Section: Communications, Smartphones, Computers, Software / Applications  If you have a BlackBerry chances are you've heard of SocialScope. The app, which offers access to Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks, has caused quite a buzz but not for the reasons you may expect. In the BlackBerry world it appears you either love the app or hate it. Why? Well for starters it's been locked in hidden beta for well over a year now, and although you can apply for an invite on their site, good luck getting it. Although an automated email says it'll show up in a few weeks, many BB owners have been waiting 6-8 months or more, while others claim they got theirs within minutes. This has caused endless frustration among BB users. Those lucky enough to have gotten an invite have their own frustrations. For reasons unknown some testers get the updates while others are left with older betas. Emails and tweets offering feedback, complaints, or both are almost always ignored. Although the app still is not available to the public and at this rate may never be, the publicity the company has generated for itself is not exactly something to be proud of. The poor handling of invites, updates, and user feedback has given the app an elitist air about it which has left a bad taste in many people's mouths. A thread on the Crackberry.com forums has well over 100 posts, most from angry users.
If that weren't bad enough, the developer likes to spend time on Twitter bashing RIM. "Twitter for BlackBerry seems to have borrowed/stolen UI elements from SocialScope…but they got the whole experience wrong.” he said in one Tweet, "“Hahaha Mike Lazardis on mobile apps 'what matters is quality not quantity' So what if your platform doesn’t have much quality or quantity?” said another. I guess he doesn't realize publically bashing the platform you want your app to run on really isn't the brightest idea. Aspiring BB app developers out there should take this as a what not to do to insure your app is a success. The app does have it’s loyal fans and fanboys, but judging from the sheer volume of angry feedback SocialScope is getting, it may have seriously shot itself in the foot before it even got out of the gate. Read [Crackberry.com] Full Story » | Written by Sue Walsh for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
Section: Video, Video Providers, Web, Online Music/Video  In what really isn't a surprising move given their much publicized store policies, just days after buying streaming video provider Vudu, Walmart has announced it is shutting down it's After Dark service, which discreetly provided hundreds of adult films to its subscribers. The service was the only major service with such a large and up to date library.
Walmart is well known for censoring music, movies, books and magazines sold in their stores. They insist that any CD carrying a Parental Advisory be edited, and that every movie with an NC-17 rating being edited to an R. They refuse to carry magazines like Stuff and Maxim, cover up mags like Cosmo and Redbook, and refuse to carry any unrated "Director's Cut" movies. Given those practices I suppose the closing of After Dark was expected, but I'm sure there are some unhappy customers out there! Read [TechCrunch] Full Story » | Written by Sue Walsh for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
Section: Communications, Cellphones, Mobile, Web  Blapkmarket is—correction: was—a website that distributed Android apps for free. The only problem was that the website was distributing apps that were never meant to be free, so it was shut down by its hosting company. Blapkmarket, a play on words of the “apk” file extension of Android apps, hosted a number of apps that cost money in the Android Market, leaving the hosting company no choice but to take down the pirated apps and shut down the website.
Blapkmarket’s creator Jesusxxx claimed that the website was for sharing and was frequented mainly by users in other countries who do not yet have access to paid apps. This is a problem that Google has failed to deal with for over a year, and their unwillingness (or inability) to finally create a method for people to legally acquire these apps was a recipe for piracy. It goes without saying that neither I nor Gadgetell endorse piracy of apps, but when a highly-coveted product isn’t made available through legal channels, people will find a way to get that product through other means. Some may argue that Blapkmarket is good for “testing” apps without paying for them, but the reality is that pirated apps repositories are havens for stealing. The same argument is made for previewing albums by downloading leaked MP3’s, but people typically keep those MP3’s without buying the CD. Content creators deserve compensation for their work and consumers deserve a chance to acquire that content legally. Google would be wise to increase support for paid apps across the globe, especially since Android’s “apk” apps are so easy to pirate. Read [AndroidGuys] Full Story » | Written by Andrew Kameka for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
Section: Audio, Headphones, Reviews, Features What is being reviewed? Yamaha EPH-30 in-ear headphones, which currently retail for $39.95. The specs - Cable length: 48"
- Weight: 10.0g
- Frequency range: 20 – 21,000Hz
- Sound pressure level: 110dB ±3dB
- Impedance: 16.0Ω ±30%
- Driver type: Dynamic
- Driver unit: Φ9.0mm
- Ship with three sets of ear pads
- Available in either white or black
My thoughts So, I received a set of Yamaha EPH-30 earbuds to review. Pretty sweet, I needed a new set of buds anyway so this was like killing two birds with one stone. Or something like that, but back to the review. The headphones looked great in the package, they appeared to be very nicely made, but after opening them I was immediately put off. That is when I realized the ends were similar to what I would expect from a “sport” style headset. In other words, the earbud cables are not the same size and are designed to be worn to the left side. Personally I am not a fan of that style and put the EPH-30’s back on my desk, where they sat for almost two weeks. But then for good or bad I committed to a review, and a review was what I was going to give. I first began to use them around the house and was surprised because they fit very nicely. In fact the initial disappointment with the cable pretty much went away. Given that I began to run with them and use them outside the house a bit. Again, I was pleasantly surprised, although I could stand for the cord (it is 48-inches) to be a little bit shorter, but that is just personal preference. The important part is they stayed in place, pretty nicely at that, even while running. As far as the sound quality, again, pretty nice. This is, in part thanks to the inclusion of three sets of ear pads which allowed me to get a very comfortable fit. And because of that fit I was also able to have a good deal of the background noise blocked. I generally listen to a pretty good mix of audio. Everything from audio and video podcasts to rock, metal, punk, alternative and even some rap. All things considered, I have to say that the sound was pretty nice across the board. But the important part is that (at least at my listening levels) they did not distort. The bottom line What you get is a decent set of headphones for a $40 price tag. In the end they offered me a really nice listening experience, despite my initial hesitations. But what it comes down to is whether or not I would recommend these. My answer to that is yes. Product [Yamaha EPH-30 headphones] Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
Section: Web, Web 2.0 / Social Networking, Google  Google has announced it is now indexing Facebook pages in its real time search results. Before anyone freaks thinking this means that their personal profile is now being revealed to the world, let me point out that the only pages actually being indexed in real time are Facebook fan pages. Everything else is still under wraps as far as real time indexing is concerned. Facebook fan pages join Twitter's tweets and MySpace's status updates in the results.
The announcement still leaves Google in Bing's dust however. Since Microsoft is a Facebook investor and Bing the site's official search provider, the search engine has access to all public status updates, not just fan pages. It's not clear if Google will ever be given access to any of Facebooks other newsfeeds. How do you feel about social networking site newsfeeds being indexed on search engines? Leave a comment and let us know! Read [Digital Beat] Full Story » | Written by Sue Walsh for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
Section: Computers, Mobile Computers, Laptops Yesterday we learned that Dynamism was soon going to begin selling the Viliv S10 Blade here in the US. In fact they have the S10 Blade listed as “available soon” in seven different configurations. But what they did not tell us was the pricing, well, aside from that it will be starting at $699. Thankfully though, that is what the Internet and leaks are for. The information comes by way of an enterprising UMPC Portal commenter who did some research with Froogle. Anyway, pricing is as follows. - $699 - 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z530, 60GB hard drive, Windows XP Home
- $797 - 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z530, 32GB SSD, Windows 7 Home Premium
- $889 - 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z530, 32GB SSD, 3G, Windows 7 Home Premium
- $857 - 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z530, 64GB SSD, Windows 7 Home Premium
- $949 - 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z530, 64GB SSD, 3G, Windows 7 Home Premium
- $987 - 2.0GHz Intel Atom Z550, 64GB SSD, Windows 7 Home Premium
- $1,079 - 2.0GHz Intel Atom Z550, 64GB SSD, 3G, Windows 7 Home Premium
Of course, this should go without saying, but these prices are unofficial which means they could change. Product [Dynamism] Via [UMPC Portal] Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Mobile  According to an interview with LG Mobile in Hong Kong, LG plans to offer their first (and possibly the world’s first) Windows Phone 7 Series device as soon as September. Microsoft has said to expect the early devices by “the holidays”. LG looks to be pushing up Microsoft or perhaps, Microsoft has been stung too many times for trying to meet too ambitious deadlines.
Microsoft confirmed their hardware partners are Dell, Garmin-Asus, HTC, HP, LG, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Toshiba and Qualcomm. It’s a long list of players and who ever gets out the door has the chance of making the biggest splash with the new OS. So far, we’ve really liked what we’ve seen from Windows Phone 7 Series so an early leader could reap some market share. Of course, Microsoft has an equally long list of carrier partners around the globe so there is no guarantee that LG intends to launch this first in the US. We can hope. Read: [Engadget] Full Story » | Written by JG Mason for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, VoIP, Mobile  The danger in announcing something new (especially when delivery is so far away) is customers stop paying attention to your current offering. Such is the case with Skype for Windows Mobile as they’ve decided its pointless to continue supporting their app for the OS now that Windows Phone 7 Series is on the horizon. Microsoft announced the new mobile phone operating system earlier this month at the Mobile World Congress and points to the holidays before we’ll see it.
There is plenty of excitement around the newly announced Windows Phone 7 Series (WP7S). The older platform, Windows Mobile will continue to live on as Windows Phone Classic. However, Skype believes it’s a lost cause and has decided to pull that app from its available downloads. Presumably, Skypes got the data on how many downloaded the app, and how many are using the app on Windows Mobile devices; surely, this was calculated. Skype responded in an email, “With the latest version of the Windows Mobile OS (those prior to Windows Phones 7), it’s become increasingly challenging for Skype to maintain a mobile app which behaves as our users would expect it to –- making the call come from the earpiece rather than the main speaker, for example. This is one example of a quirk which has become detrimental to the overall mobile Skype experience –- and which are potentially very confusing (or frustrating) for the first time user in particular.” It’s an interesting move to pull the app, rather than just let it sit and offer it as-is. It’s just another sign how far Windows Mobile is off the mark. Read: [InformationWeek] Full Story » | Written by JG Mason for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Mobile I have had a Palm Pre Plus review unit for a few weeks now, and lets just say that while I am not entirely convinced, I have been shopping around for a good price. You know, just in case. Anyway, what I have found is that as long as you are willing to sign the two-year contract a good price can be found—as long as you do not shop directly with the carrier. In this case I checked Verizon Wireless, Amazon and my new favorite Wirefly. In the case of the Palm Pre Plus, both Verizon Wireless and Amazon are offering it for $149.99 and Wirefly has it for $69.99. Seems like an easy decision on where to shop. And while I am not a long term customer of Wirefly, I did just recently make a purchase and had a good overall experience. Also, as I noted a little earlier in the month, the Pixi Plus can be found for free with Wirefly. Product [Wirefly] Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
Section: Peripherals, Mice / Keyboards Everyone knows that a computer keyboard can get nasty. Some people choose to try and keep it clean with some obsessive compulsions, and some just try and ignore it as best they can. Personally I take to cleaning mine—all of the time. And because of that I seem to want this keyboard from Cleankeys. I will say that I am not sure how well I could type on it, but at least any lack of typing speed can be made up in terms of saved cleaning time. Just what is the cleankeys keyboard? Well, its a keyboard that ditches the standard keys in favor of touch-sensitive ones. Which in-turn makes it easy to wipe and clean. Of course some individuals like myself will find a strange appeal here, but this type of keyboard will also have great benefits in the workplace where it is common to have shared keyboards. Sadly though I am not sure I am going to be picking one up anytime soon due to the $400 price tag. Product [cleankeys] Via [Gizmodo] Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
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