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| This is a discussion on PinStack Week in Review: Smartphone News, Reviews for July 31, 2009 within the Week In Review forums, part of the PinStack's News & Events Coverage category; TGIF!! I can't believe the amount of news coverage this week! What a GREAT team effort!! Even with the iPhone ... |
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07-31-2009 -
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PinStack Week in Review: Smartphone News, Reviews for July 31, 2009  TGIF!! I can't believe the amount of news coverage this week! What a GREAT team effort!! Even with the iPhone 3GS launch behind us, we are still seeing tons of new information on the net daily. The iPhone is rumored to be experiencing vulnerability issues within the SMS client. Almost immediately after the story broke, we saw reports from Apple that a fix was on the way. So if you are worried about your iPhone being hi-jacked by terrorists or revenge seeking exes, then I'd hold off on SMS'ing until the patch for this issue is released  BlackBerry Rumors & News T-Mobile USA and RIM Introduce the New BlackBerry Curve 8520 Blackberry App World 1.1 Skyfire for BlackBerry haulted by Developers due to Alpha leak Chace Crawford Launches BlackBerry Tour iPhone Rumors & News Get an iPhone 3G for $49 iPhone: Exclusive AT&T Ride May Be Ending iPhone Cryptography Lacking Official Google Voice App Blocked From App Store iPhone Jailbreaking Could Crash Cellphone Towers, Apple Claims New Apple iPhone OS 3.1 Beta 3. Can AT&T Handle the iPhone? Researchers attack iPhone via SMS iPhone for Business: Growing Trend with Latest Apps & Features Apple to fix iPhone security flaw Palm OS Rumors & News Palm Pre For $99? Verizon Vows to Have Pre By Early Next Year Palm, Apple Continue to battle over iTunes Syncing Windows Mobile Rumors & News HTC Touch Pro2 officially announced by T-Mobile USA Nokia News Pics of Nokia N97 "Mini" leak Android Rumors & News Sprint to Carry Android Devices Google unveils new features in Android 2.0 OS First Look at the Phillips V808 Android Sprint's confirms Android plans for THIS year. Are there ANY Motorola fans out there? This is for you. Motorola: Don't Count Them Out Yet, New Android Smartphone! Verizon? HTC Hero coming October 11th to Sprint? Other Smartphone Rumors & News - Carrier Related Verizon rumored to be fast-tracking 4G for launch by early 2010 Verizon Enters the Mobile App Market Rogers to Roll Out First HSPA+ Network in North America AT&T Customers: Get Free Wi-Fi service in Barnes & Noble Stores Nationwide Sprint Posts a Large Subscriber Loss T-Mobile Sidekick LX Gets Em' Professional with MS Exchange Support Verizon Plans Palm Pre, Blackberry Storm 2 and Android in 2010 Samsung Solstice Smartphone Hits AT&T For $99.99 HTC Touch Pro2, Snap, Tour & Omnia now available from TELUS Shortening Handset Exclusivity Deals Study Shows Smartphone Users Prefer Using Their Voice to Typing or Touching Yahoo! & Microsoft's Bing Team up Against Google With New Deal GPS Smartphone Shipments to Hit 77 Million in 2009 Garmin's Big Smartphone Launch, Starts Tomorrow in Taiwan, US to Follow! Samsung Unveils 1GHz "iPhone" Processor?! --------------------------------------------------------- Smartphone Applications/Accessories Google Latitude: iPhone users can connect to BB, Android, Nokia & WM users iPhone pros, let us know if this is any good as a "web app"... Google has finally released Google Latitude for iPhone and iPod touch as a web application running in Safari. The Latitude web app provides all the core functionality you might expect: you can see the location of your friends on a map and modify your privacy settings so that you control how your location is shared and with whom. The Google Latitude web app currently supports iPhone/iPod Touch OS 3.0 or above. For now, it's available in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, and we hope to bring it to more countries soon.  The iPhone's Latest Hit App: A Sex Offender Locator Looking over the top 10 paid iPhone apps list today, the list appeared pretty typical: A bunch of games, a camera app, etc. Then I noticed one called Offender Locator, mostly because it has a creepy icon. I figured it was a game it's anything but. It's an app to show you registered sex offenders living around you. While all 50 states require that sexual offenders register themselves, and allow anyone to access the information online, most people never look at it. That's why it's surprising that this app is a top seller especially considering that it's not free (it's $0.99). Certainly, it's good to be aware of these people living around you especially if they have committed acts against children, and you have children but it's interesting that it's the iPhone that is making such information "popular."  Time Mobile App for BlackBerry Released TIME Mobile has recently released their new TIME BlackBerry App. "Get the latest news, read opinion and analysis from TIME influential bloggers, while also having the ability to browse through award-winning photography and TIME’s hugely popular Lists. You can also customize the content to easily view headlines from your favorite sections. You’ll get updates automatically pushed out to your BlackBerry® smartphone, so you can read it on the subway or on a flight. It’s the fast and easy way to have TIME with you to read and peruse, no matter where you are. Best of all, it's FREE!" The app took a bit of time at initial start-up to load up the content, but once loaded, it runs smoothly on my 8330. The UI is nice, very easy to navigate, and gives easy access to their best content. You can set it to automatically update and the icon will display a notification when new content is delivered. If you want to give it a try, get the free download at http://app.time.com. They are also working on an iPhone version and if interested you can sign up to receive notification when it's available.  Spotify Readies iPhone App for Its Streaming Music Service On-demand music streaming company Spotify is readying an iPhone client for its service, and expects to release it in a matter of weeks. The iPhone software should be available as a free download from Apple's iPhone App Store in a few weeks' time, but using it to stream music will require a Spotify Premium subscription, the company's communications manager Jim Butcher said Monday. On the iPhone, it will compete with Apple's own iTunes Store, where users are charged to download tunes but pay no ongoing subscription fees. The iTunes Store contains around 10 million tracks encoded at 256K bps in AAC format, most unencumbered by DRM (digital rights management) restrictions, at prices ranging from $0.69 to $1.29. Citibank Launches Citi Mobile For Smartphones Checking your account balance or paying a bill used to involve a trip to the bank, and in recent years, logging on to your home PC. Today, Citibank is making banking easier than ever for its U.S. customers by expanding its mobile offering to smartphones, including most BlackBerry smartphones, Palm devices and iPhone mobile devices. It's become clear that consumers are no longer using their smartphones for business purposes only. According to Nielsen's Q1 2009 Mobile Insights survey, 62% of recent smartphone acquirers use their devices for personal reasons, such as taking photos or texting friends, while only 10% use them solely for business. Additionally, consumers are switching to smartphones at a rapid pace, with smartphones accounting for 22% of all devices acquired in the past six months, increasing total market penetration in the U.S. to 16%.  Zeemote Announces JS1 Bluetooth Gaming Controller for BlackBerry Devices We first mentioned Zeemote last October, while attending the first BlackBerry Developers Conference here in California. Then in April of this year, Zeemote announced support for the G1 Android Smartphone. Well, the wait for the BlackBerry compatible unit is over. Available this summer; no pricing information available as of this post. The Zeemote JS1 Controller delivers console-style gaming for the World's Best Mobile Gaming Experience! The Zeemote JS1 featuring Zeekey Controller Software empowers you to have the ultimate congrol over ALL Mobile Games, Apps and phone features when using a BlackBerry Curve 8900, Bold, Pearl Series, Pearl Flip or Curve 8300 Series. So whether you are playing games, browsing the Internet, cueing up your favorite music, or mapping a destination, the Zeemote JS1 featuring Zeekey enables full control of your mobile experience.  Gokivo Navigation for BlackBerry Expands to EU, Canada Networks in Motion, producers of the Gokivo navigation software, today announced extended coverage service for BlackBerry devices. The maps now cover Canada and Western Europe, which combined with existing U.S. coverage, now sees Gokivo covering all of North America. Gokivo is not a household name, but it is the navigation software powering Verizon’s VZ Navigator service. Gorillamobile: Attach Your Mobile Devices To Almost Any Surface Joby, the maker of the Gorillapod flexible camera tripod is about to release the Gorillamobile. This will allow you to attach your mobile devices to virtually any surface. You can use it as a desk stand, wrap the gorillamobile legs around handles of strollers of exercise equipment and much more. It comes with 3 different types of adapters to work with a variety of devices. The suction cup adapter will even work on devices with a soft rubberized surface so that means I can use it with my BlackBerry while it's in it's Seidio Innocase. "Flexible, wrappable legs allow you to secure the Gorillamobile to virtually any surface, enabling optimal positioning for hands-free enjoyment of all your mobile devices. Three types of quick-release adapters stay attached to your mobile devices and let you quickly and securely connect them to the Gorillamobile. Switch between devices in an instant!" Google to Launch Official Facebook App for Android Google and Facebook are reportedly putting rivalry on hold long enough for development of a new Facebook application for the Android mobile operating system.Techcrunch reports that Google's Android team at offered to help, and "even loaned Facebook an Android engineer." The app will debut with a more limited set of features than Facebook's iPhone app. For example it won't offer an inbox but will offer full Facebook stream and status updates. Augmented Reality Apps to Arrive with iPhone 3.1 Update The L.A. Times reports that Apple will begin allowing developers access to the tools they need to produce augmented reality applications starting with upcoming iPhone OS 3.1 "Augmented reality is a mesmerizing software breed that overlays useful info onto a real-world view using the iPhone's camera. Because it relies heavily on the compass in addition to other smart-phone features such as the GPS and Internet connection only users of the new iPhone 3GS will be able to install them." Already on BlackBerry & WM, Pilot My-Cast by Garmin Coming to the iPhone Digital CycloneSM, Inc., a subsidiary of Garmin Ltd., the global leader in satellite navigation, announced today that iPhone and iPod Touch users can soon download Pilot My-Cast by Garmin, a premier cell phone application that provides critical aviation weather data, flight planning and flight filing services to U.S. and Canadian-based subscribers. Pilot My-Cast is already compatible with many popular phone models, such as BlackBerry and Windows Mobile devices, and is available from all major wireless carriers in the U.S. including AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, Alltel, as well as Handmark and Handango. Nissan Dials IPhone for Car Remote Control Nissan has developed a prototype iPhone application that would allow electric car owners to dial into their vehicles and check battery levels. The application, a working version of which was demonstrated by the company at its research facility in Yokosuka, Japan, links to the car's IT system to check the status of the Lithium Ion batteries that power the car. Using it, owners will be able to monitor charging of their cars while away from the vehicles. The system could come in handy, for example, when cars are parked at public charging stations and owners want to fully charge the batteries before driving away. Apple Releases MobileMe iDisk Application for iPhone The application allows MobileMe members to easily browse and view files stored on their iDisk and share files with others via integrated e-mail links. - View files on your iDisk - Access Public folders - Easily share files from your iPhone - Quickly access recently viewed files - View iPhone-supported file types-including iWork, Office, PDF, QuickTime and more. (Files larger than 20MB may not be viewable.) MobileMe iDisk is available for the iPhone and iPod touch and requires iPhone OS 3.0 and a MobileMe subscription. --------------------------------------------------------- PinStacker Reviews Review: GVdialer available on BlackBerry, iPhone, WM, Nokia & Android. --------------------------------------------------------- PinStack Smartphone Theme Round Up - FREE Downloads It's been awhile since my last Theme Round Up and I sincerely apologize for being such a slacker.  We will feature themes and wallpapers for all the major smartphones we cover. But for now, here is a small list of what we have in the BlackBerry Free Theme forum. Don't forget to also check out the downloads section of PinStack for more downloads! Sorry there's still no love for the Tour owners when it comes to themes. Plazmic typically releases an update for new devices about 3 months after the device launch. If I were you, I wouldn't hold my breath... Let's hope the next release supports all the new beta software too. --------------------------------------------------------- Have a GREAT weekend ya'll Keep on stackin'!!  |
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07-31-2009 -
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Great W-I-R Cherri. A ton of stuff this week from almost every major carrier and device manufacturer. Going to be a long night sifting through the list to get caught up on everything.
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07-31-2009 -
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Helluva week, this one... When I read your WRI I always wonder why I need to check on the news every night. Is it that we are all "insane" Pinstack junkies? Lot's of labor though ! Thanks Cherri ! |
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07-31-2009 -
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LOL I wish I had submitted this article a few days ago when I saw it: http://www.engadget.com/2009/07/29/m...-hits-the-fcc/ It's also on the news page at www.phonescoop.com titled "T-Mobile 3G-Packing Motorola Spotted on FCC."
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#6
08-01-2009 -
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Wow very nice WIR
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