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Etc: Get a free Nexus S (with two-year contract) today at Best Buy
Etc: Get a free Nexus S (with two-year contract) today at Best Buy
New BlackBerry Torch goes after touchscreen competitors
The launch of a new full touchscreen BlackBerry Torch was announced today by Research in Motion, along with a slate of other new smartphones, in conjunction with the launch of the BlackBerry 7 operating system. The specs of the new phones are modest, as BlackBerry is a bit new to the whole “performance phone” bracket, but may represent a strong response to the negative vibe that has surrounded the brand in the last few months.
The BlackBerry Torch 9850/9860 packs a 1.2GHz single-core processor and 768MB of RAM behind a full-sized 3.7-inch screen at a 800 x 480 resolution, without a QWERTY keyboard to back it up. The phone will be able to record 720p HD video with a 5-megapixel camera, and comes with 4GB internal storage that is expandable up to 36GB with a microSD slot, with CMDA, EVDO, UMTS, GSM bands all supported.
The battery on the touchscreen Torch sounds a bit lackluster from the specs provided by RIM: just under 7 hours of talk time and 6.6 hours of video playback may be a tripping point for the new phone. Likewise, access to 4G LTE networks will not be a launch feature, though it will have HSPA+ speeds via enhanced backhaul.
The new BlackBerry 7 OS may be a better selling point, as it extends BlackBerry Messenger to a range of other apps and catches the phones up with the trend of threaded social networking with an updated Social Feeds app. The OS will also appear on the be-keyboarded BlackBerry Bold 9900, which will also feature a touchscreen, and the slide-out BlackBerry Torch 9810.
RIM has been losing market share in the smartphone market over the last year to brands like Samsung, Apple, and HTC. The company has not yet released pricing information for any of the phones, but has them pegged to arrive “later this month,” with dates varying depending on the specific device and carrier.
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New BlackBerry Torch goes after touchscreen competitors
Google publicly accuses Apple, Microsoft, Oracle of patent bullying
Get out the fire extinguishers, because the patent fight between the tech titans is heating up. On Wednesday, Google publicly accused Apple and Microsoft of banding together to take down Android, using their winnings from recent Novell and Nortel patent auctions as ammunition.
In a post to the Official Google Blog, Google Senior Vice President and Chief Legal Officer David Drummond said that Apple, Microsoft, Oracle, and others have waged “a hostile, organized campaign against Android” by snapping up patents from Novell and Nortel and asking Google for high licensing fees for every Android device. According to Drummond, the companies in question are attempting to “make it more expensive for phone manufacturers to license Android (which we provide free of charge) than Windows Mobile; and even suing Barnes & Noble, HTC, Motorola, and Samsung.”
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Google publicly accuses Apple, Microsoft, Oracle of patent bullying
Developers still divided on mobile app monetization, but love the cloud
Mobile developers are still divided on how best to monetize mobile apps, according to the latest Mobile Developer Report survey by mobile development framework maker Appcelerator and market research firm IDC. A full 50 percent of the developers surveyed ranked attracting new users who buy software from an app store as a top priority going forward, down from 59 percent earlier this year. Another 50 percent ranked in-app purchasing as a top business model, up from 42 percent earlier this year. Despite the differences in business strategy, however, developers are increasingly incorporating cloud services, which one developer described to Ars as “very, very, very nice.”
Appcelerator and IDC conduct a quarterly survey of mobile developers, and the latest update reveals some trends in business model preference. Among the 2,000 developers surveyed, those expecting to earn a payday via app store purchases alone is trending downward, while those relying on in-app purchasing is trending upward. Half of the respondents said they planned to use, or will continue to use, each of those models for the next year. The percentage planning to rely on ad revenue remained mostly flat at about 45 percent.
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Developers still divided on mobile app monetization, but love the cloud
Microsoft calls Google out over patent bullying accusations
Microsoft has thrown down the gauntlet following Google’s public accusation of patent bullying on the part of Microsoft, Apple, Oracle, and others. In a series of tweets sent Wednesday evening, two senior Microsoft executives implied that Google had actually declined an invitation to join the consortium that formed to buy Novell’s patent portfolio, with one representative posting a screenshot of what looks like e-mail proof of Google’s decision to not play along.
In a post to the Official Google Blog on Wednesday afternoon, Google Chief Legal Officer David Drummond said that the aforementioned companies had waged “a hostile, organized campaign against Android” by snapping up patents and demanding high licensing fees for Android devices. Google specifically noted that Apple and Microsoft had not only tried to buy a number of Novell patents late last year, they were also part of a larger consortium of companies that ended up making a $4.5 billion winning bid on Nortel’s patent portfolio in July “to make sure Google didn’t get them.” Google had initially made a $900 million opening bid on the Nortel patents and later bid $3.14159 billion before bowing out of the auction.
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Etc: The 16GB and 32GB HP TouchPad prices will drop to $400 and $500, respectively, during the coming weekend only on HP’s website.
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Etc: The 16GB and 32GB HP TouchPad prices will drop to $400 and $500, respectively, during the coming weekend only on HP’s website.
AT&T to revoke unlimited data plans from jailbreaking iPhone tetherers
AT&T will begin revoking unlimited data plans from customers who jailbreak their iPhones to use unauthorized tethering services, the company confirmed to Boy Genius Report today. AT&T’s action applies to all customers tethering on the sly, whose monthly bills will automatically have AT&T’s 4GB tethering-approved plan added to them if they continue to tether past a certain date.
AT&T notes that earlier in the year, it began contacting customers who were tethering without an approved tethering plan via letters, e-mails, and text messages. These customers, including those with grandfathered-in unlimited plans, have two choices: stop tethering, or switch to a tethered plan. If the customers kept tethering but didn’t switch their plans, AT&T said, the plans would be switched for them.
For those who pay $30 per month for unlimited data, the minimum tethering plan (2GB of smartphone data and 2GB of tethering data) would be an increase of $15 per month. Those customers would also never be able to switch back to unlimited data, as that plan no longer exists.
Customers engaging in illicit tethering may get their plans bumped as soon as August 11, according to 9to5 Mac, regardless of the fact that when unlimited plans were still an option, there were no stated restrictions on tethering. The notifications AT&T has been sending to its customers each include a date that their tethering will no longer be tolerated, and they will have to choose between an unlimited plan without tethering, or a tethering plan with limits.
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AT&T to revoke unlimited data plans from jailbreaking iPhone tetherers
