Poll: Opera Says 2.6M iPhone Owners Use Opera Mini – Do You?

Some 2.6 million unique iPhone owners are using Opera Mini, according to its maker’s latest State of the Mobile Web report, the first full dataset since the browser arrived for Apple’s iPhone last month. In fact, the iPhone now tops the U.S. list of devices on which Opera Mini is used and is No. 3 [...]

Apple iPhone Production Points to Impending Verizon Deal: Analyst

Apple’s iPhone production is ramping up to levels that suggest it’s “increasingly becoming carrier-agnostic” and could mean we’ll see a Verizon iPhone sooner than previously expected, Rodman & Renshaw analyst Ashok Kumar alleges in a note to clients today. Up to 12 million iPhones are already in the supply chain for the September quarter — [...]

Android Team Nabs webOS Designer — Duarte and Rubin, Together Again

The last piece of the Android puzzle appears to be in place — Matias Duarte has joined Google as user experience director for Android, according to All Things Digital. If you’ve ever witnessed or experienced the elegance of Palm’s webOS smartphone operating system, then you’ve seen Duarte’s work first-hand. His deft touch is the icing [...]

Verizon to Shift Usage Forecasting to Consumers With Tiered LTE Pricing

Verizon Wireless customers can expect tiered pricing when the carrier implements its LTE mobile broadband network later this year, the carrier’s CEO confirmed this week. Gone will be the monthly plans that Verizon currently offers — instead, customers will pay for pre-determined buckets of wireless data each month. It’s currently unclear if those buckets can [...]

Why e-Book Reader Sales Are Seen Heading South

Is the window of opportunity for e-book readers with embedded broadband going to close not long after it just opened? That’s the forecast being made by UK research firm Informa Telecoms & Media — it believes device sales will peak in 2013 and then decline by 7 percent the following year because instead of purchasing [...]

Why HP, Dell and Toshiba Aren’t Benefitting Fully From Netbook Sales

With sales up 43 percent year-over-year in the first quarter of 2010, according to Gartner — the highest rate of growth in nearly eight years — the mobile PC market is flexing its muscle. And it’s no coincidence that of the top five vendors in terms of market share, the two showing the most growth [...]

Is Steve Ballmer Really the Best Choice to Run Microsoft’s Consumer Business?

At a time when Microsoft is facing challengers to its desktop operating system, productivity suite and handsets, you wouldn’t think the company would be changing up officers on its front lines, yet that’s exactly what’s happening. Robbie Bach and J. Allard, both of whom were both instrumental in creating consumer products through Microsoft’s Entertainment & [...]

T-Mobile Expands HSPA+ Coverage Areas With “4G Speeds”

T-Mobile today announced availability of its HSPA+ network in three new Northeast corridor areas comprised of upstate New York (Albany, Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse), Connecticut (Hartford, New Haven, Milford and Stamford) and Providence, R.I. The carrier says that Washington, D.C. and Boston are next on the HSPA+ implementation list “in the coming weeks.” Perhaps more [...]

Samsung Launches Bada OS Phone – But Why?

Samsung today launched its Wave smartphone in the UK and France, less than a week after the device was introduced in Germany. The Wave runs a proprietary operating system called Bada, which Samsung debuted at the Mobile World Congress earlier this year. Samsung has previously stated that over 50 percent of its new smartphones would run [...]

Yahoo-Nokia Alliance Is Too Late for Mobile Market

Yahoo and Nokia have unveiled a partnership that will see Yahoo power Nokia’s Ovi Mail and Ovi Chat platforms and Nokia provide mapping services for all of Yahoo’s navigation products. But the deal is a late effort by two companies being leap-frogged by newer, nimble competitors in the mobile space. Or as my friend Michael Gartenberg, [...]

My First Bite Of Froyo Is Tasty

I’m sitting in the Philadelphia International Airport with a delay on my way to San Fran — tomorrow I’ll be speaking on a panel at the Netbook Summit — so now’s a good time to share some thoughts on Android 2.2, aka: Froyo. James offered up a video look and summary of the new Froyo [...]

Will Content on a Smartphone Someday Power Your Television Set?

Intel is about to join you in the living room — the chip maker is touting its new Wireless Display technology, or WiDi, as a simple way to get content from a computer onto the television in your home. By streaming media over a point-to-point Wi-Fi connection, WiDi removes the need for consumers to physically [...]

BlackBerry Storm Arrives in China for Enterprises

Research In Motion today announced a partnership with China Telecom to sell the BlackBerry Storm handset to enterprise customers in 16 provinces. As part of the deal, China Telecom will also offer RIM’s BlackBerry Enterprise Server for integrated messaging and communications. The move is seen by some as aimed at upending China Telecom’s rival, China [...]

Droid Does…Not Help Motorola Offset Market Share Loss

Worldwide handset shipments rose 13.8 percent in the first quarter of 2010 over the same period a year ago, but the rising tide isn’t lifting all boats, according to the most recent iSupply report, titled ”Mobile Handset Industry Foresees End of the Recession.” Motorola continues to leak market share, dropping to the eighth spot from sixth [...]

MobileTechRoundup 207 – Podcasting LIVE!

An MP3 file of the show will soon be available for download. HOSTS: James Kendrick (Houston), Matthew Miller (Seattle) and Kevin C. Tofel (Philadelphia) TOPICS: HP buys Palm webOS 1.4.1.1 update comes to Verizon Pre Plus, solves GPS and keyboard issues Nokia N8 revealed, world’s first 5 band 3G device (hd video sample impresses, Symbian [...]

Microsoft and Intel Are the Biggest Losers in HP-Palm Deal

HP’s proposed $1.2 billion acquisition of Palm, is so far being lauded as a win-win: HP, which had only ever dipped a toe in the smartphone space with a few “me-too” devices, will now be able to jump into the deep end of the handset pool. And based on comments from HP executives, Palm will continue [...]

Symbian 3 Courts Developers With HTML, CSS, and JavaScript

Symbian today announced a new initiative intended to attract developers, and is providing web development tools to ease application programming for its open source mobile platform, Symbian 3. Using the web standards of HTML, CSS and JavaScript, developers can create software for devices such as Nokia’s new N8, which was introduced earlier this week as [...]

Even Through a Recession, We Want Our Web

Given recent economic challenges around the globe, one might conclude that demand for the web is down, but apparently that’s not the case. According to a report from research firm TeleGeography, international bandwidth usage continued to grow in spite of the global recession of the past few years. It notes that: “International bandwidth usage increased [...]

Palm to Land in HP’s Hands for $1.2B — webOS Will Be Resurrected

Updated: After weeks of speculation that Palm could fold or be acquired, a buyer has come forth — HP has announced that it’s agreed to purchase Palm for $5.70 per share, or roughly $1.2 billion. The deal, which adds Palm’s patent portfolio and the webOS operating system to HP’s coffers, could subsequently give webOS a [...]

Is Intel’s Atom Splitting Apart the Netbook Market?

Intel reportedly plans to pack more power into its next-generation Atom chips, the line that currently powers netbooks. While some thought the netbook market was a race to the bottom — or at the very least, the low end of the market — Intel is reversing that course by maturing the Atom. The move will [...]

iPhone Owners Downloading Opera Mini, But Are They Using It?

Opera today shared a preview of its next “State of the Mobile Web” report, which focuses on Opera Mini for iPhone, the app that — to the surprise of many — was approved by Apple for inclusion in its App Store earlier this month. According to Opera, iPhone users are indeed downloading the app — [...]

Why Mozilla Wants the Fennec Browser on Android (and What It Looks Like)

Is there room for another mobile browser on smartphones? Actions speak louder than words, so Mozilla is answering that question by releasing its first iteration of the Firefox browser for Android handsets. Fennec, as the browser is known, is in a pre-alpha state, meaning it’s not ready for the general populace. That didn’t stop me [...]

Google’s Android Fragmentation Problem Persists: AdMob

Motorola’s Droid is the most used Android handset on the AdMob network — with 32 percent of traffic — so it might appear that Google’s Android fragmentation issues are over. Unfortunately, that’s not the case, according to the March metrics report from AdMob, which tracks smartphone usage through ads it provides mobile application developers — [...]

Nokia’s Smartphone Reinvention Begins With N8 Phone

Nokia today unveiled the N8, the first handset from the Finnish company to use both the Symbian 3 operating system and the Qt cross-platform application framework. Although the physical hardware of the N8 is attractive, the Symbian 3 software is more important to Nokia’s future. The company’s falling status as a market leader is largely due [...]

Hands On With the Plantronics .Audio 476 USB Headset

For the past week, I’ve been reviewing a Plantronics .Audio 476 USB headset the company offered to loan me. Since I listen to music most of the day and also make heavy use of voice chatting on Google Talk and Skype, I’ve probably logged 40 hours with the headset already. It’s certified for Skype 4.0 [...]

HTC Sense UI on the Nexus One — First Impressions

Google may be steering potential Nexus One customers to the HTC Incredible, but that doesn’t mean the Nexus One is yesterday’s old news. Last night, I breathed new life in my Nexus One — as if the three-month old phone needed resuscitation – by installing HTC’s Sense UI on the device with these instructions. The process only [...]

As It Nears 50K Apps, How the Android Market Can Take a Bite Out of Apple’s App Store

Google’s Android Market is on pace to cross the 50,000 application titles threshold this week, based on data from AndroLib, up from 20,000 just four months ago. But the Android Market needs a vast overhaul if it’s ever going to catch up to — much less surpass — Apple’s App Store, which offers nearly four [...]

RIM Refreshes BlackBerry Bold, Pearl Handsets

Research In Motion today introduced two new BlackBerry handsets, the Bold 9650 and Pearl 3G, in advance of the company’s Wireless Electronics Symposium, which officially begins tomorrow in Orlando, Fla. Both handsets are slightly redesigned, updated models of currently available BlackBerry devices, but neither runs on the new BlackBerry operating system, screenshots of which surfaced [...]

Why Nobody Wants Palm — Except Maybe Facebook

Another day and another potential buyer of Palm has been crossed off the list — HTC is reportedly passing on the opportunity to purchase the troubled smartphone maker. Which means all signs are now pointing to Lenovo making a bid, especially in light of its recent decision to jump back into the smartphone market. But [...]

MobileTechRoundup 206 – Podcasting LIVE!

An MP3 download of the show will be available a few hours after the live broadcast. HOSTS: James Kendrick (Houston), Matthew Miller (Seattle) and Kevin C. Tofel (Philadelphia) TOPICS: Dell’s smartphone and tablets HTC DROID Incredible hands on T-Mobile announces the Garminfone running Android Hands-on with $149 Kobo eReader Our future phones – who’s shopping, [...]

Is Handset Radiation Bad? COSMOS Will Tell You in 30 Years

The Cohort Study on Mobile Communications, potentially the largest research effort to understand the effects of radiation from cellular phone use, is now underway in five European nations. COSMOS, as it’s called, hopes to enlist more than 250,000 volunteers over for up to 30 years in Britain, Finland, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark. Although prior studies [...]

Nokia Needs to Step on the Symbian 3 Gas Pedal

It used to be that I’d see a new Nokia handset launched every few days — at least it felt that way — but lately, that pace appears to have slowed. The company released three new social networking-focused devices earlier this month, but my perception is that Nokia is currently focused more on software over [...]

It’s About Time: Adobe Divests Itself From iPhone OS

Adobe still plans to release its Flash CS5 development tools in support of Apple’s iPhone, but in a blog post, Adobe’s product manager for Flash, Mike Chambers, writes: “[W]e are not currently planning any additional investments in that feature.” I read that as Adobe finally throwing in the towel, acknowledging that Apple doesn’t want, nor [...]

On the iPhone People Buy Games, Not Books

When it comes to buying apps in the iTunes App Store, books are the most widely available, but they’re also the apps least likely to be purchased, according to Apptizr, an iPhone application recommendation service. It found that 22 percent of all available paid apps in the App Store are books, yet they account for [...]

Growing Engagement Gives Rise to Mobile Social Phones

How much time do you think consumers spend engaging in social networking on their mobile phones? Would you believe nearly 60 percent? Ground Truth, a Seattle-based mobile measurement firm, said today that it’s found consumers use their phones for social networking activities a staggering 59.83 percent of the time. And INQ’s Social Mobile, which it [...]

T-Mobile’s New Garminfone Trumps Google Navigation

T-Mobile USA today took the wraps off an exclusive new handset from Garmin, the GPS navigation company, that runs the Google Android operating system. Available later this spring, the Garminfone touchscreen handset offers 3G connectivity on T-Mobile’s network, a 3-megapixel camera with geo-tagging support, access to Google’s Android Market for software applications — and pre-loaded [...]

Will AT&T Fence in the New iPhone?

By now, those who care about the upcoming fourth-generation iPhone have seen the pictures that surfaced courtesy of Gizmodo and are likely wondering what Apple will do next. But here at GigaOM, we’re wondering how AT&T’s role as the exclusive provider of the iPhone will affect some of the promising features such pics displayed. One [...]

Ford Sync AppLink to Boost Smartphone Developer Revenues

Ford has announced the marriage of smartphones to its in-vehicle information system, a union that will enable owners of future Ford vehicles to control software on their mobile devices through the Ford Sync hands-free service. The move will not only leverage the more than 2 million Sync systems in use, but will mean mobile programmers could see [...]

Lenovo Refocuses on Smartphones to Bolster Sales

Lenovo today reasserted its commitment to the smartphone market, saying it expects mobile Internet products to account for as much as 20 percent of its revenues within five years vs. the low single digit-range today. In fact, the company believes its mobile devices — Lenovo counts both smartphones and netbooks in the definition — will [...]

RunKeeper Lands on Android

Coordinated nicely with the Boston Marathon today, RunKeeper takes the starting line on Android 2.x devices. This software is among my personal favorites as it uses a phone’s GPS to track and report on any type of mobile exercise: running, cross-country skiing, and hiking to name a few. Up to now, however, I was missing [...]

Adobe CEO Has His Own Reality Distortion Field

Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen recently told Fox Business News in a video interview that he expects to see Flash on mobile phones in the second half of this year. What he didn’t say was that the original plan was to deliver Adobe Flash on webOS handsets in 2009, so it appears that the plans have [...]

Cutting Through the Fog of Google’s Cloud Print

Google introduced its new approach to printing yesterday with the announcement of Google Cloud Print. But “cloud” in this case is equating to “foggy” for some because the entire solution is still at a high-level description. A web-based printing solution hasn’t been implemented yet by Google — instead, the company is positioning for what it [...]

Two Android Tablets Streaking from Dell

Just this morning on the podcast, we were wondering where all the smartbooks are, but the question could easily apply to consumer tablets too. Microsoft and HP jointly announced a slate at the Consumer Electronics Show, but the product isn’t available yet. Add Dell to the list with a pair of Streak tablets found by [...]

Apple Builds a Customer Base Before Building a Retail Store

Is there a method to the madness that Apple uses when choosing cities for retail locations? After reading an Experian Simmons report that ranks designated market areas by the number of Apple customers in each, I suspect as much. Using data collected with its Experian’s Micromarketer Generation3 analytics tool, Experian Simmons created an index that [...]

MobileTechRoundup 205 — That’s Incredible!

A downloadable MP3 of show will be available right here approximately 2 hours after the live show. HOSTS: James Kendrick (Houston), Matthew Miller (Seattle) and Kevin C. Tofel (Philadelphia) TOPICS: Microsoft Kin Zune HD 4.5 updates HTC Incredible coming soon Hands on with some AMD notebooks iPhone OS 4.0 What happened to the smartbooks? MeeGo [...]

Glympse Adds Real-Time Location Tracking To Facebook

Glympse today added Facebook support to its user-controlled location-based personal tracking service on its iPhone and Android software. Previously, the Glympse client could only send a user’s whereabouts to friends via an email, SMS or Twitter link that opened a mobile browser window to show location data for a specific time. The updated service now [...]

India’s Bharti Airtel to Enter Telecom’s Top Five

India’s Bharti Airtel will become the fifth-largest telecom provider in the world by purchasing 15 African markets from Zain in deal valued at $10.7 billion, according to Wireless Intelligence. Combining the 15 new markets with the three that Bharti held prior, the purchase will give it just under 170 million subscribers out of a potential customer [...]

In a Social World, BlackBerry’s Browser Looks Rotten

Apple’s iPad is already nearly even with the BlackBerry line of devices when it comes to mobile device browser market share, Computer World reports this morning citing data from NetApplications.com. With just 500,000 iPads sold in the U.S. so far compared to millions of BlackBerry devices worldwide, the numbers underscore a huge problem for Research In [...]

Intel, Nokia Attempt to Woo Developers for MeeGo Handsets and Netbooks

The Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit, a 3-day event for open source developers and mobile partners, kicks off today. Among the various agenda topics are both a keynote and multiple workshop sessions devoted to MeeGo, the platform created when Intel’s Moblin project and Nokia’s Maemo operating system merged at February’s Mobile World Congress. With the workshop sessions, Intel and [...]

BlackBerry Bold 9700 Gains Slingbox Support on Wi-Fi and 3G

Good news for BlackBerry Bold 9700 handset owners — SlingPlayer Mobile is now supported on your device! Obviously you need some SlingBox hardware to stream live television from the home to the handset. But if you have that, you can download and install the software for remote media control and playback. The SlingPlayer Mobile client [...]

Apple Delays the International iPad — Too Many Wi-Fi Orders?

If you live outside the U.S. and are waiting to experience Apple’s iPad, your wait just became longer. Citing the product’s “runaway success,” Apple is postponing an international iPad launch by one full month. Pre-orders and pricing information for international iPad purchases will become available on May 10. Here is Apple’s full statement: “Although we [...]

5 Things Google Must Do to Make Its Tablet Competitive

Google is said to be planning a rival device to Apple’s iPad that will be powered by Android. Assuming this is true, what does Google need to do in order to make its slate to competitive with the iPad? Size matters — A “Google Pad” should target the sweet spot of screen sizes, that of [...]

Steve Rubel Faces the iPad-Only Challenge

It wasn’t that long ago when I actually used an ultra-mobile PC or a netbook as my primary machine. For my meager computing needs — I tend to live in a browser and don’t often use third-party apps for work — the scenario worked out reasonably well. I haven’t repeated the experiment with the iPad [...]

So Opera Mini Is Now on the iPhone — So What?

Opera yesterday accomplished something many thought would never happen: Its Opera Mini 5 browser was approved for sale in the iTunes App Store. The popular browser boasts more than 50 million users worldwide thanks to several key features: fast browsing speeds, a tabbed interface and Opera Link, which synchronizes user bookmarks from Opera on a [...]

Microsoft Aims New Kin Handsets at Twittering Teens

Microsoft today launched its Kin line of handsets — web-enabled touchscreen phones built around social networking features, messaging, video sharing and the company’s Zune music offering — with two initial models. The new line is aimed squarely at the pre-smartphone demographic — a group that few competitors are targeting. The Kin One and Kin Two [...]

Buying Palm Would Thrust HTC Into the Smartphone Spotlight

Palm is reportedly seeking a buyer, and among the top potential suitors being named are HTC and Lenovo. Taiwan’s HTC would be the logical choice, as Palm’s innovative and intuitive webOS platform would make the handset maker a key player in the worldwide smartphone market, lifting it from its current role as supporting cast member. HTC may not [...]

Apple’s iPad — Thoughts From a 12 Year Old

BlackBerry Could Connect Your Next Vehicle

Research In Motion today agreed to purchase QNX Software Systems from Harman International for an undisclosed amount. The move signals RIM’s further intent to add its products to vehicles, and complements last May’s purchase of Dash Navigation, a maker of Internet-connected, in-car GPS devices. QNX Software Systems creates middleware and real-time operating systems for embedded devices [...]

MobileTechRoundup 204 — iPad Slated for Consumers?

CLICK HERE to download the file and listen directly. MoTR 204 is 42:30 minutes long and is a 39 MB file in MP3 format. HOSTS: James Kendrick (Houston), Matthew Miller (Seattle) and Kevin C. Tofel (Philadelphia) TOPICS: iPhone OS 4.0 feature roundtable So what is the iPad good for — or not good for? About [...]

Apple’s iPhone OS 4.0 – What You Need to Know

After announcing the sale of 450,000 iPads since Saturday, Apple today unveiled its iPhone OS 4.0, the next evolution in the company’s mobile strategy. Although several of the new features, due for release this summer, were on my list of expectations two days ago, the bulk of them are indeed evolutionary — on the surface. But [...]

Reach Out, Touch Faith and Donate on the Mobile Web

Governments and non-profit organizations could be the next sectors to build touch-enabled applications for the mobile web, according to a Taptu report released today. Unlike specific mobile handset platforms like those of Apple, Google and others, the Internet is agnostic, making it useful for low-budget organizations to engage the masses. Though the web’s agnosticism is [...]

Forget iWorks — I’m Editing Google Docs on the iPad

With all the talk about Apple’s iPad, I’m noticing two trends. First, the device is polarizing opinions — people either lust for it or say they don’t see the point of it. Very few seem to be “on the fence” about the iPad. But there’s a common thread among all — folks are wondering how [...]

People Want Mobile Broadband, But Not Personal Hotspots

Global sales of mobile broadband devices rose 55 percent in 2009 over the year previous year, according to a recent Infonetics Research report, even despite the effects of the economic downturn. Even more surprising, however, was that sales of personal hotspots such as Novatel’s MiFi fell 28 percent. As 3G technologies transition to faster speeds [...]

Rhapsody Now Connecting on Android

When it comes to mobile music subscription options, there’s already quite a few — Pandora, Slacker, and Thumbplay all come to mind. And now, Rhapsody joins the club on Google Android handsets with a new beta client available in the Android Marketplace. The software is a free download, but does require a monthly fee for [...]

Netflix Reviewed: The iPad’s First “Killer App?”

I’ve used the free Netflix iPad software daily since Saturday’s iPad launch, and I can honestly say I’ve watched more content in the past three days than I did in the prior three weeks. My Netflix account ($8.99/month) gives me access to the more than 12,000 titles in its Instant Streaming library — and essentially turns [...]

Could a Better Carrier Have Saved Palm?

Palm has fired the creators of its ineffective Pre advertisements, but tossing Modernista overboard isn’t going to right this sinking ship. Palm’s hoped-for comeback is floundering, not merely because of the bad advertising campaign, but because of bad timing, an ill-chosen launch partner and a lack of developer support. Above all, Palm’s experience proves that [...]

6 Features to Expect in iPhone OS 4.0

Less than a week after the introduction of the iPad, Apple plans to share details on “the future of iPhone OS” at a press event this Thursday, where the company is widely expected to lift the wraps off version 4.0 of Apple’s mobile operating system, which will add new functionality to current iPod touch, iPhone [...]

Sensorly Crowdsources Worldwide Cellular Coverage Maps

Ever needed to know how strong you cell signal is or will be while on the go? Sensory, a French company that gathers and shares network coverage data, recently added more than 600,000  Verizon Wireless data points to its free service. This data is in addition to 5 million informational bits previously captured around the world [...]

Windows 7 Upgrade Prices Drop, But Only For New Computers

In the past, I harshly criticized touchscreen netbooks that come with Microsoft Windows 7 Starter Edition. Why? There’s simply no point in paying for a touchscreen display if the device operating system doesn’t support touch input. If you’ve been touched by this situation, you do have an option — upgrade to a higher version of [...]

How To Sync Multiple Calendars to the iPad With Google Sync

Yes, we’ve covered Apple’s iPad quite a bit this week. While there are other happenings in the mobile tech world, this was a big one — besides, I haven’t blogged much about it just yet. Oh, I will — I’ve been spending time with the device in bits and pieces over this holiday weekend — [...]

Google Is Missing an Android Opportunity on Non-smartphones

Android is growing like crazy on smartphones — and stagnating everywhere else. That’s because Google is keeping its app store off all Android devices that aren’t smartphones. Such an approach is understandable only in the sense that it gives the company more control over the Android experience, but it will ultimately serve to send consumers [...]

Exclusive — iPad App Press Release Generator

In the five years I’ve been blogging, never has my Inbox overflowed more than the past 24 hours. Everyone and their brother wants to share news of their hot new application for Apple’s iPad, which arrives tomorrow. Here’s the thing — we get it, folks. There are already a few thousand iPad apps in the [...]

MobileTechRoundup 203 — The Mobile Paradigm Shifts

CLICK HERE to download the file and listen directly. MoTR 203 is 37:15 minutes long and is a 34 MB file in MP3 format. HOSTS: James Kendrick (Houston), Matthew Miller (Seattle) and Kevin C. Tofel (Philadelphia) TOPICS: On iPad eve, how much are folks spending on apps? A tectonic shift from keyboard/mouse is finally making [...]

Verizon Offers Free 3G Tethering With webOS Phones

This might be hard to believe with today being April Fools Day and all, but Verizon appears to be giving away 3G tethering with the purchase of a webOS phone. Prices on the Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus have fluctuated throughout the day, but one constant is the Mobile Hotspot service — instead of [...]

UPDATED: Tegra2 Problems Delaying Other Tablets?

Updated: Are you looking for a tablet that doesn’t have a fruit logo on it? Chances are such a device is likely to run on the Nvidia Tegra2 platform, which dazzled in it’s Consumer Electronics Show debut. I was in attendance for the Tegra2 introduction and I walked away impressed. And later, we got hands-on [...]

What the Web Is Saying About the Apple iPad

Although the iPad’s true potential will come from the media and software applications that will inevitably be created for it, first impressions of the device itself are just as important. Consumers want to know how easy is to use the iPad’s finger-friendly interface for browsing, navigating and data entry. What scenarios might be better suited for [...]

Cisco Valet Makes It Easier to Miss Linksys

Typically, whenever someone would mention wireless routers in the home, I would immediately picture a blue box stamped with the name Linksys on it. And if that router came from Cisco, I would indeed be picturing the right one. Not anymore. Cisco today unveiled its own branded line of home network products, called Cisco Valet. [...]

First MeeGo Builds Available for Netbooks, Handhelds

With so much focus on a new mobile computing device due out this weekend, you’d think everyone else in this space is standing around, right? Not so, says Nokia. The first MeeGo code drop just landed and I’m downloading it now for my netbook. There are three builds in the repository, each supporting different hardware [...]

DoubleTwist for Mac Integrates With Android Market — Sweet!

DoubleTwist is quickly becoming the iTunes solution for the masses and I’m glad I adopted it back in October of last year to manage my mobile media. With it, I’m buying music on a regular basis from Amazon’s MP3 store and can synchronizing media to nearly any device. Today, I took an early look at the latest [...]

Elan Sues to Ban Apple Multitouch Products in U.S. — Even the iPad

Elan Microelectronics filed suit against Apple with the U.S. International Trade Commission today, alleging that certain Apple products violate a multitouch patent previously awarded to the Taiwanese company. Elan in April of last year filed a related suit with the U.S. District Court in Northern California over the same patent — No. 7,274,353 — which [...]

Verizon Droid Does Android 2.1

After a lengthy wait and at least one delay, Verizon today began to push out the Android 2.1 update to its Motorola Droid customers. The staggered plan began with 1,000 customers today, which is expected to be followed by 9,000 additional customers at midnight. Engadget says if all goes well by then, everyone else’s Droid [...]

Cubed For Android: A Mesmerizing Music Player

Now that I have more of my music migrated to a new 16 GB memory card, I’m listening to tunes more often on my Android handset. The native Music player is OK, but it’s fairly boring to look at and use. AndroidGuys recently reviewed a beta application called “Cubed,” although you’ll find it in the [...]

Zinio’s New AIR App Shows the Future of Magazines

The year was 2005 and I was reading a magazine — on a Microsoft Windows Tablet PC. The experience was a precursor to what I anticipate from Apple’s iPad. It was an enjoyable and portable experience. The software I used back then was Zinio Reader and a new beta version of the software is now [...]

iPad Videos Demonstrate Touch Computing’s Future

In between my reading and writing yesterday, I did sneak in all 11 iPad guided tour videos. As I expected, they’re typical Apple fare: high quality, focus on features and make mundane tasks seem magical. Each video highlights a specific application or feature and the most impressive video was the one I wasn’t going to [...]

Has Google Solved Its Android Fragmentation Problem?

Google continues to gobble up large chunks of smartphone market share, but offering four different versions of the same operating system will eventually stunt that growth by derailing customer purchase plans. After all, why buy a new device with an earlier version of Android — say, version 1.6 — if the better hardware and software [...]

Mobile Browsing Gets Faster, But Apps Are Taking Center Stage

Not that long ago, surfing the web was a chore on any non x86 mobile device. There were exceptions of course — browsers like Opera Mini come to mind — but browsing on a handset simply didn’t cut it. Two years back, Steve Paine from UMPC Portal ran some comparison tests and found that ARM [...]

Boingo Brings $1.99 Pay-Per-Use Wi-Fi to Apple’s iPad

Boingo today launched a new app to help get Apple iPads online without any ties to AT&T. Boingo’s Wi-Fi Credits software — which also supports iPhones and iPod touch devices — offers wireless access for $1.99 per hour. The new software is available today in the iTunes App Store and leverages a user’s iTunes account for [...]

Verizon Nexus One — $199 With 2-Year Contract?

You might want to take this with a grain of salt, but the Google Nexus One sales site reportedly showed the Nexus One on Verizon’s network very briefly this weekend, per Android Central. A forum enthusiast member grabbed a screen cap, which of course is under scrutiny since Google’s online store isn’t showing availability of the phone [...]

In the App Economy Does the Mobile Browser Matter?

Mobile broadband consumption shows no signs of slowing, but the way people access the mobile web could be changing. Gartner has released 10 Mobile Technologies to Watch in 2010, and while I don’t disagree with any on the list, two are jumping out at me: app stores and the mobile web itself. According to the [...]

1 in 2 Americans Will Have a Smartphone by Christmas 2011

If you’re not ready to bid farewell to the feature phone just yet, you might want to start preparing your goodbyes. Nielsen today estimates that by the end of 2011, smartphones will overtake feature phones in the U.S.. One in two Americans will have a smartphone by Christmas of that year, Nielsen forecasts, compared to [...]

ASUS $499 Touchscreen Netbook Arriving Soon in U.S.

While some countries are already taking stock of the ASUS T101MT netbook, it’s not here in the U.S. That’s about to change according to a Liliputing source — Brad Linder says we should see the touchscreen device next month for around $499. At that price, I suspect it’s a base model and not the decked [...]

Why Is the Android Logo Green? Revenue Sharing!

How do you grow a business? There are many ways, but one is to pay others to help you. And according to paidContent and “sources who are familiar with the deals,” that’s how Google is growing it’s Android business. Apparently, Google is sharing advertising revenues with handset makers that build Android handsets. And here I [...]

Google Mobile, But Not the Web, Storms the BlackBerry

Have a BlackBerry Storm or Storm2? Here’s a forecast for you — Google Mobile makes an appearance today and is yours for the taking. The software finally arrives on Research In Motion’s touchscreen phones as a free download from Google’s mobile website: http://m.google.com. With it, Storm owners can search the web, contacts or emails by [...]

MobileTechRoundup 202 – CTIA Became the Android Show

CLICK HERE to download the file and listen directly. MoTR 202 is 35 minutes long and is a 32.2 MB file in MP3 format. HOSTS: James Kendrick (Houston), Matthew Miller (Seattle) and Kevin C. Tofel (Philadelphia) TOPICS: How did CTIA become the Android show? HTC evolves the smartphone with its EVO 4G Is there room [...]

Lost Your Android Phone? iTag Can Find It

My phone is typically never out of my sight. I’ve actually been accused of having it stuck to my hand, and I generally don’t deny that. There are a few rare times, however, when I suddenly realize that I haven’t seen my phone for a whole five minutes. Yes, if you want to see a [...]

Samsung Galaxy — Another Rival in Superphone Universe

People are still buzzing about the HTC EVO, which debuted yesterday at the CTIA trade show. There’s good reason for the buzz — fast processor, large display, high-definition video recording and speedy 4G service. But if you take away the 4G, another phone appeared yesterday that rivals the EVO on paper. I’m talking about the [...]

HTC EVO 4G: Sprint’s Speedy Superphone

HTC just raised the superphone bar with Sprint’s introduction of the HTC EVO 4G — the first phone ready to jump on Sprint’s fast 4G network. And it’s not just the WiMAX radio that makes the EVO compelling. From top to bottom and everywhere in between this Android phone is built for performance. Why would [...]

Verizon BlackBerry, Android Phones Ring Up Skype This Week

We knew that today would bring some news from Verizon and Skype — the companies just held a joint event at the CTIA show announcing Skype Mobile availability. This partnership actually formed last month but the details are filling in just today. Starting this Thursday, March 25, nine initial Verizon 3G handsets will support the exclusive Skype [...]

First Look at Dropbox’s Android Client

It’s raining cloud applications on mobile devices these days. Last week, ZumoDrive landed on both the Android and webOS platforms and now the Dropbox folks are showing off screen shots of their client for Android. We heard this was coming back in February and I was so excited last night that I inadvertently tweeted that [...]

Mozilla Is Running Out of Mobile Options for Firefox

Mozilla yesterday stopped development on its browser for Microsoft’s mobile platform, citing the lack of a Native Development Kit. The new Windows Phone 7 operating system is built upon Windows CE 6.0, but without an NDK, Mozilla isn’t moving forward. In fact, progress on Windows Mobile 6.x devices is halting as well. That’s a shame [...]