3G BlackBerry Tour Goes on Sale July 12 at Verizon Wireless

The 3G BlackBerry Tour from Research In Motion (RIM) will hit Verizon Wireless Communications Stores on July 12. Verizon Wireless announced today that customers can pre-order the BlackBerry Tour for $199.99 after a $70 mail-in rebate with a new two-year customer agreement online at www.verizonwireless.com/tour.The BlackBerry Tour joins the BlackBerry Storm, BlackBerry Curve 8330 (available in

Sprint Announces Availability of the Motorola Clutch i465

Sprint today announced Motorola Clutch i465 will be available this summer, in all Sprint sales channels, including Sprint stores, www.sprint.com/nexteldirectconnect and 1-800-Nextel-9 for $39.99 with a new two-year service agreement, $20 instant rebate and $50 mail-in rebate (excluding taxes). Customers can register for more information about availability for Motorola Clutch i465 at

Review: Griffin Navigate FM iPod Controller

I recently got a hold of a new product by Griffin Technology designed to fulfill a vertical niche in the iPod/iPhone user market. If you are an iPod or iPhone user looking to find a solution for:

1). FM capabilities
2). In-line Remote Function w/ Display
3). Adding some wire extension to your headphones while keeping your device tucked away out of harms way

Then the Griffin Navigate (MSRP $59, Amazon $39 Shipped) might be designed for you. As for me, I can see the appeal of having this inline remote clipped to my messenger back as I trek my way into the Big Apple for work every morning or keep my iPhone tucked away safely in my car's armrest utilizing the inline remote to navigate, however, I am not sure if I feel the same way after testing the device; simply put, it adds a bit more of chaos in exchange for small enhancement in features, I'll go over my thoughts feature by feature.

Griffin Navigate is an elegant piece of hardware that is light weight, compact and good looking. With a matching polished rim around its fascia, it matches up to an iPhone quite nicely. However, I find the build quality a little lacking. For instance, the little lock switch on top of the remote doesn't feel like it has a solid mechanism; the buttons on the remote can feel a bit flimsy and can they aren't level to one another (some feels recessed compared to others).

FM Capabilities: This function worked as promised which is an added bonus, however, because it draws its power from your iPod's battery, you'd be draining your device while using it, it would be nice to have a dedicated battery on device which can power itself or serve as a power reserve for the iPhone.

Inline Remote w/ Display: I must say, the OLED display on this remote is crystal clear, very cool! The remote itself does the function of selecting between FM->iPod->Playlist->Artist->EQ and more... The problem I have with the display is that it doesn't display the artist or song title while playing songs which renders the display kind of useless. This is not helpful if I have my iPhone or iPod tucked away in my bag or elsewhere. The back of the remote has a handy clip which can be useful to wear.

I would say that if your environment requires you to keep your iPod or iPhone out of sight and you want more control with some level of display info on an inline remote, this gadget is definitely for you. For the average Joes, this one might not be all that necessary.

How to unlock your iPhone 3G (3.0 Firmware)

Disclaimer: 1). I haven't tried this myself, 2). This guide is application for original iPhone, iPhone 3G running on firmware 3.0.

Unlocking and jailbreaking an iPhone can be intimedating and scary at times. While the iPhone Dev Team kicks ass in writing hacking software, they aren't always the best in documenting the process to free your iPhone or iPhone 3G. Gizmodo published a handy step-by-step guide to show you how it can be done. Personally, I found the two step (redsn0w via app + ultrasn0w via browser) combination a bit unique. Essentially, for this round, instead of jailbreaking AND unlocking your device at once, they break it up into two separate steps.

As always, there is no garantee it will work so take your time and good luck!

Greg's Weekly Mobile Articles Roundup

Starting this week, I will begin sharing on a weekly basis, the most interesting mobile related articles from marketing to technology breakthrough as well as some mobile market figures and trends.

*Microsoft expects 5-10% increase on mobile advertising within five years
*Big mpact for YouTube, thanks to iPhone 3GS video upload feature
*Will Nokia use Maemo (Linux) instead of Symbian?
*RIM figures..
*Many French iPhone 3G buyers used to own a BlackBerry (12%)

*Best article of the week: Tips on how to take your eBiz to Mobile Commerce

Amazon Casio Pathfinder PAW-1300Y-1VCR Back in Stock

I've gotten a few emails asking me about the limited/exclusive black Casio Pathfinder PAW1300Y and how I was able to get it for my review. Apparently, Amazon has been out of stock for some times. I just noticed it being back in stock! Not sure how long it will last this round but if you are interested, better get them here.

Mobile Experience and the Sport of Golf

Lately, I've been bitten by the Golf bug again. I was really into this sport years back when I lived in the Golden State. This time around, I am surprised to find how this sport has advanced with technology, especially with the gadget market. The biggest gadget for this market must be the GPS-based rangefinders. Lots of hardware makers offer a dedicated GPS units with preloaded course maps to help you determine the distance between your ball and the flag. Big GPS players such as Garmin even has a serious go at this market as well.

I was more interested in the mobile applications for Golf enthuaists since most new smartphones now come with GPS already. So I took a look around the Apple App store and was able to quickly find a handful of Golf Range applications. The price range went from FREE to $34.99. Most of them will offer some form of course map (using Google Maps or else) and provide your distance to the flag. This is very cool for two reasons: 1). You can't beat the price, even for the most expensive application, its still a fraction of what you'd pay for a dedicated device and 2). You'd already have your iPhone 3G with you and you can avoid having to carry another dedicated GPS device.

For those interested, log on to the App store and search for "Golf GPS" and start to enjoy your game.

RealPlayer Plus SP available for Blackberry

The Blackberry is one of the most popular smartphones to ever hit the market. The line is big with enterprise users and with consumers as well and just about every mobile carrier on the planet offers a Blackberry device.Blackberry fans are now able to take web video with them on their Bold, Curve, 8800, and Storm phone thanks to RealPlayer Plus SP. The software is able to convert video and

Sony Ericsson Announces the Ultra Compact Slider T715

Sony Ericsson today announced the ultra compact slider mobile phone T715. The T715 still offers a large keypad and font size allowing you to get the most out of your SMS, MMS or email management.Keep yourself organised in an intuitive way with the T715’s smart desktop feature, direct reminders of appointments, notes and special animation to remind you of birthdays and global events. Messaging is

Verizon Wireless Introduces the HTC Ozone Smartphone

Verizon Wireless and HTC today introduce the Verizon Wireless HTC Ozone. This easy-to-use smartphone combines a simple design with a host of connectivity options that include the nation’s largest wireless 3G network, global roaming and Wi-Fi, making it a smart option and, at $49.99, a great value for first-time smartphone users or savvy business professionals. The Ozone is only available in

HTC Hero 1st Android Phone to Ship with Adobe Flash

Adobe Systems Incorporated and HTC today announced that the new HTC Hero is the first Android phone to ship with support for Adobe Flash Platform technology. The new phone delivers a more complete Web browsing experience and provides access to a broad variety of Flash technology based content available on the Web today.The new HTC Hero is a key element of the HTC experience and a new generation

HTC Introduces the Hero Powered by Android with HTC Sense

HTC Corporation today debuted HTC Sense, an intuitive and seamless experience that will be introduced across a portfolio of phones beginning with the new HTC Hero. With its distinct design and powerful capabilities fully integrated with HTC Sense, Hero introduces a unique blend of form and function that takes Android to new heights.HTC Sense is focused on putting people at the center by making

Review: SPRACHT Blu Note A2DP Bluetooth Speaker

I have got to be honest here, before I tested out the SPRACHT AURA BLU NOTE A2DP Stereo Speaker system, I didn't give much thoughts on the whole bluetooth wireless music transfer idea. Today however, I hooked up the system, it really changed my mind.

Why?
Maybe because SPRACHT did an excellent job with this speaker's design and usability or maybe because streaming your iPhone music wirelessly is totally convenient. Whatever it is, I am loving it. Incase you didn't know, SPRACHT makes some of the best bluetooth speakers (high quality business applications).

Connection
The SPRACHT AURA BLU NOTE speaker system is very easy to operate. You hold on to the power button to turn it on or off. When you are ready to pair, simply hold down the "PTT" button to turn it into discovery mode. Once paired, it will easily sync in future operations. Between opening the box until I finished pairing my iPhone, it took all but 5 minutes.

Build
The BLU NOTE is a well-built little speaker system. The silver finish w/ polished buttons look elegant and promotes a modern minimalist design. Just like my review of the SPRACHT AURA Bluetooth Conference Speaker, this product is built sturdy and well worth the asking price of $129 (Amazon $92). It can be powered by an AC adaptor or 4 AA batteries (both included). If you have another audio source, there is also a 3.5mm aux input on the back side along with a short 3.5mm cable included in the package.

Sound Quality
The sound quality is not bad; about as good as any portable stereo system. There are two buttons to adjust sound output (Stereo Widening or BASS Boost). When I crank up the volume, strong BASS frequencies can make the tiny speakers to distort, no surprise there. When you place a call, the Blu Note works as a great portable wireless conference speaker system.

User Feedback
I was surprisingly pleased with this speaker system. It was such a cool novelty to bring my iPhone 15 feet away from the speaker and control my playlist "remotely". No more getting up from the bar stool and change the songs from my old iPod speaker w/ dock design. Don't get me wrong, this portable speaker is a great travel companion but I wish SPRACHT would also offer a larger unit aiming for premium sound quality. One other thing less than desired is the lack of volume control from (atleast) my iPhone; as soon as you pair the iPhone, the volume bar sets to the middle and you have to adjust audio volume from the speaker itself.

If you've been looking for a portable bluetooth A2DP stereo speaker system that is reliable and good looking, look no further, SPRACHT AURA BLU NOTE is a solid contender.

Introducing Android 1.5 NDK, Release 1

Many of you have been asking for the ability to call into native code from your Android applications. I'm glad to announce that developers can now download the Android Native Development Kit from the Android developer site.

As you know, Android applications run in the Dalvik virtual machine. The NDK allows developers to implement parts of these applications using native-code languages such as C and C++. This can provide benefits to certain kinds of applications.

The NDK provides:

• a set of tools and build files used to generate native code libraries from C and C++ sources
• a way to embed the corresponding native libraries into application packages files (.apks) that can be deployed on Android devices
• a set of native system headers and libraries that will be supported in all future releases of the Android platform, starting from Android 1.5 documentation, samples and tutorials

This release of the NDK supports the ARMv5TE machine instruction set and provides stable headers for:

• libc, the standard C library
• libm, the standard math library
• the JNI interface
• libz, the common ZLib compression library
• liblog, used to send logcat messages to the kernel

Keep in mind that using the NDK will not be relevant for all Android applications. As a developer, you will need to balance its benefits against its drawbacks, which are numerous! Your application will be more complicated, have reduced compatibility, have no access to framework APIs, and be harder to debug. That said, some applications that have self-contained, CPU-intensive operations that don't allocate much memory may still benefit from increased performance and the ability to reuse existing code. Some examples are signal processing, intensive physics simulations, and some kinds of data processing.

For any questions on the NDK, please join the Android NDK forum.

Have fun.

HTC Hero Revealed, Only Looks Thin from this Image

When I first saw this image, I was kind of excited about this new phone from HTC. Maybe its the rounded corners and iPhone-like icons or perhaps the 'preceived' thinness from this shot or the black border around the LCD which resembles the new aluminum MacBook design. Whatever it is, I was kind of disappointed after I clicked-thru Engadget's gallery.

The phone is a bit thick and still has the annoying looking chin. The good news is that it has a 3.5mm headphone jack, runs on Android (Not the total Google Experience, no logos or over the air OS update feature) but has the latest "SENSE UI" by HTC (much like the TouchFlo), more spec info here.

Overall, this phone is pretty capable of running side by side with the best of them out there. If only they got rid of that little chin...

Two videos for mobile app developers

Just a quick note to let you know about a couple of informational resources for mobile developers.

--Motorola is starting the online publicity for its upcoming Android-based smartphones. They did a brief interview with me, asking how mobile app developers can distribute their software (link).

--Elia Freedman of Infinity Softworks did a great presentation on his experiences selling through the iPhone App Store, and the lessons he has learned. It’s well worth watching the video here.

It's best to watch both of these, and think about them, before you develop your mobile app.

Samsung Innovation Quest 2009 debuts, asks you to develop widgets for the Omnia HD

Samsung has recently announced the details for its Innovation Quest (IQ) 2009 competition, which will end on August 14.By that date, participants must create a Samsung Mobile Widget for the Omnia HD i8910 smartphone (pictured below), which runs on Symbian S60 5th Edition and at the same time uses the Samsung TouchWiz UI.Samsung and Symbian are offering quite tempting prizes for the competition’s

Vodafone’s Samsung Blade is an S5600 remake

Known under various names across Europe (Samsung Preston, Samsung Halley or Samsung Player), the S5600 is offered by Vodafone in a slightly different version and, obviously, with a new name: Samsung Blade.The Blade appears on Vodafone Spain’s official website, and it seems that it’s already available for purchase – free on select plans.Samsung Blade has specs similar to the ones of the S5600 (

Samsung Pixon 12’s price in Spain: €639, unlocked

A few weeks ago, when Samsung unveiled the new Pixon12 M8910 camera phone, it didn’t announce the handset’s price.Now we’re hearing that, in Spain, the Samsung Pixon 12 will retail for €639 ($897) – probably slightly more than you’d want to pay for an unlocked phone, even if it’s the first in the world to have a 12MP camera.Most probably, the price of the unlocked Pixon 12 will be similar in

LG KT878 and KV920 announced for China

LG will enter the Chinese 3G market with two phones destined for China Mobile and China Telecom: LG KT878 and LG KV920.China Mobile’s KT878 is a TD-SCDMA smartphone that runs on Windows Mobile 6.1 and features stuff like a 3 inch WVGA touchscreen display, a 5MP camera, Bluetooth, music player, FM radio and microSD card support.The second phone, LG KV920, is a CDMA2000 one and it will be available

Bharti Airtel launches the HTC Magic – India’s first Android phone

HTC Magic has become India’s first Android phone, as HTC and Bharti Airtel announced its upcoming availability in the world’s second largest mobile market.The Indian Magic comes in an interesting red/black color version.Other than that, its features are similar to the ones of the original Magic, including: Android 1.5 OS, 3.2 inch HVGA touchscreen display, G-sensor, 3G, Wi-Fi, GPS, web browser,

Motorola Karma QA1 for AT&T now official

Motorola and AT&T have just announced a new quick messaging phone, the Karma QA1 – which is actually not that new, since we first saw it back in February.Targeted at teenagers and young adults, Motorola Karma is an oval-shaped phone that features a sliding QWERTY keyboard, 3G (dual-band, 850/1900 MHz), threaded messaging, and a homescreen with one-click-access icons for Facebook and MySpace.The

WM 6.5 HTC Firestone shows up again

Remember the HTC Firestone? Several months ago, the smartphone appeared alongside Whitestone, Thoth and other unannounced HTC handsets.Well, today we have what seems to be the first clear render of the Firestone.The smartphone should come as the successor of HTC Touch HD, so it has a similar design. It will run on Windows Mobile 6.5, featuring a large 3.6 inch WQVGA display, a 600Mhz processor,

Nokia Ovi Suite 2.0 Beta announced, available for download

Today, Nokia announced that Nokia Ovi Suite has reached version 2.0 Beta, bringing together “only the essential features from Nokia’s past and present desktop applications.”Compatible with more than 100 Nokia S60 and S40 handset, Ovi Suite 2.0 Beta lets you do the following: transfer various content between your phone and PC; register to Ovi and upload/share photos and videos or download maps;

Samsung S8000 Jet, a samsung mobile phone with jet speed

as it's name Samsung S8000 is a very speed phone. it has a very powerful 800Mhz processor and 256Mb RAM. actually this phone has all features you need. the display is 3.1 inch AMOLED resistive touchscreen and the resolution is 480X800 pixels.
this phone runs with Samsung OS. there are many specifications in this OS. like in HTC phones this has a TouchWiz v2.0 UI technology interface. Samsung S8000 has an Accelerometer sensor and the user interface is motion sensitive.
Samsung S8000 has very high quality sound. it has a sound technology named Digital Natural Sound Engine. also it has a 3.5mm audio jack. S8000 available with 2GB and 8GB internal memory versions. it allows up to 16GB memory cards. S8000 supports 3.6Mbps HSDPA connectivity. also it has Wi-Fi and bluetooth.
Like many previous Samsung phones, S8000 also has a high quality 5Mp camera. the maximum picture resolution is 2592 x 1944 pixels and the camera comes with a LED flash. it support 30fps video recording with 720x480 maximum resolution.

other features
- Digital compass
- Media Gate 3D
- Smart unlock
- MP3/WMA/AAC/WAV player
- DivX/XviD/H.263/H.264/MPEG4/WMV player

Nokia N96

PS3 Call of Duty 4 - $28 Shipped @ Amazon

Deal of the Day, won't last. Call of Duty 4, one of the best game in its franchise is finally dropping its price down to $28.98 as part of today's Deal of the Day. I missed this deal back in Thanksgiving Black Friday sale. Don't miss out your opportunity this time.

Quick Gripe About iPhone 3.0

Battery life seems shorter...
Phone reacts slower and sluggish...
* Select an input form field can take a long time before phone reacts
* The phone/dialer screen freezes on me after a miss call or end call
It crashed on me a couple of times as well...

Ringtone Laugh Factory iPhone App

Ringtone Laugh Factory includes the funniest collection of ringtones that will make YOU and YOUR FRIENDS laugh every time your phone rings.Funny chipmunks, cute or sexy princesses, video game legends, evil characters and much more.EXCLUSIVELY FOR iPHONEProduced exclusively for the iPhone, this premium collection is not available anywhere else.NOT SOUND CLIPSAccept no imitations - these are NOT 2

RIM still a contender to Apple as it ships 7.8M Blackberries this quarter

Research in Motion put pressure on Apple Thursday with word that about 7.8 million BlackBerries had shipped during its latest fiscal quarter, again setting a new record — and dismissing the likelihood of new and cheaper iPhones as immediate threats. We’ll see if that remains their position, as the iPhone 3GS is very likely to set new sales records as well.The tally for its first quarter of fiscal

T-Mobile to Start Selling the 3G Enable HTC Dash

T-Mobile USA, Inc. today announced the upcoming availability of its newest 3G-enabled smartphone, the T-Mobile Dash 3G, offering a balance of personal and professional connections in a sleek design with faster data delivery and Web browsing via T-Mobile’s high-speed 3G network and Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g).The T-Mobile Dash 3G, designed by HTC and powered by Microsoft’s Windows Mobile 6.1, is available

LG Electronics Announces the LG-GM730 Smartphone

LG Electronics today announced the launch of the LG-GM730, its newest handset in LG’s smartphone line with advanced features that are also easy to use. This is the first smartphone to offer the new version of Windows Mobile 6.1, integrated with LG’s advanced 3D S-Class User Interface. The LG-GM730 will be on display at CommunicAsia 2009 in Singapore from June 16-19.The LG-GM730 was designed for

RIM and Sprint Announce the BlackBerry Tour Smartphone

Research In Motion and Sprint today introduced the BlackBerry Tour; a powerful new 3G BlackBerry smartphone for CDMA customers in North America. The new BlackBerry Tour smartphone offers state-of-the-art communications and multimedia capabilities with outstanding mobile performance and consummate styling. It is a feature-packed and highly refined world phone that keeps you connected and lets you

Ringtones Location

There are 2 locations from which G1 can pick ringtones.

1. On SDCard. /sdcard/Music/ringtones
2. On filesystem. /system/media/audio/ringtones
  (You need to mount /system read-write)

iPhone 3G[S] Not all that Speedy!

Source: Engadget

Apparently, the 7.2Mbps hardware spec bump in the new iPhone 3G[S] is pretty much worthless for the time being since it requires AT&T to raise the bar to utilize the 7.2Mbps download speed. Currently, only the Windy City has a test rollout utilizing claimed speed but real world test shows otherwise. For those iPhone 3G owners wanting more speed, you should wait a bit (perhaps until your upgrade pricing is better) then make the switch (and hope by then real 7.2Mbps download is readily available throughout the country.

Get your Palm Pre Default Ringtone Here!

Actually not here, but the folks at Palm Pre Blog has the location for you to download the default ringtone for the popular new Palm Pre. The file is 1.2MB in size and comes in the form of MP3. It'd be funny to use this ringtone on your G1 or iPhone... Palm fanboys may be ticked off... :)

Original Post by Palm Pre Blog

Info on iPhone 3.0 Unlock from Dev Team

Here is the 411 on iPhone firmware 3.0 unlock. Apparently, the Dev Team is on the verge of release a torrent for their latest breakthru code name: UltraSn0w. The crazy thing here is that they may be able to unlock not just the good ole' iPhone 3G but the new 3G[S] as well. It appears that they've been able to hacktivate the baseband (04.26.08) from the new firmware 3.0 which is applicable to both 3G and 3G[S].

So folks, keep your F5 button free and clear of obstruction starting tonight and watch closely as the iPhone Dev Team is about to make more history again.

Demo of iPhone 3.0 pwn'd:

iPhone 3G[S], to Upgrade or Not Upgrade

There is no escape, if you live and breath in America, the iPhone 3GS buzz is definitely in the air. While some loved it and others found this update meager, most people are left wondering if its a worthy upgrade. Now that AT&T has soften its position for early iPhone 3G adapters, it makes the decision making process even worse. I will attempt to jot down my logic and help you make a choice.

Please find the three type of scenarios below and refer to them based on your situation:

1. Non-AT&T Customers: You have it easy since all of your options are fully subsidized and affordable. Your pricing options are: $99(older iPhone 3G), $199(16GB new 3GS) and $299 (32GB new 3GS) with a new 2-year contract. Unless money is tight, I would go for the 32GB iPhone 3GS. The sheer volume of internal memory plus the new iPhone features makes it a no brainer. iPhone 3GS is basically a computer in your pocket and going with the model with the highest storage capcity has never been a wrong move for me. 32GB is amazing!

2. Existing AT&T iPhone 3G customers since July to Sept of 2008 should receive the same pricing treatment like new customers with the recent change in upgrade pricing by AT&T. If you are reading this article, you must have been thinking about an upgrade. Think no further, if you are eligible, just do it! Why am I so convinced? Because the sooner you upgrade, the sooner you are off the hook with your existing iPhone 3G and contract since you'll be starting a new contract. With any luck, you might be able to unlock that old iPhone 3G and sell it to friends or on eBay and fund the new iPhone 3GS; TUAW has a great entry on Nextworth, a site that pays you for your iPhone. In any case, if you thought about upgrading, stop torturing yourself and get it over with, the idea is to upgrade as early into your 2 year contract as possible to save money from having to pay off your entire commitment. David Pogue wrote a great piece on iPhone pricing and how the subsidy works. Read it and you'll understand why I ask you to trade in ASAP.

3. Existing AT&T Customers w/ iPhone 3G who signed up in the past 6 months, you are in a bit of a bind. AT&T will charge you $399 for the 16GB GS and $499 for the 32GB GS based on the so called "early upgrade discount" with a 2-year contract renewal. You can otherwise buy the iPhone 3GS outright (locked) for $599/$699 respectively w/o the 2-year contract extension. My recommendation for you is to hold off from upgrading until your eliglibility changes to the status of group 2 above. The extra price you have to pay for such upgrade is not justified by this half-assed hardware upgrade. The only scenario I can think of that justifies the "early upgrade discount price" is if you have just purchased an iPhone 3G within the last 60 days. In this case, while you shelled out an extra $200 for the new GS, you've essentially paid off your 2 months new iPhone 3G outright at your disposal. Again, David Pogue's article on subsidized phone will help explain my logic on why you'd want to do this early into your existing contract.

Bottom line is this: if you have a plan to make an upgrade, do it quickly. It will end your current contract by extending it to a fresh two-year renewal; this is better than for you to wait until you are closer to the end of a 2-year contract then make the upgrade and two more years of renewal.

iPhone OS 3.0 Updated!

Just wanted to share a brief update on the iPhone 3.0 saga; I was able to successfully update my firmware tonight. Download of the 230.1MB file took about 10 minutes and the install was another 5. Copy and paste works great! :)

Documents To Go for iPhone Is Out & Initial Price Is Good

Documents To Go for the iPhone is in the App Store now, and priced very nicely during a ‘Grand Opening Special’ that should attract a lot of eyes to the product.For 2 weeks only, you can get it for just $4.99. That’s a lot lower than I, and probably many others, expected out of the gate.Documents To Go – also known as DocsToGo or DTG – has been a leading app for working with Microsoft Office

Tap Tap Revenge iPhone application

Tapulous has issued an update to their Tap Tap Revenge rhythm game which includes working push notifications, despite the fact that iPhone OS 3.0 isn’t officially available for two more days.It certainly isn’t the most creative use of background notifications (the messages only pop up when you’re challenged by another player), and we’re already wondering how, when all kinds of apps have this

Telegraph F1 App for the iPhone

The ultimate Formula 1 App, from the UK’s leading quality newspaper website, Telegraph.co.uk.Stay up-to-date with the latest F1 news, race weekend build-up, real-time qualifying and race stats and results, live in-race telemetry data, plus track guides, driver profiles, championship standings and more.Whether you’re at the Grand Prix, watching from home or online, or out and about (being dragged

AT&T Now Selling the 3G Powered LG Xenon

AT&T has started selling the 3G Powered LG Xenon (originally announced last March). The LG Xenon features: * A quick messaging phone with a full keypad * Large touch screen display with customizable and intuitive user interface * 2.0 megapixel camera * AT&T Navigator, Napster Mobile, eMusic Mobile, and more. * Mobile Email wit access to AOL, Yahoo!, Windows Live * Music player

Samsung Unveils New Smartphones: Omnia II, OmniaPRO B7610 and B7320, OmniaLITE

Samsung today unveiled four new smartphones; the Omnia II (I8000), OmniaPRO series (OmniaPRO B7610, OmniaPRO B7320) as well as the OmniaLITE (B7300) feature cutting-edge technology. The new Omnia smartphone line-up follows the success of the very first flagship Omnia phone, Samsung’s milestone Open OS model which was launched at CommunicAsia last year. Check out the specs below for more

Samsung Unveils the Samsung Jet Smartphone

Samsung today unveiled the Samsung Jet smartphone which features multi-task manager and Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, with a user-friendly menu navigations in a sleek and compact design.The Jet’s 16M WVGA AMOLED display (3.1”) offers vivid and colorful full touch mobile experience available; the WVGA AMOLED screen provides a resolution that is four times higher than a WQVGA screen. The 800MHz

Google Maps for Android Upgraded with Search by voice and Transit Directions

Google today released an upgrade to Google Maps for Android-powered phones. The upgrade includes new features and fixing a few issues with Google Latitude.Users can now search Google Maps for Android by using their voice, making it easier to look up places while on the go. Just speak your query and Google Maps will find it. Google's voice recognition engine currently understands English in

Nokia Unveils the Compact Nokia 3710 Fold

Nokia today unveiled the compact Nokia 3710 fold adds a personal touch with an artistic pattern on the cover. Its diverse features are effortless to find and use. The Nokia 3710 fold smoothly opens to reveal the bright screen, ideal for displaying the pictures and videos taken with the 3.2 megapixel camera. The memorable moments can be shared online or stored on an optional micro SD card. With

Nokia Introduces the Nokia 5530 XpressMusic

Nokia today introduced the Nokia 5530 XpressMusic, a compact XpressMusic device that uses a touch interface for accessing people and content on the brilliantly clear homescreen. The 'scrolling' Contacts Bar provides direct access to 20 people and their latest conversations and media updates. The homescreen also features one touch shortcuts to content and popular social networks, like Facebook

Nokia Unveils the Nokia E72 QWERTY Smartphone

Nokia unveiled the Nokia E72 at the Nokia Connection event in Singapore today. Nokia's latest full QWERTY smartphone brings a rich mobile email and instant messaging experience right out of the box, making it the ideal device for people that want to be productive in both their personal and professional lives.On top of these developments, for the first time, owners will be able to set up instant

Nokia E72 is Hardcore while the 5530 XpressMusic Looks Good

Nokia has had a busy day, announcing two big hits to the world. The new E72 and the XpressMusic 5530 have been officially introduced for release in Q3, 2009.

The XpressMusic 5530 phone is looking pretty sweet; I like the minimalist touchscreen design with a hint of industrial ruggedness. Too bad it doesn't have 3G support (only EDGE and WiFi). Despite the lack of internal storage and basic level of features; I always have a soft spot for the touchscreen XpressMusic series as it is Nokia's attempt to cater towards the entry-level smartphone market. This phone is priced around $250 standalone w/o a contract making it a very good phone for the market place. Love the design!

The E72 is all the rage. Featuring a staggering fast 10.2Mbps HSDPA support topped off with a 5+ Megapixel camera w/ Xenon Flash, this device is going to work hard and play hard at the same time. The biggest improvement is the much needed 3.5mm jack missing from its predecessor (E71) and an optical mouse to improve onscreen navigation. The goodies are all there: GPS, WiFi and integrated compass! Of course, this phone in its delicious ultra-thin case with full QWERTY keyboard. For the moment, I find this phone the most sexy and appealing in the entire Nokia line (even beating out the N97). This phone will be sold for around $480 unlcoked.

I'll have to stop by the NYC flagship store to checkout both phones shortly.

Samsung MyShot II from Cricket

Cricket has recently released the new Samsung r460 MyShot II. It is a low-end clamshell with a 1.3Mpix camera, Bluetooth, messaging, web and music player, and microSD slot (up to 8GB). It supports tri-band CMDA radios, including Cricket's AWS 1700MHz band, but the data speeds are limited to 1x.The price is $140.

Samsung Ultra S in Pink

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HTC Snap available for Sprint users

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Review: Griffin PowerDuo Reserve

Lets say you are in the market for an iPhone or iPod battery backup solution incase you run out of juice in midst of a flight or commute. What if the solution provider also tosses in an auto charger as well as a home charger for the backup battery as well as charging your iPod or iPhone simultaneously? That is exactly what you get when you buy the Griffin PowerDuo Reserve.

The following is what comes with PowerDuo Reserve (MSRP $59): (Amazon sells a non-auto solution for $39)
1. Reserve Battery for your iPod/iPhone which can extend playback of MP3 and Videos for hours
2. Home AC Charger (which can recharge the reserve battery and charge iPhone & iPods via USB)
3. Auto AC Charger (which can recharge the reserve battery and charge iPhone & iPods via USB)

Keep in mind that these AC chargers are outputing DC5V at 1AMP; which means it can practically be used to charger other devices over USB (ie. BlackBerry, headsets, etc...).

Overall, I am quite pleased with this solution. The reserve battery is portable and can fit into pockets of your jeans or backpack with minimal effort. It takes about 3 hours to charge the reserve battery. When fully charged, depending on your device model and settings, you may get up to additional:
* 24 hours of music playing time
* 6 hours of video playback
* 1.5 hours of internet surfing
* 2 hours of talk time

The package is very thoughtful as it offers reserve battery charging solution IN ADDITION to capabilities in charging an iPod or iPhone at the same time. The glossy black finish offers a hint of luxury and matches up quite nicely with my favorite iPhone 3G case, the Clarifi. Griffin's instruction suggests that I keep the battery stowed away in one of the two charger base when not in use; the device is smart enough to not over charge the battery while lefted in the charging base. The reserve battery is attached to the charging base via a magnetic connection which is very slick. If there is a couple of feedback, I'd hope for two things: 1). It would have been nice if Griffin could toss in a black USB data cable and 2). a small plastic cover for the reserve battery connector would be a nice addition to keep the connector protected.

Review: Casio Pathfinder PAW1300Y Amazon Exclusive

[Update: I noticed this item sold out from Amazon. Now I am more glad I decided to get this limited/exclusive edition from them. Those interested in this watch can still pick up a European edition PWR-1300Y from here)
[Update 6/28/09: uploaded more pictures at Flickr]
[Update 6/29/09: Item back in stock at Amazon, hurry!]
[Update8/8/10: I received a comment asking me where the watch was made, I confirmed it was Made in Japan, attaching a picture below]

There is something to be said about a Gadget that is truly independent from having to be tied down to a subscription charge. For instance, stand alone GPS devices by Garmin or TomTom which works right out of a box, no subscription necessary. Another example is the Nokia N95 which offers GPS plus FREE world map to download to device w/o the reliance of a data package. These gadgets offer an independent spirit which liberates its owners from having to pay for subscription services which is a trend that I'm seeing across the electronics industry (ie. mobile data package, mobile GPS package, laptop data card, ...)

The Casio Pathfinder series watches are extraordinary because of its ability to be self sustaining. For the most part, it can recharge itself via solar power and keep accurate time over a five-band Atomic Radio across the world. I was drawn to the Amazon exclusive Pathfinder PAW-1300Y recently because of its unique reverse (white on black) LCD; $250 later, I got the watch and have been spending some time with it.

Note that I have a couple of swiss automatic movement dress watches which I still admire for its ancient but reliable technology; but in terms of gadetry, Casio digital watches reigns supreme. The special edition PAW1300-Y a jam packed with features in addition to solar+atomic radio: temperature/barometric, compass, altitude readings plus five daily alarms, stop watch, countdown clock and of course, the backlight. The watch comes with a thick manual and is highly customizable. It is intended to be a great compliment to any outdoor enthusiasts (note: you should rely solely on this watch as your primary tool of navigation!).

This watch looks very slick being all black with a black LCD face; the buttons are large for easy access when wearing gloves outdoors. This watch has a big face with a face diameter almost 48mm; the thickness, however is not so bad; very thin in proportion to its width. As mentioned in a prior posting, this is probably a great watch for Bruce Wayne as the design is just stealth and means business. There are plenty of excellent alternatives which also offer solar charge and atomic radio but this one takes the cake in design and functionality. I am very happy with this purchase and this watch is going to make a good tool in my collection of gadgetry.

Notes:
* I can't seem to get a good atomic radio wave signal out here, too many high rises, will try next time I am at a beach

Review: Equilibrio App For iPhone

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Review: Beat Rider App For iPhone

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Review : Xtreme Quad Racing App For iPhone

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Make your own iPhone ringtones with TonePad Pro

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Notetaking moves to the clouds with the iPhone version of 3Banana

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The New iphone 3G S | two times faster than iphone 3G

in 2009 January appele announced it's newest iphone version, iphone 3G s. according to their website iphone 3GS is 2 times faster than iphone 3G. this phone comes with newest 3.0 version OS. they have done many improvements to increase the performance. the processor is powerful than previous phone, it's a ARM 600MHz processor. the RAM is 256Mb. also they have improved graphics quality. the new iphone 3G s comes with a PowerVR SGX graphics chipset.
also there are two major differences in this phone. one is the 3.15Mp camera. previous iphone had a 2.0Mp camera and this also allows 30fps video recording. next one is iphone 3G s has a TV out. the GPS navigator is also similar to the previous phone but iphone 3G S has a digital compass.

specifications

- Multi-touch input method
- Accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate
- Proximity sensor for auto turn-off
- Scratch-resistant surface
- Ambient light sensor
- Digital compass
- Google Maps
- Audio/video player
- TV-out
- Voice command/dial





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Weekend Catchup

Wow, I stepped away for a weekend getaway in Miami and comeback to a boat load of mobile updates:

* Palm Pre sales from first weekend is doin' alright!
* Apple iPhone 3GS announced (basically just a bit faster and bigger all around, nothing crazy)
* No more MacBooks, all Uni-body design are MacBook Pro. Prices for most are dropping (including Air)
* Nokia dropping the bomb on us, making the N97 available tomorrow (6/9/09)in NY and Chi town flagship store

Final thought: for those who didn't listen to me and bought those refurbished iPhone 3G units, you should have waited, these things are going for $99 brand new now for the 8GB model.

Symbian: Evolving toward open

It's fascinating to watch the evolution as Symbian remakes itself from a traditional OS company into an open-source foundation. They've made enormous organizational changes (most of the management team is new), but the biggest change of all seems to be in mindset. A nonprofit foundation has a very different set of motivations and priorities than an OS corporation does. I get the feeling that the Symbian folks are still figuring out what that means. It's an interesting case study, but also a good example for companies looking to work with open source.

Symbian recently held a dinner with developers and bloggers in Silicon Valley, and I got to see some of those differences in action.

The first difference was the dinner itself. About six months ago, Symbian and Nokia held a conference and blogger dinner in San Francisco (link). It was interesting but pretty standard -- a day of presentations, followed by dinner at a large, long table at which Symbian and Nokia employees talked to us about what they're doing and how excited they are. The emphasis was on them informing us.

The recent dinner was structured very differently. The attendees were mostly developers rather than bloggers, and we were seated at smaller, circular tables that made conversation easier. They talked about their plans at the start, but most of the evening was devoted to asking our opinions, and they had a note-taker at each table. This had the effect of not just collecting feedback from us, but forcing us to notice that they were listening. That's important to any company, but it is critical to a nonprofit foundation that relies on others to do its OS programming. And it's essential for a company like Symbian, which has been ignored by most Silicon Valley developers.

So that's the first lesson about open source. The task of marketing is no longer to convince people how smart you are, it's to convince people how wonderful you are to work with. Instead of you as a performer and developers as the audience, the situation is flipped -- the developers are the center of attention and you're their most ardent fan.

It's an interesting contrast to Apple's relationship with developers, isn't it? It'll be fun to see how this evolves over time.

Here are my notes on the subjects Symbian discussed with us, along with some comments from me:


It takes time

Symbian said its goal is to have a lot of developers on the platform and making money, but that can't be achieved in three months. "In three years time," is what I wrote in my notes. That is simultaneously very honest and a little scary. It's honest because a foundation with its limited resources, working through phone companies with 24 month release cycles, simply can't make anything happen quickly. It's scary because competitors like Apple and RIM have so much momentum, and can act quickly. Still, in the current overused catchphrase of sports broadcasting, is what it is. An open-source company, based on trust, simply cannot afford to risk that trust by hyping or overpromising.

Speaking of Apple and RIM, Symbian made clear that it considers its adversary to be single-company ecosystems like Apple, RIM, and Microsoft. I didn't think to ask if Nokia's Ovi fits in that category, but that probably wouldn't have been a polite question anyway. Symbian also took some swipes at Google, citing the "lock in" deals they have supposedly made with some operators.

You get the feeling that Symbian is intensely annoyed by Google. It's one thing for a mobile phone newcomer like Apple to create a successful device; it's quite another for an Internet company to step into the OS business and take away Motorola as a Symbian licensee. I think one of Symbian's arguments against Android is going to be that Symbian is more properly and thoroughly open.

The question is whether anyone cares about that. Although the details of open source governance are intensely important to the community of free software advocates, I think that for most developers and handset companies the only "open" that they care about translates as, "open to me making a lot of money without someone else getting in the way." Thus the success of the Apple Store, even though Apple is one of the most proprietary companies in computing. Symbian's measure of success with developers will be whether it can help them get rich -- and I think the company knows that.


Licensees and devices

One step in helping developers make money is to get more devices with Symbian OS on them. Symbian said phones are coming from Chinese network equipment conglomerates Huawei and ZTE. They also said non- phone devices are in the works.

Licensees will be especially important if Nokia, as rumored, creates a line of phones based on its Maemo Linux platform. Lately some industry people I trust have talked about those phones as a sure thing rather than speculation, and analyst Richard Windsor is predicting big challenges for Symbian as a result:

"It seems that the clock is ticking for Symbian as technological limitations could lead to it being replaced in some high-end devices.... I suspect that the reality is that Symbian is not good enough for some of the functionality Nokia has planned over the medium term leaving Nokia with no choice but to move on."
Source: Richard Windsor, Industry Specialist, Nomura Securities

David Wood at Symbian responded that people should view Maemo as just Nokia's insurance in case something goes wrong with Symbian (link). But the point remains that Nokia is Symbian's main backer today. That is a strength, but also a big vulnerability. If Symbian wants developers to invest in it, I think it needs to demonstrate the ability to attract a more diverse set of strong supporters.


App Store envy

Another way to help developers is to, well, help them directly. Symbian said it's planning something tentatively called "Symbian Arena," in which it will select 100 Symbian applications to be featured in the application stores on Symbian phones. Symbian will promote the applications and perform other functions equivalent to a book publisher, including possibly giving the app author an advance on royalties.

The first five applications will be chosen by July, and featured on at least three Symbian smartphones (the Nokia N97, and phones from Samsung and Sony Ericsson).

The most interesting aspect of the program is that Symbian said its goal is to take no cut at all from app revenue for its services. Obviously that means the program can't scale to thousands of applications -- Symbian can't afford it. They said they'd like to evolve it into a much broader program in which they would provide publishing services for thousands of apps at cost. My guess is they could push the revenue cut down to well under 10% in that case, compared to the 30% Apple takes today.

It isn't clear to me if Symbian will produce the applications store itself, or work through others, or both. If it works through other stores, those stores might take a revenue cut of their own. But still, from a developer point of view it's nice to see an OS vendor trying to lower the cost of business for creating apps.

It's been interesting to see how many of the Palm Pre reviews this week have said that the iPhone application base is the main reason to prefer an iPhone over a Pre. I'm not sure how much purchase influence apps actually have -- at Palm, we had ten times the applications of Pocket PC, but they didn't seem to do anything for our sales. (On the other hand, Palm never had the wisdom and courage to advertise its apps base the way Apple has.)

--"Compared to the iPhone, the real missing pieces are those thousands of applications available on the App Store." Wired
--"Developer courting still seems like an area where Palm needs work. They've got a great OS to work with, but they have yet to really extend a hand to a wide selection of developers or help explain how working in webOS will be beneficial to their business. The platform is nothing without the support of creative and active partners." Engadget
--"The Pre's biggest disadvantage is its app store, the App Catalog. At launch, it has only about a dozen apps, compared with over 40,000 for the iPhone, and thousands each for the G1 and the modern BlackBerry models....It is thoughtfully designed, works well and could give the iPhone and BlackBerry strong competition -- but only if it fixes its app store and can attract third-party developers." Walt Mossberg

Anyway, if applications are the new competitive frontier between smart phones, mobile OS vendors should be competing to see who can do the most to improve life for developers. This is another area where Symbian's motives, as a foundation, differ from a traditional OS company. If you're trying to make money from an OS, harvesting some revenue from developers make sense. But as a nonprofit foundation, draining the revenue streams from your competitors is one of your best competitive weapons. Symbian has little reason to try to make a profit from developers, and a lot of reasons not to.


Driving Web standards

That idea came up again when we talked about web applications for mobile. As I've said before, I think the most valuable thing that could happen for mobile developers would be the creation of a universal runtime layer for mobile web apps -- software that would let them write an app once, host it online, and run it unmodified on any mobile OS. No commercial OS companies want to support that because it would commoditize their businesses and drain their revenues. But if Symbian's primary weapon is to remove revenue from other OS companies, a universal Web runtime might be the best way to do it. I asked them about this, and they said they're planning to use web standards in the OS "like Pre," and said they're interested in supporting universal web runtimes.

I'm intensely interested in seeing how the runtime situation develops. I think Symbian and Google are the only major mobile players with an interest in making it work, and Google so far hasn't been an effective leader in that space. I think Symbian might be able to pull it off, and become a major player in the rise of the metaplatform. But it'll take an active effort by them, such as choosing a runtime, building it into every copy Symbian OS, and making it available for other platforms. Passive endorsement of something is not enough to make a difference.


Other tidbits

Symbian said it's going to "radically simplify" the Symbian Signed app certification program, which may be very welcome news to developers, depending on the details. Many developers today complain bitterly about the cost and inconvenience of the signing program, and unless it's fixed it'll outweigh any of the benefits from Symbian Arena.

The QT software layer that Nokia bought as part of its Trolltech acquisition will be built into Symbian OS in the second half of 2010. I had been wondering if it would be an option or a standard part of the OS; apparently it'll be a standard.

Symbian plans to bring its developer conference to San Francisco in 2010, after which it will rotate to various locations around the world. This is part of an effort to increase Symbian's visibility in the US market. The company is creating a large office here, including two members of its exec staff. That makes sense for recruiting web developers, but it will be hard for the company to have a big impact in the US unless it gets a licensee who can market effectively here. In that vein, it must have been frustrating for everyone involved when Nokia announced the shipment of the N97 and it came in a distant third in coverage in the US (after the Palm Pre and the iPhone rumors).


What it all means

There are a lot of things that could kill the Symbian experiment:
--Nokia could decommit from the OS (or just waver long enough that developers lose faith).
--Symbian licensees could fail to produce interesting devices that keep pace with Apples, RIMs, and Palms of the world.
--Android could eat up all the attention of open source developers, leaving Symbian to wither technologically.
--The market might evolve faster than a foundation yoked to handset companies can adjust.

But still the Symbian foundation is worth watching. It has a different set of goals than every other mobile OS company out there, goals that potentially can align more closely with the interests of third party developers. It's still up to Symbian to deliver on that potential, but the company has an opportunity to challenge the mobile market in ways that it couldn't as a traditional company.

-----

Prof. Joel West of San Jose State was also at the Symbian meeting and posted some interesting comments about it. You can read them here.

Full disclosure: My employer, Rubicon Consulting, did a consulting project for Symbian a year ago. None of the analysis conducted in that project was used in this post. We currently have no ongoing, or planned, business relationship with Symbian.