SHOW #92 - NerdBoyTV: Blackberry with Luis Merlos

On this episode of NerdBoyTV (using Skype), Ryan Yee talks with Luis Merlos of BerryReview.com on how RIM will compete with the iPhone and Android smartphones in the consumer market soon with the Blackberry 9800.

Apple on iPhone complaints: You're holding it wrong!

Hours after its iPhone 4 went on sale to excited crowds Thursday, Apple found itself responding to complaints that holding the phone by its metal edge causes mobile reception to suffer.

The company's response, in a nutshell? You're holding it wrong.

"Just avoid holding it in that way," Apple CEO Steve Jobs wrote in an e-mail that was making the rounds on the Web on Friday morning.

Joshua Topolsky Shows Off The Droid X and The iPhone 4

Engadget editor Joshua Topolsky stopped by the Late Night with Jimmy Fallon Show to show off a very special item that very few people have in their hands: the hotly-anticipated iPhone 4, plus Motorola's Droid X!

First Look: Motorola Droid X (Verizon Wireless)

Verizon added a new member to its Android army today and if you thought the Droid was a beast, then wait till you get a load of the Droid X. Check it out in our First Look.

New iPhone selling briskly as thousands line up

New iPhone selling briskly as thousands line up - Yahoo! News: "Apple Inc.'s newest iPhone was selling briskly Thursday as thousands lined up outside stores around the world to become among the first to own the device amid concerns of supply shortages.

The iPhone 4's launch began in Japan and sold out by early afternoon at the flagship store of Softbank, Apple's exclusive wireless carrier there. The launch moved across France, Germany and the U.K. before going on sale at 7 a.m. in each time zone in the U.S. Some stores abroad had midnight openings.

More than with past launches, there were worries about limited supplies after more than 600,000 people rushed to pre-order iPhones on the first day they were available, prompting Apple and its exclusive wireless partner in the U.S., AT&T Inc., to stop taking orders for shipment by Thursday's launch. On Apple's website, new orders weren't promised for delivery until July 14.

Sean Hill, 39, a Washington police officer who had pre-ordered his phone, smiled and proudly held the phone up for the crowd to see as he walked out of the newly opened Apple store in the Georgetown neighborhood.

'I'm like a kid in a candy store,' Hill said. 'I'm probably going to spend all morning playing with it.'

Those who didn't place an iPhone 4 order had to line up outside Apple stores Thursday in the hopes of snagging one on a first-come, first-served basis. Apple wouldn't say whether it believes it has enough iPhones on hand.

- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Verizon, Motorola debut giant Droid X phone

Verizon, Motorola debut giant Droid X phone - Wireless- msnbc.com: "Today in New York, Verizon Wireless and Motorola unveiled the latest Droid-branded smartphone, called Droid X. With a 4.3-inch high-resolution screen, it's one of the largest phones on the market.

The large screen is intended to encourage users to take advantage of Verizon's V Cast video-on-demand service, which now offers movies and TV shows under the Blockbuster brand.

The anticipated phone, which has an 8-megapixel camera and HD video recording, will sell at Verizon Wireless stores and online beginning July 15. It will cost $199.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate, provided the buyer agrees to a 2-year service agreement. (Buyers will have to pay $299.99 up front, then wait to be mailed the debit card containing their $100 rebate.)

- Sent using Google Toolbar"

What are the best Android Phones?

The Best Android Phones: "What is the best Android phone? There may only be one or two iPhones available at a time -- but there are more than a dozen different Google (NASDAQ: GOOG - News) Android designs that are competing for the title 'Best Android Smartphone On The Planet' -- or 'Best Android Smartphone So Far.'

We rate the best Androids available today and our top picks should be a quick and easy shopping guide for those looking for a great device.

- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Is AT&T ready for the iPhone 4?

Is AT&T ready for the iPhone 4? - CNN.com: "With the launch of the iPhone 4 a week away, potential consumers are wondering if AT&T's wireless network is up to the task of handling what is expected to be another record-breaking launch for the latest version of the popular iPhone.

The company says it's ready. But AT&T keeps giving its critics -- and its own customers -- reasons to doubt that it's on top of its game. On Tuesday, the AT&T and Apple Web sites were overwhelmed by customers trying to pre-order the new iPhone 4. Customers saw error messages when accessing the Web sites and experienced long delays while trying to create or update their AT&T accounts.

Pre-ordering snafus aside, AT&T says that it's been upgrading its network to keep up with demand from current iPhone subscribers and to support a flood of new customers. It has also armed itself with new data plans that cap usage at 2 gigabytes per month to help curb heavy data usage.

In many ways, AT&T has been a victim of its own success. The iPhone, which is built for accessing the Net, has been hugely popular, attracting scores of new customers with each device upgrade. It's helped the company add millions of new customers every year since it was first introduced in 2007.

But the iPhone has also created a tsunami of mobile data on the AT&T network, which has resulted in poor service for many iPhone customers throughout the country, especially in densely populated cities, such as New York City and San Francisco.

- Sent using Google Toolbar"

E3 2010: Top showstoppers and disappointments

E3 2010: Top showstoppers and disappointments - Plugged In - Yahoo! Games: "It might be 'game over' for E3 2010, but gamers have plenty to look forward to. We saw a new Xbox 360 design from Microsoft, an impressive motion-control system from Sony, an absolute barnstormer of a show from Nintendo, and enough new games to keep us busy for years.

But while we were wowed by a few surprising announcements, several high-profile products were strangely MIA. Here are the top 5 surprises -- and top 5 bummers -- of the biggest video game spectacle of the year.

- Sent using Google Toolbar"

New iPhone Antenna Aims to Better Hold Calls

Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance: "Apple Inc.'s (Nasdaq: AAPL - News) new iPhone might perform a simple task much better than its predecessors: hold a call.

Among the most dramatic design changes in the latest iteration of Apple's smartphone, the iPhone 4, is a stainless-steel antenna that wraps around its sides. The new antenna design constitutes a radical departure from previous iPhone models, which buried the antenna under the phone's shell.

The new phone, which goes on sale June 24, puts out more radio-frequency radiation than its predecessor, according to Federal Communications Commission documents. That, along with the new antenna, is expected to give the iPhone 4 greater signal strength and reliability.

Apple hopes the new design will counter one of the most common complaints consumers have with the iPhone: dropped calls.

Starbucks: Free Wi-Fi at 6,700 US sites

Starbucks: Free Wi-Fi at 6,700 US sites - Yahoo! News: "Starbucks Corp. will begin offering unlimited free Wi-Fi at all of its company-operated U.S. locations next month, part of an ongoing effort to bring more customers in the door.

The free wireless Internet will be available July 1 at about 6,700 locations.

The coffee house, which recorded its first quarterly increase in customers in 13 quarters earlier this year, had previously offered two free hours of Web access each day to registered customers.

After that, consumers at the Seattle chain were charged a small fee.

Access will continue to be offered through AT&T. But it won't require a Starbucks loyalty card, according to the announcement Monday by CEO Howard Schultz, who spoke at a conference in New York.

The move comes six months after Starbucks' competitor McDonald's Corp. began offering free Wi-Fi at 11,500 U.S. locations.

- Sent using Google Toolbar"

WidgetCast Quick Tour

WidgetCast blends your digital lifestyle media into powerful, entertaining and portable Flash™ content for websites, social networks and Adobe® AIR® powered desktops. WidgetCast is a Flash authoring tool and media content service designed to build world class widgets for personal and professional rich-media web content.

WidgetCast — http://www.reallusion.com/widgetcast

Fighting Gravity auditions on America's Got Talent 2010

Since this is a blog on technology, gadgetry, and 'puters, this group on "America's Got Talent" REALLY put it all together. Check this clip out; WOW, I've never seen anything like it! AWESOME...they're gonna win BIGTIME!

It's Apple vs. Google in the New Phone Fight

Courtesy of Newsweek

When Steve Jobs took the stage for his keynote address at Apple’s annual developers conference last week, he had plenty to say about the new iPhone 4, calling it “the most precise, beautiful thing we’ve ever designed.” He waxed on about its mind-blowing video-chat features and its gorgeous display—even though the Wi-Fi connection failed during his demo. He didn’t neglect the iPad, either, pointing out that Apple has sold 2 million in two months—or about one every three seconds. But Jobs didn’t say one word about the venerable old Mac, even though the conference used to be the place where Apple showed off the new features coming to its line of computers.

It’s a sign of the times. Right now the computer industry is undergoing one of its periodic upheavals in which an aging platform is swept away and replaced by something newer, cheaper, and better. In this case, the victim is the personal computer. Just as mainframes gave way to minicomputers and minicomputers gave way to PCs, the PC is about to be eclipsed by mobile devices. Apple’s new smash-hit product, the iPad, might seem like a toy, but soon it and other mobile devices will become our primary computers, replacing laptops and even desktop machines.

And just like the last time around, a battle is brewing to see which company will rule the industry. During the PC wars, Microsoft triumphed, ending up with 90 percent market share, which left Apple with table scraps. In mobile, Jobs sees a shot at redemption. But this time he faces a new opponent, Google, whose mobile operating system, called Android, has emerged as the biggest rival to Apple.

Merging E-Mail and Social Networking, Yahoo Tries to Avoid Google's Mistakes

Merging E-Mail and Social Networking, Yahoo Tries to Avoid Google's Mistakes - Newsweek

In February, Yahoo got to watch with schadenfreude as Google drove its new Buzz social network straight over a cliff with inadequate privacy controls. Now Yahoo has decided it wants to head for pretty much the same cliff, just with a slightly firmer grip on the wheel.

Yahoo is beefing up its Yahoo Updates service, a relatively unknown social network that allows users to post status updates, photos, and other content by integrating it directly into Yahoo Mail. The numbers make a compelling case: Yahoo Mail has some 280 million users, so if the Sunnyvale, Calif., company can flip a switch and create a social network around that—why, it'd be a sudden player against Facebook, a global force at nearly 500 million users, and Twitter, at 75 million.

No doubt that is the same thought that occurred to Google when it introduced Buzz as an add-on to its popular Gmail service. That launch didn't go so well. Yahoo is paying close attention to the litany of mistakes Google made, especially the flaw that allowed some users' lists of frequently e-mailed contacts to go public. The privacy outcry then was swift and loud, with journalists whose confidential sources were revealed, as well as battered spouses whose ex-husbands suddenly saw their status updates, among those affected. Yahoo says it has been slowly adding Updates functionality to its various products—Yahoo Messenger, Yahoo Profiles—and studying how users respond. This "phased integration," Yahoo says, has elicited "overwhelmingly positive feedback."

AT&T phases out unlimited data plans

AT&T phases out unlimited data plans - Yahoo! News

NerdBoyTV NOTE: Boy, we hate these "bait and switch" policy changes...!

AT&T just did away with its all-you-can-eat smartphone data plans — bad news for those who stream video on their iPhones all day, but potentially good news for the rest of us, given that the cheapest of the new capped plans goes for just $15 (rather than $30) a month. Also: AT&T is finally ready to offer iPhone tethering.

First, a little background. Up until now, AT&T was charging all of its smartphone customers — including iPhone users — $30 a month for unlimited data usage. Starting Monday, June 7, the unlimited data option will be going away for new subscribers, to be replaced by two cheaper, capped plans. (If you're currently on an unlimited AT&T smartphone data plan, you don't have to switch to the new, capped options, which are required for new subscribers only. But AT&T says you can opt to make the switch without extending your contract.)

DataPro: Heavy smartphone users will probably opt for this $25-a-month plan, which offers up to 2GB of data a month at a $5 savings over the current unlimited plan. If you go over your 2GB monthly allotment, AT&T will charge you $10 for an additional gigabyte. No, overage charges are never fun, but it's certainly better than typical per-MB overage rates, which result in those catastrophic $50,000 cell phone bills you see on CNN.

DataPlus: A $15-a-month option that offers 200MB of monthly data, good for (as AT&T puts it) 1,000 e-mails without attachments, plus 150 messages with attachments, plus 400 Web pages, plus about 20 minutes of streaming video. If you crack the 200MB monthly cap, you get another 200MB for $15.

So, which plan is right for you? That depends on how much data you're using a month, which you can typically check on your smartphone's settings menu (for the iPhone, tap "settings," then "general," then "usage," then scroll down to the "cellular network data" heading).

Apple's iPad: Adobe works with publishers to create apps without Flash

Apple's iPad: Adobe works with publishers to create apps without Flash - San Jose Mercury News

Apple may have banned Adobe Systems' Flash platform from its iPhone and iPad, but Adobe isn't abandoning the Cupertino computer maker's popular mobile devices.

The San Jose maker of graphic design and Internet software today announced the availability of new digital viewer technology that lets publishers use its InDesign software to create apps for Apple's iPad.

Adobe worked with magazine giant Condé Nast, publisher of Wired, to create the new viewer technology.

"Our partnership with Adobe allowed us to reimagine and rebuild a print issue into an amazing digital magazine experience on iPad," Thomas J. Wallace, editorial director of Condé Nast, said in a statement released by Adobe.

Wired has created a $4.99-a-copy app for the iPad starting with its June issue.