Posts for 'Networking' Category

Social networking websites populate our everyday life on a regular basis. Just about every device we show you be it a television, smartphone, tablet, desktop or laptop features social networking connectivity with popular websites like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and so on.

Read: Apple’s Ping Social Network Gets 1 Million Users In 2 Days [Apple's Entry Into the Social Network Industry, Ping, Amasses One Million Users In Just Two Days] » TFTS – Technology, Gadgets & Curiosities Thanks to the massive market adoption of these websites, they have proven themselves to be very successful with companies like the above mentioned amassing hundreds of millions of active users with population growth showing no signs of stopping. However, while Facebook and Twitter are two of the most popular it does not mean that they are the only entities within the social networking industry.

Read the complete story

The nation's largest phone companies sell packages of wireless phone service, Internet access and pay TV to consumers. Now they're taking integration one step further, airing video programming and selling ads across all three platforms.

Content and advertising deals used to be struck separately for each platform. But Verizon Communications Inc. and AT&T Inc., for instance, have cut deals with media companies that allow them to distribute programming from "Saturday Night Live" clips to user-generated video to cellphone, broadband and TV customers. Recently, the phone companies have begun to sell ads across all three screens. They're ...

Already available in Seattle and Dallas, the service will be offered to T-Mobile customers elsewhere starting July 2. The $10 monthly subscription includes unlimited local and long-distance calling as well as services including voicemail, call forwarding and call waiting.

The service has a few drawbacks but should appeal to certain people, including existing VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) users looking for a better deal, said Charles Golvin, an analyst with Forrester Research. "You can cut down on expenses because it beats Vonage by a significant amount," he said. Vonage currently has a $15 per month limited promotion, with its standard rate at $30 per month.

The offer is only available to existing T-Mobile customers who have mobile subscriptions costing $39.99 per month and up, and who have broadband in their homes. Users must also buy a router priced at $50 with a two-year contract, or $150 with a shorter contract. Users can keep their existing phone numbers and plug any phone into the router for the service, called T-Mobile@Home, which works like traditional home-phone service.

The back-end technology is similar to standard VoIP but not exactly the same. T-Mobile is using UMA (Unlicensed Mobile Access), which it has already deployed to support its HotSpot@Home offering.

UMA was designed so that mobile operators could use Wi-Fi to extend mobile coverage into the home. It sends calls over the Internet to the nearest node in a wireless network, and from there the call is transferred via the mobile operator's existing back-end network.

Read the complete story

Design and technology leader in the Indian mobile market, today, announced the launch of its Flagship model Soul (SGH-U900) in the country. Soul offers the perfect balance of design and features. In addition to the introduction of Soul, SAMSUNG today also announced the launch of seven new, stylish, advanced mobiles in the country across the popular Guru series; multimedia (music and imaging) and the business phone segment. Reinforcing its lifestyle positioning, the Company today announced its foray into the mobile accessory business in the country by launching lifestyle mobile accessories in the market.

Announcing the launch of Soul, stated Mr Sunil Dutt, Country Head, SAMSUNG Telecommunications India, "We believe that Soul is the answer for today’s style-conscious consumers, looking for a perfect blend of outstanding quality, design and performance. We are confident that the Soul will enhance the SAMSUNG consumer experience in the premium phone category." Soul is the ultimate essence of mobile; a slim, lightweight and stylish product yet still boasting all the essential functions in one single device. Showcasing extreme minimalism in a slim design, Soul has a full metal body with a premium look and feel with a natural color and hairline texture .

Soul enhances the usability for the user with features that adapt to the user depending on the application. With Magic Touch by DaCP, navigation indicators on the keypad of the phone change according to the user’s needs, making navigation of the menus simple, intuitive and direct. The navigation panel’s icons change according to function. For example, when in music mode, music related icons will light up on the navigation indicators. When in camera mode, camera related icons such as zoom and brightness icons will appear.

Read the complete story

Palm Inc., said Thursday that it was well on the way to shipping 2 million units of its Centro smartphone, a low-end device whose popularity may be challenged by Apple’s new lower-priced iPhone.

Shares of Palm, a maker of mobile phones and hand-held computers, jumped 9 percent in early trading after the company said Centro would be sold through a third American carrier, Verizon Wireless, starting Friday.

Brodie Keast, senior vice president of marketing, said that Centro’s touchscreen and full keyboard were popular with consumers upgrading from traditional mobile phones.

Asked when the company expects shipments of the Centro to reach 2 million, Mr. Keast said, ”We are confident we will get there in 2008.”

He said 1 million units had been shipped through the end of March.

Centro will now be sold in the United States by Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel and AT&T at around $99 or less, depending on retailer discounts. It is also sold through international carriers.

Verizon Wireless is a venture of Verizon Communications and the Vodafone Group.

Apple introduced the iPhone 3G on Monday, slashing the price to $199, just half that of the original model. The move adds a challenge to Palm, since it reduced the price differential between the iPhone and Palm, a CL King & Associates analyst, Lawrence Harris, said in a client note. 

U.K. wireless carrier O2 said Tuesday it would offer Apple's latest iPhone for free with some plans.

Apple chief executive Steve Jobs on Monday introduced the newest version of the smartphone, which supports wireless carriers' faster 3G cellular networks, at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco. Along with introducing new features to make the iPhone more usable for businesses, Jobs also dropped the price for the base model from $399 to $199.
O2 customers who choose service plans costing either $88 or $146.50 a month would get the 8-GB version of the iPhone 3G at no additional cost. The 16-GB version of the iPhone would also be available at no charge with the more expensive subscription plan. For businesses, O2 plans to offer the device at no charge for companies on a 24- or 36-month contract.

Read the complete story

Intel's Atom processor has been stealing the limelight when it comes to small, portable Internet devices, but Intel rivals Arm and Texas Instruments hope to change that.

The two companies held a joint press conference a day before the start of the Computex trade show in Taipei on Monday to promote the use of their chips in mobile Internet devices, or MIDs, an emerging class of products that includes high-end smartphones, small tablet PCs and mini-laptops.

Arm and TI are already strong players in smartphones, but their products don't appear yet in mini-laptops like the Asus Eee PC, which is based on an Intel chip. But that will change by the end of this year, according to Seshu Madhavapeddy, general manager of TI's Mobile Internet Devices division.

Read the complete story

The chips could initially be used in thin and light laptops and later in sub-$500 mini-notebooks with screen sizes of less than 10 inches.

VIA Technologies, which is battling Intel in the ultramobile PC market, on Thursday launched a line of low-power processors for mobile PCs ranging from thin and light laptops to mini-notebooks.
The Nano line, based on VIA's 64-bit Isaiah CPU architecture, comprises five models with maximum power consumption ranging from 5 watts to 25 watts. Clock speeds range from 1.0 GHz to 1.8 GHz.
The power efficiency of the new products makes them candidates for use in power-efficient PCs offered to businesses. The chips, however, could find a bigger home initially in thin and light laptops and later in sub-$500 mini-notebooks with screen sizes of less than 10 inches. Battery life is particularly important for the latter notebooks, which are primarily used for accessing the Web on the road.
The Nano builds on the company's C7 processor line, but offers as much as four times the performance within the same power range, the company said. Nano processors can be used in the same C7 socket, making the upgrade easier for computer and motherboard manufacturers.

The Nano's performance boost is because of the manufacturing process that shrinks the size of transistors on the chip to 65 nanometers versus 90 nm for the C7. More transistors on a chip translate into higher power-to-performance ratios. VIA designs the chips and contracts manufacturing with Fujitsu.

Read the complete story

Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) expects global unit sales of its Windows Mobile software for cellphones to grow at least 50 percent per year in fiscal years 2008 and 2009 as demand for smartphones rises rapidly.

"Fifty percent growth is the minimum," Eddie Wu, the software company's managing director of OEM embedded devices Asia, told Reuters on the sidelines of a news conference on Tuesday.

He said Microsoft expects to sell 20 million units in its 2007/2008 fiscal year ending in June, and expects to grow at least 50 percent annually over the next two years. It sold over 11 million units of its Windows Mobile software in its 2006/2007 fiscal year ended June.

"We're actually still seeing very good growth (for our mobile software) in markets like Europe and the United States," said Wu.

Wu added that growth of Windows Mobile is seen fastest in Asia-Pacific, Middle East, Brazil, Russia and India.

Read the complete story

I’ll let you in on a boring little secret: I don’t own my own cell phone. Due to my job as reviews editor, I rely on using demo phone after demo phone and have a Grand Central number that I forward to whatever device I happen to be using at the time. The system’s worked out well so far, but I know there will come a point in time a perfect storm, if you will that I’ll have sent back whatever phone I’d been using and won’t have access to a new phone yet.

Being the cheap-ass frugal consumer that I am, I’ll need to find a super-low priced pre-paid phone to tide me over an almost disposable phone. Enter, the Hop-On HOP1800, a $10 GSM phone that’s being advertised as the disposable “Anti-iPhone”.

Read the complete story