Hasta La Gadget!

The third-party app experience has always seemed like an afterthought for RIM. Lousy selection and a half-baked install process are just some of the issues plaguing BlackBerry owners and developers, but there’s no blow stronger in the app world than when a dev drops support for a platform, after dedicating the resources necessary to bring a product to market in the first place. That’s exactly what Seesmic has done with its popular social media app — effective June 30th, the company will drop support for BlackBerry, “in order to focus development efforts on (its) most popular mobile platforms.” It goes so far as to suggest that users “try out Seesmic for Android, iOS, and Windows Phone 7,” which would of course mean replacing that BlackBerry with another, more app-friendly device. The move doesn’t necessarily indicate that other devs will follow suit, but if jumping ship does become a trend, it could put a significant damper on RIM’s future earnings, to say the least.

Seesmic Twitter app drops BlackBerry support, RIM’s frown sags even lower originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Jun 2011 12:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AliveCor’s iPhoneECG case was pretty sweet but, being a case, could only be strapped to an iPhone 4. Doctors content with their 3GS or patients who prefer to hug an iPad to their chest will be elated to hear the company is working on a more hardware-agnostic option for your iOS heart monitoring needs. The business card-sized iCard ECG mounts to the back of your iDevice using velcro and wirelessly feeds data from its electrodes to the AliveECG app. The app automatically records 30 seconds of your heart’s rhythmic pulse before uploading it to AliveCor’s servers for sharing with your doctors. The bad news? They’re still awaiting FDA approval, so you can’t run out and pick one up just yet. But, when it does hit shelves, it looks like you’ll have a choice of red or black — so you can make sure your medical accessories match your scrubs. Check out the video after the break.

Continue reading iCard ECG brings heart monitoring to the iOS device of your choice (video)

iCard ECG brings heart monitoring to the iOS device of your choice (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 20 Jun 2011 13:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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And here we thought folks were concerned about protecting their personal data. As it turns out, however, a surprising chunk of Android users have volunteered to give a group of University of Cambridge researchers a look at exactly how they use their cellphones. By downloading the Device Analyzer app from the Android market, more than 1,000 participants have allowed the data collection program to harvest statistics in the background while they use their phones. Those statistics — varying from when the power is switched on, to which apps are in use — are then made available to users via the Device Analyzer website. Of course, this is Cambridge, a rather well respected institution of higher learning, and the researchers involved say the data collected is stripped of personal information “as best as possible,” but we’re not keen on anyone peeping our cell stats. If you’re an Android exhibitionist, however, you can sign up for the study at the source link below.

Device Analyzer Android study wants to track your every move, if you’ll let it originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 19 Jun 2011 14:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Like an anxious admirer, HP continues to lavish gifts on the lucky devs over at WebOS Internals. This time it’s sending them pre-release TouchPads as an enticement to get busy and boost the 9.7-inch slate’s app count before it launches next month. HP recently promised that “thousands” of TouchPad apps are on their way and, in addition to attracting big names like Skype and Amazon Kindle, it’s also ensured that legacy apps continue to be supported on WebOS 3.0. With nearly 600 unofficial goodies sitting pretty at PreCentral’s homebrew app gallery, HP clearly feels it makes sense to reach out in that direction too. And who said love was just a trick?

HP ships free TouchPads to homebrew devs, may want something in return originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Jun 2011 14:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hard to say why Google chose to roll its Movies app out first to 3G-packed tablets sporting Android 3.1 (a smaller testbed, perhaps?), but it looks as if it won’t matter for much longer. We’ve received a number of tips this evening suggesting that Google Movies can now be downloaded from the Android Market by WiFi-only Xoom tablets, though some are seeing a litany of server errors when trying to actually use the service. That said, we didn’t see any issues here at Engadget HQ, so it’s possible that a few kinks are still being worked out on select servers. Give it a whirl and let us know how it turns out in comments below, and if you’re a proud owner of a Galaxy Tab 10.1… well, we guess you’re also the proud owner of a trait called “patience.”

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Motorola’s WiFi Xoom gains access to Google Movies, just in time for the weekend originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Jun 2011 01:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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