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Well, it looks like T-Mobile has just tipped its hand about what people should expect for next weeks press event. In a FCC filing the fourth largest US carrier revealed a new device, the Nokia Lumia 710. This is interesting because it was expected that Nokia wouldn’t release the handset in the US. The phone runs T-Mo’s AWS bands and includes the following specs:

• 480 x 800 pixels, 3.7 inches screen
• Microsoft Windows Phone 7.5 Mango OS
• Gorilla Glass screen
• 8 GB storage, 512 MB RAM
• 5 MP rear-facing camera with autofocus, and LED flash
• 720p@30fps recording
• 1.4 GHz Scorpion CPU, Qualcomm MSM8255 Snapdragon

I’m sure this isn’t exactly what T-Mo customers want – most people want to see the Lumia 800 – but they’ll have to settle with this instead. The question is, will this be the phone that’s highlighted in T-Mobile and Nokia’s press event next week? I sure hope not… This isn’t exactly a top-of-the-line device; in fact, it’s just another HTC Radar with a tiny bump in specs. Regardless, Windows Phone and Nokia are making a huge push in hopes of finishing the year off strong as it prepares for 2012. If you’re on T-Mobile would you pick up this latest Windows Phone/Nokia offering?

[FCC via TmoNews]

 

Nokia Lumia 710 hits the FCC with T-Mobile branding originally appeared on IntoMobile.com on 2011-12-08T17:38:51Z. FV1gMYsz9b5j

At the Twitter news event today, the company revealed a number of compelling stats about its service, namely that its Apple iOS integration has boosted monthly signups by 25 percent globally.

Apple announced a deep integration with Twitter in iOS 5 earlier this year, which provided a single sign-on for Twitter use on the device, and with any app you download, it will just ask you for Twitter credentials and permission.

Apple also integrated Twitter into many of its own features and applications like camera and photos. You can also Tweet articles and content directly from Safari, Maps, videos from YouTube, etc and add location as well.

We know founder Jack Dorsey is extremely optimistic about the partnership and even wrote a note to third-party developers recently explaining the importance of the integration to applications.

Clearly the integration has been a big contributor to much of Twitter’s growth over the past few months. In October, CEO Dick Costolo revealed that the iOS 5 Twitter integration had already increased signups in the early days of the integration and broader release.

As you can see from the comScore chart below, Twitter.com saw a boost in traffic (to its web site, this doesn’t include mobile or other clients) in October, with 3.7 billion page views in October, up from 3.3 billion in September. While this doesn’t show the mobile traffic, clearly engagement with the site and service is up.

Twitter also announced that it has 700 employees now. And advertisers and brands seeing up to 50% engagement with Twitter’s ad products. The company will soon expand these products beyond just Twitter.com to mobile platforms as well.

Are you someone who has yet to jump on the Twitter bandwagon because it's just too darn complicated to use? Well, the time to spread your tweeting wings has come, because the service has just done a redesign of its web portal and mobile apps around four new tabs -- "Home", "Connect", "Discover" and "Me" -- that make for a less complicated and more streamlined experience (sound familiar?). Twitter's new threads will be rolling out universally over the next few weeks, though the Android and iPhone apps have already been refreshed. All you 140-character mavens can head on past the break for a video of the new look or hit the source links to learn more. For those of you in need of an even simpler Twitter interface, well, we hear there's a guy with a rotary phone who can deliver just what you're looking for.

Continue reading Twitter gets a new look: faster, simpler, cleaner

Twitter gets a new look: faster, simpler, cleaner originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Dec 2011 13:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Very interesting, Bango. Sometimes the biggest deals are the ones where everyone is keeping mum. That seems to be the case with this little blip of news coming out of the mobile phone payments company Bango today. The company announced it has signed a deal with Amazon.com, Inc. to provide “services.” And yep, that’s just about all it’s saying.

Bango provided a short statement, noting that Amazon is now a Bango customer, which makes it the third major customer to sign up for the mobile payments platform. Previously, Bango signed deals with Research in Motion (RIM) and Opera, both of which involve offering carrier billing services for those companies’ app stores. (Carrier billing is the payment mechanism that allows users to pay for purchases on their mobile phone bills.) However, in Opera’s case, customers are able to use a credit card or carrier billing to purchase apps.

Bango won’t confirm any details of the new agreement, including how much the deal is worth or even what services, specifically, it will be providing to Amazon.

But the conclusion being drawn from the news, of course, is that Bango will soon be providing carrier billing services to Amazon for its app store, the Amazon App Store for Android, which is available to any Android user (in the U.S.) as an installable app. The Store is also now a prominent feature on the company’s new Android-based tablet, the Kindle Fire. What’s interesting, however, is that the Fire doesn’t come in a 3G version, which could entail a carrier relationship. It’s a Wi-Fi only device. Perhaps Bango’s news, then, hints at something yet to come?

Then again, given that Bango also provides analytics services, it could be something less exciting (to consumers, at least) than paying for apps via your phone bill.

According to a Bango spokesperson, the company couldn’t share any information beyond what it has already provided due to “commercial sensitivities.”

“This was very much just a regulatory announcement that Bango was required to release as it is a publicly quoted company. We hope to be able to release more information in 2012,” the spokesperson said.

The full statement reads as follows:

Bango (AIM: BGO) announces today that it has signed an agreement to provide services to Amazon. The terms of this agreement are not being disclosed. The Board believes it is too early in the relationship to accurately forecast the level of business which it may generate.

Planning a trip around the world in 80 days? Spending some time with the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen? You’re going to need this $149 Tokyoflash, touchscreen pocket watch that, is as far as I can tell, unreadable by mere mortals.

The watch comes in four colors and features a touch display to scroll through the dual-time, date, and alarm features. It’s cased in a nice steel case with mineral crystal cover and, with a bit of patience, you can learn what the heck this thing actually says. It has a back-lit LCD screen that drops into a “natural” color when unlit.

This is a limited-edition model, which makes it slightly more desirable to that special someone on your Christmas list who needs a watch to match their steam-powered mechanical arm, steel top hat, and smoked-glass monocle.

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