smartphone

Cellphonometry: Can Kids Really Learn Math From Smartphones?

Elizabeth Svoboda — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 13:00:00 -0500

In middle school, math was Taylor Scott's worst subject by far. "I honestly hated it," says Scott, now a 15-year-old sophomore at Southwest High School in Jacksonville, North Carolina. She'd take notes as the teacher droned on, but she never really wrestled to understand the concepts until she was home alone with her textbook -- and sometimes not even then. Most of the time, her math grades hovered in the B to C range.

The Google Phone Is Coming to Change the Game

Kit Eaton — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 07:02:06 -0500

[Update: Could the Google phone be a data only, VoIP-driven device, rather than a standard phone? TechCrunch has a source that thinks so, and suggests that AT&T is already bidding to provide data services. (If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.) You can already port your phone number to Google Voice, after all. So you'd just make your calls over the data service instead.]

Why the Times Is Wrong to Be Bearish on Palm

Chris Dannen — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:33:03 -0500

The New York Times doubts Palm's comeback in light of recent Android buzz. But Palm isn't competing with Android--at least not yet.

Blackberry and Palm Apps Getting Better, but Not Fast Enough

Chris Dannen — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:43:33 -0500

Even as Apple celebrates the release of its 100,000th app--and that cash machine it calls the app store--Palm and RIM are running fast to catch up, and woo developers to their platforms.

Apple Leapfrogs Nokia as World's #1 Handset Maker

Chris Dannen — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:45:55 -0500

Apple's iPhone division cleared $1.6 billion in operating profits in Q3 of 2009, leap-frogging Nokia as the world's premier mobile money-maker, according to Strategy Analytics and GigaOm. (Chart below courtesy of GigaOm.)

Chinese iPhone Looks Poised to Fail

Chris Dannen — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:09:55 -0500

At Apple's all-night iPhone launch party in Beijing, there were none of the day-long lines seen in New York, London, or Paris. According to the Financial Times, the Chinese iteration of the iPhone, which went on sale on October 30, has stirred the interest of only 11.7 of Chinese cell phone users, according to one survey.

Put Your Phone Down: Augmented Reality Is Overblown

Chris Dannen — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 09:22:08 -0500

While Layar pushes forward with augmented reality apps and Nokia finds ways to embed AR cameras in our clothing, the rest of us wait breathlessly for a world in which our maps and data are overlaid on what we see, a world in which our smartphone serves as our all-knowing eye.

Or, frankly, we don't.

Phone-Cloud Lets You Ditch Office Landlines

Chris Dannen — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:22:34 -0400

For many office workers, landlines are a redundant nuisance: one more voicemail account to check, one more thing to ring during a clandestine nap. But most office buildings wreak havoc on cell reception. New intra-office phone antennas, working as a cloud to smartly route traffic, might finally solve the problem, rendering landlines at long last unnecessary.

Nav App Makers Beware: Google Maps Navigation Is Real

Kit Eaton — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 10:41:13 -0400

We wondered if makers of GPS navigation apps and systems should worry about Google's rumored efforts toward free turn-by-turn nav just the other day. And guess what--it's all true, and Tom Tom, Navigon, and the rest should be afraid.

Droid: Almost Not Worth Writing About

Chris Dannen — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:30:41 -0400

If you're curious about Verizon's new Droid, don't be. Don't even read this post. Just go hibernate, and dream that by spring Verizon will have a better Android option.

Nokia Says You May Not Need Nerd Glasses After All

Chris Dannen — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 16:03:33 -0400

Samsung Raises Hardware Bar With Super-Fast Android Phone

Chris Dannen — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:59:47 -0400

Smartphones have taught us to get excited over software--apps and OSes--but Samsung's new Android phone, the Moment, is all about hardware.

Dell's Android-Packed Streak Smartbook Leaked

Kit Eaton — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:01:45 -0400

Dell's Android smartphone may soon be en route to the U.S., but some new leaked info shows it'll be accompanied by a strange mobile Internet device/smartphone hybrid: The Streak. Is this actually Dell's smartbook?

Intel Explains How an Internet Addiction Can Offend Everyone This Holiday Season

Chris Dannen — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:29:22 -0400

Seventy-five percent of people feel it's just fine to use computers and cell phones on the toilet, according to a new Intel survey conducted by Harris Interactive, despite what the survey calls "hygiene considerations and awkward explanations."

Will Telecoms Push Netbooks Over Smartphones?

Chris Dannen — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:55:34 -0400

Some mobile networks say that smartphone users are sucking down too much data. But as netbooks become more popular, won't a burgeoning problem get that much worse? (Below, the Palm Pre.)

Apple iPhone, Beloved by Bears

Chris Dannen — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 12:46:55 -0400

Bears, those godless killing machines, apparently have a taste for the Jesus-phone.

According to CIO.com, a Vermont hiker named Kris Rowley was using her iPhone while on a trail when he was approached by a black bear. Apparently she was using her phone instead of looking ahead on the trail.

Furious Sidekick Owners Blame Microsoft

Chris Dannen — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:04:12 -0400

Update: T-Mobile says that much of the data may indeed be recoverable on Microsoft's backend, according to the New York Times. Engineers in Redmond are "optimistic that much of it can be recovered," but individual customers have yet to be notified whether their data is part of that pool

Apple App Store: Upskirts Yes, Satire No

Chris Dannen — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 12:37:34 -0400

It's fatuous to attempt to understand the App Store approval process, but in the past, there have been a few rules: weirdly obscene or prurient-minded things aren't so well-received (think "baby shaker" app), and apparently, neither are satirical postcards that mock Bernie Madoff.

Meet mIQ: BestBuy's Free Clone of Apple's Mobile Me

Kit Eaton — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 12:10:24 -0400

Apple's MobileMe is variously reviled and applauded in different corners of the Net, but it's hard to argue that it provides a pretty comprehensive service. So comprehensive that Best Buy has just cloned it--and made it available for free.

Google Embeds Bigger Ads Into Smartphones

Chris Dannen — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:02:31 -0400

If you use Google AdSense to monetize your site, you'll now be able to run large, fancy ads when people visit your site from an iPhone, Pre, or another large-screen smartphone.

Hot and Heavy CD Makin'

Chris Dannen — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 14:26:33 -0400

It seems like just yesterday when burning a CD could score big points with the ladies.

Is Palm Driving Developers Underground?

Chris Dannen — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:07:58 -0400

An angry rant by a prominent developer describes Palm's app store as developer hell: fees, paperwork, and a PayPal account are required. But as counter-rants have pointed out, Palm is letting unofficial app stores thrive. Is Palm driving its third-party developers underground?

Duke Researchers Use Photo-Acoustic "Fingerprints" to Locate Mobile Phones Indoors

Erica Westly — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 17:56:34 -0400

The Age-Old Tradition of Smartphone Hookups

Chris Dannen — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 15:32:02 -0400

It was way back in 2006 when Palm showed us how to beam our love to strangers using the quaintly unconnected Palm V. But since then, a whole litany of apps have made the quest for strange much more direct.

Apple's App Store Blasts Past Two Billion Downloads

Kit Eaton — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 10:18:57 -0400

In April Apple announced that a billion apps had been downloaded from its iTunes App Store. Now, 14 months since the Store's launch, the folks at Cupertino have revealed that another billion apps have zipped over the wires.