Samsung recently announced their Two-Step, a dual-band CDMA clamshell with Bluetooth, 1.3 MP Camera, MicroSD support, and headphone jack. Pricing has not yet been released. 

The LG Dare for Verizon Wireless has a very neat tool built into the phone. The Drawing Pad feature allows users to sketch pictures using their finger. The tool offers multiple settings such as changing the pen width, eraser width, and pen color. Using these simple tools, some users have been able to devlop some VERY good pictures, such as the one shown above.

Brett Rogers is an artist who has an LG Dare phone. He has found the Drawing Pad to be a different, and exciting new way to express his artistic side. Using the basic tools provided, he has created many cool pictures. Here are a few samples:

You may view his entire collection here: http://www.beatcanvas.com/index.asp?blogid=1&threadid=48

As a teenager, text messaging is the most used form of communication. It is not uncommon for some teens to exchange over 20,000 text messages a month! 

Just for fun, let's do some math...

• Out of the 20,000 messages, around 10,000 are sent messages. 
  
• 10,000 divided by 30 days in a month is about 333 sent messages per day. 
  
• For this example's sake let's say the texter is awake for 15 hours a day. 
  
• 333/15 hours= just over 22 texts an hour. 
  
• This eqates to around 1 SENT text every 2 minutes and 45 seconds!
  

My personal opinion on this texting obsession is it is taking away from a teenager's ability to develop their personal conversation skills. In the real world, beyond the cell world, a person is required to deal with problems and situations in a face to face enviroment. There is no way to "hide behind the cell phone" in this case.

Another idea to keep in mind is people can say or be anything they want via a text message. There is no emotion attached to a text. They can say whatever they want, with no immediate consequences. They can be as hurtful, rude, or vulgar as can be, with no repercussions. This is not establishing good conflict resolution habits.

I have learned from this sort of behavior. One of my past relationships ended partly due to lack of communication. My significant other refused to discuss our issues unless it was via text messaging.  She was one of the 20k+ a month texters...

Of course, this led to difficulties between us, but she would never discuss these problems unless...yup, you guessed it! Unless it was through texting! This evil circle of texting was ruining, and eventually ended a great relationship!!

In closing, do I think texting is bad? No. 

Do I think we should text less? Yes I do. It is taking away from how we handle real world problems. 

Text away my friends, text away...

Want to give the perfect holiday gift this season? Surprise the important people in your life with the greatest gift of all; Give them an awesome Verizon Wireless cell phone packaged in a holiday gift box, with a nice holiday card!

1) Click the Shop Now to browse all the hottest phones.

2)Select the phone you want to give.

3)Add the gift box to your order on the Accessories page under Featured Items.

It is really that easy to give the ultimate gift this holiday season!

When it comes to screen protection, there are many options available; Invisible Shield, PhantomSkinz, Verizon brand screen covers, etc. 

At varying prices, quantity, and application instructions, it is hard to choose between them! When I purchased my Dare from my local Verizon store, I also pickd up a 3-pack of the Verizon screen covers for $10. I figured, why spend over $20 on name brand products, when I can get essentially the same thing for half as much? 

Applying the covers is very easy. It is as simple as peeling off the protective film like a sticker, and placing the cover on the clean screen of my Dare. I was able to successfully apply the cover the very first time, and it only took me about five minutes to do so. This application process is much simpler than the adhesive/water based application process that some other brands require.

Once on, it is very hard to tell there is a screen protected on the Dare. It does not feel any different than the the naked screen, and it does not hinder the display of the phone. After a month and a half of use, I still have the original screen cover on, and it is in great shape! I still have two more covers at my disposal, should I need to replace the current one.

All in all, I am very happy with my purchase of the Verizon screen covers.

*A muffled version of "Baby Got Back" is heard* Oops! A teenager's pocket just hosted a concert for his entire Math class. The teacher angrily takes away the student's multimedia player/internet browser/camera/game player...also known as a cell phone.

To prevent this awkward situation from taking place, teens are turning to the "Mosquito Ringtone". This concept plays off of the concept that most adults over the age of 25 cannot hear sounds higher than 17 kHz. Teens have turned this high pitched, annoying sound into a ringtone for their cell phone. They are now able to be alerted to incoming text messages in the classroom, without alerting the teacher. 

Students be warned, some adults are still able to hear this sly ringtone!

To learn more about the Mosquito Ringtone, dubbed "Teen Buzz", check out www.teenbuzz.org

A South Korean blog has leaked what it claims to be spy shots of the rumored new Casio Exilim phone headed to Verizon Wireless. The new CDMA Casio handset with Exilim branding recently made its way through the FCC not too long ago and all we could really tell from those FCC documents is that the handset will support dual band CDMA, EV-DO Rev. A and bluetooth. The new images and leaked information suggests that the Exilim phone will be based on the Casio W53CA Exilim flip phone with a touch of Verizon love. It will sport a 5.1MP camera, possible 3x optical zoom and a WVGA screen. We have not confirmed the authenticity of these shots but there are definitely more intriguing handsets that Photoshoppers could be spending their time making fake images of. As such, don't be surprised if the released Exilim looks familiar once it's announced.

Source: www.boygeniusreport.com

Well if this isn't a nice way to start of 2009, I don't know what is.  Verizon is offering the popular BlackBerry Pearl 8130 in both silver and pink at the low price of $19.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate. A 2-year contract is required, but $20 for a decent smartphone is just hard to argue against - especially if you didn't receive a new phone over the holidays. Get it while supplies last!

We know how hard it must be for Sprint BlackBerry users considering that Sprint missed out on recent handsets like the Storm and Bold. Sprint hasn't even issued OS 4.5 yet. If you believe this latest rumor, a very good thing is on its way to Sprint - the Niagara. A CDMA variant of the Bold with updated looks to compliment the styling queues of the 8900 and Storm, the Niagara features all of the goodies one could hope for: full-QWERTY keypad, 480 x 360 display, EV-DO Rev. A, aGPS, WiFi and a 3.2 megapixel camera. We even hear that there might be HSPA world-roaming. If the rumor pans out, it would certainly give Sprint a much needed shot in the arm. But then again, Verizon would probably just come in after a short period of time and wreck the party.

The first T-Mobile Shadow was not the best Windows Mobile phone out there, but its slim design, SureType keyboard, and numerous features managed to make the device a moderate success. The Shadow 2009 has been rumored for a while now, but it looks like T-Mo is finally going to make it official. Sources say the phone will be released January 28th. Unfortunately, it does not have 3G support which might turn off some potential buyers.

• Wi-Fi - including @Home (Hotspot Enabled)
  
• Large, vibrant 2.6″ screen with reflective surface
  
• 20 key slide out keyboard with spin wheel navigation
  
• Large battery capacity
  
• Windows Mobile 6.1
  
• myFaves 1.5 W
  
• ork and personal e-mail
  
• Music and video multimedia player
  
• Instant messaging
  
• Stereo Bluetooth
  
• Mini USB SD expandable memory slot (4GB max)
  
• Speakerphone
  
• Bluetooth 2.0
  
• Audio postcard
  
• Mp3 Hi-Fi ringers
  
• HTML Web browsing
  
• Quad-band world phone
  
• Picture messaging
  
• Text messaging
  
• EDGE/GPRS
  
• t-zones/ web2go
  
• T-Mobile address book
  
• Mobile Office and OneNote
  
• Enhanced device help