AT&T, T-Mobile USA and Sprint respond to Verizon’s Unlimited Cell Phone Plans
- AT&T is offering unlimited voice for $99 and unlimited connectivity and messaging for $35. One year contract is required for new subscribers and data plans are unchanged, though.
- Analysts are expecting Sprint to, “offer flat-rate calling plans at up to 40 percent discount to it’s rivals” — bringing unlimited wireless minutes into the $60 range for sprint customers.
- $99 buys you unlimited voice and text (including text, picture and IM) at T-Mobile. Previously, the Deutsche Telekom owned mobile operator has been selling unlimited text messaging for $14.99 and 5,000 minutes of calls for $129.99.
Sources: IntoMobile, Reuters
Google May Build Huge Wireless Network Using Floating Balloons
According to the Wall Street Journal, Google is considering either a partnership or a full-on buyout of Space Data Corp—a company that provides balloon-based wireless networks. If you think that seems a little strange, consider this: the balloons can help bring wireless service to individuals in rural areas and they can be launched on the cheap—about $50 to launch the balloon, $1500 for the receiver, and a $100 finder’s fee for recovery after the balloon returns to earth.
Additionally, a BusinessWeek article from last month revealed that Space Data believes it can cover the whole country with a WiMax broadband network with just 370 balloons. Compare that with the 22,000 or so towers that would be necessary using traditional methods.
Sources: Gizmodo and WSJ and BusinessWeek via TechCrunch and Broadband Reports
Random Links for February 18, 2008
20+ Tools For Working With Colors
Sometimes all you need to get inspired to build a site is picking a color scheme, or even if you get stuck later in development you need some color help. Mashable.com has gathered 20+ tools for helping the “color challanged” designers.
Source: Mashable
The Analog Cellphone Timeline
Source: Gizmodo
Hide an Image in HTML — Reveal it by Highlighting Text with your Mouse
Source: BoingBoing
p.s. This is really cool.
14 Hidden Hotel Fees to Avoid
Source: Fodors
Hottest Google Search Terms for February 18:
1. patricide
2. ziggs
3. dancing with the stars
4. alex cambert
5. dan cortese
6. kit carson
7. my dad is better than your dad
8. ziggs.com
9. marlee matlin
10. juicy campus
Mobile Ocean Screensaver Copyright Violations
I don’t know if I should be upset, or flattered. I think that my cease and desist letters solve that mystery. Some of the sites I found show hundreds of downloads of our Mobile Ocean Screensaver—that’s a bit upsetting.
I am also amazed that there are 1,350 pages in google search for “mobile ocean punchkick.” This basically means that when people post illegal downloads, they don’t even pay attention to scrubbing out the company name! At they very least I expect them to have setup keyword driven links back to our site. Did they? Nope.
Other copyright violations pertaining to Flash Lite software.
Reuters Reports that Toshiba to Give Up on HD DVD — Ending the Format War
A company source within Toshiba told Reuters that Toshiba was in the final stages of planning to exit the HD DVD business and that an official decision would be made soon. Given all the hype surrounding the format war between HD and Blue Ray, I’ll bet that most people already assumed there was an official announcement. We’ll file this under the category of, “Sorry to see you lose hundreds of millions, Toshiba.”
All that said, I guess it’s about time for Sony to have a win in the format war. Let’s recap the list of proprietary losers in the companies past:
- Betamax — Beat by VHS
- MiniDisc — Never had a chance
- ATRAC Audio Format — Beat by MP3
- SDDS (Sony Dynamic Digital Sound) — Beat by Dolby Digital 5.1
- Memory Stick — Beat SD cards
- Super Audio CD — Beat by good old fashioned CDs
- Universal Media Disc for movies — LOL
- 1GB Hi-MD discs — Have you even heard of these?
- 125 MB Magneto-optical discs — Again, have you even heard of these?
Verizon Wireless to Offer Unlimited Voice, Data, and Messaging Packages
Engadget reports that they have received a flood of tips stating that Verizon to offer unlimited voice, data, and messaging packages. It is reported that starting Tuesday, February 19th the following plans should be available:
- $100 – Nationwide Unlimited (voice)
- $120 – Nationwide Select Unlimited (voice, SMS, MMS)
- $140 – Nationwide Premium (voice, SMS, MMS, VZNav, VCAST, email)
- $150 – Nationwide Email and Messaging (voice, SMS, MMS, and data)
- $170 – Nationwide Global Email and Messaging (voice, SMS, MMS, and international data)
- $200 – Family plan with two lines, $100 per additional line
Additionally, the sources at Engadget claim that premium paying subscribers will also receive the following additional perks:
- The 5GB cap on data will be lifted
- The plans will be available on one or two year agreements
- There will not be a contract extension for current customers
- All plans include mobile Web 2.0 portal access
- No roaming or long distance charges
Samsung to Offer Video Projector Accessory for Mobile Phones
Mobile phone users will now be able to project videos, photos, games, give business presentations, video conference, or anything else that they want onto a 10-20 inch surface using a mini-projector developed by Samsung. The Samsung mini-projector is expected to hit the market as early as the Q2, 2008.
Source: fareastgizmos.com
CS3 Device Profile Update #5 Available for Download
Mark reports that Device Profile #5 is now available for download. This update features the first Flash Lite 3.0 devices available in the market.
An important note: before downloading Update #5, you must first download and install the Flash Lite 3 Update for Device Central CS3 and for Flash CS3 Professional (2 separate updates).
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List of Mobile Phone to PC Projector Options
I often hear people asking about ways to project the screen of a mobile phone to a PC during presentations, so I decided to compile a short list of mobile phone to PC projector options. If you have any experience with mobile to PC projectors, please post a short comment.
The four discussed here are:
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| Mobilola | Remote S60 | Screenshot | Project-a-Phone |
I personally use Mobilola Remote Control by Warelex ($35 USD). It’s a C++ app that works with Symbian S60v2 and S60v3 phones. I have been using it through an emulated WinXP (via Parallels on my Mac laptop) and it’s still really snappy. It also was extremely easy to set up. A few of the Mobilola Remote Control features are:
- Shows your phone screen on your PC
- Option to fully control your phone via PC
- Zoom in/out
- Full screen presentation option
- Snapshot
- Video recording
- Works over Bluetooth or USB
- Demo your phone through Skype Video and record YouTube video presentations directly to YouTube with webcam driver functionality
Remote S60 Professional ($30 USD) by MobileWays is a similar tool. I have not personally used this tool, but I hear that it works very well.
If all you need is a single frame capture solution, then you should give Screenshot a try (if the link fails, then refresh your browser—I have noticed a problem with their servers). Screenshot for Symbian OS is a FREE program to take screenshot on your Symbian OS mobile phones (UIQ or S60). You can capture screenshot and save it to a file in JPEG, PNG, BMP or MBM format. The screenshot can be sent directly to a PC via Bluetooth or infrared and another mobile phone. It also supports continuous mode that allows you to capture screenshot every a few seconds.
If your looking for a hardware option, I have heard great things about Project-a-Phone ($295 USD).
584 Flash Capable Windows Mobile Devices in World’s Largest PDA Database
I stumbled across the self-proclaimed “World’s Largest PDA Database,” and as soon as I did I thought, “I can finally get a tally of how many Windows Mobile 2002, 2003 or 5.0 devices are on the market!” In total I found 584 devices. Unfortunately, however, there is no data on the penetration of these devices.
Why is this important? Adobe offers installers for Flash Lite 2.1 for Windows Mobile 5.0, Flash Player 7 for Pocket PC 2003, and the Flash Player 6 for Windows Mobile 2002. Although this does not have the mass market appeal of Verizon Wireless, it is certainly notable.
Flash is pre-installed on:
- 70 Nokia Phones (includes N96)
- 58 Sony Ericsson Phones
- 13 BREW Phones
- 6 Sony CLIE PDAs
- All NTT Docomo handsets
- All KDDI handsets
Flash can be installed on:
- Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 for Pocket PC Phone Edition (166)
- Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 for Pocket PC Premium Edition (52)
- Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 for Pocket PC Professional Edition (10)
- Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 for Smartphone (61)
- Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PC Phone Edition (25)
- Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PC Premium Edition (54)
- Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PC Professional Edition (6)
- Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003 for Smartphone (11)
- Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition for Pocket PC Phone Edition (57)
- Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition for Pocket PC Premium Edition (41)
- Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition for Pocket PC Professional Edition (4)
- Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition for Smartphone (35)
- Microsoft Pocket PC 2002 Phone Edition (20)
- Microsoft Pocket PC 2002 Premium Edition (33)
- Microsoft Pocket PC 2002 Professional Edition (2)
- Microsoft Smartphone 2002 (7)
Note from Adobe.com:
Note: This version of Flash Player is for the individual use of developers of Pocket PC devices. For more information about Adobe’s Flash Player distribution policy read the FAQ.
When you download the free player, it is provided “as-is”—which means that Adobe will support it only for Windows Mobile 5 and Pocket PC 2003 OS devices through available online resources on our website. If you experience any problems for non-certified devices, you should discuss them with other developers in various forums.
The World’s Largest Handheld Database
