RIM’s Mike Lazaridis: QNX coming to BlackBerry phones when dual-core processors are ready
Unfortunately, the crazy rumors that Google's Nexus S would ship with a dual-core Orion processor didn't pan out, which means we're still waiting for a smartphone to ship with honest-to-goodness multicore silicon of any sort; it's still unclear just how soon we're going to see that wild dream come to fruition, but RIM's Mike Lazaridis is talking like he wants to take the lead in making it happen. At D:Dive Into Mobile this evening , Waterloo's outspoken co-CEO went on record that they'll be taking the PlayBook's QNX platform to smartphones just "as soon as [he has] dual core baseband CPUs," though power consumption remains a limiting factor
Categories: BlackBerry, Mobile Phone Tags: consumption, diveintomobile, evening, factor, lazaridis, phones, platform, until-the-dual
$50 Samsung Media Hub vouchers making Epic 4G and Galaxy Tab purchases a little sweeter
Presumably looking to build some brand awareness, Sprint and Samsung are apparently teaming up to offer new Epic 4G owners $50 vouchers redeemable toward "select" movie rentals in its Media Hub video-on-demand store -- which will actually buy quite a bit of content, when you think about it. The way it works is that you'll buy the phone and get texted a ten-digit promo code within a few days; once you redeem it for the first time, you'll have 60 days to use it up, otherwise the whole thing will expire on March 31st of next year
Categories: Mobile Phone, Other Tags: 31st, before-calling, consumption, expire-on-march, galaxytab, media, mediahub, mobile, nationals, phone, promotion, voucher
iOS 4.1 jailbreak on the way after bootrom exploit discovery
So let's see, how long has iOS 4.1 been out in the open for public consumption ? We make it less than 24 hours, yet already some earnest jail busters have managed to liberate it from Apple's control freak clutches. It's still a fair distance away from an easily executable jailbreak, but it's looking like it'll work on iPhone 4, the latest-gen iPod touch, and the iPad, covering all the freshest bases of Apple hardware.
Categories: Mobile Phone Tags: apple, consumption, control-freak, crack, freak, freshest, ios4.1, ipodtouch, jail-busters, jailbroken, the-latest-gen, touch
iOS 4.1 is live, available to download right now
If you can just put down Angry Birds for one minute and plug your iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPod touch 2nd generation, iPod touch 3rd generation, or iPod touch 4th generation into iTunes, you should be in for a pleasant non-surprise : iOS 4.1 is finally out and ready for your consumption. It's not a huge update , but Game Center is an exciting addition (for the few, proud devices that are getting it), and we're sure your face will be happy to stop getting accused for iPhone 4 hang-ups with the long overdue proximity sensor fix (shots of the changelog are after the break).
Categories: Mobile Phone Tags: 3gs, after-the-break, apple, consumption, entry, game center, ios 4.1, ios4, iphone, proximity, Ups
FaceTime 3G data consumption tested: about 3MB per minute
The folks over at 9to5Mac have kept up their investigation of FaceTime over 3G with a quick and dirty data usage analysis. Lest you've forgotten, jailbreaking Apple's Quattro permits walled garden escapees to FaceTime each other using dusty old 3G, and now we've got some numbers to show how much of an impact doing so will have on your bandwidth allowance
Categories: Mobile Phone, Other Tags: allowance, apple, bandwidth, consumption, data rate, iphone, streaming, your-bandwidth
iOS has a bigger dev army than Android, but will cross-platform apps rule the day?
We oftentimes hear raw numbers of apps bandied about in mobile OS comparisons , but we rarely get any idea of just how many developers are behind the scenes working for each platform. This is the void of knowledge filled by AppStore HQ today, who have gone to their dev directory -- claimed to be a complete listing of all 55,000+ coders whose work is currently available for consumption in the Apple App Store or Android Market -- and stacked them into neat piles of Apple, Google and Gapple programmers
Categories: Android, Mobile Phone, Other Tags: applications, appstorehq, Army, consumption, cross-platform, dev, doing-the-cross, engadget, entry, figures
Sprint’s Hero finally gets official Android 2.1 upgrade
Assuming you resisted the temptation to either root your Hero or update it with the recently leaked 2.1 firmware, this is your very first chance to finally slap on a dash of Android future on your senescent device. Sprint has at long last made the update available, though it isn't quite yet ready to download from its site. Fear not, the good folks behind the yellow network have put together a guide on upgrading through your phone and we'll link up the download as soon as it's ready for consumption.
Categories: Android, htc, Mobile Phone, Other Tags: consumption, download, firmware-update, google-maps, htcsense, magic, recently-leaked, temptation, update, yellow
Kin is basically a Zune HD inside, can go for a weekend on a charge
In a discussion with Kin product manager Derek Snyder this afternoon, we've confirmed that both the Kin One and Kin Two are built on the same foundation as the Zune HD -- in other words, they're running NVIDIA Tegra silicon, and there's no reason that anything you see on a Zune HD couldn't run just as well on a Kin. Of course, that's a purely theoretical statement at this point since Zune apps don't work on Kin as it stands -- the platform's completely closed, though Microsoft has been insistent that we should keep a close eye on its over-the-air updates after launch as features evolve.
Categories: Mobile Phone, Other Tags: consumption, kin two, launch, microsoft, nvidia-tegra, phone, product-manager, qualcomm, realistically, simplicity, statement, theoretical
Broadcom announces Android support, three-pack of chips to make your phones more awesome
Chip maker Broadcom has unveiled no fewer than three new mobile-themed hunks of silicon this week in preparation for MWC in just a few days' time. You ready for this? Alright, first up we've got the catchily-named BCM20751, which performs the rather ordinary tasks of GPS, Bluetooth, and FM radio management but also throws in an audio processor to offload some work from the phone's primary CPU, which the company says can reduce battery consumption enough to improve playback time by up to 100 percent in some situations
Categories: Android, Mobile Phone Tags: audio, broadcom, business, Chip, consumption, decision, from-the-phone, gps, guru-at-picking, hunks, management, Receiver, standardization
Mobiado’s 712ZAF yet another way to rid yourself of bothersome $100 bills
Cash weighing you down?
Categories: Mobile Phone, Other Tags: aluminum-frame, camera, colors, consumption, dynamic, execution, guess, mobiado, mobile, result, simply-calling, successor, vancouver, vancouver-based