Hasta La Gadget!

BlackBerry’s home turf of Canada didn’t quite get the honor of carrying the BlackBerry Z10 first — that went to the British — but it’s rectifying that today with a full-scale release. Bell, Rogers and Telus, as well as their respective Virgin Mobile, Fido and Koodo budget labels, are selling the inaugural BlackBerry 10 device now. Those subscribed to one of the Big Three will normally pay about $150 if they sign their lives away on a 3-year contract, or between $550 to $600 outright. Smaller carriers like Mobilicity, Videotron and Wind Mobile haven’t yet launched the Z10 themselves, although they promise sales soon. BlackBerry fans south of the border, meanwhile, will just have to stare longingly until March if they’re not bent on imports.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Blackberry

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Source: Bell, Rogers, Telus

Whatever the platform, Tapbots’ Tweetbot is known for supporting in-line content viewing that doesn’t always appear in other Twitter clients — it’s a survivor of the Instagram-Twitter fallout, for example. With the launch of version 2.7 updates for iOS, the app may have microblog media well and truly covered. The upgrade adds easy Flickr viewing, to accommodate Instagram exiles, as well as quick peeks at Vine’s 6-second video loops. Third-party app integration likewise expands its boundaries: links can now open in either 1Password or Chrome, instead of Safari. Both the iPad and iPhone releases are live today, so hit the relevant links to see the imagery you might have been missing.

[In-photo image credit: Steve Kovach, Vine]

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Mobile

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Via: Tweetbot (Twitter)

Source: App Store (iPhone), (iPad)

It was just weeks ago that BLU Products’ smartphones were largely dual-core models like the Vivo 4.65 HD. The company clearly wants to ramp things up, as it’s kicking off the Quattro line based around Android 4.0 and the quad-core, 1.5GHz Tegra 3. At the entry level is the $250 Quattro 4.5, which includes a qHD display at its namesake size as well as a 5-megapixel camera, 4GB of built-in storage and a microSD slot. The next step is, unusually, the biggest: the $300 Quattro 5.7 HD (what you see above) keeps the same storage, but jumps to the extra-large category while upgrading to a 720p display and an 8-megapixel camera. BLU sees the $350 Quattro 4.5 HD as the real darling. It beats its non-HD cousin with a curved, 720p screen touting Gorilla Glass, and throws in a larger 16GB capacity as well as a more light-sensitive 8-megapixel camera. The two smaller models ship to the US early this month, to be followed by the 5.7-inch behemoth in late March. When they arrive, every one of them will carry unlocked HSPA+ 3G that supports both AT&T and T-Mobile.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

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Source: BLU Products

What good is a spectacular view if you can’t use your phone to tell people about it? London’s newly opened 95-story skyscraper, The Shard, measures 1,016 feet, making it the tallest building in the European Union. From the 69th and 72nd floors, you can get 360 degree views of the city, up to 40 miles out, according to the building’s owners. But what happens when the 200 people who can fit on the platforms at any one time want to user their mobile devices? Vodafone’s implemented a fiber optic system that converts signal into light, allowing it to travel upwards at a rate of 100GB per second. Once they’ve hit the proper spots, its converted into a radio signal, which is then beamed to several antennas located on different floors. More information — and some cool imagery — can be found in the source link below.

Filed under: Mobile

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Source: Vodafone

Path was quick to mend its ways after a dust-up over collecting contact information from iOS users without their consent, but it wasn’t quick enough to avoid FTC claims of violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. All that is just water under the bridge in the wake of a new settlement. As compensation for collecting contact information from 3,000 children without their parents’ permission, Path has agreed to both pay a $800,000 fee and implement a privacy plan that will require audits from an outside party every other year. Consider it a lesson learned for Path and other mobile app firms, which now know that scraping personal data may have unintended consequences.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

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Via: TechCrunch, The Next Web

Source: FTC