mobile
Study: Adults Catching Up to Teens in Text Messaging
Posted 09/03/10 at 10:29:31 AM by Paul Lilly
Call it a blatant stereotype if you will, but there's no way adult texters come close to text messaging teenage girls who send and receive thousands of texts every month. But that doesn't mean grownups are left living in the cell phone Stone Age, either. According to Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project, 72 percent of adult cell phone owners now partake in texting.
That still trails teens in general (male or female), of which 87 percent of those who carry a mobile phone keep in contact with friends and family through text messaging. And we don't even want to know how the comparison breaks down when looking at the total number of messages whisked through the airwaves, though Pew Research revealed this stat anyway. On average, your teenage son or daughter (or YOU, as the case may be) send some 50 text messages every day, compared to the "typical 10 text messages" adults send and receive on a daily basis.
But let's forget about the quantity -- teens are always going to 'win' that one. What's interesting is the steady rise in the number of adults warming up to text messages. In December 2007, a little more than half -- 58 percent -- of adult cell phone owners participated in texting, and that number jumped to 65 percent in September 2009.
"It may be that folks have been pushed by pricing into unlimited texting plans, which has the effect of encouraging people with those plans to text more, because they no longer think of the cost, and then text more often," said Amanda Lenhart, Pew senior research specialist.

Nvidia Wants to Rule the Graphics World
Posted 09/03/10 at 10:10:33 AM by Paul Lilly
Goals are good, according to our parents, elementary school teachers from yesteryear, and everyone else who told us to aim high. A little graphics card company called Nvidia -- perhaps you've heard of them? -- took those words of encouragement to heart and has set its sights on regaining its top position in the graphics card market.
It's not a matter of if, but when, according to Nvidia's general manager of notebook product business, Rene Haas. Why is a notebook product manager getting into the discussion about graphics card? Well, Haas predicts the company's mobile Fermi-based GeForce 400M series will put the company back on top.
Haas points out that Nvidia has gone and released seven GeForce 400M-based GPUs, all of which support the company's Optimus technology and run, on average, 40 percent faster than the competition. And despite Nvidia's past problems in the mobile sector, companies aren't holding a grudge. Acer, Asus, Dell, Lenovo, Samsung, MSI, and Toshiba are all using GeForce 400M graphics in their notebook lineup.

Update Adds 3D Conversion to Toshiba Satellite A665-3DV
Posted 09/03/10 at 09:51:44 AM by Paul Lilly
Don't let the lack of 3D content get you down. For those of you suffering from the 3D Blu-ray blues with your Toshiba Satellite A665-3DV laptop, the latest software update adds a 2D to 3D conversion application so you can pretend that all your existing 2D content is really three-dimensional.
There's also new firmware available that promises to shuttle stereoscopic games and video over the integrated HDMI port, as well as tweak the Blu-ray drive so that it can play 3D movies, because apparently it didn't already do that.
Otherwise, everything else is as you remember it. The $1,600 laptop comes with an Intel Core i7 740QM processor, 4GB of DDR3 memory, GeForce GTS 350M graphics, a 15.6-inch widescreen display, 640GB hard drive spinning at 5400RPM, Blu-ray burner, and of course Nvidia's 3D Vision Kit.
HP Goes Gunning for Second Place in Netbook Sector
Posted 09/03/10 at 09:03:50 AM by Paul Lilly
Hewlett Packard (HP) expects to become the world's second largest supplier of netbooks in 2011, and should the company get there, they should consider sending a bottle of Cristal to Intel, the world's No. 1 chip maker. It only seems fitting, considering Intel just shipped a large number of its new dual-core Atom N550 processors to HP for $65, representing a significant 25 percent savings over the chip's official $86 price tag.
As it currently stands, Acer, Samsung, and Asus are the three largest netbook suppliers in the world, in that order. MSI could have been in the mix too, but the company is putting on the brakes somewhat citing concerns over market demand for dual-core netbooks. Instead, MSI is reportedly stepping back to focus on single-core units, and eventually will exit the market in favor of traditional notebooks.

UAE To Block BlackBerry Services
Posted 09/03/10 at 08:41:30 AM by Paul Lilly
We can think of several items that should be included in the ultimate spy kit, most of them fake, but totally awesome gadgets conceived by Hollywood. Out in the real world, however, it's those pesky BlackBerry devices that hav the United Arab Emirates in a tizzy.
Starting October 11, the UAE will block all BlackBerry email, messaging, and Web services so long as authorities are unable to access the encrypted data. Doing so will effectively hamstring about 500,000 local subscribers and have BlackBerry toting tourists thinking twice about their travel destination.
The reason for the hard stance has to do with concerns over espionage and fear of information sharing. Dubai's police chief, Lt. Gen. Dahi Kahlfan Tamim said the restrictions are also "meant to control false rumors and defamation of public figures due to the absence of surveillance."
The UEA isn't alone here. India has given RIM 60 days to allow authorities to monitor BlackBerry traffic, while Saudi Arabia has concerns of its own, though did allow services to continue last month following "positive developments" in talks with RIM.

Walkman Sales Walk all Over iPod in Japan
Posted 09/03/10 at 07:24:58 AM by Paul Lilly
For the first time ever, Sony managed to one-up Apple in the portable music player market in Japan, as monthly sales of Sony's Walkman skipped ahead of the iPod in August.
"This is the first time that the Walkman outsold the iPod in monthly sales" since the iPod first launched in Japan back in 2001, BCN analyst Eiji Mori pointed out.
Mori attributes the rare monthly sales win to a slowdown in iPod sales as customers awaited the launch of the new iPod touch, but also gave credit to Sony's pricing strategy.
"Sony's strategy to market relatively affordable products may have also contributed to the turnaround in the ranking in market shares," Mori added.

Google Being Sued Over Nexus One 3G Issues
Posted 09/02/10 at 04:35:31 PM by Ryan Whitwam
A Florida man has filed suit against Google in response to the Nexus One's 3G signal issues. Nathan Nabors is seeking unspecified damages and class action status for the suit. Manufacturer HTC and original carrier T-Mobile are not listed in the filing. The allegation is that Google made misleading claims about the Nexus One's capabilities, then failed to adequately resolve issues when they cropped up.
Google started selling the Nexus One direct to consumers in early 2010. At the time, the phone had only T-Mobile US 3G bands. Consumers reported issues in getting, or holding on to, 3G frequencies in areas that other phones had no problem. After a software update, Google declared the problems fixed, saying that any further issues were on T-Mobile's end.
It's unclear if a judge will eventually grant class action status to the suit. If so, Nexus users might get a check for $10 in 2-3 years. The lawyers managing the case however, will probably do much better. If you have a Nexus One, let us know how your 3G is these days.

Dear God, Not Another Upcoming Tablet Announcement
Posted 09/02/10 at 12:52:34 PM by Paul Lilly
Maybe we should put out a tablet -- we could call it the MaxiPad -- because at this point, it seems like we're the only ones who have yet to announce an upcoming slate. All the cool kids are doing it, which now includes Hannspree.
Come November, Hannspree promises to launch a 10.1-inch multi-touch slate with a capacitive screen sporting a 1024x600 resolution. It will come armed with Nvidia's Tegra 2 SoC with a pair of ARM Cortex-A9 cores clocked at 1GHz.
Like so many other upcoming tablets, this particularly one will run on Google's Android 2.2 platform with native Flash 10.1 support and a custom UI. Other features include 16GB of internal storage, a microSD card slot, mini USB and mini HDMI ports, an accelerometer, and a 3,500mAh battery Hannspree claims will provide enough juice for up to 8 hours of 1080p playback.
Pricing will hover around $500.

Google Denies Steve Jobs' Activation Accusations
Posted 09/02/10 at 12:04:56 PM by Paul Lilly
After the whole iPhone 4 antenna fiasco, you'd think Apple would be a little reluctant to start flinging mud. You'd also be wrong. During Apple's San Francisco event yesterday, Steve Jobs used part of his time on stage to call into question Google's activation numbers, albeit not directly.
"We think some of our friends are counting upgrades in their numbers," said Jobs, presumably directed at Google's Eric Schmidt, who last month announced Google was activating over 200,000 devices a day. "We think we are ahead of everyone."
In responding to Jobs' accusation, a Google spokesperson got right to the point.
"The Android activation numbers do not include upgrades and are, in fact, only a portion of the Android devices in the market since we only include devices that have Google services," a Google spokesperson told CNN.
If we're to believe Google, then not only was Jobs wrong in his assertion, but the number of Google Android devices could conceivably be higher than the 230,000 Apple devices Jobs says are activated on a daily basis.

Windows Phone 7 Released to Manufacturing
Posted 09/01/10 at 04:23:14 PM by Ryan Whitwam
Microsoft has announced today that the final version of Windows Phone 7 is complete, and has been released to manufacturing. According to Redmond, this new mobile operating system is the most extensively tested Microsoft has ever produced. The engineering team has thousands of devices running automated tests in-house, as well as preview units out in the wild.
In their blog post, the Phone 7 team discussed the process of integrating user feedback into the final product. For example, many reviewers and early testers complained that the Facebook integration just dropped your entire friends list into phone contacts. The development team took the hint and added filtering to the contact integration.
Now that the software is finalized, manufacturers can complete work on their retail devices. Get ready for an avalanche of leaked Windows Phone 7 handsets. Anyone looking forward to picking up one of these phones?

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