The Wireless Association (CTIA) has announced the US database for stolen phones is now up and running. In case a phone gets in there it won’t be allowed to connect to any of the US networks.
The participating carriers in the database are AT&T, Cellcom, Nex-Tech Wireless, Sprint, T-Mobile USA, and Verizon Wireless. They already deployed their IMEI databases of stolen phones and the merge should be completed within a year.
Part of the merged database is already live and when a phone pops in there – it will never get service from any of those networks. In the efforts of drying the stolen phones market this database will soon join the GSMA Global IMEI database and its blacklist. That way no phone stolen stateside will work overseas and vice versa.
This surely won’t stop the phone thefts, but will make things a lot tougher for the thieves and hopefully most of them will drop this “business” eventually.
Announced at yesterday’s glitzy event, the Verizon Wireless exclusive Motorola DROID RAZR M is the first of the trio of announced devices to become commercially available. The LTE sporting handset is the baby in the new DROID RAZR family, but don’t be deceived – it is just as powerful as its bigger brothers.
The Motorola DROID RAZR M is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 chipset, featuring two Krait CPU cores, clocked at 1.5GHz. There’s a gig of RAM on board and 8GB of built-in memory, which can be further expanded through a microSD card slot. The DROID RAZR M’s display is a familiar sight – it is the same 4.3” PenTile Super AMOLED unit with qHD resolution, found in the original DROID RAZR. The camera is an 8MP unit with FullHD recording capability. A 2MP unit at the front will help you with the video calls. The smartphone is powered by a beefy 2000mAh battery.
Visually, the newbie is easily identifiable as a member of the Motorola RAZR family. The back is covered by Kevlar, while the front sports the easily identifiable chromed-looking earpiece.
Thanks to its practically edgeless screen, the Motorola DROID RAZR M sports extremely elegant measures. They are 122.5 x 60.9 x 8.3 mm, while the handset’s weight is 126 grams.
The build quality of the smartphone is superb. The DROID RAZR M is not metal clad as its bigger brothers, but it still feels well crafted. The exposed bolts on the handset’s sides are a great new touch, which further enhances the phone’s quality appearance.
Software wise, the Motorola DROID RAZR M boots Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich, which has been lightly skinned in a fashion similar to what we saw with the Atrix HD for AT&T. A Jelly Bean updates has been promised to arrive by the end of the year. Curiously, the handset comes with Google Chrome for Android preinstalled instead of the stock ICS browser.
Okay, the Nokia Wireless Charging accessories are seriously cool, but what if you want more than just charge your phone? Nokia thought of this as well and has teamed up with JBL to introduce the PowerUp Wireless Charging Speaker.
There’s also the PlayUp Wireless Speaker, but it doesn’t offer charging. Both accessories however, come with NFC and Bluetooth connectivity. Here are the promo videos, which do a pretty good job of summing up the key features of the new speakers.
JBL PowerUp and PlayUp Wireless Speakers for Nokia
JBL PlayUp Portable Wireless Speaker
JBL PowerUp Portable Wireless Charging Speaker
Pricing and availability isn’t known yet, but should be available in the weeks to come.
