Jul 26

Looking to buy a new phone? Eligible for a new contract? Hate the phone you just purchased? Looking to switch service providers? If you answered yes to any of these questions – The BlueDot is here to help. The BlueDot now will buy used cell phones and other consumer electronics. In comparison to others paying cash for phones we are paying double or more in some cases. If you find a better price elsewhere online we will most likely meet the price or even beat it. We want your used cell phones!

If you used phone does not have any trade-in value we will recycle the phone for you free of charge.

Let your friends and family know about us. Do not let your used phone gather dust in your drawer. The longer you wait the less your phone will be worth over time.

Fill out a trade in form for your used cell phone here – http://www.thebluedot.net/tradein

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Jul 12

Consumer Reports, one of the most influential product review magazines, has decided not to recommend Apple’s latest iPhone to consumers. The magazine giant, around since 1936, said the device has significant issues involving reception.

“When your finger or hand touches a spot on the phone’s lower left side — an easy thing, especially for lefties — the signal can significantly degrade enough to cause you to lose your connection altogether if you’re in an area with a weak signal.”

Apple has acknowledged that this is a reoccurring problem with their new device. They chalked the problem up to faulty software, but Consumer Reports seems to doubt that. The side rail on the housing of the phone is designed to be an antenna. Placing your fingers on it can disrupt your signal. Realistically, where else are you supposed to put your fingers? Apple has announced a software update to be released in the coming weeks, but has yet to fess up to any hardware issues.

The magazine offered a potential quick fix to those who have already purchased the phone and are experiencing problems. “An affordable solution for suffering iPhone 4 users: Cover the antenna gap with a piece of duct tape or another thick, non-conductive material. It may not be pretty, but it works.” Somehow, I don’t think that will go over well with consumers who just shelled out top dollar for the latest, greatest technology.

The magazine did give the phone high marks for its display and the phone’s camera, calling it the best they’ve seen on any phone. It also offers high praises for the devices improved battery life over its predecessor and several of the new features including the front facing camera.

The magazine says they will not recommend the device until “a permanent—and free—fix for the antenna problem” is delivered by Apple, until that time, they recommend purchasing the older, 3G model. If this influential publication’s review isn’t a wake-up call for Apple, I would expect a lot of angry consumers.

Sources: ConsumerReports

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May 11

The official results are in, and the first quarter sales figures for 2010 are significantly in favor of Google’s Android smart phone. The war has waged for quite some time between Apple’s iPhone–with apps that pale in comparison to the amount of hype backing it up–and Google’s Android which has dedicated its operating system to various phone models and carriers across the board.

The iPhone, as many of you know, is paired only with AT&T service–and while Apple pushes its weight around the market, it rests firmly in the corner where only AT&T users and Mac Geeks dwell.

AT&T is big–really big. But Verizon is much bigger. You know those “coverage maps” you see in all the ‘Verizon VS AT&T‘ commercials? Those attempt to illustrate a whopping 92.8% of Verizon’s customers enjoying a relatively limitless wireless coverage zone.

iPhone’s biggest claim to fame is the App Store, featuring obscene numbers of user and professionally created applications for just about everything you’d ever want to do–from grocery shopping, to making fart-noises on the bus. The Google Android is gaining speed, however. They’re up to a healthy 50,000 applications and counting–and I believe they’ve even hosted their own fart-noise apps, so…good news there!

Because of Verizon’s dominant network, they have become a huge sponsor of Google’s Android–providing them with lots of advertising and marketing funds.

The last–and probably most important–factor that pushes the Android ahead is the pricing. Where the average price for a smart phone in 2010 is around $599 (retail price), the top-tier iPhones can be as pricey as $999 (used iphones for less than $200 and cheap droid phones). Because Google has the freedom to pick and choose its carriers and hosts models in varying price ranges, they have the potential to dominate every market.

The Android’s sales have outfoxed the iPhone, but not by much. With the first quarter percentages for the Android being 28%, and the iPhone’s being 21%, it is still a close race…but it is still only a race for 2nd place.

It should be no surprise that Reasearch in Motion’s Blackberry is still king of the smart phones with a first quarter sales rate of 36 percent. Across the board, new and refurbished Blackberrys make a huge impact on smart phone sales. They are efficient, inexpensive, and part of the largest networks in the country.

So, for now, Blackberry watches as Google and Apple duke it out–but there’s a lot more time left in 2010–and something tells me that the iPad won’t be the last tech gadget people are talking about this year.

Sources: Yahoo! Finance | ARS Technica | Android Community | Boy Genius Report

–Alex

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Apr 18

It seems like each time one of these VoIP apps comes out, it’s all hype. I don’t know what the hold up with Skype is, and Google Voice seems pretty cool yet does not seem to be “blowing up,” but now this Line2 seems to delivering more than the rest when it comes to making calls over the internet via Wifi cell phones.

Line2 gives you a toll free number for people to call you on, free of charge, and it lets you make free, unlimited calls via Wifi. If you’re not in a Wifi zone, your calls go through your normal cell mode. The video below does a pretty good job of explaining how it works.

Line2 iPhone User Guide from Toren Ajk on Vimeo.

It seems like business people really enjoy Line2. The downsides, for me, are that it doesn’t offer text messaging via Wifi (why is this so hard?) and that it costs $15 bucks a month. A big plus, however, is that they offer Line2 for Blackberry.

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Feb 23

blackberryappworldIn response to the Apple iPad buzz, Amazon, the world’s largest online retailer, plans to release a free Kindle app for your new and refurbished Blackberry. The app will provide Blackberry users access to over 420,000 books online.

Amazon’s Kindle for Blackberry app will allow users to purchase and read books directly from their devices for, on average, $10 or less. Apparently, the following Blackberrys will be compatible with the app: the Bold 9000 and 9700, the Curve 8520 and 8900, the Storm 9530 and 9550, and the Tour 9630.

Amazon’s vice president for Kindle said that the Blackberry app is a direct result of the iPhone app’s success.

Full article at Mobiledia

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Feb 17

skype_logoWell, kind of. It is true that Skype Mobile is now available for new and refurbished cell phones but until March, you need to have an iPhone or a Nokia Symbian phone. For the iPhone you just download the app, but I’m not sure how it works for Symbians. Maybe someone can comment with more info. If you have the iPhone app, you can now make free Skype to Skype calls from any WIFI zone.

What’s most exciting for Blackberry enthusiasts is that in March, Skype mobile will be integrated with Blackberry via Verizon Wireless. One-upping the iPhone, Skype for Blackberrys on Verizon will be fully integrated, meaning you can make free Skype to Skype calls anytime, anywhere – not just from WIFI. I know I keep saying this but if Skype remains free, I don’t see how Skype mobile won’t totally change the cellular industry as we know it. It can’t be long until Skype mobile is available for all devices.

To promote the release of Skype Mobile, Skype has launched an interesting (and kind of strange) promotional campaign. Basically, they have five artists from around the world on stand by, waiting for you to call them and via Skype and tell them something. They then take your message and transform it into art. There’s a little video about it at http://outside.skype.com/.

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