Mobile posts

Following yesterday’s reports suggesting Palm has put itself up for sale comes more news on the company’s attempt to find a new friend. Chinea’s Huawei Technologies has been approached by an investment bank on behalf of Palm for preliminary acquisition talks, but discussions have not yet moved forward. Huawei Technologies isn’t a household name, but it has become the world’s second-biggest telecoms equipment company after Ericsson. And that lack of a household name could be the benefit it gains from buying a well-known brand such as Palm. One of the pioneers in PDA and smartphone tech,…

Apparently, Apple boss Steve Jobs now claims his company owns the trademark on the word ‘Pad’. This news follows Apple’s move last week to demand app developer Chris Ostmo remove the word ‘Pad’ from the name of his two products, journalPad and journalPad Bible Edition. Ostmo received a terse email from the App Store team telling him to make these changes. The upset developer then wrote a personal plea to Jobs asking for clarification as to the policy, particularly as so many developers had originally shoved a ‘Pad’ suffix into their App names in advance of the iPad launch…he didn’t…

Apple today updated its MacBook Pro range, offering up faster processors, better graphics and longer battery life – however MacBook and MacBook Air upgrades didn’t emerge. The popular 13-inch MacBook Pro now boasts an NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics processor that makes for up to 80 percent faster graphics. It also has a 10-hour built-in battery. The new 15-inch and 17-inch MacBook Pro models feature Intel Core i5 and i7 processors and Apple’s new automatic graphics switching technology that toggles seamlessly between powerful NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M and energy efficient Intel HD Graphics…

Apple’s online store has been taken offline generating a clamour of excitement among company watchers who are already expecting the company to introduce an all-new range of laptops today. UPDATE: The company has updated its MacBook Pro range, read about it here. New model MacBooks, MacBook Pros and MacBook Air laptops have all been speculated upon in recent days. Taiwanese newspaper Apple Daily most recently claimed new MacBook, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air models to be due for launch sometime this month. Note: Apple’s MacBook Pro and MacBook Air models were last upgraded in June 2009, while…

In a big surprise for iPhone users in search of choice, Apple has approved the third-party Opera Mini app for the iPhone. This version of Opera Mini has been developed specifically for the iPhone and is impressively fast. This is because it compresses data by up to 90 percent before fetching that data to the device, which has the effect of greatly accelerating page load speed (that’s particularly good if you’re on a slower EDGE network). It took Apple – known to reject apps which emulate those it provides – just three weeks to approve Opera Mini for the iPhone. The free Safari replacement is now available…

Microsoft is currently holding a live media event in San Francisco to unveil a new product, widely believed to be the Pink project, the successor to the Sidekick platform. The product, named Kin picks up where the Sidekick leaves off. Due in May 2010, the device is essentially a phone with a browser and camera built in. The device will launch on Verizon, although no plans or pricing has been announced yet. I’m having a little trouble understanding what sets this product apart from other regular phones or smartphones, but Microsoft notes that the device is capable of streaming media from a Zune, so…

Palm, one of the pioneers in PDA and smart phone technology, might be calling it quits after reports state that the company is seeking buyers. It will be sad to see the company go, but when you hire an advertising agency that does more to scare potential customers instead of generating interest, its to be expected that things might not go too well. Palm has a long history, and it would be sad to see them go, especially with such a great platform. The webOS platform really only lacks the excellent hardware and third-party support needed to make it a huge hit. (Oh, and the advertising, again, was horrid.)…

Like the dorky, sweaty guy at a party in full swing, Nokia dawdles in late, with a crappy gift, mumbling something about getting caught in traffic and the dog eating its homework. It was announced on Friday that Nokia has purchased MetaCarta, a US geographic technology with plans to offer free local navigation to customers. While North American stalwarts such as RIM, Apple and Google have been providing GPS, location and navigation services for years, Nokia has decided that the future is in navigation, and aims to strike a blow at the established market by halfheartedly attempting to keep up with…

You gotta’ love Creative . Despite the fact that they pioneered the MP3 player market – only to then be overtaken by the iPod and iTunes – they keep churning out decent, well-priced portable audio players that few people pay attention to. Announced today is the Creative Zen X-Fi Style and Zen Style, which according to Creative aim to both add a stylish touch to the basic MP3 player and focus on sound quality – an area that Apple has often been criticized for. The Creative ‘X-Fi’ technology purports to restore some of the sound information that gets lost when you take a music track and turn it into a compressed…

Lately, there have been rumblings that much-beloved Twitter might start to turn a little evil and begin to compete with the huge economy of third-party apps that has sprung up around the service. Well, it looks like those rumors are at least partly true, as today Twitter announced an official Blackberry client. Here’s a list of the app’s features: Real-time BlackBerry push of Twitter direct messages Camera and photo gallery integration Browser integration for Tweeting links Customizable interface for changing fonts, hiding tool bars, etc. Inbox integration so you can read your Twitter direct…