CES is only around the corner and there are some exciting things to be revealed this year. A lot of excitement in the HDTV industry for the most part. This year Samsung has more heads turning in their direction for their hype building HDTV teaser, while most people don’t expect too many big things from Smart phones besides some mid-range device.
Jan 04
Mar 12
The average time someone has their cell phone, be it a smart phone or feature phone, is about 18 months. Which is surprising as most cell phone plans end at 24 months, giving you the usual discounts that come with renewing your plans. More and more people are buying used and refurbished phones that others trade in to receive cutting edge smart phones as soon as they are released. For example, we saw a big increase of Droid Razr cell phones for trade in’s. And when I say “increase”, I mean from zero trade in’s to actually getting that phone in trade in’s. I mention that because that phone was only two months old when we started getting trade in requests, which is typically unheard of for any cell phone so early in it’s life. This was mostly blamed on the recent release of the Droid Razr MAXX which made many folks immediately trade in their two month old smart phone.
Mar 02
Why was my phone free and now I have to pay so much? Fine print says "with new account".
You recently got your new phone for free on a promotion at your local phone store. 3 months later you were drunk and left your phone in a taxi cab. The next day you proceed to go into your local Verizon store only to find out your phone is going to cost you $599.99 to replace the device. The sales person in the store says you are not eligible for an upgrade on your phone for another year and 9 months! The sales guy says the only reason you received your phone for free was because you agreed to a 2 year contract with your phone carrier. Oh no, what am I going to do you think to yourself.
Feb 22
When I look back at my very first cellphone, an old Nokia with it’s green display, I think of it’s few uses it offered me. Back then, a mere ten to twelve years ago, your phone was pretty cool if it had snake or tetris pre-installed, which is kind of all you got from beginning to end. There was no app store, there wasn’t even a Verizon Get it Now application, you merely had what it came with. But now, in the golden age of the smart phone, we have thousands of choices in apps, games and uses for our phones. But what if you missed something? Something that you may have never thought of.
Dec 21
Look’s like RIM is out on the prowl as rumors have surfaced about them talking to various cell phone manufacturers. What are they talking about? Probably selling their entire brand to the highest bidder. RIM has been falling off the market pretty quickly the past few years and, if this keeps up, they may be in big trouble within the next five years, if not out of business.
Dec 16
It’s finally here, though a bit awkward to start up. You may have not even noticed right away as you have to go to facebook’s timeline website to even sign up. But Facebook timeline is here and boy… is it an OCD nightmare. I took about 20 minutes of my morning reviewing it and seeing what possible improvements it may have, not to mention integration into mobile devices, and found myself getting lost over and over again. But is this an improvement over it’s old design? Or is this the last hurrah of a cluttered dying mess?
