May, 2010

• 20 May

  Twitter’s official iPhone app: Any good?

  

  Last October I conducted a simple poll: What’s your favorite iPhone Twitter app? The winner, with around 28 percent of the votes, was Tweetie 2, then a $2.99 app. Last month, Twitter acquired Tweetie, rebranded it, and dropped the price tag. The result: the official Twitter for iPhone, aka Tweetie 3.0. It just landed in …

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• 20 May

  Android 2.2 in action (video!)

  

  Google kept us busy with announcements at its I/O developer conference in San Francisco, like news of a Chrome Web Store, Google TV, a forthcoming update to the Android operating system that includes the first full-fledged Flash Player for a mobile phone, changes to the camera app, and support for tethering and portable hot spots, among a list of other …

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• 20 May

  Why I switched to DolphinHD

  

  I was never a fan of the original Dolphin browser for Android, but when DolphinHD was released for Android 2.0 and above I figured I’d check it out for the feature set alone. Little did I know that within a day I’d make it the default browser on my Motorola Droid. Tapping the designated corner in the DolphinHD browser will …

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• 20 May

  Twitter debuts official iPhone app

  

  The iPhone app formerly known as Tweetie has a new name and a new owner. Twitter’s new official iPhone app. Twitter Twitter hit the iPhone market Wednesday with its first official app, dubbed simply Twitter for the iPhone. But the new app is actually just the 3.0 update of Tweetie 2.0, which the company got hold of after acquiring Tweetie …

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• 20 May

  Sprint releases Android 2.1 update for HTC Hero

  

  Making good on its word from a couple of days ago, the Android 2.1 update is now available for the HTC Hero. Aside from getting a taste of Eclair, the update also brings enhancements to the HTC Sense user interface and corporate e-mail as well as a number of bug fixes. Sprint will not be releasing the update over the …

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• 19 May

  Start your own business with Square for Android

  

  A white plastic “cube”* that is slightly bigger than a thumb tip protrudes from the top of an Android phone. A thin slit runs through it; peek inside and you can make out the interior metal nub capable of reading any credit card that swoops through it. This is Square, an accessory to the recently released Android version of an …

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• 19 May

  The FCC’s disingenuous ‘third way’ on broadband

  

  Editors’ note: This is a guest column. See Lawrence Spiwak’s bio below. Despite his protestations to the contrary, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski is about to reverse a 25-year bipartisan tradition of removing heavy-handed public-utility-type regulations over new technologies and services. Although Genachowski maintains that such regulatory interventions will be “modest,” Genachowski’s proposed approach is entirely disingenuous. Instead, for …

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• 19 May

  PayPal lures Android developers hunting for dollars

  

  For the next two days, Google geekdom will gather at the Google I/O developer conference in San Francisco, bringing with them an opportunity for publishers to spread their products’ influence by getting developers on board–and maybe line their own corporate pockets in the process. Take PayPal, for instance. At the conference opening on Wednesday, the online payment giant announced a …

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• 19 May

  Vodafone’s new data

  

  Vodafone will revamp its data-roaming charges next month, in what is good news for light users but not so great for the rest of us. Also, Vodafone has yet to clear up the controversy surrounding the scrapping of its UK data fair-use policy and introduction of heinous new charges. From 15 June, customers will be charged for each MB of …

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• 19 May

  Cell phone, smartphone sales surge

  

  Mobile phone and smartphone sales are on a roll, according to figures released Wednesday by market researcher Gartner. In the first quarter, customers worldwide bought 314.7 million mobile phones, a 17 percent increase year over year. Smartphones sales specifically jumped 48.7 percent from the year-ago quarter, as 54.3 million units flew off the shelves. Demand within mature markets and lower …

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