New phone uses world's smallest disk - vnunet.com: "Toshiba has designed a mobile phone using the world's smallest disk drive, according to Japanese sources. The 2.1cm drive, also made by Toshiba, is so small that six would fit on a business card."

Wow--that is amazing. The article has a photo of the disk next to a six-sided die; it's just barely bigger!

Supreme Court rejects BlackBerry patent appeal - Wireless World - MSNBC.com: "WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear an appeal from the maker of the BlackBerry in the long-running battle over patents for the wildly popular, handheld wireless e-mail device.

The high court’s refusal to hear Canada-based Research In Motion Ltd.’s appeal means that a trial judge in Richmond, Va., could impose an injunction against the company and block BlackBerry use among many of its owners in the United States."

This isn't good for the ~4M Blackberry users out there--if RIM doesn't ante up an estimated $700M-$1B to NTP, it looks like there very well may be a shutdown of their network. Even though RIM claims to have implemented a work-around if that happens, I'm pretty skeptical that it will be as seamless as they say--otherwise, why wouldn't they have already done it?

The Palm 700w: Windows OS; 500 Kbps download speed

A good review of the first device to contain the unholy alliance between Palm and Microsoft: a device running Windows Mobile that, combined with Verizon's EV-DO data network, reaches 400-700 Kbps download speed. Looks intriguing, but I'll stick with my Blackberry for now.

How to Squelch Your Inner Jackass

An absolutely brilliant treatise on how mobile technology gets abused; and a wake-up call to all of us to be more compassionate of our fellow beings...especially at the local coffee shop!

Vodaberry Update

Update: Thursday Jan 19: I received an email from the Vodaberry folks; apparently they were moving their web site. All appears to be normal now.

News flash: it appears that the Vodaberry service (www.vodaberry.com) may be out of business--their email messages are bouncing and their Web site has some sort of error message, but in German. Either that, or their domain was hijacked by someone. In any event, I wouldn't recommend anyone give them their money for Blackberry ringtones! I suppose I'll just have to figure out how to convert and post them myself.

My Review of Blackberry 7105t

This is a review that I posted on epinions.com this morning:

Pros

- Bluetooth headset support, small/light form factor, beautiful screen, polyphonic ringtones

Cons

- Small keyboard, difficult ringtone transfer, battery life, handicapped Bluetooth, screen dark unless active

The Bottom Line
Hard-core Blackberry users should try the keyboard before buying. Overall, a great unit combining the advantages of Blackberry with a traditional phone form factor and features.

Full Review
The Blackberry 7100 is a major step forward for the Blackberry community, although it is also a step back. I'll explain.

RIM introduced the 7100 series, which is basically the same phone for all carriers (the letter after the model indicates which carrier -- t, for example, for T-Mobile), in late 2004. I have been a user of the 'classic' brick-style Blackberry for a number of years but always desired the features and form factor of a classic mobile phone--the 7100 series seemed to be the answer.

I should mention that I use the T-Mobile network in the Denver area, although I travel globally.

I received the 7105t (which is a close cousin to the 7100--the only real difference is the screen, which is easier to read in daylight) about 3 weeks ago, and have been mostly happy with it. It is clearly a major improvement over the old line of Blackberries, but people that do a lot of text input should carefully consider the keyboard on the 7100 series.

Improvements of the 7100 series:

- Phone-like form factor (bar vs. brick); much easier to use as a phone;
- Excellent phone quality - Beautiful color screen (240x260, 65K colors)
- Bluetooth support (headset and wireless sync);
- Polyphonic ringtones (32 chords);
- Quad-band GSM world phone (works anywhere that has GSM coverage);
- Instant messaging client: supports all major IM clients (Yahoo, MSN, AOL)
- Skins: ability to change the look-and-feel of the user interface;

Drawbacks of the 7100 series:
- Handicapped Bluetooth--file transfer not supported; wireless sync only works with PC Bluetooth adapters on the Microsoft hardware compatibility list (HCL);
- Keyboard: due to the smaller form factor, RIM had to combine two letters on most keys. The 7100s do have a predictive typing system with a 35,000 word dictionary that anticipates the word being typed. This takes a bit of getting used to but works reasonably well (clearly better than other systems, such as T9), but the classic RIM keyboard is still easier and faster.
- Ringtones: The 7100 only uses ADPCM ringtones, which require conversion from standard formats. The only way to get a ringtone into the phone is to load from a Web site (e.g. you cannot transfer tones from the desktop; nor can you email a tone to yourself). The ringtones sound great, but it's much to difficult to get them there. Many phones today will accept MP3 format--not the 7100.
- Battery life: while decent, much less than the brick-style Blackberries. In real use, the 7100 lasted only 4 days on standby (much less than the 10 days standby reported by RIM); talk time is close to RIM's specs (3-4 hours).
- Screen: dark unless active (prior models were readable at all times); 7100 difficult to see in bright sunlight (corrected in 7105 model)

Overall, I'm very happy with the phone--the screen is beautiful, ringtones sound good and I love the form factor. Since I don't spend a lot of time doing text entry (mostly reading), the keyboard is fine for me, and I also love being able to use a wireless Bluetooth headset. The inability to sync via Bluetooth is not a big factor, as the phone must be plugged into USB to charge anyway.

Recommended for: Business Executives - Powerful and Professional

Blackberry News

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) rejected two more of NTP, Inc.'s patent claims against RIM. Unfortunately for BlackBerry users, however, a new security vulnerability was detailed this week.

The vulnerability allows a specially-crafted TIFF file to be used to execute code on the BlackBerry Enterprise Server 4.0 or the latter's BlackBerry Attachment Service running atop IBM Corp. Lotus Domino, Microsoft Exchange, or Novell Inc.'s Groupwise. The vulnerability prevents a user from viewing all attachments. While RIM has not announced when a patch will be available, it suggests a workaround of blocking all TIFF images or disabling the Attachment Service altogether.

The vulnerability reportedly has no impacts on other BlackBerry functionalities, such as making phone calls, sending and receiving e-mail, or Web browsing.

Sprint Refuses To Reveal Location Of Cell Phone In Carjacked SUV

Sprint demanded a $25 subpoena fee and application to start service before they would help rescue a kidnapped child. According to Sprint, they already have an emergency protocol in place, but the employee did not follow it. Doh!

I'll bet some Sprint PR folks are spending a little overtime this week! Wow.

FORTUNE: Review of the Treo 700w Smartphone

According to Bill Gates, this will be his next phone. Unfortunately, at the present time it's only available on Verizon (cross off using the phone outside of the US), and VZW's EV-DO data plan runs $60/month in addition to the voice plan. The other downside is cost: $599 without a service contract; $399 with a two-year contract.

Is this the "perfect storm" of convergence? We'll see, but it looks pretty cool so far. I'm sure a GSM version isn't far behind, but at this point I'm so happy with my Blackberry 7105t, it would take a lot to get me to switch.

Google Local for mobile

They've done it now--Google maps available on your mobile, and they work really well on my Blackberry 7105! GLM installs as an app on the Blackberry, supports satellite and map views, and even gives directions...all free. Google rocks!

BlackberryTunes

BlackberryTunes.com: Eases the pain of creating 7100/7105 ringtones

I went ahead and subscribed to this service ($20 a year through Handango) last Friday. The idea is simple: you send them an audio file (MP3 or WAV) that you want converted into a ringtone, and they convert it to the Blackberry ADP format and put it up on their website for you to download from your Blackberry...you can even send them an entire song in MP3 and they'll edit it down to a ringtone.

In RIM's infinite wisdom (or lack thereof), the only way to get a new ringtone on your 710x is to download it from a Web site, and since ADP files require a custom MIME filetype, this precludes using most commercial Web hosters (without jumping through a lot of hoops to get them to add the MIME type to their server). Since I use Yahoo for my hosting, and I really didn't want to go through the pain of getting them to handle the file type, I chose to pay these guys instead.

I sent them a ringtone last Friday evening (an already edited version of U2's Vertigo), and as of this morning (Tuesday), I hadn't heard a word from them. After sending a semi-threatening email, I received the download link from them about 30 minutes later. I'm going to try sending some more over this evening; we'll see if their response time gets any better (I sure hope so). I'll post an update to this entry after I've had some more time with their service.

Update: I've now been using the service for nearly a week, and my requests have been handled very quickly. I've also been able to give my ringtone URL to other people, who have also been able to enjoy my ringtones. Cool service--much easier than trying to do it on your own.

Favorite Blackberry Tips

This is my not-so-comprehensive list of Blackberry Hacks and Shortcuts, gained through experience and trolling through other people’s lists of hacks and shortcuts, plus my personal experience with Blackberry 7230 and 7105 units. These shortcuts and hacks will work for virtually any 7100 series Blackberry, and many will work for other models as well. I will continue to update this posting as I discover new and interesting things.

Keyboard Shortcuts
One of the most useful yet least used Blackberry productivity enhancers are the plethora of keyboard shortcuts. While most of these are actually documented, few people actually take the time to RTFM (myself included). These are my favorites:

Home Screen
From the home screen, the following keys are really useful:

• Lock the phone: press and hold the ‘*’


• Unlock the phone: / double-click the click wheel


• Turn vibrate mode on/off quickly: Press and hold ‘#’


• Move or hide an icon on the screen: Press Alt and click the wheel; select hide or move and click


• (Note: I haven’t figured out how to move icons from one of the sub-menus to the home menu, and vice versa (yet))


• Unhide icons: Alt plus wheel click; select ‘Unhide’


• Return to home screen: press [End Call] button


• Switch applications: press and hold alt key + press escape button


• Note: this is really useful during phone calls or while you wait for a slow web page to load


• Show Blackberry event log: Alt-L Alt-G Alt-L Alt-G (press [Enter] on log entries for more info)


• Change signal strength to number: Alt-B-B-M-L-L (note: larger numbers indicate worse signal; 40 is perfect, 120 is worst, and > 100 you’ll notice signal problems)

Message Screen
While reading messages, the following shortcuts come in really handy:

• Delete multiple messages (two ways):
• To delete all messages prior to a certain date, move the cursor until it's on the date bar (e.g. 'Mon Jan 9, 2006') and select 'Delete Prior' from the menu. This will delete all messages from the selected date and prior.
• To delete multiple messages from the inbox, hold down the alt key and roll the wheel; select the messages you wish to delete and press the [del] key.
  
• Move to top/bottom of screen: 1 / 7


• Page up(screen up)/page down(screen up): [3] / [9]


• Compose new message from inbox: [L]


• Forward a message from inbox: [OP]


• Reply to sender: [QW]


• Reply all: [AS]


• Show phone log: Alt-P (press ESC to return)


• View voice messages: press and hold Alt-[CV]

Calendar

• Go to next day, week, month: [space]


• Previous day, week, month: [#]


• Create new appointment: [.]

Typing

• Switch between SureType and multi-tap input: hold ‘*’ until indicator changes (upper right corner of screen)


• Capitalize a letter: press and hold the key


• NUM lock: # + alt (press alt to turn off)


• Insert a period: press [space] twice

Phone

• Open phone application: press [Send] (green phone)


• Voicemail: press and hold [1] key


• Redial: press [Send] key twice


• Mute: [!] (toggle)


• Speakerphone: [.] (toggle)


• Switch to Bluetooth headset: click wheel and select ‘Enable’ for the device


• Assign speed dial: press and hold number key; follow menus


• Dial speed dial: press and hold assigned number key

Bluetooth Tips

Blackberries that have bluetooth exhibit one very annoying characteristic when used with a wireless headset: when you press the button on the headset, it automatically re-dials the last person you called (not what most people intend, especially when the headset is in a purse or pocket!). The workaround is as follows:

• From the home screen, select Settings...Options...Bluetooth
• Click the wheel and select Options
• Select 'Allow outgoing calls' and change to 'Never' or 'If unlocked' (the latter will allow auto-redial only if the unit is unlocked, which still won't totally prevent the problem). I suggest you select 'Never' to be absolutely sure your BB doesn't make crank phone calls.

Using your PC headset with the Blackberry

I discovered another interesting Bluetooth feature last night: if you pair your Blackberry (well, the 7105 anyway) with your PC (assuming you have a Bluetooth adapter in your PC), you can take advance of the 'Audio Gateway' profile. What this means is that you can establish a connection between your Blackberry and the PC, and when you activate the Audio Gateway profile (usually found under Bluetooth services), the Blackberry will then use the PC as its headset. In my case, since I have a high-quality USB headset on my PC, it means that I can use my PC headset when people call my cell--very useful when working from home or in an instance where I'm going to be on the phone for a long time (PC headsets are generally more comfortable than the standard Bluetooth headset). Not for everyone, but kind of fun nonetheless.

Now if I could just figure out how to get the Blackberry Desktop software to recognize my PC Bluetooth adapter, so I could sync wirelessly.....

BlackberryTunes.com: 7100t ringtones made easy

These guys charge $20 a year and will convert an unlimited number of MP3s to 7100 polyphonic ringtones for you; they then put them up on a Web site for download. Seems well worth the $$$, as doing it yourself is a real pain in the ass.

I went ahead and subscribed; will update this post after I've had a chance to try them out.

How To - Set up Blackberry Bluetooth PC connectivity

A useful tutorial on setting up Bluetooth connectivity with a Blackberry.

Hacking the Blackberry 7105

A few more hacks that I have discovered for the 7100/7105:

• BB event log: press Alt-L Alt-G Alt-L Alt-G ; press enter to get more detail on an event
  
• Take notes during a call: press the click wheel and select 'Notes'--will allow you to jot down notes that become attached to that call in the call log.
• Press Alt-P from the message screen--shows the call log; press Esc to get back to regular messages
  
• Play Zork on the Blackberry: if you know what Zork is, you'll know why you'll want to play it on the BB
• Develop your own BB apps: you can download the BB Java Development Kit for free

How to use the Blackberry 710x as a GPRS Modem

Great work-around that allows you to use a Blackberry as a modem, although it does require a USB connection (no Bluetooth). I tried it, and it works as advertised. The only problem I ran into was that the Blackberry desktop software has to be running and connected to the BB before the modem connection goes through--not a huge deal, but nothing works until it's running. Very cool!

The New Treo 700W, as in Windows

Who woulda thunk it--a Palm device running Windows, and Palm OS going the way of the dodo? It's true--and all of the issues with the Windows Mobile OS have found their way to the Treo, including mucho feature bloat.

I'll stick with my Blackberry--at least for a while longer!