Archive for the 'Cellular' Category
TASER International Inc., a market leader in technologies that protect life, will introduce a groundbreaking new family safety platform called PROTECTOR during the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) that runs from January 7-10 in Las Vegas, NV.
PROTECTOR is a revolutionary toolset that gives parents the ability to supervise their children’s mobile phone usage and driving behaviors. Parents can manage the contact lists and content of their child’s mobile phone – including calls, texts, emails, photos and video, and can automatically limit phone functionality to prevent dangerous distractions while driving. PROTECTOR uses integrated GPS, allowing parents to track their child’s location, monitor driving habits, and release vital records to the authorities in emergency situations.
“Our mission at TASER International is to protect life – PROTECTOR is our latest technology breakthrough to further our mission by empowering families to protect the most precious of lives: our children,” says Rick Smith, CEO and founder of TASER International. “Auto accidents are the leading cause of death among American teenagers, and distracted driving is becoming a major factor in these accidents. PROTECTOR will play a significant role in addressing this national tragedy.”
“Keeping my family safe is crucial, but being engaged and staying involved in my kids’ lives is important too. With PROTECTOR, I can do both,” says Smith. “Many kids spend more time with their mobile phone than their families, and most parents have been helpless, in the dark as to who their kids are interacting with and what kind of content their kids are exposed to every day. PROTECTOR empowers parents to stay involved and provide parenting guidance in a fast moving, mobile world.”
PROTECTOR works on multiple devices, each managed through an intuitive control panel accessible through a smart phone, PC, MAC or smart TV. Parents can control who their children interact with and monitor their mobile phone activity and driving behavior at any time – and change permissions and settings in real time. PROTECTOR is carrier-independent and seamlessly connects parents and children, even if they’re on different cellular networks.
Smith adds, “It’s unlike anything on the market today. PROTECTOR is a technologically advanced, yet flexible product suite that grows with the family by providing controls as needs and situations change – from a child’s first mobile phone through the critical teenage years. PROTECTOR adapts as children mature. Through a simple, user-friendly interface, parents can modify parameters or rules anytime.”
TASER will introduce PROTECTOR at CES from booth SOUTH 4 36200 in the Las Vegas Convention Center Thursday, January 7 through Sunday, January 10, 2010. PROTECTOR is anticipated to launch as a subscription service in mid 2010. More information will be available at www.PROTECTOR.com on January 7, 2010.
GOGII, Inc. announces today the launch of textPlus, its popular next generation texting application, on the Android Market. Previously available only on the Apple App Store, the unique textPlus app now brings sponsor-supported free and unlimited messaging to Android users and allows them to have instant group “conversations” in text with friends on most U.S. carriers.
“We’ve already seen overwhelming consumer response to the textPlus app in the Apple App Store thanks to the millions of consumers who’ve embraced our game-changing features – from casual texters to the staggering number of consumers who text as their primary mode of communication,” said Scott Lahman, CEO and co-founder of GOGII. “We’re pleased to make textPlus available to Android users, and offer even more text-happy mobile consumers this tricked-out, next generation texting service.”
By leveraging GOGII’s interactive messaging technology, textPlus allows both old-style texting – one-to-one conversations – and next generation texting – rich, engaging environments and instant group text conversations. A useful ‘reply-all’ feature, similar to email, turns texting into a chatroom that lets users make plans with several friends at once, introduce people to one another or just carry on a group conversation – all in text and all for free.
Additional features make it easy for Android texters to make textPlus their preferred SMS service, including the international ability to send free messages from abroad to friends in the U.S. using a U.S. 10-digit phone number and free Notifications when messages come into the app, even when closed. What’s more, textPlus lets Android users communicate with friends who aren’t using the app – they simply pay for texts through their existing carrier plan.
GOGII expects the textPlus Android app to be met with the same degree of consumer fervor on the Android Market that it has on the Apple App Store. To date, the textPlus app has already seen almost 3.5 million downloads, and over 350 million messages have been sent using the service since June. And while only the top 5% of applications in the Apple App Store reach 100,000 unique monthly visitors, textPlus exceeded that by over 7 times in its second month of release.
Coming soon to Android are textPlus “text addresses,” which let users personalize texting and facilitate conversations, all without requiring a phone number.
The textPlus application can be downloaded for free from the Android Market.
If you’re interested, you can purchase the mount for $19.99 today from NewerTech or OWC direct by visiting http://www.newertech.com/products/iphwinmount.php.
SvenOnTech is requesting a review unit and will let you know how this works out once we get it.
Magellan, one of the leading GPS brands, today announced an innovative new vehicle mount for the iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS and second generation iPod touch. With a built-in GPS receiver for improved navigation accuracy, the Premium Car Kit features an amplified speaker for crystal clear directions and enhanced Bluetooth hands-free calling and clear turn-by-turn directions.
For iPod touch 2G users, the GPS receiver in the Magellan Premium Car Kit allows true navigation functionality, turning the iPod touch into a complete car navigation system. Once the iPod touch is connected to the Premium Car Kit, a separate Bluetooth enabled mobile phone can be connected to it via Bluetooth for hands-free calling.
“Building on the ease of the Magellan RoadMate app, we are proud to introduce a cutting-edge Premium Car Kit that gives our consumers the entire in-car navigation experience from their iPhone or iPod touch,” said Peggy Fong, Chief Operating Officer for Magellan.
Features of the Premium Car Kit include the following:
Secure vehicle mounting for iPhone or iPod touch
Accommodates most silicon skins and hard shell cases
Adjustable mount securely rotates iPhone to either portrait or landscape mode for optimal positioning and widescreen route display
Recharges battery via the vehicle power outlet
Amplified speaker with volume control for loud and clear phone calls and directions
Noise canceling microphone for full duplex speakerphone operation
Auxiliary audio output (for connection to your car stereo)
Works with all navigation applications (including the Magellan RoadMate for iPhone application)
Bluetooth enables hands-free calling
Available now for pre-order, the car kit will retail for $129.99 and will be available at Amazon.com, Best Buy, and MagellanGPS.com.
So you’re sitting in the comforts of your warm home and your car is parked out front all cold and uninviting? Bundle up and tackle that frigid automobile until the heater makes things nice or you can pull out your iPhone and just start it from your couch!
Viper has just announced the Vehicle Remote Start & Security application for the iPhone (with limited support for the iPod touch) that when coupled with a $500 box installed to your vehicle will let you remotely start the car, toggle the locks, pop the trunk, and beep the horn. The application works with multiple vehicles equipped with the Viper hardware and is only limited to cellular connection for the vehicle and Wi-Fi or a cellular connection on your iPhone.
Viper has a pretty sweet demo on its Facebook fan page with an option to win one of these cool remote devices.
While I love this whole set up, I have to say, $500 is a pricey for just starting your car and unlocking it. Still, really cool idea and makes OnStar that much lamer. 
Well “late summer” has come and gone and nearly half a day into the promised launch date of MMS for all AT&T iPhone customers, it finally arrived a little before noon Pacific time. With Twitter a flame with tweets to slam the network at 5 pm Eastern with MMS use, one thing is certain about todays MMS release: Apple is watching.
Apple formally introduced Multimedia Messaging Service to the world in early June at its iPhone OS 3.0 dog and pony show. It displayed it before the developers in a nice large screen with all the carriers that would support MMS upon the June 28th release. Of course, it paused for everyone to take in the fact that the Death Star AT&T logo was missing from the slide at Moscone Centers stage. Front and center, not.
After a furry of angry tweets, Facebook status updates, and blog posts around the Interwebs, AT&T months later sent Seth, its PR guy, to explain the absence via video. See, the thing was, iPhone users were just so unlike other smartphone customers with their data use that AT&T couldn’t possibly support MMS so soon. Soon? Really, MMS support was a surprise to AT&T the day of announcement? Hard to believe but even so, it begs the question why hadn’t it built out the network PRIOR to the announcement when it had to know it was eventually coming? Well, Mr. ATT went on to tell viewers that Ma Bell was fixing a hole for the benefit of iPhone users and would be taking care of signal issues, as well, during the summer. Bonus! Seth really worked it in the video showing lots of towers, data, and hope. Yes, hope you can believe in.
Well, here we are, finally MMS is working and running for iPhone users nationwide and all eyes are on AT&T. How will it handle this? Rumors on Twitter early Tuesday, just days before roll-out, was that a preliminary stress test crashed the system. Today will be a test like none other for AT&T and if it fails, well, it’s almost a sure bet that Verizon will reap success from AT&Ts failure. With Seth’s assurance that iPhone users would enjoy the experience and the billions of dollars it poured into upgrades, failure will only mean that AT&T will never ever be able to fix its holes. Apple will use that as reasoning why it just is no longer “happy” with its relationship and will tell AT&T that it wants to see other people. Of course, it’ll still be friends with AT&T, just not exclusive friends.
So, AT&T, today you must shine or it is over. No marketing blitz will save you from the woes of Apple taking a trip to Jersey and welcoming that guy with his glasses and large group of friends to the iPhone family. As they say in Jersey, put up or shut up.
UPDATE: Upon my first MMS test, it took nearly a minute to complete the send of the MMS message to my wife’s iPhone. Here’s the great part. At five bars in a 3G area, it took nearly 10 minutes for her to receive the MMS message. 10 minutes! While I know everyone with an iPhone is probably using the system right now, man, 10 minutes is S-A-D. I could have described the picture to her via SMS in that amount of time. Shesh…
Did you notice something different when adding a new contact or a phone number to an existing one lately on your iPhone or in Address Book on your Mac? Well, if you upgraded to Snow Leopard on your Macintosh you may have not caught the new entry for Phone Number Type in Address Book 5.0. Right under Work and Home and just above Mobile is “iPhone”. You’ll find the same entry type available on your iPhone running OS 3.0 or higher as well.
So what is Apple trying to do with this new entry? Marketing? Hidden feature? Nothing? Well, most likely it’s just really a marketing ploy since phone calls from iPhone to iPhone using this type does nothing more than Mobile to Mobile. Oh, if you use the iPhones Voice Control to call someone with this entry as their selection but say “Mobile” instead of iPhone, thankfully the Voice Control understand what you “really” mean and still finds the correct number. Voice Control does politely tell you, however, that it is an iPhone that you’re calling when confirming your selection.
Who knows the true reason of Apple’s inclusion of this new entry other than being a “vanity” selection. Maybe one day there will be a use for it or maybe it will effect how one sends SMS and MMS to one another. Either way, I’m going with the vanity aspect for now and loving it.
Contestants are now lining up around the U.S. to audition for Randy, Simon and someone other than Paula – but now anyone can audition before the entire world with iSing, the worldwide talent show via iPhone and iPod touch. iSing, created by games and entertainment producer Island Labs, enables anyone with an iPhone or iPod touch to record a 30-second audition, publish it, then watch their recording climb the charts as their “fans” vote for (or against) it in this worldwide competition for stardom.
“iSing is karaoke meets talent show meets social networking,” said Morgan Slain, CEO of Island Labs. “We are very excited about providing a fun, lively venue on the mobile web for people to sing, share and compete for fame on the iSing talent show.”
Upon launching iSing, users are presented with a list of song entries by iSing contestants. To listen to an entry, they simply tap on the thumbnail picture of the contestant, and use “thumbs up” and “thumbs down” buttons to vote. Users can also find entries by searching for the latest, best and worst of the current month, best and worst of all-time, or by location, which will present all the entries from a particular city.
Users can also search for specific friends and build their own network of iSing contestants.
Over time, they will be able to track which contestants soar to the top, and which sink to the bottom.
Competing in iSing is very simple, enabling contestants to record a 30-second audition with the tap of a button. After recording, the singer can review and re-record the song prior to being submitted to Island Labs for review. Once approved, the contestant will receive an email letting them know their audition is now “live” and they can share it with friends who will vote for it.
A video demonstration of iSing can be viewed at www.isingoniphone.com/video/intro. iSing is available for iPhone and iPod touch in the App Store for US$0.99.
“With TomTom for iPhone, millions of iPhone users can now benefit from the same easy-to-use and intuitive interface, turn-by-turn spoken navigation and unique routing technology that our 30 million portable navigation device users rely on every day,” said Corinne Vigreux, Managing Director of TomTom. “As the world’s leading provider of navigation solutions and digital maps, TomTom is the most natural fit for an advanced navigation application on the iPhone.”
The TomTom app for iPhone 3G and 3GS users includes a map of the US and Canada from Tele Atlas, and is available to download through http://www.tomtom.com/tomtom-app for $99.99 USD.
TomTom app for iPhone key features
TomTom app for iPhone includes the exclusive IQ . Instead of using travel time assumptions, IQ Routes™ technology Routes bases its routes on the actual experience of millions of TomTom drivers to calculate the fastest route and generate the most accurate arrival times in the industry. TomTom IQ Routes empowers drivers to reach their destination faster up to 35% of the time.
Additional TomTom app for iPhone features include:
Best routing and maps
· Navigation software including fast route planning and clear voice instructions
· Automatic re-routing if a turn is missed
· Route demo or map of route when trip planning
· Alternative route options if avoiding roadblocks, toll ways or looking for high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes along route
· Latest Tele Atlas maps of the US, Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand
· 6 million Points of Interest included
Easy to use and personalize
· User interface fully optimized with iPhone.
· Multiple display options including landscape and portrait navigation view
· Night and day color mode for optimized screen visibility in varying light conditions
· User interface available in 18 languages in
· Change view settings (2D or 3D map display)
· Easy to download from iTunes App Store
Complete phone and map integration
· Multi-touch gestures such as tap, swipe, pinch and zoom to operate the application and zoom in and out of the map
· Navigation to contacts in address book
· Points-of-interest search and call capabilities from iPhone
Pricing and Availability
The TomTom app for iPhone including full maps of the US and Canada will be available for $99.99 USD on the Apple App Store. http://www.tomtom.com/tomtom-app.
Compatibility with iPod touch and other iPhone models coming soon.
Requirements for use on the iPhone 3G or 3GS include phone installation of OS3.0 and installation of iTunes on the PC or Mac.
Electric Pocket is now introducing its PhoneFace photo speed-dial application for the iPhone – the first of its kind to connect with Twitter to retrieve profile photos of frequently-called contacts. PhoneFace has been a very popular application among users of BlackBerry and Android smartphones.
PhoneFace will launch phone calls, text messages and emails with a simple click on a contact’s photo or avatar. The app also comes with a fun set of custom-designed avatars, including a number of friendly robots and other quirky characters, to represent friends with no photos available.
PhoneFace makes it simpler and quicker to find and launch a call, text or email with friends, family and co-workers. Rather than forcing users to scroll through hundreds of contacts in the Address Book of their iPhone, PhoneFace adds a twist to “speed dialing” by enabling them to flick through photos for their most commonly called contacts to quickly select the person they wish to call.
PhoneFace users can select any photo for their contacts, take a photo with the iPhone’s camera or it can automatically locate and update the pictures of PhoneFace contacts with their most recent Twitter profile picture. This integration gives users a ready source of excellent photographs for their contacts – and uniquely, the speed-dial picture becomes a photograph chosen by the contact themselves.
“PhoneFace is a light and breezy speed-dialer aimed at helping anyone reach out to their friends and family more quickly with their iPhone,” said Iain Barclay, Electric Pocket’s co-founder and Chief Product Officer. “It’s so much easier to look for a familiar face than sort through hundreds of names in a directory.”
PhoneFace is available now from the iTunes App Store for with an introductory price of US$.99.