The release of the HTC Dream marked the debut of Android technology, with the exception of a T-Mobile model that was previously available only in the US.  While not the most sophisticated smart phone out there, many will find its large, responsive touch screen and quick operating speed on the Android platform to be more than acceptable.  On the front face below the touch screen, are several buttons including a trackball and core keys for easy navigation and calling.  Located on a slide underneath the touch screen you will find a full service QWERTY keyboard with five rows of keys that have a nice feel and are well spaced.  A 3.2MP camera with auto-focus is included on the phone, but a flash is missing which can make a good picture hard to get unless the lighting is just right.  The Dream's display is crisp with a resolution of 320x480, which is great for everyday use and the touch screen is highly responsive to touch and accurate as it should be.

Internet connectivity appears to be one of the HTC Dream phone's strongest attributes, with quick response on internet browsing, downloads and even receiving GPS signals where many other devices lose connection.  While the Wi-Fi connectivity can prove to be handy, it can seriously cut into the battery life if left on constantly, a source of many grumbles across the web.  Chances are you do not need the internet connected at all times though, and in that case, the batteries life can be well extended.  The browser can view most websites in HTML and has Java support, leaving the only websites that cannot be viewed as ones running FLASH.  The HTC Dream has certainly opened the door to Google's Android platform, proving that despite a rather low internal memory Google can create software to run a device much more efficiently and quickly than other developers have figured out.  Depending on your needs in a SmartPhone, HTC Dream may be just the right combination of large touch screen with accurate keyboard and fast internet connection.

The DROID ERIS by HTC is now on sale at Verizon stores for only $99 after rebates and a 24-month contract agreement. The droid equipped with HTC's sense UI, offers future owners the chance to tailor a 7-panel wide home screen. The phone has a wide array of widgets designed for full functionality.

The android has multiple home screens and these screens have different widgets on them depending on what you prefer to include in the home screens. One home screen can be your “work” home screen or it could be your “play” home screen -and that is in just one touch! Is that not exciting?

The unique user interface experience with the Droid Eris is supported by a wide array of the most up-to-date mobile features. That includes a 5.0 megapixel camera with auto focus -no more worrying if you took a good photo. Aside from that powerful camera (on a phone that is), you get a 3.2 inch touch screen along with a trackball interface. It has expandable memory as well and it is armed with an 8BG microSD card and can be expanded up to 16 Gigabytes.

The phone also supports mass storage through USB; it also has Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and a 3.5 mm headset. You will never get lost anywhere with this handset because GPS is integrated in its system along with a digital compass -it has a sensor that lets the Droid Eris know which way is north. See? Even mariners will love this android.

With its smart dialer, you can call anyone in a moment. If you want to surf the net, go right ahead because the Droid Eris has a full HTML browser with seamless compatibility with GMAIL, Google Maps, and other Google services.

For those who want to know how the $100 rebate is going to be processed, Verizon Wireless will mail it to you and it will come as a debit card. You may of course use it at any outlet that accepts debit cards -well that is just about anywhere. Look out for information on the HTC Dream as well.

It has been discovered that the first iPhone worm is rickrolling jailbroken phones, most notably across Australia. IPhone users have been expecting an incident such as this one ever since the hacking of iPhone wallpapers in the Netherlands earlier this month. Jailbroken phones, those, which have been adapted to run unofficial code in order to circumvent Apple's App store, are able to download applications available through other sources. Potentially up to 10 % of iPhones in circulation may be jail broken according to Jay Freeman, the founder of Cydia. Researchers agree that the process of jailbreaking decreases the security of the iPhone, leaving jailbroken phones at increased risk of hacking and worms.

Rickrolling is a phenomenon previously seen in email exchanges and fatuous blog posts, in which the expected content belies a link to the Rick Astley song “Never Gonna Give You Up.” Several well-known incidents of rickrolling have occurred in the past two years: during the Eastern Washington University women's basketball games in March 2008; on several political blogs under posts that alleged racism on the part of First Lady Michelle Obama; and on Facebook and PayPal on the part of security expert Dan Kaminsky in order to point out troublesome vulnerabilities.

The iPhone worm rickrolls involves the wallpaper of the phone changing to a picture of Astley accompanied by the text “ikee is never going to give you up.” Responsibility for the event has been claimed by a hacker known as “ikex,” and cast as a harmless prank that reveals security risks for jailbroken phones. IPhone user in Australia who kept the default SSH password for their phones have been the only ones affected. Numerous experts have detailed how to change the password on their websites. While the first iPhone worm to rickrolls jailbroken phones is not the first security flaw to emerge with the iPhone it may become the most high profile warning for vigilance concerning phone security.

Good news Nokia fans! The Nokia X3 made it. Rather surprising but it passed through FCC's bowels. The Nokia X3 was launched in September this year and not many really expected it to be in the US like many of the company's unique and fun handsets. But hey, it is now here in all its glory. The sleek handset was revealed in Germany together with the Nokia X6 last September. It came with the first wave of Nokia's X Series.

The Nokia X3 (not the SE X3) is not 3G equipped so either T-Mobile or AT&T will be carrying this new handset. Its European specs remain; the slider comes with a 3.2 megapixel cam along with an FM radio with stereo speakers, dedicated music keys, and microSD ports ready for expansion.

For music lovers, it is interesting to note that the Nokia X3 enables its users to continue listening to favorite songs while on a flight -thanks to Nokia's innovative “flight mode” that does not affect any signal or frequencies while onboard a plane. Now that is cool.

The X3's messaging system is well supported. It has an inbox for SMS and MMS in messenger/conversational view while Nokia Xpress Audio Messaging is also supported. It also brings in users' instant messaging and email accounts on the device through Nokia Messaging 2.0.

The Nokia X3 price in Europe is at 115 Euros (when unlocked) so it will probably go in a similar price here as well. At $169 with all these specs, that is a good enough deal.

American fans are now salivating for the phone's release in the US and that is of course not without basis since the phone is amazing in its own right. In fact, many of us are now thinking of throwing our old handsets away and get this Nokia X3. Thank goodness, it passed FCC's process! Amen to that.

Late last week, Verizon Wireless and Samsung announced the new push-to-talk handset from Samsung -the Samsung Convoy.  The very durable phone can withstand shock, vibration, humidity, salt fog, solar radiation, low and high temperature, and altitude. It is also dust resistant which is rather cool for a handset. It is indeed a durable phone because everything under the hood is built to mil-spec. No more worrying about dropping your phone because it the Samsung Convoy can withstand that. Since it is waterproof, no need to worry about rain or spilling water on your phone anymore.

The Convoy is the perfect partner on the road armed with high quality stereo speakers, you will never get lonely while trekking a dirt road. You will not get lost either because the Convoy has GPS. For those who are fond of sending photos, videos, or music, the convoy is equipped with Bluetooth 2.1. If taking photos through your handset is ideal for you, fret no more because Samsung's Convoy has a 2-megapixel camera as well.

This rather rugged phone has an extended battery life. People who love to literally go the distance will love this cell phone as well. Apart from its durability, one of the best features of the Convoy is its affordable price. It will be out on November 15 for only $50.

With a very durable phone at such a low price, Samsung fans are now starting to think of changing their phones and getting that Convoy. Who would not want a Convoy anyway -it is durable, looks rather rugged but completely sturdy, and has the basics of a good functioning phone.

For more information about agreements and other details about the Convoy, you can go and visit Verizon Wireless or just wait for updates here. The lot of us is looking forward to its release as well.

Nokia has added a low-end selection of Nokia handsets -the Nokia 1616, 1818, Nokia 2220 slide and the 2690. The four new handsets have basic features with really low price tags.

Let us get to know them better shall we? The Nokia 2690 has a VGA camera along with an FM radio/built-in stereo and a 3.5mm audio jack. It also has microUSB support and Bluetooth. It is global roaming capable with its quad band and the internal memory can support up to 8GB.

With it being quite cheap, it does not mean, the thrifty buyer will have a black and white phone. In fact, the Nokia 2690 includes a 1.8 inch 262K colors LCD display. The resolution is 128 x 160 pixels.

The estimated price is 54 Euros that is before taxes -that is still quite cheap with the functionality and capability the phone has. It will be available in white silver, graphite, blue and hot pink. It will be out in Europe in the first quarter of 2010.

The Nokia 2220 slide that is capable of showing 65K colors with a resolution the same as that of 2690. It comes with an FM radio a VGA camera and an EDGE support. The 2220 slide will have six sexy color options: turquoise, graphite, warm silver, purple, hot pink and blue. This phone will cost about 45 Euros and will come out before the end of '09.

Ultra low-end Nokia 1616 and 1800 come with an LCD display of 65K colors and a resolution of 128 x 160 pixels. The two handsets also has LED flashlights and owners can change color covers anytime. The 1616 has a standard 3.5 audio jack while the 1800 has a headset included for its FM radio.

The 1800 will be out in 2010 at 26 Euros while the 1616 will be out in the earlier part of next year at an affordable 24 Euro rate.

Gas is not the only one with the right to a price hike, just recently, cell phone usage might experience a price hike as well -at least to Verizon customers.

Raising early termination fees for advanced devices seems like being held hostage. A year ago Verizon and other cell phone service providers were pushed by the FCC and a number of consumers to lessen their Early Termination Fee (EFT). It gained a lot of attention when Verizon Wireless paid $21 million to settle a California lawsuit.

Before that, most of the major carriers, including Verizon of course, stonewalled the issue but by October, AT&T started relaxing its EFT rules. Due to the incident, the FCC focused on the EFT thing with Chairperson Kevin Martin favoring a nationwide resolution with regards to termination fees. Verizon seconded Martin's suggestion of prorating of fees and cell phone users thought the EFT problem has already been buried.

Just yesterday, news came out that Verizon is doing a price hike on termination fees. Verizon customers are now saying that Verizon used to be a great service provider. Now the average American says, it is nothing but a big rip off. Some people used to have two accounts and 5 phones or more with the service provider but because of their fees here and there, the giant is now losing customers left and right.

Enter the early termination fee and this will escalate to lawsuits (yet again). We are still in a recession and even if they say that the economy is getting better, it is still difficult to make enough money. Now, who can afford high fees on top of other fees “incurred” during your contract with any of these big companies and if you want to terminate your contract because you cannot make ends meet -they will charge you with higher fees (again).

The next incarnation of LG’s Chocolate series began in 2006, the LG Chocolate Touch, is slated for release during the 4th quarter of 2009 and promises to be a worthy successor in the line-up.  As implied by the name, the LG Chocolate Touch will be the first touchscreen model in the series.  The soft-touch coating on the back cover of the device is a nice feature, making the phone easy to hold onto.  The 3 inch vibrant touchscreen doesn’t have much flex and responds quickly and accurately to touch commands.  A proximity sensor turns off the display’s touch functions when the phone is being held up for a call and a light sensor automatically adjusts the display’s backlight level according to room lighting.  In typical fashion for a touchscreen device, the only physical keys located on the front face and below the screen are a Talk, Back (which doubles as Voice Command), and End/Power button. On the sides of the phone are also a few other dedicated buttons, including a display lock, speakerphone, music, and camera button.  The phone includes a 3.2MP camera for basic picture-taking needs.

Building on it’s “Chocolate” legacy, the LG Chocolate Touch really outshines the touchscreen competition when it comes to its media player capabilities.  Similar to a music only dedicated device, music downloaded onto the phone is categorized by All Songs, Genres, Artists, Albums, and Playlists.  The album cover shows when a song is playing with all the media player commands you will need to change volume level, back up or move forward in the song, or skip it altogether.  The ability to manually adjust equalizer settings on the media player is a feature welcomed by serious music lovers everywhere.  It is easy to take for granted that a standard 3.5mm headphone jack is included, but somehow it is often overlooked by developers, making it’s inclusion a huge plus.  The LG Chocolate Touch builds nicely upon the strengths of its predecessors, while incorporating new features that keep it in line with the best of today’s technology.

It's official today.  The Apple iPhone has been finally unlocked.  A few months after Apple updated the iPhone to version 3.1 Engadget finally announces that unlock is available.

This means that PureMobile will have unlocked iPhones again soon.  This means that you are no longer tied to a specific carrier.  If you want to change your GSM carrier you can and now bring your iPhone 3Gs with you with you.

Samsung is preparing the release of a new touchscreen phone with Wi-Fi called the Samsung S5560.  It appears to be a pretty solid contender on the mid-level cell phone market.  Equipped with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and a Browser with Java support, it should make an excellent choice for everyday business use.  The battery gets up to an impressive 9.5 hours of talk time, a huge plus for the busy professional.  Boasting a 3 inch touchscreen with 240x 400 pixel resolution it will make using internet functions a breeze whether reading and responding to emails or general browsing.  Minimal outside controls means that most navigation will be through touchscreen commands only.  Like previous Samsung models the Samsung S5560 will utilize their TouchWiz user interface.  An  accelerometer sensor allows you to view images in portrait or landscape view switching automatically when you tilt the phone to the side.

The Samsung S5560 would already stand out as a solid cell phone model, but including a 5MP camera with LED Flash and autofocus makes it stand out from the crowd.  The camera also features smile and blink detection as well as image stabilization, pretty much guaranteeing that you will get some pretty good shots.  The 78MB of internal data storage won’t take you far with music and video files as well as some of the pretty hefty picture files, but that is easily remedied with an additional microSD card which is supported up to 16MB.  The media player should fit most needs playing MP3/WAV/eAAC+ audio files and H.263/H.264/MP4 video files.  The addition of Stereo FM radio with RDS will nicely round out anyone’s music collection and the inclusion of a standard 3.5mm audio jack is a nice touch that allows the user to listen to music anywhere with their favorite standard headphones.  The Samsung S5560 is a smart balance of business and entertainment functions that will serve its owner well.