The month of July is known for cookouts, family fun, and fireworks, but did you know that July is also National Cell Phone Courtesy Month? So be sure to silence those phones before you go any further, because I want our top three tips to observe this holiday to go uninterrupted.

1. I'll put my phone on vibrate for you. Remember this handy little function? Vibrate allows you to feel the calls without interrupting everyone in the room with Beyonce's hit song "Single Ladies". This function can best be put to use when at dinner with friends, in class and at work, or on the bus. "On a Boat" may be your summer theme song, but others may be in a different zone.

Two more, after the jump.

We all know the economy is a mess, but smartphones have been one of the few bright spots--yet a new study has found that there's a limit even to that category. According to research firm Strategy Analytics, nearly half (48 percent) of Americans would drop their mobile data plans completely if they had to trim expenses, MediaPost reports.

That's markedly different than what the firm found about home broadband services, which customers are far more reluctant to cut; only 10 percent would do so. "What surprised us was the vulnerability of mobile services," Ben Piper, director of Strategy Analytics' multiplay market dynamics service, said in a statement.

In addition, just 12 percent said they would cut pay TV services altogether, but 41 percent would scale back to a lower tier of pricing, the report said--which is exactly what I've done recently. In fact, my first recommendation would be for the 13 percent of mobile subscribers that don't use their cell phones at all to cancel their plans and stop paying for them, but hey, what do I know.

Lightspeed Research has released the results of a multi-nation study about cell phone use--and some of them are strange. For example, 13 percent of U.S. subscribers don't make calls, while 52 percent make at least one call per day. 35 percent never send text messages, but that's at least somewhat understandable.

You have to wonder what those 13 percent are doing with their cell phones. Do they use them as paperweights? Maybe just play Snake on them? I assume some of that group have cell phones as emergency-only devices, but that's a pretty large percentage.

The study also reported that women send more text messages than men, with 29 percent compared to 25 percent sending at least one text per day, whereas men and women make the same percentage of voice calls each day. In addition, mobile Web browsing is the most popular daily activity (at 14 percent), while taking photos is the most popular weekly mobile pastime (at 37 percent).

Comcast on Monday announced that it will launch its 4G mobile broadband service in the Portland area via the Clearwire network starting Tuesday.

The service, dubbed 2go, will only be available if bundled with one or more of Comcast's Internet, phone, or cable services.

Comcast is offering two data cards and service plans: 2go Metro, which offers 4G service in the Portland area; or 2go Nationwide, which offers 4G service in Portland, and 3G service nationwide via Sprint's network.

The 2go service will be bundled in "Fast Pack" offerings.

Fast Pack Metro will be available for $49.99 and includes Comcast's 12 Mbps Internet service, a Wi-Fi router, and 4G service with up to 4 Mbps download speed. Fast Pack Nationwide will run $69.99 per month with the same services, plus Sprint nationwide.

Triple Play customers who subscribe to voice, cable, and Internet will be able to add 2go starting at $30 per month.

A version of 2go will also be available for small- and medium-sized businesses.

In May 2008, Sprint agreed to take over the combined WiMAX operations of Clearwire in a deal backed by tech titans Comcast, Google, Intel, Time Warner Cable, and Bright House Networks. In June 2009, Clearwire quietly launched its Clear WiMax service in Las Vegas today, but Sprint demurred, keeping the two companies' WiMax systems still separate for now.

Dell has begun developing a pocket-sized, ARM-based device powered by the Android operating system, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

The Journal article carefully avoided calling the device a smartphone, and positioned it in the context of the Apple iPod touch, a handheld music player and computing device that lacks the native ability to place and receive calls.

What the device is, what it does, what it will be priced: all questions that the Journal's source was unable to answer. The plan could also be scrapped entirely, the Journal reported, essentially offering the story with a somewhat large grain of salt.

What's interesting, however, is that the Journal reports that Dell began work on the device last year. That's certainly before AT&T Mobility's chief executive reported in Feburary that Dell was working on a smartphone, which may or not be the same thing.

Rumors about Dell doing something with Android or smartphones have been swirling for over a year now, fed in part by similar unsourced stories in the Journal.

A story in the British magazine MarketingWeek had a Dell Android smartphone appearing in February 2008 - yes, 2008. We debunked that one right here on Gearlog.

The Wall Street Journal then claimed in January 2009 that Dell would "move into cellphones as early as next month," which clearly didn't happen. The next step in the Dell vaporware rumor chain came this April, when a market analyst said carriers had decided to pass on Dell's invisible, chimerical smartphone.

Finally, this May, Dell showed off a Mini 10 netbook running Android--just to stoke the flames.

The Samsung Saga SCH-i777 on Verizon is a nice smartphone with excellent ergonomics, at least hardware wise--and now Engadget Mobile has word that Saga owners can download an official Samsung software update as well.

Google on Monday released a suite of text-based apps, dubbed Google SMS, intended to provide people in Africa with easier access to information on a variety of topics like health and agriculture, weather, sports, and more.

Africa has the world's highest mobile phone growth rate, and the average citizen is more likely to have access to a cell phone than an Internet-connected PC. As a result, Google is focused on delivering information one might find on an average Google.com search via mobile phones.

The suite includes Google Trader, a text-based "marketplace" app that helps buyers and sellers find each other. Google SMS Tips, meanwhile, will answer questions that users pose via text. Need to know how to preserve crops or want basic sexual health information? Send a text.

"You enter a free form text query, and Google's algorithms restructure the query to identify keywords, search a database to identify relevant answers, and return the most relevant answer," Google wrote in a blog post.

The project was made possible through a Google partnership with the Grameen Foundation, MTN Uganda, and several local organizations.

"We worked closely together as part of Grameen Foundation's Application Laboratory to understand information needs and gaps, develop locally relevant and actionable content, rapidly test prototypes, and conduct multi-month pilots with the people who will eventually use the applications have truly been a global effort, and created with Ugandans, for Ugandans," Google said.

Google has more information about the effort available in this YouTube video.

Good news for cellphone users in the EU--an agreement between Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Apple, LG, NEC, Qualcomm, Research in Motion, Samsung, and Texas Instruments has been reached, making micro-USB the phone charger standard. The agreement will affect phones sold in Europe by those companies, beginning next year.

"People will not have to throw away their charger whenever they buy a new phone," the EU's Industry Commissioner, Guenter Verheugen, said of the move, which has been heralded from both an economic and environmental standpoint.

Vodafone, the world's biggest revenue-generating mobile service provider, is looking to get a bit larger. The company is reportedly looking at acquiring the UK wing of T-Mobile, which is currently valued at $4.2bn-$5.6bn.

Such a move would give Vodafone 40 percent of the UK company's mobile revenue, making it the largest mobile provider in that country. That position is currently held by the Telefonica-owned O2, which has a 27 percent market share.The move would likely be subject to a good deal of scrutiny by regulators.

At two separate events today I got some hands-on time with the BlackBerry Tour 9630, the new flagship BlackBerry for Sprint and Verizon. There's not much to report - and that's actually a good thing.

The Tour feels like the best of all BlackBerry worlds so far: the smooth form and 3.2-megapixel camera of the 8900 combined with the Bold's keyboard and the 8830's global capabilities. Using the Tour felt lightning fast, and the 2.5" screen was bright and tight. The Tour felt like it just works - it will be totally familiar to BlackBerry users, just faster, better, and higher-resolution. That's what I mean by "not much to report." The Tour is a refinement, not a revolution.

The Verizon version I used had V CAST Music with Rhapsody and Verizon's visual voicemail client on it. The Sprint version was an early model that didn't yet have Sprint TV or the other Sprint software which will come on final units.

Interestingly, the Verizon Tour runs BlackBerry software 4.7.1.38. The much-maligned Storm runs 4.7.0.148. Is 4.7.1 truly an upgrade to 4.7.0? If it is, then the Tour's release could portend a further improvement for the Storm, as well.

I'm hoping to get both Tour models as soon as they come out later this summer.

Google first announced the development of its open mobile platform Android back in November of 2007. A little less than a year later, the T-Mobile G1 went on sale, becoming the first commercial handset in the US to utilize the OS.

The phone promised to the first of a deluge of new handsets. After all, the new operating system was dynamic, free, and best of all, it wasn't Windows Mobile. Plus, given the number of manufacturers who had signed on to the Android alliance, it seemed like it was only a matter of time before the market was flooded with competitors.

Eight months later, that sentiment couldn't be further from the truth. While we've seen rumors, announcements, and blurry photos by the boatload, we've yet to see any real competition for the G1. So, where are we, in terms of actually seeing a viable new Android handset? Check out a roundup of the latest manufacturers and claims, after the jump.

Being viewed as an enabler of Iranian governmental spying is perhaps not exactly the sort of image any corporation is looking to project at the moment. So when The Wall Street Journal printed a story stating that the country was using "deep packet inspection" that may or may not have been provided by Nokia Siemens, in order to monitor its citizens, the company was quick to deny any involvement.

Nokia Siemens didn't deny providing any monitoring capability, however--the company said that it provided the same sort of legal interception it gives to countries like the UK and US. That capability lets authorities listen in on cell and landline calls.

Unlocked phones are always a tough sell in the U.S. due to the high up-front pricing, despite all of their benefits. Nonetheless, Palm is doing its part to help by slashing the price of the unlocked Palm Treo Pro from $549 to $399, Brighthand reports.

That move could help spur sales for enterprise users, as well as global travelers that like to switch out SIM cards overseas and avoid paying horrendous roaming charges to AT&T or T-Mobile.

The Treo Pro is a solid smartphone even in unlocked form, as I found in my PCMag.com review. It's quad-band EDGE and tri-band UMTS/HSDPA device with a 400 MHz CPU, a reasonably comfortable keyboard, and some subtle but significant UI enhancements on top of Windows Mobile.

Sprint's subsidized version of the Treo Pro remains at $200 with a two-year contract--in that case, it's a tough sell against the stellar Palm Pre.

For more on Palm, Apple, Research in Motion, and other top handset vendors, be sure to visit Smart Device Central, PCMag.com's dedicated site for smartphones and other mobile technologies.

Research in Motion is soaring at the top of the U.S. smartphone market these days, but it had better watch out: A new study reports that 4 in 10 smartphone users would switch to the iPhone for their next purchase, while 4 in 5 current iPhone owners would buy another one, according to MediaPost.

Contrast that to the BlackBerry: just 14 percent of smartphone users that don't have one would switch to one of Research in Motion's handhelds for their next upgrade. "The findings highlight the challenges the BlackBerry faces in stemming the iPhone stampede," said John Martin, the CEO of market research firm Crowd Science, in the article.

The report said that the iPhone also beat out other smart devices for customer satisfaction in numerous other areas such as screen size, navigation, the ability to add new features, and video playback quality.