With wireless coverage and services growing ever larger and more attractive, it’s not hard to see why one in eight US households have shunned the traditional hardline telephone in favor of the wireless variety. A new survey conducted by the National Health Interview Survey has indicated that 13.6% of all US households have done away…
Women overtake men in gadget buying
What comes to mind when you think of super-geeky gadgets like, oh, mobile phones and DAPs (Digital Audio Players)? You picture a youngish dude sitting at his computer workstation typing away at his keyboard, right? Well, no more. It seems, in the UK at least, that woman have finally overtaken men in their last bastion…
Telstra: Here are the top five ways Australians damage their mobile phones
Australian operator Telstra is reporting how their users are finding new “innovative” ways to accidentally damage their mobile phones. According to the carrier’s customer service consultants, the five most commonly reported ways of accidentally damaging a mobile phone are: Driving off with a mobile left on the car roof Damaged by water – including dropping…
Sony Ericsson files patent application to bring gesture control to cameraphones
Now this is one interesting patent application. Sony Ericsson may be planning to up the ante on cameraphones if their newest patent application comes to fruition. High-end cameraphone offerings from the likes of Nokia and Sony Ericsson already boast impressive performance as far as point-and-shoot digi-cams are concerned, and Sony Ericsson seems to be brewing…
Nokia files patent application for handset with fingerprint-scanning display
Here’s yet another novel patent application from Espoo. Finnish handset manufacturer, Nokia, has filed a patent application for a handset that uses a fingerprint scanner as a means of determining which user profile to display or verify security. But, this isn’t your run-of-the-mill fingerprint scanner. No, this patent application outlines a method to leverage a…
Nortel and Qualcomm team up to test dual-mode cellular/WiFi service
Our favorite mobile chipmaker (Qualcomm) has joined forces with Nortel to test a new service that combines Nortel’s IP Multimedia Subsystem-based (IMS) Voice Call Continuity (VCC) application with Qualcomm’s VCC compatible chipset to bring dual-mode cellular/WiFi call-switching to all compatible handsets. WiFi-enabled handsets are nothing new, but Qualcomm and Nortel’s new system would allow the…
Nokia: By 2012, 25% of entertainment will be created and consumed within peer communities
The Future Laboratory carried the study “A Glimpse of the Next Episode” to help Nokia construct “a global picture of what it believes entertainment will look like over the next five years.” 9,000 “trend-setting consumers” from 17 countries were surveyed and the results suggest up to a quarter of the entertainment consumed by people in…
With 0.09% share, iPhone rules web usage on mobile phones
Users of the Apple’s handset surf the web more than any other device owners. According to ComputerWorld, iPhone’s Safari has grabbed a 0.09% share, which might not seem like much but when you put it in perspective – it actually is. Apparently, web browsing on any Windows Mobile powered device accounts for only 0.06%, while…
Mobile subscriptions hit 3.3 billion worldwide or 50% of global population
Well folks it’s been an interesting 26 years since the first cellular network was launched in Scandinavia. And today, we’re glad to report there’s 3.3 billion mobile subscriptions worldwide, equivalent to 50% of the global population. Of course, this doesn’t mean that half of the 6.6 billion people in the world now have a mobile…
3.3 billion mobile phones worldwide – 50% global market penetration
We can’t walk into a coffee shop these days without seeing a mobile phone (or cellphone, depending on your locale) in everyone’s hand. But, just how widespread is this new-fangled “wireless service” around the world? Well, a new report indicates that mobile phones have a 50% global market penetration rate – in other words, just…