As for the new mobile website, it has been revamped alongside the “regular” (desktop?) version that is now location-aware, providing you only with deals you actually care about. No longer will you see “great offers from Houston” if you’re accessing the site from San Francisco. Furthermore, once you login, you’ll be able to quickly see travel information about upcoming flights without any clicks. Additionally, social media widgets are now prominently featured on JetBlue’s website footer, and there’s the ever handy “Pick Me Up” feature that sends your airport information to loved ones along with pick up location, maps and traffic information for traveling convenience. Nice…

jetBlue (FREE) [iTunes link]

First the smartphone app. As you can imagine, it puts Staples inventory at your fingertips, mixing the best of the Staples.com and in-store shopping experience. You can access the “rich product information” all with ratings and reviews while in-store, or find the nearest Staples store with the specific product you need by using the store locator and inventory check feature. Additionally, the application also provides more ways to save via store check-in feature which offers special coupons and promotions when a customer enters a Staples store with their smartphone.

As for the tablet website, it’s located at t.staples.com, delivering content in an easy to use format. You can swipe between pages and quickly search for products. There are options to quickly re-order office supplies like ink and toner, and to review your purchase history…

Staples (FREE) [Android Market link]

LightSquared claims the Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Executive Committee (PNT EXCOM) and GPS industry insiders manipulated the research to produce negative results. The company says the GPS companies conducted the tests in secrecy and used NDA agreements to hide the research information. Independent third-party companies could not evaluate the methods or results to make sure they were scientifically sound. LightSquared also alleges the tests were conducted using obsolete and niche devices that were chosen because they would fail. The only mass market device tested supposedly passed with flying colors. The company also claims the failure level of 1db of interference is a laboratory standard. In the real world, a one dB change won’t affect device performance.

As expected, some GPS manufacturers and activist groups are not happy about these accusations. The Save Our GPS group issued the following statement denying the LightSquared allegations:

“At each and every turn in this process, whenever LightSquared does not like a test result or ruling, it either seeks to change the parameters or cries foul – and frequently both. Today’s LightSquared statement is more of the same. A year ago, the FCC’s International Bureau provided a conditional waiver to LightSquared, and that condition was a categorical requirement that it prove its plans would not interfere with GPS.  LightSquared assured one and all that its plans would not cause interference with GPS. But test after test has shown that LightSquared’s ill-conceived plans do in fact cause widespread interference with GPS.

LightSquared does not like the test results, so it is attacking the testers. Last Friday’s report reflects the unanimous view of nine different federal government departments and agencies that LightSquared’s proposals would interfere with critical functions, including the Department of Defense, the FAA and the Department of Homeland Security. The technical evidence speaks for itself and no individual, company or government body can legitimately be blamed for the clear defects of LightSquared’s ill-conceived proposal or the failure of that proposal to pass an extensive, fact-based review process.”

At this point, LightSquared is asking the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to re-evaluate these tests and redo them with an independent laboratory. It’s do or die time for LightSquared and this may be it’s last straw. If the company can’t over come this GPS interference issue, it won’t be allowed to enter the LTE mobile broadband market with its current technology. Such an outcome could be the death knell for its future as a 4G mobile broadband provider and a serious stumbling block for Sprint’s 4G network.

[Via LightSquared and GigaOM; image Shutterstock]

Throttling, in case you aren’t familiar with the word (by now, you probably are), means Virgin Mobile will slow down your Internet speeds to avoid overcrowding its network. Indeed, Virgin Mobile claims the change is “to make sure we can keep offering our Beyond Talk Plans at such great prices.” That’s PR-talk for “Hey, we’re trying here.”

Most Virgin Mobile customers won’t be affected by the throttling, however. The carrier will only flip the switch on lower data speeds for customers that use over 2.5GB of data per month and Virgin Mobile says that’s less than 3 percent of its customer base. If you are impacted, Virgin Mobile will send you a text message warning you that you’ve passed 2.5GB of data and to prepare to crawl through the rest of the month.

So, just how slow will the Internet connection get once the throttling begins? Data speeds will drop to 256Kbps or lower. Ouch.

Virgin Mobile originally planned to start throttling its smartphone users in October 2011, so heavy users should be pleased with the delay. Throttling will officially start on March 23rd, which is more than enough time to check your monthly usage and determine if you need to make any adjustments.

[via Phone Scoop]

The What’s Hot stream is accessible by swiping to the right of the Circles stream. It brings the web app’s carousel of streams at the top into play. To see who +1′d a post, simply tap on the +1 count as you might expect and up pops the list.

These are just some very minor updates to the social network, but Google’s attention to the little details is much appreciated by this reporter.

It’s a tad curious that Google chose to update the mobile web app with these features before making the changes in the native Android or iOS app. Since power Google+ users (if there are any) are probably going to favor the native app over a web app, one might think Google would make an effort to push out the features on the Android and iOS first. To Google’s credit, it’s working on the respective updates to the individual apps.

Meanwhile, the What’s Hot stream and +1 enhancements are live on the web app so go ahead and check it out in your mobile browser today.

[via Google+]

The current data plans look like this: 200MB for $15 per month, 2GB for $25, and 4GB with tethering for $45. Starting Sunday, each of these plans get a bump. The entry-level data plan moves to 300MB, but for $20 per month. Next in line will be a 3GB data plan for $30 and finally a 5GB plan with tethering for $50 per month. All of these plans except for the 300MB one applies to tablet customers as well.

Let’s dissect this a bit.

On the downside, if you are a new smartphone customer, the minimum you will pay for data per month on AT&T is now $20 instead of $15. Since you will more than likely use more than 300MB per month, chances that you’ll be paying $30 per month for data alone are fairly high.

Switching to the advantages, current AT&T smartphone customers won’t be affected by this at all — you can still keep your current data plan and pay the same amount even if you upgrade your phone. Also, if you do the math, these current plans are actually a better value if you look at it from a MB-per-dollar perspective.

AT&T’s latest smartphone plans go into effect this Sunday.

[via The Verge]

Touted as 2.5X faster than desktop jQuery and much smaller to download (only 3K vs. 36K), JQ.Mobi is made with particular focus on delivering an “identically high quality user experience” to both iOS and Android devices.

Included with jQ.Mobi are a query selector engine, a user interface (UI) library, and a collection of plugins. When compared to other JavaScript mobile frameworks like jQuery Mobile and Sencha Touch, jQ.Mobi is both smaller and faster.

jQ.Mobi is offered free of charge as an open source asset under the MIT X11 license, though at the moment it’s in private beta. appMobi, which sponsors the framework, encourages interested developers to stay up to date with jQ.Mobi development by joining the email list at jqmobi.com…

The free BOLT mobile browsing service will be discontinued. Unfortunately, the economic circumstances prevent us from running a free service going forward. We apologize for any inconvenience and thank you for your loyalty and support.

The way I see it, BitStream had a problem with sales. They did have a good product which was capable enough to compete with Opera Mini (market leader). However, they haven’t managed to convince any major handset maker nor mobile operator to try them out.

Now if I were at some major handset maker I would want to have such an app pre-installed on feature phones I’m selling. I’m talking about companies like Samsung and LG, which sell an array of feature phones and which could benefit from acquiring BitStream to offer their own browser, instead of licensing it from third parties for every phone they sell. There’s an idea…

This is a pretty impressive shift, and really showcases what HTML5 is capable of doing. Web apps have generally played second fiddle to “real” apps, but developers who don’t want to deal with getting their creations into dozens of different devices and app stores may see HTML5 as a way out. For now, this is only really an option for free apps, but it’s not hard to imagine a future full of premium HTML5 apps; seriously, how big of a hassle would it be to sign in every time you launch? Being free is pretty huge too, but Google has essentially forced that upon every navigation service providers by making their own quality GPS app free for all two years ago.

Developers interested in trying this out can go to www.telenav.com/developer/HTML5.

[via]

This is not only due to the change in how mobile devices operate, but the way all billers have made it easier for customers with destination websites for billing and payment – tailored for last minute and one-time payments. Discussing the survey’s findings, Jardon Bouska, an executive for Fiserv, said:

“This year’s Billing Household survey demonstrates that consumers are looking to their banks and billers for multiple billing and payment options that are quick and easy, and can change to meet household needs and expectations.” He continued saying “Billing and payment is not just about the transaction; it is a recurring strategic opportunity for companies to deepen customer relationships and reduce costs.”

Basically, mobile bill payments are on the rise and people are actually beginning to catch on. I myself have converted most of all my bills to electronic bills (e-bills) and I’ve made payments through my smartphone plenty of times. Have you ever paid a bill on your mobile device? If not, would you?

[via]

Though most consumers might be more interested in proper apps than the mobile web, in an enterprise environment, apps are harder to securely roll out and control. It’s not hugely surprising to see social networking taking the lead in web traffic, though iPhone users had a much higher percentage of professional services usage than Android (30.2%).

You can take a look at the full Zscaler report over here.

[via ZDNet]