If you’re a mobile geek who actually uses your handset for things besides calling your grammy, and if you like watching movies in theaters (instead of from Limewire, you pirate), then have a look at Mobio.
Mobio mashes up movie show times, theater listings, maps and directions, and reviews into a central interface. You search for your movie, find your directions, and buy your tickets, all from your handset, with minimal data entry on your part. It’s slick, your default location and other prefs are stored on its network, meaning it’s easy to use, which is key to any mobile app.
It’s a stand-alone application that you load onto your phone, not a service you get to via your phone’s browser. And we mean cellphone, not smartphone: the application works on the RAZR and a few of Samsung’s thin phones.
Unfortunately the service is limited to Sprint and Cingular customers for now, though Verizon and T-Mobile support is on the horizon. We think bringing the Web 2.0 mash-up philosophy to handsets is a fantastic idea, and this likely won’t be the only product to do use it.
Get Mobio [Product Page]
As expected, Sprint today has officially made the Motorola KRZR available to its subscribers. For those two of you not in-the-know, the KRZR is Motorola’s sequel to the pervasive and slender RAZR. You probably have one, or at least know someone with one. They’re getting obnoxious. So why not make them obnoxiousier?
Like its Verizon brother, the KRZR (which Sprint is calling the MOTOKRZR) sports external touch-sensative mp3 playback buttons, a tiny-is-better form factor, Bluetooth, speakerphone, and a 1.3 Megapixel camera.
If you’re still on Sprint despite the get-outta-jail-free card we told you about a few weeks ago, then you can pick this Moto up for $199.99, if you like it enough to keep it for 2 years.
MOTOKRZR [PRDCT PGE]
If you read my 10 Things I Hate About Smartphones post last week, you’d discover that I hate Windows Mobile and that, even though they run Windows Mobile, I love HTC. So with that piece of cognitive dissonance in mind, I present my review of the Cingular 8525 aka the Hermes, a Windows Mobile Pocket PC smartphone with fold out QWERTY keyboard and touchscreen. It costs $399 with contract.
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Cash back bonanza holy moly! We’ve got two scoops in one, all based on a flickr screen grab. Sometimes Cingular auto-tragically publishes stuff it don’t mean to. Oops, Cingular!
We found this graphic on flickr. Cingular, the orange fan of all things with the words “Treo” and “GSM,” is set to launch not just the anticipated Treo 680 this winter, but also the formerly European-only 750w. It shares a similar form factor with the 680, but runs Windows Mobile 5. That means that Cingy is set to give us two QWERTY, touchscreen Palm presents for Xmas.
Not just that, they’re also offering camera-free versions for security-minded enterprise deployments. Can you say boring? We knew you could.
Speaking of the new-and-QWERTY, (yes, I love hyphens,) look for an American GSM rendition of the Samsung i320, as well. This Motorola Q/T-Mobile Dash/Whatever Else Windows Mobile 5 QWERTY not-a-touchscreen competitor will be here by the end of the year, with some sort of rebate. It’ll be known as the “BlackJack,” which is a name a little too badass for any smartphone.
Great Rebates from Cingular [flickr image via Mobility Today]
While users can already upload videos to YouTube using mobile phones, there currently is no way to watch videos from YouTube by phone. That could all change within the next year, however. At the OgilvyOne Verge Digital Summit yesterday, YouTube founder Chad Hurley stated that by the end of 2007, YouTube would likely “have something on a mobile device.”
With the recent Google buyout of YouTube and Google becoming increasingly mobile, I daresay, we’ll start seeing YouTube on mobile devices sooner than year’s end 2007. At any rate, we’ll keep you posted as more information develops.
YouTube to Go Mobile [Adage via ArsTechnica]
The boys at CrunchGear are going through their junk drawers and picking out some of the latest and greatest smartphones of 2006 along with a bit of pithy commentary on the state of the industry. Read along by visiting Smartphones Now. They’ll be updating daily with articles on Palm OS, Windows Mobile, and other goodies.
