photo credit: Texting While Driving?

Chambersburg, PA—One local mother is concerned and doing something about teen texting while driving. When Pamela Rajtik learned of the statistics that 40 percent of young Americans between the ages of 12 and 17 have been in a car while the driver was texting and driving, she thought, “someone should do something about this.” As the mother of teens, she was more than just a little concerned. After waiting and learning, researching and taking notes, and talking with other parents, Pamela has started a new non-profit organization to help educate kids about the dangers of texting while driving.

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photo credit: Unlock Your Sony Cell Phone

Sony Ericsson now gives you directions on how to unlock the bootloader on their Android phones. In the past, Sony has been known to unfriendly to developers and modifiers. However, now the Sony Ericsson Developer Blog has announced that the Xperia Arc, Neo, Play, and Pro will have a feature that enables an easy bootloader unlock method. Of course along with the directions, they warn you that you could majorly screw up your phone and not be able to recover from the screw-up.

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photo credit: HBO Go Mobile Apps

Your Smartphone isn’t just a cell phone any more. Starting next month you can start using HBO for streaming videos to your iOS and Android devices. Following Netflix and Time Warner Cable, HBO will start the new HBO Go for mobile devices next month. Available with subscription will be all your favorite HBO shows, including all the past seasons, as well as feature films. The new service will no doubt be especially popular with tablet users.

HBO Go has been available since 2009. It wasn’t really catching on all that well. Now with the new mobile app available for Android and iOS platforms, HBO is hoping it will gain some ground on Netflix. HBO snubbed Netflix by not allowing any of its content to be available on Netflix. Netflix already has free Android and IOS apps available. HBO is now taking on the mighty Netflix giant with 1400 choices, and more promised. According to an article posted by Don Reisinger, The Digital Home, In January, HBO senior vice president of corporate affairs, Jeff Cusson, told The Hollywood Reporter that his company “believes in content exclusivity, especially for high-value content.” He said that HBO “has no intention of making its content available for streaming on Netflix.”

An HBO video was posted last week on YouTube. According to the video, HBO Go is scheduled to be released May 2nd to Android and iOS devices. “Get every episode of every season of your favorite HBO shows, plus hit movies and much more,” the video’s voiceover states. “All free to HBO subscribers and all streaming on your iPad, laptop, or Smartphone wherever you are.” They aren’t specific about whether it will work on 3G, but since they are touting “Wherever you are,” I am assuming it will also work on 3G.

DirectTV won’t be streaming HBO Go through mobile apps. According to Richard Lawler, Engadget, a “mis-tweet” by the DirectTV Twitter account originally stated it would be including the HBO Go mobile apps. Corrected, it now stands that DirectTV won’t be adding HBO Go access through their own apps and DirecTV customers will have to use the native HBO Go app just like everyone else.

Are you anxious to watch HBO shows on your Smartphone? I think even with my Droid X’s 4.3 inch screen, I would rather watch shops on a tablet. Of course until I get a tablet (hint for Mother’s Day), I will probably try it out on the Droid X. What about you?

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photo credit: Battle-Ready Droids

Battle-ready Smartphones are going to war in 2013. The US Army has announced that it will be issuing open Android Dev kits to its soldiers in July. This will allow apps to be written for use by soldiers on a variety of combat handsets and devices. According to an article written by Lewis Page, The A Register, the military Droid framework is known as Mobile/Handheld Computing Environment (CE).

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photo credit: Mobile TV

With the popularity of tablets rising, mobile television is fast becoming a favorite pastime. Last week’s trade show in Las Vegas for the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) shows that the technology is making progress. According to an article written by Maisie Ramsay, WirelessWeek, “The Open Mobile Video Coalition (OMVC), the main proponent of mobile broadcast television in the United States, announced that 76 television stations in 32 markets are now doing mobile television broadcasts.” Using a WiFi hotspot or at home, you can download TV episodes and store them to watch later. If you are using a Smartphone, it gets stored on the MicroSD card, so make sure you have at least 2 GB free per show.

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photo credit: AT&T’s LG Thrive Pre-Paid Droid

AT&T is the last of the cell phone service providers to offer a Droid Smartphone in their pre-paid lineup. Beginning April 17th, AT&T is offering the LG Thrive for $180. The Thrive is a mid-range Droid, running on the Android OS 2.2 (Froyo). It only has a 3.2 megapixel camera and 160 MB of memory, although it can be expanded to 32 GB with a MicroSD card. The customers will have to pay pretty dearly for using this phone however. Customers can choose the “Smartphone 10 cents per minute” plan or “Smartphone $2 USD per day for unlimited talk and text” plan. Their choices for data plans range from $5 for 10 MB to $25 for 500 MB. There is no contract, which is probably a good thing since customers may dump AT&T once they find out how poor the service coverage areas are.

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photo credit: RIM BlackBerry Theme Contest

A $500 AMEX card is up for grabs in the new RIM BlackBerry Retail Reps Theme Contest. Five winners will receive an AMEX gift card for $500 USD. The top winner’s theme will be developed as a BlackBerry theme and upon release, made exclusively available for 3 months to authorized retail salespeople. After 3 months, the winning theme will be made available on a non-exclusive basis in BlackBerry App World. Pretty sweet deal, or so it seems. However, royalties and income from the sales of the theme don’t actually go to the person submitting the theme idea. Hmmm…. Maybe not so sweet a deal.

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photo credit: BlackBerry Torch 2

BlackBerry should be renamed LeakBerry. Photos, videos and technical specifications have been “leaked” over and over in the past few weeks. Rumors are flying. There are now stories of four new RIM Smartphones (BlackBerry Bold Touch, Torch 2, Orlando, and Touch), all of which have new capacitive touch screens. Mostly they seem to be “re-made” versions of the Curve and Torch, although there is a touch only phone as well.

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photo credit:
JWoww Loses $100K BlackBerry

This last weekend, Jenni “JWoww” Farley lost her BlackBerry. Jenni was apparently shopping at a Lowe’s hardware store in Toms River, New Jersey with boyfriend Roger when she lost the cell phone. Jenni reported the missing BlackBerry to the police, claiming the phone is worth $100,000. Why is Jenni Farley’s BlackBerry worth $100,000? Is Jenni’s BlackBerry made of Platinum? Jenni claims it’s because of her fame. “Because of all my contacts,” she told Toms River police. According to an article written by Fabiana Santana, Actress Archives, “It’s those contacts - all stored in her Blackberry - she is worried will wind up in the wrong hands.”

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photo credit: BlackBerry Traffic 2.0

Do you hate fighting traffic? There’s an app for that, especially if you are a BlackBerry user. Just released this week, BlackBerry Traffic version 2.0.0.1749 adds new features and a completely revised UI. It has new icons, a new color scheme, the ability to select from multiple routes, and the addition of pre-set destinations directly from BlackBerry’s native contacts app. It is compatible with any GPS enabled BlackBerry Smartphone operating on OS 4.6 and up in North America.

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