AT&T and Sony Ericsson announced the availability of the Sony Ericsson Vivaz in the United States exclusively on the AT&T network. Coming on September 5th, the Vivaz totes a 8.1 megapixel camera with HD video recording and a 3.2” nHD 16 million color touchscreen. The Vivaz runs the Symbian Series 60, 5th edition operating system which will allow for mutitasking and other features that most other smartphones have. Grab the Sony Ericsson Vivaz from AT&T for $79.99 on a two-year contract with a smartphone data plan.

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Amazon has lowered the price on the popular Samsung Captivate for AT&T. The Captivate is still going for a whopping $200 when bought from AT&T, but Amazon has dropped the price down to one cent for new individual accounts. The catch? You can only get it for a penny when opening up a new individual account, the price will jump up to $99.99 or above if upgrading or adding a line to an existing family plan. Either way it is cheaper than buying directly from AT&T.

Amazon

Well lookie here. The leaks have just been slipping enough lately that I may just say, “It’s raining Windows Phone 7, Hallelujah”! Ok, maybe not, but there have been quite the few leaks to look into these past couple of weeks. First it was the unannounced Samsung phone that looked almost like an exact replica of the highly acclaimed i8910 Omnia HD, which later was revealed that it is the Samsung Cetus i917 due out for AT&T. Then it was the LG C900 who popped up next, which is also AT&T branded and due out in the near future. Today we have the latest Windows 7 phone leak, the T8788, an HTC built device which looks very polished like it is ready to start production. Of course the T8788 model name will change before it is ousted to the masses, but the unique feature about this particular device is the landscape slide-out speaker. When you first take a glance at it you obviously notice the device will slide out in landscape mode, but when you slide the screen up, there is no keyboard under the screen. It is a full fledged speaker underneath, which sort of reminds you of that other phone that also slid out a speaker back in the days. Being that there is a speaker instead of a full QWERTY keyboard underneath, nice 3.7 in. screen (as it seems from the photo), it sounds like this device will be heavily advertised to be media-driven. Word has it there is also a kickstand on the back for easy viewing for movies and video clips. So who’s going to connect their Bose desktop speakers to this once it comes out?

Source Engadget

www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nBG1vHzM-I

Hate it or love it. You know that the new BlackBerry Torch is one of the hottest BlackBerry devices out by RIM. Los Angeles was where the BlackBerry Torch launch party was. Multiple celebrities showed up on the red carpet including: Drake, Christina Ricci, Felicity Huffman, Kiristin Cavallari, Anna Kendrick, Shenae Grimes, Amber Valletta, Michelle Trachtenberg, Adrian Grenier, Jessica Lowndes, and Rashida Jones.

Today AT&T announced the availability of the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10. Available August 15th, this device will run an older version of Android, 1.6. The Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 features a 1GHz Snapdragon processor that will ensure a fast user experience. With a 8.1 megapixel camera, the Xperia X10 will take some nice pictures with its smile detection, face recognition, autofocus, and LED flash. The phone will retail at $149.99 on a two-year contract.

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AT&T has begun expanding its phone assortment to include Android phone. The HTC Aria is the carrier’s second Android device and the only one that has the HTC Sense UI on it. The Aria runs version 2.1 of Android so it doesn’t have all of the features of the 2.2, like Adobe Flash support. However, the phone will be getting the 2.2 update later this summer. While many phones are expanding their size to maximize screen space, the Aria took a different approach and made a relatively small device.

Hardware:

When comparing the HTC Aria to other popular smartphones, like the DROID X or HTC EVO 3G, it is immediately evident that the Aria is much smaller in size. This is not necessarily a bad thing for certain consumers. However, with smaller size comes a smaller screen to play around with; the Aria has a 3.2-inch capacitive touch screen display. The phone is also lighter than many of the other smartphones on the market, weighing in at 115 grams.

The hardware itself is very sleek and industrial. HTC keeps the phone real simple by making the entire phone black with silver spots for text, the camera, and screws. Wait, screws? There is a screw in each corner on the back of the phone. These screws look as if they can be taken out to get inside the actual phone (mind your warranty). We are assuming that HTC chose to expose these screws through the back case to give the phone a sort of industrial look. And to be honest, we think the screws add a cool look to the phone. On the front of the phone there is a round trackpad and four touch sensitive buttons that help navigate around the phone. The front of the phone looks simple, yet clean.

The 3.2-inch capacitive touch screen display is  very responsive to different movements and touches. We found that even when moving up and down the menu, the screen seemed to follow our finger’s movements immediately.

So how is the build quality? We aren’t sure if it is just our unit, but the back cover seems to creak pretty easily when playing around with the phone. We think it might be how the case snaps onto the back of the phone, but either way it is annoying.

Software:

The HTC Aria runs Google’s Android operating system with HTC’s Sense UI over it. With Android version 2.1, the Aria is missing some interesting features that Android version 2.2 bring along. The big one people are talking about is Adobe Flash. We haven’t heard a release date on AT&T releasing 2.2 for the Aria yet.

Android as an operating system works great and has a pretty big following. The Aria has a 600MHz processor that works allows applications to open up quickly without much lag. While it may not be as fast as some of the new Android phones like the DROID X or EVO, it does have the power to support this phone. Android has great features like the Android Market with over 70,000 applications in it, Google Maps integration, and FriendSteam that comes with HTC Sense. HTC Sense is a great UI on Android phones and really makes the operating system shine. HTC Sense runs on many other popular phones like the HTC EVO 4G and the DROID Incredible. The graphics on Sense make the phone enjoyable to use and not seem as bland. There are give different customizable home screens that users can place shortcuts on or place a widget that will allow for easy access to different features of the phone.

Since the Aria is an AT&T-branded phone, the company has loaded some of its own software into the phone. We found that a lot of software just cluttered the phone menu and we never seemed to use a lot of it. For example, AT&T Hot Spots will locate your nearest AT&T Wi-Fi hotspot. Other AT&T applications incliude AT&T FamilyMap, AT&T Navigator, MoviTV, AT&T Radio, Mobile Video, Mobile Banking, and YellowPages.

With no physical keyboard, the Aria utilizes the Android on-screen keyboard. The on-screen keyboard on the Aria is accurate and guesses what work you might be trying to type. We found it easy to use and type on in both landscape and portrait mode.

Camera

The HTC Aria has a 5 megapixel camera packed inside its small body. It works nicely and takes good pictures in well-lit areas; however, not so much in dark areas because the Aria lacks a flash. Check out our sample shots:

Battery Life

The Aria packs a 1300 mAh battery that HTC says can give you 6 hours of talk time. We found that the battery will last the full day for moderate users. On heavy use days we had to plug in for a recharge when we got the low battery warnings.

Conclusion

The HTC Aria is a great choice if looking for an Android phone on AT&T. Its small size will be a plus for many customers in a time when big phones are taking over the market. Those looking for a huge screen may want to avoid this one, but its small size is great for carrying around in the pocket.

Last week Steve Jobs called a press conference and said that it would be giving away free cases to iPhone 4 users due to the antenna issues. Jobs said that the antenna issue is not unique to the iPhone and can be replicated on other smartphones as well. However, in an effort to keep its customers happy, Apple has launched the iPhone 4 Case Program that will allow customers to get a free case for their iPhone 4.

Getting your free case is simple. All you need to do is download the iPhone 4 Case Program app. From there it will allow you to log into your iTunes account and choose a free case from a selection of Incase cases, Belkin cases, Speck cases, or a black Apple bumper. If you made your iPhone 4 purchase before July 23rd, you must choose a case no later than August 22nd. If the iPhone 4 was purchased after July 23rd, you have 30 days from the iPhone purchase. The program will also not be valid for iPhones purchased after September 30th.

If you’ve already purchased a Apple bumper, the company said it will refund you the full price of the bumper. If you used a credit card, it will automatically be refunded. If you used cash you need to go into your local Apple store.

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You may have heard about the iPhone 4 having antenna issues when gripped a certain way. There has been tons of media coverage about this issue since it was first discovered on a YouTube video. Creating even more of a stir, Jobs responded to a customer’s email saying “Just avoid holding it that way” when asked about the issue. However, Apple has finally sent out a press release detailing their findings with the issue and stating that it is a software issue that will be fixed in the coming weeks. Check out the full letter below:

Letter from Apple Regarding iPhone 4

Dear iPhone 4 Users,

The iPhone 4 has been the most successful product launch in Apple’s history. It has been judged by reviewers around the world to be the best smartphone ever, and users have told us that they love it. So we were surprised when we read reports of reception problems, and we immediately began investigating them. Here is what we have learned.

To start with, gripping almost any mobile phone in certain ways will reduce its reception by 1 or more bars. This is true of iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, as well as many Droid, Nokia and RIM phones. But some users have reported that iPhone 4 can drop 4 or 5 bars when tightly held in a way which covers the black strip in the lower left corner of the metal band. This is a far bigger drop than normal, and as a result some have accused the iPhone 4 of having a faulty antenna design.

At the same time, we continue to read articles and receive hundreds of emails from users saying that iPhone 4 reception is better than the iPhone 3GS. They are delighted. This matches our own experience and testing. What can explain all of this?

We have discovered the cause of this dramatic drop in bars, and it is both simple and surprising.

Upon investigation, we were stunned to find that the formula we use to calculate how many bars of signal strength to display is totally wrong. Our formula, in many instances, mistakenly displays 2 more bars than it should for a given signal strength. For example, we sometimes display 4 bars when we should be displaying as few as 2 bars. Users observing a drop of several bars when they grip their iPhone in a certain way are most likely in an area with very weak signal strength, but they don’t know it because we are erroneously displaying 4 or 5 bars. Their big drop in bars is because their high bars were never real in the first place.

To fix this, we are adopting AT&T’s recently recommended formula for calculating how many bars to display for a given signal strength. The real signal strength remains the same, but the iPhone’s bars will report it far more accurately, providing users a much better indication of the reception they will get in a given area. We are also making bars 1, 2 and 3 a bit taller so they will be easier to see.

We will issue a free software update within a few weeks that incorporates the corrected formula. Since this mistake has been present since the original iPhone, this software update will also be available for the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G.

We have gone back to our labs and retested everything, and the results are the same- the iPhone 4′s wireless performance is the best we have ever shipped. For the vast majority of users who have not been troubled by this issue, this software update will only make your bars more accurate. For those who have had concerns, we apologize for any anxiety we may have caused.

As a reminder, if you are not fully satisfied, you can return your undamaged iPhone to any Apple Retail Store or the online Apple Store within 30 days of purchase for a full refund.

We hope you love the iPhone 4 as much as we do.

Thank you for your patience and support.

Apple

The wait for the iPhone 4 has been excruciating. I’ve have been drooling over this phone since it was first found in a bar and sold to Gizmodo. On June 15, I was able to reserve the 32GB iPhone 4 at our local Apple store. My excitement for June 24 cannot be explained in words.

Jump to June 24th. Nick and I arrived at the Apple store at 6am to get in the reservation line one hour before the store opened. It was obvious that we was not the only one excited by eavesdropping in other line-stander’s conversations. At 7am Apple opened up the doors and by 7:30am we walked out as proud owners of a new iPhone 4. Apple had offered to help set up email and other features, I politely declined as that is the fun part about getting a brand new phone.

Apple Bumper

Upon walking out of the Apple store with my iPhone 4 in hand, the first thing I thought was “I am going to need a case for this”. The phone has a stunning look with its silver bezel and glass front and back; however, it feels that it will get easily damaged if dropped. With a glass front and back, one drop seems like enough to shatter the device and ruin all of the fun to be had. So I purchased the only case available at the Apple store, a Bumper. The iPhone 4 Bumper, a piece of plastic costing you $29, covers the bezel of the phone and leaves the front and back glass open. The Bumper gives the iPhone a good grip as to not drop it out of your hand while playing with it. However, it takes away from the industrial look that Apple is going for. I carry my iPhone in my jeans pocket and the Bumper does not do much to protect the glass from pocket damage. We are actively looking for another third-party iPhone 4 case that we like, but until we find one, the Bumper will do.

Design

On the second day of using the iPhone, I decided that I wanted to show off the beauty of the phone and remove the Bumper. Risking potential damage, I removed the Bumper and used my iPhone 4 in its naked state the entire day. Comparing  it to the iPhone 3GS, there are some major design changes. Apple ditched the plastic back and the shiny metal look. The iPhone 4 has a beautiful glass back that complements the front of the device. The Apple logo is under the glass, so no need to worry about getting it scratched like on the 3GS.  The downside to the glass is that it attracts finger prints like crazy. The sides of the phone are a matte metal that does not look as if it will easily attract scratches, like on the iPhone 3GS. Only time will tell how scratch resistant the matte bezel will be to scratches.

The phone itself is made well and is really sturdy. When holding the phone, there aren’t any spots that feel cheap or can be pressed in like plastic. The glass feels really strong as well. I think the iPhone 4 design looks really slick and clean. The design does leave the phone more vulnerable to damage when dropped, but we think in general it looks much cleaner than previous iPhones.

Display

I instantly noticed how crisp the retina display is on the iPhone 4. Just by looking at the text on the home screen under the icons you will see a major difference from the iPhone 3GS. This retina display is the best screen on any smartphone on the market right now. As expected, photos and videos look superb on this display. All text on the phone just looks so clean and crisp that it actually looks like text on a paper. Even when holding the phone right up to your eye, it is nearly impossible to see any pixels. This is because Apple has included more pixels in the display than are visible to the human eye. I hadn’t really understood how big of a change the retina display was compared to the iPhone 3GS display. If you haven’t yet seen a iPhone 4 and are considering it, I would suggest hitting your local Apple store to see the display in person.

Software

The most important part of our daily use with the iPhone 4 is the software. The device is running iOS 4, the latest software released by Apple for the iPhone. iOS 4 adds a bunch of features that I’ve have been dying for including multitasking, folders, iBooks, home screen wallpaper customization, and a unified inbox. iOS 4 is available for both the iPhone 3G and 3GS as well, however all of the features are not available on the iPhone 3G. After using iOS 4 on the iPhone 4 for about a week, I can say that Apple has really implemented some nice changes the right way. Category folders are fantastic and make it very easy to organize your apps into folders that correspond to the nature of the app. The unified mailbox saves time that would normally be wasted switching between different email accounts. And multitasking is fantastic to use when the app has the API that allows it to run in the background. There has been some debate whether iOS 4 has “real multitasking”, but the way Apple has implemented it saves battery life. Coming from an iPhone 3G, I am thoroughly enjoying all of the features of iOS 4 and how fast it runs on the iPhone 4.

With double the RAM of the iPhone 3GS, the iPhone 4 is a joy to use. Switching between apps is very fast and has almost no lag. Every transition is smooth and fast and every keystroke is instantaneous. For those of us coming from the iPhone 3G, the difference in speed will be very noticeable.

Camera

The iPhone 4 has a 5 megapixel camera. Steve Jobs says that the megapixels aren’t everything, much more goes into the camera than that. I’m going to have to agree after using the iPhone 4 camera and comparing it to other phones with higher megapixel cameras. The test images I took on this device are so clear and crisp that we think it could replace our regular point and shoot. There is a 5x digital zoom that lets you zoom in close on what you are trying to take a photo of. For low light environments, there is a LED flash. Check out a few sample images I took with our iPhone and didn’t retouch at all.

[View with PicLens]

HD Video

Apple boasts about its new HD video recording on the iPhone 4. Gone are the days of carrying around your Flip camera and phone, now you can just carry the iPhone 4. The quality of the video recording is superb and crisp. Even in low light situations, the video camera takes some nice shots for the little device it is. Once you shoot a bunch of video, it is easy to edit it right from the phone with iMovie for iPhone, available in the app store for $4.99. With iMovie you can take different clips, edit them, piece them together, add titles, add music, and much more to make a professional looking video right from your iPhone. Edited videos can be exported to YouTube, Mobile Me, or MMS in medium (640x360), large (960x540), or HD (1280x720) format.

I shot and edited together a quick (took about 10 minutes total) video to showcase how the HD video works:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpsDcd0dZw8

Battery Life

One of the biggest complaints I had with the iPhone 3G is the battery life. I would have to recharge my phone at least twice a day to keep it working all day long. When I switched over to the iPhone 4, I was surprised at the battery life I was getting out of this device. With pretty heavy use, I would have about 30-40% of battery left. One day of testing yielded 30% of battery remaining after 4 hours, 35 minutes of usage and 13 hours, 31 minutes of standby. Another day of testing yielded 42% of battery remaining after 3 hours, 32 minutes of usage and 12 hours, 57 minutes of standby.

FaceTime

One of the most talked about new features on the iPhone 4 is FaceTime. FaceTime is essentially video calling between two iPhone 4 devices using the front facing camera on the device. Right now FaceTime is only available over Wi-Fi, which is a bit of a downer, but Apple is working with the carriers to get it working over 3G sometime in the future. I’ve done numerous FaceTime calls with friends who purchased the iPhone 4 and I have to say that I’m pleased with the quality of the call. The voice quality improves when switching to FaceTime because the call is transferred from 3G to the Wi-Fi network making it a voIP call.

Conclusion

After one full week of using the iPhone 4, I have to say that I am very happy with the device. I’ve tested a lot of phones for Smartphone Nation and the iPhone 4 really sticks out as one I am going to be happy to use for a long time down the road. With all of the improvements made to the device and the new software update, I believe that this phone is going to be popular among all different types of users, from business users to teenagers. The device is still locked down to AT&T which is the one major thing holding a lot of consumers away from the device, however I personally think this phone warrants a carrier switch if you are aching for the phone.

Well today was the day…

Thousands of people lined up throughout the country to receive their iPhones at 7 AM sharp.

Cheers erupted as employees turned on the lights (although air conditioning in our Natick, MA store didn’t turn on until 9 AM- and boy, was it hot!!)  and let the first wave of customers with reservations in the door.

After about 5 minutes of trying to sell me on MobileMe (at a discount for iPhone purchasers)  and an AppleCare package (after explaining that the phone was “virtually bulletproof”) I was on my way.

Setup:

Setup was painless- the iPhone was plugged into my laptop and within minutes it was happily chugging away and importing my Gmail account, saved settings, applications, and music without a hitch.

Within minutes, the phone was activated and ready to go!
Hands on so far:

Display: First thing you notice about this phone is the display… and… Wow.  That’s just about all you can say.  The new high-density display allows for amazing color reproduction and seemless text rendering.  Truly spectacular- especially for apps that take advantage of the upgraded display.

Sound: Speakers are nice and loud and the noise cancelling microphone at the top of the handset does a fantastic job of keeping your conversation between you and the caller- not you, the caller, and all the ambient noise around you.  Speaker phone reproduces sounds pretty well, no tinniness to speak of.

Calls and Reception: AT&T limits what the iPhone can do call-wise but in general, I’ve noticed a better signal in most of the areas I frequent. I normally have 3-4 bars on 3G in the Boston area, today I had 4-5 bars of 3G and no drops to EDGE even while driving through Weston and Sudbury, MA where coverage is notoriously scarce.  Interestingly enough- I noticed the previously reported problem of signal bars dropping when the phone was held a certain way.  It wasn’t an issue when I had a full 5 bar signal (rare on AT&T) however the display showed a drop when I had 3 bars (down to two, then one).  Interestingly enough, I did not have any call quality changes or drops so maybe it’s true that this is simply a software issue with the signal display and not an actual hardware problem.

FaceTime: Wow- good stuff!  SmartPhoneNation blog owner Justin and I held a FaceTime chat for about 35 minutes.  During that time, video froze only once and only for a few seconds.  The transition to video is seemless and slick- Apple thought this out and they planned it out well.  After the call, battery life had only declined by about 10% on my unit- remarkable considering the data and hardware orchestration necessary to transmit video and data on a phone.

Battery Life: Battery life is amazing.  The 3GS was getting slammed for reports of iOS4 destroying what little battery life the phone had left.  The iPhone 4 rectifies that issue in testing so far- the only downside is the phone can get warm while in use (like all svelte Apple products) but not uncomfortably so.  We attribute this to the huge battery and simple physics.

Apps: I’ve had about 9 app updates (out of the 64 I have on the iPhone) which have allowed for backgrounding and/or optimized the app for the new display or cameras.  Some products (grr Navigon!) haven’t updated yet but I’m sure iOS4 compatible updates will be shipping app-store wide soon.

Form: Apple has been known for its avant-garde approach to design and had taken heat in the last year or so for not really “breaking the mold” with the 3GS (in terms of departure from the 3G, or even the 2G for that matter).  The new iPhone 4 will put these statements to rest as Apple has, once again, revolutionized the market with a beautiful, solidly designed phone.  This thing just FEELS solid- you feel comfortable going without one of Apple’s “bumper” cases (a “value” for “only” $29.99)  and the new oil-resistant glass on both sides gives the phone a sleek, slick look that’ll fit in anywhere.
All in all, it’s a great phone and it’ll be interesting to see where AT&T and Apple go with the hardware and software (especially FaceTime)