Toluu : The Boy Genius Report

The Boy Genius Report

Windows Zune Phone still in the works?Today

The Zune Phone has been rumored for about as long as we can remember, but Microsoft has been doing their best to squash any and all rumors related to it’s possible existence and/or development. Just today, however, the company’s CEO Steve “I Heart Beer” Ballmer made a subtle reference to a possible change of course that could result in some form of Microsoft branded handset. In an all-points bulletin sent out to Microsoft employees, the CEO said:

“We’re changing the way we work with hardware vendors to ensure that we can provide complete experiences with absolutely no compromises. We’ll do the same with phones—providing choice as we work to create great end-to-end experiences.”

Hmm. Nothing explicit about a Zune phone in here, but it’s certainly a marked shift from the company’s current software-only attitude towards handset development.

[Via Gizmodo]

iPhone 3G to Get Red for the Holidays?Today

Apple’s second entry into the mobile space is an undeniable success; it’s selling like hotcakes. If one steps back for a moment however, what Apple is doing is quite interesting. They’ve built an awesome handset, no question. The UI is spectacular, the form factor is beautiful and the functionality is fair enough. The iPhone 3G is probably the most desired handset in the world. In the alternate universe that Apple creates with its products however, what’s particularly interesting is the fact that it even manages to build hype by slowly re-introducing the most basic concepts in the mobile world to its offering. Let us elaborate… Think about all of the hype surrounding the App Store and the fact the iPhone would be “open” to third-party development. The world erupted when we first learned about this, and again when the App Store launched, but was it really a big deal? What other smarthphone platform out there doesn’t support third-party development? It’s just the way that Apple rolls. It has happened before and it’ll happen all over again when Apple does things like introduce MMS and copy / paste into existing models or a decent camera into future models. No these aren’t new

Avanquest Connection Manager Software Available for FreeToday

Samsung i8510 Innov8 Gets Shown Off in NYCToday

Honestly, we don’t know whether to laugh or cry. What would you say if we told you that the hottest most well-specced S60 handset in the world was made by Samsung as opposed to Nokia? What would you say if we told you that Samsung finally came around and threw a quad-band GSM antenna into it? Right, us too! Now what would you say if we also told you that Samsung opted out of WCDMA 850, leaving North Americans to hunt for WiFi when we need to get our high-speed on? Heart wrenching, we know. The phrase “so close but yet so far” seems apropo. Last night Samsung made a reality out of the rumored 8 megapixel beast of a slider otherwise known as i8510. Its specs are amazing:

Quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900MHz), dual-band WCDMA (900/2100MHz)
Symbian 9.3 S60 3rd Edition FP2
2.8″ 16m color QVGA TFT display
Built-in GPS receiver and accelerometer
WiFi
8 megapixel autofocus camera with image stabilization and face, smile, and blink detection
Video recording QVGA @ 120 fps or VGA @ 30fps with full editing suite onboard
16GB internal storage, microSD card slot
Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP

Facebook Connect coming soon to an iPhone near youToday

During their annual developers conference yesterday Facebook revealed that their newly minted Facebook Connect protocol would be made available to iPhone application developers sometime this Fall. What this means is that iPhone apps will have access to Facebook Connect, allowing them to utilize your Facebook account, profile, and user information. While it might disturb the more paranoid among us, it’s ultimately a good look for developers and users alike, as it allows both parties to access a wealth of information without having to re-enter and re-establish your identity across multiple applications. The real winner here, of course, is Facebook, as they move towards becoming a centralized repository of your online identity.

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