AT&T is the last of the cell phone service providers to offer a Droid Smartphone in their pre-paid lineup. Beginning April 17th, AT&T is offering the LG Thrive for $180. The Thrive is a mid-range Droid, running on the Android OS 2.2 (Froyo). It only has a 3.2 megapixel camera and 160 MB of memory, although it can be expanded to 32 GB with a MicroSD card. The customers will have to pay pretty dearly for using this phone however. Customers can choose the “Smartphone 10 cents per minute” plan or “Smartphone $2 USD per day for unlimited talk and text” plan. Their choices for data plans range from $5 for 10 MB to $25 for 500 MB. There is no contract, which is probably a good thing since customers may dump AT&T once they find out how poor the service coverage areas are.

AT&T Finally Gets On Board

Verizon has a whole bevy of Droid pre-paid Smartphones available. They include the Motorola Original Droid, Motorola DEVOUR, Motorola Droid X, Motorola Droid 2, HTC Droid Eris, HTC Droid Incredible, LG Ally, BlackBerry Curve 8330, BlackBerry Curve 8530, BlackBerry Storm 9530, BlackBerry Storm 9550, BlackBerry Tour 9630, BlackBerry Bold 9650, Palm Pre Plys, and Palm Pixi. Rumor has it that Verizon’s unlimited talk, text AND data plan will run about $80 per month. And Verizon certainly has better service coverage than AT&T. Of course this is just a rumor so far.

US Cellular is also in the game with the LG Optimus U and the LG Apex as their prepaid Android phones. The Optimus U features a 3.2mp camera, Android OS 2.2, 3.2″ display, and 140 MB of storage. The LG Apex runs on Android 2.1, features a 3mp camera, 3.2″ screen, and has 256 MB or Storage. The Prepaid Plans include: $70-Unlimited Talk & Text with 2GB of data, $60-450 minutes, unlimited text, and 2GB of data, $50-Unlimited Talk & Text, $50-2GB of data.

Sprint’s BoostMobile offers Droid and BlackBerry Smartphones. With the best deal in town, they offer a plan with unlimited talk, text and data for as little as $45 per month once you have paid your bill on time for 6 months. With $18 months of payments on time, your plan drops to $35 per month.

AT&T’s announcement of offering Droid Smartphones on a pre-paid plan just isn’t all that exciting. But they have to do something to stay in the game. They are losing customers and not signing up new ones. If they are able to buy T-Mobile, it may breathe some life into the company, but for now, they come in last on my list.

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A $500 AMEX card is up for grabs in the new RIM BlackBerry Retail Reps Theme Contest. Five winners will receive an AMEX gift card for $500 USD. The top winner’s theme will be developed as a BlackBerry theme and upon release, made exclusively available for 3 months to authorized retail salespeople. After 3 months, the winning theme will be made available on a non-exclusive basis in BlackBerry App World. Pretty sweet deal, or so it seems. However, royalties and income from the sales of the theme don’t actually go to the person submitting the theme idea. Hmmm…. Maybe not so sweet a deal.

RIM BlackBerry: Retail Rep Contest

The BlackBerry PlayBook is available in stores April 19th. Staples has the PlayBook available for pre-order for $499 for the 16 GB version. Unlike other BlackBerry products, you do not have to go through your wireless service provider to get your BlackBerry PlayBook. It will be available through retail outlets like Staples, Best Buy, Office Depot and other stores. There hasn’t been much advertising done other than the ads put out by the stores themselves. Here is the list released last month by RIM of the retail locations where the PlayBook will be on sale:
United States: AT&T, Best Buy, Cbeyond, Cellular South, Cincinnati Bell, Office Depot, RadioShack, ShopBlackBerry.com, Staples, Sprint, Verizon, and BlackBerry from Wireless Giant.
Canada: Bell, Best Buy, Chapters / Indigo, Costco, Future Shop, Mobilicity, MTS Allstream, Rogers, Sasktel, Sears, ShopBlackBerry.com, Staples, Telus, Tbooth Wireless, The Source, Videotron, Walmart, WIND Mobile, WIRELESS etc., and WIRELESSWAVE.

BlackBerry PlayBook Specifications (according to RIM’s Press Release)
• 7″ 1024×600 WSVGA capacitive LCD touch screen
• Ultra-portable at less than a pound, less than 1/2 inch thick: 0.9 lbs (425g), 5.1″ x 7.6″ x 0.4″ (130mm x 194mm x 10mm)
• 1 GHz dual-core processor
• BlackBerry® Tablet OS with support for symmetric multiprocessing
• MP3, AAC and WMA audio playback
• Support for high resolution video playback (H.264, MPEG4, WMV)
• 1080p HDMI output
• Dual 1080p HD cameras for video conferencing and video capture (3MP front and 5MP rear)
• 1 GB RAM memory
• Up to 64 GB internal storage (16, 32 and 64 GB models)
• GPS, Orientation Sensor (Accelerometer), 6-Axis Motion Sensor (Gyroscope), Digital Compass (Magnetometer)
• Stereo speakers and stereo microphones
• Wi-Fi® (802.11 a/b/g/n) connectivity
• Bluetooth® 2.1+EDR support

The PlayBook will be running on operating system called QNX. One of the downsides to the PlayBook is that is to get your music on the PlayBook you have to drag and drop the files from your computer to your PlayBook. The tablet comes with a wild, wireless Bluetooth connection feature called BlackBerry Bridge, enabling the tablet to view your BlackBerry phone on the tablet screen. Unfortunately this is the only way you can access the email, calendar, address book and BlackBerry Messenger on the tablet.

It sounds like the BlackBerry PlayBook is not ready to compete with the tablet “Big Boys.” What’s your take on it?

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BlackBerry should be renamed LeakBerry. Photos, videos and technical specifications have been “leaked” over and over in the past few weeks. Rumors are flying. There are now stories of four new RIM Smartphones (BlackBerry Bold Touch, Torch 2, Orlando, and Touch), all of which have new capacitive touch screens. Mostly they seem to be “re-made” versions of the Curve and Torch, although there is a touch only phone as well.

BlackBerry Enters the World of Touch

The BlackBerry Orlando is mostly a Curve Sedona with a touch screen. It is supposed to ship with the new OS 6.1, have a physical keyboard and a trackpad. With the touch screen and the keyboard, it is kind of a “mini-Bold Torch.”

The new touch screen only BlackBerry is called the “Touch” or the CDMA version, the Monaco Touch. It appears to be more like an Android or iPhone device, using capacitive technology. It is reported to be coming with a 3.7 inch screen, 800×480 pixel resolution, 1.2 GHz processor, 768 MB of RAM, a MicrosSD slot, and a 5 megapixel camera.

The Bold Touch has some nice new features, including a new battery type. It’s a GSM device with a 5MP camera, 4GB of internal storage, 768MB or RAM, a 2.8-inch screen (640×480), and according to an article written by Jeffrey Van Camp, DigitalTrends, it has built in NFC technology. Since Apple has decided not to include the NFC yet, this will be a bonus for RIM. NFC is “near field communication” which allows your Smartphone to communicate with terminals like cash registers, helping you to avoid long lines in restaurants and such.

“The unit itself is extremely solid and the touchscreen is very responsive,” said BGR (Boy Genius Reports). “And who could forget that great and spacious BlackBerry keyboard? The BlackBerry Bold Touch also uses a new battery from RIM, so hopefully the addition of a touchscreen to this famous BlackBerry form factor won’t have too much of a negative impact on battery life.”

The Storm 3 Touch is also known as Blackberry Touch 9860. Here’s a short video preview of the new Storm 3:

BlackBerry has die-hard fans. If you are one of those BlackBerry users and like the BlackBerry keyboard, you will probably want to upgrade to the new Smartphones with both the touch screen and the keyboard. If you are new to BlackBerry and have been an iPhone user or an Android user, you will probably want to try the new BlackBerry Touch Smartphones. Will the new efforts by BlackBerry to stay in the market be enough to keep up with the Androids and iPhones? Google reports that there are currently 350,000 new device activations per day, and 3 billion apps overall have been installed. iPhone is trying to keep up. Will BlackBerry succeed? Let us know what you think.

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This last weekend, Jenni “JWoww” Farley lost her BlackBerry. Jenni was apparently shopping at a Lowe’s hardware store in Toms River, New Jersey with boyfriend Roger when she lost the cell phone. Jenni reported the missing BlackBerry to the police, claiming the phone is worth $100,000. Why is Jenni Farley’s BlackBerry worth $100,000? Is Jenni’s BlackBerry made of Platinum? Jenni claims it’s because of her fame. “Because of all my contacts,” she told Toms River police. According to an article written by Fabiana Santana, Actress Archives, “It’s those contacts - all stored in her Blackberry - she is worried will wind up in the wrong hands.”

Jennifer “JWoww” Farley Loses Her $100K BlackBerry

Jenni is reported to be earning $100K per episode to star on season 4 of Jersey Shore on MTV. She will soon start filming a new reality show with Jersey Shore house mate Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi. Meanwhile Jenni is seen hanging out with celebrities in both Las Vegas and Los Angeles, when she isn’t with her boyfriend Roger Williams. The couple reportedly spends a lot of time in South Jersey. “She has a house here with Roger,” a source said. “They split their time between here and Long Island where her family is. For the most part they are pretty low key. But she was very upset she lost her phone.”

A Blackberry is just a cell phone, right? So why is Jenni so obsessed about losing it, and putting such a high value on it? Perhaps it is all the candid photos that are probably on it. Should we expect a nude photo scandal about Jenni coming to the tabloids soon? This may be a little too much of a reality for the reality show starlet.

What are your thoughts on this? Should Jenni just buy a new BlackBerry and stop creating sensational headlines? Do you think Jenni’s phone is worth $100K? Is this just a ploy for attention and tabloid space? Does anyone really care about her BlackBerry? Does anyone really care about Jenni “JWoww” Farley and her reality show, now running an incredible 4 seasons? Let us know.

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Today it’s official! Twitter for BlackBerry v1.1 is finally released. A select few were using the beta version, but the real McCoy was released today. According to a post by Kristy C., Inside BlackBerry, they have “made several changes to enhance the Twitter for BlackBerry Smartphone experience, like updated graphics that reflect the new look of the Twitter brand and a streamlined layout of the Add Photo and Add Location icons on the Home screen. The next time you Retweet something, it will appear in your Home timeline as ‘Retweeted by You’, to quickly alert you that your Retweet was sent successfully.”

New Twitter for BlackBerry v1.1 Debuts Today

The official BlackBerry App Store had this to say about the new Twitter:

“Doing the things you love on Twitter® are made quick and easy using your BlackBerry® Smartphone. With Twitter for BlackBerry Smartphones, you receive a notification as soon as a Message or @Mention arrives – no matter which application you’re using. And because you’re using a BlackBerry Smartphone, you not only receive a notification, the message itself is delivered directly to your inbox making it even easier to stay on top of what’s important to you. It even works with your BlackBerry Browser and BlackBerry Smartphone camera, so it only takes a moment to post a link or upload a picture directly to Twitter. Plus, you can follow friends, search for a topic of interest, edit re-tweets, and find users quickly by typing @usernames. Easily stay connected to the information and news you care about—all from your BlackBerry Smartphone.”

Key New Features in Twitter for BlackBerry Smartphones v1.1.0.21

•Add locations to your Tweets (adds your geographical location to Tweets and allows others to see where you were when you tweeted)
•Receive immediate notifications of @Mentions (when you’re mentioned on Twitter, you get a notification)
•View your Messages in a chat-style layout
•Select previously used hash tagged words with #Topic Autocomplete (pops up a suggested word list)

Are you a BlackBerry user? Will you try this new Twitter? Seems like a win-win situation to me. You get to have that cool BlackBerry and use Twitter as well.

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RIM BlackBerry scored the worst in GoodGuide’s list of green cell phone manufacturers. According to an article by Wendy Koch, USA Today, BlackBerry only earned a 3.3 rating, mostly for the company’s environmental record. Nokia took top honors, with Samsung coming in second. Apple’s iPhone also scored in the lower half of the manufacturers, again not because the material in the iPhone is toxic, but because Apple itself has problems with its “ethical policies and performance.” Nokia scored as the top green manufacturer. 26 of 30 of the top cell phones scored were made by Nokia, each scoring 7.7 or 7.6 out of a possible 10 points. Nokia C6 scored best overall. This is pretty impressive.

Did Your Cell Phone Make the Green List?

“Our highest-rated cellphones have energy-efficient chargers and are made of environmentally preferable materials,” says a scorecard of 596 cellphones from 16 manufacturers by Good Guide, a company that rates products for their health, environmental and social impacts. The ranking says the top scorers are made by companies “implementing green production practices and takeback recycling programs.”

IDC (International Data Corporation) has its own list of good and bad manufacturers. The IDC study analyzes the sustainability efforts of 10 manufacturers. It ranks these manufacturers by their overall sustainability strategy, packaging, materials, energy, and end-of-life programs.

“Mobile operators play an important role in handset sustainability,” says Stephen Drake, program VP, Mobility and Telecom. “While they do not produce mobile phones, they are instrumental in driving the design, packaging, and materials used in handsets and are in the forefront in device lifecycle management from procurement to takeback. As the connection to the end customers, they can also influence end-user purchasing and are therefore critical players in the sustainable handset ecosystem.” IDC had this to say about the top 5 manufacturers on their list (alphabetically):

AT&T, for its broad focus on trying to pick sustainable handsets
Deutsche Telekom, for is focus on the raw materials in the mobile phones on its network
Sprint Nextel, for its efforts to develop eco-criteria that have been used to develop a specific line of green mobile phones
Telefonica, which has developed an eco-rating system for handset being sold in the United Kingdom
Vodafone, which is focused on materials sourcing for mobile phones on its network

How important is it to you that you support “green” manufacturers? Do you recycle your old cell phones? According IDC, only 10% of cell phones are recycled. In a world that is filling up with e-waste, it is important to consider alternatives. See my blog Give Your Gadgets a Green Burial. Perhaps you will decide to donate your cell phone to a charitable cause. Working together, we can make a difference.

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Are you a Catholic needing to go to confession? There’s an app for that. Seriously though, it’s not actually an app to substitute for confession. (The Catholic Church is very clear on this issue.) It is an app for the iPhone that helps you figure out how you’ve sinned (as if you didn’t know) and formulate a confession. It’s called Confession: A Roman Catholic App, and was created by Little iApps with the help of two Catholic priests ($1.99). And it has been given the blessing of Bishop Kevin C. Rhodes of the Diocese of Fort Wayne - South Bend, Indiana.

Forgiveness is Just an App Away

“Very cool; very useful,” wrote Thomas Peters of catholicvote.org, an online community for Catholics. Peters praised the app as being “not like those other programs that claim to ‘wash away sin’ and are essentially mockeries of confession, not preparations for the sacrament.”

This Confession App does not promise to forgive you of your sins. The app was developed as a tool to assist you with your confession, and offers a “personal examination of conscience,” plus a step-by-step guide to confessing. According to an article by Megan O’Neil, Appolicious, as you go through the app, you are guided through the 10 Commandments, with self-examination through a series of questions. For example: “Tap on the fourth commandment – honor thy father and mother – and you are asked several questions such as “Do I try not to bring peace into my home life?” and “Do I not care for my aged and infirmed relatives?” Check all that apply. Then, move into the confession feature. The app guides you through exactly how the sacrament should proceed, including your opening lines “In the name of the Father, Son… Bless me Father for I have sinned…” And when it is time to state your sins, the items that you had check-marked are listed for you, so you don’t find yourself scrambling or forgetting anything. Included in the app are no less than seven versions of the Act of Contrition, including one in Latin (for those who remember the pre-Vatican II days). Many of other important prayers are also there, including the Hail Mary, Our Father, Apostles’ Creed, etc.”

The app is not a substitute for meeting with a priest and receiving absolution. The Catholic Church looks at this app as a tool, a way to do a little soul searching. I find it interesting that it is only available to iPhone users. I guess those of us who own Droid or BlackBerry phones are without sin and need no confession. (Yeah, right.) With the age of smart technology, will there come a time when you can program your Smartphone to monitor your activities and log your most recent sins in preparation for your next confession? Interesting concept, don’t you think? What’s your take on the Confession app? Are you Catholic? Would you use it if you could?

Wonder what impact your cell phone has on the environment? GoodGuide has just published a report rating the top 5 “virtuous” cell phones. The ratings are based upon not only environmentally safe practices, but also takes into consideration the social attributes as well? “Social attributes?” you may ask. This rating has to do with the safety and labor policies of the company manufacturing the cell phones. GoodGuide ranks individual models and manufacturers on 3 levels: health, environment, and social attributes. 576 phone models were rated.

GoodGuide Lists Top “Virtuous” Cell Phones

Which phones were rated highest by GoodGuide? According to an article posted by Martin LaMonica, GreenTech, “Nokia phones hold the top spot with a model that contributes to a score of 7.7 out of 10. That’s followed by phones from Samsung, Motorola, Palm, and Sony Ericsson. BlackBerry and its phones are at the bottom, with the lowest score a 3.3 out of 10. Phones from LG, Garmin-Asus, Casio, and Sharp contribute to scores that are largely between 4 and 5.” Apple’s iPhone came in just about middle of the ratings.

How are the ratings derived? Rating the environmental attributes, GoodGuide took into consideration the cell phone’s standby power consumption, as well as the use of recyclable materials used in the packaging and the phone itself. Those products not using bromide flame retardants and PVC are rated higher. Cell phone radiation emissions are not factored in, as there is no consensus about the amount of radiation allowable.

The social attributes rating is based on several factors. Compliance with labor laws is only one aspect. Another consideration is how a manufacturer rates on policies and practices related to conflict minerals, according to the Enough Project. Employee safety is another big concern affecting the ratings. The ratings even include the ethics of the manufacturer.

Are consumers concerned with how their cell phone rates by GoodGuide? I’m not sure too many people are even aware there is a rating like GoodGuide’s. However, as more awareness grows, consumers may make their cell phone purchases based not only on the features the cell phone offers, but also may take into consideration some of the issues rated by GoodGuide. What’s your take on the cell phone ratings? Do you see yourself consulting the ratings by GoodGuide before purchasing another cell phone?

Mobile phone users in the European Union will soon have universal chargers for many of their devices. According to an article by Don Reisinger, CNET.com, “DigitalEurope, the continent’s largest digital tech organization, has delivered a sample of a universal mobile phone charger to European Commission vice president Antonio Tajani. The EU said that the sample now paves the way for consumers to get their hands on devices that support the universal charger in the very near future.”

Europe Will Soon See Universal Cell Phone Chargers

“I welcome the rollout of new chargers for mobile phones based on the new EU standard,” Tajani said in a statement accompanying the announcement. “This is genuine good news for the European consumer. Now we await the arrival of the new charger and compatible mobile phones on the shelves.”

14 companies have signed a memorandum of understanding with the EU to make their devices compatible with the standard. That standard requires participating companies to use Micro-USB connectivity or an adapter if their phones don’t support that interface. Motorola Mobility, Nokia, Research In Motion (BlackBerry), and several other companies signed on. Perhaps most surprisingly, Apple also agreed to make its devices compatible with the standard.

Reducing electronic waste is the impetus behind the standardization. How many of us have a drawer full of useless chargers for our old phones? Having a universal charger for a whole bunch of electronic devices only makes sense. The trend must already be taking hold in the States, because luckily my Droid X and my Noisehush Bluetooth mobile headset both use the micro USB chargers. Since they both came with a wall charger, I have a spare that I keep in my suitcase for traveling. My car charger will work with both. Even my Amazon Kindle uses a micro USB charger. This definitely simplifies my life.

Vendors can use this as a cost cutting factor. According to Don Reisinger’s article, he believes that many mobile phone manufacturers will follow what the printer manufacturers have been doing for years. Most new printers don’t come with a USB cable. You must either use your old one, or buy a new one. You can imagine that this saves the manufacturers a bundle. Mobile phone manufacturers will be able to do the same once everyone is on the same page. If the micro USB charger is adopted by all, you will most likely see the cable being an option to be purchased.

Let’s give kudos for this standardization. It’s about time!

RIM is doomed to fail regardless of the new BlackBerry Torch 9800 and the hopeful BlackPad. The newest electronic gadgets from BlackBerry will not be enough to keep the RIM ship afloat. The competition from the iPhone and the new Droids will spell failure for RIM.

Too Little—Too Late for RIM

Picture the BlackBerry Torch, the iPhone4 and the newest Droid side by side. Which one would you buy? It isn’t the hardware that is the problem. It’s the old feeling of the software on the BlackBerry. The iPhone and the Droid have super easy to access apps. The BlackBerry Torch is cumbersome. It feels like last year’s technology even though it has the new touch screen. It is awkward to get to the browser. Face it, BlackBerry OS 6 just isn’t as user friendly.

Competition with the iPhone4 and the new Droids will crush BlackBerry. Sure, some corporations will still buy the BlackBerry for their companies, but Apple and Android are growing in those markets too. There is really only room for 2 or 3 Smartphone players in the market. This will put RIM down towards the bottom of the heap. This is also where the lowest margins on sales will be, and not where RIM wants to be. This will surely be disastrous for RIM.

Would Microsoft buy BlackBerry? BlackBerry has proven it can manufacture good hardware, and the Windows Mobile 7 isn’t all that bad. This may be a good fit. But then again, can it compete with the iPhone or the Droid? Whatcha think?