Mac OS X Unwired: A Guide for Home, Office, and the Road
by Tom Negrino and Dori Smith
Today's wireless news from around the Web:
mobileSQUARED Unveils Dynamic Consumer Trends Data
(source: Wireless DevNet)
mobileSQUARED today announces the launch of Mobile Healthcare Trends a dynamic database which provides granular data and forecasts on consumer usage habits towards the mobile healthcare market in the UK
Mobile Gaming and In-App Purchases boosting Revenues for Free-to-Play Games
(source: Wireless DevNet)
The percentage of U.S. gamers who regularly download games or gaming apps to their mobile devices increased from 7% in 2008 to 18% in 2011, growing in parallel with rising adoption of smartphones and tablets
New Version of 1st Touch Mobile Innovates Across Multiple Platforms and Devices
(source: Wireless DevNet)
1st Touch, the UKs leading supplier of mobile technology to the social housing and local government sectors has launched version 4.5 of its acclaimed mobile workforce software
Public is Invited to Use Web, iPhone and Android Apps as Part of an AED Geo Inventory Challenge
(source: Wireless DevNet)
Azavea announces a crowd-sourcing contest to locate AED and the release of a web application and two free mobile apps, part of the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvanias MyHeartMap Challenge
New Rugged Trimble Juno Series Puts GIS Field Work in Your Pocket
(source: Wireless DevNet)
With the new Trimble Juno series, mobile workforces ranging from public utilities to municipalities are empowered with rugged, integrated GNSS handhelds that are optimized for everyday field work
EnOcean Introduces New Ways to Harness Energy from the Press of a Button
(source: Wireless DevNet)
EnOcean, Inc., a pioneer in self-powered wireless sensor technology for the building automation market, announced today that the company is launching its third generation of mechanical energy converters with the ECO 200
LG Takes A Chance With The Oddly-Proportioned Optimus Vu
(source: MobileCrunch)
After spending the past few quarters in the red, LG recently turned things around with a bit of growth in their once-ailing smartphone division. By focusing half of their 2012 capital expenditures budget on developing smartphones, LG wanted people to know that some big mobile plays were on the horizon.
As it turns out, their plans for year include the newly-leaked Optimus Vu, which isn't exactly the sort of big we were hoping for.
Legally-Dubious Retro "Apple" iPhone Cases Will Be Sued into Oblivion
(source: Gizmodo)
Yep, People Research Movies On Their Phones — Especially On Apps
(source: MobileCrunch)
Adding to the stream of reports about how people do more and more on their mobile devices, mobile ad network Greystripe just released the results of a survey about the movie research process.
The network says it recruited participants through, yes, a mobile ad in its network, ultimately surveying 248 smartphone users (including iPhone, iPod Touch, and Android) and 298 iPad users in November of 2011. It found that those smartphone and iPad owners are indeed movie goers, with 39 percent of smartphone respondents and 41 percent of iPad respondents watching movies more than four times a year
Crunchie-Winner Fotopedia Launches New App With World Bank
(source: MobileCrunch)
Just a week after winning Best Tablet Application at the Crunchies, Fotopedia is launching its latest iPad and iPhone app. The app lives up to its title Women of the World, showcasing photos of women in more than 75 countries. It was developed in partnership with the World Bank.
All of Fotopedia's apps employ a similar design, creating a beautiful, color-rich interface for browsing high-quality photos from around the world. This isn't the first time Fotopedia has partnered with an international organization — its first app, Heritage, was developed with UNESCO and displays photos from UNESCO World Heritage sites.
Apple Restores Qihoo 360 Mobile Apps In The App Store
(source: MobileCrunch)
On Saturday, February 4, something strange happened to Qihoo 360, a security software company. Their apps, at least the ones in the Apple App Store, were missing. After reaching out to Apple, the company learned that Apple had removed their apps based on "unusual user rating activities by unknown sources on certain Qihoo 360 applications." There was no further explanation.
However, today Apple has reinstated Qihoo 360's iOS apps, without asking the company to modify any of them. Seems fishy, right?
TastemakerX, The App For Hipsters Who Totally Heard That Band First, Raises $1.8M
(source: MobileCrunch)
TastemakerX, an about-to-launch startup that will help music fans get credit for discovering the next big thing, has raised $1.2 million in Series A funding.
The company plans to launch its mobile app in early March, at South by Southwest — which seems perfect, given the event's strong representation from both the music and tech worlds. Co-founder and CEO Marc Ruxin describes TastemakerX as "fantasy sports for music lovers," a service where users can share their favorite music with their friends and where gaming elements encourage people to discover new musicians first.
HTC is the first phone maker to deliver a 4G LTE Android device in Europe
(source: MobileBurn)
According to Vodafone's German arm, the carrier plans to launch the first Android smartphone with 4G LTE service in Europe in the near future. The phone will be the HTC Velocity, a variant of the HTC Vivid LTE phone that was released for AT&T in the U.S. late last year.
Read the full story here.
Nokia axes 4,000 jobs, moves smartphone production to Asia
(source: MobileBurn)
Nokia has announced that it is reorganizing its manufacturing business and moving production of its smartphones from its European plants to locations in Asia. The move will put Nokia's manufacturing plants closer to its component suppliers, which are all based out of Asia. A result of the reorganization will be the loss of 4,000 jobs from the three European plants that used to make Nokia's smartphones. Nokia says the job cuts will be phased in through the course of the year.
Read the full story here.
Microsoft brings OneNote app to the Android platform
(source: MobileBurn)
Following the release of OneNote for Windows Phone, the iPhone, and the iPad, Microsoft has finally released a version of its cloud-syncing note taking and organizational app for the Android platform. The Android version of the app offers text formatting, to-do lists with clickable checkboxes, integrated photo capture with the phone's camera, access to multiple OneNote notebooks, sync with SkyDrive, offline note access, spell checking, and table editing. OneNote for Android is free for the first 500 notes created, after which it costs $4.99 for unlimited use. It is available for download from the Android Market now.
Read the full story here.
Sprint's Q4 handset sales were 86 percent smartphones
(source: MobileBurn)
During its Q4 2011 financial results call for investors, Sprint revealed that a full 86 percent of its postpaid handset sales in the quarter were smartphones. The carrier also reported that 66 percent of its post-paid subscribers are now carrying smartphones, which gives it the highest smartphone mix among the top four carriers in the U.S. today. Sprint reported selling 1.8 million iPhones in Q4, though it still posted a $1.3 billion loss for the quarter due to the higher cost of subsidizing the iPhone and building out its network.
Read the full story here.
Apple asks Europe to standardize FRAND patent licensing for mobile devices
(source: MobileBurn)
Apple has petitioned the European Telecommunications Standards Institute to create a set of standards by which companies must license their wireless telecommunications patents. The smartphone leader notes that the industry does not have consistent licensing agreements in place, and suggests a set of royalty amounts that all companies would follow.
Read the full story here.
Sprint adds Kansas City, Baltimore to list of 4G LTE launch markets
(source: MobileBurn) Sprint's Q4 2011 earnings report, released today, noted that the carrier is adding Kansas City and Baltimore to the list of markets that will see its 4G LTE service this year. The two new cities are joining Atlanta, Georgia and Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio, Texas as Sprint's first markets with 4G LTE. The carrier says that its plan to launch 4G LTE service is on track for mid-2012, and it intends to have 12,000 cell sites active by the end of the year. Sprint also plans to complete the roll-out across its network by the end of 2013.
Read the full story here.
Sprint sells 1.8 million iPhones in Q4 2011; adds most subscribers in six years
(source: MobileBurn) Sprint, the nations third largest wireless carrier, released its Q4 2011 earnings today, and reported some of the best results it has seen in quite some time. The first quarter where Sprint was able to offer Apple's iPhone had the most subscriber additions in six years for the carrier, and revenue per user shot up a record amount.
Read the full story here.
Evernote's Smart Titles feature comes to iOS
(source: MobileBurn)
An update to the Evernote app for the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad was released yesterday that includes a number of new features to make creating and organizing notes easier. The Smart Titles feature that debuted on the Android app last month makes an appearance on the iOS version, and it is now easier to share notebooks, cut/copy/paste text from notes, and organize notes into stacks. The Evernote app for iOS is free and available in the iTunes App Store now.
Read the full story here.
Nine Months From Launch, Chartboost’s Mobile Ad Marketplace Reaches 1 Billion Impressions
(source: MobileCrunch)
Mobile advertising took off in 2011, as tablets went mainstream and it seemed as if half of the world woke out of a daze to find they were holding some sort of Apple device. Meanwhile, advertisers and developers are increasingly relying on mobile and in-app advertising to boost revenues as consumers become more comfortable with being served ads while on the go.
The mobile app community needs to monetize via ads, which is why San Francisco-based startup, Chartboost, launched its direct-deals advertising marketplace for mobile gaming in May of last year.
Sprint Sold 1.8 Million iPhones Last Quarter, 40 Percent To New Customers
(source: MobileCrunch)
Sprint Nextel this morning released its earnings for the fourth quarter of 2011 as well as the full-year results.
The company reported a net loss of $1.3 billion for the quarter, and $2.9 billion for the whole of 2011.
mHealth: Remote Patient Monitoring Is On The Rise, With Smartphones Leading The Way
(source: MobileCrunch)
Last month, we took a look at some of the ways mobile technology is transforming the health industry. While there are many factors affecting this transformation, like artificial intelligence, big data, 3-D printing, social health networks, and remote communications, to name a few (check out Josh's post on this here), unsurprisingly, change is coming at the hands of the growing ubiquity of cell phones, smartphones, and mobile devices.
Vonage Continues To Challenge Skype With New Mobile App For iPhone, Android
(source: MobileCrunch)
Vonage has been battling Skype for many, many years, but they're not letting up now that the latter has been acquired by Microsoft. The Internet calling company, which came dangerously close to dying a few years ago, this morning launched a new Vonage Mobile app for iPhone and Android, offering free calls and texts to anyone who also has the app installed (as predicted a few weeks ago).
This is hardly the first time Vonage has debuted apps for smartphone platforms, but this one is definitely worth checking out.
TastemakerX, The App For Hipsters Who Totally Heard That Band First, Raises $1.2M
(source: MobileCrunch)TastemakerX, an about-to-launch startup that will help music fans get credit for discovering the next big thing, has raised $1.2 million in Series A funding.
The company plans to launch its mobile app in early March, at South by Southwest — which seems perfect, given the event's strong representation from both the music and tech worlds. Co-founder and CEO Marc Ruxin describes TastemakerX as "fantasy sports for music lovers," a service where users can share their favorite music with their friends and where gaming elements encourage people to discover new musicians first.
BreathalEyes Determines Your Drunkenness By Scanning Your Shifty Peepers
(source: Gizmodo)
BreathalEyes Determines Your Drunkenness By Your Shifty Peepers
(source: Gizmodo)
From T-Pain To $6 Million In New Funding: Viddy Attempts To Become The “Instagram Of Video”
(source: MobileCrunch)
People really like Instagram. Founder Kevin Systrom recently appeared in a Best Buy Super Bowl ad paying tribute to mobile innovators, a testament to how far its come with a team of six. (Over 15 million users-far.) While Instagram is awesome (just ask Alexia) and offers a great tool for simple, hipster-elegant photo sharing, the startup hasn't extended its reach to include mobile video. Yet.
After watching this formula bring Instagram more than a little attention, a number of startups have entered the mobile video sharing space, all clambering to become known as the real "Instagram of video."
Apple TV Now Has Genius Recommendations
(source: Gizmodo)
LightSquared wants GPS devices built to a standard
(source: MobileBurn)
LightSquared made a move today to request that the Federal Communications Commission require GPS device makers to adhere to a manufacturing standard that would keep the devices from seeing interference from LightSquared's proposed 4G LTE network. LightSquared has long argued that the receivers in GPS devices have been sloppily made and they "listen in" on frequencies outside of the range of GPS services - LightSquared's own frequencies to be exact. The GPS industry has been able to stall LightSquared from deploying its network because of the apparent interference that it would cause with current GPS devices. Of course, should the FCC adopt such a standard for GPS devices, it would take years to implement, and it would do nothing for the millions of devices already in use.
Read the full story here.
Siri Is Only The Beginning
(source: MobileCrunch)
For decades, Hollywood has been portraying machines that humans can converse with, delegate tasks to, and command. Remember the HAL 9000, KITT the car, COMPUTER from Star Trek, or even the brilliantly conceived and visualized Apple “Knowledge Navigator” from over 20 years ago? The day is dawning.
Hello Siri.
The Wrong Way: Path Uploads iOS Users’ Address Books Without Permission
(source: MobileCrunch)
What started as a bit of aimless tinkering for developer Arun Thampi ultimately unearthed something very surprising about life-sharing service Path. As a fan of the app, Thampi took it upon himself to look at the API calls that the app made to Path's service and found that his "entire address book (including full names, emails and phone numbers) was being sent as a plist to Path.”
RootSmart Android Malware May Be Able To Sneak By Google’s New Bouncer (Update)
(source: MobileCrunch)
Remember that Bouncer Google put in the Android Market to act as a goalie for all potential malware attacks?
It would seem that Google's Bouncer doesn't catch everything as Professor Xuxian Jiang, the same guy who discovered dozens of other Android malware attacks, has found yet another exploit called RootSmart.
Want An In-App Notification Center? There’s A SDK For That
(source: MobileCrunch)
Today, mobile promotion and discovery service AppsFire is launching a new toolkit for developers called App Booster. Meant to boost user engagement and retention, two of the toughest challenges developers face today, the App Booster SDK (software development kit) introduces a suite of tools for things like in-app notifications, user feedback, analytics and mobile app cross-promotion.
Video: Chrome Beta for Android browser video demo
(source: MobileBurn)
The new Chrome Beta browser for Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich smartphones and tablets was released today and it brings a lot of cool new functionality to Android devices. In addition to a visually appealing tab manager, users can quickly move between tabs by swiping left or right on the screen. There's also sync support with Chrome for the desktop which gives mobile users access to not only desktop bookmarks, but the tabs that the desktop browser currently has loaded, as well.
Watch the video here.
Google Voice for Android updated with ICS interface, new icon
(source: MobileBurn)
Google released an update to its Google Voice app for Android devices this afternoon that includes a new user interface for Android 3.2 Honeycomb and 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich devices as well as adding a new app icon. Voice also now supports "asynchronous SMS sending," which lets users queue up messages when they are offline to be sent once they have a network connection again. The new Google Voice app for Android is free and available in the Android Market now.
Read the full story here.
Adobe confirms no Flash support for Chrome Beta browser for Android
(source: MobileBurn)
If you happened to download the Chrome for Android Beta that was released earlier today and were looking for Adobe Flash Player support, it seems that you are out of luck. Adobe has confirmed that Chrome for Android does not support its Flash plug-in. This doesn't come as too much of a surprise since Adobe announced last year that it would stop developing Flash Player for mobile devices. The company does note that the standard Android browser does support Flash Player for the time being.
Read the full story here.
Canada to Get Apple’s iTV?
(source: Daily Wireless)
Canada’s Rogers Communications, one of Canada’s largest mobile, cable tv, and DSL providers and Bell Canada (BCE), the incumbent local exchange carrier for telephone and DSL Internet services in much of Canada, are in talks with Apple to become Canadian launch partners for its much-hyped Apple iTV, reports the Globe and Mail. Apple’s television product [...]
Chrome Browser for Android
(source: Daily Wireless)
Google has launched a public beta of the Google Chrome web browser for Android. It’s available from the Android Market for phones and tablets running Android 4.0 and up. Google says Chrome for Android Beta is focused on speed and simplicity, but it also features seamless sign-in and sync so you can take your personalized [...]
Meru AP Goes to 1.3 Gbps
(source: Daily Wireless)
Meru Networks recently announced the availability of the a new outdoor Wi-Fi access point that is said to provide more than 10 times the data throughput of the company’s previous outdoor access points. The Meru OAP433e (pdf), a three-radio, three-stream 802.11n outdoor access point, reportedly delivers 1.3 GB/s throughput for about $2,000 a pop (less [...]
Google releases Chrome for Android beta for Android 4.0 ICS smartphones, tablets
(source: MobileBurn) Today Google made the leap that many have been waiting years for: it finally released a version of Chrome for the Android platform. Chrome for Android Beta is now available for Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich smartphones and tablets and brings a lot of what Chrome users love on the desktop to their mobile devices.
Read the full story here.
Urbanspoon: Traffic Up 80% In 2011, Mobile Growth Faster Than Web
(source: MobileCrunch)
Popular restaurant app Urbanspoon is releasing new data today related to its growth over the course of 2011. The company says its traffic is up by 80%, with mobile growth outpacing the web. The site is now seeing 28 million visits per month, with traffic now split roughly half and half between mobile and web.
On the mobile side, Urbanspoon has seen 112% year-over-year growth, while on the web side, it's at 70% growth over last year. Overall, the company saw 255 million visits in 2011, up from 141 million in 2010.
StoryBundle: DRM-free E-book Bundle
(source: Daily Wireless)
Jason Chen has left Gawker Media to launch an e-bookstore of his own, StoryBundle, reports Paid Content. Chen will sell bundles of DRM-free e-books under a pay-what-you-want plan. He imagines the average price of a bundle will be around $5. Readers pay what they want for a bundle of e-books and decide which percentage of [...]
Microsoft Stores will offer Nokia Lumia 800 in expensive bundle package
(source: MobileBurn)
It was announced at CES 2012 that Microsoft would offer the Nokia Lumia 800 unlocked in the U.S. in its retail store locations across the country. What we didn't know at the time was how much the unlocked Lumia 800 would cost or when it would actually be available for purchase. According to information obtained by The Verge, purchasing the Lumia 800 might demand more from prospective buyers' wallets than they initially expected.
Read the full story here.