third-party

AT&T wireless subscribers who were hoodwinked into signing up for recurring charges for ringtones and other content will receive refunds as part of a class action settlement.

Customers will get refunds for charges that appeared on their bills between January 1, 2004, and May 30, 2008, the Associated Press reported Monday.

This is the first nationwide settlement that refunds customers' money from charges for third-party content, the news service reported. Jay Edelson, who filed the claim on behalf of the plaintiffs, has filed similar lawsuits against Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel, and T-Mobile USA.

This latest decision could boost … Read more

BBC on Thursday published an article by Joel Selanikio, a noted public health physician and proponent of using technology to aid health efforts in developing nations. He makes a strong call for software developers to write apps for cell phones. In impoverished areas where wireless networks and mobile phones are nearly ubiquitous, why write Windows applications to help education and other development efforts? Many ordinary people already have a "computer in their pocket," so it makes sense, he says, to start there.

He points to an important difference between the "rich world" and developing countries, namely … Read more

As SAP tries to untwine its third-party support and maintenance company, TomorrowNow, from its legal entanglements with archrival Oracle, a sale, or effort to wind down the company, may be its preferred path.

SAP, which earlier this week announced TomorrowNow's chief executive and several managers had resigned, is now apparently operating without its senior vice president of sales, Bob Geib, and vice president of international sales, Nigel Pullan. Both executives are no longer on the company's management roster, and Pullan's office phone is no longer active. Geib, when contacted by his mobile phone, referred all calls to … Read more

Is Apple ready to embrace developers for the iPhone?

According to one report Tuesday morning, yes. BusinessWeek cites sources "familiar with the company's plans" who say Apple will officially release a software development kit for the iPhone in early 2008. Those sources say the official announcement could come during Steve Jobs' keynote at the annual Macworld Expo on January 15. Apple could be waiting to release an SDK until after Leopard, the latest version of its Mac OS X operating system, is released. Apple said Tuesday that the official release date is October 26.

The report contains … Read more

Does "owning" a friend on Facebook sound more appealing than merely poking him?

Three new applications take the "poke" button on Facebook further.

Kathleen's wild 'n' crazy poking application lets users send a customized poke. The first step is identifying the "victim," followed by "method of attack" (impaled; nuzzled; duct-taped with, for example, a rusty spoon; chocolate-covered raisins, and so forth) and place of attack (eye, outer space, lung, teeth). This application works with Facebook but is separate from it--a big turnoff.

XMe lets its users change the default verb that … Read more

The Wall Street Journal has a scoopy story about Facebook's forthcoming announcement on Thursday. The report says Facebook will be opening itself up for other companies to add their wares in the form of branded pages and services made available to Facebook users on different networks.

Previously, Facebook's strategy for adding this content was in the form of specialty groups, which Facebook members had to join in order to access or gain benefit from. According to the WSJ, these services will now be integrated as standalone portions of the service and will be available without leaving the social … Read more