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AT&T to allow VoIP apps on iPhones to work on cell network

Phones / By /

Well, well, well. AT&T has just decided to reverse their prior stance and allow iPhone users to use Skype and other VoIP apps on the cellular networks. VoIP apps would work when the iPhone was on a WiFi network, but not when connected to the AT&T network.

Certainly, this is good news for consumers, but you do have to wonder why they decided to change their position. It’s quite likely that given the FCC’s current investigation into the competitiveness of wireless services, that AT&T decided to jump the gun on them being branded anti-competitive.

Google Wave dev throws out IE as usable browser

Networking & Internet, Software / By /

Even today, in an age of improving standards support in Internet Explorer, a company working on cutting-edge web tech has been forced to abandon IE as a platform to develop for. This time, it’s the Google Wave team that has decided that IE’s JS and DOM rendering performance isn’t adequate to task of providing a desktop-like experience in the browser.

BTW, spotted this news over on SmarterWare, which is a great new blog by Gina Trapani of Lifehacker fame.

New Search Engine, Duck Duck Go, promises less garbage, more relevance, simplicity

Networking & Internet / By /

duckduckgo-logoOne thing to love about the Internet and entrepreneurs in general is that despite what sometimes seem like insurmountable dominance, such as Google has over the search engine market, new attempts to break them down occur all the time. New search engine, Duck Duck Go, is trying to do just that with their quirky name, simpler, uncluttered search results page and in particular less garbage in the results.

The home page is simple and bright. Underneath it lies a fast search engine that does its best to produce relevant results free from parked domains, spam sites and the like. Other features include the Zero-Click Info displays that provide info directly on the results page; Special Pages that group similar topics; Related Topics; links to Official Sites at the top when it can determine that.

One particularly nice feature is the ability to search 27 related sites with the same search query with a single click (in the sidebar). Sites include YouTube, CNN, Wikipedia and much more.

Duck Duck Go was founded by MIT graduate and serial entrepreneur, Gabriel Weinberg.

Motorola 1st Android handset, the CLIQ, appears on T-Mobile

Phones, Portable / By /

Motorola’s first Android handset, the CLIQ, makes its first appearance on the T-Mobile network. The CLIQ is a slide-out keyboard handset with a 320×480 3.1″ HVGA screen that operates on WCDMA and GSM networks. Other notable features include the accelerometer, proximity sensor, ambient light sensor, a microSD card slot, touch screen, 802.11b/g WiFi, 6 hour battery life (325 hrs in standby) and of course, all of the various Android applications and features.

Motorola already has other Android handsets in the pipe, and Google has already announced that there will be at least 18 Android handsets by the end of 2009 and certainly more next year.

via Engadget

Hasbro gets some help from Google on new online version of Monopoly

Gaming & Toys, Gizmo of the Day / By /

Google and Hasbro have teamed up to develop a new online version of Monopoly that makes use of Google Maps. Monopoly City Streets features many of the same concepts as traditional Monopoly – you start off with a set amount of money and can buy/build houses and hotels. But now you can also build skyscrapers and stadiums, as well as ‘hazards’ to slow down your competitors.

Monopoly City Streets launches today, but must be experiencing either too much traffic or some early bugs as the site was either inaccessible or not loading completely.

via Mashable

Google Maps – now with Arterial Traffic info

Miscellaneous, Networking & Internet / By /

For those of us commuters, especially the ones living in the suburbs of some big city, traffic can be a real nightmare. And of course, we’re all looking for alternative routes and usually when you drop off the freeway, you’re taking a gamble that the side streets will be better traffic-wise.

Help is here – Google (Traffic) Maps now features arterial traffic!

And while we’re at it, *you* can help to get this speed info right by getting Mobile Google Maps on your GPS-capable phone and turning on My Location so your phone sends Google up to date info about how fast you’re going. Nice.

Yahoo! Mail still #1, but for how much longer?

Networking & Internet, Software / By /

Image via CrunchBase

ComScore shows Yahoo Mail is still the world’s leader in e-mail services, but the bad news (for Yahoo) is that Google’s Gmail is the fastest growing service. Hotmail is still #2, and AOL just slipped to #4 after Gmail who leapfrogged them to go to #3.

Four years ago when we sized up Hotmail vs Yahoo vs Gmail, Gmail was the clear winner and has only become progressively better. Witness all of the improvements and feature additions that they’ve [Google] have put into Gmail.

For example, this week Google showed off another killer feature – the ability to import your e-mail from other accounts into Gmail.

Do yourself a favor and get a Gmail account.

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