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This weekend I had the pleasure of experiencing a 3-day swim meet with my daughter at the University of Incarnate Word. While I didn’t enjoy getting up at 5:30 AM every morning, I did enjoy people watching during the course of the long days. With hours and hours of down time, I, like many others, took to my smart phone to pass the time. As I look around, it seems that EVERYONE has a smart phone of some kind. I’ve seen Dad’s getting score updates on NFL playoff games, Mom’s taking pictures with their multi-pixel smart phones kids playing games and listening to music. I personally have pushed my Blackberry to the max…I’ve watched entire TV shows, listened to my music, streamed the UT Men’s basketball game, sent Blackberry Messenger updates on my daughter’s progress to friends and family, read my entire newspaper and other articles from my Viigo, browsed the Net, played online blackjack and poker, taken pictures/video, followed the weather AND used the stopwatch timer on my Tour (whew). Needless to say, my smart phone has had a workout this weekend. I’ve also done my best to “educate” others on applications or uses on their own smart phones that perhaps they were unaware of. If you’re still one of the few people that do not have a smart phone, perhaps it’s time that you look at one now. You too can do all of these things for just a few extra bucks a month. If you’d like to know how, call me…(800) GET-A-CELL. Don’t settle for another “dumb” phone when you could have the World at your finger tips! Oh, and did I mention that I even posted this blog from my phone?

Cell phones have been around for a relatively long time. Many people I know claim they used to have bag phones, I personally do not remember anybody having a bag phone. Then a while later we had those Nokia bar phones with the horrible screens and we all thought we were cool. So how much have phones changed since a few years ago?

We have always been able to make calls, some people debate the coverage and call quality. My favorite lines go something like “With my bag phone I could make calls underwater and they sounded perfect”. Then we started taking advantage of text messaging, web, e-mail, media. That is where we are now, we have devices available that do so much more.

I have a Blackberry, Blackberry and Palm have been in the smartphone market for some time. Blackberry has been constantly evolving, albeit a little slower than some other companies. Palm has basically reinvented themselves to use their new WebOS. With my Blackberry I send/receive text messages, I can update and read my Facebook, I update my Twitter, I read news and other RSS feeds with Viigo (which is super awesome). I do so many more things it is hard to list them.

As much as I love my Blackberry, Apple’s iPhone is, in my opinion, what changed the game. Apple made a device that has much more memory that RIM devices or Palm devices had. They released a fairly simple development kit to developers. The iPhone became more about the apps than the phone. People thought “Wow I never knew I would be able to do this with a phone”. Apple is very smart and they did a great job marketing and showing us some of the cool apps, they also give the feeling that there is an application for everything you could imagine.

Windows has been making their Windows Mobile platform evolve. I am really excited for Windows Mobile 6.5 to come out. I used to have a Motorola Q, which was my first smartphone, I liked it but did not love it. I liked Windows Mobile, I love Blackberry OS. I am keeping an eye on this one to see how it goes.

The next big contributor to the smartphone realm was Google. For me Google is just an awesome company, some people know them for their search engine only, but now they have thing Chrome browser and Google Voice which are cool products. Google initially had a good relationship with HTC, but now Motorola and LG are going to start making Android devices. It is open, so I think many manufacturers will start using the Android OS and tweaking it to fit lower end and higher end devices.

Our phones have always done what they have done, they have slowly added features and we have been familiar with the layout. The main things that change are what carrier you have. A Sprint phone’s menu may look different from an ATT phone. The first time you pick up a Blackberry you are lost, although once you get the hang of it YOU LOVE IT, at least I do.

Carriers know applications (apps) are what people are falling in love with, they are trying to cater to these apps a little more now (think LG enV3). A dumbphone will not let you cater to apps, at least not in the capacity that will make them successful. I see business users using Blackberry for years to come. Some business users I think will also use iPhone. Google Android and Palm WebOS are the operating systems to watch. With their abilities they can be tweaked to fit into a consumer or business customer device.

If you have any questions you can contact us. You can also reach me on Twitter @gizmoalex or Charlie @phonestore. We like to think we are smartphone experts, but we also love using our gadgets and devices and we want people to enjoy them too. If you have any questions or any suggestions let us know.

A few days ago Blackberry Messenger 5.0 leaked. It is available through download and install via desktop manager. Thanks to @0mie BBM 5.0 is available for download on most Blackberries as an Over the Air (OTA) install straight from the Blackberry Browser. Make sure you read carefully and you backup all of your information (especially your Blackberry Messenger Contacts) before you start this process.

I was so excited for the news, I installed immediately on my phone (Sprint 8330/Curve) and it worked like a champ. I installed on my wife’s phone (Verizon 9530/Storm) and  it worked like a champ. Once I did this I told everybody I knew that had a Blackberry to install the new BBM 5.0 and gave them a link to @0mie’s site. Of course one of my BB peeps @daytripper67 and a co-worker, Jeannette, lost all of their contacts on their BBM and lost BBM all together. I know this was hard for you ladies and I apologize it happened. Now for my initial thoughts on BBM 5.0

My first thoughts on the BBM were “very cool”/ It looked a lot better right from the start. Things seemed larger and fairly easier to scroll through. I remembered reading you could customize your avatar and I immediately did that. The cool thing is it lets crop the pic and as of now if you set an avatar your other BBM contacts will see it. If you want to add me my pin is 31A65D47 and my shirt says “I’m a Little Beach”.

You now have a tab that comes up for recent updates. Anybody that has updated their status, or their saying, or picture will all be listed here. I really like that you can pretty easily set group chats and you can also set a subject to the chat. You can still send a picture, voicenote, and file as before. You know can also send your location to a contact and you can even set up a proximity sensor. I leave mine off because the element of surprise is important to me.

I think contacts are easier to add now. I can add by e-mail, PIN, or can scan a QR Code. I love the QR Code and it is quite easy to do the first time you do it. You just have to choose “Scan invitation barcode from another Blackberry”, it will trigger your camera, and the rest is history. You now have the ability to back up and restore contacts on your memory card or device memory.You can now Broadcast a Message to all or a select group of your contacts, which I love because sometimes I feel I copy and paste the same message to several contacts.

Overall I love the new BBM 5.0. It was a little wonky the first day or two, but that is because I think it was on different servers. My BBM 5.0 experience has been very pleasant since yesterday. Two things I recommend doing before making the BBM 5.0 dive; back up your whole device, and make sure you have the newest OS on your phone. I think this may have had something to do with the contacts being deleted on the other phones. As always if you have any questions contact us, e-mail alex@thephonestoreinc.com directly, or you can message @gizmoalex or @phonestore.

Okay, it has been announced for a few months. I am eligible for an upgrade (with Sprint) and my inner Crackberry addict is really struggling against my inner “I want every new tech toy that comes out”. I feel committed to Blackberry. I started with the 8830 and now I have the 8330. I have not had it nearly as long as some other addicts, but I do love it just as much.

That “it” I am referring to is the Palm Pre. The coolest phone Sprint has hyped up in a long while. There has not been a really cool consumer type phone that has looked like it was going to live up to the hype since the Fusic. I know it was a few years ago, but it was pretty cool. So the Palm Pre is a touchscreen, slideout QWERTY, angel of a phone.

The Boy Genius has recently put his little paws on the phone and says it is a pretty solid choice. He did not write too much, but says the touchscreen is good. The only gripe he had was with the top row of keys on the QWERTY. I am a BB fan, a Windows 6.5 fan, the new WebOS fan, and an Android fan, It is hard to like all of these things, but relying heavily on e-mail keeps me glued to my BB. So a coin flip may determine whether I get the Pre or not. The other determining factor may be an announcement of another cool device (Blackberry Tour/Niagara) in the coming months. If you have any questions contact us or you can @message me on Twitter (@gizmoalex) or (@phonestore).

I love my Blackberry and there are not a lot of moments it is out of my hand. So I think sometimes, what can I put on my Blackberry to make it more productive?

One of my favorite apps is Viigo, as I have said before. It makes me more productive because it brings my favorite news to me. It is delivered in a nice clean little package. Now Viigo has movie times, sports scores, and podcasts (coming soon).

I have Sprint, and another super handy thing my Blackberry allows me to do is use my Phone as Modem. There are times when your internet connection may crash, and Blackberry to the RESCUE…… I just fire up my Sprint Smartview connection manager software, plug in my Blackberry, and start surfing the web again. This has literally saved me on numerous occasions when the old internet goes down. It lets me continue to help my customers (at work).

The last thing I really like and recommend everybody does on any phone they have with a memory card is put some portable applications on it. I love the website PortableApps.com. I use Firefox portable which lets me keep my bookmarks with me at all times, and it also lets me keep all my Firefox extensions which really lets me take my browser with me. I also highly recommend CC Cleaner portable, VLC Media Player, and ClamWin AntiVirus.

These few tips and tricks will hopefully help you love your Blackberry a little more than you already do. Hey who knows, maybe your Blackberry can come to somebodie’s rescue. If you have any questions direct message me on Twitter @gizmoalex or contact us.

Sorry for the late night post, but this is something I thought I posted before, but apparently I have not. There are some BBs and other Smartphones that have their MMS disabled. This means you can’t send a regular picture mail, you have to send it to an e-mail address.

I do not know about you, but there are some people I know that do not have e-mail addresses, but that would still like pictures of my beautiful Guitar Hero playing daughter. There is a way to send an “e-mail” straight to a person’s phone. Here are the codes:

Sprint : MDN@pm.sprint.com
Verizon : MDN@vzwpix.com
Cingular : MDN@mms.mycingular.com
US Cellular : MDN@mms.uscc.net
T-Mobile : MDN@tmomail.net
Nextel : MDN@messaging.nextel.com
Alltel : MDN@message.alltel.com
AT&T : MDN@mms.att.net
Boost Mobile : MDN@myboostmobile.com
Virgin Mobile : MDN@vmobl.com

I will update this as soon as possible with Cricket/Leap Wireless and I will make sure it still works for the new Boost Unlimited. Other than that if you have any questions please feel free to contact us, or if you use Twitter direct message @gizmoalex or @phonestore.

Ok, a few weeks/months ago I wrote about Slacker Radio coming to the Blackberry. I have been using Slacker and setting all my Blackberry customers up with it. Now comes Pandora, Pandora is a similar music streaming station.

When you log into Pandora the first time it asks you if you have an account (which I do) or if you are a new customer. You can set up your settings from here. I entered my e-mail address and password and pretty much hit the ground running. It had a list of my previously created stations (Bubblegum Oldies, where did that come from?). It has a pretty slick interface and seems to be very responsive.

I am on Sprint’s 3G network and after selecting my song it loaded very very fast. The main screen shows you the Album Art, Song’s Title and Album. There is a spot where you can “Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down” the song. This will play it more often, or stop playing it. You can also skip, I skipped twice before I didn’t want to try anymore (Creep Acoustic Version). The actual website only lets you skip 3 times an hour.

So if you like music and you have a Blackberry get this application. There are great alternatives like IHeartRadio which is really awesome because it lets you listen to some local radio stations. Slacker is awesome because it lets you cache your stations and listen when you are off network. Also, Slacker is only available for the Bold, Curve, and Pearl series phones. If you have any questions please contact us, or Direct Message @gizmoalex or @phonestore on Twitter.

The Palm Pre has been a phone I have been looking forward to since I heard it was announced. I really have been hearing cool things about it, and there are several videos which show off some of it’s features. One of The Phone Store’s close friends, Bernadette, is really a huge Palm fan and this is the phone she says she is most looking forward to….ever.

The Palm Pre is awesome and it has continued to impress me. They just announced Flash support for the Palm Pre. This is huge news since there can be Flash based videos or applications. This is the phone to look out for. As everybody knows, I love Blackberry. I am looking forward to the “Niagara”, but the Palm Pre could really change the game again. It should set a new standard on a business centric phone, having really cool consumer features. If you have any questions contact us. You can also Direct Tweet @gizmoalex or @phonestore. Also, the word on the street hints at a March/April release stay tuned.

We usually post some industry news or new applications (mostly for Blackberry). Today I want our post to be another way to find help for your phone, instead of searching “The Googles” for forums. There is a huge community of people that belong to Twitter. The great thing is some of these people are tech oriented, and many of them seem to be very nice.

Now on Twitter it seems like there are some people out there to solely promote their business. There are also great people like @johnmccrea from Plaxo that reach out to their customer base and address questions or issues they have regarding their product.

One fairly common link is many people that are on Twitter usually Tweet from their phones, and many are tech oriented. Just the other day, I found a cool case for my wife’s Blackberry Storm just by asking, “Does anybody know any good cases for the Storm?” This simple question gave me many opinions. The same rule applies. There are people out there asking, which phone should I get, or how do I (fill in the phone question here). Sure enough, the Twitter community usually comes to the rescue and responds.

For my phone, the Curve, I use an application called Twitterberry to update. You can download at http://www.orangatame.com/products/twitterberry. There are other options as well for Blackberry. Gizmodo has provided a great battlemodo of Twitter apps for the iphone here. So if you have any questions you can contact us, or send me a message @gizmoalex, and I will respond as soon as I can.

That is a bold title, I know. When most people think of a phone right now they think iPhone. I have people walking into our stores asking for iPhones. They do not know what they do, they do not know how they would use them, but the know they want an iPhone. I can say the same thing for the Blackberry, just on a much smaller level, people ask for the Blueberry, or something along those lines, and do not really know what it does. They just know they want a Blackberry.

Well, there are die hard iPhone fans, and die hard Blackberry addicts. Both factions think their device is the best, although both also just dismiss all the good things the opposing device does. I think the iPhone is one of the coolest looking devices out there. It is very sleek looking and has a good “Apple” feel. It looks very modern and feel great in the hand. Blackberrys mostly are all a little different. You have the Storm, Curve, Bold, Pearl, World Series, and so on. I think the Curve is the most popular Blackberry and it looks nice, but not quite up to par with the iPhone.

The iPhone community is great, there are many innovative applications/games on there that I really like, some are JellyCar, Trace, Twitteriffic, and Spanish LE. There are hundreds more, and many of them are really cool. This is an area where the iPhone has pulled away from most makers. The applications developers have made for this really has made it a great device for most people. Both hardcore and casual users can appreciate many of the free and pay for applications. Blackberry has a ton of applications, but many of them are business driven. They are made to help improve operation costs for businesses, and Blackberrys (along with Palm and Windows phones) really help businesses run.

I use my phone a lot for e-mailing, texting, and talking. My good old 8830 aka “The Beast” was great, and my Blackberry Curve is just as good for that. A few things really make the Blackberry pull away from the iPhone in this category. For me the main thing is battery life. My 8830, 8330 Curve, and 9530 Storm have all had better battery life than the iPhone. The 3g iPhone is a little worse off, especially when you are using the WiFi. The other real major winner for me with Blackberry is the keyboard. The keyboards are great. I love my Curve and 8830, I have used the Pearl’s Suretype and it works well. Even though the Storm is touch screen I prefer it over the iPhone. It is much easier to not mess up on the Storm, and the keys are spaced a little further apart.

So do I hate the iPhone? The answer is no. I respect it, it is very cool, but I really need to have the best at e-mails and the best phone available, that is why I have a Blackberry. I have an iPod Touch because I do appreicate the applications, but until Apple steps up and improves a few things RIM is king of the hill. If you have any questions feel free to contact us.