The Mobile Data Association (MDA) has made public a summary of its latest report on the texting habits of the UK population – saying we like messaging is a bit like saying ‘a fish is keen on water’, but perhaps we didn’t recognize the scale of it before (no pun intended)!

The continued growth of messaging is highlighted by a 2009 daily average of 265 million text messages and 1.6 million picture messages.  2009’s text message total was 96.8 billion, while over 600 million picture messages were sent across the whole year.

Seasonal drivers still appear to propel the use of Picture Messaging, with 4.5 million picture messages being sent on Christmas Day itself, while Network Operators’ figures also indicated an upturn in picture messaging during the recent cold snap.

Assessing the findings of the MDA’s report, Rob Bamforth, Principal Analyst at Quocirca, said: “New generation touchscreen handsets and the bundling of SMS messages into many tariffs has made texting easier, and seen its role develop.  Now it is not only a convenient medium for a quick chat with friends, but also a way of participating in television voting and raising funds for needy charities.  When a powerful call to action is given, the population of the UK often turn first towards their mobile phones.”

Steve Reynolds, MDA Chairman, said: “These statistics show that even with new social media forms of messaging such as Twitter and Facebook, people are using SMS as a social messaging tool because of its simplicity and ubiquity. There remains a significant and still developing role for text messaging.  In a seemingly relentless tide of status updates, tweets and pokes, the UK population’s love affair with  mobile messaging for instant, on-the-go communication continues to deepen.”

In case you love the detail, here are the Q4 2009 Statistical findings

Text Messaging (SMS)

Total number of text messages (SMS) sent in:

• 2009 total 96.8 billion
• 2008 total 78.9 billion
• 2007 total 56.9 billion

These SMS statistics can be broken down as follows in 2009:

• Year on year growth (2009 vs 2008): 23% growth
• Number of text messages sent per day: 265 million

Video and Picture messages (MMS)

Total number of picture messages (MMS) sent in:

• 2009 total 601 million
• 2008 total 553 million
• 2007 total 449 million

These statistics can be broken down as follows in 2009:

• Year on year growth (2009 vs 2008): 9% growth
• Number of MMS messages sent per day: 1.6 million

I think we all need a sit down with a nice cold drink after that veritable stat attack

ELLEuk.com is launching its first iPhone application, giving FREE access to ELLE’s hugely popular Horoscope content. You can receive on-the-go daily, monthly and yearly astrological updates straight to your phone, provided by ELLE’s resident astrologers, The Saturn Sisters, who apparently have attracted a large and loyal following with daily visitors to the ELLEuk.com site – so much so, that 380,000 monthly horoscopes are read on ELLEuk.com!

Highlights are:

• App to be updated daily
• Completely free to download
• Direct link from app to ELLEuk.com and from ELLEuk.com to app store
• App to include ‘e mail to friend’ link

Marcy Richardson, Digital Brand Manager of ELLEuk.com said: “While fashion and beauty is ELLEuk.com’s core content, our premium horoscope channel is extremely popular and has established a cult online following. We’re delighted to be able to engage with our readers in an exciting new way by offering them an insight into their star sign at any time they choose from their iPhone. The application will also enable iPhone customers to email horoscopes to their friends if they see something that is particularly timely!”

The new Horoscopes iPhone application is available for users to download FREE from the Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) Store on iTunes now!

Elleuk.com Astrology / £free [iTunes link]

We haven’t seen many real devices from HTC’s roadmap yet (the Bravo is the only thing that comes to mind), but the Android-powered Legend has recently made an appearance. Eye candy aside, there’s not much additional information – at most, the Sense UI is confirmed. The screen looks an awful lot like the Verizon (NYSE: VZ) (NYSE: VZ)-bound Incredible, which we saw earlier today.

If we’re to take the roadmap at face value, the Legend will be packing a 3.2” display, quadband EDGE/GSM and 900/2100 HSPA, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, 5 megapixel camera, optical trackpad, 3.5mm headphone jack, and 600 MHz processor. It could be coming out in March, which means an announcement at Mobile World Congress this week is pretty likely.

Personally, I find the phone a little blocky looking, and not really digging the chrome-coloured casing, but hey, if this thing comes out at $200 or under, it should offer a marginal upgrade option for the Hero.

[via Engadget]

Back of the device after the jump.

Read the full article »

As the iPhone becomes part of more and more professionals’ lives, and the soon to be available iPad being considered as an enterprise device, productivity apps are certain to become even more sought out by users of these devices. That’s why it’s good to bear that Roe Mobile Development has just released version 2.0 of its iPhone productivity app: “Smart Recorder 2.0”. Smart Recorder is an audio recorder app that offers features beyond those included in the iPhone Voice Recorder and other audio recorder apps.

Some unique features of Smart Recorder include:

• Ability to select a compression rate of the recorded file that is optimized for email. For example, a 1 hour recording can be as large as 30 MB. With Smart Recorder, the file can be compressed for email to as little at 6 MB.
• Ability to add time-based tags within a recording that enable the listener to advance to important tagged portions of the session.
• In app access to the iPhone camera from within Smart Recorder which enables photographs of whiteboards, lecture visuals, or anything else to be taken and associated with a recording session. When a session is sent via email, the photograph is included with the audio file.
• Playback at normal, slow, and faster speeds to listen carefully to a recording or skim through when searching for a segment.
• File transfer capability via WiFi to a web site, synchronized with a computer using the SyncDocs app, uploaded to the cloud file storage service Box.net, or emailed, all directly through the application.
• Extensive help files and user definable settings allow customization of Smart Recorder to suit the user’s needs.

Smart Recorder 2.0 is available in the iTunes App Store in a Lite version for free and can be upgraded to a full version.

Smart Recorder 2.0 / £1.79 [iTunes link]

If you’re thinking about updating your iPhone to the latest iPhone OS 3.1.3 firmware, you might want to note that the update will essentially stop you from unlocking your iPhone for use on GSM networks that aren’t your official iPhone carrier. The iPhone OS 3.1.3 firmware comes bundled with a new baseband firmware version (05.12.01) that makes it impossible to unlock the iPhone to use on, say, the T-Mobile (NYSE: DT) USA network. We’re telling you this because we’re a bit surprised by new stats from Medialets that indicates that 14% of iPhone users have updated their iPhones to the new iPhone OS 3.1.3 since last week.

The baseband modem is the piece of technology that allows your iPhone to communicate with wireless networks like AT&T (NYSE: T) and T-Mobile. It’s this baseband modem’s firmware that controls whether or not you’re allowed to surf multiple GSM networks, or just the one that sold you your iPhone. The thing is, there are hacks out there that will unlock almost all versions of the baseband, but none of them work on this latest version. Even the latest iPhone hacking utility, PwnageTool, won’t be able to hack this new baseband to work with unlocking utilities like blacksn0w or ultrasn0w.

Medialets also mentions that 87% of those that updated to iPhone OS 3.1.3 came from the previous iPhone OS 3.1.2 firmware. The only real benefits of the new iPhone OS are it’s less buggy batter meter and better support for third-party apps that were reportedly crashing with 3.1.2. Considering that most people probably don’t need the iPhone OS 3.1.3, we thought it was only right that we let you know what you’re losing by updating your iPhone.

In the end, if you don’t travel or could care less about using your iPhone on other GSM networks, just ignore this post. This concludes our Public Service Announcement. You’ll now be returned to your regularly scheduled programming.

[Via: Medialets]

If you’re into watching videos on mobile at all, you’ll know what a hassle it can be trying to get some clips to run on your phone. In-between solutions like Roxio Media Manager for BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) and iTunes for the iPhone can handle most stuff, but it can be hit and miss. This is why I’ve really enjoyed RealPlayer, whose desktop software is today available for Mac.

RealPlayer SP makes it super-easy to download Flash videos in your browser, and share them via Facebook, twitter, MySpace, or e-mail. What’s of particular interest to the mobile enthusiasts is that there’s a converter for all of the big-name handsets out there, so you don’t have to figure out which resolution to scale down to, or which codec to use. Mac handles Flash video ripping a bit differently than the PC version, but it looks like it’s still really usable.

I’ve found RealPlayer SP really handy for yoinking those YouTube videos of unreleased devices that you know will get taken down once the manufacturer’s lawyers get wind of it. Of course, there’s a ton of great Flash video and music out there, and it’s always great to have an easy way to get it on your phone. Head on over to Real to get downloading the app for free, or if you’re hardcore about your multimedia, get the premium version for $39.99.

[via The Real Story]

One of the things we’re most excited to see at Mobile World Congress 2010 is the unveiling of the Windows Mobile 7 platform from Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT). Ever since the iPhone came on the scene and showed the world just how horribly behind the times Microsoft’s Windows Mobile operating system had become, we’ve been hearing a lot of rumors about what to expect in the revamped WM7. They’ve mostly painted WinMo 7 in a positive light, but the latest rumor chops our excitement down a notch. Word on the street suggests that Microsoft will not allow multi-tasking in Windows Mobile 7. That means you can only actively use one mobile app at a time, much like the iPhone OS.

The rumor goes on to mention that Windows Mobile 7 will allow apps to be “paused,” rather than allowing them to continue running in the background. That pretty much means Windows Mobile 7 will allow apps to save their current state when the user closes them or switches to another app. When the “paused” app is reactivated, the user will see the app exactly as they had left it – text intact, cursors in the same place, document scrolled to the same position, and maps pointing to where you left off. The rumor also makes mention of a push notification system, similar to the way iPhone apps notify iPhone users of updates even when the apps are not running.

There are a lot of things about the iPhone OS that we’d love to see in WM7. There’s the intuitive interface, the finger-friendly buttons and menus, the lack of a stylus. Microsoft would do well to emulate Apple (NSDQ: AAPL)’s iPhone OS on those fronts. But, when it comes to multi-tasking, we’d rather see Microsoft going down a different road. Push notifications are great, but they’re still a compromise. Allowing apps to save their state (pause) is handy, but still not the same as allowing apps to run in the background. Granted, multi-tasking is resource intensive, but seeing as how it’s already 2010 and we’re not flying around in spaceships or eating food made by replicators, it’d be nice to at least have a Windows Phone that can multi-task.

As for the user interface, Microsoft is rumored to be using design elements from its Zune HD interface. The interface is codenamed “Metro” and is said to be clean and soulful. It’s this interface that Microsoft will unveil at MWC. Unfortunately, we’re also hearing that apps will only be allowed to install through official channels, like Windows Marketplace for Mobile. The days of side-loading apps on your Windows Phone might soon come to an abrupt end.

We’ll know more next week, at Microsoft’s press conference in Barcelona. Make sure to keep an eye on IntoMobile, we’ll be coming to you live from Mobile World Congress with complete coverage of the event!

[Via: PPCGeeks]

Republic of Fun just announced the release of Slug Wars – a real-time strategy game that brings to light the epic battles fought by brave slugs in yards across the nation!

Slug Wars is all about managing unit queues for maximum impact on the battlefield. Slug units move down one of three lanes to reach the enemy base, engaging enemies along the way. Players carefully utilize eight different types of combat slugs, ranging from slow-moving (even for a slug!) tanks to salt-shaker-wielding kamikazes to defend their base from the slug onslaught while trying to capture their enemy’s base. Effectively selecting the order to release slug units is the key to success in this surprisingly deep, yet easy to play strategy game.

“Slug Wars was a combination of inspiration from one of our favorite classic game series, Worms, as well as a whole new gameplay type, and tons of fantastic input from our fans and the gaming community,” said Mike Rasmussen, el presidente of Republic of Fun. “We wanted to bring humor and fun to a deep and engaging game, and our fans really helped us determine what features they wanted to see in a mobile strategy game.”

Slug Wars is now available in the App Store for $1.99 normally, but is ending today on a $0.99 sale streak – so grab it quick!

Slug Wars / $0.99 (sale) [iTunes link]

There are a real mixture of Apps for the iPhone – some useful, some more for fun – I can’t decide which category ‘Slango Urban Dictionary’ falls into, but it certainly brings a smile to my face

Here’s the spiel:

Ever wanted to know what your favorite rappers were talking about when they referenced their “whip” or their “chrome four-fifth”? Ever wanted to know what all the cool kids were saying? Wonder no more with Slango!

Slango is the best Urban Dictionary app in the App Store. With access to over 4,000,000 words and features suchch as Word of the Day, Search, Share, and Bookmarks with offline-viewing support, it’s a no-brainer. Try Slango!

Well I have to say I gave it a go, and it’s very amusing – there’s a wide variety of phrases in there, and some I’d not heard before – but will certainly be going in my ’street lingo’ repository! I’d say if you’re bored and fancy a chuckle, which you can share with others, give it a go!

Slango Urban Dictionary / £0.59 [iTunes link]

Novatel Wireless today announced that it has successfully completed the first data transmission call using Long Term Evolution (LTE) 4G technology. Fascinatingly, LTE provides data rates of up to 100Mbps on the uplink and 50 Mbps on the downlink by leveraging new, wider bandwidth spectrum.  Many operators are already planning to overlay LTE on their 3G networks to augment data capacity. Novatel Wireless is working with operators and plans to launch commercial data devices in late 2010.

“We are pleased to achieve these important first data transmission milestones on next generation technologies, last week with dual carrier HSPA+, and now with LTE, and we expect to leverage our industry-leading position to offer  4G wireless data products to our customers,” said Dr. Slim Souissi, CTO, Novatel Wireless. “We believe our aggressive development efforts will enable us to deliver these innovative solutions with the fastest possible time to market.”

All I’ve got to say is I want one. Now. Whatever form-factor it comes in, I’ve got to have that 4G data love as soon as possible!