Archives for May 2010

Sprint has finally allowed Android 2.1 to land on the HTC Hero.

By installing Android 2.1 from Google [GOOG] you’ll get an enhanced Sense User Interface along with enhanced corporate email support and a number of bug fixes.

To install the update you first need to check the version of your device. I’m not 100% sure why this matters other than perhaps needing to do an inbetween update rather than a full install. Either way, you then need to make sure you read the following and backup all data as this install wipes your Hero completely clean.

Important Note: Installing the 2.27.651.5 update will delete all the data and information on your phone. You will lose contacts that have not been synced to an email account, text messages that have not been forwarded, saved voicemail messages older than 5 days, voicemails older than 20 days that have not been listened to, and call history. The calendar and email settings will also revert back to factory defaults. Pictures, music, videos and files are stored on your microSD memory card, which should be removed before updating your phone.

[Read more…]

The official Twitter application is launching for the iPhone today. The new Twitter app is also known as Tweetie 3 and should be showing up shortly on app stores around the globe.

Last night, Tweetie 2 was removed from the app store which indicated that the new rebranded Twitter application was going to launch. As Twitter purchased Tweetie, they are now renaming this new version to just Twitter and it will be the only official twitter application in the app store. [Read more…]

The Nike+ heart rate monitor is coming on June 1 according to a post on the Nike forums by a Nike member of staff. The new device will connect up to an iPod and allow users to track their heart rate while exercising.

The US launch date is June 1 with other countries following after that. It is unclear though when other countries will receive the new heart rate monitor although a time scale of “summer 2010” was mentioned.

From documents leaked last year it appears that the Nike+ Heart Rate monitor will only be compatible with fifth generation iPod Nano’s. [Read more…]

Yesterday, Virgin Mobile announced that it would be offering the HTC Wildfire when it launches although as of yet, they have no pricing details available.

Today, T-Mobile in the UK also announced availability of the HTC Wildfire and have also included pricing for the new smartphone.

T-Mobile will launch the HTC Wildfire on June 14 in it’s UK stores as well as making it available online to purchase. When launched the Wildfire will cost £20/month on the network although it isn’t clear if that’s an 18 or 24 month contract and if there is anything to pay upfront for the smartphone. [Read more…]

If you ever wanted to look popular to your friends, but don’t happen to be the popular type then this app could be perfect for you. The application is called iNotifyYou and is capable of faking notifications on your iPhone so you can show your friends that you are so popular because you have over 5,000 text messages waiting for your reply.

The application lets you alter notification numbers for any application that runs on your home screen. [Read more…]

Google [GOOG] has said that your Android battery should last a day. This information first came from Larry Page over at the Google annual partner forum, Google Zeitgest. This information was then backed up by Eric Schmidt.

The problem as described by Larry is that people install applications that constantly keep data going such as Twitter and other apps. When applications constantly run in the background they tend to eat up battery life and drop the life of the charge down significantly.

“I have noticed there are a few people who have phones where there is software running in the background that just sort of exhausts the battery quickly. If you are not getting a day, there is something wrong.”

[Read more…]

iFixit has decided, along with Chipworks, that it was time to teardown a Microsoft Kin Two that recently launched, to see what exactly is inside and what makes it run. We often see the technical specs which includes details of how much RAM, ROM a device has along with what type of processor powers the device and how fast it runs, but generally it stops there. What these teardowns do is let us know all the parts in detail such as what kind of RAM is used, what camera is used and who builds the camera etc…

What we do find out about the Microsoft Kin Two is that is uses a Sony IMX046 camera to capture images and that the camera has an 8.11 megapixel effective resolution. [Read more…]

Facebook has announced a new mobile website called 0.facebook.com that allows free access to the Facebook service on some network carriers around the world. What we mean by free access is that there will be no data charges to get to facebook at this web address.

The 0.facebook.com site has been optimised for speed and is based around text rather than images and logos. A lot of the common functions and key features have been included at this web address and accessing them on a number of carriers will give you no charges unless you decide to open up photos and other media.

Facebook has worked with 50 mobile operators in 45 countries to get the zero charge facebook to users. A list of countries can be found over on the announcement page here. [Read more…]

Apple [AAPL] has launched the latest beta for iPhone OS 4.0 which brings it one step closer to being launched for the iPhone 3G, 3GS and iPhone 4G when available.

One of the features found by users indicates that we might finally see internet tethering on the iPhone. The settings screens pictured above (and larger below) show the network settings page with a control for Internet Tethering over Bluetooth or USB. When selecting this option a screen is presented asking you to enable the account via a phone number or a website. [Read more…]