Google today rolled out the latest version of its Android mobile operating system, called Android 2.3 or "Gingerbread." The update includes support for mobile payments, VoIP calling, one-touch copy and paste, support for multiple cameras (for videoconferencing apps) and improved power management.
New BlackBerrys will soon look and feel like BlackBerry's Playbook tablet, co-CEO Jim Balsillie strongly suggested at the Web 2.0 Summit on Tuesday.
Palm Chief Executive Jon Rubinstein told the Web 2.0 Conference that his company lost some momentum after it was acquired by Hewlett-Packard in April. But Palm will get its mojo back, he says, thanks in part to a host of WebOS devices including smartphones, tablets, and devices he "can't talk about yet."
Google CEO Eric Schmidt says smartphones will soon support "bump" technology and mobile payments. These new features will be part of the new version of the Android operating system (2.3, Gingerbread), the release of which could come as soon as this week.
Google Instant--that thing Google search does where it guesses what search terms you're in the process of typing in and displays search results accordingly--has now come to mobile phones--well, devices running Android 2.2 or Apple iOS 4.0, anyway.
A spate of cool connectivity products have come out with prepaid, no-contract plans, and now Virgin Mobile is one of the first to offer an Android phone with such a plan.
You can learn a lot about the target markets of Samsung's <a href="http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/product/666912/review/galaxy_tab.html">Galaxy Tab</a> and Apple's <a href="http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/product/389929/review/apple_ipad_with_wifi_32gb.html">iPad</a> just by watching the original promotional videos for the two products.
Google officially introduced its new "Instant" search for desktop search at an event today in San Francisco, but I couldn't help looking forward a little bit toward using Instant on a mobile device. Google already has a prototype, and says the new functionality will become available for mobile devices this Fall.
For many of people, Facebook is the first stop in any Web surfing session. It has developed into a highly engaging combination of online bulletin board, personal scrapbook, and group communication network. But did you ever wonder why, being all those things, Facebook is free?
Like it or not, Facebook has become a fact of life. Many of us depend on the service to share our interests and life events with our friends. In my experience, Facebook membership is hard to resist (peer pressure), and even harder to give up once you get hooked.
2010 CTIA Kicks Off
Web 2.0 Conference, San Francisco - Microsoft confirmed today that it has integrated Twitter tweets and Facebook status updates into its Bing search results.