Visual Interfacesfor Mobiles @ NCSU

Find: LG reportedly building first Boot2Gecko phone as Mozilla preps app store

2012-02-25T07:06:00.001-08:00

A new entry into the mobile os sweepstakes sounds a lot like chrome os. Makes me think the reported convergence of chrome os and android may be real.

LG reportedly building first Boot2Gecko phone as Mozilla preps app store

Ars Technica

Mozilla's Web-centric Boot2Gecko (B2G) mobile platform is maturing at a rapid pace. As we reported earlier this month, the operating system has already attracted hardware partners and will be demoed at the upcoming Mobile World Congress event. Mozilla is also planning to unveil its new application storefront, called the Mozilla Marketplace, which will allow third-party developers to sell applications that are built with standards-based Web technologies.

A new report from ExtremeTech cites anonymous sources who say that LG is one of Mozilla's hardware partners. The company is said to be working towards the launch of a developer-focused smartphone that will ship with an early version of the B2G operating system.

Job: SmartOnline - Hiring IOS and android grads

2012-02-23T13:48:00.001-08:00

Folks,

A job opportunity in Durham.

Best,

Ben

Benjamin Watson
Director, Design Graphics Lab | Associate Professor, Computer Science, NC State Univ.

919-513-0325 | designgraphics.ncsu.edu | @dgllab

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Steve Brady <steve.brady@smartonline.com>
Date: Thu, Feb 23, 2012 at 10:44 AM
Subject: Re: SmartOnline - Hiring IOS and android grads
To: bwatson@ncsu.edu
Cc: Bob Dieterle <bob.dieterle@smartonline.com>, kimberly.allen@smartonline.com

Hi Ben,

I work for a company called SmartOnline . We are in Durham and are heavily recruiting for Iphone and Android Developers, as well as QA’s. We are looking for the best and brightest and I was wondering if you had any students that you could refer to come in for interviews. If they are a little green that is OK. We are looking for someone that can grow within the culture.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks

Steve

Steve Brady

Senior Account Manager

4505 Emperor Boulevard, Suite 320
Durham, NC 27703

T 919.237.4218 F 919.765.5020

www.smartonline.com

Guest: Billy Houghteling on March 19

2012-02-23T13:37:00.001-08:00

Folks,

We will be visited by Billy Houghteling, director of the Office of Tech Transfer at NC State, and founding director of Springboard @ NC State, an university incubator. He'll offer his input on your critiques.

Best,

Ben

Talks: Two games related speakers next week: Gillian Smith & Brian Magerko

2012-02-23T11:00:00.001-08:00

Folks,

Two games related talks in our department next week, both in EB2 3211:

Talk Title: Procedural Content Generation for Game Design
Speaker: Gillian Smith, Center for Games and Playable Media, UC Santa Cruz
Talk Date: Tuesday February 28, 2012, 12:30PM

Abstract: Computer game design has always been driven by technology, from advances in graphics to new user interfaces such as the Wii and Kinect. The future of game design lies in the development of technologies that enable new player experiences and game genres. This talk describes two ways in which procedural content generation stands to influence the future of games: as a tool that supports players designing their own content for games, and as a means for allowing meaningful player choices that change the game environment.

Talk Title: Creativity, Cognition, and Computation in Digital Media
Speaker: Brian Magerko, Georgia Institute of Technology
Talk Date: Wednesday February 29, 2012, 12PM

Abstract: This presentation will focus on the integration of studying human creativity and cognition with the purpose of creating digital media experiences that have a key computational component. It will present two current works on this theme of creativity, cognition, and computation: the Digital Improv Project, an NSF-funded multi-year effort focused on the cognitive study of professional improvisational actors to inform interactive narrative technology practices; and EarSketch, a software and curriculum approach that leverages student creativity to learn computing principles through the remixing of music with code. These two projects will be used as exemplars of Dr. Magerko's research in leveraging human creativity for the design of digital media technologies and experiences. This talk will conclude with a description of the long-term trajectory for this research in entertainment and educational digital media applications with examples of upcoming projects.

Find: Mobile Web performance challenges and strategies

2012-02-23T09:30:00.001-08:00

Basic networking for mobiles.

Mobile Web performance challenges and strategies

Google Code Blog

By Ramki Krishnan, Technical Program Manager

Consumers are increasingly relying on their mobile devices to access the Web, thrusting mobile web performance into the limelight. Mobile users expect web pages to display on their mobile devices as fast as or faster than on their desktops.

As part of Google’s effort to Make The Web Faster, we invited Guy Podjarny, CTO of Blaze.io, to talk about some of the major performance concerns in the mobile web and ways to alleviate these issues. Guy’s talk focused on Front-End Optimization and highlighted 3 areas: mobile network, software, and hardware. Each of these impacts performance in myriad ways. The full video is available here, and runs just under an hour. If you don’t have time to watch this enlightening talk, this post discusses some key takeaways.

Mobile networks have high latency, and reducing the number of requests and the size of downloads are well-known optimization strategies. Guy also mentions using on-demand image displays such as loading above-the-fold images by default and other images only as they scroll into view. To handle network reliability, he recommends non-blocking requests eliminating single points of failure, with a selective aggregation of files needed for content display. Periodic pinging of the cell tower by the client can also reduce latency associated with dropped connections, but judicious timeouts and battery drain on the mobile device need to be factored in.

Modern mobile browsers are built mobile-friendly, and they can be helped further by exploiting localStorage to store CSS and JavaScript files. Pipelining multiple requests on a connection is an option, but developers need to work around head-of-line blocking by using techniques such as splitting dynamic and static resource requests on different domains.

Mobile hardware CPUs are weaker than their desktop counterparts. Guy points out the need to minimize JavaScript when designing mobile-friendly web pages and avoid reflows or defer JavaScript until after page loads. Clever image rendering techniques such as automatically resizing images to devices and loading full resolution only on zoom can also help.

Guy’s presentation makes clear that mobile web optimizations need to mitigate latencies introduced by mobile networks, software, and hardware. Rapidly changing OSes and browsers add to the challenges facing publishers. New and evolved tools and technologies will help ensure an optimal web browsing experience for mobile users.

Ramki Krishnan works at Google on the "Make The Web Faster" team. When not at work, he dreams of being a tennis pro, a humorist, and a rock drummer all rolled into one.

Posted by Scott Knaster, Editor

Find: Landing in Las Vegas

2012-02-23T09:20:00.001-08:00

Detail on google apis, including calendar. Good to see that the Goog has a sense of humor. Beam me up!

Landing in Las Vegas

Google Code Blog

Post by Peter Deng, Product Marketing Manager

Come celebrate 40 years of Star Trek at the 5th Annual Official Star Trek Convention -- and while you're at it, learn more about Google APIs. Our API teams will be on hand at the confab in Las Vegas today through Sunday. Besides unveiling KML support for Google Maps for mobile, we'll be doing live demos of Google Earth KML, the Google AJAX Search API, Google Calendar's data API, and the Google Gadgets API.

Hope to see you there, preferably in a uniform. But if you can't appear in person, just transport yourself.

Find: Electric Vehicle Charging

2012-02-23T08:48:00.000-08:00

Found this video in my YouTube subscriptions about a new mobile-app being used in Sweden to control charging of EVs from mobile devices. Thought it was interesting considering one of our project options is also a EV app. If anyone is interested in that btw, I have a post on the forum.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUbIKcJtzSU&feature=g-u-u&context=G2ce8b60FUAAAAAAAAAA

Find: Google Glasses Will Be Powered by Android

2012-02-22T21:01:00.001-08:00

On closer inspection, many of them turned out to be wearing tiny earpieces that connected wirelessly to their smartphones.
What’s next? Perhaps throngs of people in thick-framed sunglasses lurching down the streets, cocking and twisting their heads like extras in a zombie movie.
That’s because later this year, Google is expected to start selling eyeglasses that will project information, entertainment and, this being a Google product, advertisements onto the lenses. The glasses are not being designed to be worn constantly — although Google engineers expect some users will wear them a lot — but will be more like smartphones, used when needed, with the lenses serving as a kind of see-through computer monitor.
“It will look very strange to onlookers when people are wearing these glasses,” said William Brinkman, graduate director of the computer science and software engineering department at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. “You obviously won’t see what they can from the behind the glasses. As a result, you will see bizarre body language as people duck or dodge around virtual things.”
Mr. Brinkman, whose work focuses on augmented reality or the projection of a layer of information over physical objects, said his students had experimented on their own with virtual games and obstacle courses. “It looks really weird to outsiders when you watch people navigate these spaces,” he said.
They have not seen the Google glasses. Few people have, because they are being built in the Google X offices, a secretive laboratory near Google’s main Mountain View, Calif., campus where engineers and scientists are also working on robots and space elevators.
The glasses will use the same Android software that powers Android smartphones and tablets. Like smartphones and tablets, the glasses will be equipped with GPS and motion sensors. They will also contain a camera and audio inputs and outputs.
Several people who have seen the glasses, but who are not allowed to speak publicly about them, said that the location information was a major feature of the glasses. Through the built-in camera on the glasses, Google will be able to stream images to its rack computers and return augmented reality information to the person wearing them. For instance, a person looking at a landmark could see detailed historical information and comments about it left by friends. If facial recognition software becomes accurate enough, the glasses could remind a wearer of when and how he met the vaguely familiar person standing in front of him at a party. They might also be used for virtual reality games that use the real world as the playground.
People flailing their arms in midair as they play those games is a potentially humorous outcome of the virtual reality glasses. In a more serious vein is the almost certain possibility of privacy issues and ubiquitous advertisements. When someone is meeting a person for the first time, for example, Google could hypothetically match the person’s face and tell people how many friends they share in common on social networks.
This month, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a research and advocacy group for Internet privacy, asked the Federal Trade Commission to suspend the use of facial recognition software until the government could come up with adequate safeguards and privacy standards to protect citizens.
Mr. Brinkman said he was very excited by the possibilities of the glasses, but acknowledged that the augmented reality glasses could pose some ethical issues.
“In addition to privacy, it’s also going to change real-world advertising, where companies can virtually place ads over other people’s ads,” he said. “I’m really interested in seeing how the government can successfully regulate augmented reality in this sense. They are not really going to know what people are seeing behind those glasses.”

via nytimes.com

Okay, so maybe it's not a rumour. You thought people talking to themselves was weird....

Find: Walk in Raleigh. Why not?

2012-02-21T05:37:00.001-08:00

I need to give this a try!

Walk in Raleigh. Why not?

Raleigh Philosophical Society

One of the biggest complaints people tend to have about navigating downtown Raleigh is that the streets are confusing and that there's little parking. (I'll somewhat agree on the first part but disagree with the latter.) However, one advantage Raleigh has over other cities is the relative compactness of the downtown core. In short, it's really easy to get around the DTR on foot. Now, urban planning student Matt Tomasulo is trying to illustrate just how easy it is to walk in downtown Raleigh.

Tomasulo "says he got the idea for Walk Raleigh after a friend mentioned that it took only a few minutes to walk between Glenwood South and Seaboard Station.

“That kind of got me thinking, ‘Wow, it really isn’t that far to walk in Raleigh,’” he told WRAL.

Tomasulo, an urban planning student, installed 27 signs at three intersections in central Raleigh last month, with help from friends. People can scan the high-tech signs with their smartphones and get a customized walking route on Google Maps.

“Sometimes you can end up taking longer on the bus, so if the weather's nice, there's no reason not to walk,” said North Carolina State University student Heath Kent.
Tomasulo said he hopes the signs will encourage people to walk, and not just for the health benefits.

“There are going to be more people in the street, more social interaction. It really adds to the experience and ambiance of downtown,” he said.
Tomasulo's project is getting international attention. He says BBC News is coming to Raleigh Tuesday to shoot a story about his signs, and he hopes the coverage will help him expand the program.

Tomasulo has created other projects, including one called “North Is That Way” in New York City. The project places temporary stickers at subway stops to help pedestrians find their way around the city.
He also founded City Fabric, an online site that sells T-shirts and prints featuring maps of cities.

He's completing a graduate program in city and regional planning at N.C. State and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Announcment: an update on projects

2012-02-20T12:48:00.001-08:00

Folks,

I've decided to extend the time available for submitting proposals to allow more potential partners to submit possible project. You now have until Wednesday February 29 to submit your proposals.

I've updated the current list of available projects. Keep in mind that you can propose other projects, but only the best student proposed projects will be approved: I reserve the right to assign you to one of the projects on the list if I don't find your project particularly compelling.

As always, I'll let you know when new projects arrive.

Best,

Ben

***

P.S. I will not be updating the available project pdf regularly since the list is something of a living document.

Opp: More on IBM Summer Internships

2012-02-20T08:19:00.001-08:00

Folks,

More on the opportunity at IBM. Three important details:

The summer opportunity is iOS focused
They cannot hire you if you don't have citizenship or permanent residency.
There is a url with the job description below.

Best,

Ben

Benjamin Watson
Director, Design Graphics Lab | Associate Professor, Computer Science, NC State Univ.

919-513-0325 | designgraphics.ncsu.edu | @dgllab

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Edward Shockley <drshock@us.ibm.com>
Date: Mon, Feb 20, 2012 at 9:10 AM
Subject: Re: Summer Internships
To: Ben Watson <bwatson@ncsu.edu>
Cc: watsonb@gmail.com

Ben,

As far as internships and class, undergrad or grad is not a concern. I would rather the student have prior experience with mobile apps from other internships, coursework, and even self-taught projects. +1 for having bought your own Apple SDK license. And +1 again for having your own app store posting. My best iOS experiences have been with those students who also have done some Cocoa on the Mac. About citizenship, IBM does not provide sponsorship for US employment visas and ultimately our internships are about developing a pipeline of candidates for future fulltime opportunities here in the US. So our applications ask students the two questions below and that was where my US comment comes from.

Are you a US National, permanent resident, refugee, asylee, or authorized to work under the amnesty provision under the US Immigration law? If you have immigration status E-1, F-1, H-1, or J-1, then the answer to this question should be NO.

Will you now or in the future require sponsorship for employment visa status?

Here's a LinkedIn url to the Connections Mobile summer opportunity, http://www.linkedin.com/jobs?viewJob=&jobId=2243349

Regards,

Edward Shockley, PMP®
Senior Software Engineering Manager, Connections Mobile
IBM Collaboration Solutions

Opp: Fwd: Summer Internships

2012-02-19T23:03:00.001-08:00

Folks,

You may be interested in this internship opportunity.

Benjamin Watson
Director, Design Graphics Lab | Associate Professor, Computer Science, NC State Univ.

919-513-0325 | designgraphics.ncsu.edu | @dgllab

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Edward Shockley <drshock@us.ibm.com>
Date: Sun, Feb 19, 2012 at 10:25 AM
Subject: Summer Internships
To: bwatson@ncsu.edu

Professor Watson,
I was at the NCSU engineering career fair earlier this month representing IBM. In particular representing the part of IBM that designs and develops native mobile applications (formally under the Lotus brand). In meeting students at our booth I was informed about a course dedicated to mobile device software at NCSU. I understand you deliver/developed this course and that it deep dives aspects of both UX and code implementation.

We typically run several summer internships every year at the mobile group, both with the engineering team that I run and the design team that a peer of mine has. We do cocoa touch here, as well as Java for both Android and Blackberry as part of native-hybrid designed apps. And we're also gearing up on Windows Phone. We do very little web-based work though, our specialty is native development.

We're always looking for exceptional students with prior mobile app skills so I thought I would reach out and introduce myself given your course.

Right now in fact I am looking for an experienced US student who prefers Apple native development, who would have an opportunity to work on the iOS flavor of the IBM Connections mobile app for social business this Summer.

Regards,

Edward Shockley, PMP®
Senior Software Engineering Manager, Connections Mobile
IBM Collaboration Solutions

Find: Searching for creative young minds ((tags: finds, competitions, google)

2012-02-19T21:45:00.001-08:00

Sounds amazing....

Searching for creative young minds

Google Student Blog

Cross-posted from the European Public Policy Blog

Are you between 18 and 24 years old and have done something to make an impact in the world? Do you fancy the opportunity to come to the UK and meet some of the great minds of our time?

If so, apply by March 19 to Google's youth challenge, Zeitgeist Young Minds, by uploading a short video telling your story, what matters to you and how you’re making a positive impact on your world. We want to find the most exceptional and inspiring young people who are helping others through science, the arts, education, leadership or innovation.

Winners will meet the leaders attending 2012 Zeitgeist. Previous Zeitgeist speakers have included Archbishop Desmond Tutu, The Black Eyed Peas’ will.I.am, Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts, and Google CEO Larry Page.

The inaugural ‘Young Minds’ competition rewarded a series of pathbreakers, ranging from a student who launched free hip-hop dance classes for high-risk youth to a South African AIDS activist to a student who founded an organization offering IT education. A full list of last year's winning projects are found here.

Events agency Livity is managing the contest and will pick the winners. Zeitgeist Young Minds is open to all young people ages 18-24 who are residents of South Africa, Algeria, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Belgium, Egypt, Spain, France, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Uganda, Holland, Poland, Czech Republic, United Kingdom, Russia , Sweden, Tunisia, and Yemen.

Posted by Elizabeth Dupuy, Event Manager, External Relations

Sent with Reeder

Find: To Do: Check Out Clear

2012-02-19T16:02:00.001-08:00

Nyt likes it. But it does what it does, and no more. How could we make it do more?

Gadgetwise Blog: To Do: Check Out Clear

NYT > Personal Tech

A new to-do list app, Clear, does away with traditional interface features to create something both new and compelling. Is it the solution to your organization woes? Probably not.

Find: TheO turns your smartphone into an indestructible foam ball with Wii-like games

2012-02-19T10:06:00.001-08:00

Creative, but I'd be nervous watching my phone roll away.

TheO turns your smartphone into an indestructible foam ball with Wii-like games

The Verge - All Posts

Physical Apps released its foam ball smartphone accessory at Toy Fair 2012 in New York this week, and we took the opportunity to play with the strange toy. It's called TheO, and it's about as simple as it gets — it's a soccer-ball size foam ball with a large slot in it that you can stuff your iPhone, iPod touch, or Android device into. Once you get your phone in there, it's pretty much indestructible (so long as you avoid water), and you can load up an accelerometer-based game and start playing your smartphone apps — physically.

A specially-made bowling app was on display — you stand up as if you're bowling, move the ball side-to-side to aim, and once you're ready you click your phone's screen and bowl TheO (and your smartphone...

Find: Orange launches Facebook for all phones in Africa

2012-02-17T20:11:00.001-08:00

A glimpse into how apps are done in Africa.

Orange launches Facebook for all phones in Africa

The Verge - All Posts

Facebook has 40 million African users, but only a fraction of them are able to connect to the social network on their mobile phones, either because the phones don't support mobile internet or because the service is too expensive. Customers on mobile carrier Orange, however, will soon be able to purchase access to a simplified version of Facebook through a partnership between Orange and Myriad. The service works by using Unstructured Supplementary Service Data, or USSD, a technology that's similar to SMS but uses a continued connection rather than discrete messages. USSD is already used for social networking or mobile email in places like India, but Orange says it will be the first carrier to launch USSD Facebook in Africa.

Find: Voluntary TV spectrum auction on tap with approval locked in Congress

2012-02-17T17:26:00.001-08:00

Yay! Faster wireless for everyone.

Voluntary TV spectrum auction on tap with approval locked in Congress

The Verge - All Posts

The House passed an extension of the payroll tax cut this morning after representatives from both sides of the chamber hammered out a deal earlier this week; a Senate vote is planned for this afternoon, and early indications are that it'll pass. That may not seem like an interesting development for members of the wireless community, but approval of the voluntary auction of spectrum currently reserved for television broadcasts — a contentious issue over the past couple years — is attached to the bill, and virtually every stakeholder in the wireless community (including the FCC) is in favor of the auction. The National Association of Broadcasters, which represents television stations that currently own the licenses, had been a key...

Find: BrailleTouch brings 'eyes-free' texting to the visually impaired

2012-02-17T17:21:00.001-08:00

Cool.

BrailleTouch brings 'eyes-free' texting to the visually impaired

The Verge - All Posts

Georgia Tech is developing a mobile app to help the visually impaired type on their phones. Called BrailleTouch, the open-source app features a six-button set-up — with three buttons on either side of the screen — and the device is held with the screen facing away from you. Written Braille characters use a six-dot code for the English alphabet, with different combinations of dots corresponding to each of the 26 letters (and various symbols). BrailleTouch will read out the letters as you type, and early research shows that users have been able to type at speeds of up to 32 words per minute while maintaining 92 percent accuracy. In addition to aiding the visually impaired, the team behind BrailleTouch is also looking at turning the...

Find: Clik turns your phone into a remote for YouTube parties (hands-on)

2012-02-16T18:28:00.001-08:00

Nice. What other website apps could we control on Internet tvs with our phones?

Clik turns your phone into a remote for YouTube parties (hands-on)

The Verge - All Posts

The developer behind popular messaging service Kik has released a new app designed for those of you who throw plenty of YouTube parties. Clik essentially turns your Android or iOS device into a remote, letting you control YouTube videos on any internet-enabled screen, whether it's your desktop or a smart TV. Unlike may similar apps, though, Clik doesn't require Wi-Fi, instead giving you the option to use your phone's 3G connection instead. Syncing up your mobile device with a bigger screen is a simple process — all you need to do is visit clikthis.com and scan the giant QR code that pops up. Once that's done your browser window will turn into a video player with all of the controls mapped to your phone.

Find: 20 things every mobile developer should know

2012-02-16T14:28:00.000-08:00

Found this and thought it was a good read: http://www.netmagazine.com/features/20-things-every-mobile-developer-should-know

Opp: a few participants needed for a mobile visualization experiment

2012-02-16T11:54:00.001-08:00

Folks,

We are performing some early experiments with a new mobile browsing app for IMDB we're developing. If you have the time and interest, please contact my student Ju Hee Bae at jbae3@ncsu.edu.

We have pressing need of students tonight and tomorrow. If you can't get in touch with Ju Hee before then, we could still use your help, but likely later.

You will be able to earn participation credit for your help with the experiment. It will take less than an hour of your time.

Thanks,

Ben

Find: Japanese increasingly opt for foreign phones, reports Nikkei

2012-02-16T05:39:00.001-08:00

While Japanese market grows overall, share owned by domestic device makers shrinks to 40%. Perhaps this will convince them to sell outside of Japan.

Japanese increasingly opt for foreign phones, reports Nikkei

The Verge - All Posts

Japanese cellphone makers can’t catch a break – they’ve been focusing on the domestic market with functions like water resistance and digital wallets, but despite their best efforts they're actually losing domestic market share, reports Nikkei. According to data released Tuesday, mobile phones and PHS handsets (an Asian standard operating in the 1880-1930MHz frequency band) from Japanese manufacturers fell 11.1 percent year-over-year, sinking to 29.58 million units, while the entire market — including handsets from foreign makers — actually grew four percent. Offerings from companies like Apple, Samsung, and LG are hot sellers in Japan, and foreign makers are estimated to have nearly 60 percent of the handset market there.

Find: Some iOS developers used 'well-known' download bots to manipulate App Store top 25

2012-02-16T05:35:00.001-08:00

Cheating bots in app stores.

Some iOS developers used 'well-known' download bots to manipulate App Store top 25

The Verge - All Posts

Download bots were a "well-known secret" of the iOS ecosystem that developers used to fake their way into the top 25 list of Apple's App Store. That's the claim by Inside Mobile Apps, which says automated programs and bots have been used for over a year to download apps and fraudulently promote some iOS applications. The process is organized by marketing firms and can cost a developer up to $15,000 for a top 25 slot in the US App Store within two days.

Apple is cracking down on chart ranking manipulation though. The company sent a letter to developers earlier this month, warning that using fake App Store chart services could lead to the loss of an Apple Developer Program membership. There will always be a market for such services despite...

Find: BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 'likely' to launch during MWC

2012-02-15T17:39:00.001-08:00

Mobile world congress (mwc) is coming, so news will be thick.

Rim is announcing bbos 2, which will finally have native email.

BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 'likely' to launch during MWC

The Verge - All Posts

Initially announced at CES, version 2.0 of the BlackBerry PlayBook OS is finally set to launch during Mobile World Congress at the end of this month. According to Senior Brand Manager Jeff Gadway in an interview with PC Magazine, the update will be available "very soon" and is likely to go live during MWC, which kicks off on February 27 and will have a fairly large RIM presence. RIM had initially planned ro release the update in February so a launch during MWC would be cutting it pretty close. The 400MB update, which will be pushed automatically to all PlayBooks once live, will introduce a number of new features to the OS, including several glaring omissions from the initial release. Most notably there's finally a native email client...

Find: Nvidia: Tegra 3 smartphones will ship this quarter, integrated LTE chipset this year

2012-02-15T17:31:00.001-08:00

Lte integrated into the SoC: longer battery life.

Nvidia: Tegra 3 smartphones will ship this quarter, integrated LTE chipset this year

The Verge - All Posts

Nvidia announced its yearly earnings today, and while $4 billion of sales and $581 million in profit might sound like a bit of a snooze, CEO Jen-Hsun Huang spiced things up by telling investors that quad-core Tegra 3 smartphones are right around the corner.

This quarter we are expecting to ship Tegra 3 based superphones. At Mobile World Congress is when we expect to announce these devices, and we expect to announce and ship them this quarter.

Nvidia previously told us we could expect to see Tegra 3 phones at MWC, but it looks like you won't have long to wait to experience the fruits of the company's labor for yourself. Will those shipping products include the HTC Endeavor, the LG X3 and Fujitsu's new phone? We'll find out later this...

Find: FCC approves tighter rules against telemarketing and spam texts

2012-02-15T17:04:00.001-08:00

No more spam texts! Yay!

FCC approves tighter rules against telemarketing and spam texts

The Verge - All Posts

In addition to placing new requirements on VoIP services, the FCC today approved new measures designed to help consumers better deflect unwanted telemarketing calls and spam SMS messages. "Consumers by the thousands have complained to us, letting us know that they remain unhappy with having their privacy invaded and their time wasted by these unwanted calls," said FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. Going forward, telemarketers will need to receive written permission — via either physical or electronic means — prior to reaching out to consumers with prerecorded or direct calls. Further, the agency has reversed a stipulation that once allowed businesses to dial current and former customers with new offers unrelated to the services that...

Find: iOS apps and the address book: who has your data, and how they're getting it

2012-02-15T05:50:00.001-08:00

Although it is against app store policy, any ios app can upload your contact data to its servers without asking you.

iOS apps and the address book: who has your data, and how they're getting it

The Verge - All Posts

Over the course of the past week, a firestorm has erupted in the world of iOS apps, thanks to the discovery that Path was uploading data from your iPhone's address book without asking for explicit permission. Upon opening the app and registering, Path automatically uploaded your contact data in order to "find friends" that you might want to connect to. Path has since apologized and updated its app, but the problem exposed by the episode remains.

Stated simply: any iOS app has complete access to a large amount of data stored on your iPhone, including your address book and calendar. Any iOS app can, without asking for your permission, upload all of the information stored in your address book to its servers. From there, the app developer...

Find: HTML5 bullets: Sencha issues developer scorecard for Chrome on Android

2012-02-15T00:04:00.001-08:00

Chrome is a big leap forward for android and html5 webapps.

HTML5 bullets: Sencha issues developer scorecard for Chrome on Android

Ars Technica

Google issued a beta release of Chrome for Android last week. The port, which brings Chrome's feature set and excellent support for Web standards to Android, is a major improvement over the mobile platform's current default browser.

As we reported in our coverage of the beta, Android's default browser has historically had difficulty handling sophisticated application-like Web experiences. The new port of Chrome has the potential to remedy that weakness and bring highly competitive HTML5 support to Android.

Find: A new standard in design: in-depth with the PlayStation Vita

2012-02-14T23:43:00.001-08:00

They like it. Nice tour through the new ui. Not much on gameplay here.

Feature: A new standard in design: in-depth with the PlayStation Vita

Ars Technica

It's a confusing time in the world of mobile and portable gaming. Consumers seem to be moving away from the idea that they need an entirely separate device to play games on the go, settling for cheap, generally simple touchscreen games on their cell phones and tablets. Nintendo, following up the insanely successful DS system that rested on a seemingly gimmicky double screen design, added a newer glasses-free 3D gimmick to its Nintendo 3DS—only to see extremely slow sales force it into a premature price drop. Sony's PlayStation Portable, meanwhile, has carved out a niche for itself as a serious gamer's system, especially in Japan, but is beginning to show its age as a system designed in the pre-smartphone era.

For the new PlayStation Vita, Sony responded to this confusion by throwing everything and the kitchen sink into the system. For hardcore gamers, there are two analog sticks—a first for a portable system—and a gigantic screen loaded with pixels. For casual players, there's the now-ubiquitous touchscreen as well as a unique rear touch panel to enable new tactile, touchy-feely gameplay. The Vita has two cameras, a GPS receiver, and a 3G data option. There's music and video players, a Web browser, Google Maps, and even a proximity-based social network. Oh, and it also plays games, I guess (more on those in a separate post).

Find: Mobile Internet devices will outnumber humans this year, Cisco predicts

2012-02-14T18:00:00.001-08:00

Mobile Internet devices will outnumber humans this year, Cisco predicts

Ars Technica

Cisco came up with an interesting prediction in its latest forecast of global mobile data traffic: by the end of this year, there will be more Internet-connected mobile devices than people on Earth.

"By the end of 2012, the number of mobile-connected devices will exceed the number of people on Earth, and by 2016 there will be 1.4 mobile devices per capita," Cisco said in its Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update released today. "There will be over 10 billion mobile-connected devices in 2016... exceeding the world's population at that time (7.3 billion)."

The numbers include not just phones but tablets, laptops, handheld gaming consoles, e-readers, in-car entertainment systems, digital photo frames, cameras, and "machine-to-machine modules." That latter category includes applications such as using wireless networks to update digital billboards.

Global mobile data traffic doubled for the fourth year in a row in 2011, and will grow 18-fold by 2016, hitting 130 exabytes a year (the equivalent of 33 billion DVDs, 4.3 quadrillion MP3 files, or 813 quadrillion text messages), Cisco said. Not surprisingly, streaming content, video in particular, is expected to play a huge role in increasing data traffic. Good news for users: mobile network speeds will increase nine-fold by 2016. Bad news: the days of unlimited data plans seem to be expiring quickly, with few exceptions.

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Opp: SV Application Deadline February 13!!!

2012-02-13T08:00:00.001-08:00

Hey folks,

Last day to apply to attend siggraph as a volunteer. SIGGRAPH is the premier graphics event. Highly recommended.

Best,

Ben

Benjamin Watson
Director, Design Graphics Lab | Associate Professor, Computer Science, NC State Univ.

919-513-0325 | designgraphics.ncsu.edu | @dgllab

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: <Mikki_Rose@siggraph.org>
Date: Sun, Feb 12, 2012 at 1:40 PM
Subject: SV Application Deadline February 13!!!
To: bwatson@ncsu.edu

Hello alumni! The SIGGRAPH 2012 Student Volunteer Program application deadline is rapidly approaching and we're asking for your help! All SV applications must be completed by Monday, 13 February 2012, 22:00 UTC/GMT (note, that is 2:00pm PST). If you or any students you know are applying would you please help spread the word about this deadline? If applications are started but still incomplete by that time they will not be considered for the program. Thank you so much for your help, we appreciate it!

Think they need some inspiration? Please feel free to share this video created by the SV Subcommittee, it's sure to get students red-diculously pumped!

Thank you again for your help, and good luck to your and your student friends!

~Mikki

Find: Super Bowl 2012: Nothing Curbs App Usage Except Madonna

2012-02-12T21:08:00.001-08:00

Super Bowl 2012: Nothing Curbs App Usage Except Madonna

Flurry

The Super Bowl is an American phenomenon, now largely considered a de facto American holiday. As the premier media event, it regularly attracts record-breaking audiences. This year, Super Bowl XLVI, played on February 5, 2012 between the New York Giants and New England Patriots, became the most watched television program in history, drawing an audience of 111 million viewers according to The Nielsen Company. Prior to this, the record was held by last year’s Super Bowl, which itself had overtaken the number one spot held for twenty-eight years by the final episode of M*A*S*H.

The Second Screen

Also breaking new ground this year was the concept of the "second screen," which illustrates that while watching TV (the first screen), people often interact with second screens such as smartphones and tablets. To avoid losing attention paid to the first screen, marketers increasingly are exploring ways to complement the first screen experience with the addition of hash tags, QR codes, voting and more. Among the most ambitious was Shazam, a music and media discovery service, which worked with ad partners such as Toyota, Best Buy, Pepsi, Bud Light and Fed Ex to drive additional second screen interactions related to advertising via the Shazam mobile app. During the halftime show, for example, viewers could get the setlist, buy music and download mobile apps from the artists. Shazam reported millions of audio tags as a result.

Aside from a handful of innovators like Shazam, Flurry believes that the second screen is still largely more disruptive than complementary. If a consumer is not paying attention to the television program in front of her, she is likely using an application to post social updates or play games. For example, if a Super Bowl ad isn’t holding a viewer’s interest, playing another round of Words with Friends is a likely activity. Monitoring app usage provides Flurry the ability to understand this tightly-coupled, inverse relationship between the first and second screen.

Massive Second Screen App Audience

For this report, Flurry tracked U.S. app usage, per second, over the course of Super Bowl XLVI, mapping application session starts to each television spot aired, game time segment, the halftime show, and more. We further studied behavior differences between males versus females. With Flurry Analytics in over 160,000 applications, the company detects app usage on more than 90% of all iOS and Android devices per day. Let’s start by comparing the size of the U.S. application using audience to Nielsen’s report of the number of people who watched the Super Bowl last Sunday.

The left-hand column shows the number of users Flurry estimates launched applications in the United States between the hours of 3:15 PM PST to 7:15 PM PST on Sunday, February 5. During this four-hour window, in which the Super Bowl was played, Flurry estimates that nearly one-third of the U.S. population used an application. Compared to Nielsen’s estimate that 111 million people watched the Super Bowl this year, the two audiences are similar in size.

The chart above shows estimated app session starts in the U.S. per second. Studying overall trends reveals a highly correlated, inverse relationship between app usage and game, halftime and commercial events. Generally, app usage increased steadily over the first three quarters of the game, showing the challenge in holding peoples’ attention over several hours. However, because this year’s game was close throughout, including an exciting fourth quarter finish, app usage remained relatively checked. Noticeably, app usage declined significantly during the last part of the fourth quarter. The most clearly visible change in app usage occurred during Madonna’s half time show, where app usage remained consistently low for the longest, sustained period of time. From this, we conclude that Madonna strongly held viewers’ attention on the first screen and was a major draw for the Super Bowl this year.

Looking more closely at the details, we can see that key moments such as the coin toss and kick off were paired with decreases in app usage. Additionally, we found that advertisement popularity could be inferred from rises or declines in app usage. For example, if app usage increases during an ad, we conclude that it did not hold the consumer’s attention. While there is the possibility that certain advertisements encouraged the use of an app, this was not the norm. Studying male versus female usage differences, we found that 62% of overall app usage during the game was driven by females. Flurry also found that women, on average, paid more attention to advertisements, and drove spikes in app usage upon return to the game after commercial breaks.

In this chart, we isolate app usage during broadcast game time only. All breaks for advertising have been excluded. Overall this chart reflects the shape of the more detailed chart shown above, but broken out by quarter, displaying a clearer pattern of usage. To create the chart, we took an average for app usage across the entire game, and then for each quarter. Starting on the left-hand side, we see that, relative to the average, app usage was lowest during the first quarter. The second quarter showed an increase in app usage, still remaining below the average. In the second half, app usage increased as we assume people were challenged to continue to stay engaged with the “first screen” over such a long period of time. The fourth quarter saw a decline in usage due to the game’s close finish, drawing people back to the first screen.

In this chart, we isolate app usage during times when advertisements were aired. Again, consumer fatigue played a role in attention paid to the first versus second screen. Even with a close Super Bowl game, viewers paid far less attention to ads during the second half. This would suggest that when buying ad times, advertisers should focus on Q1 and Q2 ad slots. Not shown on the chart, pre-game ads, as early as 20 minutes before game time, also held consumer attention well. Half-time, outside of Madonna’s half time show fared worst for holding consumer attention. We speculate that people were either taking a bathroom break or looking for information and/or content on their phones related to Madonna or other artists that appeared in the show.

Flurry Super Bowl Ad Rankings

Next, Flurry rank ad performance based on its ability to hold a person's attention. During the times app usage spikes, we assume the advertisement does not appeal to the viewer. Conversely, if app usage declines during a TV spot, we assume that the first screen is where the consumer is focused. For each ad, Flurry summed the number of app sessions starting during when that ad aired. We then divided that number by the number of seconds in the ad, to get an average number of session starts per second. This gives an apples-to-apples comparison, accounting for varying ad lengths (e.g., 15, 30, 60 seconds, etc.). Below, we share rankings for Overall, Male and Female user groups. By our count there were over 100 ads from pre-game through post-game.

The relationship between advertisers and consumers continues to change, with smartphones and tablet apps playing a key role. In a year when the industry is anticipating major moves from companies like Apple and Google around interactive television, app makers and marketers will need to learn and adapt. In the meantime, we know that Madonna still has the power to make you put your phone down, at least for a while.

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Disguising One Apple Design Icon as Another

2012-02-12T13:37:00.001-08:00

Sweet.

Disguising One Apple Design Icon as Another

Core77

At first I thought these were just a Photoshopped gag, but nope, these are real and for sale. A company called Schreer Delights is selling a line of iPhone cases that reference Apple's design history, printing visual elements from the original Mac, the original iMac and the original iPod directly onto the case. Each runs a little under 50 bucks.

It's kind of a weird commentary on what exactly is cool about retro styling; if you make your iPhone 4S look like a 3G, that's dumb; but make it look like the first iPod of ten years ago and that's cool.

Find: Halliburton Drops BlackBerry for iPhone

2012-02-12T10:31:00.001-08:00

Uh oh. If rim is losing companies like this, who will they keep?

Halliburton Drops BlackBerry for iPhone

Bits

In more troubling news for Research In Motion, Halliburton, the energy services company, has announced plans to ditch corporate support for the BlackBerry in favor of Apple's iPhone. It's yet another example of how the iPhone is eating the BlackBerry's lunch in the area it once dominated: business customers.

Find: More smartphones than computers shipped in 2011, says study

2012-02-10T23:57:00.001-08:00

Another milestone passed.

More smartphones than computers shipped in 2011, says study

The Verge - All Posts

For the first time, smartphones have become more popular than traditional computers. Research group Canalys estimates that 487.7 million smartphones were shipped in 2011, an increase of over 60 percent from 2010. Computer shipments grew too, but more slowly — around 15 percent more shipped last year. Even counting tablets as personal computers, that's only 414.6 million units. The report's data corroborates much of what we've been hearing from other places, namely that while smartphones aren't replacing computers, they are quickly overtaking feature phones as the mobile device of choice.

Canalys, however, doesn't necessarily expect the increase in smartphones to continue as rapidly next year. It suggests that manufacturers will...

Find: Nokia's ClearBlack Display technology explained

2012-02-10T23:44:00.001-08:00

It reduces reflection of ambient light, improving contrast.

Nokia's ClearBlack Display technology explained

The Verge - All Posts

Nokia announced ClearBlack Display a couple of years ago and the technology has been a headline feature of its recent Lumia models. The manufacturer says ClearBlack gives deeper blacks and better viewing angles, and recently published a graphic detailing how it works.

The technology involves a pair of filters which help to reduce the amount of ambient light that the screen reflects. The filters polarize the light, changing its direction before it reflects off the screen behind. When the light travels back it is unable to pass through the filter and is blocked. We noted in our Lumia 800 review that "you'll struggle to distinguish where the display panel ends" and it's by preventing the ambient light from escaping the screen that Nokia...

Find: Waze uses the iPhone proximity sensor to launch hands-free traffic reporting for iOS

2012-02-10T23:11:00.001-08:00

Clever use of proximity sensor. I can think of others....

Waze uses the iPhone proximity sensor to launch hands-free traffic reporting for iOS

The Verge - All Posts

Silicon Valley start-up Waze is launching a new addition to its iOS application today. The free GPS and turn-by-turn navigation app is designed to crowd source information on traffic jams thanks to reports from fellow drivers. Users can report traffic jams, speed traps, accidents, and even update existing information. The company is now introducing a hands-free way to activate and file reports with the iOS version of the software.

Waze, impatiently waiting for Apple to open up its Siri APIs to developers, has taken the unusual approach of using the iPhone's proximity sensor to activate a voice-controlled interface in its application. A simple wave of the hand will initiate voice-control, allowing drivers to quickly navigate, report...

Windows 8 on ARM: the desktop is there, so's Office, but not much more

2012-02-10T09:38:00.001-08:00

Windows 8 on ARM: the desktop is there, so's Office, but not much more

Ars Technica

Ending months of speculation on the matter, Microsoft has revealed that Windows 8 on ARM will indeed contain a desktop—and that desktop versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote will all be pre-installed.

Microsoft insists that the desktop holds real value, and that it makes Windows less valuable to users if it was missing (a view we're sympathetic to). To that end, Windows 8 on ARM ("WOA") will have a desktop, with a taskbar, that includes Explorer, most of the current desktop utilities that ship with Windows (though not all, and Microsoft hasn't said what won't be included), and supports applications. All WOA machines will support USB and Bluetooth mice and keyboards, so users who want to will be able to use the desktop in a traditional way.

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Find: Another reason why Apple may be limiting Siri to iPhone 4S

2012-02-09T23:30:00.001-08:00

Siri only on 4s because of an integrated noise reduction chip.

Another reason why Apple may be limiting Siri to iPhone 4S

Ars Technica

Siri, Apple's widely advertised voice-activated "intelligent assistant," has so far been limited to the latest iPhone 4S hardware after Apple's acquisition. Though observers have come up with various reasons for the restriction, a newly revealed piece of the puzzle suggests the issue is related to hardware after all. According to recent SEC filings from technology start-up Audience, Apple incorporated an improved version of its background noise filtering technology directly into the A5 processor used in the iPhone 4S—technology that improves Siri's speech recognition capabilities.

Siri was originally a third-party app for the iPhone that ran on devices as old as the iPhone 3GS. Apple later bought the company behind Siri, and integrated the tech directly into iOS 5, which was released to the public in October of 2011. Siri is now only available on the iPhone 4S, however, and Apple subsequently pulled the old app from the App Store when the 4S was released.

Possible internship opportunity

2012-02-09T23:08:00.001-08:00

Folks,

These folks may still be looking for an internship.

Benjamin Watson
Director, Design Graphics Lab | Associate Professor, Computer Science, NC State Univ.

919-513-0325 | designgraphics.ncsu.edu | @dgllab

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Andria Jensen <andria@appsolutegenius.com>
Date: Fri, Oct 28, 2011 at 2:06 PM
Subject: Re: possible internship opportunity
To: Ben Watson <bwatson@ncsu.edu>

That sounds great, Ben! I'll look forward to hearing back from you further. Enjoy your travels.

Thanks,

Andria

On Oct 28, 2011, at 1:41 AM, Ben Watson wrote:

Andria
Thanks for contacting me!
I'll forward this to my students ASAP.
I'm travelling, but I'll also shortly forward you some information on getting involved in the course (if you'd like), so that you could keep tabs on our latest graduating students, or try out some app ideas.
Best,
Ben
On Wednesday, October 26, 2011, Andria Jensen <andria@appsolutegenius.com> wrote:
> Dr. Watson, I was looking around on NCSU's computer science site and noticed that you are offering a special topics course related to mobile app development. I am the Co-Founder of a company called Appsolute Genius which specializes in mobile development. I am located here in the Triangle, specifically in Cary, and am currently looking for an intern to help us out with some of our projects. We would love to find someone who could do testing for us, run builds, setup automated builds, setup unit testing, etc. This person would start as a part-time intern, but we would love to help that person learn and grow into someone that we could use in a more permanent, full-time position. I thought you may know of a student that would be a good fit for something like this, so I am asking that you pass along my contact information to anyone you feel would be interested. Thanks in advance for your help.
> Regards,
> Andria Jensen
> Co-Founder, CTO
> Appsolute Genius
> (256) 348-4933

Visit: with Sousa e Silva's class, March 22

2012-02-09T14:04:00.000-08:00

Don't forget,

Those who can please come on March 22 to visit with Adriana a de Sousa e Silva's class.

We'll gather at Winston Hall, room 205. You can find a campus map of Winston Hall here. It's 23, pretty close to Chipotle's.

Coming will be a great way to participation credit!

Best,

Ben

Announcement: Adriana a de Sousa e Silva lectures March 21

2012-02-09T13:55:00.000-08:00

On March 21, we'll be visited again by Adriana a de Sousa e Silva, who will lecture on mobiles in society. For that lecture, please read and react to the following at least 24 hours before:

Sutko, D. M., & de Souza e Silva, A. (2011). Location aware mobile media and urban sociability. New Media & Society, 13 (5), 807-823. (ncsu)
Campbell, S. (2007). A cross-cultural comparison of perceptions and uses of mobile telephony. New Media & Society, 9 (2), pp. 343-363. (ncsu)

See you then!

Best,

Ben

Announcement: brainstorms available

2012-02-09T13:39:00.000-08:00

Folks,

The notes I made on the whiteboard during our brainstorms are available online now in case you need inspiration for your projects. They are here:

Pat Fitzgerald

1, 2, 3

Adriana a de Sousa e Silva

1, 2, 3, 4

Best,

Ben

RIM Talks next Wednesday

2012-02-09T13:18:00.001-08:00

Outside of our class, focus on system stuff.

Wednesday February 15, 2012, 11:00 AM
RIM Platform Architectures - Research Directions
http://research.csc.ncsu.edu/colloquia/seminar-post.php?id=444

Find: Apple rules top three smartphone spots but loses new users to Android

2012-02-09T08:25:00.001-08:00

Apple has the top models, but android sells more across all models.

Apple rules top three smartphone spots but loses new users to Android

Ars Technica

Apple continues to hold the title for some of the top-selling smartphone models, with the iPhone 4S being the best selling handset in the US last quarter, according to a new report by market research firm NPD. But while the iPhone has repeatedly made Apple the top smartphone vendor in the US, Android still appears to be attracting more new users.

Apple had three iPhone models available for sale in the fourth quarter of 2011: the just-released iPhone 4S, the iPhone 4, which Apple continues to sell as a lower-cost entry-level model, and the nearly three-year-old iPhone 3GS, which AT&T still offers as essentially a $0 bargain smartphone. Collectively, all iPhones sold accounted for 43 percent of smartphone sales in the US for the quarter.

According to NPD analyst Ross Rubin, Apple sold nearly two iPhone 4S models for every iPhone 4 sold, and five iPhone 4S models for every iPhone 3GS sold. And despite the large disparity in numbers, the iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, and iPhone 3GS ended up being the top three smartphones sold in the US.

But even with the top Android smartphone (Samsung Galaxy SII) being outsold more than five to one in the US, Android handsets in aggregate still accounted for 48 percent of US smartphone sales last quarter, accord to NPD's data. Perhaps more alarming for Apple, users buying their first smartphones chose an Android device 57 percent of the time, and an iOS device just 34 percent of the time.

While Android has been criticized for its platform fragmentation and the complexity it presents to users, the platform's wide carrier support, growing app selection, and variety of models available from several vendors attracts a generally wider audience. Particularly in the US, Rubin noted, Android is the only choice for users who want to take advantage of LTE networks from Verizon and AT&T or Sprint's WiMAX network.

Find: Waze Adds Hands Free Navigation

2012-02-09T06:57:00.000-08:00

I've been using Waze on and off since its inception, but I thought this was exceptional. iPhone's Siri can give directions, but those are not turn-by-turn and once you get in the app, you have to do an entire new search to modify anything.

http://lifehacker.com/5883572/waze-for-iphone-offers-voice-control-for-hands+free-operation-while-driving

I don't think I've seen an app that uses the proximity sensor in any other way than to do what it was designed for, check if the phone is against your face.

Find: Google reportedly developing Android-powered smart glasses

2012-02-09T05:28:00.001-08:00

Whether or not this report is accurate, wearables will eventually happen, and they will take off when they don't look stupid.

Google reportedly developing Android-powered smart glasses

Ars Technica

Much like flying cars and jet packs, wearable computing is one of those aspirational fields of technology where the current state of the art doesn't deliver the sort of experience that people have imagined for decades. An experimental project that is reportedly under development in Google's labs could raise the bar, however.

According to a report that was published today in the blog 9to5Google, the search giant is developing a product called Google Glasses that will have a built-in heads-up display. The device, which supposedly resembles a pair of Oakley shades, is said to have an integrated transparent display for one eye and a built-in front-facing camera. The latter could be used for augmented reality applications. The device would use speech and head tilting for text input and control.

9to5Google suggests that the Google Glasses product could soft-launch with a pilot program later this year, making the product available to a select number of testers. This would follow the model of the Chromebook launch, which was preceded by the Cr-48 test unit.

Although the reports are still highly speculative, the concept of smart glasses is intriguing. There are some existing products in this space, but they aren't easy to purchase and are definitely not priced for a mainstream audience.

Find: Windows 8 Consumer Preview coming February 29th

2012-02-09T05:03:00.001-08:00

And this isn't just tabs, but wp8's kernel too.

Windows 8 Consumer Preview coming February 29th

Ars Technica

The Windows 8 Consumer Preview—notably it's not being called a "beta"—will be launched on February 29th. Microsoft will launch it at an event it's hosting in Barcelona to coincide with Mobile World Congress.

Taking full advantage of the opportunity afforded by the leap year, the release will just hit Microsoft's previously announced "late February" date. Redmond has no comment (yet) on whether the event will be Webcast.

Releasing the Consumer Preview of a desktop operating system at a conference for cellular communications might seem strange. But with Windows 8's tablet ambitions and the leaked information that Windows Phone 8 will probably use the Windows 8 kernel, this is a desktop operating system that won't be confined to the desktop.

Projects! (updated)

2012-02-08T12:59:00.001-08:00

You can access the list of already proposed projects here. The pdf is here.

Update: The due date for your proposal is Wednesday, February 22, but feel free to submit it earlier. You can find instructions on what I'm looking for in a proposal at this page.

Keep your eye on this post, it will be updated regularly!

Best,

Ben

Find: Introducing Chrome for Android

2012-02-08T04:30:00.001-08:00

Bout time. Looking forward to using it on other platforms.

Introducing Chrome for Android

Google Mobile Blog

In 2008, we launched Google Chrome to help make the web better. We’re excited that millions of people around the world use Chrome as their primary browser and we want to keep improving that experience. Today, we're introducing Chrome for Android Beta, which brings many of the things you’ve come to love about Chrome to your Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich phone or tablet. Like the desktop version, Chrome for Android Beta is focused on speed and simplicity, but it also features seamless sign-in and sync so you can take your personalized web browsing experience with you wherever you go, across devices.

Speed With Chrome for Android, you can search, navigate and browse fast—Chrome fast. You can scroll through web pages as quickly as you can flick your finger. When searching, your top search results are loaded in the background as you type so pages appear instantly. And of course, both search and navigation can all be done quickly from the Chrome omnibox.

Simplicity Chrome for Android is designed from the ground up for mobile devices. We reimagined tabs so they fit just as naturally on a small-screen phone as they do on a larger screen tablet. You can flip or swipe between an unlimited number of tabs using intuitive gestures, as if you’re holding a deck of cards in the palm of your hands, each one a new window to the web. One of the biggest pains of mobile browsing is selecting the correct link out of several on a small-screen device. Link Preview does away with hunting and pecking for links on a web page by automatically zooming in on links to make selecting the precise one easier. And as with Chrome on desktop, we built Chrome for Android with privacy in mind from the beginning, including incognito mode for private browsing and fine-grained privacy options (tap menu icon, ‘Settings,’ and then ‘Privacy’).

Sign in You can now bring your personalized Chrome experience with you to your Android phone or tablet. If you sign in to Chrome on your Android device, you can:

View open tabs: Access the tabs you left open on your computer (also signed into Chrome)—picking up exactly where you left off.
Get smarter suggestions: If you visit a site often on your computer, you'll also get an autocomplete suggestion for it on your mobile device, so you can spend less time typing.
Sync bookmarks: Conveniently access your favorite sites no matter where you are or which device you’re using.

Chrome is now available in Beta from Android Market, in select countries and languages for phones and tablets with Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich. We’re eager to hear your feedback. Finally, we look forward to working closely with the developer community to create a better web on a platform that defines mobile.

Posted by Sundar Pichai, SVP, Chrome and Apps

(Cross-posted from the Chrome blog and the Official Google blog)

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Find: New Social APIs in Android ICS

2012-02-08T04:21:00.001-08:00

Nice.

New Social APIs in Android ICS

Android Developers Blog

[This post is by Daniel Lehmann, Tech Lead on the Android Apps team. — Tim Bray]
[We’re trying something new; There’s a post over on Google+ where we’ll host a discussion of this article. Daniel Lehmann has agreed to drop by and participate. Come on over and join in!]
With Android Ice Cream Sandwich, we set out to build software that supports emotional connections between humans and the devices they carry. We wanted to build the most personal device that the user has ever owned.
The first ingredient in our recipe is to show users the people that they care about most in a magazine-like way. High-resolution photos replace simple lists of text.

The second ingredient is to more prominently visualize their friends’ activities. We show updates from multiple sources wherever a contact is displayed, without the need to open each social networking app individually.
Android is an open platform, and in Ice Cream Sandwich we provide a rich new API to allow any social networking application to integrate with the system. This post explains how apps like Google+ use these APIs, and how other social networks can do the same.

A few basics

Since Eclair (Android 2.0), the system has been able to join contacts from different sources. Android can notice if you are connected to the same person and different networks, and join those into aggregate contacts.

Essential terms to understand throughout the remainder of this post are:

RawContact is a contact as it exists in one source, for example a friend in Skype.
Data rows exists for each piece of information that the raw contact contains (name, phone number, email address, etc.).
A Contact joins multiple raw contacts into one aggregate. This is what the user perceives as a real contact in the People and Phone apps.
A sync adapter synchronizes its raw contacts with its cloud source. It can be bundled with a Market application (examples: Skype, Twitter, Google+).

While users deal with contacts, sync adapters work with their raw contact rows. They own the data inside a raw contact, but by design it is left up to Android to properly join raw contact rows with others.
Contacts sync adapters have a special xml file that describes their content, which is documented in the Android SDK. In the following paragraphs, we’ll assume this file is named contacts.xml.
The Android SDK also contains the application SampleSyncAdapter (and its source code) that implements everything mentioned in here in an easy to understand way.

High resolution photos

In Android versions prior to Honeycomb (3.0), contact photos used to be 96x96. Starting with ICS, they now have a thumbnail (which is the 96x96 version) and a display photo. The display photo’s maximum size can vary from device to device (On Galaxy Nexus and Nexus S, it is currently configured to be 256x256, but expect this to vary with future devices). The size as configured can be queried like this:

private static int getPhotoPickSize(Context context) { // Note that this URI is safe to call on the UI thread. Cursor c = context.getContentResolver().query(DisplayPhoto.CONTENT_MAX_DIMENSIONS_URI, new String[]{ DisplayPhoto.DISPLAY_MAX_DIM }, null, null, null); try { c.moveToFirst(); return c.getInt(0); } finally { c.close(); } }

This value is useful if you need to query the picture from the server (as you can specify the right size for the download). If you already have a high resolution picture, there is no need for any resizing on your side; if it is too big, the contacts provider will downsample it automatically.
Up until now, pictures were written using a ContentValues object, just like all the other data rows of the raw contact. While this approach is still supported, it might fail when used with bigger pictures, as there is a size limit when sending ContentValues across process boundaries. The prefered way now is to use an AssetFileDescriptor and write them using a FileOutputStream instead:

private static void saveBitmapToRawContact(Context context, long rawContactId, byte[] photo) throws IOException { Uri rawContactUri = ContentUris.withAppendedId(RawContacts.CONTENT_URI, rawContactId); Uri outputFileUri = Uri.withAppendedPath(rawContactUri, RawContacts.DisplayPhoto.CONTENT_DIRECTORY); AssetFileDescriptor descriptor = context.getContentResolver().openAssetFileDescriptor( outputFileUri, "rw"); FileOutputStream stream = descriptor.createOutputStream(); try { stream.write(photo); } finally { stream.close(); descriptor.close(); } }

For best results, store uncompressed square photos and let the contacts provider take care of compressing the photo. It will create both a thumbnail and a display photo as necessary.
This API is available on API version 14+. For older versions, we recommend to fallback to the old method using ContentValues and assuming a constant size of 96x96.

Update streams

The API for update streams is the biggest new addition for contacts in Ice Cream Sandwich. Sync adapters can now enrich their contact data by providing a social stream that includes text and photos.

This API is intended to provide an entry point into your social app to increase user engagement. We chose to only surface the most recent few stream items, as we believe that your social app will always be the best way to interact with posts on your network.

StreamItems rows are associated with a raw contact row. They contain the newest updates of that raw contact, along with text, time stamp and comments. They can also have pictures, which are stored in StreamItemPhotos. The number of stream items per raw contact has a limit, which on the current Nexus devices is set to 5, but expect this number to change with future devices. The limit can be queried like this:

private static int getStreamItemLimit(Context context) { // Note that this URI is safe to call on the UI thread. Cursor c = context.getContentResolver().query(StreamItems.CONTENT_LIMIT_URI, new String[]{ StreamItems.MAX_ITEMS }, null, null, null); try { c.moveToFirst(); return c.getInt(0); } finally { c.close(); } }

When displayed in the People app, stream items from all participating raw contacts will be intermixed and shown chronologically.
The following function shows how to add a stream item to an existing raw contact:

private static void addContactStreamItem(Context context, long rawContactId, String text, String comments, long timestamp, String accountName, String accountType){ ContentValues values = new ContentValues(); values.put(StreamItems.RAW_CONTACT_ID, rawContactId); values.put(StreamItems.TEXT, "Breakfasted at Tiffanys"); values.put(StreamItems.TIMESTAMP, timestamp); values.put(StreamItems.COMMENTS, comments); values.put(StreamItems.ACCOUNT_NAME, accountName); values.put(StreamItems.ACCOUNT_TYPE, accountType); context.getContentResolver().insert(StreamItems.CONTENT_URI, values); }

You can also specify an action that should be executed when a stream item or one of its photos is tapped. To achieve this, specify the receiving Activities in your contacts.xml using the tags viewStreamItemActivity and viewStreamItemPhotoActivity:

<ContactsAccountType xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" viewStreamItemActivity="com.example.activities.ViewStreamItemActivity” viewStreamItemPhotoActivity="com.example.activities.ViewStreamItemPhotoActivity"> <!-- Description of your data types --> </ContactsAccountType>

Update streams are available on API version 15+ and are intended to replace the StatusUpdate API. For previous versions, we recommend that you fall back to the StatusUpdates API, which only shows a single text item and no pictures.

“Me” profile

Ice Cream Sandwich is the first version of Android that supports the “Me” contact, which is prominently shown at the top of the list of the new People app. This simplifies use-cases that used to be a multi-tap process in previous versions — for example, sharing personal contact data with another person or “navigating home” in a navigation app. Also it allows applications to directly address the user by name and show their photo.
The “Me” profile is protected by the new permissions READ_PROFILE and WRITE_PROFILE. The new functionality is powerful; READ_PROFILE lets developers access users’ personally identifying information. Please make sure to inform the user on why you require this permission.
The entry point to the new API is ContactsContract.Profile and is available on API version 14+.

Add connection

Previously, connecting with users on a social network involved opening the respective social networking app, searching for the person and then connecting (“Friend”, “Follow” etc.). Ice Cream Sandwich has a much slicker approach: When looking at an existing contact in the People application, the user can decide to add this person to another network as well. For example, the user might want to follow a person on Google+ that they already have as a contact in Gmail.

Once the user taps one of the “Add connection” commands, the app is launched and can look for the person using the information that is already in the contact. Search criteria are up to the app, but good candidates are name, email address or phone number.
To specify your “Add connection” menu item, use the attributes inviteContactActivity and inviteContactActionLabel in your contacts.xml:

<ContactsAccountType xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" inviteContactActivity="com.example.activities.InviteContactActivity" inviteContactActionLabel="@string/invite_action_label"> <!-- Description of your data types --> </ContactsAccountType>

Be sure to use the same verb as you typically use for adding connections, so that in combination with your app icon the user understands which application is about to be launched.
The “Add connection” functionality is available on API version 14+.

Contact-view notification

High-resolution pictures need a lot of space, and social streams quickly become outdated. It is therefore not a good idea to keep the whole contacts database completely in sync with the social network. A well-written sync adapter should take importance of contacts into account; as an example, starred contacts are shown with big pictures, so high-resolution pictures are more important. Your network might also have its own metrics that can help to identify important contacts.
For all other contacts, you can register to receive a notification which is sent by the People app to all sync adapters that contribute to a contact whenever the contact’s detail page is opened. At that point, you can provide additional information. As an example, when the Google+ sync adapter receives this notification, it pulls in the high-resolution photo and most recent social stream posts for that user and writes them to the contacts provider. This can be achieved by adding the viewContactNotifyService attribute to contacts.xml:

<ContactsAccountType xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" viewContactNotifyService="com.example.notifier.NotifierService"> <!-- Description of your data types --> </ContactsAccountType>

When this Intent is launched, its data field will point to the URI of the raw contact that was opened.
These notifications are available with API version 14+.

Summary

With Ice Cream Sandwich, we improved key areas around high resolution photos and update streams, and simplified the creation of new connections.
Everything outlined in here is done using open APIs that can be implemented by any network that wants to participate. We’re excited to see how developers take advantage of these new features!

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Find: First: Apple’s rank in mobile phone profitability and revenues

2012-02-07T15:39:00.001-08:00

75% of industry profits, 40% of industry revenue.

First: Apple’s rank in mobile phone profitability and revenues

asymco

Apple retained its top rank in profitability and regained the top spot in mobile phone revenues.

The relative shares of revenues and profits are shown below:

Individually, Apple’s share of units, revenues and profits is chronicled below:

Apple reached 75% of profit share, nearly 40% of revenue share and 9% of units share.

Apple and Samsung combined for about 91% of profits with RIM third at 3.7%, HTC fourth at 3.0% and Nokia last at 1.8% of a $15 billion total for the quarter.

In terms of revenues, Apple had 39% to Samsung’s 25%. Third was Nokia with 12.6% and fourth RIM at 8%. HTC only managed 5.5%, Motorola 4%, LG 3.3% and Sony Ericsson 2.7%.

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Find: Android and Security

2012-02-05T13:16:00.001-08:00

Interesting, apps submitted to the android market is automatically inspected.

Android and Security

Google Mobile Blog

By Hiroshi Lockheimer, VP of Engineering, Android

The last year has been a phenomenal one for the Android ecosystem. Device activations grew 250% year-on-year, and the total number of app downloads from Android Market topped 11 billion. As the platform continues to grow, we’re focused on bringing you the best new features and innovations - including in security.

Adding a new layer to Android security
Today we’re revealing a service we’ve developed, codenamed Bouncer, which provides automated scanning of Android Market for potentially malicious software without disrupting the user experience of Android Market or requiring developers to go through an application approval process.

The service performs a set of analyses on new applications, applications already in Android Market, and developer accounts. Here’s how it works: once an application is uploaded, the service immediately starts analyzing it for known malware, spyware and trojans. It also looks for behaviors that indicate an application might be misbehaving, and compares it against previously analyzed apps to detect possible red flags. We actually run every application on Google’s cloud infrastructure and simulate how it will run on an Android device to look for hidden, malicious behavior. We also analyze new developer accounts to help prevent malicious and repeat-offending developers from coming back.

Android malware downloads are decreasing
The service has been looking for malicious apps in Market for a while now, and between the first and second halves of 2011, we saw a 40% decrease in the number of potentially-malicious downloads from Android Market. This drop occurred at the same time that companies who market and sell anti-malware and security software have been reporting that malicious applications are on the rise. While it’s not possible to prevent bad people from building malware, the most important measurement is whether those bad applications are being installed from Android Market - and we know the rate is declining significantly.

Android makes malware less potent
In addition to using new services to help prevent malware, we designed Android from the beginning to make mobile malware less disruptive. In the PC model, malware has more potential to misuse your information. We learned from this approach, designing Android for Internet-connected devices. Some of Android’s core security features are:

Sandboxing: The Android platform uses a technique called “sandboxing” to put virtual walls between applications and other software on the device. So, if you download a malicious application, it can't access data on other parts of your phone and its potential harm is drastically limited.
Permissions: Android provides a permission system to help you understand the capabilities of the apps you install, and manage your own preferences. That way, if you see a game unnecessarily requests permission to send SMS, for example, you don’t need to install it.
Malware removal: Android is designed to prevent malware from modifying the platform or hiding from you, so it can be easily removed if your device is affected. Android Market also has the capability of remotely removing malware from your phone or tablet, if required.

No security approach is foolproof, and added scrutiny can often lead to important improvements. Our systems are getting better at detecting and eliminating malware every day, and we continue to invite the community to work with us to keep Android safe.

Find: Device Usage on the Social Web

2012-02-04T17:06:00.001-08:00

Great information. Tells us something about how people use their devices, not just when.

Eg desktops are work machines, tablets are pleasure. Tabs and consoles have surprisingly similar usage patterns. Phones, tabs and consoles reach much more deeply into our personal lives than pcs.

Don't like having to divide by 7 in the chart though. Think, please!

Oh and, what's up with gamers on Thursday at 5?

Device Usage on the Social Web

bitly blog

We use our phones differently than our laptops, and our tablets differently than our gaming devices. We decided to take a deep look into the bitly data to figure out exactly how differently, and we found some surprises!

We analyzed the bitly data for the entire year of 2011 to understand how people use different hardware devices, and how this changes the way that people consume information. We looked at two types of data, the raw numbers and the use percentages (to make different platforms with wildly varying usage levels easy to compare). Web browsers were still the primary tool for accessing online content, followed by smart phones, tablets and gaming machines.

How are bitly links used across different platforms?

Desktop computers are most heavily used on weekdays before noon. Phone traffic peaks at roughly the same time. Tablets are most used at Tuesday at 5pm. Gaming devices (Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii, Playstation), Thursday at 5pm.

One of the most interesting patterns is the peak, small valley and then another peak that both phones and tablets exhibit. The second peak is roughly at the same level Monday through Thursday, but drops off on Friday and doesn’t appear on the weekends. This pattern is shifted over for tablets, with the second peak occurring later in the evening. This reflects the aggregate behavior patterns with these devices, showing us when the world is sleeping, eating, and taking a mid-afternoon coffee break.

Which platforms have similar usage patterns?

In the above plot, similar behavior is colored white; very different behavior is colored dark blue. From this plot we can see three surprising insights:

Windows and Linux users behave similarly on the social web! Geeks aren’t that different from the rest of the world. :)
Mac OS X is used more like a mobile device than either Windows or Linux on the desktop.
The Kindle is used in a very different manner to engage with the social web. We find that the majority of Kindle usage is much later in the evening than other devices.

From this data, we can say that device should definitely be a consideration when you create and share content on the social web. Think carefully about the physical context of how people will read your content! If you’re making a tablet application, make sure you test it with someone late at night lying in bed, and if you’re making an early-morning newsletter, you know exactly what time and device to target it at.

This post lovingly crafted by the bitly science team.

Jobs: New grad opportunities at Google

2012-02-04T16:20:00.001-08:00

New grad opportunities at Google

Google Student Blog

In September you read about Google’s technical internship opportunities for summer 2012. Today we’d like to talk a bit about the technical full-time opportunities available for students who are preparing to graduate (or have graduated) during the 2011-2012 academic year. All of these positions are listed on our student jobs site broken down by region, but today here we’re hoping to provide a more in-depth look at a few of the roles for which we’re recruiting in our North America offices:

Software Engineer

Develop massively scalable, distributed software systems and also collaborate on multitudes of smaller projects that have universal appeal - which requires research, awareness, interactivity, and asking questions.
There are 3 different roles within the Software Engineering job family:
- Software Engineer: product and systems development
- Software Engineer in Test: uses software design, analysis, and programming skills to create innovative automated test systems
- Site Reliability Engineer: creates robust and scalable software that scale to tens of millions of users.

Associate Product Manager

Works on guiding products from conception to design through launch, defining product vision and strategy, understanding and analyzing user needs, and researching the competitive market.
Read more about the APM role in our Young Innovators @ Google series

Internal Technology Residency Program

Works on providing direct support for Linux, Mac and Microsoft desktops/laptops and user access to corporate network and applications. ITRs also provides direct support for services such as office phones, video conferencing, and remote access. They’re also responsible for troubleshooting of Google’s corporate resources and applications and supporting Google’s office relocations and expansions.
Learn more from some of the IT residents themselves here.

User Experience Researcher

Conduct independent research on multiple aspects of how users experience online search.
Work with designers, product managers, engineers, and research managers to prioritize research opportunities in a fast-paced, rapidly changing environment.
Look out for future stories about this role on the Google Students blog

User Experience Designer

User interface design for new and existing Google products and features
Develops high level and detailed storyboards, mockups and prototypes
Must have design portfolio to apply
Look out for future stories about this role on the Google Students blog

Interested in non-technical opportunities? Check out www.google.com/students/biz

Posted by Davidson Young, University Programs Manager

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Find: Third

2012-02-02T22:18:00.001-08:00

Third

asymco

Apple reached the third place rank in total units shipped during last quarter. The following chart shows the ascent in rank.

Apple achieved this with a total market share of about 9%. Second place Samsung has 22.6% so there is significantly more room to go before Apple gets to be second. Nevertheless, the climb to third was achieved in less than five years. At the time when Apple entered the market third place was held by Motorola with shipments of 35.5 million units (Q2 2007). Motorola only managed 10.5 million in the last quarter.

To see growth I prepared the following chart showing the fourth quarter’s growth by vendor according to four years’ compounded, sequential and y/y growth.[1]

On a four year compounded basis, the pattern is that of Apple, HTC and RIM showing significant growth with Samsung showing moderate growth. The other vendors all had negative real volume growth. The list does not include “Others” which had 13% compounded growth.

Projecting Apple’s 60% rate of growth and a market growth of 10% leads to Apple obtaining 27% share by the end of 2014. My guess would be that is when we’ll be able to write a post about Apple being second.

—

Notes:

I don’t have HTC data for Q4 2007 so the compounded rate is measured for three years.
Additional volume data

Find: Apple Passes LG to Become World’s Third Largest Mobile Phone Manufacturer

2012-02-02T06:47:00.001-08:00

Apple Passes LG to Become World’s Third Largest Mobile Phone Manufacturer

Daring Fireball

Eric Silva, MacRumors:

Apple’s share of the market hit 8.7% in the fourth quarter and registered at 6.0% for the full year. Steve Jobs famously noted during the iPhone’s 2007 introduction that Apple was shooting to take 1% of the massive overall mobile phone market, and the company has clearly exceeded that goal and can now set its sights on a 10% quarterly share during the next spike in sales.

I’ve long held that Apple’s share of the overall phone market is a far more interesting metric than their share of “smartphones”. All phones will soon be smartphones.

★

Find: "Mobile Device Privacy Act" would prevent secret smartphone monitoring

2012-02-02T05:43:00.001-08:00

Government protecting its citizens' phones from everyone except ... the government.

"Mobile Device Privacy Act" would prevent secret smartphone monitoring

Ars Technica

Recent controversy sparked by the installation of monitoring software on millions of smartphones has led US Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA) to propose a requirement that carriers and phone makers inform consumers about the presence of monitoring software and gain their "express consent" before collecting and transmitting information from phones.

The controversy started a couple months back when a developer publicized the widespread use of Carrier IQ software, which phone manufacturers and carriers use to monitor what happens on a smartphone. While Apple, Samsung, HTC, AT&T and others all said the software is used only as a diagnostics tool to improve network and service performance, congressmen started denouncing the use of Carrier IQ, and class-action lawsuits were filed.

Markey, co-chairman of the bipartisan Congressional Privacy Caucus, says such software should only be used on a consumer's phone with the phone user's explicit consent. Yesterday, he released draft legislation that would require disclosure of monitoring software when a consumer buys a mobile phone. The legislation also would prevent manufacturers from collecting and transmitting information unless consumer consent is obtained, and outlines security policies companies must follow when they receive personal information from smartphones.

“Consumers have the right to know and to say no to the presence of software on their mobile devices that can collect and transmit their personal and sensitive information,” Markey said in a statement. “While consumers rely on their phones, their phones relay all sorts of information about them, often without their knowledge or consent." Markey's legislation is just in a "discussion draft" right now, so it's early in the legislative process. It would also take a while to be enforced. The draft directs the Federal Trade Commission to promulgate regulations described in the legislation "not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act."

Find: Android Developers on Google+

2012-01-30T22:07:00.001-08:00

Android help, including regular office hours in google hangouts.

Android Developers on Google+

Android Developers Blog

[This post is by Reto Meier, Android Developer Relations Tech Lead. — Tim Bray]

I’ve been fortunate enough to be involved with Android since the 0.9 preview SDK was released to developers back in 2007. A lot has changed since then, but one thing that hasn’t is the rapid pace at which new tools, resources, and information have become available for us Android developers. Just look at the last few months.

In December Android Training launched, with its first set of classes designed to demonstrate the best practices behind building great Android Apps.

Earlier this month, the Android design site went live — offering a place to learn about the principles, building blocks, and patterns you need to make good design decisions when creating your Android app interfaces.

We’ve got a lot more planned in the coming year, so to help you keep abreast of all the latest Android developer news we’re launching the +Android Developers page on Google+!

One of my favourite things about Google+ is the quality of conversation around posts, so +Android Developers will focus on being a place for the people behind the Android developer experience, and Android developers all around the world, to meet and discuss the latest in Android app development.

We’ll be posting development tips, discussing updates to the SDK and developer tools, highlighting new Android training classes, and posting video and pics from Android developer events around the world.

We’ll also be using Google+ Hangouts to help us all interact even more closely. Starting with weekly broadcast office-hours on Hangouts On Air to answer Android development questions. These will happen every Wednesday at 2pm Pacific Time (10pm UTS) in Mountain View—expect to see these hangouts in more time zones as our teams in London, Sydney, and Tokyo get involved. Each hangout will be recorded for YouTube, so if you can’t join us live you won’t miss out.

It turns out that hangouts are a lot of fun, so we’ll be doing more of these that feature interviews with Google engineers and 3rd party Android app developers willing to share their tips and experiences.

We’re looking forward to interacting with you even more closely, so add us to your circles, join the conversation by commenting on posts, and join the hangouts. We can't wait to hear what you have to say.

Find: BAOC Countdown and WPAppItUp Wrap-Up

2012-01-30T17:46:00.001-08:00

Too late now really, but maybe next year?

BAOC Countdown and WPAppItUp Wrap-Up

Windows Phone Developer Blog

Big App on Campus: Two Weeks Left!

Back in November, we announced a developer promotion for US students called “Big App on Campus.” There are exactly 18 days left to enter. Though we think it’s a no brainer, some of you have asked “Why should I enter?” Let’s recap:

1. For the experience of a lifetime -> 10 finalists, along with one of their friends, will win a trip to SxSW in March. If selected as a finalist, you and your friend will get to come hang out with The Gracious Few (featuring members of the bands LIVE and Candlebox) and attend a rocking concert.

2. $30k in prize money -> the top paid app and the top free app will each win $15,000!

3. Serious bragging rights -> finalist apps will be featured on our Facebook page and the developers behind these creations will have some crazy stories to tell about their time in Austin at SxSW.

<aside reason=”toAppeaseTheLawyers”>No Purchase Necessary. Open only to US university students 18+ who are legal residents of the U.S. and D.C. Submissions due 02/14/2012 and game ends 03/13/2012. For Official Rules, click here</aside>

All Windows Phone applications published since August 1, 2011 are eligible for entry. However all apps must be published to the Marketplace by February 14^th. Make your Valentine proud and enter your app today – I’m sure she/he won’t mind helping you spend the $15k in winnings up for grabs. Check out our Facebook page for all details and information on how to get started on building your first, or next, Windows Phone app.

#WPAppItUp Wrap-Up

Starting back in October, we challenged students to create Sketchflow prototypes of their app ideas for Windows Phone. I’m happy to announce the full list of winners:

Congratulations to all the winners!

Ben

@benlower | phoneninja@microsoft.com | +1 (206) 659-NINJA (6465)

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Find: Windows Phone 'Tango' could support over three times as many languages, native code coming?

2012-01-29T19:51:00.001-08:00

Next windows phone version will leverage nokias global reach. Smart.

Also, native gaming support.

Windows Phone 'Tango' could support over three times as many languages, native code coming?

The Verge - All Posts

It's widely understood that the next major release of Windows Phone — codenamed Tango — will significantly expand the platform's support for internationalization, in part by driving the hardware requirements downmarket. Another key aspect of that will be expanding language support. That already happened to a degree in 7.5 Mango, but it currently stands at just 35 languages — good enough to match iOS, but not good enough for a company like Nokia that has market presence in virtually every country in the world. New rumors out of a developer event in India pegs Tango at some 120 languages, well over three times as many as Mango's total count and likely enough to blanket the majority of the globe in (likely lower end) Windows Phone...

Find: Rethinking iPhone UI and getting things done with Clear to-do app

2012-01-29T18:44:00.001-08:00

More on the todo app our student Michael told us about, with the cool ui. Turns out the designer involved works at iconfactory in Greensboro.

Rethinking iPhone UI and getting things done with Clear to-do app

Ars Technica

If managing your to-do lists is taking up more time and effort than you spend actually getting things done, a new iPhone app coming from developer Phill Ryu, designer David Lanham, and publisher Realmac Software might be the perfect solution. Tossing most iPhone UI conventions out the window along with any religious adherence to GTD principles, the upcoming Clear app is designed to eliminate the friction and complexity of adhering to systems like GTD and be as easy to use as a paper list. We were able to meet up with the team at the 2012 Macworld|iWorld to check out the offerings.

Clear has no standard navigation bar at the top or tab bar at the bottom—common iPhone UI elements. Instead, the app is stripped down to the bare minimum, with a rectangular strip for each list item. Pull the list down from the top to add another item. Swipe right to mark the item completed. Swipe left to delete the item from your list. Pinch to access a list of lists—you could keep a shopping list, a list of errands, and a list of projects, for example.

Find: In India, Google Leads the Smartphone App Race

2012-01-29T12:30:00.001-08:00

Google doing well in mobile india, except with social.

In India, Google Leads the Smartphone App Race

Nielsen Wire

A major contributor to the fast-changing nature of smartphones in India is the explosion of Google’s Android onto the scene. The tremendous growth of Android since entering India last year has it taking the leadership position in terms of shipments last quarter. A Nielsen Informate panel found smartphone users in India spending more than 40 percent of total active time on their smartphones on data-centric activities. A full 25 percent of users’ time with apps is spent on those developed by Google, with the Android Market, YouTube and Gmail leading the way.

Google has the #1 app in terms of reach for 5 out of top 7 genres, while Facebook dominates social networking

Google properties occupy the top spot in five of the top seven genres, by reach. Facebook and Nimbuzz lead the social networking and chat genres respectively.

Google does well in time spent with the top app categories
Google apps dominate in terms of time spent for streaming video, GPS, email, and search. 94% of time spent on streaming video goes to YouTube, while 86% of time spent on GPS is with Google. However, when it comes to social networking and chat applications, Google struggles to obtain more than a few percentage points of time spent.

Google apps dominate across age groups
Google Apps have a fairly uniform usage across age groups indicating the success Google has had in establishing itself with all mobile users.

About Nielsen Informate Mobile Insights
Nielsen Informate Mobile Insights leverages innovative smartphone metering technology to provide insights into evolving consumption patterns of mobile device users. Based on accurate, real-time usage data, we help clients understand consumer behavior and develop product and marketing strategies. Nielsen Informate Mobile Insights maintains opt-in smartphone panels to generate syndicated reports, in addition to building custom panels and conducting custom surveys for clients. Our insights aid decision makers across various segments like operators, OEMs, publishers, advertisers, content creators and aggregators and application developers.

Find: Really Neat New Way for a Task Manager

2012-01-29T00:23:00.001-08:00

Hey folks,

Nice find from student Michael Lee -- very natural use of gesture in this todo app.

***

Saw this pop up on twitter today. It's a task manager that is being released in February that's purely gesture based on iOS

http://www.realmacsoftware.com/clear/

Michael

Ten Unusual Shapes For Mobile Phones » Yanko Design

2012-01-29T00:08:00.001-08:00

via yankodesign.com

From student Dan Perjar.

Go Viral to Improve Health - Institute of Medicine

2012-01-28T22:20:00.001-08:00

via iom.edu

A contest to develop a health related mobile app, registration deadline February 10, app submission deadline March 28.

You need to involve a student in health, and use a certain data source.

Winner gets several thousand dollars.

Find: Marko Ahtisaari joins Nokia's Leadership Team

2012-01-28T19:14:00.001-08:00

Seems a good move.

Marko Ahtisaari joins Nokia's Leadership Team

The Verge - All Posts

Nokia's chief designer Marko Ahtisaari has been promoted today, stepping up from his former position as Senior VP of Design, to a place on Nokia's Leadership Team and the new title of Executive Vice President, Design. Ahtisaari is behind the look and feel of the Lumia range, including the print-color inspired polycarbonate bodies of the Lumia 800 and 900, and the swipe interface of MeeGo that's one of the stand-out features of the N9. Despite the new title, he will continue to lead the design team in the creation of new products.

We had a chance to speak with Ahtisaari at Nokia World in October last year, and it's clear that his vision for Nokia is shared by the company as a whole. CEO Stephen Elop said of the promotion, "By appointing...

Find: Eee Pad Transformer Prime with ICS: a preview of Android 4.0 on a tablet

2012-01-28T19:05:00.001-08:00

iPads top competition. Needs lots more apps.

Eee Pad Transformer Prime with ICS: a preview of Android 4.0 on a tablet

The Verge - All Posts

When Asus' Transformer Prime hit the market in early December, it was undoubtedly the best tablet hardware on the market. I said as much in my original review: it had a brand new quad-core Tegra 3 processor, the new 8-megapixel camera took impressive stills and video, and the keyboard dock, like the original Transformer's, continued to add an entirely different dimension to the tablet experience. However, it was the software — Android 3.2 aka Honeycomb — which held the tablet back. Not only was the browser performance slower than it should have been, but Honeycomb itself lacked the fit and finish to match Asus' great hardware. Google's Ice Cream Sandwich update is supposed to solve all that, and just last week Asus rolled out the...

Find: Google reminds Android developers that the Menu button is going away

2012-01-28T17:02:00.001-08:00

No hard menu button anymore in ics.

Google reminds Android developers that the Menu button is going away

The Verge - All Posts

In a new post on its Android Developers Blog today, Google is giving devs tips on how to better prepare their apps for a brave, Menu button-less future. Honeycomb started the revolution by introducing the so-called "action bar" at the tops of applications and by killing physical buttons in favor of soft, reconfigurable ones, but that was strictly a tablet affair — the impetus to get developers on board with the Menu button's demise is greater now that Ice Cream Sandwich is out and in the process of bringing those same UX paradigm shifts to phones.

As it stands, Android 4.0 bridges the gap with older apps by posting an "action overflow button" — three vertical dots — to the right side of the soft button bar at the bottom of the...

Find: Apple's Tim Cook expresses 'outrage' over NYT report on worker safety

2012-01-28T15:26:00.001-08:00

Apple is listening to nyt's criticism of its supply chain. it should.

Apple's Tim Cook expresses 'outrage' over NYT report on worker safety

The Verge - All Posts

Yesterday, The New York Times published a comprehensive report including quotes from former and current Apple executives, alleging that Apple pushes its Chinese suppliers to cut corners at the expense of worker safety. Apple has a strong formal stance on supplier responsibility, and the NYT report doesn't dispute that, but suggested that despite Apple's regular audits, the company doesn't protect the labor force when it would interfere with profit.

Now, an internal email from Apple CEO Tim Cook has leaked to 9to5 Mac, partially disputing the NYT report.

As a company and as individuals, we are defined by our values. Unfortunately some people are questioning Apple’s values today, and I’d like to address this with you directly. We...

Find: RIM CEO: BlackBerry is a differentiated product, Android OEMs 'are all the same'

2012-01-28T13:30:00.001-08:00

Rim doesn't plan to join another ecosystem.

RIM CEO: BlackBerry is a differentiated product, Android OEMs 'are all the same'

The Verge - All Posts

In an interview with CrackBerry, RIM's new CEO Thorsten Heins has clarified his recent comments about the company's strategy for the near future. One of the major quotes from Thorsten's first comments after becoming CEO was that RIM doesn't need drastic change, which many have interpreted to mean he'll keep the same course as already set by his predecessors, Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis. That was our reading of the matter, too, but Thorsten explains that what he meant was that he doesn't believe RIM needs to split up into smaller parts or be purchased by another company to be successful. Such "seismic" change isn't on the cards, as far as he's concerned, but there's "a lot of structural change" already ongoing, including the move to...

Find: Siri isn't ruining your cellphone service

2012-01-28T12:24:00.001-08:00

So it's not siri clogging the pipes, it's pixels & pop.

Siri isn't ruining your cellphone service

The Verge - All Posts

The Washington Post's Peter Farhi posted an opinion piece this week entitled "How Siri is ruining your cellphone service," in which he says that Apple's voice-powered assistant — a staple of the iPhone 4S, and presumably every iDevice going forward — is a "bandwidth guzzler" that's "flooding" our mobile networks with unprecedented data utilization, a trend that will ultimately saturate available spectrum. We should "prepare for higher cellphone bills," he says, or — perhaps looking to rile the defenders of net neutrality — "we could put some traffic cops on the beat to regulate our data demands and limit the traffic snarls and bottlenecks."

GigaOM's Stacey Higginbotham does an excellent job of debunking the piece, noting that...

Find: AT&T: iPhone made up 80% of smartphones, 66% of all phones sold last quarter

2012-01-27T23:21:00.001-08:00

AT&T us sold 20% of all iPhones on planet last qtr. global feature phone sales began declining six mos ago.

AT&T: iPhone made up 80% of smartphones, 66% of all phones sold last quarter

Ars Technica

AT&T sold 9.4 million smartphones in the fourth quarter of 2011, but 7.6 million of which were iPhones, the company reported today. According to those numbers, the iPhone made up a whopping 80 percent of AT&T's smartphone sales for the quarter, and 66 percent of all postpaid phones sold through AT&T.

These numbers place AT&T as the biggest iPhone retailer, besting Verizon's 4.2 million iPhone activations and constituting over 20 percent of Apple's 37 million sales worldwide last quarter.

The proportion of smartphone sales is surprising, given that worldwide sales of feature phones began to decline only six months ago after growing for two consecutive years. The big quarter for iPhones on AT&T can largely be attributed to the launch of the iPhone 4S, which also helped iOS even up the score with Android in its percentage of sales to recent smartphone acquirers.

Find: Palms Down: Mobile Hardware Guru Jon Rubinstein Leaves HP

2012-01-27T19:25:00.001-08:00

Oh webos, we hardly knew ye.

Palms Down: Mobile Hardware Guru Jon Rubinstein Leaves HP

Wired Epicenter

Rubinstein at the WebOS launch event in 2011. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

HP’s mobile era is over.

Jon Rubinstein, the HP executive to lead the charge against Apple’s iPad devices, has left the company as of Friday morning.

A company spokesman confirmed to Wired in an interview that the mobile hardware guru, once a star at Palm when that company was still a contender, was no longer with Hewlett-Packard.

To put things into even clearer perspective: The final nail in Palm’s coffin comes two years to the day after Steve Jobs announced the iPad.

The end of Rubinstein’s tenure at the company marks the true end of the mobile hardware era at HP. After HP acquired Palm for its proprietary smartphone hardware and mobile software WebOS in 2010 for a cool $1.2 billion, Rubinstein and his all-star team of engineers made it clear that mobile would be the company’s top priority. Even through CEO shake-ups and internal strife, HP fully backed its dive into mobile, pouring resources and manpower into the massive undertaking.

Rubinstein first made waves as a former Apple executive, the engineering brains behind two of the company’s most successful comeback devices: The candy-colored array of iMac desktops and the highly successful iPod.

But some have said he vied for recognition and appreciation under his boss, Steve Jobs, competing with design superstar and VP Jonathan Ive for Jobs’ full attention. As Walter Isaacson wrote in his biography of Jobs in 2011:

It was Rubinstein’s job to get the hardware built in a practical way, so he often balked. He was by nature cautious. “In the end, Ruby’s from HP,” said Jobs. “And he never delved deep, he wasn’t aggressive.”

So Rubinstein’s move to Palm, in effect, was seen as a way to break out from under the shadow of Jobs and Ive, to create a successful product outside of Apple’s domineering grip on the smart device industry. Rubinstein spearheaded a push into creating an entirely new operating system for Palm devices with WebOS, and the introduction of Palm’s first smartphone to run the new OS, the Palm Pre.

But Palm’s WebOS products underwent a series of stumbles upon its launch, as customers complained of hardware failures, software sluggishness and serious carrier problems with Sprint. Sales of the Pre and its brethren (the Pixi, among others) were lackluster and seen widely as a failure, unable to compete with RIM’s then dominant BlackBerry devices and Apple’s iPhone.

Palm’s acquisition by HP was seen as a new beginning for Rubinstein and the company, a chance at relaunching the mobile hardware line with the full backing of a Silicon Valley giant. HP Would own the software and the hardware for its new line of smart devices, a strategy that worked successfully for both RIM and Apple in their respective mobile device initiatives.

HP’s comeback device flopped famously, as the company under then CEO Leo Apotheker killed the hardware after a mere six weeks on the market. Reported sales were meager, and rumors of unsatisfied third-party retailers circulated as the TouchPad slunk to the graveyard of abandoned mobile devices.

Continuing its abandonment of the mobile platform, HP announced it would open source its WebOS platform late last year, effectively diverting developer resources and commitment to the project and ending rumors of potentially licensing the software out for other companies to use. It was, in effect, a death sentence.

As for Ruby’s future, the former exec hasn’t made it clear what he’ll work on next. In an interview with The Verge, Rubinstein said he was “going to take some well-deserved time off after four and a half years developing webOS,” signaling no immediate plans to move to another company.

The news was first reported by technology blog AllthingsD.

Find: Steam launches Android and iOS app for free, in beta

2012-01-27T12:54:00.001-08:00

Probably no mobile iOS gma on steam though.

Steam launches Android and iOS app for free, in beta

Joystick

Valve today announced and launched Steam applications for both iOS and Android platforms. The app, dubbed "Steam Mobile," allows users to chat, read a limited selection of syndicated gaming news (might we also suggest another mobile app for that?), browse groups and profiles, and purchase games while on the go. Like many Valve products before it, the App is launching in limited beta, with only invitees currently able to log in. Snagging the App and attempting to sign in lets Valve know that you're interested, and select folks will then receive an invite should they be chosen.

Company president and co-founder Gabe Newell said the app comes at the request of many fans over the years -- it marks Valve's first foray into the mobile space. "Mobile is changing the way people interact, play games and consume media, and the Steam app is part of our commitment to meet customer demands and expand the service functionality of Steam to make it richer and more accessible for everyone," Newell said.

No news is given regarding the potential for iOS or Android game selling through the Steam mobile portal, but it seems unlikely -- at least on Apple devices -- given various terms of service restrictions regarding competition with the official application stores. Both the Android and iOS versions are available as of right now.

Find: Nintendo: 3DS sales prove there's still room for dedicated gaming handhelds

2012-01-27T12:48:00.001-08:00

3ds recovery

Nintendo: 3DS sales prove there's still room for dedicated gaming handhelds

Joystiq

Nintendo President Satoru Iwata believes the company has proven that there's still a market for dedicated gaming handheld hardware like the 3DS. In a briefing -- which covered a lot of ground -- Iwata revealed the pictured chart above, comparing internal Nintendo weekly sales data of the Wii, DS and 3DS. The executive said that the initial sales pace of the 3DS was "unsatisfactory," but the device gained momentum after the price cut and the launch of popular titles like Super Mario 3D Land, Mario Kart 7 (and Monster Hunter 3 (Tri) G in Japan).

"Last summer, when the sales pace of the Nintendo 3DS was slow, there were extreme remarks saying, 'With the penetration of smartphones, will there still be a market for handheld hardware?,' which was almost equal to 'Handheld hardware is not necessary anymore,'" Iwata remarked. "I believe we proved that such opinions are incorrect."

In the end, however, Nintendo did not reach its internal sales goal for the device, despite the 3DS gaining momentum and ending the year with a respectable 15 million unit sales. Iwata says the company could not cover the lack of units sold pre-price drop, which is one of the reasons for its negatively revised financial forecasts.

Find: Lytro's light field camera technology could supercharge future iPhones

2012-01-24T22:20:00.001-08:00

Lytro is a new camera that can refocus AFTER images are made. By itself it's already awesome, with iPhone it could be amazing.

Lytro's light field camera technology could supercharge future iPhones

Ars Technica

According to Walter Issacson's authorized biography about former Apple CEO Steve Jobs, one of the things Jobs wanted to "revolutionize" was photography. Jobs believed the iPhone was a vehicle for doing so, but current imaging technologies limit the photographic abilities of smartphones. As detailed in a new book by Fortune's Adam Lashinsky, Inside Apple, Jobs may have found the solution he was looking for in a radical imaging technology from Lytro. To that end, Jobs apparently met with Lytro CEO Ren Ng in June 2011 to discuss how Apple might integrate Lytro's light field technology into its products.

One aspect of the iPhone that has received constant improvements over the years is its included camera. The original iPhone had a fixed focus lens and a 2MP sensor, while the iPhone 3G was upgraded with autofocus capabilities and 3MP. The iPhone 4 moved up to 5MP and added an LED flash and 720p video. The iPhone 4S went even further, moving up to 8MP, improving low-light capture, and moving to full 1080p HD.

Guest: Adriana A de Sousa e Silva

2012-01-24T13:14:00.000-08:00

Next Wednesday February 1, we'll be visited by my colleague Adriana A de Sousa e Silva and her students for a joint brainstorming session. Adriana teaches over in the Department of Communication, and the students with her will be from her Mobile Technologies and Cultures/Social Practices classes.

Later in the semester, we'll also visit her class, and exchange lectures.

Opp: Android Camp applications available for students in the US and Canada

2012-01-23T21:23:00.001-08:00

Android Camp applications available for students in the US and Canada

Google Student Blog

At Google, we are committed to helping the innovators of the future make the most of their gifts. We also believe open source development is a very useful and accessible way for passionate students to get involved with Computer Science in a practical and rewarding manner.

2011 Android Campers

With this in mind, Google is excited to launch the Android Camp 2012 program! Up to 30 current freshmen students will be selected to attend the all-expense-paid Android Camp at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, California, from July 22 - July 28, 2012. The Android Camp will include interactive and collaborative curriculum focusing on a practical introduction to developing applications for Android and will explore the concepts behind Android, the framework for constructing an application, and the tools for developing, testing, and publishing software for the platform. Students will also get the opportunity to enjoy technical talks by Googlers, and social activities around the Bay Area.

Where can I apply? Visit google.com/students/androidcamp to learn more about the program and apply before the March 11, 2011 deadline.

When is Android Camp? Android Camp will begin on Sunday, July 22nd and will run until Saturday, July 28th.

I want to know more! To learn more about Android Camp and to submit your application, please visit our website at google.com/students/androidcamp. You can also read about last year's Android Camp here.

Posted by Andrew Neginskiy, University Programs Specialist

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Find: Unlimited data is dead, so let's fight a smarter fight

2012-01-23T20:05:00.001-08:00

Editorial on carrier policy. Good ideas.

Unlimited data is dead, so let's fight a smarter fight

The Verge - All Posts

For the smartphone-heavy United States, the notion of unlimited wireless data is dead, kaput, finis. It's not coming back. Many other parts of the world are in the same boat, and those that aren't will eventually get there. Usable spectrum is a precious, limited resource that can't be extended, and spectral efficiencies introduced by newer technologies like LTE and LTE-Advanced will only take us so far. Some carriers — notably AT&T — have been aggressively deploying additional capacity in urban areas to the point of maxing out. This is where capitalism comes into play: one by one, all-you-can-eat data plans have been replaced by data buckets of varying sizes. Outrageous per-kilobyte overage charges (from legacy limited plans), a...

Find: Pew: 19 percent of American adults now own a tablet, twice as many as in December

2012-01-23T18:03:00.001-08:00

One of five us adults have tablets. Wow. That basically means one of five have iPads.

Pew: 19 percent of American adults now own a tablet, twice as many as in December

The Verge - All Posts

Just in case you needed data to back up your assertion that tablets are exploding in popularity, the Pew Research Center has revealed its latest polling figures, suggesting that 19 percent of grown-up Americans now own a slate of some sort. More notably, there was apparently a lull in tablet ownership growth over the latter half of 2011, which now appears to have been a case of buyers waiting for the holidays before putting up the cash. A mid-December telephone poll showed 10 percent of US adults owned a tablet, with the subsequent spurt in ownership numbers ostensibly being down to a great deal of tablet gift giving.

Pew also reports an identical trend for ebook readers. Those were at 10 percent before all the presents were unpacked and...

Find: RIM's new CEO: who is Thorsten Heins?

2012-01-23T17:26:00.001-08:00

He doesn't inspire much confidence.

RIM's new CEO: who is Thorsten Heins?

The Verge - All Posts

As RIM announced last night, the company is hoping to stem its precipitous decline with a change of leadership, appointing former Chief Operating Officer Thorsten Gerhard Heins to the position of CEO. Heins, who joined RIM the same year Apple released the first major BlackBerry competitor, has said he is "excited" to take charge of the company. But what has Heins done so far, and how might his background shape RIM's future?

The RIM executives have never been particularly public figures, and Heins is no exception. Besides a minimal profile on LinkedIn and the RIM site, he has little online presence — no public-facing Facebook page or Twitter feed. Heins himself is a fairly new addition to RIM, and in fact spent most of his career at...

Find: AT&T and T-Mobile apply to FCC for approval of $1 billion spectrum transfer

2012-01-23T16:46:00.001-08:00

Postscript accomplished. But still, where to tmobile?

AT&T and T-Mobile apply to FCC for approval of $1 billion spectrum transfer

The Verge - All Posts

According to The Wall Street Journal, AT&T and T-Mobile have entered an application to the FCC to approve the transfer of $1 billion worth of AWS spectrum to the number-four US wireless carrier. The transfer should tie up the remaining loose ends following AT&T's bid to purchase T-Mobile, which was called off in mid-December. In addition to the spectrum, AT&T agreed to give up $3 billion in cash and a seven-year 3G roaming agreement as part of the break-up fee. While we're sure T-Mobile is happy with the extra $4 billion, the company has said that "there's no Plan B. We're back at the starting point."

Competition: Data Journalism Awards now accepting submissions

2012-01-22T22:20:00.001-08:00

A competition in news oriented visualization and apps.

Data Journalism Awards now accepting submissions

Google

Last November, we announced our support for a new Data Journalism competition, organized by the Global Editors Network. The competition is now open to submissions and today we hosted an event at our offices in London to share details on how to compete and win a total of six prizes worth EUR 45,000. The European Journalism Centre is running the contest and Google is sponsoring.

Journalism is going through an exciting—if sometimes wrenching—transition from off to online. Google is keen to help. We see exciting possibilities of leveraging data to produce award-winning journalism. “Data journalism is a new, exciting part of the media industry, with at present only a small number of practitioners,” said Peter Barron, Google’s Director of External Relations. “We hope to see the number grow.”

In data journalism, reporters leverage numerical data and databases to gather, organize and produce news. Bertrand Pecquerie, the Global Editor Network’s CEO, believes the use of data will, in particular, revolutionize investigative reporting. “We are convinced that there is a bright future for journalism,” he said at the London event. “This is not just about developing new hardware like tablets. It is above all about producing exciting new content.”

The European Journalism Centre, a non-profit based in Maastricht, has been running data training workshops for several years. It is producing the Data Journalism Awards website and administering the prize. “This new initiative should help convince editors around the world that data journalism is not a crazy idea, but a viable part of the industry,” says Wilfried Ruetten, Director of the center.

Projects should be submitted to http://www.datajournalismawards.org. The deadline is April 10, 2012. Entries should have been published or aired between April 11, 2011 and April 10, 2012. Media companies, non-profit organisations, freelancers and individuals are eligible.

Submissions are welcomed in three categories: data-driven investigative journalism, data-driven applications and data visualisation and storytelling. National and international projects will be judged separately from local and regional ones. “We wanted to encourage not only the New York Times’s of the world to participate, but media outlets of all sizes,” says Pecquerie. “Journalism students are also invited to enter, provided their work has been published.”

An all-star jury has been assembled of journalists from prestigious international media companies including the New York Times, the Guardian and Les Echos. Paul Steiger, the former editor-in-chief of the Wall Street Journal and founder of the Pulitzer Prize-winning ProPublica, will serve as president.

Winners will be announced at the Global News Network’s World Summit in Paris on May 31, 2011.

Posted by William Echikson, External Relations

Find: Sony adds Glonass positioning to numerous Xperia phones, cites accuracy benefits

2012-01-22T19:33:00.001-08:00

Glonass is Russia's gps system. Using both improves accuracy.

Sony adds Glonass positioning to numerous Xperia phones, cites accuracy benefits

The Verge - All Posts

Sony is the latest smartphone manufacturer to sing the praises of Russia's Glonass positioning system, announcing that the technology will see implementation in its upcoming Xperia S and Xperia Ion Android handsets. It turns out this isn't exactly new territory for the company, as a post on its Developer World blog reveals that Glonass is already built-in to select existing devices — specifically those powered by Qualcomm's S2 / S3 chipsets. This brings Sony on par with competitors including Motorola and Apple, which have also integrated Glonass-ready hardware into products like the Droid RAZR and iPhone 4S.

As for the reasons behind embracing Glonass, Sony Ericsson Positioning Specialist Magnus Persson says it's all about improving...

Find: RIM: Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis to step down, COO Thorsten Heins to become CEO

2012-01-22T19:17:00.001-08:00

Finally, rim shows the world that it knows change is needed.

RIM: Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis to step down, COO Thorsten Heins to become CEO

The Verge - All Posts

It looks like the shake up everybody has been expecting at RIM has finally come to pass. Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis will each step down from their co-CEO positions amid growing turmoil in the company and fears it won't be able to rebound itself in time. They will be replaced by one of RIM's two COOs, Thorsten Heins, according to the Wall Street Journal. Additionally, another board member, Barbara Stymiest, will replace them as chairwoman of RIM's board. Lazaridis will become the vice chairman on the board and Balsillie will also remain on the board, but "without any "operational role," according to Bloomberg. Both will retain significant shares in the company.

Jim Balsillie denied that the move was in response to the intense...

Find: MIT brings Google App Inventor back from the dead as open-source project

2012-01-22T17:11:00.001-08:00

Nice. Not for serious devs, but a nice way to get your feet wet.

MIT brings Google App Inventor back from the dead as open-source project

The Verge - All Posts

Google App Inventor, the simplified Android app creation tool that went dark last year, is getting a new lease on life as an open-source project at MIT. The App Inventor source code was released by Google and MIT yesterday as part of a three-month project to create a full-fledged App Inventor server for public use. Eventually, MIT will be adding documentation and accepting contributions to the code, but for now a basic repository is available here. Users who download the tool are free to modify and redistribute it, as with any open-source software.

MIT's project is part of the Center for Mobile Learning, which announced several months ago that it would be taking over App Inventor when Google shut down the service on December 31, 2011. As...

Find: App Store Economics

2012-01-22T15:04:00.001-08:00

On the dangers of in app purchases and ads. What if the product is not the app?

App Store Economics

Daring Fireball

David Barnard:

Ultimately, the users become the product, not the app. Selling users to advertisers and pushing in-app upgrades/consumables is a completely different game than carefully crafting apps to maximize user value/entertainment. It’d be a shame if the mobile software industry devolved into some horrific hybrid of Zynga and Facebook.

★

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Find: Heating Up

2012-01-22T07:05:00.001-08:00

... Apparently means market share has now reached 94 to 6. iPad dominance continues.

Heating Up

Daring Fireball

Todd Haselton, BGR:

While the iPad’s lead in the tablet market is obvious, it’s becoming more clear there’s strong competition for market share below it. The Amazon Kindle Fire represented an average of 2.4 ad impressions on Chitikas network for every 100 iPad impressions, but RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook wasn’t far behind; it viewed an average of 1.8 ad impressions for every 100 iPad impressions on Chitika’s mobile ad network. That’s followed closely by the Samsung Galaxy with 1.6 ad impressions and the Motorola XOOM with 1.55 add impressions.

Impressions per hundred iPad impressions? What a great metric for the “non-iPad tablet” category.

DF reader Andrew Wood re-did BGR’s graph to include the iPad. Hot competition indeed.

Update: Here’s another graph that includes the iPad, by Greg Scown.

★

Find: More US Consumers Choosing Smartphones as Apple Closes the Gap on Android

2012-01-21T21:36:00.001-08:00

Android has half of us market. Last qtr, with ios, they make up 80%.

More US Consumers Choosing Smartphones as Apple Closes the Gap on Android

Nielsen Wire

According to the latest research from Nielsen, the high-profile launch of Apple’s iPhone 4S in the Fall had an enormous impact on the proportion of smartphone owners who chose an Apple iPhone. Among recent acquirers, meaning those who said they got a new device within the past three months, 44.5 percent of those surveyed in December said they chose an iPhone, compared to just 25.1 percent in October. Furthermore, 57 percent of new iPhone owners surveyed in December said they got an iPhone 4S.

Android continues to hold the lead among all smartphone users, with 46.3 percent of all smartphone owners surveyed in Q42011 reporting they have an Android-based mobile phone.

As of Q42011, 46 percent of US mobile consumers had smartphones, and that figure is growing quickly. In fact, 60 percent of those who said they got a new device within the last three months chose a smartphone over a feature phone.

Find: ★ On the Proprietary Nature of the iBooks Author File Format

2012-01-21T07:57:00.001-08:00

iBooks has proprietary extensions to epub3. Good discussion here of pros cons.

★ On the Proprietary Nature of the iBooks Author File Format

Daring Fireball

Daniel Glazman, co-chairman of the W3C CSS Working Group, has a detailed technical analysis of the iBooks Author file format:

The iba format clearly extends CSS (and therefore EPUB3) to offer the following features:

Template-based layout including special areas (gutter)

Extended underlining

Ability to control the size of each column and column gap in a multi-column layout

Something equivalent to Adobe’s Regions and Exclusions.

#more

He thinks these nonstandard extensions are a strategic mistake on Apple’s part:

When a piece of software is so well designed from a UI point of view and could become such an attractor in terms of usage, I feel this is a totally wrong strategy. Opening up everything and using only carefully chosen standards and matching the version of WebKit used by Safari would have given an immense and almost unbeatable competitive advantage to Apple, would have attracted even more people to the Mac platform and would have turned the iBooks Store into the primary online choice of publication for all new books.

It should surprise no one that the co-chair of a W3C working group deems standards compliance to be more important than does Apple. And he may well be right that it will prove to be a strategic mistake. But it’s worth noting that the e-book market leader, Amazon’s Kindle, uses a proprietary format. Eschewing ePub and any sort of standards compliance doesn’t seem to have hurt Amazon. And, up until yesterday, the only e-book format supported by iBooks has been standards compliant ePub, and that hasn’t made Apple the market leader. It’s a small sample size and we’re early in the game, but the evidence to date suggests the opposite of what Glazman is arguing. Kindle, with its proprietary file formats, is more popular than iBooks, which has been based on ePub.

Nor is Apple claiming this new format is ePub. They haven’t asserted proprietary new features or syntax for ePub the way, say, Netscape and Internet Explorer asserted proprietary new tags and features for HTML. The output of iBooks Author is no more intended to be an industry standard than are any other Apple-proprietary document formats — Pages, Numbers, Keynote, etc. This is Apple’s own e-book format, intended only to be displayed (played?) using Apple’s own software running on Apple’s own devices.

As with the end-user licensing kerfuffle, it’s worth noting that the app’s name is iBooks Author, not eBooks Author. Just because there’s demand for an open-standards-based e-book production and layout tool of the scope and caliber of iBooks Author, doesn’t mean Apple has any interest in making such a tool.

Starting with full conformance with EPUB3 and pushing for a fast update of EPUB3 or release of EPUB4 including all new CSS cool kids was a much better, and much more secure way of doing things.

But if Apple had taken this route, the books generated by iBooks Author today wouldn’t have any of the layout features Glazman cited above. The iBooks format isn’t different just for the sake of being different, it’s different for the sake of being better — not better in the future, after a W3C review period and approval, but better today, in the textbooks you can download and read in iBooks right now.

It’s the difference between “What’s the best we can do within the constraints of the current ePub spec?” versus “What’s the best we can do given the constraints of our engineering talent?” — the difference between going as fast as the W3C standards body permits versus going as fast as Apple is capable.

Apple’s concern is not what’s best for the publishing industry, and it certainly isn’t about what’s best for the makers of (and users of) rival e-book reading devices.

In some sense this is like a rehash of the App Store debate — iBooks Author is a developer tool for the iBooks platform. As I’ve said regarding the App Store, Apple’s priorities are as follows: Apple’s best interests first, users’ second, developers’ third. In this case the developers are the producers of commercial e-books, who must now choose between (a) going iBooks-exclusive; (b) figuring out a way to work iBooks Author into a cross-platform production workflow; or (c) eschewing iBooks Author entirely and using whatever other tools are out there, missing out on all the new iBooks-exclusive layout and design features.

If they go iBooks-exclusive, you can see how Apple would love that.

If they choose to work iBooks Author into their cross-platform production workflow, and it proves to be a pain in the ass, that’s not Apple’s problem.

If they eschew the use of iBooks Author altogether and suffer using worse-designed and less-capable tools, that’s not Apple’s problem. And if the book they produce based on these lesser tools and technologies doesn’t sell as well because it doesn’t offer the attractive and fun layout and design features available using iBooks Author, that’s not Apple’s problem either.

(What would be Apple’s problem is if iBooks’s new layout and design features do not prove to be a competitive advantage in the e-book market. But even then, Apple would merely be right back where they were prior to yesterday’s announcements.¹)

Glazman looks at these new iBooks books and sees a nonstandard proprietary format. Apple looks at these new iBooks and sees layouts and design features that no other e-book platform offers today. One man’s nonstandard is another man’s competitive differentiation.

iBooks still offers full support for the open standard ePub format. So as a loose analogy, I see ePub being as to the new iBooks format as mobile web apps are to native iOS App Store apps — one is an open industry standard fully supported by Apple, the other a closed proprietary platform with superior creation tools and end-user experience, which if you want to use, you must use on Apple’s terms.

Another possible problem for Apple resulting from its decision to restrict iBooks author as a tool only for the iBooks platform: resentment from publishers and authors who see this restriction as spiteful and greedy, not as strategic or competitive. Again though, that’s just a replay of the risks Apple took with its restrictive App Store policies. ↩

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Spotted: Detection of Mobile Malware in the Wild

2012-01-20T21:40:00.001-08:00

Looks like a nice intro to mobile security.

PrePrint: Detection of Mobile Malware in the Wild

IEEE Computer

Smartphones have become an essential part of human life and its usage has grown exponentially in the past few years. The growth of smartphone usage can be directly linked to its ability to support third-party applications that are offered through online application markets. Due to its worldwide adoption and widespread popularity, the mobile malware attacks also growing at an alarming rate (http://bit.ly/sbtujI). Malware authors make use of third-party applications to inject malicious content into smartphones and thus compromise phone’s security. In response, mobile security research has become critical and focused on protecting smartphones from malware attacks and other security threats. In this paper, we present a survey of techniques that are used to detect mobile malware in the wild and discuss the limitations of current techniques and provide some tips to protect smartphones from potential security threats.

Spotted: Proton: Multitouch Gestures as Regular Expressions

2012-01-20T21:30:00.001-08:00

An interesting looking paper on a systematic tool for gesture recognition.

Proton: Multitouch Gestures as Regular Expressions

Agrawala papers

Kenrick Kin, Björn Hartmann, Tony DeRose, Maneesh Agrawala

Abstract

Current multitouch frameworks require application developers to write recognition code for custom gestures; this code is split across multiple event-handling callbacks. As the number of custom gestures grows it becomes increasingly difficult to 1) know if new gestures will conflict with existing gestures, and 2) know how to extend existing code to reliably recognize the complete gesture set. Proton is a novel framework that addresses both of these problems. Using Proton, the application developer declaratively specifies each gesture as a regular expression over a stream of touch events. Proton statically analyzes the set of gestures to report conflicts, and it automatically creates gesture recognizers for the entire set. To simplify the creation of complex multitouch gestures, Proton introduces gesture tablature, a graphical notation that concisely describes the sequencing of multiple interleaved touch actions over time. Proton contributes a graphical editor for authoring tablatures and automatically compiles tablatures into regular expressions. We present the architecture and implementation of Proton, along with three proof-of-concept applications. These applications demonstrate the expressiveness of the framework and show how Proton simplifies gesture definition and conflict resolution.

Proton represents a gesture as a regular expression describing a sequence of touch events. Using Proton’s gesture tablature, developers can design a multitouch gesture graphically by arranging touch sequences on horizontal tracks. Proton converts the tablature into a regular expression. When Proton matches the expression with the touch event stream, it invokes callbacks associated with the expression.

Research Paper

PDF (2.6M)

Video

MP4 (20.5M)

Proton: Multitouch Gestures as Regular Expressions

Kenrick Kin, Björn Hartmann, Tony DeRose, Maneesh Agrawala

ACM Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), 2012.

PDF (2.6M) | MP4 (20.5M)

Find: The rise and fall of personal computing

2012-01-20T17:23:00.001-08:00

Good sense of perspective. The ground is shifting.

The rise and fall of personal computing

asymco

Thanks to Jeremy Reimer I was able to create the following view into the history of computer platforms.

I added data from the smartphone industry, Apple and updated the PC industry figures with those from Gartner. Note the log scale.

The same information is available as an animation in the following video (Music by Nora Tagle):

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8h-C6u4yLj4

This data combines several “categories” of products and is not complete in that not all mobile phone platforms are represented. However, the zooming out offers several possible observations into the state of the “personal computing” world as of today.

We cannot consider the iPad as a “niche”. The absolute volume of units sold after less than two years is enough to place it within an order of magnitude of all PCs sold. We can also observe that it has a higher trajectory than the iPhone which became a disruptive force in itself. Compare these challengers to NeXT in 1991.
The “entrants” into personal computing, the iPad, iPhone and Android, have a combined volume that is higher than the PCs sold in the same period (358 million estimated iOS+Android vs. 336 million PCs excluding Macs in 2011.) The growth rate and the scale itself combine to make the entrants impossible to ignore.
There is a distinct grouping of platform options into three phases or eras. The first lasting from 1975 to 1991 was an era of rapid growth but also of multiple standards and experiments. It was typical of an industry in emergence. The personalization of computing brought about a new set of entrants. The second phase lasted between 1991 and 2007 and was characterized by a near monopoly of Microsoft, but, crucially one alternative platform did survive. The third phase can be seen as starting five years ago with the emergence of the iPhone and its derivatives. It has similarities to the first phase.

We can also look at the data through a slightly different view: market share. Share is a bit more subjective because we need to combine products in ways that are considered comparable (or competing).

First, this is a “traditionalist” view of the PC market as defined by Gartner and IDC, and excluding tablets and smartphones.

This view would imply that the PC market is not changing in any substantial way. Although the Mac platform is gaining share, there is no significant erosion in the power of the incumbent.

Second, is a view where the iPad is added to the traditionalist view.

This view is more alarming. Given the first chart, in order for the iPad to be significant, it would need to be “visible” for a market that already ships over 350 million units. And there it is. If counted, the iPad begins to show the first disruption in the status quo since 1991.

The third view is with the addition of iPhone and Android.

This last view corresponds to the data in the first graph (line chart). If iOS and Android are added as potential substitutions for personal computing, the share of PCs suddenly collapses to less than 50%. It also suggests much more collapse to come.

I will concede that this last view is extremist. It does not reflect a competition that exists in real life. However, I put this data together to show a historic pattern. Sometimes extremism is a better point of view than conservatism. Ignoring this view is very harmful as these not-good-enough computers will surely get better. A competitor that has no strategy to deal with this shift is likely to suffer the fate of those companies in the left side of the chart. Treating the first share chart as reality is surely much more dangerous than contemplating the third.

I’ve used anecdotes in the past to tell the story of the disruptive shift in the fortunes of computing incumbents and entrants. I’ve also shown how the entry of smart devices has disrupted the telecom world and caused a transfer of wealth away from the old guard.

The data shown here frames these anecdotes. The data is not the whole story but it solidifies what should be an intuition.

I’ve also prepared a video showing the platforms

Find: MIPS Technologies Targets Mobile Push

2012-01-20T16:27:00.001-08:00

Finally, direct competition for arm?

MIPS Technologies Targets Mobile Push

AnandTech

There are a number of IP vendors in the SoC processor space. ARM, MIPS and PowerPC are the most popular. Each vendor holds the edge in a particular area. For example, PowerPC has a big market share in the high end communication market, thanks to its licensees ((Freescale, AMCC etc.). MIPS, on the other hand, has been maintaining its stronghold in the Set Top Box (STB) market thanks to designs from companies like Broadcom and Sigma Designs. ARM needs no introduction, thanks to the popularity they enjoy because of the mobile revolution. If you pick up a smartphone or a tablet, there is a very high probability that it is powered by an ARM core.

With the mobile revolution threatening to subsume multiple consumer markets in its convergence push, it is now essential for almost every vendor to have a mobile strategy. Not only do SoC vendors have to adapt themselves, the processor IP vendors also need to make the required push. Over the last two years, MIPS has been very vocal about getting into the mobile market. Of course, actions speak louder than words, and we stopped by MIPS's CES suite to see what they had on offer.

While ARM has a number of high profile companies like NVIDIA, TI and Qualcomm churning out ARM based SoCs for the mobile market, MIPS has decided to start at the low end in the Chinese market. MIPS claims that there are already around 8 to 12 mobile phones in the Chinese market with MIPS-based SoCs. With the tablet market set to explode in the next 2 to 3 years, MIPS is readying up for the battle ahead. MIPS has signed up around 10 mobile licensees, of which InGenic and Action Semiconductors already have products shipping. Over the last two years, MIPS has been demonstrating devices based on SoCs from these two manufacturers at CES.

Mobile devices based on MIPS SoCs have largely stayed under the radar due to their middling performance and build quality. The most successful of these devices was undoubtedly the Velocity Cruz which sold for as low as $130 and ran Android 2.3 before it was discontinued. MIPS claimed that more than a million units were sold. A couple of months back, MIPS made a huge splash with a couple of InGenic SoC based tablets from Ainol, namely, the Novo7 Paladin at $79 and the Novo7 Basic at $93. While some describe the Novo7 Paladin as a glorified MP4 player running Android, the Novo7 Basic actually bumps up the specs to include cameras for video conferencing. I had a chance to play around with the units. While it was definitely no Transformer Prime, I did find it more than acceptable for the price.

An issue with the Novo7 units for the US market is the fact that they come with a number of Chinese apps installed. MIPS indicated that a US version was in the works, and it would include predominantly US-centric apps. MIPS was also upfront about the DRM capabilities of the InGenic SoC, and indicated that while the SoC wouldn't pass muster to deliver HD Netflix streams, there should be no issues getting Netflix certification for the SD streams. Another issue is the somewhat misleading specifications of the various versions. On the Ainovo website, there are claims of the unit being capable of decoding 10b H.264 videos, which I find hard to believe. Also, while the Novo7 Paladin can output 1080p video, it is only capable of 720p decode. On the other hand, the Novo7 Basic claims full 1080p decode and output capability. Despite coming with the same SoC, buyers could get misled because of internal firmware differences (Obvious hardware differences such as the lack of cameras in the Paladin do not seem to be the only aspects resulting in a lower price). On the whole, this initiative from MIPS (getting low cost Android based devices out in the market) is a big win for Android. Google, by itself, just wants more Android systems out there. Therefore, it was no surprise that these tablets received an endorsement from Andy Rubin when they were announced late last year.

MIPS has various licensees active in the STB and communication market. The most notable amongst them are Broadcom, Sigma Designs and Lantiq. Some of the STB features and products enabled by MIPS are presented in the gallery below.

Gallery: MIPS-Based Products in Action

MIPS has a number of challenges ahead of it in the mobile front:

There is a need to ensure that the latest version of Android is capable of running on all their processor based SoC platforms.
MIPS needs to work with the app writers to ensure that apps that don't use the Dalvik VM, but rely on native ARM instructions, are fixed to run on MIPS-based SoCs also. There were some press releases before CES regarding this aspect (MIPS and GameLoft teamed up to ensure that the latter's games ran well on the MIPS-based tablets also)
The most challenging issue for MIPS will be to sign up licensees with the financial might to get their SoCs fabricated at lower / cutting-edge process geometries. The InGenic SoC inside the Novo7 tablets is manufactured in a 65nm process. With Tegra 2 and other tablet SoCs being manufactured in the 40nm process and moving fast towards smaller geometries, MIPS-based SoCs are already trailing in the performance per watt metric. However, smaller geometries also bring with them costlier SoCs, so it will be a fine line that needs to be toed.

In summary, it is good to see MIPS coming up as a credible competitor to ARM in the mobile space. With ARM trying to encroach upon the 20-year old MIPS64 market, the tussle in the embedded processor space just got a lot more interesting. It will be exciting to see how this plays out over the next 3 or 4 years.

Sent with Reeder

Find: Samsung Galaxy Nexus & Ice Cream Sandwich Review ((tags: finds, google, ics, samsung)

2012-01-20T09:20:00.001-08:00

Very in depth review. Verdict: phone and ics are quite nice. Nice comparisons of nexus one, s, and galaxy nexus; we use first two in class.

Samsung Galaxy Nexus & Ice Cream Sandwich Review

AnandTech

The evolution of Google’s Nexus line is an interesting one. Each year, Google chooses both a silicon partner and an OEM to make a unique hardware archetype which it caters a specific build of Android to. We've been playing with the latest Nexus - Android 4.0 on both the GSM/UMTS and CDMA/LTE Galaxy Nexus - for a while now and have put together a comprehensive review of all three. First, our thoughts on Ice Cream Sandwich and Android 4.0, and after that, a review of both devices.

Read on for the full review.

Find: How to Customize Your iPhone, Inside and Out

2012-01-19T10:01:00.001-08:00

Nice survey of what people would do with their phones if they could. And do since they can.

How to Customize Your iPhone, Inside and Out [Customization]

Lifehacker

The iPhone is a beautiful device on its own, but with hundreds of millions of iPhones sold it's not particularly unique. Whether you employ a few simply tricks or more complicated alterations, it's easy to put your own custom stamp on your ordinary device. Here's how you can design custom cases, themes, icons, and more to change your iPhone both inside and out.

Our phones have become our go-to devices for both work and play, but they don't always look and operate the way we like. Whether you want to change your iPhone's appearance, enhance its functionality, or both, you have plenty of options. In this post we'll be looking at customization methods for both your iPhone's software and hardware (hence, "inside and out"). As a result, we've broken it up into two sections. "The Inside" section contains information on how to change icons, create custom and specialized wallpapers, and theme your device. "The Outside" section will help you make custom cases, skins, and alter the actual materials that make up your iPhone. Read both or just skip to the one you want.

The Inside

The inside, or the software aspects of your iPhone, are highly customizable—probably more than you even realize. You don't even have to jailbreak your iPhone to perform many customizations (although the more complex changes do). In this section we're going to look at how you can change your home screen icons, get creative with your wallpapers, and completely change the interface as you know it.

Before we get started you're going to need to download the great and free application iExplorer (works on both Windows and Mac), which will allow you to access your iPhone's file system. You'll want to have this app whether or not you're jailbroken. It's the simplest way to copy and edit files on your device.

Change Your Icons

Changing your icons is very simple with iExplorer. You'll need to download existing icons in PNG format or create your own. When I'm looking for existing icons, my first stops are The Icon Factory (be sure to browse for and check out the "Flurry" sets) and deviantART. If you want to make your own, we have a guide that can help you. Once you've got your new icons it's just a matter of replacing the correct files.

To get started, open iExplorer and locate the app icon you want to change. To find the PNG serving as the app icon, you'll need to follow this path:

DEVICE_NAME -> Apps -> APP_NAME -> APP_NAME.app

For example, if I were looking on my iPhone (Dauphine) and for the icon for the app Greplin, this is the path I'd take:

Dauphine -> Apps -> Greplin -> Greplin.app

Once you're browsing the app's resources, you'll have a lot of files to look through. The one you want to find is generally called icon@2x.png. While the name may sometimes vary, in most cases that is the file you're seeking. Simply rename the new 512x512 pixel icon with the name icon@2x.png, delete (or backup and delete) the original icon from the app you're editing, and replace it with the new file. You'll need to repeat this process to edit all of the other icons. This will be tedious if you have a lot of apps, but it's pretty simple and doesn't require a jailbreak to work.

Get Creative With Your Wallpapers

Your wallpapers don't have to be a photo that sits behind your apps. You can make them feel like part of the interface as well. For example, you can create shelves, gridded paper (pictured to the right), and even a PacMan board. There are plenty of other options available if you want to make your home screen wallpaper serve a greater purpose.

Of course, you're not limited to what others have created. You can always create your own. All you need to do is take a screenshot of your home screen (by pressing the lock and home buttons at the same time) and email that image to yourself. You can then use that as a template to create a 960x540 pixel wallpaper that will integrate nicely with your icons. If you're not feeling that ambitious but still want something a little more personalized, check out an app called Pimp Your Screen ($1). In addition to providing numerous wallpapers that integrate with your icons, it has a home screen wallpaper building function that will let you add various types of shelves to an image. This way you can create a custom look without the need to dig into Photoshop.

One of the disadvantages to custom-designed wallpapers is that you cannot put spaces between apps or move them anywhere you want on the grid. Fortunately, for jailbreakers, there is a solution. Just purchase and install Gridlock ($2) from Cydia and you'll have the freedom to place icons anywhere you like.

Customize Your Lock Screen

There are plenty of ways to customize your lock screen to make it look the way you want or offer additional functionality. Either way, you need to be jailbroken to do anything beyond changing your lock screen's wallpaper, so be sure to take care of that before proceeding with this section.

Interface customization can be as simple or complicated as you want it to be. If you're looking to apply a theme, you can just search for and download Winterboard, along with any themes you want, from Cydia. You'll also find lots of lock screen (and full-on themes) on deviantART that you can download and transfer to your iPhone with iExplorer. If you don't get your themes from Cydia, just make sure you copy them here:

DEVICE_NAME -> Root -> Library -> Themes

Once they're installed, you can simply open Winterboard and apply them. If you want to make a custom theme, rather than use one that already exists, follow our complete guide on theming your iPhone's lock screen.

If changing the look and feel of your lock screen isn't your primary goal, and you'd like to be more practical, you should check out IntelliscreenX ($10). Although iOS 5 is capable of providing a lot of information on your lock screen, this jailbreak app can do a bunch more. You can toggle settings (e.g. Airplane Mode, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, etc.), check the time, see RSS feeds, check the weather, look at your messages, and more. It's a really great app, but is a bit pricey at $10. It does offer a free trial, however, so you can check it out and see if it's worth your money.

Completely Alter Your Interface

When you want to go all the way and completely change your iPhone's interface, you need to jailbreak and download DreamBoard (Free) from Cydia. It's customization abilities are nothing short of amazing. You can even make your iPhone look like it's running Mac OS X Lion or even Android. Although DreamBoard is a free app, some of the themes will cost money. Also, acquiring DreamBoard themes isn't always a simple process. While you can find some on Cydia, which are very easy to acquire and install, sometimes you'll need to use another application called Theme Outlet.

You can acquire Theme Outline for free on Cydia, just like you'd get any other app, but using it can be kind of a pain if you're looking for something specific. It's less of an app and more of a web site masquerading as an app. Theme Outlet can be slow to use and won't remember where you left off if you ever close it. Despite these annoyances, it has the largest collection of Dreamboard themes and is often the only place to find some of the best (such as the OS X Ultimatum theme mentioned above). If you're looking for interesting themes to try, this is the app you'll want to use. When you buy a theme you'll receive installation instructions over email, as some themes require more work than others. Just follow those instructions and you'll be able to select your new theme in DreamBoard by simply opening the DreamBoard app and choosing it.

One thing that's important to note with DreamBoard is that it makes some pretty hefty alterations. While you shouldn't run into issues, be sure to regularly back up your iPhone in case there's a problem. If something ever goes wrong and you end up with messed up system resources, you'll need to do a full restore to correct the problem and you'll want to have a backup ready.

The Outside

The iPhone is already one of the most beautiful gadgets you can buy. That said, its glass exterior is vulnerable to severe damage and, of course, is identical to millions of others. Here are a few unique ways to customize the exterior of your iPhone to personalize and protect it.

Design a Custom Case

You can always go out and buy one of the countless pre-made iPhone cases, but if you want to get a little more creative you can design one of your own. I did this for my iPhone 4 using Uncommon. Chances are you've seen some of their (very nice) pre-made cases in an Apple Store. For $35, they'll print your design on a minimal case to offer a unique look.

I like Uncommon because I've had a good experience with their case—it's lasted me over a year so far, suffered a few drops, and my iPhone's in great condition. That said, you have some alternatives—many of which are less expensive. My favorite low-budget customized product printer is ArtsCow, who offers some of the weirdest custom-printed items you'd never consider. But they also print custom iPhone cases for only $17 and frequently offer discount and free shipping promotions. While I can't vouch for the quality of the cases, everything else I've gotten from them has held up over the years and the color accuracy of the printing wasn't too bad.

As for services I haven't tried, you've got a few options that off their own unique benefits. Case-Mate provides image generators created by professional designers so you can create a unique case in a pre-defined style. (You can create custom options as well.) Zazzle has a larger variety of case types to choose from, but some of them cost as much as $40. Like Zazzle, unYOUsual provides a variety of case choices but at a slightly lower price print. GelaSkins offer a product that's very similar to what you'd get with Uncommon, but the cases look like they may offer a slimmer fit. Finally, Infectious offers cases at a lower price of $29 but only prints an image on the back (as opposed to one that wraps around the entire body).

If you really want a highly-customized case, look no further than Etsy. Although their custom request forum (Alchemy) has been "resting" for almost a year, you can generally just search the site for custom iPhone cases and send a message to one of the sellers with your custom request. Many will be open to custom requests, seeing as it's pretty much a guaranteed paycheck.

Finally, you can save a bunch of money by going the DIY route. As we've previously noted, you can print and fold your own iPhone case for just pennies, or make something a bit more reliable out of wool.

Skin Your iPhone

Like the temporary tattoos of the iPhone world, skins are a nice way to add a custom design to your device without adding bulk or making an unchangeable commitment to any one look. An iPhone skin also offers some scratch protection, so it's not entirely cosmetic. While these skins won't protect your device in the event of a drop, preventing some scratches is still better than nothing.

Skins are easy enough to find and buy from various web sites, but SkinIt allows you to design your own for $20. You can use any of their existing images as a starting point in their skin designer, or you can upload some of your own. The skin designer tool they provide will also let you customize your design with text and other elements, so you don't have to know how to use software like Photoshop (although we can teach you).

SkinIt is just one of a few options available to you. You should also take a look at GelaSkins and Infectious for more options.

Swap in Custom Hardware

Apple's most recent iPhones—the 4 and the 4S—are devices with a beautiful glass backs. Glass isn't exactly the most sturdy material, however, and you may also want a different look. Lucky for you, plenty of other options exist, from metal to wood to carbon fiber.

If you'd prefer a nice metal backing similar to the original iPhone, this Metal iPhone 4 Cover will do the trick. If you're looking for a real wooden backing that completely replaces the glass (and are willing to pay a lot for it), JackBacks can provide both the product and the installation. Material6 offers a similarly pricey option, but with several unique wooden designs. Both Carbon Fiber Gear and Element Case can provide carbon fiber backings.

Basically, you have plenty of options for changing up your iPhone's materials and its look. These are just a few examples, but chances are if you can think of another material you'd prefer to have on your device, you'll be able to find someone who's selling it after a quick web search.

Got any other great great iPhone customizations we missed? Share ‘em in the comments!

Sent with Reeder

Find: Apple Releases iBooks 2, iTunes U, and iBooks Author for Interactive Textbooks

2012-01-19T09:48:00.001-08:00

Here comes change.

Apple Releases iBooks 2, iTunes U, and iBooks Author for Interactive Textbooks [IBooks]

Lifehacker

In an education focused event in New York today, Apple showed of its new version of iBooks and its new creation tool, iBooks Author.

iBooks 2 has a strong focus on textbook design, layout, and easy glossary searching. The books will focus on visuals in landscape mode and straight text in portrait mode. Like any good textbook, the Apple versions will have Q&A sections, critical thinking questions, and are packed full of images. Also included is a streamlined highlighting system that automatically converts your highlights into study cards. High school textbooks are priced at $14.99 or less. iBooks 2 is available for free as an update to iBooks in the iTunes App Store right now.

To accompany the new bookstore, Apple has a new textbook creation app called iBooks Author. The app tries to make book creation as simple as possible with drag and drop functionality, templates, widgets, and organization tools. It's available as a free download in the Mac App Store right now. In order to preview the books you create you need to update to a new version of iTunes, which is also available now.

Finally, iTunes U is getting an overhaul and an app today. It will allow students to access lectures, notes, and streams directly from an iPad in the same way they would an online class. Once exclusive to universities, it's now available to K-12 schools as well. If universities support it, the app will fully integrate with textbooks in iBooks. iTunes U is available as a free download in the iTunes App Store right now.

Guest: Pat Fitzgerald of Art & Design

2012-01-18T23:46:00.000-08:00

Hey folks,

On Monday we'll be visited by Patrick Fitzgerald of Art and Design. He directs the Advanced Media Lab, works with me regularly on mobiles and other projects, and currently has an interactive installation, ID:ENTITY, at Raleigh's Contemporary Art Museum.

He'll be talking about design process, as it applies to phones.

Best,

Ben

Lecture: more on devices

2012-01-18T23:13:00.000-08:00

Folks,

Next Wednesday (January 25), we'll continue our lecture on mobile devices. Please read the following paper in preparation, from the beginning through the section titled Output:

Lewis, James R.; Commarford, Patrick M.; Kennedy, Peter J.; Sadowski, Wallace J. 2008. Handheld Electronic Devices. Reviews of Human Factors and Ergonomics, 4, 105-148. (ncsu)

Post your reactions on the class forum.

Best,

Ben