abirdtold.me

A week doesn’t go by without another electronics giant deciding to hop on the overcrowded Netbook bandwagon. Still, it’s unusual when a phone manufacturer decides to cross over. Nokia, long rumored to be getting into 3G mini-laptops or “smartbooks,” has finally announced a very real 10-inch Netbook. Called the Booklet 3G, it has a clear design relationship with its phone line, while still being an honest-to-goodness laptop (as opposed to some sort of smartphone hybrid). Running an Atom Z530 processor instead of the more common N270, it also has: An HDMI port # Wi-Fi # 3G (obviously) # An SD card reader # A-GPS and maps integration # A Webcam # BluetoothBluetooth # And, according to Nokia, a 12-hour battery life…
Read on at cnet.com

There’s some excitement around the web today among a certain group of high profile techies. What are they so excited about? Something called WebFinger, and the fact that GoogleGoogle is apparently getting serious about supporting it. So what is it? It’s an extension of something called the “finger protocol” that was used in the earlier days of the web to identify people by their email addresses. As the web expanded, the finger protocol faded out, but the idea of needing a unified way to identify yourself has not. That’s why you keep hearing about OpenID and the like all the time. But those standards, while open, have failed to latch on in a meaningful way with the public at large. One of the holdups is that you have to set up a website or service you use to be your OpenID. It’s relatively easy to do, and you may already have one ready to go, but just not realize it. But it’s still kind of tricky to explain to a regular web user — wait, you login with your website?
Read on at techcrunch.om

DiggDigg’s been busy lately adding new features—some loved, some not—but they seem to be having a positive effect on overall. In June, comScore estimates the site brought in 8.8 million unique visitors in the U.S alone, up 31 percent over the preceding three months. That accounts for the change all of a sudden? Well, by Digg’s own admission, once it introduced the Diggbar it saw an initial lift in visitors just as a result of people passing around short links. And it’s been getting even more aggressive on that front lately, having to reverse itself at times. But it’s not just the Diggbar. The site launched a decent search feature in April (which always helps generate more traffic) and Facebook Connect in May… Read on at TechCrunch.com

Augmented reality — or the addition of a layer to the world before your eyes (aka the “real world”) using technology — is the next big tech trend. Already making its debut in everything from mobile apps to kids toys, “AR” will clearly soon be talked about by everyone the way they used to talk about “social media” and “Web 2.0″ before that. While augmented reality has its uses — although many of them just involve oohing and aahing at nifty apps — this trend is already in danger of being over-hyped, even though it has barely gotten off the ground… Read on at ReadWriteWeb.com

The term “cloud computing” is being bandied about a lot these days, mainly in context of the “future of the web.” But cloud computing’s potential doesn’t begin and end with the personal computer’s transformation into a thin client – the mobile platform is going to be heavily impacted by this technology as well. At least that’s the analysis being put forth by ABI Research. Their recent report, Mobile Cloud Computing, theorizes that the cloud will soon become a disruptive force in the mobile world, eventually becoming the dominant way mobile applications operate. You may be wondering: what does the term “mobile cloud computing” really mean? Basically, it refers to an infrastructure where both the data storage and the data processing happen outside of the mobile device. Today, there are already some good examples of mobile cloud computing applications including mobile GmailGmail, Google MapsGoogle Maps, and some navigation apps. However, the majority of applications today still do most of the data storage and processing on the mobile devices themselves and not in the cloud. In a few years, that could change… Read on at ReadWriteWeb.com

With all the skepticism of whether it’s just a social media fad and questions about how the company expects to generate revenue, TwitterTwitter has left many critics silent by continuing to grow. Though the company has made some improvements, including its recent redesigned homepage, many wouldn’t credit these changes with the successful growth of Twitter. It’s all about the people and how the service has been put to use by the millions. Whether using it during their everyday lives, marketing a business or reporting on tragic events, users have shown the value of Twitter and will continue to contribute to its growth. Below are just five reasons why Twitter will continue to grow.
#1. Consistent growth #2. Gaining approval from big companies #3. Twitter is the number one most social brand #4. Twitter receives millions in free media coverage #5. Continued growth internationally… Read on at Mashable.com

This weekend, developers, UI designers and testers combined forces to share ideas and collaborate at the third annual iPhone Dev Camp. The event encourages individuals at all levels to continue to stretch the development boundaries of the iPhone and iPod touch. The event’s Hackathon competition offers an exhibition of attendee projects and is a showcase of some of the industry’s brightest innovators. Below are some of the latest trends amongst those innovators.
Augmented Reality, Assistive and Health-Related Technology and Mobile Music Production. Read on at ReadWriteWeb.com

Earlier this morning I got a chance to catch up with Dr. Sanjay Jha, co-CEO of Motorola soon after his company reported earnings (they met Wall Street’s modest expectations) to talk about everything from the state of the mobile market to prospects for Motorola. I will write all that in a longer post, but there was one part of the conversation that stuck with me and was very telling about the momentum around GoogleGoogle’s AndroidAndroid and the detrimental impact it is having on Microsoft’s Windows Mobile. As part of our conversation, Dr. Jha stressed that handset makers need to pick a single smart phone OS and devote resources to it in order to win. He pointed to Nokia and Symbian, Apple and its iPhone OS and RIM’s Blackberry OS. He used that as a logic to justify why his company was betting the farm on Google’s Android. Why? Because it’s the best option for the company right now… Read on at Gigaom.com

Today at the cybersecurity conference known as Black Hack, researchers Charlie Miller and Collin Mulliner will present an SMS exploit that could take over your iPhone with just one text. Once the phone is comprised, the hacker would have access to all the functions on the phone allowing them to send email, access your contacts, make phone calls, and of course, send text messages that would send the exploit to more devices. This serious vulnerability (which apparently Apple has sat on for over a month) is probably the first time that most people have heard of mobile phones being used to create botnets. However, this isn’t the first sighting of a mobile phone hijacking attempt for the purpose of botnet creation – a similar exploit was discovered earlier this month… read on at ReadWriteWeb.com