In a quick bit of notable news from the BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) Developers Conference, eBay has announced that they’ll launch an eBay Mobile app for BlackBerry ‘by the end of the month’. Awesome. Of course, I hope they’re true to their word, and we don’t see it pop up in early 2010 instead….

When logged-in, your ‘My eBay’ screen will grant you easy access to items you are bidding on, items you’re watching, past items that you’ve won/didn’t win, and even any saved searches.

Integration of the eBay app with native BlackBerry apps looks to be quite tight as well. When you bid on an item, you can have the eBay app automatically add a calendar reminder for you… so that you don’t forget to watch the item before the auction ends.

There’s also push notification alerts, which will let you know when you’ve been outbid.

It’s all looking pretty darn good. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that it does make an appearance in App World before the end of the month. eBay and BlackBerry FTW!

[Via: CB]

In a single day we caught two news items where we have Google (NSDQ: GOOG) on one side and a smaller company being acquired on the other….

The first news item deals with mobile advertising network/platform – AdMob. The search giant paid $750 million in stock with the idea to obviously dominate the mobile ad market just like they do on a desktop. AdMob is the single largest iPhone ad network and has recently acquired AdWhirl, the company that serves mobile ads from multiple sources. In addition, AdMob also covers other platforms, Android included. Among their clients are such well known companies like Ford and Coca-Cola.

In the other news, Google has acquired VoIP company Gizmo5 for $30 million in cash. With this deal, the search giant gets a true SIP/VoIP provider under its belt opening up new possibilities for its Google Voice service. Moreover, there are certainly some Gizmo5’s assets that could be used to improve Google Talk.

And that sums it up. I’ve no doubts AdMob’s assets will be used properly — after all advertising is Google’s cash cow — but for Gizmo5, I’m not sure. There are certainly some interesting things Google could do with it, but we thought the same for Orkut and Dodgeball, and where are they now? Any thoughts?

[Via: BGR, eWeek]

After successfully launching an iPhone app, Adobe is bringing Photoshop Mobile to Android. The application is already available in the Android Market… and seems to work with all of the existing models, good ol’ G1 included.

As that was the case with the iPhone version, the Android application allows for same photo effects to be applied on your photos. In addition, you can set your smartphone to automatically upload all new photos to your Photoshop.com account, which is quite neat for heavy Photoshop.com users…

I’ll stop here and leave you with the official demo video, which follows after the jump. Enjoy!

Read the full article »

Nokia’s Maemo-based future has begun: the N900 is shipping. According to Nokia CEO, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, the eagerly awaited handset is now en route to at least some pre-order customers. …We’ll soon see if this new generation of Nokia smartphones will be enough to generate the type of mass-market / high-margin appeal that Nokia needs at the top end of its product portfolio or if it’s just a tentative first step on a potentially wobbly new platform.

Update: Nokia’s official blog says to expect the Maemo 5 device to land in “Europe, the Middle-East, Russia and North America” shortly. However, it won’t be compatible with the new 3G SIM cards from 3 in the UK, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark and Austria until a software update hits sometime later this year.

[Thanks, Juhana J

True, this ain’t the first Dell Mini tablet hack we’ve laid eyes on — but what we do have here is a pretty sweet mod by MyDellMini forum member “rock99rock” (must be his confirmation name). In addition to replacing his Dell Mini 9 display with a touchscreen kit, our man re-jiggered an ActionXL motion sensing controller to allow the screen to rotate as you rotate the device. Not bad, eh? Hit that read link for some real radical instrucciones – but not before checking out the enthralling video after the break.

[Via Liliputing]

Buy Tickets
Wednesday December 9, 2009 from 8:30am – 2:30pm
SRI International
333 Ravenswood Avenue
Menlo Park, California Get Directions
Mobile Health is an increasingly hot topic – driven by better devices, better networks, and a national imperative to curb healthcare costs. Improved short-range protocols…sensors, lower power consumption, and mobile gateways, affordable solutions are within reach of entrepreneurs at a time when health costs are getting national attention. Meanwhile, insurance companies are spending money to lower the costs of care, and the mobile industry is eager to stake its role in this emerging ecosystem. This is a great time to launch solutions that can lower costs and keep people healthier. Speaker, sponsor, and rapid fire demo opportunities still available – email sarah@telecomcouncil.com.
Ticket Info: Free for Council members, $200 for non-members.
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Website: http://guest.cvent.com/EVENTS/Info/Summary.aspx?e=6ea2f9d6-a…

A couple of days ago, I checked if there were any updates for the applications I have installed on my iPhone, and one that was identified as having published …a more recent version in the App Store was TweetDeck, the popular Twitter client for desktop and mobile. Strangely, the update failed and I just gave up trying to install the upgraded version after a while.

Now it seems the TweetDeck iPhone app is MIA from Apple’s App Store completely, barring new users from installing the app on their phones and existing ones to upgrade to a new version

As we were all painfully aware, it took AT&T forever to bring MMS to the iPhone. A new app has just been released that hopes to one-up it….

Knocking, made by Pointy Heads Software, is basically a photo-sharing app on steroids. With it, you can pretty much instantaneously share up to 100 photos at once between two iPhones. This works by establishing a connection between the two phones, during which one user selects another user with the app and “knocks” the pictures over to them. The video below shows just how simple and fast this process is.

Nowadays, everything comes with a rechargeable battery, but who knew that getting long battery life could get soooo confusing? Here are 10 expert-backed tips to keep you from running low on the juice:

1. Since a battery should never be 100% full or 100% empty, you should charge it then discharge it in sequence ideally ranging between 80% to 20%. Start by charging for 12 minutes, then running it down, then charge it for 11 minutes then run it down, and so on. Confused? Just use this handy formula: n!=C(n,k)/r! where n can’t equal r, and k never reaches zero. Simple!

2. If you use a phone or laptop without first charging its battery fully, you will die.

3. A lot of battery experts warn of the memory effect, but it’s not really an “effect.” It’s just their way of saying “Remember to charge your batteries!”

4. Batteries run better when cold. The easiest way to do this is to find a refrigerated warehouse or meat locker, befriend the night watchman, and do all your work from there. ($20 bribes usually work.)

5. If your laptop battery gets hot enough to sear tuna, step away. Check your fridge for tuna. If no tuna in fridge, run to the supermarket to buy tuna. Don’t worry, as long as you don’t unplug your laptop, the battery will stay hot while you are gone.

6. When putting your laptop into storage, take out the battery. Wrap the extracted battery in a well oiled cloth and place it in a clay pot. Bury the pot in a hayfield. Any will do, but it’s best if there’s a long rock wall with a big oak tree at the north end. The battery should keep fresh for up to six months that way. If you’re worried about finding it again, just mark your spot with a rock that has no earthly business in a hayfield. I favor black volcanic glass.

7. If your battery is about to run dry, take it out and blow on it. I have no idea why this works, but it totally does…..

8. If your battery does die, you can always make your own: A potato theoretically has enough “potential energy” stored inside to power a laptop for a full hour—the trick is knowing where to stick the wires. Just ask a third grader. One tip: The potato must not be baked.

9. You should never confuse your batteries. Here’s an easy way to keep them apart in your head: Lithium Ion batteries explode, Nickel Cadmium destroys the environment, and Lead Acid batteries are more corrosive than the Alien Queen’s blood (plus, they contain lead). You can eat Lithium Ferro Phosphate batteries.

10. People may tell you to carry a battery-life extender in your bag, but the secret there is, it’sjust another battery. What do I recommend? Jumper cables.