Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

PhoneFusion announced yesterday that their Fusion Voicemail + is coming to the Android platform that will allow users to view their voicemails and listen to them in any order they choose.  This was a big selling point of the original iPhone and now it is coming to the Android platform.

Currently, PhoneFusion offers this software for free to Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, Linux, Palm and Symbian phones via their downloaded application.  PhoneFusion announced the addition of the Android to their compatible platforms at the Under the Radar: Mobility event.  The company says the application will be available before the end of this year.

Find out more about this app.  Click more to follow.

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Fun stats, right?  According to XLINK, it is accurate and 20% of US households are doing just that by the end of this year, jumping off the landline bandwagon.  But is going all cell going to work for your family?  XLINK happens to make a product that it believes will make the transition super-easy.

Stop carrying around your cell phone

Leave it charging!  With XLINK BT, you can connect your cell phone via Bluetooth to your home phone (even without a landline).  A call comes in and is automatically transferred to your house phone via bluetooth.  Your house phone rings just like before you went all high-tech and ditched the landline.  Simple right?  It gets better.

Quick, get a kid

The XLINK BT can add up to 3 cell phones to the system, all linking up Bluetooth style.  So you, the Mrs. and you 1.5 kids can all be connected to the home phones.  The housephone will ring in 3 different sounds so you can tell if that call is worth getting up for or if you should just let it go to voicemail.  And speaking of voicemail, XLINK says their product behaves just like your cell phone, so you can check voicemail from it as well.

The XLINK BT sells for $69.99 (though, their website says $99.99) and the company offers one that bundles with your landline (if you’ve held off cutting it off) for $79.99 (though their website says $109.99). 

Product page [XLINK]

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Today we’ve got a guest post by Scott McGrath.  Scott has worked in the IT industry as a consultant and Sysadmin for 12 years, and has enjoyed communications gadgets since he got his Fisher Price telephone at 2 years of age.  Like what he said?  Hate what he said?  Go over to Scott’s blog at http://www.scamwagon.com and let him know.

Believe it or not, I’m in the market for a cordless phone.  Before you laugh, there’s actually plenty of reasons I maintain a land line, not the least of which is the fact that I have poor cell coverage at my home, and not the most of which is the fact that cellular usually can not hold a candle to the real deal PSTN or good VoIP line, in terms of quality.  Cordless phones still have life since some can pair to your cell phone so you don’t have to rush to find that tiny handheld when it rings.  If you’re a Skype user, you can be untethered with some cordless phones.

Continued after the break.

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A decently known cell phone manufacturer, Hop-on, has recently decided to create a phone running Google’s Android platform.  In case you are not familiar with Hop-on, it is basically a company that creates cell phones as well as accessories for diverse and new markets.  They are probably most known for creating the world’s first disposable phone.  One of the special things about Google’s Android that makes it so appealing is the fact that anyone can create apps for it, as it is open source.  Plenty more after the break.

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Sections: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Web, Google

A new service focused around the use of cell phones has been announced, it’s called “My Mobile Witness.“  Upon first seeing the name, I immediately felt like I wanted to bash it for being some sort of invasion of privacy-enabling service.  Turns out that isn’t the case.  My Mobile Witness is actually what it calls “a personal security device.“  It actually sounds a bit useful if not hard to anticipate when to use it.

The service works by the user taking a picture of the area they are in, a license plate, a suspicious person, or something similar.  The picture (or text message) is uploaded to a server that is apparently only viewable by police.  The situations the press release describe would prove the service to be useful: taking a picture of a street sign in an unfamiliar area, taking a picture of a marker on an unfamiliar hiking path during a storm, among others.  The information, if used for a crime, can apparently be used in court as well.

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I’m not kidding. Yes, I realize you are still waiting for the originals, and now you hear news of new and upgraded versions.  Apparently, there is going to be an announcement of a Storm-like device at WES 2009.  Granted, RIM doesn’t exactly have the best track record when it comes to launch dates, so you may want to take that one with a grain of salt.  So much more after the break.

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Nokia’s first touchscreen phone, Nokia 5800 was a blast for Nokia fanatics.  Nokia has recently made another statement pertaining to the production of Nokia touchscreen phones in the future.  In a recent event in India, Devinder Kishore, Marketing Director of Nokia revealed, “We will have lot of touchscreen phones coming up, including an N-series device very soon.“.

Well, this proves that Nokia is really up to the challenge to compete with its rivals and it’s evolving fast!  With the promising looks of Nokia 5800, we are certainly anxious for the next touchscreen product from Nokia.

Read [Cellpassion]

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Talk about ideal product placement gone mad.  In the upcoming James Bond Quantum of Solace movie, there are eight different characters sporting six different Ericsson phones.  And nope, they don’t even have to tape over the brand name….I’m sure Sony paid plenty to be the featured phone of choice.

The six featured phones somehow also magically include the canceled Ericsson W707.  The new character Elvis has that one.  Bond himself sports the C902 (in the limited Titanium Silver color of course).  The Bond girl uses the W350 in Graphic White color; for anyone wanting to be just like the love of Bond’s life remember Graphic White.  As for the rest of the characters, we have M catching calls with the G700 (in Mineral Grey), Matthus using the G700, CIA with the W910, and another new character, Green, pockets the G900. 

What goodies come with Bond’s phone?  Find out after the break.

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Orange had to suspend their sale of the Blackberry Bold, listing their reason as “software issues” in an internal memo to employees.  It seems that AT&T wasn’t the only company having issues with this one.  At least they chose to hold off and try to sort things out instead of rushing a release date. 

In the meantime, RIM is attempting fix the situation.  This came as a result of issues starting in the UK, where the Bold was pulled off the shelves. As a result, shipments in the US have been repeatedly delayed and it now looks like we know why.

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For those of you who ordered your G1 and just can’t wait for it to get here, you can get your G1 fix right now (sort of).  A new site, launched by T-Mobile, offers a G1 emulator  (pictured) so you can play around and get the feel for it ahead of time.

The site offers a full 360 degree view of the phone, visual instruction guides so you know what you’re doing, and, of course, the emulator itself.  Now, I’ve got to say, I tried this and if I wasn’t sure what to think of the G1.  I just don’t know if this would sway me into buying it.  It’s not that I think the G1 might not be a great phone, but because the emulator, itself, is pretty buggy and several features don’t work right.

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Sections: Communications, Accessories, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Mobile, Web, Web 2.0, Web Apps, Websites