Section: Business News, Communications, Cellular Providers, Mobile  Ofcom, a communications regulator in the United Kingdom, has announced a number of changes that will affect wireless customers. One of the biggest changes deals with mobile and broadband contracts. It is now UK law to only offer mobile phone or broadband internet plans for a maximum of 24 months. The service providers are also required to offer 12-month contracts as an alternative option for customers and businesses.
Ofcom believes that the new law will allow customers to change who they do business with more easily, thus driving competition up. Technology moves so fast these days, it’s likely that a smartphone will become obsolete well before a three-year contract has expired. Locking customers into 3-year contracts just wasn’t going to be a viable option considering the scope of new devices coming out every month. Mobile phone providers are also required to port numbers for businesses looking to change providers within one business day. If for any reason it takes providers longer than a day to port a number, they will have to offer some form of compensation to its customer. The mobile provider can choose what kind of compensation it will make, but Ofcom will make sure the offer is fair. The last change deals with the emergency SMS scheme. All mobile providers will have to offer the SMS scheme permanently available. The SMS scheme is a way for users to text 999 instead of calling emergency services. This scheme makes it easier for disabled individuals to contact emergency services. Via [Ofcom] Read [Guardian] Full Story » | Written by Jeremy Hill for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Business News, Video, DVD/DVR/Blu-ray, Video Providers Following its acquisition by Dish Network, Blockbuster announced that it is lowering the prices for rentals starting today. It’s also having a special promotion in which customers can rent an unlimited amount of movies for only $2.99 until July 4. Most of Blockbuster’s older movie choices will cost $0.99 per day. Newer releases are $1.99 per day and brand new releases are $2.99 per day. By comparison, Redbox charges customers $1 a day for one DVD. Beyond the first day of rental, Blockbuster customers will be charged $0.99 per day until the movie is returned. If that’s not enough to convince people to kick their Netflix and Redbox habits, Blockbuster has an unlimited rental plan in place until July 4. After renting a $2.99 movie, customers can choose any movie priced at $1.99 or $0.99 for free. Upon returning the movie, customers can get another free movie rental priced at $1.99 or less. This cycle can keep getting repeated until the promotion ends. The only challenge you have to put up with is finding a Blockbuster that isn’t already closed. Read [SlashGear] Also Read [Techland] Full Story » | Written by Jeremy Hill for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Business News, Computers, Desktops, Laptops, Gaming, Console 
A week after Microsoft announced its free Xbox 360s for students initiative, Amazon has stepped in with a similar offer. The Xbox 360 up for grabs is still the the 4GB model. This promotion will run all the way until September 3, 2011 which is the same day Microsoft’s promotion ends. It’s just a matter of who you want to do business with. Most of the terms and conditions for obtaining a free Xbox 360 from Amazon are identical to Microsoft’s. You have to purchase a select Windows 7 desktop or laptop computer that’s priced at $699 or more and be enrolled as a student at college. You also have to have a .edu email address and be a member of Amazon Student. Amazon Student is free to sign up for and includes benefits such as a full year of free two-day shipping and exclusive discounts. Within eight days of purchasing a qualified Windows 7 computer, Amazon will send emails indicating the activation of an account credit. From there, it’s a matter of clicking on the link, putting a 4GB Xbox 360 into the shopping court and completing the transaction. Via [Amazon] Full Story » | Written by Jeremy Hill for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Web, Web 2.0 / Social Networking Facebook users have been known to greet the site’s latest features with a good amount of push-back and controversy. The social networking site’s founder Mark Zuckerberg told the e-G8 Forum that while users are skeptical of new changes at first, they tend to change their minds over time. “We’ll roll it out, and pretty often there’ll be this backlash, and people will say, okay, we don’t like this new thing,” said Zuckerberg. “It’s I think a real anxiety. People were really afraid of more people being able to be involved in the social network.”
Taking a look back in time, 1 million Facebook users (or 10 percent of the Facebook user base in 2006) were against the site’s news feed service. “People thought that, you know, it was just too much, right, they wanted to share stuff on the site but they didn’t want it to be so much in people’s face,” said Zuckerberg. “You know now it’s just part of the site that I think most people in a way would be like ‘What’s going on? How can there be Facebook without this?’”
I can attest to Zuckerberg’s statement because when you think about, the news feed has become an integral part of the Facebook experience. It’s the first screen you see when you log into your home page and it has also been heavily integrated on a wide variety of today’s smartphones. Contact lists are no longer names you fill into your mobile device but rather the list of friends you have on your Facebook account. The fact that cell phone developers have placed this “buddy list” feature into our devices is a testament as to how significant the news feed has become over the years. I can’t wait to see the next big thing Facebook will kick out. Be sure to give it a fair chance before you cast it off with complaints. Read [Cnet] Full Story » | Written by Tarun Kunwar for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Business News, Communications, Mobile, Computers, Mobile Computers There’s been a lot of speculation about the sales of the BlackBerry PlayBook and how disappointing they may or may not be. We still don’t have firm numbers from RIM itself, but we do have some lowered expectations from analyst Scott Sutherland from Wedbush Securities. Sutherland doesn’t seem convinced of the PlayBook’s success, as he has lowered his expectations of sales, saying that Research In Motion will only manage to sell 450,000 units of the 7-inch tablet this quarter. The lowered number this quarter also extend to lowered sales on the year. Scott Sutherland now expects RIM to sell 2.3 million BlackBerry PlayBooks this year instead of his previous estimate of 3 million. That number still seems a bit high, but maybe the tablet will be more popular once the native email app is there and the 3G/4G versions start coming to market. There’s really no question that the BlackBerry PlayBook won’t be able to outsell the iPad 2 anytime soon, but if RIM can sell 2.3 million units, Android tablets might be in trouble. RIM might be able to make the case for second place with the PlayBook, but it will face some tough competition this summer with the HP TouchPad looming. Not to mentioned whatever Microsoft is planning in the future. Good luck meeting those estimates, RIM, you have a tough road ahead. Read [Barron’s] Full Story » | Written by Shawn Ingram for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Communications, Cellphones According to a report released this morning by Citi analyst Walter Pritchard, Microsoft sees $5 for every HTC phone sold running Android thanks to a patent settlement between the two companies over the infringement of intellectual property. Microsoft is currently looking into filing lawsuits against other Android manufacturers to push the current $5 per phone standing to $7.50-$12.50 per device according to Pritchard. When you take a look at the numbers, HTC has shipped approximately 30 million Android devices. At a rate of $5 per device, that means roughly $150 million in Android revenues for Microsoft. Microsoft has admitted to selling roughly 2 millions Windows Phone licenses (not devices). And at $15 per license, that leaves MS with a revenue of $30 million with their handheld devices. Considering these figures, I think it is safe to say that Android is shaping up to be quite an asset to the Windows Phone 7 team. But in terms of bridging the gap between WP7 and the likes of Apple and Google, Microsoft still has a ways to go. If you ask me, things were headed south for them the moment Ballmer took over. Via [Asymco] Full Story » | Written by Tarun Kunwar for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Video, Video Providers, Communications, Smartphones, Mobile, Computers, Software / Applications Starting late tonight the Motorola Droid X will be getting upgraded to Gingerbread. The update is set to come to “soak test” users from the Motorola support forums as well as some regular users. The update will bring the phone up to an unspecified version of Gingerbread, most likely Android 2.3.3. For many, it seems to update will come as you sleep tonight. That is unless you live on the West Coast or stay up until the early morning. Once you get to your phone after the upgrade hits you can install it. Motorola recommends that you keep your phone charged or plugged in overnight for the update. Apparently the phone doesn’t need to be turned on, but at least plugged in it would seem. Motorola also mentioned that rooted users would have to flash back to the “standard Droid X software” to get the update. However, even if you do, there’s no guarantee that it will work for you. That’s an interesting point to be made, but those who use rooted phones probably already know that they might not be able to get every official update. To some that’s the whole reason for rooting their phones. It’d be a shame to miss out on Gingerbread for that, though, unless you’re already running the leaked Gingerbread ROM. Read [Droid-Life] Full Story » | Written by Shawn Ingram for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Business News, Computers, Software / Applications, Web, Google 
Lodsys, the company who at one point threatened to sue Apple App Store developers for allegedly infringing on its patents, has turned its attention to the Android developers. Lodsys claims that while companies such as Apple and Google have the right to use its patents for in-app purchases, that same courtesy does not extend to app developers who try to make more money from microtransactions. In a thread posted on Google Groups, one developer wrote, “We recently implemented in-app purchases for our Android application and several weeks later we received a letter from Lodsys, claiming that we infringed on their patents.” The developer then asks if others have received similar letters from Lodsys. The developer insists that it is “not financially capable of defending ourselves over a litigation.” This appears to be Lodsys’ M.O. It’s going after small developers for royalties in the hopes that they will give in under the fear of prosecution. Apple responded to Lodsys in a letter that was dated May 23, 2011. Apple firmly asked Lodsys to stop sending notices to its developers about patent infringement. Here is an excerpt from that letter. Thus, the technology that is targeted in your notice letters is technology that Apple is expressly licensed under the Lodsys patents to offer to Apple's App Makers. These licensed products and services enable Apple's App Makers to communicate with end users through the use of Apple's own licensed hardware, software, APIs, memory, servers, and interfaces, including Apple's App Store. Because Apple is licensed under Lodsys' patents to offer such technology to its App Makers, the App Makers are entitled to use this technology free from any infringement claims by Lodsys.
At this time, Google has not stepped in to defend Android Market developers. Read [Google Groups] Also Read [Electronista] Full Story » | Written by Jeremy Hill for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Communications, Smartphones, Mobile, Web, Websites We’ve seen quite a few interesting 4G smartphones in the past few weeks and months. A lot of those phones are fairly expensive, though. If you’ve been wanting to get 4G speeds without spending a lot on the phone, this weekend is your chance. To celebrate Memorial Day in the US Amazon.com is putting a selection of 4G smartphones on sale. The deals range from $0.01 for the AT&T Inspire 4G or the T-Mobile Sidekick 4G to $179.99 for the typically $300 Verizon Droid Charge. Other delas include the Motorola Atrix 4G for $79.99 and the Samsung Infuse 4G for $129.99. There’s even the brnad new LG Revolution 4G on Verizon Wireless for $149.99. Of the 19 4G smartphones being offered, only eight are actually 4G with LTE from Verizon or WiMAX from Sprint. Even though the other 11 smartphones don’t have true 4G, they are all pretty good phones. Many of them are fairly recent, and the ones that aren’t like the EVO 4G are still good phones. The only reason to wait any longer on a 4G smartphone would because you’re waiting for a new phone to show up or a contract to run up. But, if you’re in the market for a new 4G smartphone, pick one up this weekend, before they shoot back up in price. Read [Amazon] Full Story » | Written by Shawn Ingram for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 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! - Google Maps mobile site gets updated for browsers
” Remember when Twitter updated its mobile page so that it could behave more like a smartphone application? Well Google has done something similar for Google Maps. Instead of mimicking the Google Maps application for…” MORE » - Amazon pushes its Cloud Drive service with Lady Gaga’s new album
” Amazon really, really wants you to use its cloud services. Amazon is willing to give up 20GB of Amazon Cloud Drive space for an entire year if you purchase Lady Gaga’s new “Born This Way” album. Amazon has been running…” MORE » - Opera Mini 6 for iOS finally supports iPad, Retina Display
” In April 2010 Opera Mini 5 was launched for iOS with support for iPhone and iPod touch and saw 1 million downloads in 24 hours. Today Opera Mini 6 is launched for iOS with support for the iPhone…” MORE » - Rumor: New Barnes & Noble e-reader leaked ahead of announcement
” Barnes & Noble is holding a event today in New York City that will mostly likely reveal a new entry in its family of Nooks. News of a new Nook e-reader was MORE » - Gear we use: Photo Transfer app - getting photos and video from iPhone to iPad
” If you liked iMovie on the iPhone, you’ll love if on the iPad. The only problem: how to get your photos and video from the iPhone to the…” MORE » - Lady GaGa “Born This Way” album drops to $0.99 with AmazonMP3 one more time
” It looks like Amazon is back for round two of the $0.99 Lady GaGa “Born This Way” album offer. Of course, many will remember this as the album that took the service to its breaking point on Monday. Well, rest assured because according to Amazon, “This…” MORE » - Facebook and Spotify aim to socialize streaming music
” Facebook has reportedly strengthened its partnership with Spotify. Spotify is a music streaming service that users can access on their PCs, Macs, iOS and Android devices. According to Forbes, a new Spotify music streaming service for Facebook is undergoing internal testing.…” MORE » - Amazon puts the Samsung Galaxy Player 4.0 up for pre-order
” The wait is almost over for the United States release of the Samsung Galaxy Player 4.0. In case you haven’t heard of it before, the Galaxy Player 4.0 is not another Android smartphone. It does run on Android 2.2, but…” MORE » - Microsoft announces new web features for Windows Phone 7 Mango
” This morning Microsoft took stage in New York City to show off some of the new features of Windows Phone 7 coming in the Mango update. A lot of those new features cam as part of the…” MORE » - Aircel officially brings the iPhone 4 to India via reverse subsidy scheme
” Yes folks, believe it or not. While everyone of us are already anticipating Apple’s announcement for the next iPhone model, our friends in India are still awaiting for the official arrival of the iPhone 4. Lucky for them, their…” MORE »
Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Business News, Web, Google On the same day that Google announced Google Wallet, news broke about PayPal suing Google over the components that it claims makes Google Wallet possible. PayPal has apparently been working on the lawsuit before it was announced yesterday, so it may not have anything to do with the timing of the Google Wallet announcement. Then again, it does result in widespread publicity across the internet. The lawsuit accuses Osama Bedier and Stephanie Tilenius, two former PayPal executives who now work for Google, of stealing trade secrets and breaking contracts. Bedier and Tilenius were also the two people who debuted Google Wallet to the world. Trying to understand this lawsuit can be tricky. We’ll try to put everything together in the easiest way possible to understand. Bedier resigned from his job at PayPal in January. Before he left, Bedier was PayPal’s vice president of platform, mobile and new ventures. PayPal says that Bedier knew about PayPal’s plans to assert itself into the mobile payment marketplace, and the methods it would use to get there. Bedier is now the vice president of payments at Google. "Bedier and Google have misappropriated PayPal trade secrets by disclosing them within Google and to major retailers,” PayPal said in the lawsuit. What’s more interesting is that PayPal says that Bedier was negotiating with Google on behalf of PayPal to make PayPal a payment option in the Android Market. At the same time, Bedier was interviewing for a job at Google. If true, this presents a clear conflict of interest. Tilenius used to work for PayPal at the executive level until 2009. She is now the vice president of commerce for Google. She is accused of recruiting Bedier on Google’s behalf. PayPal says Tilenius was bound by contract to not recruit employees. These claims are backed up by Facebook messages Tilenius allegedly sent to Bedier. It’ll be interesting to see what affect this has on the availability of Google Wallet. Read [Bloomberg] Also Read [All Things D] Full Story » | Written by Jeremy Hill for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Communications, Computers, Features, Originals, Columns, Who's On Crack 
Welcome to another installment of Who’s on Crack where we look at companies that have crossed a line from smart marketing to “hey pal, you’ve got to calm down.” This week, we’ve got a a host of companies that are pushing the boundaries of sanity and we suspect controlled substances are to blame. Let’s get to the accused: Is that a gold bird bath?
The law is catching up with torrents
Nokia goes high-brow with a low blow
Stolen phones are a problem for everyone 
Can I give more money to Rovio? Not content with forking over money for Angry Birds, Angry Birds Seasons, or Angry Birds Rio? We’ve just the thing: “the shirts, which you can see in the above image, are available by way of the Angry Birds Tees website and are selling for $12 each.” There’s even a $50 hoodie! Angry Birds spent the better part of the year atop the sales charts for the Apple App Store and continues to do well. The cumulative hours spent playing Angry Birds, I suspect, is already more than the hours spent in the 60s putting a man on the moon. Do we just hate pigs that much? 
Was it really worth boosting Hurt Locker? About 25,000 folks who torrent’d The Hurt Locker are probably looking over their shoulders a bit more these days. “Voltage Pictures, the creators of the Oscar winning film The Hurt Locker, really has it in for BitTorrent users who downloaded their movie. In an ongoing lawsuit, Voltage Pictures is going after 24,583 people who it hopes to acquire cash settlements from. In order to track down the individuals, the lawyers for Voltage Pictures are requesting internet service providers to hand over the personal details of the IP addresses associated with each defendant.” What’s worse, the ISPs are releasing about 100 names per month (depending on the deal they made with Voltage). When is your month up? How much is Voltage asking for? $2,500-$2,900. That’s a big chunk of change for a movie that was just meh. The only question that remains is this: how are you going to avoid it? Here are my best guesses: #1 Go on the attack. You know you downloaded the movie illegally, so what do you do? Pre-emptively sue Voltage for making a horrible picture. The best defense is good offense - they’ll never see this one coming.
#2 Go on the lam. “You’ll never catch me alive, copper.” -Oscar Wilde (who probably would have torrented it too). I hear Belize is nice this time of year. Head to Australia and hang out with the criminal element there. Canada is too easy - if you’re going, might as well make it interesting.
#3 Pull a Hollywood on them. It’s kind of ironic that Hollywood is full of suggestions on how to make a hidden room in your house which you can use to avoid paying for Hollywood movies. Pull back a rug, cut a trap door, stash some canned goods down there. Modern day coppers don’t pull back rugs anymore, or so I hear. OK, so these suggestions are a bit weak. Like something out of a B Hollywood movie. Like, you know, The Hurt Locker. 
Nokia Oro is luscious gold Like something out of Austin Powers in Goldmember, the Nokia Oro is covered in gold. ” The phone is made up of 18-carat gold with a sapphire crystal as the home key. On the back, the Nokia Oro is made up of premium leather from Scotland.” Scottish leather? Sapphire crystal? Gold? That’a a lot of stuff for something you’ll leave behind in a taxi. $1125 for a gold phone that what? You’ll pull it out at a party and in a country club and say, “it’s gold baby!” But after that? You can’t keep repeating that all night. Don’t be that guy/gal. I am all for the finer things in life. This isn’t it. 
Stop stealing phones! Whether your phone is gold or not, you don’t want it stolen. What’s more, advice to the criminal element here, don’t steal them. Here’s why: “when the police responded, they learned that one of the stolen phones was equipped with a GPS tracking device. Using computer software, the officers were easily able to track the exact location of the robbers. All four men, who were spotted outside of a shopping center, were immediately taken into custody.” Am I the only one that can envision a smartphone/taser mash up with an app that remotely triggers the taser? I’d be leaving my phone all over the darn place just to tase folks that might lift the phone. Then my “friends” would hack into my taser app and tase me at random times. Taser aside, stealing is just wrong. Stealing things that will lead the cops to you is just dumb. Everyone knows you throw the battery out to stop big brother from tailing you. Maybe we’ve just discovered the real reason Apple has non-replaceable batteries? Full Story » | Written by JG Mason for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Communications, Mobile, Computers, Mobile Computers, Web, Online Music/Video, Google Google has rolled out what appears to be a welcomed update for the Music app on Android. The latest brings the version up to 3.0.1 and while this may seem to be just a small point release update it does bring a nice change—the “ability to delete songs stored on the SD card.” Oh and there was also the often found notation of “bugfixes.” Either way, it will sure be nice to be able to delete songs from your SD card after you no longer want to listen to them or for when you need to reclaim some storage space. Via [Android Market] Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Mobile Verizon Wireless has just put out a note announcing the availability four new units in their smartphone line-up. Three of these new smartphones are running on Android, namely the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, Motorola Droid X2, and LG Revolution. The last one being the Windows Phone 7 HTC Trophy. All four smartphones are worth a purchase in their own rights and will provide you with individual powerful features so it would be kind of hard to choose which one is for you. You’ll be better off examining each one of them and find out what each phones can do best for you. Or, you might decide based on their prices. The LG Revolution which is Verizon’s third 4G LTE smartphone will cost you $249.99 with a 2-year contract. For that price you’ll get a nice Android phone featuring a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, 4G LTE modem, 5MP camera with auto-focus, and a 1.3MP front-facing camera. Or you might want to consider getting the Motorola Droid X2 instead. This Android phone will set you back for $199.99 plus the same two-year contract. It has an 8MP camera and several other powerful features that you have grown to love from the Motorola Droid series. Then there’s the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play aka PSP Phone which will also cost you $199.99 plus two-year contract. It runs Android Gingerbread 2.3 and can easily hook-up with your HDTV via HDMI. Finally, if Android is not your thing, you might want to consider getting the HTC Trophy which happens to be Verizon’s first Windows Phone 7 handset. This phone will cost you $149.99 plus two-year contract. Product [Verizon] Via [Unwired View Full Story » | Written by Arnold Zafra for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Communications, Mobile, Computers, Mobile Computers, Hardware I really envy all of you who are there in Canada right now because you can practically pick a Motorola Xoom with Wi-Fi just about anywhere you want to. Reports have it that the Motorola Xoom is currently available for sale from various retailers in Canada. Yes folks, the next time you visit any of the following retailers go check out their electronics section and check out the Motorola Xoom. Just be cautious that even if you have no plans of getting the Xoom, you might end up getting one for yourself once you’ve seen and touched it from any of the following stores -Walmart, London Drugs, Bureau En Gros, Staples, Sears Canada, Amazon.ca, Best Buy, Future Shop, TELUS and Costco (Downtown Vancouver, BC; South Calgary, AB; Ajax, ON; Gatineau, QC). And in case you’re not reading the tablet news coverages lately, you’re probably not aware of the specs and features of the Motorola Xoom. So here’s a quick glance - 10.1-inch widescreen HD display, HDMI port, 5MP rear-facing camera, 2MP front-facing camera, built-in gyroscope, barometer, e-compass, and more. If you’re the type who likes accessorizing your gadgets, you might also want to pick up some for the Motorola Xoom including a standard dock for $49.94, a speaker dock for $129.95 and a custom keyboard with Bluetooth and special Android keys that you can have for $69.95. Of course, that’s over and above the $599 that you have to spend for the Xoom unit. So, go check out the mentioned stores and do tell us if you manage to score the Motorola Xoom with Wi-Fi. I will be really envious of you. Via [Canada Newswire] and [Amazon Canada] Full Story » | Written by Arnold Zafra for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Communications, Mobile, Computers, Mobile Computers, Hardware  What do have here? A new, never-before announced or leaked Android Tablet bearing the Alcatel brand apparently getting the FCC nod just now? Anybody knows about this tablet and who have been hiding information about it? Let’s see, from what we could gather from the FCC filing of this new tablet, it is tentatively called - the Alcatel OneTouch T60. And although it was not stated in the FCC documents and just by basing it on the images, we would have to guess that this tablet would likely sport a 7-inch screen display. What we are sure of is that the Alcatel OneTouch T60 will run Android 2.2 Froyo and will have 3G connectivity specifically suited for US network. Other known features of the tablet include Wi-Fi, GPS, Google Maps, 3.5mm headset jack, 3MP camera, VGA front-facing camera and microSD card slot. Now words yet on when this tablet will be released or which mobile carrier is releasing it if ever there is one. But, hey did those specs impressed you enough to await for the arrival of the Alcatel OneTouch T60? Via [Unwired View] Full Story » | Written by Arnold Zafra for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Communications, Mobile, Computers, Software / Applications, Gadgets / Other, GPS/Navigation Google has recently bumped up its Maps for Android app to version 5.5 bringing in three new features that will surely be loved and liked not just by users but more so by establishments which have Places page on Google Maps. The first new feature adds the check-in and rate or review buttons at the top of Place page listing on Google Latitude. This makes it easier to check-in to particular a place you are currently in and rate or review the place either just before you leave the place or later on when you have the time to do so. Then the update also now lets you edit the addresses you’ve put in to your Location History dashboard in Google Latitude for Android. If you will recall, this feature was introduced last month and allowed you to estimate how much time you spend at home, work and everywhere else. So now if any of those addresses changes, you can easily edit it within Latitude on your Android phone. Finally, Google Maps for Android 5.5 also now makes it easier for you to better organize transit information or transit route. Each Place pages now has a list of upcoming scheduled departures for different transit lines serving various stations as well as link to nearby stations. Google Maps for Android 5.5 is available now as a free download from the Android Marketplace. If you have installed the app before, simply hit the update button on your Android phone and check out for the Maps for Android 5.5 update. The app works for Android devices running Android OS version 1.6 or higher. Via [Google Mobile Blog] Full Story » | Written by Arnold Zafra for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Communications, Smartphones, Mobile It’s not only select Best Buy employees that are getting the HP Veer 4G for free it seems. This past Monday HP gave away units of the smartphone to some people riding the New York City Subway. Instead of just handing out the phones, HP decided to use a bunch of Little Monsters to stir up some interest in the Veer. On Monday HP sent a collection of Lady GaGa lookalikes to hand out the HP Veer 4G to Subway riders. The lookalikes were there not only to hand out free Veers, but to advertise GaGa’s new “Born This Way” album which you’ll remember as the album that brought Amazon’s servers to their knees on the same day. The Subway trains where the phones were given out were covered with advertisements for both the phone and the new album. As with yesterday’s revelation that HP gave free Veers to Best Buy employees, this can only hope to get more people interested in the tiny device. Associating it with Lady GaGa is a great idea as well. What better way to advertise arguably the cutest smartphone on the market than by putting it next to the one of the biggest acts in Pop music at the moment? Read [WebOSRoundup] and [Flickr] Full Story » | Written by Shawn Ingram for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Business News, Communications, Cellular Providers Sprint is pitching in to help its customers and non-customers alike who have been affected by the tornado that struck Joplin, MO on Sunday. Sprint has decided to waive overage charges and roaming fees for Sprint customers who reside in locations with the zip codes 64801, 64802, 64803 and 64804. The waiver includes overage charges related to text messages. voice calls, data service and roaming. This initiative will last until June 22 and will retroactively affect bills from May 22. Sprint also donated $100,000 to the American Red Cross to help in relief efforts. Sprint will also take to the streets of Joplin to provide residents with free phone calls. Those who find themselves without the ability to charge their phones will be provided with free car and wall chargers as well. Thanks to Virgin Mobile and KB Mobile, 50 Joplin citizens will get free phones with two months of service. The free service includes 500 messages, 1,500 minutes and 20MB of data across two months. For those planning to donate to the Red Cross through texting, Sprint will waive text messaging fees associated with those donations. Via [Sprint] Image Credit: The Associated Press Full Story » | Written by Jeremy Hill for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Gadgets / Other, ebooks It looks like Barnes & Noble spurred Amazon to do more than offer a Kindle 3G with Special Offers, B&N actually made Amazon change it’s math. Amazon has changed the estimated battery life on the Kindle to match Barnes & Noble’s Simple Touch Reader by using the same math. When the newest Kindle launched Amazon claimed that the eReader could get up to one month of battery life. That estimate came from reading for one hour every day with all radios turned off. Now Amazon claims double the life by cutting the time in half. Just like Barnes & Noble’s new Nook, the Amazon Kindle is now listed as having an estimated battery life of two months assuming you read for 30 minutes everyday with all radios turned off. The math makes sense, but honestly, who reads for just 30 minutes everyday? Maybe that would be the average, but for many reading comes in spurts with long sessions some days and other days without the time to read. No matter how unrealistic that math might be, Barnes & Noble doesn’t seem happy about it. The company responded by saying that it tested the new Nook against the Kindle by continuously refreshing pages on both, and the Nook beat the Kindle handily. According to a statement given to CNET from Jamie Iannone, President of Barnes & Noble Digital Products, the Nook can last 150 hours when reading one page a minute, while the Kindle can only last 56 hours in the same test. The moral of the story? Don’t believe the estimated battery life on either eReader. Buy the eReader you want based on it’s experience and the eBook selection. Battery life shouldn’t be the biggest factor in your purchase. When’s the last time you read for 56+ hours straight without being near an outlet of some sort? Read [CNet] Full Story » | Written by Shawn Ingram for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Communications, Mobile, Computers, Mobile Computers It looks like the 8.9 inch Samsung Galaxy Tab is moving along as expected. Well, as expected to make the June 8th launch date anyway. The most recent Galaxy Tab 8.9 related news deals with the image you see above, which comes courtesy of the FCC. Yup, the FCC has given its seal of approval to Samsung and that means the Galaxy Tab 8.9 is one step closer to a release. Or at least it has one less hurdle to pass before being released. Otherwise, according to the FCC filing, we can tell you that the tablet features an 8.9 inch display, dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n and Bluetooth. Also noted in the filing were the front and rear cameras as well as two speakers. Of course, we had already heard the specs when Samsung made the official announcement and those included a 1280 x 800 resolution, dual-core processor, 16GB or 32GB of internal storage and Android 3.0 Honeycomb. Or possibly Android 3.1 Honeycomb. Via [FCC] and [wirelessgoodness] Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Web, Web Browsers It’s good to see that the fine folks behind the Norway based web browser Opera have a little sense of humor. As today is television personality Oprah Winfrey’s final show, the Opera family decided to give a warm shot out to Winfrey as well as some of her confused fans who have accidentally contacted Opera in search for some Oprah lovin’. Today is the last Oprah show in the history of television. To us in Opera this is really sad news. This show has brought us great joy throughout the years. We’ve been receiving lots of mail from Oprah fans, asking us questions, complaining or simply just opening up, telling us about their lives. We’ve tried to answer these emails the best we can. As a tribute to Oprah and her fans, we’ve been digging in our mailbox in order to give you Opera’s ‘Best of Oprah mails to Opera” best of.
For any of you that are wondering, Opera is currently one of the least used browsers. Considering how it revolutionized the browsing experience since its inception in 1996, you would think more people would been keen for it but no. Are you an Opera user or do you swear by Mozilla and company? Let us know what you think in the comments section. Via [Opera] Full Story » | Written by Tarun Kunwar for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Video, Portable Video, Communications, Mobile, Computers, Mobile Computers, Web, Online Music/Video An updated Netflix app has recently appeared in the Android Market and while the version number has gone up to 1.2.1, it has also brought support for a few other devices. The newly supported devices include the LG Revolution, Motorola Droid, and Casio Gz’One Commando C771. In addition, this latest update also included; - Various minor bug fixes.
- Fixed application failure on startup when phone’s embedded storage space is almost full.
- Removed check that prevented attempt to playback on unsupported devices.
That being said, and calling out point number 2 from the above list, the app still does not seem to want to run on my 7 inch Galaxy Tab. Via [Android Market] Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
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