage door opener transmitter, just like the one that attaches to your visor. But don’t let this fool you because it does much more than act just as a speakerphone. The device ships with integrated Bluetooth, so as soon as you get into your car, it will automatically connect to your cell phone and give you the ability to dial and check basic phone status information like battery life, signal strength and allow you to place calls using the built in voice command system, all hands free.

Once you pair the device up with your phone, just say "Hello Moshi" to activate the voice commands and your able to say commands like "redial," "call back," "call favorite # 1-5," "call home," "call voicemail," etc.

I found the device to work very well. Callers were able hear me clearly and vice versa and the voice recognition picked up on what I was saying almost every time. I was also impressed to see that the device recognizes voice commands even from a long distance away. Battery time is also decent with six hours of talk time and 40 hours of standby time.

The device ships with the Moshi Car Kit, magnetic visor clip, car charger and a manual. I was impressed with the design and build quality of the accessories. Normally this isn’t something I pick up on, but I do like the design and how they incorporated in a magnetic visor clip instead of using something non-detachable like plastic. The device removes easily from the visor clip and it is a breeze to bring it inside your home or to switch it out from car to car. The included USB car charger is also a nice plus since it uses standard USB, which can be used to charge other USB devices you might have laying around in your car like a maybe a cell phone or iPod.

There were a few things I didn’t like about the device however. One being that you don’t have the ability to say extension numbers for the device to dial. You also can’t disconnect from a call without pressing any buttons. I also wasn’t pleased when receiving a call from someone in your contacts, the device doesn’t say call from (Persons Name here); instead, it will just read out the person’s number. I found this annoying because I don’t know everyone’s number and I rely heavily on my phone’s contact book for numbers. Finally, I would have liked to have the ability to play my own custom ringtone or jingle rather than having the voice prompt’s machine voice tell me I have an incoming call.

Overall I would recommend this device to anyone looking to go handsfree. Setup was simple, it took less than a few minutes and once the product was paired to my phone, it worked great and connected no problem every time. Another added plus is the compact size and weight of the product. Its almost the exact size of a garage door opener so you can practically charge it up, leave it there and forget about it.

The product is available for $79.99 at moshilifestyle.com.

There are few things worse than running out of cellphone “juice” at the worst possible time. Well, enter Technocel’s Sprint Battery Boost. The Battery Boost is a portable recharging solution and SD card reader all-in-one for your mobile phone, Bluetooth headset and most micro USB devices. Sprint Battery Boost features include:

• Built-in Battery – With a 600 mAh lithium ion battery, the Battery Boost provides convenient recharging to your mobile or USB device for up to 1 hour of additional talk time* via the micro-USB connector
• Micro SD card reader — Battery Boost doubles as a micro SD card reader that allows you to store and transfer data files including photos, documents and music files
• Retractable USB Connector — When Battery Boost is placed within any USB port such as a computer, home or car charger, it will automatically charge its internal battery. You can even charge a battery and your handset at the same time
• Built-in Carabineer Clip — While on the go, use the built in carabineer to clip it on your belt loop, purse, keys, backpack or anywhere else
• Power button & internal battery status indicator — This indicates a low to high battery charge so you can easily see how much juice you have remaining

"Battery Boost consolidates mobile power and media storage into one convenient all-in-one device.  Perfect for a quick recharge or sharing your latest pictures, movies, and songs, this is one product that you’ll truly never want to leave home without," said Rami Rostami, CEO and founder of Technocel.

Sprint Battery Boost is available for $29.99 at Sprint Stores nationwide, and 1-800-SPRINT1. For more information on product specifications and availability please visit www.technocel.com

With cell phones getting "smarter", faster, and multitasking-ier, the need for them to be more mobile is inherent.  With every evolution of the cell phone, each generation seems to get smaller and lighter in order to appeal to our sleek society.  Unfortunately, having a phone, smaller and thinner than the wallet of a BP executive means you might forget it somewhere (and GOD FORBID we leave the house to grab a 40 of Mickey’s and leave our celli behind).

This is precisely the dilemma which spawned: BRINGRR

The idea, conceived in 2009 by James Logan, was to solve the common problem of leaving your phone at home, at the store, at a bar, or that one time with the stripper in the VIP room.  The idea behind the gadget is that if used, you will no longer have to fear "Mercedes" is making long distance calls to her family in Taiwan on your dime.

By plugging the device into the power port or lighter outlet of your car, any Bluetooth enabled phone is now "tracked" by the Bringrr system.  Once the car is started, Bringrr, paired with your phone, searches for it in your car.  If you have the phone on you, the light on the device turns blue and distinctively chimes, assuring that you still have your precious.  If you did, in fact forget it, say, inside that girl’s house, you never would have driven all the way to Dighton before realizing.  If the paired phone is not found in the vicinity of your car’s interior, Bringrr turns red, and a different chime is heard.

The Product is due to hit the shelves mid-July. You can purchase your very own "Cell phone Rememberer" at www.bringrr.com for $35.

For as many times as I have had to cancel my plan, change my number, and get a new phone, due to my own drunken stupidity, this product is definitely worth its weight in rupees.

If you lose or throw away your old cell phone, you could be throwing away your identity. That sounds intense, but you know what you use your cell phones for. It can do a hundred different things like emails, business managing, updating twitter, doing online banking, and almost anything else you can think of that a computer can do. But if you can do those things, a predator can do so much more if they get their hands on your mobile device. T-Mobile representative Simal Patel has seen this before.

"We get two or three people in here each day who have had their phones lost or stolen, and they keep valuable information on them."

That info can come from anywhere on your phone, personal emails, banking applications, schedules and appointments, and addresses. Those are pretty much everything a person could need to steal your identity. So if your phone does go missing, here are a few things you can do to protect yourself.

"You can come in to a cell phone provider and they can remotely connect to your phone," said Patel. "T Mobile can actually erase the contents of your phone through our store, so if someone steals it or finds it, it will just be a blank cell."

Patel also recommends canceling the current SIM card you use. That can be done all on computer as well.

"That’s really great to hear," said a businessman who prefers to be anonymous. "I have really important business info on my phone, and if it gets into the wrong hands, I’d be doomed. So would the company I work for."

As technology becomes more indispensable, providers are now installing these fail-safe devices on each new model of cell phone that is produced. All you need to do is speak to your network provider and they can activate the memory deletion from their own computers. They strongly suggest you perform these tasks when you throw away your phone as well.

"You can bring your old phone into the store and we will manually wipe all the information from it," added Patel. "We will clean it out completely and either dispose of it for you, or give it to a third party that will reuse parts of your old phone to make new ones. We’re trying to go green now."

T-Mobile now produces a cell phone that is made entirely out of old cell phone parts. So you no longer need to feel guilty about giving up an older model that is still in good condition.

It’s time for you to catch up with technology. If you loose or throw away your phone, don’t think that it’s the end. For a predator, it’s just the beginning. Alexandra says: only you can prevent identity fraud by cleaning out your cell phones.

It’s something of which North American cell phone carriers should take note. Kenya’s Safaricom, in partnership with Chinese cell maker ZTE, has launched a solar powered cell phone made from recyclable materials, Bloomberg reports.

ZTE Coral-200 Solar. Credit: Flickr/techfever

ZTE claims its Coral-200 phone can recharge using the sun’s rays and has a talk time of a little over two hours. In a country like Kenya, the phone is a perfect addition to current cell options.

While there are more than 17 million cell phone subscribers in Kenya, only 1.3 million have access to constant electricity. Many people have to go into major metropolises just to charge their phones, a major inconvenience.

While the ZTE Coral isn’t the glitziest solar phone on the market, it serves a great purpose to people in Kenya.

Samsung Blue Earth

Earlier this year Samsung also introduced a solar phone with spectacular specs. The phone is made of recyclable plastic and boasts a pedometer, MMS‚ capability and a touch screen. LG and Sharp have also manufactured solar phones. None of phones are, however, slated for a U.S. release. What a waste.

Samsung Blue Earth. Credit: Flickr/uriondo

Cell phone carriers in North America should look to these phones as options for at least the outdoorsy-types. Solar-powered phones give campers the ability to stay connected while in the wilderness, just in case something happens.

As low-cost options with GSM networks, consumers could purchase the phones as at least backups to their iPhones or smart phones until solar phones can boast more impressive features, more along the lines of those offered by smart phones.

I know I’d love to have one.

Apparently the iPhone isn’t enough to maintain exclusivity.

Electronics store RadioShack has announced that it has added T-Mobile wireless phone services to compete with AT&T in its more than 4,000 stories.

“Our mobility strategy is rooted in customer advocacy and allows us to offer the best solution for consumers’ needs across multiple carriers, plans, phones and accessories,” said Julian Day, RadioShack’s chairman and chief executive officer, in a statement. “In a highly mobile world, keeping our customers seamlessly connected to one another is a commitment we are very focused on delivering.”

RadioShack generates about 30 percent of its sales revenue from wireless phones.

Playboy Games: Pool Party has launched for mobile phones.

Your mind is now that much dirtier.

This game’s launch marks the first part of a multi-year, multi-title agreement between Playboy and THQ for developing non-nude but “Playboy lifestyle-themed” games that are stacked with mini-games and pseudo wholesome challenges like frisbee throwing, bucking-bronco rides, water balloon fights, and jumping in the pool.

Players can customize their own low-resolution babe with bikinis, hairstyles, shoes, stockings, and accessories.

Get all that for $6.99. Just don’t let anyone see you playing it, or they’ll think you’re a douchebag.

IOGEAR’s GearJuice is a nifty little product that’s perfectly handy for college students, glove compartments, suitcases and laptop bags.

It supplies emergency power to nearly any small, portable device, but not in that disposable, one use, drug store special kind of way. The rechargeable lithium polymer battery will fill up your cell phone’s gas tank three times before the GearJuice runs dry.

GearJuice will charge your Blackberry, iPod, iPhone, PDA, Bluetooth headset, cell phone and nearly any low-power device that takes a USB or mini-USB source. The device detects how much juice you gear needs and outputs the correct voltage.

The product can charge itself from any USB device — so you can just plug it into your laptop or desktop computer. It comes with six attachments, including iPod touch and iPhone and mini-USB connectors. Some models come with American and European wall plug adapters, but my model didn’t come with an AC adapter — which I didn’t mind because it’s actually much easier to charge the GearJuice right off my computer.

One small complaint: the GearJuice should have come with two full-size USB dongles. If you’re charging the device off USB, you aren’t left with a spare cable to go right ahead and charge up your cell phone or iPod at the same time. To this effect, GearJuice won’t turn your laptop into a power inverter.

The device itself charges up in a few hours from a dead, empty battery and IOGEAR says it will hold a charge for six months.

There are a variety of specialty adapters you can buy for GearJuice including the full-sized AC adapters and Samsung, LG and Motorola phone packs if — somehow — your phone doesn’t fit any of the included connectors. (When are all cell phones just going to charge and sync via mini-USB?)

Do yourself a favor, don’t throw out or lose the spare connectors. Put them somewhere where they won’t get lost or tossed. You’re probably going to break, lose or replace your cell phone within a year, and you’ll be crawling around trying to find the other connectors.

GearJuice is compact, comes in a soft, velvet carrying bag and priced right at under $30 on most websites. I approve.

Quick hits:

Developer: IOGEAR
Genre: Power
Launch Date: August 10, 2007

Overall: 4 out of 5 stars

Download facts and specs

Sci Fi Channel’s DVICE has a popular article up about liquid-filled fuel cell cell phones. We let Matt react…

I’m honestly not sure what to make of this.

I’m highly tempted to say people are confused and that it’s a concept mock-up or something, because I don’t see how this could possibly exist as a real product in this form.

Fuel cells need a catalyst assembly to operate, and there appears to be nothing of the sort to be found here, to say nothing of the single chip with no apparent connections to anything (like the magical mystery touchscreen), or any hint of an antenna.

I don’t see how a liquid-based fuel cell could even be practical in the first place anyway. All fuel cells produce a byproduct as part of the chemical reaction — if you’re not storing that byproduct in a holding area (which these “phones” don’t appear to be, if it’s to be believed that the colored liquid is the fuel and that it drains away during use) you have to disperse it into the atmosphere somehow.

This means your phone is either going to be peeing or farting questionably hazardous chemicals all day. On top of that, typical fuel cells have an efficiency of like 50 percent, which means you’d have to refill it rather often with some esoteric substance (’cause, you know, it’s just so easy to find pure ethanol on the street these days) … possibly very often depending on which angle you happen to be holding the device at.

Whether this is supposed to be a real product or some kind of internal artist’s rendering that got leaked, someone at NEC has a lot of explaining to do. I’m certainly not going to be saving any money waiting for a cellphone based on a very questionable concept, especially not one with pictures that raise more questions than answers and no data or press release to back anything up.

All I see here is a bunch of wild speculation being passed around among tech mags.

The Bluetooth Audio Transport is an all-in-one earbud wireless audio product that works with cell phones, stereos, iPods and any other audio source you can think of.

Though there are some considerations to make — this isn’t a good idea for an iPod or another portable MP3 device. The way the Audio Transport works is that it lets you plug a set of earbuds/headphones into a Bluetooth receiver. So there are still wires to worry about, and there isn’t really a point to using this for an already portable device, unless you plan on leaving your iPod on a desk or table or somewhere stationary while you walk around the room. Just not sure why you’d do that…

Anyway, the Audio Transport does give you the ability to listen to any audio source from up to 33′ (feet) away, and the sound quality is pretty good, with SRS “Wow” surround sound technology.

If you’re looking for a Bluetooth device, $50 is the average for cell phone solutions. The IOGEAR Audio transport, at the same price, gives you that and the expanded capabilities.

Features:

• Enjoy music wirelessly from Bluetooth-enabled computers, PDA, MP3/CD players, and more
• Maximum wireless range up to 33 ft.(10 meters)
• SRS WOW surround sound technology delivers optimal music listening experience
• Supports MP3-quality stereo sound (frequency response 20Hz — 20 KHz)
• Works with Bluetooth cell phones and allows you to pick up incoming calls even during music playback
• Integrated 5-way headphone control buttons give you quick access to play/pause, track selection*, and volume control
• Comfortable to wear behind-the-neck style
• Convenient built-in rechargeable battery for up to 6 hours play time
• Connect the Bluetooth Audio Transport to your stereo system to wirelessly listen to music stored in your Bluetooth audio devices
• Avoids interference with other wireless devices and does not requires direct line-of-sight
• Class 2 device compliant with Bluetooth 1.2 specifications Headphones Audio

Overall: 4 out of 5 stars