Oh, sure -- iOS had it first, but the Android flavor of MapQuest's mobile app has OpenStreetMaps. The aforesaid app has just found its way into the Android Market, and as with the iPhone version, it's 100 percent free to download. Unlike most other alternatives, this one provides gratis voice guidance / turn-by-turn navigation, voice search, a map toolbar, walking / driving directions, live traffic flow information and a couple of "major" new adds. Those are OpenStreetMap(OSM) data -- useful for allowing consumers to use the app internationally -- as well as the ability to directly report errors onto the map. Check out the source link to learn more, and head on over to the Market (if you're rocking v1.6 and up) to get your download on. Happy trails, as they say.
If you get just five spam text messages a day then consider yourselves lucky, as a Chinese mobile user could easily amass at least 30 messages daily, according to Cloudmark. Fortunately, said company has been working with GSMA and various network operators on building an SMS spam reporting system, which should help drastically reduce worldwide cellphone spam. The idea is rather simple: in a multi-country trial that ended last December, participants from AT&T, Bell Mobility, SFR, Sprint, Vodafone, Korea Telecom, and the Korean Internet & Security Agency forwarded suspect spam to "7726," which is short code for "spam." Cloudmark's cloud-based system would then be able to identify and block these messages in the future, be it scams, linkbaits, or just ads from perverse companies. While this sounds like a perfect solution, it's not entirely clear how much this service would cost the operators, but hey, it's never too early to start a petition if you need it that badly.
We've already seen some evidence that Intel was still pushing strongly ahead with MeeGo despite Nokia's deal with Microsoft, and now CEO Paul Otellini has chimed in on the matter to reassure folks that the company is still committed to the mobile OS. Speaking with Bloomberg at Mobile World Congress this week, Otellini said that he doesn't see that "Nokia changing its strategy changes the industry strategy," and added that "operators still look for an open, operator-friendly operating system." Otellini further went on to say on a panel discussion that he "understood" why Nokia made the decision it did, and even said that if he were in the same position he would have made "the same or a similar call." That doesn't mean he wasn't disappointed by it though -- in fact, he revealed that he used a word that Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz "has often used" when he first received the news from Stephen Elop himself (we'll let you look that up if you don't know it).
