- January 31, 2011 12:23 pm
The latest update in the India vs. RIM debate shows us that the argument rages on, with RIM promising end users that corporate email won’t be cracked, and that it is in fact impossible to do so. The Indian government on the other hand has stood their ground, stating that either access will be granted or BlackBerry services will be shut down in the country. From a business standpoint, being blocked from providing services in India is a bad thing considering the tens of millions (and more) potential customers. On a human level, the government doesn’t need or deserve access under the false guise of “security”.
I guess we’ll find out who cracks soon — the deadline was set for the end of January. And so far, neither side is budging.
A picture is worth a thousand words — Minutes are your standard 450/900/Unlimited affair and costing $39.99/$59.99/$69.99 per month. SMS comes in at 250/500/Unlimited for $5/$10/$20. Finally, Data is either $29.99 for unlimited use or $59.99 for Unlimited iPhone data + 2GB of hotspot data.
If the above image is correct in terms of pricing, the Motorla Atrix is getting better by the day. With a price for the phone itself rumored around $150 and now the dock — Arguably the coolest accessory for the device as it basically turns it into a laptop! — seen here at only $60 means your $200 is going to go very, very far with the Atrix. Initially, we thought that Motorola and 3rd party accessories would price the Atrix out of the realm of possibility for a fair portion of interested consumers. But as we’ve been seeing over the last couple of weeks, our initial beliefs are (thankfully) being proved wrong. Consider us more excited than ever. Looks like we’ll have to wait until the rumored February 11th launch date to see just how wallet friendly this little gem is going to be.
It was pretty much guaranteed, inevitable, and expected — Android has overtaken Symbian, this according to Canalys’ latest sales figures from Q4 2010. During that period, Android managed to ship on 32.4 million devices compared to Symbian’s 31 million. Now consider that just one quarter before (Q3), Android was only estimated to have shipped on 20.3 million devices. Quite the jump if you ask us. Though truth be told, Symbian has been on a decline for quite some time now, thanks in no small part to internal struggles, lackluster progression on the features front, and fledging support from hardware manufacturers/carriers. Android merely came along at the right time to mop up the mess.
Apple is poised to literally take over Samsung’s application processor (APU) manufacturing facilities with the latest processor powering the iPhone 5 according to the Korea Times. Citing Samsung suppliers, an industry source revealed to the Korea Times that “Samsung has agreed with Apple to quadruple monthly shipments of its mobile AP chips to 20,000 sheets throughout this year from 5,000 last year”. What it means is that a full 50% of Samsung’s output capacity will be dedicated solely to Apple and their latest processor which will see action in this summer’s iPhone 5. Somewhat ironically, this figure will put Apple ahead of even Samsung’s own, in-house devices such as the Galaxy S phones and Galaxy Tab — all of which are powered by (of course) the same basic style of processor…
Apple may know a thing or two about designing beautiful, intuitive user interfaces, but that doesn’t mean other competitors don’t get it right every once in a while as well. Windows Phone 7 in particular is more or less the polar opposite of Apple’s mobile OS. Instead of bright and flashy, WP7 is subdued and extremely minimal in design — truly unique in the modern smartphone world. It is so unique in fact that many people want to port the minimalistic UI to other platforms.
Truth be told, the above theme — called “OS7″ isn’t the first attempt at bringing WP7′s tiled interface to Curpertino’s iDevices, but it is certainly one of best attempts that we’ve seen. Complete with static and live tiles, auto-generated lists, and ability to run independently of Winterboard means OS7 is worth a hard look. Interested individuals can hit up the thread over at ModMyi to get in on the open beta. Oh, one more thing — the theme is plug-in-play, meaning no paid add-ons or third party plugins needed. Nice and easy, like it should be.
Video walk-through after the jump…
Here I was expecting to start Monday morning with a load of happy, intriguing tech news. But instead, all we’ve got is an article of Netgear’s CEO, Patrick Lo, speaking his mind at a launch event in Sydney. During said event, Lo goes on to bash iOS/Steve Jobs and Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 while also praising Android and all of its openness. (Vested interests perhaps?) While many of us can certainly agree that Apple’s closed ecosystem has its fair share of cons, it is doing quite well in both smartphone and tablet categories.
One particular example we find fault with, however, is Lo’s use of the “terrible position movie studios and music labels have been put in” because of “iTunes holding them hostage”. Forgive me, but I could care less about any of those companies, people, or their flawed business models. The movie and music industry has been perfectly ok with screwing over consumers for decades — everything from overpriced goods to actively limiting how people can purchase, view, and enjoy their legally purchased goods. So forgive us if we hope for their demise…
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