CTIA show

Teen panel at CTIA Fall 2008

(Credit: Marguerite Reardon/CBS Interactive)

SAN FRANCISCO - Cell phones have become almost as important to American teens as the clothes they wear, according to a nationwide survey of teenagers released last week.

The wireless trade association CTIA and Harris Interactive surveyed some 2,000 teens across the country and learned that teens feel that cell phones have become a vital part of their identities. They also believe that they can gauge a peer's popularity or status by the phone he or she uses.

Findings of the survey were presented on Friday at the CTIA Fall 2008 trade show in San Francisco. Trip Hawkins, CEO of Digital Chocolate, a mobile games publisher, moderated a panel with seven teenagers ranging in age from 13 to 18 years old.

Adolescents represent an important demographic for cell phone makers and mobile operators as cell phones have become an integral part of teens' lives. About four out of every five teens carry a cell phone. This is up from 40 percent of teens owning a cell phone in 2004. And almost half of the teens surveyed today say that having a cell phone is "key" to their social lives.

"Leaving home without my phone almost feels like leaving the house naked," said Brenna, 17, who participated in the panel.

Another recent survey conducted by Nielsen revealed that kids are getting cell phones even before they hit their teens. Nearly half of kids age 8 to 12 years old own cell phones in the U.S, according to the Nielsen report. And on average kids get their first cell phone between the ages of 10 and 11 years old.

While many teens view having a cell phone as important for practical things like getting a ride or for safety reasons, many believe it also says a lot about them as people. According to the survey, about 28 percent of all teens and 34 percent of kids 13 to 15 years old said that having the latest cool cell phone is absolutely essential. A mother of a 14-year old boy on the teen panel said the social pressure to have a "cool" phone is intense.

"Marcus has told me that he is embarrassed for his friends to see his phone," Deundra, Marcus's mother, said on the sidelines after the panel discussion had ended. "I've literally had to pull the car over to have a conversation about why he would feel this way. We've had many talks about the true importance and value of things."

Most of the teens on the panel agreed that Apple's iPhone is the coolest phone on the market. But none of them owned one, largely because the devices are too expensive and so is the monthly service fee from AT&T.

Jaimie, 17, appeared on a panel Friday at CTIA Fall 2008 to discuss teen cell phone use. A CTIA survey found teens text message at least as much as they talk on cell phones.

(Credit: Marguerite Reardon/CBS Interactive)

Consistent with the findings of the survey, the teens on the panel said they text message as much as or more than they talk on the phone. And 42 percent of those surveyed say they could text blindfolded.

About a third of teens surveyed say they regularly play games on their phones and about 20 percent of them use their phones for social networking. The teens on the panel said they would be more willing to play games or surf the mobile Web, if those were no-cost activities.

About 59 percent of teens surveyed said they would be willing to provide personal information to wireless operators to receive targeted text messages. And roughly 40 percent of teens said they don't mind watching advertising if cell phone service is free.

The teens on the CTIA panel agreed with the results.

"We definitely like free," Brenna said.

But there are some services that some teens aren't too keen on. Roughly 36 percent of teens in the survey said they don't like buddy-tracking features that reveal their physical location to others. The teens on the panel also complained about poor battery life. Dean, 14, said he'd like phone manufacturers develop solar-powered phones.

"If they can do it for calculators, they should be able to do it for phones," he said.

According to the survey, teens also say they want phones that are waterproof and shockproof, are made of flexible materials that can bend, and have artificial intelligence that will provide answers to questions.

A few days before CTIA Fall 2008 began, the National Geographic Society announced a new effort to bring its content to mobile devices. The society will launch a WAP site next month that will offer photos, animal ringtones, articles from National Geographic magazine, and video from the society's television shows. Though exact content and the URL are still under development, mobile division vice president Aaron Kohn said that there also will be an online "green" guide with tips on eco-friendly products and shopping for sustainable fish.

Kohn confirmed that National Geographic is not looking to form an MVNO, but he said that the society is in talks with carriers and manufacturers to bring National Geographic branding to new handsets. That's good news considering our disappointment with the Cellular Abroad's National Geographic Talk Abroad Travel Phone. What's more, he said an National Geographic app for the iPhone is in the works.

At launch, all content on the WAP site will be free. Next year, however, the society plans to introduce paid content.

HTC Touch Pro at CTIA Fall 2008

(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET)

CTIA Fall 2008 has finally come to a close. Though it was a relatively small show in comparison to its spring counterpart, we still heard quite a number of announcements about the latest cell phones and mobile applications. We've compiled them all in our CTIA Fall 2008 blog, plus we have plenty of slide shows and video of the new handsets as well.

The big announcements came from Sprint on the first day of the show. They debuted five new upcoming handsets, the Samsung Rant, the Samsung Highnote, the LG Lotus, the Motorola i576, and the HTC Touch Pro.

The One Click interface as seen on the Samsung Highnote. Here it's showing your latest horoscope as well as a news headline.

(Credit: Sprint)

The Rant is a slider handset with a QWERTY keyboard not unlike the LG Rumor, with a 2-megapixel camera and EV-DO. The Highnote is set to be one of Sprint's flagship music phones, with a stereo speaker as well as a 3.5mm headset jack. The LG Lotus is a fashionable messaging phone with a unique square shape, and the Motorola i576 is a rugged IDEN phone. The Rant, the Highnote, and the Lotus will also be the first three devices to support Sprint's new user interface called One Click. Last but definitely not least is the HTC Touch Pro, a Windows Mobile 6.1 smartphone that's almost like the HTC Touch Diamond, except it has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. Sprint also announced its new Ready Now retail experience, where they train all their customer service representatives to better assist customers with their phones.

Virgin Mobile also had a couple of announcements here at the show. First it introduced the new Helio by Virgin Mobile branding, signifying further collaborations with its newly acquired Helio division. Then it surprised us with the new Virgin Mobile Shuttle, the first-ever 3G handset from Virgin Mobile. It features EV-DO support, as well as location-based services previously found on Helio devices. Aside from the Shuttle, Virgin Mobile also launched new colors for some of its devices.

Though they weren't at the show technically, we did see a few Motorola handsets at the Mobile Focus show on the first day of CTIA. We took a look at Motorola's latest Rokr phones, as well as the much-awaited Motorola ZN5. The ZN5 is a beautiful handset equipped with a stunning 5-megapixel camera in partnership with Kodak. We also got a hands-on with the LG Invision, which was already soft-launched online, but will be officially launched in the retail channels later this year. It's the latest handset to support AT&T Mobile TV, AT&T's live streaming TV service.

Even though they didn't show any new handsets, Verizon released a few new services at the show. They include new music apps, a new V Cast mobile site, a mobile version of NYTimes.com, City ID, a Facebook partnership, new V Cast channels, and access to popular social networking sites. Nokia didn't make any handset announcements either, but it did reveal it is now offering Microsoft Activesync for all S60 phones.

Just prior to the show, RIM also revealed the RIM BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220, which is RIM's first ever clamshell device. It's a quad-band phone with a 2-megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, stereo Bluetooth, and a rather large internal display. The new Pearl is slated to come out for T-Mobile, but price and availability are yet to be determined. RIM also introduced the BlackBerry Curve 8350i, the first ever BlackBerry with IDEN. Also on the smartphone front, Sony Ericsson teased at the launch of the Xperia X1, but only in Europe, and Velocity Mobile is finally shipping its first smartphone.

On the applications front, Yahoo announced a social networking app for the iPhone, Microsoft introduced a new mobile browser, RIM announces 'lifestyle' apps for the BlackBerry, QuickOffice demos iPhone apps, and the opening of Viigo Beta to the public.

Several industry topics also popped up during the show, like the so-called openness of cell phone carriers, Real Networks adding Internet video to its voice services, the rising cost of text messages, and the mobile 'tween market. AT&T also announced it's improving its location-based services and A-GPS network.

The QWERTY keyboard on the Blitz is made for texting

(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET)

On September 10, CTIA reported that American cell-phone subscribers are sending more text messages than ever despite the rising cost. About 75 billion SMS text messages were sent in June alone, according to the report. Of course, texting is only a relatively recent boom here in the U.S.--people from Europe and Asia have been sending and receiving text messages for years, most likely due to the low cost of texting over there.

With that in mind, many manufacturers are racing each other to develop messaging-centric phones with full QWERTY keyboards, but that aren't smart phones. The recently released Verizon Wireless Blitz has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, and at CTIA this past week, Sprint announced the LG Lotus, which has a fold-out QWERTY keyboard. Samsung also announced the Samsung Rant, a slider device reminiscent of the LG Rumor, both of which have hidden QWERTY keyboards.

But will these devices be popular among frequent texters? I know several of my friends who learned to type out text messages with a 12-number keypad via T9, and claim that they actually text more slowly with a QWERTY keyboard. I hear the same thing with a lot of teenagers and tweens who've never used a phone with a QWERTY keyboard, and find texting with T9 easier. For those who are newer to texting though, I can see QWERTY phones like this being a big hit.

How about you, dear readers? Are you on the texting bandwagon? If so, how much do you text? Are you on an unlimited text-message plan, or do you opt for the cheaper ones? And would you be interested in any of these new messaging phones that aren't smart phones? Let us know in the comments below.

Unlike the Foleo, the Redfly doesn't have an operating system, storage, or processing power.

(Credit: Celio)

SAN FRANCISCO--When I first glimpsed the Redfly from Celio at this week's CTIA show here, I thought I was staring at a Palm Foleo.

But while both are "smartphone companions," there are a couple of key differences. First and foremost, the Redfly hasn't been shelved.

Also, although the Foleo was touted as a complement to a smartphone, it had its own Linux-based operating system and application development apparatus.

As noted in January, the Redfly looks like a laptop, but has essentially no processing power or storage of its own. Rather, it's designed to hook up with a Windows Mobile smartphone.

It takes all the applications and data from the phone (via a Bluetooth or USB connection) and adds an 8-inch screen, keyboard, and pointing device. PowerPoint presentations and Excel spreadsheets that barely show up on a 3-inch phone screen are much more usable. Also, as mobile browsers get better, Web surfing stands to be much better as well.

Palm co-founder Jeff Hawkins introduces the Palm Foleo at the May 2007 D: All Things Digital conference.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

It's price tag is still hefty--around $400. That's a lot for a device that doesn't actually hold any information. Of course, that might also be Redfly's biggest selling point.

Because all the Redfly is doing is acting as a remote display for the phone, no data actually lives on the device. That feature alone could justify the price for some businesses. While most laptops can't be remotely wiped, many smartphones can.

Marketing Vice President Brad Warnock told me his company still hopes to crack into the consumer market, but understands that it needs to get its costs down before that's a practical option.

Back in June, Toronto-based Viigo released a private beta of its muscled-up RSS-reader for BlackBerry phones that looked poised to take a bite out of Yahoo Go 3.0. Viigo 3.0 beta took Viigo's core RSS newsreader and made it one meta-channel of many. Alongside a proliferation of customizable news feeds there would be weather, entertainment, sports, finance, travel information, and so on. Yet the design of Viigo 3.0 beta was a mere blueprint, a placeholder of what's to come with very limited working features.

(Credit: Viigo)

At CTIA Wireless in San Francisco (full CNET coverage) on Friday, Viigo updated and opened its beta to the public, adding back-end and front-end changes that nudge the gap between Viigo 3.0 beta and its more successful Yahoo competitor. In addition to shrinking the memory footprint, Viigo has added the ability to add or remove services from the home screen. This is good news for folks outside of Canada who had previously been forced to live with the channel on Canadian sports. Viigo hints that with the next release, users might be able to not just add or subtract, but reorder information channels how they wish.

Fleshed-out information channels are also on the ascendancy, most notably the travel, finance, elections, and sports categories. Viigo's flight-tracking engine is now firmly in place, letting you keep tabs on flight status and create itineraries for Viigo to track. This travel function is not currently available from Yahoo Go, and could give Viigo an edge with some users.

Sports coverage has also grown to include a single sports channel that lets fans gather together stats feeds for each sport; in finance news, economic types can track industry leaders by market sector and monitor exchange rates. With a finger on North America's political pulse, Viigo has also bulked up coverage for the upcoming U.S. and Canadian elections.

There's still work to do before Viigo can catch Yahoo Go's breadth of services, but its differentiation in data types and sources, the organizational interface, and the ability to intuitively customize the channels and screen can only do Viigo good. At this point, Viigo needs to give its following greater control over filtering and manipulating data from the channels and more operating systems--iPhone and Symbian come to mind.

The blow-by-blow beta updates are encouraging reminders of Viigo's presence, but are beginning to wear thin. Let's hope that the next release of Viigo 3.0 is a complete one, and robust enough to withstand a thorough evaluation.

Until then, Blackberry users can try out Viigo's latest beta app by pointing the mobile browser to http://beta.getviigo.com. Windows Mobile users can also download Viigo, though that version isn't as advanced.

I finally had a chance to take a closer look at the Virgin Mobile Shuttle yesterday at the Mobile Focus show at CTIA. As you might recall, the Shuttle is Virgin Mobile's first ever 3G handset with EV-DO. It also has GPS functionality, and borrows a couple of Helio location-based services such as Buddy Beacon, a friend-finder application, and Where, which lets you find nearby restaurants or gas stations.

Despite its high-end features, the Shuttle looks and feels like any other Virgin Mobile phone. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but we were expecting a more sophisticated Helio-esque vibe to the overall design. As it is, it simply looks ordinary. That said, the Shuttle is a slender slider handset with nice curved tips toward the top and the bottom, and is clad in the classic red and black colors of Virgin Mobile.

The navigation array consist of two soft keys, a circular toggle, the Send and End/Power keys, a dedicated speakerphone key, and a Back key. The two soft keys, the speakerphone key, and the Back key are not physical buttons--they're actually touch-sensitive. Whenever you touch any of these buttons, the phone vibrates as a form of haptic feedback. I found this rather annoying, and would much prefer actual keys, but I only played with it for a few minutes so I'll have to wait to get our review unit for a proper verdict.

Virgin Mobile Shuttle

(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET)

The overall handset felt, well, kind of cheap. And the display isn't the best we've seen. However, considering it's only $99.99 without a contract, it's not that bad. Plus it has quite a number of features, such as a 1.3-megapixel camera, video capture and playback, a music player, stereo Bluetooth, 3G support, and GPS services.

The Virgin Mobile Shuttle will be available September 28 at Best Buy and Best Buy Mobile.

Much to my surprise, I spotted the LG Invision Wednesday night at the Mobile Focus show here at CTIA. Even though the LG Invision has launched with AT&T on August 20, it was just a soft launch on the online store and not an official launch across all its retail channels, and we have yet to receive a review unit. So, I was eager to get my hands on it to see how it really looks and feels in person.

As a reminder, the LG Invision is the latest handset to support AT&T Mobile TV, AT&T's live streaming TV service. It is only the third handset that supports this service--the other two are the LG Vu and the Samsung Access. The AT&T Mobile TV service currently works in around 58 markets in the country, but sadly San Francisco is not on that list.

But even though I couldn't test out the AT&T Mobile TV service, I did play around with the Invision for a little bit. Measuring 4 inches tall by 2 inches wide and less than 0.5 inch thick, the Invision is certainly the smallest and lightest of all the AT&T Mobile TV phones. As a device meant for watching video, I was also pleased to see such a vibrant and colorful display, though it is rather small at around 2.2 inches. I would probably prefer the Vu for watching video because of the wider screen.

LG Invision in hand

(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET)

You might notice that the keypad looks a bit unusual, and that's because LG has rearranged the keys so that the bottom three keys on the keypad are now flanked on the right side. This makes the handset feel slightly wider and shorter, and we think that people might have to get used to this new keypad arrangement. There's also a dedicated TV button around the navigation keys, plus the four-way toggle is arranged in a cross in the middle of the phone. I thought this felt cramped, but I'll have to use it for a longer period of time to really get a feel for it. The back of the phone is clad in a rubberized texture that feels a little like faux leather, which makes the phone easier to grip.

Other features of the Invision include a 1.3-megapixel camera, HSDPA speeds, AT&T Mobile Music support, a music player, and stereo Bluetooth. It is available online only for $99.99 with a $50 mail-in rebate and a two-year service agreement, and LG says it'll be available in retail stores later this year.

Moto's handset division has a tiny presence at CTIA Fall 2008 but that didn't stop the Motorola ZN5 from lurking at the company's table at a press event. Ever since the ZN5 was announced in June and then cleared the FCC the next month, we've been waiting with bated breath to get our hands on the fancy camera phone. We still don't have a review model, so we relished our opportunity Wednesday night to give it a short shakedown.

Check out our Motorola ZN5 slide show.

On the outside it's a beautiful device with a sleek profile and an understated style. I liked the dark gray color scheme that's nicely offset with a couple touches of purple. The handset feels great in the hand--both sturdy and comfortable without being exclusively hefty (5.65 inches by 1.98 inches by 0.47 inch; 4.02 ounces). The gorgeous display takes up almost half of the phone's front face. Graphics and colors were sharp and it has the same simple but easy-to-use interface that we saw on the Motorola Rokr E8.

I particularly liked the circular toggle on the navigation array, which has a nice tactile feel that compensates for its relatively small size. I had no issues navigating through menus or controlling different functions. The remaining controls are flush but their spacious arrangement makes them user-friendly.

The keypad buttons are also flush but they feature the same tiny silver bumps that we saw on the Rokr E8. That gives them a bit of a tactile feel for dialing and texting quickly. Also, the bright backlighting should help in dim situations.

The Motorola ZN5 is a conversation piece.

(Credit: Nicole Lee/CNET Networks)

On the side of the ZN5 are a volume rocker, a 3.5mm headset jack, a micro USB port, and a camera shutter key. Turn it over and you'll find the bright flash and the sliding camera lens cover. Opening the cover starts the camera automatically.

Remember that the ZN5 is all about photography. Moto got help from Kodak to produce the 5-megapixel shooter, from the design of the camera itself to a seamless integration with Kodak's EasyShare Software and the online Kodak Gallery. You can find details on the camera here, but it's worth noting that it offers many of the same features you'd find on a standalone shooter.

We gave the camera a quick spin and were especially impressed with the panorama mode. After you take the first shot for your panorama, the phone will vibrate until you move it to the correct position for the next shot. Once you're there, the camera will snap the next image automatically. There's no reason for you to try to struggle with lining up a tree in the backgrounds. It's a nifty feature that bodes well for the camera as a whole.

Moto is promising that we'll get a review unit in the next few weeks and we're counting the days until then. North American availability is still under wraps but we couldn't help but notice that the ZN5 that we played with was running on a T-Mobile SIM card? Coincidence? We think not.

(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET Networks)

While the fall CTIA show has never been known for big handset announcements, 2008 brought a number of debuts, including a handful of smartphones. From the RIM BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 and the HTC Touch Pro to the Velocity 103, check out all the new models in our photo gallery.

Fall CTIA 2008 smartphones gallery