I guess its no surprise that Nokia and Microsoft are pals now, as they announced their strategic partnership today. After all, both have lost significant ground falling well behind in the high-end mobile space to that little green robot and the popular brand with a fruit as its logo. With Stephen Elop at Nokia’s helm, it has been decided to jump on icy waters rather than burn (see Elop leaked memo).
AT&T could only look from the sidelines as their exclusivity on the Apple iPhone went out the window to “Rule The Air.” Yep, today 1.11.11 will forever be stamped as the day the iPhone was announced on wireless mobile giant Verizon. While this ends AT&T’s exclusivity on the iPhone, it may be a good for current AT&T users.
Law abiding citizens such as yourself and I may have to pay yet again for the thoughtless and illegal actions of a criminal. What happened this time you ask? Well due to a California Supreme Court decision (5-2 The People of Ventura County vs. Gregory Diaz) filed on Monday January 3, 2010, law enforcement can go through the contents of your cell phone without a warrant in California.
Just a few minutes ago I received some good news in my inbox. If you remember a few months ago, the bookmark sync service Xmarks was going to shut its doors to users of the service because of high costs. After an overwhelming show of support by its user base, a few companies began to listen and consider purchasing Xmarks. Thanks to the company LastPass “the leading password and data manager” Xmarks lives to sync your bookmarks another day — if you ask me Facebook or Google are the leading password and data managers but that’s another story. Xmarks remains free and for a premium of just $12 dollars you get iPhone and Android apps, advanced features as well as priority support.
It looks like the Nokia N8′s impressive 12MP camera was NOT enough to swoon me over to fork hard earned cash in exchange for the device. After continued use of the N97 I have further solidified my stance on the need for a hardware keyboard. Some may be able to do without it, but I certainly cannot. This is why I am placing the Nokia E7 in my consumeristic crosshairs and if reviews indicate enough positives I will pull the trigger.
Despite of the numerous disadvantages that a buggy Nokia N97 has — even after firmware updates — like daily battery pulls, resistive touch screen and freezing to name a few. For whatever reason, I have made it my primary all-in-one mobile device. This is pretty embarrassing but not its not until recently that I figured out how to add subject headers to text and multimedia messages.
Thank goodness for FCC filings — at least for those of us who have gadget OCD. If you’re as excited as me about the E7 and willing to give up the 12MP camera plus the radio transmitter. You might want to download the 26-page E7 user manual.
N8 USB Host
You know that pesky issue with Windows Phone 7 and microSD cards? The one where the phone formats the memory chips in such a way that they are rendered unusable in other devices other than WP7. Well Engadget Editor-in chief Josh Topolsky tweets that the Nokia N8 with its USB On The Go (USB host) capabilities, was able to do what Windows XP, Windows 7, Linux, Mac and other systems could not. Format the microSD card!
Facebook Phishing "Look at you haha:P" Scam
It was only a matter of time before phishing scams hit the walls of Facebook users. It all begins as a confirmed friend — whose account has been compormised — posts a link on another friend’s wall. As the unsuspecting user clicks on the link, they are logged out of Facebook and re-directed to a different domain that looks just like the official Facebook site. Once the user logs in, credentials such as username and password have been given to the malicious site.
Back on September 27th, 2010 Todd Agulnick Co-Founder and CTO of Xmarks, Inc. announced in the company blog that the Xmarks service would cease operations due to funding issues. The community — which includes myself — would have none of that and not let their beloved cross-browser syncing service go without a fight and it worked! Although not signed and in-writing, Xmarks has received several offers from multiple companies ready and willing to take over operations.
