Cricket Wireless, the little carrier with big plans to go national, added yet another handset to its lineup Tuesday. The Samsung Messager Touch comes hot on the heels of the Android-powered Sanyo Zio, which had its formal introduction last week. The Messager Touch isn’t a smartphone, but it offers a slider design with a full …

We apologize for not posting FCC filing on this blog for the last few weeks, but the end of August was a good time to come back. Last week, a lot of cell phones passed through the Federal Communications Commission’s certification process including two Windows Phone 7 devices from LG. Phonescoop sighted the LG GW910 on August 23, and CNET’s …

Al Moschner probably wouldn’t blame you if you’ve never heard of Cricket Wireless. But if he has his way, you’ll know about his company soon enough. As the executive vice president and chief operating officer of the nation’s seventh-largest wireless carrier, Moschner directs marketing and branding efforts for Cricket’s products and services. A subsidiary of Leap Wireless International founded in …

After a short period for preorders, Cricket’s first Android smartphone is now officially on sale. You can get the Sanyo Zio, aka the Kyocera Zio, for $249 with Cricket’s no-contract service. To go with the phone, Cricket also is offering a $55 per-month service plan that includes unlimited talk, text, picture mail, Web browsing, e-mail, and international text. As we’ve …

Just two weeks after it added the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 to its lineup, AT&T announced today that it would pick up another Sony Ericsson smartphone, the Vivaz. First announced earlier this year just before Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, the Symbian (Series 60, fifth edition) smartphone focuses on multimedia with a slight nod to business users. Features include …

Nokia announced its new 5250 music phone on its blog early Tuesday morning. The touch-screen device has a standard candy bar design, but it comes in a few colors including black, white, blue, and purple. The centerpiece feature is a music player that you can stock with tracks from your own tunes collection. Of course, you also can purchase songs …

Any frequent On Call reader will know that in previous columns I’ve featured CNET users who’ve had frustrating experiences when buying a phone, adding new services, or just seeking help with an account in a carrier store. I even griped myself about T-Mobile’s “upgrade fee” a couple of years ago. As I said then, customers just want to be treated …

I’m a big fan of mapping apps, particularly if they involve airports. Though I’ve covered them in the past, I didn’t find one I really liked until I downloaded Point Inside, which is available free for the iPhone, iPad, and Android handsets running OS 1.6 or above. As it covers both airports and shopping malls nationwide, Point Inside can be …

It’s not an overstatement to say that Sprint pulled off a significant coup earlier this year when it introduced America’s first 4G smartphone to rave reviews. The HTC Evo 4G not only attracted new customers to a carrier that had long been losing them, but it also gave a much needed boost to a struggling brand. Though the Evo 4G, …

Five years after Sprint merged with Nextel, the deal remains a controversial topic in the financial world. Not only has the combined company struggled through several difficult quarters, but also Bloomberg recently named the acquisition as one that “never should have happened.” In a review published last Thursday of the 100 biggest takeovers since 2005, Bloomberg ranked the Sprint-Nextel deal …