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LG’s triple SIM A290: the phone every Russian Casanova needs originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 Jan 2012 18:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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After releasing a revised financial forecast for FY 2011 that predicts an annual .3 billion loss, its third in the last four years, NEC announced it will cut around 10,000 jobs. Bloomberg Businessweek reports President Nobuhiro Endo announced the cuts, revealing most of the cuts will come from the company’s mobile-phone handset business, with 7,000 of them expected to be in Japan. The company reportedly had 115,840 employees as of March so there should be a few folks left around to keep the lights on and maintain ventures like its new JV with NTT Docomo, Panasonic, Samsung and Fujitsu, the NEC Lenovo PC alliance, and its recently announced work on the Hayabusa 2 asteroid explorer. Still, we’ll have to wait and see how the cuts affect upcoming cellphones, like any potential successors to its super-slim MEDIAS N-04C seen above.

Continue reading NEC will cut 10,000 jobs after forecasting .3 billion annual loss, mostly in mobile phone biz

NEC will cut 10,000 jobs after forecasting .3 billion annual loss, mostly in mobile phone biz originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 29 Jan 2012 15:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Skype’s blog offers an interactive map showing which airports will have the free wireless access for Skype services. Most of the major airport hubs are covered, but my local area of Philadelphia isn’t getting any love for some reason. Luckily, I’ve got a data-only SIM card combined with native Android SIP support to make free or low cost calls, and Google Talk video as another supplement!

Speaking of Android, Skype WiFi isn’t supported on Google’s mobile devices. However, you can use it in conjunction with Windows PC, Mac or iOS devices, including iPads, iPhones and iPod touches.

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Microsoft’s love affair with iOS isn’t over yet. Hot on the heels of an iPad-supporting OneNote update and the App Store debut of Kinectimals, comes an official SkyDrive app for the iPhone. Of course, the Redmond crew isn’t leaving its own handsets out in the cold. Windows Phone 7 is also getting an app to compliment its already rather deep integration with cloud storage service. Both apps sport, more or less, the same feature set: the ability to browse all of your files, share them with others, delete them and create new folders. When sharing links you can even choose whether or not a person can edit a document or simply view it. At least for now it appears that Android users who also happen to be SkyDrive fans will have to make do with the mobile web site. To see both the iPhone and WP7 versions of the app in action head on after the break.

Continue reading Microsoft launches SkyDrive app for Windows Phone and iPhone, forms No Androids Club

Microsoft launches SkyDrive app for Windows Phone and iPhone, forms No Androids Club originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 13 Dec 2011 16:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Cell phone towers on the sky line of Old Delhi.

There are far more cell phones in India than there is access to sanitary toilets — about 600 million out of 1.2 billion Indians have ready access to a clean bathroom, while 800 million Indians have cell phones. That rather shocking stat, was an a-ha moment for Swapnil Chaturvedi, an entrepreneur who has been working on sanitation projects in India’s slums and who was looking for an idea to help him reach many more millions of Indians with clean toilets.

Chaturvedi’s idea is the awesomely-named Poop Rewards, a startup that creates an incentive program using cell phone talk minutes and other prizes to convince Indians that don’t have easy access to toilets to use designated public toilets in their area. These cell phone users are extremely price sensitive, explained Chaturvedi to me in an interview after winning first prize at the business competition Startup Weekend Delhi, and he thinks this demographic will be willing to change their behavior (or use a public toilet) to save a little bit of money or earn free cell phone talk time.

How it works

With a phone company as a partner, more public toilets could be built in the necessary areas — the U.N. estimates it only costs 0 for a low-cost toilet — and cell phone companies can use the rewards program to retain low-price conscious customers and provide a public service, which can also help with loyalty.

The Indian cell phone market is becoming increasingly commoditized and Indian cell phone companies are struggling to find ways to end churn (customers hopping to the next cheaper cell phone carrier offering a deal). Chaturvedi says carriers like Airtel spend a significant amount of money just trying to keep its customers from leaving for a competitor. In the same way that the airline industry was saved by rewards programs that gave free miles to loyal users, cell phone companies can create rewards programs around sanitation that can also give back to the community, says Chaturvedi.

Down the road, Chaturvedi envisions the program could be an open source tool that local entrepreneurs in developing areas can use to create their own Poop Rewards programs with carriers. But Chaturvedi is still just figuring out his business model, he tells me.

Development of an idea

Like all good entrepreneurs, Chaturvedi has pivoted a bit on his original ideas. He had been working on a type of toilet that could convert human waste into electricity, and he’d received a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to work on that. But after going over the math, he kept realizing he was only going to be able to reach a very small population relative to the problem because the project required funding and lacked incentives. His new idea, Poop Rewards, could potentially work with the waste-to-fuel toilet, but it is more focused overall on just boosting a sanitation network.

Chaturvedi hopes to start a pilot project with a test toilet and user group in the coming months (Airtel is really interested, he says). Make way for the Poop franchise. Though, yes, there are a bunch of hurdles ahead, like convincing a carrier for a deal, and launching a program that does actually produce a behavior change.

Along the way no doubt he’ll need some funding, and most of the startups at Startup Weekend Delhi were looking for funds. At the end of Chaturvedi’s pitch, angel investor Dave McClure (see disclosure below) told Chaturvedi that his pitch was the best of the day and that he is interested in potentially funding the project.

Additional thoughts

If you’re still not getting the problem he’s trying to solve, think on these two things: poor sanitation leads to increased sickness and death from water borne diseases. It’s also time consuming to have to go search for a somewhat private place for a bathroom break, and this is particularly burdensome for women.

Poop Rewards’ cute/weird/funny name also stood out from the beginning of the Startup Weekend event compared to many of the other teams that went with confusing or boring names. While sometimes funny names can be gimmicky, they’ll always at least gain attention and turn heads, and a little attention is usually a good thing in an elevator pitch session.

Disclosure: Geeks on a Plane, founded by Dave McClure, covered part of the cost of this reporting trip.

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As the legal drama between Apple and Samsung drags on around the world, US District Court Judge has rejected Apple’s request to block the sales of Galaxy devices. Reuters reports the ruling came out late Friday, with the judge deciding “It is not clear that an injunction on Samsung’s accused devices would prevent Apple from being irreparably harmed,”. This isn’t the first rejection for the folks from Cupertino either, after a request to speed up the trial was also denied back in July. The case itself will of course go on, but this means you’ll still be able to get your hands on those Galaxy Tabs, Galaxy S IIs, and the like in the meantime.

Apple’s request to block Samsung Galaxy tablet, phone sales in the US is denied originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 03 Dec 2011 00:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=_6PpLA2tH7w The Rapping Windows Phone 7 Fangirls were just a pack of ad women in search of some attention? Not surprising, I suppose. Though hearing the main, um, emcee’s side of the story as the focal point of commenter rage is interesting, to say the least. More »

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