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May, 2010 Articles

Seesmic 1.4 Beta Shows Off Google Buzz Support, More Later On

by Quentyn Kennemer on May 20th, 2010

I’m inherently jealous that Rob probably got to meet the team behind Seesmic at Google I/O yesterday, but I’m also equally as excited about what we learned will be coming out of the Seesmic camp soon: Google Buzz support has been added and – to our delight – works flawlessly. We’ve known for some time [...]

Android’s Gingerbread Update “Planned For Q4 2010″

by Quentyn Kennemer on May 20th, 2010

We were a bit disappointed at the lack of Android announcements at Google I/O yesterday (but not to worry, we’re sure that keynote today will have more than enough to keep us satisfied). Still, some good Android news has come to light even without Google trying: Gingerbread is planned for Q4 2010. The FAQ for [...]

Initial HTC EVO 4G Reviews Touts It As “One Of The Best Smartphones Ever Made”

by Quentyn Kennemer on May 19th, 2010

We weren’t expecting HTC EVO 4G reviews to be out so soon, but alas, they are beginning to pour in through the floodgates. Engadget, MSNBC, and the Wall Street Journal have already put the phone through its necessary paces and they have had nothing but good things to say about it. Starting with Engadget, they [...]

Square Previews App Integration in API Beta

by Kevin Krause on May 19th, 2010

Square freshly released their app for Android just last week, enabling any smartphone as a mobile point-of-sale system. Now developers can begin to test out direct integration of Square’s service into their apps with a public preview that was released today. Currently at version 0.9, there are still some bugs to be worked out before [...]

Simple Proof that Google TV and Android Will Be the Subjects of Tomorrow’s Google I/O Keynote

by Kevin Krause on May 19th, 2010

If you tuned in today for the Google I/O keynote, you may have noticed there was all but nothing spoken about any of the Android rumors that have been swirling around for the past month. Well, that’s all well and good, because we know there is a whole second keynote tomorrow. And while it is [...]

Google Launches Latitude API

by Kevin Krause on May 19th, 2010

A few weeks ago Google wanted to insure you that their Google Latitude service was in fact far from being dead, and now they are offering it as an API for developers to use in any mobile app they so choose. Perhaps learning from the Buzz privacy fiasco, the emphasis is on users having complete [...]

PayPal Announces Mobile Payments Library for Android

by Kevin Krause on May 19th, 2010

Today at Google I/O, PayPal has released its Mobile Payments Library to Android developers. The new service enables purchases from directly within apps through PayPal without the need for the user to input new information or leave to a secondary app. The real benefit is allowing mobile developers to better monetize their app content by [...]

Android Phones Show Up at Google I/O In Force

by Kevin Krause on May 19th, 2010

Just outside of today’s sadly Android-less (unless you count a small web app demo that turned comical as the wireless internet connection failed) keynote address at Google I/O was a pretty big display showing off just how many Android handsets are in (or soon to be in) production. For many of the phones this is the [...]

This Week in Clones: Dual-Booting HTC Diamond 2

by Kevin Krause on May 19th, 2010

Just what we have all been waiting for: a cheap knock-off phone that runs BOTH Windows Mobile 6.5 and Android 1.6. That’s right, you can get your very own dual-booting HTC Diamond 2 clone, well if you are in China and know the right place to look. While the build quality is surely suspect, you [...]

Android Takes 4th Spot From Microsoft In Smartphone Sales Overall

by Quentyn Kennemer on May 19th, 2010

The momentum continues: Android has surpassed Microsoft on a global scale in terms of smartphone market share. Reuters reports that research firm Gartner shows Android became the 4th-biggest smartphone operating system in terms of market share, last quarter, on a worldwide scale. While Android still has a long way to go to beat Nokia’s Symbian, [...]

Planning A Great Memorial Day Weekend? Sprint Knows What Apps You Should Download

by Quentyn Kennemer on May 19th, 2010

It’s almost that time of the year. At the end of May – besides honoring those who’ve died fighting for our contract – Americans recognize Memorial Day as an unofficial start to the summer cookout season. I’m sure many of you have already started making plans for the weekend leading into Memorial Day, and Sprint’s [...]

Venture Capitalists Expecting Android to Catch Up to iPhone In No Time

by Quentyn Kennemer on May 19th, 2010

Reuters is reporting that some of Silicon Valley’s top Venture Capitalist firms are expecting a head-to-head horse race between Android and the iPhone as early as the end of this year. After beating the iPhone in Q1 in terms of market share (shipping 28% of devices ahead of Apple’s 21% with 65,000 devices per day), [...]

[Update] Sprint HTC Hero Users: Your Time Has Come to Update to Android 2.1

by Quentyn Kennemer on May 19th, 2010

[Update 2]: The download site that we linked to earlier should now be showing the update (here’s a direct download link, and here’s a link to the PDF file for more information). The file is 118 megabytes in size. [Update]: As of 9:05 am Central time, there doesn’t appear to be any links available from [...]

Google Says Your Phone Should Last a Day, Blame Apps for Poor Battery

by Quentyn Kennemer on May 19th, 2010

Battery life is such a heated concern that many mobile users face. Beyond Android, I’ve seen complaints of battery life on all sorts of platforms: Symbian, iPhone OS, Blackberry, Windows Mobile. Simply put, smartphones just can’t seem to catch a break with providing decent battery life without the need to go out and buy an [...]

WiMAX vs LTE: A Pretty Breakdown of the Future of Mobile Broadband

by Quentyn Kennemer on May 19th, 2010

IntoMobile’s done the wireless community a great justice in bringing together a great looking comparison document that gives us an easier-to-digest look at the advantages and disadavantages of both WiMax and LTE. While many might be inclined to argue that “4G is 4G,” you should care because the future of both of these technologies will [...]

mSpot Set to Take Your Music to the Cloud, Then Anywhere You Go

by Kevin Krause on May 19th, 2010

How many times have you just wished you had your full music library no matter where you were? Yes, you could store it on your phone or MP3 player, but those are limited in storage capacity, so if you have a large library of tunes you probably can’t take them all with you. You could [...]

Rumor: HTC Wildlfire to Cost €299 Off-Contract

by Quentyn Kennemer on May 19th, 2010

Yesterday – following the HTC Wildfire’s initial announcement –  we were treated to some information regarding the phone’s initial availability. Virgin Media UK customers would see the Wildfire (still some time in Q3), while T-Mobile UK customers could see the phone June 14th. What we didn’t get, however, was any information regarding pricing. According to [...]

Google I/O 2010: What You Need to Know Today, Tomorrow, And Beyond

by Quentyn Kennemer on May 19th, 2010

The day is finally here. We’re on the brink of the 3rd annual Google I/O conference and I couldn’t be any more excited. When I woke up, I was recapping how I would be able to keep up with all of the action to come out of the Moscone West Convention Center in “Sunny San [...]

The Secret Life Of Phandroids: Episode 3

by James Jackson on May 18th, 2010

The Positive And Negative (click to enlarge)

Want to See Some Video of that Chevy Volt App?

by Kevin Krause on May 18th, 2010

Earlier today we learned about some new features GM and Google have been working on for the upcoming Chevy Volt app. We’ll be hearing a lot more about it come tomorrow at Google I/O, as the company plans to be there to demonstrate it a bit more, but for now take a look at this [...]