John M. Wargo
Mobile
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Posts related to mobile phones and mobility in general. This page lists all posts in the category, in reverse chronological order.
Note: An AI Generated pill displayed in the list below indicates that the post description displayed on the page was generated from the post content using Generative AI (GenAI). The post content itself was written by a human (me).
Android Spam Phone Call Detection
Posted April 9, 2017 in MobileA recent update to the Android OS on my smartphone triggered a new feature I really like a lot. I've started getting more and more spam phone calls on my phone, and Google is now building a list of spam numbers and letting me block them when the calls come in.
AT&T's Network Couldn't Handle the 2016 Indy Crowd
Posted May 31, 2016 in MobileExplains issues I had using my mobile phone at the Indianapolis 500.
iOS Forcing Me to Delete Mail Messages Twice
Posted April 17, 2016 in MobileOnce again iOS is making my life harder for me. I'm one of those people who has a desktop PC and use it for writing, coding, gaming and more. I have several mobile devices (a couple of tablets and a smartphone) and I have my email accounts configured on each. What I want is that if I've read and deleted an email from any of my devices, the email message is no longer available on any of those devices, including the desktop.
Nexus Support Euphoria
Posted April 16, 2016 in MobileI switched to Android a few years ago. I was a diehard BlackBerry fan for a very long time, but things just got ... weird with BlackBerry, so I migrated to Android. I've had several Samsung devices, but I didn't like any of them because Samsung adds too much extra junk to Android. Give me pure and simple Android and I'm OK.
Schizophrenic BlackBerry Browser
Posted December 23, 2013 in MobileIs it me, or is the BlackBerry browser a little Schizophrenic?
Email Message Layout Revisited
Posted October 16, 2013 in MobileA while back, I complained about how email marketers weren't taking mobile devices into account when formatting blast emails. They were sending HTML-formatted messages and using CSS to style the emails like they wanted to, but those emails simply didn't render correctly on devices with smaller screens (like the keyboarded BlackBerry devices).
BlackBerry Z30 Mail UI
Posted October 16, 2013 in MobileI've been carrying a BlackBerry Z30 for some time now and I really love it. The keyboard is awesome and the form factor is perfect – much better than the super-silly iPhone.
A Day in the Life
Posted September 23, 2013 in MobileA few months back I was looking at some marketing material for one of our competitors (I don't really remember which one, but I think I have an idea) and noticed the following graphic portraying a day in the life of a mobile worker.
ChargeCard Smartphone Charger
Posted August 4, 2013 in MobileI was reading through one of my tech magazines the other day (I can't remember whether it was PC Magazine or Popular Science, sorry) and noticed this cool charger cable called ChargeCard (www.chargecardproject.com). I used to travel a lot and bring a bunch of cables and so on with me in a little pouch. Over time, the pouch has gotten bigger and bigger and now, with all of the devices I carry with me, it looks like this:
Wi-Fi Only Tablets
Posted March 13, 2013 in MobileI'm not quite feeling the benefits of a Wi-Fi only device. Having worked for a device manufacturer then a carrier, I guess I'm a bit spoiled when it comes to connectivity. Over the years I've had several tablets, some with cellular connections and some with only Wi-Fi connections.
More on Email Message Format for Mobile Devices
Posted March 4, 2013 in MobileA few weeks ago I posted an article complaining about how major brands don't consider mobile email clients when they craft their blast email content. I even showed some examples of poor email content design from American Express and RIM. A reader of the site missed the point of my article and suggested I learn how to use my BlackBerry and enable automatic download of images in the email. Apparently he (or she, not quite sure) skipped reading the article and instead simply saw the screen shots and thought I didn't know what I was doing.
Ignoring Mobile Email clients
Posted February 9, 2013 in MobileI've always been surprised at how major brands and larger organizations ignore smartphone users in their email blasts. I'm an American Express customer and get email promotions from them on a regular basis. When I open one of their messages, I see something similar to the screen shot shown below.
Carrier APIs
Posted February 7, 2013 in MobileI have to admit that I simply don't get Carrier-specific APIs. I used to work for RIM (now called BlackBerry), working with their largest carrier and later on worked at that same carrier. I know how desperately the wireless carriers don't want to simply be a pipe (provide me with network access) – but instead want have all sorts of value-add products they can sell you. At the end of the day, all I want them to be is a pipe and I'd gladly pay them more money per month if they'd simply give me a wireless network connection for my devices and let me use them any way that I want to.
iOS Calendar Problems
Posted January 24, 2013 in MobileI was supposed to be on a conference call a while back with a colleague who never showed up. He emailed later asking about the time of the call and I couldn't figure out why there was confusion – a calendar entry is a calendar entry, right? As long as he accepted the meeting invite, it should be on his calendar, right? Wrong.
Wozniak & Android
Posted January 18, 2012 in MobileI like my iPhone. It's got a cool UI and the apps are great. Unfortunately, I just can't use one day to day – there's too many klugy things about it. The BlackBerry has spoiled me with the keyboard, I can so quickly go to the top of a list (by pressing the 't' key), bottom of a list (the 'b' key), File an email message ('f' key) and most importantly use the keyboard to type the name of the folder I'm filing an email into.
Multiple-login Smartphones
Posted May 5, 2011 in MobileWhy can't you login to your smartphone? You can password protect them (either set by the user or required by an enterprise administrator), but why can't you log into them?
Using the Motorola Atrix
Posted April 13, 2011 in MobileAs I've written about here, I've been trying out all sorts of new mobile devices. Working for a carrier certainly has its benefits and getting one of every new smartphone is one of them. I have been very interested in seeing if I could carry an Android device full time and the Motorola Atrix seems like it could be the device for me.
Mobile Device Heaven
Posted February 24, 2011 in MobileI've been in device heaven the last couple of weeks. With all of the new devices AT&T has released and finally having some time to play around with them, I've been having a blast.I've got 7 devices here on my desk and I'm playing with all of them.
Managing Email Folders & the Grand Mobile Experiment
Posted February 23, 2011 in MobileWhen I first joined AT&T, my boss challenged me to see how long it would take before I switched full time to the Apple iPhone. Once I got settled, I put aside my BlackBerry device and tried to make the switch. My plan was to see if I could use it for two weeks solid; I made it 10 days before I had to switch back to my BlackBerry.
What does AT&T do
Posted January 17, 2011 in MobileAnother great article surfaced recently about AT&T and how it will be affected by Verizon getting the iPhone. The article is from PC World and it's called What does AT&T to when Verizon Starts Selling iPhones. It does a really good job highlighting the things that AT&T has done to deal with the network overload caused by iPhone users and at the same time prepare for Verizon getting the device as well.
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Header image: Photo by Eirik Solheim on Unsplash.