Should I Wait For a New Phone?
One of the most frequent questions I get from people shopping for new phones is: “Are there any new phones coming out soon that I should wait for?”
The answer is always going to be yes! Every single day new phones are released, announced, or rumored. And chances are these brand new phones offer some crazy feature that you may find interesting. The hard part is, if you keep waiting for the latest and greatest phone to come out, you’ll always be waiting!
My advice is:
1. Identify what you want your phone to do (besides making calls, of course), and what form factor best fits you. If applicable, decide which cell phone provider to go with (AT&T, Verizon, etc.)
2. Look at the current selection to see if there are any phones that match your criteria. Depending on your needs and wants, you may be able to find older phones available on clearance that can help save some bucks; phone companies will often release a new phone only to have it become obsolete 3 months later, so there are always good quality phones experiencing “end-of-life” status in the stores.
3. If there aren’t any phones in the market that fit what you want, check out my upcoming phones list to see if there are any phones you fancy coming out in the near future.
4. If you still can’t find a phone you like, your best shot is to check out imports. A good chunk of state-of-the-art phones that are manufactured never get sold by US carriers. Instead, Asia and Europe tend to get the newest technology first. I recommend looking into some of these phones. Soon I will offer a list of some of the latest phones you can purchase as imports, as well as a purchase guide.
Warning: Imported phones, much like any other product, will be quite a bit more expensive because not only do they have to be shipped overseas, but they also come without any contract attached.
5. Lastly, if you’ve tried all these steps and still can’t find that perfect phone, chances are that it just hasn’t been announced yet and it may still be a good year or so away from making it into your hands. If that’s the case, simply go with the closest phone you can find to perfection and be happy with it!
Questions:
Have you found that most phones fit your needs?
Is there a particular feature you want but cannot find anywhere?
Need More Than 5 MP Camera in Your Phone?
Would you buy a phone because its camera is better than 5 megapixels?
It’s crazy to think that we are even asking this question, but some phones already have 5 MP cameras in them. Time is rapidly approaching when many phones will have 5 MP cameras in them, if not better. New phones in the planning or rumor stages are said to have 8 MP.
For many people, it would be nice to have a phone with a really good quality camera included. But would it really replace your existing digital camera? How many people would start using their phones for professional photography?
I find myself already using the 2 MP camera in my iPhone more than I do the 8 MP digital camera we own. Granted, my digital camera will at least take video whereas my iPhone won’t, but otherwise it is simply more convenient to pull the camera phone out of my pocket than it is to carry around a second camera just in case my daughter does something cute.
It’s been a long time coming. In the US, the best camera you can buy in a phone is 3.2 MP.
Questions:
1. Will the cameras in our phones catch up with our digital ones in quality, features, and MP?
2. Why are phone manufacturers so slow to come out with better cameras?
Please answer these questions in the comments section!
Blackberry Already Planning Storm 2 and 3?
courtesy www.gulfnews.com
The Boy Genius has some good inside sources. We are just getting into Bold and Storm territory and already we are hearing rumblings from Canada that RIM is getting the next two sequels of the Storm ready to go.
In particular, some of the rumors indicate that there is a super-phone on the way — ie. 5 MP camera, 1 GB of RAM, and near-HD quality screen amongst other specs. Apparently this will be a Bold-Storm marriage of sorts; touchscreen with physical keyboard? Not a bad idea in my books.
Questions:
1. How would you like a touchscreen with physical keyboard?
2. Isn’t it about time that RIM came out with a Blackberry super-phone?
Verizon to Charge Fees to SMS Providers
Here comes the latest news from the “IN Network” — if you offer a SMS texting service (such as sending daily sports updates, horoscopes, breaking news, etc.) Verizon has announced that it will begin assessing a 3 cent fee for each SMS you send to one of its customers.
How are SMS services any different than some regular guy having a unlimited messaging plan, sending out thousands of texts each month? I see no difference at all.
VZW claims this is to cover all the overhead these services are costing the company. However, text messages only cost fractions of a penny. Personally I think they saw an opportunity for more revenue and went for it. After all, somebody’s going to have to cover the cost of the Alltel buyout…
Questions:
1. If you are a company that offers a SMS service to customers, are you now thinking of stopping it due to the rising costs?
2. Does this help our economy or just continue to hurt it?
Apple Too Late in Lifting NDA?
This past week Apple announced they were doing away with the NDA agreement surrounding iPhone app developers for released software. After months of battles between Apple and developers, they can finally communicate with each other instead of going at it alone.
But is it too late?
To be honest I was really surprised to see Apple finally do away with it. In fact, the NDAs seemed to be going from bad to worse before it got better.
Apple was the trailblazer, the innovator. Coming out with the idea of an app store was brilliant — so brilliant, in fact, that all the other guys are planning on copying it. T-Mobile, Android, and Blackberry (recently rumored to be coming out with an app store on the Storm) are the major players, and others are likely to follow suit.
The thing is, the other guys will succeed by keeping their code open.
It’s understandable for a company such as Apple to want to protect its assets; inventions and innovations can be easily stealable in this day and age, so it’s necessary to take precautions. But it was getting ridiculous. Not only were devs unable to help each other or communicate with one another, they eventually were slammed with a NDA on the reason their apps were being rejected!
Naturally this spurned a lot of bad press. A LOT of bad press. Apple was losing the battle of the blogs — obviously, devs and blogs go hand-in-hand. It was smart of them to finally open certain aspects of the development process. They didn’t have much to lose at that point.
Honestly, this can only help Apple in the long run for a few reasons.
First – when developers communicate with each other, they strengthen each other. There have been some great apps so far, but picture the ability to participate in forums on the subject, or to find a developer who has found a solution to the same problem you’re currently experiencing, and the process becomes quicker and more efficient.
Second – when devs have a choice between open-source and closed-source, they tend to choose open-source. Especially for platforms that will have the same number of users as Apple. What advantage does Apple offer over the other guys?
Lastly – many potential developers were turned off by the restrictions. Who knows how many wonderful apps could be in the app store now if these brilliant minds decided to develop for Apple?
The future holds amazing things for mobile productivity. This is the tip of the iceberg; new apps with incredible new possibilities will continue to spring out of nowhere, not only for the iPhone but for every other smartphone as well.
I predict that the App Store will become even more popular for both developers and customers. With restrictions lifted, the bar will be raised and expectations will go through the roof. The possibilities are endless, and it will be exciting to see how apps evolve now.
Please leave me your thoughts on this.
Questions:
1. Did Apple wait too long to give developers free reign? Or can they recover from the bad press?
2. Do you think my prediction is correct — that apps will grow to become the driving force behind cell phone use?
Discuss.
