MobileCrunch

Samsung Galaxy S 4G (Refurb) Hits T-Mo’s Prepaid Site With $350 Price Tag
Apple Hires The Guy Who Hacked Together A Better iOS Notifications System
Red Pop Gives Your iPhone The Camera Button Its Always Needed
RIM Launches One-Click-To-Join Mobile Conferencing App
HTC Plans To Release Sense UI SDK
Girls Just Wanna Have A Pink Nokia N8 Running Symbian
Xperia Play, Arc Get Android 2.3.3 Update From Vodafone Including New Facebook UI
Sprint-Bound HTC EVO 3D Nabs FCC Approval
Sony Ericsson Xperia Play To Get 20 New Optimized Titles

Samsung Galaxy S 4G (Refurb) Hits T-Mo’s Prepaid Site With $350 Price Tag

Posted: 03 Jun 2011 02:59 PM PDT

On a scale from one to ten, how excited do you think we were to see the Samsung Galaxy S 4G (Refurb) go live on T-Mobile's prepaid site? If you guessed somewhere around a six or a seven, good job! If you guessed eleven, you don’t quite understand how scales work.

While the Galaxy S 4G isn’t exactly a brand new piece of kit (it’s a few months old at this point, and likely to be replaced by the Galaxy S II before too long), we still give T-Mo an A for effort here. A reasonably high-end Android handset for $349.99, sans-contract, on a prepaid bill? Sure — we’ll take it.

Alas, there’s some bad news: as of right now, it’s listed as “out of stock”. Depending on how many refurbs T-mobile has laying around, you may have to be a bit proactive with the refresh button if you want to get one any time soon.

For those of you who don’t quite remember the Android-powered smartphone, here's a little refresher course on the Samsung Galaxy S 4G’s specs:

Android 2.2 (Froyo)
1 Ghz Hummingbird Processor
4 inch, 800×480 Super AMOLED display
5 megapixel rear camera, with a 0.3 megapixel front facing camera for video chat

[via T-Mobile]

Apple Hires The Guy Who Hacked Together A Better iOS Notifications System

Posted: 03 Jun 2011 12:39 PM PDT

Back in February, I wrote that MobileNotifier (a replacement notifications system for jailbroken iOS devices) would be the one thing that would make anyone want to jailbreak — and I stand by it. Months later, my iPhone is still jailbroken, almost solely so that I don’t have to go back to Apple’s built-in system.

It seems I’m not the only one who was impressed. Sometime in the last week or so — just days before they announce iOS 5, which is expected to come complete with a new (and hopefully less terrible) notifications system — Apple has pulled MobileNotifier’s developer, Peter Hajas, under their wing.

Whispers of the hire began a few days ago, when Hajas announced that he was “taking a break from MobileNotifier… for a while”. He couldn’t give a reason for his hiatus, but added that “it’s worth it. Trust me. If you look around hard enough, you’ll probably figure it out.”

Ever so coyly, he signed the post with “Until then, stay hungry and stay foolish”, an ultra-geeky reference to Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford Commencement speech.

So, a subtle quoting of Apple’s CEO — could be a hint, could just be a rather strange choice of references. Not really enough to go on, either way. Then Redmond Pie dug up the following tweet sent by Hajas, which has since been deleted:

@brittaahh I’m glad you like it! I’ll see what I can do :) I will be back for a few weeks, then I’m off to work in CA at a “fruit” company.

Fruit company, eh? We’re pretty sure Peter isn’t talking about his new gig at Farmer Joe’s Fig Farm.

We asked a few of our Apple sources; while they’d heard his name around campus, none had actually seen him lurking about yet. So, we turned to the world’s favorite stalking-tool-in-the-cloud: Facebook.

Sure enough, Hajas has just added “Apple” to his list of employers, citing an Intern position beginning in May of this year:

So, why “Intern”? It’s par for the course with Apple. They seem to consider it something of a dry run; sort of their way of testing how well newbies mesh with the current talent and how skilled they actually are before giving them access to source code repositories or a fancy title. Of the many Apple iOS/OS X developers I’ve met over the years, every one of them started off as “Intern”.

Good choice, Apple.

Red Pop Gives Your iPhone The Camera Button Its Always Needed

Posted: 03 Jun 2011 10:52 AM PDT

I’m all for the abandonment of most physical buttons on phones. Really — screw’em all. Except for the camera button.

We’ve all been there: you go to take that once-in-a-lifetime shot, only to fire the shutter a second too late because your big ol’ meat digits couldn’t find your iPhone’s stupid on-screen button in time. And yet, generation-after-generation, the iPhone fails to gain a camera button.

The Red Pop is an (almost funded!) Kickstarter project that aims to end your button deficit woes by… adding a big ol’ red camera shutter button to the iPhone.

Once you’ve acquired a Red Pop, you twist the bottom of the faux-barrel to uncover the dock connector. Plop the now unsheathed dongle into your iPhone’s dock port, and it’ll automatically launch the accessory’s accompanying iPhone app. From there, each press of the big red button will snap another photo — all without requiring you to hunt down that impalpable camera button as it hides in a flush forest of glass.

Of course, this solution has its.. drawbacks (especially when compared to a dedicated, on-device camera button). It bulks up your phone a bit, which makes it unlikely that you’ll be walkin’ around with the Red Pop/iPhone combo crammed into your pockets — and if you don’t have it on you (and on your phone) when that need-a-photo-now occasion arrises, it doesn’t really do you much good. It’s more along the lines of something you’d bring along on a photo walk.

Does this sound like something you’d be into? You can find the Red Pop Kickstarter page right over here.

RIM Launches One-Click-To-Join Mobile Conferencing App

Posted: 03 Jun 2011 10:31 AM PDT

The majority of BlackBerry owners out there tend to fall on the enterprise side of things, so it only makes sense that RIM would build an app that caters to its suit-wearing, email-checking, conference-calling customer base. The app is called BlackBerry Mobile Conferencing, and it basically streamlines the entire tedious process of dialing in, giving an ID code, etc. North American BlackBerry owners will now be able to skip over annoying conferencing details by simply pressing a "Join Now" button to enter the conversation from their smartphone.

The app gives users the ability to schedule conference calls in the smartphone's calendar in just two clicks. RIM's BlackBerry Mobile Conferencing app also automatically chooses the most optimal number to use if multiple dial-in numbers are offered to call participants in different regions. In other words, the app will choose a local number over a toll-free number when the user is in a local calling area, and a toll-free number over a long-distance number if the dial-in number would otherwise incur long-distance charges.

The BlackBerry Mobile Conferencing app is available now to North American BlackBerry owners for free in the BlackBerry App World.

HTC Plans To Release Sense UI SDK

Posted: 03 Jun 2011 10:00 AM PDT

HTC recently announced plans to release a software development kit for its Sense UI, which just so happens to be downright gorgeous in version 3.0. The SDK will allow developers to integrate their applications more deeply within the Sense software, according to HTC. And for developers who want to build 3D apps, the company also has plans to offer APIs and sample code for Sense handsets with 3D displays.

The SDK is being offered as a part of a new developer resource program, which will include tutorials, best practices, documentation, general support, and a forum where developers can give feedback to HTC. Those resources, along with the Sense SDK, will launch alongside HTC's new webside, www.htcdev.com, in the next few months. Interested developers can sign up now on the site to be notified when the Sense SDK goes live.

[via InfoWorld]

Girls Just Wanna Have A Pink Nokia N8 Running Symbian

Posted: 03 Jun 2011 09:16 AM PDT

Looking for a bra made out of genuine, 100 percent smartphone that shoots laser beams from your chest? Or perhaps, you've been waiting for that multipurpose phone that moonlights as a back-lit performance stage? Unless you’re a skeezy GaGa-style Barbie, the pink Nokia N8 won't include those cool features. Sorry.

But all jokes aside, this female-targeted Nokia ad is encroaching on scary turf. As a woman, having a bunch of Barbies prance around with pink N8s singing about freedom doesn't really inspire me to jump up and buy the product. If anything, I feel dumber for having watched it, albeit slightly amused, in a guilty kind of way. Plus, Nokia is already struggling as it is, posting the company's lowest share prices in 13 years. To be honest, this ad reads more like a suicide note than a declaration of pink-flavored freedom.

[via Gizmodo]

Xperia Play, Arc Get Android 2.3.3 Update From Vodafone Including New Facebook UI

Posted: 03 Jun 2011 08:21 AM PDT

Sony Ericsson's Xperia Play and Arc smartphones will be getting an update this morning to Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread, but only for our cross-the-pond friends on Vodafone's network. Sorry Verizonites, but I'm sure your Xperia handsets will get bumped up to 2.3.3 soon. In the mean time, Vodafone Play and Arc owners can look forward to a few bug fixes, and Facebook Inside Xperia, Sony Ericsson's new Facebook-integrated UI.

According to Vodafone, the Android 2.3.3 update will bring with it improved voice quality, stability improvements, and email set-up and exchange account improvements. But the real meat of this update lies in the Facebook integration. As we reported earlier, Facebook Inside Xperia basically puts the social network at the core of each of your most-used applications, like the address book, the camera and media library apps, and the music player. From there, you can post suggested songs to walls, "like" just about anything, and see extra info on the friends in your address book, pulled straight from their Facebook profiles.

This is a manual update, so you'll need to connect your device to a computer and use the Sony Ericsson Update Service app to get things rolling. If you're a gamer at heart, and a social butterfly online, the Android 2.3.3 update should come as a delicious dollop of icing on top of your Gingerbread-powered Xperia Arc and Xperia Play.

Sprint-Bound HTC EVO 3D Nabs FCC Approval

Posted: 03 Jun 2011 07:13 AM PDT

The HTC EVO 3D is possibly one of the most anticipated phones of the summer, and both Sprint and HTC have done an excellent job of teasing out its launch date. Thanks to a RadioShack flyer discovered a few days ago, we were pretty certain the 3D-capable smartphone would hit shelves on June 24. Today, however, we’ve been given a little extra confirmation that the smartphone is on its way, since the HTC EVO 3D was spotted on its way through the FCC, and nabbed a stamp of approval.

The filing also confirms much of what we already knew about the Android smartphone: EVDO, CDMA, WiMAX, WiFi radios, and Bluetooth antennas are all present and accounted for. A dual-core 1.2GHz Qualcomm processor powers the EVO 3D and its glasses-free 3D display. The HTC smartphone is originally priced at $499 off-contract, but if you play your cards right and are looking to renew your contract (or switch carriers), RadioShack will hook you up for $200 with a new (or renewed) two-year agreement.

Oh, and here’s that RadioShack flyer I mentioned:

[via UberGizmo]

Sony Ericsson Xperia Play To Get 20 New Optimized Titles

Posted: 03 Jun 2011 06:34 AM PDT

After what felt like decades of waiting for Sony Ericsson to bust out a PlayStation phone, the Xperia Play landed with mixed reviews. The hardware, especially the D-Pad, and its super intense Facebook integration passed with flying colors, but we were somewhat disappointed to see just 50 Play-optimized PlayStation titles at launch. But just like Sony Ericsson promised, there are 20 new titles coming to the Play, varying in age and genre and all-around awesomeness. The only question now is: when can we get them?

Unfortunately, Sony Ericsson is keeping pricing and availability under wraps until E3, where the company will make an official announcement on details. Headliners include Minecraft, which boasts over 8 million registered users to date, along with Rainbow Six: Shadow Vanguard, and Battlefield Bad Company 2. Twenty titles may not sound like enough for you serious gamers out there, but hopefully you won't blow through them before SE's next wave of Play-optimized games.

Here’s the full list of Play-optimized games to land in “the coming months:”

Play Exclusives: