Phones

T-Mobile G1, updates and carrier responsibility

Word has been spreading around the internet today that T-Mobile’s first Android phone, The G1, will not receive any OS updates after Android 1.5. Whether this turns out to be true, or not, it got me thinking, what is a carrier’s responsibility to its customers?

When a service provider like T-Mobile convinces you to sign a 2 year contract in exchange for a heavy subsidy on a hot new phone, you enter into a two way agreement. You agree to pay them a lot of money every month for 24 months, and they give you a good price on a phone. I don’t think that can be the end of the story. The carriers expect you to carry the same phone around everyday for two years so they can recoup their costs, but in exchange they should have to support that device for the life of the contract.

Nokia E55 Video Review

All About Symbian has posted a video review of the Nokia E55, Rafe spends 9 minutes giving you a detailed visual tour of the device’s software and hardware. Included are comparisons with the E51, the E75 and the E71, plus the E52.

Watch it now at All About Symbian

E55 video review is also available in HD resolution.

Via AllAboutSymbian

Text messaging can kill – in all it’s gory detail

Here’s a short and cheerful film about the dangers of texting whilst driving. This rather gnarly advert really goes at for about 4 minutes showing how a young girl flirting with a boy by SMS can devastate so many lives. Apparently this is the first part of a half hour drama. The tragedy starts right from the word go as the girl has to struggle to use a Sony Ericsson W660.

N97 mini spotted

It looks like Nokia has a few tricks up its sleeve in the near future as a blurry photo reveals a number of unreleased and unannounced handsets. First is the N97 mini, which is easily distinguished from the full-sized N97 due to its lack of a d-pad on the keyboard. Next is a device that looks much like the 5800 XpressMusic, except the one pictured above (to the right of the N97 and N97 mini) has a chrome bezel. Could it be the rumored 5900XM? The white slider below the N97 mini has us baffled and yet completely uninterested. We’re also guessing that the black slider pictured to the next to the 5900XM is the same handset as the white slider, though the blur-factor makes it a bit tough to tell. Bottom line: 1) Expect a few new devices next month from Nokia World and 2) Nokia has a thing for chrome.

[source BGR]

Blackberry goes social with MyBlackBerry

News has come out thatResearch In Motion will soon be launching its very own social networking site.

The network will of course be based on Blackberrydevices and their users. The service will be called MyBlackBerry and is currently accepting invited users for beta testing. The site is already up and running, but no imagery or information on the features is currently available

TomTom hits for iPhone

The Internet, Twitter and various blogs are awash with excitement as TomTom has arrived for the iPhone. There are a bunch of different flavours and thanks to Phil for the screenshot above. Pricing looks good.  However I dare saw there might be some criticism for the GPS accuracy. TomTom have taken the steps to launch a cradle with inbuilt GPS to increase the signal for something along the lines of £113.

SongTweet for iPhone released – tweet your current song!

We are looking through latest apps regularly and once we notice something of interest, we report here.

In Windows XP/Vista/7, when you use Live Messenger (aka MSN Messenger) you can show in status line of the messenger: what song is currently played in Windows Media player. This app works similarly but instead of Windows it uses iPhone or iPod touch and instead of Live Messenger it uses Twitter:

Twikini updated to v1.2

One of the best Twitter clients for Windows Mobile has been updated to version 1.2. This is easily one of the fastest clients you can get on Windows Mobile, I us it myself from time to time.

Project Chronos – Awesome looking shooter for Android

A reader just sent in this video that previews an upcoming game named Project Chronos.  Details are scarce, but I wanted to share it because we don’t see too many 3D games on Android.  The game is a first person shooter in full 3D that centers around the realities of war.  Other than Bendroid, not many developers have figured out OpenGL ES on Android.  Hopefully, this is a sign of more great looking games to come.  Check back later this week when we get some more details on Project Chronos.

ngmoco dropship for iPhone – review (now it is free!)

dropship is a game for iPhone and iPod touch, that is made by ngmoco – a company specialized in making iPhone games – and now this game is free! So, you might be thinking that a company that has received15 million dollars from vulture capitalists (as opposed to indie developers, who have only a little bit of free time and cheap Mac mini off eBay) would be able to do some good games, right? Right? No. This game sucks. Probably ngmoco released it now for free, just to attract gamers to their other, better, newer, games…

Here is how this game looks like: