T-Mobile’s MyTouch 4G Slide aims to be a killer camera phone

T-Mobile announced the latest addition to its Android smartphone lineup last night, the MyTouch 4G Slide. The phone sports a slide-out hardware keyboard, as expected, but it also features a surprisingly capable camera, as well as some photo tools that will help you make good use of it.

While T-Mobile subscribers will surely appreciate having another keyboard phone option, in addition to the G2 and revamped Sidekick, it’s the Slide’s camera capabilities that will win … Continue Reading

Call of Duty Black Ops Annihilation map pack will entertain hardcore gamers

Activision Blizzard continues to milk its major video game hit of the year with the debut of a new map pack today for Call of Duty: Black Ops.

The Call of Duty: Black Ops Annihilation map pack is now available on Microsoft’s Xbox Live online gaming service for the Xbox 360. The launch of the map pack is a pretty big event, considering the original game generated more than $1 billion in sales and has … Continue Reading

Free-to-play mobile games to be highlighted at GamesBeat 2011

Today we’re revealing the sixth set of speakers for our third annual GamesBeat 2011 conference. Our newest slate of speakers will be part of a panel on the free-to-play mobile gaming market. They include Jeferson Valadares, general manager of games at Flurry; Gabe Leydon, chief executive of Addmired; Lou Fasulo, chief operating officer of Z2Live, and Dave Casteluovo, CEO of Bolt Creative.

Free-to-play and in-app purchase business models on mobile have changed … Continue Reading

Google activating 500K Android devices daily — 1M by October?

Android has hit the half-a-million daily activation mark, according to a tweet this morning by Google’s Andy Rubin.

He also noted that the platform is growing at a rate of 4.4-percent every week, which means that Android could hit 1 million daily activations by October if this keeps up.

It’s not difficult to see that Android’s success is accelerating. Google reported in May at its I/O developers conference that it was activating 400,000 Android devices … Continue Reading

LeapFrog moves into tablets for kids with LeapPad

Faced with tough competition from Apple, LeapFrog Enterprises is defending its turf in children’s learning devices with the launch of a tablet for children called LeapPad.

The device shows that Emeryville, Calif.-based LeapFrog is accelerating its efforts to remain relevant to kids in the age of the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch. Kids love those devices, but LeapFrog’s device is tailored just for the needs of kids. If the features are right, then LeapFrog will … Continue Reading

Adknowledge lets developers move Facebook games to web portals

Adknowledge is announcing today a way to package Facebook games for monetization and launch them on web portals.

The goal is to enable game developers to easily expand their games from Facebook to the broader web without having to worry about doing all of the integration work for monetization. Adknowledge calls its solution Social2Web, which lets game developers create stand-alone versions of their Facebook games on their own web sites.

Other companies such as Heyzap … Continue Reading

FlashSoft raises $3M for software that speeds data center processing

FlashSoft is announcing today that it has raised $3 million in funding for its software that improves data center performance. The software works with enterprise flash memory to determine which data should be stored in quickly accessible memory caches. The result is a 10-fold improvement in enterprise application performance.

Flash memory technology has been gaining ground in enterprise data centers because it can reduce the time it takes to fetch data from slower hard drives … Continue Reading

Star Wars Galaxies players start petition to make game free-to-play

[Update: The petition has now gathered more than 2,100 signatures]

Enraged and frustrated players of Sony’s online Star Wars role-playing game, Star Wars Galaxies, have launched a petition to try to save the game from being shut down on December 15.

The petition has gathered more than 2,100 signatures in three days. It asks Sony to convert the game to a free-to-play game that is maintained through the sale of virtual goods. The petition also … Continue Reading

HBO Go app: Who needs Netflix when we have True Blood?

HBO is awaiting the 3 millionth download of its streaming media HBO Go app, which should happen by this weekend at the latest, according to a CNET report.

The 3 million who’ve downloaded the app since its debut in May represent about 10 percent of HBO’s 28 million total U.S. subscribers, according to the company.

The HBO Go app grants paid HBO subscribers the ability to view the entire library of HBO content, which is … Continue Reading

Myspace laying off 150 employees ahead of company’s sale?

The once great social networking site Myspace is expected to make big cuts to its employee ranks Wednesday, reports Gawker.

TechCrunch later confirmed with sources inside Myspace that the company is laying off at least 150 (37.5 percent) of its 400 remaining employees– with another 150 employees possibly being put on a transition plan while looking for new jobs.

In January, Myspace cut 47 percent of its staff as part of the social networking site’s … Continue Reading

Impermium receives funding from Greylock, Accel, AOL Ventures and more, wants to be social anti-spam

Ever seen one of those in your Facebook inbox? Hopefully you have never responded, because this is “social spam” and one of the reasons why anti-spam service company Impermium has received $1M in seed funding.

The company, founded by ex-Yahoo anti-spam soldiers, including Mark Risher, provides a subscription-based service that monitors your website in real time for user-generated spam, account hackings and other untrustworthy interactions. It then provides what Impermium calls, “hosted mitigation solutions,” which … Continue Reading

Hulu’s owners are gutting the service: More commercials and longer delays ahead

New details have emerged concerning the future of video streaming service Hulu. The company recently finalized deals to continue streaming content from its media partners/owners, reports All Things Digital.

The good news is that Hulu’s owners — which include Disney, News Corp. and Comcast — don’t want to take their exclusive television content with them if the video streaming service is acquired. The bad news is that the new content agreements for ABC, Fox and … Continue Reading

Fring becomes first group video chat app for iPad—and it’s free

I’m sure my fellow iPad owners have been there. You’re sitting on the couch chatting with someone on FaceTime and think, “Why the heck can’t I video chat with more than one person?” Well now you can give it a shot.

Fring on Monday released the first iPad app to offer four-way video chat, and it’s completely free. It works for the iPhone and iPod touch as well, and works over Wi-Fi, 3G, and 4G. … Continue Reading

Microsoft will make even more from Android, signs patent deal with Itronix

Microsoft has signed yet another patent agreement with an Android device maker — this time it’s rugged computer manufacturer General Dynamics Itronix — that will guarantee the software giant licensing fees for every Android device Itronix sells.

Details about the agreement haven’t been revealed, but just like with Microsoft’s patent deal with HTC, Itronix will receive “broad coverage under Microsoft’s patent portfolio.” Microsoft reportedly receives around $5 for every HTC Android device sold, so I … Continue Reading

Twitter strengthens media ties with Twitter for Newsrooms

Twitter has always had an awkward relationship with the media.

On one hand, the service is a great resource for lightning-fast news gathering and dissemination. But if left unchecked, even a seasoned journalist can fall prey to its half truths, hoaxes and overwhelming deluge of information.

To fix that the microblogging service has launched Twitter for Newsrooms. The new site is designed to provide members of the press with a hub full of frequently asked … Continue Reading

Boingo and Gogo partner on in-flight Wi-Fi, but it’s still not convenient

Boingo announced Monday that its customers could now login to in-flight hotspots serviced by Gogo, making it easier for Boingo users to access the web while traveling.

In-flight Wi-Fi is becoming a much more common amenity on U.S. flights and a tool that more business users demand on flights. Gogo said its network is available on more than 1,100 aircraft with its partners Air Canada, AirTran, Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Delta, Frontier, United, U.S. Airways, … Continue Reading

Google goes transparent with new data and new look

Governments take notice: You can investigate Google’s business practices, but Google is also studying you.

The search company has updated its Transparency Report, which discloses inquiries that governments make about Google users as well as their requests to remove content. The update adds data from July 2010 to December 2010, along with new ways to digest that data.

The announcement comes on the heels of news the United State’s Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is investigating … Continue Reading

E-readers post surprisingly robust gains, tablet growth slower

After the iPad debuted last year, some people predicted e-readers would fade away, becoming at best niche products. But a report from the Pew Internet Project Monday shows a different trend: E-readers like Barnes & Noble’s Nook and Amazon’s Kindle are growing at a faster rate than tablet computers like the Apple iPad.

Tablets have been given more coverage in the press and the latest developments of the iPad are hungrily consumed by tech enthusiasts. … Continue Reading

PhotoRocket aims to make sharing snapshots a snap

This article is part of a series of posts where we write about DEMO alumni, and the news about their progress. PhotoRocket launched at DEMO in Spring 2011. Check out their video here and more at DEMO.

Photo-sharing apps are flourishing in the age of the 5+ megapixel smartphone camera. To stand out, though, an app needs a unique angle. PhotoRocket‘s appeal is what its designers call “radical simplicity.” Last week, PhotoRocket strenghtned its hand … Continue Reading