Is the iPhone the Only Camera You Need? - Wall Street Journal

F. Martin Ramin for The Wall Street Journal (cameras, phone); Lisa Corson/The Wall Street Journal (sunset) The iPhone simplifies the photographic process—you can shoot, edit, share and order prints using one device.

I, POINT-AND-SHOOT, hereby call to order the inaugural meeting of the Secret Society of Digital Cameras That Are Sick and Tired of the iPhone. Ultra Zoom. Micro Four Thirds. Budget Digi Camera that takes AA batteries. Thanks for coming.

I think everyone knows why we're here in the basement of this abandoned Circuit City in Ho-Ho-Kus, N.J. I mean, it's in the name of our club: the iPhone. A lot of you have been sitting in junk drawers, so I'll bring you up to speed. It ain't just a phone. It has a camera. And not one of those 1.3-megapixel numbers from a decade ago. This is the real deal. People have already started documenting their breakfasts with it. We're in trouble.

Lisa Corson/The Wall Street Journal A photo taken with the Hipstamatic app

View a slideshow of iPhone photos.

Have you checked out Flickr lately? The iPhone is the site's most-used camera. Instagram, an app that let's people share photos, reached 27 million users to become one of the world's biggest social networks. It hit that milestone purely with the iPhone. Last time I checked, we took photos. Where is our piece of the zeitgeist pie?

There was a time when we were renegades ushering in a new era of photography. Mavericks, really. We kicked those old film cameras into flea-market stalls. Now only pros and artsy types use them. Guess what? We're the ones starting to collect dust. And don't think anyone's going to revisit us. Film cameras occupy the same hip space as vinyl. Where are we going to fall on the technological nostalgia spectrum? Next to the LaserDisc.

It's your turn to show us how you use your phone to snap pictures. We'll feature the best in an online gallery.

Here's how to participate:

Use your phone to take pictures on the theme: How do you start your morning? Email the photo to yourphotos@wsj.com or share them on Twitter and Instagram with the hashtag #morningwsj Include your name, date, time of day, type of phone you used, and location for the photo

Disclaimer: By submitting any photographs to The Wall Street Journal/Dow Jones through any medium, including social media, (the "Photographs"), you agree that The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones (collectively "Dow Jones") have the perpetual right to modify the Photographs and publish or republish the Photographs or portions of thePhotographs, in any medium now known or hereinafter developed. Dow Jones, in its sole discretion, can credit you by name if it publishes your Photographs.

You represent and warrant that (a) the Photographs are original and that you own the rights to your Photographs, (b) the Photographs do not violate the rights of any third party, (c) the Photographs have not been altered and do not convey a false or misleading impression, and (d) any additional information you submit about the Photographs is accurate.

You also agree to the Subscriber Agreement and Terms of Use, located here.

The digital photography revolution was a promise to streamline things for the everyman. To let him shoot as many sunsets and cats wearing bread (seriously, Google it) as he wanted without having to worry about film. Anyone with a laptop could edit like a pro. Like the Brownie and Polaroid before us, we were democratizers of photography.

Not any more. The iPhone hijacked our vision for the future—our legacy!—while we were busy fooling people that more megapixels meant better pictures. (Sorry, Budget Digi Cam, it doesn't.) Talk about simplifying the photographic process—you can shoot, edit, share and order prints without taking your mitts off an iPhone. We're on our way to becoming a footnote on its Wikipedia page.

Tara Howard/The Wall Street Journal A Hipstamatic shot

New research set to be released this week found that 87% of those who own Apple's iPhone 4S use at least one feature of its Siri virtual assistant monthly, Jessica Vascellaro reports on digits.

I know what you're all thinking. Some of us can edit photos. Some of us can post to Facebook. But not like the iPhone. It's quick, intuitive. We're not. Great-looking pictures are so fun and easy to produce that it makes anyone with an Instagram account feel like Terry Richardson and Ansel Adams rolled into one. Camera Awesome might be the device's best photo app. And it's free! And downloadable in minutes! You know how people refresh their user experience with us? They wait two years and spend hundreds on a new camera.

OK, there's a bright side. The DSLR will always be king for serious photographers. All of us take better photos in low-light situations. Android phones may be getting Instagram soon, but they aren't a huge threat—yet. And, uh, we come in more than two colors. Look at Ultra Zoom. He's chartreuse!

If we lose to one of our own, that's one thing. This crazy Lytro camera that lets you choose a focal point after you've taken a picture? Innovative stuff. Maybe we'll invite her to the next meeting. But a phone? Not cool. That's not progress. It's game-changing. And we're in the wrong stadium.

I forget who, but a wise man once said, "A lot of times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them." Let's show it to them. First camera to figure out how to beat the iPhone wins an 8-gig SD card. And I'll throw in this lime-green neoprene case. Except for Micro Four Thirds. You're too bulky for it. Meeting adjourned—see you next year in the parking lot of the old Crazy Eddie headquarters.

Illustration by Jason Lee for The Wall Street Journal, WSJ Studio, Tara Howard (photo) Several iPhone apps can take your photo-taking to the next level.

Wait, doesn't my iPhone already have a Camera app? Yes. And it's good—the latest one can automatically focus on faces, take crisp HDR shots and be launched quickly from the unlock screen. (Just swipe up.) Why limit yourself to one arrow in your quiver, though? You may have heard of these three Camera replacements before, but they're popular for a reason—out of dozens in the App Store, they're the best.

Camera+

The Effects Master

Tara Howard/The Wall Street Journal The original picture, above, isn't bad.

Tara Howard/The Wall Street Journal With Camera+'s Clarity filter and Lo-Fi effect, it's infinitely better.

The Camera+ app has long been a popular iPhone camera replacement because it can do complex things in a very streamlined way. You can set exposure independent of focus, use image stabilization—it'll automatically take a shot when your hand is steady—and has a burst mode for capturing fast-moving objects or the fleeting smiles of toddlers. But the real reason Camera+ has a permanent place on many a home screen is its editing tools. The Clarity filter is iPhone photography's secret sauce—it adds pro-camera crispness to almost any shot. And the app's 36 FX Effects (Polarize and Magic Hour are two favorites) have adjustable intensities. Snappily adjusting just how much processing you want is what sets this app apart from the countless other camera-and-editing solutions. $1.99, campl.us

Hipstamatic

The Analog Spirit

Lisa Corson/The Wall Street Journal Light leaks, vignetting and distorted colors are Hipstamatic trademarks.

Tara Howard/The Wall Street Journal Even your accidental shots will look like high art.

This app helped launch the iPhone photo revolution when it debuted in 2009, not with bleeding-edge tech, but with a geeky love for the analog. Swap out lenses, films and flashes to create different retro-inspired photographs or simply shake the camera to randomize the configuration. As with real film photography, you have to wait for your image to "develop"—pictures take a few seconds to show up. No matter. The results are so cool you'll start thinking instant gratification is overrated. A tip: In the spirit of serendipity, the default framing is random. To take control, double-click the viewfinder. $1.99, hipstamatic.com

Camera Awesome

Everything but the Kitchen Sink

The camera of Camera Awesome, is, well, awesome: It has a lens stabilizer similar to that of Camera+; a Big Button feature that lets you snap a photo by touching any spot on the screen; and in camcorder mode, the app magically captures video seconds before you press record. Its editing tools are even more awe-inspiring: There are almost 300 sophisticated effects, filters, textures and frames at your disposal including the adjustable Awesomize feature, which automatically fixes things you might not have even known were wrong with your photo. Many effects are free. You can buy sets of effects a la carte, or all of them in one fell swoop for $9.99. It's worth it. The app was developed by photo site SmugMug—pictures taken with the program can be automatically uploaded to the site in full resolution if you're a member. Free, awesomize.com

Tara Howard/The Wall Street Journal If you love a particular effect (this is Romany Holiday), you can opt to have all shots automatically processed that way.

Instagram

The Social Network

Instagram

You could just use this as a Hipstamatic alternative, but it's really all about the photo-centric social network that is Instagram. If you've ever doubted the quality of iPhone photography, browsing the "Popular" shots will change your mind and inspire you to always have your camera at the ready to take more artful pictures of the world, or, you know, your cat. Free, instagram.com

Cinemagram

The New Art Form

Cinemagram

Here's how it works: Shoot a few seconds of video with movement, like a dog's tail wagging. Then trace your finger over the area of the video that you want to keep in motion—the surrounding area remains a still image. The result is a Cinemagram, a cool mashup of video and photography. At their best, they look like the quirky special effects of a Georges Méliès film. $1.99, cinemagr.am

Incredibooth

The Party Pleaser

Incredibooth

An addictive pocket-size photo booth from the makers of Hipstamatic. You can use the rear camera to take shots of party people and the front-facing one for self portraits, which—because the photos appear in an old-school, vertical strip of four pictures—are disarmingly charming rather than vain. $0.99, incredibooth.com

DMD Panorama

The Landscape Sweeper

DMD Panorama

The easiest-to-use panoramic picture app on the iPhone. Just launch, take a picture, steadily move the camera to the left or right to slide an on-screen Ying symbol into a Yang symbol—How clever! How Zen!—and the program will automatically stitch together a slick panoramic photo. $1.99, dermandar.com

PicFrame

The Framer

PicFrame

Instead of asking graphic-designer friends to create triptychs of your vacation photos in Photoshop, easily crank images out on your own with PicFrame and share them on Facebook and Twitter. An additional $0.99 lets you overlay text on photos in tons of refined fonts. It's the most fun way to create holiday cards, make party invites and add ironic captions to snapshots. $0.99, picframeapp.com

F. Martin Ramin for The Wall Street Journal, Styling by Anne Cardenas Belkin LiveAction Camera Remote

Forget about snapping a group shot with an outstretched arm and friends cramming their heads next to yours. Use the Belkin LiveAction Camera Remote with its accompanying app and shoot from afar. A detachable stand is included for easy iPhone propping. $35, belkin.com

F. Martin Ramin for The Wall Street Journal, Styling by Anne Cardenas Try a lens attachment for your iPhone.

Lens attachments on iPhones look a bit gimmicky, but they really work and are a great way to change up your shots. The Ollo Clip comes with fisheye, macro and wide-angle lenses and can be stashed easily in a pocket when not in use. $70, olloclip.com

F. Martin Ramin for The Wall Street Journal, Styling by Anne Cardenas Hipstacase

The iPhone is slick, which means it can get a little slippery. Keep the device strapped and secured to your wrist with the Hipstacase. It's amazing how much a little lanyard add can add to your confidence. $40, hipstamart.com

Three esoteric grips for the aspiring camera phone Avedon

Jason Lee for The Wall Street Journal The Covert Ops grip

The Covert Ops

Hold phone vertically as if checking texts or stocks. Advanced variant: Use headphones and singing to obfuscate your rule-bending shutterbugging.

Jason Lee for The Wall Street Journal The Statue of Liberty grip

The Statue of Liberty

Most commonly used at concerts by short people. High angle is also effective in making pets appear antlike in photos.

Jason Lee for The Wall Street Journal The Steady Poke grip

The Steady Poke

Apply death-grip to iPhone with one hand. Tap screen with other to reduce "lens shake" commonly caused by one-handed operation. Advisable to use free hand to pull 'chute at 2,600 feet.

While the iPhone has become the center of the camera-phone universe, Android and Windows Phone 7 devices have been diligently catching up. Instagram will be available to Android users soon, but meanwhile you can get your retro fix using the editing tools of PicSay Pro ($3.99). Also worth a download is Paper Camera ($1.99), which gives your photos a scratchy, cartoony look like that A-ha video.

If you like the idea of sending postcards, but always thought their photos were cheese-tastic, get Postagram (Free). Snap that perfect sunset shot and the app will send a postcard print of the photo with a personal message anywhere in the U.S. ($0.99) or internationally ($1.99). (It's available for the iPhone, too.)

If you own a device that's running the latest version of Windows Phone 7 then you know it has an excellent out-of-the box camera—they come with dedicated physical shutter buttons, scene modes and the ability to tweak everything from white balance to saturation—but you will still need a good photo editor. The filter-rich Thumba Cam ($0.99) is the simplest to use.

A version of this article appeared Mar. 31, 2012, on page D1 in some U.S. editions of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Is the iPhone the Only Camera You Need?.

Case lets you turn iPhone into scuba-diving camera - CNET

The TAT7 case supposedly lets you take your iPhone down to 100 feet to shoot photos and video. But there are some caveats.

(Credit: TAT7)

With the iPhone having been around as long as it has, it's a bit surprising no one has come up with an affordable waterproof case that lets people use the device to take pictures and shoot video while snorkeling or scuba diving.

We saw the FourPro iPhone housing appear on Kickstarter late last year, but it didn't reach its funding goal, and it's unclear at this point if it's being produced. At any rate, with the Kickstarter failure, the retail price was expected to be about $700.

There's also the LifeProof Case, which, for about $80, is supposedly waterproof to depths of up to about 6.5 feet.

Now we're seeing the TAT7. It's a $90 case that its makers say will let you use your iPhone 4/4S (running iOS 5) to take photos and video at depths of up to 100 feet.

Its three mechanical buttons are designed to let users click the camera's shutter; switch between still images and video; and access the iPhone's home button. That's about it. There's no way to swipe the screen or use the keyboard (though you can apparently access Siri through the case -- which may well spawn a whole new bubbly subgenre of S--t Siri Says blogs on Tumblr).

The original idea seems to have been for users to turn on and unlock their iPhone, and then move the camera-app icon to the far right of the menu bar at the bottom of the screen so that once in the case it would sit beneath the appropriate mechanical button. Then users could seal the phone into the case. At that point, the phone could go to sleep and be reawakened underwater using the home button, and the Cousteauian fun could begin.

With the iOS 5.1 update, however, Apple made some changes to how the interface handles the camera icon and app, and TAT7's makers now instruct users of the updated OS (PDF) to turn off sleep mode altogether, which, of course, will affect battery life and also would seem to make one of the device's mechanical buttons superfluous. (You can check out a PDF of the device's manual here.)

There's also the issue of the phone being set up to automatically lock itself after a given time. Users would have to switch off any such automatic timers before heading into the deep -- or they might end up lugging around a useless device. (And users who have their phones rigged to receive work e-mails might not be able to turn off such a lock timer, if their employer's IT department forbids it.)

Still, if the 5.1 workaround doesn't give you pause, and the other restrictions aren't deal-breakers, then perhaps you're willing to spend close to $100 on a case that will supposedly let you switch on your iPhone, seal it up, tumble backward into the waves, and start shooting away. In that case, the TAT7 might be your gizmo.

There are one or two other caveats. You might want to consider maintenance issues (the makers suggest you "regularly apply silicone grease to o-rings and buttons" for proper seals and functionality), and then there's the warranty. As with warranties from other case makers, the manufacturer isn't liable for replacing your iPhone if something goes wrong. TAT7 will replace your case, but only if you find, before your first use, that it's defective.

The name says it all. Crave is our blog about gorgeous gadgets and other crushworthy stuff. If you would like to contact Crave with a tip or comment, please write to: crave@cnet.com

Apple's nonexistent iPhone naming scheme: Will next one be the iPhone 6, 5 or 4G? - ZDNet (blog)

Summary: There are always iPhone rumors and I get questions from people asking if they should wait for the next one. As I think about it, I am left wondering if there is even an iPhone naming convention I can use to discuss the next model.

Now that the iPad 3 (yes, that is what Apple should call it) is out and available we are seeing even more rumors of the next iPhone. I am also getting lots of questions from coworkers and readers about the next iPhone wondering if they should wait or get the iPhone 4S now. Talking about this with them led to me thinking about the iPhone naming convention and realizing there really isn’t one so I thought it would be fun to have a discussion about it.

Apple launched the first iPhone simply as the iPhone. It was a revolutionary device, primarily due to the fluid user interface since it was technically behind most other smartphones (wireless radio support, low res camera, etc.) and had no 3rd party application support. Apple’s next release was the iPhone 3G that included support for 3G wireless networks and led us to believe that future iPhone models would follow this naming scheme. That was not the case though as the iPhone 3GS came next with no official explanation for the S suffix. Then we had the iPhone 4 with no support for any 4G technologies and the number 4 was likely simply to denote it was the 4th iPhone in the series. However, that naming scheme only lasted for one device as the 5th iPhone was released as the iPhone 4S. Here is the Apple iPhone line in summary:

iPhone: First model with EDGE support and 2 megapixel cameraiPhone 3G: Second model that added 3G wireless supportiPhone 3GS: Third model with 3 megapixel camera, faster processor, higher capacityiPhone 4: Fourth model with 5 megapixel camera, faster processor, front facing camera, Retina DisplayiPhone 4S: Fifth model with 8 megapixel camera, SIRI support, front facing camera, Retina Display

The question then becomes, “Will the next iPhone be called the iPhone 5, iPhone 6, iPhone 4G, or something else?” Everyone currently talks about the rumors as the iPhone 5, yet the iPhone 4 was the only model so far that had a name that matched the actual number in the iPhone series. If people are using that naming convention, then this rumored model should be referred to as the iPhone 6.

I don’t believe the rumors of a much larger display in the next iPhone and think it will be an incremental update with 4G LTE support, obviously an updated processor, and maybe an updated camera with some tweaks to the OS.

Will Apple go with a wireless technology convention and name it the iPhone 4G or iPhone LTE?Will Apple go with a numbering scheme and name it the iPhone 6?Will Apple just pick the next number in the line and call it the iPhone 5?Will Apple throw all numbers out the window like they did with the iPad and just call it the new iPhone? This one is lame and like the iPad causes all sorts of confusion for tech writers.

Friday’s are generally light news days so I thought it would be fun to try to figure out what the heck Apple was thinking with the iPhone naming convention and what they might come up with for the next iPhone.

Matthew Miller started using a Pilot 1000 in 1997 and has been writing news, reviews, and opinion pieces ever since.

Free up space on your iOS device - ITworld.com

March 31, 2012, 7:53 AM — The iPad and its new Retina display have arrived. And so have the larger apps.

The latest tablet out of Cupertino boasts a 2048-by1536 pixel display. To take full advantage of the graphics allowed by this Retina display, apps need new versions of their graphical assets--and that means bigger file sizes as apps get updated to add Retina display support for the latest iPad.

But those updates affect owners of older iOS devices as well. After all, you're downloading the same app that runs on a new iPad, even if you're using an iPad 2 or (in the case of universal apps) an iPhone. As a result, your 16GB iPhone or iPad may soon start complaining that it's out of storage space.

When that happens--or when your iPhone refuses to update your apps because it says there's not enough room to do so--resist the urge to start deleting apps willy-nilly. There are better ways to free up room on your app- and data-packed iPhone.

Meet your Match

If you store a lot of music on your iOS device, and you believe that more storage space is worth at least $25 per year, consider signing up for iTunes Match. With that service, Apple stores your music in iCloud; your entire music library appears on your iOS device, without actually taking up storage space there.

So if you currently store several gigabytes of music on your iPhone, signing up for iTunes Match can free up all that space--sort of. iTunes Match on iOS doesn't actually stream your music; it downloads songs on demand to your device. Once you've enabled iTunes Match by signing up in iTunes on your Mac, you can instruct your iPhone or iPad to wipe out its collected store of cached, downloaded songs as needed.

Here's how: Launch the Settings app, tap on General, and choose Usage. Wait a moment as your iOS device calculates things. Once the list appears, find the Music line item. Now, you can swipe across Music to bring up the Delete button; tap that, and your cached music gets removed. Remember, this won't impact your ability to enjoy your music on your iOS device. Thanks to iTunes Match, you can keep playing back your music from iCloud whenever you'd like--this trick just clears out songs iTunes Match downloaded to your device, but you can always get them back again.

Drop a few apps

We said at the outset that you shouldn't start deleting apps at random when you need to free up space. Instead, you want to delete those apps you use the least, but take up the most space. And if you're still at the General -> Usage section of the Settings app, your iOS device will make identifying those apps as simple as possible. In fact, the Usage screen lists all of your apps from largest to smallest. If you see, say, GarageBand or iMovie listed at the top--each of which gobbles up more than a gigabyte of storage space--and you never use those apps, now might be the time to bid them a fond farewell.

Remember that you can always reinstall those apps, should a need to use them arise. You can access your old, no-longer-installed apps from the App Store app on your iOS device, or using the iTunes application on your Mac (or PC, if that's how you roll). On an iPad, tap the Purchased tab; on the iPhone, tap the Updates tab and then select Purchased. Then you can tap the Not On This Device tab to see a list of all the apps you don't have installed, sorted by either name or installation date.

If you use iTunes instead, you get more sorting options. Select the Apps menu item in the iTunes source list, and then search through the apps panel--which sorts all your downloads by name, kind, category, date of original download, and size--to find any apps you want to reinstall. Just click on the box next to the app's name and (if you don't use iTunes in the Cloud), manually sync your iOS device: The newly selected apps will reappear on your iPhone or iPad as good as new. (Literally, as good as new--when you delete apps from your device, you wipe out any information stored on those apps. So your high score on Angry Birds will be sacrificed in the name of storage space.)

You can delete apps from right within the Usage screen: Tap the name of the app you'd like to remove, and then tap the big Delete App button.

If you look through the Usage list, you might find another line-item: Video. You can't remove the Video app, but you can remove individual videos you've stored there. If you synced a couple movies eons ago and no longer need them, now's a fine time to remove those, too.

Photo finish

Brighton Chamber of Commerce launches iPhone App - Brighton-Pittsford Post

The Brighton Chamber of Commerce has launched a new iPhone app, which has been developed by Brighton Chamber Vice President and owner of iMobilenow.com Nelson Lopatin.

The Brighton Chamber of Commerce app is now available for free download from the Apple App Store. The app uses the iPhone's built-in GPS to provide various member lists and a map of member businesses in order of distance from you, nearest first.  It will enable users to locate and visit member businesses, learn about the organization and the Town of Brighton.

App features include:

* Apple Push Notification service - Get special member discounts and other breaking news delivered to your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.

* Business Directory - Select by category to find members within a cateory in order of distance from you, nearest first.

* Nearby Members List - All members listed in order of distance from you, nearest first.

* Nearby Members Map - All members located on a map; one touch to detailed information.

* Each member on the map or list links to a description and includes one touch calling, one touch for a map or interactive driving instructions.

* One touch access to connect with the Brighton Chamber of Commerce by phone, email, Twitter and facebook.

* Information about the Brighton Chamber of Commerce includes About The Chamber, Goals & Objectives, Chamber Awards, Benefits & Programs and M2M Discounts.

The Brighton Chamber of Commerce has launched a new iPhone app, which has been developed by Brighton Chamber Vice President and owner of iMobilenow.com Nelson Lopatin.

The Brighton Chamber of Commerce app is now available for free download from the Apple App Store. The app uses the iPhone's built-in GPS to provide various member lists and a map of member businesses in order of distance from you, nearest first.  It will enable users to locate and visit member businesses, learn about the organization and the Town of Brighton.

App features include:

* Apple Push Notification service - Get special member discounts and other breaking news delivered to your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.

* Business Directory - Select by category to find members within a cateory in order of distance from you, nearest first.

* Nearby Members List - All members listed in order of distance from you, nearest first.

* Nearby Members Map - All members located on a map; one touch to detailed information.

* Each member on the map or list links to a description and includes one touch calling, one touch for a map or interactive driving instructions.

* One touch access to connect with the Brighton Chamber of Commerce by phone, email, Twitter and facebook.

* Information about the Brighton Chamber of Commerce includes About The Chamber, Goals & Objectives, Chamber Awards, Benefits & Programs and M2M Discounts.

A Foolish Week of Telecom - DailyFinance

By Dan Radovsky, The Motley Fool Posted 8:38PM 03/30/12 Posted under: Investing

Research In Motion (NAS: RIMM) has decided its wisest course of action would be to forgo head-to-head combat with Apple (NAS: AAPL) and Google and get out of the consumer smartphone business. Instead, it will concentrate on what brought it fame and fortune in the first place: its corporate customers.

RIM's new CEO, Thorsten Heins, said, according to the Associated Press: "We believe that BlackBerry cannot succeed if we tried to be everybody's darling and all things to all people. Therefore, we plan to build on our strength."

As RIM was changing its direction, its former longtime co-CEO, Jim Balsillie, decided to leave the company for good, resigning from RIM's board of directors.

Size doesn't mean everything
Did you know that MetroPCS, with 9.34 million wireless subscribers, and Verizon (NYS: VZ) , with more than 10 times that number, can each claim around 5% of its customers use LTE devices? How can that be, with Verizon's greater resources and its multimedia advertising blitz shoving the LTE buzzword in our faces at every turn?

And Verizon's LTE network is much vaster and faster than MetroPCS's, and it can offer its customers a much greater choice of LTE devices. So why is MetroPCS able to keep up with this giant?

The answer may be in the completely different business models the companies have. MetroPCS operates on only a prepaid basis. That is, its customers don't sign contracts that lock them in -- along with their handsets -- for two years. Since MetroPCS subscribers pay month to month, they're free to buy the latest handsets, albeit at a non-subsidized price, whenever they want. Hence, for those who want and are willing to pay the heftier cost of an LTE smartphone, it's theirs.

Performance obviously doesn't mean that much, either
Sprint Nextel's (NYS: S) share price was cut almost in half in 2011. Obviously, the company's future had been threatened by the AT&T (NYS: T) /T-Mobile merger, but that deal died at the hands of the FCC and the Department of Justice, so its misfortunes can't be wholly blamed on outside influences.

No, the company's own executives certainly must take responsibility for the decisions they've taken -- except that the Sprint board of directors has decided to award CEO Dan Hesse with a raise in pay of almost one-third, to $11.9 million, in spite of being the cheerleader for the $15.5 billion four-year millstone of a deal he made with Apple for the iPhone.

By contrast, AT&T's chairman and CEO, Randall Stephenson, took a $2 million haircut from his total 2011 compensation, mainly for the failure of the T-Mobile deal.

Hey, WiMAX, don't let the door hit you
The company that touted 4G WiMAX as the next big thing has decided to finally let it die a natural death. To put that last nail in the coffin, Sprint's senior vice president of networks, Bob Azzi, has said the company will no longer roll out any new WiMAX devices. Azzi said Sprint prefers to concentrate its resources on its Network Vision upgrade to LTE. That work should be almost completed by the end of 2013, he said.

Brother, can you spare a dime?
Oh, by the way, Sprint CFO Joe Euteneur told an audience at a Barclays investor conference this week that his company could just happen to use an extra $3 billion in funding for that Network Vision upgrade. Unfortunately, this came a week after analyst Craig Moffett of Sanford Bernstein warned in a research note that Sprint had a 50-50 chance of bankruptcy.

Good thing, then, for Sprint that at least one analyst's view of Sprint's life expectancy is 180 degrees from that of Moffett's. Shin Yin of Guggenheim Securities laid out a fairytale scenario whereby a "Goldilocks" Sprint would be able to make the onerous Apple deal work to its advantage.

"In the end," Yin wrote in his research note, "Sprint's iPhone sales may be just right -- not too high so as to destroy margins (through the iPhone's outsized subsidy), but not too low so as to cause share loss and put Sprint's take-or-pay minimum purchase commitment at risk."

Why can't we all get along?
Leap Wireless CEO Doug Hutcheson made a proposal this week that makes a lot of sense. Speaking at the Competitive Carriers Global Expo in Orlando, Fla., he said that one way to deal with the scarcity of spectrum, reduce operating expenses, and make carriers more competitive would be to work out a network sharing agreement. He said this was not a "radical" idea and that many European operators have bought into network sharing wholeheartedly.

To that point, the United Arab Emirates has said it plans on initiating network sharing between the country's two carriers by midyear.

It's a tough business
Dell has decided enough is enough, at least for now. No more smartphones from the company mainly noted for its computers. "Mobility products have shorter lifecycles than laptops and desktops," a company spokesman said.

But never say never. Dell does plan on releasing new mobile devices later this year -- but smartphones? The company wouldn't say.

If you're looking for one company on the forefront of the mobile revolution, The Motley Fool has just released a free report on mobile called "The Next Trillion-Dollar Revolution" that details a "hidden" component play inside mobile phones that also is a market leader in the exploding Chinese market, and one that Intel praised for leading it to success last quarter. Hundreds of thousands have requested access to previous reports. You can access this one now -- it's free.

At the time this article was published Fool contributor Dan Radovsky owns shares of AT&T. The Motley Fool owns shares of Apple. Motley Fool newsletter services have recommended buying shares of Apple and creating a bull call spread position in Apple. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. We Fools don't all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days.

Copyright © 1995 - 2012 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Stalker-like, girl-hunting iPhone app outed - msnbc.com

21 hrs.

Suzanne Choney

A shady iPhone app called Girls Around Me has just lost its best asset: The use of Foursquare's location-based services, crucial to the app being effective when it comes to literally finding girls by those on the hunt.

Foursquare said Friday it yanked access to Girls Around Me developer SMS Services O.o.o. because the app violates Foursquare's API (application program interface) policy. Specifically, Foursquare told Cult of Mac, which first wrote about the app Friday:

We have a policy against aggregating information across venues using our API, to prevent situations like this where someone would present an inappropriate overview of a series of locations.

"Inappropriate" is a diplomatic word for Girls Around Me, whose developers are based in Russia. As The Next Web wrote, it's "an incredibly creepy app that allows anyone to locate nearby girls based on public Foursquare checkins and Facebook data."

The app worked by finding nearby "girls" whose Facebook profiles are publicly visible and who have checked into locations using Foursquare. Facebook, too, is now wary, telling the Cult of Mac late Friday that it's also investigating the app. We've asked Facebook for comment, and will update this post when we hear back.

Girls Around Me, which was released last December, was pretty much an under-the-radar app, one of hundreds of thousands in Apple's App Store, until Friday.

In his piece for Cult of Mac, John Brownlee described showing the app to his friends and their horrified reactions:

"How does it know where these girls are? Do you know all these girls? Is it plucking data from your address book or something?" another friend asked.

“Not at all. These are all girls with publicly visible Facebook profiles who have checked into these locations recently using Foursquare. Girls Around Me then shows you a map where all the girls in your area trackable by Foursquare area. If there’s more than one girl at a location, you see the number of girls there in a red bubble. Click on that, and you can see pictures of all the girls who are at that location at any given time. The pictures you are seeing are their social network profile pictures.”

"As sleazy as this app seemed," he wrote, the app isn't "actually doing anything wrong."

Sure, on the surface, it looks like a hook-up app like Grindr for potential stalkers and date rapists, but all that Girls Around Me is really doing is using public APIs from Google Maps, Facebook and Foursquare and mashing them all up together, so you could see who had checked-in at locations in your area, and learn more about them. Moreover, the girls (and men!) shown in Girls Around Me all had the power to opt out of this information being visible to strangers, but whether out of ignorance, apathy or laziness, they had all neglected to do so. This was all public information. Nothing Girls Around Me does violates any of Apple’s policies.

Indeed, Girls Around Me remains available from the Apple's App Store. We've asked Apple for comment on how it was that the app got approved at all, and will update the story should we hear back. I did try to get the app to work, but that was post-Foursquare rejection, and the app would not download.

Girls Around Me shouldn't be used for pickups, Brownlee says, but rather for education:  "I can think of no better way to get a person to realize that they should understand their Facebook privacy settings then pulling out this app," he wrote.

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