Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

As our Doug Berger posted on earlier this month, presidential candidate Barack Obama offered to send you a text message with his VP choice.  You’d be among the first to know, as Obama was leaking this info to you first, instead of the talking heads over at CNN and the like.

So how many gave away their phone number? It is estimated 2.9 million parted ways with that morsel of data.  Shocked?  Astounded?  Me too.  And not just with Obama’s choice of running mates.

Nielsen Mobile makes this estimate and calls it the biggest mobile marketing campaign ever.  So far.

Since younger voters tend to skew toward the ranks of the non-voters, bringing this group to the table could prove huge come this December. Brian McConnell over at Gigom wrote up a thoughtful post on the far reaching effects of thinking outside the networks:

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Mystery has surrounded the whole HTC Dream G1 launch from T-Mobile since word broke about the Android-powered Dream. There has been speculation running rampant about what the first Android headset is going to look like. Websites had mock-ups showing different views of what people thought it might be. There was even a video. Well, apparently, there have been photos leaked “from a trusted source” of what the G1 is going to look like...and there are a few things people didn’t see coming.

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MobileSphere recently launched a free voice messaging service called (very aptly!) Slydial, that connects you automatically to someone’s voice mail so you can leave a message when you don’t feel like going through the conversation mode, or are pressed for time.

Some of the scenario’s they present where Slydial could be especially useful are quite humorous, others very realistic.  Feel like taking a play day and you are calling in “oh so sick” and don’t want to actually talk to your boss? There you go. How about that “let’s just be friends” call that you’re too chicken to actually have the other person on the other end of the line listening to because you don’t want to hear an hour’s worth of sobbing? Uh-huh. Want to call and thank Great Aunt Bessie for the lovely birthday sweater she sent you, but don’t want to hear all about her aches and pains for a half-hour? Yep, you’re seeing where this could come in handy, aren’t you?

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This is where we call out by names the actions and companies that seem odd, out of touch or just plain straight up smokin crack.  Technology is an odd realm where PR speak doesn’t hold a lot of water if the 1s and 0s don’t line up.  This week sees posturing, positioning and flat out insanity.  Here is what caught my eye this week:

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There was a lot of talk about who would take the biggest blow in the smartphone world with the intro of the iPhone.  A Changewave study shows this chart.  What’s interesting isn’t the data the graph is making obvious, it is the totals. 

If you add up the % of the smartphone market, you’ll find the total market segment being served by Palm, Rim and Apple throughout this period isn’t changing.  It is staying relatively flat at about 2/3rds of all smartphones.  So this would suggest, the merry trio are not bringing new folks into the smartphone market, rather just cutting up the pie differently.

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So we’ve all been there. That rush of panic when we’ve lost (or at least momentarily think we’ve lost) our cell phone.  When our phone contains lots of confidential data like bank info and emails, the panic level tends to rise even more quickly. Now we don’t have to just worry about Joe Finder using up our minutes, but now Joe Finder could access our bank accounts and read all those spicy emails we sent to Suzy at the office, uh-oh. This not even counting in the fact that the money spent on the phone is now down the drain.

Enter your possible savior, the cell phone Superhero! Nope, it’s not some guy sporting a cape and a mask (regardless of their logo), but a new service just launched yesterday in the US and Canada from YouGetItBack.com. Claiming to be able to protect your confidential data and aid in safely returning your gadget, YouGetItBack.com may just be a lost cell phone users new best friend.  The way it works is that once a phone is lost or stolen, subscribers of the downloadable software simply go online and remotely lock their mobile phone. This will prevent anyone else from being able to make calls or access information on the device. Subscribers are also able to retrieve contacts from the phone via the internet.

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In the smartphone OS wars (and here I use the term “smartphone” to refer to a phone that is comfortable to get email and internet on only), we are seeing long standing users jumping to upstart Apple; but that is not the news.  The news here is longtime Microsoft Mobile loyalists are taking a good look at where they are and just how green the lawn is over the fence.

Take straight-shooting Gears from Coolsmartphone.com.  His site is a mecca for many hooked on Windows Mobile (WM) for news, tips and tricks.  In a post on Sunday, Gears reflects where Windows is and his take on where things are headed.  Things are not looking so hot to Gears: “ I’m more worried than I was 6 months ago.”

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Finishing up it’s two-day convention in San Fransisco yesterday, YPulse National Mashup is a yearly event that brings together youth media and marketing professionals from brands, agencies, and the non-profit sector to share practices for reaching today’s totally wired youth. And this year’s findings were a rather obvious one for anyone walking around any school, mall, or other teen gathering place. Teens are becoming more and more mobile and cell companies, advertisers, and other media companies plan to be sure to capitalize on this.

And capitalize on it they will indeed be able to.  It’s estimated that teens wield a whopping $200 billion annually in discretionary spending. Yep, you read that correctly, and it wasn’t a typo. Two-hundred BILLION. Today’s kids must be charging much more for lawn-mowing services than back in the day, or else get one heck of an allowance.

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Not wanting to be outdone by their competitors, Panasonic has upgraded two of its Toughbook models with the new Intel Centrino 2 chipset. These newly updated Toughbooks are the 15.4-inch CF-52 and the 13.3-inch Toughbook CF-74 and in addition to the Centrino 2 chipset they also now have Wi-Fi 802.11n connectivity.

Both machines are packed with 160GB shock-mounted hard drives, full magnesium alloy case, spill resistant keyboard and touchpad, and are mobile broadband ready for AT&T, Sprint and Verizon Wireless networks. The CF-52 also features an integrated fingerprint scanner and a DVD multi-drive, while the CF-72 boasts a durable, spill-resistant touchscreen LCD.

These upgraded Toughbooks will both be available sometime in August with retail prices starting at $1,949 for the CF-52 and $3,199 for the CF-74.

Product [Panasonic] Via [I4U]

Go figure.  CNBC says SK Telecom is in talks to purchase Sprint Nextel; obviously SK Telecom does not read my ”Who’s on Crack” column where I’ve made fun of Sprint a couple of times.

SK Telecom recently dumped Helio on Virgin Mobile at a loss and is probably thinking, “what do I do with all these dollars?” You sure don’t change them back into euros.  SK made an offer last November that was rejected by Sprint.  CNBC cites sources that say SK is looking for a friendly deal and they won’t be going it alone, they’d secure help from funds with the purchase.

Our own Elizabeth Young noted just last week how well Sprint seemed to be doing, maybe SK reads her stuff…

More as it happens.

Read [Barrons]