A new type of T-Mobile cellphone can place calls over Wi-Fi for a flat monthly fee without using regular cellphone minutes and can switch seamlessly to regular cellular service, but has a few drawbacks.
The iPod Touch is an elegant and capable music player, but this cousin of the iPhone is short on battery life and lacks some important software features, writes Walt Mossberg. (Video)
A free cellphone service called ChaCha lets you ask any question answerable via a Web search, by simply making a voice call. In most cases, it gave fast, accurate answers. But it has a few weaknesses.
Here is a guide to checking your email, looking up information and updating your calendar, just by sending text messages. You can use any cellphone, but you’ll need a generous text-messaging plan.
Guest columnist Vauhini Vara is filling in this week for Walt Mossberg, who returns June 5.
The parade of iPhone lookalikes continues, and the latest to arrive is the Samsung Instinct. While it isn’t a bad phone and has some features the Apple product lacks, it’s no match for the iPhone.
This summer, Wi-Fi access will arrive in the passenger cabins of some commercial U.S. airliners with a new system called Gogo. For travelers who want to stay connected in the air, Gogo does the job, but it has its limitations.
Xobni is a new, free plug-in module for Outlook that has some flaws, but Walt Mossberg finds that it turns the email experience from one that was organized by messages and dates into one that is organized by people and relationships.
In the exciting new category of modern hand-held computers — devices that fit in your pocket but are used more like a laptop than a traditional phone — there has so far been only one serious option. But that will all change on Oct. 22, when T-Mobile and Google bring out the G1, the first hand-held computer that’s in the same class as Apple’s iPhone.
Walt reviews the latest entrants in the “netbook” category–devices that are between a laptop and a smart phone in size and versatility–and finds some compelling choices.
Wi-Fi wireless Internet connectivity has become nearly ubiquitous. Whether you’re at home, in a coffee shop, or even on some commercial airliners, you can get online with a Wi-Fi-equipped laptop, smart phone or portable game machine. Now, Wi-Fi is making its way into your car.
Walt reviews the hotly anticipated BlackBerry Storm, the first BlackBerry model without a physical keyboard. Typing and navigation require tapping on glass, just as users do on the iPhone. Verizon will be selling the Storm for $250 with a two-year contract, though a $50 mail-in rebate can bring the price down close to the $199 that Apple charges for the base model of the iPhone.
Walt finds that Amazon.com has fixed the worst design flaws in the Kindle, its popular electronic-book reader, while maintaining the excellent book-buying experience that made the first model tolerable despite those problems.
Edited by Walt and written by Katie Boehret, this is a guide to gadgets, web services and other consumer technologies.
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