The Boy Genius Report is claiming that the long-awaited BlackBerry 9000 will be appearing at the Wireless Enterprise Symposium on the 12th. Lending some credence to the rumor (which is hardly unexpected anyway), a new ad has appeared on blackberry.com and should be making its way to TVs everywhere. The ad doesn’t mention the 9000, but is instead targeted at a general consumer market — a pretty big change for the platform which, aside from the Curve and the Pearl, is mostly aimed at businesses. Hopefully the 9000 will pack in some fun toys in addition to stodgy business apps.
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Nokia has contradicted rumors that their Comes With Music software banked on consumers buying less than 35 songs and would remain unprofitable, saying they “expect to make money both from [their] traditional device sales, as well as from the ‘Comes With Music’ service.” They still don’t contradict the 35 songs max rumor, or give any hint as to their actual contract with music labels, though. We’ll have to hold out for a quarterly earnings report to see what information can be gleaned from the numbers.
Roving bands of “Bluetooth teams” will be spreading content around at the Vodafone TBA concerts being held in Edinburgh this summer. The concert kicks off on June 1st, and Vodafone will be on the scene, giving mobile phone users access to the latest videos from performing artists, as well a a Java guide showing play times, band biographies, and images. The images will include live pictures taken from other areas of the concert, amongst other things.
It looks like NBC is now streaming free episodes of 30 Rock and The Office to iPhones and iPod Touches. They’re both shown without ads, which is nice, but come with a catch: if you exit Safari while watching, you’ve got to re-download the very large files again. Not a huge problem in the US — as long as you’ve got Wi-Fi — but might cause some headaches for Canadian users when the iPhone hits there, due the high price for bandwidth up north.
(image via Gizmodo)
I just found out about a new tutorial for putting homebrew games on your Zune. It’s made possible by the XNA 3.0 (a programming language) tech preview that was just released. It’s a little on the tech-heavy side, but the instructions are clearly laid out and shouldn’t prove to be a problem for most people. So far, only Alien Aggressors and Galactic Wars 3 are available, but this and future releases of XNA should see a lot more games available soon.
Ringtonia has got the scoop on a few new ringtones for you addicts out there. First up is a new ringtone based on Grand Theft Auto IV, followed up by a Burger King/Virgin Mobile partnership to bring the dollar value menu to mobile phones. A ton of ringtones from a number of artists are now available for a buck each. Finally, we have mating call ringtones. Yes, animal mating calls. If you need an elk bugling, or a cricket singing, or a sea lion doing whatever it is that sea lions do, look no further than eNature. Just whatever you do, don’t set the howler monkey as your girlfriend’s custom ringtone.
A spokesperson for the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan has decreed that they will not allow commuters to use phone ringtones in the rural areas of the country, reports cellular-news. Violators will be subject to Shariah laws if music is heard coming from their phones or their cars. Taliban leaders have clamped down on ringtones before, attacking a number of mobile phone stores in North Waziristan last October. The reason for the attacks and the ban was never given.
Nokia’s Reset Generation, previously known as Project White Rock, will “shatter expectations” about what mobile games are capable of, says designer Scott Foe. The game, which is scheduled for release this summer, combines turn-based strategy with arcade action and spoofs classic video game characters like Mario (”Plumber”) and Sonic (”Hedgehog”). Up to 4 players can play at once, attempting to steal princesses from each others’ castles by laying down blocks, shooting cannons, and using power-ups and special moves. Foe says they mean for it to be “[t]he highest production value mobile title ever.” When it launches for the N-Gage, there will also be a free browser-based version where home users can play against N-Gage owners.
There have been rumors and pictures floating around for a while, but we’re finally seeing the official announcement of the HTC Diamond. The phone runs Windows Mobile 6.1, and packs GPS, HSDPA, 802.11b/g, Bluetooth, a 3.2 megapixel camera and 4 gigs of storage into a very tight little package. It features a new touch interface for the 2.8 inch screen, and it can also switch from portrait to landscape mode while browsing the web. It also comes with a custom YouTube application, which should make Kyle happy. It’ll hit Europe, Asia, and the Middle East in a couple months, with a North American release coming in the second half of this year. Full list of specs and a picture gallery after the jump.
Continue reading ‘HTC officially announces HTC Diamond’
First there was one, now there’s another. Germany’s ConVisual has patented a chip that would allow users to send smells to each other with text or media messages. Over a hundred scents will be available on special phones, which are unlikely to see a release before 2010. Aside from pranking friends, I still have no idea what I would use this technology for. I can’t imagine that sending my girlfriend the scent of a bouquet of roses is going to make her any happier about forgetting her birthday.
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