About 45% of US children ages 10 to 12 have a smartphone with a service plan
Outside the US and Europe, children tend to get their first mobile phones when they are older
Continue reading… “When kids get their first cell phones around the world”
WeChat users in China will surpass 490 million users this year
Half of the country’s mobile phone users will access the WeChat app in 2017.
Continue reading… “WeChat users in China will surpass 490 million users this year”
Credit card sized phone that only does phone calls
The Light Phone take away almost every function of a smart phone, except one, making phone calls. Continue reading… “Credit card sized phone that only does phone calls”
Iowa is Creating the Digital Drivers License for Smart Phones
Iowa residents may become the first in the U.S. to use a smartphone mobile app as their driver’s license.
The Iowa Department of Transportation wants to let drivers keep an electronic version of a license on an app, in addition (or in lieu of) the traditional plastic one you’d keep in a wallet.
Continue reading… “Iowa is Creating the Digital Drivers License for Smart Phones”
The obstacles faced by transformative technologies in medicine
A smart-phone add-on enables at-home diagnosis of ear infections.
There is a post on The Health Care Blog written by Eric Topol where he looks to a future enabled by emerging technology: “Just as the little mobile wireless devices radically transformed our day-to-day lives, so will such devices have a seismic impact on the future of health care. It’s already taking off at a pace that parallels the explosion of another unanticipated digital force — social networks.
Continue reading… “The obstacles faced by transformative technologies in medicine”
AT&T researchers create app to track your teenager’s driving habits
The app could also monitor an elderly driver’s aptitude over time.
AT&T researchers have created a system that reports on drivers’ real-time behavior and long-term driving trends by merging data from cars’ onboard computers and drivers’ smart phones. It also reveals whether a particular mistake might have been caused by phone use.
Continue reading… “AT&T researchers create app to track your teenager’s driving habits”
First Time Ever Smart Phones Outsell Personal Computers
People tend to replace their phones much more often than they do their computers.
Smart phones such as Apple Inc.’s iPhone are outselling personal computers for the first time ever, according to a report by research group IDC that was released Monday.
Continue reading… “First Time Ever Smart Phones Outsell Personal Computers”
Dattoos – The Ultimate Body/Machine Interface
Dattoos would be printed onto the user’s skin, and would identify the user via their DNA.
Five years ago, Frog Design founder Hartmut Esslinger envisioned a technology that “could influence notions of community, identity, and connectivity with minimal impact on the physical environment.” Using an online design portal, users would select and try out a customized electronic processing device that they would then print onto their own skin. The DNA Tattoo, or Dattoo, could include printable input/output tools such as a camera, microphone, or laser-loudspeaker – it would be up to the user, as would the Dattoo’s aesthetics. Most intriguingly, it would capture its wearer’s DNA, to ensure an intimate user/machine relationship.
Continue reading… “Dattoos – The Ultimate Body/Machine Interface”
EyePhone: Allows User to Control a Smart Phone with Eye Movement
EyePhone tracks a person’s eye relative to a phone’s screen, letting users activate applications by blinking.
It’s hard sending a text message with arms full of groceries or while wearing winter gloves. Voice control is one alternative to using your fingers, but researchers are also working on other hands-free ways to control mobile devices. A team at Dartmouth College has now created an eye-tracking system that lets a user operate a smart phone with eye movement.
Continue reading… “EyePhone: Allows User to Control a Smart Phone with Eye Movement”
Google Goggles – Search The Web With Smartphone Pictures
Google Goggles is a visual search that works best on objects like books and DVDs as well as landmarks
Google has launched an experimental product dubbed Goggles that allows smart-phone users to search for subjects simply by snapping a picture of them. The free application is only available on mobiles using Google’s Android operating system, leaving iPhone and Blackberry fans empty-handed. (Video)
Continue reading… “Google Goggles – Search The Web With Smartphone Pictures”
Looking to cash in? Invent a phone application
The coming gold rush in apps
People looking to cash in on the next gold rush should consider developing applications — or apps — for the new generation of smart mobile phones, according to a forecast released Tuesday by the Yankee Group.
Consumers will spend more than $4.2 billion on apps in 2013, up from $343 million this year, the research firm says, as smartphones become ubiquitous and app prices rise.
The average smartphone owner “downloads about 20 apps per year,” says Carl Howe, director of consumer research. “It’s a bigger market than a lot of people have been thinking.”
Half of newspaper and magazine publishers say that smartphones will become a vital distribution channel in three years, the Audit Bureau of Circulations reports. Only 42% are as upbeat about e-book readers.
Gamemakers also like sales trends for iPhones, (AAPL) BlackBerrys (RIMM) and phones based on Google’s (GOOG) Android operating system.
Yankee’s forecast “may be conservative,” says Andrew Stein, director of mobile business development for PopCap, which makes casual games.
Entrepreneurs hoping to become the Bill Gates of smartphones should beware, though.
“It’s like going to the racetrack,” says Gartner Research’s Ken Dulaney. “You hear about one person who made $200,000 in two weeks. But for every one of those, there are 150 others who are struggling.”
People looking to cash in on the next gold rush should consider developing applications — or apps — for the new generation of smart mobile phones, according to a forecast released Tuesday by the Yankee Group.
Consumers will spend more than $4.2 billion on apps in 2013, up from $343 million this year, the research firm says, as smartphones become ubiquitous and app prices rise.
Continue reading… “Looking to cash in? Invent a phone application”
Smartphoniacs: Smart Phone Addicts
Are you a Smartphoniac?
Among everybody from our leaders to our teenagers, no habit is spreading faster than being connected 24/7 via a smart phone.
Continue reading… “Smartphoniacs: Smart Phone Addicts”
