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Mobile and Wireless Topic Center

News, reviews and analysis about mobile and wireless technology

Quickbooks Online outage leaves some customers in sour mood

Intuit's Quickbooks Online service suffered an outage this week that left "a small subset" of customers unable to access their data, but the company says the problems with the on-demand accounting software have now been fixed.
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Untethered jailbreak for iOS 5.1.1 available for download

Absinthe 2.0, the jailbreak for iOS 5.1.1, is ready and available for download, the Jailbreak Dream Team announced at the Hack in the Box conference in Amsterdam on Friday.

Google's Motorola buy seen boosting Android in workplace

With the closing of Google's $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility this week, talk of the possibilities for Android in the enterprise has spiked.

Sony brings streaming music service to the iPhone

Sony released an iPhone app to access its streaming Music Unlimited service, part of its efforts to expand its online platforms to devices from rival manufacturers.

Apple settles patent lawsuit with SimpleAir

SimpleAir in Texas said Thursday it had settled its patent infringement litigation against Apple, and entered into a confidential license agreement by which Apple had taken a license to its patents.

Smartphones with quad-core chips and 4G LTE coming soon

Quad-core processors have not yet been combined with 4G LTE in smartphones, but that could change soon.

Facebook beefs up mobile photo sharing with Camera

Facebook introduced its own mobile photo app, Camera, on Thursday, bringing richer photo-sharing features to the platform even before the company closes its deal to acquire the popular photo-sharing app Instagram.

iPhone, Android account for 82% of smartphones shipped

Android and iPhone smartphones together made up 82% of all such devices shipped to retailers in the first quarter of 2012, IDC said Thursday.

Motorola Mobility has infringed Microsoft patent, says Munich court

Google-owned Motorola Mobility has infringed a Microsoft patent related to SMS messaging, according to a ruling in the Munich regional court, which also dismissed a second case related to a localization patent.

ZTE's latest LTE test shows how operators can increase bandwidth

ZTE has successfully completed a hand-over test between two different versions of LTE, allowing operators to more effectively use their spectrum in a way that is seamless to the end user, the company said on Thursday.

Parents get new weapons in war over kids' phones

Kids' phones expose them to bullying, predators, adult content and Internet addiction. Now parents are fighting back, writes columnist Mike Elgan.

Two World War II reference apps for the iPad

When I was about 10 years old, I decided it was time to graduate from the Scholastic Reader-approved books of my youth to what I determined was meatier, more adult fare. I checked out a book from the library about World War II--it may well have been one of those Time-Life overviews of the war that doubtlessly make serious historians cringe. But for a 10-year-old it was just the sort of stuff to spark an interest in history that continues to this day.

Hands on with Facebook Camera for iPhone

Facebook on Thursday launched Camera, a new standalone iPhone app for browsing your friends' photos and sharing new ones of your own. Were Instagram owned by anyone else, it might be sweating bullets right now.

Diary of an App Maker: What it's like to develop for iOS

In my time at Macworld, I've reviewed and tested numerous iOS apps. I've also reported on the challenges that iOS developers face. But it was only recently that I built my first iOS app, along with developer (and frequent Macworld contributor) Marco Tabini. The experience left me with insights into the iOS development process that I probably would never have otherwise discovered, and a better understanding of what the developers of many of our favorite apps go through on a regular basis.

Cellphone vibration syndrome and other signs of tech addiction

There's a growing body of research on phantom cellphone vibrations and the other problems associated with technology obsession, and leading the way is Larry Rosen, the author of iDisorder. IN this Q&A, Rosen talked about how addicted we've become and what we can do about it.

Corel VideoStudio Pro X5: CPU Optimization and HTML 5 Output

With its latest version of VideoStudio Pro, Corel is aiming to crack the Web video production nut. VideoStudio Pro X5 ($80 as of April 30, 2012) is a video-editing application capable of handling everything from start to finish, supplying all that you need to produce videos that you can host, and that play in any HTML 5-compliant browser. But you'll need a computer with one of the latest CPUs to produce cutting-edge video.

Managing Mobile Mania

Unified communications isn't easy or cheap, but for companies that want to differentiate their customer service, it's becoming a must-have. Insider (registration required)

Ask the iTunes Guy: Syncing tips

[Ask the iTunes Guy is a regular column in which we answer your questions on everything iTunes related. If there's something you'd like to know, send an email to the iTunes Guy for consideration.]

Wunderkit for iPhone

Wunderkit helps you work. That's what a productivity app should do, of course, but some unnecessarily bog you down in details. In contrast, Wunderkit--a free iPhone offering from 6 Wunderkinder--makes it easy to create projects and schedule tasks. And it's better than many competing apps at recognizing the realities of the workplace.

BYOD: New animal, new taming techniques

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