Friday, May 27, 2011

MobileCrunch

MobileCrunch

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Cydle i30 Brings Live Television To The iPhone

Posted: 26 May 2011 08:00 PM PDT

I happen to be a huge fan of television on demand. Without cable, I guess I'd have to be. In fact, If I was better at keeping up with Foursquare check-ins, I'd probably be the Mayor of Netflix, and I've had Hulu bookmarked since its launch. But every so often, I get jealous of those who can watch "real" TV, with their commercial references and obscure made-for-television movies. But apparently, people like me won't have to be jealous for long, as a new device has surfaced in FCC filings that gives users the ability to watch live broadcast digital television straight from the iPhone.

It's called the Cydle i30, and it wraps around the back of the iPhone, sticking out past the bottom. The new device has an adjustable antenna to make sure you've got a strong signal, and then the antenna sends the video to the phone over Wi-Fi. Plus, for those of us who need every ounce of battery juice we can get, the Cydle i30 has its own integrated battery.

Obviously, you won't want this thing strapped on to your phone all the time, but for live sporting events or breaking news, it'll definitely come in handy. As of now, broadcast networks have live events on lock for the most part, with the exception of a few live feeds on YouTube Live.

[via Mobiledia]

Apple Sues NY Teenager For Selling $130,000 Worth Of White iPhone Conversion Kits

Posted: 26 May 2011 07:00 PM PDT

The level of controversy surrounding the beautiful, yet mystical, white iPhone may have reached critical mass today. First, the launch was delayed by ten months, which peeved quite a few Apple fans, to say the least. Then, once the white iPhone finally reared its said-to-be fat head, reviewers had a field day claiming the smartphone was thicker than its black counterpart, which proved false. Today, almost a month after the phone launched, Apple sued a teenager from Queens, NY who had been selling white iPhone conversion kits.

Fei Lam, who purchased white iPhone 4 conversion from Apple manufacturing partner Foxconn, made a whopping $130,000 off the "entrepreneurial" project, selling his kits for $300 a pop. Interestingly enough, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak was one of many to place an order on Lam's site, WhiteiPhone4now.com.

The already-settled suit alleges that Lam engaged in deceptive practices, including trademark infringement and dilution, as well as compromising the company's relationship with its customers by muddling their perception of the official white iPhone release date. "Defendant Lam willfully and without authorization has used Apple’s trademarks in connection with the sale of his ‘White iPhone 4 Conversion Kits’," Apple said. "Among other things, Apple’s logo and ‘iPhone’ trademarks are used in connection with the promotion and sale of the iPhone 4."

But Lam wasn't the only one stung by the suit, as his parents were also named in the complaint. According to Apple, Lam's parents acted as partners in the sales, and pushed their son to create the business under their supervision. Apple has requested a permanent injunction to stop the Lams from any further white conversion kit sales, and asked the family to turn over any and all profits generated from their enterprise, along with legal expense reimbursement and additional financial retribution.

[via Gizmodo]

T-Mobile Recognizes The G2x’s Issues, Promises Fix

Posted: 26 May 2011 09:42 AM PDT

The G2x is a mighty fine phone, and one we’d almost always whole heartedly recommend to our friends looking to jump into the Android world. Alas, there’s a fairly decent chance that recommendation might result in some of our friends hating us.

Here’s the problem: while it’s generally a mighty fine phone, there seems to be a batch or two out there floating around with some rather nasty issues — namely, it reboots itself just about whenever the heck it sees fit. Said issues have lead to talks of a recall — something which, according to a statement from T-Mobile to PC Mag, just isn’t in the cards right now.

The issue is software-related, it seems, as the T-Mobile rep also indicated that they “are working with LG to deliver a software update, which [they] expect to offer some performance enhancements.” Of course, there’s always a chance that there are hardware issues that have just slipped under T-Mobile’s radar — we’ll just have to wait and see if LG can software-patch away our woes.

Nokia Promises Rapid-Fire Launch Strategy Post Mango

Posted: 26 May 2011 09:36 AM PDT

Nokia has been positioning itself for a rapid-fire release strategy after the launch of the world's first Windows Phone-powered Nokia handset, according to Jo Harlow, Nokia's executive vice president of smart devices. Despite the fact that Nokia and Microsoft finalized their partnership back in March, we consumers will continue waiting for a Mango-flavored Nokia phone until Fall rolls around.

"We should be launching new devices in a rhythm that might be every couple of months, every three months, something like that," said Ms. Harlow. The first Windows Phone launched in October, and since then, we haven't seen many more grace carrier shelves. Gartner marks the Windows Phone OS fifth among major platforms, with a measly 3.6 percent market share. Microsoft's weak performance in the mobile OS space could be blamed on the fact that WP7 has been a "secondary platform" for most big-name manufacturers such as Samsung and HTC, said Harlow.

Coupling Windows Phone with the most popular handset maker in the world, Nokia, could bolster Windows Phone OS popularity, since Mango will be the primary platform for Nokia beginning this Fall. "We're going to keep coming with new devices in order to have something to talk about," she said.

Nokia has already made an impression on the Windows Phone OS, as Nokia mapping software and perhaps some of its cloud services will be present on the platform. Harlow said that the Nokia Music Store may replace Zune in certain countries where Microsoft doesn't have a major presence.


Google Unveils Wallet And Offers: An Open Platform For Mobile Payments

Posted: 26 May 2011 09:13 AM PDT

We’re here at Google’s massive HQ in New York City (they own an entire block) for what Google was calling a “partner event” but everyone knew was really an “NFC event”. Sure enough, Stephanie Tilenius, Google’s VP of Commerce, has taken the stage to announce Google Wallet and Google Offers.

Google Releases Update To Maps 5.5 For Android

Posted: 26 May 2011 07:34 AM PDT

Yesterday at TechCrunch Disrupt NYC, Marissa Mayer, Google's location boss, projected that Google Maps would be accessed more by mobile than PC by 2012, so it's no surprise that the search giant has enhanced its Maps app for Android, with an update to version 5.5.

There are three big changes coming along with this update: you can check in and out, as well as rate directly from Place pages, Home and Work locations for Latitude history have been made editable, and the transit pages have been revamped to show a list of train lines that pass through the station, upcoming scheduled departures and links to other stations located nearby.

As per usual, Google Maps 5.5 for Android is a free download from the Android Market, available now.

[via Google Blog]
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