Section: Business News, Communications, Cellphones, Mobile  Yahoo! might want to temper its excitement over beating Google to become the default search engine on the Motorola Backflip. Though Yahoo! should be happy to secure their space on AT&T’s first Android phone, they’ve lost a similar deal with T-Mobile. Making matters worse, the loss is suffered to their chief rival, Google.
T-Mobile has ended its deal with Yahoo! to be the exclusive supplier of search results on its phones. Though Android phones used Google search, Yahoo! provided search results on feature phones with web capabilities, Sidekicks, and Blackberry devices. Yahoo will continue to provide some content services like mail, messenger, and news on certain phones, but the company confirmed to MocoNews that they are no longer providing search results to T-Mobile USA phones. Google already had a deal in place to provide search results via their default status on all of T-Mobile’s line of Android phones. However, AT&T raised eyebrows this week when it opted to replace the built-in Google search functions in Android in favor of Yahoo! search. The very premise of Android is that it should increase Google’s position among the mobile search market. However, Android’s open-source nature means that companies are not obligated to make Google the default search engine on Android phones. It’s unclear how profitable mobile search deals can be for search engines, but they are very enticing for carriers. How enticing? Well, Microsoft paid Verizon $500 million for the privilege of making Bing the default search engine on Verizon-branded devices. That’s big money for a small device. Read [MocoNews] Full Story » | Written by Andrew Kameka for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Mobile  For good or bad, or more accurately for good and bad the Palm Pre Plus has been continuing on its path toward being a free phone. And judging from how fast that price seems to be sliding free may be here within a month. Of course, that is nothing more than a guess on my part. But in the meantime, here are the latest offers in terms of the Palm Pre Plus.
First up, Verizon Wireless has ditched the mail-in-rebates and interested customers can now pick up a Pre Plus for $149.99 out-the-door with Verizon handling any rebates on their end. But getting a little better, Amazon is now offering the Pre Plus for $49.99. And still a little better is that you can grab the Pre Plus at Wirefly for $39.99. I should also point out that any of these offers require the standard two-year agreement with Verizon. Finally, keep in mind that as of February 25, just a short while ago the Pre Plus was $69.99 with Wirefly, $149.99 with Amazon and still required a mail-in-rebate with Verizon Wireless. In other words it may be worth your while to wait a little longer. I know that is what I am doing. Product [Amazon] and [Wirefly] Via [PreCentral] Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
Section: Web, Web Browsers, Google  Mobile browsers are increasingly adopting location awareness as one of their main features such as Firefox Mobile and the mobile version of Safari. Google Chrome recently added geolocation support to the latest developers’ version of Chrome. It works by approximating your location based on WiFi signals around you. It is obviously not as accurate as locking onto your GPS signal, but the approximation is more accurate than detecting your location based on your IP address.
The addition of geolocation was probably intended for use in the upcoming Chrome OS. This feature is still at a very early stage; the UI is incomplete and it doesn’t remember settings you save. You can activate geolocation by running the latest developers’ version browser with “—enable-geolocation.” Via [ReadWriteWeb] Full Story » | Written by Cheng Hung for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
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