World’s first projector cellphone is also an iPhone clone, in Rome
Filed under: Cellphones, Displays
Continue reading World's first projector cellphone is also an iPhone clone, in Rome
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June 13th, 2008 - Posted in Engadget | | Comments Off
BlackBerry Seawolf and Aurora get tossed into the codename soup
Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds
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June 13th, 2008 - Posted in Engadget | | Comments Off
The ZayPay API and Global Micro-Commerce
Micro-commerce is an emerging global trend, from the microcredit pioneered by Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, to micropayment systems offered by companies like ZayPay. ZayPay is used for payments for online services, game sites, dating sites, and others. And now they offer an API.
Their new API is designed to enable business owners to receive payment from customers using mobile phones via SMS and other means (see our ZayPay API profile for more details).
One of the core features of the API are a variety of Price Settings for controlling which countries and payment methods are supported:
When logged in to your free Zaypay account, you can create so-called ‘Price Settings’. A Price Setting defines what countries and payment methods you want to support and is the base for working with the API. You can dynamically choose the amount to be paid through the API (though you could also choose not to do this, and use the amount setup in the Price Setting). The API won’t go outside the boundaries of what you chose to support in the Price Setting you’re using it with.
The ZayPay API is REST-based, with data returned in XML. An API key is used for authentication and SSL is supported. The API is well-documented in the ZayPay API Integration Guide, which includes plenty of examples.
Omerta, one of the world’s largest multiplayer online games, recently added ZayPay as a method by which users can contribute donations to keep the game running.
On the mobile side, given that no technology has ever spread faster around the globe than mobile phones, it will be interesting to see how micro-payment services like the ZayPay API are integrated into mobile commerce applications.
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June 13th, 2008 - Posted in ProgrammableWeb | | Comments Off
Firefox Mobile concept gets detailed on video
Filed under: Cellphones
Continue reading Firefox Mobile concept gets detailed on video
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June 13th, 2008 - Posted in Engadget | | Comments Off
Motorola slashing 20% of its research division
Filed under: Cellphones, Home Entertainment
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June 13th, 2008 - Posted in Engadget | | Comments Off
The 30 Most Salacious Sites For Celebrity Gossip
Feel a burning need to know the latest happenings in Lindsay Lohan’s life? Can’t wait to find out about the latest addition to the Brangelina family? If so, this list is definitely for you.
Gossip has been a huge business for years, and blogs have made it more accessible than ever. No longer do you have to worry about someone seeing you with the latest issue of a tabloid in-hand, you can just log on, and with just a few clicks, know everything possible about your favorite famous person’s night out at some hot club. Somewhere in these 30 sites we guarantee you’ll find that one piece of celebrity gossip your heart desires.
BauerGriffinOnline.com - A site for photos directly from one of the paparazzi agencies. Due to the volume of photos they shoot, many go unused by other publications, so why not set up a site of their own for all the latest celeb sightings?
Celebitchy.com - Though their name implies they will tend to be quite bitchy, they aren’t quite as bad as some of the other sites out there. Don’t get us wrong, there is a healthy dose of snark mixed in.
Celebrity-Babies.com - When it comes to celebrities, it’s never too early to start talking about them. If your parents are famous, then you too qualify for a whole blog dedicated to your comings and goings.
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June 13th, 2008 - Posted in Mashable! | | Comments Off
Opera 9.5 Still in the Browser Race [Screenshot Tour]
While Mozilla prepares to set a Guinness World Record on Tuesday with its release of Firefox 3, and Apple continues to push Safari on Windows and the iPhone, you'd think that there was no more room for web browser alternatives to Internet Explorer—but you'd be wrong. This week, to much less fanfare than Apple, Microsoft, and even Mozilla gets, Opera released its newest version 9.5 and it's not out of the browser race by any means. What sets Opera apart from Firefox? Take a tour of some of the new and improved features that keep Opera a viable alternative to IE, Safari, and—yes, even Firefox.
While Firefox is undoubtedly a robust browser, you get many of Firefox's killer with add-ons—but a number of those features are baked right into Opera 9.5.
Mouse Gestures
For example, Opera includes mouse gestures, a fluid and easy to use interface. The gestures cover a wide range of browsing commands, including the basics like moving backwards and forwards, scrolling, opening new pages, but also more advanced gestures like tab selection and panning. (Try it: in Opera, go back to the previous page by holding the right mouse button then click the left button. To go forward again, hold down left and click right.) Speed Dial
Serving as a default homepage, Opera Speed Dial is a handy launchpad for your browsing experience. Laid out across the screen in like a telephone keypad, screen captures from your selected websites act as links to help you quickly navigate to your favorite locations.
Synchronization
Opera Link synchronizes your Bookmarks, Personal Bar, Notes, and Speed Dial across multiple computers and mobile phones with Opera Mobile. When you are away from your computer or mobile phone the information is still accessible via the Opera Link web site. Note-taking
Opera's built-in note taking feature ensures you always have a scratch pad handy. Access notes directly through the menu bar or using the Ctrl+6 key combination. The note feature is well integrated into Opera, too. Highlight text on a web page and hit Ctrl+Shift+C to copy it to a note. You can also right-click in a web page form (like a new email message) to paste in note contents. BitTorrent
Too engrossed in your browsing to fire up your BitTorrent client? No problem. Opera includes a spartan but effective BitTorrent client built-in. Keep an eye on both your torrents and regular downloads at the same time, both are managed through the Transfers window to make grabbing the newest distributions of your favorite software even easier. Voice-controlled Browsing
If you're feeling particularly adventurous or just have a strong desire to shout from your cubicle, Opera has a voice control feature. Note: the feature requires an additional 10.5MB download, but is more than worth it to be able to issue commands to your web browser like Jean Luc Picard standing confidently on his bridge. Unfortunately, upon further investigation "Opera: Take us to warp 5" did not yield the anticipated outcome. Aside from accepting commands the Voice feature will also talk back. Highlight the text you wish to listen to, and you're one "Opera: Read" away from browsing with your eyes closed. Saved Login Details with the Wand
Auto-Complete's younger and more observant brother, Wand makes filling in login prompts and applications text boxes a breeze. Logins and prompts that Wand recognizes are highlighted in yellow. Click the Wand icon to the right of the address bar or Ctrl+Enter and the Wand auto-completes logins and forms for you. Have multiple logins for the same site? Wand remembers and will prompt you to select the proper login. Fit to Width
Another small but handy feature in Opera is Fit To Width, which reduces pages to fit the size of the browsing window. Mileage varies depending on the web site—CSS style tables sometimes realign themselves poorly—but Fit To Width is still useful and often cited by the users of other browsers as a small feature they'd love to see in their browser of choice.
We know there are some die-hard Opera fans lurking in our readership. Shout out what it is you love about the browser. Is there a favorite feature we overlooked? Tell us about it in the comments. Opera 9.5 is a free download for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
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June 12th, 2008 - Posted in Lifehacker | | Comments Off
What’s Next for Microsoft and Yahoo!
The clumsy $44 billion mating dance that began in February between Microsoft and Yahoo! officially came to an end today. Yahoo! and Microsoft each issued statements saying that talks had been concluded, though Microsoft left the door open for non-outright-acquisition partnerships. Meanwhile, multiple sources are reporting that Yahoo! and Google are set to announce some sort of search deal, perhaps as early as today. So what's next for both companies?
Yahoo!
Yahoo!'s stock sank 10% on the news that the Microsoft deal was definitely off the table. And the company reportedly lost three key employees today as well. Usama Fayyad, the Executive Vice President of Research, Technology Evangelist and key open source advocate Jeremy Zawodny, and EVP of the Network Division Jeff Weiner are all supposedly planning leave the company. Definitely not a good day for Yahoo!
Plan B prospects don't look great for the Sunnyvale, CA-based company. The brightest alternative is the prospect of a search outsourcing deal with Google. That deal, if it happens, could take any number of forms -- Google takes control of all Yahoo! search marketing, Google takes control of a portion of search marketing, Yahoo! open sources their search marketing allowing both Google and Microsoft to sell on their inventory, etc.
Given that Microsoft left the door open to an "alternative transaction," which we have speculated may be the acquisition of Yahoo!'s search business, it might be unlikely that a Google-Yahoo! deal would shut Microsoft out completely.
The dissolution of the Yahoo!-Microsoft acquisition talks also means more pressure is put on Yahoo!'s in house efforts to bolster their search business -- which slipped again last month -- such as SearchMonkey (our coverage) and Panama (our coverage). Last summer we wrote that the path to fixing Yahoo! started with a developer platform -- that's the direction they are headed with SearchMonkey. Without Microsoft, they have a lot riding on its success.
Microsoft
Microsoft has more options than Yahoo! Without Yahoo!, making a dent in Google's dominant search market share seems even more implausible, but the company can do other things to shake up their web business. We suggested a detail plan B in February that would have Microsoft "split up the search advertising atom" and basically open source their web marketing business. By breaking advertising up into inventory, placement, and parameters and allowing anyone to sell over this open model, we predicted that Microsoft could potentially make a huge impact on Google's web advertising dominance.
"Let Google be the search giant. Instead, focus on shaking up the advertising industry by pushing it toward a democratized structure, make it work for everyone, and weaken Google's business model," we wrote.
We've also suggested that Microsoft could put search on Facebook. "There are two ways people find information on the Internet: via search (which Google is great at), and via their friends (which Facebook is great at). The former we also know how to monetize. If Facebook can get good at search, it could stand to make a lot of money for whoever it partners with for that -- the logical choice being Microsoft," we wrote last month. Microsoft might even consider buying Facebook as an alternative to Yahoo!
Of course, not buying Yahoo! (or Facebook) would free up a ton of cash for Microsoft to do what it said it would last October: start investing heavily in small, web 2.0 start ups. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said that the company would buy 20 companies per year ranging from $50 million to $1 billion for the next five years (likely they can acquire a lot of great technology for even less than that).
Our advice: invest heavily in mobile. If you can't beat Apple in the handset or software market, at least make a move to become the dominant content and advertising provider on the mobile web and beat Google to it.
What do you think are Microsoft and Yahoo!'s next moves? Let us know in the comments below.
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June 12th, 2008 - Posted in read write web | | Comments Off
Qik Demos iPhone Video Streaming Service
Not to be outdone by Flixwagon, who announced their own iPhone video streaming service this morning, Qik sent us a video demonstration of their own upcoming product for doing exactly the same thing.
The feature isn’t available yet, but as you can see in the demo, it will essentially allow you to use Qik in the same way you do currently with your Nokia N95 (or other supported devices). Qik expects to release the feature in alpha next month.
So, what we essentially have is two announcements for streaming video via iPhone. Now the race is on to see who can actually get it out of the door to consumers first. With more than 6 million iPhones now in circulation, the stakes are high to launch and get the early adopter crowd playing with live streaming mobile video.
We’ve been using both services here at Mashable. Be sure to check out our videos on both Qik and Flixwagon.
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June 12th, 2008 - Posted in Mashable! | | Comments Off
MashBash Tel Aviv Recap: Pictures, Video, and More
We’d like to extend a huge thank you to everyone who attended MashBash Tel Aviv this past Wednesday. Over 800 people celebrated Mashable’s first event outside of the United States—and we had a great time meeting you! We learned a lot about the amazing web and technology culture and are looking forward to sharing some of our insights and interviews in the upcoming Israel Media Tour series written by special guest writer Ayelet Noff of Blonde 2.0 and filmed by Flixwagon.
Check out Flickr for nearly 200 pictures from the event, in addition to all of the videos we shot live:
A special thanks to our event planner Sharon Kuper, Flixwagon, our media partners and our MashBash Tel Aviv sponsors:
Yedda (an AOL company) provides publishers and content sites with its Ask & Answer platform for increased user-engagement, reach and ad revenue.
The Sun(TM) Startup Essentials program is designed to help startup businesses off the ground by providing access to industry-leading systems at deep discounts, free world-class software and web-based training, discounts on partner hosting services, and more.
Copenda, a unique social people search engine, allows users to cross-search leading social networks to find their friends, singles for dating, people with similar interests and more.
HooQs is a personal mobile media service that lets you publish and share video and music channels for cellphones and receive personalized media recommendations.
Outbrain provides bloggers, media companies (news/magazines), blog networks, rss readers and other publishers with a free rating and personalized content recommendation widget.
Qoof is the Home Shopping Network for the Internet that bridges the world of online video, E-commerce, and Direct Response TV.
Sightix: Social search and mapping engine that delivers individually ranked & personally actionable search results based on user’s circle of trust.
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June 12th, 2008 - Posted in Mashable! | | Comments Off
iPhone broadcasts live video
Wow, Flixwagon did what seemed impossible stream live video from an iPhone! Ken writes -
We're happy to announce that our development team at the Flixwagon lab has successfully streamed the first-ever live high-quality video from unlocked iPhones to the web, using Flixwagon's alpha client.While we don't condone or recommend unlocking iPhones, as avid iPhone users ourselves we wanted to experiment with ways to enable flixwagon on the iPhone, until the official SDK supports video. We're going to continue working with the iPhone SDK in the future so we can offer this functionality to all users once video becomes a standard part of the iPhone.
After Flixwagon is installed on the phone, users can broadcast videos with one click to the flixwagon website. Videos can be watched live or saved for later. Also, videos can be embedded in blogs via our flixee widget or uploaded to the user's YouTube account. Users can also easily determine which of their contacts to share each video with.
We'll release the iPhone version to our Alpha testers in July. In the mean time, if you want to sign up for Flixwagon or get updates on future roll-outs and supported mobile devices, click here. Also, fell free to follow us on Twitter for continuous updates.
Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Cellphones | Digg this! Tags: digg, Fun, make, Mobile, twitter, video, widget
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June 12th, 2008 - Posted in make | | Comments Off
Want to Go Shopping? Break Out Your Mobile Phone
Today, at the Internet Retailer Conference and Exhibition in Chicago, Nic Covey, Director of Insights for Nielsen Mobile, spoke on the subject of m-commerce (commerce that takes place via the mobile device). In his presentation, he covered what retailers must do to make their sites ready for the mobile web as well as discussing some stats on who uses the mobile web, what prompts them to shop online, and what concerns they have today about the mobile shopping experience. Additionally, Covey reported that, based research done by Nielsen Mobile, nearly half (49%) of mobile data users have said they expect to participate in mobile commerce in the future. It looks like this is one trend about to take off.
Mobile Shopping Today
According to the Nielsen Company, today already 9 million U.S. mobile subscribers claimed to have used the mobile web to pay for goods and services. While that number appears to be high, it only represents 3.6% of U.S. mobile subscribers, which shows that m-commerce is in its infancy.
The current crop of mobile shoppers is still very much rooted in the early adopter crowd and consists of more men (4.9 million) than women (4.3 million). Out of these early mobile shoppers, adults ages 25-34 are the most likely to have made a purchase.
Of course, when you think of mobile shopping, the image that comes to mind is surfing mobilized versions of web sites via the phone's browser or visiting the customized pages designed just for the growing number of iPhones. Although the number of users shopping this way has increased - up 73% from April 2007 to April 2008 - there's also another growing trend for m-commerce: shopping via SMS.
Some services already exist today that let shoppers send text message to a phone number or mobile shortcode in order to purchase goods or services. The spammy commercials selling ringtones and wallpaper may be representative of this trend, but other more reputable brands are also venturing into this territory as of late.
For example, a fav millennial clothing retailer, American Eagle Outfitters offers a "send to phone" service that allows you to send AE products and descriptions to any phone via the use of a special shortcode (23595 - which spells AELYL or "American Eagle: Live Your Life). You can send items to your phone or your friend's phone and a link in message takes you to a mobile web page featuring that item, its description, pricing, and locations where it can be found. The idea here is that you could take your phone to the store, show it to a representative, and they can help you find and purchase the item. However, this almost m-commerce experience is only one click of a button away from a "buy-it-now" full-blown mobile shopping solution. If AE shoppers could set up profiles in advance, saving their sizes, shipping address, and credit card info, there's a potential to turn what's now just a mobile sharing experience into true mobile shopping.
Another company pursuing a mobile shopping strategy is Amazon, having recently launched a mobile shopping service called TextBuyIt that works via a shortcode (262966 - AMAZON). Shoppers can text to this shortcode with the name, model number, or ISBN number of a product to see if Amazon offers the product for sale, as well as read a summary of the item and see its current price. An included link in the reply also directly links to the product page, where you can purchase the item with a one character response.
Amazon's TextBuyIt
Even the world of traditional media is looking to embrace m-commerce. For example, in May, Hearst Magazines Digital Media, a unit of Hearst Magazines, partnered with ShopText to offer a text messaging service to their magazine audience which includes Cosmopolitan, CosmoGirl, Good Housekeeping, Redbook, O, The Oprah Magazine and Seventeen. Thanks to ads in the pages of these popular magazines, shoppers will be able to buy products, request free samples, and enter sweepstakes by sending texts to the shortcodes provided.
M-Commerce Concerns
In order for the m-commerce trend to really take off, though, some consumers' concerns will need to be addressed, most notably: security, airtime charges, and reliability. According to Nielsen:
- 41 percent of data users who do not participate in mobile commerce say security is their biggest concern
- 23 percent say they worry about being charged for the airtime
- 21 percent say they don't trust that the transaction will be completed
However, if retailers can prove that these mobile transactions are "safe, affordable, and efficient," says Covey, "...more consumers will come to view mobile shopping as a compelling and viable option."
Photo Credits: enV courtesy of nesster; iPhone courtesy of pouwerkerk
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June 12th, 2008 - Posted in read write web | | Comments Off
Flixwagon Shows Off Homebrew iPhone Video Capture
The iPhone does a lot of things well. Some things it doesn’t do very well. Some things it doesn’t do at all, strangely enough. Copy-paste, MMS are two of the chief no-shows. Video capture is also nowhere to be found. Until now. Enter, Flixwagon.
We’ve covered Flixwagon numerous times before, and are particularly intrigued with what they’ve managed to do this time around. In essence, they’ve enabled iPhone owners the option to use their cameras to take video recordings and broadcast them in near-real-time to viewers online. Impossible, you might think, but proof of this feat has been documented for all to see in the video below. Be warned, however. An out-of-box iPhone won’t be able to employ Flixwagon’s workaround. A “jailbroken” device is required.
If you’re rough on the iPhone’s back history, here’s brief refresher. The iPhone first launched roughly a year ago. And it wasn’t long after release that some people managed to hack the devices to the point at which non-AT&T GSM networks could connect with it. Some engineers even managed to port some interesting third-party applications to the device as well. At the same time, Apple worked to negate such infiltrations as much as possible through a series of firmware updates. But still the hacks, or “jailbreaks,” as they’re more widely known, with some requisite edits have continually shown to be effective at opening up what is by default a very locked down invention.
Forward to today, and we find ourselves less than thirty days from the launch of the new iPhone 3G model. And as we recognize from product documentation, the new generation will debut with the option to install native third-party applications, all of it sanctioned by Steve. And that’s good, because, well, who likes having to work in the shadows? Not startups whose founders are in the business of making a living for themselves.
Alas, even with the SDK, some developers are finding it difficult to accomplish some tasks. And while Flixwagon says they’d very much enjoy working with the Apple-supplied iPhone SDK to get their software aboard the device, they say that an “unlocked” iPhone will be necessary to get their software to function - at least in the short term. But looking at Flixwagon’s demonstration of its alpha iPhone install, it’s perhaps one release that may finally drive some iPhone users still working uncompromised devices to finally twist the lock.
A download of the iPhone-friendly software has not been made immediately available from Flixwagon, but the company says it will release its test case to curious eyes in July. You can register your contact information at this page.
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June 12th, 2008 - Posted in Mashable! | | Comments Off
Mobiado Professional 105 EM / GCB handsets: too luxurious for our fingers
Filed under: Cellphones
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June 12th, 2008 - Posted in Engadget | | Comments Off
Palm Users Get Their Own Optimized Facebook App
I’ve been a avid of Facebook for Blackberry since it was released October. Meanwhile, iPhone users have been able to enjoy what Pete described as a “stunning” experience on their devices since August. Today, Palm users are finally getting their own application, aptly named Facebook for Palm.
The feature set is very similar to that of Facebook for Blackberry, detailed in a blog post from Palm:
* Send and receive messages
* View and post status updates
* View and post photos from your smartphone
* See your friends’ profiles and photos
* Read and write Wall postsView News Feed
* Upload videos taken from your Palm smartphone
* Use a mobile “Contacts” tab that aggregates friends phone numbers – view your list of friends and dial or text them directly
My one gripe with Facebook for Blackberry has been the slow pace of updates. For instance, it took them months to follow the lead of the Facebook web site and finally remove “is” from status updates. Given Palm is getting their mobile app nearly a year after their trendier smart phone competitors, I wouldn’t be overly optimistic about new functionality being rolled out in a timely fashion. But, assuming the app is as well-designed to work on Palm as it is on Blackberry on iPhone, it should be an excellent utility for Centro and Treo users.
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June 12th, 2008 - Posted in Mashable! | | Comments Off
AT&T launches BlackBerry Bold promotional site
Filed under: Cellphones
[Thanks, Daryl]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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June 12th, 2008 - Posted in Engadget | | Comments Off
Palm Centro for Verizon unboxing and hands-on at Engadget Mobile
Filed under: Cellphones
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June 12th, 2008 - Posted in Engadget | | Comments Off
