Chupa, a top marketplace for getting and selling supply code and components for Mobile Development, is giving away class="xn-money">ten thousand dollars in prizes in the Chupa 10K Developer Competition.Powered by Amazon and backed by international sponsors such as Airpush, Photo Cloud, Magic Solver, Nexmo, Appannie, Bugsense and Mashape, the grand prize is valued at class="xn-money">$ 6500, and runner-up prizes valued at class="xn-money">$ 3,000 and class="xn-money">$ 1,000 respectively. href="http://www.appcraver.com/app-news/chupa-to-give-away-10k-in-worldwide-mobile-programming-contest-entries-now-accepted/" class="more-link">(far more…)

AppCraver | iPhone Apps, iPad Apps and iPod Touch Apps

Here’s an additional 1 of those genuine globe stories turned CrackBerry blog post… last night Miss CrackBerry was on her BlackBerry Bold 9900 texting with her sister, when for some unknown reason out of no where she receives an error message saying Mobile equipment status failed. She showed it to me and asked me what it meant, to which I replied that I had no clue. Because my time on BlackBerry, that’s not a message I’ve actually ever personally skilled. It seemed the text message that failed still ultimately went by way of as her sister replied to it, but it was nonetheless an odd factor to see.

Googling around earlier right now I stumbled onto quite a few forum threads related to this subject (several in our own CrackBerry forums), but the view on the message and what it indicates seemed a bit muddled. Even though the phrase Mobile equipment status failed sounds like there’s some thing wrong with your phone’s hardware, it truly appears this message is related to the carrier having trouble with its network. Confident enough, it turns out the Rogers network did have some concerns yesterday which were most likely the cause of this error message getting displayed.

Questions of the Week:  1) Have you ever skilled this message ahead of?  two) If so, did you ever discover a really very good explanation of exactly what it indicates? and finally, 3) If it is related to the carrier’s network and not the phone’s hardware which seems to be case, why would RIM put such a weird sounding/stupid error message onto the OS that makes it sound like your telephone is broken?? Be positive to sound off in the comments with your answers!

CrackBerry.com‘s feed sponsored by ShopCrackBerry.com. Here's a BlackBerry error message you don't see each day… &quotMobile equipment status failed&quot

CrackBerry.com blogs

The growth of the mobile economy – made probable by smartphones – is phenomenal. The Yankee Group sees global mobile transactions exceeding $ 1 Trillion by 2015 from $ 241 billion in 2011.

Nielsen expects the US to have much more smartphones than function phones by the finish of the year. The number of smartphone users will boost 49.6% this year to 90.1 million, according to eMarketer. Virtually half of UK world wide web users go on-line through mobile telephone.

The US mobile Internet population is expected to grow 25% this year as 97.3 million mobile owners log on to the World wide web from their device at least monthly. With out the iPhone, T-Mobile was crushed.

Some 478 million smartphones are expected to ship globe-wide in 2011.

US social network ad revenues are expected to reach $ 3.08 Billion this year and rise by a further 27.7% next year to reach nearly $ four billion.

Google display ad revenues are expected to pass $ 1 Billion This Year, even though eclipsed handily by Facebook. Facebook’s share of US online display ad revenues will grow to 17.7 percent in 2011, up from a 12.2 percent share last year, according to eMarketer.

None of this would have happened if wireless carriers had their way.

Consider the 700 MHz auction in January, 2008. Verizon and AT&T wanted to block independent app stores. They demanded absolute manage over all smartphone applications.

But Google requested the FCC adopt “open” policies to phones and services. That provision would be triggered with a minimum bid of $ 4.6 billion on the 700 MHz band.

Google requested:

• Open applications: Shoppers ought to be able to download and make use of any computer software applications, content, or services they desire
• Open devices: Shoppers should be able to make use of a handheld communications device with whatever wireless network they prefer
• Open services: Third parties (resellers) need to be able to acquire wireless services from a 700 MHz licensee on a wholesale basis, based on reasonably nondiscriminatory commercial terms and
• Open networks: Third parties (like web service providers) should be able to interconnect at any technically feasible point in a 700 MHz licensee’s wireless network.

The FCC ruled in favor of Google’s request, but only two of the 4 specifications were put in place, open applications and open devices.

The result: Google was outbid by Verizon, triggering open platform provisions.

That enabled a trillion dollar market.

• Apple’s App Store opened on July 10, 2008. On July 11, the iPhone 3G was launched and came pre-loaded with iOS 2..1 with App Shop support
• Google’s Android Industry opened 22 October 2008. It now has some 250,000 apps. Most are free.

Apple is now the globe’s largest firm and the mobile telecom market has turn into a Trillion dollar enterprise.

Global mobile operator revenues are set to break the trillion dollar mark this year. The global mobile applications market place is expected to be worth $ 25. billion in 2015, growing at a CAGR of 29.6% from 2010 to 2015.

There are at the moment 5.28 billion mobile subscribers worldwide, representing 76% of the world’s population of 6.75 billion. In 2010, barely 20% of the total mobile devices shipped were smart phones — which indicates 80% of the existing user industry is nonetheless untapped.

Global voice and data revenue for 2010 is estimated at $ 830 billion, 1.four% of world GDP of $ 60.63 trillion. Global mobile services revenue is projected to exceed $ 1 trillion by 2014.

None of this would have happened if carriers successfully killed app stores.

Here are more global mobile statistics and mobile advertising and marketing facts.

dailywireless.org

Nitobi, the creators of the PhoneGap mobile app development framework, right now released PhoneGap 1. in Portland, Oregon, after O’Reilly’s Open Source (Oscon) conference.

PhoneGap, an HTML5 platform, enables developers to use foundation web technologies (HTML, CSS and JavaScript) to make native mobile applications.

Developers can write their app when and deploy it to six significant mobile platforms and app stores, including iOS, Android, BlackBerry, webOS, Bada and Symbian.

The open source code is downloaded approximately 40,000 times each and every month, more than 600,000 times in total. Today’s major release puts the focus on accessing native device APIs, which is new ground for the internet, says the organization. The plugin development procedure has also been simplified.

“Most of these new enhancements come from our community,” mentioned Brian LeRoux, Senior Software program Engineer at Nitobi and PhoneGap evangelist. A team of senior software program engineers at IBM has been a main benefit. Other contributors contain Adobe, which integrated PhoneGap into Dreamweaver so that developers can package apps with PhoneGap and launch iOS and Android emulators directly from within Dreamweaver. Other people include Alcatel-Lucent, Sabre, Cisco, Logitech and Time Warner.

In related news, Alibaba is launching its mobile platform, Aliyun, for China on the K-Touch W700 handset later this month. The Aliyun platform focuses on cloud-based, internet applications but is also “fully compatible” with Google Android apps. Alibaba will complement each handset with 100 GB of information storage on its AliCloud service. China, the world’s largest mobile phone marketplace, has almost 907 million mobile subscribers, according to statistics supplied by the 3 leading telcos in June.

dailywireless.org

Michael Koploy an analyst, at Software Advice, a POS software research firm based in Austin Texas, has been analyzing how individuals and companies can take advantage of mobile payment technology.

Austin, you’ll recall, is a pilot city for the Isis mobile wallet. Salt Lake City is the other city doing an ISIS test. Isis is working with Utah Transit Authority (UTA) to make the entire UTA transit system Isis-enabled, making it the first commercially available mobile transportation fare payment program in the U.S..

The joint venture between AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless, will tie Austin merchants and consumers together with Near Field Communications technology for a contactless payment.

Koploy says there are Five Ways Austin Can Springboard Mobile Wallet Adoption:

• Spread the Word with Festivals and Conferences
• Find Innovative Ways to Integrate NFC With the University
• Create NFC Purchasing Habits at Hip Food Venues
• Integrate NFC into High-End Supermarkets
• Attract the NFC Crowd in Merchant Neighborhoods

Sprint and American Express signed an agreement which will enable some of its smartphone users to access the credit card giant’s mobile payment service called Serve. Serve unifies multiple payment options into a single account that can be funded from a bank account, debit, credit or charge card, or by receiving money from another Serve account.

American Express has struck a deal with Facebook that is similar to the one it already has with Foursquare. AmEx cardholders can link their cards to their Facebook accounts so they will get a dashboard of deals from brands such as Whole Foods, Dunkin’ Donuts, Virgin America, and Sports Authority.

AmEx is also leveraging its relationships with smaller local merchants with a program called Go Social which allows merchants to manage deals across both Facebook and Foursquare.

The competing Google Wallet will let you tap, pay and save using your phone and NFC chips which transmit data to special NFC readers for a financial transaction. It is currently being field tested in Portland and will be released soon, says Google. Sprint’s Nexus S 4G and Nexus S from T-Mobile incorporate the NFC chip.

NFC isn’t just for payments. In a Portland, Oregon test market, Google provided businesses with a free placard for their window that has an embedded NFC circuit.

Waving your phone in front of the placard provides you with information about the business, generally from Google’s Place Pages.

Google Wallet will let you buy stuff with your phone.

The mobile payment market, which was $ 5.2 billion in 2009, is expected to jump to $ 56.7 billion in 2015.

Related Dailywireless articles include; Isis Coming to Austin, Salt Lake City: First Mobile Payment City in US, Google Wallet, Google Wallet Stolen?, Carriers Switch Electronic Wallets, Mobile Payment Spreading, Visa: Near Field Communications, iPhone NFC?

dailywireless.org

Almost 15 years ago, PDAs such as the Sony Clié or Pocket PC were the best means of carrying your data around with you. Their admittedly modest success spawned a range of keyboards that docked with your touchscreen device.

Over time, these keyboards grew into mechanical marvels that folded very small for portability, but gave a typing experience to rival a notebook. These days, smartphones and tablets are the touchscreen portables of choice, and most mobile keyboards favour Bluetooth connectivity.

But if this Verbatim Bluetooth Mobile Keyboard is anything to go by, lessons learned by PDA keyboards 15 years ago urgently need revisiting.

The open keyboard is 32cm wide, folding down to 16x10x2cm when closed. We’ve seen smaller, but it’s portable enough and comes with a handy leather slipcase.

It has a slideout stand for the iPhone, but it’s flimsy and certainly won’t hold an iPad. Indeed, the build quality overall isn’t fantastic by any means.

To make matters worse, key positioning has been compromised for space. Things are not quite where they should be, making typing at length a chore. The tiny backspace key and split spacebar are especially annoying.

It sits flat on the desk too, with no stands to speak of to raise it to a comfortable typing angle. The keyboard has useful media keys for listening to your music as you type, and the arrow keys make it easier to highlight text and use the cut, copy and paste functions, but overall, it’s difficult to recommend.

It’s okay for SMS, short emails and updating your Facebook status or Twitter feeds, but this keyboard is certainly not for serious typing.

Related Links

• TechRadar Reviews Guarantee
• Read more keyboard reviews

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China Mobile may begin selling the iPhone 5 in September, reported the Shanghai Daily and repeated by Reuters. But the deals that Apple’s Tim Cook was making in China this week probably won’t result in products by September, says Fortune.

The aggregate number of mobile subscribers of the three main telecom operators (China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom) stood at approximately 823 million as of the end of November 2010.

While China now has nearly 900 million subscribers, currently only 74 million have access to 3G networks, says Fortune. China Mobile leads with a 3G share of 45%, while China Unicom and China Telecom had 30% and 25%, respectively. Most mobile users in China are still using 2G phones.

China Mobile controls a huge 70 percent market share of China’s total mobile sector, according to Wireless Intelligence, but their percent of 3G connections is far less than the other two operators. China Mobile’s TD-SCDMA network is why

Apple has a deal with only one of China’s three largest carriers, — China Unicom — the country’s second largest, according to Fortune.

• China Unicom, the 2nd largest in China and the world’s third-biggest mobile provider. It has a (GSM) license to expand its business to 3G telecommunication.
• China Telecom, the 3rd largest mobile telecommunication provider in China with 43 million mobile subscribers, and has a nationwide CDMA business.
• China Mobile, is the world’s largest mobile phone operator with over 600 million subscribers. Its 3G network utilizes the TD-SCDMA — which is incompatible with Apple’s current generation of iPhones. China Mobile’s 4G network will utilizes the TD-LTE standard.

China Mobile has announced that it will carry Apple’s 4G iPhones when a LTE (long-term evolution) version is ready. When that happens is anybody’s guess.

But TD-LTE chipsets are being readied by Qualcomm, Sequans, Huawei, LG, Samsung and others.

Unpaired frequencies, used by TD-LTE networks, are by nature asymetrical. China and India say Time Division Multiplexing handles data-intensive communications more efficiently. Frequency Division LTE networks, such as those used by Verizon and AT&T in the United States, waste channel capacity just “listening”, when nothing is being transmitted.

The company is testing TD-LTE in 6 cities, including Shanghai, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Xiamen. Telecom giants such as Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Huawei, and ZTE, have participated in technical trials of TD-LTE technology with China Mobile since the end of 2008.- China Mobile’s Chairman, Wang Jianzhou, has said that Apple will support a TD-LTE phone.

Without giving a timeframe, Bill Huang, president of China Mobile’s research institute, said both Sprint/Clearwire and Light Squared have announced they will adopt TD-LTE.

dailywireless.org

It’s no secret that today’s amateur videographers can make professional-level videos with hip-pocket devices. The iPhone’s HD video camera is certainly up to the task of recording, but you’ll still need a way to edit and share all those video masterpieces. The App Store is practically overflowing with video editing apps to help users make [...]

Continue reading href="http://www.appcraver.com/ultimate-list-iphone-video-apps/">The Ultimate List of iPhone Video Apps for Editing, Effects and Sharing Mobile Movies or visit our website for more great href="http://www.appcraver.com/">iphone apps.

AppCraver

We had an interesting press release come across our desks today, concerning the company Pinger and it’s Textfree app for Android.  The gist of the press release was how fast it took the number of Android users to gain parity with the number of iPhone users using Textfree on Apple devices.  So how long do you think it took for the Android app to catch up?
Five months. Five months it took for the Android Textfree user base to match the iOS user base, and according to Pinger at least, Textfree is a pretty popular app in the App Store for iPhone.

Five months is awful fast, but that number needs to be tempered with the sheer number of Android devices on the market versus the number of iPhones out there. Android is winning for the major reason of the fact that there are over 200 handsets running Android on the market today. Still, it is certainly a cool number to look at, and shows how Android has become a real player in the mobile space.

Textfree is an app that allows users to send texts and calls for free over the internet, similar to Google Voice. Recently added was a way to tie in with your facebook chat box, allowing you to chat with your friends right in the app without leaving it.

Use our download box below to pick up Textfree on your device.

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Textfree
Pinger Inc
FREE
>250,000
Link Android Market | Link AppBrain

Another Sign that Android is Taking Over the Mobile Universe originally appeared on AndroidGuys.

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AndroidGuys

Just a few quick bites before the weekend turns over. We’ll wrap up an exciting week the included the introduction of two new Motorola handsets for Sprint with word from Virgin Mobile that they have made a decision to not include custom UIs on any of their Android phones. Yep, it was a request from the carrier that let to the beautiful stock experience that is the Motorola TRIUMPH More follows below.

• Sony Ericsson may launch the Xperia Pro in July. [SE Blog]
• The Samsung Fascinate is getting a minor ED04 update. [Android Police]
• The Otterbox Defender case is now available for the Motorola XOOM.
• Amazon and Wirefly are both offering deal on the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play seeing the handset priced at less than $ 1.
• The Samsung Infuse 4G will carry Android 2.3 when it launches in Canada.

Android Phone Fans

When Motorola issued the 4.1.83 update for the Atrix 4G on AT&T, the devices ability to properly communicate with the mobile apps and websites of several financial services broke. Never fear, Moto is pushing forth a small update to remedy the problem as we speak. You’ll need to grab the Atrix Certificate Updater from the Android Market and follow the simple instructions to get everything in working order. Remember, you’ll need to be on the latest version of the Atrix software for the update to stick.

[via DroidMatters]

Android Phone Fans

When Motorola issued the 4.1.83 update for the Atrix 4G on AT&T, the devices ability to properly communicate with the mobile apps and websites of several financial services broke. Never fear, Moto is pushing forth a small update to remedy the problem as we speak. You’ll need to grab the Atrix Certificate Updater from the Android Market and follow the simple instructions to get everything in working order. Remember, you’ll need to be on the latest version of the Atrix software for the update to stick.

[via DroidMatters]

Android Phone Fans

DotGov, a Seattle startup, has launched YouTown, a mobile platform designed to boost communication between governments and citizens.

YouTown is a free mobile platform for all cities, counties and govt agencies, making it easy to connect with your citizens on the go.

The platform, which includes an iPhone app, allows cities and counties to publish news, events, maps and calendars from multiple agencies directly to citizens’ mobile devices. The service also can incorporate Twitter and Facebook feeds, and is easily personalized depending on the needs of the government. You can also use GoogleMaps to create your own maps with place-marks, lines, or shapes.

“This is a big step towards mobile government,” said DotGov founder and CEO Michael Riedyk. “Cities won’t have to worry about developing their own apps for different departments and agencies. They can now sign up at YouTown.com and go mobile within a few hours without any costs.”

New York, San Francisco, and Portland are actively promoting open source data bases that can utilized by independent developers to create all manner of useful applications.

OpenStreetMap has good map data in this region, and the Humanitarian OSM Team is on hand to help. CrisisWiki is an editable directory of resources related to disasters and crises around the world. Portland’s Humaninet, has a Maps 2.0 team using Google Maps tools. Groups like Mercy Corps are among the first to move.

Portland’s TriMet transportation system has been a leader in data sharing.

By making data on public transit accessible, TriMet has allowed for the creation of more than 35 phone applications since 2005.

Related Dailywireless stories about newspapers and data journalism include; Apps for The City, Augmented History, Public Safety 2.0, Everyone Can Create Mobile Apps!, Mobile Portland Demos, Developer Contests, Geo Tours, Japan Tsunami, Nozzl: Local News Streaming Live, Tracking Tour de France, Trillion Node Network?, HyperLocal: There’s an App for That, Neighborhood News: Big Time in Seattle, Coming Soon: Tablet Wars, Ocean Observatories: The Ultimate Splash Page, Rental Bikes: Free with Location-based Apps?.

dailywireless.org

Mobile World Congress 2011 is now over, and it helped to deliver a bunch of news and interesting posts to the CrackBerry blogs this week (click here to see MWC related posts). More PlayBooks were announced (I’m still waiting for the WiFi only one!), NFC on upcoming BlackBerry Smartphones got official, and we saw a bunch more demos of apps running on the BlackBerry PlayBook. We dive into all of that and more on this episode, so sit back and listen to Adam, Bla1ze, Craig, Joseph and myself talk about BlackBerry and a bunch of other things too. Disclaimer: In our excitement we may have dropped a few F Bombs on this one that we were too lazy to edit out. Listen at your discretion. All in all, it turned out to be a pretty fun show.

CrackBerry LIVE Podcast: Ok ok… so we’re finally seriously for real thinking about trying to record these podcasts live like our friends at TiPb.com and AndroidCentral.com do. We’d go for audio only, with a chat room on the blogs, so you can chat with us when we record. Vote on the poll above to let us know what you’d prefer to us do… and sound off in the comments if you have anything specific to ad. Enjoy the show! 

CrackBerry.com‘s feed sponsored by ShopCrackBerry.com. CrackBerry Podcast 064: Looking Back on a week of BlackBerry Mobile World Congress 2011 News!

View full post on CrackBerry.com blogs

As adoption of smartphones and tablets explodes, security will become a bigger issue. Mobile security was the topic of a panel discussion involving both AT&T and Verizon at this week’s RSA Conference.

View full post on Macworld

A panel of executives from RIM and carriers Orange and KT told an MWC audience that use of smartphone-based NFC technology should take off this year.

View full post on Macworld

HTC’s won big this year at Mobile World Congress where the GSMA hosted their Global Mobile Awards, an industry awards ceremony highlighting the finest companies in what they do. HTC was chosen for Device Manufacurer of the Year, unsurprisingly.

Peter Chou of HTC was on-hand to accept the award. I think it’s well-deserved for HTC, who was the first manufacturer to give Android a shot and is still leading the Android charge in many ways. They do BrewOS and Windows Phone 7 devices too, but it was Android throughout 2010 that got HTC into the hands of countless mobile phone users everywhere. Read on for full press details.

HTC AWARDED AS ‘2011 DEVICE MANUFACTURER OF THE YEAR’ BY THE GSMA

Device Manufacturer of the Year Award Is Industry’s Top Global Honour

BARCELONA, SPAIN – Mobile World Congress – 16 February, 2011 – HTC Corporation, a global designer of smartphones, has been honoured this week with the highest industry honour as ‘Device Manufacturer of the Year’ by the GSMA at its Global Mobile Awards ceremony in Barcelona. The award follows a year of global momentum for HTC, which saw the launch of a large portfolio of industry leading smartphones such as the HTC Desire HTC was awarded from a list of three finalists that included Apple and Samsung.

“For HTC to be recognized by the industry in this way for the growth and success we have experienced in the last year is truly humbling. Thousands of people at HTC work tirelessly to create the intuitive and deeply personal smartphone experiences for which we have become known. This award is a measure of their passion and dedication,” said Peter Chou, CEO of HTC Corporation. “This award also belongs to the tens of millions of customers around the world who enjoy our phones and inspire us each day to create new innovative experiences. To those people, to our partners around the world and to the HTC family, you have my sincere thanks and congratulations.”

The GSMA judges commented, “this company (HTC) has built its market presence from nowhere, with fresh branding and marketing and a strong portfolio of devices across many platforms. In particular, it has proven an exceptionally popular and enduring phone manufacturer. With great communication and good customer service, this is a well-deserved award.”

HTC previously was awarded for the ‘Best Mobile Phone of 2010’ with the HTC Hero

A committee of judges that include industry analysts and consultants, mobile operators, educators and other industry leaders determines the GSMA Awards. For more information on the 2011 GSMA Global Mobile awards please visit – http://www.globalmobileawards.com

About GSMA

The GSMA represents the interests of the worldwide mobile communications industry. Spanning 219 countries, the GSMA unites nearly 800 of the world’s mobile operators, as well as more than 200 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem, including handset makers, software companies, equipment providers, Internet companies, and media & entertainment organisations.

About HTC

HTC Corporation (HTC) is one of the fastest growing companies in the mobile phone industry. By putting people at the center of everything it does, HTC creates innovative smartphones that better serve the lives and needs of individuals. The company is listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange under ticker 2498. For more information about HTC, please visit www.htc.com.

View full post on Android Phone Fans

Sadly, we weren’t able to be present in Barcelona for Mobile World Congress this year. But, thankfully, our good friends at Engadget were, and they had excellent live blog coverage for Eric Schmidt’s keynote speech, where he spends a good deal of time speculating about about the future of Google, Android, mobile, and tech in general. His general opinion is that we are transitioning to a point where technology assists us without us ever having to even think about user interfaces. He stresses, over and over again, that nothing happens without our permission, but in Schmidt’s vision of the future, our cars drive themselves and our phones know we need pants and automatically realize when we’re by the pants store and remind us to go get them.

So what does this mean for Android? The most notable specifics he gives us are that Honeycomb includes a movie editing program called Movie Studio, as the focus is moving more and more toward content creation. When asked about fragmentation, he states that they are addressing that more and more with Gingerbread, and that it will become more and more the case as we’ll be seeing Android updates rolled out about every six months. He also states that “[w]e have OS called gingerbread for phones, we have an OS being previewed now for tablets called Honeycomb. The two of them… you can imagine the follow up will start with an I, be named after dessert, and will combine these two.” Word ’round the net is that it will be called Ice Cream (Sandwich?), and it’s good to hear directly from Google that it will be a merging of Honeycomb and Gingerbread, suitable for smartphones and tablets alike. We were also very interested to hear that, regarding the Nokia/Microsoft merger, Google “would’ve loved if they [Nokia] chose Android…We certainly tried.”

Schmidt seems very optimistic about the future of mobile devices, and it’ll be exciting to see how reality compares to his vision over the next few years. Regardless, it seems certain that Android will be on the very front edge of technology as it continues to move forward.

Eric Schmidt’s Keynote Speech at Mobile World Congress

View full post on Android News, Rumours, and Updates

We’ve heard the discussion about HTML eventually taking over the universe but I think this may be the first time I’ve heard Eric Schmidt say it directly and so succinctly. I’d have to double-check word for word, but the quote I heard was:

“HTML 5 is the way almost all applications will be built, including for phones.”

That kind of blows my mind. If HTML 5 takes over then is Android really that big of an advantage for Google? Won’t all the other platforms be able to leverage HTML 5 to create competitors more on par with Android? Google’s big business is advertising so… do they even care?

Let’s hear your thoughts in the comments and feel free to vote in the poll!

View full post on Android Phone Fans

Several HTC phones are being reported at MWC as running Android 2.4. There’s been talk about the next version of the OS, but we haven’t heard anything officially official. The word is that 2.4 will still be called Gingerbread, and there’s been a lot of speculation in the last couple of weeks that it will support a lot of Honeycomb features, almost like the tablet-oriented OS brought home to the smartphone. It has not been confirmed whether HTC is stealing Google’s thunder, or whether the press releases just featured some rather unfortunate typos. Some of these phones are due out pretty quickly, though, so if we’re going to see 2.4 on them, Google will likely be making an announcement very soon!

Mobile World Congress Sees Talk of Android 2.4

View full post on Android News, Rumours, and Updates

HTC at Mobile World Congress announced three updated versions of existing smart phones, two new Android 2.3 phones targeting the social media, and its first tablet. All run on Android 2.3, or variations of it.

• The “ChaCha”. An Android 2.3 phone, it features a 2.6-inch touchscreen, a 5-megapixel camera and a full-QWERTY keyboard. A dedicated Facebook key with the “F” logo pulsates when you’re doing something shareable.
• The Salsa is an Android 2.3 touchscreen-only Android phone, with a 3.4-inch screen. Also has a dedicated context-aware Facebook key that allows photos and links to automatically be shared.
• The HTC Flyer. A 7-inch tablet running a hybrid version of Gingerbread (Android 2.4), and not Honeycomb. According to HTC, using Gingerbread allowed the company to bake its Sense interface on the Flyer, while Honeycomb would have required more time.
• Desire S. Powered by a 1GHz Snapdragon, has a 3.7-inch display and runs Android 2.3. The Desire has both a front-facing and 5-megapixel back-facing camera (with 720p video capture).
• Wildfire S. Has smaller 320-by-480, 3.2-inch display, runs Gingerbread and has a 5-megapixel camera
• HTC Incredible S, a premium phone, machined out of a single block of aluminum,. It features 8-megapixel camera, integrated video chat with front-facing camera.

HTC has a 9 percent share of the global smartphone market, according to research firm IDC.

View full post on dailywireless.org

Mobile World Congress is starting with a bang. Right out of the gate:

• Sony Ericsson last night unveiled the much-expected Xperia Play – aka the “PlayStation phone” – ahead of its launch next month in selected European and Asian markets.

  A CDMA version of the new handset will go on sale in the US with Verizon Wireless in the spring, a major boost for Sony Ericsson in the States. A slideout gaming keyboard featuring a digital D pad. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processor has been optimised for gaming on the new handset, which also features a four-inch screen. There will be 50 titles available, mostly in the Android Market, for its appearance next month.

• Samsung announced two new Android devices, the the Galaxy S II and a new 10″ tablet. the Galaxy S II has a 4.3” super AMOLED screen, compared with 4” for the Galaxy S, has a 1GHz dual-core processor, compared with a single core chip in the Galaxy S, and runs the latest Android Gingerbread platform.

  the Galaxy Tab 10.1, is based on the Honeycomb platform, and is powered by a dual-core 1GHz processor. Vodafone customers in over 20 markets around the world will be the first to get the GALAXY Tab 10.1 when it goes on sale this spring.”

• Mobile apps attract almost as much mobile device use as messaging, and exceed the totals for voice calls and web browsing, according to a January 2011 survey by Zokem Research. Mobile apps are responsible for 667 minutes of use per user each month, almost as much as messaging (671 minutes), and far more than voice (531 minutes) and web browsing (422 minutes). Almost 10 percent of all smartphone “face time” is through the use of social networking apps. In terms of actual usage, only two third-party apps have greater than 30 percent penetration: Facebook and YouTube.
• CEO of Ericsson, the world’s largest infrastructure provider, says providing coverage in urban areas will become the biggest challenge facing the industry. Vestberg believes that networks will become a key differentiator for operators
• Australia’s largest operator Telstra has nixed the idea of using consumer femtocells as a way of coping with any future ‘capacity crunch,’ despite the fact it is having to cope with a doubling in data usage on its mobile network every 12 months.
• Global HSPA connections have now surpassed 400 million with around 17 million new connections being added each month, up from 9 million a year ago.
• Chinese telecom equipment maker ZTE is gunning to be among the world’s top three telecom equipment makers. ZTE earned about half of its revenues outside China last year by selling both handsets and fixed and wireless network gear.
• Smartphone adoption reached 27 percent of mobile subscribers in U.S. and Europe, an increase of 10 percentage points from the previous year, while European adoption reached 31 percent, up nearly 10 points versus year ago. More than 75 percent of mobile subscribers in Japan are connected media users, while 36 percent of mobile Americans and 29 percent of Europeans browsed the mobile web in December 2010.
• LightSquared announced the successful post launch testing and acceptance of the SkyTerra 1 satellite and Space-Based Network (SBN) from Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems. “The LightSquared network will empower our company to offer 4G speed, value and reliability while enabling universal wireless connectivity throughout the United States and Canada.

More news on C/Net, TechMeme, BlogRunner, Engadget, Gizmodo, Google News, Mobile Burn, Mobilebusinessbriefing, MWC: Show Daily, Light Reading, Fierce Wireless, Phone Scoop, MocoNewsTech Crunch, GigaOm, ARM Devices,Liliputing, The Register, Guardian,

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Mobile World Congress, the cellular industry’s annual trade show, opens today amid unprecented change. The trillion dollar cellular telephony business has become a life force, transforming the plant. Business, entertainment and social infrastructure are being transformed before our eyes, and Barcelona is the center of the world this week.

Cumulatively, the world has about 1.2 Billion personal computers and about 1.6 Billion television sets. But almost 1.4 Billion new handsets were sold just during the 12 months of 2010. Today more than 5 billion people use cell phones. It the next few years nearly everyone will be connected.

“Smartphones” are expected to be 30% of all phones sold this year. They’re more powerful than home computers just a few years ago and they’re coming alive. Applications and broadband networks are transforming the planet. Who could have predicted that the world’s largest music retailer would be Apple and that the biggest book retailer would be Amazon.

The annual trade show expects 50,000 visitors over the next four days. There’s no better place to watch for trends then Mobile World Congress.

Things to watch:

• Operating Systems. A bombshell was dropped in London on Friday when Nokia, the world’s largest cellphone company, said they planned to drop Symbian, the most popular phone system in the world for Windows Mobile. What’s the fallout for Meego, Android, Apple and others?
• New phone concepts. The Sony “PlayStation” phone, HTC’s convertible phone/netbook, tablets, ebooks, connected appliances, electric grids, cars and cameras.
• Smartphones. Look for a torrent of new devices from Nokia, HTC, Samsung, Sony, LG, ZTE and others.
• Tablets. Apple’s iPad, a hit with over 15 million units sold last year has triggered so many Android variants, it’s impossible to keep track.
• Apps. App Planet will be the Centre of the Apps Universe.
• LTE Everywhere. Everyone assumed LTE would be the system of choice for mobile operators. But the announcements could take everyone’s breath away. And where will they get spectrum?
• Social Networking. Social networking, with 40 per cent of users checking their status daily, has risen to a whopping 63 per cent in the 18-to-24 age bracket. Social networking is also the fastest-growing consumer app category out of the 19 tracked by research group Gartner. And this year’s MWC will see a clutch of phones specifically designed with social networking in mind, particularly Facebook.
• Near Field Communication. NFC will be built into a growing number of high-end phones this year, transforming bank card and transaction.
• Speakers. Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer, Twitter chief executive Dick Costolo, Google’s Eric Schmidt, Vittorio Colao, Vodafone CEO, Wang Jianzhou, chairman of China Mobile, etc.
• Risky Business. Fortunes will be bet. Flags will be planted

This is the year and Barcelona is the place. All hell is about to break loose.

Follow all the action on Google News, C/Net, TechMeme, BlogRunner, Engadget, Gizmodo, Mobile Burn, Mobilebusinessbriefing, MWC: Show Daily, Light Reading, Fierce Wireless, Phone Scoop, MocoNewsTech Crunch, GigaOm, ARM Devices,Liliputing, The Register, Guardian,

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Yes, my head hurts too. If you’re attending MWC 2011 you’re sure to see Metaio’s technology if you haven’t experienced it already. Being demoed at MWC this year is a new project, the “world’s most advanced” Augmented Reality Browser Junaio 3.0 coupled with Unifeye Mobile SDK, and the results are extraordinary.  Look past the iPhone in the video and watch.

Have you been wowed yet? AR has already been implemented in all sorts of apps on the Android market to help users obtain information and even locations for certain objects in their environments. Never like this. I don’t know about you, but Im excited.

More details and information can be found in the official press release below.

Munich / Barcelona, February 10th 2011 – At this year`s Mobile World Congress (MWC) metaio`s technology will be visible all over the place. The Unifeye Mobile SDK and the world`s most advanced AR browser junaio are being featured and presented on various platforms, devices, chipsets and exhibition stands. As a highlight the first integrated markerless 3D object tracking showcase will be presented. Furthermore CTO Peter Meier is sharing his vision and thoughts in two major augmented reality sessions . And last but not least metaio will present its roadmap for the junaio 3.0 release.

At least since Google CEO Eric Schmidt coined the phrase of an “augmented humanity” – for the last time within his keynote at the DLD conference in Munich two weeks ago – there is no doubt, that enriching the real world with virtual data is one of the game changing technologies of the future. Aligned by market forecasts saying that the “AR market” could be a 732 million dollar market (Juniper Research) already in the next five years and that the worldwide smartphone sales will exceed 1.1 billion by 2013 (Parks Associates) the whole mobile industry casts an eye on augmented reality. The technology is one of the hottest topics for this year`s MWC.

For widespread and daily usage however the whole eco-system – still in a phase between infancy and an adolescent hype – has to work closely together in order to deliver useful, robust, smooth and still fascinating augmented reality experiences. The “Wow” factor will expire, but the true potential will come out even beyond our imagination. In order to take full advantage of augmented reality and to finally bring the technology to the mainstream of smartphone users, chipset manufacturers, carriers and technology providers have to cooperate closely. Improving the performance, experience, usability and capabilities of AR applications is crucial for broad adoption and daily usage. metaio`s AR software Unifeye Mobile SDK and their, currently seen by many experts, most advanced AR browser junaio offer for example vision based AR and go far beyond compass/GPS based approaches. However, multimedia tightly registered to the physical space triggered by planar objects is computationally intensive and requires a tight integration of hardware and software. metaio CTO Peter Meier summarizes: “With the computational challenges of an augmented vision in mind, a markerless trackable real world, cooperations between hardware and software providers become even more important.” Working closely together with leading chipset manufacturers for an optimized software/hardware integration is where metaio puts its development efforts – besides constantly working on new tracking methods and backend approaches with many patented solutions. The latest results will be shown at the Mobile World Congress 2011.

For further information and press announcements regarding metaio@MWC2011, please refer to: metaio.com/mwc2011 We would love to get in touch and give you an in depth introduction to our very own augmented vision of the future.

Below you can find a short overview about metaio@MWC2011:

World`s first 3D tracking demo on a mobile device, showing a service and maintenance scenario for our future everyday life

junaio and Unifeye Mobile SDK Demos at ST Ericsson (hall 7, booth 7E69 and zone 4, booth z4.2)

junaio as the official indoor navigation and general information channel for the GSMA App Planet (App Planet hall)

junaio demo at Texas Instruments (hall 8, booth 8A84)

Special Meego Demo on the “WeTab” at INTEL`s Intelligent Living Room with metaio`s image processing capabilities (hall 8, booth 8B192)

AR-Lounge featured on junaio at Ericsson (hall 6, booth 6E01)

CTO Peter Meier joining the panel “Augmented Reality: Is Reality Ready to be Augmented?” (hall 5, room 5; 4:00 PM to 5:30 PM on Tue., February 15)

CTO Peter Meier discussing with other industry experts about “mPublishing: Bringing a New Dimension to Print” (hall 5, room 3; 2:00 PM to 3:30 PM on Wed., February 16)

About metaio
As a pioneer in the area of augmented reality technology, metaio (www.metaio.com ) develops software products or systems driven by visual interaction in both, the real and the virtual world. Our Unifeye software platform not only lets you place 3D animations directly into live video streams, but also supports the seamless integration of images from the external user environment.Founded in February 2003, we currently employ 65 members of staff at three different locations. The company is headquartered in Munich. Our subsidiaries metaio Inc. and metaio Asia are headquartered in San Francisco and Seoul, respectively. metaio is currently involved in projects worldwide for over 140 well-known customers from a broad range of industries. Among them are: BMW, Daimler, LEGO, Toyota, Popular Science, adidas Originals, MINI, Focus Features and Volkswagen.

Source:  AndroidMixer

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