While there may still be a lot of confusion surrounding the future of AOL, that didn’t stop the folks in Northern Virginia from recently overhauling their popular AIM instant messaging app for iPhone (and iPod touch). Available in two tasty flavors, free (“AIM Free”) and paid (“AIM Paid”), AIM 2.0 for iPhone now provides SMS notifications, has location-aware services, and supports multiple accounts (among other updates). It appears as though all of the application updates have been included in both the free and paid versions, with the major (and obvious) difference being the inclusion of ads in the buddy list of the AIM Free app. → Read More
TomTom announced today that Microsoft is suing them for patent infringement, however they denied that they had violated any of Microsoft’s patent rights. Microsoft said that it it taking legal action against the GPS maker after the two failed to reach a licencing agreement after more then a year of negotiation. → Read More
Looks like Google is now preventing anyone with an unlocked G1 from downloading for-pay applications from the Android Market. Google says this is to prevent piracy (but only in the most abstract sense, in my [worthless] opinion), but some developers don’t like the idea. Welcome to the Situation Room, I’m Wolf Blitzer. → Read More
http://www.gametrailers.com/remote_wrap.php?mid=46035 We got a big fuzzy feeling when we first saw stills of the Oregon Trail port coming to the iPhone, so seeing it in smooth, buttery action is like being hugged by the physical embodiment of pure nostalgia and happiness. It looks like they’ve captured the original spirit of the game pretty well, building up the foundation rather than just tearing it all down and exploiting the name for all its worth. Everything we know and love makes an appearance. I want it now. If things are still on schedule from what we’d heard before, look for it to hit the app store sometime in the next week or so. → Read More
Playing Super Smash Bros. Brawl with the standard Wii Classic Controller is okay, but it kinda feels small in my manly hands – like I’m playing video games using a granola bar or a harmonica or something. I’m sure it’s just fine for younger generations but I might have to gravitate to the Classic Controller Pro when it comes out this summer. → Read More
We’re live blogging this morning’s Facebook conference call, during which Mark Zuckerberg is planning to “announce the new steps Facebook is taking to improve user understanding and ownership of the Facebook terms of service and, more generally, the policies of the Facebook service”. The call begins at 11 AM PST.
To coincide with today’s call, Facebook has also announced that it is Opening Up Its Terms Of Service To Input From Users. → Read More
After the uproar that ensued when Facebook tried to change its terms of service a couple weeks ago, along with its subsequent backpedaling and public assurances that users own their data, the company is trying a different tack. It is inviting users to comment and contribute on proposed changes to its terms of service.
Facebook has posted a proposed set of Facebook Principles (reprinted below) and proposed Statement of Rights and Responsibilities. Members can discuss these proposals in two groups dedicated to each set of statements (<a here and a here, respectively). → Read More
Yahoo’s new CEO Carol Bartz is streamlining the company and picking which executives will remain on her team and which ones won’t. Chief Financial officer Blake Jorgensen will be departing, as will the head of Yahoo Mobile, Marco Boerries, among others. Getting a bump up are Ari Balogh, now CTO and head of all products, and Hilary Schneider on the advertising side, now head of North America. David Ko will be taking over mobile, reporting to Schneider interestingly enough rather than to Balogh. In her first blog post, Bartz writes:
So today I’m rolling out a new management structure that I believe will make Yahoo! a lot faster on its feet. For us working at Yahoo!, it means everything gets simpler. We’ll be able to make speedier decisions, the notorious silos are gone, and we have a renewed focus on the customer. For you using Yahoo! every day, it will better enable us to deliver products that make you say, “Wow.”
In addition to getting rid of unnecessary layers of management (and, oh boy, does Yahoo have plenty of that), Bartz also says that she is going to get the company to pay more attention to its customers and to burnishing its brand. To that effect, she is creating a “Customer Advocacy” group to speak for the customer inside Yahoo, and she promises to clarify “what the Yahoo! brand stands for. . . . Look for this company’s brand to kick ass again.” → Read More
Here’s a new one. This crazy iPhone app is a software-based guide to the Canon 5D Mark II. The app is called Handi 5Dmk2 and describes all of the features of the camera along with shooting tips. PDNPulse notes that the instructions include the suggestion that 5D owners are wandering around with huge manuals in their hands instead of shooting. → Read More
There are no official statistics available as how well the iPhone sells after Apple started offering it in the Japanese market in July last year. Now Softbank Mobile, one of Asia’s biggest tech companies and the exclusive carrier for the iPhone in Japan, thinks sales need a boost and decided to give away the hardware basically for free [JP]. → Read More
Looks like Google is now preventing anyone with an unlocked G1 from downloading for-pay applications from the Android Market. Google says this is to prevent piracy (but only in the most abstract sense, in my [worthless] opinion), but some developers don’t like the idea. Welcome to the Situation Room, I’m Wolf Blitzer. → Read More
Today’s the day that the Dell Mini 10 can be preordered on Dell.com, so happy Dell Mini 10 Day to everyone. There’s cake in the break room. → Read More
Yahoo just embedded some Facebook functionality directly into its search results via SearchMonkey. When you search for a person on Yahoo, if they have a public Facebook profile, a link to that profile will appear in results, along with a photo and several actions you can take. these include adding them as a friend, “poking” them, sending them a message, and viewing their friends.
You can see how it looks like in the image above, which shows results for Yahoo marketing VP Raj Gossain. The blue links under his name are the actions you can take. These are similar to the deep links SearchMonkey added to Yahoo Search for Wikipedia results. → Read More
To quote Chris Matthews, “Oh, God.” It seems a woman was recently banned from Xbox Live because her sexual orientation—she’s a lesbian—has been deemed “offensive” by Microsoft. Let’s see how long it takes for Microsoft to “reconsider” this ban. (updated) → Read More
The numerous iPhone developer’s rag to riches stories are certainly a reason while many random apps appear on the App Store; peeps want money. With the Pre launching soon though, developers are finding that the webOS platform is much easier to work with meaning….even you can make some cash. → Read More
Nanotechnology has such promise. From scientific research, to exploring the galaxy, for years we’ve heard that nanotech is the future. They’ve talked about it Stargate for goodness sake! So what do modern manufacturers do with this amazing and possible ground breaking technology? Make toys. → Read More
Dare we call the current crop of GPS units dumb. While they can tell you how to get between A or B, they don’t really know you. BMW’s upcoming Intelligent Learning Navigation System, or ILENA for short, will get to know you and your spouse intimately. → Read More
What’s this? Windows CE and Android running on the same device? Is the universe collapsing into a black hole? Oh noes! → Read More
Guess what fellow T-Mobile subscribers?! Japanese DoCoMo subscribers just got themselves a quad-band BlackBerry Bold. Sure, we’ve got ourselves UMA on the 8900, but who needs 3G speeds when Wi-Fi is readily available EVERYWHERE. RIM, Thanks, jerks. T-Mobile, You better have something in the pipe. RIM Japan via BGR → Read More
How much overlap is there between your Facebook “friends” and the real contacts in your mobile phone’s address book? If those two world’s align and you have an iPhone, you might want to check out a nifty utility called Photo Phonebook (iTunes link). It finds the matches between the people in your iPhone’s contact list and your Facebook friends and downloads their Facebook profile photos. (Right now, there is a limit of 100 photo downloads because of memory constraints on the iPhone, but the developers are working to fix that).
Next time a Facebook friend calls, their Facebook photo appears on your iPhone. It also appears in the address book. When your friends change their profile photos on Facebook, they change on your iPhone as well. → Read More
