Wall Street Journal compares Smart Phones

WSJ Comparison

 Comment: Most impressed with the Galaxy S III

Smart Phone Budget Monster

Cellphones Are Eating the Family Budget

 Excerpt:

More than half of all U.S. cellphone owners carry a device like the iPhone, a shift that has unsettled household budgets across the country. Government data show people have spent more on phone bills over the past four years, even as they have dialed back on dining out, clothes and entertainment—cutbacks that have been keenly felt in the restaurant, apparel and film industries. The tug of war is only going to get more intense. Wireless carriers are betting they can pull bills even higher by offering faster speeds on expensive new networks and new usage-based data plans. The effort will test the limits of consumer spending as the draw of new technology competes with cellphone owners' more rudimentary needs and desires.

Comment: I want one. I priced an IPhone 5 this week. It's not the entry cost of the device that bothers me but the $ 100 per month (give or take) monthly fees.

Viruses and Smartphones

Viruses planted in Windows phone games

Excerpt:

Hackers have planted viruses in video games for smart phones running on Microsoft Corp's Windows operating system, according to a security firm specializing in mobile devices.

The games — 3D Anti-Terrorist and PDA Poker Art — are available on sites that provide legitimate software for mobile devices, according to John Hering, chief executive officer of the San Francisco-based security firm Lookout.

The games are bundled with malicious software that automatically dials premium-rate telephone services in Somalia, Italy and other countries, sometimes ringing up hundreds of dollars in charges in a single month.

The services are run by the programmers who built the tainted software, Hering said on Friday.

Victims generally do not realize they have been infected until they get their phone bills and see hundreds of dollars of unexpected charges for those premium-rate services, he said.

Hackers are increasingly targeting smartphone users as sales of the sophisticated mobile devices have soared with the success of Apple's iPhone and Google's Android operating system.

Microsoft said it was aware of the problem and investigating it.

"As always, Microsoft continues to encourage customers to follow all of the steps of the 'Protect Your Computer' guidance of enabling a firewall, applying all software updates and installing anti-virus and anti-spyware software," said a spokesman.

Comment: Also found this:

Malware found on HTC Android phone from Vodafone

Smart Phone comparison

Current Crop of Smartphones: A Cost and Feature Comparison


Comment: Click article for graphic