Handsets

I was very puzzled when Microsoft bought Danger, the company that produced T-Mobile’s SideKick phone and its wireless server services, in 2008. Microsoft, after all, already had a mobile phone platform based on Windows CE called Windows Mobile. Sidekick had a number of problems including the infamouse October 2009 server meltdown that caused what appeared to be the loss of all data stored by subscribers to Danger’s servers.

T-Mobile discontinued the original Sidekick on July 2, 2010. They plan to launch an Android-based Sidekick in the near future. Ironically, one of Danger’s co-founders is Andy Rubin who leads Google’s Android development efforts.

Late yesterday, T-Mobile announced that they will end Sidekick customers’ data services and it will be no longer available starting June 1.

The full press release I received is reproduced below.

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After May 31, 2011, the Danger Service (a subsidiary of Microsoft) used by T-Mobile Sidekick customers for data services will no longer be available on Sidekick devices.

T-Mobile will provide offers for our Sidekick customers before May 31, 2011, to help make an easy transition from their existing Sidekick device to a new device. We will have more information to share about these offers with our customers in the weeks ahead.

To ensure the best possible transition for our loyal Sidekick customers, an enhanced Web tool is available on myT-Mobile.com to easily export their personal data, including contacts, photos, calendar, notes, to-do lists, and bookmarks, from the Danger service to a new device, computer, or a designated e-mail account. An application is also available in the Sidekick Catalog to make it easy to export personal data to the Sidekick’s memory card. Many T-Mobile stores can transfer data from that card to a new T-Mobile device if the customer brings in the memory card and Sidekick.

Join Baratunde Thurston (left), The Onion’s Director of Digital and author of How to Be Black, for an entertaining look at creative social media campaigns in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. Other speakers include Morin Oluwole (Facebook), Tim Devane (bitly), and SocialTimes' writer Devon Glenn.   Register now.

Video courtesy of jtcece

Have you ever heard of De Quervain’s Syndrome? I hadn’t either until I saw a local TV morning news program that mentioned it. It is a repetitive motion injury that is also called Mommy’s thumb. It is related to a combination of fluid changes in a woman’s body after delivering a child and repetitive motions associated with being a mother such as frequently lifting children.

Here’s the mobile tech angle to this story: One contributing factor to the rise of Mommy’s Thumb may be frequent scrolling on a smartphone touch screen with thumbs.

‘Mommy’s thumb’ is on the rise

Are you in the mood for a gadget timewarp? Good! Let’s take a look at these two article headlines.

VMware To Launch Mobile Phone Virtualization Technology (CRN)

VMware to virtualize Android smartphones for business users (Network World)

The first article was published in CRN on November 10, 2008. Read that year date carefully: 2008. The second article was was published yesterday in Network World (2 years and 1 month later). It didn’t make sense to attempt virtualization (running multiple operating system instances on a single computer) two years ago the relatively weak processors used in the smartphones of that day. In fact, it doesn’t make much sense to try it even with the 1GHz Snapdragon processors used by my high-end Android phones. It may become an interesting and useful tool when we see dual-core processors in smartphones. This would allow a processor to be dedicated to a virtual platform while the other to continue managing the host system and second mobile platform.

You know when you see a headline like this one that someone is bound to confuse correlation with causality.

Study links cellphones to child misbehavior (Reuters)

The study described is a large one conducted in the Netherlands consisting of 28,000 7-year olds. One relationship noted in the study was: The children whose mothers used cellphones while pregnant and who also used the phones themselves were 50 percent more likely to have behavioral problems. The article notes that the researchers looked at a number of factors (e.g., stress during pregnancy) that might be a factor in this relationship. However, the article does not know if any of these other factors were also correlated. And, you wondered (like me) if the inattention of moms might be the cause, the researcher say it is an important factor but does not explain the correlation found.

If the nature of the relationship is ever teased out, it will probably be complex mix of nature and nurture factors.

Red itchy skin on your face where your phone makes contact? You might be allergic to your cell phone. Check out this Newsweek article for the details.

Beyond Peanut Butter (Can you be allergic to your cell phone?)

Newsweek reports that allergists are reporting that substances not commonly associated with allergies in the past are now appearing as the cause of some allergic reactions. One example provided is a sensitivity that some people (especially children) are developing to nickel which is used for the trim and faceplates on some phones.

A quick check of the Skin Allergies webpage of the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology shows that this kind of reaction is described as contact dermatitis for those who may want to investigate it further.

Contact dermatitis is caused when the skin touches either an allergen or something that irritates it, causing symptoms such as a rash, blisters, itching and burning. Most cases of contact dermatitis are not caused by an allergen but by something that irritates the skin such as soap, detergents and some plants.

Most people have probably forgotten Apple’s iPhone 4 “Antennagate” that overtook gadget blogs for weeks this past summer. It looks like HTC’s HD7 (Windows Phone 7) phone has its own less public version of the problem according TMoNews.

HTC Responds To HD7 “Death Grip” Claims

The HD7 with its large 4.3-inch display is sold in the U.S. by T-Mobile. TMoNews reports that HD7 dropped calls have been attributed to a “grip of death” hold style when using the phone. They also report that HTC responded in much the same way Apple did saying that their in-case antenna design does allow for the possibility of blocking wireless signals if it covered entirely by a person’s hand.

This, quite frankly, is going to be a problem for most (if not all) modern phones the avoid the “ugliness” of a physical antenna sticking out of the case. Such an attenna would probably resolve all of these antennagate type issues but go against the conventional wisdom of current visual asthetics.

I’ve been using an HD7 as my primary phone for a couple of weeks now. However, I haven’t noticed any dropped call issues.

Alien (1979) is a movie classic. Its first sequel, Aliens (1986), is a classic too. But, Alien: Resurrection(1997)? Not so much. So, what do we make of the resurrection of Microsoft’s Kin One and Two that were declared dead weeks after their launch earlier this year?

Kin ONEm and Kin TWOm back at Verizon (Engadget)

The squarish Kin ONEm is available for $19.99 with a two year contract while the larger TWOm is available for $49.99 with a two year contract. The least expensive voice plan is $40 per month. Data plans start at $9.99 per month. However, that is for a mere 25MB of data. The $15 plan tops out at 150MB. So, it looks like the $50 voice plan will be most likely paired with the $30 per month unlimited plan bring total monthly recurring costs to $80 per month. That’s more than the $70 per month plan offered with the Kins in their first appearance. The data plan is optional this time, however. But, $50 per month still seems like an awful lot to pay without any data.

The giant screen smartphone trend has spilled over from the Android market into the Windows Phone 7 market. Engadget has a set of photos of the HTC HD7 with its 4.3-inch display.

HTC HD7 leaks out once more with Dolby Sound, stars in a brief video

Electronista is convinced that T-Mobile USA will announce the HD7 as its flagship Windows Phone 7 device next week.

HTC HD7 locked in for T-Mobile’s Windows Phone 7 event

So, what’s it got besides a 4.3-inch display and Windows Phone 7?

- 1GHz processor
- 5 megapixel camera
- 720p video recording
- 8GB built-in flash storage

Based on schematics revealed earlier by various sites, the HD7 also has a dual-flash for its camera. Earlier rumors included a 1.5GHz processor with 32GB storage and an HDMI port.

Windows Mobile may have a near non-existent mindshare among most of the phone buying population. But, it seems to have cornered the market in secure and ruggedized phones. Check out this Windows Mobile 6.1 (yes, 6.1 not 6.5 and definitely not Windows Phone 7) powered:

Getac PS236 (Steatite Rugged)

It features:
- Rugged case
- E-compass and altimeter
- High sensitivity GPS
- WiFi
- Bluetooth
- 3 megapixel auto-focus camera
- 800×480 pixels on a 3.5-inch LCD display
- 5600 mAh all-day battery (10 hours)
- USB and RS-232 serial port (rare these days)
- Optional HSDPA 3G

You can’t get a Skype app for an Android smartphone on AT&T, Sprint, or T-Mobile. You can’t get a Skype app for Windows Mobile (it was removed earlier this year). There is a Skype app for the iPhone. But, that is probably only because of the uproar that would be created by its removal. In fact, the only place you can find tuned mobile Skype service is on the Verizon network with its Android smartphones can see an download the app from the Android Market.

Add another notch to Verizon’s mobile VoIP belt. Skype is now available for feature phones based on Qualcomm’s BREW platform.

Skype mobile now available on Verizon Wireless multimedia phones on the BREW platform (Skype Blog)

Three specific BREW based phones are mentioned in the announcement:

LG enV TOUCH
LG Chocolate Touch
Samsung Reality