Sprint recently announced a new Total Equipment Protection application that is very useful for smartphones if you pay for the TEP insurance plan. If you lose your phone you can locate, lock, clear and restore it all with this application. To give you peace of mind you can restore your information once you recover your handset so don’t think everything is gone forever. This is something Verizon and AT&T have already been successful with so maybe Sprint will be as well.

We haven’t found it in the market yet but you can click here and download it and then place it on your phone. Sprint says it should be showing up starting today for those who pay for TEP.

The application is free and does work with Android and Blackberry devices, again only if you pay for the $7.00 a month TEP protection.

Take a look at the Press Release below:

OVERLAND PARK, Kan.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The cost to replace a lost mobile device is usually the least of a wireless customer’s worries, especially if he or she is protected by Sprint’s Total Equipment Protection, which provides coverage against loss, theft and damage. The bigger nightmare is the thought that a customer’s personal contacts, photos and other private information could fall into the wrong hands. To help alleviate those fears, Sprint (NYSE: S) customers needing to track down a lost device and protect their personal information can do so now with the launch of a new application called Total Equipment Protection App.*

Sprint customers with Total Equipment Protection will be able to access the new application, beginning today, at www.sprint.com/protection, where they will benefit from the following features:

* Locate lost device by sounding an alarm on the smartphone even if in silent mode, doing a real time locate via GPS technology, or viewing the smartphone’s location history on a map via a Web Interface
* Remotely lock their smartphone
* Erase contacts in the address book on a lost smartphone
* Backup, manage and restore contacts

“Anyone who has lost a phone knows that their personal information is possibly just as vulnerable as if their computer was hacked,” said John Carney, senior vice president of consumer marketing for Sprint. “Now, Sprint customers have peace of mind knowing that their personal and private information is safe. TEP and this accompanying application is a safeguard for customers who want protection from not only loss, but misuse and unauthorized access.”

The Protection App is included at no additional charge as a benefit of Total Equipment Protection plan, which is $7 per month, per line of service. It is available to customers with phones using BlackBerry and Android mobile platforms. TEP customers download and install the user-friendly application at www.sprint.com/protection. Privacy protection is included with the Protection App. Each time the smartphone’s location is requested by the Web interface, an SMS text message is sent to the smartphone notifying it has been located.

Do you currently pay for TEP and own a smartphone? Go on and download the application and let us know what you think. Of course, we know you may not make a claim today but you can at least tell us how much you like the looks, features, etc. Are you with Verizon or AT&T and use their similar apps? Let us know! Leave your comments in the box below.

Source: Engadget via Sprint

Hey guys. Tony here bringing you another video review for WP7. This time we take a quick glance at the Twin Blades side scroller and the classic game of Pac-Man. If you have an app or game you would like me to review for WP7 or Android, email me at anthony.pollard@staff.ppcgeeks.com.

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Courtney1985 here, just saying be sure to hop into our forums and discuss this game. It looks very addicting and I must say, I can’t wait to try it out! What about you?

Windows Mobile developers are continuing to find ways to save money on global phone calls and text messaging rates. They haven’t forgotten about Windows devices and their users’ needs, especially the ones with friends and family all over the world. That’s why developers have created this new application, very similar to Skype, to give you peace of mind while you don’t want to end that long conversation with your friend in Puerto Rico or Iceland.

MO-Call is a VoIP application for your mobile phone that currently supports over 2,025 phone models. What makes it different from many of the other VoIP applications is that it allows calls anywhere you have GSM or CDMA coverage for as low as 1¢ a minute.. This application does support Wi-Fi, which gives you a way to connect for FREE. MO-Calls made over Wi-Fi to other connected MO-Callers are completely free. While Mo-Call runs in the background, users can save up to 90% on international calls. Download the application free and get instant savings on local and international calls.

Download (link here.)

Calling Rates (link here)

Check your current provider for possible additional charges while using this application.

Apps, apps, apps! With Google’s recent announcement that the Android Market has reached 38,000 applications, I decided to find out how many applications are in each of the major smartphone app stores. Remember that these figures are only for the number of applications in the official application store and do not include the total number of applications for a platform.

With no surprise, Apple leads the count with just shy of 160,000 applications at last count, while the aforementioned Android Market has 38,000. Claming a distant third in this size-only contest is Blackberry’s App World, which has 6531. Symbian is fourth with just over 3400 apps while following behind in fifth is the Palm App Catalog with 2169 applications. Falling dead last is Windows Marketplace For Mobile, with only 840 approved applications. For posterity sakes, the morbid Palm OS App Store has 2393 applications.

If the non-approved applications were to be included, my best estimate is that Apple would still be leading, with Android, Windows Mobile and Symbian vying for second place, and the rest of the field falling well back. It will be interesting to see if Apple can maintain this gargantuan lead as Android’s growth has been absolutely torrid. Also, will the paltry number of 840 increase to several thousand with the looming Windows Phone 7 launch later this year? Only time will tell!

Please note that for the Microsoft, Blackberry and Palm OS figures, I used a calculator to add up the total as they each give a break down of how many applications are in each genre, but not the total amount of approved applications. Also, as these stats are not officially given by the various companies, they are what I have found to be the most reliable count.

Special thanks to Mr. X, Mikee4fun, and psycho_maniac for helping with this post. Image from thewebsquad.com.

Looking to develop applications for Windows Phone 7 but not sure of where to start? Microsoft recently released several free resources that will help any aspiring  app developer start in the right direction. With Windows Phone 7, XNA, Silverlight and .NET are the supported runtimes that developers will be working with.

The current list of WP 7 development resources are:

• Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone 7 Series (Link)
• Windows Phone 7 Series eBook (Link)
• Windows Phone 7 Series Developer Documentation (Link)
• Windows Phone 7 Series Icon Pack (Link)

Additional Windows Phone 7 developer documentation can be found here while the main portal for Windows Phone 7 platform development is located here. Now get to building those great mobile applications!

Source- Mobile Jaw

• Provide visual picture of the moon phases and the percent of the illuminated area.
• Full names of all moon phases.
• Zodiac Sign the moon is in.
• Current moon’s age: how far along
  the moon is in its full cycle.
• Moonrise and moonset times
  for your location.
• Amount of time from moonrise
  and to moonset.
• Calculations for the current and other dates.
• Network independence: you can work anywhere in the world without Internet or cellular connections.
• Your current location determined by GPS or cellular network.

If you are interested in such a lunar application, then you can go here to download it. Oh, and the best part it is free! Wait, sorry, did I also mention that it is Windows Phone 7 ready? Yes, this is an example of what great visual-looking applications we can expect to be built off of Silverlight or XNA.

Source- Pocketnow.com

Below is the blog post by the Google Mobile team. You may download the .CAB here.

As told by the Google Mobile team-

Google Maps for mobile has long allowed you to add stars on a map to mark your favorite places. You may have noticed a few months ago that Google Maps for desktop browsers introduced the ability to star places as well. Unfortunately, there was no way to keep these starred places in sync with Google Maps on your phone. With today’s release of Google Maps for mobile 3.3 on Windows Mobile and Symbian phones, you’ll now be able to keep the starred places on your phone and on your computer completely synchronized.

For users upgrading from an older version of Google Maps for mobile, you’ll be asked, when you log in, whether you’d like to synchronize your existing starred items with your Google Account. This means you can preserve all the work you’ve put into customizing your map on your mobile, and have it show up, conveniently, in Google Maps in your desktop browser.

Source- WMExperts.com

Microsoft has offered some clarification on this issue:

Quote:

In the vast majority of instances where an application is removed from Windows Marketplace for Mobile, users of this application will continue to be able to use these applications on their phones. In the rare event an application from Marketplace exhibits harmful behavior or has unforeseen effects, Marketplace has the capability to remotely uninstall these applications. While we hope to avoid this scenario, we will make refunds available in such cases.

As part of their upcoming launch of Marketplace for Mobile, Microsoft will be including a kill switch. However, unlike Apple, who has a similar tool for their App Store, Microsoft is removing the application from the phone if the application becomes unapproved in the Market.

In the past, any application downloaded to a Windows Mobile phone would continue to be there, regardless of the application. It was possible for the creator to kill the application if they so chose, but it was common knowledge that the user who downloaded that application still had the rights to use it.

While any user or developer who goes through Marketplace will agree to such a feature when they accept the EULA, this will create some serious questions when a paid-for app is wiped clean. Will a user who paid for an app receive a refund if their application is wiped clean? Will the developer or Microsoft be responsible for the refund?

Source: Geekzone.co.nz via msmobiles.com