By Daniel Ionescu
PC World (US)
March 12, 2010

SAN FRANCISCO - Apple’s iPhone will finally support multitasking for third-party apps as part of its iPhone OS 4.0 release, according to one of many rumors surfacing as interest in what’s next for the iPhone mounts.

Naturally, Apple is tight-lipped over its plans for the iPhone we won’t know anything for sure until launch day which isn’t expected for another five months. But that hasn’t stopped the blogosphere from speculating. Most reports come from unnamed sources, so it’s recommended you take them with a grain of salt — though some are worth putting into perspective.

Now let’s roundup the rumors for the iPhone 4.0 software release, starting with multitasking support.

Multitasking for several 3rd party apps

The lack on multitasking on the iPhone, and soon iPad, was always controversial among smartphone enthusiasts. Apple only allows a select few of its own apps to run in the background, but this could change.

According to AppleInsidier sources, the 4.0 software to be delivered on new iPhones this summer will allow several third party apps to run simultaneously in the background, and according to Gizmodo, it may look a lot like Expose on Mac OSX.

Multitasking is one of the logical upgrades to the iPhone OS, especially as Android, Nokia or Palm smartphones have been supporting this for years. So if it’s not just wishful thinking, third party apps multitasking on the iPhone is a welcomed addition.

Let not forget though, multitasking on the iPhone has been rumored before the 3G and 3GS models were launched — and never came to be.

Video calling

A front-facing video camera on the iPhone would allow for video calling, a feature present in many smartphones over the past few years. Video calling has still not gained popularity among mobile users, but Apple is believed to have a trick up its sleeve.

Alongside iconography for video chatting found in the iPhone 3.2 system files, O2, one of Apple’s wireless partners for the iPhone in the UK briefly changed its iPhone tariffs, stating video calls will come for the same price as voice calls.

The network was quick to retract this and claimed it as an error, but many were left salivating over the possibility. The likelihood of video-calling for the iPhone 4.0 is minimal, considering AT&T is yet to enable tethering, and video calling would eat up more bandwitdh as well.

Five-megapixel camera with flash

The iPhone 3GS has brought a better camera (3.2MP) over the previous model (3G with 2MP), so again, it would be logical for Apple to upgrade the camera in the upcoming iteration of the iPhone to 5.0 megapixels.

However, Apple was reluctant to introduce a flash for the iPhone camera, and pictures taken with the phone in darker circumstances are blurry or grainy. The flash could be more of a dream, but let’s hope Apple comes with a surprise.

Even more rumors

New gestures are also expected in the next iteration of the iPhone, such as long tap and 3 taps, though it is unclear what they will be used of or how. The rumor comes as developers have dug deep through the iPhone SDK only to find file names pointing to new gestures.

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By JR Raphael
PC World (US)
March 1, 2010

SAN FRANCISCO - That iPhone you adore may have been built by a child.
Nearly a dozen underage teens were working for Apple-contracted facilities in 2009, the company has revealed. The news was posted to Apple’s Web site under a section labeled “Supplier Responsibility.”
Apple’s Child Labor Discovery

The underage workers, Apple says, were at three different suppliers’ facilities. Though the specific locations aren’t disclosed, the report says inspectors visited facilities in China, the Czech Republic, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and the United States. The factories in question built iPhones, iPods, and various Apple computers.

“Across the three facilities, our auditors found records of 11 workers who had been hired prior to reaching the legal age, although the workers were no longer underage or no longer in active employment at the time of our audit,” the report says.

The legal age in the facilities’ countries, according to Apple’s report, is 16. The workers in question were only 15 when they were hired.

Apple’s Audit: Additional Violations

The Apple production problems don’t end there: More than 60 different facilities were also overworking their employees, Apple says. Apple’s code requires suppliers to work employees no more than 60 hours a week with “at least one day a rest per seven days of work.”

Beyond that, Apple’s audit found two dozen facilities that were paying their people less than the minimum required wage and another 57 that were cheating workers out of legally required benefits — things like sick time and maternity leave. Some factories even cut workers’ wages for “disciplinary purposes,” according to Apple’s report.

Apple says it’s requiring the suppliers to develop new measures to correct the violations.

Some of the measures include repaying workers who were underpaid and implementing new systems to ensure correct payment and weekly work-time in the future. The company promises to follow up with the factories to be certain they’ve taken the appropriate steps.

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By Stephen Lawson
IDG News Service (San Francisco Bureau)
February 18, 2010

SAN FRANCISCO - Many US consumers whipped out their smartphones in brick-and-mortar stores to find better deals online last year, tripling mobile shopping revenue in just one year, an ABI Research analyst said Wednesday.

The findings of a newly released report by the firm showed that the relationship between money and mobile devices varies widely from one part of the world to another. Mobile banking grew significantly in India, while Africa, Latin America and some other parts of the world appeared ready to bypass banking altogether in favor of payments handled by mobile operators, according to ABI.

Mobile commerce grew far faster in the U.S. than worldwide last year, vaulting from US$396 million in 2008 to an estimated $1.2 billion in 2009, analyst Mark Beccue said. That was nearly 1 percent of all online commerce, he said. Drawing on information from multiple sources, ABI concluded that many smartphone users went shopping in physical stores, looked at products, checked out deals on the same items online and made a purchase without even going home to log onto a computer.

Some used an emerging class of applications designed to make this easier, including ShopSavvy, a tool for the iPhone and Android platforms that is coming soon to many Nokia devices. ShopSavvy uses the phone’s camera as a barcode scanner to identify a product, then directs the user to Web shopping pages for that item.

Shopping on the mobile Web has become especially popular in North America, though in Japan, it already accounts for about 20 percent of online purchases, Beccue said. Worldwide, excluding Japan, mobile commerce grew from about $3 billion in 2008 to $4.4 billion in 2009.

Meanwhile, the number of U.S. consumers using mobile banking more than doubled in 2009, from 4 million to 10 million. That was partly driven by the slumping economy, because many consumers adopt mobile banking to check their balances frequently, Beccue said. In addition, U.S. banks are starting to treat mobile as more than an extension of Web-based banking, with tools such as SMS (Short Message Service).

But mobile banking is most popular in Asia and has made particular gains in India, where much of the country has limited banking infrastructure. Looking to remedy this problem, the Indian government in 2008 started encouraging banks to launch mobile platforms, he said.

“They see mobile banking as a way to accelerate the acceptance of personal financial services,” Beccue said. More than half of Asia’s mobile banking customers in 2009 were in India.

Worldwide, the number of mobile-banking users grew from 24.4 million in 2008 to 52.1 million in 2009. Half of those users were in the Asia-Pacific region, Beccue said.

ABI expects to see 407 million people worldwide use mobile banking by 2015. But by that time, nearly as many people will be handling their money through their phones without ever opening a bank account: By then, about 405 million people will be using point-to-point payment systems in which the mobile operator takes in and pays out the cash, Beccue said.

Point-to-point payment systems are becoming an important financial platform in countries where most people have never had access to banks, he said.

“In many parts of the developing world, mobile is the most common piece of infrastructure that exists,” Beccue said. “In many places, there are more mobile phones than there is running water or electricity.”

In late 2007, Safaricom, the dominant mobile operator in Kenya, started a program called M-Pesa. To use it, Safaricom customers give money to the local agent for the carrier, who may be the corner shopkeeper. That money can be used to prepay for phone service but is also used like a bank deposit. When the consumer wants to pay a friend or merchant who is also a Safaricom subscriber, he simply sends an SMS message authorizing the payment. The carrier knows about the transaction and can verify it because it controls the SMS system. The recipient gets the cash in his account and can pick up the cash from another agent of Safaricom.

M-Pesa has taken off partly because a vast majority of Kenyans are Safaricom subscribers, Beccue added. So far, such point-to-point payment systems don’t work across carriers. But despite that limitation, the number of people using such systems worldwide roughly doubled last year, from 27.6 million in 2008 to 55.4 million in 2009, according to ABI.

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By Matt Hamblen
Computerworld (US)
February 17, 2010

FRAMINGHAM - Early reaction to the refreshed Windows Phone 7 Series operating system boiled down mostly to: “Microsoft desperately needed to do something.”

And, analysts said, whether the update is a successful one for Microsoft depends on the answere to a variety of ‘what if’ questions.

The ‘what if’ questions cited by several analysts center around whether Microsoft can get its new mobile operating system, Windows Phone 7 Series (WP7), noticed in an increasingly crowded market that includes powerhouse products like Nokia’s Symbian and Research in Motion’s BlackBerry along with highly regarded upcoming OS’s like Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android.

“Microsoft had to take aggressive action as its Windows Mobile OS was dying a rapid death in the market,” noted Jack Gold, an analyst at J. Gold Associates. “The changes it has made [with Windows Phone 7 Series] might get it some notice, although the field is much more crowded now that it once was and notice will be harder to get.”

The new operating system comes as Microsoft has suffered declines in the mobile operating system business.

WP7 OS features several user interface improvements, including the concept of “hubs” that groups functions such as “games” or “office.” The “games” hub will be synchronized with the Microsoft Xbox live online community, while the “music+video” hub syncs with the company’s desktop Zune jukebox and music store software.

Such “hub” features are a clear play for the consumer market, which has analysts worried that the strategy could leave Microsoft’s traditional core audience of enterprise users and developers in the dust.

“The change will not endear Microsoft to its existing base of corporate users who will have to redesign and redeploy their [mobile] apps if they are to utilize this new platform,” Gold wrote in a note. “We don’t think Microsoft can count on many enterprises making such a transition/upgrade. Most organizations will stay with older Windows Mobile versions, especially those with ruggedized devices.”

Then, Gold said, the suppliers of handhelds using older Microsoft software find a competing OS more attractive than WP7. Gold suggested that enterprise IT shops and users start looking at potential “end of life” strategies for existing Windows Mobile devices.

Gartner Inc. analyst Ken Dulaney called WP7 “a good start” for Microsoft, but raised ‘what if’s’ like “will they have great hardware?” and “Will they be able to hit the right price points?”

Dulaney raised similar questions, noting that Microsoft has not clearly delineated the future for its current mobile OS, Windows Mobile 6.5. “Will WM 6.5 eventually be subsumed into WP7, leaving 6.5 users out on a limb for a few years?” Dulaney asked.

Will Stofega, an analyst at IDC, said Microsoft might be able to wean users slowly off WM 6.5 and prior versions.

Success of the new WM7 will depend heavily on how manufacturers adopt and deploy WM7, Stofega said.

But Stofega’s big ‘what if’ question for WM7, as oblique as it sounds, is” “will it inspire confidence?” A lot of market confidence in WM7 will stem from how quickly Microsoft delivers the software, and how quickly it is deployed by manufacturers, he added.

“What they don’t want to do is piss off people,” which was apparently Stofega’s reference to how Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer last fall told investors that Microsoft had “screwed up with Windows Mobile.”

One subject that left analysts scratching their heads is how WM7 fits with the reported Microsoft Project Pink Turtle Phone . That product, according to blog citations of documents at the Federal Communications Commission, will be a slider-designed phone with a physical Qwerty keyboard being built by Sharp for Verizon Wireless in the U.S. to be released sometime in the spring.

“They still have not reconciled Pink and WM 6.5 in this [announcement],” Dulaney said. “Where does Pink fit?”

Stofega said Pink is a code word for an “alleged Microsoft device” but added that it really could be at the moment a creation by “bloggers just trying to stir up things.”

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By Mike Elgan
Computerworld (US)
February 15, 2010

FRAMINGHAM - Everybody’s talking about Google Buzz. Most of that chatter is centered on how to use it, and whether it’s better or worse than Twitter or Facebook. Almost all the talk is about using Buzz from a PC.

Now it’s time to meet the other Google Buzz. For people with the latest iPhone or Android phone, Google Buzz will soon become an amazing, indispensable app — and a glimpse into the future for all of us.

Two weeks ago, I wrote a piece in this space called “Google Quietly Changes the World Again.” I pointed out that two new features rolled into the mobile version of Google Maps, called “Near me now” and “Explore right here,” partially realized the long-held vision of “virtual graffiti.” The idea is to post “invisible messages” in the air, which could be read by a cell phone if you’re in that same location.

That’s what the mobile version of Google Buzz does.

“Near me now” and “Explore right here” functionality is baked right into the mobile version of Buzz. That, combined with cell phone GPS capability and Twitter-like posting, is mobile magic.

Plus, Google adds some wicked voodoo. When you launch the mobile Buzz app and touch the “Nearby” button, you’ll see all recent posts near your location, listed in order of proximity.

A button just above the message area lists all the businesses nearby, also listed by proximity. You can choose the restaurant or store you’re at, or choose the “best available location” option. That’s powerful, because GPS is only approximate.

You can choose not to reveal your location at all or you can reveal your general location or specify exactly which building you’re in, all with a click or two. To the best of my knowledge, it’s not possible to exactly specify nonbusiness locations, such as your home. That’s probably a good thing.

All that sounds vaguely similar to location features on Twitter, or location apps in Facebook. But those implementations are vastly inferior, and far less immediately usable.

More important, I believe Google Buzz will trigger a culture-changing “network effect.” That’s where a snowballing of usage occurs: The more people use a network, the more valuable it becomes; the more valuable it becomes, the more people use it — just like, say, the Web, e-mail or cell phones.

Google Buzz on a PC is a closed experience in two ways: First, you need Gmail to fully experience it. Second, you get messages only from people you’re following. With Google Buzz on a PC, you’re blind to non-Gmail users, and also to everybody you’re not following.

Google Buzz on a phone is the opposite: You don’t need Gmail. And you can see the tweets of people whether you’re following them or not. In the “Nearby” mode, you’re automatically “following” whoever happens to be or has been near wherever it is you are. And they’re following you. When you leave the area, you stop “following” them and start “following” the people near your new location.

The power of Google Buzz on a GPS-enabled cell phone is abstract, and it must be experienced to fully understand it. But until you do, let me tell you eight things you can do with Google Buzz on a compatible iPhone or Android device that can change your life:

1. Promote your business

Last year, one of the big stories on Twitter was food trucks selling cupcakes or Korean barbecue via tweets. Bakeries would tweet when fresh cookies were coming out of the oven. Small businesses of all kinds were first promoting their Twitter feeds, then using those feeds to promote time-sensitive information to customers.

Google Buzz can do the same thing, but with two very big differences. First, you don’t need to know about the business in advance, and second you don’t need to follow anyone. When you use Buzz to check what’s going on in your location, you get the posts about it all — cupcakes, Korean, cookies, you name it — without following any of them and without any advanced knowledge or action.

If you own a small business that relies on foot traffic, embrace Buzz immediately. You can broadcast the availability of specials or sales. You can even use the real-time nature of Buzz to implement flex pricing. Too many loaves of bread, empty theater seats or other perishable items? Cut the price and broadcast the sale. People nearby will see it and come running. In addition to selling to existing customers, you’ll win new ones.

2. Share your ‘business card’ at industry events

I believe my fellow tech pundits will truly “get” the power of mobile Buzz at the next major IT industry event. Here’s what will happen: The early adopters will start an invisible, back-channel, ad-hoc social network during the show based only on GPS location. In other words, people won’t need to know the URL for the official message board or chat room. They’ll just use Buzz’s “Nearby” mode, and everybody nearby will be a conference attendee.

People will introduce themselves to fellow attendees by broadcasting their Google Profiles page — a kind of “business card exchange.” A few speakers will draw crowds by promoting their presentations on Buzz. Attendees will arrange meet-ups. The people on Buzz will get more out of the conference.

At the IT industry conference after that one, nearly everyone will be using Buzz. From there, it will spread to non-tech conferences. Within a year, I think Buzz will become the de facto source of information and networking at all industry events.

3. Find a lost pet

Seen fluffy? If you staple a photo printout to a telephone pole, hardly anyone’s going to see it. But if you post it on buzz with a picture, anyone within 10 miles can see it. Just post the picture online somewhere, e-mail the link to your phone, copy the link from e-mail and paste it into the post window in Google Buzz’s “Nearby” mode. It becomes part of the public stream for your neighborhood. Same goes for ads about yard sales, bake sales and other suburban events.

4. Leave a note for future Buzz users in the same location

Let’s say you go on a breathtaking hike in the woods, and discover a hidden waterfall. Why not post a message with Buzz that will be forever associated with that location. You can alert future hikers about how to find the waterfall.

5. Talk to your neighbors

Google Buzz by default creates a neighborhood chat room. By selecting the “Nearby” mode in a residential area, all messages will be those posted by neighbors. It’s fuzzy, too. If someone on the edge of your neighborhood chimes in, someone else on the edge of her neighborhood might join the chat. Conversations could literally spread like a virus.

6. Read and write restaurant reviews

When you’re in “Nearby” mode, you can select a drop-down menu of businesses. If you’re standing in front of a restaurant, why just read the menu? Read the reviews. Or, if you’ve just finished a meal, you can quickly write your own review. In either case, tap the “More info” link next to the name of the establishment, which takes you to Google’s info page on the place. The info page includes details about the restaurant, plus a place for customers to write reviews.

7. Talk to other people at a concert or other public event

If you’re at a concert, in line for an Apple launch, attending a family reunion or at a Space Shuttle launch, you can take part in the Buzz conversation that will be going on. You might gain valuable intelligence (the location of a bathroom without a long line) or just have fun discussing the event with others.

8. Get help

Let’s say you’re visiting New York City, and find yourself with urgent logistical questions. “Which one is the real Original Ray’s Pizza?” “How do I get from where I am to Brooklyn on the subway?” “Does anybody want to sell me an umbrella? I’ll give you 20 bucks!” In a crowded place like New York, I expect you’d get instant answers from people physically located within 100 yards from where you are.

Those are just eight things I can imagine with Google Buzz on iPhone, Android and, later, no doubt, other phone platforms. What can you imagine? What will emerge that nobody can yet imagine? It’s a new mobile world out there.

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By Tom Kaneshige
CIO.com
February 15, 2010

FRAMINGHAM - Most iPhone owners really don’t care about security, according to a new survey by ESET, an anti-malware software vendor.

“We don’t see in-depth defense among smarphone users,” James Abrams, director of technical education at ESET, told CIO.com amidst a throng of iPhone owners milling around on the Macworld Expo showroom floor in San Francisco.

It’s likely these iPhone owners won’t take security seriously until the iPhone has a Toyota moment, when a simmering problem finally bubbles over and splatters them right in the public eye. “It wouldn’t surprise me if that moment is still a couple years off,” Abrams said.

ESET commissioned a survey of a more than 1,000 smartphone owners-35 percent iPhone, 32 percent Blackberry, and the rest a mix-and released its findings yesterday. The key finding: a majority of people don’t take security seriously.

Among iPhone and Blackberry users, 55 percent don’t lock their smartphone. Some 40 percent of all smartphone users said they’re concerned with malicious software infecting their device, while only one in four said they actually use antivirus software, including iPhone owners.

Can iPhone owners even run anti-virus software? “None of the iPhone users should have reported that they are using antivirus as Apple will not approve such software for the iPhone, even though Apple has had to pull spyware off of their App Store,” Abrams wrote in his blog. Such is the fallacy of surveys.

Nevertheless, Abrams worries that unsuspecting iPhone owners will have their day of reckoning perhaps in two years. Why so long? He figures hackers are lying in wait, ready to exploit the iPhone.

Hackers might be waiting for Apple to unlock the iPhone for different networks. Or they want iPhones to get into more people’s hands. Perhaps they’re waiting for a banking iPhone app that they can target. “Hackers don’t target for fun,” Abrams said, comparing them to the guy who created a worm for jailbroken iPhones as a joke.

Mobile online banking attracts hackers, Abrams said. The ESET survey found one in four users make purchases using their smartphones. Nearly one in three accesses banking websites or apps. “Combined with access to email and social networking accounts is what makes the devices attractive to hackers and other criminals,” Abrams wrote.

“It is the adoption of commerce that will create the irresistible opportunity for those with malicious intent,” he said.

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By Marco Tabini
Macworld.com
February 10, 2010

SAN FRANCISCO - According to market analysis firm ComScore, Apple’s share of the U.S. smartphone market grew by a full percentage point in December of 2009.

The company’s report indicates that Motorola still controls a leading position in the overall mobile market, while Blackberry maker RIM actually commands the smartphone market with over 41 percent of the installed base.

RIM’s slice of the smartphone pie, however, has shrunk by one percent in the three months between September and December of 2009. Meanwhile, Apple’s market share has grown by the same amount, confirming Cupertino’s second spot on that list with over 25 percent of the market. Palm is the biggest loser among all handset makers, with a decrease of over 2 percent over the previous reporting period; its share seems to have all gone to Google, which gained almost three percent from last September.

You may recall that Macworldreported earlier this month on another analysis report, issued by ABI Research, which actually claimed that the iPhone had lost market share based on the number of units sold. ComScore’s numbers seem to confirm the suspicion that ABI’s report reflects shifts in sales due to an overall growth in the demand for smartphones, rather than a decrease of interest in Apple’s products.

The ComScore paper also indicates that the overall U.S. mobile market continues to grow. According to the report, 63 percent of all subscribers now use texting (up two percent) and 18 percent use downloaded apps–an increase of one percent. Unfortunately, the company did not provide a breakdown of usage by brand, which would have shed additional light on the usage patterns of smartphone subscribers compared to traditional handset owners.

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By Nic Vargus
Macworld.com
February 9, 2010

SAN FRANCISCO - If you’ve ever had to fiddle around with a charging cable for your phone or iPod, or cast an envious glance at wireless chargers like the Palm Pre’s Touchstone, Powermat’s “wireless” charging pads may have caught your eye: the company’s eponymous products, compatible with Apple products, boast wireless charging to supported devices. I reviewed two models: the Home & Office Mat and the foldable Portable Mat version. Each costs $99 and supports up to three receivers.

Included with each product is a universal charger that allows you to connect one device to a small box that sits on the charging station. While it seems paradoxical to fill one of the Powermat’s three charging slots with something that must be physically plugged in, the eight swappable connectors for the universal charger does make the device versatile.

The investment in a Powermat system is steep; you’ll need a $99 base as well as a $40 receiver in the shape of a case or dock if you want to charge an iPhone or iPod touch. That’s an awful lot of money to throw down on what is, at best, a way to avoid the minor inconvenience of plugging in your player.

Powermat charges “wirelessly” by using magnetic induction, which means the setup is as truly wireless as a rechargeable electric toothbrush. Align the magnet on the back of the receiver with the magnet in the charging base, and the mat beeps and starts charging your device. For $140, it would be nice if the “wireless” were more like Wi-Fi, charging your device from across the room or at least across your desk, but that technology remains largely in the realm of science-fiction.

Positioning a receiver on the mat takes some practice–the handshake, as it’s called, can occur only when a receiver is positioned in a certain way on the mat. However, once in position–the magnets help you find the right spot by feel–the connection is solid.

The receiver cases for the iPhone and iPod Touch are surprisingly sleek and sturdy, adding about the same amount of girth as many polycarbonate cases on the market right now. The cases are also relatively lightweight considering the additional hardware involved; that hardware results in a slightly raised ridge on the back of the case.

I tested the Powermat units with an iPhone, an iPod Touch, an iPod classic, an iPod Nano, a Nintendo DS, and a variety of cell phones. I often charged devices three at a time without problems. In many cases, the Powermat seemed to charge devices as quickly as, or even a tad faster than, their own power adapters.

Because the iPod and iPhone receiver cases aren’t designed to be taken off regularly, each includes a mini-USB port that allows you to connect your case-clad device (using the included, color-matched USB cable) to your computer for syncing with iTunes.

If you do want to remove the case, it’s a bit of a trick: you must press two unmarked spots on the back of the case while pulling another part of the case in a specific direction–a pretty difficult task. There are no instructions included for performing this maneuver, so you’ll need to scour the Internet for tips.

Of the two Powermat models I tested, I found the travel version to be slightly more practical: It was small enough to carry in a loaded backpack when I traveled across the state on a weekend trip, while still being capable of charging every handheld I brought. The only drawback to the travel version is that you sacrifice a bit of style (compared to the original model) for this convenience.

Overall, I ended up charging my phone more often when I was using the Powermat–it is indeed a bit easier to plop the phone down on the mat than to plug it in. However, it’s not a life-changing convenience. (Who said plugging in was difficult anyway?) Though the product does what it’s intended to do, at the asking price you’d hope the technology would do a little more than improve your life ever so slightly.

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By Matt Hamblen
Computerworld (US)
February 4, 2010

FRAMINGHAM - Cisco Systems Inc. plans to add voice-over-Wi-Fi capabilities to its existing iPhone app by April, part of a continuing effort to expand its unified communications technology into the mobile space.

The current iPhone Cisco Mobile app requires users to have a Cisco Unified Mobility Advantage server installed at a business. The server is usually administered by a company’s IT department.

Cisco Mobile already gives iPhone users quick access to many of the standard Cisco IP features, such as visual voicemail and Mobile Connect, software that can route calls from a work number through a company’s phone switching network and then out to an iPhone. The iPhone client software is free.

Cisco sees voice over Wi-Fi for the iPhone as a less expensive way to communicate because it would eliminate the need to use cellular voice minutes when placing a call in a Wi-Fi zone, said Laurent Philonenko, general manager of Cisco’s unified communications business unit.

The upcoming version, to be called Cisco Mobile Voice, will also be free and is expected to be available by April. Among the new features it will offer is “shake to lock,” which allows a user to end a call with a simple shaking gesture of the phone, he said. Another, named “call preservation,” allows a phone call to stay connected, even if a user opens a different application in the iPhone.

Cisco is also developing another iPhone application for voice-activated dialing. That app can be launched by bringing the phone to the ear and speaking, since the iPhone’s accelerometer detects the movement. It will be part of the Web 2.0 IP Telephony Widget.

Philonenko spoke to reporters in Boston and other cities from San Jose, Calif. via videoconference and was joined in Madison, Wisc., by Pat Scheckel, vice president of converged infrastructure solutions for CDW, which resells computers and related gear to businesses.

CDW, which has 3,500 customer deployments of Cisco’s mobile and unified communications technology globally, has already worked with one manufacturing company that has implemented voice over Wi-Fi using Nokia smartphones and Cisco 7925 IP phones, Scheckel said. “They had exorbitant cell phone bills and now just use Wi-Fi,” he noted.

Philonenko said it is important for Cisco to bring its mobility apps to iPhone, which has gained ground in large businesses in the past two years. Cisco eventually plans to bring all of its mobility applications to Nokia and BlackBerry devices, and, later, Android phones, he said. “Android is not yet a big factor in the enterprise ,” he said. “And we think Windows Mobile will re-emerge….

“The iPhone came from nowhere and companies like CDW are now deploying them by the thousands,” Philonenko said. With smartphone devices proliferating, cell networks seem to have saturated the globe, “but there’s still not enough 3G bandwidth for what people want to do.” As a result, Wi-Fi is seen as a relief valve, raising the value of voice over Wi-Fi, he added.

Cisco, which offers Webex collaboration software as well, is tracking the growing importance of social networking, Philonenko added. “Everything we do [at Cisco] is going to be mobilized,” he said.

Matt Hamblen covers mobile and wireless, smartphones and other handhelds, and wireless networking for Computerworld . Follow Matt on Twitter at @matthamblen or subscribe to Matt’s RSS feed . His e-mail address is mhamblen@computerworld.com .

Read more about networking and internet in Computerworld’s Networking and Internet Knowledge Center.

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By David Dahlquist
Macworld.com
February 1, 2010

SAN FRANCISCO - Byte Squared has released Office2, an office app for the iPhone and iPod ouch that lets you edit Word documents and Excel spreadsheets in .doc and .xls formats. (Note that the app’s name is pronounced “Office Squared,” and that the “2″ appears as a superscript when you’re searching for it on the App Store.)
Office2 also provides integration with Google Docs, letting you edit Google Docs documents and spreadsheets from within the app. You can also access, move, and delete documents stored in Google Docs, iDisk and any WebDAV server.

The Office2 word processor lets you view, create, edit and save documents in Word 97-2003 (.doc) format. It also supports character formatting, tables, images, searching of text within documents, undo and redo up to 100 undo levels, and auto-correction and auto-completion.

The Office2 spreadsheet works with Excel 97-2003 (.xls) and handles multiple worksheets with unlimited rows and columns, searching and sorting of cells, cell formatting, cell types, and pane freezing among other spreadsheet necessities. Office2 uses the iPhone’s touch screen effectively, letting you tap and drag to change row heights and column widths, and tap cells to compose formulas.

Those of you cringing at the thought of doing any sort of document or spreadsheet work on an iPhone or iPod touch will probably do best avoiding this app–or hold out for an iPad and its customized version of the iWork apps–but for those who often need to review and edit documents and spreadsheets while on the go, this app could make life easier.

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By Ian Lamont
The Industry Standard
February 1, 2010

SAN FRANCISCO - After hitting a grand slam with the iPhone, Apple can’t be too happy with some of the early reaction to the iPad. On message boards, Twitter, blogs, and Facebook, a recurring theme has been to compare the device to a “giant iPod touch.”

Considering none of the naysayers have ever handled an iPad, the comparison may seem harsh. But viewing the demo, it’s not hard to see how people came to this conclusion. After all, the thing looks like a giant iPod touch, from the black-and-chrome exterior to the recessed start button. And, while Apple has introduced some new UI elements, such as drop-down menus, other basic features are based on the iPhone/iPod touch model, including the accelerometer, app store, some of the icons used for playing media, and, of course, the touch screen.

There are other criticisms as well. During the event, a comment left on the Industry Standard by reader David Kuan read:

“1 hr into the event … and I am heading towards snoozeville. Here are my iPad not-so-good impressions thus far ….

1. Bezel is too large
2. 1/2 in is TOO THICK Even Kindle DX is thinner at 1/3 in
3. Full size QWERTY is nice but bad ergonomics when typing iPad on a flat surface
4. No SD slot for storage portability (A BIG MISS HERE!)
5. Phenomenal email? I must have dozed off during the “phenomenal” part
6. No camera? Sigh!
7. No FLASH support (MAJOR OUCH!)
8. IPS display means more power consumption and requiring backlight. Difficulty to read outdoors due to glare. OLED would be a much better choice but at this size it is yet to be economical for mass consumer target.”

However, other people are very excited about the prospect of owning an iPad. There have been a huge number of iPad-related tweets saying “I want one,” particularly after the pricing was announced — the base $499 Wifi model seems to be within many people’s budgets.

But the true gauge of the iPad will come when the devices ship in 60 days, and Apple releases sales figures later in the year. Wall Street thus far seems undecided, if Apple’s stock price is anything to go by. It dipped to a low of about $200 during the beginning of Wednesday’s demonstration, but the price had recovered to around $208 90 minutes later.

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By Gregg Keizer
Computerworld (US)
January 28, 2010

FRAMINGHAM - Apple CEO Steve Jobs today unveiled the iPad, calling the tablet a “magical and revolutionary” addition to the company’s existing lines of Macs, iPods and the iPhone.

Priced starting at $499 but with the top-end configuration listed at $829, the iPad will be available within 60 days. The tablet sports a 9.7-in. LCD display, putting to rest rumors of a smaller-sized display that would supposedly use the more advanced, power-saving OLED technology .
“This is a true personal computer with the first radically different operating system since the original Mac in 1984,” said Ezra Gottheil, an analyst with Technology Business Research. “This is absolutely the right answer by Apple to netbooks. If you want the Apple experience, but don’t want to pay $1,000 for a MacBook, here it is.”
Jobs also announced what he called a “breakthrough deal” with AT&T to provide 3G connectivity for the iPad using two pre-paid plans: a $14.99 plan that allows up to 250GB of data monthly, and a $29.99 unlimited data plan. iPad users do not have to sign a contract with AT&T, Jobs added, and can cancel at any time without penalty.

iPad models with 3G capability will be priced $130 more than their WiFi-only cousins: The 16GB iPad without 3G costs $499, for example, while the 16GB model with 3G runs $629.

Ship dates will also vary depending on whether consumers want a WiFi-only or 3G-capable iPad. The former will go on sale in 60 days, said Jobs, or near the end of March, while the latter will follow 30 days after that, in late April.

After claiming that Apple is the world’s largest mobile devices company — by adding iPod, iPhone and Mac notebook revenues — Jobs rhetorically asked the question that many analysts have tried to answer.

“Is there room for a third category of device in the middle?” Jobs asked. “Something that’s between a laptop and smartphone?” If there was, Jobs continued, it needed to be more than either. “This device needs to be better than a laptop or a smartphone … or it has no reason for being.”

Gottheil said he thought Apple nailed it. “We’re getting what I was hoping, something that’s not a Mac, not a Windows PC, something that isn’t complicated to use. I don’t have to know about folders, I just want to use it.”

Key, said Gottheil, was Apple’s decision to use a variation of the iPhone OS for the iPad. “Some 40 million people have figured out how to use [that OS] without much handholding,” he noted. “I want this to be simple, and with the iPhone OS, it is. That’s the killer feature.”

During the 90-minute unveiling, Jobs and other Apple executives demonstrated the iPad’s capabilities to prove their point that the tablet is better than either a laptop or a phone, at least at a host of applications, ranging from Web browsing and games to movie watching and e-books .
“But this isn’t the Kindle killer than some were expecting,” said Gottheil. “It’s portable and a useful size, but I think it’s too heavy and too thick to be an e-book reader killer.”

In many ways, the iPad resembles an overgrown iPhone — the “iPod Touch on steroids” that some analysts, including Gottheil, had predicted last year — down to the touch-enabled display and the appearance of only one button, the Home button, on the device.

The iPad weighs approximately 1.5 pounds, is about half an inch thick, and is based on a 1GHz Apple-designed processor, which Jobs dubbed the Apple A4. “It’s powered by our own silicon,” said Jobs, “[and] it screams.” Although Jobs did not specifically say so, the chip was likely created by P.A. Semi , the Santa Clara, Calif. boutique microprocessor design company Apple acquired in 2008.
Multiple models of the iPad will be available, with prices dependent on the amount of flash memory. Apple will sell the tablet in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB models for $499, $599 and $699, respectively with WiFi only, but for $629, $729 and $829 with both WiFi and 3G.

Jobs claimed that the iPad’s battery would last approximately 10 hours while playing video, and remain in standby mode for up to a month without recharging. “I can take a flight form San Francisco to Tokyo and watch video the whole way,” he said.

As many had predicted, including a metric firm that detected dozens of unidentified devices running at Apple’s Cupertino, Calif. campus since last October, the iPad runs a variation of the iPhone OS. Apple will release a modified iPhone SDK (software developer kit) later today that has been enhanced to support iPad development, said Scott Forstall, the senior vice president of iPhone software.
Most existing iPhone applications can run as is on the new iPad, Forstall added, in either an expanded mode or in a small, iPhone-sized frame.

The iPad’s e-book capabilities, which Jobs compared with Amazon’s Kindle, come courtesy of a built-in app named iBook. Tablet users can download electronic books — they’re in the ePub format — from an iTunes-like bookstore that’s populated with titles by major publishers including Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins and Penguin. To flip a page, readers simply tap anywhere on the right (to go forward a page) or on the left (to go back) side of the iPad screen.

ePub is an open standard maintained by the International Digital Publishing Forum .
Apple has also created an iPad-specific version of its iWork productivity suite, which includes a word processor, presentation maker and spreadsheet. Each of the three applications — Pages, Keynote and Numbers — will cost $9.99 to download from the iPad’s App Store, said Philip Schiller, Apple’s head of marketing. For text and data entry in iWork’s applications, the iPad uses what Jobs and Schiller called an “almost life-sized” on-screen keyboard.

Apple will also sell iPad accessories, including a Kindle-style cover, a docking/recharging station and a keyboard dock that offers a full-sized Apple-style keyboard.

“The price and the keyboard, that’s what puts the iPad over the top,” Gottheil argued. “For some, this can be a full-fledged MacBook substitute. There will be some chewing away of the iPod Touch below and the MacBook above, but the net is that this greatly expands Apple’s market.

“This has the potential of bringing in even more people into the Applesphere,” Gottheil concluded.

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By Tony Bradley
PC World (US)
January 25, 2010

SAN FRANCISCO - Google didn’t invent the Web search engine, but anyone who just joined the Web-surfing world in the past five years or so might think so. Google has established itself as a trusted and reliable source of information on the Web, and now wants to extend its search dominance and make sure that you “Google it” from your smartphone as well.

Google’s recent acquisitions, namely AdMob and Teracent, position Google to raise the bar for Web-based search advertising, and extend its search advertising empire to the exploding mobile search arena. Google gambled $750 million on the AdMob purchase, which is facing antitrust scrutiny, but will provide Google with a lucrative mobile advertising platform if approved.

Apple has upped the ante on its growing feud with Google by following suit with a mobile advertising acquisition of its own. Apple’s purchase of Quattro will pit it head-to-head against Google in the mobile search advertising market.

On the Web search front, Google captured almost 70 percent of the total search traffic for December 2009, accounting for about 88 million searches out of a total 131 million searches conducted, according to comScore. What is more impressive is that the 88 million searches represent a 58 percent increase from the previous year.

What that means is that, not only does Google have a dominant piece of the pie, but that the pie keeps growing. Google’s 58 percent growth did not eat into its competitor’s shares. Yahoo is up 13 percent, Baidu is up 7 percent, and Bing increased a whopping 70 percent over the previous year.

Google and Bing have both aggressively pursued agreements with social networking providers–primarily Facebook and Twitter–to incorporate real-time status updates within search results. Instead of conducting a search of the Web with Google, and another search of public Facebook status updates, and another search of Twitter tweets, users can perform one-stop-shopping searches the way they always have–just Google it.

Google’s foray into mobile advertising–assuming the AdMob purchase goes through, combined with expanded Web search advertising from the Teracent purchase, and the inclusion of social networking updates within the search results set Google up to not only retain, but extend its dominance of both search and search advertising.

There are a couple obstacles which could get in the way. First, Google’s threat to shut down its operations in China, or to stop censoring its China search results which would result in China shutting it down, could lead to Google surrendering millions of potential searches, and possibly billions in search advertising revenue.

While it wouldn’t have nearly the same impact, Google may also soon be replaced as the default search provider on the most popular smartphone in the world–the iPhone. Apple and Google have had a very public falling out as their “bromance” fell apart, and that has led to the possibility that Apple may partner with Microsoft and make Bing the default search on the iPhone.

Google also faces increasing competition from Bing in general. Microsoft has made innovative strides with Bing which have led to increasing market share. But, even with a 70 percent increase in search traffic from 2008, Bing is still in fourth place with less than four percent of the global search market. Regardless of how successful Bing is, it will be some time before it really poses a threat to Google.

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By Stephen Lawson
IDG News Service (San Francisco Bureau)
January 7, 2010

SAN FRANCISCO - Two partnerships backing different forms of mobile TV are using this year’s International Consumer Electronics Show to announce devices that can bring TV to iPhones through the back door.

There’s no built-in hardware for watching live TV broadcasts on the iPhone, but both Qualcomm’s FLO TV subsidiary and a group of mobile TV broadcasters are working with hardware manufacturers to create accessories they say can deliver a full mobile TV experience on the popular handset.

On Monday, South Korean vendor Valups announced the Tivit, a device developed with support from the Open Mobile Video Coalition (OMVC), which can pick up Mobile DTV broadcasts over the air and pass them on to various devices via Wi-Fi. On Wednesday, FLO TV followed with an announcement in conjunction with Mophie, a maker of accessory sleeves for the iPhone. They are readying a series of products that add a FLO TV receiver and antenna to Mophie’s Juice Pack line of sleeves for iPhones and iPod Touch units, which include extended batteries.

Both products are set to go on sale in the first half of this year. The Tivit should cost between US$90 and $120, and will work with 3G iPhone models, newer iPod Touch models, BlackBerries, Motorola Android phones, and other Wi-Fi devices, according to Valups.

FLO TV and Mophie did not disclose pricing. Mophie’s Web site includes some information on the Juice Pack TV for the iPhone 3GS.

TV content has been offered on phones in the U.S. for several years, but much of it has been delivered over cellular networks instead of true broadcasting. Picking up broadcast TV requires special hardware, and mobile TV competes against many other mobile applications and forms of entertainment, such as games and online videos. Analysts question whether it will become the blockbuster hit some are hoping for.

FLO TV provides a mobile TV service, offered by both Verizon Wireless and AT&T, that can deliver as many as 20 channels of live and pre-recorded TV programming. The company, founded by Qualcomm in 2004, owns its own licenses for former analog TV channels and operates transmitters in many large and medium-sized metropolitan areas around the U.S. Its programming is focused on national networks such as ESPN Mobile TV, Fox Mobile and NBC 2go, and the service costs about $9 to $15 per month. The content is available on the FLO TV Personal Television, which is a dedicated handheld TV, as well as on selected phones from mobile operators.

Mobile DTV is a specification approved last October by the broadcasting standards body Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC). The standard is designed for local broadcasts on a portion of the spectrum allocated for regular digital TV. It’s intended for both free simulcasts of a station’s regular programming and, eventually, subscription-based content. The OMVC is made up of 29 U.S. broadcasters that use or plan to use Mobile DTV.

FLO and Mophie didn’t provide many details about their planned products. Users will be able to switch their iPhones or iPods between charging, standby and live TV settings, and the Juice Pack’s battery will provide an extra four hours of viewing time, according to Mophie. The kit will include a stand for table-top TV viewing.

While FLO TV’s rollout is being driven by a revenue-generating service provider backed by a major wireless technology company, ATSC’s Mobile DTV is being deployed one broadcaster or station at a time. There are only 30 stations around the country set up for mobile DTV now, though the group expects hundreds by year’s end. It costs less than $150,000 and takes less than two hours for a single station to set up the technology, according to David Arland, a spokesman for the OMVC and Valups. The OMVC says its members represent about 800 stations nationwide.

Before full commercial broadcasting on Mobile DTV begins, there will be a trial run in the Washington, D.C., area in the first quarter of this year, the OMVC announced this week. Eight local stations there will show as many as 20 channels of free and premium programming to a variety of mobile devices that consumers will try out. Those devices include the Dell Inspiron Mini 10 netbook, the Samsung Moment phone, the Tivit and an LG Electronics portable DVD player with built-in TV.

Though video on phones seems to have a bright future, mobile broadcast TV faces a variety of hurdles, according to industry analysts.

“I’m bullish on mobile video,” said Phil Marshall of Yankee Group. Because the phone is a personal device, it’s a good platform for viewing Web video and video on demand, he said. Once consumers start using high-definition wireless video streaming, they will store shows on the phone for replay on TVs and PCs, Marshall believes.

But mobile broadcast TV falls short in terms of the variety of content it offers and how much consumers can personalize the experience, he said.

“You’re merely replicating a TV experience on a mobile device,” Marshall said.

Mobile TV providers also will need to generate more consumer awareness and enthusiasm for the technology in order to drive further adoption by broadcasters and device makers, according to analyst Avi Greengart of Current Analysis. The accessory approach these partnerships are announcing at CES also faces a challenge, because TV capability built in to a mobile phone is more appealing to most U.S. consumers, Greengart said.

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By Gregg Keizer
Computerworld (US)
January 7, 2010

FRAMINGHAM - There was a time when Microsoft ruled the Web, when its Internet Explorer (IE) browser enjoyed a supremacy only exceeded by its Windows operating system.

That was no coincidence, of course: IE has been bundled with Windows since 1995.

But the days of IE owning a 95% share of the browser market are long gone, assaulted first by the appearance, and then success, of Mozilla’s open-source Firefox, followed by a resurgence of Apple’s Safari on the back of gains in Mac share, the efforts of a small Norwegian developer, and the entry last year by Google into the fray.

Now IE seems to be on the ropes. In the last five years, it’s lost nearly a third of its market share as the once-dead browser space has been reinvigorated with faster, smaller and more flexible rivals.

It looks like the trend will be tough, very tough for Microsoft to turn around.

How tough? Computerworld asked a pair of browser experts, including an executive from Net Applications, the California-based Web metrics company most often cited for browser standings, to explain why IE will lose even more ground in 2010.

That’s what the numbers say. The erosion in IE’s share of the browser usage pie shows no sign of abating, and in fact is accelerating, according to data from Net Applications.

IE lost 7.8 percentage points during 2009, ending the year at a new low of 62.7%, an annual loss rate of about 11%. In 2008, IE lost 8.3 points, for an annual loss rate of 10.5%. That’s a pretty clear trend line.

More troubling for Microsoft is evidence of a quickening in IE’s decline. IE lost an average of 0.94 of a percentage point in each of the last six months of 2009, nearly triple the 0.36 of a point average decline during the first six months. (The difference in 2008 between first half and second half was less dramatic: IE lost an average of 0.6 percentage point each of the first six months of 2008, dropped 0.8 point each of the six months in the second half of the year.)

In fact, if the loss rate of the last three months of 2009 continues — IE fell by more than 3 points from October through December — IE will become a minority browser about a year from now, sometime in January 2011.

The EU makes Microsoft go to the polls. After a year-long battle, antitrust regulators in the European Union last month approved a deal with Microsoft that requires the company to add a browser ballot screen to Windows. The ballot, which appears on any PC that has IE set as the default browser, lets users pick one or more rival browsers to download and install.

The ballot screen will add to IE’s troubles, argued Sheri McLeish, an analyst with Forrester Research. “Certainly another reason [for IE's continued decline] that you can point to is the EU’s browser menu,” said McLeish.

Vince Vizzaccaro, executive vice president with Net Applications, agreed that the ballot’s potential for change was real, but was less sure that IE would be affected. “This was a long, drawn out battle with extremely high stakes,” he said. “What this means to future browser usage market share in Europe is unknown now, but the bet here is it will be significantly different than it would have been otherwise.”

The browser ballot screen will begin appearing on European users’ desktops in mid-March.

Chrome’s a threat. In the 16 months since Google launched Chrome, the browser has captured an impressive 4.6% share, according to Net Applications’ newest data, and in the process has grabbed the No. 3 spot from Apple’s Safari.

In fact, Chrome boosted its usage share last year more than any other browser. In the stretch from December 2008 to December 2009, Chrome’s share grew by 3.2 percentage points, more than the second-place Firefox, which increased its share by 2.9 points.

Although it’s unclear which rival has been most affected by Chrome’s hard charge, both McLeish and Vizzaccaro said that Google was one factor in IE’s slide. “Given the inroads Firefox has been making in the past few years, the maturation of Chrome, and uptake [of] Safari, Microsoft will be hard pressed not to lose market share, particularly on the consumer side,” said McLeish.

Vizzaccaro noted that Google only flexed its marketing muscle late in 2009, and assuming it continues to do so, will likely grab even more share this year. “Chrome showed up in ads on Google’s search page, which almost never happens,” he said. “[And] Google also announced the ongoing development of Chrome OS to up the battle with Microsoft and Apple.”

Chrome OS , which won’t appear on netbooks until later this year, is based on the Chrome browser; any gains Google’s operating system makes this year will be accompanied by increases in Chrome’s share.

IE8’s fails to hold on to Microsoft’s users. Microsoft may have sat on its haunches, and its laurels, for far too long, long enough to let Firefox and Chrome and Safari and Opera make inroads on IE’s once-mighty share, but it told users throughout 2008 and early 2009 that Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) would change all that.

It didn’t work out that way.

Although IE8 is now the most-used version of Internet Explorer, its growth hasn’t offset the contraction of IE6 and IE7, says Net Applications’ numbers.

Last year, IE8 increased its share by 20 percentage points, but in the same period, IE6 lost 13 points and IE7 dropped 20 points. Net loss to Microsoft: 13 percentage points.

In other words, although Microsoft’s made headway in its campaign to convince people to abandon IE6 and IE7 for the more modern IE8, it’s shedding users along the way.

McLeish put forward one theory to explain the situation. “We should see more migrations to IE8 as people upgrade to Windows 7, but in businesses there’s still a reliance on IE6 because of legacy apps that only work in IE6,” she said. “In these instances an alternative to IE like Firefox may be more attractive because they can run at the same time, whereas IE6 and IE8 cannot coexist.”

Mobile browsing IE has never played much of a role in the mobile space — Opera Mini is the leading browser on phones — and with a recent jump in mobile browsing, it looks like Microsoft will be left even further behind.

“Mobile browsing usage share exploded in December 2009,” said Vizzaccaro, who added that during the month, mobile devices accounted for 1.3% of all those that were used to surf the Web.

Although mobile hardware accounted for a relatively small share, with their individual shares even smaller — the iPhone, for instance, had only a 0.44% share, phones powered by Google’s Android an almost infinitesimal 0.02% — month-over-month increases were dramatic. Android phones, for example, increased their share by nearly 56% between November and December, while RIM and the iPhone boosted theirs by 22% and 20%, respectively.

Windows Mobile — Net Applications tracks it as Windows CE — meanwhile, stayed flat from November to December, at 0.05%. With zero mobile momentum, IE’s won’t be able to take advantage of what looks to be a banner year for mobile browsing.

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By Gregg Keizer
Computerworld (US)
January 5, 2010

FRAMINGHAM - A “monstrous” jump in demand for Android-equipped smartphones has turned the market upside down, a retail pollster said recently.

Of the people who told ChangeWave Research in a mid-December survey that they planned to buy a smartphone in the next 90 days, 21% said they expected to purchase a handset powered by Google ’s Android operating system. That number represented a 250% increase over the 6% that pegged Android as their mobile OS of choice when ChangeWave last queried consumers’ plans in September.

“That change rivals anything that we’ve seen in the last three years of the smartphone market,” said Paul Carton, ChangeWave’s director of research, adding that the sudden surge in consumer interest in Android had “roiled” the market.

“This is an indication that Android has finally caught consumer interest,” added Carton, who cited the recent advertising campaign by Motorola for its Droid smartphone as the reason why interest in the operating system has skyrocketed.

In September, the Android OS was tied for last place in consumers’ preference among the major mobile operating systems. Since then, it “has surged into second place ahead of all competitors except the iPhone OS,” said Carton.

The iPhone remained the No. 1 desired smartphone, according to ChangeWave’s latest survey, with 28% of those who plan on buying in the next three months saying that they would choose an Apple device. However, that figure was down four percentage points from September, when 32% said that they would acquire an iPhone.

The drop in the iPhone’s planned purchasing percentage wasn’t unexpected. “The first two quarters after the introduction of the iPhone 3G [in mid-2008], you saw this huge pop in buying plans, and then a downtick,” Carton said. “Same for the 3GS … actually, the drop-off for the iPhone after the 3GS was far less than the 3G.”

Android’s leap translated into good news for Motorola and HTC, the most prominent makers of Google-powered handsets, with the former reaping most of the benefit. Motorola’s share of smartphone purchases in the next 90 days shot up from 1% in September to 13% in December. Carton tagged the company’s Droid as the reason.

“[It's] the first increase for Motorola we’ve seen in three years,” said Carton.

All smartphone makers and mobile operating system developers are benefiting from the industry-wide upswing in sales, Carton contended. Approximately 42% of the 4,000-plus American consumers surveyed in December said they owned a smartphone, a three-point increase over September and 10 points higher than a year ago. “If a rising tide lifts all boats, then just by itself, the increase [in sales] means that it gets dicey to bet against anybody, or to bet on just one company,” Carton said. “But Android phones are clearly going to benefit the most from this tick up.”

The only mobile OS makers that Carton would peg as being in real trouble from Android’s new popularity were Palm and Microsoft . “This puts a lot of pressure on the Palm Pre ,” he said, noting that the Pre didn’t have enough time to solidify its place in the smartphone market before Android handsets became the newest and latest rage. “And Windows Mobile … those are the [operating systems] that have to worry about Android’s numbers, they’re the ones that have to strike back somehow, not Apple or RIM. It’s hard to bet against those two.”

Consumers who own an Android-powered smartphone are almost as satisfied with their purchases as are iPhone owners, who have been historically extremely happy with their hardware. Of the people who told ChangeWave they had an Android handset, 72% said they were “very satisfied;” 77% of those who reported they own an iPhone answered the same way.

By comparison, only 41% of the people who own a BlackBerry said they were very satisfied, and just 25% of Windows Mobile-equipped smartphone owners rated their satisfaction using that phrase.

While he acknowledged the buzz around the expected announcement on Tuesday of a Google-branded smartphone, Carton argued that it was unlikely that the Nexus One would kill sales of other Android smartphones. He cited Motorola’s Droid as especially immune, in large part because of its link to Verizon.

“Unless Google’s phone is magnitudes better, I can’t see people walking out of Verizon and heading to T-Mobile,” he said. Reports have pegged T-Mobile as the likely carrier partner for Google’s own smartphone. “Look at Google’s move not in the short term,” Carton said. “But for three or four years from now.”

ChangeWave has posted some of the smartphone survey data on its Web site.

Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld . Follow Gregg on Twitter @gkeizer , send e-mail at gkeizer@ix.netcom.com or subscribe to Gregg’s RSS feed.

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By Galen Gruman
InfoWorld (US)
December 28, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO - Christmas has come and gone, and although you enjoyed the time with family and friends and gifts excahnged, there’s something you craved that no one gave you. If you’re feeling like there’s something you wanted but didn’t get, take matters into your own hands and get it yourself. And what better venue to find those techie treasures than the tech site InfoWorld.com?

To help you fill any holiday holes, InfoWorld.com has looked beyond the obvious to uncover 10 seriously cool new gadgets and 24 must-read tech books that will appeal to the geek in all of us. You won’t find the iPhone or Droid here, nor will you light upon the latest home media server; more likely than not, you already has those. Instead, you’ll find items aimed at satisfying every geek’s innermost desire: to explore.

Because if there’s one thing we geeks all love to do, no matter what type of science, engineering, or tech discipline floats our boat, it’s to play with technology that is both cool and useful. Sometimes that means toying around with a somewhat esoteric gadget. Other times that means soaking up new tech know-how we can apply at home or at work.

This year’s geek gadget gift guide includes the 55-cent Animal Clips for budding young geeks to the seriously useful and cool personal Pogoplug cloud storage device to a touch-based laptop that could show the way for real tablet computing.

This year’s geek book gift guide has recommendations in seven categories: “something different” explorations, personal tech guides, hands-on deep technology how-tos, cloud and architecture expositions, business management primers for IT people, IT management how-tos, and tech best-practices “rethink” books.

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By Ian Paul
PC World (US)
December 28, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO - Twitter’s acquisition of Mixer Labs , a service that helps developers build location-aware applications, shows that the company hopes to make location broadcasting an important part of its service. And the micro-blogging service isn’t alone either: Google is getting into location-based services with its work on Google Maps and features like My Location, and Facebook recently adjusted its privacy policy to make way for opt-in location-based features.

That’s why I think 2010 will be a big year for location-based services. Sure, 2010 is likely to be all about tablets and the looming showdown between Google and Microsoft , but it may also be the year when people become more comfortable with broadcasting their location to the rest of the world.

There are many location-based services available today, but here’s a look at five that you’ll want to keep your eye on as we approach the new year.

Foursquare

One of the more popular location-based services among early adopters is foursquare. Part game, part recommendation service for local hangouts, foursquare works by having you check-in at locations as you move about a city, airport, or wherever else you might be.

Once you check-in, your Foursquare friends will know where you are and you’ll receive automated recommendations for nearby restaurants, cafes, and other locations from previous foursquare visitors. You can also leave your own tips about a place that will be picked up by other foursquare users when they check-in to that location.

Foursquare is also a game where you earn points every time you check-in, which in turn earns you virtual badges. But you can also earn freebies and coupon offers by checking-in at participating locations. To get these offers you have to become the mayor of a particular location, which means you have checked-in at a location more times than any other foursquare user. The mayor of the Bowery Wine Company in New York, for example, gets their first drink of the night free, while the mayor of San Francisco Symphony-Davies Symphony Hall currently gets fifty percent off tickets for the symphony’s January 15 concert and access to the post-concert party. Check out foursquare’s complete list of freebie offers.

You can access foursquare on your mobile phone by downloading the iPhone or Android application, visiting foursquare’s mobile Website , or via SMS (U.S. only) at 50500. Foursquare says a Blackberry app is in development.

Gowalla

Gowalla is a location-based game similar to foursquare, where you check-in to locations using an iPhone app. The gaming aspect is a little different though, since you participate in a game of virtual geocaching and you don’t connect with friends as you do in foursquare.

When you visit a location you’ll be presented with a list of virtual goods, called icons, that you can pick up. You can only carry 10 icons at once (although you can archive them for safe keeping), so you may have to drop some of the icons you already have at the new location.

You can check-in at any location in the world called spots, for each spot you visit you receive a stamp in your virtual passport. If you create your a new spot on Gowalla you become the commissioner for that location, and the first 10 people to leave virtual goods at the new spot become its founders. Spot commissioners can edit details about a spot, and Gowalla says it will be giving special privileges to founders in the future.

You can also use Gowalla to go on trips, which are basically guided tours using Google Maps. There are many trips available including a University of Arkansas tour , a pub crawl on Oklahoma City’s Western Avenue and a ghost tour in Pleasanton, California . For every trip you complete you earn a Pin of Glory, which Gowalla says are the “ultimate measure of Gowalla Greatness.”
Gowalla requires a GPS-enabled iPhone for optimal results.

Google

If you just want to share your location with your friends without the gaming aspect, then Google Latitude is for you. Latitude is available on your smartphone or your laptop, and displays your location on Google Maps using your Google profile picture as an icon. Any of your Google contacts that have also opted into Latitude will be displayed on your map, and clicking on their icon allows you to send them an e-mail or instant message. Check out Google’s Latitude page for a complete list of supported smartphones.
If you need to figure out your location in unfamiliar surroundings, Google has another service called My Location that can help. My Location also works on your desktop or smartphone, and displays a little dot on Google Maps to show your location. From there it’s easy to find directions, a business or just explore your surroundings. To get My Location to work on your desktop you must be using a Web browser that supports the W3C Geolocation API such as Firefox or Google Chrome. My Location does not work with the most recent beta version of Google Chrome for Mac.
Nightlife

There are many location-based services that can help you find where the next great party or event is going to be such as buzzd and Hot Potato. With buzzd, you can track what other users are saying about a particular place on Twitter to get a feel for the hottest places in your area on any given night. You can download buzzd applications for the iPhone , Blackberry and Android devices or through the mobile Web at buzzd.com/m.
Hot Potato is a social networking application where you can create private or public events, and upload notes and photos of the event to share with others. When you attend an event you check-in just like foursquare and Gowalla, but checking in only tells others whether you’re attending the event in-person, watching a broadcast or following along on Hot Potato’s Website . You can use Hot Potato through an iPhone application or through the Website.

Twitter

Twitter recently launched its location-based service that allows you to embed your location in the meta data of a tweet on a case-by-case basis. Your location doesn’t appear in the tweet, but underneath it along with other information like the time you sent the message and which Twitter client you were using (twitter client, Website, iPhone app, etc.).

These are just a few of the many location-based services and games available today. Do you have a favorite location-based application or does the whole idea just creep you out?

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By Computerworld Philippines Staff
December 10, 2009

Despite the global crisis in 2009, malware continued to grow exponentially and “profit” was tagged as the top motive of hackers in their criminal endeavors.

“This year has seen no let-up in the growth of sophisticated online threats – quite the opposite. Making money continues to be the main motivation for today’s virus writers,” says Mikko Hyppönen, chief research officer at anti-virus firm F-Secure.

Hyppönen reported that with malware available on demand from criminal gangs, the number of individualized variants of viruses and other malware seems “infinite.”

Among the major security developments in 2009 included Conficker, described as the most damaging networking worm for years. Conficker spread fast in computers using the Windows XP operating system which had not been patched with a late 2008 Microsoft update. It caused serious problems for many companies and public institutions around the world.

F-Secure said unlike many previous worms that were released in the wild for personal fame, Conficker was designed to call home and create a botnet of infected computers – a potentially profitable commodity for the authors of the worm.

The Conficker Working Group, composed of several anti-virus companies including F-Secure, prevented the worm from reporting home and establishing a powerful botnet, Hyppönen claimed. Despite of this, millions of computers remained infected with Conficker at the end of 2009.

Year 2009 likewise saw the launch of Windows 7 operating system as a replacement for Windows Vista and Windows XP, which were both affected by major security concerns.

F-Secure said Windows 7 shows promise as a leaner, more secure operating system, and also has an improved user security experience compared to Vista. The focus on a better user experience and improved security is also one of the important trends in 2009, coinciding with the emergence of Netbooks.

Similarly, smartphones became more popular and more powerful than ever in 2009, which was mostly used for Internet-based activity, including social media, which itself experienced substantial growth in the past year. Much of this has been driven by the iPhone and other touchscreen smartphones, F-Secure said.

At the end of 2009 jailbroken iPhones became a target for the first profit-motivated malware on this platform. The speed of the malware evolution for jailbroken iPhones is a telling sign of the times. The news of a Dutch hacker exploiting a jailbroken iPhone vulnerability was quickly followed by an Australian boy writing a worm that tried to
“teach people a lesson” for not changing their default SSH password. The first stealthy worm for jailbroken iPhones then emerged almost immediately, designed to create a mobile botnet and gain access to online banking details.

“In 2009 criminals have shown that they have an insatiable appetite for online resources which can be turned into commodities,” Hyppönen said. “Their botnets are being used for search engine optimization attacks, for pushing rogue security software, and for hosting websites that drive consumers to scams and drive-by downloads.” – Tom S. Noda

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By Tony Bradley
PC World (US)
December 7, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO - Google has released a new version of the Android SDK. Version 2.0.1 is a minor update to the Android platform, not a significant release, and it doesn’t address the most serious issues faced by Android developers.

The Android Developers blog site describes the update “Android 2.0.1 is a minor update to Android 2.0. This update includes several bug fixes and behavior changes, such as application resource selection based on API level and changes to the value of some Bluetooth-related constants.”

The changes introduced to the platform itself, especially a fix for the camera functionality in the Verizon Droid, are welcomed. Google has also added some tools to help developers, but Android faces challenges stemming both from its relative youth in the app store arena and the diverse software and hardware combinations that developers have to consider.

When Google introduced the Android ‘Donut’ SDK (version 1.6) it was heralded as a game changer because of the changes that Google implemented with the Android Market. Improved app browsing and the ability to include screenshots to help promote applications were cheered by developers.

A recent survey, however, suggests that Android developers are disgruntled and that Google still has a way to go with Android Market. Google needs developers to pump out compelling apps that extend the features and functionality of the Android platform, but many developers right now are dissatisfied with the volume of downloads and overall revenue generated by Android Market.

Google needs to address those issues and continue to grow a robust and satisfied developer community if it has any chance of meeting analyst predictions that the number of apps in Android Market will quintuple in 2010. App store bragging rights aside, Google needs developers to create a diverse array of applications to provide users with the tools they want and drive sales of Android-based devices.
One thing that Apple has done, which Google and other app store challengers need to do as well, is to make app development so easy that anyone with a little programming knowledge can crank out an app. The reason there is an ‘app for that’ for anything you can think of is that virtually every company has developed a custom app of some sort to connect with customers and get some marketing mileage at the same time on the iPhone platform.

Another advantage that Apple has with the iPhone, though, is platform consistency. While there are a few different models of iPhone and iPod Touch available, the hardware itself and the version of the iPhone operating system in use are consistent across the board.

Many people take issue with how controlling Apple is of all aspects of its devices. Apple closely maintains the hardware, and the software, and third-party developers have to jump through hoops to get apps approved for the iPhone. The bottom line, though, is that Apple’s proprietary, closed platform is part of Apple’s recipe for success.

Developers for Android are faced with a different versions of the Android SDK in circulation, and an array of devices with different features and functions. The fragmentation of the Android platform complicates the development process and poses unique challenges for Android developers that iPhone developers don’t have to contend with.

As Google continues to adapt the Android platform and SDK’s, it is going to have to address the issues developers have with the Android Market. More importantly, Google must provide Android developers with the tools they need to simplify app development and ensure that apps will work across the various Android software versions and diverse hardware.

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By Jared Newman
PC World (US)
December 07, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO - Malicious iPhone apps that Apple unwittingly approves could attack even non-jailbroken iPhones, according to a developer, but security experts say this isn’t earth-shattering news.
“If you understand the way the security of the iPhone works, I don’t think this is a surprise,” said Charlie Miller, an analyst at Independent Security Evaluators who in July demonstrated an SMS vulnerability that could let hackers take over the phone.

Nicholas Seriot, a Swiss iPhone developer, described a proof-of-concept app (PDF) called SpyPhone, capable of digging up and altering contacts, finding past Web searches, storing GPS and Wi-Fi locations and copying everything you’ve ever typed on the phone except for passwords. (No, you can’t download it from the App Store.)
The data Seriot describes isn’t a direct threat to your passwords or e-mails, but it could be of interest to marketers, spammers, thieves, competitors and law enforcement officials, he says.

Obviously, Apple would never intentionally allow such an application into its App Store–Apple has said it rejects 10 percent of submissions for being “inappropriate,” in some cases because they try to steal personal data–except Seriot says it’s possible to trick App Store reviewers. This could be accomplished by delaying spyware activation, encrypting payloads or changing things around at runtime, Seriot claims.

Dino Dai Zovi, a security researcher and author of “The Mac Hacker’s Handbook,” said in an interview that the concerns Seriot raised are valid. Apple’s reviewers can easily root out applications that, say, read an address book and send the contents to spammers. But it’s harder to detect an application whose methods are less direct, for example by executing a script from a Web server after download. Also, App Store reviewers are only human, and they’re under pressure to approve more apps than any other platform.

Both Dai Zovi and Miller noted that Seriot’s report brings up an Apple philosophy that differs from open platforms like Android.

Apple has a one-size-fits-all approach to data access, so if I download a game, it can still technically access my contacts and keypad entry. On Android, users are told what data is accessed when they install an application, but the review process isn’t as strict. Seriot’s research essentially lists all the things a malicious app could use under Apple’s approach, and notes that only Apple’s censors are standing in the way.

“Largely, it’s up to users to decide what experience they want,” Dai Zovi said. “Do they want the greater freedom with the greater risk of this type of spyware, or do they want the assurances–albeit imperfect assurances–provided by Apple looking over these applications?”

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By Tim Mercer
Macworld.com
November 30, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO - When counting down the ways Apple set the bar for smartphones, it’s safe to say that the phone’s built-in camera–even with the improvements introduced with the iPhone 3GS–won’t find its way onto the list. With low resolution–the 3GS offers 3 megapixels, the other models just 2 megapixels–and no flash or zoom, the iPhone’s camera leaves a lot to be desired.
Camera Genius can’t really do anything about the iPhone’s camera hardware. But the app from CodeGoo can help you take better pictures with a number of features that try to compensate for the iPhone’s photographic limitations.
The app’s Zoom feature lets you zoom in close to your subject by moving a slider across the screen. Since the iPhone’s camera doesn’t have an optical lens, you do your zooming digitally. There’s a drawback to this approach: the further you zoom in, the more pixelated the image becomes. If you zoom in just a little bit, the picture comes out looking pretty good; zooming all the way just trashes the image.

Sound Capture enables you to take a hands free picture by saying “cheese” or otherwise making a noise. Once this option is enabled, the iPhone’s microphone will listen for a loud enough sound to activate the shutter and take a pic. This could really be handy for group shots.

Anti-Shake goes a long way in preventing those blurry pictures that can be so frustrating. The Anti-Shake option uses the iPhone’s accelerometer to monitor its movement and as soon as your hand is steady, it snaps a shot. This is probably my favorite feature of Camera Genius, as it solves a long-time problem I’ve had with blurry pictures from the handheld.

Timer lets you automatically take a picture after a set time. It’s really unbelievable that Apple never included such a feature from the start. Camera Genius lets you choose from 2, 5, 10, 15, and 30 second delays. (A newly added repeat timer lets you capture multiple photos at 10-, 15-, and 30-second intervals.) There is a beep for each second as it counts down so you can gauge when the picture will snap.

Big Button turns the entire screen into a shutter button, allowing you to tap anywhere to take a picture. This makes snapping pictures of yourself much easier when the screen is facing away from you.

Guides makes framing your subject easier by putting lines over the on-screen picture. There are a few different grids you can choose from to help center your picture, make sure the horizon is level or take advantage of the rule of thirds.

Recent updates added other capabilities, such as a burst shooting mode that lets you take shots in rapid succession, confirmed saving, and the ability to edit the location stamp and add your own captions. You can also share photos via e-mail or through the clipboard.

All of these options are neatly tucked away behind a menu button at the bottom of the screen. Once you’ve taken your pictures, Camera Genius lets you preview them without having to leave the app. Camera Genius is quite useful in helping you to take better pictures with your iPhone and each of its features worked as advertised. The only complaint I had was the lengthy amount of time it took to save a picture after taking it. Still, this $2 app goes a long way in making up for the inadequacies of the iPhone’s camera.

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By Meghann Myers
Macworld.com
November 30, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO - It’s usually a good sign when a game makes you curse under your breath every time you lose. Addicus, an arcade puzzle from Get Set Games, looks like Super Mario Brothers (toadstools, green grass, blue skies) but tests your first-grade addition skills instead of your princess-saving prowess.
Though it will take you a few minutes to get a handle on the gamplay, the premise is simple: the screen fills up with colored mushrooms numbered one through nine, and you have to select the right combination to add up to the “goal number” before the timer runs out. While this seems easy enough for anyone with math skills, there’s a catch: the goal number is also colored, so you can only use yellow mushrooms with yellow numbers, and so on. It sounds easy, but tapping the correctly colored mushrooms gets pretty hairy once the goal number tops 30.

The pulsating electro soundtrack only adds to the mental frenzy. As this challenging game progresses, you’ll unlock more difficult levels with larger numbers. Though the gameplay isn’t varied much and there isn’t a multiplayer option, dedicated players can earn bonus points for extra fast tapping or selecting patterned numbers like pairs and palindromes.

Overall, Addicus is simple to play, cool to look at, and yet challenging enough to keep you coming back again and again. Not many games manage to look and feel so childlike while still engaging adults who haven’t done addition drills in years. Addicus is a perfect way to pass time on a bus or in a waiting room, if you can keep your swearing under control.

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By Tom S. Noda
Computerworld Philippines
November 27, 2009

Sophos declared that a new virus attacking the users of jailbroken iPhones is the “most serious to date” since it turns infected iPhones into zombies, joining them to a botnet.

A few weeks ago, Sophos said the first ever iPhone virus appeared, changing the wallpaper on infected phones to an image of 1980s pop star Rick Astley. However, aside from gobbling up bandwidth and Rickrolling iPhones it had no additional criminal intentions.

Sophos reported a new iPhone worm (informally called “Duh” or “Ikee.B” by security researchers) was reported spreading in the wild in The Netherlands, designed to connect to a server in Lithuania and to follow orders from remote hackers. The “Duh” worm hunts for vulnerable iPhones on a wider range of IP ranges than Ikee, which was only ever reported in Australia. “Duh” includes IP ranges in several countries, including The Netherlands, Portugal, Australia, Austria, and Hungary.

“This latest iPhone malware is doubly criminal. Not only does it break into your iPhone without permission, but it also cedes control of your phone to a botnet command server in Lithuania,” said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos. “That means your iPhone has just been turned into a zombie, ready to download and to perform any commands the cybercriminals might want in the future. If infected, you have to consider all of the data that passes through your iPhone compromised.”

Sophos added that the “Duh” changes the password on one’s iPhone, which means that cybercriminals know what it is but infected users don’t, allowing criminals to log back into the iPhone later. However, SophosLabs researcher Paul Ducklin reportedly managed to recover the password – revealing that infected users can login as root with the password “ohshit.”

“Apple’s default root password – ‘alpine’ – on the iPhone breaks two fundamental rules – it’s both a dictionary word and well-known. This doesn’t matter for most iPhone users, as they haven’t jailbroken their iPhones and installed SSH to allow remote access,” Ducklin said. “But the new worm will break in and immediately change it. This change is made by directly editing the encrypted value of the password in the master password file, so that the new password is never revealed.”

Ducklin, also the head of technology in Sophos Asia-Pacific, added the password-changing represents an additional risk, as it means that cybercriminals now know what the user’s password is, allowing them to log back into the iPhone later. “But you don’t, so you cannot login and eliminate the virus.”

Sophos recommended that all users of jailbroken phones must change their passwords from “alpine” immediately to avoid further attacks.

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By Dave Rudden
GamePro (online)
November 9, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO - Gamasutra has a report from a recent Nintendo investor briefing that the company’s CEO, Satoru Iwata, has adamantly denied that rival companies and their competing technology have caused Nintendo to lose ground, stating “I cannot understand at all why some people come to think that Nintendo has lost its edge as soon as they hear such news that other companies are newly applying for motion sensing technology.”

While Iwata did admit that the DS’ has lost some of its early momentum, he still remained steadfast that the platform was still successful, stating “Nintendo DS has not lost its footing at all. Actually, it has been even increasing its footing all around the world.”

Iwata reiterated that the DS could receive a Kindle-like upgrade in the future, but closed his comments with a salvo against subscription-based platforms like the Kindle and iPhone, stating “The business model which requires our customers to promise to pay several thousands yen every month for the next two years does not suit well for the entertainment commodities.”

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By Lexton Snol
PC Advisor (UK)
November 6, 2009

LONDON - Touchscreen mobile phone adoption in the US has shown a significant 159 percent growth rate during the past year to 23.8 million users in August 2009.

According to comScore, the growth in touchscreen device adoption substantially outpaced the already strong 63 percent growth in US adoption of smartphones.

“Touchscreen phones have quickly gained adoption as new devices have flooded the mobile marketplace,” said Mark Donovan, comScore senior vice president of Mobile.

“It’s clear that consumers are embracing touchscreen interfaces that allow them to easily navigate the increasingly powerful and complex services afforded by new phones.

“This is a trend that should continue to pick up as additional touchscreen devices, many of them running the Android operating system, arrive in the market before the holiday shopping season.”

Top 10 touchscreen devices
The Apple iPhone ranked as the top touchscreen device family with 32.9 percent of touchscreen device users age 13 and older, nearly four times larger than the market share of the next largest device family, the LG Dare (8.7 percent).

LG Voyager ranked third with 7.8 percent of the market, followed by the Blackberry Storm (7.0 percent) and Palm Treo (6.5 percent).

1. Apple iPhone 32.9%
2. LG Dare 8.7%
3. LG Voyager 7.8%
4. BlackBerry Storm 7.0%
5. Palm Treo 6.5%
6. Samsung Instinct 5.0%
7. T-Mobile G1 3.6%
8. HTC Touch 3.3%
9. Samsung Glyde 2.7%
10. LG Xenon 2.6%

“The iPhone clearly set the trend in the industry for touchscreen devices, so it’s no surprise that it has the largest share of the market,” added Donovan.

“But as other players have entered the touchscreen market with compelling devices, competition is clearly heating up.”

Touchscreen users younger
Smartphones in general and touchscreen devices specifically tend to be more popular among younger users.

While 38.8 percent of all mobile subscribers (age 13+) are under the age of 35, 51.4 percent of smartphone users are in this age cohort, as are 57.7 percent of touchscreen device users.

In fact, a significant 20.6 percent of touchscreen users are in the narrow age range of 18-24.

Meanwhile, less than 5 percent of smartphone and touchscreen device users are age 65 and older, compared to 13 percent of the total U.S. mobile audience.

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By Robert S. Anthony
PC World (US)
October 26, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO - On Wednesday Volkswagen launched its new 2010 GTI hatchback not via a television or radio commercial or an auto show floor presentation, but in Apple’s App Store, thus becoming the first car company to announce a new car exclusively through a mobile device, according to the company.

Parking itself in the App Store today is Real Racing GTI, a racing game designed by Firemint which, not surprisingly, features the 2010 GTI. The game, which makes good use of the accelerometer built into the iPhone and iPod Touch, includes a showroom where users can explore the specifications of the new hatchback and custom design a virtual model.
“We’re going to essentially take our message directly to the customer,” said Tim Ellis, vice president of marketing for Volkswagen of America, Inc. Wednesday night at a New York press event directly across the street from the site where Microsoft unveiled Windows 7 on Thursday.

Volkswagen’s decision to announce the car exclusively via the App Store is a tip of the cap to popularity of the online venue, where thousands of eyes peruse the offerings at any given moment. More than two billion apps have been downloaded from the App Store since it opened.
Game players can enter a sweepstakes for one of six limited edition Volkswagen GTI MkVI hatchbacks being given away over six weeks. The game also makes good use of social networking, allowing users to capture their races and upload the video to YouTube and to send messages to other players via Twitter.

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By Stephen Lawson
IDG News Service (San Francisco Bureau)
October 20, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO - AT&T on Monday made another grab for business mobile users, introducing two more hosted applications built on its Mobile Enterprise Applications Platform.

Like other mobile operators and vendors, the second-largest wireless carrier in the U.S. is targeting enterprises as a growth opportunity. Along with paving the way for machine-to-machine applications that could provide a steady stream of data usage for years to come, AT&T and others are trying to get businesses to integrate smartphones more deeply in their business operations. Last week, Samsung Electronics America introduced a cloud-based service that can adapt Oracle databases and other applications within enterprises for use on mobile phones.

AT&T introduced MEAP in September 2008 as a platform on which enterprises could develop, deploy and manage applications that extended back-end systems to mobile devices. It uses middleware from Antenna Software that lets enterprises configure an application once to work with BlackBerries, Windows Mobile devices and iPhones, minimizing the work involved in reaching all the devices, said Igor Glubochansky, a director in AT&T’s mobility product management organization. MEAP includes three basic types of capabilities — sales force and field force automation and IT support — as building blocks for other services. The back-end systems it can support include Oracle, SAP and custom in-house applications.

In addition to the applications created by individual enterprises, which can be run in-house or hosted by AT&T, the carrier has identified certain vertical-market uses for mobile that are fairly similar from one organization to the next, Glubochansky said. For these “repeatable” use cases, AT&T can build ready-made applications, he said. A MEAP pharmaceutical sales application has been available for several months already.

On Monday, the carrier introduced AT&T MEAP: Merchandising for the Consumer Goods Industry and AT&T MEAP: Maintenance and Repair for Hospitality. Both are hosted by AT&T and designed to run on Windows Mobile and BlackBerry devices. The iPhone isn’t often used by workers in these fields, Glubochansky said.

The merchandising application is designed for workers who deliver products, especially foods and beverages, and monitor how those goods are selling and are displayed and promoted in each store. The mobile software lets them submit forms and reports instantly on a smartphone instead of filling out paper forms and turning them in at the end of the day, so supplies can be replenished and billed for more quickly, Glubochansky said.

The mobile application for hospitality is designed to help maintenance workers at large hotels and other facilities communicate quickly about their ongoing tasks and urgent situations that require a response. It allows them to access and update work orders and service requests in real time, automatically escalate incidents and receive alerts when staff members don’t respond. Although some of AT&T’s smartphones include push-to-talk capability, the application doesn’t make use of it, Glubochansky said.

The hosted applications are available now. Because it sells them to each business customer on a case-by-case basis, the carrier doesn’t have listed prices for the offerings. AT&T has identified other common applications for certain industries and is planning more of such prepared applications, according to Glubochansky. Manufacturing is one area with some potential, he said.

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Ozaki adds color to your iPhone with the release of the iCoat Wardrobe series. It comes in 2 sets–for him, and for her–with different color range. Each set includes five (5) iCoat Wardrobe casings and one (1) iCoat Invisible.

iCoat Wardrobe casings are custom-tailored–they are carefully made to allow free access to your iPhone’s ports and controls, while offering full protection from scratches, dust and the usual minor damages. It’s easy to install and remove, too! So you can enjoy all the different colors depending on your mood.
With the iCoat Wardrobe, your iPhone never looked better.

Ozaki is exclusively distributed in the country by MSI-ECS Phils., Inc. For more product information and other inquiries, email marketing@msi-ecs.com.ph, call 688-3180 / 688-3181, or visit www.msi-ecs.com.ph.

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