Blogging about all cell phones and Reviews

With both Sony and Microsoft dropping the price of the PS3 and the Xbox 360 Elite, the Wii is beginning to look like an overpriced console. There a few reasons why Nintendo needs to drop at least $50 off the company’s best-selling home console and fast.

The shortage is over
Anyone who wants a Wii has one by now. Consumers in the market for a console will no longer look to the Wii for its affordability over the competition. In fact, an Xbox 360 Arcade can be had for less than the price of a Wii already.

The competition
Now that the Xbox 360 and PS3 battlefield has been leveled, the Wii stands alone with arguably less value. If the Wii remains at $250, it will be only $50 cheaper than two gaming consoles that offer high-end HD graphics, huge internal storage, and video marketplaces. Even the soon-to-be released PSP Go–while considered expensive–matches the Wii’s $250 price tag.

The incentive
Consumers are concerned with value more than ever. At $250, the Wii does not offer enough of an added incentive packed into the box. Don’t forget that this is also the console with the most accessories for sale. At least include MotionPlus, Wii Sports, and Wii Sports Resort in the box to sweeten the deal.

Maybe Nintendo is satisfied with the Wii’s performance and will keep the console’s price where it stands now. It’s by far the best-selling console of this generation, so maybe there’s nothing left to prove. That said, we can’t imagine that console sales will continue to remain consistent when there’s two consoles that offer so much more for only an additional $50.

If there was ever a time for a Wii price drop, it’s now. If anything it will put Nintendo back in the news after what seems like months of nothing but Sony and Microsoft rumors, announcements, and SKU changes.

What do you think? Should Nintendo drop the Wii by at least $50?

All credits and information was found by cnet.

I’ve been a fan of  Google Voice since I started using it in earnest back in March. I now give out my Google Voice number (get yours here, but be prepared to wait a bit before it arrives) more than my mobile phone or my desk phone, and even have it on my business cards now. The features are great, but what I really like is that the number is truly portable: I just point the service at whatever phone, or phones, I want to use that day and my calls arrive there.

With Google Voice apps for mobile phones, I can also make calls from cellular phones that show the Google Voice number in the Caller ID displays of the people I’m calling. That is the killer feature of this killer app. But the experience is not the same on all phones. I’ve tried Google Voice on four different platforms — iPhone, Blackberry, Android phone, and PC — and one clearly stands out above the rest.

Not surprisingly, it’s Google’s own mobile phone platform, Android. The iPhone has great potential, but until Apple pulls its head out of its Apps Store, it’s denied to us as a Google Voice platform. You can still use Google Voice in the iPhone, sort of, via the Safari browser, as I’ll explain below.

There is a Blackberry version of the Google Voice app, which is not as full-featured as the Android app, but that has certain important advantages for corporate phone users. Finally, there’s the old full browser-based Web app, which is highly useful even when you’ve got a Google Voice-equipped mobile phone sitting on your desk.

Let’s look at how the platforms stack up for Google Voice, in order from good to bad…

The Winner: Android

The  Google Voice app for Android is fully integrated with the Android mobile phone operating system. It’s the only Google-supported platform that lets you use the phone’s native dialer to make outgoing calls that appear to be coming from your Google Voice number. What I really like, though, is an optional feature that makes the app ask you, when you’re making a call, whether you want to place the call from your mobile phone’s number or from Google Voice. Or you can set it to dial from just the Google Voice number, or the phone’s. Basically, you get two numbers in one phone, and it’s up to you which one, if any, is the main number. That’s handy.

The Android app gives you the cool “karaoke” feature of Google Voice, in which it will highlight words in transcribed voicemails as it plays them.

Nits include the necessity for the phone to have a good data connection to use Google Voice — including the capability to dial out from the Google Voice number. There’s some handshaking that goes on over the Internet, apparently, and if the phone doesn’t have a connection, it will either fail to dial out or it will dial from the phone’s own number. Also, you might have to do some work in your address book, as numbers have to include a “1″ and an area code in front of them, or the phone will, again, use its native dialer.

Close second: Blackberry

The Blackberry version of the Google Voice app gives you all the main features of the service, including the karaoke feature, but it’s not fully integrated with the phone — more like, maybe, 85 percent. While you can dial from your phone’s address book using Google Voice, you have to select the “Call using Google Voice” option each time. Pressing the phone’s green “call” button will always dial from the phone’s own number. And you cannot use Google Voice from the missed call list.

Google Voice on the Blackberry is a very important app, however, since it gives corporate users of locked-down Blackberrys access to a second, perhaps personal, line on their phones (assuming their handset isn’t so locked down that they can’t install the app). It saves people who want to keep personal and work lines separate from having to carry two phones. Details for calls placed via the Google Voice app don’t show up in the Blackberry phone logs.

Highly useful: PC or laptop and the Google Voice Web site

For computers, Google Voice is a Web site. It’s not a VoIP app. It can’t turn your computer into a phone. But it can make whatever phone you’re sitting next to into an extension on your Google Voice account, and that’s one of the things I really like about the service.

A real computer’s big screen is the best place to manage your Google voice contact list and review old messages. And if you are a big text messager, it’s great to be able to read and write them on the PC, and then finish your SMS conversations on your mobile when you step away from your desk.

Google Voice dialers for other platforms

There are no native Google Voice apps for Windows or other smartphone platforms, but there are third-party apps. GVdialer, for example, lets you place calls on your phone that appear to come from your Google Voice number. iDialer is similar, and also works with JaJah accounts. I haven’t tried these apps, and neither is available for the iPhone. (If you have experience with these apps, leave a comment below.)

A load of crap: iPhone (and other platforms)

There is no Google Voice for the iPhone. Hopefully the FCC’s investigation (see also: results) will encourage Apple to approve the app so this is changed. Meantime, if you want to use the service on the iPhone you’re stuck with the unattractive mobile version of the Web site.

It’s quite pathetic. It’s ugly and slow, and when you want to play your voicemails, the Web browser gives way to your phone’s media player, which is a disruptive interface switch (and it didn’t always work in my testing).

You can — sort of — dial out from your Google contacts, that show up in the Web app, and from a “quick call” option on the main screen of the mobile Web site that lets you enter a phone number. In either case, when you want to make a call, the service calls you on your iPhone and also the person you’re calling, and it connects you. You need a data connection for this to work. This makes sense when you’re using Google Voice from your desktop computer, but it’s a poor experience on a mobile phone.

At least it’s possible to sync your iPhone address book with your Google contacts, even if you can’t place Google calls from the address book app on the phone. Neither can you dial out from your iPhone’s recent call list, nor the built-in dialer.

Advice

Google Voice is a breakthrough telephony product. If you are moving your telephony and text messaging activities to the platform, and you need to do it today, you want an Android phone. If you have a corporate Blackberry, you, too, can get a pretty good Google Voice experience. iPhone user? Sorry. But you might not want to throw the phone out the window just yet, since it is likely that the Google Voice will make it to the platform. That’s my belief, and it’s why I’m hanging on to my iPhone for a little while longer.

All credits and information was found by cnet.

As Nokia World draws closer, our favorite Finnish phone maker has just taken the wraps off one of several new handsets set to drop in the near future. Yet another full touchscreen device that looks exactly like the 5800, the 5230’s features include a 3.2-inch 360×640 display, 2 megapixel camera, aGPS, 70MB of internal memory and feature three flavors of dual-band 3.6Mbps UMTS/HSDPA (850/1900, 850/2100 and 900/2100). So what could possibly be interesting about this handset, you’re wondering? The price: the 5230 is set to ship in Q4 for €149 ($213 USD) and will be available in red, pink, blue, yellow, silver and dark silver. Hit the jump for a video featuring some of the best music we’ve ever heard.

All credits and information was found by boygeniusreport.

Subscription music service Rhapsody, a division of Real Networks, has announced plans to port its service to Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch. In a blog post Sunday, the company said it will submit the application (demonstrated on the video below) this week to Apple for review.

Historically, Apple has steered clear of subscription music, making it impossible for services such as Napster or Rhapsody to work with the iPod, fearing competition with its own iTunes music service. But the success of iPhone music applications such as Pandora, Last.fm, and Slacker, may have opened the door for subscription services as well. (Last.fm is a part of CBS Interactive, which also publishes CNET News.)

Rhapsody’s mobile app will require that users hold a Rhapsody-to-Go account, which currently runs $14.95 per month. (Non-subscribers will apparently be offered a limited time free-trial period.) The Rhapsody app allows subscribers to explore and stream Rhapsody’s entire online music catalog over EDGE, 3G, or Wi-Fi, as well as create and store playlist queues of their favorite content. The app does not, however, allow users to download and store Rhapsody songs directly on the device, or cache content temporarily to hear offline.

If Rhapsody’s application is approved by Apple, it won’t likely be alone. Competing services such as Spotify have shown off similar applications, and Napster will surely want to get in on the action as well. The real question is whether people will find subscription music capabilities valuable. With free, ad-supported services such as Pandora already dominating the spotlight, it remains to be seen whether Rhapsody can convince new customers to spend close to $15 a month for unlimited on-demand music streaming.

In the blog post, Rhapsody also revealed plans to develop an Android application. It’s not known whether that version would offer greater flexibility (local storage, over-the-air downloads) than the version for the iPhone.

All credits and information was found by cnet.

You’ve seen the photos and you’ve read the review, but how do you feel about the the PS3 Slim‘s design? The Slim is 33 percent smaller and 36 percent lighter than the older PS3s but it is now noticeably deeper than before.

The CNET New York office seems to be split down the middle. Some editors think it reminds them of a turntable, while others think it’s a slick improvement. Editor Scott Stein sees the console’s wideness as odd, while Justin Yu thinks the black matte has a vintage appeal.

There are varying reports from around the Internet as well. Dave Zatz said in his post Meet the PS3 Slim, now with more ugly!: “But this PS3 Slim with textured matte surface reminds me of some old plastic outdoor furniture we used to have. Or maybe a Foreman grill knockoff.”

Whichever way you slice it, this new PS3 Slim is here to say and it’ll be the only one available once the current stock of PlayStation 3s are sold out. So what do you think? Is the new PS3 Slim hot or not?

All credits and information was found by cnet.

For months, we’ve been blogging about rumors that Sony would cut the price of its PlayStation 3 game console from $399 to $299 and possibly announce a new trimmer model called the PS3 Slim. At a press conference in Cologne, Germany, preceding the opening of the Gamescom Expo, the company finally took the wraps off the new console.

Earlier Tuesday, Kmart.com jumped the gun on the announcement and accidentally posted an ad on its home page that revealed a price cut to the “old” 80GB and 160GB PS3s to $299 and $399 respectively and hinted at the impending arrival of the new PS3 Slim.

In Cologne, Sony Computer Entertainment CEO Kaz Hirai performed the unveiling, taking the stage and announcing the PS3 was “getting a new model” and that indeed it was called the PS3 Slim.

The Slim is hitting stores the first week in September and will cost $299 (or for those who live in other regions, 299 euros or 29980 yen). Hirai says it has the same features and functions as the “old” PS3 but is 33 percent smaller, 36 percent lighter, and comes with a 120GB hard drive.

It’s unclear how Sony will sell the old 80GB PS3 at the same price as the new Slim, but we’ll have more details as they emerge. Until then, feel free to comment.

All credits and information was found by zdnet.

HTC Accessories for Business Professionals

If you have an HTC cell phone which you use for business correspondence, there are a number of HTC accessories which you can obtain to make life easier. A Bluetooth headset which is compatible with your device is useful if you need to answer calls when stuck in traffic or while travelling between meetings and other events. You can purchase headsets which are compatible with most Bluetooth-enabled HTC phones online, via headset accessory suppliers.

HTC Accessories for Touch Screen Phones

If your HTC cell phone has a touch screen, there are a number of accessories which are worth purchasing. It is always useful to have a spare stylus for navigating the menus on your device quickly, and a stylus can be purchased online along with a protective case which will help to prevent your cell phone from being scratched while it is being carried in your pocket or a briefcase. Protective HTC accessories are made to fit all HTC models.