Find: Microsoft confirms Windows 8 public beta coming February 2012

Find: 10 Billion Android Market downloads and counting

Android app sales growing exponentially.

10 Billion Android Market downloads and counting

(Cross-posted on the Official Google Blog and Android Developer's Blog)
One billion is a pretty big number by any measurement. However, when it’s describing the speed at which something is growing, it’s simply amazing. This past weekend, thanks to Android users around the world, Android Market exceeded 10 billion app downloads—with a growth rate of one billion app downloads per month. We can’t wait to see where this accelerating growth takes us in 2012.

Find: The Global Smartphone Market Landscape

Smartphones about 30% world market. Integrated makers slowing, open (android) growing. Check out Samsung! 

The Global Smartphone Market Landscape

Find: Apple could buy the mobile phone industry

Apple could buy everyone except Samsung and still have $25b left. Course they won't. They'll turn to a new market. 

Apple could buy the mobile phone industry | Updated

The last time I did this comparison (Apple could buy the mobile phone industry | asymco) was in June after the end of the second quarter. The following chart is an updated look.


 


Find: The big bang theory of computing

With tablets apple will soon blow by hp to be the top pc seller worldwide. 

The big bang theory of computing

HP’s CEO Meg Whitman admitted that, when iPads are included, Apple will overtake HP as the world’s leader in computer shipments.


“We need to improve our game and our products to take over the leadership position. Apple could go past HP in 2012. We will try to become the champion in 2013.


When the quarterly shipment data is seen as a chart the doubt of this happening disappears:




Find: Interview with SIGGRAPH ASIA 2011 Speaker & Microsoft Researcher Bill Buxton

Glad bill also thinks displays are a big part of the future of graphics. He's always been a leader in bringing the human element to the field.

Interview with SIGGRAPH ASIA 2011 Speaker & Microsoft Researcher Bill Buxton

Bill Buxton, a principal researcher for Microsoft Research, will be making a presentation during SIGGRAPH Asia. He recently got a chance to discuss his work.

Find: Navigation with way-finding graphics: with Tony Howard

Part of the inspiration for the metro mobile ui. Nice discussion of color. 

Navigation with way-finding graphics: with Tony Howard


Tony Howard, the Managing Director of the London based Transport Design Consultancy discusses his approach to way-finding signage.

...(read more)

Find: Google and Apple Are Both Winners in Mobile Race

Android and rim are 70% of mobile market and climbing. Rim 3rd and falling. 

Google and Apple Are Both Winners in Mobile Race, Report Says

According to a new report to be issued Wednesday by Nielsen, the market research firm, Google and Apple are both winning in the mobile smartphone race. Android has become the operating system of choice for most consumers, partly because of the inexpensive handset options available through phone carriers. Apple's iPhone has become the predominant hardware choice, for 29 percent of all smartphone owners.

Find: Amazon Kindle Fire Review

Great hardware for price, software needs work. 

Amazon Kindle Fire Review


I'll be honest here (I always am?): I don't understand the iPad comparison. The Kindle Fire and iPad 2 couldn't be more different. They are vastly different sizes, shapes and prices. They even serve slightly different functions. The search for an iPad killer reminds me of the search for a Voodoo killer back during the heyday of 3dfx in the late 1990s.





The Kindle Fire serves entirely different purposes than to take marketshare away from Apple.

Find: Microsoft reportedly launching Office for iPad in 2012

About time. Good idea. 

Microsoft reportedly launching Office for iPad in 2012

Apple iPad 2 press


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Microsoft's released a few apps here and there for the iPhone and iPad but has kept one of its prize breadwinners out of the iOS fray. According to The Daily, that all might change in 2012 with the launch of Office for iPad. The publication claims that this new release will play nice with Office 365's cloud-based service, and iPad documents should be compatible with the desktop versions of Office. In fact, this closely mirrors both Office for Windows Phone and iWork on the iPad, with document syncing and compatibility between mobile and desktop apps. Office for iPad's price point also is rumored to be similar to iWork on iOS's $10 per app pricing. The Daily claims a new Office for Mac will be coming out closer to the end of 2012, but...



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Find: BenQ releases Joybee GP2 mini projector with iPhone / iPod dock

Sweet. Put it in the phone please. 

BenQ releases Joybee GP2 mini projector with iPhone / iPod dock

via <a href=www.geeky-gadgets.com" width="630" />

Find: Gingerbread is on over half of all Android phones

Not so bad now. Note hcomb Rare and ics not on radar yet.

Gingerbread is on over half of all Android phones

Android Gingerbread Logo

Find: Nokia's Richard Kerris

Interesting thought on local apps.

5 Minutes on The Verge: Nokia's Richard Kerris

kerris


Find: "Infinity Blade 2" dazzles critics

Local co a leader in mobile gaming. 

"Infinity Blade 2" dazzles critics

Cary-based Epic Games' new sequel to its best-selling "Infinity Blade" game for Apple mobile devices is getting a huge thumbs-up from gaming sites.


"Infinity Blade 2," which can be downloaded for $6.99 as of today from Apple's iTunes site, is "the perfect video game sequel," gushes IGN.


TouchArcade, meanwhile, calls it a masterpiece, "a technically and visually gifted game that consistently delivers eye-popping stuff."


Find: Android Sells the Smartphones; Apple Makes the Money

Kinda shocking. The value of experience over ubiquity. But then Google didn't want experience, it wanted platform.

From Oppenheimer's Handset Guidebook, via Gruber's Daring Fireball


Android Sells the Smartphones; Apple Makes the Money

Android really is winning, no sarcasm, for HTC and Samsung. But they’re fighting over the remaining scraps of profit left by Apple.

oppenheimer.png

Find: Is it Game Over for Nintendo DS and Sony PSP?

Portable players shrinking as percent market. Hmm, what about absolute terms?

Is it Game Over for Nintendo DS and Sony PSP?


Digital content distribution has disrupted several notable industries.  With the original iPod media player and iTunes Store, Apple changed the face of the music industry.  And the Internet, in particular, has played a role in commoditizing news.  All told, digital distribution of media has starkly impacted news, magazines, books, television, music, film and more.


Recently, no industry has been more impacted by digital distribution than video games.  Leading the disruption are iOS and Android devices, whose free and inexpensive games, distributed across a massive installed base of powerful and networked tablet and mobile phone form factors, have already disrupted billions of dollars of game revenue.  In this blog post, Flurry focuses on how mobile devices have severely altered the shape and flow of revenue in the multi-billion dollar portable game category.


Portable gaming, played primarily on Nintendo DS and Sony PSP devices, has been dominated by these two companies for over two decades.  In this model, at retail, consumers pay around $200 for the gaming device and up to $40 for popular game cartridges.  Because of the similar form factor, overlap in consumer base (especially younger players on iPod touch) and the casual nature of game content, Flurry combines iOS and Android devices with traditional portable devices to form the category.  With the inclusion of smartphone game revenue into the category, shifts taking place in market share become clearer.


iOS, Android, Nintendo DS, Sony PSP, Game Revenue

Find: For Teenagers, a Car or a Smartphone?

Almost half of young adults would rather have an smartphone than a car. 

Disruptions: For Teenagers, a Car or a Smartphone?

"The car used to be the signal of adulthood, of freedom," an executive at Ford says. "Now, the signal into adulthood for teenagers is the smartphone." A waning interest in driving among teenagers could have a direct impact on the future of the auto industry. But if the industry thought of cars as software platforms, it might find relief.

Find: Inside the Sketchbook of Susan Kare, Apple's pioneering interface designer

Great history of Susan Kare, maker of apple's icons. The delight at the mac's core. 

Thanks Steve Silberman and plos. Via the verge. 

Inside the Sketchbook of Susan Kare, Apple's pioneering interface designer

via dl.dropbox.com


Tool: Jonathan Stark on Mobile" from the The Web Ahead podcast

Good info on html5 for mobiles and phonegap.
 Jonathan Stark joins Jen Simmons to talk about web apps vs. native apps, when to use which mobile technology, how to plan a good mobile experience, touch events, and more.

Find: User Experience and Experience Design

A great intro to ux and xd. How will your design be woven into
people's narratives? What personal needs does it meet?
http://www.interaction-design.org/encyclopedia/user_experience_and_experience...

Find: Amazon's Silk Browser Acceleration Tested: Less Bandwidth Consumed, But Slower Performance

Bottom line: cloud caching at amz is slower. 

Amazon's Silk Browser Acceleration Tested: Less Bandwidth Consumed, But Slower Performance


We've been working on our Kindle Fire review over the weekend but I thought I'd break out a particularly interesting section of the review for release a bit early. At its launch Amazon introduced a new web browser called Silk.



Silk is yet-another-webkit based browser with all of the usual features: tabbed browsing, Flash support, integrated search/URL bar, etc... What makes Silk unique is its ability to funnel your web requests through Amazon's Web Services (AWS) cloud. A typical load of AnandTech.com pulls content from thirteen different hosts. Each host is contacted, the request acknowledged and then data is exchanged between it and your browser.



Find: Imagine Cup 2012 challenges

Mobile phone competition. 

Imagine Cup 2012 challenges

#more 

Microsoft's Imagine Cup issues two new challenges for the 2012 competition - one being sponsored by Nokia.

...(read more)

Find: Typographic Design in the Digital Domain: with Erik Spiekermann

Find: Galaxy Nexus & Ice Cream Sandwich: Initial Performance Analysis

Find: Microsoft/Nokia partnership already becoming #3...

... at least in mindshare. Also, fire and galaxy tab are the alternatives to iPad. 

Microsoft/Nokia partnership paying off as developers eye Windows Phone




#more 

iOS and Android still lead the pack when it comes to luring mobile developers, but Windows Phone has solidified its status as the third most attractive smartphone OS ahead of BlackBerry, according to a new survey by IDC and mobile app development vendor Appcelerator. Not surprisingly, 91 percent of developers are "very interested" in developing for the iPhone and 83 percent are very interested in developing for Android phones. Windows Phone, by comparison, merits that level of attention from just 38 percent of survey respondents. But that is a rise of 8 percentage points since June and, coupled with RIM dropping 7 points to 21 percent, Windows is now the clear third choice.

"When asked why developers are more interested in Windows Phone 7 now than a year ago, a plurality (48 percent) said it was the Microsoft/Nokia partnership," the IDC/Appcelerator report states. "Nokia also received high marks from its new Lumia Windows Phone 7 smartphone announcement last month, with 28 percent of developers saying they are ‘very interested’ in developing for the device."

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Find: Nokia Windows Phone prices set low to attract customers, developers

This is the right strategy. We'll see if it works.

Nokia Windows Phone prices set low to attract customers, developers

Lumia800_large

#more 


Nokia might have only just produced its first two Windows Phone devices, but it sounds like CEO Stephen Elop knows they won't do any good unless people buy them and developers write apps: he told investors at a Morgan Stanley conference yesterday that the Lumia 800 and 710 are priced lower than usual so they'll move "a good volume." Elop also said that Nokia's primary competitors are "other ecosystems," and that his first goal is to demonstrate high volume shipments at low prices to convince developers to get on board and boost consumer interest, and then follow up with premium devices at higher profit margins. Elop also said once again that Nokia would "aggressively" enter the US next year, and that "multiple" US carriers are on...



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Find: Galaxy Nexus review

On the new version of android: competitive with iOS. 

Galaxy Nexus review

nexus 1


Find: Famed photographer Annie Leibovitz says iPhone 4S is 'the snapshot camera of today'

Find: Recapping TimesOpen: Social Media

Vid from IBM on mobile for developing nations looks interesting.

Recapping TimesOpen: Social Media

At TimesOpen: Social Media we had presentations that ran the gamut -- from Facebook to developing nations to niche communities to ecosystems of content collections.

Find: dConstruct 2011 videos online

Nice videos about designing products of all sorts, including mobiles. Don Norman and others focus on emotion.

dConstruct 2011 videos online

dConstruct 2011

Spotted: Smartphones find niche in human behaviour tests

Good idea. Amazon Turk is great, but timing is difficult with it. 

Smartphones find niche in human behaviour tests


PLoS ONE Researchers are using innovative tools to perform psychological experiments a lot faster than they used to.

Find: GEM, Nokia’s new concept phone

A phone design. Cool, but you would think designers would understand the need for negative space (for fingers that don't want to interact). 

Reminds me of the Sony experia. 

GEM, Nokia’s new concept phone


GEM Nokia releases a new phone concept – Gem – which “revolutionizes mobile design by turning the entire handset into a touchscreen”.

#more 

Launched on the 25th anniversary of the Nokia Research Centre, the GEM device changes appearance from camera to phone or map according to the function selected by the user. It could even display advertising messages on the back of the phone.


The back and front are also interactive, making it possible to pinch and zoom the rear of the phone while getting a constant clear view of the image on the front.


Read announcement (with concept video)


Find: Revolutionary User Interfaces

Nice review of recent mobile history. Interesting stacked graph, and
nice line graphs of rankings.

The stacked graph is a bit busy, with a few colors too similar.

http://www.asymco.com/2011/11/03/revolutionary-user-interfaces/

Find: A Brief Rant on the Future of Interaction Design

A great screed on the untapped (hah) potential of touch.

Notice the name drop of our faculty member, don bitzer.

http://worrydream.com/ABriefRantOnTheFutureOfInteractionDesign/

Find: Nokia's Comeback Strategy in Smartphones

Nokia CEO elop on its challenge. He is right that apple and android are its main  concerns. Microsofts deep pockets are a good lifeline. I think they have a chance. 

Nokia's Comeback Strategy in Smartphones

The company's chief says it must exploit the shifting smartphone market, profit from its alliance with Microsoft and develop services based on its own assets. It faces challenges: In the third quarter, Nokia's worldwide smartphone sales fell 37 percent to 16.8 million phones from 26.5 million a year ago.

Find: iOS and Android App Downloads Expected to Hit 25 Billion in 2011

With details of how flurry collects these analytics: its code is in 1 of 3 apps. 

iOS and Android App Downloads Expected to Hit 25 Billion in 2011

New data from Flurry, a mobile analytics firm, estimates that the number of applications downloaded by owners of Android and Apple devices has risen 300 percent in the last year. The firm says this is partially because the smartphone market is now a global one, but also because so many more apps are available to satisfy consumer appetite.

Find: more detail on mobile gpus

Find: MOD and ski goggles hands-on

Hmm. Dangerous? 3rd person view of me? Still, cool. 

MOD and MOD Live ski goggles hands-on

MOD Live

#more 


Recon Instruments stopped by our office today to show off the MOD Live, which puts a tiny Android-powered telemetry display inside the goggles of extreme skiers everywhere. When wearing MOD (or Micro Optics Display) goggles, you'll be able to see where you are, how far and fast you've traveled, the outside temperature, and more. You can also see how high and far you jump, so you can figure out if your epic fifty foot jump really was as cool as it felt. It's a small display in the bottom right corner of your goggles, but it's not distracting — you can glance over for information but have it out of the way the rest of the time. There's a separate Bluetooth remote that can attach to your goggles or strap to your arm, which you use to...



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Find: ARM announces Mali-T658 GPU, claims ten times the graphical performance of today's smartphones

The mobile gpu race just keeps getting hotter. Ps3 on mobiles in two years. 

ARM announces Mali-T658 GPU, claims ten times the graphical performance of today's smartphones

Mali T658 vid cap


Find: iOS and Android now have lion's share of mobile gaming revenues, not just playing time

Nintendo has only a third of the market, sony less than one tenth.

iOS and Android now have lion's share of mobile gaming revenues, not just playing time

infinity blade

British voice of Siri only found out about it when he heard himself on TV

Find: Nvidia: Tegra 3 phone wins are 'well ahead' of Tegra 2's pace, mobile revenue growing fastest

Find: a preview of the 3d maps coming to ios, by C3 Technologies

Apple recently bought them. Seems they use image based rendering, not polygons. Looks better than google, they claim accuracy of one foot. 

Find: Good Weather App: Kickstart a More Useful Forecast with "Dark Sky"

Good idea. Want some.

Good Weather App: Kickstart a More Useful Forecast with "Dark Sky"

Adam Grossman and Jack Turner are a couple of "mild-mannered web / mobile developers" based in Troy, New York, who collaborate as Jackadam. If their Kickstarter pitch is any indication, their choice of adjectives is appropriate:


Find: Guggenheim's First App: Maurizio Cattelan Retrospective

Competition: Fast Track to the Mobile App: A Look at Windows Phone 7.5

A design focused competition. Deadline too soon, but maybe next year? No coding required. 

Fast Track to the Mobile App: A Look at Windows Phone 7.5

FT_468x70_1108.jpg


Nvidia Tegra 3: a 1.3GHz quad-core chip with five times the performance of Tegra 2

Five times faster, less power

Nvidia Tegra 3 official: a 1.3GHz quad-core chip with five times the performance of Tegra 2

NVIDIA Tegra 3 chip

#more 


It's been a long road since Kal-El's debut at MWC this February, but Nvidia's quad-core system-on-chip for mobile devices is finally ready for launch. The superhero codename is being replaced by the more logical Tegra 3 branding and the first host device has now been announced as Asus' Eee Pad Transformer Prime.


Tegra 3 promises to quintuple the performance of Tegra 2 with its four-core Cortex A9 arrangement while also tripling its graphical capabilities with a new 12-core graphics processor. That's a great deal of power for when you need it, but Nvidia has also added a fifth, low-power "companion core," whose role will be to keep things running during standby and other low-intensity modes. That core reaches a maximum speed of 500MHz...



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Find: Adobe officially kills Flash Player for mobile, says HTML5 is 'the best solution'

Adobe admits defeat on mobile. That's defeat period. 

Adobe officially kills Flash Player for mobile, says HTML5 is 'the best solution'

adobe android 2

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Adobe just officially announced that it's killing Flash Player for Android and the BlackBerry Playbook, following a ZDNet report of the decision late last night. The company will still develop and support Flash for the PC, but says that HTML5 is the "best solution for creating and deploying content in the browser across mobile platforms." Adobe will also continue to support AIR on mobile so developers can package Flash content as mobile apps, and Flash Player 11.1 for Android and Playbook is still on track to be released — and Adobe will continue to ship bug fixes and security updates, as well.



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Find: Worldwide Mobile Phone Market Experiences Slower Growth as Smartphone Purchases Soften in the Third Quarter

Worldwide mobile phones: nokia, then Samsung make up 50%. Long tail after that. 

Worldwide Mobile Phone Market Experiences Slower Growth as Smartphone Purchases Soften in the Third Quarter, According to IDC

The worldwide mobile phone market grew 12.8% year over year in the third quarter of 2011 (3Q11), as smartphone growth declined in key mature markets, according to the IDC Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker.

Find: Samsung Takes Top Spot as Smartphone Market Grows 42.6% in the Third Quarter

Worldwide smartphones: samsung, apple, nokia. 

Samsung Takes Top Spot as Smartphone Market Grows 42.6% in the Third Quarter, According to IDC

The worldwide smartphone market grew 42.6% year over year in the third quarter of 2011 (3Q11), despite a slowdown within key mature markets, according to the IDC Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker.

Find: HTC soars, RIM stumbles in latest US smartphone shipments

Us smartphones by device maker: htc, apple, rim. Rim is at 10%. 

HTC soars, RIM stumbles in latest US smartphone shipments


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HTC has become the top US smartphone hardware vendor by shipments, moving ahead of Samsung and Apple, while Research In Motion has fallen below 10 percent share of the US market after holding nearly a quarter of it just a year ago, according to Canalys.


Measuring by shipments to retailers and carriers—rather than by sales to end users—HTC shipped more than 5.7 million smartphones in the United States in the third quarter of 2011, giving it nearly a quarter of the market, Canalys said. Next in line, “Samsung pushed Apple into third place in the US market, with shipments of its own brand devices reaching 4.9 million units,” the research firm reports. “Apple’s US smartphone shipments totaled 4.6 million in the quarter and it was affected around the world by consumers waiting for the launch of the next-generation iPhone.” Canalys credited HTC’s success, which comes largely in the United States, to “compelling and differentiated products” across the major carriers, including a strong range of 4G Android phones.


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Find: Half of 18-44 year olds own smartphones

In US smartphones: Android, Apple, RIM. Together they make up 90% of the market.

In demographics, smartphone use peaks among users age 25-34 at 62%, then falls off among the older and younger, reaching 18% among users 65+. Overall penetration for US smartphones is 43%.

Find: iPawn brings board gaming to the iPad

Monopoly and Sorry on the iPad with physical pieces. Good idea.

Find: Jawbone Up fitness band and iPhone app available November 6th for $99.99

Want one.

Jawbone Up fitness band and iPhone app available November 6th for $99.99

Jawbone Up
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After months of teasers we can finally let you in on a secret. Jawbone Up is a motion sensing fitness bracelet that tracks your daily activity, workouts, and phases of sleep. Remove the silver cap and Up plugs directly into the iPhone's headphone jack where a free app helps owners track their daily activity, workouts, and sleep patterns while connecting with friends to compete in health challenges. Sorry, Android users, Up is iOS only for the time being and it's 100 percent post PC: it only plugs into the USB port on your computer to charge. Unlike other fitness sensors available from Nike or Fitbit, your Up data is completely dependent upon the iOS app — there's no web interface here.

The goal of Up is simple: inspire people to move...


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