Mobile

Android hackers are working overtime to bring Ice Cream Sandwich into the real world, and early fruits of their labor are starting to emerge--if you have the right phone.

The CyanogenMod project to build unofficial versions of Android is working on CM9, the version based on the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich source code from Google. Early CM9 buildsare available in alpha for the Samsung Nexus S and beta for the Samsung Galaxy S.

"CyanogenMod 9 Alpha 11 for Nexus S is definitely worth checking out," programmer Koushik "Koush" Dutta said on Google+ yesterday. And … Read more

When it comes to mobile devices, do people care about 3D content?

It's a topic I've been wrestling with since the emergence of the HTC Evo 3D, the first 3D-capable smartphone. I came to the conclusion that it was largely a gimmick, or something that piques your interest but quickly fades away. For some, it's just a bit of headache-inducing flash.

Still, that hasn't stopped more companies from moving into the area. The latest two are media startup Cooliris and mobile advertising company Smaato, which recently said they were partnering to deliver 3D advertisements on mobile … Read more

Sometimes people ask me to look at frightfully exciting things.

These normally come via the incomprehensible medium of the press release. However, sometimes I get sent things (in this case, via an e-mail from my louche engineer friend George) describing a new invention that seems positively useful and even vaguely comprehensible.

This thing is called the SkyLight. It allows you to take your iPhone, Android phone, or any other that might still exist and turn it into a microscopic eyepiece for the world.

Its creator is medical designer Andy Miller. He has already designed the Global Focus microscope, a light, cheap fluorescent microscope for developing countries. … Read more

Less than six months after launching the Droid 3, Motorola is apparently ready to give us its successor.

The Droid 4 will launch December 8, according to purported promotional materials obtained by Droid Life. The site reports it has confirmed that employee training is already in progress at some Verizon Wireless stores.

The Droid 4 will reportedly have Droid Razr styling and run on Verizon's 4G LTE network, but like the previous Droids, it will feature a five-row, slide-out keyboard. It will also sport a four-inch touch screen, a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, a front-facing camera for video chatting, and an 8MP back-facing camera.

There's no indication in the materials which Android version it will run, but if Droid Life's report is accurate, the new smartphone will launch the same day as Samsung's Galaxy Nexus, the new flagship phone for Google's Android 4.0, aka Ice Cream Sandwich.

A Motorola representative declined to comment, and Verizon representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment. … Read more

In Apple's continuing effort to streamline the shopping process at its retail stores, the company has reportedly launched software that informs its employees when shopper has arrived to pick up a purchase.

The free Apple Store app allows shoppers to buy Apple products before entering a retail outlet and then alerts store employees that the customer has arrived to retrieve their purchases, according to a New York Times report. A store employee told the newspaper that 16 customers used the location feature to pickup purchases at the company's Palo Alto, Calif., store on Friday.

Employees already have a … Read more

The FBI and Philippine law enforcement officials arrested four people in the Philippines this week who were allegedly paid by terrorists to hack into AT&T's system, but the company said its system was not breached.

The four, who were arrested Wednesday in Manila, were paid by the same Saudi Arabian-based terrorist group identified by the FBI as funding the 2008 attack on Mumbai, the Philippines' Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) said in a statement. The coordinated attacks in India's largest city claimed 164 lives and wounded at least 308.

"The hacking activity resulted in … Read more

Apple's iPhone and iPad helped make mobile devices a key driver of Thanksgiving and Black Friday e-commerce this year, according to a report from IBM Coremetrics.

Online Thanksgiving shopping grew by 39.3 percent year over year, creating momentum that continued into Black Friday, where online sales grew by 24.3 percent compared with the same period last year, said the report (PDF).

And Black Friday witnessed the arrival of the mobile deal seeker, who embraced his or her mobile device as a research tool for in-store and online bargains. Mobile traffic came close to tripling year over year, … Read more

AT&T is apparently readying a Hail Mary pass to save its foundering $39 billion bid for T-Mobile. Trouble is, there's every reason to think it won't be enough.

According to Bloomberg, the telecom giant is preparing to offer a deal to the Department of Justice under which AT&T would divest as much as 40 percent of T-Mobile's assets as part of the acquisition. It's not at all clear which parts of T-Mobile AT&T might consider shedding as part of this plan.

The Justice Department filed suit to block the deal … Read more

Samsung's Galaxy Tab may have suffered an injustice in Australia with the imposition of a ban on sales of the tablet there, at least in the eyes of one appeals court judge.

At a hearing today in Sydney in a patent case pitting Samsung against iPad maker Apple, Federal Court Justice Lindsay Foster questioned an October ruling that quashed Galaxy Tab 10.1 sales. Samsung wants to get that decision overturned to avoid what its lawyer called "dire consequences," according to a report from Bloomberg.

"The result looks terribly fair to Apple and not terribly fair … Read more