The “Locationgate” scandal that saw so much coverage back in April hasn’t been in the news much lately, but that hasn’t stopped lawmakers from trying to prevent similar situations. Two senators, Al Franken of Minnesota and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, have proposed a mobile privacy bill today hoping to strengthen the level of consent needed for app developers and device makers to collect and share location data.
In case you’ve been living under a rock (in a location already stored on your phone, no doubt), it all started when two researchers in Britain discovered that Apple’s iPhone and iPad had been recording location data, and storing it on the device. This had people up in arms, of course, and it was only a matter of time until Google was discovered to be doing the same thing. Since then, people have been pretty peeved about it, so much so that the long arm of the law is getting involved. → Read More
Remember that free mobile hotspot promotion Verizon Wireless had going for the HTC Thunderbolt, Samsung Droid Charge and the LG Revolution? Looks like the big red carrier has decided to make the fun last a little longer. → Read More
Shortly after it became clear that the Android-powered T-Mobile Exhibit 4G was going to sneak right by its rumored June 8th release date, another date started being thrown around the rumor mill: June 22nd. Sure enough, T-mo has just taken to Twitter to drop the confirmation: come June 22nd, they’ll be puttin both the somewhat-high-end (we’d say “lower high end”, but that seems confusing) Exhibit 4G and the lower-end Gravity SMART on their shelves. Need a recap on the specs of the Exhibit 4G or the Gravity Smart? Peek behind the jump. → Read More
When then-Google boss Eric Schmidt said that the Nexus One was the end of Google’s phone plans, fans of the “pure Google” experience everywhere bowed their heads, slumped their shoulders, and let out a collective sigh of sadness.
Of course, Google then went on to launch the Nexus S — and things only got better with the launch of the Sprint Nexus S 4G a few weeks ago. But what’s next? → Read More
Maaaan, this Barista chick already thinks you’re awesome. I mean, you ordered a “skinny half-caf quad-shot light ice dopio espresso with room for cream.” With that many words in your order, how can you not be awesome?
Now, imagine if you paid for that order with your Android phone. BOOM, love butterflies would pretty much fly out of her face. Too bad you can only use your mobile to pay at Starbucks if you’ve got an iPhone or BlackBerry, right? Not anymore! → Read More
Two new Android smartphones hit T-Mo shelves today, the highly anticipated HTC Sensation 4G and the Samsung Dart, or what our friends from across the pond would call the Galaxy Mini S5570. That’s the good news.
The bad news is that both devices are listed as “temporarily out of stock” on the T-Mobile web site. I called around to a couple different T-Mo locations in the area to check if the same problem holds true at the brick-and-mortar stores. Apparently, the Sensation 4G is still available, at least at the stores I called. → Read More
Sometimes, it’s all about the experience.
Without its finely tuned user experience, Yelp would be just another reviews site. Tivo would be just another DVR. Twitter would just be a fancy status broadcaster. Their user experiences, though — that feeling that things “just work” — keep people coming back. A simple idea grows, the product evolves, and eventually they become the names we all recognize.
Photogram isn’t a complicated idea. You take 4 photos, slap a title on the whole lot, pick a cutesy little theme, and blast it out to e-mail, Facebook, or Twitter — and that’s it. But something about the experience has me hooked. → Read More
The Windows Phone platform might have a relatively small following now, but there are two things to remember when it comes to WP7 fans: 1) they are just as intense about Windows Phone as Apple fanbois and Android loyalists are over their respective platforms, and 2) the WP7 pack is growing by the minute. But for now, Microsoft’s mobile success has been weak at best, and Windows enthusiast Robert McLaws thinks he knows just who to blame: retailers. → Read More
Once upon a time, “cell phones” weighed about a pound and performed only one function: placing calls. No games, no cameras, no texting. Not even a screen.
Today, we’re so spoiled by LTE coverage, apps, and beautiful touchscreens — and yet, we still manage to find things wrong with them. The battery life sucks! The buttons aren’t squishy enough! The touchscreen doesn’t touch me back! Whine, whine, whine. → Read More
Remember that one time when Samsung asked Apple to hand over the iPhone 5 and iPad 3 for legal inspection, just in case the companies’ future products crossed the line between similar and strikingly similar yet again? Well, Apple didn’t like that very much, and has called the request “copyist.”
It all started back in April, when Apple saw some bothersome similarities between Apple’s iPad 2 and iPhone 4 and certain products from Samsung’s Galaxy and Infuse lines of products. Apple sued, Samsung counter-sued, and now we’re basically in a vicious cycle of “which came first: the iPhone 4 or the Samsung Galaxy S II?” → Read More
When Apple was showing off iOS 5′s myriad new features, they mentioned one neat little trick that the camera app had up its sleeve: you could now fire off pictures with the device’s volume up button. You know what else has a volume up button? Your iPhone headphones. Surely, there’s some technical reason why the volume up button on your headphones wouldn’t …. wait, it works? IT WORKS?! Get ready to get your James-Bond on, folks. Or, as Cult Of Mac points out, you can stick your iPhone on a table, using the remote to take the clearest, most wobble-free pictures ever. → Read More
Last week I got the chance to play with the Ulysse Nardin Chairman, a goofy, expensive phone with a small, built-in mechanical rotor for manual winding. I interviewed the head of UN’s cell division, Paul Williams, about his experience building the phone as well as his background at Nokia’s Vertu line. The phone will run Android and will be available next year. If anything can be said of this phone it’s that it is real, it is a serious piece of electronics, and yes, someone will probably buy one or one thousand. → Read More
Just because T-Mo may be discontinuing its first 4G-capable smartphone, the T-Mobile G2, that doesn’t mean that current G2 owners don’t deserve the latest version of Android, right? HTC seems to think so, since the G2 manufacturer sent out a newsletter yesterday notifying T-Mobile that the G2 will be receiving an OTA update with Android 2.3 and a few extra enhancements. → Read More
Verizon is lighting up 19 new cities with its 4G LTE network this week, and expanding coverage within the San Francisco and Detroit areas, which brings Verizon’s 4G coverage to a total of 74 metropolitan areas. If you just so happen to live in one of Verizon’s 4G-supported areas, you’ll probably need a new phone to go with that speedy coverage. Luckily, Verizon carries some pretty sweet LTE-capable phones, so you’ll have a choice between the brand new LG Revolution, Samsung’s Droid Charge, and the HTC Thunderbolt, among others. → Read More
Looking for a Father’s Day gift that just keeps giving? How does a year’s worth of mobile data sound? On June 18, T-Mobile is hooking up new and existing customers (with at least 18 months of contract tenure) with 12 months of free data for signing a new talk, text, and data plan on a two-year contract. So if you’re looking to save Dad from all those data overage charges, perhaps the one-day-only Father’s Day sale at T-Mo is the way to go. → Read More
As promised, Apple has started selling unlocked versions of the iPhone 4 on its U.S. online store for all you world travelers out there. Here in the states, of course, it will only work on AT&T’s 3G network. But if you venture beyond the land of the brave on a regular basis, you might as well consider snagging an unlocked model from Apple. Most other countries are already comfortable with the idea of switching out MicroSIMs according to location, so it’s only fair that we, and our iPhones, get to travel freely throughout the world, too. → Read More
At Apple’s WWDC keynote last week, we finally got a sneak peek into iOS 5. Amongst other things, Apple revealed that its camera app would be getting quite the makeover.
Pretty much immediately after the new camera tricks were demonstrated, people began noting similarities between iOS 5′s new focal features and some of those found in Windows Phone 7. Even Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore touched on the matter, tweeting, “Feeling flattered today. Lots of WP ideas headed to iOS.” As it turns out, Apple may have to cough up some cash (or possibly already is) for at least one of those cool new capabilities; Microsoft has held a patent on the mimicked feature since February of 2010. → Read More
Swype. It’s just one of those things where you know if you love it or hate it within about 30 seconds of your first touch. Some people just can’t wrap their heads around dragging their finger from letter to letter rather than poking around; others pick it up immediately, and then can’t imagine typing on a phone without it.
If you’re part of the “love it” camp, you’ve got a reason to be excited: later today, Swype will be releasing the first Beta build of Swype 3.0. → Read More
Aaaaand U.S. Cellular picks up another pair of slightly obscure phones — or, at least, it looks like they’re about to. After picking up the LG Genesis (after Verizon quietly killed their plans to carry it) and the HTC 7 Pro (months after Sprint launched it as the “Arrive”), two more handsets have just been spotted lurking in U.S. Cellular’s inventory: the HTC Desire S and Wildfire S — two Android phones which were both announced back at Mobile World Congress, but then saw surprisingly little traction in the US. Careful, U.S. Cellular: everyone loves having more phones to choose from, but you don’t want to get a reputation as the Island Of Misfit Phones. [via AndroidCentral] → Read More
San Francisco, CA
