For the second time in a week there are rumblings about a RadioShack-branded wireless carrier. The latest rumor pins a launch date on September 5th for their new no-contract cellular service.

It’s being called the “RadioShack No Contract Wireless” (or the “RadioShack No Contract Wireless powered by Cricket") and will be operated on the Cricket Wireless network. Details are few at this point, but the latest leak reveals a few of the devices that will be available.

The selection could include the HTC One V, Huawei Mercury and an unnamed 4.3-inch handset from Alcatel. Many of the devices on RadioShack’s network will feature Muve Music which offers unlimited song downloads, ringback tones and ringtones. All of the Muve Music phones will be equipped with an 8GB microSD card.

There are no hints as of yet about pricing for the devices or the service. At the rate the rumors are coming, there should be a few more circulating before September 5th.

The most common and popular Android Smartphones include the Samsung Galaxy S3, the HTC One X,  the HTC One S and the Motorola Droid Razr Maxx  by Verizon Wireless. Here's some interesting facts about the Android Smartphones is that the total number of Android Smartphones worldwide is  268,000,000 and more than 800,000 Android Smartphones are activated each day. More than 35 percent of the Smartphone markets in the United States are Android Smartphone users, more than 15000 Android Applications are released each month, more than 62 percent of those Android Applications are free and more than 15 percent of all Android Applications are games. Here are ten of the most popular Android Applications for the Android Smartphones:

1)     Google Music lets a user upload 20,000 songs from a PC or Mac to the cloud; the Android application instantly syncs those tunes and playlists, so there’s no longer any worry about plugging a mobile device into the desktop to download their music. Google Music is nicely integrated with the Android Market and features popular songs free and other titles for $.49.

2)     One of the most unsettling features about Android Applications is their uncanny ability to often reach the market without any testing for malicious software. However, WEBROOT SECURITY AND ANTIVIRUS will take care of all of your malicious software worries and concerns. This application for Android users such as Sony Xperia Play, Samsung Galaxy Nexus, etc.. free version automatically scans a phone for viruses and blocks malicious Web sites and SMS messages and also includes a device locater feature, which is activated from the company’s Web site.

3)     SWIFTKEY X which can be purchased for $3.00 is perfect if your thumbs don’t fly on a touch-screen keypad, and newfangled typing options like Swype do not work This Android Application also features offers corrections and predictions as you type, and it can scan your Gmail, Facebook, Twitter and SMS accounts to refine its predictions.

4)     ANY.DO is a free Android Application that is an Internet component reminder service that features an auto-fill feature to save keystrokes, and tasks can be rescheduled by dragging entries from one day to the next. Reminders come reliably on schedule, and when a task is complete, the entry can be crossed out with a swipe of the finger.

5)     8TRACKS is a free Applications that allows Android users such as Sony, HTC, Samung, etc.. to listen to other people’s music. With 8TRACKS strangers are your new Disc Jockeys with the simple name of an artist or genre, and it delivers related playlists from other listeners.  It's like having a virtual audience of listeners before you, ready to indulge your musical tastes.

6)     PAPER CAMERA allows users to see the world through a novel, original, stylish and captivating lens with real time cartoon and painting effects displayed on your camera feed. Paper Camera allows you to access the ultimate collection of cartoon/sketch/comic book/half tone/noir/neon and many other effects painted directly on your camera.

7)     TEXTONLY — BROWSER allows smartphone users to intends to help you reduce your data usage by up to 90% through the displaying of readable content only, doing away with ads,scripts and images without taking away from your Smartphone texting limits. Most sites with good RSS feeds will be supported, and over 95% of websites are compatible with the TextOnly Browser.

8)     BEWEATHER delivers quick, essential weather related information with a flick of the thumb. BEWEATHER forecast data is from Weather Underground, a service that has built a loyal following and a good reputation for reliability.

9)     GOOGLE CURRENTS delivers beautiful magazine-like editions to your tablet and smartphone for high speed and offline reading. Every Edition they include is free and features Publisher Editions such as Forbes, The Guardian, TechCrunch, PBS, Saveur, Popular Science, ABC, 500px, Fast Company, Scientific American, CBS, The Atlantic, your favorite blogs and feeds and Google trending editions.

10)  SPEAKTOIT ASSISTANT is the next best thing for Android Smartphone users next to Siri, the personal assistant for iPhone 4S owners. However, while it doesn't have the same capabilities are Siri it does include, it opens a Google search with a few key words from your request, which is often faster than typing. Maybe it should have closer comparison to Dragon Naturally Speaking Software. 

The first time you picked up that Galaxy S III at the store, you fell in love with it. It had such a sleek, smooth feel, and so thin… Your service provider had it in that gorgeous pebble blue color. Sold!

Then the clerk recommended hiding its beauty with a case or skin and a screen protector. Really?

Sorry to say, you have to consider it. Here are a few reasons:

Drops. Your phone will fall out of your pocket or slip out of your hand at some point. Given that you are probably hanging out on the concrete more than at home on the carpet, you know even the strongest case is going to get damaged. (And if that dent is in a spot where you hold the phone, you’ll get irritated again every time you make a call.) Besides, a cracked screen would really ruin your day.

Germs. You’ve heard the horror stories. Most devices carry more germs than a toilet seat. That’s not just an ugly rumor. Study after study proves it. If you’re bothered by that, clean your phone regularly. If you’re the kind of person who likes that Spring cleaning feeling, wrap your phone in a skin and change it out if it really gets gooey or stained. A screen protector is even easier to swap out, so you can do those even more frequently.

Look. A white Case is a beauty, but sometimes you need to show some personality. You want to show a little red once in a while, but not all the time. That red skin will look really good over that marble white case during the holiday season.

Price. Even on contract, that S III set you back $200. Replacing it would hit you for at least $500. For that kind of money, you could buy a skin for every day of the month.

Cases are designed to be smooth. That makes them slippery. That makes them more likely to be dropped. Hmmmm. Maybe that’s another reason that manufacturers make them that way…

How much would you pay for a Windows tablet that you could actually call your PC?

Lenovo has just taken the tablet limelight away from Microsoft’s Windows Surface with their announcement of a Windows 8 tablet with an Intel mobile chip. That feature alone makes their new tablet a full-on Windows PC with a very small footprint. Lenovo named their new device the “ThinkPad Tablet 2.”

The Tablet 2 has a 10.1-inch screen that is 0.39 of an inch thick. The device is shockingly light at just 1.3 pounds. The Tablet 2 has mini HDMI and USB 2.0 ports, a microSD card slot and stereo speakers. Options include 3G/4G connectivity, an NFC (near-field communication) chip, a fingerprint reader and a keyboard dock.

This tablet’s most amazing feature is the Intel Clover Trail processor. Clover Trail is an Intel Atom system-on-a-chip (SoC) processor that is powerful, efficient and portable. It also doesn’t require cooling fans. This is not a Windows RT device, but a full-feature Windows PC that runs Windows 8 Pro, Microsoft Office, and all Windows 7 apps.

The unanswered question is price. Lenovo hasn’t given any hint at what they will charge for a full-featured Windows 8 tablet. It looks like we’ll need to get closer to its late October release when both Windows 8 and the Tablet 2 will hit the market in time for the holidays.

In the past few months a United States Civil Rights Advocacy Group has launched a free down-loadable application for your Android Smartphone, your Apple iPhone 4S or any other Smartphone you may own to  own that allows you to secretly record police activity discreetly. The Civil Rights Advocacy Group is claiming that it will allow United States Citizens to “help boost police force accountability.” The New Jersey Branch of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) states that "Police Tape," that is now available to the public, "allows people to securely and discreetly record and store interactions with police."

The ACLU is also claiming that the “"an essential tool for police accountability.”

"Too often, incidents of serious misconduct go unreported because citizens don't feel that they will be believed,” said the office's executive director Deborah Jacobs.

The Smartphone application also allows users to send the file to the ACLU for safe-keeping and analysis and even contains legal advice on the rights of citizens confronted, detained or arrested by police officers. Unlike most traditional Smartphone recording applications, the Police Tape application will disappear from your Smartphone screen minimizing the risk that the police officers will even know or have known they've been recorded.

A 46 year old Jackson, Mississippi woman got stuck in a sewer on June 21, 2012 while attempting to get a smartphone back that she had accidentally dropped into the sewer. The woman fell in the sewer at the corner of Watson and Piney Woods Streets, just off of Martin Luther King Drive. Lori McElroy of 1312 Piney Woods Street was talking on a cell phone, when she accidentally dropped her iPhone 4S into a sewer. She was accidentally stuck in the sewer drainage system as she attempted to get the cell phone she dropped down the drainage system.

The fire department was called and had to use the Jaws of Life to get her out. The woman was rather embarrassed but thankfully unhurt and unharmed. "I was on the phone talking with somebody and then I dropped the Apple iPhone 4S in the sewer" said McElroy."There wasn't any water in it, so I figured I could go down there and get it. Then I got stuck and couldn't get out."

She continues on by saying, “"And then they had to call the fire department and the ambulance. I feel wonderful that I am out, but it was a stupid mistake. It's better to just go buy another phone instead of having to go through that." She said that a "phone isn't worth it" and if this happens to you, "just go buy a new one."

Video Link: http://www.wmctv.com/story/18837752/woman-gets-stuck-in-sewer

The growing popularity of mobile media through PC Tablets, Android Smartphones and even Apple's iPhones is allowing new methodology and movements is changing on how consumers are engaging and interacting with the media. Gone are the days of the Sunday morning newspaper being read at the breakfast table with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and the business section in the other, gone are the days of the family gathering around the television to watch the five o'clock news while mom prepares dinner in the nearby kitchen. Today the media is mobile and so are the individuals accessing that media on a weekly, daily or even hourly basis. Media consumers can simply stay connected by clicking on MSNBC.com or CNN.com while we sit in a drive thru waiting for our morning Starbucks coffee; we're literally connected with the media at our very fingertips. With the our fingertip connection many publishers, media companies and application developers are eager to know whether they should optimize their content for particular devices, advertisers want to understand how these devices might eventually fit into their overall marketing plans and even online newspaper carriers such as the USA Today or even the Wall Street Journal want to evolve their business models in a multi-connection world. No one in the mobile media universe wants to be left behind in this ever changing digital expansion.

Overnight we have literally become a world “addicted to their Smartphones, iPhones and PC Tablets.” Whereas most common usage of those particular devices tends to include socializing, downloading music, gaming, and surfing the event, researchers have slowly and steadily began to see changes even in the ways consumers shop for their groceries. According to IGD Research Corporation, 1 in 10 online shoppers are using Smartphones to shop usually comparing prices, bargains and brands and more than 15% of customer checkouts during the first half of the year came via their Smartphone applications. More than 66% of surveyors indicated claimed that more than 75% of Smartphone users such as HTC One S, BlackBerry Bold 9900, etc used their Smartphones for personal reasons and 69% of users used it for business purposes. In the United States consumers prefer to mobile browsers for banking, travel, shopping, local info, news, video, sports and blogs and prefer applications for games, social media, maps and music.

Smartphone usage is now a part of our daily lives whether at home or on the go and businesses without a Smartphone presence may find themselves competitively disadvantaged. Some mobile media and businesses changes to watch and take note of include 74.1% of mobile subscribers used text messaging on their mobile device, while 50.2% used downloaded applications. Smartphone and other mobile users cannot necessarily be defined by age, gender, income or race; instead they can be defined by their members' shared behaviors. It's up to businesses and mobile media to understand the common behavior traits that unite the class makes members easy to recognize and underscores the influence and utilize how their consumers are communicating, consuming media and deciphering consumer shopping and spending habits. Because the mobile media trend including Smartphones, iPhones and Tablets isn't going anywhere anytime soon but those that don't adapt will collapse as the mobile world around them continually presses forward.

Apple and Samsung are getting even pettier with their patent war, and the judge is getting fed up with it.

Judge Lucy Koh took advantage of a day off from listening to the two in court to issue rulings that re-define the boundaries around Samsung’s arguments that they didn’t infringe on Apple’s iPad design or that Apple didn't have the rights to the design in the first place.

Samsung appears to have crossed the line with their argument that Apple lifted it from the movie “2001: A Space Odyssey.” In a scene from the 1968 film, astronauts are eating and using personal tablet computers. Samsung argues that Apple got the idea for the iPad from that scene.

According to Samsung, the tablet in the movie “has an overall rectangular shape with a dominant display screen, narrow borders, a predominately flat front surface, a flat back surface (which is evident because the tablets are lying flat on the table’s surface), and a thin form factor.” That describes an iPad alright.

Samsung responded to Judge Koh’s statements with a press release that said, “Samsung was not allowed to tell the jury the full story and show the pre-iPhone design for that and other phones that were in development at Samsung in 2006, before the iPhone. The excluded evidence would have established beyond doubt that Samsung did not copy the iPhone design”.

Apple and Samsung are back in court today. We’ll see whether they’re paying any attention to Judge Lucy, and are ready to get back to the point.

Smartphones have finally taken over the United States with more than one third of American adults -- 35% -- own smartphones. According to The Pew Internet Project's survey found that 83% of U.S. adults have a cell phone of some kind, and that 42% of them own a smartphone, translating to more then 35% of Americans who own a Smartphone. Individuals who own a Smartphone fall into one of two categories include:

• One-third of cell owners (33%) say that their phone is a smartphone.
• Two-in-five cell owners (39%) say that their phone operates on a smartphone platform (these include iPhones and Blackberry, as well as phones running the Android, Windows or Palm operating systems).

American's now officially count for more than 100 million users Smartphone users in the United States. Android and Apple iOS continued to grow between November 2011 and January 2012, gaining 2.3% and 1.4% respectively. Google’s mobile platform topped the charts with a total market share of 48.6%, while Apple managed to capture a 29.5% share.

Smartphones are the main source of main source of Internet access for one-quarter of the smartphone population including 87% of smartphone owners access the Internet or email on their hand-held, including two-thirds (68%) who do so on a typical day. Most smartphone users such as Samsung Galaxy S3, BlackBerry Bold, etc typically use their smartphone rather than a traditional computer to access the Internet. Smartphone owners under the age of 30, non-white smartphone users and smartphone owners with relatively low income and education levels are particularly likely to say that they mostly go online using their phones. The Android OS Platform is the most common smartphone platform, followed by iPhone and Blackberry devices. Most Smartphones are operating on an Android Platform are especially common among young adults and African-Americans, while iPhone 4S and Blackberry devices are most prevalent among college graduates and the financially well-off.

Overall, in the Smartphone Market Samsung continues to tighten its grip on the featured phone and smartphone market. Nokia was still the global leader followed by Samsung and then Apple, which showed the highest percentage growth.

1)      The World's Most Expensive Mobile Phone is a the iPhone 4S "Diamond Rose" edition boasts a price tag of £5 million, which currently translates to $8,184,968.42. The lucky purchaser or recipient of this astounding and very glittery cell phone will receive 00 individual flawless diamonds totaling over 100 carats, a rose gold Apple logo with 53 diamonds, and a single cut 7.4-carat pink diamond on the home button. Sigh.......I guess I'd better start saving my money now.

2)      The first mobile phone call was in 1973 on a warm, sunny afternoon by Motorola General Manager Martin Cooper took to the streets of New York with a prototype mobile phone. The first phone call he made to was s Dr Joel S Engel of Bell Labs phone company. When Dr. Engel heard who was head of research at Bell Labs answered the phone call he was greeted by Martin Cooper's voice was delighted to be able to inform him that Motorola had officially created the first mobile phone. His exact words were, “Joel, this is Marty. I'm calling you from a cellphone, a real, hand-held, portable cellphone.”

3)      The first cell phone launched in 1984 at a whooping cost of more than $3,995 -- which is about $9,000 today, accounting for inflation. However, a hand-held cell phone was a definite status symbol for all of those 1980s yuppie types because the DynaTAC appeared in Gordon Gekko's hands in Wall Street, and later, Patrick Bateman used one in American Psycho. It was also made famous by Zach Morris in the 1990s high school television series Saved by the Bell.

4)      The first cell phone to be actually classified as a “Smartphone” debuted in 1993 at Florida's Wireless World Conference weighing a little more than a pound and featuring a  PDA type look with an early LCD touchscreen display. The original press release stated, “Designed by IBM, Simon looks and acts like a cellular phone but offers much more than voice communications. In fact, users can employ Simon as a wireless machine, a pager, an electronic mail device, a calendar, an appointment scheduler, an address book, a calculator and a pen-based sketchpad all for the cool price of $899.” Oh and by the way only 2000 of these “Smartphones” were ever produced.

5)      Germany's Friedhelm Hillebrand is credited with creating today's most popular Smartphone and cell phone feature i.e. the ability to text message or also known as the SMS texting system. Hillebrand created  the concept of a 128-byte text message to be sent via the existing mobile phone network. In 1985 Hillebrand experimented with making notes on his typewriter to come up with the ideal message length: 160 characters.

6)      With more than two-million mobile phone towers and antennas in the U.S, cell phone towers and antennas are often disguised as signs, clock faces, drainpipes, telephone poles, church and cathedral roofs and even weather vanes especially in our more urban areas. One of the most popular ways of disguising cell phone towers is in plastic trees. They're so popular websites like FraudFrond.com “pays homage to the fake trees that disguise our cell phone towers." World renowned photographer Robert Voit  featured an entire exhibit dedicated to photographs of the fake cell phone tower phenomenon.

7)      Experts has recently identified telephonophobia, nomophobia, frigensophobia and ringxiety as conditions that can affect the mobile phone users of our generation. Telephonobia is the fear of making or recieving phone calls, while  nomophobia means no-mobile-phone phobia and is the is the fear of being out of contact either by your phone being lost by either dead battery or no cell phone service. Ringanxiety is  when you hear (or feel) your mobile ringing when it's not (talk about cell phone obbession) and Frigensophobia is the fear that using your mobile is damaging your brain.

8)      In 1986 Scott Jones an promising and upcoming a26-year-old research scientist at MIT, invented the modern cellular voicemail system over a pizza or at least while attempting to order a pizza. His business venture Boston Technology won bids to create the voicemail systems for the mobile industry's big names. Talk about getting a lucky break with such a useful idea.

9)      The world's most popular phone is the Nokia 1100, a basic GSM candybar launched in 2003 and became the world's best selling mobile device ever with more than 250 million 1100s have been sold worldwide.

10)  Mobile device users are seeing an increase in QWERTY keyboards that offer more intelligent software means that use textonym faux pas are now being replaced by auto-correct faux pas, but not before they made the crossover from mobile to real life.