Mobility Site

Droid Invades Mobilitysite Tommorow

Chris Leckness — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 18:47:06 +0000

After a long run of Windows Mobile devices, I tried Android back when the T-Mo G1 hit and wasn’t overly impressed. The chin phone failed to capture my enthusiasm. Then came the HTC Hero on Sprint. Excellent device, Sense UI made it an awesome phone, but the lack of keyboard left me out. That’s pretty funny considering the lack of keyboard was one of my main gripes with the iPhone and now I am using the iPhone as my daily driver. I am now finishing up my review of the Samsung Moment, a vanilla Android phone on Sprint. It’s running Cupcake and doesn’t have many bells and whistles on top of the standard Android package. Well, right on cue, I will be receiving the Motorola Droid on Monday. I will test it out for a couple days and hand it over to someone else to do the full review. After that, I will be taking a look at the hottest Windows Mobile phone on the market.

We have a couple editors with the Droid already too. Stay tuned for their opinions as well! One of them will be publishing a husband and wife style real life study too.

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Winner: YouTube HD Camera Video Contest

Chris Leckness — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 18:32:09 +0000

I held a contest on YouTube for a Sanyo VPC-CA9 HD Video Camera and the winner is in. I am announcing it here on Mobilitysite for the archives. Thanks to all that entered.

And the winner is lpfan091989. Congrats!

If you didn’t win, stay tuned, we have a few more things to give away soon. 5 Pantech Matrix Pro smartphone, HTC Snap, and more…

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Ebooks: Nook and Kindle News

Zealot — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 13:00:52 +0000

In terms of Holiday Ebook Reader Sales it appears that it is boiling down to a two horse race, the Kindle versus the Nook….and with the Nook the jumps just keep getting higher and higher.

Now the New York Times is reporting that if you order a Nook today you will not see it before January 4th, but as I had predicted Barnes and Noble WILL send you a nice holiday themed order confirmation before Christmas in place of the ordered device. Beyond that, it appears that B&N may be chumming the water for a Cabbage Patch Kid style shopping bloodbath. In a tweet, B&N announced that WILL be a limited number of Nooks in a limited number of Brick and Mortar stores before the holidays…but won’t say which ones. Won’t Barnes and Noble love the spectacle of frantic shoppers running from store to store in hopes of scoring a Nook for under the tree, braining one another with hardcover copies of The Lost Symbol to get to that one precious Nook in the hands of a terrified shop assistant, who just wants to get home to her own family with her skin in tact…and what do you bet there will be cameras to record the moment to illustrate heartwarming holiday stories placed on YouTube and cable television news shows?

Viral Marketing, thy heart is black as soot.

More news after the jump.

(...) Read the rest of Ebooks: Nook and Kindle News (278 words)

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Android’s Motus Operandi or X10

Marilyn Torres — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 19:25:05 +0000

During the gaping silence from AT&T regarding all things Android, there has been a small admittance to the end of the iPhone exclusivity to AT&T, yet Android seems to be overtaking market. Sprint has launched the HTC Hero, T-Mobile currently has the myTouch 3G, and Verizon debuted the Motorola Droid and Eris, so I’m wondering if with Sony Ericsson X10 will grace AT&T before the rumored Motorola Motus. Sony Style stores started offering AT&T service with their handsets on November 19th, so it wouldn’t be a huge leap for both Sony and AT&T to follow the same path for the X10. And then Motus makes the scene again this week for the first time since it passed through the FCC in late October with a blurry photo op and interesting AT&T-compatible specs:

(...) Read the rest of Android’s Motus Operandi or X10 (238 words)

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Google Chrome OS, all time connected

ctitanic — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:47:01 +0000

Recently I found a video, and honestly I do not remember where in the web, where Google explains What’s Google Chrome OS. To summarize, an all time connected to the cloud OS. A version of Android and I even hesitate to say this because it seems to me that Android does much more thanks to all the applications currently available for this OS. In the way the video explains it, sounds like we all expend 100% of our time in Internet. And probably that’s the case when you are at home, but if I take my day and analyze it, I expend 10 hours at work, around 2 hours at home no connected, around 4 hours at home connected and 8 hours sleeping. That means that I have 10 hours using a PC where I spend just a few minutes in Internet and only 4 hours per day where potentially I could be using Google Chrome for everything. I don’t know if you are getting me point. Google Chrome is not for everybody. I see it in my case like a really good option for a dual boot configuration. But no as my only one OS, unless it’s in a device which only use will be Internet.

Video after the break…

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Need to call someone special on Thanksgiving?

Jack Cook — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:24:29 +0000

This is a great opportunity to call your friends and relatives on Thanksgiving if you do’nt have nationwide dialing. Truphone just announced that for 12 hours on Thanksgiving 2009 all calls made on Truphone to mobile and landline phones in the United States will be free so that friends and family can call each other to catch up this holiday season.

From noon to midnight UTC, or 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. EST, on Thursday, Nov. 26, all calls made to U.S. landlines and mobiles using the Truphone application will be free from anywhere in the world. More information is available here: www.truphone.com/thanksgiving.

“Thanksgiving is a day when family and friends come together to celebrate and catch up across the U.S.”, said Geraldine Wilson, CEO of Truphone. “For those people who can’t get home for the holidays, often because distance is too much, a telephone call to let them know how they are is the next best thing. With this initiative, we are allowing people who can’t be together to catch up on this special day”.

More after the break

(...) Read the rest of Need to call someone special on Thanksgiving? (117 words)

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Ebooks: Misses and Hits

Zealot — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:27:39 +0000

The biggest miss in the Ebook world this week has to be the Sony Daily Reader, the 7 inch, wireless equipped device that Sony is intending to compete with the Kindle DX (as well as the IREX and the upcoming Que). Remember in my holiday shopping guide, where I listed the Daily as a long shot to make it into stores for Christmas? That shot just got MUCH longer as preordering opens today for the device. Sony says that if you order today, the device will be get to you sometime between Dec 18th and Jan 1, with no Daily Readers actually physically in stores before next year. At least the price has been confirmed to be $400, as assumed.

Since the Daily was intended to be a big holiday Ebook reveal, promised for release in early December, this has to be viewed as bad news for Sony and anyone who was hoping that Santa was going to leave a Daily under the tree for them. At this stage, that tree could be pretty brown and rancid before the Daily gets there.

More Ebook news and notes after the jump.

(...) Read the rest of Ebooks: Misses and Hits (867 words)

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Symbian Rejected Again…by Nokia??

Zealot — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:29:33 +0000

This has been a tough few weeks for Symbian. A few days ago it was given the old heave-ho from Samsung smartphones in favor of bada, a new OS they haven’t even RELEASED yet, and now this. For a decade Nokia and Symbian have been practically synonymous, but the beginning of the end of that partnership is now official.

Nokia has confirmed what many people, myself included, suspected and backed the Linux-based Maemo operating system as it’s high end OS of the future. According to The Really Mobile Project, Tanja Sauvola from the Maemo marketing team informed bloggers in London that as of 2012, Maemo would replace Symbian S60 on all high end N-series devices for Nokia.

For the foreseeable future, Symbian will continue to run Nokia’s video-focused X-series and enterprise-focused E-series handsets according to Nokia. However with the high end now placed out of Symbian’s reach, the writing is on the wall. The movement in handsets is towards application, multimedia rich operating systems, so as feature phones lose relevance Symbian will slowly lose market share in favor of more capable systems.

Of course the announcement elicited a chorus in the blogosphere saying “Why bother with Maemo, be original and run Android, like all the rest of us!” While I see their point, I do applaud Nokia for continuing to walk their own path regarding software and am becoming a little nervous about this widespread anointing of Android as the one true smartphone OS. While Maemo, like bada, may be a bit quixotic, the effort to preserve diversity in mobile software is still a good thing.

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“Honey, they Shrunk my Thinkpad”

Zealot — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:02:36 +0000

I have been a fan of Thinkpads since they were the mainstay of the IBM empire and have used them as my primary laptop almost exclusively for around 10 years now, starting with a T20 and currently using a T61. In my opinion, even through the build quality with Lenovo has lessened a bit from the classic IBM models and they keep trying to make the brand more “consumer-friendly”, it is still the preeminent business notebook out there.

That is why I was surprised to hear that Lenovo was planning on producing a Thinkpad netbook. Well, not surprised, as that is SOOOOO Lenovo…more like horrified.

Specs and images are out for the device, the Thinkpad X100e…and thankfully it is less netbook and more Ultra-light.

(...) Read the rest of “Honey, they Shrunk my Thinkpad” (164 words)

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One site for all your Mobility?

Chris Leckness — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:26:12 +0000

I wanted to query our readers to see what you think if the idea. I have been unifying the forums for the last year and now that it’s complete, I am thinking about bringing GotZune and iPhoneMVP news/reviews into Mobilitysite as well. So we don’t flood the site with iPhone and Zune news, I plan to work up a system where we’ll offer RSS feeds and filters to get just what you want. With this move, we can all concentrate making one site better and better each day. I have to stop the niche site urge I get all too often.

I realize that we’ve evolved from a Windows Mobile (Pocket PC) background, but we are moving forward. Lots of our folks stayed with Windows Mobile, some to iPhone, many to Blackberries, etc… We are evolving with our members. I currently use the iPhone and I would like to share that here and not over on a seperate site. We are Mobilitysite, lets take the talk all over the spectrum. What do you say?

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Office Mobile 2010 Beta Now Available

Stephen Borders — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:33:58 +0000

If you are an early adopter of software or are a developer the New Office Mobile 2010 Beta is now available in the Marketplace for Mobile. I was released today along with the Public Beta of Office 2010.

Description

Microsoft Office Mobile 2010 brings the powerful Microsoft Office 2010 tools you use every day at work, home, or school, to the screen of your Windows phone with rich interfaces especially designed for small devices. By installing this application, you agree that:* This Microsoft Office Mobile 2010 Beta will be disabled on April 5th, 2010.* Prior versions of Microsoft Office Mobile that were installed after the phone was purchased will be uninstalled. You will need to re-install that software according to the instructions of your original purchase. If Microsoft Office Mobile came pre-installed on your phone, it will not be affected. * The WINDOWS MARKETPLACE FOR MOBILE CUSTOMER SERVICE AGREEMENT applies to your use of this beta application.

Features:

View and edit your Microsoft® Office® documents with confidence.

Stay connected to work from anywhere with SharePoint Workspace Mobile.

Stay connected to work from anywhere with SharePoint Workspace Mobile.

Use PowerPoint Mobile as a presentation aid.

It does require a touch screen device. If you decide to try it, let us know what you think. If you would like to know more hit the read link. Oh and it will stop working on April 5, 2010

Read

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Zune 120 or Zune HD – Which would I choose?

Chris Leckness — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:30:17 +0000

I just got an email from one of my long time YouTube viewers asking which I would choose and why.

I was just wondering, if you had to choose between the Zune HD and the Zune 120, which would you pick. Nobody could give me a decent answer. I’ve been watching your videos ever since the first Zune came out so i thought you would be able to give me an idea about which is better. Thanks!

I have already answered this in so many words over on GotZune, so I will repost that. Keep in mind, this was written prior to my getting the iPhone 3GS. I am in the process of shutting my Zune Pass account down and just using my Zune 120 with purchased content and using the iPhone 3GS at work.

No, this isn’t a link to someone else’s story. This is my own opinion and I know I am not alone in this.

DON’T GET THIS COMMENTARY WRONG. I AM VERY EXCITED ABOUT ZUNE HD AND 4.0, BUT JUST NOT FOR ME PERSONALLY.

Not too long ago, Julie posted a bit over at Mobilitysite on why she carries a phone and MP3 player separately. I agree with her and those reasons carry over to the Zune HD and iPod Touch too.

Read on to find out why I will carry 4-5 different devices in my bag and I am not ashamed to do so…

(...) Read the rest of Zune 120 or Zune HD – Which would I choose? (501 words)

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To gPhone, or not to gPhone

Zealot — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:03:07 +0000

Michael Arrington at TechCrunch is stirring the pot again. In a recent post, he states that the long theorized Googlephone is about to be released based on rumours from unnamed sources. A phone designed from the ground up by Google to be the perfect Android device, Arrington has this to say about it…

There won’t be any negotiation or compromise over the phone’s design of features – Google is dictating every last piece of it. No splintering of the Android OS that makes some applications unusable. Like the iPhone for Apple, this phone will be Google’s pure vision of what a phone should be.

He has no other details of the device but says that it will be created by a third party; maybe HTC, maybe LG, maybe Samsung, and will be released at the beginning of 2010.

I, however, am dubious….

(...) Read the rest of To gPhone, or not to gPhone (315 words)

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Jailbreaker Makes CNN

Zealot — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:27:52 +0000

Whether you consider him a genius, a rebel, a thief or an arrogant putz, George Hotz (aka GeoHot) sure has a lot to say, and he says it in a recent CNN profile. Credited with being the first person to jailbreak a first generation iPhone (which he traded for a Nissan 350Z) when he was 17, he has a unique take on the iPhone phenomenon. According to the article…

Hotz, now 20, makes a living as a "hacker for hire" of sorts — getting paid to break into different types of gadgets. He gets to spend his free time unofficially attending a college, where he pretends to be a student just to socialize.

Kicked off the famous Dev Team for releasing details of his hacks (or maybe for just being himself), GeoHot is the author of the recent Blackra1n jailbreaking tool which is the only tool that can currently jailbreak the iPhone 3GS and iPod Touch 3G and boasts that he already knows how to jailbreak the still vapourware iPhone 4G, though he admits he has yet to see it or it’s software.

Says Hotz…

"Personally I love that Apple keeps the iPhone closed. This is a personal hobby; it’d be no fun if Apple didn’t have it closed anymore. Get a Jailbreak cop and then I’ll show them what I can really do."

The article also talks to Jay Freeman (AKA Saurik), the owner and force behind Cydia and other figures in the jailbreaking community. If you want to get a good overview of the motivations of jailbreakers and the secret history of the iPhone, this is an excellent article.

See the full piece HERE.

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Windows Mobile Gets More Game

Zealot — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:02:52 +0000

Slowly but surely the Windows Mobile Marketplace is gaining applications. The newest bunch are six fresh games from Konami designed to be played on full touchscreen phones. The games feature sharp graphics and on screen controls. Included in the new releases are….

DanceDanceRevolution S – A mobile version of the sweaty pre-teen girl arcade favorite, but with less feet and more fingers I would imagine.
Gradius II – A version of the classic scrolling shooter.
TwinBee – Another, cuter scrolling shooter
Konami’s Sudoku – Surprise, a Sudoku puzzle game!
Konami’s Solitaire – More surprises, a card game called Solitaire
Mobile Pawafuru Proyaky – A painfully adorable baseball game, which will be available only in Japan.

No word on price but they will be available in December, released to coincide with the Japanese debut of the Windows Marketplace.

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