One of the best Mac OS X tools in my arsenal of iPhone utilities is Ecamm Network’s PhoneView, which lets you retrieve your call history, export contacts, play and save voice memos, search and save SMS messages, play and export music, download photos, and create, edit, and save notes. It even lets you use your …

In the classic Simpsons episode “Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes?”, Homer’s long-lost brother Herb invents a baby translator. The baby cries, the machine announces its meaning (in Danny DeVito’s inimitable voice) in plain English. Seventeen years later, there’s an app for that. Cry Translator promises to identify the “five distinct cries” made by infants. In other words, you no …

We’ve been waiting for months for Verizon to finally unveil the latest in the line of LG Chocolate phones, and it’s here at last. The LG Chocolate Touch VX8575 is officially available today, making it the first touch-screen version of the Chocolate phone lineup. As we suspected, it’s very different from the LG BL40 and looks a lot more like …

A new BlackBerry has joined the Verizon Wireless family: the BlackBerry Curve 8530. The 8530 looks a fair bit sleeker than its predecessor, the Curve 8330, thanks to the touch-sensitive track pad and the slanted full QWERTY keyboard. We’re also happy to finally see Wi-Fi capability, which was sadly lacking in the previous Curve. It also has 256MB flash memory, …

In the battle between LTE and WiMax for wireless broadband, LTE may have just gotten another boost. A group of leading telecom service and equipment providers, including AT&T, Verizon, Nokia, and Samsung, announced a new standard Thursday for delivering compatible voice and messaging services using Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks. The standard, dubbed the One Voice initiative, offers a set …

Sprint Verizon Wireless isn’t the only one showing some BlackBerry love today. Following Verizon’s announcement that it will bring the RIM BlackBerry Curve 8530 to its lineup on November 20, Sprint released a statement saying that it, too, will offer the Curve 8530. Like the other models, the Curve 8530 includes features such a Wi-Fi, an optical trackpad, GPS, a …

Now playing: Watch this: Nokia 3711 (T-Mobile) 1:09 T-Mobile is now selling the slim Nokia 3711. Introduced at last month’s CTIA show in San Diego, the 3711 sports a flip-phone design with a dark finish and a hidden external display. Inside, you’ll find Nokia’s Series 40 operating system, support for T-Mobile’s 3G network, GPS with access to Ovi Maps, a …

On Call runs every two weeks, alternating between answering reader questions and discussing hot topics in the cell phone world. In the age of iPhone, Google Android, and Palm WebOS, a funny thing has happened on the way to the cell phone store. Though handset design has long been the focus of cell phone development, hardware manufacturers appear to be …

The same day T-Mobile formally released the Nokia 3711, AT&T countered with two announcements of its own. The Samsung Mythic and Flight will land in the carrier’s stores on Sunday, November 8. Like the 3711, we first saw the Mythic and the Flight at last month’s CTIA show in San Diego. Both offer touch screens and AT&T’s new mobile browser, …

Verizon isn’t just about smartphones today. The country’s largest carrier also unveiled the Samsung Convoy. Clad in a tough shell with rubber sidings, the Convoy is certified to meet the usual military specifications for vibration, humidity, temperature extreme, dust, shock, solar radiation, and altitude. On the front flap of the charcoal gray flip phone you’ll find a speaker, camera lens, …