LetsTalk.com Blog

Android 2.2 coming to Sprint EVO 4G next week: Go Froyo!

blog@letstalk.com (Joni Blecher) — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 10:07:27 PDT

The HTC EVO 4G has been out for just a couple of months and already it will be receiving an over-the-air update to Android 2.2 (codename Froyo) according to this PC World article. We checked in with Sprint's community board to get more details. According to the site, the roll out will start going to phones on August 1st in waves. Sprint customers should start receiving alerts on August 2nd with instructions on how to download the app over-the-air directly to the HTC EVO 4G.

The updated OS is expected to include the ability to voice dial over Bluetooth, the ability to store apps on a microSD card, an improved web browser experience with a faster JavaScript Engine and support for Flash 10x, and more. Before installing the update you may want to backup your data, although the update shouldn't affect existing data; it's also just a good idea to have a backup of all the stuff on your cell phone. Also, you'll likely want to install the update over the WiFi network and keep the HTC EVO 4G plugged in during the process.

We're looking forward to the update and will have more on how it enhances the EVO 4G once we receive and install it on our test phone.

Eco-friendly Samsung Intensity II comes to Verizon

blog@letstalk.com (Joni Blecher) — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 10:07:58 PDT

Verizon's latest messaging phone, the Samsung Intensity II is a lot like its predecessor, the Samsung Itensity. It has both a numeric keypad and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, music player, and a 1.3-megapixel camera with night vision. The big differences here are that it comes in different colors (deep gray and metallic blue) and the Intensity II is a bit more eco-friendly. The cell phone's exterior battery cover is made from 35 percent post-consumer materials such as recycled plastic and the box is 60 percent recycled paper. As for phone features, the Samsung Intensity II has a high-efficiency charger that sounds when the battery is fully charged so it doesn't need to stay plugged in longer than necessary. There's also an eco-calculator for tracking car fuel mileage and more.

CardStar adds FourSquare and more to its loyalty program management app

blog@letstalk.com (Joni Blecher) — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 08:07:38 PDT

If you're someone who has a wallet full of loyalty cards or stored in a drawer somewhere CardStar is a mobile app worth checking out. In short, the app in its current form lets you store all your loyalty card information in one place (currently available for the iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry smartphones). In addition to having the information in one spot, it can also locate nearby stores and you can even use it in the store to redeem loyalty points or discounts when purchasing items. Sounds pretty good already, doesn't it?

The newest version of CardStar adds quite a few new features in its latest software release. According to CardStar CTO Danny Espinoza the latest update is "bringing location into old style loyalty programs." The company is doing this by integrating FourSquare into the app and consumers who use FourSquare a lot will be eligible for unique promotions. For example, every time you go to CVS and use the app's FourSquare feature you become eligible for additional promotional opportunities. Instead of just becoming the Mayor of your local CVS store, you may even get more perks for your CVS loyalty card. Additionally, you can choose to save that particular CVS as a Favorite Place and each time you're in that store it will open the app for you.

The company has also added another feature called CardStar Connect that lets you create an anonymous user ID so when you get a new smartphone (iPhone, Android, or BlackBerry) you can download the app enter your user ID and the app will get all of your loyalty information so that you don't need to re-enter it on each new cell phone you use.

The newest update will initially be available for iPhone users (and will work with phones running iPhone OS 3 and later - so you can even it use it on an iPod Touch) this week at the app store. While versions for Android and BlackBerry cell phones will be coming soon. To learn more about getting CardStar (by the way, the app is free) visit MyCardStar.com.

How does AT&T's latest Android phone, the Samsung Captivate, stack up?

blog@letstalk.com (Joni Blecher) — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 11:07:14 PDT

AT&T just came out with its latest Google Android smartphone, the Samsung Captivate. This cell phone is part of Samsung's Galaxy S line and as such is loaded with high-end features including a speedy 1GHz processor, 720p HD video recorder, the Android 2.1 OS, and even 3D motion-gaming. All of this in a slim package. To get a better look at the Samsung Captivate watch the video below by LetsTalk's Pat Connor.

Is the latest LG prepaid phone from AT&T the right phone for you?

blog@letstalk.com (Joni Blecher) — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 10:07:59 PDT

The LG Prime is a touchscreen cell phone for AT&T that works with a prepaid plan. This cell phone has a touchscreen and a fairly thin form factor giving it a sleek style. To see what else the LG Prime has to offer, watch the video overview below by LetsTalk's Pat Connor.

Does the Samsung Haven get your seal of approval?

blog@letstalk.com (Joni Blecher) — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 11:07:44 PDT

The latest flip phone available for Verizon is the Samsung Haven. Now, it may be slim on features (it lacks a camera and music player), but it does get the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. At a time when cell phones offer so much functionality, there are still phones available that focus on making calls. There's even a dedicated ICE (In Case of Emergency) button on the keypad that can be programmed to any number. It also comes with Well-Being and Health Tools. There's a reminder alarm with up to five alarms, a fitness trainer that offers 15 unique stretching techniques, four different healing music selections to help relieve stress, and a medical information application that lets users make medical notes and stores info about allergies and current medications.

Is the LG dLite the perfect starter phone for tweens?

blog@letstalk.com (Joni Blecher) — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 10:07:36 PDT

It seems like kids are getting phones at a much younger age these days. So many have phones by the time they enter middle school. But these phones don't have to be high-end models loaded with features. After all, kids are known to lose things on occasion - even cell phones. If you're looking for the perfect back to school cell phone for your tween, consider the latest LG model for T-Mobile, the dLite. This simple flip phone is fairly compact and comes with its fair share of features including 3G connectivity, a 2-megapixel camera and a hidden LED matrix on the outside of the phone that displays the time and caller ID information. It also has T-Mobile Social Buzz so keeping updated on all the social networking sites like FaceBook and MySpace couldn't be easier. Better yet, this phone won't break the bank and comes in two fun colors bubblegum (shown below) and electric blue.

Your phone videos could appear in Tiesto's next video

blog@letstalk.com (Joni Blecher) — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 10:07:54 PDT

SanDisk has teamed up with the widely popular DJ, Tiësto, to give budding cell phone videographers a chance to have snippets of video captured on their cell phone appear in a Tiësto video. So how does it work? Simply, attend any of the Tiësto shows listed below and use your cell phone to shoot video of the event. Then, upload the video to www.wakeupyourphone.com/tiesto. At a later date Tiësto will select his favorite fan-generated clips for use in the track’s official music video.

You'll need to purchase a specially marked SanDisk microSD card (any size is just fine) case that highlights Tiësto that will be available wherever SanDisk products are sold. On the packaging there will be a code that can that can be entered on wakeupyourphone.com/tiesto that will allow you to download exclusive tracks on his “What’s Next” virtual mix CD. If you're planning on seeing one of the shows, why not try your hand at capturing video? Remember video can potentially take up a lot of space on a microSD card depending on the recording format, so it's probably best to store it to a microSD card anyway. Here are the dates of Tiësto's shows:

July 30 London Victoria Park
July 31 Berlin Dream (Tempelhof Fluhagen)
Aug 21 Moscow Open Air Venue
Sep 3 Frankfurt Cocoon
Sep 17 Stockholm Annext
Sep 21 London Scala Club
Sep 23 Paris Queen Club
Oct 1 Abu Dhabi Yas Island
Oct 30 Los Angeles LA Convention Center

SugarSync lets you free up space on your BlackBerry and still take your music with you

blog@letstalk.com (Joni Blecher) — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 11:07:43 PDT

I bet you've heard of the "cloud," but might not know how it affects you. The cloud is not necessarily new, but it's getting more and more popular. So how does it work? Think of it as a place to store all your data (music, photo, documents, etc) and being able to get to it from just about anywhere whether you have your computer with you or not. Thinking about it that way, wouldn't it be nice to be able to access your music or photos on your cell phone without having to take up a lot of your phone's precious storage space?

If that sounds good to you, then check out SugarSync. The company announced SugarSync for the BlackBerry and essentially what it does is let you store songs and even playlists to the SugarSync cloud and then stream that music to your BlackBerry. When you want to hear a song, just stream it from your cloud storage and listen to it on your BlackBerry. Of course, this applies to DRM-free music files. So if it's music you bought a while ago at an online store it might not work for you. The app is free to download from the BlackBerry App World and you get 2GBs of space to store music. You can store at least 50 or so songs on that much space. If you have a more robust music library then sign up for the 30GB a month plan that costs $4.99 a month.

So what's the catch? Well data is the catch meaning you'll need an unlimited data plan. However, if your BlackBerry supports WiFi and you're near a WiFi connection you can also stream music that way as well.

Nextel users get their first Android phone, the Motorola i1

blog@letstalk.com (Joni Blecher) — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 11:07:39 PDT

At CTIA, the Motorola i1 was unveiled at an event with Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs. It's a phone designed to take hard knocks, but to also offer the Google Android OS. The cell phone is finally coming to Nextel on July 25th. It will run the Android 1.5 OS and will be loaded with apps for the workforce such as Xora, a mobile workforce management solution that offers businesses with real-time visibility into field operations, and helps automate payroll and job workflow processes, and TeleNavTrack that lets businesses use wireless barcode scanning to track inventory and assets, manage deliveries, better predict arrival times, change schedules on-the-fly and deploy workers. Of course, since it's a Nextel phone, it will support Push-To-Talk.

Another Android Galaxy phones arrives: the Samsung Captivate for AT&T

blog@letstalk.com (Joni Blecher) — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 09:07:50 PDT

We're starting to see the Samsung Galaxy S phones start to surface in the market. First, it was the Samsung Vibrant for T-Mobile and now the Samsung Captivate has arrived for AT&T. Like other Samsung Galaxy phones, the Captivate has a 4-inch Super AMOLED touch screen (great for viewing in direct sunlight and helps conserver battery life), a 1GHz processor, and runs Android 2.1 OS. The cell phone also sports a 5-megapixel camera with 4x digital zoom and will be able to record video in HD. Don't worry you'll have enough room to store any videos you shoot on the Captivate's 16GB of internal memory - plus, you can always add up to a 32GB microSD card if that's not enough room.

Additionally, the phone has 3G connectivity and also offers 802.11n WiFi (this is more secure). If you want to share media stored on the phone with your own home theater equipment you can if it's all part of a DLNA network. If you're thinking of upgrading to this Android and phone and are worried about having to transfer contacts, just go to www.att.com/addressbook to manage contacts & have them automatically synchronized between phone & online address book.

Nokia E73 Mode first look

blog@letstalk.com (Joni Blecher) — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 11:07:11 PDT

The Nokia e73 Mode for T-Mobile has arrived. This Symbian smartphone has a lot to offer in a slim package. Most notable is the inclusion of "Modes" where you can set a Mode for work and a Mode for after work. To see the Nokia e73 Mode in action check out the video below by LetsTalk's Pat Connor.

Verizon's Motorola DROID X available today: Is this the ultimate Android phone?

blog@letstalk.com (Joni Blecher) — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 07:07:34 PDT

Last month, Verizon announced the Motorola DROID X. The new Android phone sports a 4.3-inch display, the ability to record video in 720p HD and a microHDMI port, features found on Sprint's HTC EVO 4G. However, it has a few more features that differentiate it from the the EVO 4G. For staters, while the cell phone comes with Google's Android 2.1 OS it will receive an over-the-air update to Android 2.2 in the coming months. It also has 8GB of on-board memory and comes with a 16GB microSD card. What are you going to do with all that storage space? Probably a lot since it also has the BlockBuster movie rental/purchase app on it, a 8-megapixel camera, and of course a music player. To see the Motorola DROID X up close watch the video below and to learn more about it read our expert review of the latest Motorola Android phone by clicking this link.

Pantech Pursuit: Will this messaging phone be the perfect fit?

blog@letstalk.com (Joni Blecher) — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 11:07:51 PDT

The Pantech Pursuit for AT&T is a quick messaging cell phone that makes it easy to send messages and even stay up to date on social media accounts. It also has a few other extra features including multiple menu screens, a slide-out tactile QWERTY keyboard, 2-megapixel camera, and driving directions via AT&T Navigator. What's different about it is the cell phone's size - it's not too big, or too small, but is it just right? Watch the video below to decide for yourself.

Create your own Android Apps

blog@letstalk.com (Joni Blecher) — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 12:07:59 PDT

Are you one of those people that has a great idea for an Android app, but doesn't have the know-how to develop it yourself? Google has created a tool to help you do just that. The app is called the Android App Inventor and it looks pretty straight forward to use by just adding functions that you want and typing in the text for those functions. You can even add GPS features to the app, as well. The app will work with both Mac and PC's, but you'll also need an Android phone. The program is in beta so you'll need to sign up with your Google e-mail address to be alerted when you can download it. In the meantime, watch the video below to see how it works.