Nokia DRM: Cracked With Music

Nokia’s new “Comes With Music” mantra allows users of these media-heavy phones to download an unlimited amount of music from a selected library absolutely free. But those downloaded tracks are relegated to the Nokia on which they downloaded because the DRM Coding (Digital Rights Management) prevents inter-gadget travel. CRACKED!

A piece of hackware called Tunebite can be purchased ($26, €20, or £17.50) that will unlock all the music on your “Comes With Music” Nokia device by essentially playing the songs and dubbing (re re-cording them) without the DRM protection, enabling free use on any device. The word “free” here should be used loosly… its not legal and you might not be free for very long if you get caught abusing pirating laws extensively.

That being said, most people make the argument that music listeners aren’t GENERALLY piraters and that DRM should be dropped completely. If you purchase a song or CD you should be able to listen to that music on whatever gadget or gizmo you want, easily moving it between them. But DRM lives on at least for now.

How about you - do you get your music from the Pirate Bay or do you purchase the real deal? Or do you fall into the realm that I would hope most people would… you sample music by downloading it for “free” and buy it if you like it an delete it if you don’t? But that uses the honor system and if you take a look around the world today, perhaps you can’t blame Nokia and other companies for trying to enforce DRM.

[Via Electric Pig]

Verizon’s LTE Coming 2009, Sprint PWND

The Chief Technology Officer of Sprint’s XOHM effort, Barry West, will soon be eating his own words. Only a few months ago in Baltimore, Sprint hailed their XOHM branded WiMax technology as the next king of wireless connectivity and West bragged, “no company has the infrastructure to even CREATE a competitve answer to WiMax in the next 2 years.”

Now last time I checked, October 8th, 2008 was part of the year 2008… we can agree to that, right? And mathematically speaking, the time between that date and the last possible day in the year 2009 is about 1 year and 3 months, right?

Sorry Mr. West, but Verizon has just announced they will deploy their 4G LGE technology by the end of 2009, rendering your calculations useless. Furthermore, it spells big trouble for WiMax and the newly formed Clearwire brand - Clear. With only 3 of the 5 billion needed to take WiMax national and only a couple cities currently connected, the companies “first mover advantage” plan seems to be backfiring.

For Verizon this all seems like really, really good news. The bad news is the fact that WiMax and Clearwire have some pretty darn big financial supporters that might be looking in the rearview with their finger on the nitrus oxide. Google and Comcast among others aren’t likely to just watch their hundreds of millions of dollars go to waste. No sireee.

The groundwork must be laid NOW for Clearwire if they want to be in this battle for the long haul. That means building out the network and expanding to as many cities as possible right now. No waiting. It means branding the service so customers already know what it is by the time it arrives to their city - they’ll have to be creative in these financial times. And expanding the capabilities with an Android handset couldn’t hurt.

Kevin C. Tofel from jkontherun seems to share similar sentiments… while I love the XOHM/WiMax concept and service, they’re going to have to make impressive strides very quickly to retain the shrinking advantage they currently possess. Tofel also makes a good point that LTE was at one point expected to hit in 2010… if Verizon PR dogs are moving the “plans” one month forward to December 2009 it sounds like a MUCH bigger deal than it really is.

The next year are two should see the start of some technology wars of epic proportions. You’ve got Chrome entering the browser wars, Android and Apple entering the mobile OS wars, Facebook/Twitter and everyone’s mother entering the social networking and social media wars and the battle for mobile/wireless connectivity where WiMax and LTE will go head to head in the 4G world.

[Via Yahoo Technology]

Sony Ericsson C905 For AT&T Passes Through FCC

A few weeks ago, Sony Ericsson announced the C905 and today that pretty little 8MP number passed through the FCC. Seeing as how it operates on the same American 3G network as AT&T (1900 MHz) we’re guessing its only a matter of time before it becomes Big Blue’s photographic behometh.

Even the most popular phones in the states don’t have very good picture taking power. For instance, the iPhone is 2MP, G1 is 3.2MP and the Storm is 3.2MP. So in a place where 5MP camera phones are highly coveted and where 8MP camera phones do not yet exist, the Sony Ericsson C905 should be a pretty big deal.

Of course, the camera alone won’t carry a mobile device meant for phone calls. The fact that the C905 has WiFi, aGPS and 3G connectivity certainly won’t hurt. In fact, while we’re at it, why not just take a look at all the specs top to bottom:

Screen

Camera

Connectivity

Audio

Design

Memory

[Via FCC, Cell Phone Signal, IntoMobile]

Google Street View for S60 & Windows Mobile

Google recently launched Street View for Android, BlackBerry and iPhone but that doesn’t exactly “cover the map” so to speak. Today, Google announced that they’re leaving no stone unturned and Google Street View is no able to run on Nokia S60 and Windows Mobile devices as well.

If you’re not familiar with Google Street View, seeing it in action is really the only way to understand. Here it is on a BlackBerry:

In addition to expanding their platform presence they’re hard at work expanding their geo-presence: my hometown (Baltimore) was added in the past few weeks and they’ve been photographically scouring the streets of France, Italy, Spain and Australia as well. I would have loved to see the Google car driving around but didn’t. However, I found my car parked on the street which was pretty cool and I’ll be searching around the city for people I know… maybe I’ll even find myself!

So run along S60 and WinMo users… and play with your new toy!

[Via Google Mobile Blog]

RoundUp: Android Phones, Wallpapers, Ringtones and Roaming

The Android world has been abuzz over the last 24 hours and there certainly hasn’t been a lack of activity. Yesterday 14 companies joined the Open Handset Alliance including Sony Ericsson, Vodafone, ASUS and Garmin. Support from these industry leaders is further proof that Android is indeed catching on.

That being said, just because one is IN the Open Handset Alliance doesn’t necessarily mean that they’ll be rushing to market with their Android products, services and solutions. Afterall… LG, Motorola and Samsung are all in the alliance as well but nothing tangible has yet been launched from their efforts. But according to a couple Danish websites, it seems that Sony Ericsson and HTC are poised to make the summer of 2009 a season to remember.

According to the articles, we learn this information about the Sony Ericsson Android efforts:

And HTC might have even more in store for us… they brought us the G1 don’t forget:

More Android Phones are certainly welcome and encouraged, but what will make each one even more successful is continued development of awesome apps. Google looks like they’re throwing their hat in the ring on some basics as clues they’ll be adding Wallpapers and Ringtones to the Android Market have been uncovered. And.. they’ll be using Google checkout.

This is speculation based on a few icons found in the Market.APK file. Exciting stuff, eh? And to top it all off we’ve got a little encore presentation of the HTC Touch running Android.

Yahoo Calls iPhone “Overhyped”

We’ll admit, its amazing, crazy and sometimes insane how much hysteria gadgets can cause. Mile long lines at retail stores, pandemonium in blog comments, allegiant followers laying down their rep over tech products… pretty crazy indeed. Our friends over at Yahoo Canada (ay) have called out the Top 10 Most Overhyped of these tech products.

Among them… the Apple iPhone:

Don’t get us wrong, it’s not a bad product, but the hype that preceded the iPhone’s release set the bar impossibly high for the poor thing. Forget about shepherds turning up at a manger, the iPhone had hip Apple fans all over the country camping out for days to get their hands on one. Despite a relatively smooth launch, the original iPhone still had a number of huge disappointments waiting in store for the less-than-faithful who weren’t willing to overlook them, like pitifully slow EDGE Internet that rendered the slick browser less than useful, and a clunky abomination of a keyboard that irks us to this day.

Here are the others that made the list:

Wow, Apple really got the shaft, ay? And Windows Vista? Are you kidding me? The only one that hyped Vista was Microsoft’s marketing department. It made the list based on pre-launched promises so I guess that checks off but really, they hype nowadays is only about how horrendous it is.

[Via Canadian Yahoo Tech Eh}

Samsung Memoir & 8MP Camera Headed to T-Mobile?

Samsung has been pumping out some beauties with the Behold, Eternity, Pixon and INNOV8 to name a few. Now it appears as if the first 8MP camera phone will hit American shores, giving T-Mobile fans reason to rejoice. The best guess right now is that the spy shots below are of the Samsung Memoir, headed to T-Mobile:

Keep in mind that these are guesses and only guesses. Speculation is that this phone takes the Samsung Behold with its 5MP camera and gives it a little upgrade. Exactly what upgrades? We don’t know that either, beyond the camera. We’ll have to play wait and see on this one, so keep your eyes peeled.

[Via TMO News]

We Dub Thee iLoompa Phone

A mystery phone has popped up here and there across the intrerwebz and nobody can quite identify what the heck it is, where the heck it came from and… just…. why? If you ask me, it looks like somebody designed a phone based on Oompa Loompas and gave it the iPhone treatment. Hence, iLoompa:

Now if that isn’t one of the ugliest pieces of hardware I’ve seen in a long time. It looks like a 1980s concept phone for what type of phone’s might be made in the future.

Most people are speculating that its the Palm Roteo because of the QWERTY Styling and rotational screen cap. Its certainly a touch screen and has a front facing camera and notice that trackpad at the bottom? Interesting. And we mean that in a not so encouraging way.

If this thing is real, it is nothing short of an immense disaster. Palm is already struggling, its stock is in the pits and if they don’t come up with something soon to really revitalize their brand, they’re in big trouble. Just FYI Palm folks… this is not it. Move on, nothing to see here.

[Via Giz]

iPod Touch Gets iPhone Treatment

Apple might have an unexpected challenger to their industry stunning iPhone… their own device, the iPod Touch! According to CNET, a free application called Truphone works with the devices WiFi connection to allow phonecalls between iPod Touch users and customers of Truphone’s Internet telephone service.

The application uses a virtual keyboard for dialing and you’ll have to ante up some additional bucks to secure a headset and microphone unless you can read minds - in which case you wouldn’t need this app anyways.

Interestingly enough, this application is available on the Apple App Store. We’ll see how long that lasts as the company has been pretty aggressive with pulling apps off the market that they don’t like, agree with or care to try and compete with. Apple probably just doesn’t think Truphone is a threat. And it isn’t… but it IS kind of cool.

In the future the company will include phone and messaging services with Skype, MSN, Twitter and Facebook. Careful Truphone… that might make it cool enough for Apple to remove it from their store.

[Via CNET]

Samsung Ego Thinks Too Much Of Itself

If you ask us, the Samsung Ego is properly named: based on the pricetag it seems to have an inflated feeling of superiority to other mobile phones in the market. The Samsung Ego can strut its stuff but it doesn’t even look that hot and specs only reflect a so-so personality.

The phone costs about $1800 US Dollars but is only available in Europe. Here is the product you’ll be getting for that:

I mean, it’s okay… but if I’m shelling out $1800 bucks this thing better turn into a magic carpet or something. Instead, the phone doesn’t even have 3G! Its 5MP ain’t bad but it only has 1GB of internal memory and the external microSD holds 8GB.

Why so expensive? The Samsung Ego is made by a new exotic liquid metal alloy developed by the California Institute of Technology which is, “3 times stronger, can withstand 1.8 times the pressure, is 1.6 time more flexible, has 3 times better vibration absorbtion and  100% lower thermal conductivity then  titanium.”

And I care because? Perhaps this phone is for people whose head is so large it has its own gravitational field - the Samsung Ego was created to counteract these increased pressures?

For those whose gullability matches their egotisticality, your nearly 2 Geez will get you the following specs on top of everything else discussed:

Enjoy that.

[Via GSM Arena]

Samsung Omnia Video Tour By PhoneScoop

Props to the folks at PhoneScoop who put together a really nice video overview of the Samsung Omnia i910. My favorite part of this phone is the panorama picture taking capability which they demonstrate at the end. And altogether, the Omnia camera seems pretty sweet but here is the entire tour for your viewing pleasure:

Acer Phone Coming 1Q 2009

We already knew that Acer had a phone on the way but now we know that it will come in the first quarter of 2009. The company has dabbled in mobile before but devices were released under other names… this will be a true, Acer-branded phone.

Acer purchased Taiwanese Smartphone manufacturer E-Ten earlier this year and device launch dates were said to start in Western Europe and Russia with other markets to follow. While suggested launch dates ranged from early 2009 to late 2009… er, some point in 2009… a Digitimes article suggests 1st Quarter WILL see an Acer Phone.

Details about the Acer phone? None. A name? A picture leak? Not yet. But we’re eager to get some!

Although growth in the mobile industry for 2009 looks bleek, Acer thinks that mobile can be a huge growth sector for the company:

Wang believes that the smartphone segment will me a major growth driver for the company over the next 3-5 years. Acer plans to increase staff in its smartphone division to 500 employees including 200 transfered from E-Ten’s R&D division. According to company sources, moving forward Acer will take over the reins of smartphone development, while E-Ten will focus on real-time stock tracking devices, the market segment in which E-Ten built its first success back in the late 1990s.

We’re looking forward to this. Hopefully Acer can come up with something a little more interesting than their fellow computer competitors, Dell.

[Via DigiTimes]

Bluetooth 10x, Bluetooth 100x Coming 2009

According to IMS Research, mid-2009 will see an updated version of Bluetooth that will allow devices to transfer data much faster via WLAN or USB allowing for many new compelling applications beyond the standard voice transmission services for which Bluetooth is known.

The technology will be marketed as Bluetooth 10x and Bluetooth 100x for their respective data rate capabilities. The first of those likely to make mass market appearances are Bluetooth 10x since many smartphones and even some feature phones are already WiFi compatable.

For most people, the interesting part of this story is in the new applications that the next gen Bluetooth will enable. Some examples given are “wireless video streaming to computers or set-top boxes, wireless printing, and wireless peer to peer content movement, among other applications.”

It will take until 2010 to see “volume shipments” for Bluetooth 10x which suggests Bluetooth 100x, which requires the device to have UWB radio, will come in volume much later.

It’ll take some time for this story to develop but its one more thing to be excited about. We’ll keep you posted as details emerge but it doesn’t appear as if more news is imminent.

[Via IMS Research, CNet]

New Nokia Pic Slips In Presentation

Early this past week, Nokia announced the N97 to the mostly unsuspecting mobile industry. While many people predicted an N-Series slugger was on the way, the normal picture leaks, specs and info were absent pre-release. But that’s the exception to the norm, and we may have seen the norm slip out in a Nokia Presentation in New York City.

One of the slides during the presentation displayed this:

Wow, pretty sweet looking, right? Some are venturing to say the the N97 is on par with the G1 and HTC Touch Pro with the slide out keyboard while this beast will compete directly with the HTC Touch HD. There is no point in mentioning how it relates to the iPhone because by today’s standards, it seems that every half decent phone gets compared to the iPhone.

Maybe its just a concept or maybe it is something more. Time will tell, ladies and gentlemen… and at MobileRoar we aim to be the keepers of mobile time… so stay tuned!

[Via Symbian Freak]

AT&T Laying Off 12,000 Employees

In April, AT&T let go of 4,600 jobs and just this morning the company announced an additional 12,000 employees will be layed off to make for a reduction of over 15,000 jobs at the company in a little over 6 months. It appears as if the reductions will come in the landline and Yellow Page sectors of the business.

For me, the most disheartening fact of this information is that the employees being let go have not yet been notified. The pink slips should start hitting the desks this month and continue throughout the first part of 2009. This bothers me for several reasons:

Thankfully, AT&T has allocated about $600 million for severance packages and if you do the math on that, it’s 50,000 per person. With the way corporations work, somehow I feel like $500 million of it will go to like 7 people while the other 11,994 fight over the crumbs. But hey, AT&T is on their knees… lets not hit them while they’re down.

Here is the actual Press Release from AT&T (minus the fluff):

AT&T Announces Job Reductions

Dallas, Texas, December 4, 2008

AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) today announced a planned reduction of approximately 12,000 jobs, or about 4 percent of the company’s total workforce, citing economic pressures, a changing business mix and a more streamlined organizational structure.

In response to these business and economic factors, AT&T plans to reduce its 2009 capital expenditures from 2008 levels. Capital plans for 2009 are being finalized now and specific guidance will be provided when the company releases its fourth quarter results in late January.

Associated with these job reductions which will occur in December and throughout 2009, AT&T will take a charge of approximately $600 million in the fourth quarter of 2008 to pay severance to affected employees.

While AT&T is reducing jobs in some areas, it continues to add jobs in other parts of the business — such as wireless, video and broadband — to meet customer demand.

Many nonmanagement employees affected by these reductions have a guaranteed job offer under union contracts. All employees will receive severance in accordance with management policies or union agreements.

[Via AT&T PR]

Countdown To New Years With Google Mobile Tips

How else would a mobile phone geek countdown the days to 2009 other than by reading one mobile tip each day? Google is helping everyone count down the days with a new portal that provides a tip a day on interesting ways you can utilize Google Mobile.

You can follow along at the Mobile Countdown and we’re already on Day 3 so lets recap whats been discussed so far:

In their blog post, Google illustrates the “Voice Search” tip by showing how you could say “Garden Hose” and from the drop down select “Garden Hoes” instead. Question: what option will tell google that we really mean we want to find scantily clad and willing women who are currently planting vegetation?

These aren’t exactly brain busters for mobile geeks who probably already know this stuff but it’ll be fun to follow along and see if anything interesting pops up. You can also type in your phone number and Google will send you a tip a day via SMS.

Show of hands, who think Google will use your SMS to start sending you offers for weight loss products, viagra and instant cash loans? Ha, they won’t… they won’t…. but I’m sure SOMEONE is thinking they’ll be storing this data SOMEWHERE for future use in some kind of universe predicting algo.

[Via Google Mobile Blog]

Nokia Announces N97 At Nokia World

After 30 minutes of listening to hypnotizing jungle trance music the Nokia World live webcast finally started and Nokia execs took the stage. In the webcast chatroom, where several bloggers had gathered to chat, the news had already broken that the Nokia N97 was the main prize to be announced at Nokia World.

We’re guessing that information was included in the Press Package for folks on-site (Barcelona, Spain) and quickly found its way to the web. But before the gem of the day would be officially announced, we would have to endure a decidedly boring speech about other initiatives that Nokia wants to make sure you at least hear, if not remember, namely their mapping experience.

To humor them, we’ll tell you that Nokia has some new social features that provide location based information about you and your friends/family. Point your phone towards a landmark and your Nokia will be able to tell you information about the landmark with the example being a historic building showing architect, history and significance. And Nokia maps sees some improvements that, to be honest, are pretty cool… including knowing the speed limits on roads which you’re driving and some other neat tricks.

And then Nokia’s website dropped a bunch of the Press Releases that let the cat out of the bag. Couldn’t they hold their trigger finger steady for 20 more minutes?

Pretty irritating how they need 4 different Press Releases when the information overlaps in so many different areas. I guess if your PR people are on salary/retainer, you might as well get the biggest bang for your buck!

The live web stream is still going, another Finnish gentlemen with a thick accent has taken the stage and I almost forget if they’ve announced the N97 at the event or not. Afterall its a done deal… the Press Release is already out. Nonetheless, he continues a dramatic monologue about the future of mobile from the N95 of two years ago today. He is actually a quite dynamic, engaging speaker who seems like he is Nokia’s Braveheart preparing fot he Mobile War. He leads up to… none other than… drum roll…

Oh yeah, you already knew: The Nokia N97

But wait a minute. He just said 64GB. Did he really? Sixty-Four? The press release shows 32GB Internal Memory and 16GB of expandable memory via microSD for a total of 48GB. So… one them has to be wrong. We’re guessing he simply misspoke.

Some specs you might like to know about:

They then went into Q&A and the webcast faded out. So what we’re left with is a pretty sweet device that looks to have a ton of power at an affordable price - especially if the carriers subsidize it. And they’ll fight over who gets to subsidize this thing.

Here are some screen caps I grabbed of the webcast:





Unfortunately we’ll have to wait until the 1st Half of 2009 to get this thing which means we could potentially have to wait until JUNE! I’m sure we’ll get some more specific time frame details leaking out soon enough.

All-in-all a pretty good showing for Nokia and this is definitely a device that will stand up their with the iPhone and G1 if the Symbian Foundation and Symbian Developers step up to the plate like they’ve claimed they will.

BlackBerry Storm 4.7.0.75 Update Leaked

BlackBerry and Verizon had a Storm of anxious customers not only to GET the first ever touchscreen RIM handset, but to get the first software updates. Confusion surrounding the software version on the first batch of phones cause a stir, but an update would supposedly come down the pipeline in a few weeks.

For the patient goody-two-shoeses that day is nearly here. But for those who don’t mind putting in a little elbow grease to get the job done themselves, a leaked version of the Storm OS 4.7.0.75 has popped up online will full directions on how to update your Storm. Find it here: http://forums.crackberry.com/f86/os-4-7-0-75-leak-105593/

What does the new version improve? According to those who have downloaded and used the new Storm OS, a more precise accelerometer and quicker loading browser are two of the main improvements, seen in the following painfully boring video depicting .65 and .75 OS features side by side:

Have you downloaded the update yet? If so, you’re still rockin’ old software: BGR has obtained a further improved OS which is version .76 and it improves a ridiculous amount more than .75 improved. Unfortunately he won’t share it with the public, likely due to legal issues, and he is unaware when or if it will be launched by RIM or Verizon.

Here are some of the things that .76 improves:

Don’t you hate dropping a couple hundy on a hot new product and then reading that there are ways to improve its performance but oh wait… sorry you can’t have them.

Verizon’s Samsung Omnia Slashed $50

It was just last week that Verizon announced the Samsung Omnia for $249.99 but apparently nobody heard or cared enough to pay much attention. Now Verizon is all waving the Omnia in the air like, “look at me, look at me!” and discounting the phone $50 for a $199.99 pricetag.

As you may have guessed - we did - the BlackBerry Storm probably took away any and all attention that may have been directed at the Omnia since its launch. Anyone who purchased the Omnia for full price right at launch time HAS to be pretty upset at the price drop, right? I know the argument that early adopters have a price to pay for being the first to have a gadget in their hands… but 1 week later?

Pretty peculiar that we’re complaining about a price drop, isn’t it? Lets get something clear… the $199.99 price point is MUCH more attractive and puts it on an even investment playing field with the BlackBerry Storm which has an identical price tag. We just feel for those folks who picked up the Omnia in the first 6 days - that’s all.

Don’t believe us? See for yourself: Samsung Omnia at Verizon Wireless

Nokia: We Will Shock The Interwebz

Its going to be a long night for us folks, because at 3:15AM Eastern Standard Time, Nokia will be announcing something big. Something so big that the interwebz never saw it coming. Perhaps the biggest announcement in the history of interwebz that hasn’t been leaked. What is it? The countdown begins.

This clock is counting down to a purported HUGE announcement at the Nokia World Conference in Barcelona, Spain. Nokia execs have supposedly, “bragged that the Internet has no clue what they will announce this week.” The touch screen Nokia? Ha.. not at all.. apparently NOBODY has guessed it right so far. Everyone was busy thinking about the G1, Storm, Touch Pro, Omnia and others that Nokia may just have snuck up successfully.

So let the speculation begin!

A couple points that we’d like to address:

So what do you think Nokia will announce? As soon as we know, you’ll know!

[Via Nokia, Engadget, Scobleizer, CrunchGear, Many More]

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