Category Archives: Mobile

Lena Dunham Created A Promo For The New Yorker iPhone App

I have seen some of Lena Dunham‘s work via Netflix (Tiny Furniture) and became a fan of her HBO show, Girls (I can hardly wait until the new season starts in 2013!). With movies and a show already under her belt, she now has a new achievement: creating a promo ad for the New Yorker iPhone app.

The promo video shows a very confused Jon Hamm as a late night TV host talking with Lani Darham (Lena Dunham) about the app. It cuts to a demo of the app by her to a Alex Karpovsky (also from Girls/Tiny Furniture). If you think you’re having connection issues while watching this video, think again. The late night TV portion is shot/edited to look like it was recorded decades ago or very low budget.

Jon Hamm is best known for portraying a mysterious, marketing director, Don Draper, on AMC’s Mad Men but he’s no stranger to comedic roles (e.g. Bridesmaids, SNL, 30 rock). He makes a bunch of unchallenged comments like “what’s an app?” and “you can’t watch TV on an iPad”.

Take a look below. I LOVE the awkward handshake at the end and the poke at corporate hype of apps.

But we just have one question: What about Android?

Let’s Sing Is Like Draw Something, Except for Singers

The mobile gaming market continues to grow with a new game that caters to fans of the highly successful Draw Something.

Let’s Sing follows the same collaborative spirit of Draw Something by challenging friends to guess what song the other is singing. It is currently only available for iOS, but we’d expect makers Lex Friedman and Marco Tabini to come out with a port for Android if they truly want to reach critical mass.

It will be interesting to see how folks record themselves singing in public.

Source: iTunes

Humble Bundle for Android

Pay what you want and help charity.  That’s the name of the game for the latest Humble Bundle that just released.  What’s new this time is that instead of only PC/Mac/Linux related games, this time it is for the Android and PC/Mac/Linux.  You choose how much you want to pay and how much you want to allocate between developer, charity and the organizers.  If you beat the average, you also receive a bonus game (or more) all DRM free.  As a note, previous Humble Bundles in the past have added bonus games after the fact, and for those who previously beat the average will also receive the bonus games retroactively.

The following games are being offered right now: Anomaly: Warzone Earth, Osmos, and EDGE. If you pay more than the average price, you also get the indie classic World of Goo!

This is for a limited amount of time and once again this all goes to a good cause!

For more information visit Humblebundle.com

Update: Looks like Toki Tori has also been added, bonus game is still World of Goo

Fourth Day of Android Market 10 Billion Downloads Sale

Day 4 of Android Market 10 Billion Downloads Sale!

Today we find the following apps on sale with a brief description from the marketplace:

Baseball Superstars(R) 2011

Baseball Superstars® 2011 is a full featured baseball game which includes 6 different modes to satisfy everyone’s needs.  My League Mode contains unique RPG elements in a sports title, Season Mode requires great management skills, Exhibition Mode provides sheer entertainment, Homerun Race offers quick challenge, Mission Mode demands finest skills and Match Play Mode allows you to boast your talents to the rest of the world!

Farm Frenzy

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to run your own fully working farm? Looking after chickens, sheep and cows, producing cakes, wool, butter and cheese. If you fancy giving it a go without having to get up at the crack of dawn every day Farm Frenzy is the game for you! In the style of time-management games like Diner Dash you’ll have to work hard to achieve your goals, whether that’s owning a certain number of animals, producing a specific number of goods or simply racking up a huge profit.

Game Dev Story

Work hard and you may reach the top of the video game industry!  Manage your own game company and try to create a million-selling game in this unique simulation.

Jelly Defense

Finally something worth defending!  Join the Jelly forces now and lead them to glory in this uneven and fierce fight against the invaders!  Use your tactical skills and wisdom to tip the scales of victory in your favor in order to save the Diploglobe and the Jelly nation from the agressors!  That’s right, you are their only hope – the one they call the liberator, the true leader, the Jelly savior!  You are the hero they deserve! Just look at these poor little creatures.  They trust you, they believe in you, they rely on you.  Can you refuse those big faithfull eyes (or eye)?  You’re really their only hope!

My Beach HD

Spend a warm summer day relaxing at your own private beach.  Now with custom signs, automatic time of day, Sunset, Night time, fireworks, and more!

Paper Camera

See the world through a novel, original, stylish and captivating lens.  Real time cartoon and painting effects displayed on your camera feed! See the world through a new, original, stylish and captivating lens, have a wonder in your own home and discover how cool is now your world in cartoon!

Sentinel 3: Homeworld

Sentinel 3: Homeworld – From the award winning Sentinel tower defense series!  The biggest installment of the award winning Sentinel sci-fi tower defense series – is finally here on Android!  Take the fight to the alien homeworld and unleash a massive arsenal of weaponry & get up close and personal on the battlefield in your power armor to execute devastating attacks and support your defenses!

Shazam Encore

Hear a song you don’t know? Shazam identifies it instantly. Unlimited, no Ads.  Tag songs as often as you like.  NEW: LyricPlay™ :See full-screen lyrics that play in time to the music you’re tagging – learn the lyrics you thought you knew.

Spirit HD

Intense retro-inspired arcade mayhem, reinvented for touch screen!  Spirit, by Marco Mazzoli. The critically acclaimed iPhone hit now on Android!

Toddler Spanish: 100 Words

Easy and fun way for kids to learn Spanish!  Toddler Spanish helps young children learn Spanish in a simple and entertaining manner. Kids don’t just learn words. They become familiar with all the basic Spanish sounds.

 

Source: Android Market

Day 3 of Android Market 10 Billion Downloads Sale

Third day, another McChicken sandwich down.  Still, we won’t complain when the price is 10 cents per app, especially when these apps normally cost more than a dollar plus.  Perhaps, these are the droids we are looking for.

Check out today’s apps:

ADWLauncher Ex

ADWLauncher EX, beyond tweaking your android desktop.  Highly Customizable Home replacement application.

Blue Skies Donation Wallpaper

Blue Skies Live Wallpaper: Soar through the clouds on your home screen!Soar through the clouds with this beautiful 3D live wallpaper! Colorful balloons drift through the scene, randomly or based on your unread messages! Lots of settings for cloud density, wind speed, sun and moon elevation, scene coloration, lighting based on time of day, and more!

Can Knockdown 2

Knock this Can again! Can you?Millions of players can’t be wrong! The most addicting title of 2010 strikes back with new astonishing levels and even more precise sniper action! Once again your aiming skills will be put to test but this time more challenges await!

Homerun Battle 3D

Go ONLINE for head-to-head match up against the BASEBALL SLUGGERS in the world!

Kids Learn to Read (Preschool)

Kids Learn to Read is a full version of Kids Reading (Preschool) FREE. It has 15 extra words in both the first and the third activities as well as child-lock functionality that can be enabled in Preferences.

Reckless Getaway

Escape with your hard-earned loot and the cops hot at your heels!  Who’d a thought robbing the bank would be the easy part?  Now comes the real challenge – to escape with your hard-earned loot and the fuzz hot at your heels!

Space Physics

Amazing physics game. In this magical world, your hand drawings come to life!  Space Physics is a puzzle game with amazing physics. In this magical world, your hand drawings come to life: they become real physical objects. Want a car? Draw one and it can drive by itself!

Talking Tom Cat 2

Tom is back with an all new adventure! Tom is your cat that responds to your touch and repeats everything you say in a funny voice.

Tetris

Enjoy hours of fun in Marathon or Magic mode!  Discover why hundreds of millions of players around the world have made the TETRIS game one of the biggest blockbusters in mobile gaming history.

Toki Tori

Toki Tori is a brainteasing puzzle platformer starring the worlds cutest chicken

 

Source: Android Market

Round 2 of Android Market 10 Billion Downloads Sale

We hit the second round of Google Android’s 10 Billion Download Sale.

UPDATE: Seems some of the Apps from yesterday’s sale is still active for 10 cents, take a look at the previous list while you still can!  We don’t know if this is intentional or they haven’t removed it from the list yet.

Today we find the following apps for the low cost of 10 cents:

AirSync

Life Without Wires! Sync your iTunes music & videos over WiFi with AirSync.

BB – Bedtime Battle

The Berenstain Bears’ Bedtime Battle kicks off a new line of Berenstain Bears omBooks for your Android device.

Beautiful Widgets

Beautiful set of widgets including clock+weather, with some toggles.  Beautiful set of Widgets containing clock widget, clock and weather widget, weather widgets, date widgets and toggle widgets with skins/themes support! Now with more widgets and layouts!

Christmas HD

Celebrate the wonders of Christmas – in true 3-D!  The creators of your favorite Live Wallpapers are delighted to bring you another 3D Live wallpaper especially for Christmas. Celebrate the Holidays every time you use your device, in true 3-D!

Flick Golf!

Play the most addictive Golf game to ever hit the Android Market!
  No clubs. No rules. Just flick, spin and curve your shots to try and sink that perfect hole in one. Watch out for the usual hazards: bunkers, trees, sand… and of course the wind!

Fruit Ninja

The worldwide smash hit game Fruit Ninja is now available on Android!

Fruit Ninja is a juicy action game with squishy, splatty and satisfying fruit carnage! Become the ultimate bringer of sweet, tasty destruction with every slash.

NFL Rivals

NFL Rivals is an intense arcade football experience like no other. Choose your NFL team and support them throughout the 2012 season. Every time you play, your score gets uploaded to your team’s global ranking. Can you drive them to the top?

Read It Later Pro

Read It Later lets you save any web page or video on your phone, tablet, or browser to view later – even offline – in an easy-to-read interface. It automatically syncs your queue across all your devices on Android, iPhone/iPad, Chrome and Firefox. A great way to take advantage of commute or travel time.

Recklace Racing

THE DIRT-ROAD RACING GAME YOU’VE BEEN WAITING FOR! Reckless Racing blends the finest top-down racer style with HD-quality graphics that are so stunning you’ll shout, “Oowee!” Skid, slip, and slide through down-and-dirty racetracks with precision controls, and challenge friends in online multiplayer. Hold on tight and get ready to go. This here is Reckless Racing! Yeehaw!

Reckless Racing PLAY

THE DIRT-ROAD RACING GAME YOU’VE BEEN WAITING FOR! Reckless Racing blends the finest top-down racer style with HD-quality graphics that are so stunning you’ll shout, “Oowee!” Skid, slip, and slide through down-and-dirty racetracks with precision controls, and challenge friends in online multiplayer. Hold on tight and get ready to go. This here is Reckless Racing! Yeehaw!  * Xperia PLAY optimized *

Star Chart

The best selling smart phone astronomy app comes to Android!  Now you can have a virtual star chart in your pocket! Look through the eyes of your Android device* to see a virtual window into the whole visible universe.

 

Source: Android Market

Android Market 10 Billion Promo

This past weekend, Android Market exceeded 10 billion app downloads.  To celebrate, the Android Market has unleashed a great horror (or awesome deal) to the Android community.

According to the Official Google Mobile blog:

To celebrate this milestone, we partnered with some of the Android developers who contributed to this milestone to make a bunch of great Android apps available at an amazing price. Starting today for the next 10 days, we’ll have a new set of awesome apps available each day for only 10 cents each.

We’ll keep you posted with the daily deals.  Here is the following list with a brief description from the Marketplace for today’s deal:

Asphalt 6: Adrenaline HD

Race the world. Feel the adrenaline.  Feel the thrill of arcade racing like never before in the newest adrenaline-pumping game of the Asphalt series.  Discover 42 cars and bikes from Ferrari, Lamborghini, Aston Martin, Ducati and other world-class manufacturers. Collect them in your own 3D garage.

Color & Draw for Kids

Simply the best coloring and drawing app for kids (and adults too!)  Color & Draw is a complete artistic solution for PHONES. It invites kids to draw and color. Coloring pages have voice over invitations to get kids’ creative juices flowing.  ***iPad edition was the Winner of Children’s Technology Review Editor’s Choice Award 2010***

Endomondo Sport Tracker Pro

Track your sport in real time and challenge your friends using the built-in GPS.  Endomondo makes fitness more fun by acting as your personal trainer and social fitness partner – ideal for running, cycling, walking etc.

Fieldrunners HD

The award winning Tower Defense game you have been waiting for!  Play Fieldrunners HD now to see the original tower defense champion on Android with gorgeously updated HD graphics.

Great Little War Game

Invade your neighbours, spread mayhem and destruction, drink a little tea!  GLWG is the hit 3D turn-based strategy game that everyone’s talking about. With a unique comical style and plenty of laughs and excitement, you’ll keep coming back again and again for “just one more go.”

Minecraft – Pocket Edition

Imagine it, build it. Create worlds on the go with Minecraft – Pocket Edition.  The new Minecraft – Pocket Edition allows you to build on the go. Use blocks to create masterpieces as you travel, hangout with friends, sit at the park, the possibilities are endless. Move beyond the limits of your computer and play Minecraft everywhere you go.

Paper Camera

See the world through a novel, original, stylish and captivating lens.  Real time cartoon and painting effects displayed on your camera feed! See the world through a new, original, stylish and captivating lens, have a wonder in your own home and discover how cool is now your world in cartoon!  This is the ultimate collection of cartoon/sketch/comic book/half tone/noir/neon and many other effects painted directly in your camera, no more boring post-effects, it’s all real time, you simply won’t stop wandering, wherever you are, having a look at things and cartoon-ize them!

Sketchbook Mobile

Unleash your creativity with SketchBook Mobile for Android!  Autodesk SketchBook® Mobile is a professional-grade paint and drawing application offering a full set of sketching tools and a streamlined and intuitive user interface.

Soundhound

What’s that song? Identify it FAST with SoundHound.  Unlimited music recognition! With the world’s fastest music recognition and exclusive singing search, SoundHound is instant music search and discovery.

Swiftkey X Keyboard

Android typing has never been this easy.  SwiftKey X Keyboard makes typing much easier on your phone, replacing your touchscreen keyboard with one powered by smarter natural language technology.  SwiftKey X understands how words work together, giving much more accurate corrections and predictions than other keyboards. Very sloppy typing will magically make sense, and SwiftKey X also powerfully predicts the word you may want next.  SwiftKey X learns as you use it to make typing easier and even more accurate over time, and you can also personalize it using your Gmail, Facebook, Twitter or blog posts.

 

Source: Android Market

Essential Elements of an Angry Birds Movie

If you own a smart phone or know someone that does, chances are you’ve played Angry Birds. Developed by Rovio, Angry Birds has become one of the most downloaded titles for both iOS and Android platforms. To help perpetuate it’s appeal, Rovio has even come out with variations of the game including  a holiday version and one tied with 20th Century Fox’s Rio. Fans can also buy Angry Birds merchandise. There’s even an unauthorized theme park in China. In fact, the game recently surpassed 350 million downloads. Now that Angry Birds has become a household name, isn’t it time we see the birds make a splash onto the silver screen?

Here are some essential elements Rovio should use in the motion picture.

Bullet time/slow motion

Angry Birds is all about projectile birds. The funny thing is the birds don’t flap their wings, they fly like cannon balls. The challenge of angry birds comes from having to aim with the right angle and strength. The concept is old fashioned like a slingshot but that doesn’t mean the movie has to be. The Angry Birds movie should definitely use bullet time scenes liberally within the movie and certainly in the trailer.

Assuming the movie will be done entirely on a computer, producers will have virtually unlimited liberties in the employment of special effects. Slow motion never gets old and it always works with action. That’s all there is to it.

Great voice actors

The face of Angry Birds is the red bird. As a ferocious bird on a vengeance to retrieve stolen eggs, the red bird MUST be voice acted by an individual that commands anger but still demands intellectual respect. Samuel L. Jackson would make an excellent voice actor for the red bird because everyone loves an angry Samuel L. Jackson. If it still doesn’t click for you, just watch Samuel L. Jackson recite Ezekiel 25:17 in Pulp Fiction.

Likewise, the antagonist  should possess a very sinister tone that fully embodies the audacity of stealing some animal’s eggs. My vote is for Jack Nicholson. Chances are there’s also an opportunity for a comic relief role and Russell Brand has the perfect voice for bringing the laughs to a well balanced movie.

A great score

The current theme song is cute and cuddly. That works for mobile devices which are relatively low fidelity. Fans will be paying more for a movie ticket than the cost of a game but limited to a 90 minute experience versus hundreds of lost work productivity hours. It’s only fair that the score be handled by greats like John Williams or Danny Elfman. There would definitely be overlap in viewers of the highly acclaimed The Social Network, but what payday would Trent Reznor be willing to compromise his artistic integrity for?

PG rating

There’s no way Angry Birds can receive a G rating due to its destructive/vengeful theme. Rating Angry Birds anything higher in maturity level than PG would be a mistake because it can only hit massive sales figures by appealing to families. If we were to entertain the idea of an R rated Angry Birds, possible warnings would include hard language (when the birds curse after missing targets or confronts those nasty pigs, who will certainly be vulgar), drug abuse (how else are the birds going to cope with the pain of all that collision with pain killers?), sex (there is strength in numbers aka reproduction).

A cliffhanger ending

We all know the best way to hook fans into an indefinite franchise is by keeping the story open. Just imagine if the birds recover eggs only to find out there aren’t actual birds incubating? Or what if the pigs don’t even exist like Tyler Durden? More importantly, a cliffhanger ending would help seal the deal for a blockbuster trilogy.

There aren’t many video game movies that live up to expectations of loyal fans.  Could it be the fundamental change from interactive entertainment to passive entertainment? Let’s hope Rovio does Angry Birds justice.

Droid Bionic Unleashed

Motorola’s Droid Bionic released yesterday after an 11 month delay.  Does it live up to expectation?  Currently its hard to say, but going into it, it had a lot of hype and I mean a lot.


Initial consensus is that the phone is fast, the 4G LTE (if you have the service) is remarkable.  The hardware has awesome specs with a whopping dual core processor and 1 gig of ram, the first of many from Verizon.  But likewise consensus is that the UI (Motoblur) isn’t desirable, tons of bloatware, and display is just awful.

Motorola’s decision to go with a PenTile screens, leaves a very bad aftertaste for many people.  PenTile screen technology is meant to give you a brighter display at a lower cost with a perceived larger resolution that consumes less power. The results however meant that sometimes colors won’t display correctly, and as many consumers have pointed out, seems to look more pixilated.

Still, if the phone display doesn’t bother you, there are many places to pick up the Droid Bionic. Some places seem more ideal than others.

  • Currently Amazon is offering the phone for $179 with a new contract or $249 for a renewal.
  • Costco is offering two docks, extra battery, screen protector case and vehicle charger all for $299.
  • Letstalk.com is offering the phone for 199.99, for both new and upgrades, and even a 20% coupon from their Facebook page.

(Note: I haven’t had personal experience using Letstalk.com, but many Slickdeal users speak highly of them.  But like any new website, you should do research and check its previous history, justin case.)

In the end it comes to a matter of opinions on the PenTile display.  Currently, Motorola’s Droid X2 and Droid 3 also use the PenTile screens.  We suggest you go into the nearest Verizon kiosk that would have any of these phones and observe for yourself before jumping onto the bandwagon.   There is always another phone  in the future (such as Samsung Nexus Prime).

What Carly Foulkes Might Look Like On Other Carriers

When I  think of T-Mobile, there’s one thing that comes to mind. It’s not the phone or the services. It’s not even a “thing”. It’s Carly Foulkes.

Before Carly Foulkes became the “T-Mobile Girl”, T-Mobile tried to hock it’s product and services using Catherine Zeta Jones. This worked for a bit. I used to go “Hey. It’s Catherine Zeta Jones. I remember her from that one trailer of Entrapment and Zorro and… Um… Oh yeah! She’s with Michael Douglas, right? (Frown on face)”. I also remember going “Yeah. I would totally buy a phone if Catherine Zeta Jones tried pitching me a killer family plan at my doorstep and I don’t even have a family!”. But Catherine Zeta Jones was a familiar face. She brought baggage of her work. The brilliant minds at T-Mobile knew this and decided to show the world a new face: Carly Foulkes.

Carly Foulkes works because she’s fresh. I remember seeing her first commercial (no, I don’t remember the exact product/service) and going “Wow… Who the heck is that?!?”. I instantly googled “new T-Mobile girl” and discovered the name to my newest crush. Adjectives to describe Carly include: slender, brunette, adorable, the girl next door, perky, and Oh! She’s Canadian! Isn’t it great that T-Mobile decided to go beyond the borders of the country it was serving and find such a cutie? For those interested in catching a glimpse of her life behind the scenes, she even uses Twitter (@foulkescarly). Usually sporting white/magenta and heels in TV spots and bus posters, I wonder if Carly Foulkes recognized as often in public if wearing different color schemes.

Let’s imagine what Carly Foulkes would look like different if other carriers had nabbed her first

A&T

I think AT&T would take the hipster approach for Carley Foulkes. We all know AT&T was previously the exclusive carrier for the Apple iPhone which revolutionized the mobile handset industry. Although the exclusive deal is no longer a bragging right, AT&T still champions the iPhone more than any other of its other smartphone handset platforms (Android/Windows). The iPhone is pretty much THE phone to own for high school students, college students, recent graduates, gamers, and professionals that demand connectivity to social networks at all times. This is the kind of customers that can’t remember the last time they talked but texted their bestie while driving through a red light.

Hair: Carly Foulkes would probably trim her hair a bit. The longest it would be would be shoulder length. Carly might even be wearing a bob cut with bangs of course. Her hair would certainly be adorned with some type of accessory like a thin head band or whatever trendy thing the girls wear at Melrose/Silverlake. As far as hair care goes, it doesn’t need to look 100% professional. It will look great despite the fact it took only 5 minutes to brush. It’s even possible Carly Foulkes would be wearing a cabbie hat.

Face: Carly Foulkes would certainly be rocking plastic frame eyeglasses. This is a no-brainer. As far as earrings go, she might be wearing feathery type earrings (Natural of course. No synthetic colors).

Clothes: There are a ton of combinations for Carly Foulkes to chose from. Luckily, none of them have to be blue/orange since she’s going for a hip look. There’s no need to conform to a corporate palette! A cuffed long sleeve plaid top, suspenders, and jeans is one possibility. A different commercial might show Carly Foulkes in a stripped v-neck shirt (the v-neck helps expose a portion of the artistic ink she’s got), skirt, and patterned stockings. Shoes would definitely be wearing flats and never heals.

Other: Carly Foulkes would always enter the commercial on a single speed road bicycle

Verizon

Verizon’s latest marketing campaigns are all about Android. Even though it also carriers the iPhone, Verizon is credited for making “droid” a term people use when they really should be saying “Android”. The commercials are always done in the key of Skynet with red and black. There’s nothing pretty about Verizon’s marketing campaign. In fact, it almost makes me scared that I’ll walk into a store one day and be served by robots instead of humans.

Hair: Carly Foulkes hair would be jet black or bright red. Either way, her hair would be slick (think Trinity from The Matrix).

Face: Pale. Her complexion would be extremely fair to convey she is void of emotion and her transformation to a robot is nearing. Carly Foulkes might also have some optic system on half of her face like a Borg from Star Trek.

Clothes: Her clothes would be tight black vinyl with accents of red. If Verizon decides to embrace the cyborg appeal, she might have a few limbs that are exoskeleton. Her shoes are obviously not modular. They are connected to her single peace armor/suit since all her thoughts are translated into bionic movement via a processing unit within the suit.

Other: If Verizon was smart, Carly Foulkes’ voice should stutter like Max Headroom.

Sprint

Sprint is the unexciting underdog of the four major carriers. It doesn’t really have much personality right? When you think of Sprint, you think of value service. We all hoped the Palm Pre would make a triumphant splash in the mobile handset market but things just didn’t pan out that way. Sprint has definitely become good buddies with Android handset makers, but there isn’t anything distinct about the way they show off products. As such, this becomes the most challenging carrier to work with in this.

Hair: Carly Foulkes’ hair would be normal yet professional. It might be in a bun or ponytail.

Face: Minimal makeup. Foulkes won’t be dolled up, but luckily she doesn’t need any since she’s probably a 10 even in the morning of any remote camping trip. If there’s anything on her lips, it’s just a pinch of lip balm

Clothes: Her clothes aren’t from a thrift shop (AT&T) or made by an engineer (Verizon). They’re bought from a mall or Target. They fit fine and evoke feelings of highly accessible platonic friendship. The colors are safe and inconspicuous. If she’s wearing a skirt/dress, she’ll wear plain stockings to appear professional and non-threatening.

 

Sprint Moves to File Suit Against AT&T and T-Mobile Merger

Sprint has filed suit to block proposed AT&T and T-Mobile merger.  Sprint has joined the battle calling their merger “brazenly anticompetitive,” after the U.S. Justice Department effort to block the pending merger.  Sprint has outlined three main points which they believe would happen if this merger was to take place.

  • Harm retail consumers and corporate customers by causing higher prices and less innovation.
  • Entrench the duopoly control of AT&T and Verizon, the two “Ma Bell” descendants, of the almost one-quarter of a trillion dollar wireless market. As a result of the transaction, AT&T and Verizon would control more than three-quarters of that market and 90 percent of the profits.
  • Harm Sprint and the other independent wireless carriers. If the transaction were to be allowed, a combined AT&T and T-Mobile would have the ability to use its control over backhaul, roaming and spectrum, and its increased market position to exclude competitors, raise their costs, restrict their access to handsets, damage their businesses and ultimately to lessen competition.

“Sprint opposes AT&T’s proposed takeover of T-Mobile,” said Susan Z. Haller, vice president-Litigation, Sprint. “With today’s legal action, we are continuing that advocacy on behalf of consumers and competition, and expect to contribute our expertise and resources in proving that the proposed transaction is illegal.”

The lawsuit specifically cites Section 7 of the Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914, which elaborates on specific and crucial concepts of the Clayton Act, an amendment on the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 to stop mergers and acquisitions judged to substantially weaken competition in specific industries (specifically dealing with holding companies).

From the get go, Sprint hasn’t been a fan of this situation and has voiced its opinions from the beginning.  They have urged the government to block the deal believing that the merger would “let the wireless industry regress inexorably toward a 1980s-style duopoly.”  What do you guys think?

 

Visit Sprint Press release in regards to filing suit

For more information on the Antitrust Division can be found on the U.S. Department of Justice site.

Lost: iPhone 5 – Found: New Viral Marketing Strategy

In what seems to be an annual tradition, Apple has once again lost an iPhone 5 prototype in a bar.  Of course the internet is now abuzz and curious about this prototype, like what is it capable of, does it sport a larger screen, can it still play Angry Birds?  As for me, I’m calling shenanigans!  Why, you ask? Because I can’t help but wonder if this is the equivalent of viral marketing to give iFans a sneak peek and build hype. We’ve all seen viral marketing used on youtube, heck even some companies got in trouble for faking a leak only to be the originator of the “leak.”

Much like many of those leaked screenshots of the latest phone, such as Motorola’s Droid Bionic, this all helps to build speculation and fuel dreams as to what the phone may be capable of.   The results can help drive sales and earn “free advertisement” in one fell swoop.  Looking back, the results of the iPhone 4 caused a huge surge of demand that Apple had to suspend advance sales so they didn’t exceed their supply.  Of course retailers couldn’t keep up with the demand and the supply eventually dried up.  1.7 million iPhone 4’s were sold in the first three days of availability.

Currently, Apple went to the police after it was reported missing but nothing has turned up yet.  Last year, the phone ended up going to Gizmodo for $5,000 after it was found, the people who did find and sell it got a misdemeanor fine for selling it and Gizmodo got off scot-free (not to take anything away from Jason Chen, editor responsible for reviewing the prototype, whose house was raided looking for the missing prototype).  Gawker (parent company of Gizmodo), got a lot of traffic and publicity for the iPhone 4 due to this mishap.

Don’t be surprised if another publication ends up with this prototype (we’re not in San Francisco where the phone “disappeared,” so it won’t be us) or another manufacturer “misplaces” a product in the future.

 

For more information go to The Register about the Missing prototype.

UPDATE: Included an article from PC Magazine implying this is a hoax