Are Smartphones Taking Over Our Lives? [STUDY]

by Erica Swallow

New research portrays the UK as a smartphone-addicted country. Mobile data services have increased 40-fold in a three-year period in the country, and more than a quarter of adults and nearly half of teenagers own a smartphone.

The 341-page report, released by UK telecommunications regulator Ofcom, is sprinkled with nuggets of information about mobile data consumption among smartphone users, as well as larger telecommunications trends in Internet, radio and TV usage.

Here are some of the takeaways regarding smartphone usage:

• 37% of adults and 60% of teens admit they are highly addicted to their smartphones.
• 81% of smartphone users make calls every day compared with 53% of regular users.
• 23% of teenagers claim to watch less TV and 15% admit they read fewer books as a result of their smartphone use.
• 51% of adults and 65% of teens say they have used their smartphone while socializing with others.
• 23% of adults and 34% of teens have used their smartphones during mealtimes.
• 22% of adult and 47% of teens admitted using or answering their smartphone while in the bathroom.
• 58% of adult males owned a smartphone compared with 42% of females.
• Among teenagers, 52% of females use smartphones compared with 48% of males.
• The majority of adults (32%) identified Apple’s iPhone as their favorite device, while the majority of teens (37%) prefer the BlackBerry.
• With increasing telecommunications options in an ever-connected world, addiction to mobile and Internet use is not uncommon. In South Korea, there are even clinics for treating Internet addicts.
• How would you define smartphone addiction? Does taking a few calls from the toilet and texting during dinner make you an addict? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Skype Enables Video Calls on 17 More Android Devices

 by Stan Schroeder

Skype announced in June one-on-one video chat for Android, but the feature was only available on a handful of smartphones. Now, the company has launched Skype 2.1 for Android, extending the support for video chat to 17 new Android smartphones and tablets.

The full list of devices that now support video chat includes: Acer A5, HTC Desire (2.2), HTC Desire HD, HTC Evo 3D, HTC Evo 4G, HTC Flyer, HTC Incredible S, HTC Sensation, HTC Thunderbolt – Verizon (2.2) (U.S. only), LG Revolution – Verizon (2.2) (U.S. only), Samsung Droid Charge – Verizon (2.2) (U.S. only), Samsung Galaxy S, Samsung Galaxy S II, Samsung Galaxy Tab, Sony Ericsson Xperia mini pro, Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY and Sony Ericsson Xperia ray.

If your Android device is not on the list but runs Android 2.2 and above, you can still enable video calling in your Skype settings with the new option, “enable video calling.” If it’s not working, then it means your device does not meet the minimum requirements for this feature.

The new version of Skype for Android also brings a number of performance enhancements and bug fixes; gohere for a full list.

Apple Now World’s Top Smartphone Vendor, Has More Cash than U.S. Government

by Stan Schroeder

It must feel good to be a part of Apple today: The company was proclaimed the world’s top smartphone vendor by Strategy Analytics, and its cash reserves are now bigger than the U.S. government’s balance.

Apple is now the world’s largest smartphone vendor by volume with 18 percent market share, according to Strategy Analytics‘ report. Nokia is now number three with 15%, behind Samsung, which grew an amazing 520% annually to grab a 17% share of the global smartphone market.

Also, with a $75.9 billion balance, Apple is obviously doing really well in the “cash reserves” department, but it sounds even better when you hear the U.S. Treasury Department say that the government now has a total operating balance of $73.8 billion.

Apple’s stock price recently surged passed $400, and its total market capitalization is more than $363 billion, which makes it the second largest company in the world, behind Exxon Mobil. The Cupertino giant is already on top of the world, and the only question right now seems to be: How much higher can it go?

Android Now Owns 39% of Smartphone Market [STATS]

 by Christina Warren

Android retains its crown as the top smartphone operating system in the U.S., while RIM continues to falter, according to the most recent data from Nielsen.

In assessing the latest data from June, Nielsen found that 39% of the smartphone market belongs to Google’s Android operating system. Apple has 28% of the market, while RIM and the BlackBerry OS are down to 20%.

When we compare those figures with the data Nielsen released for February through May, Android is up 3%, Apple is up 2% and RIM is down 3%.

When it comes to top phone manufacturers, however, Apple is the clear winner. Like RIM, Apple has the advantage of controlling the software and the hardware for its smartphone platform. Unlike RIM, Apple sells only three smartphones in the U.S.: the iPhone 4 (AT&T), the iPhone 4 (Verizon) and the iPhone 3GS (AT&T).

HTC is the biggest Android manufacturer, according to Nielsen, with 14% of the Android market. Motorola and Samsung have 11% and 8% respectively.

Nokia Sea Ray Running Windows Phone 7 Caught on Video

 by Stan Schroeder

Nokia’s first Windows Phone 7 handset, codenamed Sea Ray, was captured in a in a minute-and-a-half long video running Microsoft’s mobile operating system.

Nokia still has a long, hard road ahead before it actually releases a WP7 device, but it’s making progress, perhaps even faster than expected given this new video.

The video, unearthed by wpcentral, apparently leaked from a factory in Hong Kong or China. It depicts Nokia’s smartphone (which, contrary to initial reports, does sport physical buttons) as it goes through several WP7 menus, followed by a very short glimpse at the phone’s camera operation.

A very similar-looking device was shown in June at a presentation by Nokia CEO Stephen Elop. That video shows us quite a bit more of the phone’s features and functions, but this latest one gives the entire thing a more realistic feeling.

Check out the video below and tell us what you think in the comments.

Team Android Tablet adds players

By Mark Milian, CNN
(CNN) -- The Android cabal is reuniting in a new territory.In the burgeoning tablet computer market, Google and its legion of hardware partners appear to be recreating the conditions that helped crown the Android operating system king of the hill in smartphones.


Two newer members demonstrated firm commitments to Team Android Tablet last week.


Sony Electronics plans to launch the S1 and S2 tablets, both running Google's Android, in the fall. Those devices will be Sony's first major tablet products. And together with Adobe Systems, Sony is hoping to breathe life into Android's tablet marketplace with a $200,000 competition for application developers.


"We understand that the Android market today hasn't been exactly what it was forecasted to be," Phil Molyneux, the president and operating chief for Sony Electronics, said during an interview with reporters on Wednesday.


While the total number of Android apps designed for phones continues to skyrocket, into the hundreds of thousands, apps designed for tablets remain a relative rarity. The total, by some estimates, is less than 300.


Compare that to some 90,000 apps made for the Apple iPad or even the 300 available for Hewlett-Packard's just-released TouchPad, which uses the proprietary webOS software. An abundance of apps is crucial to a platform's success, most operating-system providers agree.


A Google spokeswoman declined to make a representative available for an interview. At the company's developers conference in May, Google unveiled a new version of Android that would help app makers design their software to work on most Android phones and tablets.


"We know that high-quality apps are the lifeblood for Android," Android executive Mike Cleron said on stage.


Even Google's partners aren't satisfied in that respect.
"Consumers want more apps for Android tablets," Sanjay Jha, chairman and chief executive officer of Motorola Mobility, said in a recent earnings call. Motorola sold fewer than 250,000 units in the first few months, a far cry from the 300,000 iPads sold on its first day and the 25 million sold in the first 14 months.


Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang told the technology website CNETthat Android tablets have several problems, including pricing, marketing and app availability.


Over the next four years, Android tablets are forecast to gain market share but fail to overtake the iPad, according to a recent report from Gartner Research. Meanwhile, Google had already overtaken all smartphone competitors for dominance in that industry, less than four years after the launch of the iPhone and three years after the release of the first Android device.


But Android's rise to prominence in smartphones, likewise, did not start with a big bang.


However, its challenges were different then. The first Android smartphones were sold by smaller cellular carriers like T-Mobile USA, and there weren't many devices to choose from. It wasn't until Verizon Wireless threw its weight behind Google, with the Droid campaign, that Android blasted off in the United States and then elsewhere.
Consumers shopping for a tablet today can choose from a bevy of Android devices. Samsung Electronics has been producing tablets in various sizes since last year. The needle didn't move much when Motorola debuted the Xoom for telecom giant Verizon.


Industry analysts and executives are struggling to answer the question: Do consumers want tablets, or do they want iPads?


It's a question worth asking, and this discussion is similar to the portable-media players vs iPods debate. The answer in that case, as Microsoft and others learned, was the latter. People wanted iPods. Samsung isn't coming close to unseating the iPod Touch with its Galaxy Player, based on Android software.


Electronics manufacturers aren't waiting idly to find out the answer to the iPad-or-Android tablet question. They are banding together and again, betting on Google to turn the tides.


Toshiba released the Thrive last week. Amazon is working on a tablet, and the Wall Street Journal reports that it will use Android. Research in Motion's BlackBerry PlayBook tablet will eventually be able to run Android apps, RIM executives have said.


Many players will rely on the success of Android as a means to break into the tablet market, but they are still looking for the impetus that gets consumers onboard.

Android Now: 550,000 Daily Activations, 250,000 Apps, 6B Downloads

By Ionut Arghire


 Google's Android operating system is rocking the party, that's for sure. With 550,000 new devices being activated each and every day, the mobile platform is in full swing towards becoming the king of the global smartphone market. 

With Symbian going down fast, the only way for Android to go is up, and it would keep on growing in the future as well, since there is little competition it would face at the moment on the market.


Users who access the storefront will find there applications in excess of 250,000, Susan Wojcicki, senior VP of Advertising, reportedly unveiled.

For comparison purposes, we should note that the platform had only 100,000 applications on October 2010, two years after its release.

However, the Android Market still trails the Apple App Store, thoughit might become the leading mobile software portal soon.

The number of application downloads from the storefront is increasing fast as well, with over 6 billion for them registered at the moment (six times higher than what RIM announced a few days ago for its BlackBerry App World).

Earlier this week, Google announced the availability of a new Android Market for handsets running under its mobile OS, offering users the possibility to access books and movies while on the go, in addition to the applications and games that were already there to download.

In addition to mobile phones, the Android platform is also available on tablet PCs, something that lead to fragmentation, asthe latest Android distribution charts show. The OS was loaded so far on a little over 130 million devices.

However, this issue should be solved as soon as the next flavor of Android arrives, namely Ice Cream Sandwich, as it would be fit for both the small and for the large screens that devices sport today.

What Happened Tuesday at Mobile World Congress

by Chris Taylor  

The Mobile World Congress Series is supported by Snapdragon by Qualcomm. Inside your smartphone beats the heart of a dragon.

This being Barcelona, it seems fitting that day two of Mobile World Congress kicked off with a little ChaCha and Salsa. Those are the names of HTC’s new phones with Facebook buttons (not to be confused with the so-called Facebook phone from INQ, which can only be viewed by appointment, behind glass and beyond a velvet rope). HTC deluged the show with six products in all, five Android phones and a 7-inch Android tablet, the Flyer.
HTC wasn’t alone. Everyone seems to be joining the Android tablet party. Samsung and LG unveiled theirs yesterday; today it was the turn of HTC, Huwei and ViewSonic. Huwei’s entry was the Ideos Slim S7, which as the name suggests is yet another 7-inch tablet, running the very retro Android 2.2. ViewSonic, which already offers 7-inch and 10-inch tablets, launched a 4.1-inch ViewPad, also running Android 2.2. Which begs the question: How small can a tablet get before it’s simply a large smartphone with connectivity disabled?
Riding high on the waves of Android adulation at the show — there’s even an entire “Android village” stuffed with giant green robot icons, one of which you can slide down — outgoing Google CEO Eric Schmidt took the stage for his keynote address. He promised updates to the Android OS every six months or so, and that from now on, Google would combine the best features of the smartphone OS and the tablet OS. Which could well mean a lot more blurring of the lines between tablet and phone. Meanwhile, Sony Ericsson has been blurring the lines between phone and PlayStation, and we took a look at the result.

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LG Optimus 3D

LG Optimus 3D

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Formula One Racecar

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Motorola Pro

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NTT Docomo

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NTT Docomo

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Panasonic Lumix

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Samsung Galaxy S Wi-Fi 5.0

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Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1

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LG Optimus 3D

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Formula One Racecar

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Motorola Pro

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NTT Docomo

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NTT Docomo

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Panasonic Lumix

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Samsung Galaxy S Wi-Fi 5.0

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Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1

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Series Supported by Snapdragon by Qualcomm

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The Mobile World Congress Series is supported by Snapdragon by Qualcomm. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chipset platform is redefining mobility by offering an optimal combination of mobile processing performance, powerful multimedia, wireless connectivity and power efficiency. The Snapdragon family of chipsets is designed to power a new generation of advanced smartphones, tablets, and other smart devices.

HTC Adds a Facebook Button to Two New Android Handsets

by Stan Schroeder

HTC waited for its competitors in the Android smartphone/tablet arena to show off their wares on day one of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, only to burst on the stage on day two with an onslaught of Android devices, many of which will definitely be a hot topic in the months to come.
The tally is as follows: One 1.5 GHz Android tablet, HTC Salsa and ChaCha, two Android handsets with a dedicated Facebook button, and Android Incredible S, Desire S and Wildfire S, powerful refreshes of HTC’s already very comprehensive Android smartphone lineup.
We’ll start with HTC ChaCha and Salsa, which are mid-range Android Gingerbread-based smartphones, with a 600 MHz CPU and 512 MB of RAM. The main difference between the two is a full QWERTY keyboard on the ChaCha.
What makes them interesting is a dedicated Facebook button. Speaking at a MWC keynote titled “The Power of Applications” this morning, HTC CEO Peter Chou said that the Facebook button “knows where you are.”
“If you’re in an app you want to share, or listening to music, you can share it by pressing one button,” he said. In practice, after clicking the button a menu will appear, letting you write whatever you want into that Facebook status field.
What do you think: Is such a dedicated Facebook button useful? Would you use the feature? Would you like to see it on HTC’s more powerful smartphones as well? Please, share your opinions in the comments.

Sony Ericsson announces new PlayStation smartphone

(CNN) -- Sony Ericsson announced Sunday it will launch its highly anticipated PlayStation smartphone in March.
The gamer-focused XperiaTM PLAY smartphone will run on Google's Android operating platform and features a four-inch multi-touch screen as well as a slide out PlayStation-style game pad.
Sony Ericsson CEO and President Bert Nordberg, who made the announcement at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, admitted the technology has been a long time in the making.
"Even if the dream has been there a long time, in the industry it's taken some time to get everyone there," he told CNN.

"This phone is worth nothing without the game publishers and game companies, so to build all that takes time."
Sony will partner with leading video game publishers and will launch with 50 games, including Ubisoft's "Assassin's Creed" and "Splinter Cell," Activision's "Guitar Hero" and EA's "Need For Speed," "Sims 3" and "FIFA 10."
The new android smartphone is part of Sony Ericsson's bid to take back market share of the mobile gaming environment dominated by Apple.
"It's a door opener to new customers," said Nordberg. "We started our android journey on April 1 last year, we have taken 40% market share in nine months and still counting."
Nordberg admitted the last few years has been tough for the company, but confirmed they were now making a healthy profit.
"We made money last year, four consecutive quarters of profit. Two years before that, it was not that profitable, but this year we're there and we think we can do even better in 2011."

Nordberg said the XperiaTM PLAY would hit U.S. stores in April and be sold through provider Verizon Wireless. Although he refused to name a price he said it would be a "subsidized phone" when purchased through a subscription.

10 Free iPhone Apps for a More Romantic Valentine’s Day

February 14, love it or hate it, is just around the corner. Valentine’s Day is yet another holiday that has been over-marketed and over-commercialized, judging by the onslaught of pink hearts and red roses, but if you have someone in your life to profess your love to, you won’t mind a little visit from Cupid this year.
If you’re planning a special night, the following 10 free apps can help you take your romance game to the next level. And even if you aren’t presently in a relationship, Valentine’s Day is good excuse to tell someone that they’re special. C’mon, you can break out the warm fuzzies, at least for one day.

1. Valentine RADIO

As you get ready for your Valentine’s Day festivities, you can set the mood with some romantic music. Valentine RADIO is a compilation of 20+ radio stations from around the country and streams the music directly to your phone so you can get your Luther Vandross, Barry White and slow jam fix.

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2. Valentine Photo Free -- Picture With Love

If you want to demonstrate your love in more visual ways, you can send a custom-made Valentine’s Day photo that you personally designed. The Valentine Photo Free app lets you personalize photos with cutesy images like hearts, swirly designs and presents. You can e-mail your creation to the lucky recipient or post it on a social network to publicly declare your love.

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3. Be Mine Lite

Be Mine Lite is another Valentine’s Day card-making app, but rather than decorate photos, this one lets you choose from a number of templates to create you custom card. You can add a whole slew of visual effects –- like hearts, whimsical swirls, flowers –- and declare your love. There is also a paid version for $0.99 that offers a wider variety of backgrounds and effects.

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4. California Blooms

If you’re more of a traditionalist and prefer to go the rose route, California Blooms is a great app for ordering that beautiful bouquet on the go. The app features gorgeous photos of the variety of bouquets they sell, as well as information on the care and handling of roses, and California Blooms’ eco-friendly growing process. The company is so confident in the quality of its roses that it guarantees your satisfaction or your money back.

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5. Candy Valentines Hearts Free

No Valentine’s Day is complete without those little, all-too-familiar candy conversation hearts. With this app, you can add anyone’s name to the “I ♥” message and send the image to the lucky recipient. If you’d like to pay for the full version ($0.99), you can create your own entire message and have more options for background designs and colors.

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6. Cook's Illustrated

You know the expression “The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.” Well another to consider is “The way to a woman’s heart is by cooking her dinner.” Yes, it’s that simple. The Cook’s Illustrated app tries to make it even easier. Featuring 50 of the magazine’s best recipes (and complementary videos for each), this app will provide you with the perfect meal for a romantic evening.

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7. Say I Love You

If you really want to impress your special someone, how about whipping out “I love you” in a different language? This app provides simple translations of these three special words in a large variety of languages. So if you want to learn to say it in Indonesian (Saya cinta padamu) or Ukrainian (Ya tebe kahayu), or a host of other languages, now you can.

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8. Love Horoscopes

Gather your daily horoscope and your forecast for love with this app. It shows you a three-day range (yesterday, today and tomorrow), provides lucky numbers and also offers a view of how likely you are to achieve success in attributes like wellness, creativity, money, work and more.

9. Love♥

As you’re professing your deepest feelings, you can mix in profound quotes with the help of the Love♥ app: A compilation of beautiful sayings about the magic of love. Quotes include: “Within you I lose myself. Without you I find myself wanting to become lost again.” What a way to sweep someone off his or her feet!

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Image 1 of 11

1. Valentine RADIO

As you get ready for your Valentine’s Day festivities, you can set the mood with some romantic music. Valentine RADIO is a compilation of 20+ radio stations from around the country and streams the music directly to your phone so you can get your Luther Vandross, Barry White and slow jam fix.

As you get ready for your Valentine’s Day festivities, you can set the mood with some romantic music. Valentine RADIO is a compilation of 20+ radio stations from around the country and streams the music directly to your phone so you can get your Luther Vandross, Barry White and slow jam fix.

1. Valentine RADIO

1

If you want to demonstrate your love in more visual ways, you can send a custom-made Valentine’s Day photo that you personally designed. The Valentine Photo Free app lets you personalize photos with cutesy images like hearts, swirly designs and presents. You can e-mail your creation to the lucky recipient or post it on a social network to publicly declare your love.

2. Valentine Photo Free -- Picture With Love

2

Be Mine Lite is another Valentine’s Day card-making app, but rather than decorate photos, this one lets you choose from a number of templates to create you custom card. You can add a whole slew of visual effects –- like hearts, whimsical swirls, flowers –- and declare your love. There is also a paid version for $0.99 that offers a wider variety of backgrounds and effects.

3. Be Mine Lite

3

If you’re more of a traditionalist and prefer to go the rose route, California Blooms is a great app for ordering that beautiful bouquet on the go. The app features gorgeous photos of the variety of bouquets they sell, as well as information on the care and handling of roses, and California Blooms’ eco-friendly growing process. The company is so confident in the quality of its roses that it guarantees your satisfaction or your money back.

4. California Blooms

4

No Valentine’s Day is complete without those little, all-too-familiar candy conversation hearts. With this app, you can add anyone’s name to the “I ♥” message and send the image to the lucky recipient. If you’d like to pay for the full version ($0.99), you can create your own entire message and have more options for background designs and colors.

5. Candy Valentines Hearts Free

5

You know the expression “The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.” Well another to consider is “The way to a woman’s heart is by cooking her dinner.” Yes, it’s that simple. The Cook’s Illustrated app tries to make it even easier. Featuring 50 of the magazine’s best recipes (and complementary videos for each), this app will provide you with the perfect meal for a romantic evening.

6. Cook's Illustrated

6

If you really want to impress your special someone, how about whipping out “I love you” in a different language? This app provides simple translations of these three special words in a large variety of languages. So if you want to learn to say it in Indonesian (Saya cinta padamu) or Ukrainian (Ya tebe kahayu), or a host of other languages, now you can.

7. Say I Love You

7

Gather your daily horoscope and your forecast for love with this app. It shows you a three-day range (yesterday, today and tomorrow), provides lucky numbers and also offers a view of how likely you are to achieve success in attributes like wellness, creativity, money, work and more.

8. Love Horoscopes

8

As you’re professing your deepest feelings, you can mix in profound quotes with the help of the Love♥ app: A compilation of beautiful sayings about the magic of love. Quotes include: “Within you I lose myself. Without you I find myself wanting to become lost again.” What a way to sweep someone off his or her feet!

9. Love♥

9

Guys, you’ve wined and dined her, now, it’s time to step it up. If you’re ready for the big leagues, this is a great app to see a selection of engagement ring styles and see what’s au courant in the world of ultimate bling (just don’t look at the prices). Before you even have a chance to pop the question, she’ll be screaming "YES" as soon as she sees that little blue box.

10. Tiffany & Co. Engagement Ring Finder

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If you hate Valentine’s Day and are just bitter all around, consider downloading the Anti-Valentine’s Day Sounds app. You can commiserate with other haters and listen to the no-frills app spew things like, “Roses are red, violets are blue, you suck,” or “Valentine’s this.” It’s $0.99. (You must really hate the holiday to buy this app.)

BONUS: Anti-Valentine's Day Sounds

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