by Jeremy Kessel on November 13, 2009
by Greg Kumparak on November 13, 2009
While Virgin Mobile USA has been offering up a pre-paid, contract free mobile broadband service for almost half a year now, the only way to hop on board was to nab a modem at Best Buy Mobile – and, well, that just doesn’t work for everybody. Maybe you don’t have a Big Blue Box nearby; maybe you’re just not that into Best Buy. Either way, you’ll have options soon.
This morning, Virgin Mobile is announcing that they’ll be expanding sales into Radio Shack, Sam’s Club, Walmart.com, Target.com, and their own website beginning December 1st. Mobile broadband is one of those things that is still way too damn expensive (Hey Verizon – $15 for 75 MB? Really?!), and Virgin’s prepaid solution is one of the cheapest of the lot – if expansion means the competition starts feeling the heat and the prices start falling, we’re all for it.
by Greg Kumparak on November 13, 2009
Man – do you remember 2004? Gwen Stefani was off doing her solo thing, Hillary Swank was busting her neck in Million Dollar Baby (OMG SPOILER ALERT!), and Janet Jackson showed part of her breast to everyone watching the Super Bowl. Twas a simpler time – a time when the Palm Treo 650 was brand new.
5 years later, the Treo 650 now ranks somewhere between “relic” and “fossil” smartphone timeline – but with age comes wisdom, right? In this case, “wisdom” comes in the form of the Android-operating system, bestowed upon the 650 by a couple of clever chaps. I’d be surprised if everything is fully functioning – but hey, it boots!
by Jeremy Kessel on November 13, 2009
Wow. Nice work, Dell. Way to drag the Mini 3 launch out for what feels like an eternity. First, the early ‘09 rumors (here and here). Then, the August 2009 leak. Next, China Mobile unofficially outed the smartie. And now, finally, an official confirmation straight from the horse’s Dell’s mouth. Dude China / Brazil, you’re gettin a Dell!
by Nicholas Deleon on November 12, 2009
It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of mixed martial arts, also “known” as UFC. It’s less well-known that, back in my youth, I was a very big pro wrestling fan. (Pro wrestling today is largely unwatchable.) When I was 15 I subscribed to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, written by the hardest-working journalist in America, Dave Meltzer (the man doesn’t sleep), a weekly news and analysis publication that detailed, to an incredible degree, the goings-on of the two businesses, pro wrestling and MMA. A little more than a year ago the newsletter entered the online age (while merging with another, similar publication in Figure 4 Weekly, written by Bryan Alvarez), with newsletters being made available online (in addition to the dead trees version). Today the publication enters the next exciting age, the iPhone age. That’s right: there’s now a Wrestling Observer Newsletter/Figure 4 Weekly iPhone App~!
by Greg Kumparak on November 12, 2009
![Screen shot 2009-11-12 at [ November 12 ] 12.33.31 PM](http://www.mobilecrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Screen-shot-2009-11-12-at-November-12-12.33.31-PM-630x350.png "Screen shot 2009-11-12 at [ November 12 ] 12.33.31 PM")
This is by no means the first time we’ve seen someone drive a car with an iPhone – but it is the first time we’ve seen it done by a bunch of dudes (and one cute chick) in lab coats using wrenches as robotic feet.
Plus, they surf on the car and crash through boxes all whilst steering with the iPhone – that’s worth at least one post’s worth of attention, right?
by Greg Kumparak on November 12, 2009
![Screen shot 2009-11-12 at [ November 12 ] 11.42.47 AM](http://www.mobilecrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Screen-shot-2009-11-12-at-November-12-11.42.47-AM.png)
Considering that Walmart’s already slinging the Palm Pre at $99 bucks, it might have been a bit tough for them to justify peddling the Pre’s new baby brother, the Pixi, at the MSRP of $99. So they’re not.
by Greg Kumparak on November 12, 2009
There you were, just this morning, sitting over your latté. “When the hell is the pricing for the BlackBerry Bold 9700 and/or Samsung Behold 2 going to leak?”, you thought. Both handsets are coming within roughly a week or so, yet there was still no word on how much you needed to set aside? Pardon my french, friends, but that is shenanigans.
Fortunately, its been dealt with.
by Greg Kumparak on November 12, 2009
Full review coming soon. Enjoy!
by Greg Kumparak on November 11, 2009
Good news, everyone! RIM has used the keynote of their BlackBerry Developer Conference to drop the good word on a fairly important topic: Carrier billing is coming to the BlackBerry App World in 2010.
Carrier billing is quite certainly one of the most important — yet mostly unmentioned — aspect of any App Store’s success.
by Jeremy Kessel on November 11, 2009
I like to imagine that a special place exists somewhere on the Web where a bunch of unassuming “ordinary” folks get together to solve world technology issues. A brotherhood (that allows women too, of course) of sorts that uniformly scream, “HACK3RS UNITE!,” and then figure out how to stick it to the man. I’m not entirely sure anything that amazing exists, but there is something close – the XDA Developers Forum.
The latest philanthropic project taken on by these fine young men and women was to port Google’s new Navigation app (which comes pre-installed on the DROID) to the original Android Czar, T-Mobile’s G1. And low and behold…they’ve done it!
by Jeremy Kessel on November 11, 2009
According to Web analytics company, Clicky, Motorola’s flagship DROID handset has already caused a major disturbance in the Force Android-based web traffic. The new hotness purportedly already accounts for more than 23 percent of all Android web traffic here in the States.
by Jeremy Kessel on November 11, 2009
The lack of Flash support on the iThings (i.e. phone, touch) and all but one Android device has made it rather difficult for Flash-based video sites to penetrate the ever-expanding smartphone video-consuming market. While YouTube has implemented a workaround for this problem (by encoding each uploaded video in both Flash AND as .mp4 files), other sites (arguably with less resources) have been much slower to rollout a fix while waiting for Adobe and Co. to get this mess straightened out.
That was, until today. Read More
by John Biggs on November 11, 2009
A new worm, called the iPhone/Privacy.A worm, connects to jailbroken iPhones running SSH with the default password and takes a “treasure trove” of data including email, SMS messages, photos, music files, and everything else on your phone. It then kills your dog.
by Gagan Biyani on November 10, 2009
Here’s a bit of App Store drama for you: Antares Audio Tech, the company that built the underlying technology licensed for the popular “I am T-Pain” iPhone App, has unleashed their lawyers on Steamboat Mountain Designs, an indie developer and maker of the now-removed iPhone app, “AutoTuner.”
Why? Well, it turns out that the term “Auto-Tune” — which due to the recent spike in usage in pop music has come to be misused almost as often as the term “photoshop” — is trademarked by Antares. In a cease and desist letter, Antares claims that “Steamboat’s use of ‘AutoTuner’ is virtually identical to Antares’ AUTO-TUNE(R) mark, simply adding an ‘r’ at the end of the mark and removing a hyphen, and is used in connection with a software program that is directly competitive and functionally identical to Antares’ AUTO-TUNE(R) product.”
by Jeremy Kessel on November 10, 2009
Sprint, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Bright House Networks (to name a few) continue to bet big on Clearwire’s WiMAX nationwide wireless network. The foursome have just pumped an additional $1.494 billion into Clearwire’s coffer, with another $50 million coming from Intel and $20 million from Eagle River Holdings. CHA-CHING.
by Jeremy Kessel on November 10, 2009
As Sesame Street is currently celebrating its 40th anniversary now seems like as good a time as any for us to practice our counting…of mobile operating systems/platforms. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Darn, my hand ran out of fingers! Well, no matter, Samsung thinks there is plenty of room for more and has taken the wraps off its own, new open mobile platform, bada.
by Greg Kumparak on November 10, 2009
As the number of Android-powered handsets on the market continues to expand, so do the technical capabilities of the applications that run on the platform. The Droid, for example, is the first handset to introduce video recording at a resolution 720×480 (more than double that of the 320×240 recording found on most other handsets), and app makers are already swooping in to take advantage of it.
The first off the bat is the mobile video broadcasting service Qik, who will later tonight be announcing beta support for the increased resolution.
by Dave Freeman on November 9, 2009
Update: Sounds like Verizon probably sold about 100,000 Droids over the weekend.
Good news for Motorola and Verizon, it looks like the Droid is a hit. The new phone is certainly living up to the hype, and seems to be the breakaway hit of this holiday season.
Reports from retailers so far have been positive, with the initial stock of 200,000 phones selling rather quickly, however not selling out. There haven’t been any verified reports of people being unable the find the new phone, however there has been some rumors of people not being able to find the charging stand. This is exactly what Motorola needs right now, given their lack of success in the handset market since the introduction of the RZR.
Oh, and if you just picked up one of those shiny new Droid phones, you should totally check out our article on the top 10 apps a new Android phone owner should have.
by Greg Kumparak on November 9, 2009
While the tech-loving world continues to debate the merits of the Droid following its launch on Friday, it’s pretty safe to say that the Android platform has seen a pretty hefty influx of users as of late. In the past two weeks alone, we’ve seen the aforementioned Droid, it’s cheaper, younger sibling, the Droid Eris, and the Sprint Moment all hit the shelves; if any of them sold even reasonably well, there’s a lot of new folk cracking open the Android Market for the first time right now.
Whether you’re an iPhone convert, an ex-Nokian, or just a stranger to smartphones as a whole, the Android Market can be a pretty daunting place. While Android might not have quite as many apps as the leading competition, it still has a bit over 10,000 – and that’s a hell of a lot for any newcomer to weed through.
For the sake of these nascent newbies, we’ve thrown together a list of a handful of apps we think are worth checking out right off the bat. Got a favorite of your own? Throw it into the comments below.
- Actively Discussed Posts
- Uh-Oh: Gameloft moves away from Android development
38 comments - Is Verizon's data network down? [Update: California Only]
25 comments - Android-powered Motorola Motus caught on film, apparently in the middle of an earthquake
8 comments - FunMail Takes The Work Out Of Picture Messaging
7 comments - Android-fueled Motorola Motus specs get spec'd
6 comments
