Whoa, boy. Cue the second wave firestorm in 3, 2, 1.... After Nokia responded to outcries from N-Gage users who were infuriated at the idea of not being able to transfer their titles between handsets, all seemed to be well. Now, however, we're finding that there's still a "one transfer policy" in effect, meaning that your games can only be ported from one handset to another one time before your world implodes. It should be noted, though, that a recent report at All About N-Gage asserts that said policy is only temporary, and that Nokia is currently working towards "a more permanent transfer method." Of course, there's no set time line for when we'll see such a thing, and it's not like the N-Gage niche as a whole is growing in leaps and bounds; in other words, you N-Gage fanatics may want to pick a handset and stay content -- you might be relying on it for awhile.

[Via All About Symbian]

Americans, some of whom still have the nasty aftertaste in their mouths of the nightmarish number portability rollout here, must be feeling for their Japanese counterparts today. After flipping the switch this month to allow folks to take their numbers with them, it seems Softbank Mobile was the big winner -- sort of. In the process of accepting thousands of incoming applicants, their computer system buckled under the load, leaving the carrier all but paralyzed over the weekend and unable to accept sign-ups or cancellations. Fortunately, it looks like their IT folks were on the ball and everything's back to normal now (we hope).

We've all done it. The temptation of that latest-and-greatest smartphone being offered by (Verizon / Sprint / T-Mobile / Cingular) is just too great; we cave, signing our life away for one, two, or (gulp) three years in exchange for a killer price. Problem is, if you're anything like us -- as scary a thought as that might be -- the next gotta-have-it phone is going to drop well before your contract is up. Of course, most carriers offer the possibility of transferring your contract to another unsuspecting victim, but tracking that lucky individual down is the tricky part. A start-up going by "Celltradeusa" looks to help facilitate that search, charging $20 to pair up folks looking for a deal with other folks looking to slide out from under their contract. Going through the motions of getting the new owner's paperwork filled out (credit approval, etc.) is still left to the buyer and seller to work out themselves, but they've at least taken the guesswork out of finding one another in the first place.

[Via SmartMoney]