Sonim Technologies Blog

CSI SOLVING CRIME WITH SONIM

For all your CBS CSI fans out there, check out the latest episode and you'll see the XP3300 FORCE!  The show's top criminal detectives, Greg Barbera and Jimmy Philbrook, are investigating the case of a young drug dealer who may have been pushed down 4 flights of cement stairs to meet his grotesque death.  We don't want to spoil the end of the show but check out what phones these tough guys are using:

 and now for a close up on the phone: 

This isn't the first time Sonim phones have helped solve crimes. Remember these two episodes of NCIS?  

NCIS: Los Angeles -- Criminal Life with a Sonim 

In Harm's Way - The XP3300 FORCE on NCIS: Los Angeles

We love seeing our ultra rugged phones on TV and know that they are perfect for solving crime, both on screen and off.  To enjoy the whole CIS episode - CLICK HERE.  

DEATH BY BARBELLS

Tuan, the Toughest Guy in the office, just can't get enough of Crossfit. He has more personal training certificates than his whole Crossfit gym combined. (Don't know what Crossfit is?)

He does Ultra (Rugged) Marathons, Tough Mudders, and now.... DEATH BY BARBELLS.  Sound scary, right?  So you may ask, what the hell is Death by Barbells?  We thought he'd die by being slammed in the head by barbells, but Tuan proved us wrong.  Check this out.

 

We chose Rage Against the Machine's BOMBTRACK for Tuan's soundtrack since he says it's what gets him going at the gym.  The hook of the song goes like this: "Burn, Burn yes ya gonna burn!"  Tuan's muscles are surely going to burn after this.  He lasted twenty minutes until falling over, but check out the sweaty guy in the back; he may have suffered even more than Tuan.  After all the sweating, grunting, and panting, Tuan collapsed but most surely did not die by those barbells. 

Tuan's intensity doesn't stop at the gym.  His day job is Director of Financial Planning and Analysis at Sonim, and his fierce intensity is also reflected in his work.  Thanks Tuan for your dedication to your muscles, your health, and of course, to our company.  Can't wait to catch you at your next event! 

 

CERTIFIED RUGGED BY CSPIRE

We're officially CERTIFIED RUGGED by C Spire Wireless.  Now, you can check out the XP3400 ARMOR featured front and centered on C Spire's homepage!  Click here and scroll down, and you can see the ARMOR up close.  C Spire has already hit the wires with great news coverage with the ARMOR -- check it all on this blog post.  C Spire is one of the largest wireless providers in the States and offers our phone for $99.99 with a 2 year contract.  That's at least half the price of some of their other phones. Thanks C Spire for your support! 

ARMOR IN THE FIELD

Sonim phones are the toughest in the world  and nearly 40% of that world we're talking about is dedicated to agriculture.  Today, we're commemorating farmers that have chosen our phones to face mother nature's nastiness to produce the food on our tables. 

North Dakota's Farm and Ranch Guide recently featured the Sonim XP3400 ARMOR and tested the phone to see if it could keep up with farm hands.  They "dropped the phone off a speeding 4-wheeler, dropped it in a puddle, flushed it in the toilet, dropped it from a telephone pole, and even ran over it with a car.  In all these tests, the phone came out working just as good as new."  Even better, Farm and Ranch Guide was able to catch up with a happy ARMOR owner who purchased their phone from our retail partner SRT Communications.  Dawn Benner, an employee of a farming equipment manufacture said:

"Working out in the shop, I'm around dust and particles all the time.  With this phone, I don't have to worry about dust getting in the phone and ruining it.  We also do a lot of hydrotesting, and I never worry about my phone getting wet.  I know for a fact it can withstand drops because I've dropped it a few times already too and haven't had any problems."

Dust, water, drop - no problem!  Also, if you check out Farm and Ranch Guide's website, you'll see the real time temperature in North Dakota and last time we looked, it said 1°F, yes ONE DEGREE.  Good thing our phones can handle sub zero temperatures.  And, the buttons are easy to push with heavy duty gloves.  Thanks Farm and Ranch Guide for the shout out and stay warm out there on the fields!  

Great Coverage for C Spire and the XP3400 ARMOR

2011 was a tremendous year for Sonim across the globe.  We had several announcements, including the launch of the XP3400 ARMOR in 20 states.  We're grateful for our U.S. retail partners who deployed creative stunts to launch the phone, securing lots of great press coverage across the country.

Just before the holidays, C Spire, based in Ridgeland, Mississippi, launched the ARMOR.  Check out CNET's article here.  C Spire offers personalized wireless solutions to over one million customers in the Southeast.  They continue to grow like rapid fire, due to their unique approach to wireless technology and their lightning fast network.  Until recently, C Spire was known as Cellular South and since their identity switch, they have made some bold handset moves.  With the Ultra-Rugged ARMOR, C Spire now offers the ultimate lifeline for people who need a dependable connection on the Nation's first personalized network.

Coolest Gadgets wrote: "A pair of hands that suffer from a particularly bad bout of butter fingers" can't live without it.  This "all-weather, all-action handset that will be able to hang out in the toughest environments... even when you start to wilt from the hard labor and heat, the ARMOR will continue chugging on as usual."

Ubergizmo jumped in on the fun and wrote: "For those who live a rough and tumble lifestyle, or generally working in a particularly hazardous situation that need a phone which is able to keep up with the times, the Sonim XP3400 ARMOR fits the bill perfectly.

Thanks everyone for the great articles.  A special thanks to C Spire, check out how to get the ARMOR for only $49.00 with a comprehensive 3 year warranty HERE.

XP3300 FORCE Featured in Inc. Magazine's Top Six Gadgets of the Year

As we come to the close of 2011, top tech publications are putting together their Best of 2011 lists for gadgets and this year, we're on the list for Inc. Magazine!  Inc. tested over 400 gadgets and the Sonim XP3300 FORCE is one of the top 6 products of the year. 

To test the XP3300 FORCE, Inc. ran it over with an ATV, banged it against metal, tried to break the screen with gravel, and the FORCE "barely blinked."  Inc. said: "Any gadget that can withstand this much abuse is worth its weight in gold."  So could we say, the XP3300 FORCE is the new gold standard? 

This phone has been racking up all sorts of awards in 2011 -- a Guinness World Record, a PC Magazine Extreme Award, and now this! Thanks Inc. Magazine for featuring us and we look forward to more awards in 2012.  On that note, we hope all of you have a very Happy New Year! 

Looking For a Way to XPand Your FORCE?

Near Field Communications, or NFC, is technology that is embedded into the phone and allows people to exchange information with a simple swipe against a tag.  NFC reads information on the tag (like reading a bar code) and then processes or records it.  The discussion around NFC these days has been centered around Mobile Payments, but we have explored NFC applications that most mobile technology providers have not - workforce management.  We've taken an innovative approach with NFC and built the XP1301 CORE NFC, not for mobile payments, but to help workers keep track of their activity and whereabouts while they are on the job. 

By now, you're probably familiar with the XP3300 FORCE, released last February at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.  The FORCE is the Guiness World Record holder for Toughest Phone and also the recipient of PC Magazine's Extreme Performance Award for longest talk time in the cell phone industry.   Keep reading to find out how we've XPanded our line to add some extra techno-juice. 

Last week, we announced the arrival of XPand NFC, an attachment you can put on the back of the XP3300 FORCE's battery cover, enabling the FORCE to have NFC capabilities.  Here are some questions that will help you find out if your workforce needs the XPand NFC. 

• Do your workers work extra long shifts and their phone battery life can't keep up with? 
• Do you wish you had a way to check that your workers are doing their jobs on time? 
• Do you want your workers to report back to you in real-time what they are doing?

If you answered yes to these questions, check out the XPand.  For more information about this revolutionary product, check out the full press release here. 

 

Meet Roy the Loris - An Unlikely Ultra Rugged Creature

This past month a furry and quite rare creature made a debut on our facebook page.  We get tons of great photos of our phones in action, but this was a first in history – 

Andre Hidayat Arrasuli from Indonesia posted this and said: “Not just humans like Sonim… LOL!”  Yes, we laughed out loud when we saw this peculiar little creature attempt to make a phone call.  The Loris’s name is Roy, and Roy just can’t enough of our phone.  Check out this video of Roy clambering around for the phone.

Poor little Roy, our phone is too tough and heavy for him to lift!  After watching his video, we found out that these little wonders of the animal world are YouTube sensations and millions of people are fans of the ‘Slow Loris.’ 

This video has almost NINE MILLION views! 

Aruna is an Engineer in Indonesia and is a very experienced mountaineer – explaining why he needs and loves his Sonim XP3300.  In his spare time, Aruna likes sharing his Sonim with his furry friend, Roy.  We asked Aruna why he loves his Sonim and he said: "I choose to use a Sonim phone because so far, I have always destroyed phones, whether it falls into water or I drop it..... Sonim is really manly for me." 

Thanks Aruna for the support, and we look forward to more photos on facebook! 

 

 

 

NCIS: Los Angeles -- Criminal Life with a Sonim

I was watching CBS's NCIS: Los Angeles and was captivated by heartthrobs Chris O'Donnell and LL Cool J and then BAM -- there was a Sonim Phone!  Yup, we made it into the recent episode, The Debt. 

Here's how it goes: 

The good guys are on the tail of Fisk and in the heat of the chase, Officer Marty Deeks shoots an Aryan thug to protect a female civilian and discovers after he fires his gun, the Aryan thug was unarmed. Guilt-ridden and with bloody hands, Officer Deeks is released from the LAPD, ending his career as a police officer.  The plot thickens when Deeks discovers that Fisk might have a mole within the LAPD, explaining how the evil matermind has escaped the law time and time again.  The main suspect is his ex-boss, Officer Bates, an expert interrogator for the LAPD.  The evidence is in the files of Bates's personal lab top.  Deeks takes on the covert mission of retrieving the key evidence and sneaks into Bates's office to do the dirty work.  While Deeks is transferring the files, he receives a warning text from his partner: "Bates is back. Get out of there!"  Lo and behold... check out Deek's phone -- a Sonim! 

Within seconds, Deeks hears Bates's voice outside the door.  As if the situation couldn't get worse, Bates CALLS Deeks to catch up on the status of Fisk's case and mid conversation, right as Bates opens the door, Deeks makes the split second decision to climb out the window of Bates's office, located on the TENTH floor.  Scrambling and clinging onto the side of the building, Bates sticks the Sonim in his mouth and manages to scale the side of the building and finally finds safety by falling through the window of another office.  Talk about an extreme expedition for our phone! 

Thank God Deeks wasn't found because the plot just gets better after that.  To find out what happens to Deeks and the rest of the criminal gang, watch the full episode here.  Enjoy! 

TUNE IN TO THE XP3400 ARMOR ON YOUR TV!

We're on TV!!!

Our friends at Appalachian Wireless in Ivel, Kentucky just released a series of great Sonim XP3400 ARMOR commericials - our first TV ads in the U.S.A.!  We're grateful to have awesome partners that have as much fun with our phones as we do. They get what Sonim is all about -- Ultra Ruggedness.  Watch the ARMOR undergo some burly tests:

Hammer vs. ARMOR -- Which is tougher than nails?

TONS of Dump Truck Fun!

20 Feet onto Concrete - No Problem!

*Remember this drop onto concrete? 

Thanks Appalachian Wireless for showing our phones a good time.  Please visit their website here.