Mobile Archives - Page 2 of 5

Ballistic Unveils New Rugged “Shell Gel Maxx” Cases For The Samsung Galaxy S III

The Samsung Galaxy S III is quickly turning into the most popular Android phone in the world. This follow up to the highly popular Galaxy S II and original Galaxy S III has features that every Android enthusiast (and some iPhone enthusiasts) have been dreaming about. It’s also a pretty expensive piece of hardware if it’s not subsidized. So now you need a case worthy of holding the precious Galaxy S III. That case is the new Shell Gel Maxx from Ballistic Cases.

The Shell Gel Maxx provides maximum protection without the immense bulk of a case like the Otterbox. Not only is your Samsung Galaxy S III going to be protected from corner to corner but Ballistic has revolutionized the screen protection on the case as well. Rather than having a thin overlay film cover like an Otterbox case Ballistic has equipped that Shell Gel Maxx with a molded screen protector.

The Ballistic Shell Gel (SG) Maxx is a beefed up version of the original Shell Gel. Similar to the original, this case integrates an outermost layer, which is made of soft rubber (TPU) for shock absorption, a second layer which is crafted with impact resistant polycarbonate, and a third layer built with soft outer TPU. The Maxx collection, however, “ups the ante” by incorporating stronger corners for increased drop protection, a horizontal holster, and integrated port covers.

The Ballistic Shell Gel Maxx is available now for the Samsung Galaxy S III and coming soon for the iPhone 4/4S. You can get one today by clicking here.

Los Angeles Startup: 80sBrickphone Bringing Back Iconic 80’s Motorola Dynatac

A Los Angeles startup founded by designer Brad Helmink, is bringing back one of the 1980’s most iconic pieces of mobile technology.

The Motorola DynaTac was first introduced in 1983 for a price tag around $4000 in 2012 terms it would be closer to $9000. The phone was one of the first mobile phones that didn’t require a bag to be attached to it. The DynaTac had about 30 minutes of talk time and 8 hours of standby.

The phone was spun into popularity by the savvy Wall Street tycoon Gordon Gecko, played by Michael Douglas in the movie Wall Street. Our readers, just a little younger may recall the phone having a prominent place at Bayside High School where saved by the bell’s main character Zack Morris (played by Mark Paul Gosselaar) carried one to school.

If you’re too young to remember either, well just trust us, it’s freaking cool.

The new 2012 model is not an actual phone but rather a bluetooth speaker system that Helmink insists, sounds far more superior than the original during a call.

The Bluetooth version will give you the average bluetooth battery life, about 5 hours of talk time and tons of hours of standby. It also works with any Bluetooth enabled smartphone.

You’ll be the talk of the office, trading floor, party, pool,mall or wherever you go when people see you actually making and receiving calls on the new 80sBrickphone. In this day and age where the “coolest new” Android phone is released every two weeks and hundreds of millions own an iPhone 4s, the 80sBrickphone will be a status symbol of epic proportions.

To get the project off the ground Helmink took to Indiegogo. He’s looking to make $55,000 to cover the costs of an initial production run. He’s collected a little over $4000 just enough to buy an original back in the 80s.

If you want one (and we know you do) there’s a link below.

Linkage:

Want an 80sBrickphone? here’s it’s Indiegogo Page

You can find more info on their website

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South Carolina Startup: 52 Apps Will Produce 52 Apps This Year

Here’s a story that’s just screaming “everywhere else”. Two students who actually hail from Arkansas, Brandon Lee and Chris Thibault are two ambitious young entrepreneurs who have built a startup app studio with a twist. Their startup is working out of an incubator at USC where Thibault was a student.

Their development company, called 52apps, is set out to produce 52 high quality apps over the next year. They hope to produce each app in just five days, presumably cheating the startup culture and taking weekends off, which is ok considering they are also students.

While the 52apps concept isn’t entirely new, the way they’ve set out to find app ideas has an interesting twist. The startup held almost a “pitch” event Friday evening. At the event they took app suggestions from all walks of life at an event with a stage, pitches and brainstorming.

Lee and Tthibault heard a ton of great app ideas at their “Idea Day” that was held immediately following a launch and kick off event for their University of South Carolina, Columbia, based company,

These two aren’t guys who just decided to become app developers in College. Both Lee and Thibault are BFFs from high school, who developed their first app while they were till in high school, with the ambitious idea to make math homework easier and more automated. They were able to achieve that as part of a goal to stop taking backpacks to school.

52apps is just one of 32 resident startup companies at a fairly new incubator at UNC.
“These are two- to three-month projects,” said Steve Leicht, who serves as 52apps’ chief executive and part of the management team put together by the incubator and Columbia venture capitalist Don Tomlin, said Tomthe statee.com. “These folks pull it off in a week.”

The duo has already put out their first iOS app under the 52apps umbrella. The app, called Tap Notes, sells for $2.99 in the iTunes app store and helps students, and business professionals take notes, and record conversations for the notes that can be accessed at specific points rather than having to listen to an entire conversation and then pulling what you need.

Lee and Thibault report that they’ve received over 30 great ideas so far and will start developing straight away.

Linkage:

Check out 52apps at 52apps.com

Source: thestate.com

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Florida Startup: Bellco’s Ion Air Mouse Computer Glove Preparing For Holidays

This is going to be a great holiday season. We are expecting to see new Retina display MacBooks introduced this week at WWDC, there will be a ton more ultra books and of course traditional PC laptops. In anticipation of that, a hot new startup from Central Florida called Bellco, will also see stock piles of their Ion Air Mouse Computer Glove, hopefully fly off the shelf.

Now that smartphone adoption has come to record heights, and tablets are flying off the shelves as well, people are growing more and more accustom to using their fingers for navigation. Sure you can do it on a track pad but it’s not the same familiarity as your tablet or smartphone screen.

I’m sure I’m not the only one that has tried to swipe across the screen of their MacBook Pro. (see you laughed) that’s where the Ion Air Mouse Computer Glove comes in. It’s a glove that fits around your hand snuggly, has a comfortable charging port (via micro usb) and a wireless dongle that attaches to any computer.

Once the glove is on you can use it your hand/finger as your pointing device. Admittedly it’s still not the same as the gestures that you’re used to with your smartphone but it’s effective. The glove also leaves your fingertips free for typing.

Now not only is it an effective peripheral but it’s also effectively priced. While the new startup behind the Ion Air Mouse Computer Glove, Bellco, could probably get away with selling it in the high $100 range, it comes in at just $79.99 making it priced the same as some of the more serious mice available today.

Bellco reports that the glove comes in gray and black and works with Windows, Linux,Mac and Android. Bellco encourages users to try it by setting up your computer via HDMI to a big tv for a “Wow” worth of experience.

Linkage

Itching to know more about it, go to their website here

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We’ll Be Live At io/LA Covering Hollywood Hack Day

This weekend, while Kyle will be on the East Coast at another Startup event. I’ll be at a Hackathon on the West Coast covering the Hollywood Hackathon. The event, which has moved to io/LA’s venue near the famed Hollywood and Highland intersection in the middle of Hollywood. Will be filled with those trying to make it into the entertainment field by way of Tech.

Hot Or Not Yankee Group Says Kindle Fire Is Fizzling

The Amazon Kindle Fire was one of the hottest items last holiday season. The 7″ Android powered tablet sold like hotcakes leading into the 2011 holiday season. It was considered the only table to come close to challenging Apple’s iPad and as recent as two months ago it was revealed that the Amazon Kindle Fire sold more than all the other Android tablets combined.

Well the Yankee Group has released a new report called “2012 US Tablet Landscape: An All-Too-Familiar Story”. In that report it shows that Apple’s iPad line still commands 51% of the US tablet market.

What’s more disturbing though is that the Amazon Kindle Fire has “cooled with consumers” since it’s release in Q4 2011. The Yankee Group research suggests that everyone who wanted a Kindle Fire now has one. More importantly, consumers who said they wanted a Kindle Fire have gone down from 11% in 2011 to just 6% now.

PC World reports that in a recent ChangeWave Research poll found that of 2900 respondents 41% of Kindle Fire users were “very satisfied” with the device, which is down by 15% since ChangeWave’s earlier survey in February 2012.

IDC also echoed the trend by reporting that Amazon’s tablet shipments declined dramatically. In Q4 2011 Amazon Kindle Fire commanded 16.8% of the market with 4.8 million units sold. Now they are sitting with just 4% of the market share.

Amazon is expected to release a follow up to the Kindle Fire, and it may possibly be the familiar 10″ form factor. PC World suggests that the Kindle Fire 2 get here as fast as it can.

Source: PC World

Cricket Becomes First Carrier To Offer iPhone On Prepaid Plan

As of today, Cricket Communications is the first carrier to offer a pre-paid iPhone plan. The company announced that they will begin offering the iPhone on June 22 with a plan of unlimited voice, text, and data for $55. This plan is, obviously, contract free, so the price of the iPhone will be higher, but users will not be locked in for any amount of time. They will offer the iPhone 4 and the iPhone 4S, $399 for the 8GB iPhone 4 and $499 for the 16GB iPhone 4S.

Because this is a CDMA network, these devices are not unlocked, and you cannot buy an unlocked version from Apple and use it on Cricket’s network. It must be bought directly from Cricket, and they are currently not offering the iPhone online so you will need to call and order via phone or in-store until they do so. This should be a pretty big deal for any Cricket users trying to find their next high-end smartphone, and it’s another big step for pre-paid carriers in the US. The iPhone has finally started to branch out here in the states after going to Verizon, then spreading to Sprint and trickling down to smaller carriers such as Cricket. We’re still nowhere near the UK when it comes to purchasing any phone and taking it to any network, but it’s nice to see steps in that direction. Be sure to give your Cricket store a call on June 22 to pick up a shiny new iPhone.

Is This The Google Nexus Tablet Passing Through At The FCC?

Google’s annual developer conference, Google I/O is a tad bit less than a month away. The conference, which opens on June 27th in San Francisco will bring out a slew of new Google product news.

We are all expecting to hear more about the Google Chrome Box, Google Glass and the rumored Google Nexus tablet. Google is rumored to be launching a seven inch tablet to compete with the Amazon Kindle Fire in size, price and content delivery.

Our friends at Phone Arena are reporting by way of Engadget and the FCC that the Asus MeMo Pad 370T has just crossed the desks of the FCCs approval center in Columbia Maryland.

So why is this significant to the Google Nexus Tablet?

Well Asus showed off the seven inch Tegra 3 powered device at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas back in January. However they immediately shelved it when rumors started swirling that Asus had been tapped for the wi-fi only Google tablet.

PhoneArena and others, speculate (with good reason) that the MeMo Pad 370T that the FCC is seeing right now, is in fact the Google tablet without the internal name changed.

We all seem to be in agreement that the Google Nexus tablet will be at least one of the devices given away at Google IO. Seeing it cross the FCC at the tail end of May, further solidifies that thinking.

Source: PhoneArena

Bye Bye Cisco Cius Android Tablet

If you haven’t heard of the Cisco Cius Android tablet you are not alone. That may be the reason that Cisco has decided to stop manufacturing the hybrid business phone tablet device.

The Cisco Cius was not marketed to direct consumer channels. Instead Cisco was hoping to make the device a must have for enterprise customers.

PC World’s Tony Bradley suggests that it’s this direct to enterprise philosophy that ultimately resulted in the devices death. More and more companies are supporting the BYOD (bring your own device) mantra and with employees bringing their own iPads or Samsung Galaxy Tabs to work, there’s no room for a $750 enterprise Android tablet that can’t even access the Google Play Store.

Cisco’s OJ Winge reiterated that sentiment in a Cisco blog post “These stats underscore a major shift in the way people are working, in the office, at home and on-the-go, a shift that will continue to gain momentum.”

This isn’t the first innovative Cisco product to disappear from the company’s line up, last year they discontinued the Flip camera which was very popular with consumers.

Source: PC World

Yahoo Kills Livestand

Yahoo, a company with a brand new CEO, Ross Levinsohn, is shutting down it’s News stand that it started just months ago. In an application I nor many of you have ever heard about Livestand, was supposed to be Yahoos response to Flipboard which like many of Yahoo’s recent projects has failed. In an attempt to turn the company around Levinsohn is trying to streamline what the company does.

While we received great feedback on Livestand’s design and it earned a 4-star rating in the App Store, we committed ourselves to continuously measure and scrutinize what’s working and what isn’t. We have learned a lot from Livestand and are actively applying those insights toward the development of future products that are better aligned with Yahoo!’s holistic mobile strategy.

Regan Clark mentions on Yahoo’s Blog. While never making any inroads or showing any interest in Android, Yahoo is said to be wanting to push full steam ahead with Mobile, as seen with it’s recent launch of Axis.

Nvidia Announces Lofty Plans For 30 Tegra 3 Devices

Nvidia just held their annual investor meeting. They unveiled a lot of plans for the remainder of 2012 and for the beginning of 2013.

Nvidia General Manager Mike Rayfield said that we will see 30 devices utilizing the Nvidia Tegra 3 chip set and it’s 4+1 core architecture. That’s compared to the 15 devices with Tegra 2 chip sets that were released in 2011.

One of the biggest issues with the Nvidia chip is it’s ability to play nice with 4G/LTE radios. Their Icera 410 LTE modem was just certified for use on AT&T’s 4G/LTE network. They will eventually replace the Icera 410 with the Icera 500 soon.

What’s even better news for Nvidia is that they will release a bundled chip with the Icera 500 and the Tegra series processor. The bundled chipset will be known as “Grey”. The first Grey devices will be released in 2013, most likely at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January or Mobile World Congress in February.

source: PhoneArena

Boston Startup: About Last Night The Ultimate Night Life Social App

We love About Last Night for several reasons. First off the crazy Bostonian serial entrepreneurs who co-founded About Last Night are pretty awesome. About Last Night is one of several startups that are incubating in their own personal incubator. Brothers Darren Dodge and Derek Dodge have a bunch of their own startups “cooking in the microwave, we just open the door and check on them” says Darren.

But really, the great thing about About Last Night is the robustness of the platform. They left no stone unturned, but at the same time the UI is appealing and not too cluttered.

About Last Night is about sharing the good times you had last night. The About Last Night crew showed off good times spent Sunday night in Times Square, at Bubba Gumps and other fine establishments around New York.

The app allows you to follow people you don’t know (like Twitter), People you do know (like Facebook) and your favorite night spots and locations (like a reverse FourSquare), again it’s like leaving no stone unturned. It feels a bit like path, but it’s more about the jello shots you did at the Ale House, not waking up at 7:35 with a hangover and brushing your teeth.

They’ve been working on About Last Night for the last six months and they’ve come out with an easy and fun to use app. They’ve got plenty of time to work on even more startups, ya know with the Red Sox sucking and all…

Check out the video below:

Linkage:

Find out About Last Night here

More TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2012 coverage here

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Unlocked Samsung Galaxy S III Available For Pre-Order In US

If you absolutely can’t wait to get ahold of the brand new Samsung Galaxy S III, and you don’t mind paying full retail we’ve got great news for you. Thanks to the wonderful folks at Amazon you can now preorder the unlocked version of the Samsung Galaxy S III in the United States.

There are no definite launch dates set for the US carriers. We’re supposed to hear about US carriers at a Samsung event in the US in the coming weeks. However, there is a release date for the unlocked version via Amazon and that date is just a week or so away on June 1.

The unlocked version will be of the GSM variety and work on T-Mobile and AT&T as previous unlocked flagship Samsung Android devices always have.

The preorder will only set you back $799 so go on you know you want to! Hit the link below.

Preorder Link

Source: Phandroid

Verizon Clarifies: There Is A Way To Unlimited

There was an outcry yesterday after Verizon Communications CFO Fran Shammo spoke at a JP Morgan investor conference. During his keynote he talked about Verizon’s move to shared data.

Shammo said that Verizon will start offering shared data plans this summer. This has actually come as welcome news to a majority of Verizon Wireless customers.

Many families want to enjoy the features and convenience of a smart phone without having to get individual data plans for each device and each family member.

New shared data plans will mean a family plan and perhaps small business plans as well, can share buckets of data. This would be similar to the way shared buckets of calling minutes are shared.

The outcry came after Shammo said Verizon Wireless would begin moving customers to tiered and shared data plans at their next upgrade.

Customers who had an unlimited data plan for $30 per month prior to July 2011, were able to stay “grandfathered” into their unlimited data, provided that they didn’t change any other part of their plan. Verizon would even allow upgrade eligible customers, covered by the “grandfathe” clause when they upgraded their device under subsidy.

Now the only way to keep your unlimited data is to elect to stay on the same device or pay full retail for your next device. This can be rather costly for the average customer.

A Verizon Wireless spokes woman confirmed all this to CNet earlier in the day.

While this may seem outlandish to some, those maximizing their unlimited data may find this to be a decent compromise.

Source: CNet