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How we like our iPhones: Supersized

Strap an Apple iPhone to Dr. Frankenstein's slab and you might wind up with something like this larger-than-life "iPhone" we spotted Thursday at a tech event in Silicon Valley.

Mellmo, the company behind the Roambi (review) spreadsheet visualizer app for iPhone, commissioned an undisclosed designer to give life to this giant faux-iPhone. Although we're not sure who the mastermind is, we do know a bit about the construction. The mammoth touch-screen device is made of a large touch-sensitive computer encased with plastic that's been cast in the shape of the iPhone's rounded-rectangular body. Mellmo … Read more

Aha Mobile reads driver's traffic info, Facebook status

What frequent drivers need is a way to search for information while cruising without taking your eyes off the road. That's what Robert Acker, president and CEO of Aha Mobile, thought when creating his yet-to-be-released application for iPhone and Android.

Before they put foot to pedal, drivers will set up a dashboard of buttons, each representing an audio channel for everything from the traffic report for the road you're on, to a search for nearby bathrooms and cafes, music channel, and your Facebook news feed. As we saw in Acker's demo at the Under The Radar start-up … Read more

Wireless carriers: You can't install apps on our phones, and it's for your own good

At about 18 and a half minutes into a panel I was co-hosting at the Under the Radar: Mobility conference on Wednesday, things began to get ugly. Our panelists on the "No filters: Ask the carriers anything" session were representatives from U.S. wireless carriers Verizon Wireless, Alltell, T-Mobile, and AT&T. We took an audience question from an entrepreneur who was trying to start up an SMS-based business. He was frustrated because he had to jump through hoops to get the carriers to look at his service before he could roll it out. He appeared to … Read more

Mob4Hire: Crowdsource your app testing

Crowdsourcing worked for restaurant reviews, so it's got to work for testing mobile apps around the world, right?

That's the premise behind Mob4Hire, which presented at Under the Radar on Wednesday.

The pitch began with a compelling use case: You need to test the app on 20 handsets in another country where you don't have an office. Mob4Hire's Web site connects testers all over the world with developers who need their apps tested on multiple handsets and operating systems.

Mob4Hire takes a 15 percent cut, PayPal takes its customary 2.9 percent service fee plus 30 … Read more

Making and spending money on phones

Buying things with your phone can be difficult. Even on modern day devices like the iPhone and the G1, you're still required to have your credit card information on hand, or use a service that lets you skip that step like PayPal or Google Checkout. Three mobile monetization companies presenting at Wednesday's Under the Radar conference are trying to change that with solutions that could make it easier to make and spend money on mobile devices.

Both Billing Revolution and Toro are trying to change the way people pay or access payment information with their devices. Billing Revolution'… Read more

Bambuser takes on Qik's live mobile broadcasting

If Bambuser's mobile live broadcasting app sounds familiar, it's because it's trying to unseat Qik.

As one of the companies presenting at Wednesday's Under the Radar conference in Mountain View, CA, Bambuser is trying to convince investors and future partners to propel their business forward. Like Qik, Bambuser broadcasts the contents of your view finder from your mobile phone, which viewers can watch live online. Also like Qik, Bambuser viewers can chat with the filmmaker when the video is live. However, Bambuser throws in recording and geotagging from the Webcam in addition to the phone.

As … Read more

VuClip: Mobile video search and playback for all

VuClip, a start-up presenting at Wednesday's Under the Radar Conference, has a simple concept, but a good one: start with any Internet-ready phone. Search for a video by keyword, then select the video from the list of returned results. VuClip transcodes the video on-the-fly for your specific phone--screen size, video format, bit rate, and so on.

Right now, two things set VuClip apart from competitors: the fact that it's designed to search for any video hosted on the Web, and that it focuses more on mass market Java phones than it does on high-end smartphones, unlike most of … Read more

Under the Radar's big ideas for big business

The business apps panel at Wednesday's Under the Radar mobile conference had four companies trying to solve two big problems in business: communication and sync between multiple machines.

Of the four, one of the most attractive upcoming solutions for SMBs is Phonetopp. This takes standard desktop Web demos and meetings and shrinks them down to your mobile phone. This means road warriors could get the visual part of a Web meeting without having to fire up their laptop or hunt around for a hot spot.

Phonetopp is set to hit BlackBerry and iPhone users in early February and will … Read more

DialPlus: Almost mobile caller ID on-the-fly

DialPlus was one of more original start-ups presenting this morning at Under the Radar in Mountain View, Calif.

DialPlus is a native mobile app that pulls visual information from the Web before, during, or after a call to your Internet-ready mobile phone. When a friend calls you, for instance, you'll be able to see some social networking information. If you call a business, its Web site details should surface.

While it's not listed as a criterion, the app won't be of any use if you're not using an earbud or Bluetooth headset, because the contextual details … Read more