As the rush to put video on mobile devices continues, HBO will apparently be throwing its hat into the ring next month, if a YouTube teaser video from the cable channel is any sign. The HBO Go service first debuted in April 2009, and has slowly been expanding its breath of programming, although you’ve had to visit the HBO Go website.
Author Archive | Ed Oswald
T-Mobile Brings VoIP to Facebook
Wireless carrier T-Mobile is no stranger to VoIP, having experimented with it for a time through its now defunct Hotspot@Home service, which ended last year. Well, it’s trying again, but this time bringing the technology to social networking site Facebook.
Called Bobsled by T-Mobile (don’t ask, I have no clue why they settled on this name), the application for both PC and Mac gives users the capability to place free VoIP calls between Facebook friends, including integration with the Facebook chat system. The application is free to all Facebook users and is not exclusive to subscriber’s of T-Mobile’s wireless services.
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Aww, Look at That Cute Little Smartphone!
HP is apparently set to introduce its latest smartphone based on Palm’s WebOS at a May 2 event, several news outlets including PreCentral are reporting. The diminutive (but certainly not small on features) device is only 55mm (2.2″) wide and 84mm (3.3″) tall, and they’ve somehow figured out how to squeeze a slide out QWERTY keyboard in this thing.
The Veer kind of reminds me of the Nokia 8200 series phones from the early part of last decade that were available through the old AT&T Wireless: HP’s Veer is actually very similar in size. Lets just hope HP’s small phone doesn’t nearly burn people’s ears off like the 8200 was known to do.
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Why Google Doesn’t Want The iPhone To Die
Us journalists and bloggers like to make a lot of the battle between Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS, but it the search engine has a vested interest in seeing the platform succeed. Why? iPhones and iPads are simply sending the site a ton of traffic.
Says Asia-Pacific president Daniel Alegre to AdNews:
“Whenever iPhone succeeds, Google succeeds. I actually don’t look at it as iPhone versus Android. iPhone is a very strong driver of query growth for Google. We also monetise apps through the iPhone..we actually benefit from iPhone’s growth.”
Makes sense. In total the iOS ecosystem is getting increasingly larger, and if you group the iPad and iPhone together, is more than holding its own against the Android platform. Simply put, pissing off Apple is not in Google’s best interest no matter how much they’d like to see their mobile OS be #1.
Google has said previously that the iPhone has been a key driver of growth in its mobile search efforts. So it shouldn’t be surprising that at least publicly executives like Alegre are making such statements. Then again, if all those iPhone users pick up a Droid — the only other really dominant mobile platform — is Google really losing anyway?
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LightSquared: A New Player in 4G?
In a time where we seem to be increasingly concerned with the state of wireless competition, a new player may be emerging hoping to shake up the space. LightSquared hopes to make its mark by selling 4G broadband to companies looking to add wireless connectivity to their products and is poised to begin a nationwide rollout., PC World’s Paul Kapustka reports.
The company certainly has the backing necessary: investment from billionaire Philip Falcone and its own spectrum. However, it needs partners and is rumored to be in talks with Sprint Nextel over a tower sharing deal. Service could begin as soon as the end of 2011, and Best Buy will resell its service beginning sometime next year.
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Google’s iTunes Competitor Might Be In Trouble
Google’s plans to take on Apple’s dominance in digital music may be hitting a snag. AllThingsDigital’s Peter Kafka is reporting that discussions with music labels have “stalled,” apparently over the Mountain View, Calif. company’s desires to change some of its terms.
Kafka said that talks may have gone “backwards,” and Google could be reconsidering its plans. At the same time, Kafka wrote that he had also heard earlier from those in the music industry that talks were going well, so there seems to be a bit of confusion as to actually what is going on here.
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Comcast Ultra-High Speed Internet Expands
Need really, really fast Internet? Comcast on Thursday bragged that its ‘Extreme 105’ ultra-high speed internet is now available in about 40 million homes across many major markets, or about 85 percent of their coverage area. For those geekier types who care, the service provides 105Mbps downstream and 10Mbps upstream.
It’s not cheap, though. It set you back $450 initially — that’s a $250 installation fee and then $200 per month for the service itself when it was first introduced last year. But for those speed hungry, Comcast is now offering it for $105 per month for a full year if ordered as part of their Triple Play offering.
You have to have a frame of reference to understand how fast this is: a high definition movie that would have taken an hour and a half on a standard cable connection now takes five minutes: an album from your favorite band that would have taken almost a minute before now takes only three seconds.
Don’t go all nuts though, as there still is a bandwidth cap. Comcast says connections would be throttled after 250GB of bandwidth, which while unfortunate begins to make sense at speeds like this. If everybody’s downloading high-definition movies at the same time, you’d have to think it would slow everybody down!
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After 10 Months, The White iPhone Is Coming (Maybe)!
It’s taken the company forever, but Apple is about to launch the white iPhone 4 (more evidence of no iPhone 5 yet, perhaps?), according to Bloomberg. There’s been a few guesses as to why this phone has yet to see the light of day — leaking light is one — and for some the wait has been so unbearable, they’ve taken matters into their own hands.
Bloomberg says several issues prevented the device from being launched, including white paint that begun to peel due to the heat of the phone. In any case, the device is supposedly set to debut on both AT&T and Verizon by the end of the month.
Could the white model be part of a plan by Apple to placate those anxiously waiting for the next-generation model, which seems destined for a late release this year?
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A Look At WebOS 3.0 Beta
Precentral.net got its hands on the first beta bits of the next generation of WebOS (Their site may be down, looks like the influx of traffic got the best of them!). Of course, this is an early beta, but I’m certainly impressed at where the platform is going. Of course it always comes down to apps, but it’s a start…
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WordPress.com Hit Again: This Time Hacked
It’s been a rough go for WordPress. Its been the target of several attacks lately, including a denial-of-service attack last month that severely crippled its servers for several hours. This time, its potentially more embarrassing for the blogging service, as it apparently has been hacked.
Whoever did it pretty much has full access: founder Matt Mullenweg said in a post to the company blog that the hacker has “root” access. In plain English? The WordPress server is this hacker’s oyster, and he or she is free to do whatever they want because they have administrative privileges.
Mullenweg says the company isn’t clear on what exactly may have been revealed and is going over its logs. He guessed they took a look at the source code, parts of which he called “sensitive.” The company is busy securing the server to prevent a repeat, and wouldn’t share much more.
Until we know exactly what happened, its hard to judge the potential effects. If you have an account on the service, and especially a “VIP” account, it may just be a good idea to change your password.