Author: Jeff Morgan (Page 82 of 168)

Baby delivered with help of an internet guide

December 16, 2009 / Jeff Morgan

I’m fairly certain that my first reaction on seeing my wife suddenly go into serious labor would be panic. And the furthest thing from my mind would be, “oh, I’ll just deliver this little guy.” That’s not happening. For Leroy Smith, though, there wasn’t a second thought. He fired up Google on the old Blackberry and delivered his fourth child while the family’s midwife was en route.

Upon arrival, all the midwife had to do was clamp and cut the umbilical cord. The newest Smith was born without incident. According to the UK’s Sun:

Leroy said before the birth of Mahalia on December 1, his wife disapproved of his BlackBerry because he was always playing with it but now she has “changed her tune”.

Smith says he’s told the story over and over, and that his other children are proud. They should be. Delivering a baby is no easy task, let alone doing it without a single hang-up.

Source: Sun

Mobile, News

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Android Marketplace now serving 20,000 apps

December 15, 2009 / Jeff Morgan

There should be no remaining doubt that 2010 is Android’s year. The mobile OS will finally have some compelling handsets, and we’re likely to see exponential growth in global adoption. This latest bit of news will certainly make Android look a little better for consumers. The Android Marketplace has hit 20,000 apps.

True, the iPhone has over 100,000, but that’s not really what Google is after. There will be a few people here and there that avoid the iPhone like the plague, but Google will really be poaching market share from companies like Nokia and Microsoft. It’s going to be a while before Google is competing directly with Apple in the mobile market, but the data giant is rushing toward that goal at about the same pace Apple did when the App Store blew up. It’s taken just five months since the 20,000 app marker. We could see 40,000 as early as April 2010.

If one thing still stands in Google’s way, it’s the wide variation in handset hardware. That’s still something that makes Android less attractive than the iPhone OS, where just about everything is controlled. The Nexus One can serve as a sort of roadmap for manufacturers, but it is by no means the gold standard for a perfect phone. Google is also using the phone to flout American cellular practices, a gamble that will likely end in very low adoption rates for the handset unless it’s subsidized some other way.

Source: AndroLib

iPhone, Mobile, News

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Quadriplegic hunts with his mouth

December 15, 2009 / Jeff Morgan

Jamie Cap lost the use of all four limbs while playing football in high school. He got hit head on, incurring a neck injury that left him paralyzed, unable to do something he loved: hunting. He has since tried to get a license for a specially fitted shotgun, one that can be controlled via breathing tube. After two and a half years, Cap finally won the legal battle that would determine whether he could get a hunting license or not.

As the Telegraph writes:

For a quadriplegic, firing a shotgun requires help from a companion. In Mr Cap’s case, a friend sets up the contraption, safety on, on Mr Cap’s wheelchair and Mr Cap aims the shotgun by moving the toggle switch with his mouth. Once his partner releases the safety, Mr Cap fires by sipping on the breathing tube.

As you can see in the picture, it’s a hell of a rig. I’m most impressed with the aiming system. I figured he would just have to hunt in active areas and wait for something to cross his path. Then again, that sounds a lot like the hunting most able-bodied people do. Congrats to Mr. Cap for getting back a hobby he hasn’t enjoyed in 30 years.

Lifestyle, News

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13 year-old racks up over $21,000 in wireless charges

December 14, 2009 / Jeff Morgan

It’s hard to say who to blame for this one. On the one hand, I want to scream at Ted Estarija for not explaining the idea of data charges to his 13 year-old son. Not everyone is as tech savvy as you and me, though. On the other, you have to wonder why no one at Verizon noticed the sudden surge on the account – from zero data to 1.4GB in a month.

Whoever you blame, Ted Estarija still got slapped with a $21,917 bill for the server traffic. In a rare show of understanding, Verizon waived the entire bill. The lesson in all of this? Buy a data plan. That $15/month looks pretty great next to $21,917.

Source: AP

Mobile, News

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Google dogfood testing the Google Phone

December 13, 2009 / Jeff Morgan

Earlier this weekend, tweets started showing up from Google employees about a new phone. The new phone. The Google Phone. I wrote about it last month, based on a report from TechCrunch that claimed we’d see it in early 2010. Google has given the phone, which is made by HTC, to wide array of workers to field test it, or as the Google blog calls it, dogfooding.

From what few pics are available, the phone looks great. It’s got a sizable OLED screen, runs on a Snapdragon, and thankfully has no hardware keyboard. I’m not just excited about the hardware, though. Google has designed the entire experience here, something I’ve waited for them to do since Android launched. Sure, they’ve contributed on the UI for the G1 and the Droid, but this is the whole package, all from Google. They’ll be selling the device directly as an unlocked GSM device. That means T-Mobile or AT&T, to be released some time in early (likely January) 2010.

One of the earliest tweets says this: “Google Phone = iPhone + a little extra screen and a scroll wheel. Great touch screen, and Android.” Is this really comparable to the iPhone, or is it something completely different?