Earlier this week at the White House press briefing, several cellphones began to rang. The first phone belonged to John Gizzi and press secretary Robert Gibbs confiscated it. And then CBS’ Bill Plante’s phone rang and he stepped out of the room to take the call. Wow, these press guys are acting like they are high school kids again where Gibbs is the metaphorical teacher telling the kids to stop using their phones during class.
Aha Mobile is developing an iPhone application that is making a car-friendly application. Aha Mobile was pleased to announce earlier this week that they have raised $3 million in Series A funding from Venrock Capital.
Aha’s is working on an application that will provide features on traffic and construction notifications, a bathroom finder, and ways to find nearby coffee shops. There will be many other features that I have not discussed here, but those are just a few examples. The application is still in development too. There will also be voice recognition technology to identify search queries.
Aha Mobile will be a free application and is expected to launch sometime this summer. The CEO of Aha is Robert Acker.
Now here’s an interesting way to use the Google Android open source operating system. Android is already used on mobile phones and it is rumored that several companies are installing them in netbooks. But now Fujitsu and Macnica are teaming up to install Android into digital photo frames. The project is called “Software Platform for Home Network Digital Photo Frames.” The above frame was shown on display in Japan several days ago.
Jeri Ellsworth has previously designed an NES purse and now she has designed something just as revolutionary, a giant Etch A Sketch with a 52″ projection TV, a golf tee, gear-reduced motors, and tent poles. The drawings being sketched uses aluminum powder. Check out the video above for a demo.
Retro Mini is a very cool looking handheld device that has the ability to play NES cartridges. Granted sticking the cartridge in the power slots doesn’t make the Mini look more aesthetic, in fact it makes the device look more awkward. The Retro Mini has a 2.4″ LCD screen and runs on four AA batteries. The AA batteries can keep the handheld console running for about 8 hours before a recharge. The Retro Mini costs $49.99.
About one week after Verizon decided to add the Novatel MiFi 2200 portable EV-DO router to their network, Sprint has responded by adding it to their network too. This router allows users to connect up to five WiFi enabled devices to the EV-DO Rev. A network. In Sprint stores, the MiFi 2200 will be marketed as the Sprint Mobile HotSpot. This unit will be the first in the U.S. to support MiFi’s GPS capabilities.
The cost of using this device is $99 after a $50 mail-in rebate on a two year agreement to pick up the hardware. Getting it connected will cost $59.99 per month for mobile broadband only plan or $149.99 per month for Simply Everything Plan + Mobile Broadband. There’s a data limit too. You can use 5GB of download per month and then you’ll be charged 5 cents extra per megabyte overage when using the MiFi 2200.
Earlier this week, AOL decided to fire at least 30-50 people from their sales and marketing division. Many of those that were affected belonged to the Platform-A subsidiary. The firings are based on past sales performance according to a BusinessInsider.com source. The sales representatives had experience that ranged anywhere from 2 to 10 years.
“From what I’m hearing the state over there is panic shock and chaos. It was a bloodbath,” stated a source. Laid off representatives from the company will most likely be replaced by Google representatives. Poaching from Google started to pick up after former Google executive Tim Armstrong became chairman and CEO of AOL in March. Former Google exec Jeff Levick replaced Greg Coleman, who was at AOL for less than three months.
Google may want to consider stepping up some incentives for their salespeople to prevent Armstrong from strong-arming them to AOL. If anyone has any further information about this lay-off, please leave it in the comments.
Mio has announced the official availability of their new GPS devices: the Moov S501 and the Moov S401. The Moov S401 has a 4.3″ inch display and the S501 has a 4.7″ display. Both will have a “Spirit” interface and will have Google Send-To-GPS functions. NavPix will provide location-pulling frompohots and there is a text-to-speech feature for street names. MioMore 2 PC software will have a way to calculate mileage and fuel economy. The S501 is the thinnest personal navigation device to date at 0.64″ thickness. The S401 is 0.71″ thick. The S501 will cost $200 and the S401 will cost $180 and both will arrive in June.
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