Phones

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Behold a Multi-Touchscreen Tablet with Removable Hard Drives, a Smartphone, and a Tablet

While this post began as a simple presentation of the industrial design concept we're about to take a look at, it transformed ever so slightly into a work that explores what the possibilities could be for touchscreen conglomerations such as this. The concept at hand is called the Bento LaptopTablet Hybrid and it’s designed and rendered by Rene Woo-Ram Lee. This concept is sent to us by our good friends at Yanko Design, a site dedicated to such conceptual works. This design features a laptop with a 15? OLED touchscreen, a 1TB SSD drive, a solar-powered lithium-ion battery, an 11? tablet computer and a 4? phone, all of these bits able to sit in shallow depressions in the base of the laptop and connect as one device. via Behold a Multi-Touchscreen Tablet with Removable Hard Drives, a Smartphone, and a Tablet.      

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Sprint Teams Up With Google Voice | Epicenter | Wired.com

 

Google Voice is getting a lot easier for Sprint mobile phone customers to use starting Monday. The two companies are making it possible for customers to integrate their Sprint and Google Voice numbers, regardless of whether their phones are smart or dumb.

Sprint customers who don’t have Google Voice can now choose to use their existing Sprint number as their Google Voice number, without having to go through the hassle of porting it over to Google.

The move gives Sprint a marketing tool to win new customers — something Sprint will need if AT&T gets clearance to buy T-Mobile. The partnership also offloads some of the work in building new voicemail and phone features to Google, while the search and advertising giant finds a way to tie even more users to its web of software products.

It also marks the first time that a mobile carrier has partnered with Google Voice — which many had seen as a way for Google to eventually develop a phone service that bypassed traditional operators.

Google allowed any U.S. cellphone user to port their existing mobile number to Google Voice in January. That long-awaited feature makes it simple to switch to Google Voice because you don’t have train people to call a new number. However, the porting option is fraught with peril, due to the vagaries of cellphone contracts and mobile operator’s customer service.

The new Sprint partnership makes it much simpler to choose Google Voice. When you sign up, your Sprint number just becomes your Google Voice number without the hassle and expense of porting — or the need to download an app.

Once it’s set up, incoming calls to a Sprint user’s current number can also ring work and home numbers, as well as software inside Gmail. Those who switch also get low-cost international calls through Google Voice, call screening, voicemail transcription, phone number blocking, the ability to switch a call from phone-to-phone while in progress, free conference calling and per-person voicemail greetings.

Calls from Gmail and text messages sent using the Google Voice website, http://google.com/voice, will also display your.....Read more via Sprint Teams Up With Google Voice | Epicenter | Wired.com.

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Xobni Is Coming To Gmail, Android, And iPhone (100 Beta Invites)

Ever since Xobni launched at the first TechCrunch 40, it’s been about Outlook and then Blackberry. But those of us who use Gmail also want to make our inboxes smarter. Today, Xobni is launching aprivate beta for Gmail, and will soon also launch iPhone and Android apps. The first 100 readers to sign up for the Gmail beta will get in (use the code XOBNI-TC100). The Gmail app comes in the form of a browser extension for either Chrome or Firefox (Safari and IE will come later). Once you install it, a Xobni sidebar appears in your Gmail Inbox. Once you allow it to index your contacts and.... Read the rest of the story at TechCrunch: via Xobni Is Coming To Gmail, Android, And iPhone (100 Beta Invites).

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SMS On Steroids – eBuddy Debuts Realtime, Cross-Platform Messaging App

eBuddy, the Dutch company that enables millions of people worldwide to communicate with each other on the Web and a wide range of mobile phones, is today introducing a brand new application for iPhone and Android. With the app, dubbed eBuddy XMS, the company aims to go “beyond SMS” with a free realtime messaging tool that functions across a range of platforms (BlackBerry coming soon). eBuddy believes it can add value to the fast growing mobile messaging apps category based on its wealth of digital messaging expertise and by focusing primarily on the user experience. Already, the company enables over 30 million monthly active users to send via SMS On Steroids – eBuddy Debuts Realtime, Cross-Platform Messaging App.

Profit shocker! Android brings home more bacon than iOS for Pocket Legends developer

Back in 2009, we wrote a story on crack mobile developer Larva Labs lamenting its inability to make a living off top-rated games in the Android Market. Well, to put it lightly, it ain't 2009 anymore: the Android ecosystem has expanded exponentially in every conceivable direction, the Market has taken on tens of thousands of additional apps, and -- according to one research firm, anyway -- Android has now overtaken BlackBerry to become the most prolific smartphone platform in the US.

To that end, Spacetime Studios -- the company behind mobile MMORPG Pocket Legends, which brings in revenue through in-app purchases -- was shocked to discover that it's making some 30 to 50 percent more from its Android users than its iOS ones. Furthermore, they're spending more time playing and downloading the app with far greater frequency, which might be a testament to the fact that really great apps still stand out in the Market better than they do in the more mature (and more populated) App Store. The in-app purchase disparity is a little more difficult to explain, though -- especially since iOS has a slick, integrated purchase mechanism that Google won't be rolling out in Android for a little while yet. At any rate, the online mobile economy -- regardless of platform -- clearly still has some growing, maturing, and stabilizing to do.

[Thanks, Michael]

Profit shocker! Android brings home more bacon than iOS for Pocket Legends developer originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 Mar 2011 03:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EVOtainment System brings emulation greatness to the HTC EVO on a Wiimote and a prayer (video)

In a world full of cheap, plastic Wiimote accessories, aisles that overflow with flimsy little steering wheels for Mario Kart, one man found purpose. One man found something good to do with them. One man created the ridiculous contraption you see above. That man is Jack Malone, crafter of this the so-called EVOtainment System. It's a Wii racing wheel from Nerf that's been drilled out and augmented to enable a Classic Controller to join the party, backed with a strip of 3M Dual Lock. Up top a universal GPS mount clings desperately on to his HTC EVO, which connects over Bluetooth to the Wiimote. It's emulatory bliss in a design that's only a little bit less chunkier than the Game Gripper.

Update: Video after the break!


[Thanks, Jack]

Continue reading EVOtainment System brings emulation greatness to the HTC EVO on a Wiimote and a prayer (video)

EVOtainment System brings emulation greatness to the HTC EVO on a Wiimote and a prayer (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 Mar 2011 14:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Deutsche Telekom thinking of merging T-Mobile USA with Sprint?

It ain't as crazy as you may think. If you'll recall, we actually heard last month that Deutsche Telekom was mulling the idea of spinning off T-Mobile USA from its portfolio, and now it looks as if one carrier in particular is interested. According to the inimitable "people with knowledge of the matter," Bloomberg Businessweek is reporting that Deutsche Telekom has gone ahead with talks to "sell its T-Mobile USA unit to Sprint in exchange for a major stake in the combined entity." Granted, there's no guarantees at this point that the two will actually reach a deal that sits well with both boards, and up until now, they haven't been able to come to terms with T-Mob's valuation. As the story goes, Deutsche Telekom has purportedly said that it could sell "all or part of the US business, and all options are open." Meanwhile, Sprint's remaining mum. A merger of these two would combine the number three and four players in America, but if that doesn't pan out, T-Mobile USA may end up buying wireless spectrum from Clearwire as an alternative. We're hearing that an outright sale of T-Mobile in the US is pretty much off of the table, but considering just how many backroom talks are apparently going on in both camps, we won't be surprised until they tell us to be.

Deutsche Telekom thinking of merging T-Mobile USA with Sprint? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 Mar 2011 09:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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