We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again. Not everyone needs a fancy smartphone with all the bells and whistles, especially if you’re new to the cell phone world. Senior citizens, particularly, often have have different needs, with vocal communication and user-friendliness trumping advanced features like HD video recording. Instead, high audio quality, intuitive …

A by-product of the current love affair with 3D entertainment will be the growth of the Blu-ray format, according to Danny Kaye, executive vice president, Global Research and Technology Strategy at 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. Kaye says that only Blu-ray discs have the capacity to hold 1080p content in each channel necessary for high-definition (HD) 3D playback. Danny Kaye, …

Most of the Earth’s surface is covered with water, which we land-lubbers have a difficult time exploring on our own. A new update to Google Earth for Android adds an ocean layer to its application for surveying our planet. The Ocean layer will be switched on by default. To explore the ocean floor, zoom in to just below the ocean …

Like watching dogs on skateboards on your phone? Of course you do. And now it’s even quicker to get your comedy canine fix, thanks to a new mobile YouTube website that’s been prettied up to work more like the desktop version and be easier to use on touchscreen phones. It’s already up and running in the US, and now comes to the UK …

The prospect of a MeeGo-running N9 may have left you salivating, but now Intel and Nokia have opened a lab working on 3D graphics for mobile phones and other devices. The companies said the research could look into technologies previously only seen in science fiction, such as a rather far-fetched sounding 3D hologram of the person you’re talking to on …

The Wall Street Journal reports that iAds may appear in iBooks as publishers watch their profits dwindle amid technology advances like Apple’s iPad. The publishing industry has been less than supportive of these advances and the result could come at the expense of its content. From a business standpoint, though, this makes total sense. Ads have been queued and served …

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 …

The number of people who subscribe to LTE next-generation wireless broadband services is expected to reach 300 million by 2015, compared with 500,000 this year, according to a report released Wednesday by Juniper Research. As the mobile industry attempts to ramp up deployments of LTE, short for Long Term Evolution, the real surge probably won’t sink in until 2012, says …

In the second quarter of 2010 paid TV subscriptions fell for the first time ever, with cable taking the biggest hit, according to the research firm SNL Kagan. A weak U.S. economy is the main reason the firm cited for the dip in subscriptions, as more consumers look for ways to cut down on monthly expenses. Last year’s digital TV …

Though it was announced way back in February at Mobile World Congress, the LG GT540 has finally made its way to North America. Canada’s Rogers Wireless is now offering the entry-level, Android 1.6-powered device for as little $30 Canadian (about $28 U.S.) with a three-year service agreement. The LG phone, released as the “Loop,” features a 3-inch touch screen, a …

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 …

Verizon on Tuesday began pushing out a minor software update to the Motorola Droid 2 handset. As is the case with most new Android smartphones, carriers and device makers often follow up the release with a small update. Typically, these include bug fixes and very subtle user interface enhancements. Similar to the initial Droid X update, the Droid 2 improves …

Google has slapped notifications on to its Google App for the iPhone, so you’ll have one more way to get distracted by your spam. The update adds pop-ups for Google Calendar notifications and a badge showing the number of new Gmails. Presumably, Google avoided throwing up pop-up notifications for each email because, with the volume of email most of us …

Vodafone is in yet more hot water over Android updates, having to backtrack over a threat to Samsung Galaxy S owners that upgrading their phones with official firmware could invalidate their warranty. Posts on the official Vodafone forum show the problem started a couple of weeks ago, when some Galaxy S owners indicated they had downloaded Samsung’s official JM1 Android …

Dell announced on Tuesday that its Android-powered Aero handset will be available for $99 with a new two-year service agreement with AT&T. If you’d rather not sign up for a contract, the full retail price of the phone is $299. The Aero is a quad-band GSM/EDGE phone with tri-band 850/1900/2100 UMTS/HSDPA, so it could work with T-Mobile too if you …