PinStack.com - Smartphone News

New Google News for mobile

srl7741 — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:59:27 GMT

I'm sure many Stackers are like me and use Google News from our Mobile while on the go. If so you may find some nice changes to the web site via your mobile browser.

via Google Mobile Blog:
Today we're excited to announce a completely new Google News offering for iPhone, Android, and Palm Pre users. (We already offer a mobile-optimized version of Google News for other phones, such as Blackberry, Windows Mobile, and S60, and more improvements will be coming to those in the near future)

So pick up your mobile phone and point your browser to http://news.google.com to catch up on news anytime and anywhere.

AT&T Loses Round 1 in Court Battle with Verizon

azstar — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 05:06:19 GMT

In the battle of the wireless giants AT&T has lost one round of the fight today when a judge decided that the "There's a map for that" ads may be "sneaky" but are not misleading and denied AT&T's request to have the ads pulled. "Judge Batten said people might �misunderstand� the commercials, �but that doesn�t mean they�re misleading." It's certainly not the end though since they will have another chance in court on Dec. 16th. But in the mean time AT&T is retaliating with their own ads jabbing back at Verizon.

Elertify Updated Big Time

MStrawder — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 01:32:59 GMT

Just a few weeks ago, Azstar brought this great app to the forefront for the Pinstack Community. The company gave away 20 copies and I was lucky enough to win one. Since then, I've loved this app and it's features. Mainly because I no longer have to check my device everytime I receive an email or SMS while I'm sitting at the computer. Here's a quick run-down of the features, including the newest.

Elertify can display a popup message on your PC when you receive incoming Email, SMS and Phone calls on your BlackBerry. You can even hear who's calling, texting, or emailing you by using the built voice synthesizer!
Elertify lets you choose which types of messages you want to recieve: Email, SMS or phone calls.
You can set the popup display time and whether you want the voice synthesizer or a ringtone to play when you receive a message. You might even turn off the popups altogether and just listen to the voice synthesizer.
NEW! Elertify now supports sending and replying to Email, SMS, and PIN messages right from your PC! Just click on the popup message or select "Send Message" from the Elertify tray icon.
NEW! Download premium voices for use with Elertify with high quality voice synthesis!

Now you can actually reply to or send messages through your device, straight from the PC. Tons of request have been before for an app like this and here it is. You can check out more about the app at Elertify's website.

Samsung i5700 Galaxy Spica Android Phone

hayden — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 18:01:54 GMT

Samsung has rolled out a junior sibling to its Galaxy smartphone, the Spica Galaxy. Spica, like Galaxy, runs Google�s Android OS. It also features a 3.2-inch touch-screen and supports DivX, for enjoying video without file-format hassles.

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Smarter Agent Now Available on All Carriers, Devices and Platforms

cherrichiodo — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:40:11 GMT

Smarter Agent, a mobile technology company that provides GPS and MLS search applications to consumers and real estate agents, today announced general availability on all carriers, devices and platforms including key partnerships with Verizon Wireless and an application for the Android platform. Smarter Agent can already be found on wireless carriers Sprint, AT&T and T-Mobile, reaching traditional cell phones as well as the iPhone and BlackBerry devices, making Smarter Agent the only company to have robust downloadable real estate applications on all major carriers for all US cell phones. The application is being downloaded at a rate of a new user every 1.5 minutes.

"The addition of Verizon Wireless as a carrier and Android as a platform puts us in a unique position in the marketplace," said Brad Blumberg, CEO of Smarter Agent. "Consider that the iPhone reaches less than 9% of all mobile users, and that applications on Verizon are not necessarily available on Sprint, T-Mobile or AT&T. Selling homes is not as easy today as it was in the booms of the past and our application immediately gives real estate professionals a mobile marketing strategy to stay in sync with the Gen X and Gen Y homebuyers."

"The Smarter Agent application with GPS gives me an edge, a non-obtrusive way for homebuyers to search on their own time," said John Badalamenti, CRS, Associate Broker for Prudential Fox and Roach, REALTORS�. "The 'Call to See' button - the ability for buyers to contact me directly to arrange a showing or ask questions about a listing, regardless of who listed the property - helps me to gain qualified leads and convert them into sales."

For consumers, Smarter Agent's Homes for Sale application is a powerful tool for anyone interested in accurate, up to date, and comprehensive real estate information. The application features three location-aware, including GPS-triggered, real estate searches in one easy-to-use application.

For the real estate sector, Smarter Agent provides agents and brokers with a mobile marketing strategy to help them stay in front of prospective homebuyers. Six out of ten homebuyers are aged 28-45, who are often early adopters of technology. Smarter Agent gives real estate professionals a customized and brandable application for their prospective customers to leverage. The application is distributed easily, with a text code that real estate professionals send directly to consumers. When the prospective customer uses the application to search and find a home, the calls to schedule an appointment go directly to the agent that provided them with the application.

Read more & download here

How Google Voice Violates Google�s Own Privacy Policy

srl7741 — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:13:05 GMT

Being a moderate GV user I found this article interesting and wanted to share it with my fellow Stackers.

The service systematically replaces my friend�s phone numbers with their Google Voice numbers when they call, even when they aren�t calling from Google Voice. Not only has this led to a lot of confusing and time wasting �how did you get my Google Voice phone number?� conversations, it is a clear violation of Google�s own privacy policy.

Read More after the break to TechCrunch: Here�s how this works

Google Latitude, now with Location History & Alerts

hayden — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:18:25 GMT

Google Mobile Blog:

Quote:

Since the launch of Google Latitude earlier this year, we've been getting a lot of feature requests. One of the most popular ideas was for Latitude to keep track of location history, allowing you (but not your friends) to see where you've been at any point in time. Another popular idea was to notify you when you're near your Latitude friends so you can easily meet up or grab lunch. Today, we're happy to introduce both Google Location History and Google Location Alerts (beta) to let you do even more with Latitude.

More users offload laptop work to smart phones

cherrichiodo — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 05:02:50 GMT

via SFgate.com: Six months ago, Deborah Han's laptop died. Instead of replacing the old machine, the Walnut Creek city planner decided to buy an iPhone 3GS and see how long it would take before she was forced to get a laptop. Six months later, she still hasn't made the purchase.

"I realized that a lot of things that my laptop does, my iPhone could also do," said Han, 29. "It's not as good as my laptop but my work and lifestyle don't require me to look at my laptop that much."

Han is part of a growing group of smart phone users who have shifted more of their computing workload to their mobile device. In most cases, smart phone users can't completely ditch their computers, which are better for bigger tasks like creating documents, editing files and viewing media.

But the rise of the smart phone is reordering the way people compute, allowing people to tackle tasks like e-mailing, document viewing, social networking and light browsing from their handheld. In the process, it's lessening some of the need for a laptop or desktop, both in the workplace and at home.

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Siri: Virtual Personal Assistant

Viper43 — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 01:16:58 GMT

Something new on the horizon, Siri"s Virtual Personal Assistant will soon be a reality. Something for all smartphones alike such as iPhone,BlackBerry and Windows Moble.If you are interested in signing up, hop over to www.Siri.com and check it out.

From the website:
Siri is a Virtual Personal Assistant - a new way to interact with the Internet on your mobile phone. Like a real assistant, Siri helps you get things done. You interact with Siri by just saying, in your own words, what you want to do. You can ask Siri to find a romantic place for dinner, and get reservations for Saturday night. You can discover things to do over the weekend, get tickets to the movies, or call a cab when you’re out on the town. You don't have to search through a bunch of web pages, following links and hunting down facts. Siri does all the work giving you the information you need at your fingertips.

We believe that in five years most people who use the Internet will have a Virtual Personal Assistant (VPA) to take care of the details of using online services. We will look back at the birth of VPAs in 2009 and wonder how we ever got by without our trusted assistant. The days of wading through links and pages from your mobile interface will seem quaint, because the natural way to interact with the rich world of information and services is to have a conversation. As John Batelle, the author of The Search, says "The future of search is a conversation with someone we trust."

Siri is just getting started, and has a lot to learn. Stay tuned - the era of the personal assistant has begun!

Google Voice Has Competition

MStrawder — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:39:56 GMT

I've been a longstanding fan of Google Voice. I got my invite within the first few weeks of it's debut and have used and abused the SMS capabilities. The service has overall saved me a ton on my wireless bill and made it easier to for friends and family to keep in touch with me by calling one simple number that rings me wherever I am. It seems though that this innovative service has some competition in the form of a new service called Ribbit Mobile.

via eWeek:"Ribbit brought its cloud computing phone application to the mobile device sector Nov. 3 in the form of Ribbit Mobile, which lets users manage calls and messages to mobile phones from their computers. Ribbit Mobile aims to challenge existing Web services such as Google Voice and VoxOx, and offers many of the same services as those products. However, Ribbit features a third-party developer platform to enable programmers to build applications that extend the Ribbit Mobile platform.

Like Google Voice, Ribbit Mobile transcribes voicemail to text and sends it to users via SMS and e-mail, so that users don't have to tap into voicemail to listen to messages. The application also includes an online message inbox.

However, unlike VoxOx and Google Voice, which until last week required users to have a special Google phone number, Ribbit Mobile doesn't require a new phone number."

Check out the full article here.

Or just go to the company's site here.

There's A Map for That..Oh Yeah, And A Lawsuit

MStrawder — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:25:24 GMT

AT&T is pulling no punches in rebuttal to Verizon's latest commercials comparing their 3G coverage to that of AT&T's. According to a report from Reuters, "AT&T Inc is suing Verizon Wireless in an effort to stop its bigger mobile rival from using "misleading" coverage maps in advertisements that AT&T says are causing it to lose "incalculable market share."

According to the lawsuit which AT&T filed in Atlanta federal court, a recently launched ad campaign shows maps with white spaces that mislead consumers into thinking AT&T has no network coverage outside of areas where it offers high-speed mobile services, known as third-generation or 3G.

But AT&T argued that its customers can "fully use their wireless devices outside of a '3G' coverage area and undisputedly have coverage in areas depicted by white or blank spaces on the maps used in Verizon's advertisements."

Check out the full article here.

Sprint to officially block tethering

srl7741 — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:36:34 GMT

You would think if your not the number 1 or the number 2 carrier you would be promoting it by giving customers everything you possibly could in hopes of attracting business. Taking away a feature makes it even more confusing.

Recently without notice Sprint decided to block tethering for smartphones on their network out of the blue. And Sprint customers are furious about the changes. I read comments that some people may quit the service just because of the change. It doesn�t matter if you are on the �Everything� plan or not, tethering will no longer work for you starting in 2010.

The changes were confirmed by Sprint executive David Owens. During a virtual chat on the Sprint website, Owens also revealed that Google Android OS updates will be added to the HTC Hero and the Samsung Moment. The price of Android phones will decrease �as we see volume across the industry� according to Owens.

via Pulse2

Google Voice Quick Reference Guide

srl7741 — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 23:11:50 GMT

Everybody's looking for a quick Google Voice guide and Coolgeex has created one. Print it and use it as a reference.

Attached Images

GV-Card.jpg (78.4 KB)

Bing Mobile Site Optimized for Touch Screen Smartphones

hayden — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:14:07 GMT

Microsoft has touch-optimized its Bing mobile site, allowing owners of the iPhone, Zune HD, Verizon Imagio and others to navigate the search engine via their multitouch screens. The increased popularity of devices such as the iPhone has made touch screens a vital component to consider for developers of mobile software.

NFL feature � type a team or player and see upcoming games, stats, and scores. While the game is on, you can get real-time updates on the plays. (U.S. only)

Flight status � enter the airline and flight number and get the latest departure and landing times.

Bing for touch devices
Great news for you touch phone owners in the U.S.: we have a new version of Bing just for high-resolution touch devices. We optimized for touch navigation to make the most of your phone, and added a great new Movies feature. Search for Movies in your city, and you�ll see the movies playing nearby, showtimes, overviews, and even trailers and video clips.

You can get to this version by going to m.bing.com with your iPhone, Zune HD, T-Mobile G1, Verizon Imagio, or Samsung Omnia. We�ll be adding support for new devices over the next couple of months.

Try Bing today at m.bing.com
Give the updated Bing a try now by visiting m.bing.com with your mobile phone. For more information about Bing for mobile products, visit our website at www.bing.com/mobile.

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SmartPhones: Citi Downgrades RIMM, PALM To Sell; Upgrades MOT To Buy

hayden — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:05:08 GMT

MOT is up 34 cents, or 4%, to $8.91.
RIMM is down $4.22, or -7.19%, to $54.51.
PALM is down 40 cents, or 3.44%, to $11.24.

Citigroup analyst Jim Suva this morning upgrade MOT shares to Buy from Sell, while also downgrading both Palm (PALM) and Research In Motion (RIMM) to Sell ratings. (He previously had a Buy on RIMM and a Hold on Palm). In short, he is highly impressed with the new Android phones from Motorola, and he thinks they are going to take a significant toll on the competition.

Also note a recent changewave satisfaction rating survey.

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