mobile

Technology might be the only medium where smaller is always better, but it's starting to get ridiculous. I'm worried that my next cell phone is going to be the size of a sunflower seed. There's got to be a point where we finally decide that things need to start getting bigger, and Mobigrip thinks that now is as good a time as any.

Mobigrips, also known as "device leashes," aren't exactly at the forefront of tech innovation; it's essentially a circular hunk of plastic with adhesive on the back and a lanyard attached … Read more

Microsoft is getting closer to a deal to become the default search provider for Verizon Wireless, according to a report Tuesday in The Wall Street Journal that cited people close to negotiations.

Microsoft would share ad revenue with Verizon under terms being considered, with guaranteed payments to the wireless carrier of $550 million to $650 million over five years, or twice what is Google was offering, according to people familiar with the deal. Microsoft is also reportedly negotiating to put its Windows Mobile operating system on more Verizon devices. The combined deals are valued at $1 billion.

Reports that Microsoft … Read more

You're hearing it here first, folks: The long-awaited Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 will be available in the United States on November 28 for an unlocked price of $799.99 through Sony Style stores. Go ahead, we'll give you a second to catch your breath from the sticker shock.

Yes, these are the official details as given to us by Sony Ericsson on Tuesday. The highly anticipated Windows Mobile smartphone, which was first announced at GSMA 2008 in February, won't be coming to a U.S. carrier for now, but it will be available for preorder starting November … Read more

When it comes to telling customers about security weaknesses, there's a fine line between alerting customers and inviting attacks. With T-Mobile G1, the first phone to run Google's Android operating system, I think the companies are erring on the side of inadequate disclosure.

I've been testing a review model of the G1, and an update arrived first on November 1 and then a second a week later. Only by dint of much pestering and more than a week of waiting did I find out from Google what was in those two Android patches.

And T-Mobile has been … Read more

We try to get all sentimental about the demise of the Mars Phoenix lander, but Brian Cooley ruins it with his outlandish assertions about the uselessness of space. Plus, he loses his mind about the crappiness of the BlackBerry Curve. In sum, a good time is had by all.

Mars Phoenix Lander completes its mission http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-10092897-52.html http://www.urbanhonking.com/universe/2008/11/interview_marsphoenix.html http://gizmodo.com/5082385/this-is-my-farewell-transmission-from-mars

Flat-panel TV shipments begin their decline http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10093153-1.html

FCC OKs digital workaround for … Read more

A few years ago, I bought a fancy home phone so I could set it to forward calls to my cell. Not long after, I found a better and cheaper solution by ditching the landline completely.

I am not alone. According to Nielsen, 17 percent of U.S. households--some 20 million homes--are without a wired telephone, instead relying solely on mobile phones.

This brings up a question of what we should do with that fancy home phone. I do miss the comfort of using the big handset rather than fumbling on the tiny, onscreen keyboard of my iPhone.

Xtreme Technology … Read more

Google has begun releasing some details about the vulnerabilities it patched in two updates to Google's Android operating system software in the T-Mobile G1 smartphone.

The company had acknowledged some of the work earlier, but it hasn't posted an official comment about the vulnerabilities. But Rich Cannings of the Android security team shared details about the RC29 and RC30 updates that T-Mobile began distributing to G1 customers at least as early as November 1 and November 9, respectively.

Google had acknowledged the RC29 patch for the G1 fixed a browser vulnerability that could have let an attacker use malicious code on a Web site to take over the browser. The severity of such issues is limited by Android's security design, which walls off applications into separate compartments to limit an attacker's power. But Cannings said the patch also fixed two other issues.

The Android browser is based on the open-source WebKit engine for converting HTML instructions into an actual Web page, and RC29 brought Android up to date with two patches that had been released but that Google had missed. One of them is a universal cross-site scripting problem that could give an attacker control of the browser, Canning said.

RC29 also fixed a problem that could let someone bypass Android's locking mechanism by booting the phone into safe mode.

Google plans to publish fuller details on its Android Security Announcements group soon, Cannings said, but the company waits until the patches have been offered to all users before disclosing full details.

RC30 and the root console bug RC30, which came about a week later, fixed an unusual "root-console" problem in Android in which text that people typed--while composing e-mail messages or searching contacts, for example--could be executed as Linux commands with the highest-level privileges. One user found it by typing the word "reboot" in a text message.

The problem was that Google left in a feature that let programmers execute commands with a remote device attached over a serial port, but when there was no such device attached, the phone just used input from the keyboard.

Linux and Unix users are advised to use their systems with "root" privileges reserved only for administrators, but Android was actually giving anybody that privilege. The problem was lessened because many characters used in Linux commands, such as hyphens, tildes, and slashes, weren't available, but it was still a big problem, Cannings said. … Read more

Ever since Sprint got its HTC Touch Pro in early November, the rest of the cell phone community (non-Sprint users) has been getting a little antsy to find out when they might be able to get their hands on the Windows Mobile smartphone. Well, for AT&T subscribers, that day is today.

On Tuesday, the carrier officially took the wraps off the HTC Fuze, which is now on sale for $299.99 with a two-year contract and after a mail-in rebate. The Windows Mobile 6.1 device has many of the same great features as its CDMA cousin, but … Read more

With so much energy and progress in the mobile browser space these past two months (see here and here), you would expect the makers of the venerable Opera Mini browser to release an update that makes real progress on its free browser for Java phones.

Instead, on Tuesday, Norway-based Opera Software pushed a mini update (download) that tacks on one syncing function, an assortment of skins worthy of Apple's iPod bonanza, and a wobbly kluge for introducing video playback.

Opera Mini's video playback is the biggest news here. It's in such high demand in the mobile world, … Read more