Mobile Technology News

By Ed Oswald, Betanews

Making good on a promise delivered in last week’s press conference, Apple on Friday rolled out its free case program for iPhone 4 customers. A web page detailing the program has been set up, and a special app has been created and is now available from the App Store.

Those who ordered the iPhone 4 before July 23 would need to apply for their case by August 22, while any other customer would have 30 days from the date of purchase. The entire program is set to expire on September 30 as expected.

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Shortly after announcing its second Android device, the HTC Aria, AT&T today announced its third: The Samsung Captivate.

Samsung says the Captivate is “a Galaxy S smartphone,” meaning it’s very similar to the phone we got to try out at CTIA that is expected to come to T-Mobile later this year.

Specs:

• 1GHz Cortex A8 Samsung Hummingbird application processor
• Android 2.1
• Super AMOLED 4″ touchscreen display

By Joe Wilcox, Betanews

Surely no one who regularly reads Betanews is surprised I ask the question. It was inevitable, like death or Whopper Wednesday. As usual, when I ask this kind of question, I’m looking for your responses — in comments or by e-mail (joewilcox at gmail dot com). In a future post, I’ll share your responses as I did with iPad. I asked the “will you buy” iPad question here and here, and offered your answers in separate January and March posts.

By Joe Wilcox, Betanews

Yesterday, I was talking with The Loop’s Jim Dalrymple about AT&T’s data-capped plans. Like other long-time iPhone users, he didn’t seem too concerned after looking at his data usage. I gave him three reasons why AT&T changed to capped plans, to which he asked: “So did you write about that?” No. I had written a long post about AT&T’s timing tactics but nothing really that succinctly explained why. So here I’ll give five reasons why AT&T changed the data plans.

By Joe Wilcox, Betanews

For iPhone users already loathing AT&T, the carrier has given them a new reason: New data-capped plans introduced in somewhat sneaky fashion. Starting June 7th, AT&T will do away with unlimited smartphone data plans. The announcement comes one day after the carrier nearly doubled early termination fees for smartphones. Now we know the reason why AT&T instituted the new termination fees, or at least the timing.

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Yesterday, an updated version of Google’s Nexus One Android smartphone was released, compatible with AT&T and Rogers Canada’s 3G networks. Today, Sprint is letting everyone know that it is getting the device too.

This means that all four major wireless carriers have secured a spot for the Nexus One this year. Google sells versions of the device optimized for T-Mobile and AT&T’s wireless networks, and a version for Verizon’s network is still expected some time in the Spring, but the operator has not put out any further notices about its availability.

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Last Friday, Verizon announced it was lowering the cost of its unlimited voice plans while simultaneously adding mandatory data plans for mid-range “media phones.” Later in the day, AT&T announced it was lowering its unlimited voice plans by about , so the two companies could remain in close competition.

Today, Sprint issued a statement about its “Everything Data” plans, showing that its individual plans are about cheaper than Verizon across the board, and that its 2-line family plans can be as much as cheaper, depending upon the amount of minutes.

Computer peripheral manufacturer, S&J Co., Ltd, proves that sometimes to get great sound you have to break a few eggs. Their new line of ultra portable speakers are egg-shaped and awesome hence their name, Eggy.

The little speakers pack decent sound thanks to their 2W output and digital amps. They’re USB-powered so there’s no need to worry about batteries. The coolest thing about these speakers is that the magnetically lock. Once you’re done using them, just put them together and you’ve got a shiny egg that can be easily slipped into a bag or pocket. These speakers would be an awesome peripheral for all those netbooks and laptops out there.

By Joe Wilcox, Betanews

Do you have AT&T as wireless carrier? Are you happy with the network service quality? I encourage Betanews readers to respond in comments to these questions, which are suddenly surreal now that AT&T has released the “Mark the Spot” app for iPhone. There’s something comical about an app that tells AT&T about its connection problems. The app also is tacit admission that AT&T has voice service problems. Surely for some greedy lawyer, there’s a lawsuit for that.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is “interactive” furniture of the most useless kind – a concept called the Mood Chair by UK based designers Aether & Hemera. And after some more wasted minutes spent in trying to understand its utility, I fail to find one.