AT&T USD49 iPhones 3G Offer May Mean the End of Exclusivity
AT&T announced to offer re-furbished iPhone 3G for USD49. According to AT&T, Refurbished phones are previously owned devices that have been unused or lightly used and returned during the 30-day trial period.
Each refurbished phone is independently quality tested and loaded with the latest software to meet current factory standards. Some refurbished iPhone 3G devices will have minor scratches.
The Refurbished iPhone 3G devices carry a warranty of 90 days or more and will need to be tied to a two-year iPhone service contract with AT&T.The regular price for brand new iPhone 3G ( 8 GB of storage ) with this same service agreement is $99. Now we will need to see whether is there any other similar iPhone deals will appear around other countries or regions.
While most will look at the USD49 iPhone deal as a response to the tough economic situation, but we also know that there are more and more iPhone users who don’t really like AT&T service, giving Apple the pressure to end AT&T exclusivity. So it may also mean that AT&T may not be holding the exclusivity for Apple iPhones for long, is a mean for AT&T to “milk out” as much profit and service subscribers as they could while they can.
Apple iPod Touch with Camera a Reality from Leaked Photos!
A report today from Cnet News By Erica Ogg revealed news that the next iPod Touch will come with a Camera Function. The reports says that photos leak from Mainland China iPod case manufacturer comes with notches out of the material like the iPhone to accommodate for the built in camera
They further reported that the camera slot is centered–there is also a case for Nano with the slot situated at the bottom on the left and seems that Nano will also have a wide-screen display.
It was just a few days ago (20th) when another report from Wired reported a rumors that the iPod Touch will not only comes with a camera, it will also include a microphone where they can integrate voice command like the recent release Apple’s iPhone 3GS but more interesting enough, to make Skype VOIP calls. According to Wired’, the iPod Touch with Camera and Mic In will be launched in “two to three months.”
As far as we concerned, we never doubt that the iPod Touch with Camera is more than a speculation as we know that there is definitely a market out there. There are people who would like simply want a Apple Multi Media Entertainment Gadget that are not a phone.
As for the SKYPE call features, it is kind of difficult to tell, some believe it will affect the cell phone carrier but don’t forget that it will require some kind of internet connection for it to work. And most of the ISP around the world are controlled by the major cell phones carriers.
Beware of Spyware in your Blackberry SmartPhone!
United Arab Emirates Blackberry users began to experience a drastic drop in battery life after they updated a firmware pushed to them from the major carrier of UAE, Etisalat.
The new firmware was supposed to “improve” the smartphone performance. It didn’t, but did help the malicious ware within to spy on user activities. According to a blog post on Dutch Web site Automation Guide, RIM explained that it seems that Etisalat had distributed a telecommunications surveillance application that was designed and developed by a California based company called SS8, in another word, the update was not written by RIM.
SS8 develops communications surveillance products for law enforcement. The SS8’s application that was put into the UAE BlackBerries will send received messages from the user back to a central server. This information was confirmed by Research In Motion(RIM), the BlackBerries maker on Tuesday, who offered a “spyware removal” firmware in response.
So far, we had yet to receive any “real” response from SS8. And as for Etisalat, they only said that is a “slight technical fault” and subscribers can uninstall the update by pressing 101 on their phones.
Maybe in the near future, we may need to purchase an optional “spyware removal” apps for our smartphones.
Yahoo New Homepage Design Barely A Make Over
Yes, Yahoo came out with a New Home Page Design (Finally!), but is barely a makeover. As far as design concern is just a simplified version. Yet Simplicity is what we user had always wanted, that’s why Google have their place in the market.
Alright, some may argue that Yahoo is a “Portal” and Google is a “Search Engine”, but to the user at large, we don’t care! We use them to get the info we want, and we sure hope we can get the info we want, the way we wanted.
Yahoo new homepage is a direction that we all look forward to. The good news is that now we won’t have to deal with an ad-overdosed homepage anymore. Power to the users!
Why don’t you go to Yahoo.com or check out the new home page here? But we do need to opt in to play around with all the new features.
Why we are not surprised? 
Apple iPhone Apps Gets You Marijuana?
If you are thinking of getting “illegal high” here, well you will not. ‘Cannabis’, an Apple’s App which will locate nearest available marijuana supply for it’s user is strictly for legitimate user of medical marijuana only.
This controversial iPhone Apps are created by the founder of Ajnag.com, which was founded in 2006 and was the first medicinal marijuana locater on the Web.
The Apps is a location based services, where they will get the users current location info and use it to display relevant “Marijuana” information. Cannabis provides the locations of legal marijuana locations in the 13 states where medical marijuana is legal, as well as in the parts of Europe where marijuana use is legal.
In case of “grey areas’, Cannabis can even helps you locate your nearest lawyers who specialize in marijuana cases. And if you an active reformist who lives in one of the 37 states where marijuana is not legal, the app also provides you with the location of the nearest marijuana activist groups–so you can do your part to promote reform.
Marijuana and Apple Apps….who can see this coming?
Barnes & Noble Business Revamp With Plastic Logic’s Super Thin e-Book Reader
Barnes & Noble, a 92 years bookstore brand, announced a deal to be the exclusive online bookstore for Plastic Logic’s e-book reading device, schedule to be ready in early 2010.
The device revealed at the recent All Things Digital conference is a super thin, touch screen operated Plastic Logic ebook reader and was reported by the media that it “has the potential to blow the Kindle out of the water,”
The announcement of the deal is actually an “extra” from their major announcement to launch their online bookstore on Monday which also includes a new e-book reading application for PCs and mobile devices.
Well, we are pretty sure that this move is not exactly like Amazon’s Kindle or Google, who revealed their plan to bite a piece of the E-books market. No, is not to “embrace the future”, but rather, a move in hope to revamp the shrinking market of physical store.
According to a report in Business Week, the number of physical stores operated by the company, along with those of Borders and Books-a-Million, shrank by 19% between 2002 and 2008. Barnes & Noble’s stock worth is already slashed in half during March 2006, and that is all before the recession.
This move to the ebook market may not seen as “all positive” to some as they doubt not only on Plastic Logic’s ability to deliver as scheduled, but also the Reader competitive advantage as compare to Amazon’s Kindle, especially when their books on their online bookstores now can be purchased and read on iPhone and iPod Touch devices, Blackberries, and on Mac and Windows computers.
What we do wish is that Barnes and Noble can have their share of success here. Even if such a move is inevitable in response to market reality, is still a pretty bold move for a near 100 years bookstore. And we must admit that the Plastic Logic ebook reader looks really cool.
Nokia Attempt to Woo US Market with N86 8MP Carl Zeiss Tessar Lens Smart Phone
Nokia revealed on Friday about their intention to offer their N86 8MP to USA, after their successful launch around other parts of the globe including Europe, Qatar and even India.
Nokia had been struggling to improve their market position in the U.S. because the market represents the company’s largest growth opportunity. N86 are just one of their many. A quick over view of this Smart Phone as follows:
The External
The housing design consist of a dual slider with the numbers pad at the bottom and media hot keys at the top with an AM-OLED(Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode) screen which displays at QVGA (320 by 240 pixel) resolution.
The Internal
Nokia N86 8MP is a Symbian S60 based model that comes with added software like a FM transmitter, Mail for Exchange support, Ovi Maps and Nokia’s Ovi Contacts (IM and presence enabled address book). Other software can be downloaded through Nokia’s Ovi Store which is also included on the device.
The Unique
But N86 8MP’s most attractive feature will be the 8MP camera that comes with Carl Zeiss Tessar lens. The USP (Unique Selling Point) of a Carl Zeiss Tessar lens is that it uses a so called variable aperture to collect more light thus producing a better quality image. N86 can also record a VGA (640X480) quality video at 30 fps.
The Capacity
Other included Multi-Media capability includes a photo management software, full sync capability with a Personal Computer, and even a TV-out support for slide shows.
With a 8 GB built in flash memory and an external support of microSDHC cards up to 16 GB that will fulfills almost all of your multi-media needs
The Price
It is always known that Nokia, despite their strong sales figures around the world, had not been able to fully entrench into the highly competitive US market. So is no surprise when Nokia strategically placed N86 at the price point of USD558 as their attempt to woo the USA market. .
Nokia N86 8MP will be made available through Nokia Stores and NokiaUSA.com in the few weeks or so.
Direct Google Voice Phone Call from BlackBerry and Android Phones now a reality.
Google VOIP service—Google Voice was brought to a new level today by integrating it into Android and BlackBerry smart phones owners.
Before this,Google Voice user can only make a call using the Google Voice universal number through Google Voice web-base interface, which will then rings the caller and the party called and connect both of them.
With the new mobile apps, now users will be able to use Google Voice directly from their Black Berry or Android smart phones. Google Voice product manager, Vincent Paquet also mentioned that they are working with Apple for a iPhone app in a report from information week.
User using the Google Voice mobile apps will not only be able to make calls but also be able to make low rate IDD calls, access their inbox and send SMS without paying the SMS charges by their mobile carrier since the SMS messages are send by Google
For those who are still wondering what is Google Voice all about,I recommend you to check out the Google Voice page here , you can even request an invite for their next round of invitation. Yes, Google Voice is still a ” by invitation” offer at the moment.
Nokia Latest 3720 Cellphone Going HardCore for the definitely Non-iPhone User!
The Nokia Latest 3720 Classic cellphone are created with one particular market in mind—the Tough Guys! Or at least….. the tough guys wannabe.
Built to withstand drops on concrete, spill proof and dust proof are just a few of its perks. Now you have no fear to bring your phone into a shower or accidentally dropped into your beer when you chilled out at a bar after a tough day of labor!.
So which market are Nokia going after for this tough phones?
The blue collar in general like plumbers, construction workers and truck drivers, and the extreme sport activist in particular like mountain bikers and snowboarders.
Other than the main stream cellphones makers like Nokia and Samsung, we also have the Specialized handset makers such as Sonim, that is aiming at thie market segment. Sonim are well known from their Sonim XP3 Quest 2.0, a mobile phone that can be used as a hammer,thrown across the room or never missed a phone ring in a noisy working enviromement (e.g. : over the noise of a jackhammer)
The Nokia 3720 Classic may not have the coolest features like a Smart Phone, but it do includes a 2-megapixel camera, video and audio recording and a music player. The retail price for this rugged gadget is $175. Not the cheapest, but think about it’s “Built To Last” features.
We don’t need it to be smart, but we want it to be tough! So is a definite NON-iPhone user’s piece of gadget.
Microsoft Office Suite 2010 For Free!
In less than a week after Google announce their intention to develop a web-based OS—Chrome OS,Microsoft revealed today their Upcoming New Office Suite 2010, which will also include a web-based version…..for free.
The announcement was made at Microsoft’s developers conference in New Orleans. The question we want to ask is…
Is this a preconceived plan from Microsoft, or simply a tactical move in response to Google Chrome OS?
Now we know that Microsoft had launched their own search engine BING last month to capitalise the Search Engine market, which by now had been largely dominated by Google, is pretty obvious they had been planning this for a while.
But a web-based Microsoft Office? Are they over-reacting?
According to a survey research done by Forrester Research, about 80% of companies and organisation use Microsoft’s Office. with less than 8% use other document editing software, including IBM Corp.’s Lotus Symphony, Sun Microsystems Inc.’s StarOffice and last but not least…. Google Docs.
Microsoft Office by far is still their Super Star product! Which make up a large pie of the profit of their Business Software division.It is reported that Microsoft’s business software division earned more than $9 billion in profit from $14.3 billion in sales from Q1-3 2009 fiscal year.Although the revenue include other software and services such as Microsoft Exchange, but the majority of it still comes from Office, which includes the popular Word and Excel applications.
By offering a free web-based version, many worry it may “eat up” the profit for the most popular, most used and most profitable “paid” desk top and lap top version. But according to Microsoft’s group product manager for Office, Chris Bryant, said Microsoft customers were increasingly using the Web to share and edit documents.
“It’s something our users have said they’d like,customers are telling us they expect to use the Web-based applications as companions to their desktop software.” Said Bryant
So How Will They Profit From This? Is Microsoft we are talking about here, right?
Well.Bryant only hinted that they could include advertising and fees for premium services such as online storage of large files.
And the different between the Paid and Free?
The new software suite Office 2010,schedule to be relased early 2010, will be able to let users edit video in PowerPoint and images in Word — features such as these would be unavailable in the free versions.
All we can say is, a Brave New Age of personal computing is emerging!
