Section: Haven’t caught all of the Gadgetell news this week? Here's your chance to catch up on this week’s top 10 articles! - Gadgetell Review: Motorola DROID from Verizon Wireless
” Recently, I have had some time to check one of the latest Verizon smartphones, the Motorola DROID running Google Android 2.0. This is the first time I had used the Android platform and I was pleased with the…” MORE » - Google makes nearly $500 million a year because of domain typos
” If you ever end up at Panodra.com instead of Pandora.com, you may be putting a few extra pennies into Google’s piggy bank. That’s because of typosquatting, the deliberate registration of a popular domain’s misspelling. Knowing that people often make typos when going to websites - like spelling…” MORE » - Verizon will soon allow unlimited Skype calling over 3G
” When Verizon announced that it would be holding a joint press conference with Skype at Mobile World Congress we essentially knew that Verizon would be more friendly toward the VoIP service. Verizon and Skype have announced that Verizon will now allow those…” MORE » - Microsoft Turtle super-phone breaks cover. Only 4GB of memory?
” According to the FCC filing, Sharp has built a new phone that approximates the rumored Turtle design. Sharp built the Sidekicks for Danger back in the day and the suggestion here is Sharp is again building phones for Danger, now…” MORE » - Yacht or plane? US entry in America’s Cup ditches sail for massive wing
“The 33rd America’s Cup is now underway in Valencia, Spain with USA’s BMW Oracle Racing vs. the Swiss Alinghi. This year, the boats are radically different: US using a trimaran (3 hulls) and the Swiss with a catamaran (2…” MORE » - Samsung S8500 Wave photos surface on the net
” Photos of Samsung S8500 “Wave” have just emerged all over the web. The Wave is Samsung’s first phone which features the all-new Bada operating system with Touchwiz 3.0. It measures at only 10.9mm thin, and sports a 3.3” AMOLED capacitive…” MORE » - Google Buzz abandons auto-following in favor of auto-suggesting
” We’ve got to admit that Google Buzz’s auto-following model is really crappy. I’ve had some random eBay sellers (I bought some stuff from them a long time ago) auto-following me on my Google Reader ever since I activated Buzz. Sure, in…” MORE » - Verizon may announce Skype phones at MWC
” If the report over at Business Week were to be believed, Verizon may very well be announcing new Skype-supported phones at the Mobile World Congress on Tuesday. Verizon announced that they will be holding a…” MORE » - Google grabs iPhone app - pulls it down
” MORE » - Flash coming to mobile with help from Palm, RIM and Google
“Today, Adobe is announcing Flash Player 10.1 and AIR for mobile devices. Coming first to Android devices in 2010, Adobe aims to bring the immersive full web experience to all mobiles…” MORE »
Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
Section: Audio, Communications, Computers, Gadgets / Other, Features, Originals, Columns, Who's On Crack Welcome to this week’s Who’s on Crack, Gadgetell’s lump sum of odd moves in tech for the past week. This week, the action was in Barcelona as the big guns showed off their stuff at the Mobile World Congress, possibly the biggest mobile phone event of the year. This week’s nominees are: - Microsoft gets all classy
- Flash is the devil
- Verizon and Skype get cozy
- Google Buzz: the first punch line of 2010?
Microsoft pulls a Coke and a smile? It turns out the announcement of the death of Microsoft Windows was premature. This week, Microsoft announced Windows Phone 7 Series. Gone is the Windows Mobile name, as it became associated being old, out-moded and out of touch, a lot like my Dad. Microsoft says they’ll still offer Windows Mobile 6.5 lineage but will call it Windows Phone Classic. Classic? Really? Years ago, Coke reformulated and launched New Coke. It was horrible, so they had to back pedal and quickly reissued Coke Classic to hold onto marketshare while assuring users this wasn’t the crappy new Coke they were trying to push on us. Flash forward to today and now Microsoft goes the Classic route. Am I the only one with a bad taste in my mouth? I’d much rather watch a YouTube video of Microsoft Phone team going “Office Space” on the Windows Mobile source code with bats in an abandoned field. Now that would be a PR move. 
Flash is el diablo Flash is the opposite of motor oil, the opposite of Red Bull, and was likely coded by the devil. That is, according to Steve Jobs whose personal quest to kill off popular Adobe Flash reared its head again. Our Andrew Kameka reported, “Jobs made the comment to writers at the Wall Street Journal amid claims that Flash is "buggy" and old school technology that's no longer relevant in today's landscape. Uh, yeah, the software that powers more than 80 percent of the web's video content, countless games, and major news websites is no longer relevant according to Jobs.” Is Flash really that bad? Would it really take a 10 hour battery life down to a puny 1.5 hours? The best part is, how does Steve know this? He obviously had a prototype built with Flash so he could access most of the web. It’s not good enough for us, but for him, he probably has Apple had to test this theory as it’s designers surely wanted to play with most websites, 80% of which have Flash on their sites. $5 says he’s got 16 of these Flash-running iPads stashed around for a full 24 hours of Flash playback. Sweet. 
Verizon and Skype get engaged. This week, Verizon announced it will work with Skype and offer the service over it’s broadband network to smartphone users. Our Shawn Ingram says,“Verizon and Skype have announced that Verizon will now allow those who possess certain smartphones to call anyone over Skype on the 3G network. That could have easily been inferred from the announcement of the press conference, though it couldn't be seen that Verizon would allow for unlimited Skype calling over the 3G network.” This is great news right? Well yes, but users will still have to pay for a voice connection. Even if Skype is your main gig, you’ll still be signing up and paying for some minimum monthly voice minutes. The door is now open for a data only network. T-Mobile, Sprint? What do you guys say, how about a data only plan for Skype and data fanatics? The network of the geek! 
Google Buzz - the first punch line of 2010? It’s true, the folks you email are not necessarily your friends. Google learned the fact this week as they pushed out Google Buzz to users. Our Cheng Hung put it well, “We've got to admit that Google Buzz's auto-following model is really crappy. I've had some random eBay sellers (I bought some stuff from them a long time ago) auto-following me on my Google Reader ever since I activated Buzz. Sure, in a way, it's quite convenient because you don't have to spend time setting up, but things gets bad when it starts to auto-follow people you don't intend to follow.” It is rare to see a “F. you, Google” post become popular enough to make it to Techmeme. The author had her abusive ex-husband get auto-followed on Buzz and too much info was handed over. Google’s made some big steps to quickly stomp this out, but whoa man! Buzz is now making it into the mainstream language as a verb describing things go very wrong. For example, “Robert is really going to Buzz up Gadgetell’s right sidebar by following one of my suggestions.” You’ll find yourself more and more ways to use Google’s whoops-a-daisy in daily conversation. Enjoy it. Full Story » | Written by JG Mason for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
Section: Gadgets / Other Steve Jobs has thrown in a last-minute bid for being on crack in tech, claiming that if the iPad had Flash on it, battery life would decrease from 10 hours to 1.5 hours. Jobs made the comment to writers at the Wall Street Journal amid claims that Flash is “buggy” and old school technology that’s no longer relevant in today’s landscape. Uh, yeah, the software that powers more than 80 percent of the web’s video content, countless games, and major news websites is no longer relevant according to Jobs. The Adobe vs. Apple battle has intensified in recent weeks due to the iPad’s glaring limitations by not having Flash support, but Jobs has taken to dismissing Flash and downplaying its importance. The latest shot at Adobe’s software is a bizarre claim that isn’t backed up by evidence. It’s obvious that Apple hasn’t considered loading Flash onto the iPad, so where did they get the idea that Flash would miraculously take away 90 percent of its battery life? And on the remote chance that this claim is true, Flash is obviously not as taxing on other devices, so the real problem lies with Apple in this scenario. The irony of Jobs statement that Flash would kill the iPad is that he made those comments to the Wall Street Journal, a news source whose website is dependent on Flash for video and slideshows. Jobs was essentially telling one of the world’s largest and most-respected news outlets that their website sucks and will continue to suck on the iPad unless they and thousands of other websites ditch Flash. Read [CrunchGear] Full Story » | Written by Andrew Kameka for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
Section: Video, DVD/DVR/Blu-ray Before I begin…a point of clarification—I do see a difference in ripping and burning a DVD you purchased as opposed to downloading and burning an illegal copy of a DVD. That said, the above image represents why I choose to make pirate (rip and burn) copies of my DVD’s. Simply put, it becomes a much nicer viewing experience. I can put the movie in and it just plays. Of course, ripping and burning also prevents me from having to buy multiple copies of DVD because one of my kids scratches it. Bottom line, I do not download illegal copies, but still choose to rip and burn just so I can put a movie in and have it start before I grow old or get bored. Read [The Next Web] Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
Section: Communications, Smartphones, Mobile, Web, Google Just recently, Google announced Google Googles, an augmented reality-like software where you can point your Android-based smartphone camera to an object and it will tell you what that object is, be it a book, a landmark, or even translation of a foreign language. Fresh out of Google Mobile Labs, the Google Shopper works pretty much like Goggles, except that the Shopper focuses on, well, shopping. When you point your camera to a product, it searches the web for that product and returns price lists, reviews, specs and more. It can also scan for barcodes if you ever need a more specific search. Let’s say you don’t have the product with you but you want to search for it, you can use Voice search to tell your Android smartphone to search it for you. It is also possible to store your search history, favorites and even share your favorite products with your friends via Twitter, Gmail, Facebook and various other instant messaging clients. Head over to the Android Market and search for “Google Shopper” to get the latest release! You can also scan the QR code below this post to download the app. Read [Official Google Mobile Blog] Full Story » | Written by Cheng Hung for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
Section: Communications, Smartphones, Mobile, Web, Google  Sure Google may have recently released a shiny new web app for Google Voice users on webOS, but that does not mean everyone wants to use a web app. Sometimes a dedicated app seems a little nicer, which was the case with the gDial Pro app that was available for both the Palm Pre and Palm Pixi. Yup, I said was the case because the gDial Pro app is no longer available in the App Catalog.
The app was pulled voluntarily by the developer due to “circumstances beyond our control” which made them realize they were “not going to be able to provide a reliable service.” According to a statement on the official gDial Pro Facebook page; “We have decided we would rather pull the plug now than have users continue to experience disruptions due to various changes outside of our control.”
It seems that Google has recently made some changes to the Google Voice API and those changes mean that the new Google Voice requirements are not compatible with the restrictions that are currently found in the Mojo SDK and webOS. I have been testing a Pre Plus and Pixi Plus recently and this was the first app that I checked out upon launching the App Catalog. Unfortunately the app is no longer there for others to check out. But on a slightly positive note, the developer did leave a hint that the app could make a return. Of course, for that to happen we would need to see some changes first. We can only hope. Read [gDial on Facebook] Via [PreCentral] Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
More Recent Articles | 
No comments:
Post a Comment