April, 2010

• 29 April

  Is Motorola next in line to be acquired?

  

  Though it has plenty more customers, Motorola’s struggling handset business may not be as juicy an acquisition target as Palm turned out to be. Wednesday, Hewlett-Packard announced it is buying Palm for $1.2 billion, bringing to an end what was once a pioneer in the mobile-computing space. HP executives made it clear why they found …

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• 29 April

  ‘Desktop’ app turns iPad into split

  

  I’ve now been an iPad owner for exactly four hours. First impressions? It’s heavier than I thought, and I’m furious with iTunes for hanging–repeatedly–during my initial sync attempts. (Weird workaround: After successfully syncing my iPhone, the iPad started syncing normally.) Newspaper apps? Fantastic. JamPad? Dazzling. Netflix? I think a tear escaped my eye. But you know which app I’ll probably …

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• 29 April

  Skyfire for Android streams Flash video

  

  Native Flash support for Android phones may be only a month away, but in the meantime, mobile browser-maker Skyfire presents a workaround in its brand-new beta app for Android phones. Skyfire 2.0 beta for Android looks and acts like your typical souped-up WebKit browser for Android phones, with the exception of a tool that lets you stream Flash video–and soon …

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• 29 April

  Motorola posts surprise profit

  

  Motorola’s strategy may be starting to pay off as the company announced a surprise profit and topped forecasts for the first quarter. On Thursday, the company said it earned $69 million, or 3 cents per share, in the quarter. During the same quarter a year ago, it lost $231 million, or 13 cents per share. Analysts had expected Motorola to …

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• 28 April

  Sprint improves, but still sees losses

  

  Sprint Nextel’s road to recovery is paved with many potholes. The company did beat analysts’ expectations for the first quarter of 2010, but high-value customers continued to depart, albeit at a slower rate. And its financial losses in the first quarter widened. Sprint lost 578,000 postpaid customers who are on a contract and pay monthly bills. This beat expectations, as …

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• 28 April

  Motorola Ming MT820: 3D phone with no need for glasses or evil goatee

  

  Activate the electro-wetting lenses! Fire the parallax barriers! Soon, the galaxy will cower before Ming! The Motorola Ming MT820, that is: a 3D mobile phone spied in China. Like the Flash Gordon villain, this Ming doesn’t require glasses — or an evil goatee or unnecessarily pointy collar. The Ming is a clam-shell phone with a 2D screen in each half …

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• 28 April

  Patent fights could change Google’s Android pitch

  

  Microsoft has now joined Apple in a guerrilla war against Google’s Android, and Google’s next steps are far from certain. The smartphone industry is still in its infancy, but its strategic importance to computer companies big and small can’t be overstated. Recent moves from Apple and Microsoft show that the big guys are not going to be shy about deploying …

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• 28 April

  Google takes diplomatic route on Net neutrality

  

  In Washington, D.C., Google is learning there’s nothing wrong with a little diplomacy. In a Federal Communications Commission filing earlier this week, Google reiterated its support for Net neutrality regulation, but it didn’t take sides in the ongoing debate over whether the FCC should reclassify broadband servicesto help ensure the agency has the authority to enforce that regulation. The FCC’s …

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• 28 April

  Dialed In 124: HP buys Palm (podcast)

  

  What just happened? We thought it was going to be a slow news day.  But right before our podcast was to begin, HP and Palm dropped a bomb and announced they had entered into an agreement where HP would buy Palm for $1.2 billion. The partnership caught us by surprise, but it’s also one that makes sense for both companies. …

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• 28 April

  Google refurbs Android, iPhone image search

  

  Google’s mobile development team has had a busy couple days fine-tuning what it likes to call its “iterative mobile Web,” a phrase that, in plain English, extends to all the Google sites you can access from some iPhones and Android smartphones. Earlier, it migrated a better search result for business listings from Google.com for the desktop to Google.com from the …

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