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16 to 24-year-olds particularly adept at juggling act, cramming nine and a half hours of media into six and a half hours of actual timeBritons are juggling several types of media at the same time to sate their appetite and leave enough time for everything else in their lives, the Ofcom study reveals.The average media consumer’s digital day is seven hours and five minutes. From breakfast radio to peaktime evening TV, via surfing and texting at home or at our desks, media takes up 45% of our time.The actual amount being consumed is even higher, Ofcom believes, with the boom in mobile computing helping Britons to multitask. “The ability of people to surf the web on their laptop while also watching TV has given people a licence to roam while staying connected,” said Peter Phillips, Ofcom’s strategy and market developments partner. A fifth of our media time is this kind of “simultaneous” consumption.Those aged between 16 and 24 are particularly adept at this juggling act, and are mopping up more media than any other age group. They cram nine and a half hours worth of media into six and a half hours of actual time – data that suggests the cliche of the youngster loafing in the lounge is an unfair one.”Sixteen-to-24-year-olds go out more, and spend less time watching TV,” Phillips commented. He also acknowledged that this multitasking can mean we devote less attention to any one media source, although this was more pronounced when using new technology. It appears we are simply better at combining reading, landline calls or TV watching with another activity without our attention drifting.Discovering that teenagers are happier than their parents to combine web surfing, phone calls, tweeting and TV is not exactly a revelation, and Ofcom’s research does show that some other truisms also still apply. The over 55s are still wedded to their TVs and radios (67% of all the media they consume), while computers, mobile phones and handheld gadgets make up 58% of 16- to 24-year olds’ media diet.But there are also plenty of surprises in this latest snapshot of the UK marketplace. The gap between the way different generations use old and new media is closing fast. For the first time, more than 50% of over-55s have broadband at home, and a third are sending and reading emails each day.There have also been some interesting changes in the importance people give to different media activities. Half of all adults said they would miss TV the most, up from 44% in 2005, followed by 15% who cited the internet (up from 8%) and 11% who would pine for their mobile phone (up from 10%). Hi-fi equipment and CD players have fallen most sharply in our affections with a mere 2% of people saying they would miss them the most, down from 13% four years ago. For the 16 to 24 age group, though, the mobile phone would be missed nearly as much as the telly.But the death of television as the dominant media platform appears to be far away as ever. TV continues to take centre stage in the evenings, partly due to the success of talent shows. However the box in the corner of the room is increasingly likely to be a high-definition flatscreen. More than five million households now have a HD set, up from 1.9 million in March 2009.”Television still has a central role in our lives. We are watching more TV than at any time in the last five years,” said James Thickett, Ofcom’s research director.While Simon Cowell can take some credit for maintaining the nation’s TV fix (measured at three hours and 45 minutes per day), another factor is the growing demand for time-shifted viewing, thanks to digital video recorders as well as catch-up TV services such as the BBC iPlayer or ITV Player.”The ability to watch what we want when we want it is bringing people back into the living room, said Phillips. Commercial broadcasters should not rejoice too much, though, as DVR owners have the option to skip through the adverts.While TV appears to have maintained its ability to hold our attention, 17% of viewing is still taking place alongside another media format – typically a computer or mobile phone.Smartphone sales have risen rapidly in the UK in recent years, up 81% in the 12 months to May. The research shows this led to much more media consumption “on the go”, although in many cases people appear to be heading straight for Facebook and staying there.The social networking site makes up 45% of the total time spent online on mobile phones during December 2009, Ofcom said. This may have been skewed by a surge of family photos or amusing Christmas party pictures, although the regulator also cited more recent data that illustrates Facebook’s remarkable “stickiness”.”The average user spent around six hours and 30 minutes on Facebook in May 2010, compared with nearly one hour 30 minutes for users of Google, and nearly two hours for users of MSN [Microsoft] services,” said the regulator. Twitter holds second place on the social networking ladder ahead of MySpace and LinkedIn, with traffic to its website up 56% in the past year.Increased adoption of high-powered mobile phones also means that more young people are abandoning their fixed broadband line.Ofcom’s research also shows the impact of the recession. Revenues in the telecoms industry were badly hit in 2009, falling for the first time since the regulator started tracking this data in the early 1990s. Ofcom said this was also due to increased price pressure as operators try to lure customers to take a bundle of services, and a tailing-off in the boom in mobile phone and broadband connections.With TV revenues contracting, it was little surprise that the amount consumers spend on communications fell again to £91.24 per month. Five years ago we spent an average of £100.71 per month. “Consumers are using communications services more – including phone calls, texting and the internet. Yet they are paying less despite getting more, partly through buying in bundles,” said Ofcom.Digital mediaSocial mediaSocial trendsOfcomInternetMobile phonesGadgetsGraeme Weardenguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 Terms & Conditions

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(Source The Guardian)

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Religious fervour surrounds the latest phone technology, despite it only representing a small slice of the world marketI’ve just discovered that the ancient Egyptians worshipped a beetle – a scarab. Quaint, isn’t it? I mean to say, we’ve come on such a lot since those primitive times.But what’s this? A note from my Guardian colleague, Charlie Brooker, about something he calls the Jabscreen. “Several times over the last year,” he writes, “I’ve attended meetings that started with everyone present gently placing their Jabscreen face-down on the table, as though commencing a futuristic game of poker. It wasn’t rehearsed, wasn’t planned, it just happened; a spontaneous modern ceremony.” Charlie was struck by “the sight of a roomful of media types perched reverentially around their shiny twit machines… each time it happened, a vague discomfort would hang in the air until, in a desperate bid to break the tension, someone would mumble a sardonic comment about the sinister ubiquity of the Jabscreen, likening it to Invasion of the Body Snatchers. This would prompt a 25-minute chat about apps and gizmos and which level of Angry Birds you’re stuck on. Sometimes there wasn’t much time for the meeting after that. But never mind. You could all schedule a follow-up on your Jabscreens.”The Jabscreen, you will have guessed, is the Apple iPhone, an object currently regarded with Egyptian-grade reverence by the chattering classes. But, in fact, the obsession with so-called “smartphones” extends way beyond Apple’s device. Whole swathes of geekdom are devoted to various embodiments of Google’s Android phone. Legions of men in suits – up to and including the US president – swear by their BlackBerrys. There are people who believe that their Sony-Ericsson scarab not only spreads sweetness and light, but can also cure chilblains. There are, incredibly, even people who worship devices running Windows Mobile. And so it goes.Not surprisingly, the mainstream media are anxious to service these obsessions, and so every launch of a sacred object is lavishly reported. Last week, for example, RIM – the company that makes the BlackBerry – unveiled its latest assault on the smartphone market. It’s called the Torch and it has a shiny glass screen just like the iPhone. But – lo! – it has something else: a slide-out keyboard!!! Wow!All of which makes one want to scream that it’s only a bloody gadget. But by then one has moved on to the business pages, which are regularly gobsmacked by the sales figures for electronic scarabs. It seems that Apple is selling 4m of the things every month, and is having trouble keeping up with demand. But Android sales – at 4.8m a month – have now overtaken them. Is this a sign that Android will win out? Or will Apple pull some clever marketing stunt – like releasing a cut-down nano iPhone for the Christmas market, just as it did with the iPod? Will the BlackBerry Torch make a late run? And where the hell is Nokia?Are we perhaps losing our sense of proportion? The smartphone market is interesting, but just a small segment of the overall market. In 2009, for example, something like 175m smartphones were sold. The top end of industry predictions of sales over the next few years is about 500m devices. But the world currently buys about 1.3bn phones a year, the vast majority of which are “dumbphones” – ie simple handsets that can’t access the internet and which are much cheaper to own and run.Now, over time, Moore’s Law – which says that computing power doubles every 18 months – will ensure that these dumbphones become smarter. What this means is that the way the market will evolve is not by Apple & co selling more sophisticated, pricey, expensive-to-run smartphones to increasingly downmarket sectors, but by cheap phones gradually becoming more capable as they start to run more sophisticated operating systems.All of which means that the factor that will determine the evolution of the phone market is not the features of specific devices, but the operating system that they run. At the moment there are about 10 different mobile operating systems, which is patently unsustainable. My guess is that we will eventually get down to two or three. Apple’s iOS and Android look like certainties. The question is what comes third – BlackBerry, Nokia’s MeeGo or Microsoft’s Windows Mobile?No matter what happens, let’s remember that these things are just gadgets. After all, even the Egyptians’ holy scarab was only a dung beetle.Mobile phonesiPhoneAndroidBlackBerryAppleJohn Naughtonguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 Terms & Conditions

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(Source The Guardian)

Tags: 10, 3, all, android, apple, apple iphone, Blackberry, cheaper, gadget, gadgets, google, iphone, latest, marketing, mobile, mobile phone, mobile phones, months, new, nokia, phone, phones, room, service, sim, sol, sony, test, three, uk, world

We crowdsourced predictions for the specs of RIM’s rumoured BlackBerry ‘BlackPad’ – and here are the resultsThis week’s BlackBerry press conference in New York didn’t treat us to a single whisper about what could be in store for the tablet device thought to be on the horizon from manufacturer Research in Motion. But trusty Guardian readers have a knack of being on (or near) the money when it comes to foreshadowing future gadget releases.RIM is said to be releasing its rival to Apple’s iPad in November this year, according to reports. Speculation about the name of the device has been spurred on by RIM’s acquisition of the domain rights to blackpad.com and the expected imminent release of tablet devices from LG and Samsung.Earlier this week we put it to the people: what can we expect from a BlackBerry tablet computer? Here’s what you told us: How much will it weigh?Given that the iPad weighs in at between 0.68-0.73kg, the majority of readers (43%) said the “BlackPad” (hold on to your hats, you’ll see why we’re calling it that in a minute) would weigh around 0.7kg – so roughly the same as an iPad. Almost 90% of readers said the BlackPad would weigh between 0.5kg and 0.9kg.How many models will there be?Just the one model, according to 55.9% of readers. A not insubstantial 44.1% said there would be more than one model. One for enterprise and one for regular users?What will be the basic model’s screen size?Bit of an open one this. With the iPad’s 9.7in screen and the new Kindle’s tinchy six incher, the majority of readers (39%) said the BlackPad screen would be no bigger than 10.3in.Will the basic model have mobile network connectivity?It’d be a surprise if it didn’t, put it that way – 84.9% of you saying it will.If there is a model with mobile network connectivity, who will be the US carrier(s)?The trio of big players – AT&T, Verizon and Sprint – will all carry network on the BlackPad, so says the majority (38.7%) of readers. The rest were split almost equally between only AT&T, only Verizon, or only AT&T and Verizon.If there is a model with mobile network connectivity for a UK version, who will be the carrier(s)?Again, a trio of big players will all be providing network on RIM’s tablet device, according to most (44.4%). Interestingly, readers don’t seem to rate Orange’s chances of being a sole carrier (4.8%), much less so than O2 and Vodafone.What sort of finish and colour will it have?It’ll be a shiny black, say the hulking great mass (84.7%) of polled readers. Let’s hope, for creativity’s sake, we get a bright aluminium model as well. We’re not holding our breath though.What connectivity/ports will it have?The BlackPad will definitively not have Ethernet connectivity (3.4%), say readers. Nor will it have Universal WideBand (2.8%) connectivity. What will set the device apart from rivals is a USB port (16.7%) and SD/CompactFlash card capability (13.3%).Will it support Flash?RIM has said Flash playback is coming to its BlackBerry smartphones, with an announcement in due course. There’s no reason, then, we shouldn’t expect Flash to be supported on its upcoming tablet device, as 86.3% of readers said. Will that prove a big enough draw away from the iPad?Will it introduce a new DRM format for electronic books, magazines and newspapers?No, say the majority (61.6%).How much will it cost in the UK, without network subsidy?The majority of readers (roughly 66%) expect the BlackPad to cost roughly the same as Apple’s iPad – between £400 and £600. Almost 2% said the device will cost more than £1,201.Drumroll … what will it be called?This is the biggie, though largely spoilt by the rumbling of RIM’s indiscrete purchase of a domain name. Just under half (43.5%) of polled readers think RIM’s tablet device will be called BlackPad, 33.1% imagine it as BlackBerry Slate. A disappointing 1.9% said the device will be called BlackBored (the same 1.9% that imagine it will cost more than £1,201?).There we have it. If RIM’s tablet device were to be true to Guardian readers’ estimations, would that make it a more attractive purchase than the iPad? Samsung and LG, are you watching?BlackBerryCrowdsourcingMobile phonesTablet computersiPadJosh Hallidayguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 Terms & Conditions

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(Source The Guardian)

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After Samsung’s disappointing Bada-powered Wave, this high-spec Android smartphone pushes all the right buttons

What is it? Samsung Galaxy S GT-19000, running Android 2.1 operating system

Category: Hardware Hardware and software

You’d use it in the… Home and office

First impressions: what is it like to look at, to hold, to use? OK, so it’s visually 7mm away from being an Apple iPhone 3GS, but don’t let that distract from the Galaxy S’s sleek exterior. At 118g, the Galaxy S is slightly lighter than the iPhone 4 but not noticeably so. It’s also thinner but slightly taller than the iPhone.

Thankfully Samsung opted for Google’s Android (2.1) operating system for the touchscreen Galaxy S, making the phone much more flexible and intuitive than the Wave, Samsung’s first Bada-powered device. With a 1GHz processor and a fair bit of memory available (8GB or 16GB, with capacity for an additional 32GB MicroSD card), completing tasks is zippy for the most part.

What does it really do well? Some nice additional features (vintage layers, for example) complement the device’s 5MP camera, which also allows quick and easy sharing by MMS, email or social networks. YouTube video playback is sharp, thanks to the Super AMOLED screen, but the app can be sluggish to load, even on a strong Wi-Fi connection.

Most of all, it’s a quick-response phone – allowing you to switch between apps and functions relatively painlessly. Web browsing suits the not-insubstantial screen well, despite the lack of Flash support – though the Bada-inspired font used on the Wave is easier on the eye than the Galaxy S choice.

What’s the cost? Available for free on a £35 per month 24-month contract or around £400 sim-free. Not hugely expensive for an iPhone-rivalling smartphone.

What’s it up against? The price and device specifications put the Galaxy S right among the best smartphones currently on the market. It’s less expensive than the iPhone 4; you’re getting a fair amount of bang for your buck.

Blind us with the tech specs, then: A Super AMOLED screen (embeds touch sensors into display rather than layering over the top); Weight: 118g; Dimension: 64.2 x 122.4 x 9.9mm; 5MP camera; front-facing VGA camera for video calling; 720p video recording; on-board FM radio; 8GB or 16GB memory, with potential for 32GB MicroSD card upload; 1GHz processor; Android 2.1 operating system.

What’s it good for? Very nice for taking and sharing decent-quality photos quickly. With the Android operating system, the Galaxy S has all the potential – as opposed to the Wave which is mostly inhibited by running Bada. Of course, all this depends on how often Google updates the firmware and how quickly (or not, as seems to be the case) the various operators can push them out.

One in 10 contract devices sold in the UK is now reportedly running Android, a software that suits Samsung’s well-made hardware.

What are its failings? I’d advise away from the Android Aldiko ebook reader, which was infuriating to use: slow to load, slow to respond to interaction and only able to fit 17 lines on the 4-inch screen. A weird stilted zooming inhibits an otherwise good browsing experience. And the browser address bar is unjustifiably big.

Annoyingly, even when the cursor is blinking in text boxes the touchscreen keyboard requires another (needless) selection before allowing any text input.

How big a pocket will I need (portable devices only)? Only 7mm taller than the iPhone 4, a normal pocket will suffice for the Galaxy S.

How long is the battery life? On paper: talk time stands at 803 minutes (2G), 393 minutes (3G), standby mode at 750 hours (2G), 576 hours (3G).

What’s its USP? The big all-encompassing screen and its speed. The feature-rich relatively high quality camera also sets the Galaxy S apart as an excellent device, up there with the best of currently-available smartphones.

Rating out of 10: 8

Finally, is it worth it – yes or no? Yes.

Rating: 4/5

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(Source The Guardian)

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A crisp, bright screen makes this smartphone appealing – but Samsung’s new in-house operating system doesn’t

What is it? Samsung Wave GT-S8500 – the first device to run Samsung operating system Bada

Category: Hardware and software, given the newsworthy nature of operating systems these days..

You’d use it for… On the move, personal or business. It’s not going to intrude on BlackBerry’s ground as leading high-performance business mobile device, but the Wave sits happily as a phone suited to staying up to speed while on the move.

First impressions: what is it like to look at, to hold, to use? Perfectly good look and feel to the phone, a sturdy but slender shell encasing a fairly high-spec bit of mobile kit. It’s when you activate the screen things start to go downhill.

The home screen – quite separate from the screen of apps – has six iterations as you swipe your finger right-to-left, inching across a background of some picturesque eastern European town square.

Each of these five modules is for housing a quick access single widget – but the access isn’t so quick after four or five swipes of the finger. Navigating from the home screen to your downloaded apps directory takes another click. Granted, the software is snappy and quickly responsive, but these things all pile up in the “pointless” file.

And you can’t swipe up to the URL bar in the browser, forcing you instead to press an on-screen button. Seems needless.

What does it really do well? Mobile internet has a well-suited clean font, made all the more appealing by the crisp super AMOLED screen. Put the Wave side-by-side with an iPhone 4 and a 3G – you’ll see the difference. FYI: guardian.co.uk looks better on a Wave than a 3G.

Keyboard keys appear far too close together, but typing seems to work fine if not more usable than on the iPhone. When browsing the web, pinching zooms are clunky and not instantaneously responsive.

Video playback is impressive, on the eyes and the ears. Creating media is a good experience too, the 5MP camera shooting strong video and stills taking allowing nifty features like user-directed focus.

What’s the cost? Around £300 sim-free; a 24-month contract, free handset, will set you back between £25-£45 per month.

What’s it up against? A smartphone market with less wiggle room than the App Store. It’s a relatively ruthless market out there for high-end devices, software increasing in consumer importance at a rate of knots.

With Bada, Samsung is late to the party and forgot to invite its marketing muscle. For this reason alone, Wave falls short of the majority of recently-released Android devices – Samsung have plenty of work to do before the release of Bada-powered Wave 2.

Blind us with the tech specs, then: Quite a few headline tech specs come with the Wave: the 5MP video/still camera will draw the punters – 5x zoom for stills and 720p video recording make the feature more than adequate; the Super AMOLED screen is a turn on, but likely only to the techies.

As light as any iPhone, the Wave is slimmer but only at a stitch. At 3.3 inch, the Wave screen limits its viability as a comfortable-to-use mobile internet device. With 2GB internal memory as standard, most users will require a MicroSD card (up to 32GB capacity).

What’s it good for? Taking and sharing decent-quality stills. It would be good for accomplishing tasks quickly if there weren’t so many naggingly bad points of user experience making pretty much any task an exertion.

What are its failings? One word: Bada. A few more words: the cramped feeling while using SMS, the uneconomic use of the 3.3 inch screen made worse by the majority of the screen having a black (or very dark) background even when running apps.

Will I have to read the manual? Does anyone still read manuals? If new to Samsung, you may need to Google “Help! I’ve accidentally locked my Samsung Wave – what now?”

How long is the battery life? With its 3G signal sensor turned off, the battery will last you over 24 hours from full – more than can be said for any iPhone before 4.

What’s its USP? The Wave’s USP would have to be the Super AMOLED screen which, on this score alone, puts it near top of the class for smartphones. That said, I don’t know one single person who’s been sold a phone on screen specifications – and it’s not great marketing fodder either.

Rating out of 10: 6.5

Finally, is it worth it – yes or no? Not at the current price. There are countless devices (and countless yet to be released) doing a better job and with a better operating system. Don’t hold out for the Wave 2.

Rating: 3/5

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(Source The Guardian)

Tags: 10, 3, all, android, App Store, Blackberry, card, consumer, contract, free, gadget, gadgets, google, iphone, line, marketing, mobile, mobile phone, mobile phones, new, phone, phones, released, review, room, sam, samsung, sim, sol, uk

Early experiences by various testers show growing interest in new interface experience from Microsoft – but excitement is restrained

The early previews of Windows Phone 7 – for which reference hardware has started shipping to developers – are in. What to make of them? I think the best way to describe them would be a crouching ovation: people who’ve tried it like the fact that Microsoft is trying something different with the mobile experience, but they really can’t decide if it’s going to be a success or not.

Engadget’s in-depth preview (an intriguing concept) is sort of positive: “Microsoft still has a few months before it intends to get the first volley of Windows Phone 7-based products to the marketplace, but we’ve recently been provided with reference hardware — a not-for-retail Samsung called “Taylor” that’s closely modeled on the Symbian-based i8910HD — to get a feel for where they’re at as the clock ticks down.”

Quick briefs: “We were extremely surprised and impressed by the software’s touch responsiveness and speed. In fact, this is probably the most accurate and nuanced touch response this side of iOS4. It’s kind of stunning how much work Microsoft has done on the user experience since we first saw this interface — everything now comes off as a tight, cohesive whole. It really put one of our major fears about Windows Phone 7 to rest. We haven’t seen any substantial lag while using the device, and the short transitions between applications or pages are well suited to the overall experience.”

Although: “the controversial cut-off text is still present, and while we happen to like the way it looks, it’s definitely an acquired taste, and there are times when it just doesn’t work, like in the Office hub where PowerPoint looks like it reads “PowerPoir.” And two other things: “There are two big omissions here, in our opinion. The device won’t support copy and paste, and won’t support third-party multitasking of apps. We knew this would be the case given what we heard at MIX10, but it doesn’t stink any less now. The former really doesn’t make any sense to us, especially since Microsoft did a good job of nailing text editing and selection (at least in Word, and really… you guys make Word), and it looks like it would only be a short walk to a contextual pop-over for copy and paste functions. The latter is practically inexcusable in this day and age — even Apple (which has been a complete laggard in this area) now supports basic multitasking.”

But they like the keyboard (“the keyboard in Windows Phone 7 is really, really good. We’re talking nearly as good as the iPhone keyboard, and definitely better than the stock Android option. It’s one of the best and most accurate virtual keyboards we’ve used on any platform — and that’s saying a lot”) and screen resolution (“the Windows Phone 7 standard 480 x 800″).

Then again, there are points where Engadget’s not so happy, which tallies with some of the doubts I expressed earlier (though I must point out that I’ve not held a WP7 phone, nor seen it demoed): “Windows Phone 7 doesn’t have “contacts,” per se — it has a People app, and there’s quite a difference. This is a thoroughly social platform, and it doesn’t really seek to make any sort of differentiation between people you talk to / text / email, those you just casually observe, and those with whom you’re “friends” in name only. If that kind of philosophy reeks of Motorola Blur or Palm Synergy, you’re on the right track; as soon as you add a Windows Live, Exchange, or Facebook account, it pulls in every contact associated with that account and disperses associated content throughout your entire phone — there’s nothing you can do about it. That means, for example, that your Pictures app could have a bunch of shots of your ex’s aunt’s new boyfriend’s dog in it (more on that in a bit), and there’s not a whole lot you can do to stop that behavior without completely removing your Facebook account from the phone.

“With Exchange, this strategy is probably fine in most cases — contact sync is one of the main reasons you use Exchange ActiveSync, really — but seriously, Facebook is another matter altogether. If you’ve got a lot of Facebook friends, this renders your People app all but useless as a traditional phone contact list.”

Over at ZDNet UK, there’s another preview which goes (like Engadget) into plenty of detail: “Microsoft has stripped away all unnecessary information (almost too much, actually — the status bar displaying battery life, signal strength, and so forth goes into hiding after a couple of seconds) and soft buttons, and created a Start screen that consists of ‘live tiles’, which are essentially dynamic widgets to your favorite apps, contacts and hubs, and also display alerts, such as new email and missed calls. You can rearrange the order of the tiles and remove them by doing a long press on the screen. You can also ‘pin’ new tiles, but to do so, you must first navigate to the list of apps or the People hub, find the item that you want to add and then pin it to the Start screen.”

OK, and those hubs… “The names of the hubs are pretty self-explanatory. For example, the People hub merges contact information from your various accounts and then displays them in one long list. A swipe to the right will show you Facebook status updates (unfortunately, Windows Phone 7 will not have Twitter or MySpace integration at launch) and lets you add comments, while another swipe will brings up the people you’ve contacted most recently.”

“This type of panoramic UI runs across all the various hubs with bold, attractive text splashed across the top to identify different subsections (a.k.a. Pivots) and in some cases, a small contextual toolbar along the bottom of the screen to help you perform app-specific tasks.”

“Some might complain that this type of navigation requires too much scrolling and can be overly complicated. Admittedly, this is true when compared to Apple’s iOS 4 and Google’s Android, and may be a turn-off for consumers. On the other hand, we appreciate the ability to do so many things from one place without having to launch several different apps, so we have to give Microsoft kudos for thinking of this kind of organisation. We also like the consistent UI, which makes it easy to work the other hubs.”

Another point which has been made elsewhere: “What’s interesting about Windows Phone 7, though, is that at times it feels as though you’re getting two completely different experiences on one phone. The Start screen/menu list and some apps — such as the phone dialer, email inbox and calendar — are completely minimalistic, while other aspects of the phone, including the aforementioned hubs and multimedia features, are more sophisticated and elegant. It doesn’t hurt the navigation, as such, but is doesn’t make the phone feel like a cohesive unit either.”

And the big question: “Will this resonate with users? Frankly, we think it’ll be a hard sell initially. Despite all the improvements made to the UI, it’s still more involved than other operating systems. That said, we’d also caution you not to dismiss it completely, simply because it’s different. Change is scary, but it can also be a good thing.”

It’s a long review, which you’re urged to read in detail.

Meanwhile the Wired Gadgetlab has put its sticky fingers all over the screen: here’s the video. Their principal comment: “Still the lack of any kind of real app store is a major hindrance. Also, Microsoft just will not give up on the Zune marketplace. It’s admirable, but maybe they should re-examine their reasoning for keeping it.” But surely the Zune Marketplace is Microsoft’s leg up to an App Store? Abandoning it would look weird.

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(Source The Guardian)

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New Mobile & Latest Deal News!

We have an exclusive deal for you on the iPhone 4 with nothing to pay upfront. It’s on Orange Solo, costing £47 per month on a 24m contract. It comes with 1200 minutes, 200 texts, 750MB of mobile data and 750MB of Wi-Fi data.

Not familiar with iPhone 4? Want to know what all the fuss is about? The new Retina 3.5 inch display on the iPhone 4 hits you with a clarity of visuals not yet experienced on a smartphone. The individual pixels are so fine the human eye cannot see them and so brings an unparalleled high-definition experience. The 5 megapixel camera takes full advantage of this optical range and offers tap-to-focus, geo-tagging, LED flash/light, iMovie editor and video capture at 720p/30fps.

Multitasking no longer drains the battery and allows the built-in iPod to play music and videos whilst downloading the latest iBook or navigating your journey with the help of A-GPS, maps and a digital compass. The fun side of the iPhone offers 3D motion-sensing game play and the Safari Web browser gives access to more than 200,000 downloadable applications as well as putting the Internet at the touch of your fingers.

In-call features include 2 video cameras that can capture the user as well as their surroundings and dual microphones for a superior quality of sound. Messages are kept in one unified inbox and the menu assists in keeping things organised with applications that can be placed into folders.

The 16GB Apple iPhone 4 has a stylish design with a black stainless steel band and flat glossy surfaces with a fingerprint resistant coating. Truly the must have gadget for 2010, the iPhone 4 is set to make most other smartphones look rather mediocre.

Compare all iPhone 4 16GB deals

Tags: 10, 12, 3, all, apple, apple iphone, compare, contract, deal, Deals, free, gadget, iphone, latest, latest deal, mobile, new, new mobile, orange, phone, phones, sol, solo, test, Touch

Owners of Apple’s latest phone are resorting to a bit of duct tape or a dab of nail polish to solve its reception problems

Want to know the must-have item for owners of the new iPhone 4? A bit of duct tape – or a dab of nail polish.

The reason: despite Steve Jobs’s describing the positioning of the antennae which pick up the mobile signal on the outside of the phone, rather than the inside, as “brilliant engineering”, a number of users have discovered that if it is held from the bottom, the signal strength drops off dramatically – because their skin changes the electrical properties of the antennae.

Now, Jobs has informally – and Apple formally – acknowledged the issue: in email replies to owners of the new phones complaining about the problem, Jobs gave a simple response. “Don’t hold it that way,” he told one.

Apple’s slightly longer statement notes that: “Gripping any phone will result in some attenuation of its antenna performance with certain places being worse than others … this is a fact of life for every wireless phone. If you ever experience this on your iPhone 4, avoid gripping it in the lower left corner in a way that covers both sides of the black strip in the metal band, or simply use one of many available cases.”

Some users have found tape or nail polish on the corner is a solution.

With the iPhone 4 having been a sellout in many stores – and Vodafone emailing customers whom it promised supplies to tell them that it cannot satisfy them – the problems are an embarrassment for Apple, which had to overcome early problems with wireless reception on its tablet-style computer, the iPad, when that was launched in May.

Dozens of people have posted videos on YouTube showing how the signal reception for 3G voice and data networks falls off when it is held so that the hand touches the antenna parts on the bottom of the phone. Companies selling silicone casing for the iPhone 4 report that they have already been busier, as word of the problem has spread, than they were for last year’s release of the iPhone 3GS.

Professor Joe McGeehan, head of the Centre for Communications Research at the University of Bristol, and an expert in mobile antenna technology, said: “The hand does have a de-tuning effect on the antenna of any mobile phone: it changes the frequency that it responds to due to capacitative effects. How much it affects it depends on the materials surrounding it. If previous iPhones didn’t have this problem, then you have to ask: what’s changed, and might that be causing it?”

Antenna expert Spencer Webb said all mobile phones house the antenna in the bottom of the phone, to minimise the radio output near the head so that the phone will pass safety testing by the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC). “The iPhone 4 has two symmetrical slots in the stainless frame,” Webb wrote. “If you short these slots, or cover them with your hand, the antenna performance will suffer. There is no way around this, it’s a design compromise that is forced by the requirements of the FCC, AT&T, Apple’s marketing department and Apple’s industrial designers, to name a few.” He said he had upgraded to the new iPhone, despite the concerns. “I voted with my dollars,” he said. “Sometimes an antenna that’s not great, but good enough, is good enough.”

Apple offers a solution: “bumpers” which fits around the edge of the phone. But at £29, they are too pricey for many to consider – and have not pleased people who think their phone should work correctly out of the box.

Read Original Story…
(Source The Guardian)

Tags: 10, 3, 3gs, all, apple, Apples, email, gadget, iphone, iphone 3gs, latest, marketing, mobile, mobile phone, mobile phones, networks, new, phone, phones, sim, sol, test, Touch, uk, vodafone

Antenna design on new iPhone is acknowledged as source of poor connectivity – but Apple says problem is inevitable and advises different grip. Or you could try duct tape…

Apple has issued official guidance – and its chief executive Steve Jobs has issued unofficial guidance – on how to avoid the widely-noted reception problems with the new iPhone 4 when held from below: don’t hold it that way.

The cause has been narrowed down to a circuit being formed when the skin bridges the gap between the left and bottom antennas that form the phone’s outer stainless steel bezel: depending on the conductance of the skin, it can make the phone reception drop off dramatically.

Emailed by the website Ars Technica about the problem, Jobs responded in his normal terse manner: “Just avoid holding it in that way,” he wrote – a response from Jobs that was received by a number of gadget review sites and customers in the US.

Or, in Apple’s official statement – which is only being passed out to news organisations which ask for a statement on the problem, rather than sent out (as happens with iPad or iPhone sales figures): “Gripping any phone will result in some attenuation of its antenna performance with certain places being worse than others depending on the placement of the antennas. This is a fact of life for every wireless phone. If you ever experience this on your Phone 4, avoid gripping it in the lower left corner in a way that covers both sides of the black strip in the metal band, or simply use one of many available cases.”

The problem emerged within hours of the first iPhone 4 devices being delivered to customers in the US, with dozens posting videos to YouTube showing mobile reception dropping off dramatically when they picked up the phone. Some users wondered why Apple had not spotted the problem during its testing of the iPhone 4 before its launch, and wondered whether the £25 “bumpers” that Apple sells to go around the casing – and protect the metal antennas – was an implicit acknowledgement of the problem. Apple had no comment on Friday on whether it had discovered the problem during testing, or only after the phone went on sale.

Spencer Web, an antenna engineer with Antennasys, notes in a blog post that antennas for mobile phones are generally placed at the bottom of the phone, in order to keep the radiative parts of the phone as far away from the user’s head as possible. In the US the Federal Communications Commission measures the output of a phone, and the amount of non-ionising radiation given off, in specific tests – but Web says that those would not have picked up the problem: “when the FCC tests are run, the head is required to be in the vicinity of the phone. But, the hand is not!”

He added: “The antenna structure for the cell phone is still down at the bottom (I won’t address the WiFi nor GPS antennas in this blog entry). The iPhone 4 has two symmetrical slots in the stainless frame. If you short these slots, or cover them with your hand, the antenna performance will suffer (see this video I found on YouTube). There is no way around this, it’s a design compromise that is forced by the requirements of the FCC, AT&T, Apple’s marketing department and Apple’s industrial designers, to name a few.”

There is some speculation that the problem only occurs on some phones because the antennas are usually covered with a clear finishing solution; if the finish did not cover them properly the phone might be more liable to the problem.

Meanwhile iPhone 4 users are developing their own solutions – which range from the use of duct or masking tape on the bottom edge, painting clear nail varnish over the gap, buying cases to cover the sides of the phone, or – the most expensive option – buying Apple’s “bumpers” which cover the edge of the phone.

Meanwhile another problem has appeared on some of the new models: yellow discoloration under the screen. According to one suggestion, this is due to a chemical used in the fixing process that joins the touchscreen to the glass above it and will fade in a few days. That remains to be seen.

Read Original Story…
(Source The Guardian)

Tags: 10, all, apple, blog, email, gadget, iphone, marketing, mobile, mobile phone, mobile phones, new, phone, phones, review, review site, sim, sol, test, Touch, uk

Having lost its exclusive rights to sell Apple’s new phone, the mobile network now seems to have an inverse pricing at its low end to discourage 24-month contracts

O2 has announced the pricing for its iPhone 4 handsets – and seems to be trying to push people away from buying longer-term contracts.

Under the 24-month contracts, the phones are more expensive than the 18-month contracts, by between £70 (for the white 16GB version priced at £209 for 18 months, or £279 for 24 months) and £24 (for the black 32GB version, costing £299 for 18 months and £323 for 24 months). Even though the price plans at that tariff differ by £5 per month, over 18 months the 16GB handset works out cheaper on the lowest tariff by £10.

Pricing plans for Vodafone’s iPhone 4 leaked out earlier this week, although the company has not formally announced them and is only letting people indicate interest in ordering it.

Orange’s charges start at £169 for a 16GB phone on a £30-per month 24-month contract (£229 on £30 for 18 months)

O2′s pricing decision has puzzled people on Twitter: “O2 seems to have forgotten the idea is to lure people onto longer contract by *lowering* upfront costs. Duh.,” commented journalist Scott Colvey.

The decision – tied to O2′s decision to introduce strict caps on data downloads per month, varying between 500MB and 1GB, replacing its previous “unlimited” data contracts that many are still using – may mean a migration of former iPhone customers away from the company, which until last Christmas had the monopoly on iPhone sales in the UK. Now the phone is sold by Orange, Vodafone and 3 – though only Orange and Vodafone have announced prices.

Many iPhone owners who bought the second-generation iPhone in 2008 on 18- or 24-month contracts will be eligible to upgrade with O2 – or possibly to shift to another carrier.

Apple has apologised to would-be customers after overwhelming demand meant that its own and AT&T’s servers crashed when the phone went on sale in five countries on Tuesday. It says that 600,000 phones were ordered on the day – which suggests that it has tapped into huge pent-up demand from owners of older versions, as well as new buyers seeking to join the smartphone bandwagon.

Read Original Story…
(Source The Guardian)

Tags: 10, 12, 3, all, apple, blog, charges, cheaper, compare, comparemobiles.com, contract, gadget, gadgets, iphone, mobile, Mobile News, mobile phone, mobile phones, mobiles, months, new, o2, orange, phone, phones, prices, sol, tariff, tariffs, twitter, uk, vodafone

A small but important project has been taking place in London’s Tulse Hill for the past month, with nine young people being trained to developed apps that will benefit their communities.

Apps for Good is the latest scheme run by the Campaign for Digital Inclusion, which has been training young people in IT for 15 years reaching 1,500 in the UK so far. But the latest initiative by the non-profit organisation is to exploit the popularity of apps to involve young people in creating apps that could improve their communities.

Today is the graduation of the Apps for Good project. Nine young people between 17 and 26 have been working on app projects built on Google’s Android platform, with expert mentors from tech, mobile and startups guiding each team. Dell is supporting the project through its Youth Connect scheme.

CDI says the goal was to enable young people from low-income families to developer web and mobile apps for social change: “The key aim of the programme is to offer participants leading-edge problem-solving and technology skills based on Google’s Android platform to allow them to move on into education, employment or entrepreneurship.”

Stop & Search

Massive potential for this, and no small amount of power. Users, who will mostly be young people, detail their experiences of being stopped and searched by police including mapping the location, name and badge number of the officer and a sliding scale of how fair they felt their treatment was. The app also tells users their rights. Ultimately, the data from this app could build up a powerful record of any patterns in police stop and search, but the developers have already met the Metropolitan Police to discuss sharing feedback. “Our main aim was to help make stop and search more fair and help you know your rights.”

The trio were interviewed by the local Streatham Guardian last month, saying the idea was not to create something ‘anti-police; but to let young people feel more in control. All three have been stopped and searched. Download at the bottom of the page

Developers: Aaron Sonson, Satwant Singh Kenth and Gregory Paczowski

Studio Phly

The app helps aspiring musicians find studio space using and recording equipment based on those nearest to their location, and also acts as a noticeboard for studios who want to advertise to this audience. Download

Developers: Lemel Frank, Symon Morgan and Foyzul Hassan

Student Voice

Designed for students, the app will share recommendations and advice on London-based universities, lectures, tutors and also on clubs, libraries and local services. It gives universities a star rating, and students are incentivised to share their experience and advice through a rewards scheme. Users can also upload photos for each location. Download

Developers: Moses Sonson, Matthew Tanti and Carlos Mateus

Read Original Story…
(Source The Guardian)

Tags: 10, 3, all, android, blog, compare, comparemobiles.com, gadget, gadgets, global, google, latest, line, mobile, Mobile News, mobile phone, mobile phones, mobiles, new, phone, phones, service, sol, test, three, uk

Apple sees sales of 600,000 units on Tuesday, with demand in Germany 10 times ahead of that for last year’s model

Apple has reported overwhelming demand for its new iPhone 4 model, selling more than 600,000 in a single day on Tuesday which saw ordering websites crash in the US and UK.

In Germany, demand for the new model, which was only unveiled by Apple chief executive Steve Jobs at the start of the month, is running 10 times ahead of that for last year’s model, the iPhone 3GS, reported Deutsche Telekom.

By comparison, when the iPhone 3GS went on sale last year, 1m were sold in its first three days. But that debuted in eight countries, whereas the iPhone 4 has gone on sale only in five.

Apple has apologised to people who tried to order the phone and gave up in frustration, saying demand was far higher than it expected. “We hope that they will try again.. once the iPhone 4 is in stock.”

Since its debut in June 2007, Apple’s smartphone has taken a huge chunk of the smartphone market and forced companies such as RIM, maker of the BlackBerry, and Nokia, which has the lion’s share of smartphone sales, to play catchup. Nokia issued another profits warning on Wednesday, and its share of the smartphone market is falling every quarter.

In the UK, where Apple is offering the phone without a contract through its online store, Apple’s website crashed as people tried to order it. And in the US, where it is only available with a contract from AT&T, the telephone company’s website froze as it tried to cope with an avalanche of orders each of which had to be verified on its own servers. That also led to problems in which some customers saw details of other peoples’ accounts – a reminder of the flaw exposed by a security group last week in which hundreds of thousands of Apple iPad users’ emails were stolen via weak security on AT&T’s site.

As a result of the heavy demand Apple has had to push back the delivery date for phones ordered online, and on Wednesday AT&T suspended orders, citing “unexpectedly high demand”.

Apple said “it was the largest number of pre-orders Apple has ever taken in a single day and was far higher than we anticipated, resulting in many order and approval system malfunctions.”

Last year in the UK O2 had exclusive rights to sell the new iPhone, and said then that more of those handsets were sold in the first two hours of trading than all handsets in an average day.

This year Apple is selling the iPhone 4 without a contract – at £499 for the cheapest version – and O2, Vodafone, Orange and 3 are competing to offer it on contract terms. However neither O2 or 3 have yet announced prices, or allowed customers to pre-order the phone.

However the new contracts being offered for the phones have sparked anger among web users, who say that the carriers’ use of the word “unlimited” for the amount of data that can be downloaded through the smartphone is misleading. The companies impose a “fair use” cap, while describing the service as “unlimited”.

Now, a formal review by the advertising regulator could be about to put a cap on the practice.

This could mean that fixed-line and mobile operators will not be able to use the term “unlimited broadband” unless they are offering a genuinely unlimited service – and that means nothing in the small print that lets the provider send warnings to customers if they reach a certain threshold.

The review is being led by the Advertising Standards Authority, reports New Media Age, which will work with two ad industry bodies to make a comprehensive assessment of industry claims and consumer complaints on both broadband speeds and “unlimited” tariff penalties.

Read Original Story…
(Source The Guardian)

Tags: 10, 3, 3gs, all, apple, Blackberry, cheapest, compare, comparemobiles.com, comparison, consumer, contract, email, gadget, gadgets, in stock, iphone, iphone 3gs, largest, line, maker, mobile, Mobile News, mobile phone, mobile phones, mobiles, new, nokia, o2, orange, phone, phones, prices, review, service, sol, tariff, three, uk, vodafone

Claims about misleading “unlimited” broadband promotions have been brewing for years, but a formal review by the advertising regulator could be about to put a cap on the practice.

This is likely to mean two things. Firstly, that fixed-line and mobile operators will not be able to use the term “unlimited broadband” unless they are offering a genuinely unlimited service – and that means nothing in the small print that lets the provider send warnings to customers if they reach a certain threshhold. A Which? study last year found that had happened to 11% of a base of 11,000 broadband users.

Which? also found that increased consuer use of multimedia services is making it harder for providers to keep up with demand.


Photo by Gavin St. Ours on Flickr. Some rights reserved

The second implication is for smartphone tariffs, which are now starting to specify data caps. O2 is ditching “unlimited” data plans with the launch of the iPhone 4 in the UK on 24 June, while Vodafone ditched the term last December, based on feedback ahead of its introductory iPhone tariff. O2 have insisted that only 3% of the heaviest data users will notice the “limited” tariffs and will have to pay a data charge top-up for usage over their tariff allowance.

The review is being led by the Advertising Standards Authority, reports New Media Age, which will work with two ad industry bodies to make a comprehensive assessment of industry claims and consumer complaints on both broadband speeds and “unlimited” tariff penalties.

Read Original Story…
(Source The Guardian)

Tags: 10, 3, all, blog, compare, comparemobiles.com, consumer, gadget, gadgets, iphone, line, mobile, Mobile News, mobile phone, mobile phones, mobiles, new, o2, phone, phones, review, service, sol, tariff, tariffs, uk, vodafone

But how do they compare with the other networks? And how do they compare with previous prices?

Vodafone has – oops! – leaked details of its iPhone 4 pricing. Which, since you can pre-order them from Tuesday 15th, means that it’s not much of a leak, but on the other hand you’d think the networks might have got their pricing out earlier.

The numbers were accidentally leaked by Vodafone and captured from its datasheets by Engadget (whence we’ve copied them) reader Liam Gladdy, and we’ve got them here now for you.

Note that the white version seems to be the 16GB one, and the black one is your 32GB one. Pore over the details and tell us your thoughts.

Read Original Story…
(Source The Guardian)

Tags: 10, 12, 3, all, apple, blog, compare, comparemobiles.com, gadget, iphone, mobile, Mobile News, mobile phone, mobile phones, mobiles, networks, new, phone, phones, prices, sol, uk, vodafone

Have Wi-Fi hotspot, will travel

Three will release its second-generation MiFi modem-meets-hotspot gadget next month.…

Read Full Story…
(Source The Register)

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Apple is preparing to reveal its latest iPhone, but many details were leaked after a prototype was left in a bar

Apple’s chief executive, Steve Jobs, is due to unveil the fourth version of the company’s hugely popular iPhone tomorrow – including a screen with up to four times more detail, a camera flash, noise cancellation and longer battery life.

The announcement is expected at the company’s Worldwide Developer Conference in San Francisco, which has drawn thousands of programmers keen to write programs – apps – for the device.

More than 51m iPhones have been sold since its launch in June 2007, and a number of developers have made thousands of pounds from selling apps through Apple’s App Store.

But for Jobs the unveiling will be something of an anticlimax – many details about the phone leaked out in mid-April after one of his staff lost a prototype in a bar near the company’s headquarters. It was sold to gadget blog Gizmodo, where blogger Jason Chen took it apart and posted a video declaring: “You are looking at Apple’s next iPhone.”

Jobs prefers to keep details of upcoming products under wraps to heighten expectations. But with more details known about the new iPhone than any previous model, some of that effect is likely to be diminished.

Yet Apple can revel in having passed Microsoft as the most valuable technology company, based on market capitalisation, and having sold 2m of its iPad tablet computers worldwide since they went on sale in the US on 3 April – including a highly successful UK launch that saw a queue of over a thousand people outside Apple’s flagship store in Regent Street, London.

Gizmodo’s posting about the new iPhone has turned into a criminal investigation after the roommate of Brian Hogan – who walked out of a bar with the iPhone – contacted police, worried that the phone was stolen. Hogan had sold the phone to Gizmodo for a reputed $5,000, which had then contacted Apple to see if the phone was a genuine prototype.

Speaking at a conference last week, Jobs acknowledged that Apple had lost “a wireless product” and said it was unclear whether the phone was lost or stolen. “This is a story that’s got everything – theft, extortion, I’m sure there’s sex in there somewhere – someone should make a movie of it,” he said. He added that some people had tried to tell him not to go after Gizmodo, but he had decided he could not let Apple’s “core values” slide – though he did not explain what values those were.

Jobs has recently become notable for personally replying to emails sent from members of the public. He said that he enjoyed the experience: “There’s nothing that makes my day more than getting a random email from some person in the UK that they just got an iPad and how it made their day. That’s what keeps me going.”

Read Original Story…
(Source The Guardian)

Tags: 10, 3, all, App Store, apple, blog, compare, comparemobiles.com, email, gadget, iphone, latest, mobile, Mobile News, mobile phone, mobile phones, mobiles, new, phone, phones, room, sol, test, uk, world

Apple’s ’4G’ device is out this month. Will Steve Jobs also cut the price of the current model and challenge Nokia head-on?

Steve Jobs will appear before the Apple faithful tomorrow to reveal the latest version of the Californian technology group’s mobile phone. Nicknamed the iPhone “4G” – on the basis that the last one was the 3GS, with the “S” standing for speed – it will be the summer’s must-have gadget, hitting the UK this month. But it is also seen as being in the vanguard of an all-out assault on the mobile market.

In the three years since it launched its first handset, Apple has grabbed the headlines and, more importantly, snatched a lucrative share of the more mature mobile phone markets of the US and Europe, where consumers are willing to pay upwards of £30 a month to get an iPhone. Now, speculation is rising that the company is approaching a so-called “iPod moment” in mobiles: the point at which it will decide that it can capture a much larger slice of the market by producing more than one device.

The success of the App Store, which has seen iPhone users download billions of applications, coupled with the pressure to have a wide market to attract advertisers to its embryonic iAd platform, is pushing Apple towards diversifying, just as it did with the iPod six years ago when it introduced the iPod mini. There is also increasing competition from Google’s Android platform. After two and a half years, handset manufacturers are finally producing compelling Android phones – such as the HTC Desire – and more are slated for release this year, including the mass-market HTC Wildfire.

But rather than unveil a new, cheaper version of the iPhone, Apple is expected to position the iPhone 4G at the top of the smartphone market and reorganise the existing range. The company is likely to halt production of the iPhone 3G – which cannot cope with Apple’s new multi-tasking software – and scrap both existing versions of the iPhone 3GS, which have 16GB and 32GB of memory. It will replace them with a new 8GB version of the 3GS, which is expected to be aimed at the wider market.

The iPhone 4G – according to mobile industry insiders who have seen one and confirmed widespread web leaks – will be available in two versions: 32GB and 64GB. These will put “clear blue water” between it and the mass-market 3GS, as one industry executive puts it. The 4G is slightly smaller and slimmer than the current 3GS. It has an improved 5-megapixel camera with flash and uses micro-sim cards, as seen in the iPad. It also has a glass back, which greatly assists phone reception. In the UK, it is expected to be sold by the same mobile phone networks that have the current iPhone: O2, Orange and Vodafone. It is unclear whether Tesco Mobile will have the 4G when it is launched in the last week of this month.

The parallels between Apple’s current position in the mobile phone market and the place it held in the digital music market when it introduced the iPod mini are revealing. The first iPod appeared in late 2001, but it was not until 2003 that Apple launched the iTunes store. One million tracks were sold in the first five days and 70m in the first year. That showed Apple there was a real mass market for digital music and was a spur for the creation of the first variant of the iPod line, the iPod mini, the following year.

At the time, Apple was lodged firmly in the high end of the market for digital music players. The iPod was the benchmark by which all others were measured and Apple had a share of about 30%. The iPod mini – replaced at the end of 2005 by the Nano – was designed to grab a large part of the next third down. In similar fashion, the iPhone has become the handset by which other mobiles are measured, and in markets including the UK it has made Apple the third-largest mobile phone manufacturer after Nokia and Samsung. It is now a question of how much of the rest of the market – chock full of me-too touchscreen devices from the likes of Nokia, LG and Samsung – Apple wants.

“I would argue that they may already have reached the tipping point,” Ben Wood at CCS Insight – a long-time follower of the mobile market – says. “The iPhone has become a ubiquitous product in the markets where its pricing is acceptable.”

He believes that a real driver behind Apple’s growth will be the iAd platform, which Jobs announced this year alongside the new version of the iPhone software – which is also in the iPad. The new mobile advertising platform is designed to allow iPhone app developers to create in-app advertising. Currently, anyone who clicks on an advert in a downloadable app is bounced out of it and on to the advertiser’s webpage. As a result, many users are put off clicking on adverts. In contrast, iAd will allow full-screen video and interactive advertising content to be served within an application. Crucially, Apple will sell and serve the adverts, and developers will receive 60% of their iAd revenue.

“With iAd, which could be as significant to Apple as the iPod franchise itself, Apple has a tremendous opportunity. It will provide a further chance to lock in their leading position in application development,” Wood says. “If iAd becomes the kind of phenomenon that Apple appears to be able to create, and becomes as big as it could, then potentially Apple could really disrupt the market by subsidising the iPhone from their iAd revenues.”

But whether iAd means that Apple needs to go all the way into the low end of the market is doubtful.

“IPhone users are a segment of the population that has affinity with technology and disposable income, and that is a marketeer’s dream already,” Wood says.

And Carolina Milanesi, research vice-president at rival analysts Gartner, is not convinced that this is the right time for Apple to go mass market, citing price constraints on the iPhone’s most important feature – its large touchscreen.

“On the iPod touch and the iPhone, the screen is very important,” she says. “Music is easier [to do in a mass-market device] because it is just [data] storage, and with the price of storage coming down you can experiment with design. But when you have applications running on the device, how much dumber can your device become before it is useless? And that is where they are going to struggle. What else do you cut?”

Apple could cut its own profits, but it has shown little desire to do that in the past: the switch from the 3G to the 3GS actually reduced the manufacturing cost of the phone, analysts reckon.

“Yes, of course, they can expand their addressable market so much quicker, but do they want that?” says Milanesi. “Just as Jobs says Apple does not want to be the Dell of the PC market, [so] Apple does not want to be the Nokia of the mobile market.” How true that is will be revealed tomorrow.

Focus on Apple’s factory

While Apple fans will drool over the new iPhone this week, tragic events in China have thrown a spotlight on the human cost of the west’s obsession with shiny toys. A spate of suicides at the massive Chinese plant run by Taiwanese contract electronics manufacturer Foxconn has called into question working conditions at one of Apple’s largest suppliers.

The Californian company has dispatched a team of investigators to discover why 10 people have killed themselves so far this year. Management at the Shenzhen facility, which stretches across three square kilometers and employs more than 250,000 people, are trying to solve the problem by hiring counsellors, playing soothing music on production lines, increasing wages and asking new recruits to sign a ‘”no-suicide” contract. They are also taking more direct action, installing netting around outdoor stairwells of the dormitory buildings, where workers sleep eight to a room.

Speaking last week, Steve Jobs said Apple was “diligent” when it came to understanding the working conditions in the supply chain, auditing its direct suppliers as well as tertiary suppliers.

“We are over there trying to understand what is happening and more importantly trying to understand how we can help because it is a difficult situation,” he told the D8 conference organised by All Things Digital. He said many young workers came from poor rural areas and were away from home for the first time.

“They are probably less prepared to leave home than your typical High School student going to college in this country. I think there are some real issues there,” he said.

But he stressed: “Foxconn is not a sweatshop. They have got restaurants and movie theatres and hospitals and swimming pools. For a factory, it is a pretty nice factory.”

Some of Foxconn’s workers disagree, complaining the monotonous workload causes depression. “I do the same thing every day,” Xiao Qi, a college graduate who works at Foxconn in product development told Bloomberg Businessweek. “I have no future.”

Read Original Story…
(Source The Guardian)

Tags: 10, 3, 3gs, all, android, App Store, apple, Apples, blog, card, cheaper, compare, comparemobiles.com, consumer, contract, drive, gadget, google, growth, HTC, iphone, iphone 3gs, largest, latest, launches, lg, line, mobile, Mobile News, mobile phone, mobile phones, mobiles, networks, new, new mobile, nokia, o2, orange, phone, phones, room, sam, samsung, service, sim, Sim Card, sol, test, three, Touch, uk, vodafone, world

An iPod dock, an iPhone app and the iPad are among the coolest gadgets of 2010, according to a poll.

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(Source Yahoo UK News)

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Forget about earning badges, Loopt is cashing in on the ‘check in’ trend by launching a new rewards program called Loopt Star that gives people incentives to become loyal patrons to participating establishments.

Loopt may have been one of the early location-based social networks on the iPhone and other smartphones, but in recent months, its relevancy faded when newer start-ups like Gowala and Foursquare created badges and other reasons for users to share their location. But now the Mountain View, California-based company is embracing it all, by offering discounts to stores like The Gap, or free music downloads, or non-monetary rewards, like becoming the ‘honorary barista’ of Starbucks. It’s also adding becoming the ‘boss’ to its repertoire.

At launch, Loopt will be offering users the ability to check in to The Gap twice for 25% off coupon, which can be used on the second visit. Universal Music Group is giving five free MP3s from popular artists like Rhianna, Lady Gaga, Mos Def and others, to a user who checks into a qualifying bar with two other Facebook friends. Standford University will give a ‘special Class of 2010′ graduation gift to students, who check in to multiple commencement week events. And, finally, Starbucks won’t be giving anything away, but for those who check into any individual Starbucks the most becomes the ‘Honorary Barista’ of that location.

The new ‘Loopt Star’ application must be downloaded to either the iPhone or iPod Touch in order to work. As part of that, users can still share their location with friends.

The incentives sound a lot like experiments already being conducted by Foursquare, another location-based app. It rewards frequent Starbucks customers called the mayor with the Barista badge, and started a limited time offer that gives the mayor a $1 discount on a Frappucino.

Update: Here’s a video interview Robert Scoble did with Loopt CEO Sam Altman, including a demo of the new app:

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(Source The Guardian)

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As well as churning out millions of electronics devices for sale under upscale brand names like Apple’s, China’s manufacturers have a tendency to produce lookalikes at low prices, mainly for the Asian markets. The iPed is one of the first to target the “media tablet” market….

If anyone’s coming back from China, I hope they’re bringing back an iPed, as reported on Japanese TV news. This looks like the first iPadalike to go on sale, and a large part of its appeal is the low price ($105). However, I expect some rather more expensive devices will be shown at this week’s Computex trade show in Taiwan, starting with MSI’s Wind Pad 110, which has an ARM processor running Google’s Android mobile phone operating system. Acer, Dell and Lenovo are also tipped to enter the market at some point.

According to The Wall Street Journal: “Bob Morris, ARM’s director of mobile computing, says his company is tracking about 40 tablet-style devices being designed with ARM-based chips, plus about 10 more e-reader devices for electronic books. He estimated that ‘upwards of half’ are based on Android.”

Apple’s iPad is basically an iPod Touch XL, so I don’t see any reason why Google’s mobile phone software should not be similarly upscaled for the mid-sized tablet format. It might not have the polish of Apple’s software, but polish isn’t everything. There are other things in life, including diversity and freedom of choice, as well as price.

The point is that where Apple’s system is proprietary and closed, Google’s is based on open source Linux, and you can license it. Instead of users being limited to one basic tablet from one supplier, and a single censored marketplace for approved apps, Android will enable thousands of manufacturers and software developers to compete for sales. Some people find freedom of choice is just too hard for them to handle, of course, but the (relatively) more open system could eventually triumph, as Microsoft MS DOS (aka IBM PC DOS) and Windows did over Apple’s Mac OS in the 1980s and 1990s. And while no one knows if this will actually happen, it already seems likely that Android phones will outsell Apple iPhones.

Either way, as the FT’s Tech blog says: “Everyone’s eager to capitalise on the iPad’s technological shortcomings.” Well, Apple has left lots of room for competition. For a start, there’s the chance to provide cloud-based systems that don’t demand to be attached to a personal computer running Apple’s iTunes for synchronisation.

The first version of the iPad also has lots of hardware and software limitations, including the annoying lack of multi-tasking for third-party apps, lack of Adobe Flash (not even as a user-selected option), the mysteriously missing webcam for Skype, the lack of a USB port or an SD card slot, and so on. Apple has probably left out some of these useful features in order to create a market for an upgraded iPad to be released in 18-24 months, but it means rivals can easily offer these things first.

There are, of course, lots of alternatives to Android in the slate market. Some manufacturers already sell, or might sell, tablets that run different versions of Linux (including Nokia and Intel’s MeeGo), Windows CE Embedded or Windows 7, or even Palm’s WebOS, now owned by HP. Also, some tablets will be based on ARM chips such as Snapdragon or Tegra, and some on Intel Atom chips, depending on whether they’re small versions of laptop computers or big versions of mobile phones.

However, Google has already singled out Apple as the dictatorial 1984-style enemy of freedom in the smartphone market (an amusing twist on Apple’s attack on IBM), and this war looks likely to be continued in the “overgrown smartphone” part of the tablet market.

One key problem is that Google specified Android for screens up to about 7 inches, presumably thinking that the stripped-down web-oriented Chrome OS would be used on devices with bigger screens. But if Google isn’t hammering out a new tablet “device profile” based on XGA (1024 x 768 pixel) screens, I’ll be very disappointed.

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(Source The Guardian)

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