Free Republic

Sitting here in my den, I have two ways that I can call you and two ways that I can get a call from you. One of them has been around since the late 1800s and still does pretty much what it did when it was invented. The other is virtually magic in a box — and that box isn't much bigger than a deck of cards. One sits like a weird dusty antique on my desk. It's not pretty. No talented designer has ever bothered to make it museum-worthy. When it rings, I hear the same sound, no matter...

<p>Saudi Arabia has ordered the country's cell phone service providers to halt all BlackBerry services this week, the latest Mideast nation to announce moves to exercise greater control over data sent by the Research In Motion phones.</p> <p>The country's Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) on Tuesday asked Saudi Telecom, Mobily, and Zain Saudi Arabia to suspend service to BlackBerry phones on Friday, the Saudi state news agency SPA said in a report detailed by Al Jazeera. The suspension was being implemented because BlackBerry service "in its present state does not meet regulatory requirements," the SPA said.</p>

Until now, only users of Google's tragically short lived Nexus One had access to Android 2.2 (codenamed Froyo), but according to a communiqué from Verizon, the original Droid will be getting the update next week. This is big news for a large segment of the Android user base as the Droid was a very popular phone.  Android 2.2 brings some useful new features to the platform. For instance, Google's new Jun-in-time compiler speeds up applications dramatically, and the browsers new JavaScript V8 engine makes web pages render much faster. We're going to be very interested to see how Motorola handles...

You have to hand it to Motorola; as little as a year ago their future looked bleak. Android was still in its infancy and lacking polish, mainstream devices running it were few, and there weren’t public or visible signs of any forthcoming devices which would challenge the dominance of BlackBerry or iOS, especially from Motorola. A few months later, they launched the Motorola Droid, and a few months after the floodgates opened up - out has poured a steady stream of relatively polished devices running Android 2.x. It’s been breakneck almost, with new flagships every 3 months on average -...

Verizon's Motorola Droid X is a hot commodity these days. Despite what you may have read, though, the phone isn't too hot to get your hands on -- if you know where to look. Within a day of the Droid X launch last Thursday, Verizon's online store had to push its shipping date back to July 23 in order to keep up with demand. Now, Verizon appears to be extending that delay: Big Red has just bumped its Droid X shipping date to August 3 for all orders placed online. Verizon Wireless locations around the country are reporting the same...

Motorola and Verizon Wireless on Wednesday unveiled the Droid, a smartphone that will test whether the companies can use software from Google to chip away at the dominance of Apple's iPhone. The Droid, a svelte slider with a full keyboard and an expansive touchscreen, will be available at Verizon Wireless Nov. 6 for $199.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate. Customers have to sign up for a two-year contract and data plan. Success of the new phone, which is being launched in a competitive holiday season, is crucial for Motorola, where co-Chief Executive Sanjay Jha has placed a heavy bet on...

It's hard to look at the DROID without looking at the company which brought the device to life. Motorola: for years the name has been synonymous with... well, disappointment. While the industry-stalwart made cellphones sexy with the RAZR, the days which followed have not been especially fruitful or compelling. Over the past year or so, we've seen Motorola beating its way back into the mainstream through a series of smart plays: first embracing Android as a platform, then shucking off the weight of Windows Mobile and finally bringing some desirable (and high profile) devices to market. With the DROID, the...

Motorola's eagerly anticipated Droid X smartphone is expected to hit the hot summer streets in just a few hours. But don't plan on hacking, rooting or modding the Android-powered device anytime soon. 
In addition to locking down the smartphone with an encrypted bootloader, Motorola has instructed its obedient Droid to brick itself if the kernel, bootloader or ROM becomes noticeably compromised.

There’s nothing wrong with the iPhone 4 that isn’t wrong with its rivals. That claim, made by Steve Jobs at the special iPhone 4 press conference Apple held last Friday, drew a loud round of catcalls from the smartphone industry, which clearly didn’t appreciate being tarred with the same brush that has smeared Cupertino these past few weeks. Nokia (NOK), Research in Motion (RIMM), HTC, Samsung and Motorola (MOT) have all issued statements taking issue with Apple’s claims and accusing it of unfairly trying to draw them into its death-grip drama. Here are their rebukes. -snip- Research in Motion: Apple’s...

For every iPhone, there's always a Verizon response. With the iPhone 4 out in the spotlight, Verizon has a new flagship device launching on July 15th: the Droid X. Like the iPhone 4, it's getting put through the paces, and the folks who have gotten to play with it are loving it just as much. How does it match up, though? Hit the link below to find out. The Odd Design The Droid X isn't shaped like other phones. It's got a fat top and a tapered bottom, yet it doesn't make it feel awkward. "The bottom is super...

The Motorola Droid X launched Thursday and is already sold out, exceeding Verizon's demand expectations. The carrier had said that there would be no Droid X shortage, but the initial online stock of the hot Android smartphone is now exhausted, with the next shipping date pushed back to July 23. Many Verizon Wireless retail stores and Best Buys around the U.S. are reporting low or no stock. The Droid X is this summer's flagship Google Android phone, selling for $200, after a $100 online discount on Verizon's site. It has a roomy 4.3-inch display, an 8-megapixel camera with dual LED...

Sure, you read reviews and take recommendations from friends before you buy a new cellphone, but have you ever stopped to consider what the inventor of the cellphone uses on a daily basis? C-SPAN has, and recently took the opportunity to ask the man himself, Marty Cooper, that very question during a wide-ranging interview. While Cooper said that he has used an iPhone previously, he recently passed it on to his grandson in favor of a Motorola Droid, which he says he chose because he wanted to get more experience with Android. But that's not all, Cooper also revealed that...

Verizon Communications Inc. said Tuesday it plans to cut more than 10,000 workers from its landline division this year as customers continue to get rid of home telephone service. The telecom giant made the disclosure the same day it reported a loss in the final quarter of last year as the company spent $3 billion on severance and other costs that stemmed from its decision to lay off thousands of workers last year. Verizon posted a net loss of $653 million, or 23 cents a share, in the three months ended Dec. 31, compared with a profit of $1.24 billion,...

Officials at an Idaho zoo said they nearly had to X-ray an entire flock of pelicans when visitors reported one of the birds had swallowed a cell phone. Zoo keepers at the Tauphaus Park Zoo in Idaho Falls said visitors reported seeing the pelicans tossing a cell phone back and forth until one of the birds eventually swallowed the object whole, KIDK-TV, Idaho Falls, reported Thursday. "Luckily the bird regurgitated it so it wouldn't harm him. We just need folks to be really cautious when they're in the zoo and remember that they're guests in the animals homes and they...

Note: The following text is a quote: THE BRIEFING ROOM THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secrectary _______________________________________________________________ For Immediate Release April 13, 2009 April 13, 2009 MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF STATE THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE SUBJECT: Promoting Democracy and Human Rights in Cuba The promotion of democracy and human rights in Cuba is in the national interest of the United States and is a key component of this Nation's foreign policy in the Americas. Measures that decrease dependency of the Cuban people on the Castro regime and that promote contacts between Cuban-Americans...

(01-18) 21:00 PST -- President-elect Barack Obama dismayed civil liberties groups last summer when he voted to authorize President Bush's clandestine wiretapping program after publicly denouncing it. Now, thanks to a ruling by a San Francisco federal judge, Obama must take a stand on whether the Bush administration violated Americans' rights when it intercepted their phone calls and e-mails without seeking a court's permission. The Jan. 5 decision by Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker revived the last remaining lawsuit against the program Bush authorized after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Without seeking congressional approval or court warrants,...

Mobile broadband users in Stockholm will soon be able to surf the internet on a new high speed 4G network, following the signing of a deal between Ericsson and TeliaSonera. The order from Finnish-Swedish telecom provider TeliaSonera marks the first commercial deployment of Ericsson’s Long Term Evolution (LTE) network technology and will provide mobile internet users with data speeds up to ten times faster than those offered on current networks. "LTE brings the highest possible performance and network capacity, which is needed to meet the needs of the fast growing group of mobile broadband users around the world,” said Ericsson’s...

Butcher, baker, candlestick maker -- all noble professions, indeed. Stay-at-home Mom? Well, get a real job. At least, that's what one Australian mom was told when she went to buy a cell phone. Lyndal Fair, a thirty-six-year-old mother of three, wanted to purchase a mobile phone, presumably to keep track of her brood, to call their schools and doctors and to be available in an emergency. Not good enough, said Vodafone -- they don't sell phones to moms. In fact, the store employees suggested she get her husband to purchase the phone under his name for her. Sound familiar? "I...

Research has shown that many companies, both large and small are uncertain about the benefits to their organization that a VoIP telephone system offers. 55 percent of North American and European companies reported that they did not understand the value that a unified communications solution can deliver to their organization.

EMP is electromagnetic radiation from an explosion (especially a nuclear explosion). The worst of the pulse lasts for only a second but any unprotected electrical equipment - and anything connected to electrical cables, which act as giant lightning rods or antennas - are affected by it. If a nation with a nuclear bomb and the ability to explode it high above an American city were to do so, it would have a massive effect in all directions. Almost immediately all communications systems in the country would be disrupted completely. No radio. No television. No internet. Indeed no electricity at all....