PhoneTalk

This week our Question and Answer series comes from "Ask a Merchant," a new feature launched on LetsTalk.com that can be found in the middle of cell phone detail pages. This week's featured merchant is LetsTalk's Merchandising Manager for T-Mobile Michael Cera. He answers questions about text message signatures and tech terms. Got a question you want answered? Submit your question here. Got something to add to the answers below? Leave a comment.

Does the BlackBerry Curve 8900 for T-Mobile have text message signature? - Justice

No, there is not a signature for your text message. There is the option to do it for your emails, but not text messages.

I’m looking at the T-Mobile Dash 3G, can you tell me what 3G Data Technology is, what Wi-Fi calling is, what Sync means and it means when a cell phone has Windows Mobile 6.1 OS? – Melissa

3G data technology means you can access the Internet on your cell phone at faster speeds than the normal EDGE network. Wi-Fi calling is very similar to a Voice over IP calling system such as SKYPE. However, for some cell phones that have the ability to do Wi-Fi calling on T-Mobile, you are able to use a T-Mobile Hotspot to make calls using Wi-Fi as opposed to your normal minutes. Lastly, Windows Mobile 6.1 is just the operating system for the phone. Similar to a PC’s operating system, it is a smaller scale operating system set to work on your mobile device.

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Sprint announced an availability date of November 15th for the Palm Pre's sibling the Palm Pixi. The new model ditches the slider design in favor of an exposed full QWERTY keyboard. Like the Pre, the touchscreen Pixi will run Palm's latest webOS with easy access to information from Google, Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, Linked In and now Yahoo! The Pixi will also have a new Facebook app that will allow users to see and comment on all updates.

As for the specs, the Pixi will sport a 2-megapixel camera with a LED flash, Bluetooth 2.1, GPS, and 8GB of internal storage space. The new model will also be a bit more customizable with the availability of optionalstylish back covers from a variety of artists.

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We asked our blog readers, "Which social networking sites do you access on your cell phone most frequently?" The most popular site by far was FaceBook garnering 59% of the votes. This makes sense to me since out of the options listed it had a mobile application early on and is easily found on many cell phones or can be downloaded. Twitter, however, seems like it should be a popular cell phone app; while it can be found on some phones, if the handset you're using doesn't have a decent web browser it's not the easiest site to manage. Twitter seems like a natural to me especially since leaving a tweet tops out at the same character count as a text message. If anyone has discovered any great mobile twitter apps, let us know. It's a popular topic on twitter. In the meantime, here's a recap of the survey results:

FaceBook 59%

None 20%

Twitter 13%

Other 6%

MySpace 2%

That’s the latest poll results; please participate in the new poll posted on the right.

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The Samsung Comeback for T-Mobile may seem like a typical messaging phone since it has both a numeric and full QWERTY keyboard, but there's a bit more that makes this cell phone interesting. Watch the video below to see what we mean.

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Let's face it, Nextel push-to-talk cell phones haven't been the most attractive phones available to date. That's all about to change with the Motorola i856. The new slider cell phone sports a 1.3-megapixel camera, a 3.5mm headset jack so you can use your own headphones to listen to music, and Bluetooth 2.0. Combine that with its sleek design and red slide-out keypad and you've got a pocket friendly push-to-talk phone. Additionally, you can add up to an 8GB microSD card for storing pictures and music. Speaking of music, you can even have music playing while you text and talk on a direct connect call. Finally, this lightweight cell phone also has access to Sprint's mobile web features such as TeleNav Navigation, NASCAR Sprint Cup Mobile and NFL Mobile Live.

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I've been playing with the Samsung Rogue for about a week now and here are some of my first impressions. First of all, this is the first multimedia messaging cell phone in the Verizon line-up to require a data plan and I'm beginning to see why - you really will want to experience video and the web on it. About that web experience, it's fairly easy to navigate through web pages and zoom in and out when needed. It's fast too - didn't have to wait too long for it to load and use web-based mail, such as AOL, Yahoo! Mail, and Gmail. There's even Verizon.net for all you folks who have a Verizon e-mail address, which comes with the Verizon broadband service.

The Rogue is one of the first Samsung cell phones that I've seen in a while to sport a 3.5mm headset jack instead of using a proprietary headset connector that also uses the same port as the charger. I think the last time I saw this feature on a Samsung cell phone was with one of the first MP3 player phones to hit the market, the Samsung Uproar. I really appreciated seeing it again. Other enhancements include the AMOLED display, which is bright, extremely viewable in direct sunlight and even helps with battery life. On the battery life front, so far so good. I've only had to recharge once in my week of usage. That's pretty good for a cell phone battery. Of course there's a 3-megapixel camera with a flash and tiny mirror for self portraits, which actually takes decent pictures.

Now for some of the surprises: it has Samsung's widget bar along the left hand side of the display. Something I didn't expect to see on a Verizon Wireless cell phone (Read more)

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The latest flip phone from Motorola, the Entice W766, for Verizon Wireless is all about keeping you connected on the go. The cell phone sports a 2-megapixel camera, music player, Bluetooth and support for up to an 8GB MicroSD card. While that's not as large as what other cell phones will accept - many cell phones can accept twice that capacity - it's still plenty of storage space for music and pictures. The Motorola Entice will support many Verizon features such as VZ NavigatorSM, Family Locator, Mobile Email, Mobile IM and Dashboard. Perhaps the most attractive feature of this cell phone is the external one-touch access to the music player and camera even while the flip phone is closed.

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We just got in the Samsung Intensity, one of the latest messaging phones for Verizon Wireless. While it might not have a ton of high-end features it might just be the perfect fit for budding text messagers on-the-go. Watch the video below to see why:

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Verizon Wireless announced two new cell phones the Samsung Rogue and the Samsung Intensity. Both are new messaging centric cell phones with slide-out keyboards. However, the Rogue has 3.1-inch touch screen as well. The real news is that the Rogue is one of the first messaging phones that will require a data plan. There will be two plans to choose from: Eithe a 25MB plan for $9.99 that includes surfing the web, and checking e-mail or a 75MB option for $19.99, which is ideal for people who like to visit web sites on the cell phone daily. Also, if you're interested in any of the V Cast offerings that will be an additional monthly fee depending on the service you want.

The Rogue (featured below) comes in a black and bronze color scheme and sports an AMOLED display. This screen is bright and visible in direct sunlight and also helps conserve battery life. The cell phone also has 3-megapixel camera with flash and the ability to record videos. The Rogue supports full HTML web browsing. What's really interesting about this multimedia cell phone is that it has file viewer so you can view Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and PDF documents on the cell phone. A feature typically found only on smartphones.

As noted, the Samsung Intensity is also a messaging phone only it doesn't have a touch screen display, but it does have a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. This cell phone is probably more geared to those just getting their feet wet with a messaging phone since it offers Mobile Web instead of a full HTML browser, a 1.3 megapixel camera. That said it does have all the messaging capabilities and comes in two different colors charcoal grey and flamingo red (that's right, flamingo red). Check it out below:

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Verizon Wireless offers its fair share of messaging phones and quite a few come from LG, but which is right for you? I sit down to talk with LetsTalk.com's Director of Merchandising Harrison Lynch to discuss the differences between the LG enV 3, LG Versa, and the LG enV Touch. Watch the video below to see which model best fits your messaging lifestyle.

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