Om Malik is reporting on the rumored Facebook phone and saying it’s going to happen. Apparently, newcomer INQ Mobile is making the phone and it may end up on AT&T in the US. *sigh* Have they learned nothing from Apple?
At any rate, it should come in 2 models – one with a QWERTY keyboard and another with a touchscreen, and it should appear in the 1st half of 2011.
So says their CEO, Ivan Seidenberg at an investors conference today. And we had our hopes up for a January release. On the bright side, it will probably be an iPhone that works on Verizon’s spanking brand new 4G network. So you may just have to put up with terrible call quality and reception for another year or so.
Here’s a new take on the standard Bluetooth headset – a Bluetooth wristband speakerphone. Atomic9’s BT 2.1 gadget comes in black or white and works much like a typical BT headset.
It comes with a nice set of features such as:
The idea is very cool, reminds me of Dick Tracy’s 2-Way Wrist Radio, but it may still be a bit large and clunky for those of us who have given up wearing watches because – ironically – our cell phones tell time!
Buy now!
Price: $99.99
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)
This sounds a bit crazy, but there’s a well-founded rumor that Facebook is building its own smartphone. Why you may ask. Simple – control. They get to control the whole interface, the entire experience for their users.
They also get to cash in on money paid for apps in their ecosystem. They are also feeling the pressure of Google who is obviously making a play for some of the ever expanding ‘social’ traffic and who already have a mobile platform in the form of Android.
So will this work? Depends on your definition of ‘work’. Even if just a small fraction of their demographics takes it up seriously, then Facebook will stand to gain, and that can’t be all that bad.
Not only is jailbreaking your iPhone now perfectly legal, there are other exemptions to the DMCA act that the Library of Congress has just issued.
They include:
You may be wondering why there is even a need for such otherwise common-sense guidelines. It just goes to show how short-sighted the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyrights Act) turned out to be.
Unfortunately, these exemptions expire in a few years and are not permanent laws. It certainly makes trying to be an upstanding citizen a difficult process, especially as so many law-enforcement groups follow the ‘innocence is no excuse’ rule of thumb.
Hey there GfG’ers – we’ve got yet another giveaway for you. This one is super useful especially for you road-warrior and/or heavy gadget users.
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Giveaway: Technocel PowerPak emergency/backup USB chargerRead More »
Here’s another emergency USB charger, this one powered by 2 AA batteries. Not a bad deal for under $10, and it includes a tiny built-in LED light for grins.
However, I can’t say I love the idea of using batteries. I’d rather have it either use a rechargeable battery or even better, be solar rechargeable (like the iTech SolarCharger).
Buy now!
Price: $8.50
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)
It turns out that even Apple and Google tried to buy Palm, despite the wails and moans about the bleak outlook of the company, even with its new webOS and phones.
I still think this was a good buy for HP. They’ll be able to take and use webOS in more ways than the other possible suitors. Google probably would not have used webOS (they have Android), or at most sucked in the best parts to Android. They also probably don’t want to be in the phone hardware business.
As for Apple, the ‘patent theory’ seems right, especially with NTP now going after the rest of the big phone makers, after taking a nice bite out of RIM.
I’m sure too that HP was looking for a upgrade of sorts for their iPAQs (remember those?). But as with all such things, time will tell if this works out for HP.
Here is where a little Google magic may make Apple’s iPhone/iPad division worry a bit, if not a lot. Google Labs is rolling out a new tool called App Inventor, which is an Android app development tool that does not require any coding.
Let me say that again – you can build applicaitons for your Android phone without knowing how to program. If you can drag and drop, you can ‘program’ apps!
App Inventor is invite-only right now, but you can watch the demo video here as well as see some of the other sample apps on the site.
As much as mankind’s (now) convoluted legal system keeps our complicated world (mostly) in check, sometimes it can just run amuck, particularly in the field of patent law.
Take the case of NTP, which claims to have a patent on “wireless e-mail”. They have already extracted a sizable chunk of licensing monies (~$600M) out of R.I.M, maker of Blackberry smartphones. NTP is now going after the other big names in the smartphone business: Apple, Google, Microsoft, HTC, LG, and Motorola.
With any luck, these companies have altered their technology enough to avoid losing to NTP, because a win for them puts them in position to continue terrorizing the industry with lawsuits.
