mobile

In addition to a flurry of new PCs, HP also announced this week that it would, at long last, start shipping the HP iPaq 900 smartphone on June 30. First introduced back in September 2007, the iPaq 900 is a business- and messaging-centric smartphone with a full QWERTY keyboard; Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional Edition; a 3-megapixel camera; and integrated Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS. The quad-band (GSM 850/900/1800/1900) smartphone also has tri-band UMTS/HSDPA support.

Currently, no U.S. carrier has picked up the device, though, according to HP, that may change in the future. (AT&… Read more

Apple introduced a successor to its .Mac product which looks interesting, though not revolutionary: MobileMe. Dubbed "Exchange for the rest of us," MobileMe offers "push e-mail, calendars, and contacts for users, keeping that information up-to-date whether they're viewing it at a computer or an iPhone."

In other words, exactly what Funambol already offers for free (as in cost and as in source code), except Apple is charging $99 per year. What a bargain!

Even worse, Apple inexplicably opted to use closed standards to offer the MobileMe service, as Fabrizio laments:… Read more

Have you ever been on the road for work and gone through the hassle of trying to use a local printer? Don't worry, you're not alone. When traveling on business, people often need a printout for the latest version of a project to have in the big meeting. The last thing we want to go through with 10 minutes until showtime is the struggle of installing new drivers, trying to locate a usable printer, and everything else associated with getting a hard copy of our work.

Fortunately Xerox came out with a universal access printer driver which solves … Read more

The cult favorite Opera browser is moving into the next cycle of "the browser ring." After beta testing, and before the final version, we get the release candidate for Windows and Mac OS. What does this mean for fearless Opera fans?

There's a massive spate of bug fixes in this update, so if stability issues kept you from using previous 9.5 betas, this version should be much more appealing. Other improvements include fixes for downloading e-mail message bodies from all POP accounts, the introduction of a new skin, and smoother upgrading from Opera 9.2. Mac-specific … Read more

In March, Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced an upcoming system for downloading third-party applications for the iPhone. At the Worldwide Developers Conference on Tuesday, he brought a parade of developers onstage to show off exactly what those new apps can do.

The apps range from monkey slinging to medical imaging and should be available sometime in early July (along with the iPhone 2.0 software required to run it), according to Apple representatives. Follow the jump to check out demos of each of the applications announced during the keynote speech. We'll update this post with more video demos as they come.… Read more

At the WWDC on Monday, Apple announced the next evolution of its .Mac service, MobileMe. A cloud storage solution that handles e-mail, calendar items, contacts, photos, and other documents, it will arguably compete with Microsoft's Live Mesh, as well as several other data synchronization start-ups like SugarSync (download).

MobileMe will replace Apple's consumer Web site service, .Mac, and adds to that service additional storage (.Mac's 10GB gos to MobileMe's 20GB), plus support for the new iPhone and for Windows PCs.

The big pitch for the new service is its synchronization capabilities. E-mail to your MobileMe account … Read more

What if your nightlife agenda was dictated not by text messages, phone calls, or your city edition of Time Out, but by a shifting pattern of dots on a Google Map?

As absurd as it may sound, a New York company called Sense Networks thinks that's the solution. On Monday, the company emerged from stealth mode and simultaneously released an "experimental" product called CitySense, an urban navigation product that puts a new spin on the hot market of location-based mobile networking.

Backed by hedge funds rather than the venture firms that typically fuel tech start-ups, Sense Networks … Read more

U.S. cell phone operators are starting to embrace Wi-Fi in order to extend the reach of their high-speed wireless networks without breaking the bank, but some are being more cautious than others.

T-Mobile USA was the first major U.S. wireless carrier to see the merits of using Wi-Fi. Last year, the German-owned phone company, which is the fourth largest mobile operator in the U.S., launched its Hotspot @Home service that automatically switches between subscribers' home Wi-Fi networks and its cellular network. For $10 more a month, subscribers are able to talk as much as they like while … Read more

The GSM Association's Mobile Innovation Marketplace has wrapped up in Atlanta, and as expected two start-up companies won the right to go to the 2009 GSMA World Congress in Barcelona. The two winning firms are Ubidyne, a company that develops digital radio systems, and Modu, the maker of the world's lightest cell phone.

I checked out Modu earlier this year at the 2008 World Congress. The Israeli company has developed a concept for a modular cell phone that can be placed into a "jacket" that changes both the appearance and the functionality of the handset. It'… Read more