Mobility Digest » Smartphone

Mobility Digest Review: BodyGuardz Carbon Fiber Armor

Murani Lewis — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:38:47 +0000

Our smartphones are precious to each and every one of us. We excitedly run to our local carrier store and purchase our version of the “must have” phone and delight in its awesomeness. Recently I picked up a HTC Titan and fell in love much more than I ever thought possible with a phone. The thing is that the lightness paired with the industrial feel makes the phone slip out of my hand and pockets without even a hint that its in motion. I’ve dropped my beloved Titan about a dozen times in the nearly three months that I’ve owned it. So having already dinged up the phone I wised up and started looking for a case or cover to mitigate any further droppings because I knew they were coming. I checked around and had trouble finding cases for the HTC Titan it being a new and really not heavily promoted phone and all. I feared I’d be left with grasping the phone with a vice grip for the remainder of my time. Luckily I came across a fantastic product from BodyGuardz.

The BodyGuardz Carbon Fiber Armor isn’t so much a case but a type of razor thin covering that surrounds the vast majority of the rear and sides of your phone thus providing coverage in the areas that need it. So lets get to the contents.

Package includes:

Back and Side protective skin
ScreenGuardz UltraTough Screen protector

Following the application instructions are easy as the instructions are straight forward. The most important thing is to take your time and line up the skin properly before applying pressure and securing the seal. I had to readjusted different parts of the skin several times but it was more a case of my bad alignment skills than the product. When the application was finished I was happy with the result. I did feel like if the skin was a seamless skin the coverage would be perfect although the coverage as it is is more than adequate. It’s a nitpick but just thought I’d share.

The Carbon Fiber Armor will cost you $19.95 and does come in Red & White in addition to the Black.

PROS:

I love that included in the package is one of their ScreenGuardz protectors. It provides coverage for the front while the skin takes care of the back and sides.
Another great thing that fans of thin phones will enjoy is the fact the skin adds virtually no thickness to the Titan while giving the back and sides a premium textured feel.

CONS:

Limited side coverage instead of total coverage.

If you’re in the market for a quality skin that doesn’t add any thickness to your Titan I encourage you to grab the BodyGuardz Carbon Fiber Armor from here today.

Mobility Digest Review: Bracketron Universal GPS Window Mount

Doug Smith — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 05:05:23 +0000

Smartphones these days are being used in a wide variety of ways other than just talking on the phone. Music playback with streaming services like Slacker and Pandora and GPS with free services like Google and Bing. If you are like me, you use both at the same time. So I have been looking for a convenient way to display my device where I can control music playback as well as view my GPS. I always hesitated to buy universal mounts because the window mounts never seemed to hold up very well and the device would end dropping down to the floor. Not only is this a pain in the rear end to reach down and grab and try to put back in place, but it could be a potential safety hazard as well. So when I saw the Bracketron Universal GPS Window Mount, I noticed that it had a very top end looking window mount so I thought I would give it a try and see if my device fumbling days could be over. So let’s check it out in another Mobility Digest Review!

Kicking things off, let’s take a look at the packaging and the contents. The clamshell packaging ensures a very difficult removal but does make sure that you know that no one else has been into your product. Inside you will find

PRODUCT SPECIFICATIONS

MODEL NO: GWM-262-BL
PRODUCT DESCRIPTION: Universal GPS Window Mount
UPC NUMBER: 874688002621
MASTER PACK DIMENSIONS: 26” x 18.5” x 14.75”
MASTER PACK: 20/pc
MASTER WEIGHT: 12.5 lbs
INDIVIDUAL PACKAGED DIMENSIONS: 4.25” x 8” x 9.5”
INDIVIDUAL PACKAGED WEIGHT: 10 oz

After getting the contents unpackaged putting the 9” suction cup window mount together with the universal grip-it is quite easy and both pieces feel of very high quality material and workmanship.

Looking that the 9” bendable suction cup window mount first, the bottom suction cup is very large and will give you lots of area to grip the windshield with. It also has a small little tab on it so when it is time to remove it, you have something to grab on to instead of just yanking on the base and loosening the suction cup from the base. The suction is created by pulling down on the tab. It does not need to be pulled all the way down to the bottom like you might expect, but stops somewhere between and provides a lot of suction to secure the mount to the windshield. There is a button underneath the tab that releases the suction when removal is needed. Then, as mentioned above, grab the tab on the suction cup and remove. The 9 inch arm provides a lot of reach to bring your device forward on vehicles that have windshields that are on a steeper angle. The dashboards on these type of windshield cars make mounting devices to it tricky, but also take the device further out of range for easy viewing. The Bracketron Universal GPS Window Mount will allow you to bring your device forward on the most swept back windshield like the one in my wife’s Ford Freestar minivan. The 9 inch arm is very strong and when driving on bumpy roads only allows a small amount of bouncing. The device end of the window mount rotates 360 degrees so you will be able to rotate your device from portrait to landscape with no worries.

The Universal Grip-iT device holder is very well constructed and has an anti-skid surface to help keep your device to stay put when in the mount. On the bottom right hand side you will notice a button that opens the holder to accommodate a wide range of different devices from a GPS, smartphone, as well as a MP3 player. The jaws open up to amazing 4.25 inches! That should be good to hold just about any device you own. Even my huge 5 inch Garmin Nuvi GPS fit in it! On the bottom of the Grip-iT device holder are two rotatable feet that keep your device from sliding down when you have your device in portrait orientation. When in landscape, I found that I would not use the feet because the device would not center and stuck too far too one side. The Grip-iT mount when squeezed together holds the device in it very securely and I never experienced one coming out.

Putting the sections together is pretty easy to figure out and they clip together VERY securely. So securely in fact that it is very difficult to separate them should you need to. You have to get a small screwdriver and depress tab with a substantial amount of force to separate the two units from each other. Then it is difficult to remember which way to slide the Grip-iT unit back. The wrong way will result in breaking the tab off of the window mount that fits into the channel on the Grip-iT unit. It would have been handy for Bracketron to add an arrow to let you know what way to slide the Grip-iT unit to separate it from the Window Mount. The two sections fit very securely together as a result.

As you can see from the picture below, the Bracketron Universal GPS Window Mount looks really good and works even better. As I mentioned above, even though most swept back windshields will not stop the 9 inch Window Mount Arm from keeping your device in easy view and reach. It is also very strong and only suffers from a minimal amount of bouncing on the most bumpy of roads. Landscape and portrait orientations both look and work perfectly .

the Bracketron Universal GPS Window Mount is very recommended should you be in the market to buy one mount to handle all your device needs. It is very strong and is very well made. Unlike cheaper window mounts, the suction cup actually works and there is a very minimal amount of bouncing on the most bumpy of roads. Having the Bracketron Universal GPS Window Mount frees up your console area from having to keep your device and you will not have to look down to see who is calling you or change the song when using your device as a music player. The Bracketron Universal GPS Window Mount is sold on the Bracketron website for $29.99 but can easily be found for less than half that amount on Amazon.

PROS:

Very Strong
Inexpensive-good value
360 degree viewing
Great clamping force from suction cup/easy to release

Cons:

Hard to separate the Window Mount from the Grip-iT holder
Clamshell packaging is a pain in the rear to open!

Dell Streak 5 gets Gingerbread update

Doug Smith — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 16:41:53 +0000

I know there are a small handful of you still in our community still rocking the Dell Streak like I used to be doing. But if you sold the Streak and moved on to greener pastures because of Dell ending the life of the Streak and not getting any more updates, then check this out. Dell just released a Gingerbread update for the Dell Streak! I find this totally bizarre as the Dell Streak, a fantastic piece of hardware , launched with Android 1.6 on it! It took forever to get Froyo, and now after it was killed off, Dell sends forth the most current OS (I know the Nexus just got released with 4.0 but there is nothing else right now and no updates until next year for select devices) called Gingerbread or version 2.3.x.

The Dell Streak 5, Dell’s triumphant return to the handheld market, will always be remembered for it’s potential with great form factor and build quality, and disappointment because of the launch debacle and update nightmare by Dell for Carrier based units. But, you can never count a Dell handset out it appears because if you are in the military, you could see a few of these. The Pentagon, even after Dell retied the Streak 5, has approved use of the device because of the form factor. DefenseSystems.com claims that the military “likes the form factor.”

If you are still sporting the 5 inch Gorilla Glass beasty from Dell and want to update to Gingerbread, Android version 2.3.x, then download the file Here for the 155MB .pkg file. You will need to make sure that you have the correct stock recover version 350 before you begin and as always, make sure you back up your device.

What’s the odds of an Ice Cream Sandwich update Dell? Normally I would say there is no way, but with Dell, you never know.

12 year old wins award for innovative iPad/iPhone dock

Doug Smith — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 16:40:48 +0000

Fresh new ideas are always the life blood of a successful company in my opinion. Paying engineers, research teams, and millions on marketing is fine, but it sometimes happens that a kid has the best way to solve a problem and come up with something new and innovative. Such is the case with Dino Zaharakis, a 12 year young man who would innovate a dock that would gain international notoriety. Dino, the creator of dzdock, is a docking solution for the iPad and iPhone but will fit just about any smartphone or tablet and conquers several design flaws that he saw in docks available today. Dino’s dock was to:

place/remove a device without disconnecting its cable
hold a device with/without a skin in both portrait and landscape modes
be universal, accommodate iPad, Kindle, nook, tablets, iPhone /smartphones
designed and made in the USA

Dino’s dzdock did just that and as a result, he has won several awards including Global Student Entrepreneur Award for High School as well as the "Most Innovative Product" award at Chicago’s McCormick Center. Men’s Health Magazine named dzdock one of it’s five best stocking stuffers. Not too shabby Dino.

The dzdock sells for $29.95 on Amazon but can be purchased from his own website for just $19.99 using the promotional code ("EOGSEADZ") which is good through the end of the year.

So if you are needing a dock/stand for your iPhone or iPad, check out dzdock on Facebook, or head on over to his website for more information.

More Wirefly Deals come out

Doug Smith — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 16:35:26 +0000

Retailers get pretty serious about the Holiday Selling Season and Black Friday through Cyber Monday is the Battle Royal between them. Wirefly entered the ring with their first printed ad and have come back with even more deals! Listed below is the latest additions to their Black Friday through Cyber Monday deals. So if you are looking for deal on a new smartphone, don’t wait in line, just head on over to Wirefly and click your choice and laugh at the folks who will be standing in line!

Wirefly FREE-FOR-ALL PHONE SALE: Beginning tomorrow thru Cyber Monday, in addition to our crazy Black Friday discounts we will be offering on new phone orders, we are launching the Wirefly “Free-for-All” Phone sale. What is the ‘Free-for-All’ Phone sale you ask? This is a sale designed for EVERYONE (not just new customers) and will include popular Android and BlackBerry, and 4G smartphones for free. In fact, this sale will feature over 40 phones for free….FREE FOR NEW. FREE FOR UPGRADES. FREE FOR ADD-A-LINES (all five lines on a family plan!!!). Unprecedented! Here are just a few of the phones that will be featured.

· Droid X2 by Motorola (VZW)

· Samsung Stratosphere (VZW)

· LG Revolution 4G (VZW)

· My Touch (Tmo)

· My Touch Q (Tmo)

· Samsung Transform (Sprint)

** fyi, we also have at least 50 or more phones that will be free for new and upgrades eligible customers too.

Upgrade Eligibility Checker: I highly recommend checking out Wirefly’s Upgrade Eligibility Checker to gives you the ability to see if and when you are eligible for your next phone upgrade. It can also tell you the status of all lines of an account with just one phone number from that account. If you are not upgrade eligible, when the time is nearing, you can elect to receive a complimentary reminder call, e-mail or text message.

A COUPLE OF ADDITIONAL DEALS:

$25 Gift Card with Purchase: Between Thanksgiving – Cyber Monday, every Wirefly customer who orders either the Sprint EVO 3D or EVO Design (new account) will receive a $25 Gift Card

$30 off with Coupon: Beginning Thanksgiving- Cyber Monday, we are launching a coupon code to take $30 off the Samsung Galaxy S II 4G for T-Mobile (+ FREE Activation + FREE Shipping). Keep me honest, but with this coupon, the phone will be the lowest price available anywhere. Good for new, upgrades, add-a-lines and phone-only. Here is the code: TMGS30

PLUS: Sprint and T-Mobile are waiving their activation fees for Wirefly customers, saving people even more money.

· Sprint Waived Activation: equivalent to $36 per line or up to $180 for 5 lines (Thanksgiving thru Cyber Monday)

· T-Mobile Waived Activation: equivalent to $35 per line or up to $175 for 5 lines (Thanksgiving thru Cyber Monday)

PREPAID/NO-CONTRACT phones are great gifts to give. On Cyber Monday, we will have the ZTE Score from Cricket for only $49.99 (typically it’s $149.99).

As always, the benefit of shopping at Wirefly.com…NO LINES, NO CROWDS, NO REBATES and OPEN 24/7! Plus FREE FedEx Shipping and FREE returns.

Happy Turkey Day!

Connectify: Streamline Your Life

Reader Submitted — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 16:37:05 +0000

It’s surprising that even though Smartphones and other mobile devices have become increasingly popular, many still are going throughout their day without utilizing that technology. Some use basic plans without data, others choose to stick with prepaid phones, and some don’t even use mobile technology. There is a portion of the population that doesn’t like how interconnected the world has become, but the majority of people argue that it’s because data plans are far too costly. At first, that seems to be true, but if you look at all the savings you can get, it’s far more cost effective to connect with mobile technology and streamline your life.

The majority of the business world is based on small businesses. In media, we constantly see big companies and news about high-powered executives, but the larger part of the business world is made up of small businesses that employ a large part of the workforce and keep the economy going. Staying connected is so important because it allows you the chance to extend the range of your home or office. You can network from practically anywhere and be a one-person company. There’s tons of software and apps that can help you balance spreadsheets, make orders, and keep track of clients.

Even if you’re not connected to the web, you can still remained connected to local hotspots and still run your business. You can pretty much run an office from the comfort of your mobile device. Through the power of apps, you can share folders, connect to printers, and tap into networks while you’re on the go. Often times, with small business owners, a mobile phone is the lifeline of their business and keeps all of their contacts. If you’re sticking with the old paper system, you’re definitely putting yourself at a disadvantage.

If you’re a business owner or working professional, it’s becoming more and more important to stay connected. It’s so essential today that people become more competitive in the business world, and getting “connectified” is the best way to remain at the top of your game in an increasingly fast-paced world.

Reader Submitted by:

Vanessa Burke

Windows Mobile Interview: XDA TV Throwback Episode

Albert Bunn — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 01:40:57 +0000

Hey there, it’s Albert again. I haven’t posted an entry in a little bit because I’ve been pretty busy lately, but I thought I’d like to write again and shed some light on a spectacular YouTube video I watched around a week ago. For some of you that haven’t been there, one of the only other blogs beside Mobility Digest (that I know of anyway) that posts anything about Windows Mobile 6 anymore is XDA DEVELOPERS, and the other day I saw something on their YouTube channel that really caught my eye: They did sort of an interview between “Azrienoch” and “CajunFlavoredBob”. They talked a little bit about how “CajunFlavoredBob” got into Windows Mobile (and later their forum) and his past devices and his current HD2 and why he liked Windows Mobile and continues to use it to this very day. The almost eight minute video features interesting nuggets of information starting with where the name “XDA DEVELOPERS” came from – which led them into exposing to the world that British people have cell phones, and that one of those foreign carriers got one of HTC’s devices custom branded as the “XDA”. He shared about his first phone device, the HTC “Wallaby” and really nailed exactly what I thought about how the market has changed: We’re moving into higher end, yet more disposable devices. If I’m not mistaken, the launch cost of the Samsung i700 was in the $600 neighborhood, and you can get powerful smartphones today on contract for next to nothing which seems to be really hurting the industry to me. What this does is it screws up the value of everything – any mobile handheld now depreciates faster than video games pertaining to sports.

Anyway, “Bob” goes on to tell us about some more evolutionary HTC Windows Mobile handhelds which included the well known Blue Angel, the original HTC Touch, the Titan, Touch Pro, and the Touch Pro 2. He went into a little more detail on his Touch Pro 2 and held it up beside the Wizard to demonstrate how deep HTC’s “Sense/Manila” made it into the system before Microsoft screwed over the Windows Mobile userbase. From there, they moved on to talking about how (little) the messaging program changed over the years and how our messaging habits as a culture have evolved before he kind of got ready to wrap up the video.

Toward the end, he shared how he had tried Android on his HD2, but it just didn’t “feel” the same to him, and while he said he was learning, Windows Mobile is still his “Daily Driver”. After this part, they add in a random clip of their weird girl and she told her HD2 story (ironically, she basically just ranted about why she didn’t like it), and then “Cajun” comes back and talks a little bit more about holding onto his HD2 for the immediate future since he could still run the “modern” Android platform but also be able to use Windows Mobile which he (and still many of us) are comfortable with. To conclude they shared some “deep” thoughts about how since Windows Mobile 6 had no real successor, it will be tough for many of us to say “goodbye” and admit that the platform is kind of almost “dead”, although it will certainly live on here and on XDA Developers for a very very long time.

::AB

New Version of CR192 DESIRE ROM Available for HD2 Owners (8/19–Version 6.5.3.1.4b)

Albert Bunn — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 16:35:22 +0000

: CRACING’s Latest HD2 ROM Offering: The CR192 Desire ROM

While some people have thought that the Windows Mobile scene is dead, the persistent members over at XDA Developers continue to prove them wrong once again with “CRACING”’s release of the next installment to the CR192 DESIRE ROM series for HTC’s Milestone HD2 handheld. The latest version hit WUpload and Megaupload on the 19th of this month proving that the Windows Mobile ROM community is far from dead. While CRACING seems to be relatively new to the scene, the ROM’s thread looks fantastic and was brilliantly illustrated by CRACING himself. Even though CR192 has not been available even two weeks yet, it has already been recognized by a member of the forum as “one of the best roms ever” despite its relatively short three pages of feedback in the thread. CR192 Desire is the successor to the massively successful Febuary release “Vibrant GTX” ROM (available in the CR192 thread as well). While some people prefer to run Android on their HD2s, the rest of the community has spoken, and the CR192 DESIRE ROM series is the clear choice for HD2 users who want to get the most out of their handheld.

::AB

GczII Geocaching Software Updated to version .2.35.76 (7/1)

Albert Bunn — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 16:20:05 +0000

New Version of NICQUE's popular freeware program, GCzII is released

NICQUE, the popular author of Windows Mobile freeware released a brand new version of GczII on July 1st (version “0.2.35.76”). GczII is a popular freeware Geocaching.com client, where you can search for geocaches by Zipcode, cache name, author’s name, trackables, and of course geographical distance from your current GPS location. For those of you not familiar, Geocaching is a sport which (after registering for a free account on their website) allows you access to the coordinates for thousands and thousands of geocaches worldwide. Each geocache is a container hidden somewhere in public which can be located with the coordinates provided for it on Geocaching.com, which can get you around 10-30 feet from the “cache” (from there, GPS is too imprecise and you must use your wits to find the spoils). When you get to the cache (these can be in parks, parking lots, off a hiking trail, etc.), you can sign the logbook and if the cache is physically large enough (the size of the cache varies wildly – usually a small plastic box though), exchange small trinkets. When you get home, you also sign the log on the site.

GczII saves the user the hassle of not only needing to have a separate GPS receiver, but you also do not have to print off countless cache pages or worry about typing the coordinates just perfectly into a secondary receiver. It is a “green” solution, and also much easier.

::AB

Apple knocks Nokia off top, now #1 in smartphone volume

Doug Smith — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 16:32:29 +0000

The Cupertino crew are throwing some high five’s this morning as the announcement came that they have finally dethroned rival smart phone giant Nokia as the worlds largest producer of smart phone handsets. With a very strong second quarter charge, Apple shipped 20.34 million handsets last quarter as Nokia watched their sales slide from a heft first quarter number of 24.2 million handsets to a second quarter number of just 16.7 million. Ouch. Granted we all know about Nokia’s challenges that lie ahead and relationship with Microsoft, but this is a really nice achievement for Apple who again posted solid growth in the second quarter growing handset sales by 1.64 million units.

The interesting sidebar to this story is that if rumors are correct, we could see three flavors of iPhone’s in the marketplace for customers to choose from. The rumor suggests that Apple would be coming out with low end device which could in fact be the 3GS that would sell for a non contract price of $350. The mid device category would stay with the current iPhone 4, and then Apple would release a high end, large screen, A5 Processor, 8mp camera version which could be called the iPhone 5 or the iPhone 4S. Regardless of name or device attribute, the idea of Apple having “choices” for customers directly sets it’s sights on Android, and the huge variety of device offers they have across multiple OEMs. Even though I think the majority of existing iPhone owners would never backslide into lessor model, the majority preferring to stand in line for the latest, this may in fact attract newer non techie consumers who have always been on the fence but never jumped because of price.

Whether you like Apple and the iPhone or not, this year is really going to finish strong for not only Apple, but for consumers as well.

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