At a recent investor conference, Sprint’s Chief Financial Officer, Robert Brust, admitted to investors that “The Pre didn’t work out as well as we hoped” (even despite its exciting appearance in Survivor: Heroes vs Villains) and that they’d “love to have” the iPhone.
Sprint was the exclusive carrier of the Palm Pre from its launch in June 2009 through to June 2010, and was hoped to help both Sprint and Palm through a rough period (à la AT&T and the iPhone). Sadly, however, the relationship didn’t seem to work for eithercompany.
With the crazy (and continuing) success of the iPhone, it’s understandable that Sprint would lust after the device, but don’t get your hopes up, Sprint fans: it’s more likely to hit Verizon before Sprint, and only then after AT&T have let it slip from their Vader-like grip.
Always the optimist, Monsieur Brust also said that Sprint had learned a lot since it launched the Pre. Let’s hope some of that fresh knowledge comes in handy for the launch of the super-hot EVO 4G on June 4th.
Oh, mobile TV, you really are taking a beating, aren’t you? Despite hopes and promises over the last few years, nothing has really come of it but failures.
And now, Spain has abandoned plans to bring the DVB-H terrestrial mobile TV service to its citizens.
Bernardo Lorenzo, Director General of telecommunications at the Ministry of Industry, has said that if there is not an increase in demand, the government will allocate the frequencies destined for mobile TV to other services, adding that Spain does not want to become “one of the failures that have occurred in Europe”.
The Big B is referencing the fact that there have been several mobile DTV launches across Europe, none of which were successful. Ouch.
Every so often, some new iPhone app comes along that makes me go, “Dang, I really wish I had one o’ dem iPhone thingers.” Well, as you are probably expecting, right now is one of those moments.
I was but a young-un when the game came out, but it was my first real experience with video games, and certainly the most memorable. Maybe that and Stunts.
My point is that it was awesome. Great graphics (you know, for the time), fluid animation, swords, puzzles, a princess… it was like man-Mario.
And now all you lucky iPhone owners get to take one of the greatest 8-bit adventures ever told around with you in your pocket. And you don’t even have to worry about fiddling with extended memory or floppy disks. You darn kids have got it so easy.
The game should come out some time before June 2010. Sadly, the price is not yet announced.
You heard it right! AT&T have finally given their approval to allow their bazillion or so iPhone users to hook their computer up to AT&T’s magical data waves, tether stylee.
Tethering was first introduced as an option in iPhone OS 3.0, but AT&T wouldn’t let US users get in on the laptop-on-iPhone action, for fear that their network would explode. So, up until this point, tethering has strictly been an international affair, despite AT&T’s looming promise of “soon“.
While I’m not directly affected by this issue (I’m Australian, and don’t own an iPhone), it’s not like you guys haven’t been waiting like a million years or anything, so I’m happy for you. No, really. *hugs*
If you’ve updated to OS 4.0 beta 4, and you’re not seeing the tethering option, just reset your network settings, and everything should be hunky dory.
You may or may not have seen the totally ridiculous, totally NSFW, 8-bit brilliance that is the film-clip for Flairs’ Trucker’s Delight (note: if 8-bit boobs, poop or misogynistic truckers offend, don’t click that link. Editors Note: Heads up – you’ll need to check your maturity at the door.).
Have you watched it yet? To me, the logical progression from creating a film-clip based on an imaginary game is to make an actual game based on a film-clip based on an imaginary game.
And so I present to you, the first episode of Truckers Delight for iPhone and iPod Touch.
For the merest of $2.99 at the App Store, you can chase after blondes (and their well-groomed poodles), take down rival bikies, and steer 16-wheels of pain with flagrant disregard for all those “road rules” that The Man keeps sticking us truckies* with.
Just take a look at the video, below. You even get to pull the air-horn. Sweet!
*I’m not a real truckie. In fact, I didn’t even get my full drivers license until I was 24.
You two have grown so close over the last month, that it seems that all you now need to achieve completeness is a video review.
Oh, hullo, looky here!
Phone Dog have just posted their 13 minute review of the device!
The basic gist is that it’s (obviously) no match for the Snapdragon-powered Incredible, but is a good, solid alternative to a messaging phone (albeit with a data plan attached).
The reviewer even recommends it over a Kin One or Two, even though he says the keyboard is “so so”.
Funnily enough, just like the Kin, there doesn’t appear to be a retweet option in the Twitter client. Bizarre.
But enough of me, why not hear it straight from the horse’s Phone Dog’s mouth?
The longest 4 years of Bob St. Germain’s life have finally come to an end, with Verizon letting him loose from his $18,000 debt.
To save you having to read the article I just linked to (I’m nice like that), I’ll bring you up to speed:
Once upon a time, Bob St. Germain signed up to a Verizon phone plan that included 2 years of free data. His son, Bryan, didn’t know that the free period had ended when he downloaded about 800MB of data while tethering the phone to his PC one rainy day in 2006.
4-year-long-story short, Bob refused to pay, tried to sue, and now, today, Verizon have agreed to let Bill’s bobsled Bob’s bill slide.
It’s not all rainbows and unicorns, however, as Bob’s bad bill has blemished his credit. Bummer for Bob.
Over the weekend, a fresh WinPho 7 ROM leaked its way onto XDA Developers, and with it came some juicy information.
The leaked ROM was labelled as coming from a device called the HTC “Mondrian” (a nod toward WinPho 7’s Metro UI).
Since the leak, the studious fellows on the XDA forum managed to pick apart the ROM and reveal some tasty specs, including the image we have here (which could be a basic render of the device, or just a generic place holder. Nobody knows).
But onto the specs!
So far, it has been revealed as having a 4.3″ 480×800 screen (just like the EVO 4G), atop a 1.3GHz QSD8650A/B Qualcomm Snapdragon Processor (which supports UMTS and CDMA 3G), and… a compass. Beyond that, there’s very little, just that it probably won’t have a physical keyboard.
So it’s early days yet, but with that processor under the hood, and that screen at your finger tips, you can bet that this phone will have a lot more posts written about it in the future. Stay tuned.
HTC held a press conference in Germany today where they showed off their successor to the entry-level Tattoo, dubbed the Wildfire.
As strange as it sounds, it appears that HTC weren’t quite ready to announce it, but once the news was out, it spread like Wildfire across the web, so HTC went and confirmed it with a press release dated for tomorrow. So I guess we’re a bit like time travellers now, no?
The phone is destined for the European and Asian markets in Q3 of this year, and will be available in black, white, red, and (the often under-appreciated) brown.
The specs are pretty similar to my not-entry-level-at-the-time Hero (sigh), only with the addition of an LED flash, a lower-rez screen, and a bit more RAM.
Specifically, the phone will rock a Qualcomm MSM7225 processor @525MHz, a 3.2″ QVGA screen (the Hero sports HVGA), 5MP auto-focus camera with LED flash, 512MB Flash, 384MB RAM (the Hero only has 288MB), and the now standard WiFi b/g, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, GPS/AGPS, and MicroSD slot.
Interested? Slashgear have a whole bunch o’ photos, and even a hands-on video, which I’ve embedded below, just above the press release from the future.
KEEP YOUR FRIENDS CLOSE WITH HTC WILDFIRE
Share apps, updates and experiences with the latest social powerhouse from HTC
LONDON – 18 May, 2010, 07.00 CEST – HTC Corporation, a global designer of smartphones, today introduced HTC Wildfire™, a new HTC Sense-based Android phone that integrates the most popular social networks to help bring your friends closer to you. HTC Wildfire closely follows the success of the acclaimed HTC Desire and makes the company’s signature HTC Sense experience accessible to a younger audience.
“Today’s social networks provide an essential forum for friendship with more than 400 million users* – many of whom are young adults – actively sharing their lives with their friends through Facebook,” said Florian Seiche, Vice President, HTC EMEA. “HTC Wildfire makes the HTC Sense experience available to young mobile users for the first time. It brings all your communications into one place, whether it’s through Facebook, Twitter, text messages, images or email, ensuring that you are never far away from the conversation and always close to your friends.”
HTC Wildfire helps you stay connected with those who are most important to you through HTC Sense, a user experience focused on putting people at the centre by making phones work in a more simple and natural way. You won’t miss out on the fun as HTC’s Friend Stream application seamlessly gathers and displays content from social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr into one organised stream of updates. HTC Wildfire enables you to stay up to date with your friends’ posts, comments, alerts and photos, wherever you are.
In addition, each contact viewed in HTC Wildfire’s address book includes a thread of recent communications with that person, including when you last spoke, recent text messages and emails, and social network updates. When your friend calls, HTC Caller ID displays their Facebook profile photo and latest update, as well as a reminder if their birthday is fast approaching.
Thanks to a new app sharing widget, HTC Wildfire enables you to recommend an application by email, text message or over social networks. Your friends will receive a link allowing them to find the application on the Android Market with a single click and download it to their phone.
Florian Seiche continued, “We understand that people need a better way to navigate their way through the tens of thousands of applications that are currently available on the Android Market. In fact, our own independent research found that consumers are not only hungry for the latest and most popular applications that their friends are using, they want an easier way to find and download them. For the first time ever, you can recommend the newest and coolest apps to a friend or group of friends with HTC Wildfire. With so many applications to choose from, there’s a world of content to discover and pass along to your friends.”
HTC’s latest advanced smartphone is great for viewing and sharing photos on Flickr and for surfing the internet thanks to its 3.2-inch capacitive touch screen. A five-megapixel camera with auto focus and LED flash allows you to capture special moments, while a 3.5mm audio jack and micro SD card slot mean you are never without your favourite songs.
Availability
The new HTC Wildfire will be broadly available to customers across major European and Asian markets from Q3 2010.
Back in 2008, after milking the poor cash cow to death, Motorola decided to can their once crazy-popular RAZR series of phones. A good thing, too, as their Android line of phones are really quite good, and have helped them climb out of the dreaded red end.
But today over on Slash Gear, a prototype RAZR3 has risen from the grave to show us a twisted world where Motorola feature phones were the hotness, and smart phones were only for the geeks and their pocket protectors (like me…). It’s quite chilling.
The specs are actually quite good, especially considering it was meant to be released back in those hazy days of 2009. A 5MP camera with LED flash, GPS, Voice Control, FM radio, chrome exterior, you know the drill. But no apps. Eck. I shiver to think of phones without app stores.
*shiver*
But, for those with a taste for nostalgia, or a perverse liking for glimpses into alternate realities, you should take a look at the video, below.
I know you’re peachy-keen to start devving for the new Symbian^3 platform.
“The what?” you ask, as if this is the first you’ve heard of the Symbian^3 Web Development Kit.
You’ve made a website before, haven’t you? Maybe you’re even a web developer? Well, aren’t you glad to know that the dev kit for Nokia’s latest-and-greatest OS uses your favourite languages: HTML, JavaScript, and CSS.
You’ll be even happier to know that today Nokia removed that ugly “Beta” tag from the kit.
Yep, this baby is ready to roll. By learning just a few extra Javascript APIs, you’ll soon be able to make Symbian^3 applications that can access contacts, the accelerometer, the camera, and location, among other neat tricks.
If you’re hooked on the high-end features of the new Nokia N8, have been a Symbian follower since way back, or are just a curious fellow with a passion for web development, you should go check out the download page, here.
I know I’m not alone in my lust for decent phones with QWERTY keypads.
While I’ve been thoroughly enjoying the company of my touch-screen-only HTC Hero for 7 months now, I must admit that I am looking at other (more well endowed) phones while Hero’s back is turned.
But you know what? She’s ok with that. I guess that’s why we work so well together… even though I dream of the days where I could type without looking at the keyboard.
…and along comes Ally…
She has a full QWERTY, y’know. I like that in a phone, but I need something more than just a QWERTY if I am to consider acting on this whimsy.
Did you say Snapdragon? Oh my. I like those. A friend of mine is currently with a snapdragon-powered thing called Desirée, and he says it’s a whole new experience.
Of course, the Snapdragon is just the beginning: Ally also has a 480×800 AMOLED, a 5MP camera, and 720p video, all running on top of Android 2.1. While those specs are a bit girl-next-door these days, I think I’d like to meet this Ally. Wouldn’t you?
I hear she’s changed her name twice already: she used to be called “Aloha”, and before that she was just “LU2300″. She’s an elusive type, y’see.
In fact, I’ve just told you everything I know. But rest assured, I’ll pass on any details as I find them. I’m sure we’ll become the best of friends.
Augmented reality is being touted as the new hotness. I’m sure most of you have heard of the augmented reality browser, Layar. Basically, Layar offers a window through which to view the world, where handy hints and information are displayed over the top in real-time.
The Amsterdam-based company released Layar last year for both Android and iPhone, and a number of interesting “layers” have already made their way into the application. The layers mentioned in that post were created by interested developers, but today, Layar opened up a store for selling layers.
Layers in the store so far include a layer by travel-guide publisher Berlitz that points out hotels and places to shop, and EyeTour are offering a layer for tourists in Puerto Rico. There is also a layer for Disneyland and Disney World.
I guess the most obvious use for augmented reality is to make sense of an unfamiliar city, so it makes sense that the first layers are targeted at tourists.
However, commercialising layers like this will hopefully mean some really useful and innovative layers will appear in the browser in the future — especially when there are already 1.6 million copies of the reality browser floating around.
Currently, the store accepts PayPal in the U.S., U.K., Canada and Australia, and offers a 60/40 split between developers and themselves, respectively.
Can you think of any layers you’d like to see (or would purchase) in the future?
For more info on (and screenshots of) the new paid layers, you can check out Layar’s site, here.
Despite the recent revelation and tear-down of the next-gen iPhone, there are still many questions surrounding the device (just less than there were before…).
One of those questions concerns the camera in the upcoming device. We know that there is a flash on it, but what of the resolution?
Well, according to The Chosun, LG Innotek have ramped up production of a high-quality 5MP sensor for the next iPhone.
This comes as a contradiction to reports last December that OmniVision — current suppliers of iPhone CMOS sensors — would supply a 5MP variant for the next iPhone, but, so what? Either way, it looks like the next iPhone will have a 5MP camera.
And damn well it should, too. This is the first year that the iPhone is faced with serious competition, so I wouldn’t doubt that Apple will finally bump the camera specs to match otherphonemanufacturers. And I don’t doubt they will.
Google today announced on its blog that they have upgraded the mobile Image Search on Android 2.1 and iPhone OS 3.0+ devices.
It’s a typically Google update, in that the revamp will provide more speed and less clutter — two things that are always welcome.
There will now be more thumbnails per screen, and a quick swipe to the left or right will have you move between pages of results.
After clicking on a thumbnail, the images will be presented fullscreen on a plain black background (try saying that 6 times quickly), with the text disappearing after a few moments.
All in all, it’s a nice, clean, fast upgrade: a win in my books.
To access it, simply go to www.google.com on your Android 2.1 or iPhone 3.0+ handset, and click on images.
Neither of those handsets in reach right now? No worries: check out the video demo, below.
You’re an outdoorsy type, aren’t you? You only read mobile-phone blogs on your down-time between hiking and BASE jumping. I can tell.
Being that you are that wonderful blend of outdoorsman (or outdoorswoman) and phone aficionado, I bet you’re often peeved about the whole lack of power outlets in the wild (I know I am). Well, well, looky here, someone out there has heard your cries.
Sagem are soon to release their solar-powered, puma-branded feature-phone to the masses. How do we know that? Well, it’s just gone and had it’s first photo shoot with the FCC, that’s how.
It’s not all candy and rainbows (or mountains and douglas firs, if you’d prefer), though, as it seems that the supported bands are GSM 850, 900, 1800 and 1900, as well as WCDMA I and VIII… which means no 3G in the US. Sorry, peeps.
It is, however, slated for release in Europe in April, so at least you know you can make phone calls while traversing the Swiss Alps, Bond style. International markets will follow “later”.
On Tuesday, Apple announced that late last month, they closed a deal to acquire Intrinsity — the Texas-based chip maker responsible for the A4 chip used in the iPad.
Word has it that Intirinsity cast the voodoo that allowed the A4 chip in the iPad to clock up to 1Ghz without destroying battery life.
This dark magic is obviously attractive to other mobile device manufacturers, so it makes business sense for Apple to acquire this company.
Having wizards like this working for Apple would obviously help Apple develop chips in the future, too, and also helps keep future hardware developments “in house” and under the watchful eye of The Apple Secret Police.
This isn’t the first time that Apple have purchased a chipmaker: Apple purchased PA Semi in 2008. And with rumours of Apple considering purchasing ARM, it probably won’t be their last.
A more detailed dissection of the issue is over at TechCrunch.
On their Facebook page today, US Cellular today teased an “around July” release for the HTC Desire (previously known as the Bravo).
The device, in case you didn’t know, is basically a Nexus One in Sheep’s (or HTC’s) Clothing (which includes Sense UI), but with a few differences.
There is a little more RAM on the Desire (presumably to fit in the extra bits of Sense UI), and no docking ports, or second-mic-noise-cancelling-tech.
The buttons on the desire are also “physical” (as opposed to capacitive), and there is an optical trackpad, rather than a trackball (which is good, because, like old mice balls of yore, the trackball on my Hero is already wearing out. Or getting gunked up. I don’t really know. But it’s not working so great anymore… aaaanywhooooo).
The original announcement is included below:
Hungry for more Android info? How about a peek at some specs for the gorgeous HTC Desire including a 3.7″ AMOLED touchscreen display, 5 MP camera with LED flash, Wi-Fi, GPS, Android Market and an 8 GB microSD card. How about news of a launch date around July? We’ll need to make sure our rigorous testing is complete before you can get your hands on this sweet phone. Stay tuned here for more exclusive Android updates!
Garmin-Asus today announced their second Android-powered phone, the A10 (for reasons unknown, they’re seemingly not calling it a nuvifone).
Just like the nuvifone A50, the device aims to be a pedestrian navigation device (as in, for pedestrians, not a boring navigation device), and will come with Garmin’s navigation software and maps pre-loaded.
The benefit of pre-loaded maps is that no matter where you are (reception be damned) you’ll be able to use the navigation features (unlike Google Maps).
The disadvantage here is the you’ll have to manually update the maps every-so-often so that the maps are current (unlike Google Maps). Sadly, there is no word on the process/price for updating the maps.
The screen has the same HVGA (320×240) resolution as the A50, and, just like the A50, it will support Microsoft Exchange (whether this means it’s running Android 2.1, with native Exchange support, or — like the A50 — Android 1.6 with Exchange on top, isn’t clear from the press-release).
The phone includes a 5 megapixel camera, which is pretty standard fare for current Android devices, but still an improvement upon the A50’s 3 megapixels.
In fact, aside from the camera spec bump, I don’t really see much of a difference between the this A10 fellow and it’s elder sibling, the A50.
Unfortunately, no price details were mentioned, but the device is set for launch in Europe and Asia-pacific some time around the middle of 2010, and will include a car mount kit — just like the A50. *A50* *A50* (…those were meant to be echoes…)
Over the weekend, a fresh WinPho 7 ROM leaked its way onto 
Back in 2008, after milking the poor cash cow to death, Motorola decided to can their once crazy-popular 
I know you’re peachy-keen to start devving for the new Symbian^3 platform.
Augmented reality is 
Despite the recent 
Google today announced on 
The itsy bitsy, teeny weeny, 
You’re an outdoorsy type, aren’t you? You only read mobile-phone blogs on your down-time between hiking and BASE jumping. I can tell.
On Tuesday, Apple announced that late last month, they closed a deal to acquire Intrinsity — the Texas-based chip maker responsible for the A4 chip used in the iPad.
On their 
Garmin-Asus today announced their second Android-powered phone, the A10 (for reasons unknown, they’re seemingly not calling it a nuvifone).