Mobile posts

“I sent one stupid, meaningless text – ‘LOL’ – and killed a man.” When AT&T launched their campaign against texting while driving in March, 2010, they decided that the most important demographic to focus upon were teens and college students. The mixture of inexperience and irresponsibility in the demographic combined with the potential to break a habit before it got started made the most sense. Since then, very little has been done that was extraordinary enough to be more than a gesture of “we’re doing good” that could be used in public relations campaigns. That changed today with the release…

From the file labelled ‘stuff you didn’t expect to hear about today’ comes this puzzler: LG has announced that it’s teaming up with film score icon Ennio Morricone to produce exclusive ringtones and music for its devices. The music will come preloaded on LG’s entire range of smartphones, beginning with the Optimus 2X, and will feature 10 Morricone classics, as well as 15 new pieces developed specifically for LG. For those of you who aren’t hip to Morricone, he’s an extremely influential legend in the world of composing. Hell, I thought he was dead until wikipedia-ing him a couple minutes ago. Even…

Microsoft was satisfied enough to announce that they had sold 1.5 million units of their Windows Phone 7 platform for the past six weeks it has been available. Not too amazing, sure, but it is a start. However, we were just thrown a curve ball when it was revealed that these numbers are not the actual sales to consumers. No, these figures represent the number of Windows Phone 7 phones sold by phone manufacturers to retailers and mobile providers. So the picture just became more complicated. The numbers might not be true sales to consumers, but they are — at least when argued by Microsoft — competitive….

Y’know how experts are always forecasting that we’ll soon be using our phones for everything, including ePayments and eTicketing and sutff? Well hold onto your hat, because the future is now. In sticker form. KSW Microtec AG, a manufacturer of RFID components for credit cards and such, has developed an RFID sticker for your phone that functions as an alternative to your traditional wallet full of cards. The sticker acts in lieu of your credit or debit card and is apparently affixed ‘securely’ to your phone, in order to meet credit card companies’ authentication standards. What ‘securely’ means…

Earlier today, I was lucky enough to catch a too-brief glimpse of RIM’s 7″ Playbook tablet when David Neale, VP for Special Projects quickly demoed the device at an event in Toronto. Though the time that we got to see the device was limited, what is clear is that, though the tablet is definitely in a rough, unfinished shape, it is shaping up to be quite impressive. Here’s what we saw and learned: The interface hasn’t changed from what we’ve seen before. Neale showed that you can work ‘in the window’ i.e. swiping left and right to move between screens; and ‘in the frame of the window’ i.e swiping up from…

Stupidity aside, the U.S. government has long been looking for ways to reduce the amount of accidents on the road. The latest of which has been to ban texting while driving. Many states are pushing for this to become law, and some have been successful. But now there is an even more extreme idea being tossed around in our government. This one involves blocking the use of cell phones entirely while driving. And yes, this is a serious possibility. The U.S. Department of Transportation already sees this cell phone blocking technology as a reality. “I think the technology is there,” said Raymond LaHood,…

Click the image above to see the full large version. Thanks to VoucherCodes.co.uk for sending this in to us….

Sony Ericsson is one company which failed to make the most of the Google’s free mobile OS, Android. The HTC and Motorola banked hell lot of money by making their flagship devices based on android and Samsung has done it too this year, with its Galaxy line of devices, the Galaxy S being most sold phone. But SE is trying hard to catch up the android game and looks set to unveil some cool devices early next year, beginning with the SE X12, also called ‘Anju’. The X12 test unit was previewed by the Mobile Review guys and they were able to confirm some of the leading specs of the phone. It’s said that the X12 will…

When rumors that RIM, the makers of the Blackberry, were about to announce a tablet, you could have been forgiven for not being too excited. After all, beyond hearing silly names like ‘Blackpad’, people were skeptical RIM could create a compelling product. Then they actually announced the Playbook – a device with a new OS and some pretty impressive specs – and we all started to wonder: maybe this thing will be alright, yeah? Now comes news from the RIM CEO that the Playbook will come in for under $500. Suddenly, we might have a real competition on our hands. But other than price, what else does RIM have…

According to RIM’s co.CEO Jim Balsillie, the BlackBerry PlayBook will launch in Q1 2011 – and cost less than $500. That certainly doesn’t sound like bad news, especially considering the cheapest WiFi-only iPad is $499. While smaller than the iPad (7 inches, as opposed to 9.7), the PlayBook’s still got cool stuff the (current) iPad hasn’t, including two cameras and Flash support. Not that I’m a die-hard Flash hanger-on or anything, but even if it’s dying, it still accounts for a large part of the internet. Big Steve, I’d like to be able to see it. But let’s not go turning the comment section into a Flashwar…