Verizon Wireless prepares for iPhone? Probably nott

Posted: 2009-12-19 05:50:01 UTC-08:00

It doesn’t look like the Verizon/iPhone rumors are and possibilities are ever going to end. While many of you Big Red subscribers would love to have the iPhone on your network, we’re not sure it looks like things are getting closer to materializing. When AT&T picked up the iPhone, some could say it wasn’t prepared for the massive spike in data usage and as a consequence, has been taking a lot of heat for that. With rumors flying that AT&T is losing its exclusivity deal with Apple soon, Verizon Wireless Chief Technology Officer Anthony Melone told BusinessWeek, “We have put things in place already. We are prepared to support that traffic.”

Of course, everyone knows that the iPhone only comes in one flavor: UMTS. Most analysts think a CDMA iPhone isn’t very practical given where Verizon’s technology is going, and we’d have to agree a straight CDMA only iPhone wouldn’t make sense. Does this mean the build out of LTE is getting done more rapidly? Or more specifically, will there be a LTE iPhone? Only time will tell with Apple, but for customers of the largest U.S. carrier, it’s reassuring to know that your network is ready for the iPhone. But we already knew that.

WIN7Like Theme for BlackBerry from Hedone Design

Posted: 2009-12-18 05:00:46 UTC-08:00

http://smmarttechnology.blogspot.com/

It’s been a little while since I’ve shared any love with you all… So here we go. The good folks at Hedone Designs have no doubt been busy, and have just recently launched the Win7Like Premium Theme for BlackBerry (). The theme brings a whole lot of Windows 7 ‘like’ design to your BlackBerry… So if you’re into Windows 7, you might as well dress up your BlackBerry with Windows 7 livery, right? After installation you’ll find a whole whack of custom icons, and all of the Windows 7 goodness you can handle.

This one is compatible with all current Berry models, and is actually compatible with many older models including the 8100, 8300, 8700 and more. For all the details check out the theme

Handmark plans to mobilize more than 500 news publishers in 2010 Read more:ixzz0a2qEWXV5

Posted: 2009-12-19 00:11:51 UTC-08:00

Handmark announced aggressive plans for 2010 to launch thousands of mobile news applications for more than 500 newspapers, magazines and other content publishers worldwide.

We don’t know a single title they will be releasing next year, but I’m betting we’ll hear more from them just in time for the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, if not before.

Adding to the announcement, Handmark’s EVP of Marketing Evan Conway said: “We want to keep publishers focused in on the core of their business – creating compelling content and building audience. It is our goal to deliver new capabilities and channels that help extend and reinforce brands to a new mobile audience, as well as to create new more targeted opportunities for their advertisers.”

Samsung working on an even lower-end Corby – Pop Read more:

Posted: 2009-12-18 05:07:35 UTC-08:00

It looks like the Corby S3650 is not cheap enough, hence Samsung is working on an even more basic (and cheaper) version of the device – Corby Pop. We don’t have all the details — the image above is the S3650 — but we heard the forthcoming device will feature such things as 1.3-megapixel camera, 22MB of internal memory, FM radio and a 960 mAh battery, which should provide enough juice for up to 8 hours of talk time. Moreover, a touchscreen (most probably QVGA) will be included in the mix, along with pre-installed apps for social networking and instant messaging.

India will be the first country to get to try out the Corby Pop, where Samsung will offer it for less than 7,000 INR, which is about $150. As soon as we get some additional information, you’ll be the first to know…

Posted: 2009-12-18 04:56:41 UTC-08:00

nna be a long day for BlackBerry users: RIM's confirmed to multiple outlets that its BIS servers are acting up and that email services are being delayed -- and we're actually hearing that they're just down, period. BlackBerry Messenger still works, though, so you can still BBM your BFF or whatever the kids do nowadays. No word on service restoration, but we'll update you when we find out.

Samsung Stunt for MetroPCS performs surprisingly few stunts

Posted: 2009-12-18 04:55:07 UTC-08:00

MetroPCS' bread and butter rests in the low- to mid-end of the handset spectrum since it offers its devices on a pricey contract-free basis, so it shouldn't come as any surprise that the freshly-announced Stunt from Samsung doesn't mess with the time-tested formula. The candybar trudges along with a 160 x 128 display, Bluetooth, AWS CDMA (like all MetroPCS handsets these days), and a shell utterly devoid of meaningful industrial design -- that's it. No more, no less. And sometimes, simplicity is a beautiful thing, right? It's not showing up on the carrier's site just yet, but the Stunt should be available today.

Palm's Ares SDK goes to public beta

Posted: 2009-12-18 04:54:27 UTC-08:00

After a brief private testing period, Palm's interesting software development package has made its way into a public beta phase. Breaking tradition from-- Palm's other SDK -- the big news with Ares is that the dev environment is fully web-based with no additional tools needed for apps to get whipped into reality. Not only does that make getting started a breeze (theoretically, anyway), but Palm thinks that this is the way to bring mobile development to a whole new category of folks who may not come from traditional dev backgrounds -- they want to pull in web geeks who've got the ideas and design experience but not necessarily the hardcore coding background that you'd normally need to take the next Air Hockey to production. Grab that sucker now and let us know what you come up with, alright? We'll split the profits 60 / 40.

How WIND Mobile changed Canada in less than 24 hours

Posted: 2009-12-20 11:30:45 UTC-08:00

For our non-Canadian readers, it might be pretty hard to understand why there’s been so much hype about WIND Mobilefinally launching. It is just a cell phone carrier after all, right? Kind of. It is a business at the end of the day, and a business hopes to be profitable (they want to make as much money possible), but the reason WIND is so brilliant is because they’re capitalizing on years of pillaging by Canada’s big three mobile providers: Rogers, TELUS and Bell. We’re not going to get into why Canada’s cellular options are so bad and expensive — Canada is a huge country, 90% of the people live within a certain amount of miles to the U.S. border, people expect coverage everywhere, it’s expensive to maintain — because it doesn’t matter. What does matter is how revolutionary WIND is to the average Canadian cellular subscriber and how much money that person will save. Here’s an example of a standard Rogers phone bill for a BlackBerry:

• $45/month for 400 minutes, unlimited calling after 9PM, and a choice of either unlimited Rogers-to-Rogers calling, my5, unlimited SMS, or an extra $100 minutes. Let’s assume you chose unlimited Rogers-to-Rogers calling.
• $25/month for a 500MB data plan for your BlackBerry (BIS not BES)
• $20/mo for unlimited SMS, caller ID and voicemail for a smartphone
• Total with fees of around $93/month (excluding taxes).

Over the life of your cell phone contract of three years (yes, it’s three years in Canada), you’ll have paid approximately $3348 to Rogers, and you’d have a brand new BlackBerry 9700 for which you paid $249.99 for. All in all, $3597 before tax. Here’s a WIND plan:

• $45/month for unlimited minutes, unlimited SMS to U.S. and Canada, voicemail, caller ID, call waiting, call forwarding
• $35/month for unlimited BlackBerry data

We’re at $80/month with unlimited everything, no contract, and no fees to change plans or features

Sure, a difference of only plus or minus $13/month might not get everyone excited, but think of it this way… you don’t have to pay $500 to cancel your contract, you can elect to pre or post-pay, and never have to ever worry about overages unless you’ve got a lot of pals overseas. The option of unlimited anything is a downright comforting thought for consumers. As long as you can get over the $200 additional entry fee for an unsubsidized but very fairly-priced handset (note: Rogers charges $599.99 for a contract-free Bold 9700 as opposed to WIND’s $450), WIND looks incredibly attractive. Plus, you won’t get tied to the tree and spanked. Metaphorically, of course.
It isn’t all rainbows and ponies, however, as we have to take coverage (when you roam on Rogers, for instance, you’ll only get EDGE as WIND uses the same AWS 3G spectrum T-Mobile uses and is incompatible with Rogers, TELUS, and Bell), customer service, and profitability into consideration. The bet is that WIND makes so much that they can continue to save you money. Funny, isn’t it? Again, they’re a brand, brand new network, but with a boatload of cash behind them, some very smart and attractive pricing, plans, devices, and services, we think they have an amazing shot. They’ve also permanently disrupted the Canadian wireless landscape for the better, and within days or weeks, you’ll start to see better pricing from red, green, and blue. Thus giving our Canadian friends something they’ve long hoped for — competition.

Fourth generation iPhone and iPod touch getting double the memory capacity?

Posted: 2009-12-18 04:50:53 UTC-08:00

Ever since the iPhone and iPod touch were released, it seems like a trend that its memory capacity doubles every single year: 8GB, 16GB and 32GB for the iPhone and twice that for the iPod touch. Now that Toshiba can pack 64GB of NAND flash memory onto a single chip, it’s easy for us to imagine this technology finding its way into the next generation iPhone and iPod touch. If you’ve been one of those people holding off on buying an iPhone or iPod touch because of your massive iTunes library, your decision might get a little easier this coming summer.

iPhone tops Windows Mobile in U.S. marketshare for first time

Posted: 2009-12-18 04:48:49 UTC-08:00

According to network research company ComScore, the iPhone has overtaken Windows Mobile in U.S. market share for the first time in since its introduction three years ago. Now, we’re not sure whether this is a nod to the iPhone — overtaking a plethora of Windows Mobile handsets on almost every network — or a reminder of the current, and sad, state of Windows Mobile. We can also see, thanks to ComScore, that RIM is the king of the U.S. smartphone market followed by Apple, Palm, Symbian and Android. We’re sure Redmond isn’t all that happy about this; hopefully Microsoft steps on the accelerator and gets Windows Mobile 7 out the door.

T-Mobile offering BOGO on all smartphones until December 20

Posted: 2009-12-18 04:48:13 UTC-08:00

T-Mobile definitely has some tricks up its sleeve this holiday season as we just received word that retail stores are offering a buy-one-get-one free special for any smartphone. You heard us correctly: anysmartphone. All you have to do is activate two new lines to qualify for the promotion. This means you can pick up a BlackBerry 9700 and get a myTouch 3G for free, or buy a Touch Pro 2 and get a BlackBerry 8520. Or buy a Sidekick… just kidding. But you get the idea. Before you send us a flood of hate mail, this offer does vary region by region. For example, T-Mobile retail stores in NYC are definitely offering this promotion, but stores in L.A. are not. However, some retail stores said they’re always willing to price match competitors and other T-Mobile locations. All you need is proof that other retail stores are offering this promotion because some stores haven’t heard of this, and that shouldn’t be too difficult. Let us know how it goes for you!

N-Gage: A Eulogy

Posted: 2009-12-16 12:20:48 UTC-08:00

Pause for a moment and shed a tear for the Nokia N-Gage. This monumental device, which brought sidetalking to the world, as well as a portrait-oriented screen for gaming, evolved into the N-Gage platform (no, we didn’t quite get that, either) — and now it’sbeing taken behind the shed and put out of its misery. Or, as the N-Gage blog puts it, it’s being “evolved” into Nokia’s Ovi services.

In remembrance of so many good times, I may pull out my N-Gage QD from the Carlo Longino Haul of Mobile Handset History and use it today. Or not. But in either case, I’d like to pay tribute to N-Gage with a reading from the great Welsh poet Dylan Thomas’ “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night”:

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

So long, N-Gage, and thanks for all the laughs.

iPhone Lands on GTA TeleGuam December 11

Posted: 2009-12-11 04:06:32 UTC-08:00

Subscribers will be able to get the 8GB iPhone 3G for $99.95, the iPhone 3GS 16GB for $199.95, and the iPhone 3GS 32GB for $299.95. All three flavors of the iPhone will hit the carrier on December 11 with pre-orders starting today.

On December 12, the iPhone will be available in certain retail locations like the Andersen Air Force Base and others. Users will be required to get a new plan and contract to get the iPhone at the stated prices with the cheapest plan costing $69.90 per month for 500 minutes and unlimited data.

Apple scraps 1,000 iPhone apps

Posted: 2009-12-11 04:05:57 UTC-08:00

Apple has booted Molinker and its products from the AppStore, following complaints that the developer was posting fake reviews.

The Chinese company had more than 1,000 apps in the store, mainly cheap travel guides for the iPhone. The products actually represent about one percent of the apps available in the app store.

Molinker was caught out by the iPhoneography blog, which noticed that a good 90 percent of reviews on Molinker products came from the same 50 people - most of whom had pretty poor English too. Even more suspiciously, these users only seemed to use Molinker apps, as they never reviewed anything else.

The implication was that the reviews were being posted by staff at the company itself. The owners of the blog contacted Phil Schiller to draw Apple’s attention to the scam.

Nuance offers Dragon Dictation for iPhone at no charge

Posted: 2009-12-11 04:05:18 UTC-08:00

Nuance has announced a slick new app for the iPhone called Dragon Dictation that takes the speech recognition tech that works well on the PC and puts in on the iPhone. The result is an application that allows you to dictate your texts or emails rather than typing them out.

If the app works with Bluetooth devices or headphones with a mic this may well be the answer to the need for sending texts and emails on the road. It is sure to be faster than typing them out as well. If the iPhone app is anything like the PC software, it will stumble on technical terms and jargon, but should work well for the average user. The best news of all is that Nuance is offering the at no charge for a limited time. The NaturallySpeaking software can cost hundreds of dollars depending on the version so a free iPhone app is surprising.

China Unicom iPhone Sales Slowly Getting Better

Posted: 2009-12-11 04:04:02 UTC-08:00

While 100,000 iPhones have been sold since it’s launch back on October 30th.

If you stop and think about it, China Unicom has about 144 million customers so that 100,000 mark really does not seem like much. Again, we are blaming slow sales on the abundance of unlocked iPhones that actually have WiFi and can be used with Pre-Paid SIM cards.

Rumor has it that, since the local laws have changed, Apple will be making a WiFi iPhone for China, but will it be enough? Or is the Chinese market just too different and is Apple too slow to catch on to that fact?

Developer spots usage record for iPhone 3,1 in iBART app

Posted: 2009-12-04 11:32:45 UTC-08:00

Apple fans and developers keep their ear close to the ground to find the new tidbits on coming Apple products from all sorts of sources. Often those sources include usage logs and deeply buried profiles in updates and software from Apple. Developer Pandav has discovered a usage record for an iPhone model that has not been announced.

Apple Says: This Year, Give iPhone

Posted: 2009-12-04 11:29:59 UTC-08:00

Apple is sending out an iPhone related marketing email, encouraging people to give the gift that keeps on… making Cupertino millions?

Thousands of Gifts. One Box.

With tens of thousands of apps on the App Store and more added every day, iPhone is much more than just a phone — it’s a gift that can give just about anything.

They pimp the Apple Store iPhone Gift Card, some choice accessories, and Apple services.

So, anyone giving an iPhone this year? Anyone have it on their want list?

Apple Being Sued for iPhone Infringing Four Digital Camera Patents

Posted: 2009-12-04 11:27:26 UTC-08:00

Apple is no stranger to , and today is no exception as St. Clair Intellectual Property Consultants have slapped them with a lawsuit that claims the iPhone infringes upon four digital camera patents that the company holds. The four include the ‘459, ‘219, ‘010 and ‘899 patents.

• 459: Take image contained within lens and store in some type of memory.
• 219: Display the picture that will be taken in some type of display window.
• 010: Push button in order to capture image.
• 899: Make images contained within some type of memory and make them viewable in some sort of digital camera roll.

St. Clair is a veteran of suing over patent infringements as they successfully squeezed 25 million out of Sony back in 2001 and in 2003 they sued Canon and were awarded $34 million in damages. They also have gone after companies such as Fuji, Kyocera, Minolta, Nikon, Olympus, Casio, Samsung, Panasonic, Nokia, HP, Kodak, LG, Motorola, RIM, Palm, and various others.

Scott's iPhone gift guide

Posted: 2009-12-04 11:25:59 UTC-08:00

This is from a holiday gift guide centerpiece that printed the other day in RedEye about -- what else -- iPhones.

What's better than an iPhone as a holiday gift? All the shiny things that go with it. Make someone's holiday dreams come true with one of these suggestions.

MoGo Talk Bluetooth headset

$129.95 at mogotalk.com

The problem with Bluetooth headsets is that they're either too big or sound terrible. Not MoGo Talk--it's the world's first integrated wireless headset for the iPhone 3GS or iPhone 3G. The headset folds flat and snaps in and out of its protective case which fits seamlessly on the back of an iPhone. An Apple Store exclusive, it's available both online and at retail locations