We’ve already reported about Pizza Hut’s success with its iPhone app. Well, in addition to the numbers achieved ($1 million in sales), the company is all proud to announce that it also won two MMA’s (Mobile Marketing Association) global awards: Mobile Display Campaign in North America, and Emerging Technology Campaign in North America.

Commenting on tha announcement, Pizza Hut’s Bernard Acoca said: “It’s an honor to be recognized as a mobile marketing leader by the MMA with wins in two categories. The Pizza Hut iPhone App continues to be an applauded breakthrough digital innovation that connects with consumers and industry organizations.”

Now I’m hoping other restaurants will follow Pizza Hut’s example and make the food ordering as simple and convenient as it should be, and ultimately make more money along the way.

Sprint (NYSE: S) users with BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) and Android smartphones can now use YouMail-powered visual voicemail service free of charge. You know how it works, right? Just like on the iPhone, plus more:

• You can scroll through incoming voicemail messages to see caller information including caller name, time of call, and length of message
• Play voicemails by simply clicking on them
• Share and forward voicemails as an email or post to a blog
• Delete, archive or save voicemails, forever

In order to use YouMail on your phone, you’ll need the YouMail application. Search for it in the BlackBerry App World or Android Market, depending which device you use. Then go to YouMail’s website, sign up for a YouMail account and follow the brief instructions for forwarding unanswered calls to YouMail. It’s that easy.

A company called ecobee has released a new application in the AppStore called Smart Thermostat, allowing users with compatible (i.e. expensive) systems to remotely adjust the thermostat’s temperature, schedule or update vacation events, change the system and fan operating settings. In addition, the application alerts users about the status of the system.

See where that’s going? Soon enough every iPhone user will be able to have all the benefits of Bill Gates’ famous digital home. The problem, however, is not in the available apps, it’s the high-end equipment that costs fortune that keeps many folks, myself included, from pushing our homes into the digital age.

Anyway, AppStore link is here, and no, I don’t hate you if you can use it.

[Via: renewbl]

There are plenty of apps out there that allow you to control your computer from your smartphones, but what if you want to browse your Windows Phone from your desktop computer? Well, then you’ll want to check out WiFi Remote Access for Windows Mobile. The new Windows Mobile app installs itself on your Windows Phone and acts as a bridge between the phone and your computer, allowing you to connect to your handset via WiFi and browse its contents through a web browser (like the one you’re using to read this very sentence).

Remote Access is still in beta, but doesn’t skimp on features. You can view photos, complete with thumbnails. You can listen to the music you have stored on the phone. You can even edit your Windows Phone’s registry through the app.

There’s no desktop installation required. Simply install the Windows Mobile app on your smartphone and point your desktop computer’s browser to the handset’s IP address. It’s that simple.

Find more information on Remote Access here. Grab Remote Access here.

[Via: FuzeMobility]

We love seeing hot new smartphones getting their price tags slashed mere weeks after its initial launch. The latest price reduction on the Motorola (NYSE: MOT) Droid comes from Dell.com, making it possible to put a Droid in your pocket for just $119 and a 2-year contract with Verizon (NYSE: VZ) Wireless. The deal also applies to contract extensions, so you don’t have to wait until you’re eligible for an upgrade to take advantage of the low price.

If you like high-tech smartphones and want an Android-powered handset, the Droid fits the bill perfectly. If you’re not sure that the Droid is for you, check out our hands-on impressions and video. Keep in mind that the Droid is so far the only Android smartphone to rock the new Google Maps Navigation app.

To recap: Dell is selling the Droid for $119 with new 2-year contract (or a contract extension for existing customers), and will even ship the handset to you for free via Fedex. That’s one “hot deal,” to be sure.

Dell’s $119 Motorola Droid

As we wind down our Friday afternoon and wind up for the weekend, we’re going to leave you with some intimate images of the Motorola Droid. The folks over at Phone Wreck managed to strip a Motorola (NYSE: MOT) Droid down to its bare parts, and they took some extensive photos for your viewing pleasure. These teardown pictures give us some interesting insights into the Droid, but they’re mostly just fun to look at.

The Droid teardown shows that the relatively small RAM/ROM chips (256MB/256MB) come from Toshiba (OTCPK: TOSBF). You’ll also want to take note of the beautifully integrated PCB that is so small, it actually turns out to be one of the smaller internal components of the Droid. Interestingly, the NAND Flash memory module bears handwritten markings that indicate the chips are sample units. And, no, we’re not ashamed to admit that handwriting on sample IC’s piques our interest.

Take a gander at the pics and think about just how much work went into making sure your Droid can stream sleepy puppies from YouTube.

Head on over to Phone Wreck for the full Droid teardown gallery.

[Via: PhoneWreck]

Could Windows Mobile really be catching up?

Between the opening of the Marketplace for Windows Mobile 6.0 and 6.1, and some leaks about the upcoming version 7, it sounds like Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) is getting ready for a big push. Will is out judging Under the Radar, but we tap Windows Mobile blogger and Microsoft MVP Darren Humphries from MobileJaw for his take on the platform in the face of fresh competition on the smartphone circuit. We also talk about legal squabbles between carriers over “misleading” ads.

Of course, we never want to leave our listeners empty-handed – this week we’re giving out a Scosche reCOIL to one commenter in the U.S. It’s handy, simple car charger for the iPhone whose cable is retractable for easy stowing when not in use. Normally it retails for $29.99, but you can nab it for free just by leaving a comment.

Hit the jump to get started!

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Quick, raise your hand if you sent an MMS from your iPhone this past week. Okay, how about this past month? If you’re not raising your hand, your either A) not following the rules of this game or B) just like the millions of Americans that just don’t send out MMS (picture messages) regularly from their iPhones. I fall into the latter category. Today’s release of FunMail might change all that.

FunMail for iPhone automatically analyzes your text message and serves up relevant images that you can embed into your message. The idea behind FunMail is to bring MMS out of the dark ages and allow people to use images for rich communication. Rather than send your friend a text message asking them if they want to eat, FunMail would have you send them the same text with overlaid on an image of a burger. You can even send that messages to Twitter and Facebook.

The trick to making picture-chats convenient is FunMail’s “Media Brain,” which pulls out the semantic meaning behind your text and gives the user a set of pictures that might fit the situation. If you’re talking about going to lunch, FunMail returns images of food. Talk about a birthday, and you get birthday-related images.

The app is free in the iPhone AppStore, so it won’t hurt to give it a shot. I personally can’t see myself using FunMail for everyday communication, but it’s definitely worth trying out at least once.

Check out FunMail’s demo video here.

FunMail for iPhone [iTunes link]

This one goes out to all of you out there in Woodland Hills. In a puzzlingly region-specific announcement, Verizon (NYSE: VZ) Wireless has announced that it has added a new cell site in Woodland Hills, California. Those of you living in the western San Fernando Valley will see improved 3G wireless coverage and performance on your Verizon handset.

Verizon’s press release also mentions that the carrier spent $600 million in infrastructure improvements in California during 2008. With all the back-and-forth between AT&T and Verizon these days, we can’t help but think that the $600 million figure is a jab at AT&T (NYSE: T). Although, we have to point out that Verizon is quoting numbers from a lifetime ago (which roughly equates to a year in the mobile world).

Full press release after the break

Read the full article »

Those who use GMail regularly be familiar with the Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Talk sidebar showing which of your friends are online, as well as the wide variety of customization options available. A new one fresh from the labs is Android icons that let you know if your contact is currently online thanks to an Android device, complete with yellow Away robots, and red Busy ones. This would be a great option even if it were just extra eye candy for the Android-obsessed, but knowing someone is mobile definitely helps contextualize the conversation, and potentially avoids anyone getting offended at short, terse replies. You can enable the option in GMail over here.

[via Official GMail Blog]