The people at Boy Genius Reportare confirming that the Motorola Calgary will be Motorola’s first Google Android OS mobile. This announcement comes hot on the heels of Samsung’s first Android phone the I7500.
The mobile is planned to be released for Verizon by the fourth quarter of this year. The phone, from preliminary pictures, looks pretty cool design wise. Unfortunately we don’t have a lot of details in regards to specs, but rumor has it that the phone will be highly focused on social networking sites and apps and of course be fully integrate-able with Google services.
This may be just what Motorola needs to get out of their slump and also may be an indication of Google building up steam with this young OS.
How does this change your feelings about Motorola? Willing to give them a shot in the smartphone game?
This is a great app for prospective home buyers, real estate nerds or any nosy person just wanting to know the scene. Zillow is an iPhone app which can give you comprehensive real estate data about a huge amount of neighborhoods. Zillow integrates withe the iPhone’s GPS and maps system to pinpoint your location and bring up all of the relevant housing data for that neighborhood. You can check current and previous values, number of rooms and a huge amount of other data on any house located on the map.
In the real estate market in its current state this is valuable for anyone who’s looking to get some quick knowledge on the neighborhood.
Slacker is a classic app which just hit the one million downloaded milestone and we recommend it as a must have for any Blackberry user. It allows you access to 100 radio stations with a plethora of genres and types of music. You can even cache stations you like and listen when you’re not connected. And all your tunes will come in at a decent stereo quality.
The personalization of the app is what we like best as you can personally select the stations that you like best and make your Blackberry into your own portable party box.
Many have tried, but we can’t say they’ve succeeded. “iPhone killers” are being touted every day. We have the upcoming Palm Pre, the Blackberry Storm or Toshiba TG01. All worthy opponents, but nobody has been able to affect the smartphone market like our Apple iPhone.
Who’s the next challenger? Rumors are floating that Verizon is going to be carrying Microsoft’s entry into the battle, the project code-named “Pink.” The rumors don’t cite anything particularly ground breaking in terms of design. The phone is likely to have a full touch screen interface, a large focus on multimedia applications and a “tweaked” version of the Windows Mobile OS. One of the main features is also likely to be the Windows Marketplace which as we know from all smartphone users, is where the action is.
Verizon is apparently in talks with Microsoft hashing out the details of what might be the next iPhone killer, but at this moment nothing solid is on the table. Microsoft has been classically slow on their smartphone development and rumors have been in the works for years.
Have you been looking for a better way to creep out that girl you’ve been crushing on for the last few months? How about a KissPhone from PROInvention?
Inventor Georges Koussouros has put a basic rundown of an idea he has for transmitting kisses over mobile phone connections. The picture you see above is not a joke, but the actual design of the phone. The way it work is you kiss the lips on the device, it measures pressure, length, temperature and other factors and then transmits this over a data connection to another phone which will replicate that kiss on the artificial lips.
So now you can save those extra special kisses in your inbox for when you need them most. Koussorous also wants to develop a “kiss bank” where he’ll have archived kisses from different celebrities. His example sited is Madonna, but we’re going to advise him differently on that one.
So do you want to kiss a robot and then have that robot replicate that kiss for someone else? Try the kiss phone! We don’t have any details on commercial releases of the phone, but we’ll keep you updated.
It looks like HTC is going to have to make some room on the Android table, because the next major developer is stepping up. Samsung has officially announced the I7500, the first Samsung model that will be operating on the Android OS.
Samsung who was one of the earlier members of the Open Handset Alliance has been floating rumors around about their delving into the Android OS, but this is the first official word. What they plan to do with the system will be interesting to see and we’re excited to see the OS get tweaked in some other people’s hands.
The handset is scheduled to be released in June and from the looks of the press release it doesn’t look like this phone is messing around. Just check out a small sample of the features you will be getting
Full Web Browser Google Search, Maps, Gmail, YouTube, Calendar, Google Talk, Android Market
Bluetooth® 2.0, USB 2.0, WiFi, MicroUSB, 3.5mm ear jack
Internal memory: 8GB
It looks like there is a pretty hefty challenger out their to the G1 and G2. Especially with a 5 MP camera and beautiful touch screen display, we think that the I7500 isn’t going to have any trouble catching people’s attention.
Here’s a cool new Apple iPhone app that we’re all crazy about at TimTechs. It is Air Mouse Pro. This great application lets you remotely control your keyboard and mouse.
The program works both with PCs and Macs and operates over a Wi-Fi connection. It only requires the installation of a sister program on your PC and then it is ready to go.
Practical applications include presentations and slide shows. The versatility gives you much more flexibility in what you can do with the slideshow where you won’t be just limited to moving slides forward backward. In addition to all of the business applications is the use of it as an entertainment remote. We like especially for that so if we ever need to pause a movie or a TV show and then look something up on Google, we can do that without a hitch.
Like everyone else we’re wishing Apple a happy billionth. Billionth what? Well, billionth app that is. You may be scratching your head, but we’ll repeat it and emphasize that yes, that is with a “B”.
The Apple iTunes store just recently hit this milestone and with the help of millions of iPhone and iPod users the app store has been used over a billion times for finding applications for making life easier, fun and just plain better.
The promotion page for the milestone also has a list of all time favorite Apps. There aren’t many surprises there, but here’s a quick rundown:
This is a fantastic app which lets you access data on your hard drive no matter where you are. Make your hard drive fully accessible and stream music, watch movies or look at photos that are on your home drive all on your iPhone 3G. This is especially handy for those of us who are forgetful in bringing all of our spreadsheets to our meetings. Check out this great app. Even better it’s free!
Buzzd for your Blackberry
This is a cool app which lets you keep on top of what’s cool and what’s hip. And now you can hook up the Buzzd profile to your Twitter account. The Buzz service lets you stay up on real time updates on restaurants, clubs and whatever is happening on the scene. Now the Buzz on your Blackberry you can integrate your posts with your Twitter account. So let us know where that perfect espresso is and Buzz and Tweet it on your Blackberry! Check it out here.
As our iPhone keep approaching the new plateau of becoming our complete entertainment centers, there has been a big step in the right direction. The Hulu App for the Apple powerhouse is going to be coming soon to the iPhone 3G.
Hulu is a streaming TV service which gives users access to full TV episodes and movies with some advertising in between. The app would be a challenge to iTunes pay and download method as this would give users instant access over a Wi-Fi or 3G connection. iTunes does not offer that kind of speed at the moment.
With the upcoming release of the iPhone OS 3.0 this technology should be impressive and we welcome the idea of having a portable TV with us all of the time. We’ll just have to wait and see how the ad situation plays out and where there revenue will be coming from.
Did you put your old Nokia junker up on Ebay recently and then get a bid at around €25,000? If you did it is most likely that the phone you were trying to get rid of your Nokia 1100.
This elderly Nokia model has been greatly sought after recently for nefarious reasons. Allegedly Romanian and Russian cybergangs are going to great lengths to obtain these phones because a reported weakness in the software which makes the phone vulnerable to hack. The hack allows the user to duplicate another number and receive all information coming into the genuine phone without anyone being the wiser.
The Dutch firm Ultrascan Advanced Global Investigations has made claims that with this technology it is possible to set up the phone to aid in making fraudulent bank transfers. As some banks in Europe now use SMS messages to assist with transfers of funds and also secret codes the phone could be very valuable in setting up bogus transactions.
Nokia has claimed that there is no weakness in the design of the phone that would allow these things to happen and testing is still inconclusive. According to the rumor mill the only version of this device that is being sought however is the line which was manufactured in Bochum, Germany.
Whatever anyone is saying and how useful the phone may be is still yet to be determined as there hasn’t been much confirmed info. However it still begs the questions of why can someone pull in a few grand for a low level Nokia when no one will touch my MuchMusic branded Motorola phone?
