17May

[Hands-On] Sharp Aquos st, Zeta & sv smartphones – docomo summer 2012

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AQUOS PHONE st
“In the Aquos Phone st, the emphasis is on design and music. The design has some special features, including a strap hole that protrudes slightly. Regarding music, this model has a Play key especially for music, so you can start and stop playing easily, without using the touchscreen.”
“This phone has a very small screen, at 3.4 inches. Because it’s so compact, you can use it easily with one hand. It’s also waterproof and dustproof, and it supports …
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17May

[Hands-On] Sony Xperia GX & SX smartphones – docomo summer 2012

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Xperia GX SO-04D
“First, let me show you the Xperia GX. The G in GX stands for Great, because this model gives you a great new experience. The design is based on an arc, as this has been popular before. So we’ve pursued a very slim, curved form, while also providing a 4.7-inch screen and supporting the Xi LTE service.”
“A TV dock is also available for the Xperia GX. Some previous smartphones have been connectable to TVs, but because this one supports Xi, it works very …
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15May

Twilio Calling: Cloud Telephony Startup Adds An Android SDK, Now Works On 75% Of All Smartphones

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Twilio Android / trad phones

Cloud-based telephony API startup Twilio has made significant inroads into VoIP and other carrier services like SMS by launching products that work on the web and in iOS apps, supporting 30,000 developers in the process. Today it’s widening that net considerably with the launch of a new Android client, the first SDK from the company to work on Google’s platform. And it hints that Windows Phone may be next in line.

Considering that Android is currently the most popular smartphone platform globally, this potentially gives Twilio a much bigger opportunity to deliver services to the wider smartphone market — with Android and iOS together accounting for 75 percent of the existing smartphone market, according to Gartner.

Twilio is kicking off its Android service with features to integrate voice features into Android apps: as with Twilio’s existing APIs for iOS apps and websites, the Android VoIP APIs effectively let developers incorporate VoIP features directly into apps, to create features like in-app calling that work without needing to launch any additional apps or services. Other features in the SDK include real-time presence, with developers able to build buddy lists to let users know who is online, and who can voice chat; and app backgrounding, which lets users receive voice calls even if the relevant app is not being used.

But what’s potentially most interesting about the launch of the Android SDK is that it could lead to some interesting bridges built between Android apps, iOS apps, web apps and traditional voice calls.

“We now support the vast majority of smartphones globally,” Thomas Schiavone, director of product management for Twilio, noted in a statement. “With this many developers and our proven success on iOS, we know we’ll see some incredible and innovative cross-platform communication apps in the months to come.”

Schiavone further said that there will be SDKs for other platforms coming soon — and hints that the next SDK to come might be for the Windows Phone platform. “We are looking at what will be next,” he told TechCrunch. “Android and iOS are the leaders, but at this time there is no clear number three. However, we are watching all the other platforms and are particularly interested in Window’s Phone.”

That would also make sense, given the strategic partnership Twilio already has with Microsoft. That partnership was announced earlier this month and means that Microsoft now offers Twilio’s APIs to tens of thousands of Microsoft Azure cloud developers.

In addition to that development, Twilio has been releasing a steady stream of other news in the last month that points to the company looking to expand quickly and make good use of its $33 million in funding to date. Its services are now available in 12 countries — 10 in Europe and the U.S. and Canada — and in April, Twilio hired a full-time executive in Europe, James Parton, poached from Telefonica. But it has also seen one significant executive departure, too: Danielle Morrill, an early employee who headed up marketing, just this week left to work on her own startup, the Y Combinator-backed Refer.ly.

The Android SDK has been running in a private beta, the company tells me, and from today it will be available to all Android developers.



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07May

Nielsen: Smartphones Used By 50.4% Of U.S. Consumers, Android 48.5% Of Them

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Screen shot 2012-05-07 at 16.04.46

Nielsen today became the latest analyst house to call it for smartphones outnumbering more basic devices in the U.S. The company says that in March 2012 smartphones were in use by 50.4 percent of consumers in the country, with Android continuing its domination in the space, accounting for 48.5 percent of all smartphone handsets.

Apple is not a very close second, at 32 percent, but through that percentage it has remained the single-biggest smartphone handset brand.

The 50.4 percentage of smartphones represents growth of about three percent since December 2011, when 47.8 percent of mobile consumers were using smartphones. That seems to suggest that while smartphone penetration continues to grow, the numbers seem to be slowing down a bit in the U.S.

Nielsen also broke out some numbers on how different ethnic groups are using smartphones. Asian Americans, it notes, have the highest usage, at 67.3 percent using a smartphone as their primary mobile handset.

Hispanics were in second place with 57.3 percent of the group using smartphones, with African Americans closely following with 54.4 percent. Whites had the lowest penetration of all, with 44.7 percent.

Nielsen doesn’t really give an explanation for why these percentages play out as they do — but one guess for the lower number among whites is that perhaps they were some of the earlier adopters with previous generations of mobile handsets and so  are therefore slower to convert to the newer devices.

Another interesting point is that apparently women are edging out men a bit when it comes to smartphone usage in the U.S. 50.9 percent of females had smartphones, while among men it was 50.1 percent. Unsurprisingly, younger users are the most smartphone-savvy, with two out of three 25-34 year-olds using more advanced mobile handsets.



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07May

Study: Our Smartphones Are Turning Us Into “Real-Time Information Seekers And Problem Solvers”

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pew_Internet_american_life_logo

Do you regularly use your cell phone to coordinate meetings, solve an unexpected problem, decide which restaurant to eat at, look up the score of a sporting event, check traffic, call help in an emergency situation or find information to help settle an argument? These activities make you a “just-in-time” cell user according to the latest study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. According to this report, 70% of all cell phone owners in the U.S. and 86% of smartphone owners have used their phones to perform at least one of these activities over the last 30 days.

The argument here is that our rapid adoption of smartphones is changing our relationship with information and the way we communicate with each other.

Here is evidence the Pew report cites for how this access to information is “creating a new culture of real-time information seekers and problem solvers:”

  • 41% of cell phone owners used their phone in the previous 30 days to coordinate a meeting or get-together.
  • 35% used their phone to solve an unexpected problem they or someone else had encountered in the previous 30 days.
  • 30% used their phone in the previous 30 days to decide whether to visit a business, such as a restaurant
  • 27% used their phone in the previous 30 days to get information to help settle an argument they were having.
  • 23% used their phone in the previous 30 days to look up a score of a sporting event.
  • 20% used their phone in the previous 30 days for up-to-the-minute traffic or public transit information to find the fastest way to get somewhere.
  • 19% used their phone to get help in an emergency situation
Men, says the report, are more likely to use their phones to look up information to settle an argument than women (31% vs. 22%) and more affluent and more highly educated users are more likely to look up information on their phones than those with lower incomes and those without college degrees.
The Pew study also notes that 65% of smartphone owners now use their phones to get turn-by-turn navigation or directions while driving.

Overall, none of these results should really come as a surprise to anybody who has ever owned a smartphone. Of course people are using their phones to look up traffic information and check a restaurant’s Yelp reviews. Still, it’s interesting to see some relatively hard data that shows how quickly this easy access to information has become a natural part of daily life for so many of us.



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