Facebook took the wind out of CES last week when it sent out invites to a press event on its corporate campus this Tuesday. The invite provides no clues as to what the company has up its sleeve, though according to a new report out of TechCrunch,  Facebook will be announcing something related to mobile on Tuesday.

Rumors of a Facebook phone have been around since 2010 and each time the rumor reappears, Mark Zuckerberg comes out and denies it and says the company is committed to its mobile apps for other platforms. TechCrunch’s MG Siegler, however, brings the rumor back from the dead and says that Facebook will introduce the Facebook Phone this week. There are a few caveats, though.

Siegler’s source does not know whether Facebook will announce a custom built phone at the event or an operating system built to run on another manufacturer’s hardware.

The most likely suggestion, however, is that Facebook has built a heavily customized version of Android with the social network integrated in every corner of the O.S. This is what Amazon did with the Kindle Fire and had a lot of success with. Using Android as a base would allow the supposed Facebook phone to run the more than 500,000 apps already made for Android. Using Android, as TechCrunch notes, is also much, much easier for Facebook than them building their own operating system and expecting consumers to abandon their current ecosystems.

There’s also a slim chance that the supposed Facebook interface is built on WebOS, which HP recently made available as open source software.

The most recent rumor regarding the Facebook Phone appeared in July of 2012 and suggested that the company was working with HTC on a device. In 2011, HTC teamed up with Facebook to release the ChaCha, which ran Android with HTC Sense on top, but had a dedicated Facebook button.

The fact that Mark Zuckerberg has denied a Facebook Phone in the past really means absolutely nothing. Technology CEOs lie to us all the time. Apple lied about the existence of an iPhone, as well as the iPad. Google lied to us about the “Google Phone.” And it’s all together possible that Facebook has been lying to us about the “Facebook Phone.” We’ll know for sure on Tuesday.

Sources: Tech Crunch;Android Headlines 

Walmart and Straight Talk today announced plans to offer the iPhone 4 and 5 on a no-contract plan, joining a small group of providers currently carrying Apple’s flagship handset on a prepaid basis. The devices will be available as of January 11th at some 2,000 Walmart stores and on Walmart.com. The 16GB iPhone 5 will retail for $649, with the 8GB iPhone 4 priced at $449. Each can be purchased on one of Straight Talk’s no-contract plans: either a $45 plan that offers unlimited data, text, and talk, or a $60 plan that adds unlimited international calls to select countries.

With today’s announcement, Straight Talk becomes the latest company to offer prepaid iPhones, joining the likes of Leap Wireless and Cricket, which became the first carrier to do so back in June.

Source: The Verge

New Delhi: Facebook is holding a press conference on January 15 (Tuesday) at its California headquarters, where the company is speculated to announce its much-rumoured and much-awaited smartphone.

For a long time, we have been hearing about the Facebook smartphone, and it seems that the time has come to witness the launch of a Facebook phone.

However, it is not confirmed as yet, because the company has not yet said anything as to what it is going to announce on January 15. The invites sent to members of the press read, “Come and see what we’re building.”

But one thing is clear that there is some significant announcement that Facebook is going to make at its January 15 event, because Facebook does not usually hold major press conferences at its headquarters.

Source: IBN LIVE

Microsoft is celebrating the 10th anniversary of its Xbox Live gaming network, which has involved in recent years beyond its console-centric origins to become the software giant’s “premier entertainment service for the TV, phone, PC and tablet.”

Xbox Live was launched on Nov. 15, 2002 as “the first comprehensive, online game arena fully dedicated to fast-action broadband gaming experiences,” Microsoft said in a blog postcommemorating a decade of supporting the service.

Initially available only in the United States and Canada, Xbox Live is now enjoyed in 41 countries and territories around the world, the blog noted. The service kicked off as an online network connecting users of the first-generation Xbox but really hit its stride with the growth of Microsoft’s current, wildly successful Xbox 360 platform.

Xbox Live is regarded as one of the prime drivers in the growth of gaming’s Achievement culture, with users encouraged to “rack up Gamerscores” on the network, Microsoft noted. Other milestones in the development of Xbox Live included the 2004 introduction of the Xbox Live Arcade, the emergence of customizable Avatars and the Avatar Marketplace in 2008 and 2009, and major Xbox Live dashboard overhauls in recent years.

Microsoft appeared most proud of the mushrooming of available features and services on Xbox Live, as well as the expansion of the network’s reach across multiple platforms beyond just its own Xbox console.

“Fast forward to 2012—now Xbox owners have entirely new entertainment experiences available at their fingertips, with great new apps like Xbox Music and Xbox Video, and Bing voice search now available in 15 markets. Xbox has become the entertainment hub in the living room with its more than 40 million members, and 2012 marked the year Xbox went beyond the console to create a new experience with Xbox SmartGlass,” the company gushed in its blog.

“The new app brings amazing multi-screen entertainment experiences to the devices you already own and love—your Windows 8 tablet or PC, Windows 8 phone, iOS or Android device—and enables them to talk to your TV through the Xbox console.”

During its stewardship of Xbox Live over the past decade, Microsoft has also managed to avoid a major security breach like the one suffered by rival Sony, whose PlayStation Network was crippled in the first half of 2011 by a hacking operation believed to have been carried out by the Anonymous collective.

Meanwhile, the U.K. magazine Xbox World recently offered a roundup of news and rumors about Microsoft’s next-generation Xbox console, known on the Redmond campus by its code name Durango but often referred to by the media as the “Xbox 720.”

Xbox World is ending publication after its Dec. 12 issue and apparently wanted to go out with a bang.

The successor to the Xbox 360 is expected to arrive in time for the holidays next year. The next-gen console likely won’t be dubbed the Xbox 760, the magazine contends, but instead may simply be called the “Xbox” a la Apple’s naming conventions for its iPad tablets for the past two product cycles.

“Xbox World has been at the cutting edge of Durango coverage for over 12 months. Unless something really dramatic changes, everything we reveal in our penultimate issue will be revealed long before E3 in June,” said editor-in-chief Dan Dawkins in an interview with CVG.

Among other details, Xbox World claims the new Xbox will finally be able to support Blu-ray playback, a rumor that’s been making the rounds for the better part of a year now, and will support a brand-new version of Microsoft’s Kinect motion-tracking accessory that, according to earlier rumors, might even include a dedicated CPU for enhanced detection capabilities.

The next-gen console is also rumored to feature both TV output and input, as well as directional audio, an “innovative controller,” and support for augmented reality glasses at some point in the future. Durango sports a 16-core processor and 8GB of RAM, extrapolating from the developer SDK that Microsoft has already released.

With additional reporting by David Murphy.

For more from Damon, follow him on Twitter @dpoeter.

Author: By Damon Poeter

Source: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2412269,00.asp

Website: PCMAG

A trusted Verizon employee has just confirmed to TechCrunch that the carrier is having an all-staff vacation blackout from the dates of Friday, September 21 to September 30. You know what that means, right?

The next iPhone, whether it’s called the iPhone 5 or simply the new iPhone, will almost certainly be available in stores (with lines wrapping around the back of them) starting Friday, September 21.

It’s largely expected that the next-gen iPhone will be announced on September 12, in usual Apple fashion. (Though the spectacle may be a bit different this time around considering that Apple’slead presentation executive was fired in December.)

If we travel back a bit and examine the historical timeline from Apple’s announcement, to pre-order, to launch, the dates all seem to match up.

Last year Apple announced the iPhone 4S on a Tuesday, October 4th. The phone went up for pre-order on that Friday, October 7, and was available in stores on Friday, October 14, a week later.

The iPhone 5/2012 timeline looks almost identical:

• Expected announcement: Wednesday, September 12
• Expected pre-order date: Wednesday, September 12
• Launch date, as confirmed by our trusted source: Friday, September 21

Author: Jordan Crook

Source: http://techcrunch.com/2012/08/21/iphone-5-launch-date/

NEW YORK (AP) — Unlimited wireless data is back. After sliding off the menu of cellphone plans, data plans with no caps are making a comeback at smaller wireless companies trying to compete with AT&T and Verizon.

Motorola just dropped a bomb of an invite that hints at the promise of sweet new smartphones. Scheduled for September 5, the press event will be held in New York and vaguely states, “Motorola. On Display,” which is down right tantalizing.

Could Motorola’s afternoon festivities herald the coming of a much-rumored Droid Razr HD or even Droid Raxr Maxx HD? Might Moto’s new partnership yield fantastic nexus handset fruits? No product details were provided save a Motorola and Verizon logo, which lends weight to my Razr HD theory.

Looks like September 5 will be a busy day for smartphone news since Nokia and Microsoft also plan to hold a press conference in the Big Apple the same morning. Well as they say, “New York, New York, a helluva town!” Let us know what you think Motorola and Verizon have up their sleeves.

Author: Brian Bennett

Source: http://www.cnet.com/8301-17918_1-57495703-85/mystery-motorola-event-set-for-september-5/

Those of you who obsessively share photos to Pinterest, the rapidly-expanding and all-encompassing social network built for just that purpose, can finally do so from your favorite mobile platform. Pinterest has published the long-promised app to the Play Store for both smartphones and tablets, and unlike some other photo-centric sharing services we could mention, it actually looks pretty good. The interface mimics the bulletin board looks of the desktop web site, taking advantage of extra real estate on tablets to display more columns of popular photos or your stream.

Nearly all of the functions of the web service itself are represented: once you log in, you can share photos directly from your camera (or just links, of course), re-pin items to your own stream, or share to any social network or storage service that supports Android’s APIs. Though it’s only been available for less than an hour, it’s already drawing near universal acclaim from reviews – an impressive feat for version 1.0. While the interface isn’t exactly Holo-standard, it’s surprisingly clean and fast.

Naturally Pinterest’s service is free, and if you don’t already have an account (yes, there are certainly a few of you left out there) you can sign up within the app itself. Those with the inclination can sign up with your Facebook account, and Kindle Fire owners should be able to join the party when Pinterest is posted to the Amazon Appstore later this week. Get to it, folks – those food truck photos aren’t going to microblog themselves.

Author:  Jeremiah Rice in Applications, News

Source: http://www.androidpolice.com/2012/08/14/pinterests-long-awaited-photo-sharing-app-hits-the-google-play-store-now-amazon-appstore-later-this-week/

Pinterest today released new apps for Android and iPad (finally), while also overhauling its iPhone app (finally). The new suite of mobile apps greatly improves the mobile experience of using Pinterest, a site that works like a virtual and collaborative collage board.

The Pinterest iPad app (see a slideshow of images from the app here) includes its very own browser with a built in Pin It bookmarklet button. This means Pinterest users can now surf the Web on their iPads and pin new content to their boards from within Pinterest’s own app. The smartphone version of the app does not have a browser, however, and I would advise anyone who wants to pin images from the Web right from their mobile device to install the free browser Axis from Yahoo!, because it includes a built-in Pin It button.

I poked around the Pinterest iPad app this morning for a bit and found it delivered a much more satisfying experience than the old iPhone app, which is what I had running on my iPad previously. One button users may want to check is Account Settings. Make sure “Log in with Facebook” and “Log in with Twitter” are set the way you want. I have never logged in with either of those social networks, but when I checked in on the iPad app, they were set to “on.” Two taps, and I had turned them both off.

All the categories appear in a list on the left side on the main navigation bar, which collapses neatly when you don’t need it.

The iPhone app, I must admit, didn’t fully satisfy my hopes and dreams for what it could be, but it’s better than it was. And all the apps share a number of the site’s own shortcomings, including the inability to rearrange pins on a board to display in an order of your choosing.

Author: Jill Duffy

Source: http://appscout.pcmag.com/none/301546-pinterest-releases-apps-for-android-and-ipad

Today’s the day Adobe will pull its Flash Player plugin from Google’s Android marketplace, marking the end of what was once touted as a key advantage of Android over Apple’s iOS.

As we reported earlier, Google’s new Android 4.1 “Jelly Bean” marks the end of the line for Adobe’s certified version of mobile Flash Player. While the move shouldn’t have been a huge surprise since Adobe already announced last year that it would cease development of its mobile Flash Player, it’s still bad news for those that wanted an official version of the Flash Player on a Jelly Bean phone.

And now Adobe has limited access to Flash in the Google Play Store to any phone on this list of certified devices. For everyone else Flash on Android is a thing of the past.

The reasoning behind Adobe’s decision to pull Flash from the Google Play store is that any devices that don’t have Flash Player installed out of the box are, in Adobe’s words, “increasingly likely to be incompatible with Flash Player.”

There is a way around the new limitations if you’re a developer who needs access to Flash (or, presumably, a user who doesn’t mind hacking your phone): Flash Player for Android will remain available in Adobe’sarchive of released Flash Player versions. It’s also worth noting that when we first wrote about the end of Flash on Google Play a number of readers let us know that the Flash plugin actually does seem to work with Android 4.1, so if you’ve just got to have it, head to the archives and give it a shot.

Author: Scott Gilbertson

Source: http://www.webmonkey.com/2012/08/no-more-flash-for-android/