Tech & Co.

Virgin Mobile has always been a value-oriented carrier here in the U.S. by offering plans starting at $35 a month for unlimited data and texts with 300 minutes of talking. Recently, they have been receiving some very decent handsets with the likes of the LG Optimus Elite, HTC One V, and their best handsets the iPhone 4 and 4s. Kyocera has decided to add to that lineup with their Rise handset. The Kyocera Rise is a $100 smart phone that offers a 3.5 inch 480 x 320 HVGA display, a single-core 1GHZ Snapdragon processor, a 3.2MP camera, with LED flash, 2GB of built-in storage with a microSD slot, a QWERTY keyboard, and stock Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. These specs are not going to make this handset rise  to the top of the QWERTY throne, but it is a very decent QWERTY addition to Virgin Mobile's lineup. We can not say anything for ourselves about its keyboard, but it looks like a decent keyboard. This handset is very similar to the Kyocera Hydro on Boost Mobile, but the Rise does

When the Samsung Galaxy Note was first unveiled at IFA 2011, it showed a very nice handset with great performance, a great camera, and a fantastic display. This device was then regarded as a niche device, because it had a very large 5.3 inch display. This opinion changed rather quickly after millions of people from all around the world, even the United States, rushed to buy this gargantuan device. Samsung saw the success of the Note and released this to the American market on AT&T and T-Mobile, and sold numerous more units. Yesterday at IFA, Samsung released the successor to this device the Samsung Galaxy Note II. This device introduces many new features such as a faster processor, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, a better camera, and an improved S-Pen. How does this new Note stack up to the tough competition of today? Is the Note II a worthy successor to the original? Find out this and more on our overview of the Samsung Galaxy Note II. Design The Samsung Galaxy Note keeps the same

Nowadays, it is very hard to get unlimited data on American carriers. Sprint has truly unlimited data, but you are either on super slow 3G EV-DO speeds with their flagships, or you are on slow WiMax "4G". T-Mobile has "unlimited" data that is throttled to 2G after you have gone over your certain data allowance. Verizon and AT&T have chosen to offer tiered data that is at full speed, but you will be charged overages if you go over your data allowance. Most prepaid carriers offer unlimited data, but it either had spotty coverage or is throttled. To sum up America's carriers, you can get either slow unlimited data or you can get fast limited data. T-Mobile has chosen to break this American carrier data situation by offering truly unlimited data starting September 5th. This will be the first major American carrier to bring back unlimited data after previously offering tiered data options. This means that you can enjoy all the speedy HSPA+ data you want for a n

There have been many smartphones that have bad, long names like the Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE, the Samsung Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch, and many other smartphones. The Samsung Galaxy S Blaze Q is another badly named smartphone that will land on T-Mobile in the near future. We are thinking that it will come rather soon, because the screen on the Blaze Q shows an August 15th date. The Galaxy S Blaze Q is supposed to have a 1.5GHZ dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor, 1GB of RAM, 16GB built-in storage, 1080p video recording, and a 720p display. We do not think that the 720p display is going to be likely, because Samsung's smallest HD display is 4.65 inches and the fact that this is supposed to be a mid-range device. This handset is also supposed to have Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich with the Nature UX as the screen depicts. The five-row QWERTY keyboard does not look like a stellar keyboard, because the keys look widely spaced and mushy. We also think that this is a phone made to accompan

Sprint customers have been waiting for a new QWERTY slider for a long time (the Epic 4G came out TWO YEARS AGO Sprint) and the Photon Q 4G LTE has answered their prayers. The Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE is available for pre-order now, and it will be available on August 19th for $200 on contract. The Photon Q 4G LTE is the successor to last year's Photon 4G, and it is the first worthy QWERTY device on Sprint since the Epic 4G that was released in 2010. If you have not already heard about the Photon 4G LTE, it is a QWERTY slider smartphone that has very nice spec list. The Photon Q 4G LTE has a 4.3 inch 720p ColorBoost display, a dual-core 1.2GHZ processor of an unknown maker (hopefully it is an Snapdragon S4), an 8MP 1080p rear-facing camera with LED flash, a 1.3MP front-facing camera, Sprint 4G LTE (hence the name), and the star feature, a five row physical keyboard. The keyboard looks very much like the fantastic keyboard on the Droid 4 with its laser-cut keys and LED backlighting

We have already knew that the  Samsung Galaxy Note was going to be on T-Mobile , but now the smartphone has come to the market. The T-Mobile flavor of the successful phablet is available for $250 after a $50 mail-in rebate, with a two year contract. The Note is available either online, in a T-Mobile store, or in most major retailers. The Note is a very nice handset, but we think that the thought of the Note's successor coming in the next month may deter people away from this handset. If you have not read about the Samsung Galaxy Note before, it is a giant 5.3 inch phablet (phone+tablet) that still offers a nice display, good performance, and a quality camera. The only disappointing part is that it does not offer top-of-the-line performance anymore, and its successor is going to be released in the coming weeks. If you absolutely need to get the note taking handset now and want the note features over anything, the Galaxy Note is still a great choice for you. If you are a power user

This is a new post that will be recurring seasonally on Mobile Tech Note to provide you the information you need to know on making your best choice for buying a smartphone. For the four major American carriers, we will give you the best choice for the best smartphone, the best smartphone with a keyboard, and the best inexpensive smartphone that is $50 or less. For the smaller American carriers (ex. prepaid and regional), we will give the best smartphone at any cost. We will also say our favorite unlocked handset. In our recommendations, we will make cross-carrier comparisons, and tell you other options if you just do not like the smartphone we picked. Here is Mobile Tech Note's smartphone buyer's guide for summer 2012. Verizon Wireless The absolute best Samsung Galaxy S III Operating System: Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich Processor: 1.5GHZ dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4  Memory: 2GB RAM, 16GB/32GB built-in storage Display: 4.8 inch 1,280 x 720 Super AMOLE

There have been many phablets (phone+tablet that have very large screens) that have been sold around the world, but Samsung basically conquers the phablet space with the Samsung Galaxy Note. LG has also attempted it with the Vu, but it is only available in Korea, and it is a very terrible rendition of a phablet. Rumors for a five inch HTC smartphone have been going around the internet for awhile, and this device looks like it will fit the bill. An entry for a HTC 6435LVW that surfaced at  GLBenchmark.com  seems to look a lot like the features you would find in a phablet. This device is supposed to have a 1.5GHZ dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor, Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich (probably with the Sense 4.0 or 4.1 skin), and the biggest feature of the device, a 1,794 x 1,080 display. The whole display could be 1,920 x 1,080 to fit the three onscreen Android buttons that are available in Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean. So far, HTC's Ice Cream Sandwich devices have had capacitive

There have been many versions of the Motorola Droid Razr (Mototola Razr abroad), but we think that the Motorola Razr V is the best iteration yet. The Motorola Razr V has improved upon the original 2011 Razr by adding a better ColorBoost display (a qHD not HD display), but it is 1.24mm thicker at 8.35mm. Other than those few changes, you are getting the same 1.2GHZ dual-core processor, 8 megapixel camera, and 14.4MBPS HSPA+ data speeds. The Razr V also keeps some of the same design cues as the Razr with its Kevlar back and the hump with the camera, speaker, and flash on it. The Razr V can be bought at Bell for $30 on a three year contract, or for $400 sans-contract. The Razr V is a great addition to Bell's lineup, but we would prefer the unlocked Samsung Galaxy Nexus which delivers a direct path to Jelly Bean, and fast, smooth performance at a cheaper price. Want more information on the Droid Razr's Canadian cousin? Check out the source links below for more information.

Some of you may not know what the mysterious PlayBook tablet is, and that is somewhat of a good thing. The BlackBerry PlayBook was a tablet that was released early last year, and was a great enterprise tablet. It offered nice performance, but the tablet OS was not fully baked, it did not have many apps, and it did not have many of the features that are expected in a tablet. In the recent months, some people have bought it for its cheap price of $200. Now, R.I.M. (BlackBerry) has decided to release a new, faster PlayBook that has 4G LTE included in it. The LTE PlayBook has 32GB of storage, the PlayBook OS 2.0.1, a new 1.5GHZ processor (up from the original 1GHZ), and the same other features that came with the original PlayBook. This new tablet will come to the Canadian carrier Telus on August 9th, but it will also come to the Caribbean, Latin America, Europe, South Africa, and the U.S. in the "coming months". Want more information on R.I.M.'s update to their enterprise b

Were you one of the people that bought into the Beats branded HTC Rezound last year? Have you been waiting forever to get your hands on Ice Cream Sandwich? If you are this kind of person then we have good new for you. HTC and Verizon have finally released the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update to the HTC Rezound. This update is an OTA (over the air) update that brings Ice Cream Sandwich with the legacy Sense 3.6 skin. Do not worry if you do not get the update right now, because updates take a couple days to a week to reach everyone's Rezound. We are not sure of this, but we think that this update will bring some of the Ice Cream Sandwich features like face unlock, settings in the notification tray, etc. For those of you that do not know what the HTC Rezound is, it is a very nice handset that was the first U.S. carrier phone to have a 720p display, and it was the first U.S. phone with the Beats branding. We personally like the Rezound, because it has a great display, offers gre

Only a short time after AT&T launched the Atrix HD, U.S. Cellular kept the ball rolling by launching the Electrify 2. This new handset is the successor to last year's Electrify, which was basically a rehashed Photon 4G. U.S. Cellular says that the pricing is different by location, but we think the Electrify 2 will be available at around $180 (after $100 mail-in rebate) with a two year contract in most places. The Electrify has a nice selection of features with its 4.3 inch ColorBoost display, 8MP rear-facing camera that can take 1080p video, a LED flash, a front-facing VGA camera, a 1.2GHZ dual-core processor from an unspecified vendor, 1GB RAM, 8GB of built-in storage (expandable to 40GB with a 32GB SD card), world phone capabilities, a 1,780 MAH battery, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich with the Motorola skin, and a 3G radio. The Electrify 2 also cuts a slim profile, like the Motorola Razr and Atrix, at 8.4mm thin. This handset has the same on-screen buttons and UI that we sa