photo credit: Green Cell Phone Manufacturers

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.

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photo credit: Top Virtuous Cell Phones

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.

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photo credit: It’s a Mobile World

There were 81 million Smartphones sold world-wide in the third quarter of 2010 alone. According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, “Smartphones accounted for nearly one in five mobile phones sold that quarter. The chiefs of Verizon Communications Inc. and AT&T Inc. think Smartphones could account for nearly three of every four phones sold by the middle of the decade. Between the emergence of the iPad, apps, Android Smartphones and the introduction of 4G networks, 2010 was the year the computer truly went mobile.” Welcome to 2011 and the mobile world. Read the rest of this entry »

photo credit: Pay-by-Smartphone

Rumor has it that Apple is planning to introduce pay-by-phone on the next generation of iPhones and iPads. The new technology would allow you to use your iPhone or iPad to pay for products or services just like using your credit card. This could effectively reduce the number of plastic credit cards you need to carry in your wallet. Read the rest of this entry »

photo credit: Top Windows 7 Phones

Windows 7 Phones may just surprise you. While Windows 7 Phone sales are still way behind the Android and iPhone, (there are currently about 300,000 Android devices and over 3 million iPhones have been sold), Bonnie Cha, CNET, touts the Windows 7 Phone features as “more to love than not love.” Read the rest of this entry »

photo credit: Windows 7 Phone

Microsoft announced that despite a slow start, Windows 7 Phone sales have reached over 1.5 million in 6 weeks. It is important to note, however, that these figures reflect phones sold to retail outlets as well as consumers. There are no figures yet for phones sold and in the hands of consumers. According Bonnie Cha, CNET, Microsoft was a little soft on the details of the sales expectations. Read the rest of this entry »

photo credit: Droid vs. Apple

Spansion, a maker of flash memory chips, filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Samsung earlier this month. Spansion and Samsung are just adding fuel to the already heated Smartphone patent wars raging in this country. Read the rest of this entry »

photo credit: Samsung Galaxy Tablet

Samsung has finally released the information on the new Galaxy Tab. The device specs are impressive, running on the new Android 2.2 OS, with a 7-inch touch screen with a resolution of 1024 by 600 pixels, and a 1GHz Cortex A8 processor with 16GB of integrated storage. There is also a Micro SD card slot that can expand the storage capacity with another 32GB. Samsung plans to release the Galaxy in October in Europe but no launch date has set for the US. Read the rest of this entry »

photo credit: Samsung Tablet Phone

Samsung is set to release its P1000 Galaxy Tab device at the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin next month. This “phone” is really a 7 inch tablet PC in direct competition with Apple’s iPad. The tablet is said to feature a 7-inch touch screen and offer live video chat capabilities. Read the rest of this entry »

photo credit: BlackBerry Ban

UAE’s Telecommunication Regulatory Authority announcement to limit BlackBerry usage is turning the mobile phone market on its ear. The limitation applies to foreign visitors as well as UAE residents. The BlackBerry ban begins October 11th. Read the rest of this entry »