Smartphone
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The iPhone 5 went on sale in India this past weekend and customers in the country welcomed it with open arms and open wallets. The phone was completely sold out across the country within the first 24 hours and helped confirm that there is, albeit small, a market of people looking for this type of phone in India. There were reportedly 10,000-15,000 iPhone 5s sent to India for this first round of sales. Analysts expect the phone to sell a modest 200,000 units within the country by the end ... more
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We've all heard the big claims about a spazmillion Android activations per day and how (on any given day) it's either surpassing iOS as the most-used mobile operating system or it's biting sharply at its heels. Some recent data suggests, however, that Google's Android operating system may be dying off and the life signs stalling. Asymco, in an article that's guaranteed to make Android fans try to lynch us, points to data which indicates that the growth rate of Android adoption has plateaued. The net user gains for Android ... more
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Rumors have been floating around that Facebook plans to release a phone since 2010 -- until Mark Zuckerberg publicly axed the idea. These rumors seem to have been revived by reports of Facebook hiring ex-Apple engineers to work on a secret project called "Buffy" in a partnership with HTC. The New York Times has reported that Facebook has hired more than a half a dozen ex-Apple employees who have either worked on the hardware or software side of the iPhone. Facebook has also reportedly hired one iPad engineer.Why is Facebook creating a smartphone? According to a ... more
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Nic Lake - - No responsesAdd another point to Apple's "This Is Why We Do Things Our Way" board. J.D. Power & Associates reports that owners of first-gen 4G smartphones are among the least happy customers in the phone business today. Owners of 4G smartphones rated their battery life as a 6.1 average out of 10, while 3G owners give it a 6.7. While the difference isn't huge, it still matters to customers. Twenty-five percent of 4G customers that gave their battery a perfect 10 said they would buy from the same manufacturer again, ... more
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Ed McLaughlin, lead of "emerging payments" at MasterCard, talked to Fast Company about the future of NFC in smartphones. He sidestepped the question about Apple, but it's pretty clear something is up: [quote]But when asked to give an estimate for when smartphone payments would become commonplace (in other words, would 2012 be the year of NFC or contactless tech?), McLaughlin demurred--and may have dropped a hint about Apple's future in the industry."The timeline is always as rapid as it makes sense for consumers," he says. "That's a combination of ... more
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Oh, man. RIM stories are just getting sadder by the day. Today, Jonathan S. Geller at Boy Genius Report is claiming that a trusted source says that not only is RIM looking to sell either some divisions or their whole company, but they are favoring a purchase by Samsung. That said, nothing is done yet because RIM's
doublemint twinsCEOs are asking for a substantial amount from the company according to reports. [quote]We have heard the company is looking for more than $10 billion for a full sale, likely somewhere ... more -
This WWDC closing keynote from 1997 shows Steve Jobs in his element. He's lively, slightly snarky, and completely "On." Interestingly, John Paczkowski from All Things D points out a specific part of the Q & A from Jobs: [quote]I tried a Newton,” he said. “I bought one of the early ones; I thought it was a piece of junk, I threw it away. I bought one of the Motorola Envoys; I thought it was a piece of junk after three months and threw it away. … Here’s my problem [with these ... more
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Smartphone cameras now account for 27 percent of all photos and video taken. This is up from 17 percent last year, a near 59 percent increase. It's no surprise that smartphone-as-a-camera usage is up, but this new Imaging Confluence Study by the NPD Group gives us the details. Also interesting is the significant percentage of photos that are non-vacation photos. Because smartphone consumers now always have a camera in their pocket, more fleeting precious moments — cats in ties, ... more
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Apple is currently sitting on approximately 52 percent of the handset industry's profits last quarter. Michael Walkley, analyst for Canaccord Genuity, has issued a note to investors indicating that Apple, while down in market share slightly (5.4 percent to 4.2 percent), has managed to increase their profits during the quarter. The iPhone's success doesn't end there either. According to the same report, Apple is also occupying AT&T, Sprint-Nextel, and Verizon Communications' top spot on their internal top-seller lists with the iPhone 4S. Think that's good news? Apple also ... more
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Several days have passed since Nintendo announced there’s no chance of it entering the mobile gaming space. Talking at a 3DS press conference, Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata, when asked about the possibility of Nintendo developing mobile titles, stated explicitly:
“This is absolutely not under consideration. If we did this, Nintendo would cease to be Nintendo. Having a hardware development team in-house is a major strength. It’s probably the correct decision in the sense that the moment we started to release games on smartphones we’d make profits. However, I believe ... more
Gizmos & Gadgets
Like most on-the-go technology enthusiasts, I have multiple ways to connect to the web. I have my iPhone, my 4G USB card, and whoever’s free internet access I happen to be mooching off of at any particular moment. However, living in an urban environment, all three of these connections can get
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Feature Post
Two hundred and ten days, 22 hours, 33 minutes and 22 seconds No that’s not how long since the last Fast and the Furious sequel, it is the excruciating time lapsed since the last major Apple product launch. On October 23, 2012, the world was a kinder and more joyous
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