If one thing Apple is staying consistent and it looks like they are at it again. No it’s not another product it’s Apple exercising further editorial judgment in terms of the applications that will get onto their iPhone.
The difference from some of the past application censorship is that this time it isn’t the bare breasts and games of violence.  This time the problem is about a denied application that would allow a user to see the level of radiation that their iPhone is emitting.
When Apple was asked for comment their spokesman declined comment on the issue.
Friedlander, the Tawkon co-founder, talked about how Apple had responded just a few days after the application was submitted by Tawkon to be an application within the iTunes Store. The response was stated that the graphical user interface was a good one but that through supplying information to consumers about radiation levels through the application could cause a significant amount of confusion.
Friedlander additionally talked about the fact that they are very clear about the fact of they will make the content decisions on whether or not they want to post something or not.
Of course any company has a right to censor content for their products but the apparent move from Apple comes as there is mounting research, mostly coming from Europe, that puts an indication of linkage of cell phone usage and cancer. Part of the concern is whether or not this information is actually factual and would the application actually give a false positive of some sort, etc… The United States phone carriers, manufactures as well as groups, with one being the NIH (National Institute of Health) concluded that the research at this point doesn’t make a clear connection from someone using a cell phone and cancer/cancer risk.
There are some public health experts and other consumer advocates that are talking about the exponential growth of cell phone usage, especially among that of teens starting usage at an early age, warrants much more study in regards to whether or not there is an actual link between cell phone use, radiation and cancer.
One of these people is a health expert by the name of David Carpenter. David Carpenter is a physician and professor at the University of Albany. Dr. Carpenter spoke recently at a hearing at the legislature in Maine on whether or not the state should put out a mandate that puts a warning label on cell phones.
The application from Tawkon would give the user a reading on the level of radiation that is emitted by the iPhone which would be dependent on environmental changes as well as the distance they are from cell towers.
Some of the criticism though is that the phone doesn’t actually measure any radiation and that it does nothing more than an estimate calculation based on the phones parameters and that the estimate is by no means exact. With that in mind I really can’t blame Apple for denying this application.

Share on Facebook

The newly released Motorola Backflip from AT&T is powered by MOTOBLUR and Android. It will also be offering a newly designed BACKTRACK touch panel.
Released as of March 7th, 2010 this is just one of the many smartphones promised to be released from AT&T this year. With the release of the Backflip it is the first of its kind to be formally unveiled. It features a very exceptional form-factor with a unique reverse flip design along with the BACKTRACK touch panel and a QWERTY keypad.
The key facet of the Motorola Backflip is its MOTOBLUR interface. The interface synchronizes your posts, contacts, photos, messages and much more from a variety of sources like:
•    Facebook
•    Twitter
•    MySpace
•    Picasa
•    Gmail
•    Last.fm
•    Your work and personal email
All of this is delivered to the home screen through widgets.
The Motorola Backflip is also going to be a perfect option for the users that need multi-tasking capability through the advantage of being able to both talk on the phone, access applications and surf the web simultaneously.
The MOTOBLUR is something that is going to make it possible for the user to find either lost or stolen devices through an information portal which is both secure and personal. It will allow for GPS to be used to locate the lost or stolen device. One single username and password will be able to bring back the users contacts as well as messages and the connectivity to all previously configured email providers and networks.
This is the first device form Motorola that is featuring the new BACKTRACK feature which is something that gives the user the ability to be able to quickly navigate through websites, menus and much more through a touch panel, which is located behind the screen, when the device is folded open. The BACKTRACK feature also offers a new way of scrolling through SMS messages, the web, emails and your news feeds while still not obscuring the home screen.
In addition to that, in order to access the multimedia capabilities, like watching videos or listening to music, viewing pictures, the keyboard can be flipped backward to allow for a tabletop mode. It can also be used as a digital alarm clock in this mode.
Specifications for the Motorola Backflip
•    5 megapixel camera that has flash and autofocus
•    3.1 inch HVGA touch screen
•    3.5mm audio jack
•    Wi-Fi 802.11b/g
•    Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity
•    Talk time all the way up to 6 hours
•    Powered by the Android 1.5 and upgrade capability to the Android 2.1
•    2GB MicroSD memory card out of the box
•    The memory slot will support up to a 32GB card
(more…)

Share on Facebook

New figures just released from the company comScore have shown that the Android has made an exceptionally large leap in terms of the United States market share of smartphones through the month of January. Most of this market share gain was for the most part at the expense of Windows Mobile.
The comScore market and media analysis firm’s figures that were just released for the United States mobile phone market were for the months of Oct 2009 to Jan 2010. The released results gave the Android figures that showed that it made huge bounds in the smartphone market share by the 2.8-7.1% jump that it made from the Oct 2009 to Jan 2010 time span. That’s a 4.3% net point change in comparison to the entire market and the share gain is over 150% comparative to the Oct share.
With the comment made earlier about the Androids growth being at the expense of the Windows Mobile platform from Microsoft, let’s put it into perspective. Over that same date range period of Oct 2009 to Jan 2010 the Windows Mobile lost 4% of the total market share. The previous share was 19.7% and that dropped to 15.7%.
The market share leader though, results from comScore, still remains the company from the Canadian RIM (Research in Motion) which saw that its shares of the popular Blackberry platform come from 41.3% to 43% pulling in a 1.7% net gain over its already massive market share. Apple is still the number two in market share with their iPhone. The iPhone took in 25.1% with a small net gain from the 24.8% they had in the previous Oct. The Android and Microsoft were the next two and the Palm was number five having a 2.1% net decline of 5.7% from its previous 7.8% share.
According to the figures from comScore the United States smartphone market came in on average of at right about 42.7 million people from Nov to Jan which was an 18% net increase from the Aug to Oct 2009 figures.
With the declines that came in for both the Palm and Windows Mobile devices their market share declines might come in with as much at fault with product cycles than just the popularity increase of the Android.
The current Windows Mobile 6.5 is long overdue for a refresh. Microsoft is finally bringing this refresh in for 2010 with the Windows Phone 7 Series. It’s important to note though that this series is not backward compatible so for any users that are really seeking out a new device they are likely to start to migrate to another platform.
In regards to the decline in the Palm market share that could possibly be attributed to the Palm users beginning to trade up from their older Palm Treo and Centro devices to newer smartphones.
The one thing to know for sure if the Palm and Windows Mobile users are starting to trade in for new mobile devices the one thing that we know for sure is they aren’t all staying with Palm OS or Windows Mobile smartphone platforms.

Share on Facebook

The Motorola Backflip was unveiled during CES 2010 and remains an odd duck in many ways. For one, it’s the first Android phone for AT&T (though we highly doubt that it’ll crowd out any of the iPhone’s market share as far as AT&T phones go). Secondly, in spite of being an Android 1.5 phone, it’s more a Yahoo! phone than a Google phone. AT&T opted to integrate Yahoo’s search capabilities into the Backflip, which doesn’t handle local as well or voice searches at all. (more…)

Share on Facebook

Just a couple of days ago AT&T completed what was a trial for the next generation of technology, the 100GB IP backbone. AT&T announced that the field trial was completed successfully and was tested in a live network environment.
Through the completion of this field trial it means that the next generational development of the new backbone network technology is coming and this is something that will support the fast growing numbers of both wired and wireless internet and data traffic for years to come.
Through the field trial AT&T was able to field test the innovative Cisco CRS-3 which is a carrier routing system. Additionally they were able to conduct a single flow and standards ready 100GB tech trial within that of a live network environment. In order to complete the test AT&T used 100GB CFP client side modules produced by Opnext as well as an analyzer and 100GB traffic generator from Ixia.
What this field trial was able to also demonstrate was that a single carrier 100GB transmission done with a real time consistent processing through a 900km deployed ultra long haul Louisiana to Florida transport link using optical equipment from Opnext.
The successfully completed trial is just one in the latest of innovation examples from AT&T in terms of their advanced IP networking technologies. Back just a couple years ago in 2008 AT&T completed the largest deployment in the world of the then industry standard 40GB network technology which was its current United States IP backbone network.
Additionally, in both 2008 and 2009 AT&T lead teams that were able to complete two different trials in the lab of the 100GB technology which actually set new records at both trials in terms of bandwidth transmission. What’s so exciting is that the 100GB technology is only going to be a few more years before it’s completely ready to be deployed commercially. With the exciting field trial that was just completed it looks like things are right on track.
The Chief Technology Officer for AT&T expressed that the successful trial was a key landmark in the company’s ongoing efforts to be able to deliver the most capable and advanced IP backbone network through the entire industry. He stated that, “The AT&T IP backbone network today carries nearly 19 petabytes (a petabyte is a quadrillion bytes, 1,000 terabytes or 1,000,000 gigabytes and carries the abbreviation PB) of traffic on an average business day, supporting our wireless, wired and enterprise customers ever growing demand for wireless and wired broadband applications.”
The R&D developments that are being met by AT&T, like the 100GB trials, are working to ensure that the AT&T network is always going to be able to meet the needs of their customers now and especially into the future.
Before we end there are a lot of notable achievements that the field trial met, lets note some of those now:
•    A successful 100GB transmission from a single carrier with a real time coherent processing
•    Demonstrated the capacity of a 100GB single flow router
•    A field demonstration of a 100GB traffic generator
Those are only a few of the achievements met with this field test. We definitely are living in interesting technological times; I can’t wait to see what’s next.

Share on Facebook

Android has upped the ante in the battle of the smartphones and many consumers are torn between the iPhone and the sleek new Android phones running Google’s mobile operating system, particularly Verizon Wireless’s HTC Droid Eris and Nextel/Sprint’s Samsung Moment. These are all fine phones packed with all the features and functionality you need from a next generation smartphone, including unlimited data, corporate email connectivity, social media and messaging and seamless 3G web browsing.  But in light of the touch economic times, the X factor for most family cell phone plans (and individual cell phone plans) will be the cost of service. To help you choose the cheapest smartphone cell phone plans, we’ve put together a quick reference breakdown of the major costs and fees for today’s latest and greatest smartphones. (more…)

Share on Facebook

The Consumer Reports wireless customer satisfaction will be released this week, the results are in. Here’s how the top 4 stack up:

(more…)

Share on Facebook

AT&T has partnered with Nuance Communications to provide the AT&T Voicemail to Text service. For just $9.99 a month, you get: (more…)

Share on Facebook

Nearly everyone can be reached via BlackBerry these days; only this device can do a lot more than send and receive emails. BlackBerryOS is just as capable as fun as it is work, and even gives a iPhone OS, Android (Samsung Moment with Google) and Windows Mobile (Palm Treo 850) phones a run for their money occasionally. If you haven’t had a chance to explore the multi-faceted BlackBerry apps, then you are really missing out. Here are some of the top BlackBerry apps that definitely shouldn’t be overlooked.

(more…)

Share on Facebook

AT&T is once again waiving its activation fees for the last week of this month: Nov. 25th to December 1st. It is the same offer as AT&T’s previous free activation campaign seeing AT&T no longer charging its $35 activation fee for all new lines.  At cell-phone-plans.net you can purchase up to 4 lines through a family plan saving up to $140 from this offer!

(more…)

Share on Facebook

You’ve seen the coy adds spoofing the iPhone and touting all the covetous features that Android packs that Apple’s smartphone doesn’t. But now that the more Android phones have hit the shelves, we’ve had an opportunity to get a hands-on look at what Android actually does that’ll make your life easier besides working out latent bitterness over Apple fanaticism.

(more…)

Share on Facebook