Tag Archive for ‘smartphones’
Several years ago, people would say that word of mouth is no longer a powerful advertising tool. With mass media in its growth the most successful advertisements were often the ones with the most air time on television, the largest billboards, the most posters and the widest streamers.
People could still give out recommendations to friends and family, but word of mouth can only travel so far. Unless you were a journalist or elsewhere in the media, a personal opinion and recommendation is not going to change the future of your favorite corner book store.
Today, a single Tweeted opinion can be as powerful as the most expensive commercial air time during a major sports event.
This is the world that we live in today, highly influenced by three major factors: better smart phone technology, the growth of social networking and the improvement of mobile wireless technology. Information can be sent, received and share instantly, not just among small circles of friends, but across hundreds and thousands of linked acquaintances, colleagues, peers, co-workers and other contacts.
In a portion of the findings from research firm Gartner’s study, it was revealed that may people rely heavily on what people in their social network say regarding products and services. The study covered the influence of social networking in the purchasing habits of over 4000 consumers from all over the world.
According to Gartner, the realm of social networking is a highly underutilized tool for marketing that many commercial companies are failing to tap to into. Despite the already large number of ads that appear all over sites such as Facebook and sponsored Tweets there are still plenty of avenues left unexplored, and many brands still without an online presence.
One could say that smart phone technology and the internet have turned the concept of marketing into a full circle –giving the power of influence back to the consumers. From what we are seeing, it looks like the progress has pushed marketing beyond its’ original scope.
Tags: Facebook, Internet, smartphones, social-networking, technology, Twitter
According to a recent study, radio is back! Smart phones are indeed very influential, not only because of the things they can do, but also because people have them all the time. Not only did they change the way people access the internet, but they also gave life back to the dying media that is known as radio.
The digital music industry did a pretty big number on radio as less people wanted to tune into broadcasts and instead, chose to focus on the music stored in their devices. However, the smart phone industry is slowly changing all of that. Users now state that they have rediscovered radio thanks to their smart phones. It seems that having an FM radio is a big deal –as it allows users to listen new things all the time.
Now, since users often carry around their mobile phones and have access to radio, people are tuning in more often than not. Aside from using the car stereo to listen to the latest chart toppers while on the road, many have found that listening to the radio on the mobile will free up plenty of space on the handset that was originally dedicated to music.
A study showed that 13% of adults use mobile phone technology to listen to the radio. And that number is expected to continuously grow over the next couple of years as users realize the value of having an extra guard on the handle.
Podcasts are ironically, the new broadcasting medium that is encouraging users to tune into actual radio stations. While listening to a specific podcast program will get users specific kinds of content, being able to tune into whatever is on the air is a great idea –and something that most smart phone users have learned to practice when basic web access is not available.
Tags: Internet, mobile-phones, radio, smartphones
With a sizable 3.7” AMOLED screen delivering amazing colours and full contrast, the HTC Desire is truly nothing short of brilliant. Under its hood is a 1 GHz Snapdragon processor which aims to deliver unbridled clock speeds and a silky smooth, highly-responsive, and multi-tasking-capable system that is unmatched. Rounding things off is its famed Sense UI which has received countless acclaims. If there ever was a desirable Smartphone, then surely it has to be the HTC Desire.
It’s YOUR Mobile
One of the best features of the Desire is that it provides limitless customization options, making the device a perfect match for one and for all. Regardless if you’re an on-the-go office worker, a budding entrepreneur, or a college undergrad still searching for his own voice, the Desire can truly be YOUR mobile.
HTC’s proprietary Sense UI provides its users with a boatload of widgets that you can mix and match to convert your home screen into a personal source of information, multimedia, entertainment, or even all of the above, all at once.
Stay Connected
The manufacturers of the HTC Desire appreciates the fact that in order to be an exceptional mobile, a device has to have the ability to connects its users to the rest of the world through a variety of avenues. Voice and data connectivity options on the Desire are second to none and it of course, has support for the likes of IM (instant messaging) and Push Email. That’s not all she wrote for the Desire as it is also equipped with social networking integration which guarantees that you never miss a bet on Facebook or Twitter.
One for the Books
The HTC Desire is definitely a mobile to remember. It has all the elements both critics and consumers look for in a Smartphone. Come the end of the year, when all the mobile phone awarding bodies start searching for the premier mobile of 2010, there is no doubt that the Desire will be there or thereabouts.
Tags: AMOLED, HTC, HTC-Desire, HTC-Sense, smartphones, social-networking
There is no doubt that the Apple iPhone 4 is the most well known smart phone to be released. Despite other impressive handsets that have recently launched or are launching in the next few months, it is hard to deny the fame and popularity of the Apple touch screen smart phone. The main cause of the success for the new iPhone stems mostly from the fact that Apple has been able to establish the name and reputation of their company and their smart phone product in the past couple of years.
In that short amount of time, the iPhone turned from an iPod Touch with calls into a cult icon –practically representing the entire tech industry in all of its’ lonesome.
This is not to say that the iPhone is without faults and issues. In fact, the whole launch of the Apple iPhone 4 has been marred by various problems concerning the device.
The antenna reception issue is currently a touchy subject for both owners and Apple. Owners are annoyed that a badly designed phone would cut off voice calls if an errant finger lands on the antenna (which is badly located in the first place). For this, Apple’s engineers need to review the importance of ergonomic design. The issue was also made worse by Apple’s apathetic approach to the situation -brushing it off as a phone quirk instead of a problem.
The touch screen display has also had issues. A yellow smear formed in the screen of many users –an issue related to the production of the screen technology itself. While the issue will allegedly fix itself when the handset is used long enough, it is still a severe inconvenience to the owners.
Despite the problems, over 1.7 million units of the iPhone has been sold in just three days since the launch of the device.
Tags: Apple, Apple-iPhone, Apple-iPhone-4, Apple-iPod-Touch, Apple-Retina-Display, smartphones
Many smart phones will allow a user to instant take a video recording of almost anything. And chances are these videos are shared with friends and families online on various file and video sharing sites like YouTube before they are posted on Facebook.
In many ways, this little convenience is something that users should be careful about. Uploading a video is quite easy (especially when there is a stable and fast internet connection), but the repercussions of doing such could be bigger.
Take the previous case of a Google video which showed a young boy being bullied. The case ended with three of Google Italy’s top heads taking the blame for the psychological damage that the video has brought. Despite the fact that Google does not control the content that is uploaded by users, many feel that they are responsible.
Since Google also owns YouTube, the same argument has also been made –not only because of an uploaded video’s potential effects, but also because of the fact that a large chunk of videos online contain copyrighted material. Viacom has filed a case against Google regarding this matter. Despite the fact that they lost the case, it drives in the fact that there is an issue with the content that is being uploaded to the video sharing site.
Copyrights are not the only issue that YouTube users should be wary of, after all, Google already takes measures to help out the copyright owners (if copyright owners request that certain videos be taken down, Google cooperates with them).
Being careful about how personal and private videos are shared is also important. While it may be nice to upload that video taken at a cousin’s recent wedding, be sure to ask permission from the people who are heavily involved in the video –more often than not, people find themselves tagged in embarrassing moments caught on camera that are publicly displayed by their contacts on Facebook and other social networking sites.
Tags: copyrights, Facebook, Google, Google-video, Internet, smartphones, social-networking, Viacom, video, YouTube
The smart phone industry already knew early on that the Android OS will be getting an update which brings with it the Adobe Flash Player. But now, it appears that the Google OS is not the only platform that will be getting this new feature. It seems that a large range of other platforms will also be getting Flash Players as well.
The only OS that we are certain will not be getting any support from Adobe is the Apple iPhone OS, so all those new Apple iPhone 4s might end up missing a vital feature.
It all started with the release of the Apple iPhone OS4 SDK. With the release of the developer kit, there was also a license agreement which forbade the use of third party software in the development of Apple iPhone apps. During this time, it was common practice for many developers to create Flash apps and use an iPhone compiler to port the game over to the Apple platform. Adobe’s new Flash Professional CS5 featured a Flash to iPhone compiler as its biggest feature. When the Apple license agreement basically cut off Adobe, hostilities between the two companies took a very open and public form.
Before the dust settled, Adobe has found itself declaring that it would no longer support Apple and that Google has teamed up with the developer. This immediately led to an announcement from Google about the new Android supporting Flash –a promise that is seeing realization just now. At the same time, Google and Adobe also announced that they would be supporting the HTML5 format as well –leaving Apple being the only OS in town not supporting Flash.
This reality will sink in even more as the Microsoft Windows Phone 7 OS is confirmed to be getting a Flash update after it is released and that many other smart phones will also be getting the update as well. Phones that make use of the Palm WebOS, BlackBerry OS, Symbian, MeeGo and LiMo are among those confirmed that will be getting a Flash Player.
Tags: Adobe-Flash, Apple, Apple-iOS-4, Apple-iPhone-4, apps, Blackberry-OS, Google, Google-Android, Palm, smartphones, Symbian, WebOS
If you plan on giving your child a smart phone with internet access, you might want to check into the latest Norton Family Report to be able to know what you need to do to prepare the child for access to the internet.
According to the annual study, children these days are more likely to encounter “negative experiences” when browsing the internet. Not that the internet has always been clean, but access to various content that contains violence, profanity, nudity and other similar material is now made easier. Norton states that at least 60% of children will encounter this content when they go online.
The initial solution for many parents is to control what their children can and cannot access. This usually entails placing firewalls, passwords and family filter protocols to determine what goes through the router and what cannot. However, shielding does not actually prepare the child for anything; it is simply delaying the inevitable.
A generation ago, it would have made sense to keep children away from such materials until they are at an age where their level of understanding and level of maturity is able to cope with the ‘negative content’. But given how integrated the internet is to our society (and how the material can also be found offline –on the telly and on other media), it is actually more important for parents to know and understand the value of educating their children properly.
The internet will not wait for your child, and keeping a child away from social networking, games and the internet in general would be akin to deprivation. What is important is to give the child discipline, confidence and awareness of what the internet truly is what can be found there.
With smart phones now considered to be a basic necessity for many modern families, this is one crucial step that parents cannot afford to miss.
Tags: firewalls, games, Internet, smartphones, social-networking
If you are looking for a great mobile phone that you can actually brag about you need to get the Samsung Wave mobile phone. This phone has many features that other phones do not offer and you can get it for a great price with one of the many Samsung Wave deals on the market. Here are just a few of the features that make the Samsung Wave mobile phone a thing to have over the summer.
The first thing that we have to mention is that is a sleek stylish model that offers you a bright touchscreen that has some of the clearest resolution that you could ever see on mobile phone. The technology used in the screen itself will not be found in any other phone for at least a year. This puts the Samsung Wave mobile phone ahead of the rest of the mobile phone companies in Great Britain.
Some of the other features that you can get on this phone are the different applications that you can download directly to your phone. There are many applications that you can purchase just by going to a certain web site that is supported by the Samsung Wave mobile phone. Many of these applications are cheap or can be added on to your plan. Either way, you will still be able to get the applications you want to wreck the downloaded to your phone when you want them to.
Another thing that the Samsung Wave mobile phone offers is some of the best pictures and the quality of resolution that you can record video in. This phone offers you the ability to record video in the high definition. You also have a choice to choose from when you get this mobile phone such as the different widgets, contacts, and web pages that you can access right from your phone.
Tags: apps, Samsung, Samsung-Wave, Samsung-Wave-s8500, smartphones
Fans of the Android smart phone have been enjoying the many apps and extra features that are available for the Android handset. Here are three choice Android apps that users will certainly appreciate on the Android smart phone.
First up the list is the Task Manager. There is a significant chance that your smart phone is being bogged down by apps and functions that you do not use or need –causing the device to act erratically or even slow down when you need to do something quick. And while computers will easily let you shut down any unneeded functions, the feature is not commonly found in smart phones, which means that precious resources could be gobbled up by hiding apps.
The Task Manager is an Android app dedicated to fishing out those hidden apps running in the background so that you can shut them down. The only drawback is that users need to manually do the process for each boot up.
Train Times UK is one of our favorite apps as it keeps users on time all the time. Missing a train is a serious problem when you are pressed for time and with this app, you can stay on top of the schedule by actually knowing when each train will making specific stops. Since the app connects to the live online timetables for UK train operators, most of the data is accurate –still, for very important matters, it still pays off to give the operators a quick call to confirm a schedule.
Last on our list of Android Apps is the Google Maps Navigation app. Chances are, you might have already gotten this app right after Google announced that they are delivering free voice guided navigation. Compatible for version 1.6 Donut and above, this impressive app combines the vast data stored in Google maps with Street View and GPS data.
Tags: apps, Google, Google-Android, smartphones
Thanks to the prevalence of smart phones in society, more and more people have access to games and other media anytime, anywhere. The question now is: what do people prefer to do when they are on the road?
According to game developer PopCap, people prefer to play games when they are commuting. While this statement is something that many of us in the tech industry could already predict, it does have a bit more clout when the statement is backed by research data that verifies the claim.
Anyway, the survey encompassed a total of 1,500 adults who were asked regarding their mobile phone usage patterns and preferences. As it turns out, people on the move prefer to have a good game to play over having a good book to read. While it may seem like people prefer the transient and less ‘intellectually’ stimulating task of playing games, the matter is more of time management and convenience than it is a statement about the decreasing lack of interest in literary culture.
The big issue here is that people who were asked were commuters, and when commuting people do not necessarily have the frame of mind and the time to focus and appreciate a book. Reading a small news article would be okay, but digesting the events of a whole chapter is different. While there are people who are comfortable reading a book, this is a feat that is not common to most people. Had the study taken into account people who are travelling very long distances, the number of individual that would appreciate a good book would certainly be more.
At the same time, the statement can also be misleading in the way that it also generalizes games as being less than books as a medium. What people fail to realize that not all games are casual; in many ways, there are also games that are not suitable for quick rounds of play –though these titles can only be played in home consoles and desktop computers.
Tags: ebooks, games, phone-usage, PopCap, smartphones
