When a person goes to a wireless carrier to purchase a smartphone, what typically happens? He or she usually pays a reduced fee for a phone (or gets one for free) and signs up for a two-year contract.
While most carriers have no-contract plans available that allow consumers to pay full price for hardware and buy a separate service plan, most smartphone users still utilize two-year contracts. Under those plans, consumers pay considerably less than what the hardware actually costs in exchange for agreeing to stick with that carrier for two …

If it seems a bit disconcerting to have Charlie Brown and the Peanuts gang appear in an iPhone app, that’s probably because it is.
Here’s something that might come across as more bizarre still — the whole concept works quite well in Snoopy’s Street Fair. Frankly, the game is based on one of those concepts that has proven quite successful — it’s one of those “building” games that puts the player in charge of raising money by running a street fair. Why is the street fair necessary? Because Charlie Brown and …

The latest hubbub over Apple these days has to do with the iOS 5 update that has been giving some consumers fits.
We mentioned that problem the other day and people have been throwing fits over it. In a nutshell, any device that can handle the iOS 5 update may be susceptible to a fast draining battery and some other issues. Apple released the 5.0.1 update in hopes of fixing the problem, but there are still users claiming the update made matters worse. In the interest of full disclosure, I should …

As our loyal readers no doubt noticed, First Arkansas News was down for a couple of days.
What happened? Our old hosting company, JustHost.com, decided to suspend our account. Did we get any warning? No. Did Just Host offer to leave the site up for a few days until we could migrate to a new server? Again, no. While one might argue that’s pitiful behavior from a company that has hosted First Arkansas News since the site was founded in April 2010, there’s no use being bitter about everything. Rather, Just …

Shortly after Apple released the iPhone 4S on Oct. 14, users started complaining that “the most amazing iPhone yet” was plagued with battery drain issues.
While the 4S has gotten a clean bill of health on its antenna (remember the “antennagate” controversy over the iPhone 4′s tendency to drop calls when the phone was held wrong?), 4S consumers have expressed concern over the phone’s battery life. USA Today reported Apple has acknowledged the problem, hinting that it is related to iOS 5 and extends to other devices using that operating system …

Late yesterday, the database here at First Arkansas News was damaged and in need of replacement.
Unfortunately, we’ve lost the articles posted from Nov. 8-10. There’s a lesson to be learned here — back up your website often so as to avoid calamity. First Arkansas News is backed up on a monthly basis. Unfortunately, the last time the site was backed up was on Oct. 25 and we would have been forced to make do with all posts lost after then had it not been for the attentive crew at JustHost.com. …

How do most Linux users wind up with the operating system?
For a lot of us, the process is pretty straightforward — take a Microsoft Windows-powered system, do some research, download a Linux distribution and install it. If all goes well, you’ll have a new OS that is configured well and ready to roll. There are times, of course, when all does not go smoothly, leaving the operator to figure out how to configure hardware, why graphical glitches are present, etc. Bear in mind that communities spring up around Linux distros …

A few weeks ago, we took a look at Ubuntu 11.10 and observed that its default desktop, Unity, was much improved in this popular Linux distribution.

Regardless, it seems that some people still dislike the Unity. Well, dislike is a bit mild — some readers wrote in stating that absolutely hate it and that sentiment has gained some traction here and there on the Internet. It seems that Canonical — the organization responsible for Ubuntu Linux — aren’t ones to shy away from controversy.

When it comes to biographies of celebrities (and, let’s face it — Steve Jobs was a celebrity), those usually fall in one of two camps.
You’ve got the “authorized biographies” which are typically packed with fawning praise of their subjects. You’ve got the “unauthorized biographies” which are typically little more than character assassinations based on half-truths and interviews with people with axes to grind.
Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson is more than a bit unique — an authorized biography that comes across as painstakingly true. At the first of the book, Isaacson …

It’s October and that means it’s time for the latest distribution of Ubuntu Linux.
This one — 11.10, dubbed Oneiric Ocelot — is a regular, incremental update of 11.04 (Natty Narwhal, which came out in April). The changes are minor for the most part, but the Unity desktop is much improved.While Unity has been around for some time, Canonical made it quite clear with 11.04 that it was going to be phased in while the older, tried and true Gnome 2 shell that had anchored Ubuntu for years was going to …