Texting becomes more popular than talking in Britain, average Briton sends 50 texts a month

We’ve heard a couple of times in one form or another for the United States and now it’s growing into Europe - we’re calling less, and exchanging direct communication for texts and social networking. At least that’s the conclusion at which British communications regulator Ofcom arrived at in its annual report after surveying UK citizens. 

The youngest crowd including people from 16 to 24 leads the way and is the first switching to more text and social networking interaction. What’s really interesting though is that the average Briton sends 50 texts each week, or more than 7 text messages per day. 

Also, tablet adoption has really picked up recently and from 2% last year, now 11% to 12% of people in the UK own a tablet. That’s probably even faster than the smartphone adoption. In the UK, two out of five adults own a smartphones and a record 49% of people are now on contracts. For the first time, more than a half of all phone calls were made on a mobile phone as opposed to a stationary one. 

Britons spends an average hour and a half in social networks each week, The whole Ofcom report is full of interesting facts, so you can check it all out at the source below. 

source: Ofcom via BBC

Samsung Galaxy S II sales reach 28M, Galaxy Note scores 7M

The Galaxy series has been a huge hit for Samsung - the Koreans recently announced that the line of Android smartphones has surpassed 50 million sales globally. What's even more impressive, the bulk of that is from the flagship devices.

The first one, the Samsung Galaxy S scored over 24 million sales in two years. Its successor, the Galaxy S II sold much faster - it reached 28 million sales in just 13 months, which made it the fastest selling device for Samsung. That's 8 million more unit sales since late February this year.

The half-smartphone, half-tablet Samsung Galaxy Note did very well for itself too - since it went on sale in October last year, 7 million Notes have been sold. That number was 5 million in late March.

Other Galaxy droids didn’t make the statistics, which is a shame - we're really curious about how well entry-level phones like the Galaxy Ace and Galaxy Y sold. Also, we'll keep an eye on the Galaxy S III sales - it got 9 million pre-orders so we assume it's going to break quite a few of the company's records itself.

Source

Here’s what the color of your smartphone says about you

Cyan, fuchsia, yellow... we’re not talking about fashion here, unless it’s smartphone fashion. In a greyish universe of mobile devices, Nokia is bringing a splash of color as one of the biggest differentiators for its Lumia Windows Phone series, but interestingly enough the color of your smartphone actually reveals more about your personality than you might think. Well, at least if we take the conveniently overgeneralized perception of color below.

With that healthy sense of doubt, here’s what the smartphone colors actually say about you as a personality.

Cyan is for the thinker as the color itself is very balanced, so it’s likely that happy people would pick a cyan device.

“However, it has all sorts of properties because it’s such an interesting combination of colors. It communicates that you know what you’re doing and that you’ve thought things through. The color red acts on the physical, but blue acts on the intellectual and it helps you to focus your thoughts and clear your mind,” according to the head of London-based Color Affects company.

White on the other hand is for the sophisticated person, one with high standards.

“White is all colors totally reflected, so if you’re wearing white clothes you’re actually creating a quite powerful barrier. It’s sort of ‘touch me not’, but in the case of smartphone it’s manifests itself as: ‘don’t touch this, it’s mine!’,” now Nokia informs us.

Fuchsia (yes, that’s a color too) characterizes the “angry lady,” is the color of “militant feminism.” Talk about your phone as a gateway for people to assess you!

And finally black is the color of the protector as it itself has all colors contained in it. It’s a safe choice. Others say it underlines more the hardware sophistication of a phone.

What color is your phone and do you agree with the message the experts above say it brings?

source: Nokia Conversations

Purported design schematics for the iPhone 5 confirm an opening for a 4" display

Purported design schematics for the next iPhone have emerged, confirming what the leaked parts yesterday showed, namely an opening for a display that is roughly 4" in size.

Back-of-the-napkin calculations from the engineering blueprint return about 7mm taller and slightly wider front panel part than what we have now, which is not much at all, and certainly preferable than increasing the width too much and messing up with one-handed operation.

CEO Tim Cook said yesterday they will double-down on secrecy about Apple's upcoming products, which might have something to do with the current leaks, or it could just be an elaborate decoy and Apple unveils something totally out of whack - these schematics look rather legit, though.

source: MacRumors

Screen shots of Apple's new 3D Maps app leak

It appears to be an Apple-heavy news day today. After the leaking of new iPhone parts from several sources, BGR has also obtained screenshots of Apple’s 3D maps app, which is expected to debut in iOS 6 (and will presumably be announced at WWDC during the June 11th keynote address). 

We’ve been reporting on Apple’s interest in creating their own mapping solution for a while now – with the success of Google’s Android operating system Apple became concerned about how much they relied on Google’s iOS apps for supplying basic features. Apple has always made the front end of the Maps app, but up to now they’ve relied on the Google Maps backend for the data.
 
While Apple started the project as a way to become self-sufficient, the competition for offering location-based deals has been heating up, with Google and others moving to leverage their platforms to take on GroupOn and other deals-based websites. That’s lucky timing for Apple, who will now control all of the location-based data that is collected.

Unfortunately the images captured by BGR’s “trusted source” were made in a hurry and aren’t the most beautiful things to look at, so BGR created a mockup of what to expect based on them. It appears that the app has moved from the blue theme seen in the current Maps app to the silver theme seen in the iPad, leading to the speculation that iOS6 may shift the UI towards the iPad’s aesthetic.

Also, you can see a little arrow key in the lower left corner – that button lets the user pop into or out of the 3D navigation mode. According to the source Apple is currently field testing the app now. Check out the mock up and blurry-cam snapshots below.

HTC One X DROP TEST

We found an interesting unofficial drop test of the new HTC Flagship, the HTC One X:



In this test you will see me drop the HTC One X three times. Once on its back from waist height then the same way from shoulder height. The next thing that I did was chest high face down to get a full shot on the Gorilla Glass.

After the first two drops you will notice the shell of the HTC One X can really take a beating only showing minor scratches and dings, except for the scratch that we noticed going across the camera lens.

The difference between the HTC One X drop test and other drop tests, is that there is no removable battery that will pop out when you drop it. Just watch the video and you will see what happens..

source: www.youtube.com

Stories you shouldn't have missed this week

It is once again time for a short recap of the past week. Perhaps the most significant event that we reported was the Motorola Mobility acquisition by Google, which is now a done deal. As a result, CEO Sanjay Jha was replaced by Dennis Woodside, and who knows, Mr Jha may not be the only person in need of a new job as thousands of Motorola employees might be given the sack soon, if rumors are to be trusted.

In other news, NVIDIA unveiled its Kai platform, which is the company's recipe for delivering Tegra 3 Android tablets at the very reasonable price point of $199. While no device announcements have been made yet, it would not be surprising if such affordable slates hit the market before the year's end.

Want an iPhone-related story? Here's one: it is rumored that two iPhone prototypes are being tested, and both of them flaunt a 4-inch display. But as with all Apple rumors, whether this is true or not will be known once the next iteration of the device is announced officially.


source: Phone Arena

Google Nexus tablet details leaked, will be quad-core and may include Jelly Bean

A “trusted source” speaking to TechnoBuffalo has confirmed many of the details about the upcoming Nex

us tablet…although whether or not Google’s 7” tablet is actually named “Nexus” is not one of those details. The source did confirm that it will be built by ASUS and will be one of the hardware giveaways for Google I/O on June 27th, something we’ve been expecting ahead of its July ship date.

One exciting tidbit is that they also were receiving “conflicting reports” on whether or not the tablet would come preinstalled with Jellybean, the next major version of Android. That would come as something of a pleasant surprise, since many analysts were not expecting the next major version of the little green robot operating system to appear until late fall or early winter.

Also of great interest is the source indicated that the tablet would indeed be rocking a quad-core Tegra3 device, not the dual-core solution that some had expected in light of Google’s attempts to price their tablet aggressively. Of course NVIDIA has said on more than one occasion that part of their project strategy is to help bring to market a sub-$200 Tegra3 tablet, so we may still get the low price point that many of you have been hoping for.

Who out there would be interesting in a $199 quad-core Nexus tablet running Jelly Bean this summer? We reckon quite a few people would be. Is it too good to be true? Most of the hardware and pricing rumors seem reasonable. We have no idea how close Jelly Bean is to fruition, although in the past Google has turned out major software updates in less than a year, so it’s not impossible, even if it’s far from certain. And in a way it’s just a matter of months either way – even if Jelly Bean doesn’t hit until this fall, we’re sure the vanilla Android tablet would be one of the first devices to get the update.

source: TechnoBuffalo via Droid-Life

Supposedly Google's Majel will be called Google Assistant

It looks like Google's next iteration of its voice command software is starting to take shape. TechCrunch is reporting that the product may have shed its codename "Majel" in favor of an official name: Google Assistant. This is especially interesting given that Android chief Andy Rubin, notoriously said that he doesn't "believe your phone should be an assistant". 

Another interesting thing is that TechCrunch is reporting that Google Assistant is now in the hands of the Android team (along with search engineer Amit Singhal) not the mysterious Google X project, which is where Majel had lived. Word has it that Google has been building this product with three goals in mind:

1. Gather all information and make it understandable by computers.
2. Create a personalization layer
3. Build a mobile, voice-powered productivity engine, which is focused less on finding information and more on getting things done

All of this sounds pretty logical. The current voice controls from Google are mainly focused on finding info or communication, so adding in more productivity tools makes sense. The personalization layer is the "plussification" of everything Google that we've been seeing, which is an effort to gather more individual and local data. And, the first goal seems like that has been one of the overarching goals of Google since before it was even called Google. 

Of course, many will call this nothing more than a Siri competitor, but as always, there is the Google openness to consider. Word has it that Google is planning to "extend this service to developers" just like it has with its current voice control app. So, there will likely be APIs allowing developers to hook into the Assistant platform, and just like the current voice control, we may even see a number of third party apps built on top of Google's software. 

The bad news is that the newest info has this product not being released until Q4 of this year.

source: TechCrunch

Here's what the iPad 3 won't be (but we wish it was)

Now, we don’t know what the next-gen iPad will look like. Quite frankly, Apple has been pretty good with keep it under cover as any other of its products, that the only think rumors point to is a high-res display and hopefully a better battery. At the same time, we’re pretty confident it won’t have a dreamy edge-to-edge display and all the awesome features pictured in the concept video below. But we wish it would.

The video imagined by well known Aatma Studio depicts a concept of the iPad 3 that not only has an edge-to-edge screen, but it also easily connects with another iPad via NFC which augments the screen to include that of the second tablet, and it somehow projects controls to the side and even 3D-esque holographic image above it.

Now, what we’re particulaly impressed is the flight of the fantasy of Aatma Studios. It will certainly inspire you with some futuristic ideas. It could also make you less enthusiastic when you see the actual next-gen iPad on March 7th, so proceed with caution, especially if you’re a barista.

source: Electric Pig

Qualcomm announces Snapdragon S4 "Pro" chip with Adreno 320 graphics

Qualcomm has just confirmed the Snapdragon S4 “Pro” which adds amazing graphics with Adreno 3

20 graphical core, building on top of the powerful 28nm Qualcom MSM8960 with Krait processor.

The new S4 “Pro” chip patches the weakest spot of the first MSM8960 chips, which in the rush to the market only included Adreno 225 graphics. The new GPU will allow for higher resolution displays and bring a four-fold improvement in visuals. It will support the latest gaming engines from Unity (games on it include the Samurai series and Rocket Bunnies on iOS) and Epic (the Unreal Engine, powering titles like Gears of War).

Adreno 320 will support hardware acceleration of rendering features like instancing and multiple render targets, and come with new APIs with OpenCL.

The S4 “Pro” chip release date is set for the second half of 2012 and Qualcomm underlined that it is optimized for upcoming Windows 8 devices, supporting full hardware acceleration for the platform.

Control your own Tankbot with your Android or iOS device for only $24.99

We often justify our technology purchases in the name of ‘business’ or ‘productivity’, but, honestly, who doesn’t want to be able to use that same tech to control a robot? We have great news for you fellow robot aficionados. DeskPets is now offering Tankbots, a toy that can be controlled with your iPhone, iPad, or Android powered device.

In addition to being controlled with a smartphone, they can also be put into “Autonomous Personality Mode”, which allows the Tankbot to use infrared technology to avoid walls and obstacles. For multi-player fun, that same infrared system can be used in battle mode to fire shots at an enemy Tankbot, although we think it’s quite obvious that any battling between these guys in the real world is going to consist of smashing them into one another.

These little bots have a built in USB charger that give you 15 minutes of fun on a 40 minute charge. They come in several colors and are available at Toys ‘R’ Us, Brookstone, and Radio Shack for only $24.99.





source: DeskPets via AndroidGuys

Rotten Core: Nokia lose huge market share in their homeland

There's a state of unease within Nokia at the moment and unsurprisingly so. With the first Nokia-Microsoft lovechild now out in the market (the Lumia 800, you might have heard of it) and an aggressive marketing strategy in place to drum up interest in Windows Phone-laden Nokia's coming fresh out of the factory, the Finnish company have been waiting with bated breath to see how consumers will receive this new-era Nokia.

They've shown a resilience to the tough times they've faced already and since the partnership announcement in February, many wondered just how this shift would affect the company's image. By bringing Microsoft in, they've inherently changed the way they operate and the way fans of the brand expect them to operate. Sure they brought the Asha lineup to maintain support for their Symbian products and the N9 is taking point in markets where the Lumia 800 isn't, but now Windows Phone is Nokia and as Stephen Elop so boldly said at Nokia World, the Lumia 800 is "the first real Windows Phone device."

Not only could a statement like that upset the likes of HTC, LG and Samsung, all of whom license Windows Phone from Microsoft, but the hardcore fans of what we could call the 'old' Nokia also might not welcome the change, and that is a notion that has the potential to hold water in this case.

The Finns have been proud of the globally recognized giant that is Nokia and it's probably one of the key things those from outside of the country associate with it, but a recent report from Helsinki's Taloussanomat shows that pride only takes support so far. In the last 12 months, Nokia have lost 45% of the market share taking their dominance from 76% right down to 31%.

Of course they still have the top spot, but the gap has dramatically narrowed, with the majority of their sales now in the possession of Samsung who have risen sharply from a mere 3% to 25% in the same amount of time. Apple then take third place with 16% in Q3 2011, with Sony Ericsson and Huawei sharing 11% each, leaving the remaining 6% of the market currently to ZTE.

This doesn't automatically spell the end for Nokia of course, far from it, but it still must be unnerving for them. The financial quarter in question actually precedes the announcement of the Lumia and Asha handsets, but as such, it does indicate that the change was necessary. It makes more sense for Nokia to have changed tack altogether, than continue along the road they were currently on and let's not forget the Finnish market is important for Nokia, but relatively speaking, it's a small one, with Finland's entire population around the 5 million mark.

Once the holiday season and the final financial quarter conclude we should get at least an initial indication of the impact the Lumia 800 is making. Until then however it's a case of crossing fingers and seeing if Nokia are able to reassure the old fans, as well as attracting new ones.

Source

Qualcomm announces new Snapdragon S1 and S4 chipsets

Qualcomm is expanding its Snapdragon lineup - adding chipsets to both the entry-level S1 line and the Krait lineup. Krait is a brand new design that will scale to up to 2.5GHz with one, two or four cores. It promises better power efficiency than current architectures.

The S4 badge will be carried only by the best of the best Snapdragon chipsets with Krait CPU architecture and next-gen Adreno graphics (dual or quad core GPUs).
There are eight new chipsets, which are joining the already announced MSM8930 and MSM8960 (single and dual-core CPUs respectively) and the Snapdragon APQ8064 (with a quad-core CPU and Adreno 320 GPU), which will supposedly power the rumored HTC Zeta.
The first products with Snapdragon S4 chipsets are expected to show up in early 2012 - starting with the single and dual core versions but we'll be seeing quad-cores later on too.
Qualcomm also announced four S1 chipsets, which are aimed at entry-level smartphones but have been upgraded to offer better performance than we're used to see in this segment. Specs for the S1 line are scarce but we can expect up to 1GHz CPU clock speed and Adreno 200 GPUs. There's a focus on 3G connectivity too, to bring entry level smartphones out of the 2G era.

Anyone can steal a Subaru Outback with an Android phone

Don Bailey and Matthew Solnik from iSec Partners demonstrated how to break into a car and hack into its remote control system.

Their research was shown at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas, and they unlocked a Subaru Outback and started the engine from a distance using an Android handset and the so-called 'war texting'. You need to set your own GSM network around the car for that, and then intercept the password authentication text messages between the server and the car, all in just a few hours.

Actually the researchers are not worried about stealing cars, but rather that the same remote control systems with text messaging updates are in traffic lights and security cameras, as well as the power grid and water supply infrastructure. If anyone with skills, an Android handset and some relatively inexpensive wireless network equipment can hack into the remote control system of popular car brands, what's to stop someone from doing it on a grander scale, they argued.

"I could care less if I could unlock a car door. It's cool. It's sexy. But the same system is used to control phone, power, traffic systems. I think that's the real threat.", said Don Bailey for CNN.

source: TGDaily via Engadget

Nokia N8 was used to shoot at the world's biggest stop-motion animation set

The Nokia N8 is still the best king in smartphone cameras with its 12-megapixel Carl Zeiss lens. But is it fit enough to shoot at the world's largest stop-motion animation set spreading on over 11,000 square feet? Answer is yes, but it took not one, but three Nokia N8s to produce this breath-taking minute and a half production called Gulp. The marine-themed stop-motion film Gulp narrates the story of a fisherman going out in the sea only to meet adventure.

Interestingly, when shooting the film the three Nokia N8s were used only for capturing stills, not video. The numerous images were then stitched together giving the illusion of motion in a 25fps video. Aardman and Nokia, which are behind this film, have previously broken the record for the world's smallest stop-motion animation with the movie Dot.

So heeeeere's Gulp :



source: Nokia

Angry Birds for Windows Phone 7 is updated and even packs 90 new levels

Hello ! Good news for Phones Land Readers and for any Windows Phone 7 owners out there that quickly went through all the available levels with Angry Birds! It's because the popular game from Rovio is being updated to version 1.1, which brings forth 90 new exciting levels.

With a total 225 levels now, up from the previous 135, gamers will now have access to episodes 10 and 11, which were branded as “coming soon”.

Additionally, the other new difference with this updated version is the new load screen. For $2.99, the price is very reasonable.

And even though the number of levels with the update is still behind the iPhone’s mark of 270 levels, we’re sure that mobile phone owners are still nonetheless going to be entertained and delighted with the new update.

source: WP Central via WMPoweruser

Apple iPhone 5 could be coming with an "Assistant"?

A leaked screenshot obtained by 9 to 5 Mac shows a voice control called Assistant that is not part of the iOS 5 beta version. This would make it a possible feature for the allegedly upcoming Apple iPhone 5. Based on the leak, it would appear that Assistant does more than just convert the spoken word into written text on the handset's display.

A source for 9 to 5 Mac said that the feature is still being developed and might not be completed in time for inclusion into the next-gen Apple iPhone. Based on some SDK info, it would appear that Assistant would work similar to the Siri technology that Apple recently acquired. Assistant would integrate with the OS on your iPhone to allow certain tasks to be completed by uttering a simple sentence. For example, you could say, "Setup movie with Robespierre" and the app would check your location, offer you tickets to a movie from the closest theater, and send good ol' Robespieere an email apprising him of the information.

The service would be crowd-sourced and Apple will give users the option of sending their data securely to Cupertino so that the manufacturer can improve the service. The Assistant feature is expected to "talk back" to the user. And even when your Apple iPhone is locked, an option will allow you quick access to the feature.

Recent survey shows that Games are the most installed apps

A recent survey reveals that Games are the most installed apps category
"Games" was the number one category of apps installed on smartphones in the U.S. during Q2
The survey looked at those who had downloaded at least one app in a 30 day stretch of Q2 and found that 64% of them had downloaded at least one game in that period to lead the pack. Second belonged to apps in the "Weather" category which were installed by 60% of smartphone users during the qualifying time period. Social Networking sites (of course they're in the top 3) came in third with a 56% reading.


In a very interesting breakdown of the numbers, iOS users spend an average of 14.7 hours per month on games compared with 9.3% of Android users and only 4.7% of those using a Windows Phone 7 smartphone. With its strong business-centric appeal, there is no surprise that BlackBerry users averaged only 4.5 hours per month playing games, tying the platform with Featurephone users. The average monthly game use in the industry was 7.8 hours per month in the most recent survey.

source: Nielsen via BGR

Starbucks app for Android video

Starbucks had finally released its app for Android powered handsets. The app can turn your handset screen into the barcode on your Starbucks card and get scanned at the register to pay for your drink. There are also some other features of the app, including the ability to help you find a specific Starbucks location using Google Maps.

Starbucks made a little video showing you what the Starbucks app can do. Simply pick up your Android phone, head over to the nearest Starbucks location and let the coffee retailer's app do its magic.



source: YouTube via AndroidCentral