One of the most interesting editorial pieces we’ve ever written was our article, Hunting Down A Unicorn: The VPhone.  For us, we spent considerable time last year working to get current information about the device, only to find none.  In response to our article, certain representatives of Saygus, the company behind VPhone, started inundating us with emails and comments making various claims about our article.

Because it’s now been more than seven months since our article posted, we thought we’d do a little recap on the VPhone.

The writers and editors of PhoneCan come across a lot of applications and games.  Many of them are basic and unusable.  But not this one.

Apparatus is a physics and design game where you create simple machinery to accomplish the goal of moving a marble to it’s destination.

Many sites review new products before they are launched, and after having maybe thirty minutes with the device.  Others are sent a test device to review, which allows for a little more time.  And even a few others buy the device outright, review it, and keep it in their “phone closet” for some future purpose.

When we were asked to write up a review of the Xoom, we had a dilemma.

PhoneCan couldn’t afford to send anyone to CES a couple months back, so that type of review was out of the question.  And the manufacturers surely aren’t going to send their products to be reviewed by a site that’s focused more on the empowerment of the customer than they are driving sales.  So, that left us with only one option left: buy a device and test it.

So we did.

And our review comes after the break.

In the wake of the Verizon Iphone announcement and Verizon’s own policy updates AT&T has decided to make some similar revisions to their upgrade policies.

The changes aren’t ending there though.  AT&T is also revising their changing policies on fees, international long distance rates and texting plans along with adding a-la-sprint style “any mobile” calling to the unlimited texting packages.

Read on to learn what’s new and how it may impact your service.

PhoneCan has been trying to hunt down one of the mythical unicorns of the wireless industry.  No, it’s not the Verizon iPhone.  That’s referred to as the Magical Unicorn Pegasus iPhone.  This is something else, entirely.

No, what we’re referring to is the Saygus VPhone.  For those familiar with the model, they will immediately recognize a phone that has never truly materialized.  For those unfamiliar with the phone, we will help you understand what the phone was specified to have when it was “announced.”  We will show you how it’s popped up from time to time across the Internet.  And, we will tell you why we think you’ll never actually get to hold one.

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The stock music player on Android won’t win any awards for design, and though drag and drop syncing is about as easy as it gets, a lot of customers would prefer a more elegant solution.

There are dozens over music players in the market, promising everything from additional file format support, to applications that mimic the look and feel of the iTunes player on an iPhone. Some apps, like DoubleTwist and iSyncr also provide desktop syncing applications to make transferring playlists and songs easier as well.

I’ve tried a handful of media players, and while they’re all nicer looking (and more functional) than the stock application, I never felt like any one applications stood out from the rest. Then I saw that Winamp (remember them?) released an Android music player that promised wireless syncing between your computer and phone. So I decided to dust off my Windows Winamp client, and take their Android application for a test drive.

After the “what is root and how do I do it” question, the next question I hear is often “What task killer should I install?”  The short answer to this?None of them.

Task killers are an odd animal because it’s something that most reps will offer to install for you, and if you install it you WILL notice an increase in battery life.  But those same results can be had without installing a task killer, and task killers often cause more problems than they solve, especially for the average consumer.

As we reported, Verizon President, COO, and overall head honcho, Lowell McAdam, announced yesterday the eminent launch of Verizon Wireless’ LTE (4G) network.  The carrier expects to have their 4G network launched and covering a slew of cities and airports by the end of 2010.

McAdam and Chief Technical Officer, Tony Melone, had a lot to say about the capabilities and attributes of LTE, but didn’t have much else to give us.  Still unknown are the actual launch dates.  Even less known are the devices themselves.  What we do know about, aside from technical specifications, are the launch sites and some tempting bits of information.

PhoneSplat Review: LG Voyager VX-10000/VX10000S
Carrier: Verizon Wireless
Manufacturer: LG

The LG Voyager was Verizon’s first touch-screen (non-PDA) device. The format of the device seems to have been built off the popular LG enV platform, given its similar interior, size, and hinge format, but adds a touch screen interface on the exterior of the device. The Voyager is one of Verizon’s flagship devices, and offers almost 100% of the features available through this carrier. The size of the device causes both concern and praise from users, yet the available features impress just about any customer.

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PhoneSplat Review: Blackberry Curve 8330
Carrier: Verizon Wireless
Manufacturer: Research In Motion

The RIM Blackberry Curve series is one of the two main devices in the Blackberry line. The Curve appears to be the workhorse model for Blackberry – not too stylish while not too plain. Of the Blackberry brand, the Curve has the luxury of having most of its kinks worked out on previous models and previous series. Curve doesn’t disappoint the everyday Blackberry user, though it doesn’t quite “wow” them either.



PhoneSplat Review: Blackberry Curve 8330
Carrier: Verizon Wireless
Manufacturer: Research In Motion

Photo courtesy of RIM.

Rating Stats
Audio: 5
Battery: 4
Camera Quality (2Mpx): 5
Durability: 4
Features: 5
Physical Layout: 4
Speed: 4
Web Browser: 4

Overall Rating: 4.375


The RIM Blackberry Curve series is one of the two main devices in the Blackberry line. The Curve appears to be the workhorse model for Blackberry – not too stylish while not too plain. Of the Blackberry brand, the Curve has the luxury of having most of its kinks worked out on previous models and previous series. Curve doesn’t disappoint the everyday Blackberry user, though it doesn’t quite “wow” them either.



Audio

The sound on the BlackBerry Curve is superb. RIM seems to understand that their Smartphone design needs to incorporate a good phone design. If a wireless device, even if the most gadgety device ever made, can’t function well as a phone, why even include that function?

This Curve warranted a score of five for Audio.


Battery

From day one, the battery on this model was excellent. It lasted four days, easily, between charges, even with use.

The problem we had, though, was that after day fourteen, the battery wasn’t acting as good as it used to.

We realize that the worst possible thing for any battery is charging it – we can all admit that the more we charge the battery, the sooner we are to its eventual demise. But after two weeks of use, the battery should be faring pretty well still, and ours did not.

After two months, the device generally lasts three days with light use, and two with normal use – a far cry from our original four days with normal use only a month and a half ago. Still, the battery fairs well for what the device does, and while our Battery review might sound less than approving at a four, we weren’t very harsh with the battery rating merely because the battery fast-forwarded its own life a few months.


Camera Quality

For a 2 mega pixel camera phone, the Curve does a very good job. Like all camera phones, the zoom leaves little the be desired, but we couldn’t find the gall to belittle it simply because of its “genetics.” There are few camera phones that go above and beyond, and lets face it, the camera isn’t the main focus of the device.

We rated the Camera Quality at five because it took great pictures and didn’t have its camera lens on the surface of the device, which means the camera doesn’t pick up fingerprints, pocket lint, and random particles as easily as others.


Durability

The finish of the device is perfectly suited for the every day user. It’s not entirely covered with a glossy finish, meaning you don’t go crazy wiping fingerprints of the casing, but at the same time the black edges and grey finish don’t beg to be drooled over. Within two months of our test subject, we’d only picked up a few scratches and one minor ding.

We rated the Durability a four because the paint doesn’t seem to be as durable as it could be.


Physical Layout

The first thing we noticed on the Curve was its hollow-feeling trackball. It’s functional by all means, and there don’t seem to be any real issues with it, but compared to previous Blackberry models one would notice the feel of the trackball isn’t quite as smooth as on other models with similar interfaces.

The layout is a lesson in Blackberry evolution. Previous models have come and gone, and its obvious that a lot of user input has gone into the design of the device. However, there’s a lot crammed into that little space, and sometimes the experience on the Curve is a little different from its smaller or older sisters.

We found that there’s a lot hidden in every key on this device, and we honestly believe that RIM doesn’t do enough to adequately prepare the new Blackberry user for where things are. Sure, the QWERTY keyboard is where it should be, but simple things we often use, such as the “&” key, aren’t quite so obvious. The button on the top of the device would be better suited to double as both a ring silencer AND a quick button to change between profile modes (ring vs. vibrate). We realize that a manufacturer can’t put everything on a button, and we have to give great kudos to RIM for including a lot of things without an over-abundance of buttons to avoid.

We rated the physical layout at a four for the following reasons:
The keys don’t feel as solid as they should.
The trackball doesn’t feel as tight and smooth as other models. In fact, the trackball feels “grittier,” if that’s possible.


Speed:
The Blackberry is, by no means, the fastest device on the market. However, its not even close to being slow.

Like many newer devices, the Blackberry takes a very long time to boot up. Despite this, it doesn’t require nearly the same amount of restarts as devices carrying Microsoft software, which means you don’t see the slow start up very often unless you install or delete programs on a regular basis.

We did notice that there can be a little bit of a lag between clicking on a program and that program taking a moment to fire up – mostly with third-party applications. Despite seeing the hourglass on a regular basis, the device moves smoothly and with little load time.

We rated the Speed at a four – not perfect, but not bad, either.


Web Browser

The Blackberry web browser is one of the best out there. It beats most web portals (commonly mislabeled as mobile web), but has some catching up to do with some of the newer HTML browsers on the US market. The browser works well, despite its few shortcomings, and we found we used it a lot more than we ever used Internet Explorer on Windows-based devices.

The Web Browser rated at four with us. It’s good, it’s functional, and it works well for most sites, but it could be a tad better. We still use it more than Opera Browser on the same device.


Based on our scoring system, this device received an Overall Score of 4.375, which definitely places it among the top levels of excellent devices on the US market.


Consumer summary:
The RIM Blackberry Curve for Verizon Wireless is a good purchase. It works well in every category, and shouldn’t disappoint the average user. For those Blackberry fanatics out there, the Curve won’t get your blood pumping as much as it could, but also won’t let you down when you expect it to function as well as its predecessors.