News

AT&T has announced that its new Mobile Share plans will be available starting Thursday, Aug. 23. The carrier has also launched a Mobile Share planner to help families prepare for the upcoming changes if they choose to switch.

The new plans are designed to help new and existing subscribers share data on up to 10 devices. Users who sign up for the Mobile Share plan will also enjoy unlimited voice minutes, text messages and free mobile hotspot capabilities. Existing members are not required to switch to a new plan, but they can do so without a contract extension. At least one smartphone is required to be part of each AT&T Mobile Share group.

Nuance Communications' technology is what powers Apple's mobile voice assistant Siri. The company's voice recognition engine can also be found in dictation software like Dragon Dictation and even in devices like Smart TVs. Nina is the company's response to the growing popularity of intelligent personal assistants that are popping up on all Android and iOS devices

Nuance Communications describes Nina as "the first virtual assistant customer service app to incorporate both speech recognition and voice biometrics into a single integrated solution." Nina uses a combination of Nuance technologies like speech recognition and voice biometrics to understand what a speaker is saying and to identify who is speaking. This allows Nina the potential to perform such tasks as paying bills, or the ability to use other personal services without the need to enter a password.

Recent rumors about a September iPhone 5 release have caused a 70 percent increase to eBay's smartphone trade-in program. eBay said (via CNET) the number of trade-ins started to increase around the same time several well known sources purportedly confirmed Apple will hold a special event to announce the new iPhone on September 12. The company said "nearly" 100,000 smartphones were traded-in during a three day period following the announcements.

The 16GB model of the iPhone 4S topped the trade-ins, followed by the 8GB iPhone 4 and 32GB iPhone 4S. Last year eBay received 375,000 trade-in offers for smartphones when the iPhone 4S was officially announced. 89 percent of those smartphones were iPhones.

Sharp's president Takashi Okuda has reaffirmed a fall iPhone 5 release by telling Reuters his company plans to start shipping next generation iPhone displays in August. Previous reports have suggested Apple will announce the new iPhone on September 12, and release the device nine days later on Friday, September 21.

The next generation iPhone is expected to feature a larger screen to compete with larger Android devices like Samsung's latest Galaxy smartphone. Sources have told Reuters the new displays will be "4 inches corner to corner." Apple is also expected to reduce the size of the iPhone's dock connecter from 30-pins to 16.

Apple and Android users who download the new Mitt's VP app will be the first to know who the Republican nominee chooses as his running mate for the 2012 election . Beth Myers, senior advisor to Romney made the announcement on Tuesday:

These last few months, I've had the privilege and honor of leading Governor Romney's search for a vice presidential running mate. While I won't be breaking any news today, I wanted to let you know how to be the first to get the VP scoop with our new Mitt's VP app. Just download the free app on your iPhone or Android device and when Mitt decides on his running mate, you'll get an exclusive notification of his VP selection before anyone else.

Romney supporters can download the free iOS app from the App Store, and sign in using their MyMitt or Facebook accounts to receive a notification when the announcement is made. MyMitt is a photo sharing app which allows you to customize photos with a variety of "Mitt-inspired artistic frames." It's also free to download from the App Store.