There will be lots of speculation, but with the three phrases, it could be anything. Our prediction is that Engadget is right. The company will announce a new WebOS cell phone meeting the small part, a new tablet which fits the big part and they will reveal their roadmap for the future of WebOS.

Don’t be surprised, however, if the announcement also includes information about a version of the operating system that will run on their touch enabled printers making the term multifunction mean something new. We could imagine a printer that also included file storage and sharing, apps for uploading files printed to the printer or scanned/faxed on it.

HP WebOS Announcement Coming February 9 is a post by Kevin Purcell from Notebooks.com.

Now, with Direct Mode the card can also connect to a mobile phone with the right software installed and share images or video using the handset.

Direct Mode will send any photo you wish from your digital camera, with an Eye.fi card inserted, to your mobile phone. The user can more easily view the photos or upload and share them over their mobile broadband connection. The files can also be sent to the customers Eye-Fi View Account, which is an online storage space reserved for customers.

While Eye-Fi is announcing this at this year’s CES, the upgrade will not be available till later this year. It will be free to all current and future customers.

Eye-fi Direct Mode Connects Camera with Mobile Phones for Wireless Sharing is a post by Kevin Purcell from Notebooks.com.

Best Buy’s Black Friday Cell Phones 

BlackBerry Torch 9800 Cell Phone – $49.99 w/AT&T 2-Year Activation

HTC Droid Incredible Cell Phone – $1 w/Verizon 2-Year Activation

LG Optimus S Cell Phone (charcoal and purple) – $1 w/Sprint 2-Year Activation

LG Prime Cell Phone – $59.99

LG Rumor Touch Cell Phone – $69.99

Pantech Laser Cell Phone – $1 w/AT&T 2-Year Activation

Samsung 410G Cell Phone w/Free Bluetooth Headset – $39.99

Samsung Fascinate w/2-Year Activation (Verizon) – $1.00

Samsung Galaxy Tab 7″ Tablet (Sprint) – $549.99

Samsung Galaxy Tab 7″ Tablet (Verizon) – $549.99

Samsung Intensity II Cell Phone – $1 w/Verizon 2-Year Activation

Samsung Red Rant Cell Phone (Boost Mobile) (at Samsung)- $89.99

Samsung Transform Cell Phone – $69.99 w/Spring 2-Year Activation

Best Buy’s Black Friday Cell Phone Accessories

iFrogz Luxe Case Bonus Pack for iPhone 3G, 3GS (Blue and Purple) – $29.99

iFrogz Luxe Case Bonus Pack for iPhone 4 (Blue, Pink and Red) – $29.99

Jabra BT2080 Bluetooth Headset – $19.99

Jabra Cruiser Bluetooth Speakerphone – $49.99

Plantronics Voyager Pro Bluetooth Headset (at Plantronics) – $49.99

Rocketfish iPhone 4 Case (Blue, Pink, Smoke and Turquoise) – $9.99

Black Friday Best Buy Mobile Phones, Tablets and Accessory Deals is a post by Kevin Purcell from Notebooks.com.

Tested.com has a list of popular cell phones and shows where each of the handsets’ water sensors are located. For example on Apple iPhone’s and iPod Touches you will find the sensor either in the headphone jack (see image) or in the dock connector. There is a small white spot that will turn red if exposed to moisture. This can be problematic as the phone itself may not be submerged but water could get into just that location causing the sensor to turn from white to red and indicating exposure to water. There is even a lawsuit over this as some Apple customers claim their phones were not submerged in water but the sensor’s color changed. I personally experienced this with an iPod Touch that stopped working. The hard drive failed. But since the water sensor was a light shade of pink, Apple would not replace it though it was still under warranty.

Other manufacturer handsets covered in the story are the HTC EVO, T-Mobile G1, Blackbery’s various models, the Palm Pre, Motorola Droid, and the Samsung Galaxy.

How To Find Your Mobile Phone’s Water Sensor is a post by Kevin Purcell from Notebooks.com.

In this series of posts I will focus on the iPhone 4′s various uses to help you decide if you should buy the iPhone 4. In a nod to the most well-known feature of the new iPhone – it’s troubled new antenna design – I will rate each area using between 1 and 5 bars with 5 being the best.

It seems amazing that the iPhone’s greatest weakness is as a phone. There are a number of problems that weaken it’s usefulness for communication. The best known problem is the antenna design and my feelings mirror those of Josh Smith’s in his editorial on the issue.

In my own personal experience of using the phone with a case, it does give somewhat better reception in all three areas. But that one caveat – that  you use it with a case – brings down the whole house of cards. Apple is giving away cases, but you will have to wait between 2-8 weeks for that free case to arrive based on the expected shipping times in the app released to deal with the ordering of these cases.

There are two other options to help alleviate this problem yourself while you wait for your case. First, you can use the headphones that ship with the iPhone 4. It has a speaker for you talk with and you can put the phone in your pocket or lay it down on a desk or table. Second, get a Bluetooth headset or speaker. Third, hold it differently or cover the offending area (the dark line on the lower left side of the phone) with a piece of tape.

With all that said, while using it with a case, I have found that my iPhone 4 is getting slightly better reception. I live in an area of the country without 3G. AT&T says it is coming, but it could be another 60 days if they meet the promised deadline. Some parts of our town had very little or no signal while using an iPhone 3 or 3GS. But my iPhone 4 does get a slight signal in these  areas, usually one bar. Go inside a building and it plummets. But that is nothing new to the iPhone 4 nor is it an iPhone/AT&T only problem since my wife’s previous Motorola suffered the same problems using Verizon.

Sound quality is no different than the previous iPhone. And the overall experience of using the phone itself is not changed much. The Phone app is acceptable, but could be better. I wish you could set which screen automatically opens each time you start the Phone app up as I’d have my Favorites screen open every time since that’s what I use most. Instead it opens to your last location, which is reasonable, but not my preference. I like the iPhone’s voice mail setup which is the same.

I’m not a big text messaging user, but my teenage son is. He likes being able to text on his iPhone, but not having tactile response with the keys makes it a little challenging. This is not new to the iPhone 4.

The one thing that has been a big part of Apple’s advertising is their FaceTime capability. With it you can actually see the person on the other end of the line and they can see you thanks to the new front facing camera. My first reaction was, Cool!” My second, disappointment, came after I learned that it would only work with someone  using an iPhone 4 and while on Wi-Fi. You can’t FaceTime  with someone over 3G. Those two problems makes it almost useless to me. I can count on one hand the number of people I know with an iPhone 4. And when I am calling people, most of the time it is away from a Wi-Fi signal.

Apple’s ads are cute and moving, but gloss over the need for Wi-Fi and the fact that only calls between two iPhone 4s is supported. Until Facetime can interface with people using something other than an iPhone and over 3G, it’s a neat gimmick that will seldom be used by the vast majority of iPhone 4 owners. This wouldn’t be that hard. Make it work with the iSight on Mac computers or over Skype. Apple says they will release the tools for third-party developers to put Facetime API in their software and hardware. But if Apple really wants to this to be a revolutionary thing they should be proactive in making it useful for its customers now! They act like they invented video calling. Others do it much better and did it before Apple.

The final problem with using the iPhone 4 as a phone is the glitch in the proximity sensor. This is a tool that senses when you have the phone next to your face when you are talking on it. It shuts off the screen, not just to save battery life, but to keep your fat cheeks from putting people on hold or hanging up on them. I have fat cheeks and I recently muted a call with my father accidentally. I couldn’t figure out why he couldn’t hear me talking since I had a strong signal and could hear him perfectly. I finally hung up and called him back. It was only later that it dawned on me that it was the fault of the proximity sensor. I’ve since tested it and found it to be an intermittent problem. Below is a video demonstrating the problem.

The proximity sensor is another thing that needs to be fixed immediately, if Apple can do so. If not, then there is one more reason for a recall.

The proximity sensor and the necessity of a case makes using the iPhone 4 as a phone a less than perfect experience, knocking the iPhone 4 down a couple of bars. The isolation of Facetime as a useful tool means that new feature adds almost nothing to the experience. If the iPhone was only a phone it would be a big failure. If I was a heavy mobile phone user, I would go with something else.

If you need a really great mobile phone, look elsewhere. But if you are like me and your phone is something you occasionally use along with the  other features, then you can consider the iPhone 4 if the other features are to your liking. As disappointing as it is as a phone, for me it is makes up for this limitation when used as a pocket-sized PC. But until Apple addresses these the three issues above, it is only worthy of 2 bars.

However, the iPhone 4 is much more than a phone. So over the next few parts in this series we will look at the iPhone 4 as a productivity tool, an entertainment device, a gaming device, and a camera. Below are some pictures for you to see the new design of the iPhone 4. It is boxy and actually slightly uncomfortable to hold. It also has a lot of glass making me nervous that I’m going to break it at any moment.

The new iPhone has a micro sim card making it much harder to upgrade or swap out the phone on your AT&T contract.

You can see the slit that causes the reception problems in the shot above.

Our old friend the mute switch is still there, but the volume buttons are now just circular buttons instead of the longer thinner buttons of the previous iPhone 4.

You can see the front facing camera at the top next to the speaker.

iPhone 4 Review Part One: The Phone is a post by Kevin Purcell from Notebooks.com.

Today Fujitsu and Toshiba announced that they have entered into an agreement to merge their mobile phone businesses.

As part of the agreement Toshiba will transfer its mobile phone business to a new company that Fujitsu will manage. Their target date for the completion of this merger is October 1, 2010. At that point Fujitsu will own 80.1 percent of the new company with Toshiba owning the rest. As a result of the merger Fujitsu is expected to increase its sales by 50 Billion Yen.

The press release states heavy competition as the reason for this merger. Recent figures show that neither company breaks the top five in phone sales. Yet the new company will have as its primary goal to become the top supplier of phones in Japan. Currently both companies focus on supplying phones re-branded by other companies.

You can read the press release here.

Fujitsu and Toshiba Merging Mobile Phone Businesses is a post by Kevin Purcell from Notebooks.com.

…the new Windows Phone Live companion site that gives people a central place to see pictures they’ve published, view their Windows Live calendar and contacts, exchange OneNote files and access other information shared between the phone and the Web. (Aaron Woodman, Windows Phone Blog)

The service will interface with Windows Live SkyDrive, the MS cloud storage service that offers users 25 GB of data storage online for syncing via Windows Live Sync. This means that all your pictures, documents, notes, contacts and email will be synced to the cloud service for you, making backup much easier. It will also offer an easy way to get content from your phone to your computer, via SkyDrive.

The other touted feature of the service is Find My Phone. It will find the  phone for you on a map, let you call the phone, lock it and even erase it remotely. If you lose your phone, you can log onto the site and find it. The location will be displayed on a map so you can determine where you lost it and possibly track if it is moving meaning someone found it. If you are afraid that it has been compromised you could  call it to see who answers and potentially arrange to pick it up. Jus because the finder is honest enough to return it doesn’t mean he or she won’t pilfer through your data. So you can lock the phone remotely. And if, in a worst case scenario, you lose it or believe it was stolen with little hope return, you could remotely wipe the phone of all data so at least you won’t lose sensitive information to a thief or dishonest  finder.

These are features previously available in other smart phone services like MobileMe for the iPhone. Also RIM announced a beta test of a similar service recently for their Blackberry phones. The difference between the Windows  Phone Live service and Apple’s MobileMe is price. MS will not be charging for their sync and security services while Apple charges $99 per year. RIM’s service will also be free.

None of this matters until Windows Phone 7 devices are released. According to the Windows Phone Blog, they should be coming soon. Woodman said, Windows Phone 7 will be available regionally this holiday season and beyond. I’m happy to say that Windows Phone 7 will be well represented in countries around the world this holiday.”

With promotional materials for Windows Phone 7 reportedly showing up in AT&T stores this could be sooner rather than later.

Windows Phone Live Will Sync Content and Help With Lost or Stolen Phone is a post by Kevin Purcell from Notebooks.com.

But, in order to take a step forward, sometimes you need to take a step back.  Where did the idea for a Microsoft phne come from?  Well, probably from the time that Microsoft decided to jump into the mobile phone marketspace with the Microsoft Windows Mobile, aka Pocket PC.  So lets once again set the wayback machine and go through a very brief history of Windows Mobile:

• Pocket PC 2000- launched April 2000.  This was based on the Windows CE 3.0 platform.  It looked and worked like Windows 98. Pocket PC 2000 was intended mainly for Pocket PC devices, however several Palm-Size PC devices had the ability to be updated as well. In addition, several Pocket PC 2000 phones were released, however Microsoft’s “Smartphone” hardware platform was not yet created. The only resolution supported by this release was 240 x 320 (QVGA). Removable storage card formats that were supported were CompactFlash and MultiMediaCard. At this time Pocket PC devices had not been standardized with a specific CPU architecture. As a result, Pocket PC 2000 was released on multiple CPU architectures; SH-3, MIPS, and ARM.
• Pocket PC 2002- launched October 2001.  This was the first time the operating system was used on a brand new type of device called a smartphone.  The UI was changed to reflect the new Windows XP operating system.
• Windows Mobile 2003- launched June 2003. This was when the name was changed from Pocket PC to Windows Mobile.  It came in four editions: Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PC Premium Edition”, “Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PC Professional Edition”, “Windows Mobile 2003 for Smartphone” and “Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PC Phone Edition”. The last was designed especially for Pocket PCs which include phone functionalities. The Professional Edition was used in Pocket PC budget models.
• Windows Mobile 2003 SE- launched March 2004.  This was WinMo 2003 second edition, reiminiscent of Windows 98 SE.  Included some improvements including allowing users to backup and restore an entire device through ActiveSync.
• Windows Mobile 5- launched May 2005.  This is the first version to allow users to attach to an Exchange server to allow for push notifications.
• Windows Mobile 6- launched February 2007.  This version is linked into Windows Live.  WIndows Mobile 6.1 was issued for bug fixes, etc.
• Windows Mobile 6.5- launched May 2009.  This is what is currently in use on all Windows Mobile phones today in some form or fashion with point release versions 6.51, 6.53 and 6.55 available from the OEMs/vendors and their branding upon the operating system
• Windows Phone 7- due out this year.  They changed the name to Windows Phone since there is a complete change as to what the new operating system is going to look and behave like.  There is going to be a tighter integration with Windows Live , the Zune and the Xbox platforms. There is also going to be a focus on social networking. Any Windows Mobile 6.5x phone will not be able to upgrade to Windows Phone 7.  Users who want the new OS will have to buy a completely new phone.

So, here is where Windows Mobile has wound up.  Its gotten a bad rap over the years, being overshadowed by the Apple iPhone, Android and the Blackberry. But, like the engine that could, Windows Phone is still here and still making headway in the mobile phone operating system world.  Will this new phone and well as new OS breathe life back into Windows Mobile?

A brief history of Windows Mobile is a post by Amy from Notebooks.com.

I knew it was coming, but it’s too fast!

Of course you can’t deny the power of Mobile phones in this ever growing mobile market. Apple’s iPhone has given new paradigm to world mobile market and has started new mobile war among the phone manufacturers and cellular providers.

Now, every company is shipping or developing a touch enabled smart phone; Apple, Nokia, LG, Samsung and Google to name a few. By making web browsing just a click away these touch enabled mobile devices have created a world where Gartner’s predictions can be believed and aren’t far away.

From Gartner’s report:

The total number of PCs in use will reach 1.78 billion units in 2013. By 2013, the combined installed base of smart phones and browser-equipped enhanced phones will exceed 1.82 billion units and will be greater than the installed base for PCs thereafter.”

Mobile Web users are typically prepared to make fewer clicks on a website than users accessing sites from a PC. Although a growing number of websites and Web-based applications offer support for small-form-factor mobile devices, many still do not. Websites not optimized for the smaller-screen formats will become a market barrier for their owners — much content and many sites will need to be reformatted/rebuilt.”

Please visit the  Gartner website to read more about this predication.

Mobile Will Overtake PC in Web-browsing by 2013 is a post by Rajesh from Notebooks.com.

By ditching the traditional rollerball for a smooth trackpad and throwing in a 2G radio RIM was able to create a very functional phone at an attractive price point; $50 at Walmart with a 2 year agreement.

Optical pad: It works really well. I was leery about it at first due to some erratic behavior but after learning how much pressure to put on it navigation was smooth. I found that the trackpad worked best when I applied a mild amount of pressure to it as opposed to bearing down full force when navigating. The only real issue I had with the trackpad is that if your fingertip gets wet or sweaty the trackpad will show a little resistance; unless you will be using this in a very humid climate or have a gland problem you should be fine. I found that swapping hands or wiping my finger on my pants cleared the issue up.

Keyboard: The keys could have a bit more space but they have a good tactile response and audible confirmation. Speaking of audible confirmation; it’s possible that if you use this in the bedroom at night your spouse will smother you with a pillow. Overall I found the typing experience easy to pick up on, in fact I wrote 90% of this review in EverNote right on the Blackberry.

Body: RIM made good use of the small form factor of the Curve providing a compact phone that feels like it’s been crafted to rest on your pointer and middle fingers while your thumbs dance across the tic-tac size keys. The smooth back gives way to a rubberized border that wraps the phone providing an easy surface to grip. The top of the phone offers easy access to media keys including a handy mute/standby key. Sides of the phone feature a camera button, volume buttons and a voice dialing button. The small size lets it easily blend into a shirt pocket or slip into slacks without the common Smartphone bulge.

Radio: Unfortunately one of the reasons that you can get the 8520 for a song is because it doesn’t have a highspeed 3G radio in it like most other phones on the market. This downside is partially negated by the fact that T-Mobile’s 3G rollout still lags behind its competitors. Still, the included WiFi and the ability of the BlackBerry OS to seamlessly switch between connections will make up for the lack of 3G in many locations. As a data junkie, I’m a bit ashamed to admit that there were only a handful of times I found myself without WiFi and missing a 3G connection.

One major upside to the inclusion of WiFi on the Curve 8520 is that when you connect to a hotspot you are able to make calls over UMA. This still uses your minutes but it gives you a signal in many places that T-Mobile (and sometimes other carriers) can’t reach.

In my experience call quality over UMA varied between acceptable (a tinny connection) to excellent (landline quality). Unfortunately I wasn’t able to determine what caused the fluctuations in quality.

Camera: The 2MP camera on the Blackberry Curve left me pleasantly surprised. In daylight conditions it took decent snapshots like the one above and when I took it to the local hot air balloon festival it performed well enough for keeping my Twitter followers up to date and even took decent enough video of the balloons glowing at dusk.

Screen: While some reviews took issue with the screen on the 8520, I found it to be a pleasure to use even in bright outdoor conditions where many screens falter. One issue I did find was that despite my tweaking the backlight settings, when I used the Automatically Dim Backlight” option to conserve battery life I found the backlight had a mind of its own; dimming and brightening during a period of extended use without any apparent reason.

Battery: During my week long review of the 8520 I made it my daily driver; subjecting it to near constant Twittering, emailing and podcast listening. Even on days of heavy use where I found myself stuck in a 3.5 hour meeting or as a passenger on a 4 hour roundtrip road trip I was able to get 2 days of life out of one charge. If you make a lot of voice calls, rather than focusing on data like I did, you may get less battery life but you should be able to get through most days.

Pros:

• $50 at Walmart
• Calls over WiFi
• Trackpad is a worthy successor to the rollerball

Cons:

• No 3G radio
• Screen backlight can have a mind of its own

Conclusion: The new Blackberry Curve 8520 is a worthy low priced entrant to the Smartphone world. Compared to similarly priced Windows Mobile phones the 8520 performs more admirably and also offers a more user friendly environment.

Review: Blackberry 8520 with Optical Trackpad is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.