Category: Mobile (Page 17 of 65)

Nexus One store is closing

Nexus One storefront.It comes as no surprise that Google’s experiment in phone sales went poorly. It was so bad that the company will be shutting down its Nexus One storefront. Here’s the word from the official Google blog:

While the global adoption of the Android platform has exceeded our expectations, the web store has not. It’s remained a niche channel for early adopters, but it’s clear that many customers like a hands-on experience before buying a phone, and they also want a wide range of service plans to chose from.

Yeah, no kidding. I’m not sure why no one spoke up and said this at the meetings that must have happened before the phone launched. If anyone at Google thought Verizon or T-Mobile or Sprint or, well, any carrier would actually want to give up control over phone sales and contract pricing they should be beaten about the head with a sock full of Nexus Ones.

The new plan? Sell phones like everyone else.

Blackberry accessory pack giveaway!

Urbanears Tanto headphones.Don’t let all the news about the new iPhone get you down, Blackberry fans. RIM is still alive and well, delivering handsets you can love. To celebrate the non-Apple fanboys among us, we’ve put together a Blackberry accessory pack giveaway on our parent site, Bullz-Eye.com. I’ve posted the rules here but you’ll want to get a full look at our contest page on Bullz-Eye.

If eligible, you’ll be entered to win a pair of Urbanears Tanto headphones, a Joby Gorillamobile tripod, an iSkin Vibe phone case, and the RichardSolo 1800, a pocket-sized USB batterybackup that also boasts a laser pointer. Just be sure to enter before May 19th!

If you want to enter to win this item, please send an email to:

contests@bullz-eye.com

Please put the name of the item in the subject line of the email and include your full name & address in the body of the email.

Limit one entry by email per promotion. Please do not abuse this rule. If multiple emails are consistently sent from the same address for a particular promotion, that email address will be blocked from all future Bullz-Eye.com giveaways.

We do not share your email and personal information with anybody. Click here for our privacy policy.

You must be at least 18 years old to have a chance to win.

Winners will be selected by Bullz-Eye.com at random. Your chances of winning depend upon the number of items we have to give away and the number of entries we receive while the promotion is posted on Bullz-Eye.com.

Void where prohibited.

CONTEST ENDS: MAY 19, 2010

Android passes US iPhone web traffic

iPhone vs the Android platform.According to the most recent AdMob stats, the Android platform has surpassed the iPhone’s web traffic in the US for the month of March. It’s a strange statistic, considering that AdMob is one, in the process of being picked up by Google and, two, reporting data based on ad traffic. I’m not trying to suggest that Android users are bigger suckers than their iPhone-toting counterparts, but it isn’t exactly the most accurate method on earth for analyzing web traffic.

Still, it is a method – probably the best we have – and by that method Android has pulled ahead. The iPhone is still ahead worldwide, but while it may see a domestic jump this June with the launch of the new iPhone, I can’t help feeling like Android will keep gaining ground. A lot of people really love the departure from the Apple platform, and I don’t think that’s likely to change with new iPhone hardware. There’s also the simple matter of variety – Android has it, the iPhone doesn’t. If you like the iPhone OS but don’t like the hardware, tough shit. With Android you at least have some options.

Source: Business Wire

Palm SVP to leave, others incentivized to stay

Michael Abbott giving a presentation.Everyone knows that Palm is a sinking ship. Even Palm’s employees know it. A recent SEC filing shows us that Palm’s senior vice president of software and services, Michael Abbott, will be leaving the company some time this month. That same filing also showed some, ah, generous incentives aimed at keeping others from following suit.

Just how badly does Palm want to keep the other Senior VPs? How about a bunch of stock and a $250,000 cash bonus. If that’s not hitting the panic button I really don’t know what is. It’s probably safe to assume that Abbott was made some sort of offer to stick around, something he was willing to turn down to take all of his WebOS ingenuity elsewhere. You have to feel bad for the guy. He was an integral part of what is actually a great product (the OS, not the handsets that run the OS) but because of a serious marketing failure and some lackluster hardware Palm just never got off the ground.

Better luck at the new position, Mike.

Source: Palm

The femtocell situation

Microcell 3G.After Gizmodo posted a quick review of AT&T’s upcoming Microcell 3G, I wanted to take a look at the femtocell situation as a whole. By and large I think femtocells are a great idea. They provide a relatively low cost method for increasing your cell signal at home. The cost could be lower though, as in free, and would breed a lot of good blood between provider and consumer.

As it stands there are a few options for a femtocell. There’s the AT&T Microcell 3G, which costs $150 plus $20/month if you opt for the unlimited Microcell minutes plan. Without a plan your femtocell minutes will be deducted from your monthly account as usual. You can get Sprint’s Airave, which runs $100 plus $15/month for unlimited calls on one line. MagicJack is also reportedly releasing a femtocell, which will likely be the most reasonable of the bunch, at an undisclosed unit cost and the $20/year service fee.

It’s hard to fault MagicJack for the yearly fee since it isn’t a service provider, and yet it provides the best service out of any of these solutions. It seems odd, in the case of AT&T and Sprint to pay to use your existing broadband connection to send data more reliably than over the cellular network for which you also already pay. It reeks of customer extortion.

Consider an alternative – AT&T says hey guys, we’re really sorry about our crappy network performance, but these femtocells will run you $50 one time, won’t count against your cellular minutes, and will drastically improve your home service since we’ve basically replaced your home phone anyway. Do you know how many people would buy one? Everyone. Every single person with a cellphone would get one of these things, and everyone would be a lot happier with their current service.

You can bet people will flee from AT&T once the iPhone is available elsewhere. This is just another reason to leave.

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