This guide shows you how to perform a hard reset on a Motorola Droid Bionic. By doing this hard reset, you will clear all data from your phone and return your Droid Bionic back it to its factory settings. Continue reading »
Mar 29
Mar 28
Howdy Blue Dots! I know it can sometimes seem like this country is stuck with a two party system. No, I am not talking about the Democrats or Republicans. (Although, they are also represented by red and blue oddly enough). I’m of course talking about our countries largest cell phone providers Verizon and AT&T. The two seem locked in a constant battle for the hearts and wallets of your fellow Americans. There must be an alternative to the two party system though right? We’ll I won’t tell you to throw your vote away and vote for the Green Party in the next election, but when it comes to phones sometimes the small guys have some huge offers.
Jan 12
The moment we have all been waiting for has finally come. For years we have had our hopes raised and then crushed. Tech blogs have spurred the rumor mills and created ongoing disappointment for those not wanting to sacrifice service bars for the next hot phone. It was announced yesterday that the iPhone 4 will be released for Verizon on Febuary 3rd for existing Verizon customers and on Febuary 10th for everybody else. Since 2007, the Apple iPhone has ruled the technological world. AT&T customers have enjoyed the advantages offered by the iPhone while Verizon Wireless customers remained loyal, touting their superior network. Withyesterday’s announcement of the new iPhone 4 on the Verizon network, will the loyal Verizon customer base be rewarded witha superior device on a superior network, or will Verizon mismanage the influx of users and bandwidth as AT&T reportedly did when they added the iPhone to their network? Continue reading »
Oct 19
The huge influx of Androids, iPhones, iPads, Blackberries and other “App” capable devices have allowed every-day people with a little coding knowledge to create their own programs. Everything from finding happy hour specials at local bars to doctors being able to analyze x-rays can now be seen in apps for mobile devices. This open-source theme, is about to take a step to the next level.
Bug Labs, a small firm out of New York, is attempting to provide this freedom to not only applications, but the devices themselves. Using their hardware, anyone can invent a device that will be compatible with their mobile plans. Pete Semmelhack, CEO of Bug Labs, explained to the New York Observer, “Right now there are hundreds of thousands of apps but only a few dozen mobile devices. We want to create an ecosystem for mobile hardware that is just as robust as the one which exists for software.” Continue reading »
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
Apr 20
It seems like a lifetime since the casual–though clumsy–portable or cellular phone generation switched to Smart Phones. Everyone from the average citizen to the global corporate CEO utilizes a small pocket device for practically every aspect of their lives. But how secure are your Smart Phone interactions?
Many new and refurbished Smart Phones are equipped with some kind of rudimentary security device and it seems that most people are either comfortable with that, or simply feel that browsing the web from a phone is more secure than from their PC. Have they been lulled into a false sense of security, or are Smart Phones worthy of all of our faith?
According to |, the Apple iPhone lacks some basic but critical features when it comes to overall security. It’s operating system can be compromised due to corrupted downloads, it lacks over-air updates, and it has relatively no device encryption.
Windows Mobile phones covers a majority of basic security requirements for corporate and personal use along with the iPhone‘s full VPN support.
RIM Blackberry phones offer better consumer coverage; solid security, traffic routing, and almost flawless encryption. But how do Blackberrys hold up to the Android and Symbian?
Both the Android and Symbian phones have a very open nature when it comes to third party access; however, installed software is “theoretically unable” to do any major damage to the device without being traced to the source.
Android and Symbian users are asked permission to utilize certain protected features–and anyone who accesses these features do so with a protected private key.
If you want the ultimate in Smart Phone protection, however, be prepared to pay for it. The Sectera Edge (sold for about $3350) offers military-grade encryption and was offered to President Obama as the alternative for ditching his Blackberry.
But what does all of this mean? Well, other than the old “if it’s good enough for the President, it’s good enough for me” argument, new and refurbished Blackberrys seem to have the highest rated and most user-friendly security aspects amongst Smart Phones.
No matter what device you choose, you should always be wary of your phone’s security settings and overall management. Proper routine maintenance of your technology is crucial to a happy and long-lasting relationship with whichever device you choose. So, remember to choose your Smartphone wisely, but also take care of it–after all–it takes care of you.
Sources: General Dynamics | TechSpot
– Alex
