Wednesday - Day 1
Wednesday morning started out like each morning of the show, with a keynote address for some of the industry leaders speaking about the state of wireless, and their organization.  I posted these photos from the keynote:
Keynote about to start
2010 CTIA convention dates and locations
FCC Chairman Genachowski on stage
AT&T CEO de la Vega on stage
Yahoo Mobile SVP Ko on stage
Tax propaganda at the keynote
More Day 1 Keynote photos

Then I was off to hit the show floor, where I was able to snap some shots and post this article:
Day 1 show floor photos

To cap off the day, I attended the Mobile Focus event presented by Pepcom where I had some additional time with many of the great devices that are out there.  Manufacturers included RIM, Nokia, HTC and Motorola.  Here are the posts that I created from the event:
Samsung Moment
RIM
Nokia
Garmin Nuvifone
Motorola CLIQ
Novatel MiFi
Palm Pixi

Thursday - Day 2
Thursday started out with a keynote consisting of a panel discussion with the Co-Founder and CEO of Qualcomm, as well as the CTO of AT&T.  Here was the post from the keynote:
Day 2 Keynote

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Visit TCPJ Unlocked and click on "Subscribe to Premium Content" to sign up for the show.

Visit TCPJ Unlocked and click on "Subscribe to Premium Content" to sign up for the show.

Visit TCPJ Unlocked and click on "Subscribe to Premium Content" to sign up for the show.

Greetings fans of The Cell Phone Junkie and TCPJ Unlocked, this is Mickey Papillon and I have a special announcement before todayâs show.  Over the past 3 years, Joey and I have been bringing you the latest in weekly news, devices and software, on a consistent and increasingly comprehensive basis.  We have found that by doing what we do, we can be your one stop for information each week to get up to date in the cellular industry, and answer listener questions as well.  A little over a year ago, we started to get into additional types of content, such as interviews, tutorials and more listener feedback related shows.  I felt that while good, it detracted from the flow of what The Cell Phone Junkie show was set out to do.

Because of this, we started TCPJ Unlocked, a bi-weekly show that has no agenda, other than the topics are always related to phones.  When we started, I told myself that I would put all my focus into the show for one year, and see how things went.  The results have been nothing short of impressive.  We already had thousands of weekly listeners to the original show, and more than 2/3rds of you made the jump over and continued to listen to us on the unlocked show.  We were able to secure dozens industry experts to interview, covered some of the most complicated topics in cellular and even do a live broadcast from the industry trade show CTIA.  All of this has been amazing to be a part of and experience, but it comes at a priceâtime.

Joey and I both create this show for the love of phones, and the ability we have to help people better understand the phones they rely on and use every day.  But up until this point, that love has only been a hobby.  Keeping up with the latest in the industry by reading through nearly a hundred different news feeds and thousands of posts each month is worth the time to create the high quality show we do each week.  But with both of us working full time jobs, the nearly 30 hours per week I alone spend on creating the show plus the work Joey does, we need a way to keep us growing.

Over the past few months, weâve been very fortunate to have some great sponsors join the show and help support our efforts.  Whether itâs through companies like Netflix who pay us for everytime you sign up with them, or companies like Blueant who provide products for giveaways, its evident that support is needed to make the show succeed.  In the past, weâve asked for donations to help us cover some of the costs that go into the hosting of the show, and the number of you that have sent in your money has been humbling to say the least.  We know you love the show, and to send in money to show your generous support has really been great.

So today, weâre announcing something new.  TCPJ Unlocked is transitioning to a premium content show.  Todayâs show will be the last one posted to the current TCPJ Unlocked feed, and starting September 1st, youâll need to re-subscribe to listen to our show.  After doing some research on what we should charge for the show, weâve decided on $5 per month.  Broken down, thatâs $2.50 per unlocked show, or if you listen to the original show, only $.60 per episode to support the work that we do.  If you choose not to subscribe to TCPJ Unlocked, you will still be able to listen to the original show at no charge the same way you can today.  We are going to continue to have sponsors and advertisers help us with The Cell Phone Junkie show, but with the switch to premium, the Unlocked show will be ad-free.

For you the listener, signing up for the show is easy.  Just visit thecellphonejunkie.com, and click the link on the right side of the page for TCPJ Unlocked to be transferred to the new site, now hosted by Podbean.  You simply click the âsubscribe to premium contentâ link, follow the directions,and setup a reocurring monthly payment through paypal.  The great thing about the service is that after this initial signup, youâll be able to enter the RSS feed into your favorite podcatcher such as iTunes, and by simply entering your credentials, download the show the way you want.  Between today, August 18th and September 1st, when you register an account, a short welcome podcast will be available for download to check your feed settings, and show number 29 will be available on the 1st.

Last, I sincerely want to thank you all for supporting us over the years, and I know youâre going to love the shows going forward just as you always have.  My ultimate goal is for us to take on producing the shows full time, and with this change, I know you can help us get there.  So like Joey always says, thanks for listening.

What's new in 3.0
New features of the iPhone 3GS
Jailbreaking the iPhone, should you or shouldn't you?
Using the iPhone as a work phone

Open up iPhone Tethering using this website
Butterscotch

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Sure, the first few shows were certainly less than stellar, but I kept at it.  Week after week, story after story, I found it got easier the more time I spent behind the mic, and my confidence and comfort level continued to climb.  By episode 5, I was looking for someone to talk with, and I had Jerry come on as a guest.  A few shows later, Matt joined me as co-host, and things really started hum along.  After 6 months or so of 2 shows per week, I started to feel a bit burned out. I needed to cut back, and the show became what it is today, a weekly release, every Sunday.  Over time, Joey joined me as the permanent host of the show, and things just meshed.  Joey and I had known each other for many years, and were constantly talking about phones.  It was just a matter of time before we would have to record the conversations and share them with the world.

Over the next couple years, we changed and tweaked the format every once in a while, but the underlying theme remained the same, it was all about phones.  Today, we have a very solid structure that works for us:

News
Devices
Software
Questions/Comments from the listeners of the show

In August of 2008, we even introduced a second bi-weekly podcast, TCPJ Unlocked.  We use the unlocked show as a platform to talk about the things on our minds, or even interview industry experts about a variety of topics.  Like an unlocked cell phone, TCPJ Unlocked is free of restrictions, and we take a very open approach to the format.  

As we enter into the fourth year of The Cell Phone Junkie podcast, weâre more excited and focused than ever on what lies ahead.  Sponsorship agreements have started to arrive, and both providers and vendors are constantly reaching out to us with products for review.  All of these things are pushing the show to the next level, and give us opportunities to enhance what we do, creating the best podcast available for the cellular industry.  As always, if you have feedback for the show, please let us know at questions@thecellphonejunkie.com or give us a call at 206-203-3734.  Weâll talk to you later.

Thanks for listening!

Mickey Papillon
The Cell Phone Junkie.com
Creator and Podcast Host

Through all of this travel (7 flights total),  I wanted to make sure that I was as efficient and lightweight as possible.  To do so, I took a hard look at each item that I was bringing, and made sure that it would make sense to haul it across 2 different countries for 9 days.  The resulting items that made the cut turned out to be these:

• Dell Mini 9
• iPhone 3GS
• Nokia E75
• Blackberry Pearl
• Sprint Blackberry 8830
• Richard Solo Batteries

Rather than splitting my thoughts on each into multiple reviews, Iâve chosen to combine them all here in one post that details the use of each as many of them are related.  Here is a recap of what I brought, and how each device was used.

Click here to read the entire review with photos

Mickey and Joey thank you for your support!