MobileCrunch |  |
- With BlackBerry Mobile Fusion, RIM Wants To Help Enterprises Manage Android, iOS Devices
- Show Off Your iPhone’s Guts With iFixit’s Cyber Monday Deal
- eBay Sold Four iPad 2s Per Minute This Cyber Monday Morning
- Rovio Said To Have Turned Down $2.25 Billion Acquisition By Zynga
- AT&T’s LG Nitro HD Gets Official: LTE, 720p Display, $249
- Rovio Impersonators Try To Scam Angry Birds Fans In Android Market
- Microsoft Updates Windows Phone 7 Connector For Mac, Makes It Less Broken
- Viadeo Acquires Contact Management, Syncing Service Soocial
- It’s Still A Feature Phone World: Global Smartphone Penetration At 27%
- Having Galaxy Nexus Volume Woes? Download The Fix Now
- New Siri Hack Will Start Your Car If You Ask Nicely
| With BlackBerry Mobile Fusion, RIM Wants To Help Enterprises Manage Android, iOS Devices Posted: 29 Nov 2011 01:56 AM PST  Research In Motion this morning introduced a new enterprise mobility solution dubbed BlackBerry Mobile Fusion, aiming to help its business and government clients manage employees’ smartphones and tablets running the BlackBerry operating system, but also Android and iOS devices like the iPhone and the iPad. Currently in early beta testing with a limited number of enterprise customers, RIM expects to kick off a closed beta program in January 2012, with general availability scheduled for late March 2012 (pricing unknown). Mobile Fusion will encompass the company’s Enterprise Server technology for BlackBerry devices but combine it with mobile device management capabilities for iOS and Android devices, and will basically enable IT departments within organizations manage a multitude of decices from a single, Web-based ‘control room’. RIM realizes that, increasingly, employees are bringing their own devices to the office, and is trying to cash in on the fact that those devices are increasingly not BlackBerry phones or tablets. In an interview with Reuters, RIM’s VP for Enterprise Product Management, said:
BlackBerry Mobile Fusion will also introduce self-service functionality for employees to secure lost or stolen BlackBerry smartphones and PlayBook tablets.
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| Show Off Your iPhone’s Guts With iFixit’s Cyber Monday Deal Posted: 28 Nov 2011 02:06 PM PST  When Cyber Monday rolls around, everyone’s eyes dart to the big boys like Amazon and Newegg for cheap goods, but niche retailers have their own deals too. Case in point: the DIY repair nuts at iFixit have whipped together a nifty bundle for aspiring iPhone modders who would like to see the fruits of Apple’s design savvy instead of an opaque black panel. For $29, you get one of iFixit’s transparent rear plates for either the GSM iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S, along with the necessary tools to do the job. iFixit has also thrown in a screen protector and one of their liquid-absorbing Thirsty Bags (which I sincerely hope you’ll never need to use). Those of you on the fence may be comforted by the six month warranty iFixit has on these things, but there really doesn’t seem to be much cause for concern. In any case, if the thought of playing with pentalobe screws and peeling the glass plate off of an iPhone has you feeling a bit squeamish, this probably isn’t the deal for you. Considering that the rear panel itself normally costs just north of $50, anyone hoping for a quick, easy, and (I think) handsome mod should give this one some thought. I suppose it goes without saying that the mod will probably void your warranty, but the way I look at it, that’s a small price to pay for an iPhone that isn’t another carbon copy Cupertino obelisk. And hey, if anything should ever go wrong with that modded iPhone, you’ll know exactly where to start hunting for replacement parts.
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| eBay Sold Four iPad 2s Per Minute This Cyber Monday Morning Posted: 28 Nov 2011 12:46 PM PST  Online commerce giant eBay this morning ran a Cyber Monday deal for a white Apple iPad 2 WiFi 16GB, selling the popular tablet for $449 or exactly $50 off the MSRP (+ free shipping). Turns out a lot of people figured that was a great deal. And they were right, too. After all, Apple only discounted the iPad 2 16GB with $41 on Black Friday, so you would indeed have been better off waiting until today and buying it on eBay … if you could get your hands on it quickly enough. An eBay rep tells me that the iPad 2 was on sale for a mere two hours before it was sold out. At that price, people picked up four iPad 2 tablets per minute (or about 480 in total) during that time. There were other deals on eBay that were worth breaking out your wallet for. The company sold a Microsoft Xbox 360 250GB Kinect Bundle for $259.99 – all 1,500 of those on sale were gone in 20 minutes (or 75 bundles sold per minute). eBay also sold a HP 3105m laptop for $199.99, and sold nearly three units per minute to sell out the notebook PC in just over three hours. It also knocked a whopping 58 percent off a RIM BlackBerry PlayBook 32GB ($249), but it hasn’t sold out yet today – which I guess says a lot more about the tablet than it does about eBay.
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| Rovio Said To Have Turned Down $2.25 Billion Acquisition By Zynga Posted: 28 Nov 2011 11:01 AM PST  Ready for this week’s tale of someone turning down an absurd mountain of money in exchange for their company? According to a report by the New York Times, Rovio — makers of the Angry Birds series (and the accompanying heap of Angry Birds merchandise so plentiful that they’ve started opening up retail stores) — turned down $2.25 billion this past summer. The would-be buyer? Zynga. While the report is unconfirmed by Rovio (and Zynga can’t comment, as they’re in the pre-IPO quiet period), the Times cites three sources “briefed on the situation”. The report goes on to add that Zynga also failed to acquire PopCap Games (of Plants Vs. Zombies and Bejeweled fame), with the company rejecting an offer of $950 million… which, considering that they got snatched up by EA for up to $1.3 billion shortly thereafter, was probably a good choice. Rovio has been quite successful in dominating the mobile games space for some time now, and the company has always been quite clear with their plans to evolve into a major media house. But man, $2.25 billion is a lot of plush toys. While I’ve got no direct insight as to why Rovio (might have) turned down two billion dollars, you have to assume it’s at least partially because of a clash of cultures. Zynga is a company that has made their riches by nickel-and-diming players for the most trivial of virtual goods. Rovio, meanwhile, throws out massive content updates in rapid fire, often free of charge. Those two mindsets don’t exactly mesh well, even when billions of dollars are involved.
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| AT&T’s LG Nitro HD Gets Official: LTE, 720p Display, $249 Posted: 28 Nov 2011 10:19 AM PST  AT&T sure isn’t wasting any time on shoring up their LTE lineup: just a few weeks after the HTC Vivid and Samsung GSII Skyrocket hit the scene, AT&T has announced that the LG Nitro HD will hit the streets on December 4 for $249.99. Better known as the Optimus LTE outside of the United States, the Nitro HD sports a pretty impressive spec sheet. As the name would imply, the Nitro sports a high-definition 4.5-inch AH-IPS running at 720p, and an 8-megapixel camera sits on the Nitro’s rear-end. Under the hood is a dual-core 1.5GHz processor, along with 4GB of internal storage and a pre-installed 16GB microSD card. Like most of its kin, the Nitro HD runs Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread, and will probably come preloaded with a host of apps that we’ll uninstall immediately. Though some of the geeky particulars don’t get a mention, the Nitro HD looks like a solid handset on paper. Hopefully using it is just as good, because LG is in dire need of a hit — their handset division spent the past six consecutive quarters wallowing in red ink. LG has committed nearly half of their 2012 capital expenditures budget into revitalizing their mobile phone business, but until their new crop of smartphones hit, I’ll be watching the Nitro very closely.
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| Rovio Impersonators Try To Scam Angry Birds Fans In Android Market Posted: 28 Nov 2011 10:16 AM PST  With Angry Birds, Rovio found a way to transform normal, healthy people into raging bird-flinging addicts. This isn’t really that big of a deal — at least not in most cases — unless some shady app developers begin impersonating Rovio and selling fake apps on the Android Market. Did I mention that some shady app developers have started impersonating Rovio and selling fake apps on the Android Market? Google has been notified of the issue and has responded saying they are working on a resolution, according to The Gadgets. Instead of “Rovio Mobile Ltd.” (which is what you should see under Developer name for any Angry Birds game), the devs are calling themselves simply “Rovio” or other variations of the word, so be sure to look for “Rovio Mobile Ltd.” exactly. Fake apps include Alive 4 Ever, Call of Duty Zombies, Angry Birds 3D, Zombieville, Zombie Highway, Tiny Wings, Catch the Candy, Cut the Rope: Holiday Gift, Rat on a Skateboard, Zombie Gunship, Resident Evil 4, and Siege Hero. Already-scammed customers say that the developers aren’t offering any refunds and that the apps don’t work. If you do a little investigating into one of these rogue apps, you’ll notice that the developer website links lead to dead websites and that the app descriptions are copied and pasted from legitimate apps’ info pages. You should always remember to shop safely in the Android Market, but during the holidays more than ever try to be extra careful reading through reviews, descriptions, and check out the developers’ site before just hitting install.
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| Microsoft Updates Windows Phone 7 Connector For Mac, Makes It Less Broken Posted: 28 Nov 2011 09:00 AM PST  If you’ve been having trouble getting your Windows Phone 7 handset to connect with your Mac (I’m sure the hybrid Mac/WP7-owner exists out there somewhere, right?), it’s time to give it another spin — after you’ve taken a trip to the Mac App Store for an update, that is. Microsoft’s latest release of the Windows Phone 7 Connector is said to fix a number of bugs, including the spotty connectivity that a number of users have reported. The full change list follows:
You can find the update right over here — let us know how it goes, won’t you?
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| Viadeo Acquires Contact Management, Syncing Service Soocial Posted: 28 Nov 2011 08:43 AM PST  French business media are reporting that Viadeo, the professional social network challenging LinkedIn in a number of countries, has acquired Soocial, a Dutch contact management, syncing and backup service provider (via Journal Du Net). The service basically lets users sync all their contacts across their smartphones, email accounts and computers, and lets them manage, clean up and share contacts from their digital address books. Read more on TechCrunch Europe.
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| It’s Still A Feature Phone World: Global Smartphone Penetration At 27% Posted: 28 Nov 2011 07:59 AM PST  With all the talk of iPhone vs. Android these days, it’s easy to forget how the majority of the world’s mobile users still make calls and access data: via feature phones. A recently released report (download) from mobile strategy firm VisionMobile takes a look at today’s mobile marketplace finding that, despite the sharp rise in smartphone shipments over 2010 and 2011, global smartphone penetration (by OS) is at just 27%. Smartphone adoption varies wildly by region, the report finds. Not surprisingly, those markets where 3G coverage is extensive and subscription plans are “post-paid” (as opposed to pre-paid) see the highest smartphone adoption rates. Meanwhile, in markets dominated by pre-paid subscriptions, the real battle is price. Here, Nokia’s mid-tier Symbian platforms and BlackBerry consumer-targeted models are still holding onto significant market share. However, both platforms are now facing threats from low-cost Android phones, thanks to the latter’s pricing versatility. Android devices today sell for anywhere from $100 to $750 (USD), allowing the phones to compete both on the high-end and the low-end of the pricing spectrum. In the North American and European markets, smartphone penetration is the highest, with 63% and 51% market share, respectively. In the Asia-Pacific region (19%), Africa/Middle East region (18%) and Latin America (17%), it’s much lower. As for today’s smartphone leaders, it really is an iPhone vs. Android world out there, since former mobile leader Nokia was slow to react to the iPhone’s coming, and steadily lost ground in the high-end smartphone market. Nokia’s decision to move from Symbian to Windows Phone allowed other Android players an edge, including Samsung, HTC, Motorola, LG, Sony-Ericsson as well as newcomers like Huawei, ZTE, Acer, Dell and Asus. Despite the numerous differences between the two leading smartphone platforms, iOS and Android, there are some notable similarities. Both originate from non-telecom players. Both are monetized indirectly. (Instead of software license sales, they either profit from high-margin device sales or, in Google’s case, enhancing its online ad business). And both are driven by companies able to sustain investments of billions of dollars in order to develop an OS and create the accompanying developer and app ecosystems. And yet, even though it’s “Android vs. iPhone” in terms of consumer choice, VisionMobile says there won’t be a single winner in the smartphone race. Both platforms have reached critical mass with hundreds of millions of users, making it almost impossible to displace them. As for RIM and Windows Phone, the jury’s still out on whether or not there’s even room for a third player and whether Microsoft, with Nokia’s help, can move into position number three. Although the report doesn’t dive into speculation about what happens next, when the rest of the non-smartphone world upgrades their handsets, it does examine the network effects belonging to today’s dominant players. Not only are these platforms winning because of their technological sophistication, but also because of their application ecosystems. With 500,000+ iOS apps and 300,000 on Android, both platforms have reached critical mass. When that occurs, the platform begins to grow exponentially. However, app counts alone aren’t the ultimate measure of long-term health – the sustainability of the developer ecosystem is. What’s interesting is to see the network effects in terms of mobile apps plotted out for all the top smartphone players. Below, the graphs show the number of apps available on a particular platform at a particular point in time, and the number of devices shipped for that platform in the quarter just preceding it. The resulting charts show just how popular Android and iOS are, and how difficult a battle it will be for a third major smartphone player to emerge. You can also see the challenge that Apple faces as it attempts entry into emerging markets to take its share of the feature phone upgraders. As the report notes, Apple has high margin device sales, which means it doesn’t have as much flexibility in terms of hardware discounts as Android does with its $100 phones. But Apple did something else recently – when it brought out the iPhone 4S, it greatly discounted the prices of older model iPhones. The iPhone 3GS became free and the iPhone 4 was just $99, both with 2-year commitments. However, while that’s a viable strategy in attracting price-sensitive consumers in post-paid markets, it’s not necessarily going to be enough to attract pre-paid consumers to switch subscription plans. It’s the data bill that’s the killer, not the initial cost of the phone. Apple knows that it needs compete in the pre-paid market, though. On its Q3 2011 earnings call, COO, now CEO, Tim Cook said, Apple is not avoiding that market. ”We don't want to avoid that market. We know that we need to play there in order to have the kind of volumes that we’d like to have.” And yet, when it came to its pre-paid strategy, Cook only mentioned getting customers to switch plans. ”In some cases, we convince someone to start a post-paid plan because in the long-term, I think, that’s better for the customer, the carrier and us.” If that’s Apple’s pre-paid strategy, it looks like the iOS vs. Android battle in emerging markets may just now be heating up. And given how much of the world is still yet to upgrade, it’s a long fight ahead.
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| Having Galaxy Nexus Volume Woes? Download The Fix Now Posted: 28 Nov 2011 07:52 AM PST  We’re still waiting for our chance to nab a Galaxy Nexus on this side of the pond, but it seems European users haven’t exactly been having the best luck with their first-run devices. Fortunately, it looks like the folks at MoDaCo have a (quasi-official) fix for one of the Galaxy Nexus’s most irritating issues: the dreaded volume bug. If you haven’t seen the volume bug strike before, do yourself a favor and check it out below. When the Nexus hops onto the 900MHz 2G band (or is even placed near another device that is), the volume level can be seen jumping around wildly. Google and Samsung have owned up to the issue and promised a fix, but haven’t officially disclosed the cause of the issue or an official release date. Still, that didn’t stop Google’s Dan Morill from tacitly confirming that it is in fact a hardware issue on his Google Plus account. Thankfully, the fix is a relatively simple software update, so international users can do all the legwork from home. If you’re fed up with flaky volume, you’ve got a choice to make: take the plunge on the pre-release build, or wait until it officially gets pushed out. For what it’s worth, it seems safe enough — according to Paul at MoDaCo, the tweaked ROM is still undergoing some internal testing, but it gets the job done without issue. Installing the fixed ROM isn’t a terribly difficult process, but first-time users who just can’t take it anymore should tread carefully. Oh, and don’t forget to backup your data if you decide to take the plunge — the bootloader unlock required to install the fix will essentially wipe your device in the process.
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| New Siri Hack Will Start Your Car If You Ask Nicely Posted: 28 Nov 2011 06:11 AM PST  While Apple’s engineers toil away deep in the heart of their Cupertino headquarters, developers have taken it upon themselves to make Siri even more impressive than usual. Forget about setting reminders and checking the weather — with a little bit of know-how (and a homebrew proxy server), Siri can start your car for you. Developer Brandon Fiquett is behind this little hack, and boy what a hack it is. Building off the same Siri Proxy server that allowed @plamoni to control a thermostat over WiFi, Fiquett created a plugin that interacts with a PHP script that lives on his own webserver. That PHP script allows Fiquett to send commands to any (registered) car with a Viper SmartStart system, which in this case means his silver Acura TL. The end result is just as impressive as it sounds: when asked, Siri can fire up his Acura’s engine, pop its trunk, lock the doors, and trigger the car’s alarms (not that anyone really pays attention to them). We’ve seen iPhones do similar things before — Disrupt NY winner GetAround has an iPhone app that can unlock the doors of certain rental cars — but doing it with your voice will add a dash of Knight Rider-esque style to anyone’s day. Phone-toting SmartStart fans will find a lot to love about Fiquett’s hack, not least of which is being able to leave that bulky blue control dongle at home. Siri certainly has her fair share of shortcomings, but I’m glad to see developers taking Apple’s baby and running with it. If you’re feeling up to the challenge, Fiquett has made both the Siri Proxy plugin and the SmartStart-friendly PHP script available on GitHub — best of luck, and enjoy living out your Knight Rider fantasies.
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