Win a AT&T Pantech Matrix Pro Smartphone!-Contest closed

We are giving away an AT&T Pantech Matrix Pro smartphone along with a $100 AT&T gift card to one lucky Techie Diva reader. The contest will run starting today until May 6, 2009 11:59 EST. We will select a winner on May 7th at random, so make sure you get your entries in before we announce the winner. The contest is only open to U.S. residents. To enter, you must do the following:

1. Join our Facebook Group or Facebook Page.

2. Update your Facebook status with: Win a Pantech Matrix Pro at www.techiediva.com (or something like that)

3. Send an email to matrixpro@techiediva.com with your name, and a link to your facebook profile. This will count as your entry, so make sure you do that.

That’s it! We are making this very easy for everyone to enter and have an opportunity to win this awesome phone!

Updated: We got a winner! We are now awaiting confirmation back from them, and once that’s done, we’ll reveal the name. Thanks for entering the contest!

We have two more contests coming up next week, so come back to find out what the prizes are and how you can win!

Contest is closed! Congratulations to C. C. Syner, winner of the Pantech Matrix Pro.

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Win a Pantech Matrix

Techie Diva,  along with all the participating sites below, will be giving away an AT&T Pantech Matrix Pro and include  a $100 gift card you can use to buy more AT&T products or a service plan. All the 25 sites mentioned below will be running their contest at different times, and all will have different contest rules so make sure you visit them to find out what you need to do win this fantastic handset. We’ve been playing with it and will be posting a full review shortly.  Techie Diva will be launching its contest on May 2, so keep checking back  for more details.

Participating Websites:

Tools for Thought
Launch Date  15-Apr
Giveaway on  19-Apr

ChipChick
Launch Date  16-Apr
Giveaway on 20-Apr

VivirLatino
Launch Date  17-Apr
Giveaway on  21-Apr

slashgear.com
Launch Date  18-Apr
Giveaway on  22-Apr

modaco.com
Launch Date  19-Apr
Giveaway on  23-Apr

Gadgetell
Launch Date  20-Apr
Giveaway on  24-Apr

GeeksRoom
Launch Date  21-Apr
Giveaway on  25-Apr

OSNN
Launch Date  22-Apr
Giveaway on  26-Apr

Techmamas
Launch Date  23-Apr
Giveaway on  27-Apr

Clintonfitch
Launch Date  24-Apr
Award Announcement  28-Apr

Justanothermobilemonday
Launch Date  25-Apr
Award Announcement  29-Apr

Geek.com
Launch Date  26-Apr
Giveaway on  30-Apr

MediaBlab
Launch Date  27-Apr
Giveaway on 01-May

Smartphonethoughts
Launch Date  28-Apr
Giveaway on  02-May

Mobilityminded
Launch Date  29-Apr
Giveaway on  03-May

The Gadgeteer
Launch Date  30-Apr
Giveaway on  04-May

Geekzone
Launch Date  01-May
Giveaway on  05-May

Techie Diva
Launch Date  02-May
Giveaway on  06-May

Bostonpocketpc
Launch Date  03-May
Award Announcement  07-May

GearDiary
Launch Date  04-May
Giveaway on  08-May

MobilitySite
Launch Date  05-May
Giveaway on  09-May

AbsoluteWindows
Launch Date  06-May
Giveaway on  10-May

Mobilejaw
Launch Date  07-May
Giveaway on  11-May

Experiencemobility
Launch Date  08-May
Giveaway on  12-May

HackCollege
Launch Date  09-May
Giveaway on 13-May

Gear Live
Launch Date  10-May
Giveaway on 14-May

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Natasha Bedingfield at the Warfield for T-Mobile Sidekick Concert

Just an FYI for any Sidekick users….

GRAMMY® CELEBRATION CONCERT TOUR PRESENTED BY T-MOBILE® SIDEKICK®
CONTINUES IN SAN FRANCISCO WITH NATASHA BEDINGFIELD AND N.E.R.D.

Tour Features Exclusive Musical Experiences with GRAMMY-Winning and -Nominated Artists

WHAT: The Recording Academy® and T-Mobile present the GRAMMY® Celebration Concert Tour, an exciting five-city music tour featuring exclusive, intimate performances by GRAMMY-winning and -nominated artists. The Tour began in Los Angeles, and will continue in San Francisco on Tuesday, April 14 for a special one-night only musical experience featuring GRAMMY-nominated singer Natasha Bedingfield and N.E.R.D.. The event will provide Sidekick users and music fans the opportunity to see one of the industry’s most talented artists in an intimate setting at The Warfield. Recording artist and beat-boxing extraordinaire Blake Lewis will be hosting the tour as the concert series’ emcee and DJ. Most well-known as the first runner up on American Idol Season Six, Blake is currently working on the follow up to his successful debut album, Audio Day Dream.

A limited portion of tickets for the San Francisco performance will be available through in-store giveaways at these local T-Mobile retail locations: 17th and Valencia in San Francisco and at the Serramonte Mall in Daly City. As a thank you to existing Sidekick customers, T-Mobile will grant VIP concert access to users who show their Sidekicks at the door. Consumers also have the chance to enter to win a VIP concert package online at the official Sidekick homepage. For more information on how to obtain tickets, please visit www.sidekick.com.

The United Kingdom’s biggest female pop star, Natasha Bedingfield, has taken the United States by storm with the first British chart-topping hit by a female in almost 20 years. She has sold more than 10 million singles and albums worldwide and has five Top 10 U.K. singles. Her 2006 U.S. debut came with the No. 1 single, “These Words.” Later that year, “Unwritten” became the most played song on mainstream American radio and earned a GRAMMY nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance at the 49th Annual GRAMMY Awards Bedingfield’s success continued with “Pocketful of Sunshine” which also became a favorite on radio stations across the country.

World-famous producers and songwriters Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo of the Neptunes, over the course of their decade-long career, have literally changed the course of music. The duo have worked with everyone from Madonna to Justin Timberlake to Jay-Z and Gwen Stefani and helped create numerous hit songs in the past 10 years. Yet the Neptunes is who they are; N.E.R.D. is what they do. Combining Pharrell, Chad and longtime friend Shae, the group creates explorations of sounds, emotions and truth, adhering to no agenda and subscribing to no rules. The group is currently promoting their third album, Seeing Sounds.

With its signature swivel screen and full QWERTY keyboard, the T-Mobile Sidekick family of devices are designed for virtually anytime, anywhere communication. With always-on access to e-mail, instant messaging and text messaging, as well as a robust web experience to access sites such as MySpace, Sidekicks provide the luxury of being the center of one’s social circle.

The Remaining GRAMMY® Celebration Concert Tour Presented By T-Mobile Sidekick Schedule:

* Monday, May 4 at the House of Blues in Boston with 2 artists to be announced.
* Wednesday, May 13 at the Fillmore Miami Beach at the Jackie Gleason Theater in Miami with Katy Perry and Common.
* Thursday, May 28 at Terminal 5 in New York City with LL Cool J and Estelle.

**Details on the scheduled performers in each city and how to obtain tickets are available at www.sidekick.com and www.GRAMMY.com.

WHEN: Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Doors Open: 8 p.m.
Performances: 9 p.m.

WHERE: The Warfield
982 Market St.
San Francisco, CA 94102

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A Look at the Nokia N97 (Video)

While at the Web 2.0 Expo, we got a closer look the Nokia N97, which is not available in the U.S. yet. Just to give you an idea, the Nokia N97 has a large 3.5-inch touch tilt display with a full slide out QWERTY keyboard, 32GB of internal memory, microSD card slot, 5-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, LED flash, Bluetooth, speakers, DVD quality video capture, and TV output. The home screen can be personalized with widgets of your favorite social networks/sites, and it has an integrated A-GPS sensor and electronic compass to sense your location in order to update your social networks. The phone will launch in the first half of this year in Europe for an estimated 550 euros ($700).  Eliane Fiolet from Ubergizmo helped me make this video, so check it out.

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Texting ettiquette in college

I’ve been taking a few film classes in recent years,  and have learned that nothing, and I mean nothing, comes between a student and their texting devices. Professors have developed a complete disdain for anything electronic in the classroom, including laptops and iPods, and it’s all because students just don’t know when to put their tech toys away.

Maybe that’s way Ball State University decided to conduct a “study” of 300 students to officially reach the conclusion that a texting etiquette is in order, at least in schools. According to Switched (via BSU Daily) 94% of students questioned say they send and recieve text messages,  and most of them (99.7%) own a mobile device.  In the end, of the 300 students 59% said they prefer to text, 17% prefer to make phone calls (gasp), 9% prefer IM, and only 7% resort to email to communicate with their fellow students.

Texting in the classroom is a problem in schools, but I say let them, they’re the one’s who will be failing the class miserably and won’t be LOL’ing about it when they realize they just wasted their money and time texting in class. I mean, should professors really stress out over texting in the classroom? It’s certainly disrespectful, but not worth an ulcer in my opinion.  College students are adults, and if they’d rather text than learn, maybe they should be asked to leave the classroom. Period.  Unfortunately, I’ve seen several professors lose their cool over texting one too many times.

So what should students do about texting in class? The right thing to do is to turn off your phone, but we know that won’t happen, so at least try to use common sense.  Like BSU says, “If there’s ever a question about whether texting would be appropriate, air on the side of caution and don’t do it.”

Here are some other tips from BSU Daily:

Stop texting and driving, this can only lead to bad things. Phones with full keypads are becoming more common and pose substantial risks to drivers who have to watch both where their fingers go and make sure the words are correct.

Distractions lead to car crashes. More than likely, the text message won’t be worth the amount of money to repair damages caused by swerving into a ditch.

Students aren’t fooling anyone while texting in class; professors know who is doing it and the person next to you is probably reading over your shoulder. So put the phone down and pay attention in class.

Texting or talking on the phone while in someone’s company is rude. Students should be enjoying face-to-face contact more than relying on handheld devices to stay in touch.

Go for a walk, enjoy the weather when possible. Get out of the residence hall or apartment.

Venture into the world and remember what it’s like to enjoy someone’s company rather than the beeps and buzzes of a phone.

Stop LOL’ing and start laughing.

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Quick Look at Skype for iPhone App

Skype is currently available in the iPhone. Yes, now you too can make Skype VoIP calls from your iPhone by downloading the free application from the iTunes App Store. I just downloaded the application, and it looks great on the iPhone’s small screen. At the bottom of the screen, you see a simple navigation bar that takes you to a contacts page, chat, call, history, and My Info page. With this application you can make phone calls using yourWi-Fi network from your iPhone or iPod Touch if you use headphones with a microphone. You can also make calls to a landline if you have a subcription or pay a small per minute fee.

The contacts page sorts out your Skype contacts by who’s online or all, as well as your blocked contacts. Similar to the contacts page on your iPhone, Skype sorts out your contacts list alphabetically, and it includes a search feature at the top so you can search the directory more easily. You can also have the option to search the Skype Directory to add more numbers, or you can import them from your iPhone.  Adding a new number is easy too, and works the same way it does on the iPhone.

The next tab is the “Chats” tab, where you can see all your chat messages, and start a chat with your Skype buddies.

The “Call” page displays a number pad like the iPhone’s, and features a directory button that pulls up your iPhone contacts in case you want to make a call to another cell phone.

The “History” page displays all and missed calls.

The “My Info” page lets you type in a status update ala Twitter, and includes several buttons so you can change your status or update your profile. You can also buy Skype credits, an online number, and check your voicemail. I think it’s nice that you can also take pictures to update your Skype profile.

Overall, the interface on this application is clean, and very iPhonesque so if you’re a fan of both Skype and the iPhone, you’ll really like this app.

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Aniston dumps Mayer over his Twitter obsession

John Mayer seems like a nice guy, but he’s in the doghouse for his Twittering habits. According to Star Magazine (via Telegraph), Jennifer Aniston broke up with Mayer again after discovering that he spent more time on Twitter, than he did with her.  A “source” claims Mayer stopped calling or emailing Aniston, and when she confronted him, he told her he was too busy with work. When  Aniston checked his Twitter page, she discovered he had been posting hourly updates on the microblogging site, yet he claimed to be too busy to call her. According to the “source,”

“Jen was fuming. There he was, telling her he didn’t have time for her and yet his page was filled with Twitter updates. Every few hours, sometimes minutes, he’d update with some stupid line. And in her mind, she was like ‘He has time for all this Twittering, but he can’t send me a text, an email, make a call?’.”

“He didn’t even deny it. He knew he was avoiding her. So when she called him on it and ended things, he just said OK, and that he was sorry it didn’t work out.

“He took the break-up like a man.”

Even so, shortly after Aniston’s call, Mayer’s Twitter update read: ‘This heart didn’t come with instructions.’

Mayer currently has over 362,000+ followers on Twitter, and he updates the feed himself constantly from the road, from bed, the salon, the studio, the restaurant, and well, you get it.  It sounds ridiculous but that’s what Twitter is.

I guess if their relationship had been strong enough, she would’ve made an effort to keep up with his Twitter habit like Demi Moore did for Ashton Kutcher, but I guess she’s just not that into you John.

But seriously, can we really blame Jen for leaving him?  I’m sure their breakup had nothing to do with Twitter, and everything to do with their age difference.

I like the way the Superficial puts it:

“Let’s see:  Sex with Jennifer Aniston, or letting anonymous strangers know you’re watching LOST? The fact that this is even a decision proves John’s heart definitely didn’t come with instructions. Or his body with a penis.”

What do you think? Would you dump your boyfriend over his Twitter, gaming, blogging, or social networking habits?

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Betty Book adorns Samsung slider

I know there are a lot of Betty Boop fans out there, so it was about time someone put the animated pinup girl on a phone of her own. Samsung will release this Betty Boop slider in France via Bouygues Telecon as a limited edition phone according to Ubergizmo, which will include BB’s face and signature on the front and back of the device. This handset has an integrated FM radio, VGA camera, microSD card slot, GSM, and you can get it for 129 Euros in France or 1 Euro with a 2-year contract.

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Verizon and Keith Urban team up to entertain fans

I just got back from the Filmore in San Francisco, where Keith Urban gave a great performance (see pics below). The free concert was part of the Verizon VIP Tour held just for Verizon customers. This exclusive tour will continue until April and will  be making stops in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, and Philadelphia. Below are the details on how to get free tickets to one of the exclusive concerts.

VERIZON AND KEITH URBAN TEAM UP FOR THE VERIZON VIP TOUR TO GIVE FANS A SPECIAL “NO FRILLS” PERFORMANCE

Intimate Performances Precede Urban’s Forthcoming March 31st Release “Defying Gravity”

BASKING RIDGE, N.J. – Keith Urban fans are walking on air in anticipation of the March 31 release of “Defying Gravity,” the two-time GRAMMY® award-winner’s new album, which has already spawned Urban’s 18th Top 5 hit “Sweet Thing.” Urban is teaming with Verizon to give fans a series of exclusive, “No Frills” performances with his band on the Verizon VIP Tour. These concerts will precede the May launch of Urban’s “Escape Together World Tour.”
The Verizon VIP Tour featuring Keith Urban “No Frills” will not only deliver exclusive intimate performances but will reward customers that interact with Urban’s music on mobile, broadband and TV with access to the shows. Keith Urban video content, information and entertainment will be offered to Verizon FiOS customers, and Verizon Wireless customers can download Keith Urban music to their handsets using Verizon Wireless’ V CAST Music service.

“Clubs are where it all began,” said Urban. “There’s just something about the way the band grooves and how the audience gets right up there close and personal, and I love it. So for me there’s a nostalgic cool factor in doing this with Verizon.”

Exclusive Keith Urban Music on V CAST Music
Prior to the March 31 release of “Defying Gravity,” Verizon Wireless customers will have exclusive access to three new Keith Urban songs, “Hit the Ground Runnin’,” “Standing Right In Front of You,” and “If Ever I Could Love.” These songs will be available in ringtones, ringback tones and full-song over-the-air downloads according to the following schedule:
“Hit the Ground Runnin’”
• March 6 – Available in ringtones and ringback tones
• March 10 – Available in full-song downloads over the air

“Standing Right In Front of You”
• March 13 – Available in ringtones and ringback tones
• March 17 – Available in full-song downloads over the air

“If Ever I Could Love”
• March 20 – Available in ringtones and ringback tones
• March 24 – Available in full-song downloads over the air

Mobile Tickets
Fans have an opportunity to get tickets to the Verizon VIP Tour featuring Keith Urban “No Frills” by downloading his music or videos from Verizon Wireless’ V CAST Music service. Select fans will be sent mobile tickets over-the-air, directly to their Verizon Wireless phones for entry to the event. Upon arrival to the show, customers can flash their digital tickets over a scanner for VIP access.
“We’re thrilled to continue our relationship with Keith Urban for the Verizon VIP Tour ‘No Frills’ and help bring his music to his fans – while they’re on-the-go or at home,” said Ed Ruth, director of digital music for Verizon. “Fans will be able to access Keith Urban’s new album through our V CAST Music service.”
Customers can download Urban’s songs, including “Sweet Thing” as ringback tones, ring tones and full-song downloads via V CAST Music. Customers are charged $1.99 per megabyte for data usage when downloading ringtones or ringback tones. However, megabyte pricing is not charged for downloading music, or text, picture and video messaging.
For more information on mobile music from Verizon Wireless, visit a Verizon Wireless Communications Store, call 1-800-2 JOIN IN or visit www.verizonwireless.com/music. For more information on Keith Urban, go to www.keithurban.net or go to www.kuconcerts.com.
Verizon VIP Tour Featuring Keith Urban “No Frills” dates:

Date City Venue
3/18 Dallas House of Blues
3/24 San Francisco The Fillmore
3/27 Los Angeles House of Blues
3/30 Chicago Joe’s Bar on Weed Street
4/1 New York City Webster Hall
4/3 Philadelphia Theater of the Living Arts

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What’s insideTwilight director Catherine Hardwicke’s bag?

I’m obsessed with Twilight, and as you Twilight fans know, the movie will be out this weekend which only means that 75 percent of you will be stuck watching the movie too. To celebrate the momentous occasion, places like Blockbuster, FYE, Borders, Hot Topic, and Wal-Mart are throwing huge DVD relase parties for fans this upcoming Friday so fans can get their copy at midnight (Blockbuster will even have blood drives).

The good news is you don’t have to fight the crowds at midnight to get your Twilight copy, because the movie will be available on-demand at midnight so you can watch it at home while you eat some yummy vampire cupcakes or “I Dare You to Eat Pizza Edward” pizza. Regardless, mark your calendar because this weekend is Twilight weekend, so after you’re done watching the movie, you might want to pick up Catherine Hardwicke’s “Twilight Directors Notebook.” I just got my copy today because I dabble in filmmaking, and it’s facinating to see all the techie gear they used to make the movie.

The book is filled with interesting tidbits about how the movie was made, but I loved the “What’s in Her Bag?” page created by her assistant, Patrick Smith.  Catherine Hardwicke is obviously a Mac girl and always carries her Macbook Pro, her iPhone, a notebook charger that plugs into her car’s cigarette lighter, and a digital camera. Interesting piece of trivia: Hardwicke puts stickers on her Mac to dissuade thieves. Smart Lady.

via Twilight Fangs

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