I sure wish I had had the SpareOnePLUS after SuperStorm Sandy took out most of the power in my area last fall. Sure, Elana and I had charged up all of the eternal batteries we had on hand and immediately went into “smartphone power conservation mode”, but the SpareOnePLUS Emergency Mobile Phone would have made [...]
FCC Cellular Signal Boosters Certification Specifications Adopted Today
I’ve made no secret of the fact that if it weren’t for the Wilson Electronics AG Pro 75 Celluar Signal Booster, mobile phone service at my house would be pitiful; we would have likely had to incur the (possibly substantial) expense of putting in a landline. I live outside a rural community and in the middle [...]
New HTC One Becomes HTC’s Flagship Android Device
This morning, HTC introduced its latest flagship device, the New HTC One. This is not to be confused with the HTC One that was introduced at Mobile World Congress last year, as this is the New New HTC One. All kidding aside, the New HTC One looks to be an impressive bit of kit. It will have a [...]
MoviePass Android App Available
Movie fans get their own golden reward as the Academy Awards (a.k.a. Oscars) quickly approach. A special service called MoviePass has expanded to Android mobile device users. This theatrical movie subscription service, which began as an iOS app, offers unlimited tickets at nationwide movie theaters (2D shows only) beginning at $30 a month. The MoviePass [...]
Is Nokia Dumping Samsung for Copying Their Technology?
I have been critical or at least suspicious of Samsung for many years for simple reasons: I find that they employ an ‘end justifies the means’ mentality, paired with a ‘fast follower’ technical approach, that allows them to overtake competitors with solid products that too-closely resemble the competition. Micron was the leading memory company in [...]
Utilizing Smartphones in School
When I began teaching, no students and few teachers had cell phones. Most of the classrooms did not even have internet and everything was accomplished with books, pen and paper. Of course, as of late, every student has a phone. In fact, in my current classes, every student but one has either an iPhone or [...]
Smartphone Cameras Change Everything: Winter Storm Nemo vs Blizzard of ’78
This week marked the 35th anniversary of the Blizzard of ’78, and as a result we have seen some of the iconic images from that storm on web sites and social media. I have a few pictures that I’ll share here. The other day it was snowing – pretty snow floating to the ground and [...]
BlackBerry Q10 Hands On
Did I speak too soon when just yesterday, for probably the umpteenth time, I said that BlackBerry was dead? The jury is still out on that one, but perhaps I’ll be issuing an apology in the coming months — and make no mistake about it, that would be one apology that I would be happy [...]
Geeksphone to Ship FirefoxOS on Developer Hardware Next Month
The biggest criticism I have of Android and iOS challenger UbuntuOS is that they made an announcement with no hardware that was even close to shipping. Well, the Mozilla project has gone a step further and announced that they will have not one, but two developer phones to ship next month with the new [...]
Huawei Unveils Smartphone with the World’s Largest Screen
Okay, I’ll be blunt on this one: To me, a device with a screen over 6″ is just not a phone any more, it’s a small tablet. I mean, the iPad mini is what, 7.9″, and that’s definitely a tablet. And besides, how the heck would you fit something this durn big in your pocket? [...]
Canonical Outs New Ubuntu for Phones
The New Year has barely begun, but there’s something BIG going on at Ubuntu’s parent company, Canonical! Today Canonical has announced a version of Ubuntu for Mobile phones. According to Canonical, Ubuntu for Mobile Phones should have this on hardware to demonstrate at CES 2013. Canonical says that the SDK has everything developers need. The interface certainly looks [...]
AT&T LG Optimus G Android Phone Review
I’ve had a love-hate relationship with Android for some time; I’m not sure exactly when it started, but I think that it was around the time that I realized that just because an app was available, it didn’t mean I could necessarily install it on my phone. Lockdowns by carriers and various hardware limitations made Android [...]
Save Money on Talk, Text, and Data in 2012 with Republic Wireless
From now until 2013, we’re going to take a look at some New Year’s Resolutions and a Gear Diary way to help you keep them. First up… New Year Resolution: Spend Less on Cellular in 2013 republic wireless offers one single handset. If you want more choices you need to go somewhere else. republic wireless [...]
Rapidly Advancing Smartphone Technology Makes It Hard to Go Back
Early this year I got the Motorola Droid 4 for Verizon (on release day no less), and I joined the 4G/LTE revolution. At first it was underwhelming since the 4G coverage in our area was ‘spotty’ at best, and non-existent for the most part. But within a couple of months, Verizon had added a new [...]
T-Mobile Nokia Lumia 810 with Windows Phone 8 Review
Welcome to this review of the new Nokia Lumia 810 running Windows Phone 8; now leave. Well, leave and come back after reading Judie’s extensive review of the HTC 8X Windows Phone 8. Why? First off, it is an excellent review. Second, in that review Judie spends a good deal of time talking about Windows [...]

















