Hasta La Gadget!

Shortly after MasterCard announced plans to become entangled with Google Wallet (and a few months after those ambitious Isis plans were shelved), it looks as if the aforesaid company is diving into yet another mobile payment arena. And this time, it’s personal. MasterCard and CSI Enterprises already offer a smattering of customized business cards for those with highly specific needs, and soon that partnership will extend to iOS, Android and BlackBerry OS. We’ve confirmed that the CSI Virtual MasterCard app is currently scheduled to launch in July, presumably enabling folks with a GlobalVCard to use their mobile device of choice to make payments. What’s interesting here is the inclusion of RIM and iOS; there’s no BlackBerry device (nor iOS device) on the market today with NFC, which leads us to believe one of two things: that’s either changing by July, or this here service won’t rely on NFC at all. Needless to say, we’ll keep you posted — nothing like another way to more easily indebt yourself.

CSI Virtual MasterCard app bringing mobile payments to iOS, Android and BlackBerry originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Jun 2011 11:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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RIM’s BlackBerry 9900 is the device that the BlackBerry diehards have been hoping, wishing, and waiting for since the original Bold launched way back in 2008. However, this time around the company has added in a capacitive touchscreen, swapped the trackball of yesteryear for an optical trackpad, and slimmed the whole thing down into a 10.5mm thick package. We were lucky enough to get a prototype device from our friends over at Negri Electronics, and have manhandled the thing till we were blue in the face. Head on past the break for an exclusive preview of the device RIM is praying will stalwart its competitors until the first round of QNX-equipped devices lands in 2012.

Continue reading BlackBerry Bold 9900 preview! (video)

BlackBerry Bold 9900 preview! (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 24 Jun 2011 14:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google, Amazon, and Apple have been hogging the headlines when it comes to storing your tunes in the internet ether. That doesn’t mean there isn’t room for another musically inclined cloud contender — or at least, that’s how Best Buy sees things. The big blue box has rolled out its aptly (if uncreatively) named Music Cloud service that lets you upload your audio to its servers and stream it wherever you go. You can also save songs locally, plus there are apps for Androids, Blackberrys, and iPhones to manage and play your music. There are two flavors of Music Cloud, Lite and Premium. The former is free, while the latter costs $3.99 a month, though Best Buy hasn’t said what the difference is (other than price) between the two. The catch? It’s currently only capable of grabbing songs from iTunes, so no uploading from file folders. Let’s hope that’s only a temporary problem.

Best Buy puts your music in the cloud, goes where others have gone before originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Jun 2011 01:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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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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Monsoon Multimedia is again advancing its Vulkano line of set-top boxes with a feature not found on Sling, TiVo or Roku, adding the ability to make DVR recordings directly to iPad, iPhone or Android devices. While users can still watch TV from anywhere in the world using the Vulkano, the new DVR-to-mobile feature is restricted to WiFi and will only work with the Vulkano Flow and eventually the Blast. Sure you could store your shows on a hard drive and move them over or stream later, but this way fans of The Killing on AMC can be disappointed by the season finale later on even while offline. Updates for the platform-appropriate $13 apps should arrive shortly, while Blackberry users are assured the feature is on the way soon for them too.

Continue reading Monsoon Vulkano Flow, Blast launch DVR-to-mobile feature for iPhone, iPad and Android

Monsoon Vulkano Flow, Blast launch DVR-to-mobile feature for iPhone, iPad and Android originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Jun 2011 03:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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