An Aussie Android Phone, Pre-Order Available!

Posted by: Peter Murphy on Dec 04 2008 - 6 views

Not that I’m writing a Christmas wish list or anything [*cough* Ahem] but earlier on in the year I talked a bit skeptically about an Australian company that promised an Android flavoured device by Christmas, for a phenomenally low price. Well it seems like they have sort of, in a round about way, done it.

I think this is cheating just a little bit, you can pre-order now, “Before Christmas” but the phone won’t ship until the end of January…   Clever bit of spin really

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An Apple Christmas Gift, For Devs and Reviewers!

Posted by: Peter Murphy on Dec 03 2008 - 22 views

Here at JAMM, we have a bunch of gadget enthusiasts, all working together to bring you the latest and greatest from around the mobile tech world. The Credit though, should really go to all of the Software developers, accessory and device manufacturers that freely supply us with review samples, so that we can get the knowledge out to you, Our valued readers.

One thing that has been a thorn in the side of not only enthusiast sites like ours, but to software developers as well, has been the inability to easily get iPhone applications out to reviewers.

Case in point a plea from Marc over on the iliumsoft blog back in November

 

If there is one thing that is missing from the AppStore, it’s a “Gift This App” button. Don’t get me wrong. Despite a few hiccups early on, overall we’re quite happy with the whole AppStore experience. It’s just that we’d love a way to buy promo copies of our software for people. And then there are reviewers. We know about Ad Hoc, but splitting 100 Ad Hoc licenses between in-house devices, beta testers, and reviewers just isn’t enough. We’ll pay full price for our software - we just want it to be free for the other person.

Well finally the Apple’s not half eaten, you know the analogy, “is the glass half empty, or half full”. Everything up until now that the team have reviewed, they have paid for if it wasn’t a free app, and I remember a little bit of advice that went around early on in the appstore days, “all of those 99 cents will soon add up”.

Well Christmas has come early on this front, as Apple have

Apple has finally started allowing developers to issue free promotional copies of their iPhone applications. Once an application has been accepted to the App Store by Apple, developers can issue up to 50 promotional codes. The codes allow the recipient to download a full copy of the application for free. Presently, these codes can only be used in the U.S. iTunes Stores by using the “Redeem” link in the App Store.

 

This is probably one of the best moves, and money savers, for reviewers all through out blogdom, and thanks to Apple for the full experience, without the credit card stress!

Expect to see a lot more iPhone stuff on the site, as this new policy disseminates through the developer community!

Via TouchArcade

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Microsoft SmartPhone, The Rumour Mill!

Posted by: Peter Murphy on Nov 30 2008 - 46 views

Well this one has been going around for ages, that Microsoft would eventually come up with it’s own hardware to deliver it’s Windows Mobile OS on, and somehow couple it with the Zune MP3 player to create the ultimate WinMo device. I always find myself having a little chuckle at the cynical optimism of tech writers, whether they be from large syndicated news networks, or rather less well known publications.

To set the stage, a blast from the past, that did nothing to dampen the rumours of a Microsoft WinMo phone

Albeit a rather tongue in cheek look at a Microsoft device, more of a boomerang than a sleek phone, there is still a lot of wondering and speculation as to whether Microsoft will ever release a mobile device, or Zune Phone. A post earlier in the week at CNBC.com, seems to suggest that this is actually about to happen, and soon.

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Sshh, It’s A Secret, ScottEVest Sale

Posted by: Peter Murphy on Nov 27 2008 - 48 views

Colour me stupid, but doesn’t having a secret sale defeat the purpose of having a sale? I mean you don’t go into a store that has a sale on, and find the staff whispering about the discounts, probably what drew you into the store, was the startlingly blaring promotional posters out the front, if they haven’t also included a spruiker[a verbal promoter] as well. ScottEVest are having a secret sale and here’s the spruiker

Scott’s got some great deals going so click on the image to go to the site and get your discount, this is a winter essential!

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Samsung Concept Phone, Flexible OLED!

Posted by: Peter Murphy on Nov 24 2008 - 21 views

Flexible OLED screens have been in the news for quite a while, but what is OLED, it stands for Organic Light Emitting Diode. Now I don’t truly understand the technology, but OLED, is purported to be less power hungry than LED. The OLED is a polymer based surface, that accepts various organic materials to be laid down upon it, in rows and columns, and the resulting matrix of pixels allows lights of different colours to be emitted. What does that mean to you and me? A laptop screen, a phone screen/display, the way most of us access our devices, the conduit for or graphical user interface[GUI].

What if you could fold that screen up and put it in your pocket, or wallet, or purse? What if your 10 inch display folded up into a mobile phone sized package? Sounds like Science Fiction doesn’t it? 

So the idea of a Foldable OLED screen has been touted for a while, put a more accessible display, in your pocket using Origami, hey fold it up. the Video above, shows an automated display from Samsung, that is going to take over not only the mobile world, consider carrying your wide screen display in a tube?

Samsung concept phone unfolds to hypnotize onlookers with flexible OLED - Engadget

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Virgin Blogs from Mid Air, 35,000 feet to be Exact!

Posted by: Peter Murphy on Nov 23 2008 - 18 views

The option to use mobile devices on an air flight has often been a process surrounded in myth and fallacy. now, using a mobile phone or wireless device was bound to trigger explosive decompression, a failure in the flight controls or even worse, make the stewardess forget those annoying hand gestures in the pre flight tutorial about exiting the plane in case either of the formerly mentioned  occurrences actually came to pass.

Recently we have seen the inaugural tests of in flight wifi trialed by a few service providers, and I took a deep breath today as a Twitter post from Ryan Block gave me a heads up to yet another trial.

 

This is one of the last frontiers for the truly mobile road warrior, imagine the productivity gains, if you could be online on your next eight hour Trans American flight. Well apparently the plane didn’t fall out  of the sky, and people were posting quite happily from their cattle class seats as well as first class. The service offers up some impressive upload download speeds,

and Ryan wasn’t the only one to try out the service, and give a good report.There were also Cnet Bloggers on the Virgin expedition

This would have to become standard fare on all flights in the near future, don’t you think? Taking us out of the draconian era of internet and wireless silence of previous airline carriers.

On Virgin America’s inaugural GoGo WiFi flight: this post published from 35,000 feet - Engadget

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