Thwapr, a mobile-to-mobile video-sharing program that launches its public beta today, is focused on creating an easy-to-use cross-platform solution for sharing photos and videos with other people, regardless of what type of phone they use.

The Problem With Current Options

The problem with current mobile-to-mobile video- or photo-sharing options is that they don’t work reliably with different platforms. Sure, I can send an MMS message to practically anyone, but that photo is often tied directly to my phone. If I switch devices or lose my phone, my photos are gone too.

The other big problem is that although services like TwitPic exist, they focus mostly on smartphones. My mom still has an old Motorola Razr. She can actually record and view video, but obviously she can’t get a TwitPic-compatible application, which makes it hard for us to share photos.

Even among smartphones, the different video standards can create a problem for users. Sure, YouTube is supported on more and more mobile devices, but it’s not universal.

Thwapr’s Solution

Thwapr is a free service that addresses these issues. Utilizing SMS messaging and e-mail, you can send video and photos to almost anyone with a cell phone. Thwapr supports more than 170 different devices on carriers in the U.S. and Canada (international countries are coming soon).

Here’s how it works: A friend can send you a picture or a video using Thwapr. You get notified by an SMS message that gives you a link. That link will take you to a site that has been tested across mobile browsers and then it will display the photo or encode the video (on the fly) in a format optimized for your mobile device.

You can then respond to that message, or “thwap” by either entering a comment or sending your own photo or video back to the person. You can upload using e-mail, and on devices that lack e-mail support, MMS. I did a number of real-time demos with Thwapr’s CTO yesterday and I was impressed with the speed with which I could both send and receive video or photos.

Simplicity and Cross-platform Is Key

The key to Thwapr is that it works with so many different platforms. You can use it on a BlackBerry, an iPhone, an Android device, and the new Nokia N900 and Palm devices (from the old Palm OS and webOS). You’re notified that your upload is complete via SMS or e-mail (you can choose how you want to be notified) and you can add users to your friends list to easily send stuff their way.

Future Plans

Thwapr is opening up its public beta today, but the company already has some big plans. Not only is Thwapr deep in development on an iPhone app, but it is also looking at ways that people can respond directly to thwaps by placing orders. Think about the possibilities of marrying something like a Thwapr video of what’s going on with Haiti with the ability to donate by responding to a Thwap.

Thwapr is also looking at geo-location so that advertisers can do sponsored thwaps to local users, which opens up all kind of cool possibilities. A movie theater could send thwaps to subscribed users with a new movie trailer and you could pre-order tickets in response.

Sharing video via mobile devices is only going to get bigger, but cross-compatibility is key. This is why Thwapr is so exciting.

Tags: mobile video, thwapr

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“Skype is taking away would-be market share of international traffic from conventional phone companies,” Paul Brodsky, an analyst for TeleGeography.

The report also shows that international voice traffic is on the rise, despite the availability of alternatives for standard telephone calls. Global international voice traffic will grow approximately 7 to 8 percent annually between 2009 and 2011, the report said.

Skype-to-Skype traffic is growing at an even faster pace. There was over a 60 percent growth in user-to-user traffic last year. Skype users are projected to generate 54 billion minutes in international traffic in 2009 as opposed to only 33 billion minutes in 2008.

But not all of Skype’s traffic comes at the expense of phone carries. Skype’s paid-for SkypeOut service, which allows users to make calls to standard telephones, generated about 12 billion minutes of traffic in 2009. Skype relies on other wholesale carriers to connect this traffic to the telephone network.

Skype’s growth is due to a sharp increase in the number of its users. The internet-calling service has over 500 million registered users as of the third quarter of last year. But “it is safe to assume that a significant percentage of registered Skype users have signed up for the service and either never use it or use it very sparingly,” said Mr. Brodsky. “After all, registering is free.”

Skype calls are free unless they are made to landlines, but even then the calling rates are generally cheaper than those provided by the phone companies.
Despite the growth in volume, international phone-calling revenue has only seen a slight increase. Skype’s cheap international calling rates and its free user-to-user calls and videos are partly to blame for the flattening revenue growth. The steady decline in prices has also been triggered by fierce competition.
Skype, owned by a group of investors, is still the largest long-distance phone company.

Recently, Skype settled a lawsuit filed by some users who accused the company of improperly seizing money on their paid-for SkypeOut accounts after 180 days of inactivity. The company agreed to discontinue its Skype Credit expiration policy and implement a Reactivation Policy by which SkypeOut credit will no longer expire after 180 days of inactivity, but rather be deemed “inactive” and subject to reactivation.

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On Friday, Verizon and AT&T both dropped the price of their unlimited voice plans. Yesterday was the first day that existing customers could switch to these new plans, and luckily BillShrink has put together a nice chart comparing the different U.S. mobile carriers side-by-side.

Despite lipspeak from carriers, trying to figure out the information using official websites (or even worse, the rate brochures) can still be confusing for consumers who might not understand what makes a phone a smartphone with a smartphone data plan and what makes a phone just a regular data phone.

Here is BillShrink’s Ultimate Cell Phone Plan Comparison Chart to clear matters up:

Please note, this chart assumes you want unlimited text messaging as part of your plan. For some wireless carriers, like AT&T, if you can stand having fewer tha 200 texts a month, you can shave another $15 off your bill. Unsurprisingly, the two largest U.S. carriers — Verizon and AT&T, are also the most expensive. The equivalent “all you can talk, text and data” plans cost $20 more a month respectively for a single smartphone line and up to $30 more a month for a family plan.

Tags: att, billshrink, verizon

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Some suggest that the “Palm Phone” (striking sounding like the Palm Pilot, however this really means it) will be the next phone that everyone will use. It’s a wearable wrist phone that easily can be twisted into a palm projected dial pad on which you can maneuver the many features of the phone. I am sure that there’s even going to be a video mode on the phone which somewhat brings it to sound like something straight taken from Star Trek.

However, I think we have a long way to go in order to be able to accept such a concept. We’re far too used to the touchscreen and the many applications that can be utilized with it to step back and get half the features just in order to have it projected and worn on our wrists. But this again only my own suggestions and ideas. With a bit of development maybe this could be something cool and unusual but that’s really up to some heavy guessing. At the present time this is of course only a concept and there’s no telling if it will ever be realized.

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T-Mobile

T-Mobile’s myTouch 3G Fender

T-Mobile USA, Inc. announced that it is teaming up with musician Eric Clapton to help market its new T-Mobile myTouch 3G Fender phone.

T-Mobile myTouch 3G Fender Limited Edition, which will be available nationwide starting January 20, costs $180 with a two-year contract.

This is not the first time that T-Mobile has used celebrities to pitch and promote its products. The company has recently brought back actress Catherine Zeta Jones for a cellphone-plan campaign and is using Whoopi Goldberg among others in its myTouch ads.

The Android-based device puts a new spin on the original T-Mobile myTouch 3G. It will be equipped with some preloaded songs including Mr. Clapton classics such “Layla,” “My Father’s Eyes,” “Rock ‘N’ Roll Heart,” and “Wonderful Tonight,”

To sweeten the deal further, T-Mobile’s Fender device comes equipped with a 16 GB microSD card, a 3.5mm headset jack for headphones and an enhanced music player, which will allow customers to create ringtones from songs that are playing.

The phone, which runs Android 1.6, Google’s mobile OS, is expected to be updated to Android 2.1 in the spring.

The device will have new accessories for further customization, including Fender-branded shells, a Fender carrying case, and a docking station with speakers. (The phone is designed in partnership with a guitar company called Fender and has a Fender guitar sunburst-finish inspired design.)

“The myTouch 3G, which runs on Android, gives us an open, highly customizable platform to create truly unique experiences that go beyond what’s possible on proprietary platforms,” said Andrew Sherrard, vice president of product development at T-Mobile, in statement.

Like the original T-Mobile myTouch, the Fender device features more than 16,000 applications and one-touch access to the Google mobile services.

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Save time/be more efficient:

• Found a phone number in the yellow pages? Dial it instantly from your iPhone.
• Spotted a cool URL while browsing? Open it instantly on mobile safari.
• Seen a cool picture on the web? Add it instantly to your iPhone photo gallery.

http://pastefire.com/

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There are really two things to consider;  web site design and how customers are going to find the web site through mobile search.

How do you design for the mobile platform? The good news is that in most cases, you don’t need a separate site, you just need a cascading style sheet (CSS) attached to your website that feeds up specific instructions to a mobile browser. For the most part, mobile browsers are a lot like the web used to be; mainly text and links. Granted, as the iPhone, Google/Android Phones and other more advanced devices come along, the browsing features also advance. Most smart phones like the iPhone view the web as it should be without anything stripped out. But, since everyone doesn’t own a smart phone just yet, it’s worth focusing on the what the mass mobile market has, basic handheld web browsers.

When designing your CSS for handheld web browsers, here are a few things to consider:

1. You have very limited screen real estate. About 2×3 inches or so.
2. All fonts should be in their most basic format. Forget about color and typography.
3. All images should be striped out, unless they are absolutely necessary.
4. Remove all advertising as you already have limited screen space.
5. If you don’t need it, hide it. Remove any Google Friend Connect, Facebook Fan Box or other third party services. Focus on your content.
6. Remove all background colors. Basic black text on a white background is good.
7. Create basic forms, if you choose to keep them. My advice would be to remove them and just showcase the phone number. They are on their cell phone after all.
8. Remove Flash, Java and any plug-in content unless absolutely necessary.
9. All in all, simplify.

If you run a WordPress blog, you can use a WPtouch iPhone Theme plug-in to automatically create a small-screen friendly version of your blog.

If you want to view your site as if you were on a mobile browser, here are a few choices:

• Web Developer extension for Firefox. It allows you to overwrite the web style sheet with the handheld one if a site has one. If not, it’ll just show the site without any CSS styles.
• iPhone simulator called iPhoney. It looks cool, but since the iPhone really doesn’t render a striped down version of a site, it’s more of a toy.
• Opera Mini browser. There is an online version and it’s free. Simply put in a URL and it’ll render a website as if it was on a mobile phone.

From my testing, the Opera Mini browser was a great experience. It has a small screen, shows handheld versions of style sheets and all in all, it does a great job at giving you what a real phone will show. Here is my before having a handheld CSS and after experiences on the Opera Mini browser.

So where does SEO fall into all of this? Is there a separate ranking algorithm for mobile devices? No, not from what I can see.  While smart phone users can type or speak their search queries, the sort order rankings are fairly consistent between a search on a phone and a search on a computer.

Here’s an example with Google search on an iPhone and at Google.com.

The best way to ensure you are found on mobile devices is to make sure your site is in all the local search directories with full and accurate profiles. Places like Google Local and Yahoo local probably receive more traffic from users who want to find business in a certain area. When I’ve used my phone to search the web, I was searching for specific businesses to visit.  Social networking through mobile is also popular and through links, can drive web site traffic. A combination of search and social is the direction where I see the bulk of mobile traffic going.

Mobile search is an area of the Internet that is finally heating up which is supported by predictions made by eMarketer. Some marketers are putting a lot of stock into mobile marketing as cell phones and smart phones become more widespread and offer more capabilities. However, site owners are not always taking those platforms into account. To ensure your site is mobile ready, get listed in local directories and add a handheld CSS file to your site. These two easy items are a great start for optimizing your site for handheld web browsers.

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Today is an important day in the world of both music and Android handsets. T-Mobile USA together with legendary guitarist Eric Clapton have announced today a new Android phone. Well, in all honesty, the myTouch 3G is not a new phone but the Fender Limited Edition is definitely something music enthusiasts will be enthusiastic about.
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Verizon Wireless seems ready to offer its customers new phone and data pricing this year. The whole thing is supposed to happen starting with January 18 as it looks like Verizon is currently training its employees regarding the upcoming changes.
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Originally posted at The Download Blog

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Method 1: Tether Android with Apps that Need Root (Free, heavy configuration)

The Android Wi-Fi Tether application turns your phone into a Wi-Fi hotspot—essentially a MiFi—in one tap. The catch? You have to gain root access to your phone, a multi-step process that uses an unofficial Android add-on which can brick your phone if applied incorrectly. Rooting Android is doable for geeks and hackers with experience soft-modding hardware, but it’s not something most users could (or should!) do.

If you’re up for getting root access in Android, the Android and Me blog runs down how to do it. It’s a multi-step process that involves unlocking your phone’s bootloader, flashing a recovery image, and flashing an add-on to the default Nexus One firmware. Not for the faint of heart, but definitely doable if you’ve ever upgraded your router’s firmware or hacked your Xbox. Here’s a video of the process from Android and Me:

The pros of this method: it’s free and it makes your phone act as a Wi-Fi hotspot that any computer can connect to without extra software or messing with your computer’s setting. The cons: you can seriously screw up your phone if something goes wrong, and you may be sacrificing over-the-air automatic Android updates in the future. (If OTA updates cease, you can always flash your recovery image—but this just means your rooted phone requires maintenance a non-rooted phone does not.)

Method 2: Tether Android with Proxoid (Free, no root required, some configuration)

If you don’t want to gain root but know enough to get around the command line and use proxy servers, the Proxoid Android app can tether your phone for free. Proxoid turns your Android device into a proxy server that your computer uses to make internet requests. Proxoid is free in the Android market, but to get it working you have to install the Android SDK or device drivers onto your computer, tweak some of the settings, and then configure your browser to use a proxy server whenever you want to tether. Here are the installation instructions.

To connect to the internet via Proxoid, on the phone you tap a button to start the proxy server. On your Mac you enter a command in the Terminal and on Windows you run a batch file to start the tunnel, then you set your web browser to use that proxy.

The pros of this method are that it’s free and you don’t need to gain root, so it’s less risky. The cons are that you’ve got to install the Android SDK (something really only developers should have to do), and set your browser to use the proxy server each time you want to tether.

Note: Proxoid is the only method I haven’t tested myself on the Nexus One. Proxoid’s documentation is a bit rough—the Mac installation instructions are second-hand, as the author doesn’t own a Mac—and there isn’t a Nexus One-specific listing. Let me know if you’re successfully using Proxoid on your N1 and what OS you’re using.

Method 3: Tether Android with PDAnet ($30, no root required, minimal configuration)

Finally, the PDAnet Android application lets you tether Android using an app on the phone plus simple software you install on your computer.

PDAnet costs $30 if you want to access https ports (which the free version blocks). To connect to the internet via the phone, you tap a button to start PDAnet on the phone, and click “Connect” in the PDAnet on your computer.

The pros of PDAnet are that it’s risk-free, easy to use, and requires minimal setup. (You do have to enable USB debugging on your phone, which is the geekiest step it involves, but that’s just a checkbox in your phone’s settings.) The cons of PDAnet is that it requires the PDAnet software on your computer and that it costs $30.

What I’m Doing

Either I’m getting old and worn-out, or Jarvis is getting to me, because right now I’m with Chris: rooting Android isn’t a process I want to go through again or have to maintain. In that spirit of laziness, I also don’t want to have to mess with proxy servers or the command line when I tether; I want to click “Connect” and get online. So, I went with PDAnet, which was the simplest but not free option of the bunch.

How are you tethering your Android device?

Smarterware is Lifehacker editor emeritus Gina Trapani’s new home away from ‘hacker. To get all of the latest from Smarterware, be sure to subscribe to the Smarterware RSS feed. For more, check out Gina’s weekly Smarterware feature here on Lifehacker.

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This easy-to-use website lets you create and record phone surveys.

• Design your survey on the web.
• Record your voice.
• Upload your phone list.
• Get results in real-time.

http://www.precisionpolling.com/

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The launch of the Google Nexus One is one of the most hyped phone releases in recent memory. Only the iPhone, Palm Pre, and Droid really compare to the hype.

Yet now we’ve learned that around only 20,000 Nexus Ones have been sold in the first week, a dismal number compared to the 250,000 Droids and 1.6 million iPhone 3GSes sold in their first seven days on the market. What the hell happened?

It’s definitely not time for Google to panic, especially as Google attempts to pioneer a new business model for selling phones and many have yet to be shipped out. Still, the fabled Google Phone seems insignificant compared to its bigger Apple rival.

From this point on, I suggest that Nexus One sales will mimic the sales of one of two movies: the James Cameron blockbuster Avatar or the Ben Affleck/Jennifer Lopez box office bomb Gigli.

The Gigli Scenario

Gigli had a budget of $54 million, much of which was used to pay for the salaries of Affleck, Lopez, and Al Pacino. During its first weekend though, the movie grossed less than $4 million, an utter bomb. It’s now considered by many as one of the biggest box office bombs of all time (as well as being a terrible, terrible movie).

In the Gigli scenario, the Nexus One would continue to sell badly, never really breaking 20,000 units sold per week. Sure, eventually there might be a few hundred thousand on the market, but Google’s phone wouldn’t come anywhere near the sales of the iPhone or the Droid. More importantly, Google wouldn’t recuperate its cost and its reputation would be tarnished.

At least Google would get a Razzie.

The Avatar Effect

Avatar started out with a bang on its opening weekend, although nothing like Spiderman or Pirates of the Carribean. But then, like Titanic, the movie didn’t slow down. It’s now the second highest grossing movie of all time because people are still buying tickets, long after its opening weekend.

In the Avatar scenario, the Nexus One benefits from positive buzz, happy customers, and word-of-mouth marketing. Its sales either stay consistent or rise as more and more people experience their friends’ Google phones. Another bump occurs when the device hits the Nexus One. The end result would eventually be a launch that beat the Droid and comes close to sales of the iPhone.

Which Scenario Is More Likely?

I’ve presented two potential outcomes for Nexus One sales, but as with most things in life, the answer lies in the middle. The Nexus One won’t bomb: it’s too good of a phone for that to happen. What’s more likely is that people slowly become more comfortable with the online sales model Google is pioneering with its self-branded phone and will eventually purchase it after playing around with a friend’s phone or hearing enough about it.

Will the Nexus One beat the Droid? Probably not: the Droid just has a lot more marketing muscle behind it. Yet it’s not the Nexus One that will likely be Google’s star device, but the Nexus Two and whatever phones they release in the product line.

Google is making a long-term investment in Android and in changing the business model of choosing a carrier first and a business model second. As it hones in on the perfect phone and more people get comfortable with Google.com/Phone, sales will pick up.

Eventually, the Nexus line will reach Avatar levels, only second to the iPhone. We’re not worried about the long-term prospects of the Google Phone.

Tags: android, avatar, Gigli, Google, nexus one

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Motorola have just added to their phone collection with a rugged mobile that won’t mind when you drop it on cement. Dubbed Motorola Brute i680, the new device is packed with military specifications that make it dust, shock and vibration resistant, along with not caring when you leave it out in low and high temperatures, salt fog, humidity or rain.

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During the CES LG, apparently, brought in a developer from Asia to preview his latest prototype of the LG phone with a feature he is working at. Yup, you guessed it! LG has managed to incorporate a small projector into the cell phone and it’s looking quite promising. The quality is above OK and I am sure with a few more tweaks this could be a sure hit on the market. Especially if Apple follows up with this feature on the next iPhone. Hopefully they will see the huge benefit of having such a feature on the iPhone and understand that whatever they have done so far is to please everyone that uses video and photos so why not this feature. Samsung is also working on a cell phone projector and they also are far in the process…

If I would have a guess I would think Apple maybe announcing something like this in 2011 second quarter. And could it possibly be called iPhone 4GP (P for Projector)? Hopefully this feature hits it big as there is probably a HUGE market for such a thing. We here at Bit Rebels reported of such a feature a little over 5 months ago but this is a far more pristine and thought through incorporation of the projector. And just the little round lens on top of the phone is just magic. Check it out!

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Lenovo launched a new Android phone during CES 2010, the Lephone, and we have some pictures to prove it. While the Android handset is scheduled to arrive in China at some point later this year, I must admit I wouldn’t mind playing with it for a while especially since it comes with some very useful accessories like the clip-on full QWERTY keyboard.
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The API acts as a programming interface for a particular phone platform, allowing software developers to create new applications for the vehicle, while taking advantage of the input mechanisms and vehicle data the Ford SYNC platform provides.

“Providing third-party developers of phone platforms with a Ford SYNC-enabled API will significantly help create new applications,” said Artur Seidel, vice president and general manager – Automotive Software, Elektrobit Inc.

“For example, it took only a few weeks to develop a phone demo application providing the vehicle occupants with Ford SYNC control of Pandora Internet radio stations. This is an application that I use on my phone and would like to see integrated with my vehicle’s infotainment system. The convergence between automotive and consumer devices that Ford SYNC provides keeps accelerating. We look forward to continuing our work as a technology partner to Ford.”

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Now that the Nexus One has been revealed and the Android-based smartphones are beginning to ship worldwide, it’s time to evaluate whether the Google Phone really can stand up to the giant that is Apple’s iPhone, specifically the 3GS.

From our tests of the Nexus One, we know that it’s a stellar phone, but we want your opinion for this week’s Web Faceoff, our weekly poll series where we let you, the readers, determine which web apps or tools deserves your love.

A month ago, we pitted Android against the iPhone OS, and to our amazement the Android platform won by 36%.

Can Google pull off yet another upset with its Nexus One? We’ll let you have the final say with the poll and the comments section below. This week’s poll closes on Friday, January 15th at 12:00 PM PT.

Who Would win in a fight: Nexus One or iPhone?(online surveys)

Tags: apple, Google, google phone, iphone, nexus one, web faceoff

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Want a free Google Nexus One? You might be outta luck, but YouTube Partners seem to be receiving exactly that gift from their Googley masters.

These YouTube super-users say they’re receiving the “superphone” along with this note:

Dear YouTube Partners,
We’re pleased to present you with this gift of a Nexus One phone, the new Google-branded mobile device sold only online at google.com/phone. There are no strings attached, it’s just our gift to you for being such an important part of the YouTube Partner Program.

It’s not clear whether everyone in the partner program is receiving a phone, or just a select few (the note implies everyone, we think). That strategy makes sense: YouTube partners have huge influence on the site and may use their phones to film video clips, spreading the message further.

Below, Val from the popular YouTube channel Val’s Art Diary shows off her new Nexus One, courtesy of Google.

[thanks Val for the heads up]

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RSS creator and proud Droid owner Winer suggests creating a new map named “Destinations” while signed in at Google Maps. On any destination you want to drive to, you can now hit “Save to My Maps,” choose your “Destinations” map, and repeat for anywhere else you regularly drive, or are just driving to this one time.

When you’ve got your Android phone out, open the Maps app, select the Layers, and choose your My Maps. Now it’s far easier to select and click “Navigate” to your points of interest, rather than tapping away while your passengers slowly grow annoyed at your obsessive, geeky ways.

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Coming from the chunky G1, the thin and flat Nexus One hearkens back to my iPhone days. (In my pocket it doesn’t make my thigh look fat, and it doesn’t require a holster—it gets lots of vanity points there.) The screen is huge and crisp; the dual noise-canceling microphone action is sweet; the true headphone jack is much-appreciated, and the glowing trackball is a nice touch.

Still—the best part of the Nexus One is Android 2.1, and if all goes well, many existing Android users will get that update even if they don’t get a new handset. After spending just a few hours with my new phone, here are a few of my favorite Android 2.1 features, in screenshots.

Click to enlarge each image to actual size (including the image of my current home screen, shown here).

First off, Android 2.1 has some satisfying eye candy that doesn’t necessarily make you more productive, but does make the phone more fun to use.

The application menu button has been replaced with a button that looks like a grid (see bottom of the first screenshot). When you tap it, your application icons fly into place to take over the desktop in their own grid, and you can scroll them back and forward as if they were on a 3-D cube, shown here.

Android 2.1′s Live Wallpapers are pulse in different ways when you touch the desktop—again, not strictly useful, but they make the phone feel as if it is alive in your hand and responding to your every action. Two new desktop widgets come in way handy: One offers one-click toggle of your most important settings (GPS, Bluetooth, screen brightness, and Wi-Fi on/off), and the other has top news stories for idle browsing when you’re on line at the grocery store. I’m not a widget gal—I trashed that big old clock first thing when I set up Android 1.5/6—but these two, along with the Google search box, are keepers.

Every single text area in Android 2.1 is speech-to-text enabled, which means you can say your text messages, emails, tweets, notes to self, whatever.

It works like Google’s voice-enabled search box does. You tap the microphone button on the keyboard, speak, and then the spinner grinds away at the recording, translating it to text.

The conversion takes a few seconds, depending on how much you said, and it requires a decent internet connection to complete. In a spotty area I got a few “Connection error” messages when I tried to speak my first tweet from the Nexus One using Seesmic. (That was disappointing.)

The results are hit or miss.

Sometimes they’re pretty decent. Here I said, “Every text area is speech-to-text enabled so you can speak your email, text messages, or tweets.” I didn’t say the punctuation, and you can see it borked the “is,” and missed the “so.” Not bad.

Not all results are that close, though. This is another set of results I got, saying the same exact thing as above.

Android continues to offer the best Gmail mobile client available on any platform. The latest version of Google’s Gmail Android app supports “Undo.” When you archive, label, or delete a Gmail conversation, you get the option to Undo the action. (Great for when you accidentally tap something you didn’t mean to.)

The upgraded Gmail app also supports multiple accounts, so you can get mail from your work, personal, and moonlighting Gmail accounts in one interface.

Another “oh, that’s cool!” Gmail discovery: if you tap the dot next to a contact’s name, you get a popup with one-click access to that person’s information with their photo.

Contact photos are a powerful thing on a mobile device, and Android 2.1 ships with the Facebook application, which can sync your contacts’ Facebook photos into your contact list. LOVE IT.

New to me (but not Droid owners) is Android’s new Car Home screen, for navigational purposes on the road. I haven’t had the chance to try this out yet, but I’m really looking forward to it. (My trusted Android informant Kevin at Lifehacker gave it his thumbs-up.)

It was great to see that Google Voice came pre-installed on the Nexus One, and telling GVoice to handle my new mobile number’s voicemail was literally a one-click affair. (Hopefully no one will ever even know my new mobile number, since I hope to go completely Google Voice from here on in.)

Speaking of, setting up this phone in general was dead-easy. You simply sign into your Google account on the phone and instantly your contacts, email, calendar, and Google Voice calls/history are on the phone—no syncing or importing necessary. The only reason why I connected it to my computer was to take screenshots for this post, and later, to move some music onto it.

I’m still very much on the Nexus One/Android 2.1 honeymoon, but I do have two minor gripes. First, you still can’t take screenshots on the device itself. WTF. (I had to jump through a bunch of developer hoops just to get screen caps for this post.) And second, I’ve accidentally tapped the Nexus One’s search and home buttons while reaching for the spacebar on the touch keyboard more than twice. The touch keyboard in general is going to take some getting used to.

So, what have I missed or glossed over when it comes to Android 2.1? Tell me what else is worth looking at.

Smarterware is Lifehacker editor emeritus Gina Trapani’s new home away from ‘hacker. To get all of the latest from Smarterware, be sure to subscribe to the Smarterware RSS feed.

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Within the past few days, the great people at http://www.technobuffalo.com have done some comparing of their own in these two videos below, and I wanted to share them with you.

Wow, the packaging and the sleeve for the Nexus phone is gorgeous. The screen looks a little bit too big for me, and I’m not a huge fan of the standard Android buttons. However, on the flip side, this phone is as thin as a pencil and we all know how insanely powerful it’s 1GHz Snapdragon processor is. I’m actually quite impressed that there are already 16,000 apps for the Nexus One.

This first video shows an unboxing of the Nexus One and a few comparisons with the iPhone 3GS.

This second video is much more detailed and according to http://www.technobuffalo.com, “In this video we compare their hardware specs, browser, speed, navigation and more. Sit back and watch as these two heavyweights go head-to-head in the most comprehensive comparison on the web.”

So what do you think? Is this the iPhone killer of the month?

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But found a video and it seems that there are some silly stuff you can still try on your mobile device according to Sam of VideoJug.

1. Step 1: Open your car

   There is some dispute over how and when this works. It certainly depends on you having the right locking system on your car, and even the type of mobile you have, so give it a whirl and see if it works for you

   If you somehow lock your cars key fob in the car, phone someone at home who has the spare. Bare in mind it must be a mobile to mobile call. Get them to press the open button whilst pointing the fob down the phone. Meanwhile, hold your phone about a foot from the car. With a bit of luck it will open.

2. Step 2: Check for a faulty microwave

   Put a mobile inside your microwave and give it a ring. The oven is designed to keep microwaves in, so if it rings, you may well be leaking waves all over the place, and should get it checked. There is a small gap for waves to escape, but it should at least dramatically limit the signal.

3. Step 3: Mobile phone throwing

   Start training for the mobile phone throwing world championships in Sweden. This started in 2000, and marks are awarded for distance and creative choreography. 95.53m is the unofficial world record, thrown in England in 2007. The minimum weight is 220 grams, so don’t try and throw one lighter than this, as that would just be silly.

You don’t believe me? lol then check out the video below.

Cellular & Mobile Phones:
Stupid Things To Try With Your Phone

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Mashable’s Ben Parr showed off his Google Nexus One to CNN at the Consumer Electronics Show this week, talking through the basic features and comparing the device to his iPhone.

Parr explains how the Nexus One launch took the steam out of mobile launches at CES, and also gives a side-by-side comparison of the Nexus One and his iPhone. The video clip is embedded below.

What do you think? Can the Google Phone challenge Apple’s domination?

Tags: Ben Parr, cnn, Google, google phone, iphone, mashable, nexus one

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Phone Halo, a start-up exhibiting at CES this year, is aiming to reduce the loss-incident rate. It has created a bi-directional keychain sensor that sends an alert when you’ve moved a certain distance from your BlackBerry, and locks and calls the device when you’ve dropped your keys or any other personal item you’ve attached the sensor to.

“It’s a Bluetooth device, so the two items speak to each other wirelessly,” says Christian Smith, a vice president of the company. “You can attach the sensor to anything, really: purse, a laptop bag, even a kid, and be alerted through your BlackBerry when the other item has been dropped, left behind or stolen.”

Users can also set up the Phone Halo system so that friends receive text messages with the GPS coordinates if your items are lost, and a mobile app tracks the distance between the phone and device.

Phone Halo formed two years ago by three friends at University of California, Santa Barbara, with a fourth member, Jacques Habra, joining later on as chief executive and equity partner. While brainstorming ideas for a competition in the schools technology-management program, a friend “walked into our dorm room, upset because he’d lost his phone. We all looked at each other and said, ‘Let’s make something that doesn’t help you find your phone after it’s gone — it keeps you from losing it in the first place,’” Mr. Smith says.

There are some limitations to Phone Halo. Because it’s a Bluetooth device, Phone Halo’s range is limited to about 30 feet. For example, users would receive an alert that they’ve “disconnected from” their keys if they leave them in a purse and walk 30 feet. The beep that goes off on the sensor isn’t very loud, something the company says it’s working on. And as of now, Phone Halo only works with Research In Motion’s BlackBerry, though Mr. Smith says the sensor will be supporting Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android platform.

“We’re really looking at preventing the loss of high-value items, like smart phones that can cost up to $500. Not only the cost of the phone, but things like valuable contacts and irreplaceable data,” says Mr. Smith. The company also plans to work on attaching the technology to other personal items, such as credit cards, so that they won’t be left at the ATM or behind the bar after a late night.

The sensor, available in March, is manufactured by EmLinq, based in Simi Valley, Calif., and retails for $70.

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Could sugary sodas power your next phone? Chinese designer Daizi Zheng thinks so. He’s created a conceptual model of a phone, for Nokia, that would run on bio battery, using enzymes to generate electricity from carbohydrates.

Essentially Zheng’s conceptual phone would only need a sugary soda to operate.

We don’t know about you, but we’re totally fascinated by the idea and intrigued by the notion of getting refills for our phones in the future. No word from fast food chains on whether or not a soda phone refill will cost extra.

Dezeen has the scoop on the story and shares Zheng’s idea and photos. In Zheng’s own words:

“Through out my research, I found that phone battery as a power source, it is expensive, consuming valuable resources on manufacturing, presenting a disposal problem and harmful to the environment.

The concept is using bio battery to replace the traditional battery to create a pollution free environment.

Bio battery is an ecologically friendly energy generates electricity from carbohydrates (currently sugar) and utilizes enzymes as the catalyst.

By using bio battery as the power source of the phone, it only needs a pack of sugary drink and it generates water and oxygen while the battery dies out.

Bio battery has the potential to operate three to four times longer on a single charge than conventional lithium batteries and it could be fully biodegradable.”

Photos of Concept Phone

Tags: gadgets, Mobile 2.0, Nokia, trending

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Blackberry though is barely hanging in there and if I may be so bold as to out my opinion I don’t see it rivaling the success of the iPhone anytime soon as the iPhone has become such a force and icon in the business of touch phones. The only way I see the Blackberry to really gain on the iPhone is if they do something radical that will give people an undeniable reason to switch. Unless that happens I pretty much think that the Blackberry will keep on declining from it’s second place on the cool chart.

But, then we have “Fuse“. A new concept phone from the company Synaptics Website. When watching a demo of the phone it looks like one of the coolest little gadgets around. Yeah sure it’s a concept phone and not yet functional but the features it sports is just amazing. Some, I am sure, would just call it “eye candy” but if you look beyond that and try to see the real implementations of these features you’ll quickly understand that this will be huge when (if it does) it comes out on the market.

So, synaptics, we’d like to check it out close up so if you have one working send it over to us and we’ll make sure to give it a royal run through our gadget geek lab testing facility.

I personally can’t wait to check one out for real just to see what powers it has. Maybe it will even sport a lightsaber or a “Beam Me Up Scotty”-feature. In whatever case it looks awesome and the “eye candy” is just a plus.

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The study involved exposing mice over long periods of time to electromagnetic waves associated with cell phone use.

"It surprised us to find that cell phone exposure, begun in early adulthood, protects the memory of mice otherwise destined to develop Alzheimer’s symptoms," said lead author Gary Arendash, PhD, Research Professor at the Florida ADRC.

"It was even more astonishing that the electromagnetic waves generated by cell phones actually reversed memory impairment in old Alzheimer’s mice."

The researchers showed that exposing old Alzheimer’s mice to electromagnetic waves generated by cell phones erased brain deposits of the harmful protein beta-amyloid, in addition to preventing the protein’s build-up in younger Alzheimer’s mice. The sticky brain plaques formed by the abnormal accumulation of beta amyloid are a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease. Most treatments against Alzheimer’s try to target beta-amyloid.

The study involved 96, most of which were genetically altered to develop problems mimicking Alzheimer’s disease as they aged. The mouse cages were arranged around a centrally-located antenna generating the cell phone signal.

Each animal was housed the same distance from the antenna and exposed to electromagnetic waves typically emitted by a cell phone pressed up against a human head.

If cell phone exposure was started when the genetically-programmed mice were young adults — before signs of memory impairment were apparent — their cognitive ability was protected. In fact, the Alzheimer’s mice performed as well on tests measuring memory and thinking skills as aged mice without dementia. If older Alzheimer’s mice already exhibiting memory problems were exposed to the electromagnetic waves, their memory impairment disappeared.

"It will take some time to determine the exact mechanisms involved in these beneficial memory effects," Arendash said.

"One thing is clear, however – the cognitive benefits of long-term electromagnetic exposure are real, because we saw them in both protection- and treatment-based experiments involving Alzheimer’s mice, as well as in normal mice."
 

Related Articles:

> Online Tool Rates Cell Phone Radiation

>Study: Mobile Phones More Dangerous Than Smoking

> New Mexico Group Says It’s Allergic To Wi-Fi

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Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last few months you already know that Google have entered the mobile phone market by announcing their own device which goes by the name of Nexus One. We can now give you full specs and features regarding the device, know that it will be subsidized on T-Mobile in the US and that the UK, Singapore and Hong Kong will get their hands on it as test countries. But what about Europe? When is the new Google Nexus One going to be available in Europe?

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Up until now, the Facebook iPhone app [iTunes link] had everything but push notifications. The launch of version 3.1, however, remedies that ill. The other 3.1 biggie is the ability to sync your Facebook friends with your phone’s address book contacts — photos and all.

Push Notifications

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When 3.0 came out this summer, there were some vocal complaints that the Facebook iPhone app didn’t do push notifications; it seems like basic functionality for any post-iPhone OS 3.0 application. Now when you start the app up after updating, you’ll be prompted asking if it’s okay to do notifications. Once you’ve said yes, it follows the standard iPhone notifications rules. You can customize what you’ll receive in settings.

Address Book Syncing

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Right after you allow or deny notifications at the beginning, you’ll be asked if you want to sync with your address book. It will sync personal data, and change your contacts’ listed homepages to their Facebook profile URLs if they didn’t list anything themselves. You can choose whether or not to sync profile pictures, but that’s the only customization option you have. Still, it’s a very welcome feature.

A Minor Quibble

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You’ll probably want to customize your push notification settings right away, because we quickly discovered that all notifications options are on by default: messages, wall posts, friend requests, friend confirmations, photo tags, events and comments. It can get a little spammy, and if you already have e-mail notifications set up (and push e-mail on your phone) you’ll end up getting double notifications for some things. It’s a small hassle, but easily sorted out.

Tags: apple, facebook, facebook for iphone, facebook for iphone 3.1, iphone app store, push notifications, social networking, trending

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Since the web first heard about Google’s Nexus One smartphone — sorry, “superphone” — reactions have been mixed. Some folks expected it to be a huge leap forward in the Android user experience. Others? Not so much.

Now that we know what Google and HTC have on tap, we can finally come to some conclusions about whether or not the new handset is worth your money. We’ve come up with a list of the four happiest pros and four saddest cons. Take a look and let us know if you agree.

Pro: Tweet and Text While Driving With Voice Recognition

Google and HTC are very excited about the Nexus One’s ability to accept voice dictation for any text field — web search, SMS text messaging, Twitter, e-mail — you name it. While the technology isn’t perfect, it’ll work in a pinch. You should be able to solve that dangerous texting-while-driving problem, if nothing else. This is currently the only major feature unique to the Nexus One.

Con: It’s Not a VoIP Data Phone Revolution

Rumors were circulating that the first Google-branded phone would forgo traditional cellular voice networks all together by making all phone calls over data networks. The VoIP-only plan would have been a game changer, eliminating restrictions on minutes and giving you more freedom to make calls when and where you want. Sadly, that rumor turned out to be false. The Nexus One is the same as other handsets when it comes to making phone calls. We hoped for more radical innovation from a company like Google.

Pro: Android 2.1 Interface Overhaul

The most significant change to Android is largely an aesthetic one. The Nexus One runs Android 2.1, which adds several 3D user interface features and overhauls both Android’s home screen and its gallery application. Android 2.0’s home screen interface won’t drop any jaws, but the Nexus One uses that powerful Snapdragon processor to pull off some elegant tricks.

Con: Android 2.1 Will Show Up on the Droid Too

During the press Q&A session that followed the Nexus One’s announcement, a Google rep confirmed that the new Android software will appear on the Motorola Droid and any other Android phones with the hardware to run it. That might even include the phone’s voice recognition features. That means the Nexus One’s software superiority will be short-lived.

Pro: Carrier Choice

The Nexus One is available unlocked, albeit at the steep price of $530. Though it’s selling at a reduced, on-contract rate only through T-Mobile to start with, Verizon will get its own Nexus One deal in the Spring. Vodafone is on the list for 2010 as well. By contrast, the iPhone is currently only available through AT&T, and the Droid is exclusive to Verizon.

Carrier choice offers greater encouragement for competition between carriers to provide the best data networks. It also makes the phone an option for people who are already committed to a certain carrier. Basically, it’s always better for the consumer. Kudos to Nexus One for being one of only a few high-end smartphones to appear on more than one carrier in the United States.

Con: No Multitouch. Still.

Like several of its Android predecessors, the Nexus One’s hardware is capable of reading touch input from more than one finger at a time, but the software does not support it. If you’re accustomed to pinching to zoom in Google Maps on your iPhone, or to playing 3D games on a touchscreen without using physical buttons, this is a big disappointment. It’s not a surprise anymore, though, and it’s not likely to change right away, since it’s still unclear if Apple’s patent on pinch-to-zoom gestures will hold up.

Pro: Google Voice Is Built-In

Google Voice does several neat things: It lets you access your voice mail from your computer, transcribe your voice mails to text, and place comparatively cheap international calls. All of these features are included in a Google Voice app that’s pre-loaded on every U.S. Nexus One. It’s essentially the same as the existing BlackBerry and Android Google Voice apps.

Con: The Music Player App Is Still Sub-Par

The Android music player application has never earned high marks from gadget nerds and reviewers. Sadly, it remains completely unchanged on the Nexus One. If you were hoping to jam in style, well… keep hoping.

Is the Nexus One a worthy competitor to the iPhone 3GS, the Palm Pre, and the Motorola Droid? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Tags: android, Android 2.0, android 2.1, droid, Google, Google Voice, htc, multitouch, nexus one, smartphone, T-Mobile, verizon, vodafone, voice recognition, voicemail, voip

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Some people just have problems keeping track of their mobile phones. For those people, the ZOMM Wireless Leash is here to save you. The so called “Wireless Leash” tethers to your mobile phone via Bluetooth and then attaches to your keyring. If you get too far from your phone, it sounds an audible alarm to alert you that something is wrong.

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I’ll start with this: I have, in my hands, the Google Nexus One, courtesy of Google (that’s my disclosure). Officially revealed today, the Google Phone boasts powerful internal hardware, a 3.7″ AMOLED display, and the most advanced Android software to date. It feels light and sleek in my hands, but I didn’t get this thing just to gawk at it. No, I want to find out whether it’s a better phone than the iPhone and the Droid.

Several publications have already played with the Nexus One and written extensive reviews. We’re going to do something different, though. For the next 45 minutes, I will play with the Nexus One on live video, demoing its many features.

Part of the reason for the live stream today is that we want you to tell us what you want to see. Do you want me to try out apps? How about Google Voice? Maybe you’re most curious about the live wallpapers? Just make your requests in the social stream chat below the live video. Here we go!

Tags: Google, google phone, Mobile 2.0, nexus one

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The Google Phone, a.k.a. the Nexus One, has officially launched and can now be ordered directly from Google. The phone boasts impressive technical specs and features the latest version of the Android operating system, and comes in an industrial design that is both striking and unassuming. So why do I feel like we’ve all been punk’d?

Last month, as details about the Nexus One began to leak out, I wanted to know how this phone was different from any other Android device. It turns out, it’s not. It isn’t that the Nexus One doesn’t look like a great phone, it does, but what about all that talk of the phone being a paradigm-shifting game-changer?

The Nexus One looks like an awesome Android phone — one of many awesome Android phones we expect to see in 2010 — but the only unique feature to its name is how the phone is being made available. You have to get it from Google’s own portal.

Clearly Google has its eyes on launching an Android Handset marketplace of sorts, and the Nexus One is the first step. Great, you can buy a phone direct and unlocked or get it on a contract. Aside from being tied to Google, I fail to see how that differs from buying from a carrier website or from some place like Amazon.com.

Honestly, it seems that the biggest takeaway from the event was that Google wants to control more of the entire Android experience, even if it means making themselves a middleman to actually distribute the phone. That in and of itself is interesting, but it seems completely unrelated to the phone.

I guess that’s why the Nexus One hype machine and chamber of secrecy has me so confused. It’s not about the phone, it’s about completing a circuit. Google can now control the point of sale system, too, and can arguably use the power of its brand to move more units and drive greater Android-awareness.

What are your thoughts on the Nexus One?

Tags: android, gadgets, Google, nexus one, tech

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The Google Phone has been officially revealed. After weeks of leaks and revelations, the search giant is finally telling the story behind its self-branded smartphone, which Google calls a “Superphone.”

In its announcement, Google brought out Peter Chou, the CEO of HTC, the creator of the hardware of the Nexus One, to explain the genesis of the phone, as well as members of the Nexus One Google team. Here are some of the things we’ve learned so far:

- The specs match previous leaks. It’s a 3.7″ AMOLED display with a trackball.

- It comes with features such as a light sensor, GPS, and accelerometer. These are all features pioneered by Apple’s iPhone.

- It’s 130 grams in weight and 11.5 mm in width, about the width of a standard #2 pencil.

- The camera is 5MP with LED flash.

- The audio has received an upgrade. It has two microphones, one of which is used for noise cancellation.

- Customization is a key to the Nexus One. There are five home screens to customize your interface.

- Google showed off some of its dynamic touchscreen features of the software. For example, one of the wallpapers is a lake with leaves. When you touch it, it will ripple. It’s quite nifty, actually.

- They worked with the team at CoolIris to visualize photons on the Nexus One in a 3D environment. If you tap on an album, you’ll be able to quickly scan and load photos. You can also tip and dip photos based on your hand motions and the accelerometer.

- Every text field is voice-enabled. Every time you speak, it will process your speech into text. It gets better and better the more you use it.

- You’ll be able to buy the phone at the Google web store, which was leaked last week. You can find it at Google.com/Phone. It costs $179 on T Mobile with a two-year contract.

- It will be on Verizon in Spring 2010. Europe’s Vodafone will also support the Nexus One later this year.

Overall, it’s what we expected: a slick, fast Android smartphone meant to be a true competitor to the Apple iPhone. It provides some new features (the voice technology is especially impressive) and is fast, but we’ll have to wait to see whether or not this is the phone that will give Apple a run for its money.

Screenshots

<img src="http://www.neurosoftware.ro/programming-blog/wp-content/plugins/wp-o-matic/cache/dae46_nexusone2.jpg".

<img src="http://www.neurosoftware.ro/programming-blog/wp-content/plugins/wp-o-matic/cache/50b32_nexusone7.jpg"

Live Stream

Live stream, thanks to Robert Scoble and Building43.

Tags: Google, google phone, nexus one, trending

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You can create invoices and hand it to your customer, email, text or call. They can pay on your phone or theirs.

Quick and easy to set up, very easy to use. Start charging your customers on your phone (or theirs) using credit cards or, if they prefer, PayPal or Google Checkout. Use one payment method or all three. This gives your customers a choice on how they want to pay. ’Making it easy to pay means you get paid sooner and more often. Think about the possibilities!

Signing up for Mobile Invoicer is not a long term decision. You can continue or cancel at will. Use it for the next few months then cancel it during your off season. No problem. It’s easy to set up. Easy to use.

http://www.mobileinvoicer.com/

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People in the US have been unable to use the service so far. There has been talk that this may soon change upon the launch of Google’s Nexus One phone, but this may not happen. There was rumored to be a US Spotify app for Google’s Android ready just in time for the launch of the phone. Michael Arrington reports:

The two companies sketched out a plan where Spotify’s excellent Android application would be build [sic] into the 2.1 version of Android and would launch in the U.S. with the Google Nexus One phone on January 5. The application – which is available in Europe and allows for offline syncing of songs – would give Google a much-needed competitive answer to Apple’s iTunes. The Android could realistically be seen as a media consumption device, like the iPhone, with things like Spotify built into it.

Google wanted Spotify badly enough that they were willing to cover the label costs for every user of $3 – $4 per month. Spotify would add advertising on top of it, as they do with the free version in Europe, to make additional revenue. Without Google paying those label fees there was no way Spotify could handle the costs of the user flow that 2.1 would provide. Currently, European users must pay for Spotify Premium to use the mobile versions of the service.

Those in the US waiting to get their hands on Spotify may have to wait though. Arrington says his sources indicate that the deal has likely "gone cold," but he says there is a chance Spotify could still be part of Google’s Nexus One announcement, slated for Tuesday, January 5.

Such a deal could mean big things for sales of Android devices and really give the iPhone a run for its money. It’s going to be quite interesting to see how the smartphone competition plays out over the course of 2010. This is only the beginning. Even if a deal is not made, Google is clearly interested in the musical side of mobile, and will likely pursue other options.
 

Related Articles:

> Google Phone Excitement Builds Ahead Of Jan. 5 Event

> Android Crowds iPhone In New comScore Report

> New Google Phone Has Tech Community Licking Chops

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With the Google Nexus One launch and the gadget show CES both taking place next week, it’s shaping up to be a weekend of hardware rumors. The latest requires the usual cautions: it’s a single anonymous source, and the parties involved have not commented publicly.

Nonetheless, BoyGeniusReport (which has a decent hit rate on its rumor reportage) claims that the Google Nexus One (aka “Google Phone“) will be made in an unlocked version compatible with AT&T’s 3G network:

…we’ve heard from a source that there will be an AT&T 3G-compatible version of the Google Nexus One. Our connect described it as being a “second” unlocked model, with the T-Mobile-subsidized unit being locked to T-Mobile. Our tipster was so impressed by a Nexus One in person, they said they would 100% give up their T-Mobile BlackBerry 9700 for one when it’s available.

So little is known about Google’s deals with carriers that we’d urge caution on this until the Nexus One launch on Tuesday.

Tags: att, google phone, nexus one

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The next few weeks are going to be extremely busy for gadget fans. All reports indicate that the Nexus One — also known as the Google Phone — will be officially unveiled on January 5, 2010 at a Google press event.

Android not striking your fancy? Well Apple will be holding their own media event on January 26, 2010 and some reports suggest that the illusive Apple tablet — perhaps named the iSlate — will be unveiled. Already we’re hearing predictions of 10 million units sold the first year for a product that doesn’t even officially exist yet!

With two potentially huge announcements from two high profile companies, we want to know, what product are Mashable readers most excited to see, the Google Nexus One or the Apple iSlate?

Take our poll and let us know! Also feel free to explain your choice in the comments!

What Excites You More: Google Nexus One or the Apple iSlate?(surveys)

Tags: Apple Tablet, google phone, iSlate, nexus one, Tablet

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Communications giant AT&T wants to get rid of landlines. The phone empire sent a 32-page filing to the American FCC, asking that regulations that make it support an analog landline phone network be phased out, allowing them to go entirely with VOIP-provided phone service. This could be troublesome for the 1 in 5 Americans who don’t use a cell phone or VOIP line, and still use the old fashioned landline.

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A tipster (presumably within Google) leaked web design documents that show off the upcoming storefront for the Nexus One (aka – The Google Phone). Google will be asking a steep $530 for the unlocked phone, or $130 for a two-year T-Mobile contract. T-Mobile will be offering only one rate plan with the phone, unlimited voice, web and texting for $80.

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Smartphone users are starting to tax the capacity of mobile phone networks amid the surging popularity of Apple Inc.’s iPhone and other multimedia handsets from rivals like Palm Inc. — forcing a rare public apology from one of the U.K.’s top wireless providers.

In an interview published Tuesday, the head of Telefonica SA’s O2 U.K. division acknowledged the network problems encountered by some its customers in central London since the summer, and said the company is working to resolve them and investing in more 3G network capacity.

“Where we haven’t met our own high standards then there’s no question, we apologise to customers for that fact,” O2 U.K. Chief Executive Ronan Dunne told the Financial Times. He added: “But it would be wrong to say that O2 has failed its customers en masse.”

Across the U.K, there has been an 18-fold increase in data usage over the past year, said O2 spokesman Nick Wilkins, as users of high-end smartphones surf the Web or watch videos at a higher rate than other phone users. At the moment, data usage is doubling every four months, he said.

In February, O2 revealed it had more than one million iPhone customers in the U.K. Mr. Wilkins couldn’t provide any up to date figures. He also wouldn’t say how many overall smartphone customers it had.

O2’s two-year iPhone exclusively agreement in the U.K. came to an end recently following France Telecom SA’s Orange agreement to sell the iPhone. Subsequently, Vodafone PLC and Tesco PLC have secured similar iPhone deals.

On top of the £500 million already spent on its U.K. network over the last two years, O2 has spent a further £30 million in London since the summer trying to resolve the network problems, O2’s Mr. Wilkins said.

The O2 apology was the second time this week that heavy data usage by iPhone users has drawn questions. On Monday, AT&T Inc. resumed online sales of the iPhone to New Yorkers, after they were unable to buy the device phone on AT&T’s Web site over the weekend.

The interruption — and AT&T’s lack of explanation — was noted on several blogs, adding fuel to questions about whether the company’s network can handle iPhone traffic, especially in dense urban markets. A terse statement from AT&T Monday said “we periodically modify our promotion and distribution channels.” An AT&T spokesman declined to comment on why the carrier temporarily stopped online sales of the iPhone. – Niraj Sheth in New York and Archibald Preuschat in Dusseldorf contriibuted to this article.

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Endgadget’s Chris Ziegler said on Wednesday that the Nexus One will be available on January 5th on an invite-only basis to start. “Our tipster doesn’t have information on how those invites are going to be determined, other than the fact that it’s Google doing the inviting — if we had to guess, current registered developers are a strong possibility,” he wrote.

Also on Wednesday, Gizmodo’s Jason Chen wrote about a “clandestine meeting with a source” who allowed him to give the Nexus One a test run, to the tune of a rave review. Mr. Chen went so far as to call it “Google’s Droid killer,” and wrote that, in comparison to Motorola’s Droid, “it’s thin, it’s fast, it’s better in every way.”

In a test alongside the Droid and the iPhone 3GS, Mr. Chen reported that the Nexus One loaded Web pages the fastest, followed by the iPhone 3GS a few seconds later, and the Droid coming in last. He also said it felt slightly lighter and slimmer than the iPhone, and though it has the same screen size and resolution as the Droid, “the colors are much more vibrant and the blacks are blacker.”

Mr. Chen summed it up by writing: “If you want Android phones, this is the one to get, provided Google goes ahead with the rumored plans of either selling it themselves or partnering with T-Mobile in a more traditional role. Droid, shmoid; Nexus is the one you’re looking for.”

Google employees couldn’t resist tweeting about the new Nexus One back in mid-December, after which the Google mobile blog made a cryptic allusion to a test run of sorts of an unnamed mobile device among its employees, adding that “we cannot share specific product details.”

But that didn’t stop a series of leaked photos of the Nexus One from emerging. The Boy Genius Report’s Andrew Munchbach and others have shown leaked photos of the device, and the blog AndroidGuys posted a video that was evidently shot in France in which the Nexus One is demoed for a full five minutes. Among the alleged specs are that the HTC phone will have a 3.7 inch AMOLED touchscreen, 512 MB of RAM, and a 4GB SD card that’s included but is expandable to 32GB.

And TechCrunch reported the juicy tidbit that Google would be selling an unlocked version of the phone, meaning that users would be able to make their own selections for wireless carriers. Reuters said that there would be two versions of the phone: one unlocked, and one that involves a contract with wireless carrier T-Mobile.

Whether the Nexus One launches on Jan. 1, 2010, as predicted by wired.com, or a few days later at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, consumers have mixed feelings about the new smartphone from Google.

Commenter Siddharth on Endgadget wrote: “awesome processor – check.
Android 2.1 – check.
3.7 AMOLED screen – check.
good form factor – check.

DEFINITELY buying.. Folks from google – pick me! pick me! pick me! :p”

But user kindwar on the same site said: “I’m very happy with T-Mobile; I would love to see a phone that competes with the iPhone so I do not have to live in the precarious land of the unlocked/jailbroken but this phone is a looser [sic]. It will be hyped by the Android fanboys and may be enough of a satisficer for the wanabees but responsive multi-touch is baseline functionality for this new market — you don’t have it, you’re not in the game.”

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The Nexus One, also known as the Google Phone, has been making a stir this month after details began to emerge about the project. Earlier today, we learned that the phone will likely be revealed on January 5th at a Google press conference (which we will be covering).

Information on the phone’s already starting to leak through the Google gates, though. Screenshots obtained by gadget blog Gizmodo reveal one of the most important details about the device: its price.

The screenshots seem to be the future landing pages for the Google phone. It will apparently go live soon at google.com/phone and be the sole portal for purchasing your very own Nexus One. And while we cannot verify the accuracy of these screenshots, the information presented makes sense.

Here are some of the key details you should know:

- Price: $530 unsubsidized and unlocked (ouch!), $180 subsidized on the T-Mobile network with a 2 year contract.

- Rate Plan: $79.99 per month on T-Mobile, which includes unlimited texting/MMS and web data, along with 500 minutes. This seems to be the only plan available, even if you’re already on another plan with T-Mobile

- Purchasing: You can buy up to five Nexus One phones per Google account.

- Cancellation: If you cancel within 120 days, you have to pay the subsidy difference ($350) or return the phone to Google.

The subsidized price makes it competitive with the iPhone and the Verizon Droid, but we won’t know how well the phone sells or if people will pay the $530 price tag for an unlocked phone until it launches. Let us know what you think of the price in the comments.

[via Gizmodo]

Tags: Google, google phone, nexus one

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Watching TV on your cell phone or a PMP via a receiver has never been popular in the United States, but LG electronics hopes to change that. The Korean electronics super-giant is planning to introduce some new products for the American market that they hope will get Americans hooked on mobile television.

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Read the rest of LG To Debut Mobile TV Standards In US [LG Electronics Hoping To Bring Mobile TV Watching To The US, Unveiling At CES Planned]

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Evidence continues to mount that the Google Phone, a.k.a. Nexus One, will make its debut during the first full week of the new year. The latest: an update to an internal T-Mobile website that says, “Google, with support from T-Mobile, is scheduled to launch a new Android device in early January.”

This confirms earlier reports that suggested the device would launch on or around January 5, which makes sense given CES is also taking place that week. The update also confirms that the phone will be sold directly by Google via the web, with T-Mobile offering “billing, coverage, features and rate plans.”

Other key details, like Google’s retail pricing and potential discounts that might come with a T-Mobile contract remain to-be-determined. What appear to full specs of the device, however, were leaked on the web last week.

Tags: Google, google phone, nexus one, T-Mobile

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Originally posted at Relevant Results

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