By Satish |

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

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• Layar back to augmenting your reality on the iPhone after 3-month hiatus
• Skype for Symbian lands on Ovi Store = more than 200 million possible users
• Mobile Boarding Passes Take Off With 1200% Usage Increase In 2009
• Leaked BlackBerry slider photos – man, that's ugly
• Nokia Ovi store now seeing 22 app downloads per second, plus other stats
• Viper SmartStart now lets you start your car from your BlackBerry, too
• Palm webOS 1.4 SDK released to developers, allows apps to record video
• Concept art: the iPhone 4G
• Pricing details for the T-Mobile HTC HD2, and Motorola CLIQ XT leaked
• The Complaint: Apple's Patent Lawsuit Against HTC Is All About Android
• Apple goes for HTC's throat, sues for infringing 20 patents
• Mister Gruber looks at the Winphone
• Nokia releases the "social" C5
• Apple Goes After HTC In Lawsuit Over 20 iPhone Patents
• TomTom's iPhone app to get real-time traffic alerts and Google local search

Layar back to augmenting your reality on the iPhone after 3-month hiatus   Augmented reality app Layar hit the App Store in October 2009, only to be withdrawn by the eponymous Dutch developer of the program a month later due to repeated crashes reported by users. It's been quiet since, but an update for the app just popped up on my iPhone (iTunes link), with the concise and crystal clear description: "We're back!" The company claims that its Reality Browser app now features an entirely re-engineered engine, rendering the app more stable, lightweight and faster. In addition, language support has been broadened to include French, German, Dutch and Italian (with promises of more languages coming soon). The app also appears to sport a new logo. The startup, which recently secured $3.4 million in financing as well as a global distribution agreement with an unnamed handset manufacturer, just sent out an e-mail to its users saying that the app is available on the App Store again. In it, the company claims there are now over 400 'layars' users can view through the camera browser.

Skype for Symbian lands on Ovi Store = more than 200 million possible users   Pretty huge news in our book: Skype has published a free mobile application for Symbian in the Ovi Store, basically enabling over 200 million Nokia handset users to easily download the program and start making free Skype-to-Skype calls from their phones. If I were a carrier, I'd probably be feeling rather nervous right now – and / or infuriated. Skype for Symbian, which you can also download the app straight from the Skype website, will run on any Nokia smartphone using Symbian^1, the latest version of the Symbian platform (see list below). It's not the Skype wasn't already available for Symbian, but its appearance in the Ovi Store will certainly increase awareness of its existence – as well as that of the Ovi Store, for that matter. We recently reported that Nokia's Ovi Store now serves more than 1 million downloads per day as of January 2010 (yesterday they said that number increased to 1.5 million per day or 22 downloads per second), and if the success of the Skype app for the iPhone is any indication, the addition of Skype will lift those numbers up significantly. The app does everything you'd want a Skype app to do, as it includes support for making free calls to other Skype users over Wi-Fi and 3G, instant messaging, picture and video sharing – the whole nine yards. This is the long list of phones that can now accommodate the installation of the Skype Mobile app: Nokia N97, Nokia N97 mini, Nokia X6, Nokia 5800 XpressMusic and Nokia 5530 and the following non-touch devices: Nokia E72, Nokia E71, Nokia E90, Nokia E63, Nokia E66, Nokia E51, Nokia N96, Nokia N95, Nokia N95 8Gb, Nokia N85, Nokia N82, Nokia N81, Nokia N81 8 Gb, Nokia N79, Nokia N78, Nokia 6220 classic, Nokia 6210 Navigator and Nokia 5320. Skype says it will even be updating the app soon to make it function on Symbian mobiles from other handset makers, including Sony Ericsson. Bad news for carriers, good news for most everyone else. (Press release)

Mobile Boarding Passes Take Off With 1200% Usage Increase In 2009   Alright, lets pat the pockets and run through the mental checklist one last time before security: Passport? Check, front pocket. Headphones? Definitely in your backpack. Boarding pass? Uh oh. Where'd that boarding pass go? Oh, that's right! It's on your phone – because you, like a rapidly increasing number of other people, opted to have it sent straight to your handset. Security scans the barcode right off of your handset's display, and you're on your way with one less thing to lose. Trinity Mobile, one of the leading companies behind the mobile ticketing push, is today announcing a 1200% year-over-year increase with their mobile boarding pass offerings. In 2008, Trinity Mobile saw 50,000 users opt-in to receive mobile boarding passes rather than the more traditional options. In 2009, this number shot up to 600,000. That's still a drop in the bucket compared to the number of people flying with ol' fashion boarding passes each and every day – but considering that that growth is almost entirely driven by users picking the option when its offered to them (without any real marketing push by Trinity or the airlines they've partnered with), it's pretty impressive. Jupiter Research backs up the fact that the trend is skyrocketing; according to their 2010 Mobile Ticketing report, over 2 billion mobile boarding passes will be sent out in 2010, with that number expected to blast up to 15 billion by 2014. Anecdotally, I can honestly say I've also noticed a massive uptick in mobile boarding pass usage. As someone who travels somewhat frequently, I've seen at least a handful of people going that route on each trip I've taken over the past few months – especially on flights in Europe. I've yet to be offered a chance to do it myself – but given that I'm the type of person who clutches on to their boarding pass like it's ice water in Hell, I'd jump on it on a heartbeat. What about you? Have you used a mobile boarding pass yet? What were your experiences? [Image Credit: Paramount Pictures]

Leaked BlackBerry slider photos – man, that's ugly   I can't be the only one that thinks this alleged leaked BlackBerry slider is butt ugly. Am I right? Shades of old-school Palm Pilots. It's like they took the Pre and gave it shoulder pads. Landscape QWERTY is the way to go, my friends. Woo! Man, that thing is not looking good. At least the Storm 2 is a good-looking piece of hardware.

Nokia Ovi store now seeing 22 app downloads per second, plus other stats   If you're trying to keep track of how all the app stores are performing in relation to each other (or are otherwise just a stats geek), this one ought to make your day. Nokia has just released a pocketful of statistics regarding their app store, Ovi, detailing just how well it was doing as of the end of February. The Stats: Each registered user has downloaded an average 12 apps since the store launched in May. That seems a bit low, considering that the Ovi Store launched over 9 months ago. Ovi Store is now supported on over 100 devices (60+ of which are Symbian-based). The Ovi store sees the most downloads from Nokia's touch handsets, like the N97, 5800 XpressMusic, and 5530 XpressMusic. New user registrations and downloads both doubled in February as compared to January The top downloading countries (in alphabetical order): France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, UK & Vietnam. On average, the Ovi Store is hitting around 1.5 million downloads each day — which, when broken down, works out to 22 applications download each and every second, around the clock. Solely for the sake of perspective: between September of 2009 and January of 2010, the iPhone App Store averaged about 30.5 million application downloads per day, or 350 per second. In other words, the App Store is pushing out downloads at about 16 times the average rate of the Ovi Store — but, being that Apple's store launched in July of 2008, it also had nearly a full year head start. So what do you think – given Nokia's massive hardware presence around the world (outside of the US, especially) whilst factoring in the relative newness of their App Store, how well do you think Ovi is performing?

Viper SmartStart now lets you start your car from your BlackBerry, too   A few months back, Directed Electronics launched an iPhone app that, when paired with Viper remote start system, would allow you to start your car from just about anywhere on earth. For the bargain price of just $500, you'd never again have to worry about your car being too hot, too cold, or too not on when you got in. Alas, not everyone has an iPhone – what about the remaining chunk of the world that wants to look like James Bond and/or scare people? Today, Direct Electronics is letting another big group of people in on the slightly-extraneous fun with the release of Viper SmartStart for BlackBerry. Depending on what sort of car you've got and what features it makes available to the SmartStart system, the free BlackBerry app can fire up the engine, toggle the door locks, enable and disable the security system, pop the trunk, ring the panic alarm. It can't pick up your dry cleaning or drop your grandmother off at the airport, but we can probably expect that from a (distant) future model. The module that makes your car friendly with the free iPhone app will set you back $200 bucks, which is on top of the $300-or-so security system that you plug it into. That said, if you've already got a compatible remote start system from Viper, Clifford or Python, you'll only need the module and the free app.

Palm webOS 1.4 SDK released to developers, allows apps to record video   It's a bit different than the "developers get the new firmware first" mentality we've grown used to from those other guys, but Palm has now released the SDK for webOS 1.4. The flagship feature of webOS 1.4 (besides Adobe Flash support, which isn't available just yet) is its new found ability to record video. With this latest SDK, access to video recording has been extended to third-party applications — which, as Electronista points out, could open the doors for the likes of Qik, Ustream, and other live video broadcasting applications. There are a handful of other bug fixes, performance upgrades, and little dev-centric features thrown in the mix – but unless you're an uber geek (and I mean that in the most loving way), you probably don't care too much. If you are an uber geek, however, you can find the full SDK changelog along with the SDK download right here. You don't even have to sign an NDA!

Concept art: the iPhone 4G   Who doesn't love a good concept piece? Spaziocellulare forum user "Seraphan" just posted his render of what the iPhone 4G could look like, and his ideas aren't too shabby. Of course, it's one man's idea of what the phone of the future should look like, including an expanded color pallet, built in microSD slot, and front and rear cameras complete with a built in flash on the back. Obviously it's not real, but it's fun to look and dream eh?

Pricing details for the T-Mobile HTC HD2, and Motorola CLIQ XT leaked   Why hello there, Mr. Inventory Screen! How kind of you to pop by and spill all the pricing details on the T-mobile HTC HD2 and Motorola CLIQ XT. Wait – the HTC HD2 will be how cheap? TmoNews just got their mitts all over this screen grab, which clearly shows the pricing details for the slightly underwhelming (but still Android powered!) Motorola Cliq XT along with the awesomely overwhelming (but still Windows Mobile 6.5 powered [frownie face here]!) HTC HD2. The HD2 appears to be coming in at just $199 on contract ($449 off contract), which is a damned awesome price for a phone packing a mammoth 4.3″ display, a 1 Ghz processor, and a 5 megapixel camera. I mean, compare that to last years T-Mobile Touch Pro 2 – that was a far lesser phone (albeit one with a great slide out keyboard, which the HD2 lacks), and it went for $349 — on contract! The CLIQ XT will be going for $129.99, bringing it in at $20 less than the original CLIQ (which, while an older model, has a keyboard). The same tipster also spilled the pricing beans on the Nokia Nuron, essentially a US Version of the Nokia 5230, which should launch on March 17th for $69.99 or $179.99, depending on if you sign a contract.

The Complaint: Apple's Patent Lawsuit Against HTC Is All About Android   Earlier today, Apple issued a press release stating that it has filed suit against cell phone manufacturer HTC for patent infringement. No mention of Android or Google was in the press release. But one of the actual legal complaints, which we've obtained and embedded below, makes no bones about it. As expected, this lawsuit is about Android. HTC, of course, is one of the largest manufacturers of Android handsets. The complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Delaware targets: "certain mobile communication devices including cellular phones and smart phones, including at least phones incorporating the Android Operating System (collectively, "the Accused Products")." By going after the biggest Android manufacturer, Apple is putting all Android cell phone makers—and by extension Google— on notice. Is there any doubt now why Google CEO Eric Schmidt had to resign from Apple's board last year? The battle lines are now drawn. At least one of the patents (No. 7,479,949) lists Steve Jobs as an inventor, and describes a method to use a touchscreen as a graphical user interface "detecting one or more finger contacts with the touch screen display" (i.e. multi-touch). The complete list of patents the complaint says are being infringed include: Patent No. 7,362,331: "Time-Based, Non-Constant Translation Of User Interface Objects Between States" Patent No. 7,479,949: "Touch Screen Device, Method, And Graphical User Interface For Determining Commands By Applying Heuristics" Patent No. 7,657,849: "Unlocking A Device By Performing Gestures On An Unlock Image" Patent No. 7,469,381: "List Scrolling And Document Translation, Scaling, And Rotation On A Touch-Screen Display" Patent No. 5,920,726: "System And Method For Managing Power Conditions Within A Digital Camera Device." Patent No. 7,633,076: "Automated Response To And Sensing Of User Activity In Portable Devices" Patent No. 5,848,105: "GMSK Signal Processors For Improved Communications Capacity And Quality" Patent No. 7,383,453: "Conserving Power By Reducing Voltage Supplied To An Instruction-Processing Portion Of A Processor" Patent No. 5,455,599: "Object-Oriented Graphic System" Patent No. 6,424,354: "Object-Oriented Event Notification System With Listener Registration Of Both Interests And Methods" Another complaint was filed with the ITC and may include other patents, since there are only ten here and Apple claims 20 patents are being infringed altogether. [tc_docstoc docId="27230772" mId="274918" width="630" height="550" slideMode="false" showRelatedDocs="true" showOtherDocs="true" allowdownload="true" url="http://www.docstoc.com/docs/27230772/Apple-vs-HTC"]Apple vs HTC[/tc_docstoc] [crunchbase url="http://www.crunchbase.com/company/apple,http://www.crunchbase.com/company/htc" name="Apple,HTC"]

Apple goes for HTC's throat, sues for infringing 20 patents   Man – what a terrible way to wake up on a Tuesday morning. You roll out of bed, pop onto your favorite gadget blogs to catch up on all the latest news bits. New hardware coming next week.. some service is shutting down in a few months.. your company is being sued by Apple for infringing 20 patents… wait, what? That's what happened to HTC this morning, who only found out that the folks in Cupertino were dropping the lawsuit hammer when they saw the stories lighting up across the web. Apple had literally just filed all the papers when they sent out the press release. Steve himself emerged from the Jobs-cave to put out a comment, and he had no nice words to say: "We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We've decided to do something about it," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours." Engadget reached out to HTC for a response, who confirmed that they'd got wind of the suit by way of the Internet: We only learned of Apple's actions based on your stories and Apple's press release. We have not been served yet so we are in no position to comment on the claims. We respect and value patent rights but we are committed to defending our own innovations. We have been innovating and patenting our own technology for 13 years. The phones allegedly infringing on Apple's intellectual property here are from all ends of the spectrum; from Android to Windows Mobile, from those running Sense/TouchFlo to those that are not. Name a popular phone made by HTC in the last 2 years, and it's called out here: Nexus One, Touch Diamond, Touch Pro2, Imagio, G1. Whether this is Apple's goal or not (and I have a hard time imagining otherwise), this could do massive damage to Android's momentum. HTC is and always has been the guiding hand that lead Android through some tough times — start throwing sticks in the Android machine that is HTC, and things will get tough for Google's OS. We're tearing through this mountain of papers (seriously – it's 700 pages thick) looking for details on exactly which patents HTC is allegedly tromping all over. With that said, I'd be willing to bet my finest pair of pants that HTC's use of multitouch in there somewhere. Update: Yep, looks like multitouch is in there. TechCrunch has torn through the documents and found a number of patents listed, including multitouch and a bunch of others.: Patent No. 7,362,331: "Time-Based, Non-Constant Translation Of User Interface Objects Between States" Patent No. 7,479,949: "Touch Screen Device, Method, And Graphical User Interface For Determining Commands By Applying Heuristics" Patent No. 7,657,849: "Unlocking A Device By Performing Gestures On An Unlock Image" Patent No. 7,469,381: "List Scrolling And Document Translation, Scaling, And Rotation On A Touch-Screen Display" Patent No. 5,920,726: "System And Method For Managing Power Conditions Within A Digital Camera Device." Patent No. 7,633,076: "Automated Response To And Sensing Of User Activity In Portable Devices" Patent No. 5,848,105: "GMSK Signal Processors For Improved Communications Capacity And Quality" Patent No. 7,383,453: "Conserving Power By Reducing Voltage Supplied To An Instruction-Processing Portion Of A Processor" Patent No. 5,455,599: "Object-Oriented Graphic System" Patent No. 6,424,354: "Object-Oriented Event Notification System With Listener Registration Of Both Interests And Methods"

Mister Gruber looks at the Winphone   Mmmm… there's nothing better for lunch than a tasty sandwich of John Gruberisms. Today John looks at Windows Phone, noting his concerns with the platform in his usual calm, inimitable style. The bigger naming question: Why name it "Windows" anything? If Microsoft is going for a clean break, why not a new non-"Windows" name? I think it shows just how perverse Microsoft's obsession with "Windows" is. There's no good way to leverage their Windows PC OS monopoly to extend it to mobile, other than the name, so they're sticking with it. It doesn't even make literal sense. The whole point of the "Windows" name is that it was for a system whose UI revolved around the concept of on-screen windows. There are no windows in the Windows Phone 7 interface. (There's also no Start menu in the WP7 UI; that was the linchpin of UI similarity between Windows (for PCs) and Windows Mobile.) He's not saying much we don't already know but he mentions something I forgot about, the Osborne Effect. If you've ever wondered why camera companies are such dicks when it comes to releasing news, it's because of this. If you have product in channel and pre-announce something, that previous product will be construed, in general, as garbage. Here's a fun example: In 1978, North Star Computers announced a new version of their floppy disk controller, which had double the capacity, to be sold at the same price as their existing range. Sales of the existing products plummeted and the company almost went bankrupt. WinMo users: Will you get behind Windows Phone?

Nokia releases the "social" C5   So you're looking for a Nokia smartphone that's not too smart. Why not try the $183 C5, a candybar S60 phone with 2.2-inch display. It has Ovi Maps built-in and some messaging apps, but seriously, this is a meh-phone. Sorry, Nokia. Next?

Apple Goes After HTC In Lawsuit Over 20 iPhone Patents   Apple is using its strong patent portfolio to fight iPhone competitors in court. Its latest target is HTC. Apple has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against the cell phone manufacturer. The suit involves "20 Apple patents related to the iPhone's user interface, underlying architecture and hardware." Steve Jobs is quoted in a press release saying: "We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We've decided to do something about it. We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours."

TomTom's iPhone app to get real-time traffic alerts and Google local search   TomTom is serious about its iPhone navigation app and the upcoming update brings it one step closer to the feature set found on high-end dedicated GPS units. Version 1.3 is currently held up by App Store reviewers, but when they get done pawing through the code, it will enable real time traffic reports along with a Google-powered local search tool. The addition of the new services pretty much replicates the services found in TomTom's GO Live models. Now users can get traffic reports along with local searches within the app, while dedicated iPhone apps can already get local fuel prices and weather. The dedicated GPS units still offer a bit more navigation goodies, along with larger screens, but the iPhone is nipping at their heels with the latest update. TomTom App for iPhone Update to Include Real-Time Services and Other Enhanced Features ~ TomTom Traffic and Local Search Powered by Google among New Features Coming Soon ~ Concord, MA – March 2, 2010 – A number of new services and features are coming soon to the TomTom app for iPhone, including TomTom Traffic for real-time traffic speed and incident reports, and Local Search powered by Google. The latest update to the TomTom app for iPhone (version 1.3), which has been submitted to Apple for review, will offer these and other soon-to-be-announced enhancements to ensure an optimal, and even more intuitive, navigation experience. "TomTom is fully committed to offering TomTom app users the services and features they demand most," said Tom Murray, vice president of market development for TomTom Inc. "The latest update to the TomTom app for iPhone will offer our highly sought-after real-time traffic service option, enhanced point-of-interest search capabilities and a wide range of other features." - END –

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Free Games on PSP 3004 For Download? ISO, CSO Game Files FAQ The whole point of this post is not to provide games download link for psp 3004, but to share some vital information for the new psp owners and demystify some common questions regarding playing games on a psp 3004. How to download free games on PSP 3004? Actually and more importantly, you need to ask whether is it possible to add downloaded games on psp device? Suppose, you've downloaded free psp games from torrents or file hosting services. So, can you add those psp games on your psp 3004 device and play instantly? PSP games are usually in .iso or .cso format. You can find tons of games for download, these games are actually ripped from the official Sony UMD's and provided for free download. Adding ISO, CSO Games on PSP You can definitely add such files onto your psp! But you need to mod your psp. You can check out this PSP 3004 Hacking Faqs to understand more about this. Once you've an hacked psp device, you can download games and add it onto your psp instantly in the ISO folder which is created once you hack your psp in the root directory. Without doing this you won't be able to play iso, cso games! Free torrent sites are the best ways to download games for your psp 3004. You can also find psp demo games to download and play from the official playstation forum!

How to Convert .html to .Adr Bookmark File For Opera Bookmark Transfer An brief glimpse at the adr opera bookmark file extension and how to convert any html bookmark into .adr file format. Most of web browsers including Firefox and Google chrome saves bookmarks in html format. So, it's easy to transfer bookmarks from Firefox to Chrome, but the solution gets tough when you go about importing bookmarks into other browser which doesn't support html bookmark files. For example, Opera browser saves and imports bookmarks in .adr extension. So, what's this adr file? In short, adr is an address book file built for opera browser so as to maintain and organize the bookmarks. Whether you want to import or export opera browser bookmarks, they're saved in .adr file extension. Transfer Bookmarks From Opera by Converting ADR Bookmark File Let's assume that you want to transfer bookmarks from Firefox to Opera, i.e, from HTML to ADR (as opera supports adr format only and not the html bookmarks) or the other way around.. so how do you do it? You can use this online converter from linkagogo which converts bookmarks into desired format for importing into your favorite browser. In the input field choose your appropriate browser (if chrome, then choose Netscape (also Mozilla Firefox)) and select the type of output, which in our case, is opera browser .adr file output. Browse your bookmark file and let lingagogo convert html to adr file for you Once done, you can import your bookmarks! Thanks to Arpitnext

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• Virgin Mobile USA To Kill Their Postpaid Service (Helio) On May 25th
• AT&T wants to make sure your iPhone works at SXSW
• Video: Hasty hacker hobbles together a Windows Phone 7 skin for older WinMo phones
• Microsoft: No, WinMo 6.5 devices will not be upgraded to Windows Phone 7
• Motorola Cliq XT with T-Mobile branding caught in the wild

Virgin Mobile USA To Kill Their Postpaid Service (Helio) On May 25th Update: This is now confirmed. See Virgin Mobile's statement below. According to a series of tips I've just received from multiple trusted sources, Virgin Mobile USA is planning to shut down the post-paid chunk of their wireless services on May 25th, 2010. You see, there once was a little wireless carrier called Helio. Bringing over all kinds of crazy sliding what-nots from South Korea, they tried their damnedest to offer the coolest cell phones on the block. They also bled money like a busted spigot, burning $710 million before they were ready to call it quits. In June of 2008, Virgin Mobile (who then offered solely pre-paid wireless plans) came along and snatched up Helio for $39 million in stock, primarily to serve as a foundation for their then non-existent postpaid service. A great plan, until Sprint acquired Virgin Mobile just a year later, primarily for their pre-paid service. Sprint obviously already has a big ol' post-paid service, making Virgin Mobile's (relatively small) post-paid service mostly useless. As a result, Virgin Mobile will be ending their postpaid offerings come May 25th, less than two years after they purchased it in the form of Helio. It's currently unclear what will happen to active Virgin Mobile postpaid accounts, though they will presumably be transitioned over to Sprint's postpaid services. We reached out for a comment from the two companies early this morning, and have not yet received a response. Update: We've just confirmed this with Virgin Mobile. Current Virgin Mobile (ex-Helio) customers will not automatically be transitioned to Sprint. Here's what they said: No customer will be automatically migrated to Sprint's postpaid service. However, Sprint has created a special offer for our customers. Current postpaid customers are being given $50 towards the purchase of a Sprint postpaid handset with a new two-year agreement. This credit is in addition to any applicable rebates that may apply. Postpaid customers moving from Virgin Mobile to Sprint will also receive $150 off of handsets as part of Sprint's standing new customer offer. Activation fees will also be waived.

AT&T wants to make sure your iPhone works at SXSW Anyone who's been to SXSW in the past few years, ever since the iPhone's release, knows that the AT&T network absolutely explodes during the festival. Texts, if they ever make it through, take hours; calls are dropped at an alarming rate, even by AT&T standards; and Internet access is essentially impossible. It's hard for AT&T to keep up because Austin, any other week of the year, isn't absolutely flooded with iPhone users mucking about, asking where the Facebook party is, or if they're on the list for the Gawker party. (I'm on the list, but I'm not going this year so it doesn't matter.) The point is, AT&T has its hands full that week, so let's give them an A for effort for trying to prevent another iPhone meltdown this year. SXSW starts on March 12, and runs through March 21. It's a couple of days worth of tech, music, movies, and open bars. It's sort of an exaggeration, but every single attendee rocks the iPhone. It brings AT&T's network, already sorta meh, to it knees. This year, though, AT&T has prepared itself for the huge influx of users. AT&T has installed a distributed antenna system at the Austin Convention Center. In a perfect world, it adds the equivalent of eight cell towers to the covered area. AT&T has also three temporary cell sites for good measure. These things are typically installed during big, but temporary events. Think Super Bowl or, well, large conventions. The company also says it has "added fiber-optic connections to more than quadruple the backhaul capacity of each of the eight cell sites that serve the event area, and temporary sites will also be served by extensive backhaul." Whatever that means! Fingers crossed, every SXSW attendee will be able to FourSquare till their battery dies. That's all you can ask for. Flickr

Video: Hasty hacker hobbles together a Windows Phone 7 skin for older WinMo phones Posted: 01 Mar 2010 11:06 AM PST Wowza. Consider me impressed. It took Microsoft 3 years to develop Windows Phone 7 Series — but its only taken 2 weeks for some far-too-talented dabbler to recreate the look and feel of the new OS as a skin for older Windows Mobile handsets, relying on nothing but screenshots and demo videos. Get ready for tons of fake Windows Phone 7 videos and people saying "No! Seriously! I swear my buddy has Windows Phone 7 on his 3 year old WinMo handset!". While impressive as heck as a user-made mod, it's important to clarify that this is just an interface tweak, built on top of Lakeridge Software's WisBar Advance Desktop — it's not a port of a Windows Phone 7 ROM or anything of the sort. Think of it like HTC's TouchFlo interface: it's fun to look at — but deep down, it's still Windows Mobile 6.5 (in this case, running on a Toshiba TG01). The man behind the mod, LeSScro, hasn't released the mod for public consumption just yet – keep an eye on this thread at XDA Developers for its eventual release.

Microsoft: No, WinMo 6.5 devices will not be upgraded to Windows Phone 7 Posted: 01 Mar 2010 10:12 AM PST Cue the sad trombone, folks. If you were waiting around with your Windows Mobile 6.5 device with hopes that Microsoft would one day bless it with a new chance at life in the form of Windows Phone 7, it's time to move on. APC Magazine just got the full spiel from Microsoft themselves: Windows Mobile 6.5 devices won't be upgradable to Windows Phone 7 series. (You hear that? Five hundred XDA hackers just scoffed and said "Yeah, we'll see about that.") Why? Standards. Microsoft has a very, very, almost ridiculously strict set of hardware guidelines that they want manufacturing partners to follow when building Windows Phone 7 Series handsets — and for the most part, old handsets just don't fit the bill. They either lack one of the three mandatory keys (search, back, and Windows key), or — get this — they have too many keys. A while back, a shot of the HTC HD2 allegedly running Windows Phone 7 Series hit the net. We were quick to debunk it here, with our reasoning being that the HD2 lacked the mandatory search key. Sure enough: Microsoft's GM of Mobile Communications in the Asia-Pacific, Natasha Kwan, says the HD2 won't be getting the upgrade "because it doesn't have the three buttons". Of course, this just means that they won't be getting the upgrade treatment from Microsoft. As we mentioned above, there's probably a mighty army of hackers just waiting to get their hands on Windows Phone ROMs for the sake of down-porting it to older handsets; if it's feasible, it'll probably happen.

Motorola Cliq XT with T-Mobile branding caught in the wild Posted: 01 Mar 2010 09:39 AM PST Ever since the announcement of the Motorola Cliq XT back at Mobile World Congress, every whisper and rumor has indicated that T-Mobile US would be picking it up come March 10th. While that date is still in no way confirmed, it's looking pretty likely that the launch can't be too far off. A handful of shots of the Cliq XT rocking T-Mobile's logos have just made their way to the guys over at AndroidCentral, indicating that it's made its way into the hands of someone not under 2 tons of Non-disclosure agreements — such as a store manager or inventory handler. Being that this ones running Android 1.6 and lacks the physical keyboard that the original Cliq had, I'm not feeling it – anybody out there going to be camping in line for this one?

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By Satish |

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

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Auto Download Files From 4Shared, HotFile Using Rdesc Downloader [Application] In the past, I've mentioned couple of rapidshare download manager and they have been the best choices as they are free from any kind of bloated spyware, and here is another worth-mentioning latest downloader named Rdesc downloader application which downloads files instantly from file hosting services. Call it an rapidshare downloader, hotfile downloader, auto downloader or whatever you want to.. this Rdesc downloader is free to download which supports download for nearly 20 websites which is pretty awesome in itself. Rdesc Downloader Can download from: Rapidshare.com, Megaupload, Mediafire, 4Shared, Easy-Share, Gigasize, HotFile, Depositfiles, zShare, Netload, Uploading.com, FileFactory, Storage.to, SendSpace, Uploaded.to, Badongo, Megarotic, Megaporn, Freakshare, Ziddu , x7.to, letitbit.net A Short overview of Rdesc downloader You reached your hourly traffic limit. You can wait download for 9 minutes or upgrade to premium I stumbled across this free downloader as I reached my hourly hotfile limit and was searching for an better solution. I did try those online hotfile downloaders and hotfil premium link generator, but as expected, they didn't download files from hotfile. Although, you can also use jdownloader free download manager which is considered to be the best, but as an alternative, Rdesc is an equally good downloader. This software queues the files and also provides resume downloads, the guys at Rdesc are consistently providing updates and the latest version is in English (Initially, it came out in Spanish). You can download Rdesc from here, there are two versions of Rdec – Portable and exe installation. Choose the latest Rdesc version (Rdesc 2.28) and enjoy downloading files without premium accounts