Gentlemen, start your iPhones! Gameloft has just released its entry into the simulation racing space with ‘GT Racing Motor Academy‘ for the iPhone. Its got 100 fully licensed vehicles across 25 real world car manufacturers, which considering this is an iPhone title is a huge feat.
GT Racing Motor Academy includes a career mode with 6-player races which can be played locally or online. You can also test drive, buy any of the over 100 vehicles in the game, or just look at how shiny those paint jobs look. It also has full Gameloft LIVE support for you trophy seekers out there.
From the looks of it, this could be a game that Gran Turismo fans could certainly enjoy. The App Store has a bunch of racing games, but none that can be considered a serious entry into the simulation space. Depending on GT Racing Motor Academy’s success, I’m sure we could see more serious simulation racing titles instead of another kart racer.
Here’s a concept that’s a bit odd. Take Twitter, a service that allows you to post a 140 character message that the people who follow you can read. No matter how many people follow you, you only see the tweets of the people who you want to pay attention to.
Now do the same thing, but for voice. That’s Bubbly. You dial a number, leave a message, the people following you are then notified via SMS, and they can call in and listen to whatever nonsense you had to say about the new Hannah Montana album.
The service is made for operators to purchase and deploy on their networks, meaning you can’t sign up for Bubbly on your own as an end user, but it’s an interesting concept none the less. While I’m not sure I’d find much use for this, since I’d rather just send out a mass text message, I can see how something like this would actually get me to start using my phone as a phone again, albeit asynchronously. That’s the problem with phone calls after all, they require your immediate attention.
The service has seen over 150,000 users sign up over the course of a week in India.
Full press release after the break.
Update: Headline updated after being contacted by the folks behind Bubbly. There is a recording limit: 60 seconds. That makes the service even more interesting in my opinion. One can say a lot in 60 seconds, but not enough to blather on and on.
To the people who need to know code names, the next version of Android has officially been dubbed Gingerbread by Brian Swetland, a Google (NSDQ: GOOG) employee working on the Android kernel.
Feature list? Nein.
Release date? Between now and the end of the world, aka 2012.
Nokia (NYSE: NOK) makes phones in several countries spread out over the world, but Salo is special. It’s the only factory that the Finnish company has in Finland, and it’s mainly used for devices that are difficult to produce and require highly skilled workers. Yesterday Nokia announced that it’s cutting 285 people from that Salo factory, or practically 13% of the roughly 2,200 employees working there. With that bad news however also comes some good news, the temporary layoffs that the factory has been having for what feels like forever are coming to a stop by June of this year. The factory is also going to realign their focus to the “high-value smartphone market, especially in Europe”.
What does this mean for you? Well unless you’re one of those people that has to have a “Made in Finland” Nokia this really doesn’t mean anything. If you are one of the previously mentioned anal retentive characters, then you’re going to have an even better chance of getting a “Made in Finland” device.
The MBRN3300 might not exactly roll off the tongue, but it fits inside a product category that you’ll see become more and more prevalent as countries start realizing that burying copper or fiber optic is simply too expensive, and that deploying a wireless network is a much better idea from both a cost perspective, and from a KSP (key selling point) angle since you can offer your customers internet on the go. Now if you’re living in America you’re probably never going to see one of these, but for people in Europe and Asia, the idea of plugging in a box, powering it on, and getting internet access out of the air is glorious. No USB dongles, no software, just connect to a WiFi access point and enjoy a wireless network.
There will be 3 models available, the MBRN3300C that does 3.1 Mbps EVDO Rev A, the MBRN3300E that does 7.2 Mbps HSPA, and the MBRN3300H that does 21 Mbps HSPA+, all powered by Ericsson wireless technology so you know it’s robust and the best the industry has to offer. Each model spits out 802.11n and also has 4 ethernet ports.
No word on price, but Netgear say it’s available now, and I believe them since the MBRN3300 product sheet [PDF file] is dated November 25 2009.
Attention all BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) App Developers… Looks like RIM is having another informational and educational webcast. This one is titled ‘Small Screens, Big Dreams: a Detail-Oriented Approach to User Interface Design‘. Translation: Learn tips, tricks and methods to get the most out of your user interface. The webcast will run on February 16th, starting at 2PM EST. Presented by Brian Zubert (Senior Application Development Consultant), he’ll discuss everything from colors and fonts, to layout, alignment and other details often overlooked in UI design.
In addition to the GT350 model, LG has also announced another device – the GD880 aka LG Mini. It’s a slim all-touchscreen phone with “textured metal accents on the sides” and an elegant button-free face.
Feature wise, the Mini boasts:
3.2-inch 16:9 edge-to-edge display
5-megapixel camera with face detection
7.2 Mbps HSDPA
WiFi, Bluetooth, A-GPS, FM Radio
Media player, email client, web browser
Special apps for social networking (Facebook and Twitter): Social Network Connect, Social Network Feed and Social Address Book
The LG Mini will be available in Europe starting in March, followed by other markets. Prices will vary country-to-country…
Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN) announced their WiLink 7.0 chip today, less than a week before Mobile World Congress starts, and it’s rather impressive for what it does. It’s the first chip that can receive FM radio, transmit FM radio, has WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n, and Bluetooth 3.0. It will also support WiFi Direct once that becomes a standard, but we’ll have to wait and see if that technology is going to take off since Bluetooth 3.0 pretty much does the exact same thing. TI claim it’s 50% smaller than “today’s existing solutions” and that it will cost 30% less too thanks to being built on 65 nanometer technology.
The image above is from a video TI made about the WiLink 7.0. They’ve uploaded it to this page which also has more information about the chip itself should you be interested in reading about it further. TI did confirm that the WiLink 7 is currently being sampled by various customers and should be in devices hitting the market by the end of this year.
I know many an AT&T (NYSE: T) Bold 9000 user has asked me when we’ll see 5.0. It’s been a bit of a wait for sure… and while this isn’t an official release from AT&T, it is official from another carrier. Via Zain Kuwait, OS 5.0.0.464 is now available. With this dropping (and other official releases sure to come) I’m sure we’ll get the official down-low from AT&T sooner rather than later.
Still, if you’re tired of waiting for AT&T, you can pick up OS 5.0.0.464 via Zain Kuwait right here.
Note: As always, be sure to backup your device and take all necessary precautions before you proceed!
LG has announced the successor to its low-end messaging phone – KS360, which we also know as Tribe or Neon. The new device keeps the side-sliding QWERTY form factor, while priding itself with social networking features, that include integration with Facebook and Twitter.
In addition, there’s a 3-inch WQVGA touchscreen (there were no touchscreen on the KS360) as well as four-line QWERTY keypad (versus KS360’s three lines) with dedicated buttons for accessing push e-mail, the web browser and instant messaging client.
Availability wise, the LG GT350 ill go on sale in Europe from this April and will then launch in other markets around the world. It will come in four color combinations including Aqua Blue, Purple, Light Silver, and Black, some of which will be exclusive to specific carriers.
![penis Ultrabrief: What comes after Cupcake, Donut, Eclair, and Froyo? Gingerbread! [Android]](http://images.intomobile.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/penis.jpg "Ultrabrief: What comes after Cupcake, Donut, Eclair, and Froyo? Gingerbread! [Android]")
