Cell Phone, Cellular Phone, Mobile Phone & Pager Shops     and Cell Phone Service Plans The new iPhone is available in 4GB and 8GB models at The Apple Store, where you can also find iMacs, PowerMacs, eMacs, Apple PowerBooks & iBooks, MacOS, Mac software, iPods, and much more, direct from the manufacturer. The Apple store provides free ground shipping with orders over $50. The Motorola Shop sells top quality Motorola cell phones, cordless phones, and phone accessories direct from the manufacturer. Most Motorola products can be returned within 30 days of purchase for a refund (see website for details). Motorola provides free shipping on most orders of 3 or more items. They ship to the US only, via both UPS and Federal Express (not the US Postal Service). The Palm Store is the place to get Palm Treo Smartphones. Treo smartphones combine cell phones with full-fledged handheld computers, with a QWERTY keyboard, built-in camera, and email & internet access. As of this writing they are offering free Express Weather along with free Express Shipping. And Treo prices have come down, Treo 600 starts at $299, and the Treo 650 (which includes MP3 playing capability) starts at $449. AT&T Wireless (formerly Cinglular) currently provides a choice of free flip phones with service plans starting at $39.99 for 450 anytime minutes, 5000 night & weekend minutes, and unlimited mobile to mobile minutes, with rollover. Verizon Wireless offers 1000 mobile to mobile minutes + unlimited national N&W minutes on the America's Choice Network for only $39.99 a month monthly access with an annual contract. Verizon has 7 national service plans and 3 local service plans to choose from. If you need a cell phone, you can choose from 30 models, ranging from free to web-enabled PDA-phone combos. Wirefly Mobile (InPhonic) offers a free mobile phone (like a Nokia 3390) plus a $20 Coupon to buy gasoline, movie tickets, or pay a restaurant tab, when you sign up for a service plan (like Cingular SuperHome including 600 free anytime minutes w/rollover for $39.99/month). They also offer plans with 17 other phones and 5 other carriers. Lets Talk sells cell phones, pagers, and accessories by Motorola, Nokia, Ericsson, and NexTel, and provides cross-carrier comparisons of all the major service providers. They offer free 2-day FedEx shipping on all cell phones with plan activation, and all orders over $50. Cellular Factory has prices up to 80% off on cell phones (and accessories for cell phones) made by Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, LG, Audiovox, Sony Ericsson, Kyocera, Panasonic, and Siemens, with service plans from Verizon, Cingular, Sprint, Alltel, Metro PCS, Cellular One, T-Mobile, and US Cellular. Hello Direct carries phones and accessories of all kinds, including cell phones, cordless phones & cordless headsets, answering machines, audioconferencing systems, and much more telecom gear of every description. A1 Wireless offers cell phones from Nokia, Samsung, Panasonic, Blackberry, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Handspring, and T-Mobile, and cell phone service packages from T-Mobile, Cingular, AT&T, AllTel and SunCom. MetroPCS offers unlimited calling plans, in California, Florida, Texax, Georgia, and Michigan, that allow customers to talk any time of the day or night with no restrictions for one flat rate, starting at $30. No contracts. No activation. Just great service on an all-digital, state-of-the-art, third generation network. Phones available with MetroPCS plans include models from Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, Kyocera, and LG. At Phones2UDirect (UK) you can buy all the latest mobile phones, either without a service plan, or connected to one of the UK providers: Vodafone, O2, Orange, T-Mobile, 3 (Three) or Vodafone 3G. They stock the latest mobile phones from manufacturers such as Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Samsung, Siemens, I-Mate, PalmOne, LG, NEC, Sendo, Panasonic and Sharp. All GSM handsets are compatible with all UK GSM networks. Phones2UDirect offers next working day delivery in the UK for contract handset orders made before 2pm Monday to Friday. Delivery is carried out by Royal Mail Special Delivery (Silver Service), which is fully insured and guaranteed for next working day before 1pm.   VoIP: Voice Over Internet Broadband Phone Services Verizon VoiceWing VoIP is a Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service that offers phone service over a Broadband Internet Connection. A DSL, cable, or Verizon Fios Internet service connection, a regular telephone, a router, and a telephone adapter are required for service. VoiceWing lets you make local, long distance (includes the domestic US and Canada), and international calls at great low rates. VoiceWing works with any new or existing cable, DSL, or Verizon Fios broadband connection. Calls can be made and received using any existing traditional phone, a router and an adapter. Call Management is improved and simplified – set up and manage popular call features like Voice Mail, Call Logs, Call Forwarding and Caller ID with an online personal account page. ViaTalk VoIP provides high-quality VoIP phone service that is not only affordable, but also backed by award-winning customer service. Their service is feature-rich, reliable, and advanced enough to meet the needs of even the most demanding consumer. They also have a daily iPod Giveaway for new customers, and daily specials. Net2Phone VoIP Net2Phone CommCenter is a free download that allows you to make phone calls from your PC to any telephone in the world. Long distance calls in the U.S. are free for the first 5 minutes, and $.02/minute thereafter. International calls are as low as 3.9 cents a minute. Net2Phone also offers calling cards and broadband Internet access services.   Long Distance Phone Services Qwest Long Distance Packages offers affordable plans for all usage levels. At Gorilla Mobile you can save up to 85% on international calls from your mobile phone. They offer rates like 8¢/minute to the UK, and 10¢/minute to Japan, 24 hours a day, with no monthly fee (just an annual fee of $5.95).   Broadband Internet Services: DSL, T1, Cable Modems... Broadband National allows you to compare and choose from 50 broadband ISPs with the click of a mouse, including Time Warner Cable, Comcast, Cablevision, Charter Communications, Verizon Online DSL, AT&T Yahoo!, Qwest, and HughesNet Satellite High Speed Internet, and many more regional providers. They have a quick and easy online ordering interface, and up to date info on the cheapest broadband deals on the Internet. Time Warner's Road Runner High Speed InternetSign Up Online now offers cable modem connections for $29.95/month (for the first 6 months) with $25 Cash Back. Time Warner also offers Digital Cable TV connections with up to $100 cash back, and Unlimited Long Distance with unlimited long distance digital phone service. DSL stands for "digital subscriber line". It is a method of Internet access over your telephone line that allows speeds up to 50x faster than a dial-up modem (if you are close enough to a telephone company exchange). EarthLink Internet Access offers both Dial-Up and High Speed Internet (DSL & Cable Modem), and has specials on for new subscribers. Unlimited Dial-Up is $9.95/month for 6 months, then only $21.95/mo. Cable Internet and DSL are only $19.95/mo. for the first few months, then $45.95/mo. and $39.95/mo. respectively thereafter. EarthLink offers fast, reliable connections, and features like spamBlocker and Pop-Up BlockerSM; 24/7 support; 8 email addresses; and instant messaging. Verizon Online DSL provides an affordable, high-speed Internet connection. Check here to see if Verizon Online DSL is available in your area, and get your local price. As of this writing, Verizon provides 768K Consumer High Speed Internet for $14.99 per month with a 1 year commitment. The offer includes unlimited Internet Access, a free DSL modem, shipping & activation for $19.99, a 30-day money back guarantee, and 24/7 technical support. Qwest DSL offers high-speed DSL and Internet access for about the price of dial-up in 14 states: AZ, CO, ID, IA, MN, MT, NE, NM, ND, OR, SD, UT, WA & WY. For those who cannot get or cannot afford DSL or cable connections, Propel Accelerator is a subscription service that speeds up dial-up browsing, making Web sites load up to 5 times faster. A subscription costs $59.95 per year or $7.95 per month. Propel Accelerator has won CNET's and ZDNet's Editor's Choice awards.   Internet Services: dial up modem Internet Service Providers NetZero Platinum and Juno Platinum both give you fast, reliable, unlimited Internet access for $9.95/month (about 1/2 the price of AOL). Juno also offers free internet access, with ads, for limited to 10 hours access per month.

Communications News TIME Magazine,     August 2, 1963 p. 49: COMMUNICATIONS: Like the Red Queen     A new kind of communications satellite, Syncom II, built by Hughes Aircraft Co. for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, soared up into space last week from Cape Canaveral. Instead of going into orbit not far above the earth, like famed Telstar I, it kept on climbing and climbing. When it touched an altitude of some 22,500 miles, a small rocket fired and pushed it into an almost circular orbit.     Three for the Globe. Like the Red Queen in Through the Looking Glass, the orbiting Syncom II keeps moving but gets nowhere. At its extreme height Syncom takes 24 hours to complete one orbit. Since this is the period of the earth's rotation, it stays above the same point on the earth below. This "synchronous" orbit*-- whence comes the name Syncom-- has important advantages. Riding high, the satellite can relay messages by line-of-sight radio to more than one-third of the earth's surface. Three satellites like it, properly spaced, can cover all the inhabited parts of the earth.     Low-level communications satellites like Telstar I, whose orbit varied between 593 and 3,505 miles, do not cover nearly as much of the earth's surface. Being so low, the can get along with less transmitting and receiving power, but many more of them must be used for world-wide communication.     Another disadvantage of low-level satellites is that steerable radio antennas must follow them as they sweep rapidly across the sky. Synchronous satellites turning with the earth can be kept in view by fixed antennas, which are simpler to operate.     Syncom I, which was launched last February, went into near-perfect orbit, but its electronics system broke down, leaving it useless as a relay station. Last week's successor, Syncom II, did better. as the satellite climbed toward orbit more than two hours after launch, the Navy communications ship Kingsport, anchored at Lagos, Nigeria, called it by microwave radio. Syncom II answered smartly, proving that its electronics gear was healthy. The satellite even bounced a recording of The Star-Spangled Banner back to the Kingsport.     Jockey for Position. Syncom II developed some drift after it went into orbit, as was expected, but in the wrong direction. The Kingsport next ordered Syncom to fire its hydrogen peroxide rocket to correct the slow eastward drift, and actually days will pass before Syncom's delicate guidance apparatus will jockey it into an exactly synchronous orbit. Then it is supposed to swing gently in a north-south figure-eight pattern, crossing the equator over the Atlantic Ocean while radiomen below test how well it can relay messages between distant points on the distant earth. *First suggested in 1946 by Science Fiction Writer Arthur C. Clarke.

Amazon - eBay See also: Electronics Superstores Photo and Video Computers Computer Peripherals Musical Instruments Classic Telegraph Articles: Telegraph to Wireless 1851-1904 Telegraph-Electricity History 1852 The Atlantic Telegraph Cable 1866 Classic Telephone Articles: Telephone & Inventor Bell 1877 Telephone's First Ten Years 1886 Telephone Operator Girls 1899 Classic Phonograph Articles: An Evening With Edison 1878 Phono to Production 1888-94 Victor Talking Machine 1890-1929 Loud & Tube Victrolas 1898-1925 Classic Radio Articles: Marconi's Wireless 1898-1899 The Wireless Telegraph 1899 Marconi-Grams 1902 Music by Wireless 1907 Radio Dancing - RCA 1916-1919 Audion Tube Described 1922

AmericaOnline's AOL 9.0 provides a 45-day free trial (now with unlimited minutes), and if you don't want to continue, simply cancel your membership before the trial ends. AOL says version 9.0 is "their best version yet" (as it should be), and the offer includes some free music downloads and AOL's instant messenger.

  Flash Memory, SD Cards, Compact Flash, Memory Sticks, RAM...

EDGE Tech offers "cutting edge" Computer Memory Upgrades, including RAM modules, Flash memory (SD, SDHC, Compact Flash, etc.), and USB portable hard drives, like the 400GB DiskGO! 3.5" Portable USB 2.0 & IEEE-1394 Hard Drive, and the USB-powered 80GB DiskGO! 2.5" Ultra Portable USB 2.0 Hard Drive.

At Crucial Memory (UK) UK shoppers can save on top-quality CompactFlash, SD, MMC, or other memory for your MP3 player, digital camera handheld PC, or other device.

My Memory (UK) sells memory for PCs, cell phones, PDAs, MP3 players, digital cameras, and other digital devices. They also sell inkjet catridges, photo paper, batteries, and other accessories. They carry USB, CompactFlash, SD/MMC, MemoryStick, and other formats of flash memory, as well as PC DDR SDRAM, from makers including SanDisk, Lexar, Sony, Kingston, Magicstor, and others. My Memory is based in the UK, but will ship internationally.

  Electronic Parts and Accessories, Networking, Wi-Fi, Wireless Connectivity

Radio Shack carries general consumer electronics goods plus cables, connectors, parts, accessories and batteries.

Founded in 1976 as an electronics service company in Dayton, Ohio, MCM Electronics has become one of the premier distributors in the consumer electronics industry. MCM now stocks over 40,000 products from 600+ quality vendors. MCM's products include: computer hardware and peripherals, security and surveillance, wire and cable, audio and video equipment, tools, test equipment and much more.

Parts Express sells thousands of electronic parts, plus parts-related items and electronics accessories. For almost 15 years Parts Express has supplied audio engineers, repair shops, commercial sound installers, home theater installers, speaker builders, car audio installers, DJ's, schools, hospitals, and hobbyist with the parts and accessories to make their installations profitable and professional. Their inventory includes home and car stereo and speaker building parts, telephone parts, cables, connectors, test equipment, tools, batteries, chemical products, and much more.

Founded in a garage in Hawthorne, California in 1983, Belkin is now the recognized global leader in connectivity solutions, with over 1,000 employees and sales topping $1 billion. They offer easy-to-set-up wireless and wired networking gear, accessories for iPod® players and XM player devices, and the first CableFree USB Hub. Their PureAV® brand, a line of cables, power, and digital wireless accessories, extracts the full performance potential from high-end home theater equipment.

  Battery Shops

Duracell Direct sells batteries, adapters, and chargers for notebook computers, cell phones, cordless phones, camcorders, digital cameras, and more, including AA and AAA rechargeable batteries and chargers.

Batteries Plus opened their first store in Green Bay, Wisconsin, in 1988. They now have over 255 brick and mortar stores from coast to coast. Batteries Plus offers a large selection of batteries for laptop computers, camcorders, cell phones, and almost anything else, including rechargeable cells and standard alkaline batteries.

eBatts carries a huge selection of batteries and power supplies for laptop computers, camcorders, cell phones, and other mobile accessories. As of this writing, eBatts provides free ground shipping for all web orders weighing less than 200 lbs anywhere in the continental US.

Interstate Batteries offers their own brand of low-cost standard batteries & custom electronics batteries with free shipping on all battery orders with a minimum order of $35 (use the "coupon code" linkshare01).