Mobile posts

Verizon and friends want to create their own application stores to compete with the likes of the Apple App Store and Google Apps Marketplace. That’s good, right? After all, isn’t competition a good thing? In most cases, that would be true, but when a competitor holds the keys to all the doors and all owns the roads that leads to those doors, it can be very bad news. Verizon has stated at CTIA Wireless 2010 that V Cast Apps — Verizon’s application store — will learn from Apple’s ways and give developers 70 percent of profits and keep 30 percent for themselves. But the company has also stated that…

Customers of AT&T will soon be able to buy into an option that makes the phone work the way it’s supposed to, for the one-time low price of $150. It’s called the Microcell–just set up this little baby wherever you happen to be–it supports up to 4 phones at a time and it taps into an existing DSL or Cable connection, becoming its own AT&T mini-tower. (DSL or cable connection not included, AT&T subscription also not included). This has been in limited rollout for a few months in Raleigh, NC and one or two other cities, but it’s being made available nationally now, and you can almost hear the…

Apparently, the Taliban have been outwitting Australian forces in Afghanistan by using a relatively inexpensive tool of war: the iPhone. Can someone explain to me how while I can barely get a signal in downtown Toronto, the middle of a desert is getting coverage enough to wage war? According to Australia’s Department of Defense chief technology officer Matt Yannopoilos, “bad guys” are “using iPhones and applications — and multiple SIM cards — and going much faster than we are.” Despite the military having more intelligence, the iPhones allow near-instantaneous transmission…

When Bing first launched, we all treated it a little like the little engine that couldn’t; why, we all asked, would anyone switch from Google to Bing? As time has gone on, however, Bing has become more compelling, particularly with its map features. Now, there’s one more reason to use Bing, as they’ve integrated information from quickly-growing location app Foursquare. Let’s say you arrive in Brooklyn or San Francisco with no idea what to do. With the data now integrated into Bing Maps, head to the search site and you’ll be able to see all the tips Foursquare users have left mapped out for you to peruse,…

iPhone fanatic and sound engineer Tom Freeman merged high quality sound recording and mobile tech couture by mastering an entire album on his iPhone. In the mobile age, it isn’t just web browsing and email that’s going out and about. Tom Freeman’s iMatik is a mix album of electronica and samples, carefully blended together with a percussion track, synthesizer and bassline, all accomplished with a device that fits in his pocket….

Looking for a neat way to take notes and read bits and pieces on that brand new iPad you’ve already busted your credit limit to buy? Seeking out an efficient and easy-to-use partner to guard all your favourite data as you prep for the next assignment, report or special mission? We’d like to introduce you to Instapaper, which we promise will emerge as the ultimate App for just that. …

Really interested in this concept: Rentalic lets you rent out the things you have around you aren’t using, and employs PayPal’s payments system to take deposits and more. Unlike eBay where you sell your kit, Rentalic lets you rent things out, or hire them in – unused skis, carpet cleaners, second car – whatever you may have around, whatever you might need….

‘Don’t be evil’ may be the old Google mantra, but it looks as if that still leaves space for a string of affairs and some business double-dealing on the part of the company CEO, Eric Schmidt. An incisive Valleywag report looks at the breakdown of Schmidt’s relationship with Apple CEO Steve Jobs and the way things came to a head in 2007, while the Google boss was attending Burning Man with one of his mistresses….

There’s an iPhone browser break out beginning, with Opera Software submitting its Opera Mini 5 browser/app for the iPhone to the App Store. All that’s left is to wait and see if Apple will approve the Safari-competing browser….

Apple has begun selling the iPhone 3GS contract-free in the US as it prepares to introduce a new model iPhone, perhaps in June. An internal Apple memo tells retail store staff, “Effective immediately, customers purchasing iPhone as device only at full price are no longer required to have an A&T account or provide a form of ID.”…