Free Republic

This is going to be a huge week for Microsoft. Today, the company is expected to announce its first tablet, which will be designed to compete with the iPad. On Wednesday, we're expecting Microsoft to give us details on the next major version of its Windows Phone operating, which will likely be very similar to Windows 8. Here's you need to know: * Microsoft will announce its own tablet. This will be the first time Microsoft builds the hardware and software for a tablet. * The tablet will run a special version of Windows 8 called "Windows RT." Windows RT...

WASHINGTON — A Sikh advocacy group launched a free mobile application Monday that allows travelers to complain immediately to the government if they feel they've been treated unfairly by airport screeners. Launched at midnight by The Sikh Coalition, the FlyRights app had fielded two complaints by 10 a.m. EDT Monday. The first complaint came from a woman who said she felt mistreated after she disclosed to a screener that she was carrying breast milk. A man who is Sikh filed the second complaint, saying he was subjected to extra security even though he had not set off any alarms. The...

MOBILE, Ala. -- Last Saturday night at 8:20 p.m., when the white Matthew Owens was beaten into critical condition by a mob of dozens of black neighbors, Al Sharpton and the New Black Panthers got what they wanted: a white victim, any white victim, in payback for the killing of Trayvon Martin. May God have mercy on their miserable souls -- because the rest of us should shun them mercilessly from all decent society. Delmar Drive is one of those long, long blocks, the equivalent of probably four long city blocks without a single cross street, which sometimes gets wedged...

AT&T decided to pay up after a California small claims court judge ruled it was unfair to throttle a cellphone data plan advertised as unlimited. Matt Spaccarelli, 39, challenged AT&T in February after he noticed his 4G network wasn’t operating as fast as it should. Spaccarelli is among the 5% of AT&T customers who use the most data. He told the court speeds slowed once he used 1.5GB to 2GB of data after the billing cycle began. The judge said slowing down data violated AT&T’s unlimited data plan terms and ordered AT&T pay $850 plus $85 for court costs.

AT&T’s questionable policy with regard to unlimited smartphone data plan holders recently found its way back into the limelight following a new wave of subscriber complaints. The nation’s No.2 carrier no longer offers an unlimited data plan to smartphone users, though many subscribers on its network still have grandfathered plans that provide an unlimited amount of smartphone data each month. Subscribers who approach the top 5% of unlimited data users in a single billing period see their data speeds throttled, however, and countless users have found that AT&T is now beginning to throttle users after less than 2GB of data...

Do you feel anxious if your cellphone isn't nearby? Does just the thought of losing your phone make your heart pound? Do you keep an extra phone on hand, just in case your primary phone breaks? Do you sometimes take it to bed with you? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then you may be a nomophobe, and you are not alone. Nomophobia -- the fear of being without your cellphone -- is on the rise, according to a new report sponsored by SecurEnvoy, a company that specializes in digital passwords. Using the online polling service...

AppTech was the buzz of the mobile tech world Thursday as the company rolled out “ReconAge,” a mobile age recognition app for Android-powered devices. The application, which is free and available now for download from the Android Market, recognizes the approximate age of a person by making use of real time face recognition biometric systems online.Pretty nifty, indeed – especially with regard to the mobile marketing implications the app and its underlying technology deliver.“We’re changing the face of mobile marketing. AppTech is uniting brilliant minds around this idea. With the launch of ReconAge, we intend to introduce the usefulness of...

Mayor Sam Jones was the talk of town after he held a burglary suspect at gunpoint at his home in Mobile. But not everyone was impressed. In a twist, at least one pro-gun rights group accused Jones of being a hypocrite. Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, took issue with the fact that Jones is part of a coalition of U.S. mayors who have campaigned for stricter gun regulations. Jones is a member of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, an organization established to reduce violent crime by blocking criminals from illegally obtaining...

The infamous $640 toilet seat which the Pentagon purchased back in the 1980′s now has a crappy, excuse the pun, modern day equivalent: a government-made mobile app with a price tag of $200,000. Rich Jones of Gun.io, a job board for hackers, downloaded and installed the Heat Safety app from OSHA. It’s a straightforward service that finds your current location, measures the heat and humidity and serves up a warning with notes if the temperature is dangerous. One might call it the kind of app that could have been created for less money by simply telling people to stick their...

Peshawar, 23 August 2011, Pakistan telecommunication Authority has warned the people who have used illegal Mobile Jamers in mosques and different area of the country. The warning has issued after the complaints in which PTA has warned specially mosques, in some area Mobile Jamers were installed, that block the signal of mobile and creating problem for the people. According to PTA government of Pakistan has announced New Mobile Jamers Policy, in which only PTA / Ministry of I.T and Telecom will issue NOC / Permission for the Mobile Jamers. With out Permission/ NOC installing the Mobile Jamers were illegally and...

Mob in Peoria shoots fireworks at police, firefighters... MAYHEM IN MOBILE: 300+ fight on street corner, man shot in face... 13 stabbed, shot in Boston in just 5 hours... CHICAGOLAND: 5 Dead, 23 Hurt Over Violent Holiday Weekend... 4-Year-Old Boy Shot While Watching Baltimore Fireworks... 2 Shot During Massive Brawl Outside Atlantic City Casino… Dozens of teens loot store, then attack passersby... VIDEO...

Big Oil. We love, LOVE, to hate Big Oil. As we’re paying more and more at the pump, and as we continue to flounder in this post recession economy, it’s hard to look at the Big Oil companies , their profits and think anything other than greed. But is that fair? Let’s check. Recently, the big oil companies announced their profits for the first quarter of 2011. And they are impressive numbers to be sure: ■Exxon Mobile – $10.7 billion ■Chevron – $6.2 billion ■ConocoPhilips – $3.0 billion THAT is a lot of billions. A LOT! But is it really...

A favorite pastime of Internet users is to share their location: services like Google Latitude can inform friends when you are nearby; another, Foursquare, has turned reporting these updates into a game. But as a German Green party politician, Malte Spitz, recently learned, we are already continually being tracked whether we volunteer to be or not. Cellphone companies do not typically divulge how much information they collect, so Mr. Spitz went to court to find out exactly what his cellphone company, Deutsche Telekom, knew about his whereabouts. The results were astounding. In a six-month period — from Aug 31, 2009,...

Thanks.

Motorola's Xoom tablet, the first serious Google Android rival to Apple's iPad, will ship without Adobe Flash support. Big shocker. (Not really.) This is surely a disappointment to Motorola, Adobe, and Google. But to anyone who has been watching Adobe fumble with Flash on mobile devices for as long as we have, it's hardly a surprise. Since the middle of last decade, we have heard Adobe time and time again promise to ship versions of Flash for mobile devices that can perform adequately without destroying battery life. We still haven't seen one, and apparently the Xoom won't initially ship with...

A suicide bomber planning an attack in Moscow on New Year's Eve was killed in her apartment when her bomb was prematurely detonated by an unexpected text message [from a mobile operator]. According to Russian security sources, the text message -- a remote trigger for a cell phone belt bomb -- wished her a happy new year, accidentally setting off the blast. The accident may have saved hundreds of lives, these officials believe, as the woman intended to use the bomb in a suicide attack near Red Square later that night. The woman is believed to be part of the...

EADS North America Prepares to Build KC-45 Tanker Production Facility in Mobile, Ala. MOBILE, AL -- 12/08/10 -- EADS North America today announced that it is soliciting bids through its recently selected program management firm for design and construction of the Mobile Conversion Center where KC-45 aerial refueling tanker aircraft will be militarized for the United States Air Force. Preparation for construction of the facility began in November with the selection of Hoar Program Management to oversee the project. The selection of a program manager and initiation of work on the Mobile Conversion Center reflects EADS North America's commitment to...

You can't access the internet. And it doesn't have a camera or games you can play. In fact, this new mobile phone doesn't even let you send text messages. The designers of 'John's Phone' have created a device that has only one function: it lets you make calls. Hailed as the world's simplest phone, it is designed to be a tongue-in-cheek 'basic backlash' by targeting users who do not want the flashy features of next-generation models.

Microsoft Corp. knows the cell phone world is where it's happening, and it's determined to be a part of it. After years of declining sales of phones based on Microsoft's Windows Mobile software, the company is starting with a fresh slate — a completely new operating system for phones. The new handsets will go up against Apple Inc.'s highly popular iPhone and the expanding number of phones running on Google Inc.'s Android operating system. The first phone with Windows Phone 7 will be the Samsung Focus, which hits AT&T Inc. stores Nov. 8 for $200 with a two-year contract requirement,...

Someone's paying attention at Microsoft. At least enough to only grant CEO Steve Ballmer half of his maximum bonus this year, because of Microsoft's continued failure in the mobile industry, and because tablet computers are threatening Microsoft's core Windows business. As Reuters reports, "a discussion of Ballmer's pay in the company's annual proxy filing also referred to the 'unsuccessful launch of the Kin phone, loss of market share in the company's mobile phone business, and the need for the company to pursue innovations to take advantage of new form factors'." You may recall that Microsoft canceled its Kin mobile phone...