Really, it all comes down to what kind of phone and what kind of speakers you have. Essentially, the speakers that buzz the most have the least amount of shielding — that is, shielding from any type of radio frequencies. Many times manufacturers will bring down the cost of speakers by limiting the shielding they have. So unless you have rather expensive speakers, the ones you have are more susceptible to all sorts of interference.

It also depends on the kind of phone you have. In most cases the speaker buzz will be caused by a phone running on a GSM network, such as AT&T or T-Mobile in the US (and almost every carrier outside the US).

Whenever GSM phones are in use they will pulsate radio transmissions; ie. the radio turns on/off at a fast rate, causing them to pulse. This pulsing is what you are hearing when the speakers buzz. This typically happens when a call or text message is coming in, or in the car when your phone is transferring from one tower to another. But it can even happen when the phone is sitting still and not doing anything.

You’ll also notice that the volume of the speaker buzz changes, especially car speakers. This is because interference increases as your distance from the tower increases, causing the phone to transmit at a higher power just to be able to communicate with that tower. It can also be simply because your phone is so close to the speaker.

What can be done about the annoying buzzing? Unfortunately, not a whole lot. I’ve found a couple things that work — firstly, make sure your phone is not right next to the speaker. In my car, the interference dies as I move my phone farther away. If that doesn’t work, try pointing the phone away from the speaker. If the antenna is pointing a different direction that may help limit the amount of interference pointed in the direction of the speakers. Lastly, get a CDMA phone (one that works on Verizon or Sprint). While this is not the worldwide standard, they transmit in a completely different fashion that does not cause your speakers to buzz.

Visit this website to go even further in detail.

Check out this article about how using magnets will stop the buzz.

Written by Brad Molen

While millions of consumers have purchased the iPhone, and overall is a pretty good device, by no means is it perfect. In order to fix bugs and come out with new features Apple has instituted several updates to the iPhone OS and continues to develop more updates.

I am concerned, however, that these updates do not follow a logical path. Obviously the 2.0 update was the largest update with the introduction of the App Store amongst a large number of other things, while 2.1 attempted to fix bugs as well as boost battery life and phone reception. Recently apple developers received a beta version of OS 2.2, which does…Google Street View?

Street Maps is neat, sure. But it’s not copy/paste. It’s not email in landscape mode. No picture messaging still. Take a look at this website and you’ll see thousands of iPhone users voting for the features they want the most. But the pleas remain ignored.

It makes no sense to me that Apple would come out with an update solely to include Google Street View. There HAS to be something else to it. There just has to be! And why wouldn’t they add more? I don’t think it would be that hard to include some of these much-desired features. I wonder if Google is paying Apple quite a bit just to have their features included in a Apple software update.

But if you’re going to come out with a software update and go through the process of redoing OS X code, sending out betas for developers to test, and spending a couple months to do all this, wouldn’t it be more cost and time efficient to involve a few extra programmers and include some of these features that would appease millions of loyal fanboys?

After 2.0 and the iPhone 3G came out, I read that Apple decided not to include copy and paste because it just wasn’t a high enough priority at the time. That’s okay, I can accept that. But some of these minor updates are the perfect time to introduce features that weren’t high enough priority to make it into the major update.

So, I’m starting to think that Apple doesn’t have a planned path for the iPhone updates; and if it does have a plan, it doesn’t make any logical sense. To me it looks as though Apple got done with 2.1 and said “okay, what should we do next for 2.2?” and decided Street View was the next big focus. Have they planned 2.3 yet? 2.4?

Millions of phones are being sold, yes, but there are still many people who won’t get the iPhone because it doesn’t have certain features. Maybe it’s worth investing a few extra bucks to get these features added, and perhaps another million or so could be sold already.

I could be completely wrong; the real version of 2.2 could include a lot more than the devs have leaked to us. But, so far it doesn’t look all that spectacular.

What do you think? Am I completely off on this? Or do you see a natural progression in the updates that I just am not seeing? Please sound off.

In my post today I want to focus on what the market wants. Sounds like a crazy idea, I know.

With me being just one person I can’t speak for the entire market. I can, however, speak for those customers I have worked with the past three years, which is a more accurate representation of what the market wants.

When a customer comes in looking for a new phone, one of the most common inquiries is: “what is your most durable phone? I’m pretty hard on my phones.”

Everyone needs a durable phone — who doesn’t?

My first impression is – that’s because we tend to treat our phones according to the price we pay for it. We get a new phone for free or super-cheap, kick the living trash out of it, and yet expect it to survive for 2 years. And when it doesn’t, we complain that the cell phone provider sold us a piece of junk. Truth is, we get what we pay (or don’t pay) for.

Sadly, even those who are extremely careful with their phones and take good care of them are susceptible to bad things happening — putting it in the wash, being pushed into a pool with phone in pocket, children treating the phone as an action figure.

In a previous post I discussed pros and cons of insurance. Such scenarios I just described would be survivable with insurance. Without that insurance, however, we have to grit our teeth and buy a new phone for a much larger sum of money than we paid for it originally.

The market is tired of this. We want a phone that can handle the extremes. The ability is out there; in fact, two phones with such a capability just landed in Verizon stores, the G’zOne Boulder and the Motorola Adventure. We will discuss these in a later post.

Why aren’t durable phones more popular, then?

But the question becomes — are we willing to pay the extra cost of these hefty and rugged phones? The Boulder is $130 after $50 mail-in rebate, while the Adventure is $100 after rebates. These are the discount prices when signing contracts. If you want the durable phones that will last 2 years, don’t be looking in the free section.

In addition to being pricey, most of the durable phones are HUGE. Nextel phones, for instance, have the distinction of being the least stylish phones on the market. But that’s because they are made to last, not made to be pretty.

Everyone wants pretty phones, though. That’s the problem! Nobody wants the awkward-looking phones that will actually make it the 2 years (if not a lot longer). The market desires the cake and eat it too. That’s what it really boils down to.

A free, fashionable phone with great reception that will last the whole 2 years? I don’t think such a phone even exists!

So does the market it want it THAT bad?

Perhaps the market doesn’t desire it enough after all. The general population isn’t willing to make the sacrifice necessary to get it. Obviously if there were enough demand for these phones, they would be sold in more stores and provided by more carriers. Since they aren’t sold everywhere, it can then be assumed only a small group of people truly buy these types of phones.

When customers ask me to point them to the durable phones, I show them and explain why they are durable; but when the customer looks at the price tag they shudder and move on to a less expensive and more breakable phone. They decline insurance. And five months later, with broken phone in hand, they yell at me because I won’t provide them with a new phone for free. “But we’re under contract,” they say. “Why don’t you provide us with phones that will last the whole time?”

I use Dish Network and have a contract with them. If I were to poke around with my satellite dish and break it, they will not come fix it for free. They will not provide me with a new one to get through the rest of the contract unless I pay for a new one. Same concept with phones. You break it, you accept the consequences. It doesn’t matter if it was on purpose or on accident. I empathize with you because I’ve been there. But there’s nothing I can do.

Buy a durable phone. Pay the extra cost for a phone that’s more likely to last the entire term of the contract. You get what you pay for.

The market doesn’t desire a durable phone enough. But it really should.

One such feature is the inclusion of 1 GB of internal memory. This large amount of space is unique to any US phone that is not called the iPhone. The other feature is a built-in FM transmitter.

What the heck is that?

What FM Transmitters do

When my wife uses our iPod in the car, she carries a FM transmitter with her. Instead of having a direct “line in” to plug our iPod into the stereo, we plug the transmitter into the cigarette lighter and tell it to broadcast the music from the iPod at a frequency that’s not taken up by a radio station already.

Let’s use 98.5 as an example. Since there are no radio stations already broadcasting at that frequency in our area, we have no chance of interference. Conventional FM transmitters broadcast a few meters, just far enough for your car’s antenna to pick up. Thus we can listen to our iPod without worries and without someone else listening to our new radio station. The concept is the same for built-in FM transmitters in mobile phones.

Why Not Have Zunes in our Phones?

How convenient would it be to use our phones as music players also? But few people do because most people have music players already, with tons more memory than our phones. So what’s the point of having a music player in the phone then?

Exactly the point. So let’s boost the amount of available memory, and make it easy to listen to our music in cars and other convenient places.

The FM transmitter does that. Not only does it assist us in listening to music in more places, it also allows us to talk on the phone and have the speakerphone broadcast into the car stereo for handsfree use.

Worldwide Charm

While a brand new concept for phones in the US, Asia and Europe have already been making plenty of phones with this same feature. For good reason — it just makes sense!

Consumers are already paying $300+ just for a portable media player such as the Zune or the iPod, and another $100+ for a phone that includes similar capabilities. Why not put the two together?

Many new phones worldwide are coming out with the capability of holding up to 8 GB or more of external memory. So instead of shelling out $300 for a whole new media player, shell out $60 for a 8 GB media card to put in your phone.

In the coming years 8 GB will turn into 16, and 16 will turn into 32. It is inevitable that the chips will just keep expanding in capability to compete with rival companies. And when this happens, I predict portable media players will fade away into the darkness as they get replaced by a tiny chip that can do the same thing.

FM Transmitter = Innovative?

This is where the FM transmitter comes into play. Having it built into the phone itself gives the consumer another incentive to purchase the phone and a media card to put in it. Viola — the consumer is now carrying one device instead of two!

Since such a basic concept could conceivably change the entire market for mobile phones, I will say yes, the FM transmitter is an innovative concept. Hands-down. The real question is whether or not the consumers feel the same way.

Readers — let me know your thoughts on this.

Recent Posts:

LG Chocolate 3 Review Roundup
Samsung Innov8 is Phone of the Week
Why is Innovation so Difficult?

In light of my recent post on innovation in cell phones, I will begin honoring new phones that are doing their best to be in that category. The edgier the phone, the better. Any phone that pushes buttons (not just keypad buttons) or gets people to think will be a phone worth focusing on.

Laptop Mag just did a hands-on review of the device, slated for release in Europe this week, on its blog. They also have a video showing some of the unique features it has.

Here are some specs:

• 8 MP Camera with automatic shutter and video recording (will do slow-mo)
• 16 GB internal memory with MicroSDHC port (allowing up to another 16 GB memory)
• Quad-band GSM/EDGE with HSDPA 7.2 Mbps 900/2100
• Wi-Fi
• Optical sensor, which allows you to move around the menu simply by moving your finger above the pad. No touching necessary
• a-GPS
• FM Radio with RDS
• Accelerometer

These are a few of the impressive features I really like a phone to have.

The reason I want to focus on this phone is because, while not wholly “innovative”, it has brought everything to the table. It’s upsetting to get excited about a hyped-up new phone only to find out that one or two crucial features were left out. With the Innov8 Samsung has made everything in the phone state of the art.

You can’t find many phones with 8 MP cameras; name a phone other than the iPhone that offers 16 GB of internal memory; simply bringing GPS and Wi-Fi together is a rare event; and I have not seen an optical mouse or sensor in a phone before this point.

What this phone is doing is raising the bar for other manufacturers. Samsung is challenging its competition to come out with phones that can do as much as the Innov8. The best thing that could happen for the wireless industry is for this phone to become a huge hit in Europe. It will then spread to other parts of the world and inspire other brands to make exciting new phones that push the boundaries of what we’re capable of!

Good buy

One thing insurance does well is establish a peace of mind. If you lose your phone, put it in the washer, or drop it just the right way, it’s nice to know there is a way to replace the phone with the same exact model for a small deductible.

With the popularity of phone subsidies, most phones are pretty inexpensive when first bought in the store or online. However, if the phone gets lost 2 months later, it costs a lot more to replace it the second time around because there is no subsidy involved. Cell phone providers will only let consumers get new phones at subsidized prices once every 20 months, so make them count. Insurance makes it possible to spend $50 for a phone replacement instead of $300, and they allow up to two claims each year.

No matter if you are clumsy or not, mistakes can always happen in a 2-year span of time. It’s always smart to protect your investment.

Insurance for your phone is a good idea, especially for the first year and a half of the contract. After this point wireless providers are more willing to look into giving you another subsidized phone in exchange for renewing your contract. If you plan on leaving that provider at the end of the current contract, definitely keep insurance on all the way to the end.

Bad Buy

When so many other options for buying replacement phones exist, why add an extra $5 to your monthly bill? If something happens to your phone and don’t have insurance, it doesn’t mean you have no more inexpensive ways to get another one.

Every phone manufacturer provides a one-year warranty on each phone. These warranties cover any manufacturer defects that may occur, as long as there is no physical or liquid damage. Most phone issues usually fall under this category. If it is not covered, however, it’s time to look for a replacement.

Phones can still be purchased at full retail, generally $150-200 more than what you initially paid for it with contract. However sometimes mobile providers will offer early upgrades to get a new phone at a lower price.

Many carriers offer alternate phones in situations where yours is rendered useless. For instance, at the time of this writing AT&T Mobility offers a Nokia 2610 for $40 when you go in and tell the rep something happened to your phone. It’s a basic phone that does not have a camera or bluetooth, but is a great temporary solution just so you can make important calls while you find a better one. Check with your current mobile provider to find similar alternates.

In a future post I will cover the large range of options available to anyone who loses their phone.

And frankly, as long as you take good care of your phone, the phone will last the whole two years. If you never need the insurance you paid for, that’s $120 that could have been saved.

Overall, I think insurance is a great way to protect your investment, especially when you buy a PDA. But if you don’t want to spend the extra cash each month, there are other ways to get a new phone.