Wireless Plans

International Cell Phone Services
International Cell Phone Service for Travellers - Prepaid International Cell Phones and Service
Traveling abroad and you want to be able to make cell phone calls from overseas? You may be surprised to learn that the vast majority of cell phones in use in the United States do not work outside of North America. Not only that, but those U.S. based cell phone services that do allow you to make calls from overseas charge outrageous "international roaming" fees. Most international cell phone rentals also have extremely high per minute rates.
Fortunately, there is a better and much less expensive alternative: Prepaid International Cell Phone Service

With prepaid international wireless, you're always in control of how much you spend and, since there are no monthly bills, you can decide ahead of time how much you or your business will spend on cell phone calls. Global travelers, by leveraging local prepaid wireless products enjoy even more savings by avoiding:

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High roaming charges
International cell phone roaming charges can be outrageous! By using an unlocked GSM world phone with a prepaid SIM card you can avoid these ridiculously high fees.

T-Mobile USB internet

T-Mobile webConnect™ USB Laptop Stick
The webConnect USB Laptop Stick provides fast, easy wireless Internet access for your laptop by automatically finding the best T-Mobile network connection (3G, HotSpot/Wi-Fi, or EDGE). The webConnect data plan includes unlimited Wi-Fi access on the T-Mobile HotSpot network.

Get news, tips, and helpful info: T-Mobile webConnect™ USB Laptop Stick Forum

Nokia N9

The Nokia N9 comes with nice-looking slide-out QWERTY, 8MP camera with dual LED flash, 3G, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support and an HDMI port.

The Nokia N9 multi-touch capacitive screen is considerably larger than iPhone's 3.5-incher and only a tad smaller than HTC Evo 4G 4-inch display. So, the upcoming QWERTY-enabled N9 will be the first Nokia phone to sport such a big screen.

Leaving the name issues aside, the smartphone runs Symbian^3 and packs a tilting slide-out hardware QWERTY keyboard, HDMI port and a large capacitive touchscreen (measuring about 3.5" in diagonal) with multi-touch support. Unlike the Nokia N8 which comes with a 12-megapixel snapper with Xenon flash, this guy features an 8MP camera with dual LED flash.
Nokia N9 Specs:

* NAM 3G Bands (850/1900)
* nHD Display (640 X 360)
* 4″ Capacitive multi-touch display
* Front facing camera (VGA?) with LED Flash
* Rear 8MPX camera with Dual LED Flash
* WiFi, Bluetooth
* HDMI Out

Ford Deals 2010

Best Ford Deals: August 2010 Lease and Purchase

Last Updated: Aug. 04, 2010

After a successful first and second quarter of 2010, filled with multi-billion dollar profits, Ford is looking to continue its momentum with strong incentives and discounts. As part of its Model Year End Sales Event, Ford is offering zero-percent financing plus $1,000 cash back on most 2010 vehicles. This is a nationwide offer and expires on September 7. Ford also offers an additional $500 in "bonus cash" to buyers who are college or graduate students, recent grads and active members of the military or police association.

Many of Ford's best deals are offered on a region-by-region basis. We've listed below some of the best Ford deals available this month on popular models. Please note that Ford's latest sales event is valid until September 7. However don't assume the official Ford deals listed here are the best you can get. Be sure to contact multiple dealers to have them compete for you business. You can find and contact local dealers online by selecting a vehicle below and entering your zip code.

If you're open to more than just Ford vehicles, check out our overall best car deals page to compare this month's best offers from automakers.

The best Ford deals for August are:

* MSRP: $29,280 - $38,600
* Invoice: $27,404 - $35,886
* MPG: 14 City / 20 Hwy

Get local dealer price quotes:
2010 Ford Explorer
Purchase Deal

Deal #1: $3,000 cash back in most regions -- includes $2,000 Retail Customer Cash plus $1,000 Promotional Retail Bonus Customer Cash. We found an additional $1,000 Retail Bonus Customer Cash in the Southeast, for a total of $4,000 cash back in that region. Check with your local dealers.

Deal #2: 0% Financing for 36 months. Ford dealers in the Southeast are offering $1,000 cash back on top of that. Check with your local dealers.

Expires: 09/07/10

* MSRP: $28,950 - $42,465
* Invoice: $27,395 - $39,403
* MPG: 17 City / 24 Hwy

Get local dealer price quotes:
2010 Ford Flex
Purchase Deal

Deal #1: Up to $3,500 cash back -- includes $1,500 Retail Customer Cash plus $1,000 Promotional Retail Bonus Customer Cash plus $1,000 Retail Bonus Customer Cash. In some regions, only 2 of the 3 promotions are available. Check with your local dealers.

Deal #2: 0% Financing for 36 to 60 months plus $1,000 cash back in some regions. Check with your local dealers.

Expires: 09/07/10

Mercedes Benz

Mercedes-Benz is recalling certain G Class vehicles from the 2002 through 2010 model years. In some cases, the headlamps are equipped with a protective grill that is not permitted under U.S. safety regulations. In other cases, front turn signals may be covered with a grill that may deteriorate over time.

Dealers will remove the headlamp grills free of charge and replace the turn signal grill covers.

Owners may contact Mercedes-Benz at 1-800-367-6372.

Consumers may contact the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) at 1-888-327-4236 (TTY: 1-800-424-9153)

Nokia N900 Review - Mobile Phones Club Blogspot

BUILD AND DESIGN

There isn't much in the N900 that departs from the Nokia N810 it replaces. There's still a resistive touchscreen, running at a comfortable 800 by 480 pixels within 3.5 inches diagonally. At just under 270ppi, that's about as close to paper as LCD screens get these days.

Nokia N900However, the 3.5-inch screen does make it smaller than the N810; enough so that the N900 is a more comfortable pocket companion despite its additional heft (181g versus 221g for the N810). This additional weight is noticeable since the device is smaller, but usually the block (it's a rounded brick) doesn't weigh your pockets or hands down.

QWERTY Keyboard
What the N900 does evolve rightly from the N810 is the QWERTY keyboard. The N900's is a three-row keyboard which ingeniously integrates directional keys on the right side. While it's smaller (width and height) than the one on N810, it feels much better due to its domed keys and excellent travel.

In using the N900 as my primary device, adapting to the QWERTY took only a few text messages or an e-mail.

Compared to my Nokia N97, the keyboard seems to have learned some lessons and offers easier blind typing, though the keys are closer together. The N900 lacks a directional pad, though, so you'll need to train both hands to use directional keys.

Like the N97's QWERTY, the N900 utilizes the function key to access numbers and additional symbols. However, those additional functions are not accessible by a long-press of the corresponding key.

Predictive text is enabled system-wide and many applications respect this functionality. That said, those coming from QWERTY devices like Treos and BlackBerries would be best to temper expectations. The N900 will learn the words you use very quickly, but features such as inserting a space after a period automatically aren't there.

Other Hardware Features
Once getting past the weight, shape, and large touchscreen, you see some of the design decisions that have evolved within this Nokia model. For example, the top of the device has a volume up/down, power on/off/lock, and camera capture buttons -- these follow the N810's design.

The 3.5mm headset jack has evolved to include TV-out (PAL/NTSC), yet remains on the right side. It's joined by a dedicated screen-lock toggle button and a well hidden stylus.

The bottom is bare -- on the N810 was the battery door release and memory card access. The N900 has the battery door as the entire rear panel. The micro-SDHC card slot is located under the this panel, as is the 1320 mAh battery.

The rear also houses one of the more significant upgrades for the N900: the 5 megapixel Carl Zeiss camera. This is a camera module similar to the one used in the Nokia N97 and other recent devices from this company. The camera is covered by a simple slider -- improved from the one on the N97 -- and has two LED flash blubs for better low-light pictures and video usability.

One of the neat features that the Internet Tablet line has always had is a kickstand. The N900 keeps this tradition going, but, unlike the N800 and N810 before it, this kickstand is actually designed around the camera-slider's chrome bezel, and doesn't do as good of a job in terms of keeping the device at a stable, angled viewing level.


Nokia N900 Review - Mobile Phones Club Blogspot

If there was anything in the hardware that I am most disappointed in, it’s the size of the battery (1320 mAh). This is much smaller than the 1500 mAh that ships with the N97 and N810, and the space is packed very tight. I don't know that third-party batteries would be able to fit without having some kind of new rear panel put on the device. This would make an already thick device much thicker.

f you couldn't manage to get yourself a Google Nexus One and still want to give it a try, today might be your lucky day. You only need to be a registered Android developer and to have some 529 US dollars in the piggy bank.

As you might have heard, a little while ago Google stopped selling its first own Android-running device online so from that moment on your only option for becoming an owner of the HTC-made Google Nexus One were Google's partners (operators and retailers).

HTC Google Nexus One HTC Google Nexus One HTC Google Nexus One HTC Google Nexus One
Official photos of HTC Google Nexus One

But if there aren't any of those in your neighborhood, you can now go for another option: as of yesterday the Google Nexus One can be purchased from the Android Developers website since the Nexus One has just become the new Android Developer Phones (replacing the elderly ADP 2).

In order to take advantage of that new option, though, you have to be a registered Android developer. If you happen to be one, just log into your Android Developer account and follow the "Development Phones" link. By the way, the Android Developers' Nexus Ones come with the Android 2.1 on board but the ver. 2.2 update is just a few taps away.

The phones sold over there are factory unlocked (and probably rooted) and are priced at 529 US dollars (around 400 euro, so, no news here).

Samsung Galaxy S

Lag isn’t the only problem we’ve had, either. The Galaxy S has randomly lost our email inbox in the time we’ve been using it – requiring inputing all our Exchange settings again, and performing a full sync – and the camera app has crashed a couple of times, refusing to load until we power-cycled the phone. Elsewhere, the UI is simply frustrating. New SMS alerts, for instance, aren’t removed from the Android notification bar until you not only view the message in the bubble conversation view, but actually tap the new bubble itself and “open” it on a separate page. No new information, but an extra step all the same. We prefer the regular Android icons to those in TouchWiz, though admittedly that’s a matter of taste, but the way Samsung has managed the desktop is slightly at odds with Google’s own approach with Android. The Galaxy S has seven homescreen panes with the default “home” pane on the far left; the Android OS is more used to the “home” pane being central, and so if you choose Google Maps as your Live Wallpaper – which normally uses GPS to center the map on your current location – the maps are offset since the center point is on homescreen four. Nit-picking, yes, but it’s the sort of poor polish that undermine a successful UI.

Sadly there’s no way to easily turn off TouchWiz and return to the native Android UI, so owners unwilling to experiment with unofficial ROMs will be stuck with Samsung’s interface. Some of the company’s preloaded tools aren’t bad, however; there’s a full copy of Swype, the gesture-based keyboard (though it isn’t enabled by default) and Samsung’s multimedia player is far better than the standard Google offering. It supports MPEG4, H.264, H.263, DivX, Xvid, WMV, AVI, MKV and FLV video, among others, together with a healthy clutch of audio formats including OFF and FLAC. Paired with the 3.5mm headphones jack and onboard storage you’ve got an Android phone that could certainly give an iPod touch a run for its money.

Social networking tools are fashionable, and Samsung’s approach is a little similar to HTC’s. The Galaxy S has Samsung’s Social Hub, a combined stream of Facebook, MySpace and Twitter messages – complete with a desktop widget and the ability to send out an update to one or all services simultaneously – but there’s also a “Mini Diary” app that allows you to easily create journal entries complete with photos, stored weather information, text notes and more. Unfortunately, once created they’re basically stuck on the phone; there’s no way to remotely sync them or upload them automatically to a blog somewhere.

samsung galaxy s review sg 9 540x486

More useful is Samsung AllShare, which takes DLNA media sharing and puts a cellphone-friendly face on it. AllShare allows you to stream multimedia from the Galaxy S to a WiFi-connected player – whether a standalone audio system, network-connected HDTV or a computer – or vice-versa, or even to act as a remote control for your media server, selecting files to play remotely. Video, audio and images can all be streamed, and the Galaxy S simply showed up as a media source in compatible apps.

As for playback on the Galaxy S itself, understandably it’s video that shines best thanks to the Super AMOLED display. We had no problems getting various DivX and Xvid files to play, with 720p HD video looking great. Interestingly, there’s a TV Out option in the settings pages, though no sign of an adapter in the box to actually hook up a bigger screen. Audio, meanwhile, is reasonably loud and clear via the Galaxy S’ own speaker, but Samsung’s bundled earbuds are actually surprisingly good and, while still not outperforming a reasonable aftermarket set, do at least avoid the noise leakage and underwhelming bass of Apple’s standard set. There’s also an FM radio, complete with auto-scan and user presets, though it relies on the headphone wire to act as antenna.

Samsung has something of a reputation for decent cellphone cameras, and the Galaxy S generally doesn’t disappoint. At 5-megapixels with autofocus, the only thing missing from the spec sheet is a flash of some sort. What you do get are various photography modes, including blink, face and smile detection, panorama and high-speed shooting, together with a decent amount of control over manual settings. There are also multiple effects, such as vintage and cartoon, and a high-visibility mode which boosts the UI so that it’s easier to see while outdoors. The end result are bright, clear and well balanced shots, with decent colors and – as long as you don’t use the digital zoom – little noise or pixellation. Without a flash you’re obviously limited in your low-light use, with focus being a particular trouble, though we might argue that LED flash units are generally underwhelming anyway. There are samples in the gallery below, unedited aside from being resized by 50-percent.

Video, meanwhile, can be recording in one of five resolutions from 320 x 240 to 1280 x 720, with or without audio and with manual control over exposure, contrast, saturation and sharpness. However there’s no focus control. Interestingly, during recording you can choose to either pause or stop; pausing allows you to chain several segments into the same clip. A size counter shows how big the file is getting while you can also use the 4x digital zoom (which is jerky moving between levels, rather than a smooth optical zoom). Files are recorded in MPEG-4 in a 3GP container and at around 11.6Mbps, along with mono audio from the Galaxy S’ single microphone.

Samsung Galaxy

We've got to hand it to Samsung with its Galaxy S line. Coordinating the launch of a single family of devices across all four national US carriers (plus a regional or two) is a feat very rarely accomplished, and usually reserved for really unique handsets that those carriers wouldn't be able to effectively source from anyone else; HTC's Touch Pro2 is a prime example of that. Add to that the murky issue of exclusivity periods... and, well, yeah, Samsung definitely has reason to be proud here -- on the business end of things, anyway. Never mind the awesome contractual maneuvering that undoubtedly took place to make this all happen, though -- we all know that it's the hardware (and software) that really counts. Today we're looking at the first two models of the American run, the Captivate for AT&T and the Vibrant for T-Mobile; Verizon's Fascinate and Sprint's QWERTY- and WiMAX-equipped Epic 4G are still forthcoming, though we expect the Fascinate to be largely similar to these first two.

Beyond their simple appeal as sexy, high-end Android phones, what makes the Captivate and Vibrant especially interesting is that they are actually their respective carriers' only high-end Android phones at the moment. In other words: if 1GHz processors and high-res AMOLED displays are how you roll, these are basically the only game in town if you're on AT&T or T-Mobile -- particularly now that Nexus One sales are winding down. Do they rise to the challenge? Let's have a look.

Rogers Canada Phone

Pre-ordering for the iPad has begun, but the enthusiasm faded as Rogers released its iPad data plan rates. The disappointment over no unlimited data package could change if Bell or Telus enter the space.

Apple Inc. started taking online orders for the iPad through the Canadian Apple Store on Monday and Rogers Communications Inc. followed up by announcing iPad data plans that go into effect when the iPad starts shipping on May 28.

The good news is the month-to-month plans do not require a contact. The bad news is that none of the plans offer unlimited data usage.

Two plans were announced on the Rogers RedBoard blog: $15 per month for 250MB and $35 per month for 5GB. Both plans include unlimited, free access to all Rogers WiFi Hot Spots.

The plans do not apply to Rogers Wireless subsidiary, Fido Solutions Inc. The iPad will not available through Fido at the launch, states the post.

Rogers says the tablets are a new category of product and "it's too early to say if customers will use more or less data than they do for the iPhone," but the company remains optimistic that the 250MB/5GB plans "will be more than enough for virtually all of our customers."

99.8 per cent of iPhone customers and 95.6 per cent of rocket stick/embedded laptop customers use less than 5GB of data each month, states the post.

But if a customer does run over their data bucket, they won't get penalized with higher rates or additional fees.

"We have also structured our plans so customers never have to pay overage charges. If a customer runs through their data bucket before their month is up, they have the option of signing up for a new bucket and the month starts anew," stated a Rogers spokesperson in an e-mail interview.

Apple noted on its Web site that a $20 shared plan was also available from Rogers, but the note was made in error and removed. "The reference to the $20 iPad sharing plan is false and was incorrectly posted on Apple's web site," stated the Rogers spokesperson.