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One factor that prohibits me from adopting SMS is the fact that it, as a data medium, is so expensive to use.  Twenty cents to send 160 characters to someone?  That seems outrageous.  However, in Europe and Asia, where voice calling is expensive due to voice tariffs, SMS is popular because in these areas it is a cheaper method of communication.  However, SMS is in drastic need of revolution to take it beyond text in this age of audio and visual media on our mobile handsets.

Enter Palringo, a fantastic mobile IM service that works on many mobile phones including Windows Mobile, Symbian, and now BlackBerry.  It supports many IM services including MSN, Yahoo!, AOL, and Google Talk/Jabber.

Rather than talk about the standard IM features Palringo has, what sets this service apart?  One cool feature they offer is Voice IM or more commonly referred to as Push to Talk (PTT).  You can think of this as a walkie-talkie on your mobile.  Nextel and a few other telcos have been offering this type of service, but it has been expensive and out of reach for many customers.  Palringo allows you to exchange messages via PTT.

In addition, you can send media messages including pictures, videos, and audio files.  In my interview with founder and CTO Martin Rosinksi, he told me Palringo is out to bring us SMS 2.0 regardless of what handset, carrier, or country your friends are based in.

Palringo also has a Windows based client that allows you access to your media and messages while on a computer.  Rosinksi said a Mac version is on the way.

In my opinion, we need to move beyond SMS as a way to send messages on our mobiles.  With more and more consumers adopting smartphones, we should look to using our data plans as a condiut for mobile messaging.  We IM on our computers all day without even thinking about it and it’s time to take this concept to the mobile world.  My prediction: Within 5 years, mobile IM will almost completely replace SMS.

Does this type of service interest you?

TechCraver: BlackBerry Pearl Review
Overview:
The BlackBerry Pearl is Research In Motion’s (RIM) first attempt at making the BlackBerry a consumer device. For years the BlackBerry has been a device largely meant for enterprise customers to keep in contact with their office through email and calendar. The Pearl has been around for about a year on T-Mobile, and mobile phone enthusiasts have been clamoring for a CDMA. Well Verizon Wireless and RIM responded and they did so pretty well with a fun and useful mobile experience in the BlackBerry Pearl 8130.

On the hardware side the Pearl 8130 has an attractive silver colored exterior. This BlackBerry does not have a full keyboard but it does fit well into a front pants pocket because of it’s small size. It has built-in GPS, uses the speedy EV-DO network, features A2DP full stereo Bluetooth, a standard headphone hack, and a 2 MP camera. The Pearl has a Micro-SD slot that can be used for storing photos or playing media files in the on-board media player.

Currently, after rebate, the Verizon Wireless BlackBerry Pearl 8130 is $150 after rebate with a 2 year service agreement.

At First Glance:

The Pearl has a unique look, one I would describe as stylish and sexy. You can tell RIM was trying to balance work and play with this sleek device. In order to bring the size down, RIM had to shed the full QWERTY keyboard and replace it with a smaller version. Each key has roughly two letters assigned to it and is assisted with SureType.
In the box you get a software CD, a battery, travel charger, a USB data cable, the Pearl itself, headphones, and a belt clip.

Unlike the BlackBerrys before it, the Pearl does not have the side jog dial that is synonymous with BlackBerrys. You know, the one that gives you the fabled “BlackBerry thumb”. Instead, in the middle of the front of the device is a directional control that I would compare to the eraser-head control found on some laptop computers. I really like the new control mechanism and found it gave me greater control over the device than the old jog dial. It made it especially easy to control one-handed and while I was walking or on the go.

The User Experience:

The BlackBerry excels at putting you in touch with the people around you. BlackBerrys are made for people who communicate in their business or personal lives primarily through email. The Pearl is no different. You can easily go to RIM’s website and set up your personal and business email accounts. The BlackBerry service allows for up to 10 IMAP or POP3 email services to be configured. Within second of configuring your e-mail services online, you BlackBerry lights up with all the new mail items. It’s magic!

Using the directional control on the front is very effective and cuts down on the frustration of the old job dial. I found it easy to navigate to items and use applications. Out of the box, the Pearl comes with a basic web browser, email program, media player, their map program, tasks, calendar, alarm clock, and a few others.

I tried out RIM’s map program, hopefully to tap into the on-board GPS to track my position and get some point-to-point directions. However I was unable to get the program to use the GPS and I was just stuck with a basic mapping application that was less than mediocre. I thought to remedy this mapping problem, I’d have to download VZ Navigator, Verizon’s navigation program and services. I successfully downloaded and installed the application. However, whenever I tried to load the application, it would fail and go back to the main BlackBerry applications screen.

After trying out the on-board applications, I added some ones from the web including Gmail, Google Maps, and Facebook.

As I said before, the Pearl is made for keeping you in touch with your friends. If you are a Facebook user, you have to check out the Facebook application for BlackBerry. It’s a speedy responsive application that allows you to update your status and view the statuses of your friends, upload pictures taken on your Pearl, and fully interface with Facebook directly from your BlackBerry Pearl mobile phone.

I found web surfing to be a bit cumbersome on the BlackBerry Pearl. Not because of the device itself, but because viewing web content on any mobile phone is difficult. This device shines when using applications that take advantage of the Pearl’s hardware and connect to the Internet for rich content, notably the FaceBook application and Google Maps.

My main critisizm of the Pearl is the midget keyboard and the SureType technology that is supposed to make the lack of a QWERTY keyboard a non-issue. I found SureType to be frustrating and at times made me what to through the Pearl against the wall. I spent too much time managing SureType to tell it what I really wanted to be entering in. I found the keyboard layout combined with SureType to be no more effective or easy to use than the standard T9 most of us with cell phones are familiar with.

Overall I enjoyed the user experience on the BlackBerry. The operating system is well designed and responsive. The Pearl is peppy with no lag or other frustrating factors in the user interface realm.

Performance:

As a phone, the Pearl 8130 performs just a tad above average. I was able to hear callers clearly. My only complaint is that I had the volume almost all the way up just to hear people, even when I was in a quiet environment. Callers noted that when I was in a place with background note that my voice was hard to hear. In my opinion, this is caused by the placement of the microphone as it picks up ambient noise. Verizon’s material says the Pearl has noise filtering technology, but it doesn’t do much apparently.

The operating system was very stable, not requiring resets like the Windows Mobile devices I have tested in the past with only one exception. When I was working inside Google’s java-based Gmail program, the phone froze frequently, requiring me to pull the battery and manually reset the device. This was very annoying.

The Pearl 8130’s battery life seemed a little short. With moderate voice and data usage, I was only to get about a day and a half of usage. I know this is normal with 3G smart phones, but it should still be noted.

I was lucky enough to be trialing this review unit when Google Maps released a new 2.0 version that features “My Location”, a service that allows you to track where you are based off the cell towers your phone is connected to. It is a feature that resembles GPS. My Location is only accurate to about 1500 feet, so it’s not very effective for point to point driving directions in a local area, but it is perfect to find all the pizza places around you, for example. I really enjoyed this feature and thought it was very slick.

Conclusion:

The BlackBerry Pearl is a welcome addition to Verizon Wireless’ product line. It’s sleek and brings the BlackBerry platform to stylish consumers who want the BlackBerry features, but not a big mobile phone that screams “corporate”. The data access is fast and makes getting e-mails quick and painless.

Aside from the noted complaints about the keyboard and SureType, the Pearl is a great mobile phone that combines personal information management, e-mail, and a fun user experience. I’d easily recommend the Pearl to someone who can learn the SureType and is a heavy text messaging or e-mail user.

Research in Motion announced today a CDMA BlackBerry Pearl, one year after launching the device on the T-Mobile network. This great device comes with EV-DO for ultra-fast data access, a 3.5 mm headphone jack, built in GPS, A2DP for stereo Bluethooth, and interface and browser improvements.

I definitely want one of these devices. I think it’s a great melding of candybar size phone with the features of a smartphone.

Overview:
Verizon Wireless recently updated their very popular Q mobile phone lineup with the eagerly awaited Motorola Q9m. The wireless service provider was the exclusive carrier of the Motorola Q9 when it debuted early last year. Now Motorola has updated the line with Q9s all across the GSM and CDMA markets. The “m” Verizon’s Q9m stands for music. Even though the Q was originally aimed at the business professional market, they are trying to pitch the Q9m at the consumer market, and the music piece centers on trying to get users to pay $1.99 forVCast Music, an exclusive to Verizon Wireless. One other advantage to the Q9m is that it is rocking the latest Windows Mobile 6.

The Q9m comes at a lower price, currently $199 after a $50 rebate and a 2-year service agreement.

At First Glance:

The Q9m at first glance is a very attractive phone as it’s aesthetics are improved over those the original Moto Q. It’s primarily black with red accents on the side. You can definitely tell Verizon is pushing their own branding and color scheme in this device. The keyboard is a big improvement as well (more on the keyboard below). The screen is big and bright, taking up about 50% of the face of this device and is easily visible even in bright daylight. One new feature with the Q9m is the screen has an adaptive technology that turns the screen brightness up and down based on how much light isexistent . Even though the Q9m has a native resolution of 240×320, I believe the resolution should be increased to allow more content to be displayed on the screen.

The Q9m, like the original Q, features a very slim design that is attractive and fits into a pocket very easily. I like the directional controls and soft keys, along with the jog dial on the side to allow for easy one-handed operation. Even though there is no stylus or other pointing device, Motorola made the Q9m pretty easy to work with.

The User Experience:

I was very anxious to try Windows Mobile 6 as my experience with Windows Mobile 5 was mixed. Windows Mobile 5 on my Treo 700W was slow and needed to be restarted multiple times per week as the phone OS would constantly lockup. I wasn’t sure if this bad experience was because of the hardware or Windows Mobile itself.

Windows Mobile 6 is a mostly enjoyable mobile computing experience. However, after using an iPhone, Motorola and the Windows Mobile Platform have a LONG way to go to match theiPhone’s user experience and ease of use.

In my trials with Windows Mobile 6 I found it to be very reliable. I never experienced missed calls (that I know of), text messages or had any of the other issues that Windows Mobile 5 presented. A few times I had to restart the Q9m because mobile Internet Explorer became unresponsive and would not loadwebpages.

My main complaint about the software on the device is Internet Explorer mobile edition. This is a bare-bones browser that is clunky to use. I have tried other mobileInternet browsers including Palm’s Blazer and Opera Mini edition. I tried to end my IE misery by installing Opera Mini, but for some reason I could not download the install package.

Syncing to my employer’s Exchange email system was a pretty easy experience, except for one caveat. I had a co-worker connect to his email and while this happened successfully, when I tried to change theusername and password to my own, I couldn’t find a way to change the username without having to do a Master Reset on the Q9m. I could change the password, but the username was grayed out and could not be changed under any circumstance. Very frustrating.

Motorola included Documents to Go to allow users to create and edit Office-compatible documents. I found using Documents to Go to edit word documents attached to emails to be easy and very useful.

Performance:

The Q9m feels very underpowered. There is a very noticeable lag when you hit buttons and you see an on-screen response in Windows Mobile 6. Applications load slowly and even making preference changes such as background images or themes seem like they take a long time to load. After doing some research online, I don’t feel the Q9m is the culprit, instead I think Windows Mobile 6 is a bit bloated. Hopefully a software update can give some much needed zip to this device.

My Motorola bluetooth headset synced flawlessly with the Q9m, allowing me to do hands free calling. I understand the Q9m has A2DP which allows for the use of stereoBluetooth headphones and headsets, but i wasn’t able to test this feature.

Text messaging is easy on the Q9m. I found the keyboard to be great to type on, much better than the Treo 700W and 600 I’ve tried in the past. The rubberized keyboard makes typing easy and fast.

I found call quality to be mixed. Overall I could easily hear the remote party and they could hear me just fine, but about 40% of the time I could hear an annoying buzzing hissing sound in the Q9m. People I called could never hear the sound and I never did hear it while making a call with theBluetooth headset.

Doing anything with data including downloading emails and surfing the web is a breeze on this device. Using Verizon’s fast EV-DO service, the bits fly quickly and without much lag. The connectivity piece of this phone is a major offering. I also downloaded and installed Google Maps, and using EV-DO this combination is a killer app.

Battery life is my main performance complaint. I had to charge the Q9m every day after moderate voice and data usage. This is common withsmartphones (especially 3G ones), but the complaint still needs to be registered.

Conclusion:

The new Motorola Q9m improved on it’s predecessor in many ways. However, I don’t like Verizon’s multi-media push. The Q was just fine as asmartphone that could browse the web and integrate the user into the Windows Mobile experience. $1.99 is way too much to charge anyone for a song that can only play on one mobile device.

Aside from my objections to Verizon’s multi-media services, I feel the Motorola Q9m is a great phone, especially at it’s $199 price. It’s a solid device that feels good to use and still gets looks when I’m in public. If you’re looking for a Windows Mobile 6 device and can handle a little operational lag, the Q9m is a solid choice.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

Press release.  I swear, some people just don’t get it.  Verizon and T-Mobile are about to have their worlds rocked by a cell phone that’s actually easy to use.

Press Release: Verizon Wireless Stores Open All Day June 29 for Customers to Test Network, Buy Music Devices

Verizon Wireless Stores Open All Day June 29 for Customers to Test Drive the Nation’s Most Reliable Wireless Network, Purchase Any of 18 Multi-Media Music Devices

Free Music Essentials Kit with Purchase of LG VX9400

BASKING RIDGE, N.J., June 28 — On June 29 Verizon Wireless stores and kiosks will be open until 9:00 p.m. in most markets to give customers plenty of time to Test Drive the leading wireless company with the most reliable voice and data network. Customers will be able to pick up the latest in hot devices including, the LG VX9400 for $99.99 after a $50 rebate with a two-year contract and receive a free Music Essentials Kit that gives them all the tools they need to take their music with them wherever they go. Packaged for immediate fun, the Music Essentials Kit includes a stereo headset, a cable for music transfer from a PC to the LG VX9400 and a 2GB memory card that can store up to 1,000 songs.

Tunes and Tones Direct to the Handset

Regardless of when shoppers visit any of Verizon Wireless’ 2,300 stores nationwide, they will be able to choose from 18 different models that let customers search from more than two million songs from the V CAST Music library and immediately purchase and download their favorite tunes directly to their handsets. For customers who want to spend a little more time browsing, they can visit the V CAST Music library from their PC. Selected songs can be stored on a 1GB, 2GB or (for select phones) 4GB memory card. Of course, any Verizon Wireless customer wanting to download songs from their personal library can do so, quickly and easily using the RIP software when they register for V CAST Music on a PC. Copying and saving unprotected music to a memory card has never been so easy. Songs play directly from the memory card on any Verizon Wireless V CAST Music phone.

Name that Song
Music discovery has been taken to an entirely new level with Verizon Wireless V CAST Song ID. Whether at a party, a club or just kickin’ it with friends, customers can download Song ID to their V CAST Music-capable phone, hold the phone up to a speaker and within seconds identify and purchase most of today’s popular music. Song ID is quick, fast and totally designed for music aficionados who want their music now. And, with every handset purchase of a V CAST Music song, customers get two copies — one to the handset and one to the PC.
Directions to the Party
Being directionally challenged doesn’t mean missing the party. Every Verizon Wireless V CAST Music phone also comes with the ability to download a host of features that can be used immediately on the handset. One of the more popular downloadable applications, VZ Navigator(SM), provides turn-by-turn directions to millions of U.S. destinations and can get most customers to the locations of their choice using the shortest and the quickest routes.
Say “Cheese”

Capture the moment on any V CAST Music-capable phone with a click of a button to take a photo or capture a 15-second video that can also be ent
to friends within minutes.
Priced for the Party Animal
Verizon Wireless phones won’t empty the pockets of any party animal. Popular models are affordably priced — many under $100 — so customers can select a mobile phone that fits their style, their mood and best of all, their wallet. V CAST Music songs are 99 cents from any Windows(R) XP PC, or $1.99 for two copies when downloaded to a V CAST Music-capable handset. (The second copy is sent to a customer’s V CAST Music PC account.) VZ Navigator is priced at $1.99 per month, and Unlimited In Messaging Plans for Text, Picture, Video and Instant Messaging begin at $10.

About Verizon Wireless

Verizon Wireless operates the nation’s most reliable wireless voice and data network, serving 60.7 million customers. The largest US wireless company and largest wireless data provider, based on revenues, Verizon Wireless is headquartered in Basking Ridge, N.J., with 66,000 employees nationwide. The company is a joint venture of Verizon Communications and Vodafone (NYSE and LSE: VOD). Find more information on the Web at http://www.verizonwireless.com. To preview and request broadcast-quality video footage and high-resolution stills of Verizon Wireless operations, log on to the Verizon Wireless Multimedia Library at http://www.verizonwireless.com/multimedia.

Apple and Cingular came out with a press release early this morning with the iPhone data plan prices. All I can say is WOW that’s cheap!

Briefly, here’s the breakdown.

• $60/month for 450 minutes, unlimited data, 200 text messages
• $80/month for 80 minutes, all the rest as above.
• $100/month for 135o minutes, all the rest as above
• a family plan for $80/month

Man! Now I really want an iPhone! For minutes plus data on Verizon Wireless, who I have now as my carrier, it would be $80 for me alone - not counting my wife’s phone! Verizon is such a rip off and Cingular is raising the bar in terms of expectations on data plan prices.

I’m excited for anyone who takes advantage of this mobile data package.

Hello Verizon Wireless are you listening!? Probably not.

Here is more detail

I seriously don’t understand this. According to this article in the Boston Globe, Cingular (now AT&T, again) is going to charge an early termination fee of $175 if you cancel your service agreement before the 2 years are up. Um WHAT?!

See in the United States, we pay nearly nothing for most cell phones. This is because they are ’subsidized’ by the telcos such as Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and the like. The early termination fee is charged if you leave before your contract is up to cushion the telco from losing money on the subsidy to you. But since AT&T is NOT subsidizing the cost of the iPhone (hence the $499 and $599 price tags) - they HAVE NO RIGHT to charge an early termination fee.

So I guess the moral of the story is - if you chose to buy an iPhone, you better know you’re going to like it!!!

PS As I’ve said before, I wish we had the European model of cell phone usage. They purchase their phones at full price (even if it means paying $200-400 per device) and get pre-paid SIM cards for GSM phones. When I get released from my service contract with verizon, I’m going this route. I’ll find some cool phone I like and just go pre-paid. Service Agreements suck