T-Mobile myTouch Slide spotted in the wild, screams hello to 2008

As ugly today as it was the first time we saw it, the T-Mobile myTouch Slide has once again been spotted in the wild. Now sporting a blinding fascia and a curiously stylized Google search button, the myTouch Slide is the very device some of our T-Mobile connects reported will replace the ageing and increasingly unpopular Sidekick line-up as far as T-Mobile is concerned. We’ll find out if this is the case soon enough, because this device is currently on track to be released on the 19th of May. Just as a little bonus, there’s even a pic of another myTouch Slide that’s running Android 2.1. Once more, the specs:
■1300mAh battery
■MicroSD memory cardslot is accessible without battery removal. It is a push to insert and push to remove design.
■Optical trackpad.
■Camera with LED flash.
■3.5 mm Headset Jack
■Slide-out 4 row QWERTY keyboard
■320×480 screen resolution.
■ARM11 processor.
Not exactly what one tends to picture when thinking of a “new and improved” handset, but our guess is enough people will bite.

Geohot makes it ra1n on the iPad

The latest blog post from iPhone firmware slayer George Hotz (geohot), dated April 9th, contains no words… but then again, words aren’t really necessary. The image shows his popular blackra1n iPhone jailbreaking software, and accompanying Cydia package manager, loaded onto an iPad. The post comes one day after Hotz posted the encryption keys for the iPad 3.2 firmware sets, and several hours after having tweeted about being able to boot the iPad into verbose mode. Hotz has yet to post an iPad compliant version of the blackra1n software on his site, but it is only a matter of time now. Any of you iPad owners out there anxiously awaiting a jailbreaking solution for your new toy?

iPhone OS 4.0 round up

Email
And just like that, iPhone OS 4.0 has brought the iPhone’s email capabilities into the bright and shiny world of 2006. No longer will users be forced to suffer the indignity of checking each of their inboxes individually, as global inboxes are now a part of Apple’s vision for the iPhone… as is thee ability to sort emails by threads and open attachments in specific apps.
Enterprise
People that use their iPhone for both work and pleasure are likely jumping for joy this afternoon as iPhone OS 4.0 supports multiple Exchange accounts. Not only that, but Apple has moved beyond the year 2007 and now supports Exchange Server 2010. Last but not least, data protection has received a much needed shot in the arm with: mobile device management, wireless ad-hoc app distribution, and SSL VPN support.
iBooks
iBooks on the iPhone work pretty much the same way as on the iPad. You buy your books through the iBookstore and can sync them across whatever portable Apple devices you own. Your bookmarks are wirelessly synchronized across your array of iThings so all of you’ll always be able to find the last page you read in The Wind Up Bird Chronicles. Oh, and you get a free copy of Winnie the Pooh. Sweetness.
Game Center
Can you believe that Apple now has its very own hodgepodge clone of Xbox Live and the Playstation Network? We bet Nintendo can, and they’re scared poopless because the Game Center offers services like: leaderboards, game achievements, and the ability to make and keep tabs on friends. And in the event you don’t have all that many friends but want to play a multiplayer game, Game Center will scan the network for people of a comparable ability and you’ll be able to do battle on a level playing field.
iAd
iPhone users rack up 1 billion impressions a day from searches alone, and Apple is hungry to make some cash off of this for itself… and for its developers as well. Basically what the new system does is analyze what you’re currently doing on your iPhone and suggests apps that will be the most appealing to you. So if you’re looking at entertainment news, you’ll see an ad for Toy Story 3. Boring, right? Wrong. Apple is desperate for you to click on these ads, so they’ve thrown in a pretty insane twist. Most of them lead to interactive games and videos and they’re all built on HTML5 (shots fired!) The ad revenue will be split, 60% to the developer, 40% to Apple.

iPhone OS 4 can multitask

Today is the day many iPhone fans have been waiting for. The announcement of iPhone OS 4.0, slated to drop this summer, has brought with it the most requested feature from iPhone users around the globe. Multitasking. How will mutltitasking be added to the iPhone? Apple’s Scott Forstall explains: “We looked at tens of thousands of apps in the app store, and we’ve distilled the services those apps need to run in the background. So we implemented those services, and we’re providing those services as APIs to developers so they can add multitasking while preserving battery life.” Apple will provide seven services that run, in the background, as application accessible APIs: background audio, Voice over IP, background location, push notifications, local notifications, task completion, and fast app switching. The folks from Pandora claim it took them one day to make Pandora fully compatible with the new APIs… lets hope it is this easy for everyone! There’s also an awesome UI for switching between applications, too.

Android Market gained over 9,300 apps in March

If the steady stream of new handsets filling up shops weren’t enough proof that Google’s Android OS is booming like never before, then the fact the Android Market underwent tremendous growth in March surely is. AndroidLib.com, which closely monitors the Android Market, noted that 9,330 free and paid applications appeared within the 31 day period. Representing a gain of 68% over February’s 5,532 new applications, March’s growth amounts to a staggering 58.5% increase in the number of available applications as a whole. If the number of applications continues at the pace it is going today, April will see the market receive just over 6,700 new applications.

Hands on with Firefox Mobile for the Nokia N900

Thanks to Mozilla we got our hands on a Nokia N900 for a few weeks and had the opportunity to give its new Firefox Mobile browser a thorough test drive. Firefox Mobile has a long development history that started in late 2008 when Mozilla announced its very early alpha browser first for the Maemo platform and then for the Windows Mobile platform. While the Windows Mobile version may have been abandoned, the Maemo version just came out of beta earlier this year and is still going strong. Despite its enthusiasm, Firefox Mobile is entering a very crowded mobile browser field that is dominated by Opera Mobile, Opera Mini and the built-in WebKit browsers found on the iPhone, Android, and WebOS handsets. With most smartphone platforms now rocking very capable browsers, how does Firefox Mobile stand up to the competition? Hit the jump to find out.