I used to love my FRS. I didn’t have to pay for anything; I could talk to people a fair distance away — and it always reminded me of playing with walkie talkies as a kid. Good times. Well, those days are gone. The iPhone/Android app HeyTell has put the proverbial smackdown on my FRS use — when it comes to other HeyTell users, anyway.
If you want an easy way to stream media from your home computer to your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad, and want it to be free, you’re going to want to check out ZumoCast. It appeared in the app store on September 8th, and it has been awesome ever since! Read more
Engadget posted an interesting article yesterday, pondering whether carriers are destroying Android, by preloading Android devices with “bloatware.” The article compared this to what happened in the PC industry, where computer vendors loaded all sorts of crapware on machines, filling up the drive and slowing the system down.
It’s deja vu all over again for mobile phones. More and more devices I look at are coming installed with applications I don’t want, often popping up messages to try and upsell me on services I have no interest in. Even worse, unlike PCs where offensive applications can be removed or the OS reinstalled cleanly, there’s often nothing that can be done to get rid of unwanted mobile software without arduous work.
The iPhone certainly restricts what apps can get into the App Store, but at least the user isn’t forced to keep an undesirable program on the phone (aside from the basics, like the App Store app, the Photo app, Mail, etc.). Or is it worse to not have access to certain apps at all, like on the iPhone?
You tell us – what is worse, a smartphone where you can’t even get certain applications because of a restrictive app review process, or a smartphone preloaded with garbage that you can’t remove?
Entelligence: Will carriers destroy the Android vision? [Engadget]
Photo by svensonsan.
If you’re like me, you assumed that the iPad was pretty much identical to the iPhone, but bigger. The form factor alone opens up some new possibilities on the iPad, but there are other differences aside from size. Here are five differences that, while obvious, might be news to you if you’re thinking about purchasing an iPad.
Last week, Pingdom parsed the data on iOS and Android apps, revealing an interesting difference. Specifically, roughly 70% of the apps in Apple’s App Store are paid apps, while 64% of the apps in the Android Market are free.
Why the difference? Are there more junk Android apps, since anyone can develop for it? Or does Android foster a different culture, due to its open nature? What do you think the reason is for this difference?
The mobile app divide: Free rules on Android, paid rules on iPhone [Pingdom]
