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Orange and high-street retailer HMV will next week launch what they claimed is a first for a UK mobile phone operator: an online games download store for Java-enabled phones....

Web threats: Why conventional protection doesn't work

Wireless handset maker Pantech is bolstering the senior ranks of its U.S. division to help it win more business from AT&T, the No. 2 U.S. mobile phone service provider. South Korea-based Pantech named David Ronis as its chief marketing officer, a newly created position, the company plans to ...

Seattle - Mobile phone maker HTC has responded to Apple's (NASD: AAPL) patent infringement claims related to the iPhone, saying it "disagrees with Apple's actions and will fully defend itself."

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WATFORD, England, March 18, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- The HTC Desire (http://www.mobiles.co.uk/htc-desire.html), previously known as the Bravo, is the HTC branded version of the Google Nexus One. Boasting many quality features, you will love every aspect of this mobile phone. The handset runs on a co

Jack Dorsey’s Square was unveiled last December as an innovative way to let people quickly and easily accept physical credit card payments from their mobile phone.

Since then, Square, which has been in limited beta, has been used in a variety of use cases. E.g. philanthopic organization charity:water recently used Square at the SXSW festival to collect donations.

A local flower cart in San Francisco is using Square to take payments from customers. Denim, a jeans store in New York is using Square to take payments from shoppers. We even used Square at this year’s Crunchies to raise money for the UCSF Foundation.

Here’s how Square works: A small device attaches to the phone via the headset/microphone jack. The device gets the power it needs to send data to the phone from the swipe of the card, and sends the information over the microphone connection. The device is compatible with both the iPhone and Android. It’s similar in some ways to PayPal, but anyone can now accept physical credit card payments, too. With no contracts or monthly fees. People are sent receipts by text and email. If you haven’t seen Square in action, check out this video.

And now, a new use case has popped up for Square: political fundraising.

Square is currently being used in two campaigns. Silicon Valley VC Josh Becker, who is running for state assembly in California’s 21st district, has been using Square at fundraising events. And lawyer Reshma Saujani, who is running for Congress in New York’s 14th district, is using Square at campaign fundraising events, including at an event in San Francisco on Friday.

Square is ideal for taking money at political fundraisers for several reasons.

Currently, if you want to donate money at a fundraising event, you often have to fill out a form and hand over a check or cash at the event. If you don’t have your checkbook or cash handy (which, many of us don’t), credit cards are the only option. You can write down your credit card number and info for fundraisers to charge at a later date, but you have to trust that the fundraiser keeps track of that information and paper.

With Square, there is both a convenience added for both the payee and fundraiser. The donation is instantly processed, and Square will send the receipt via SMS or email to the payee. Of course, political contributions and donations are a little more complicated because of the reporting requirements associated with donations.

For many types of donations, you need to take the donator’s name, occupation, address, and other information. Currently Square doesn’t allow users to input all of this information but Dorsey says that they are releasing Square’s API to allow fundraisers to build additional applications on top of Square, where they could input all of the necessary data. Once this is enabled, Square will allows fundraisers to eliminate paper collection and payments all together.

Dorsey says he’s already getting significant interest from politicians and political candidates across the country, but because Square is in limited beta, is being selective about how the service is distributed. Dorsey expects Square to be open to the public sometime in the next few months.

Valued at $40 million even before launch, Square is off to an impressive start. And technology’s most notable investors and leaders seem to think so as well.

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, investor Ron Conway, Google’s Marissa Mayer, Foursquare co-founder Dennis Crowley, Digg creator Kevin Rose, investor Esther Dyson and a host of others have invested in Square. The company also raised funding from Khosla Ventures.

CrunchBase InformationSquareInformation provided by CrunchBase

Earlier this week, Opera Software released the final versions of Opera Mini 5 and Opera Mobile 10, Opera initially introduced as the first public Betas back in November last year. This week's release puts the finishing touches on the Opera mobile-browsing duo. The focus is on delivering the best Internet experience on nearly any mobile phone, along with a unified look and feel and innovative favorite features, such as Speed Dial, password manager and tabbed browsing. Now, nearly any mobile phone can support an Opera-driven Web experience, complete with unmatched speed, style and cost savings.

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That mobile phone charging is a universal nuisance is underscored by all the many efforts we've seen to alleviate the pain, including harnessing the wind, the sun, bicycles, dancers and foot pumps to make it easier. With similar intentions,...

On March 24, T-Mobile will be releasing the HTC HD2 Windows Mobile smartphone. While this phone will not be upgradeable to Windows Phone 7 Series, it will be the first mobile phone that will feature the Blockbuster OnDemand service.

ReadWriteWeb also reports that Blockbuster is planning on bringing OnDemand to the Android platform as well, for use on “select Motorola phones.”

Blockbuster OnDemand is basically like Amazon Unbox (the download version). Rather than streaming titles from your device, you download the content. There are also hardware devices, like Blu-ray players, HDTVs and TiVo, that can access Blockbuster OnDemand content. This is different from services like Netflix that stream video content either in your web browser or on a different hardware device.

Downloading, Not Streaming Thus, when it comes to watching Blockbuster OnDemand content on an HTC HD2 or other compatible phone, you’re downloading the digitally protected file to watch on your device. Downloading and streaming both have their own sets of pros and cons, and we’d really need to try Blockbuster’s implementation before making any judgment.

ReadWriteWeb says the company is looking into how it can support the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad platforms. Right now, you can’t download a media file from a third-party directly to your iPod or iPhone — you have to use iTunes or transfer files using your computer.

However, we should also note that since Blockbuster doesn’t even support Mac users when it comes to using the OnDemand service, we’re not holding our breath for any sort of big movement on the iPhone/iPad platforms — at least right now.

Competition Abounds

Blockbuster’s news follows Netflix’s announcement that it will be running on the Windows Phone 7 Series phones later this fall. Netflix already uses Microsoft’s Silverlight technology to stream video to Windows and Mac OS X computer and Silverlight will be built in to Windows Phone 7 Series devices.

As Blockbuster faces major financial challenges and heavy competition from not only Netflix, but also Redbox (not to mention other video on-demand download and streaming services like Vudu, CinemaNow and FilmFresh), how it implements its mobile strategy will be of huge importance.

Simply making it possible to download a movie to your handset might not be enough of a draw to users, especially if the overall experience isn’t just right. We’ll be interested to see how this solution shapes up when the HD2 is released next week.

What do you think of Blockbuster’s mobile strategy? Would you rather see companies support streaming or DRM downloads on mobile devices? Let us know!

Tags: android, blockbuster, blockbuster ondemand, netflix, redbox, windows mobile, windows phone 7

http://pocketnow.com/tech-news/mix1...windows-phone-7

"We found out from Todd Brix of Microsoft that Windows Phone 7 Series will eschew user-replaceable memory. Memory cards may still be used by manufacturers and OEMs, but those won't be easily or readily accessible to the end-user. This will allow, as Microsoft puts it, for a better user experience on the device, and we're not sure that the primary motive for locking down storage memory is for a better experience - we're guessing it has to do with DRM though the strategy would go well with Microsoft's move to remove a file management system."

Although I tend to put a memory card in my phone and leave it there - rarely if ever taking it out - I've always like the idea of removable storage because there are two constants in the flash memory world: first, that the cards will always grow to have more storage, and second, that they'll get cheaper. I railed on Microsoft for not putting removable storage card slots in their Zune products, because it would have been a key advantage over the iPod, and now Microsoft is taking a step backwards in my opinion by removing the option for OEMs to offer removable storage cards. According to Todd Brix, this is due to wanting to offer a "better user experience". I call bunk on this point - any modern program not designed should automatically scan both local and removable storage and present the user with the content they want to see. If the user options up the photo application, it should show the user all the photos on their device, and their card, seamlessly. Anything less is just lazy programming and not caring about the user experience.

If HTC and the other OEMs offer devices with decent storage options (up to 32 GB, maybe even 64 GB if they want to rock the house), I personally won't care about this too much - but I know it shuts off a lot of scenarios for some people, and I wish Microsoft hadn't gone this route. I think in this respect, they're trying a bit too much to copy Apple - and that's not a good thing.

And since we're getting all the bad news out of the way this week, there's also no file system. I think the file system is a poorly-suited concept on a mobile phone and creates too much complexity for average users, but I know power users love having a file system.

You may now proceed with getting angry at Microsoft and swearing you'll move to Android.

The International Telecommunication Union approved a mobile phone charger made by South Korean companies as one of the global standards. The ITU has approved South Korea’s integrated I/O connection for universal power adapter, which works with any input voltage, as an international standard for a handset charger....