Category: Cell Phones

We got a few minutes with BlackBerry's newest phone at today's Torch/BlackBerry OS 6 launch event. Offering a middle ground between the touch-based Storm and full-keyboard smartphones, RIM's Torch opts for both a touch interface and full slider, QWERTY keyboard. Loaded with a new UI and much-needed WebKit Web browser, BlackBerry OS 6 is a big step forward for the company, so keep reading to get ...

Last Tuesday, Leigh Fazzina was racing her bike through the woods in Connecticut when she suddenly drifted away from the rest of the cyclists competing in the mini-triathlon. As she was furiously riding downhill toward the main bike trail, her front wheel ran into some gnarly tree roots, and she crashed in a grand fashion. The 36-year old from Philly wasn't familiar with the Connecticut ...

We're live at RIM's BlackBerry event in New York, and the company's Torch phone (previously known as the 9800) just appeared on AT&T's site for $199. The first device running the brand new BlackBerry 6 operating system, the touchscreen and slider phone Torch represents a new form factor for RIM. Though the phone has hardly been a secret, we're finally getting the official specs and details. ...

The mobile version of Dropbox, the popular app that lets users sync files across disparate computers and gadgets, has always been restricted to the iPhone and Android-powered phones. Now, though, BlackBerry users can get in on the action as well, thanks to a newly released beta version of the app. As with the iPhone and Android versions, Dropbox for BlackBerry enables users to open files, stream ...

Ever wonder what Americans are doing during those countless hours that they sit in front of a computer screen? Turns out that, more than anything else, they're getting their Facebook and Twitter on. According to Nielsen, a good 22.7-percent of time online is spent on social networking sites. That's a drastic increase from June of last year, when a reported 15.8-percent of time online was spent ...

In December, a German security researcher cracked the code used to encrypt older 2G GSM cellular communications. Now, Chris Paget, another researcher, has discovered a way to bypass that encryption and intercept cell phone calls -- with a mere $1,500 worth of off-the-shelf equipment. Paget created a DIY version of an IMSI catcher, a piece of equipment that is used by intelligence and law ...

The still-nascent field of smartphone payment systems may be getting a lot more crowded, since AT&T and Verizon Wireless have become strange bedfellows in testing a new system that allows store customers to pay for products with their smartphones. According to sources close to the deal, the test system would be similar to those already implemented in the U.K., Turkey and Japan, where ...

Multi-billionaires in Dubai and Abu Dhabi may soon have more trouble doing business on the go, as officials in the United Arab Emirates have announced that, as of October, BlackBerry users will no longer be able to send e-mails or instant messages within the country. As the New York Times reports, Sunday's announcement comes after a lengthy standoff between the Middle East nation and Research in ...

iPhone 4 users finally have an easy way to jailbreak their new smartphones -- a new browser-based tool, released just a few days after the Library of Congress officially declared jailbreaking totally cool. According to Engadget, JailbreakMe works on any Apple phone (except for the original), including the new iPhone 4, iPad and all iPhone 3GS models running iOS4. Developer Comex originally posted ...

If you love your iPhone but hate Apple's often draconian and seemingly arbitrary restrictions on what apps you can install, then you've likely at least thought about the prospect of jailbreaking. Yet, knowing whether or not your device is even jailbreakable, much less picking the proper tool and finding the right firmware to download, is about as difficult to comprehend as string theory. Someone ...

For quite some time, rumor had it that RIM has been wanting to get into the tablet game, and who can blame it? Microsoft has had a long history in the market, Apple's iPad has proven popular, and it seems that just about every other manufacturer is trying to cram Android into the form-factor. A couple of days ago, we heard that RIM had acquired Blackpad.com, and the world collectively cringed at ...

The hopes and fears of all New Yorkers will at once come true, thanks to yesterday's announcement that the city's plan to outfit subway stations with Wi-Fi and cell service are, once again, moving forward. We all knew it would happen eventually; three years ago, the MTA and Transit Wireless struck a deal that would outfit stations, but not tunnels, with wireless access. Still, some of us had hoped ...

It's a well known fact that President Obama has a bit of a BlackBerry addiction -- so much so, the man fought long and hard to keep his beloved device once he entered the White House, making him the first sitting president to use one of the e-mail centric smartphones. But Obama revealed on 'The View' Thursday that, perhaps, it wasn't worth all the trouble. Though White House security and IT ...

There is more than one political junkie on the Switched staff, and the lot of us get pretty excited whenever we see a cool app that makes it easier to keep on top of the happenings in Washington. iPhone owners already have a host of options for tracking Congress, but, until now, Android users have been largely left in a lurch. Thanks to the Sunlight Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to ...

Back in 2003, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) put the clamps on the telemarketing industry by creating a nationwide Do Not Call registry. This list faced some stiff opposition at the time (from telemarketing companies, of course), but today the proof's in the pudding. Seven years later, according to Ars Technica, the list now totals 200 million phone numbers. If a telemarketing company ignores ...