From the Desire S to the HTC Flyer, last week’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona served as the launching pad for a ton of new stuff. But do you know what the real stars of the show were? These… friggin’… Android pins. Want to win one? It’s really, really easy. Check after the jump for the details. → Read More
Here we go: speculation and alarums! AllThingsD has news of the latest Apple Media event and, although there is no time or location set, expect this event to be the unveiling of the iPad 2 or, if Gruber is to be believed, something that will be more like the iPad 3GS than a full overhaul – something akin to the difference between the iPhone 3G and the iPhone 4. → Read More
Back in the day, before the iPhone, before Android, before Webkit, before Skyfire, when we suffered through mobile web experiences using Pocket IE or worse yet maybe a preinstalled Motorola WAP 2.0 browser (dark times my friends), there was a bright and shining star that would aid those in need. That star was Opera. Its two flagship mobile browsers—Opera Mobile and Opera Mini—were a delight to proto-smartphone owners and T9‘ers alike. A premium, relatively elegant web experience on just about any little phone and mostly for free. I think I paid 5 bucks for Opera Mobile on my old BlackJack II and it was well worth it. → Read More
I stopped by the Powermat booth at Mobile World Congress 2011 last week to get the update on their line of wireless charging products. Their biggest announcement during the event was that they are expanding into the European market this year, which I suppose makes the MWC an appropriate venue for that communiqué.
Other than that, they still had some products on display, previously mentioned at CES, which were interesting enough. Their integrated airport seating, coming to several international airports in 2011 is sure to be a hit with existing Powermat users and the envy of non-users looking for their “top-off”. Also, their integrated Chevy Volt console is clever and clean. Don’t take my word for it, here’s a video of VP of Global Marketing, Beth Harrison Meyer giving the update. → Read More
Verizon is pretty important to Motorola. Anyone with a TV could have told you that; just about every third commercial on the air last year was focused on Verizon’s “DROID Does” campaign and whichever Motorola DROID phone VZW was touting at the time. Still, I don’t think I ever could have guessed just how important Verizon was to ol’ Moto in 2010. Go ahead — take a stab at how much of Moto’s revenue came from Verizon last year (assuming you didn’t already read the headline.) You ready for this? Twenty eight percent. Yep. Nearly thirty percent of Motorola Mobility’s revenue last year, all from one carrier. One carrier that just got the iPhone. Uh oh. → Read More
In a setback for adult film studios looking to make a quick buck (by fighting piracy), a court in Dallas has ruled that one such studio, Serious Bidness, cannot sue a group of John Does in one lump sum. If it wants to pursue legal action it has to sue each John Doe individually. → Read More
European mobile payments provider Fortumo has extended its reach via a partnership with BilltoMobile which sees direct mobile operator billing available to Europe and Asia-based game developers targeting customers in the U.S.
Charging customers via their existing mobile phone bill, of course, is seen as key to making payments frictionless and increasing app and content sales. It keeps the carriers happy too since they maintain ownership over the customer relationship unlike, say, Apple’s iTunes or indeed Google’s Android marketplace. The other alternative for developers wishing to skirt around those platform specific centralised app stores is to use Premium SMS but that entails much higher transaction fees. → Read More
If Chrome’s best feature is its speed, it’s second best feature has to be the Omnibox. I’m still not sure why every browser doesn’t simply offer one box for both searching and typing in URLs. But the Omnibox is about to get even more powerful, as developers have started fleshing out extensions to take advantage of it.
Google first talked about the Omnibox API back in August of last year, but at that time, it was experimental. But today they’ve done a new post on the Chromium Blog to highlight the option. And developers are wasting little time getting extensions working for it. → Read More
Game developer Digital Chocolate has just announced a $12 million Series D funding round led by Intel Capital, with prior investors Sutter Hill Ventures and Bridgescale Partners participating in the round. This brings the gaming company’s total funding up to $54 million.
Digital Chocolate publishes a number of popular casual games for the iPhone (and a bunch of other mobile phones), the Web, Facebook and Xbox LIVE. Game titles include Millionaire City, Island God and Vegas City. The company says that it is now one of the top five global games publishers on Facebook and has also achieved more than 100 million mobile downloads. The new funding will be used to expand Digital Chocolate’s scale, cross-platform capabilities, and geographic reach. → Read More
A fairly unnoticed story percolated through the interwebs this weekend about Alibaba’s CEO and hundreds of employees being implicated in what amounts to a payola scandal. Alibaba is a site that allows you to buy the worst junk imaginable. They represent over 500,000 factories in China. It is a sourcing site full of fake laptops, poorly made clothing, and potentially life-threatening auto parts. And, best of all, it was acting as a middleman to actual criminals. I’m reporting this as a warning. CE makers have drilled it into our heads that you can make low-priced, high quality electronics. You cannot. It is, on the aggregate, impossible. That $500 laptop bears an unseen price. → Read More
Sharp has developed a power conditioner (controller) that makes it possible to use batteries in electric cars as storage batteries for the home. The company says the so-called Intelligent Power Conditioner is one element in their Eco House concept, which consists of solar energy, utility power and storage batteries as the main energy sources. → Read More
A quick heads-up for the Windows 7 users in the crowd. Microsoft will publish Windows 7 SP1 later today. It’s primarily a giant bugfix (though Windows Server 2008 sees some new features), so don’t expect anything mind-blowing. → Read More
If you’ve ever opened the pixellated hell that is the Facebook iPhone app on the iPad, you’ll realize that something must be done to improve our species ability to connect with friends and relations. That thing is Friended by Napkin Studio, a native iPad Facebook app designed from the ground up to be far superior to Facebook’s own offering.
The app costs 99 cents for a non-ad-besmirched version and is actually quite excellent. All of the major functionality is there including message viewing, image browsing, and status updates. On the whole it is no better or worse than Facebook’s web interface but it does support notifications and chat in a hi-res interface. → Read More
Uh oh! Remember that itty-bitty update that Microsoft sent out yesterday to make sure next month’s big update would go smoothly? Looks like the itty-bitty update itself might not be going so smoothly. → Read More
George Hotz, the “hacker” known to the world at Geohot, had recently asked for donations for a legal defense fund. You’ll recall that Sony flipped out after Geohot made the tools available for everyday people to jailbreak their PS3, which in Sony’s mind is tantamount to piracy. Anyhow, Hotz has called off the donation request, saying that he’s collected enough money to hire “a few more lawyers” for his defense. → Read More
Mobile payments company Square has made an interesting move today, which should put competitors Verifone and Intuit on notice. The startup is dropping the per transaction charge for any business using its mobile payments device and service. Square previously charged 2.75% of each transaction amount plus a flat $0.15 per transaction fee. Today, Square is completely dropping the per transaction charge.
So why is the mobile payments company dropping the transaction fee? Square’s COO Keith Rabois says that along with simplifying the payments experience for businesses, it is also taking on the hidden fees and teaser rate structure that have plagued the credit card industry. “The vision of Square is to simply create zero friction and complexity around payments, which is difficult to do in financial services,” he explains. Rabois says that the per transaction fees on top of a variable rate charge can be misleading for businesses because the hidden costs add up especially if a business processes a large amount of transactions. Now, Square will simply charge a flat 2.75% of all transactions, regardless of size. “In the end accepting payments should be as easy as using a microwave,” says Rabois. → Read More
If the Xoom’s $800 price was a little daunting, VZW’s $600 on-contract price might sound a little easier on the wallet. That price gets you the full 3G (upgradeable to 4G) Xoom as long as you don’t mind spending $20 a month for 1GB of data. This works out to an end cost $1,080 for the device and 24GB of wireless data. The silver lining is that Verizon also announced that the Xoom’s LTE upgrade will be free, which might make the commitment a tad easier to justify. Of course since the presser clearly specifies the 3G data plan is $20 a month, the 4G plans might carry a premium.
It’s not exactly a phenomenal deal and considering the Xoom will only be the hottest Android tablet for so long. I’m always hesitant on buying a first-gen device like this. The second incarnations are always worth the wait. This is especially true when talking about Android devices, which also seem to have a short shelf life. Buy now or wait until the Xoom 2. Or Xoom HD2. Or if the good lord turns his back on humanity, the Xoom 3D. Press release after the jump. → Read More
Most of the robots out there have one common problem: They can only move in a mechanical and chopping motion and can’t keep their balance. Enter ZMP‘s e-Nuvo WHEEL, a two-wheeled robot [JP] that looks quite mundane but boasts some amazing self-balancing skills. → Read More
San Francisco, CA
