MobileCrunch |  |
- BlackBerry Curve 9360 May Have Mobile Hotspot, But What About The Rest?
- One Billion Shakes Later, Urbanspoon Goes After OpenTable
- Upcoming Samsung Hercules Spotted Mingling At Canadian Party?
- Sprint Unveils Their First $100 4G Android Phone: The Samsung Conquer 4G
- Do You Live In An Android State Or An iPhone State?
- Verizon Roadmap Promises September 8 Launch For Droid Bionic Superphone… Finally
| BlackBerry Curve 9360 May Have Mobile Hotspot, But What About The Rest? Posted: 05 Aug 2011 12:10 PM PDT  The recently revealed BlackBerry Curve 9360 is proving to be a surprising bit of hardware. Not only did it (thankfully) get rid of the chintzy chrome-ish highlights of its last iteration, IntoMobile reports that it also packs a a more competitive hardware configuration (hello NFC!) and a little feature hidden in the settings that doesn’t seem to have popped up on any other OS 7 device recently: mobile hotspot. While the 9360 (affectionately referred to as the “Apollo”) is a significant upgrade for the budget-conscious BlackBerry owner, this development adds a bit of confusion to the mobile hotspot question. Like I mentioned, recent hands-on outings with the other new BlackBerry models haven’t turned up any sign of mobile hotspot support. Funny, considering the BlackBerry Bold 9900 was widely reported to have the feature months ago, only to disappear in subsequent releases. Strangely, the new Blackberry Torches also don’t make mention of hotspot support, which is odd since it’s meant to be the more prestigious device. Two possibilities come to mind. It’s entirely possible that the pictured Curve is running an old build that retains the feature, and the photo only just now made it into the wild. The other is that mobile hotspot inclusion will be a carrier-level decision, meaning some customers get it and others don’t. Either one seems plausible, but the bigger question is why RIM is being so coy about this whole thing? For a company with such pronounced focus on trying to stay relevant and meeting the needs of their establish business customer base, it seems totally odd that they wouldn’t mention a great mobility option for road warriors and travelers alike. There’s no reason not to mention it, considering all RIM would have to do is add a bullet point to a spec sheet. A little clarity from RIM going forward could go a long way for the right customers.
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| One Billion Shakes Later, Urbanspoon Goes After OpenTable Posted: 05 Aug 2011 10:58 AM PDT  One of the all-time most popular restaurant apps on mobile is Urbanspoon (iTunes link). It is still one of the top 10 travel apps on the iPhone. The app’s signature gesture is a shake to find nearby restaurants. Urbanspoon just passed one billion shakes and has been downloaded 20 million times across all mobile platforms (iOS, Android, Blackberry). In March 2010, it hit 500 million shakes, so it’s doubled in less than a year and half. But what exactly is the value of a shake? Well, the apps run ads as does the website. With 100 million pageviews a month across those apps and the web, shakes turn into ad impressions. But the real play here is restaurant reservations. Urbanspoon is going after OpenTable. Last year, Urbanspoon launched Rezbook, an iPad app that allows restaurants to take reservations directly from the Urbanspoon app and site. “Two years ago, an online reservation system required a massive upfront investment,” notes Kara Nortman, the senior VP at IAC in charge of Urbanspoon (and CityGrid Media). Now, all they need is an iPad and a simple app. Currently, only about 800 restaurants are on the Rezbook system, out of 800,000 listed in Urbanspoon. When they show up in Urbanspoon, users can book a table. Nortman says that Urbanspoon is seating 19,000 diners a month at those 800 restaurants, which comes to about 24 diners per month per restaurant. OpenTable, in contrast, seats an average of 450 diners a month per restaurant, but it’s been at this a lot longer. Urbanspoon has only tapped one thousandth of the restaurants in its listings, and is now starting to sign them up in a more serious effort after testing the service. “As more and more consumers think of Urbanspoon as a place to discover and then follow-up with a real-time reservation, we should see this number grow,” says Nortman. She sees her mobile app as her competitive advantage because it is more immediate. For reservations made from the Urbanspoon app, 22 percent are made within the hour and 77 percent within 24 hours. Of course, OpenTable also has a great mobile app for making reservation which covers many more restaurants right now. But Urbanspoon sees an opening and is going after it. Urbanspoon allows users to find everything about local restaurants. Users can read user submitted recommendations and reviews as well as from critics. It was acquired by IAC... OpenTable provides a restaurant management system for restaurateurs called the ERB (Electronic Reservation Book). In addition, the company operates OpenTable.com, a website for making restaurant reservations online. The website...
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| Upcoming Samsung Hercules Spotted Mingling At Canadian Party? Posted: 05 Aug 2011 10:35 AM PDT  What would happen if the Samsung Galaxy S II and the Samsung Infuse 4G met up, had a few drinks, and got a bit frisky? If you ignore the fact that phones aren't capable of mating, the product of that one-night stand would probably look a lot like the phone featured in this leaked image — what seems to be the Samsung Hercules. Thanks to the folks at MobileSyrup and a sneaky tipster attending last night's Samsung Mobile event in Canada, the first blurry-cam shot of this mythical handset has finally arrived. Obviously, the device pictured doesn’t sport any T-Mobile branding, but that’s because this one’s on Telus (thus, the Canada reference). Along with that beastly Infuse-esque 4.5-inch touchscreen, there are also four capacitive buttons along the bottom like the Infuse, rather than the optical trackpad seen on the S2. The Hercules certainly favors its baby daddy with that Infuse-style look and feel, but under the hood things are looking pretty similar to the S2. Leaked specs include a dual-core 1.2GHz processor under Android 2.3 Gingerbread (same as the S2), NFC support, 16GB of internal storage, an 8-megapixel rear-camera that shoots in 1080i, and a front-facing shooter for video chat. MobileSyrup speculates that the forward-facing camera could clock in at 2-megapixels, though there's no way to be sure until Samsung gives official word. The tipster also claims that this will be the first 42Mbps smartphone in Canada, giving reason to think it might get the same title here in the States with T-Mo. T-Mobile is a mobile telephone operator headquartered in Bonn, Germany. It is a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom. T-Mobile has 101 million subscribers making it the worlds sixth largest mobile...
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| Sprint Unveils Their First $100 4G Android Phone: The Samsung Conquer 4G Posted: 05 Aug 2011 07:52 AM PDT  It looks like it’s go time for the Samsung Conquer 4G. Upon Sprint‘s announcement this morning, we have a few more specs to offer you along with a launch date — August 21. Just as we expected, the handset will go for $100 as long as you sign on the dotted line of a two-year agreement. As it turns out, we had most of the specs already pegged. What we didn’t know is that the low-res front-facing shooter will clock in at 1.3 megapixels and the phone will, for certain, run Android 2.3 Gingerbread out of the box. Along with that, already-known specs include a single-core 1GHz processor, a 3.2 rear-facing shooter (with flash and zoom in tow), Sprint ID, and a 3.5-inch touchscreen with 320×480 pixels of resolution. Obviously, the Conquer 4G isn’t what you’d necessarily call a beast, but for the price it’ll certainly get the job done.
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| Do You Live In An Android State Or An iPhone State? Posted: 05 Aug 2011 07:47 AM PDT  It is clear by now that Android is winning the overall mobile market share battle in the U.S. among smart phones. But how does the battle break down by state? Mobile ad network Jumptap put out a report this morning (embedded below) with a map showing which states have more Android activity versus iOS activity across its network that reaches 83 million mobile users. According to Jumptap, Southern and Western states like Florida, Texas, California, and Oregon over-index for Android. Whereas the Midwest and New England states are dominated by Apple devices. Strangely, New York state is neither. It is one of the few remaining Blackberry strongholds. (I’m sorry, that’s just embarrassing, and I live in New York). Overall Android market share is 38 percent versus 33 percent for Apple’s iOS, as of June. By comparison, comScore just released market share estimates on U.S. mobile subscribers yesterday that puts Android at 40 percent and Apple at 26.6 percent. The Android numbers are close, and the large difference in iOS share could be because Jumptap is counting iPod touches while comScore is not. (Jumptap is concerned with ad impressions in mobile apps, comScore looks at smartphones only). What is clear is that there are more Android phones in the U.S. than iPhones. But more is not necessarily better. If you drill down to JumpTap’s click-through rates, iOS still performs better for adevrtisers. Mobile ads on iPhones, iPads, and iPod Touches are clicked on 0.78 percent of the time compared to 0.47 percent for Android (and 0.36 percent for Blackberry). Remember, this data is only based on the activity on Jumptap’s own network, which could be skewed one way or another, but it sounds about right. The sad thing is that a 0.78 percent click-through is the best the mobile ad industry can do right now. Forget Android versus Apple for a moment. What that data says is that mobile ads are failing across the board. JumpTap, Inc. provides mobile search and mobile advertising solutions for the Apple tablet in North America and Europe. It offers search engine, ad network, advertisers, operators, content publishers, paid... iOS is Apple’s operating system for their mobile devices. It debuted in 2007 with the release of the first iPhone, but has since been extended for use with the...
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| Verizon Roadmap Promises September 8 Launch For Droid Bionic Superphone… Finally Posted: 05 Aug 2011 07:11 AM PDT  Well, look what we have here. Turns out that CEO Sanjay Jha of a little company called Motorola wasn’t lying when he said the long-awaited (like, really long-awaited) Droid Bionic will hit Verizon shelves in September. September 8, to be exact. At least, that’s what this leaked Verizon document obtained by IGN is telling us. And that’s not all it had to say. Apparently an unannounced BlackBerry Curve 9370 4G will also be making an appearance on September 8, along with the 4G LTE Xoom from Motorola. Another mystery phone, the Samsung Stratosphere, will also launch on the 8th, and is said to be a 4G Android 2.3 device. Some believe that this will be the successor to the Samsung Fascinate, a Verizon-branded Galaxy S variant. Then again, we’ve heard reports that the Galaxy S II will be called the Function for Verizon, so this one’s a bit of a question mark. Past that we see what looks to be a successor to the LG Revolution landing on October 20, and a 4G radio-equipped device listed as the Samsung Galaxy Tab P8 — what we assume will be the Galaxy Tab 8.9 — slated to hit shelves in November. We’re also seeing another curious handset set for a September 29 launch, which is supposedly designed specifically for the ladies: the HTC Bliss. The HTC Vigor, a replacement for the ThunderBolt, should hit shelves October 5. Check out the larger image after the break. Motorola is a telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois. It is a manufacturer of wireless telephone handsets, also designing and selling wireless network infrastructure equipment such as cellular transmission... Verizon Communications Inc. delivers broadband and other wireline and wireless communication innovations to mass market, business, government and wholesale customers. Verizon Wireless operates America’s largest wireless network that...
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