While we’re still waiting for an official Dropbox application to arrive on the BlackBerry PlayBook another prominent cloud storage provider has stepped in and beat Dropbox to the punch. Box.net, now has their BlackBerry PlayBook app available in BlackBerry App World and as with their online offerings, they’re offering up 5GB of free storage to anyone who signs up for the service. List of features is below:

• View your files from anywhere directly on your PlayBook
• Share files easily with a link
• Upload files from your device to Box
• Save content to your tablet for offline access
• 5GB of free storage

If you’re not already a Box.net user, now is the time to go ahead and sign up. The app is free and available in all countries according to the BlackBerry App World info.

Download Box for BlackBerry PlayBook

Source: Box Blog via: PlayBook Daily

CrackBerry.com‘s feed sponsored by ShopCrackBerry.com. Box for BlackBerry PlayBook offers 5GB of free storage!

CrackBerry.com blogs

Earlier today, Spotify launched their services here in the States, and it looks like everyone wants a piece of that pie (this guy included). Fortunately for us, and thanks to a partnership with Motorola, you could very well make that dream come true… if you’re quick enough.

With this partnership, one would assume we can expect to see Spotify on a number of future Motorola devices… but, what good does that do you with no invite? Hit the source link to sign up, but you’ll have to be quick, as the duo is only offering up 10,000 invites!

Motorola teams up with Spotify and offers out 10,000 invites

Android News, Rumours, and Updates

Mac users who’ve downloaded the Mac Defender Trojan horse got some help from Apple Tuesday in the form of instructions on how to removal the malware off their Macs.

Macworld

AT&T announced Wednesday that it will soon add Mobile WiFi tethering. The $20 feature will first be available February 13, with the HTC Inspire 4G. Smartphones can be bundled with the $25 AT&T 2 GB data plan, for a total of 4GB for $45 per month.

AT&T’s mobile tethering plan will be an option on the company’s upcoming HSPA+ 4G smartphones, such as the HTC Inspire 4G, Motorola Atrix 4G, and the Samsung Infuse 4G. “We are working on bringing it to the iPhone,” an AT&T spokesman said by e-mail. “But we have nothing else to share at this time.”

Currently AT&T charges $25 per month for 2 GB of metered data. The new $20 monthly tethering fee, however, does not eat out of the same 2 GB data cap each month. It adds an extra 2 GB of data, so, for $45 a month, you get a total of 4 GB of metered data plus the ability to tether.

Verizon’s tethering plan also costs $20 per month and includes a 2GB data. But each additional gigabyte of data, costs twice as much on Verizon — $20 per GB vrs $10 per GB under AT&T’s plan.

It’s still no bargain.

The chart (above) shows my Clear WiMAX usage last month. My $40/month mobile WiMAX plan has replaced my DSL service. It’s truly unlimited. No overages.

• On AT&T’s HSPA network, my 55 MB/month usage would cost; $25 for 2GB, then $20 for an additional 2 GB on the tethering plan. If I used 50GB over that 4GB, that’s $10 per GB or $500. My cost would be: $45 + $500 = $545/month.
• On Verizon’s (slow) EVDO Rev A tethered service, my 55 MB/month usage would cost; $30 data plan + $20 2GB tethering option ($50 total). If the overage were 50GB, that’s $20 per GB or $1,000. My cost would be: $50 + $1000 = $1050/mo.

Clearwire delivers 4G speeds (3-6 Mbps). The cellular operators only deliver 3G at 1/10th the speed (300-500 Kbps), and price it astronomically.

The actual bill of materials and manufacturing cost of today’s high end smartphone is less than $150. The average US smartphone consumer pays some $2400 for a two year smartphone service contract. But early termination fees often extend to 36 months. Verizon’s Average Revenue Per User is $105/month. ARPU is lower in Europe, and much lower in developing countries.

View full post on dailywireless.org

That’s right $20,000 to any hacker that can successfully comprise a windows 7 machine running it’s Chrome Browser via a security vulnerability written in Google-written code and  sandbox escape.

CanSecWest’s Pwn2Own Contest is an annual event pitting some of the world’s best security analyst and exploit writers against the most popular web browsers and mobile devices. After last years contest, Google’s Chrome Browser was the only browser left unscathed. Given the money and prizes being offered and obvious publicity involved with successfully comprising the Chrome Browser, chances are good that the cross-hairs are already being lined up on this web browser.

Contest sponsor Tippingpoint ZDI says a successful Chrome hack “must include a sandbox escape”,  and be in Google-written code,  in order to win the $20,000. On day 2 and 3 if competitors are unsuccessful, they will be allowed to use exploits written in non-Google code to potentially comprise the browser. If they succeed on days 2 and 3 ZDI will offer $10000 for a sandbox escape and Google will offer $10000 for the Chrome bug.  In order to fully utilize a sandbox escape the exploit may have to be combined with another vulnerability for full system compromise.

On day 1, Google will offer $20,000 USD and the CR-48 if a contestant can pop the browser and escape the sandbox using vulnerabilities purely present in Google-written code. If competitors are unsuccessful, on day 2 and 3 the ZDI will offer $10,000 USD for a sandbox escape in non-Google code and Google will offer $10,000 USD for the Chrome bug. Either way, plugins other than the built-in PDF support are out of scope.

CanSecWest is also offering cash prizes for anyone using unpublished browser security holes to remotely launch code on Windows 7 or Mac OS X machines.

Browser Targets for this Year:

• Microsoft Internet Explorer
• Apple Safari
• Mozilla Firefox
• Google Chrome

Each browser will be installed on a 64-bit system running the latest version of Windows 7 or Mac OS X.

For mobile devices the attack surface has been increased to allow attack against the cell phones basebands.

Mobile Targets for this Year:

• Dell Venue Pro – Windows 7
• IPhone 4 – iOS
• Blackberry Torch 9800 – Blackberry 6 OS
• Nexus S – Android

A successful attack against these devices must require less to no user interaction and must comprimise useful data from the phone. Anything that would cost the owner of the device money, ie: silently calling long-distance numbers, eavesdropping on conversations, etc, is within scope.

The contest is being held the 9th, 10th, and 11th of March, 2011 in Vancouver, BC during the CanSecWest Conference. For more information, registration, or to follow the contest visit TippingPoint ZDI’s website.

Source: TippingPoint ZDI

View full post on AndroidSPIN

Logickeyboard demos its large print Apple keyboard.

View full post on Macworld

Like most of you, I am a very busy person and don’t have time to sit around clicking links to hundreds of sites to get my daily news. I have been using Google Reader for years as an RSS aggregator and also use this through Gravity on my Nokia N8. I just read over on the Nokia Conversations site that a new Nokia Beta Labs product is available for reading RSS feeds. The Nokia Reader app looks pretty slick, as you can see in the video below, and I just downloaded it to my Nokia N8.

If you are reading this site, then you likely know about RSS and use some kind of reader to browse through information. The cool functions in this new Nokia Reader app include a home screen widget and push notifications. I would LOVE to see support for Google Reader sync so I did not have to setup all my feeds in another application, but this is an early beta so maybe we will see this added. They should have support for importing OPML files though since setting things up by searching directories or manually typing URLs is a bit tedious.

Nokia Reader is compatible with S60 5th Edition (excluding Nokia 5800 XpressMusic) and Symbian^3 devices. Nokia Reader has been tested to work with Nokia N97, Nokia N97 Mini, Nokia X6, Nokia N8 and Nokia C7.

Any readers try this out yet?

View full post on Nokia Experts

6′ Andy The Android Costume Missing, Owner Offers $1,000 For Safe Return

View full post on Android News, Rumours, and Updates

Ever want to learn to code for Android?  Well, the New Jersey Institute of Technology is now offering a Android Operating System Application Development Course online.  It’s available to the public and you can do it from anywhere!  The class starts on the 18th of January and will run you $1,050.  It’s a bit pricey considering their are already free online guides and tutorials from Google to get your hands dirty in Android, but hey – not all of us are self-movitated geniuses.

With Android now beating out iOS in mobile ad impressions, there is sure to be a lot of future developers looking to create new and exciting apps.  So we see this as a step in the right direction if you have been on the fence about learning Android.  The only downside is that it’s a non-credit course.  Press Release after the break. Read More…

NJIT offers Android development college course online

View full post on Android News, Rumours, and Updates

Visa has released a new mobile application for BlackBerry to help you take advantage of special offers on shopping and services. The app is free and available in BlackBerry App World. Once you download it, you create your account from within the app. Choose which offer categories you want to see and you’re all set; as they become available, the service sends merchant discounts and special offers to you via the app. These can be redeemed at retail locations, online, or by telephone through merchant call centers. This eliminates the need for you to present a paper coupon at the point of sale. You do need to link your Visa card to the app in order to take advantage of the offers. You can also access maps and directions to nearby locations of select merchants providing offers and ATMs that accept Visa.

If you regularly use your Visa to make purchases online or in retail stores, this may be a convenient way for you to save some money.The Visa mobile app is currently only compatible with BlackBerry 95xx, 9000, and 89xx/96xx/9700 with at least OS 5.0. (No indication if it works on BB6 yet.)

For more information and to download the Visa Mobile App from BlackBerry App World
More information from the Visa website

CrackBerry.com‘s feed sponsored by ShopCrackBerry.com. Visa Mobile app available for BlackBerry – Access money saving offers on your device!

View full post on CrackBerry.com blogs

A recent Facebook study took a look at the way people write and react to status updates on the social networking site.

View full post on Macworld

If you’ve been wanting to start development on a web-based mobile app, but don’t know where to begin, the W3C has you covered. The web’s governing body has released a set of guidelines and best practices for developing mobile web applications.

If you’ve already been keeping up with the latest in mobile web technologies, the guidelines probably won’t have too much new information for you. But if you haven’t already explored the rapidly growing mobile web apps scene, the W3C’s guide makes a good starting place.

The guide covers everything from the (hopefully) obvious, like minimizing the number of cookies, compressing your files and using CSS sprites, to less-well-known tips like using Fragment IDs or caching resources by fingerprinting resource references.

One thing to keep in mind is that this overview is intended for web apps, not just websites. If you just want to develop a mobile-optimized version of your website, check out our earlier post on the best practices for mobile websites.

If you’re building something much more complex and application-like, the W3C’s guidelines make a great starting point to get up to speed.

See Also:

• Make a Big Splash on Tiny Screens With Media Queries
• New Frameworks Give Mobile-Web Apps a Boost
• Slide Show Time: Rethinking the Mobile Web
• Mobile Safari Gets More HTML5 Love in iOS Update

View full post on Webmonkey

I’ve always been fascinated how one game can evoke very different reactions in different family members. Having played something together we often have very different reasons for liking it, and often spend mealtimes talking this over.

Reading some of my friend’s reviews for Limbo reminded me about this aspect of gaming again. Although Limbo is a game for the moms and dads rather than kids in our family, we still enjoy it for very different reasons.

It’s an XBLA game on the Xbox 360 that is essentially a short platforming experience. It looks like it’s been based on the black and white movie Metropolis with its out of focus hues and dark brooding backgrounds.

I really enjoyed it and was keen to write about it on GeekDad, but I think rather than simply describing the experience, a better way to communicate what it’s like would be to collect together the different things each of my friends on GamePeople said about it:

Limbo

Returning Gamer: Limbo recreates cinematic platforming, but then transports it to a better place. Both new and old, it seemed to be written exclusively for someone like me, who is back to play games again after being away.

Story Gamer: Limbo is a beautifully morbid monochrome platformer which works on the imagination, its sparse narrative leaves space for players to fill in the gaps themselves.

Limbo

Soulful Gamer: Limbo’s opening intrigued and terrified me in equal measure. But the latter portions felt forced as they resorted to puzzle mechanics rather than story telling and failed to keep its emotional and soulful edge.

Tired Gamer: There’s little doubting that the cult hit of this gaming year unfolds courtesy of the fearless, nether-world wanderings of a small boy with glowing eyes. At the start of Limbo, he wakes, sits up, stands, and in your own time you encourage him to walk with your thumb.

Limbo

Scared Gamer: Limbo caught my imagination indefinably. From the very beginning it managed to exploit and manipulate my fears, fears both innate and inherited from a lifetime of gaming – and all to tremendous effect.

Haiku: Wrote a Limbo poem – “An innocence lost; Darkness questions boy’s intent, to really wake up.”

Script Gamer: Wrote a Limbo radio play.

I’m always inspired when technology and entertainment collide in creative ways. I’ve spend many hours talking through what I thought about Limbo with my wife. In fact, we realized we have enjoyed our response to the game as much as playing the game itself.

Which games have your family talked about recently?

Perhaps this, more than anything else, is testament to Limbo’s success. Regardless of whether we loved it or loathed it, it has managed to get us thinking and expressing ourselves creatively.

View full post on GeekDad

Like many people who work out of a home office, my workspace began as a bit of a hodgepodge of re-purposed furniture along with a few new pieces that got the job done. The bulk of my budget was dedicated toward equipment: computers, monitors, printers and the like. This served me well during the years that I was writing on a part-time basis, but when I transitioned to full-time several years ago, I discovered that ergonomics were a lot more important when you’re at the keyboard for 8 hours or more every day (as opposed to a few hours in the evening). Last year I embarked on a project to upgrade my office. I kept it quirky and reflective of my somewhat geeky style, but the goal was to set up a workspace that wouldn’t land me in physiotherapy after a few years. The final piece of the puzzle was a tough one. The chair. I’d invested in an overstuffed, soft leather number way back when and over the years it’s become perfectly molded. The problem is that while it’s comfortable to lounge in for a few hours, as a work chair, it’s not exactly the poster child for ergonomics. I’ve been lusting after a Herman Miller Embody, the chair that epitomized what I wanted: comfortable, ergonomic, well built and a bit on the funky side. I was recently at a conference where a Herman Miller dealer was set up and spent an inordinate amount of time collapsed in an Embody while a sales rep insisted that there were ways to ratchet that $1,600 price tag down to a more pedestrian $1,200 or so -but if I have to lop off all the features, that’s kind of pointless. I also looked at models from Ergohuman and Steelcase, but they remained elusively difficult to justify. Enter Lexington Modern and the Future Chair.

Future Chair (in black mesh with headrest). Image from Lexington Modern

I hadn’t heard of Lexington Modern before, but they came to my attention as the manufacturer of the Future Chair, a premium, ergonomic office chair that’s priced up there with those others (MSRP is $940); however, by ordering directly from the manufacturer, you can pick one up for $399, which is suddenly a very compelling price point. The question for me was: after spending hours in an Embody, would the Future Chair seem like a viable alternative, or feel like slumming it in a cheaper wannabe?

Lexington Modern shipped up a review model to try out. Delivery coincided with four feet of snow over several days that shut down Canada Post and courier deliveries in London (Ontario) for three days, and when the chair arrived the poor Fedex guy did not enjoy the experience of trying to haul the sizable box from the street up to my house with a hand trolley- a sled probably would have done better. The chair came in several pieces that took all of 10 minutes to assemble. Construction features a heavy, highly polished and reassuringly solid metal framework. I dragged it down to the office (all that metal means it’s not light) and set it up.

The model I was testing featured a black, all mesh back and seat, as well as an adjustable headrest. Low back and non-headrest versions are available, as is a leather seat or (low back only) an all leather option. Unlike other manufacturers that offer a fabric book full of color and pattern options, the Future Chair is available only in gray or black, so if colors are a deal breaker for you, this chair isn’t going to cut it. That being said, black and chrome make for a very sleek look. Where it counts -adjustability and comfort- the Future Chair hits all the right notes. The arm rests are fully adjustable (height, forward/backward and pivoting in and out), the headrest is height and angle adjustable, the seat slides forward and backward (as well as the expected pneumatic up and down), the chair can recline (with adjustable tension) and there’s adjustable lumbar support. The mesh fabric was breathable and flexible, but taunt enough to provide support across the entire back. They also included a “hanger” on the back of the chair for accommodating a jacket. Adjustment levers are intuitive, easy to access without having to get off the chair and clearly labeled. I was soon able to fine tune the chair to the point where it fits and supports me perfectly and have gone through several marathon writing sessions without feeling the least bit fatigued. My only issue has been that the adjustments for arm rest pivoting and headrest height are meant to be easily adjustable, but on the review unit, they were a little too easy to accidentally change. The headrest in particular, would slide down to its lowest position if someone were walk up and put their hand on it for support. The manufacturer says there should be enough tension to prevent this, so maybe the review unit has an issue, but I’d like to see the ability to lock those adjustments.

Future Chair looks right at home in the "business corner" of my home office. Photo by Brad Moon

So, after several weeks of putting the Future Chair through its paces, is it indeed a worthy alternative to an Embody? I think it is. It doesn’t have the famous name on it, but the Future Chair doesn’t feel or look like a compromise, whereas the new lower end alternatives from the big manufacturers (like Herman Miller’s own SAYL) do. It’s comfortable, solid, adjustable and has that ultra-modern look. Minor quibbles like the lack of upholstery options and a few adjustments that I would have liked to see made lockable aside, the only thing I couldn’t account for is durability. While Herman Miller offers a 12 year warranty on its uber-chair, the Future Chair is backed for one year. However, having examined the mechanics and experienced the solid construction, I don’t see any obvious failure points in the chair that would leave me concerned about how it will perform after a few years of use. Stay tuned on that one, I guess.

Disclosure: Lexington Modern provided a Future Chair for this review.

Future Chair by Lexington Modern
MSRP (as tested): $940 (note: available for $399 direct)

Wired: Offers full range of ergonomic adjustments, solid build quality, very attractive and modern look, relative bargain price (when ordered direct).

Tired: Color options are limited, some adjustments (headrest height and arm rest pivots in particular) would benefit from either tighter stops or the ability to lock into position.

View full post on GeekDad

Radio Shack is offering several great deals on a number of their smartphones this Holiday season.  Among them are powerful devices like the T-Mobile G2 and the MyTouch 4G.  If you snag one now the Shack will also throw in a free Plantronics bluetooth headset to compliment your phone.  You have to be eligible for an upgrade and you must sign up for a new 2 yr agreement.  We can’t see this deal lasting long so hurry up and get yours today!

Radio Shack Offers Free Bluetooth Headset With 2Yr Contract On Any Phone

View full post on Android News, Rumours, and Updates

By now everyone can agree that Angry Birds is a raging success, and I’m sure some of you aspiring mobile developers out there would love to experience that same level of success. To put some figures to it, Angry Birds has been downloaded over 60 million times, and over 12 million of those have been paid downloads.

Rovio’s Peter Vesterback recently spoke with Google’s Mobile Ads team for their YouTube channel, discussing the success of Angry Birds and offering advice to mobile developers. It’s a great watch, so hit up the video after the break for some words of inspiration.

Read More…

Rovio’s Peter Vesterback offers advice for mobile gaming success

View full post on Android News, Rumours, and Updates

Staying on track with its rapid-fire, six week release cycle for its web browser, Google has pushed out the final version of Chrome 8. The latest release packs in some 800 bug and security fixes, as well as a new inline PDF viewer.

If you’re using the stable, everyday version of Chrome, you should be automatically updated to Chrome 8. If you’re using another release, or would just like to give Chrome a try, head over the Google Chrome download page.

The new, built-in PDF viewer means that when you click on a link to a PDF now, Chrome will no longer download the file to your PC. Instead, Chrome will offer a preview in the browser where you can view and search the document. Also, thanks to the sandboxing model, this decreases the chance of malicious code, malware or anything else bad being delivered through the PDF. Of course, if you then decide to download the file, Chrome won’t protect you from anything that might be lurking inside.

The PDF reader joins Flash in the list of things that Chrome manages for you. That means Google can push out updates and security fixes as needed to these components of its browser, rather than relying on users to update plug-ins themselves. You can disable the PDF viewer (or any other plug-in) by navigating to about:plugins inside Chrome.

Chrome 8 is also the first version capable of connecting to the Chrome Web Store. Although there’s nothing to see at the moment, Google is planning to release a store similar to the Android Marketplace or Apple’s App Store, but with a focus on web applications, Chrome extensions, and Chrome themes.

See Also:

• Chrome 8 Adds Google Instant to the URL Bar
• Chrome 7 Shows Off Hardware Acceleration, ‘Tabpose’
• Early Birds Will Dig Chrome Canary

View full post on Webmonkey

With the holiday shopping season well underway already, eBay and RIM have just updated eBay for BlackBerry to better help you out if you’re shopping plan consists of online shopping. Updated to version 1.0.3.5, the eBay app for BlackBerry smartphones will now include great deals from Deal Finder, which will replace the Daily Deal feature in the application.

Deal Finder is a great way compare eBay.com with prices on retail websites such as Amazon and Best Buy. Also included with this update is some overall fixes for slow loading times and eBay for BlackBerry can now make use of BlackBerry Shortcut keys. The update hasn’t gone live in BlackBerry App World as of yet but you can grab it from the direct download page. If you prefer to download from BlackBerry App World, try refreshing using ALT RSTR and it may show up.

Click Here To Learn More About eBay For BlackBerry Smartphones

CrackBerry.com‘s feed sponsored by ShopCrackBerry.com. eBay for BlackBerry updated – Now includes Deal Finder to help you find the best offers

View full post on CrackBerry.com blogs

The folks over at Once Upon an App have decided that given it is the start of the holiday season and all, they want to share a bit of app love. So, they announced via email and Twitter yesterday that tomorrow, November 26,  all of their apps will be free to download for the day.

That’s right: no strings attached. Free apps.

I recommend at least going along and downloading Peepers if you have a child that is just at that beginning to read stage. It is a nice little app that allows children to drag words to finish rhyming sentences. The functionality I love, and can’t wait to see Once Upon an App, or other developers use the ability to move words around the screen in increasingly more interesting and engaging ways to support literacy development. I’m thinking a Motion Math style app, but with words, rather than numbers.

View full post on GeekDad

Sprint is soon to be releasing the Samsung Galaxy Tab, just in time for the holidays for a price of $399. If that is still a lot for you to pay out of pocket, especially with Thanksgiving and Christmas around the corner, Home Shopping Network may have a solution to your problem.

A trip to the Home Shopping Network site will lead you to a page where you can purchase the tablet for 4 small payments of $174.98. That does come out to $699.95, but, that is before you get the mail in rebate. After the rebate is processed , which will seem to take years, you should be getting back $300. Thus the tab will only cost $399.95.

In the mean time  having that ability to make the payments should make it a lot easier to still have money in your pocket for Christmas. If you are interested please click on the source link below to get directed right to the page.

Source: Home Shopping Network

View full post on AndroidSPIN

We recently outlined a way to get rid of the Flash plug-in completely for a smoother, less battery-sucking web browsing experience.

But if that’s too radical of a step for you, Google’s Chrome browser has a new trick up its sleeve — a built in “click-to-Flash” feature.

As our friends at Lifehacker note, Chrome’s new content controls mean you can turn all your plug-ins — Java, Flash, QuickTime and anything else you might have installed — into an on-demand experience.

Even better, you can create a whitelist of sites where you’d like to allow auto-loading of plug-ins — for example, YouTube, Vimeo and other video sharing sites.

To get these features in Chrome, you’ll need to be running either the Dev or Canary channels. Provided you have one of the pre-release builds of Chrome, open up the Preferences panel and click the Under the Hood tab. Then click the “Content settings” button and chose the “plug-ins” option. From there you can control how plug-ins load and which, if any, sites to white or blacklist.

Of course, there were already some extensions for Chrome (and almost every other browser) that do the same thing. But now that those controls are baked in, you don’t need to track down an extension to control your plugins.

See Also:

• Going Straight: How To Ditch Flash and Embrace the Future of the Web
• Who Needs Flash?
• YouTube: HTML5 Video Is No Match for Flash

View full post on Webmonkey

The Washington Post for iPad app is free until February, after which users will be charged for access.

View full post on Macworld

Brother recently sent one of their MFC-990CW multifunction printers for me to play with; considering the model supported wireless printing from an iPod Touch, iPad or iPhone now (instead of waiting a few more weeks for Apple to release iOS 4.2), I was more than happy to give it a shot.

MFC-990CW Color Inkjet All-in-One with Wireless Networking (Image from Brother)

The MFC-990CW offers everything we’ve come to expect in a multifunction printer: faxing, scanning, copier and printing capability. It ups the ante (at least for printers in its price class) with Wi-Fi (b/g) connectivity, Bluetooth, a functional 4.2 inch color touchscreen and a 5.8 GHz wireless handset with digital answering machine. Additional connectivity options include USB 2.0, ethernet, PictBridge and the ability to read Compact Flash, Memory Stick, SD and xD memory cards. Add in the Brother iPrint&Scan App and you have to work pretty hard to find a device that can’t join the party in one way or another. The printer uses four individually replaceable ink tanks to cut down on consumable costs, although it only ships with reduced capacity starter versions.

While the MFC-990CW is a capable and reasonably compact printer, it is marred by some questionable design choices. For example, a physical hookup (via USB or ethernet) requires threading a cable inside the machine instead of simply plugging it into an exterior port. The wireless handset is recharged via a cradle that juts out of one side of the printer; the manual references a wired handset in which the cradle is removable, but the cordless version seems permanent (which makes sense give the cradle is now powered instead of merely aesthetic). That extra few inches made a difference in where I was able to set up the otherwise compact printer. Speaking of the phone, having the handset and answering machine are a nice bonus, but the printer has to be left On in order to use it, which means you have vampire power draw from a printer left on 24/7 in order to have your answering machine and cordless phone available. The power cord isn’t removable, which is a pill when moving the printer around. Having a dedicated tray for 4×6 photo paper is great, but it has to be manual engaged by removing the entire paper feed tray and sliding the photo paper hopper forward. This would be a minor annoyance except by doing so, the photo feeder tray is buried deep in the guts of the printer, requiring you to remove the entire tray again to retrieve any 4×6 prints.

Annoyances aside, how does the MFC-990CW perform? I try to minimize cables in my office, so I opted to configure for WiFi access. There was a bit of stumble out the gates when the supplied CD wouldn’t install the driver on my Mac -I have another Brother printer which is using a more current version of the included scanning software and the installer wouldn’t go any further, but also wouldn’t give the option to install the printer driver only. After wrestling with the CD for a few minutes, I bypassed the installer and downloaded the driver directly from Brother’s web site. Setting the printer itself up on my WiFi network was a piece of cake, thanks to its touchscreen display and easy to follow menu. Finding the printer from the Mac required digging a scanning program out of the Printer Library, but after that was done, all was well. From start to finish, it took 15 minutes, which is about 10 minutes longer than I’m accustomed to with Macs, but then again this was the first wireless model I’ve tried and it was also added to a network that has multiple existing printers.

Printing and scanning functionality was solid. The MFC-990CW is pretty fast (claimed 33 ppm in black and 27 ppm in color) and I didn’t have any experience that would lead me to think those are exaggerated. Text was particularly crisp and at highest quality (6,000 x 1,200 dpi) it’s particularly impressive, even on regular paper. The scanner has an optical resolution of 1,200 dpi x 2,400 dpi; it’s obviously not pro grade, but should be perfectly fine for anything most small office or home users would throw at it. The same thing with the copier function, although with the cost of inkjet consumables, most people won’t be making multiple photocopies on a machine like this. Still, it’s nice to have in a pinch. I don’t do a whole lot of faxing, so I didn’t get around to testing that function. I was particularly interested in photo printing. We currently use an older Canon Selphy dye-sub printer and while it has done a fantastic job, every OS upgrade means struggling with printer drivers and constant tweaking to avoid borders when printing photos. The MFC-990CW has a dedicated 4×6 photo paper tray and much finer resolution than the Selphy, so I had high hopes. After a few days of experimenting I’m about ready to declare a draw. The Selphy has the upper hand when it comes to durability (the final pass of the printer lays down a clear protective coating), while even with glossy photo stock the MFC-990CW’s photo prints were flimsier. Despite having an effective resolution of only 300pdi, the Selphy’s dye-sub printing never showed any evidence of banding. The Brother inkjet didn’t either, but holding the paper at the right angle revealed marks from rollers that marred the end result somewhat. But the Brother’s output was far sharper and it was about twice as fast as the Selphy. Borderless photo printing was usually borderless (at least printing from iPhoto), but there were often hairline white areas at the edges that no amount of tweaking seemed able to get rid of.

Screenshot from Brother iPrint&Scan App, copyright Brother.

Which brings me to printing from my iPhone. This is very slick. The free Brother iPrint&Scan App (which also works on iPads and iPod Touch models and with a variety of Brother wireless printers -see here for supported device details), makes it dead simple to select any jpeg photo and print it. When AirPrint arrives with iOS 4.2, you should be able to print documents and photos to printers on wireless networks, but for now this is a welcome feature. Despite the fact that iTunes optimizes photos when synchronizing between iPhoto and an iPhone, at the 4×6 size, I was unable to distinguish a photo printed from my iPhone from the full size version printed from iPhoto. Except for one thing, that is. While I kept getting those hairline white border slivers when printing from iPhoto, borderless printing was always perfect from my iPhone. The App also supports remote scanning, triggered by your iPhone, but that function seems a little less useful to me.

In conclusion, if you’re looking for a capable multifunction printer in the $200 range, the Brother MFC-990CW is a pretty solid choice. It does have its design quirks, but it’s also a compact, affordable and fully featured model that should satisfy the needs of home and home office users. And if you’re jonesing for the ability to print photos from your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch, you can get a few week’s jump on everyone else.

Disclosure: Brother supplied me with an MFC-990CW for testing purposes.

Details:

Brother MFC-990CW Color Inkjet All-in-One with 5.8GHz Cordless Handset and Wireless Connectivity
Support Windows, Mac OS, various wireless mobile devices
Estimated Street Price: $229.99

Wired: Ability to print photos from iPod Touch, iPad or iPhone is handy, text output is crisp and fast, wireless computer connectivity reduces cord clutter, you can print from just about any device to this thing.
Tired: A few poor design choices (implementation of 4×6 photo tray, cable hookup and handset cradle), paper tray components seem flimsy.

View full post on GeekDad

T-Mobile is expected to introduce the cheapest tethering option yet in the U.S. with a $14.99 a month plan on November 3, according to the mobile site Boy Genius Report. The carrier will require customers to be subscribed to a 3G or HSPA+ service using its $19.99-per-month unlimited data plan to receive tethering — a feature which allows subscribers to use their phones as wireless hotspots.

At $14.99, T-Mobile’s tethering option is cheaper than Verizon’s $20 monthly charge for tethering on Android devices like the Droid X, AT&T’s $20 charge for the iPhone, and it’s $10 cheaper than Sprint’s $25 monthly fee for tethering on the Evo 4G.

T-Mobile also offers more data than its competitors. Its tethered devices take advantage of a 5GB pool — in comparison, AT&T includes tethered data under subscribers’ normal 2GB pool on its DataPro plan, and Verizon grants users 2GB specifically for tethering.

Dealers will begin selling the Tetherng/Wi-Fi add-on feature beginning November 3.

In other news, T-Mobile USA will offer the Galaxy Tab for $399.99 on a two-year data contract with a $35 activation fee and a $200 early termination charge. It will be available November 10, 2010.

Kevin Tofel has a review of the expected broadband data options for all four major cellular carriers in the United States.

View full post on dailywireless.org