1. Are you planning play for the plan?  No one wants to get a phone without a plan, so unless you or someone else plans to buy the plan, don’t buy the person a phone.  The same is true for upgrading them to a smartphone.  Unless you plan on buying a data plan, it is not worth getting them a smartphone. There is only one exception to this rule: preplanned gifts.  For example, if I were to ask for a smartphone from my parents, the deal is that I would have to buy a data plan for myself.  Also, if you plan to buy them a plan with the phone, anything less than a year is not very worthwhile.
2. How much do you plan to spend?  Nobody wants a free or low end phone for a present, unless they don’t have one to begin with.  If they have phone, a free phone is not an exciting gift.  So, think about the value of the phone before you give it to them (even though monetary value isn’t the real value in a gift).
3. How adept are they with phones?  Getting a smartphone for a technologically illiterate person is a bad idea.  They will probably stare at it for a while, and then ask you how to use it.  Often, they don’t even want one.  So, please don’t give the cavemen smartphones; they will break them.  (To the technologically illiterate people reading this, I meant no harm with that little joke).

After looking over this checklist, a cellphone as a present very well may no longer be a gift idea.  Hopefully, I helped you clarify if it will or won’t be under the tree on the 25th.

• For people who type on their phones a lot: Well, it used to be true that full keyboards were best for this.  They used to provide better feedback than touchscreens, but that is no longer true.  Thanks to the improvements in word completion software and new technology like Swype, typing large amounts on a touchscreen is pretty much equal to a full keyboard, so either wins in this scenario.  If you have large thumbs, a touchscreen is a good idea, because the only phones that have large enough keys have slide out key boards, which tend to result in larger, heavier phones.  Still, many people find comfort in using a full keyboard for longer typing.
• People who don’t type on their phone much: There is no reason not to get a touchscreen in this case.  The technology is good enough that it can easily replace a full keyboard.  Also, touchscreen phones tend to weigh less, because most full keyboards are slide out, and the ones that don’t have uncomfortably small keys.
• The technologically illiterate: Remember the phones that had an old-fashioned number keypad and flipped open?  Well, they still make those… They are actually very handy for people who dislike or rarely use their phone.  Also, they tend to be more rugged than smart phones or regular phones with touchscreens.  That, or you can become technologically literate, which is a good idea in today’s world…

Personally, I am all for touch screens.  My phone, a Samsung Highlight, is a regular phone (non-smartphone) with a large touchscreen and no keyboard, and it preforms very well.  Even with a two year old screen and technology, I rarely have problems.  In my opinion, unless you are averse to touchscreens or are bad with technology, a touchscreen equipped  phone should be your next phone.

Recently, RIM announced they would be releasing a new operating system name BBX.  The new operating system was said to be greatly improved, while retaining many of the popular features from the last OS.  Well, shortly after announcing the name, they were sued by a New Mexico based company.  Albuquerque based Basis International had trademarked the name for a software language, database, and tool-set.

Basis Chief Executive, Nico Spence, told Reuters, “Our patent attorney has sent them a cease and desist letter, invoking the U.S. Trademark Act … requesting a response by October 31.  Failing that, we’ll take the next logical legal step.”

Research in Motion told Reuters, “RIM has not yet received a copy of the legal complaint described in Basis International’s press release, but we do not believe the marks are confusing, particularly since our respective companies are in different lines of business.”

Spence said, “We are fielding numerous customer inquiries voicing their confusion about the RIM announcement.”

This is just another embarrassment as RIM continues to tumble down from its old pedestal.

On top of that, RIM is facing the threat of even more law suits after there were massive BlackBerry service outages.  They outage left users unable to use email, data services, and messenger.  This outage lasted for several days and resulted in mass outrage, including complaints from members of the government who use the devices.  In response, the company promised a wide variety of available apps, but many customers have declared they are not satisfied.  North American law firms are considering cases, because customers lost money in business transactions due to the outage.

Looks like RIM’s days of dominance are long gone; it’s too bad they couldn’t go out gracefully.

I have always felt that we use social networking, namely Facebook, way too much.  I will tell you that I use it too much, but the ad brought it into reality how desperate we are to have that constant connection to Facebook.  This phone has brought social networking to a new level.

The HTC status is an AT&T exclusive smartphone that has a built-in Facebook button.  This button is what allows that constant connection I mentioned.  Anytime you take a photo, you can just press the button, and it will be uploaded.  The button, which is called the “share button,” and has the Facebook logo on it, also allows you to post status updates, check in at a location, post websites and songs, or just access Facebook.  Simply put, it makes a smart phone into a Facebooking device.  And that disgusts me.

I understand that the mobile social networking platform is nothing new.  I’m in high school.  Facebook seems to be the biggest past-time in a modern high school.  Look around during class, and you will see students surfing Facebook on their phones all the time.  But this brings a new level of laziness to Facebook.  It used to take, what, five clicks to post a photo on a phone.  Now it takes one.  Is that really necessary?

Maybe I don’t understand the whole Facebook thing.  It feels like Facebook is the newest and most addictive drug.  As a society, we now constantly need our friend, friends of friends, and people we barely know to see and hear what we are doing constantly.  To quote the webpage for the phone, “Your Facebook friends never felt any closer.”  Well, to me, a friend is a person you interact with in real life. I’ve tried to keep my Facebook heroin intake to a minimum.  But that’s just me.  And I’m kind of scared of what comes next.

First of all, before I begin, I would like to clarify something for those who did not know. The merger is between TMobile USA and AT&T.  TMobile USA is the division of TMobile responsible for the United States. While TMobile USA is on the smaller size (4th largest in the US, after Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint respectively), TMobile is the third largest multi-national cell phone network.

Personally, I am all for the merger. I would be benefited or unaffected by almost all of it. First of all, the area I live in has poor coverage by TMobile.  TMobile has spotty coverage throughout the entire nation, with the best coverage in the Midwest and portions of the east coast.  AT&T has good coverage everywhere, except for the Rocky Mountains and California, north of San Francisco.   This means that TMobile customers would be greatly benefited. Also, this means that I would now be able to use the iPhone, which is currently Verizon and AT&T only.  The only possible downside is increased prices.

From a business standpoint, it seems to make sense as well.  It obviously benefits AT&T, as they become the largest network in the United States with a 43% market share.  TMobile will presumably benefit too.  They will receive the obvious stocks and money in return, but there is another benefit many people didn’t know about.  The company’s contract customers began to leave them for the iPhone, leading them to lose some of their most lucrative contracts.  If the merger happens, the iPhone will now be available to former customers of TMobile (who will become AT&T customers).

Hopefully the merger is approved by the FCC, so that customers of TMobile and AT&T will benefit from this merger.

The International Conference on Distracted Driving defines distracted driving as “Diversion of attention from driving because driver temporarily focusing on non-driving object, task, event, or person which reduces awareness, decision-making, or performance leading to increased risk of crashes, near-crashes, or corrective action.”  In other words, it is any time that a driver removes his/her attention from the action of driving and preforms or pays attention to a separate task, such as using a cell phone.

Now, many people assume they are adept drivers and can text and drive without getting hurt.  For example, 93% of US drivers surveyed (Svenson 1981) claimed to be in the top 50% of drivers. This is due to illusory superiority; the belief that we are better than we actually are.  Thus, people take the risk knowingly, due to the misguided belief that they are excellent drivers, even if they are horrid drivers.

There is a new threat that is caused by the  same problems as texting while driving.  A survey at University of Alabama at Birmingham said 10% of students said they use apps a majority of the time they drive. Another 33% of the 93 students surveyed said they used apps occasionally while driving.  The researcher, Lauren McCartney said, “What really stood out was the number of participants who verbally reported understanding that using mobile Internet while driving was dangerous, but continued to do it.”

This leaves quite a legal pickle.  According to the Governor’s Highway Safety Association, 34 states and DC have made texting while driving illegal, while only 9 states and DC restrict any use of cell phones while driving.  Sadly, the majority of these laws don’t cover apps, because they are texting specific.  Thus, only the states with general laws related to distracted driving can enforce it.

The National Safety Council says that 28% of accidents are due to phone use, so lay off the phone, please.

Comparing your standard RGB stripe to Samsung’s PenTile display technology, HD is going to look about two times better on the Samsung screen.

It sounds great right? It does to me, and it seems perfect for something like the iPad, but experts have reasoned that there is only a small chance that this exact screen will be incorporated into to the next generation iPad. The main reason behind this is that the last two iPads measured 9.7-inches and had resolutions of 1024×768. So, Apple would have to adjust their iPad measurements and start working with a whole different animal.

However, the rumors have continued to spread about this new Amoled screen being Apple’s new big thing. This rumor started to churn because Tim Cook, one of Apple’s directors, went to the Samsung factory to make an agreement about implementing Amoled screens into a new iPad. Hmmm, curious. Samsung does currently have something in their Galaxy Tab line that could be used by Apple right now, but I have a feeling that Apple is planning bigger and better things.

If anything, this new screen shows that it is possible to make something that uses a low amount of power, but still produces an image display that rivals the retina display on the iPhones. The screen itself uses 40 percent less battery energy than the current RGB stripe technology.

And the screens don’t stop there. This week I read about another screen that Samsung is designing. This one is a flexible screen.  Still Amoled based, Samsung has come out with bendable screens that could be used in watches and smartphones.

So, will Apple bring Samsung’s new technology into their new technology? We will have to wait and see.

Back in 2006,  the whole notion of long distance technology truly kicked off with the Hug Shirt – fashionably unfashionable, but still a fun concept. Compared to the red circle design they used to have, it is a lot better now. The Hug Shirt is essentially a Bluetooth accessory for a mobile phone, and you are able to send hugs via text messages if you are running the HugMe™ java software.

Naturally, we couldn’t stop at just hugs. From there, someone developed prototypes of a series of mobile phones that could squeeze your hand, send a peck, or whisper in your ear. The phone used a motor to squeeze your hand, a wet sponge to simulate the kiss, and air to simulate a whisper. I think that these stayed in prototype form.

I also tried to see if PillowTalk pillows were on sale, but those may have stayed in the prototype phase as well. These pillows were designed by Interaction Design student, Joanna Montgomery. By wearing an elastic band around your chest, the pillows allow people to listen to the real-time heartbeat of their distant loved one. The pillow shows when the person has gone to sleep by starting to glow, a rather cute idea, especially if there is a time distance between the two of you.

The Japanese then took it even further – kissing, with tongue. It kind of creeps me out, but hey, I’m sure someone can enjoy it. To use it, you have a box that is attached to a straw-like thing. You kiss the straw, and the box records it. It then transmits the data and replicates your actions on the other side. I’m not sure how I feel about kissing a straw. The next step in the design is to incorporate tastes, moisture, and breathing patterns. That’s great, because I’ve really been wanting to make sure that my boyfriend’s staying true to his vegan lifestyle. (Kidding.)

Before technology, we sent love letters to each other to keep the relationship intact. As you can see, things have clearly changed.

• Does my work require me to carry a phone? This question is a tricky one in today’s society.  Your work may not have literally told you to buy one, but if you need to have constant email and web access, you need a smartphone. At the same time, you may think you need constant contact but actually do not. For example, you may assume that getting emails after work  is important, but if you don’t have to respond to them immediately, you might not actually need one.
• Can I afford to pay for the phone? Most people will believe they can afford the $199.99 iPhone. But – there’s a data plan too. You must pay a minimum of $29.99 more a month in order to get a data plan for your phone. And, of course, you are locked in for two years when you buy the phone and plan.  That’s an extra $719.76 to pay. And if you continue to use the phone, but don’t pay for data, the extra charges are so much that you will be better off paying for the plan. Thus, the cost of having a smartphone adds up rapidly.
• Do you have a clue how to use the phone? Recently, my step-mom got a HTC smartphone. The problem is she doesn’t have much skill with phones. I literally had to show her how to tell if she had missed a call, and if she had any voice mail. If you don’t know how to use the phone, it is presumably not worth buying.

So, consider the questions above, and if you answer yes to numbers one or two, you need a smartphone. If you are borderline and answer yes to the third question, you should get one. With this information in mind, deciding if the smartphone is really necessary becomes much simpler.

The device is a transparent sapphire crystal that is sandwiched between two platinum panels located on the long, thin sides.  It runs on the android system and is providing a glimpse of what comes next in cell phone technology.  All the electronics are located in the platinum, including the SIM card, the battery, and the computer chips.  The ‘device’ developed with phone maker Mobiado, and dubbed the “CPT002.”

The phone can do more than just do the same old, same old though.  It can unlock the owner’s Aston Martin, work with the car’s GPS, and take photos from a dash-mounted camera.  The phone also helps monitor speed in the case of a crash.  This phone has an interesting interface with the car.

Now, this may be the future, but others will disagree.  Personally, I think the future of phone will be a device that can be rolled up like a piece of paper.  This technology already exists, but is far too expensive.  Also, I would like to see phones that interact with technology around them, such as if you are looking at a computer, and you can use you phone to access the same data if you walk away.  Thus, I believe the future may not be much like the phone predicted by Aston Martin.

The best part about the phone isn’t its technology, though, it’s the luxury.  No other phone is made from sapphire and platinum.  That is one of the only phone I would truly call luxury.