This post is part of Mashable’s Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here . The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. Name: Giiv Quick Pitch: Giiv is a mobile gifting service that delivers…

In this week’s bipolar app roundup: Foursquare, squared! Slow ISPs, tattled on! Videos, easily streamed! Street Fighter fans’ high standards, met! Twitter apps, set free! Your entire life, documented! Your every plan, shared! And more… This Week’s Apps To view the gallery as a single page, click here . This Week’s iPhone News …

You know how you pay a fixed monthly fee for your phone, and can check email and Twitter, surf the web and the Yelp app anytime you like without counting minutes or megabytes? Yeah, well that’s all gonna end. Yesterday, Verizon CTO Tony Melone said that the days of all-you-can-eat …

Opera Mini 5 Beta was first introduced about 5 months ago, but owners of Android-based smartphones had to wait until now to get their hands on Opera’s nifty mobile browser. This version is nearly identical to the Opera Mini 5 Beta for other handsets; biggest improvements are speed dial, tabbed browsing, password…

There’s something about the idea of an augmented reality pet – and a markerless one, too – that will make the heart of every true geek skip a beat. The idea is not entirely new , but it’s still amazing to see a virtual creature hopping around on a real-life…

You think the iPad will be the only tablet we’ll talk about in 2010? Not even close. According to Arm’s worldwide mobile computing ODM manager Roy Chen, we can expect as many as 50 tablets before the year’s end. “The first tablet devices will launch in the second quarter by…

In November, Phonebooth.com released the beta version of Phonebooth OnDemand, which is a full-featured phone service that lives in the cloud, but can communicate with both cellular phones and IP desk and conference phones. Today, that service — which costs $20 a month per user — is becoming generally available. Phonebooth.com …

Back in October we wrote about Appboy , a social network for mobile app developers and users. Since launching, Appboy has continued to evolve into a community for both developers and users to find and rate apps, as well as submit ideas for new mobile applications. Appboy has just rolled out a big update …

If there’s one thing we’re pretty sure Windows Phone 7 Series will be worse at than its Windows Mobile precursor it’s in the running of various and sundry other operating systems. We’ve seen Android running on seemingly every WinMo handset ever created and more recently Unbuntu has been receiving the mobile …

We’re still waiting for all the legal fallout from the Pennsylvania’s Lower Merion School District webcam spying case , but more news is slowly trickling out about the whole thing, including the technology that the school used: a remote administration suite called LANrev. An update to the software, releasing this week, will disable…