When Google released Google Navigation, they definitely shook up the GPS world as turn by turn navigation was now available to the masses for a low price of $0.00/month. Coupled that with free traffic updates and Google’s strength in Search and you have a really powerful navigation device in the palm of your hand. You no longer had to bring other devices when you go on your trips and your phone became a lot more useful (not that it wasn’t already).

For those among us who use Windows Mobile devices, that itch to switch may have been great but those days may be gone! Microsoft has just released an update to their Bing application and it brings with it 2 changes: wallpaper and navigation! Yup, turn-by-turn navigation! On your phone, for the same low price that Google charges: $0.00/month!

Launching Bing earlier today provided me with a notification that an update was available and following through with it was simple enough.

Unfortunately, this service is only limited to the US and only for those on T-Mobile, Sprint and AT&T networks. On top of that, it only supports a limited number of devices which seem to be the current models available on these networks so if you are using an older device, you might not be able to enjoy this navigation goodness.

Have you navigated with Bing today? How was your experience?

(via: Bing.com)

By: Tariq Bamadhaj (Senior Editor)

In case you’re wondering, Microsoft just sent a snail mail to some folks in the blogging world. It was an invite to their event on April 12th 2010 at San Francisco and besides the ‘It’s Time To Share’ label and message, there seems to be no other information as to what will be going down at the event.

Some updates suggest that it’s about the ‘Project Pink’ and the unveiling of the phones while others mention (and I hope) it would be about Courier. What do you think Microsoft will be sharing with us on that fateful Monday? Either way, I can’t for April 12th 2010!

(via: Engadget)

By: Tariq Bamadhaj (Senior Editor)

In a very interesting move, Sprint recently announced a new strategy in their quest for customer satisfaction: the Sprint Free Guarantee. Think of it as your usual return policy on steroids! For a new consumer who’s been wanting to try out Sprint, they can now walk away within 30 days, should they not be satisfied with the service and not be liable for any fees or charges. This includes activation fees, monthly recurring charges and even restocking fees! It sounds like a great deal and so far, I’ve not seen anything in the fine lines that would suggest otherwise! Here’s the full press release from Sprint:

OVERLAND PARK, Kan., Mar 31, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) –Sprint (NYSE: S) is backing up its promise to be the best value in wireless, by announcing the only full money-back satisfaction guarantee on service plans that exists in the wireless industry today.

Beginning tomorrow, the Sprint Free Guarantee gives any customer opening a new line of service the chance to try Sprint for 30 days. If a customer isn’t completely satisfied, they can get reimbursed for the device purchase and activation fee, get the early termination fee waived, get a full refund for service plan monthly recurring charges incurred and get all associated taxes and Sprint surcharges associated with these charges waived. In addition, Sprint will waive the restocking fee for new customer exchanges as part of this policy.

"Sprint’s new guarantee policy is yet another effort by them to respond to the needs of wireless consumers today," said Sheryl Kingstone, Director, Yankee Group. "It’s giving consumers the transparency they need to best determine whether they are completely satisfied with the services they want from their carrier. Sprint is putting more power in the hands of its customers and helping to create a better experience for them overall."

The Sprint Free Guarantee is a unique step in what is a growing list of industry "firsts" for Sprint, as no other major wireless carrier matches this guarantee today.

Sprint customers will be responsible for certain charges not associated with the Sprint Free Guarantee: usage not included in the monthly service plan, premium content (i.e. digital downloads, songs, games, applications), third-party billing, international charges and any associated taxes and Sprint surcharges.

"When Dan Hesse came to Sprint, he committed to changing Sprint and the wireless industry for the better. This guarantee is a strong statement about our confidence in the improvements we have made in our network, customer experience, rate plans and handset line-up," said Bob H. Johnson, president, Consumer, Sprint. "But we also know that consumers always have fears about switching their services to another provider, so we’ve made it easy for them to try us. Not satisfied? Cancel within 30 days and we’ll give you your money back."

As part of the guarantee campaign, Hesse is featured in a stand-alone TV ad touting the Sprint Free Guarantee that begins running tomorrow on network and cable outlets. In the ad Hesse invites customers to join Sprint, "and if you’re not completely happy with Sprint within 30 days, we’ll give you your money back."

"This is a big win for cost conscious consumers," said noted Consumer Lifestyle Advisor Jennifer Jolly. "We want this kind of honesty and transparency. We want to know there’s no more sticker-shock or bait and switch, that when a company promises us something, their word is good. Can you imagine if we could test drive a bank, health insurance, a credit-card, or any of the other things we spend our hard earned money on every month – free for 30-days? This is a big step in the right direction for Corporate America and we savvy shoppers are the ones who will benefit the most."

The Sprint Free Guarantee is one of several game-changing policies, services and products Sprint has announced over the last couple of years that has revolutionized the industry. Its award-winning device line-up, great voice and data networks, and its unmatched value in pricing plans are the reasons why Sprint is confident customers will want to give the company a try.

• Pricing plans – Plans such as Sprint’s Everything Data, featuring Any Mobile, Anytime, offers an unlimited wireless experience starting at just $69.99 per month. This means Sprint customers can get unlimited calling to and from any mobile phone in America, unlimited messaging and unlimited Web, including GPS navigation, for the same price AT&T and Verizon charge for unlimited talk only. In addition, with the Sprint Right Plan Promise, customers can move to any rate plan at any time without requiring a contract extension or any fees.
• Network Advantages: 3G & 4G services – Sprint is the first national wireless carrier to launch 4G. The service is available in 28 cities today, providing a new and improved Internet experience through the next generation of services. Sprint is extending its 4G leadership by launching the HTC EVO 4G this summer – the world’s first 3G/4G Android phone. Sprint also has the largest voice calling and the second largest 3G data network (inclusive of roaming).
• Device Line-up - Whether customers want the latest Blackberry smartphone, an Android phone like HTC Hero with Google or Samsung Moment with Google, or Palm Pre or Pixi, Sprint has an award-winning line-up of Smartphones and devices to fit any budget. The upcoming launch of its HTC EVO 4G, will offer one of the most robust multimedia experiences on a wireless phone today. It won "best of CTIA" earlier this month.
• Sprint Premier – Sprint celebrated the one-year anniversary of Sprint Premier, its exclusive rewards program in 2010. Sprint Premier provides annual upgrades, anniversary rewards, accessory discounts, "Just Because" perks like trips and tickets to events, and many other benefits to members. Customers with Sprint Everything Data plans are automatically enrolled in Sprint Premier.
• Ready Now – Sprint offers a personal trainer-like service free of charge called Ready Now. This exclusive Sprint experience offers hands-on device training and set up for customers at Sprint stores nationwide. A Laptop magazine study last Fall gave Sprint first place in a tie for in-store customer service.

The changes are all helping to build customer loyalty and ensure customers have a great experience with Sprint. During the past eight quarters, Sprint’s retention of existing customers has improved at a rate more than five times that of its nearest competitor ¹ and overall customer satisfaction has improved as well. The guarantee is another important step in Sprint’s pursuit of customer experience excellence.

For complete information about the Sprint Free Guarantee visit, www.sprint.com/guarantee beginning tomorrow.

Sure looks good right? If you’ve been holding back on Sprint, now would be as good a time as any other to give them a shot. They’ve come a long way and their services keep improving. And if it doesn’t work out for you, there’s always that Sprint Free Guarantee!

By: Tariq Bamadhaj (Senior Editor)

By flipping your lights out for an hour today (March 27th) at 8.30pm local time, you’ll be joining millions others around the world in making a bold statement about your concern for climate change and are willing to do something about it. It doesn’t require you to give up your car for a day or take public transportation for a week, though those would definitely help, but as simple as turning the lights off at 8.30pm local time.

If you’ve seen the ads and wonder what Earth Hour is all about, here’s their mission:

On Earth Hour hundreds of millions of people, organizations, corporations and governments around the world will come together to make a bold statement about their concern for climate change by doing something quite simple—turning off their lights for one hour. In the U.S. where we are already feeling the impacts of climate change, Earth Hour sends a clear message that Americans care about this issue and want to turn the lights out on dirty air, dangerous dependency on foreign oil and costly climate change impacts, and make the switch to cleaner air, a strong economic future and a more secure nation.

Participation is easy. By flipping off your lights on March 27th at 8:30 p.m. local time you will be making the switch to a cleaner, more secure nation and prosperous America. View the toolkits, to find out what else you can do to get involved including leading the Earth Hour movement in your community.

So set your alarms and turn your lights off for an hour today. It’s the least you can do!

By: Tariq Bamadhaj (Senior Editor)

The day has come when Tag finally arrives on Android. Microsoft’s mobile barcode scan is a dynamic solution that let’s you interact with your audience more than traditional barcodes out there. Now, with the addition of Android to the list of supported platforms (Windows Mobile, J2ME, iPhone, Blackberry and Symbian S60 were already supported), all major platforms are covered!

Get Microsoft Tag

There are several ways you can get Tag but the easiest is to point your device to http://gettag.mobi from your phone’s native browser and let it take care of the rest.

If you’ve not heard of Tag, now would be a great time to get started! Head over here to see the many uses of Tags in the real world or here to create your own Tag! There are no limits to what Tag can be used for as this example shows:

Now which barcode scanner would you prefer using on your product?

(via Microsoft Tag)

It used to be that when disaster struck, all we could do is read about it in the news and do nothing except pray for those whose lives took a turn for the worse. That was all good as we were helpless to help the helpless but a great man once told me, ‘You can’t start the engine of a broken down car by praying, you do it by working on the engine or getting someone to do it.’ Those words continue to ring true and thanks to technology, we may not know how to work on the engine, but we can definitely do something to get it running again!

Donations Through Web Sites

• America Red Cross
• AmeriCares
• World Vision
• Save The Children
• Habitat for Humanity
• International Medical Corps

By Text Message

Even if you cannot get to computer to fill out a donation form, you can just as easily send a donation through your cell phone. Need some suggestions? Here’s 8 to get you started:

• Text CHILE to 90999 to donate $10 to Red Cross via text to donate
• Text CHILE to 23583 to donate $10 to Habitat for Humanity via text to donate
• Text CHILE to 20222 to donate $10 to World Vision via text to donate
• Text CHILE to 50555 to donate $10 to Friends of World Food Program via text to donate
• Text CHILE to 52000 to donate $10 to Salvation Army via text to donate
• Text REBUILD to 50555 to donate $10 to Operation USA via text to donate
• Text 4CHILE to 50555 to donate $10 to Convoy of Hope via text to donate
• Text CHILE to 864833 to donate $10 to United Way

There are tons of ways to help Chile and these re just some of them! If you have any other suggestions, feel free to add them in the comments below. What’s most important is that we do something and not just hope for a better tomorrow!

It’s always nice to see a company improve on their services and SugarSync has done just that with this new feature. Now, instead of downloading an email and saving an attachment, only to upload it to your SugarSync cloud, you can easily to send via email and streamline the process. Using this new feature is going to save you a lot of time, especially if you’re the type to transfer files via email. Like all your SugarSync files, once it’s uploaded to their cloud server, it will be available on all your devices connected to it.

Emailing yourself those files is not just for you though as SugarSync has figured out nifty uses for this new feature. For one, you can also give that unique email address to trusted friends and family so they can email you photos and other files that you can now easily access. And if that email address has been compromised, you can just as easily change it. But that’s not all. With corporate email usually imposing a limit on your server, you can now clear up some space and still keep your important emails by forwarding them to Sugarsync to store. I know some of my friends will love this new feature.

On a side note, SugarSync has also increase their top plan from 250GB to 500GB which runs at $39.99/month or $399/year. Perfect for those who use a netbook that has limited space but still want access to all your files.

If you’ve yet to try SugarSync, now would be as good a time to give this great service a trial run. They have a 2GB account that’s always free or you can always try one of their higher capacity accounts free for 30 days. What are you waiting for?

(via: Sugarsync Press Release)

By: Nate Nelson (Contributing Writer)

Polaroid recently announced a new initiative for their fading global brand, including signing a new, popular, and often-obscured face: Lady Gaga.

In a clear nod to a new generation and a new direction, Polaroid has signed a multi-year deal with Gaga, who will serve as the creative director and market a special line of co-branded products. Although no details were mentioned, the deal is almost certain to include advertisements featuring Gaga; as well as her doing crazy, Lady Gaga-esque things while representing Polaroid. She is scheduled for appearances at Polaroid’s booth at International CES 2010

Recently purchased out of bankruptcy by venture capital firms, Polaroid is seeking to reposition as a licensing company where it can find markets on which to utilize its brand value and global recognition. Polaroid is also bringing their instant camera line out of retirement with the release of the PIC 1000, an up-to-date version of their classic OneStep camera that will utilize their Color 600 Instant Film.

Once a major brand and concept in the photo industry, the appeal of Polaroid’s instant film cameras disappeared when better quality digital imaging became affordable. By agreeing to a deal with Lady Gaga, Polaroid is reaching out to a generation that may never have used an instant film camera. The pop singer enjoyed a remarkable year in 2009, selling over eight million copies of her debut album “The Fame,” with five of the singles reaching number one on Billboard’s charts.

(via CNNMoney.com)

By: Nate Nelson (Contributing Writer)

Ford Motor Company rolled out a new automobile/mobile connection concept at International CES 2010, debuting what they have named “MyFord.” Featuring a touch-based interactive dashboard, expanded memory slots for USB and SD, audio input jacks, and multiple LCD screens, MyFord will bring an unprecedented level of gadgetry to the road.

Set to debut for the 2011 Ford Edge and the 2011 Lincoln MKX, the driver will be able to control system elements from a five-way switch on the steering wheel. MyFord (called MyLincoln and MyMercury in the corresponding makers) will utilize their current Sync/Microsoft system for iTunes tagging, Twitter updates, Pandora playlists, and personal navigation, among others. Drivers will be able to send MapQuest maps to their vehicle, which they can open with voice prompts.

An eight inch center console screen will double as a computer monitor when the vehicle is in park and has a keyboard plugged into one of the USB ports. A Wi-Fi connection will allow the driver to surf the web (again, when the vehicle is in park), or provide access on-the-go for passengers through a mobile broadband modem.

Many of MyFord’s controls will be voice activated and controlled, including text messaging. A tone will alert the driver when the text comes in, followed by the system reading the message aloud. While that sounds like it could cause panic and frantic button-stabbing for philanderers driving with their significant others, it is intended as a safety feature by Ford. Drivers can respond with a generic message or call back with a “dial” button.

(via PCMag.com)

By: Nate Nelson (Contributing Writer)

Just ahead of the tech media firestorm of International CES 2010, AT&T announced plans to sell seven new smartphones in the first half of the year, including two from Palm and five running the Android operating system from Dell, Motorola, and HTC.  This will mark the first time AT&T has made use of Google’s Android for any of their phones.

Industry forecasters and financial honks predicted good things for Palm through the deal.  Palm’s most popular phones, Pre and Pixi, have both been losing ground to competitors like the Apple iPhone and Motorola Droid in recent months.  Pre and Pixi are available only through Sprint, the number 3 mobile service in the U.S.  Moving to AT&T, which is the number 2 service in the U.S., should help sales rebound. AT&T has not confirmed which Palm handsets will be sold in their stores, only that they will be “new” devices.

Announcing seven new smartphones may also be a way of preparing for the inevitable mass defection that is speculated for mid-year, according to some analysts. That is when AT&T will likely lose exclusivity of the iPhone, and Apple is expected to have an agreement with Verizon Wireless – the number 1 service in the U.S. – at that time. Representatives from AT&T would not comment on the iPhone or give any details about the new range of smartphones, indicating that further details would be announced closer to launch.

(via Reuters)