MobileCrunch |  |
- Photogram For iOS Is Yet Another Image Sharing App, But One Worth Checking Out
- WPTattleTale.com Points Fingers At Carriers For Weak WP7 Sales
- Video: The Engineer Guy Explains How The First Phone Turned Into Your Phone
- Samsung’s “Attempt To Harass” Apple Gets Rough Response
- Fun Fact: Your Headphone Remote Works As A Camera Shutter Button in iOS 5
- Samsung’s Sprint-Bound D600 Dubbed The Conquer 4G
- Up Close With The Uber-Expensive Ulysse Nardin Chairman Phone
- HTC Teases Gingerbread Update For The T-Mobile G2
- Verizon Lights Up 19 New Markets With 4G LTE Coverage
- T-Mobile Offers A Year’s Worth Of Free Data For Father’s Day
- Apple Prices Unlocked iPhone 4 At $649
| Photogram For iOS Is Yet Another Image Sharing App, But One Worth Checking Out Posted: 14 Jun 2011 02:39 PM PDT
Sometimes, it’s all about the experience. Without its finely tuned user experience, Yelp would be just another reviews site. Tivo would be just another DVR. Twitter would just be a fancy status broadcaster. Their user experiences, though — that feeling that things “just work” — keep people coming back. A simple idea grows, the product evolves, and eventually they become the names we all recognize. Photogram isn’t a complicated idea. You take 4 photos, slap a title on the whole lot, pick a cutesy little theme, and blast it out to e-mail, Facebook, or Twitter — and that’s it. But something about the experience has me hooked. Photogram is, for lack of a better word, pretty. The wood motif (complete with steam-punky little screws and rivets) gives the whole thing a feel of class. Once you’ve created your account, the UI gets out of your way and lets you throw together ‘grams in all of a few seconds. Pick your pictures, pick a theme, pick your recipients, and send away. It just works, and it’s quick. I’m not entirely sure why I’m liking this over the billions of other image sharing services out there, but I think I’ve figured it out: Photograms tell a story. With things like yfrog, Twitpic, and Instagram, we’ve grown accustomed to shooting out little snippets. “Look at this beer!”, or “OMG CAR WRECK!”, or “Ha ha, my cat is adorable” — whatever the case, most of the photos we’re sharing go out without context, and without any sort of relation between them. Photograms can provide a look not only at where you were or what you did, but how you got there and what happened next. Here’s one I made with WWDC Pictures:
Here’s one I made of a night out at the bars. Oh, and here’s one where I made a scary-ass mutant picture of my face. Alas, like any new service, it has its faults. My main holdback thus far: you can’t view a big ol’ list of all the Photograms you’ve published so far, or view any other user’s public Photogram history. You can dig through your own inbox for the recipient receipts — but who wants to do that? There’s potential here for them to build a sort of encapsulated photo journal of experiences, with each photogram serving as a shrink-wrapped overview of some exciting event. Fortunately, a rep for the company indicates that such things are on the way. (You also can’t see how many people have viewed your photogram. For a generation primarily interested in how many people are interested in them, that seems crucial.) Photogram will be free, as will sending photograms. It’ll come with a handful of free themes, with a few dozen additional free themes available for download. Certain downloadable themes will be premium, with their artists taking some cut of the sales. Look for it to launch on the iOS App Store on June 16th.     
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| WPTattleTale.com Points Fingers At Carriers For Weak WP7 Sales Posted: 14 Jun 2011 02:22 PM PDT
The Windows Phone platform might have a relatively small following now, but there are two things to remember when it comes to WP7 fans: 1) they are just as intense about Windows Phone as Apple fanbois and Android loyalists are over their respective platforms, and 2) the WP7 pack is growing by the minute. But for now, Microsoft's mobile success has been weak at best, and Windows enthusiast Robert McLaws thinks he knows just who to blame: retailers. From his experiences, and anecdotal evidence passed along to him, McLaws came to the conclusion that retailers are biased against Windows Phone, or simply don't know enough about it to lead customers in the Microsoft direction. To that end, he's created a website called Windows Phone Tattletale, where readers can post reviews of different carrier stores by location, and lay bare all the juicy details of their anti-WP7 experience. The site is relatively new, so I haven't found any particularly scathing criticisms of specific stores. However, in a thread titled "Why I Started WPTattletale.com," McLaws gets mixed responses. Mamacita42 echoed his sentiments, posting, "A T-Mobile rep told me they were no good. Get Android. I told him that's what I'm trying to get rid of. He didn't even know the difference between WM and WP." ET Jay, on the other hand, was less encouraging. "If WP7 is being treated poorly it is because MS has done a poor job marketing this OS from the start – botched the first update, and started promoting Mango a year early and killed first generation sales. I applaud your desire to promote WP7, but your frustration with its lack of success is misplaced," he posted. [via CNET]
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| Video: The Engineer Guy Explains How The First Phone Turned Into Your Phone Posted: 14 Jun 2011 01:16 PM PDT Once upon a time, "cell phones" weighed about a pound and performed only one function: placing calls. No games, no cameras, no texting. Not even a screen. Today, we're so spoiled by LTE coverage, apps, and beautiful touchscreens — and yet, we still manage to find things wrong with them. The battery life sucks! The buttons aren’t squishy enough! The touchscreen doesn’t touch me back! Whine, whine, whine. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying those criticisms aren't necessary; without them, innovation would die. But isn't it only fair to have some grasp on what OEMs are up against when they sit down to engineer the latest and greatest smartphone? Bill the Engineer Guy reminds us of that today with this video — it’s 5 minutes or so of entertainment, and you might just learn a thing or two. Enjoy! [via Makezine]
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| Samsung’s “Attempt To Harass” Apple Gets Rough Response Posted: 14 Jun 2011 11:34 AM PDT
It all started back in April, when Apple saw some bothersome similarities between Apple's iPad 2 and iPhone 4 and certain products from Samsung's Galaxy and Infuse lines of products. Apple sued, Samsung counter-sued, and now we're basically in a vicious cycle of "which came first: the iPhone 4 or the Samsung Galaxy S II?"
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| Fun Fact: Your Headphone Remote Works As A Camera Shutter Button in iOS 5 Posted: 14 Jun 2011 09:48 AM PDT
When Apple was showing off iOS 5′s myriad new features, they mentioned one neat little trick that the camera app had up its sleeve: you could now fire off pictures with the device’s volume up button. You know what else has a volume up button? Your iPhone headphones. Surely, there’s some technical reason why the volume up button on your headphones wouldn’t …. wait, it works? IT WORKS?! Get ready to get your James-Bond on, folks. Or, as Cult Of Mac points out, you can stick your iPhone on a table, using the remote to take the clearest, most wobble-free pictures ever.
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| Samsung’s Sprint-Bound D600 Dubbed The Conquer 4G Posted: 14 Jun 2011 09:37 AM PDT
A little over a week ago, Samsung's SPH-D600 quietly passed through the FCC, where we learned it was Sprint-bound. An unnamed source has now leaked additional specs to Pocketnow, claiming that the QWERTY slider will be named the Conquer 4G. We expect to see this Samsung handset ship with a 1GHz single-core processor, a 3.1-megapixel rear camera and a low-res front-facing shooter. Less impressive, the Conquer 4G's 320×480 touchscreen likely won't conquer much, except maybe the hearts of smartphone virgins. Pocketnow suggests that the phone will ship with Android 2.3 Gingerbread. We don't expect this handset to go for any more than a Benjamin, but until Samsung formally unveils the Conquer 4G, we'll have to wait to find out. [via Engadget]
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| Up Close With The Uber-Expensive Ulysse Nardin Chairman Phone Posted: 14 Jun 2011 08:39 AM PDT Last week I got the chance to play with the Ulysse Nardin Chairman, a goofy, expensive phone with a small, built-in mechanical rotor for manual winding. I interviewed the head of UN’s cell division, Paul Williams, about his experience building the phone as well as his background at Nokia’s Vertu line. The phone will run Android and will be available next year. If anything can be said of this phone it’s that it is real, it is a serious piece of electronics, and yes, someone will probably buy one or one thousand. I apologize for the sub-par video quality as the guy shooting me was, shall we say, not very good at holding the camera still.
If you have to ask how much it costs, you probably can’t afford it. Needless to say it comes in steel, platinum, and rose gold.
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| HTC Teases Gingerbread Update For The T-Mobile G2 Posted: 14 Jun 2011 08:30 AM PDT
Just because T-Mo may be discontinuing its first 4G-capable smartphone, the T-Mobile G2, that doesn't mean that current G2 owners don't deserve the latest version of Android, right? HTC seems to think so, since the G2 manufacturer sent out a newsletter yesterday notifying T-Mobile that the G2 will be receiving an OTA update with Android 2.3 and a few extra enhancements. No word yet on when G2 owners should expect the update, but from the looks of it, the new features seem worth the wait. The update should upgrade the UI to be snappier and easier to use, along with text input, which should become faster and more intuitive. One-touch word selection and copy/paste will also make their way to the G2, along with improved battery life and better app management. Finally, the software update will include a 3G/4G vs. H signal indicator. [via Phone Arena] [via |
| Verizon Lights Up 19 New Markets With 4G LTE Coverage Posted: 14 Jun 2011 07:45 AM PDT
New 4G LTE supported areas include:
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| T-Mobile Offers A Year’s Worth Of Free Data For Father’s Day Posted: 14 Jun 2011 06:27 AM PDT
Here's how it works: if you sign up for T-Mo's 200MB data plan, the pink carrier will reimburse you every month with $10 in credit, covering the whole $120 cost of that size plan. If you opt for one of T-Mobile's larger data packages – 2GB, 5GB, or 10GB – with unlimited talk and text, T-Mobile will still offer $10 in monthly credit, which means you'll at least save $120 on data over the course of the year. The same rule applies for customers who sign up for mobile broadband plans. Remember, this deal is for one day only so, if you haven't already marked down Father's Day in your calendar, at least put "T-Mo Sale" in the little box marked June 18.
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| Apple Prices Unlocked iPhone 4 At $649 Posted: 14 Jun 2011 05:36 AM PDT
As promised, Apple has started selling unlocked versions of the iPhone 4 on its U.S. online store for all you world travelers out there. Here in the states, of course, it will only work on AT&T's 3G network. But if you venture beyond the land of the brave on a regular basis, you might as well consider snagging an unlocked model from Apple. Most other countries are already comfortable with the idea of switching out MicroSIMs according to location, so it's only fair that we, and our iPhones, get to travel freely throughout the world, too. Apple's pricing may seem high — $649 (16GB) and $749 (32GB) — but unlocked iPhone 4s are going for even more from other retailers. The site is promising delivery within three business days if you go with the classic black model, and three to five days for the mystical white iPhone 4. [via Engadget]
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Remember that one time when 
Looking for a Father's Day gift that just keeps giving? How does a year's worth of mobile data sound? On June 18, 
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