Phones

AT&T and the union are preparing for a strike

The Communications Workers of America, the union that represents AT&T’s employees, collective agreement has expired, and the parties seem pretty far away from forming a new agreement. The negotiations broken down, and it appears AT&T is preparing to walk away from the table. Leaving the CWA few other options besides a strike.

No matter where your sympathies lie, this seems like a terrible time to try some sort of a work action. Most of the striking workers would be retail employees, and with so many people unemployed these days, I don’t think AT&T will have much trouble finding scabs to cross the picket lines. In Addition, even though AT&T Wireless has been making money, the rest of the company is losing money (just like everybody else in this economy), and the company may not feel so generous right now.

The disagreement includes the usual sticking points of wage increases and job security. Lets hope for everybody involved that an agreement can be reached Quickly. You can read up on the union’s position here.

Source: Mobile Burn

LogMeIn Ignition for iPhone updated

Since LogMeIn Ignition for iPhone was first released in December, they have received a lot of feedback and they have been listening. Now LogMeIn are pleased to announce a new version of Ignition for iPhone.
This edition adds improvements for stability and memory handling, while maintaining the best features: options for "screen moves" or "mouse moves" navigation, one-click access and pinch zoom. We reviewed the application a few months ago and found it to be an excellent application, you can read the review here.

• Existing Ignition for iPhone users may download the update free using iTunes or directly from their Apple device.
• Not a user yet?  Download Ignition for iPhone, which includes the update, from the iTunes App store.

Google Sync Beta for Windows Mobile and iPhone

Google have just announced Google Sync Beta for Windows Mobile, iPhone, Blackberry and Nokia S60 devices and if you not already using an Exchange Server for contacts and calendar this is a service you need to check out if your a Gmail user.

Synchronize the built-in calendar and contacts on your Windows Mobile phone with your Google account.

• Get Google Calendar events on your device
• Synchronize your Contacts with Google
• Have changes pushed directly to your phone

LG Arena KM 900 gets official

LG via the LG Blog have announced a few more details about KM 900, from the blog they say We’re very pleased to be able to announce the launch of our flagship mobile phone for 2009, the LG ARENA (LG-KM900). This fully loaded multimedia phone featuring LG’s new and innovative 3D user interface (UI), will be unveiled for the first time at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

LG ARENA’s groundbreaking 3D UI is specifically designed to be a more fun and engaging gateway to delivering an amazing multimedia experience. A cube-based layout provides four customisable home screens for direct access to all features. Accessing music, movies, pictures and more is now easier than ever, with new and intuitive touch-based 3D menus. The rich 3D graphics bring LG ARENA to life with an enhanced look and also makes navigating through the menus even easier.

Orange see a 30 percent increase in mobile data usage during recent bad weather

Still stuck in the snow? You’re probably not alone. All last week, we were reading about the adverse effects of the current wintry weather on business productivity, with many thousands of people unable to get to work. It even provoked an unprecedented volume of debate about what’s the best thing to do when your workers can’t make it in to the office.

However, this year – in comparison with the last big freeze in the 1980s – more businesses are managing to keep things going because of the benefits of mobile technology. Last Monday, after the first lot of snow fell, Orange recorded an enormous 30 per cent increase in mobile data usage throughout the day as thousands of people turned to their mobile phones and dongles to keep on working – and the extra use of mobile data continued at 20 per cent above the average all week.

Windows Mobile 6.5, new Rom more info

Over at the PPCGeeks forum, a member has a new beta build of a Windows Mobile 6.5 Rom. Some new things to appear in the Rom are Market Place which we assume is an application store, My Phone which we posted about the other day, Outlook Live which will allow you to sync multiple e-mail accounts and finally a screenshot of a more finger friendly Windows Media Player. Full size pictures after the break.

T-Mobile G1 Android RC33 update walkthrough

Here’s a look, by ZDnet, at the upcoming firmware update for the G1. Voice Search looks like a nice addition. Latitude seems like an excellent feature provided your chums are on it too. The addition of Save Image to the Internet Browser is something I wasn’t aware the G1 couldn’t do initially.

Teenagers using MMS to "sext", prove they don’t think about consequences.

Mobile phones are powerful content creation tools, perfectly designed to create new and interesting works of multimedia art. With most modern phones not only having the capability to take pictures, but to send them directly other mobile users. It was only a matter of time until teenagers used this promising technology to get themselves into trouble. You can also find local women near you that would love a fuck buddy so they are a great option if you want some real sex.

Documents To Go for iPhone and Android to be shown at MWC

Dataviz, makers of the popular DocumentsToGo mobile Microsoft Office compatible suite, are promising two announcements at the Mobile World Congress trade show later this month. According to an email they sent out to the press, they’ll be showing Documents To Go for both the iPhone and Android, as well as RoadSync for Android, an Exchange ActiveSync client that will connect Android phones to Microsoft Exchange servers. So far, there’s no full Office compatible suite for the iPhone or for Android phones.

via Appscout

HTC to use Qualcomm Snapdragon processors

According to Digitimes High Tech Computer (HTC) is expected to launch Qualcomm Snapdragon-based mobile devices in the second quarter of 2009. HTC and Toshiba are among more than a dozen device makers that have signed up with Qualcomm to develop mobile computing devices using Snapdragon solutions. Those device makers also include Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, Acer, Asustek Computer, Quanta Computer, Compal Electronics, Wistron, Inventec and Foxconn International Holdings (FIH).

Whilst the news is positive that we will be seeing these top end processors and graphics chips in future mobile phones a few things don’t make sense. Most importantly if these phones are going to be running Windows Mobile then what is the point. Windows Mobile in its current form has reached its peak and is now dated, as we saw with the recent Touch HD its like putting lipstick on a pig, an awesome hardware set being let down by an inferior operating system.  It’s all well and good having great hardware but that has to work in tandem with great software and at this stage we haven’t got the latter and I cannot see 6.5 making that much difference but I stand to be corrected later this month.

An Android handset running with the same hardware may offer something more and that will be an area of interest for the future as it has more room to develop and with it’s open platform we may see much better from Android this year especially when developers are given the opportunity to charge for their applications.