It’s getting harder and harder to tell the difference between cell phones and laptops. Mobile phones that were once getting tinier and tinier have started to get bigger again so that people can use them in place of laptops for a lot of daily functions. At the same time, there are notebook computers that are getting smallers and smaller so that they can be carried everywhere like a phone is. Will the phone and the laptop be one and the same some day?

Cell phones are increasingly capable of doing many of the things that you would do on your laptop. People are even writing entire books on their mobile phones. However, there are some things that limit people from using mobile phones as true computers. One of the major problems is battery power. You can plug a laptop in anywhere and use it. This may not be true of your mobile phone. Plus a laptop battery often lasts longer than a cell phone battery. Scientists and engineers are working hard to create technology that will improve battery life of cell phones. If they are successful in doing this, will laptops become obsolete as they are replaced by mobile phones that can provide all the same functions?

I’m tempted to suggest that laptops will continue to exist but that desktop computers will disappear. I have two laptops and a desktop and I almost never use the desktop. The laptops are just more convenient even when I’m working at home. If I can use my mobile phone as a mobile computer and I can use my laptop like a desktop then what do I need a desktop computer for? Unless, of course, I want a big screen desktop for gaming and watching Internet TV. In that case, maybe I do need a mobile phone, a laptop and a desktop but I no longer need a television!

Tags: cell phone technology, mobile phone batteries, mobile technology, powering cell phones, Wireless

I recently had the opportunity to do an in-depth review of the Samsung s8000 Jet. This is a new mobile phone that received more pre-orders than the iPhone did in its early days. That says something about the kind of attention that it’s getting.

While doing my research for the review, I kept coming across four main reasons that this new phone is so popular:

1. Speed. It’s one of the fastest phones available on the market today.
2. Display. It also has one of the most impressive screen resolutions out of any mobile phone line.
3. Advanced web browsing. The new web browser allows you to easily open multiple web pages and perform other fairly advanced mobile web functions.
4. Cool user interface. The main reason people love this new phone is that it has a user interface with lots of neat features. This includes fun shortcuts, transition effects and a neat “smart unlock” system that lets you program each letter key to simultaneously do its own function whil unlocking the phone.

It seems like a cool new phone. I think it’s worth taking a look at if you’re into smartphones (although it’s technically not a smartphone, I suppose). Also, if you’re interested in new mobile phones, you might want to follow these 20 mobile phone Twitterers.

Tags: cell phones, kathryn vercillo, mobile phones, news, reviews, samsung features, samsung jet, Technology, Wireless

I used to have a love/hate relationship with Twitter. Over time, that has changed. I lean a lot more towards the love side now. I suppose that’s because I’ve learned how to use Twitter in ways that make it fun for me. I meet people and share information there.

I actually do a lot of my research through Twitter, using it as a starting point to find news and articles about the topics that interest me. For example, I stay on top of the latest information and thoughts about mobile phones by following people on Twitter who write about these things.

There are so many people writing about this topic that it would be impossible to follow them all. I’ve found about 20 mobile phone Twitterers that really interest me a lot. These are what I would suggest as a starting place for people interested in researching that topic on Twitter.

Of course, you can make a list like this for any interest that you may have. I also follow people on Twitter who are interested in personal finance, simple living and creativity since those are topics that also interest me a lot. I think it’s worthwhile to take the time to find the people who are networking on these topics and to follow their activities online.

My Twitter account is at http://twitter.com/KathrynVercillo.

Tags: kathryn vercillo, mobile phones, research, Social Networking, twitter, Wireless

I recently did research into the relationship between movies and mobile phones. What I learned from this research is that there are three main ways in which movies and cell phones are linked:

1. People watch movies on their cell phones. More and more phones are getting advanced enough to be capable of watching streaming or downloaded movies. There have been a lot of recent announcements about this link between movies and mobile phones.
2. People film movies on their cell phones. This is just cool. Lots of people use their phone’s video camera to film movies. There are film festivals specifically for these phone-made films. I love the creativity of it!
3. The movie industry markets on phones. There are tons of different marketing ploys used by movie promoters that involve mobile phones include interactive mobile advertising.

Are there other links between cell phones and movies that I’m forgetting?

Tags: art, cell phones, entertainment, kathryn vercillo, mobile phones, movies, society, Technology, Wireless

I was recently reading about the fact that Windows Mobile 6.5 is designed to have voice recognition software. It’s a really cool idea because it means that people using mobile phones with this service will be able to do hands-free texting, web surfing and dialing. Despite the fact that I think it’s cool, I doubt it’s something that I’d use anytime soon.

What’s the reason that I wouldn’t make use of a service that makes sense to me like this? Well, it sounds ridiculous but I just feel so silly using anything with voice recognition. I’m not comfortable speaking to my phone. I know other people are totally fine with turning on their phone and saying “call home” but I just can’t bring myself to do it because it just feels too weird.

What causes this strange feeling? It’s got to be some sort of self-consciousness but that doesn’t exactly make sense because I feel silly doing this whether I’m with other people or just alone. So what is it then? I’m not exactly sure but I do know that I don’t feel comfortable using voice recognition. Do other people also feel weird about it or is this one trend that I’m just really behind on?

Tags: Technology, voice recognition, windows mobile, Wireless

A lot of people who shop are browsers and impulse buyers. They go out to look around and to see if anything captures their attention and demands to be bought. Smart shoppers don’t do this. Smart shoppers make lists of what they actually need and buy only those items to make sure that they aren’t wasting money on frivolous purchases.

One way to enhance your ability to be this type of smart shopper is to consider the use of mobile classifieds for finding what you want to buy. Classifieds are a great way to find used products at a discount so that you save money on any purchase. Mobile classifieds are even better because they allow you to access the power of classified ads for just those purchases that you actually want to make.

The cool thing about mobile classified sites is that they allow you as a consumer to set up alerts that will notify you via your mobile phone whenever an item that you want has become available. So let’s say that you want a new bed; you enter that information into your account and then you’ll be notified by phone if someone posts a new bed to the site.

This allows you to identify what you actually need to buy. It lets the site do the work of searching for that item so that you don’t get distracted by ads for things that you don’t actually need to purchase. When you receive the alert, you can check the ad and see if it is what you’re looking for. If it is, you can immediately proceed with the purchase. What a great way to get discounted items without caving in to impulse shopping!

Tags: cell phones, classifed ads, kathryn vercillo, mobile classifieds, shopping, spending, Wireless

I think that the development of various mobile phone applications which we have seen grow in the past couple of years is a great thing. The iphone, Blackberry and new Android phones all offer phone users the chance to personalize their phones in such a way so as to make them more fun and efficient to use. However, I think that there are some mobile phone apps out there that are just a complete waste of time.

I’m not saying this just because there are phone apps that I don’t like. There are plenty of phone apps that I don’t use but can see the value of. For example, I am not someone who is interested in instant messaging from my mobile phone so I ignore all of those apps when I see headlines about them in the news. Nevertheless I think those could be valuable apps.

But there are some applications for phones out there that just seems absurd. There are applications that heighten your paranoia by informing you about crime rates in the area that you’re in. There are applications that remind you to pray at certain times of day which I think is something you should be doing without help from your phone. And there are applications that take features that you can already find on your phone elsewhere and try to market them in an appealing way even though you really don’t need the app to enjoy the features. It’s silly.

See my picks for ten of the most ridiculous mobile phone apps out there today. What do you think – agree or disagree on these?

Tags: cell phones, kathryn vercillo, mobile phone applications, mobile phones, phone apps, Technology, Wireless

Quick – think of the ways that you could use your phone to catch a criminal. Obviously if you witnessed a crime in action then you could call the police with your mobile phone to report the crime. And if you were a victim in a situation such as a kidnapping then you might text to get out of trouble and get your captor caught. But did you know that there are quite a few other ways that criminals are caught because of cell phones?

Take a look at these ten ways cell phones catch criminals. You might be surprised by a few of them. For example, did you know that cell phones emit a certain smell and that the same dogs that are used to find drugs can be used to find cell phones in certain illegal situations? There is some strange stuff going on out there in the world of fighting crime.

Now, get creative … I’d love to hear your thoughts on the most creative ways that we, as average citizens, could use cell phones to catch criminals in the act so that they would be caught. Share in the comments …

Tags: criminal, criminal justice, justice, law, legal, mobile, phones, Technology, Wireless

Chances are that you don’t carry a camera with you on a daily basis because your phone has a camera built in to it that you can use if you wish to take pictures. And you probably don’t carry a separate music player anymore because your phone can play that role as well. And if you’ve got a smart phone with high speed Internet connections then you usually don’t even need your laptop anymore. And coming soon to the future near you is the chance that you probably won’t even need a debit or credit card on you anymore because your phone is going to be able to complete transactions for you.

The area of Near Field Communications (NFC) is improving. This technology allows certain phones to be swiped in front of readers as a method of making a payment when you are completing a transaction at a local store, toll booth or parking garage. Trials of this wireless technology are being successfully completed and businesses are starting to launch this service around the world. It’s going to be a little while before we actually see this technology in America but we’re on our way to that kind of future.

Tags: mobile payment, near field communication, nfc, phones, Technology, Wireless

As someone who has written regularly about technology, I find myself always looking for the latest news about trends in different sectors of the tech world. Things change so quickly – there is always a new gadget or new version of something being announced. So it’s interesting to me when there are types of technology that take time to really develop.

The example that I’m thinking of is the development of femtocell technology in the wireless sector. People have been talking about femtocells for awhile now but the average person still doesn’t know what this technology is. That’s because we haven’t quite developed a way to use it that is of interest to the average consumer.

Basically femtocell hubs can be used to improve the call quality of indoor cell phone calls. Recently it has also been found to significantly boost data transfer speeds on Internet-enabled phones in the home. These are things that people do want to have access to so it’s just a matter of time before the technology takes off. It’s just interesting to me that it’s taking so long considering how many different tech things have come and gone in the meantime. I like watching technology develop over time, don’t you?

Tags: cutting edge, developments, dialaphone, femtocell, phones, Technology, Wireless