Skype Coming to BlackBerry Smartphones in May
Skype today announced that the lite version of Skype, a ‘thin’ Skype client for mobile phones, will soon be available as a free download for BlackBerry smartphones. A beta version will be available in May for the BlackBerry Bold and BlackBerry Curve smartphones, with support for other BlackBerry smartphones coming later.The lite version of Skype delivers core Skype capabilities to BlackBerry
Huawei Android Phone
According to the latest rumors an Android-powered Huawei handset will be coming to T-Mobile in Q3 2009 and is currently going through the testing phase. Details are very scarse at the moment, so we'll just name some of the phone's rumored features: * 5Mpix camera; * 3.5mm headphone jack; * Cupcake update; * Wi-FiStay tuned for more details.
Samsung Instinct S30 for Sprint to be Available on April 19th
Ok, it happened: Sprint and Samsung have finally officially announced the Instinct S30, known as the "Instinct mini". It should appear at Sprint stores on April 19th at a price of $129.99 after a $70 instant savings, a $100 mail-in rebate, and 2-year agreement.Features include: * EV-DO Rev. 0 network; * Sprint TV; * Virtual QWERTY keyboard with haptic feedback; * 2Mpix camera with video
Virgin Mobile Partner's with Opera Mini in the U.S.
Fan's of MVNO carrier: Virgin Mobile USA rejoice, they've signed a deal with Opera Software to make Opera Mini available either as a download or pre-installed on selected handsets. Opera Mini is one of the earliest 'full web browsers'. This is a smart move in my opinion simply because the "full web browsing" experience is a must for phones moving forward; partnering with Opera Software will give Virgin Mobile an easy access to a better web browsing experience for their mobile customers.
Samsung Instinct S30 for Sprint Officially Announced
Sprint and Samsung today announced the upcoming availability of Samsung Instinct s30, a successor to the Samsung Instinct touch-screen phone. The full touch screen phone is ideal for customers looking to simplify and increase the productivity of their business and personal lives with quick access to corporate calendar functionality via Microsoft Outlook. As what the rumor predicted, the Instinct
CTIA2009: Shazam for BlackBerry Available at BlackBerry App World
Shazam today announced the availability of its unique application for BlackBerry smartphone users; allowing them to discover, purchase and share music anywhere they go. Shazam is able to identify music anywhere: from the radio, TV, film, or in a store by simply holding a BlackBerry smartphone towards the music and selecting ‘Tag Now’. From the returned results, you can check the details and
Thoughts on the tech industry bailout
I presume the big topic of discussion at the CTIA conference this week is going to be the government's emergency bailout package for the tech industry. I was surprised this morning when US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner replaced RIM CEO Mike Lazaridis at the CTIA keynote to announce the package, and ever since I've been scrambling to sort through all the details. A lot of it's still fuzzy, but here's what I've been able to figure out so far:
--The largest single element in the bailout seems to be the $20 billion in subsidies for Motorola. I think the biggest shock here was President Obama's decision to replace Moto's co-CEO Greg Brown with Steve Wozniak. "We tried to get Steve Jobs, but he demanded control over the Seventh Fleet as compensation," Geithner explained. "So we went for the closest substitute we could find. Besides, Woz was available since he just got kicked off Dancing with the Stars."
Geithner said the subsidies to Motorola were originally designed to protect high-paying phone manufacturing jobs in the United States, but then the government discovered that those were all outsourced to China a decade ago. So the government settled on a requirement that the guy who glues the bat-wing logos onto Motorola's phones has to be an American citizen. He has already been hired, his name is Joey Carbonic, he lives in Wenonah, Illinois, and the crowd at CTIA gave him a nice ovation when he was introduced during Geithner's keynote.
There's a rumor at the show that the government also agreed to buy 500,000 unsold ROKR handsets and give them free to poor countries as a gesture of friendship, but that was denied by a government official who spoke to me off the record. "We're trying to get people in those countries to like us," he explained.
--In the spirit of the forced mergers between failing banks, Geithner announced the combination of Sun, Sprint, AOL, and 3Com. Called 3Sprun and combining the best of all four companies, the new firm will specialize in Java-based 56kbps wireless modems.
--I haven't been able to confirm this yet, but Palm has apparently been offered $2 billion in loans if it adapts the Pre to run on biomass power and merges within 30 days with either Black & Decker, Digg, or SonyEricsson. Ironically, reports from Stockholm say that the Swedish government has offered SonyEricsson 20 billion kronor if it merges with Airbus Industrie, so we may get a three-way deal that would see Treos built into the seat backs of every A380.
--Geithner also said $40 billion in grants have been reserved for use by Yahoo and/or Microsoft. "We like to plan ahead," he explained.
Those are just the highlights. There are apparently a lot more deals being arranged, with venture capitalists and members of Congress competing to get subsidies for various firms. The most intriguing rumor so far is the plan to provide three Twitter accounts to every American as part of the stimulus package, to produce the illusion that the country's population has suddenly tripled. And then there's Cisco's buyout of Six Flags to advance the creation of networked roller coasters (hey, it makes at least as much sense as their purchase of Pure Digital).
I don't know how those will turn out, but things are certainly going to get more and more interesting now that the government has decided that the free market can't be trusted to run the tech industry.
By now you've probably realized that this is April 1, and like the extended iPhone survey last year (link), the Spitr announcement in 2007 (link), and the Google-Sprint merger in 2006 (link), nothing I wrote above is true.
I hope.
--The largest single element in the bailout seems to be the $20 billion in subsidies for Motorola. I think the biggest shock here was President Obama's decision to replace Moto's co-CEO Greg Brown with Steve Wozniak. "We tried to get Steve Jobs, but he demanded control over the Seventh Fleet as compensation," Geithner explained. "So we went for the closest substitute we could find. Besides, Woz was available since he just got kicked off Dancing with the Stars."
Geithner said the subsidies to Motorola were originally designed to protect high-paying phone manufacturing jobs in the United States, but then the government discovered that those were all outsourced to China a decade ago. So the government settled on a requirement that the guy who glues the bat-wing logos onto Motorola's phones has to be an American citizen. He has already been hired, his name is Joey Carbonic, he lives in Wenonah, Illinois, and the crowd at CTIA gave him a nice ovation when he was introduced during Geithner's keynote.
There's a rumor at the show that the government also agreed to buy 500,000 unsold ROKR handsets and give them free to poor countries as a gesture of friendship, but that was denied by a government official who spoke to me off the record. "We're trying to get people in those countries to like us," he explained.
--In the spirit of the forced mergers between failing banks, Geithner announced the combination of Sun, Sprint, AOL, and 3Com. Called 3Sprun and combining the best of all four companies, the new firm will specialize in Java-based 56kbps wireless modems.
--I haven't been able to confirm this yet, but Palm has apparently been offered $2 billion in loans if it adapts the Pre to run on biomass power and merges within 30 days with either Black & Decker, Digg, or SonyEricsson. Ironically, reports from Stockholm say that the Swedish government has offered SonyEricsson 20 billion kronor if it merges with Airbus Industrie, so we may get a three-way deal that would see Treos built into the seat backs of every A380.
--Geithner also said $40 billion in grants have been reserved for use by Yahoo and/or Microsoft. "We like to plan ahead," he explained.
Those are just the highlights. There are apparently a lot more deals being arranged, with venture capitalists and members of Congress competing to get subsidies for various firms. The most intriguing rumor so far is the plan to provide three Twitter accounts to every American as part of the stimulus package, to produce the illusion that the country's population has suddenly tripled. And then there's Cisco's buyout of Six Flags to advance the creation of networked roller coasters (hey, it makes at least as much sense as their purchase of Pure Digital).
I don't know how those will turn out, but things are certainly going to get more and more interesting now that the government has decided that the free market can't be trusted to run the tech industry.
By now you've probably realized that this is April 1, and like the extended iPhone survey last year (link), the Spitr announcement in 2007 (link), and the Google-Sprint merger in 2006 (link), nothing I wrote above is true.
I hope.
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