If you’re using the api-corpfw.handsetdetection.com alias for connecting to the Cloud service then please add 162.212.59.58 & 162.212.59.66 to your firewall rules, and remove 209.105.242.26 & 209.105.232.42.

To ensure a smooth transition we’ll drop the api-corpfw.handsetdetection.com alias back to just our EU cluster (5.9.141.146) until we’ve heard from folks on the operations mailing list. Once again, apologies for the very short notice.

Once in a while a blog or media outlet will post a little blurb about this newfangled “mobile technology” stuff. We kid! There are hundreds of important, interesting, fun and just plain cool mobile stories out there every day. Since mobile is our wheelhouse at Handset Detection, we thought we’d make it a point to round up the ones you don’t want to miss. Check back every Friday for the weekly roundup!

1. Austin the Next Fiber City

After the successful rollout of Google Fiber in Kansas City, it was only a matter of time before the next city was announced. Let’s see how Austin does!

2. Apparently Teens Love Phones

This will probably come as a shock, but teens love smartphones! Reports say 91% of teenagers will buy a smartphone for their next phone, up from 86% last spring. 62% of those say they will buy an iPhone, showing Apple’s stranglehold on the young.

3. S4 in May

Coming this May (possibly as you read this) – the S4 on Verizon! Finally! For whatever reason, Verizon took their sweet time bringing the new Galaxy phone to its customers. Better late than never, I guess?

4. Google Now

Do you use Google Now on your Android device? Get ready to enjoy it on Google.com as well! It may even be an alternative to iGoogle so expect some big changes in the future if it does well.

5. Google Glass Specs

“Specs” for Google Glass? Get it? Ah, well. Here are some of the numbers behind the potentially revolutionary Google project – will you pick one up?

6. Glass NYT App

Speaking of Google Glass, want to get a little preview of what to expect? The New York Times has already launched its app, and you can take a look at how it will work way before you’ll ever get the wearable computer.

7. New iPad to be Thin & Light

No word is out about the fifth generation iPad coming this fall, but some reports say it will be the thinnest and lightest tablet yet. Soon you’ll be able to keep your tablet afloat in front of you with a strong breeze!

8. Android Takes 64% of Sales

The Android isn’t exactly hurting – 64% of all smartphone sales in Q1 of 2013 are Androids, further securing the company’s growth as the world’s most popular platform. The Windows Phone continues to gain ground, however.

9. Facebook Home Comes Out, Immediately Fails

It was supposed to be a fun, Facebook centered home screen option for your Android phone, but it ended up a disaster. Facebook Home immediately received tons of negative reviews and downloads dwindled down to nothing. A rough start.

10. Blackberry Q10 Hits FCC

Earlier in April the Blackberry Q10 was at the FCC receiving extensive tests for approval. Word is it will be officially out on April 30^th but no actual confirmation. Heck, you might even be reading this via your own Q10!

Did we miss any big news from March? Let us know in the comments!

Should Handset Detection accept BitCoins?

Is there a demand out there from our users? Are many of you busily mining and trading BitCoins? Is so, why? If not, why not?

From what we can see, BitCoin has distinct advantages:

• Anonymity – No banks or overzealous payments processors are involved, meaning you could join the ranks of our free plan customers using Handset Detection as anonymously as you please.
• Lower Fees – With no banks involved transaction fees are lower and there’s no chance of a chargeback. On the other hand, this doesn’t affect our end user. A large segment of our users would have to start paying with BitCoins for us to see a significant difference in payment processing fees.
• BitCoins Know No Boundaries – No currency exchanges, no regulation. On the other hand, BitCoin values have fluctuated heavily throughout the currency’s rather short life.   

On the other hand, nasty DDOS attacks, fluctuations, the shut down of at least one major exchange, and few mainstream places to spend BitCoins (for now) are disadvantages. Of course, if companies like Handset Detection – admittedly not Starbucks – begin accepting BitCoins will the snowflake turn into a snowball?

Or perhaps the reason we should accept BitCoins are this, so elegantly enumerated by John Biggs in his TechCrunch article:

“The world needs BitCoins to exist, even if the mass of humanity doesn’t use it. The goal of the currency is to disassociate the old methods of money transfer and to allow people true freedom in their ability to transmit value from one person to the next. A poor grandmother in the home village could receive money quickly and easily from the grandchildren without resorting to fees and trips to Western Union. Those on the move could hold their money in an account that is as liquid as quicksilver, allowing them to perform fee-free transactions anywhere. Refugees would no longer have to carry gold and instead could carry bitcoin. The utopian possibilities are, in a sense, endless.”

Vote in the comments or by sending us a Tweet or Facebook message. Do you want Handset Detection to begin accepting BitCoins?

Image via BitCoin on Twitter

(Click to enlarge)

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Once in a while a blog or media outlet will post a little blurb about this newfangled “mobile technology” stuff. We kid! There are hundreds of important, interesting, fun and just plain cool mobile stories out there every day. Since mobile is our wheelhouse at Handset Detection, we thought we’d make it a point to round up the ones you don’t want to miss. Check back every Friday for the weekly roundup!

1. The Blackberry Recovery

Blackberry’s Hail Mary pass seems to have worked as they made over $94 million revenue and shipped over 1 million Blackberry 10 devices in Q4. Whether or not this upswing stays is another thing, but this is a good sign for the company.

2. Cheap iPhone Rumor #83297489

It’s happening, it’s not happening – every day or so the story changes. The latest rumor has the cheap version of the iPhone coming out in August. Is it true? We’ll just have to wait and see.

3. Nexus 5 – Too Much Too Soon?

Excited about the Nexus 5? Think it’s going to be the greatest thing since the Nexus 4? You might be a little premature, in that literally everything you’ve heard may be completely untrue.

4. Lockscreen Security Bug

Smartphones are having some security issues, and one of the latest in March was the lockscreen security bug with Samsung Android phones. The exploit lets sneaky people into your phone with a series of spy-worthy button presses.

5. Car Apps

Tired of playing with apps on your tablet or phone? In a few years you’ll be able to play Angry Birds 19 with an app in your car! Looks like we have some work to do when customers start shopping at your store from their windshield…

6. White House on Unlocking Phones

Surprises all around when not only did a petition to the White House to investigate unlocking phones get enough signatures but the White House actually agreed customers should be able to do so! Next step: an investigation, and what it means for businesses everywhere.

7. LTE on its Way

T-Mobile announced earlier this month the LTE is on its way, and by the time you read this they should be around the country. They’ve also included a nice update on the Galaxy Note 2 software updates.

8. Google Glass Apps

More information is coming out about Google Glass, including the programs and apps it will run. Power hitters like Gmail (obviously), New York Times, and Evernote are some of the first to announce support. Who knows what’s to come in the future?

9. Wireless Charging

Plugging in your phone to charge is and always will be a pain. Luckily several companies out there are plugging away at creating the proper tech for wireless charging, with one company sponsored by none other than AT&T.

10. Hate Your Phone?

Do you hate your mobile device? You’re certainly not alone, at least according to mobile video service Vuclip. A survey of more than 120,000 users revealed 48% of people hate their current device. With so many options out there, it may just be a case of “grass is greener.”

Did we miss any big news from March? Let us know in the comments!

Shortly we’ll be making a few changes to our device database to improve device classification and make our naming more straight forward.

First and foremost all generic device profiles will now have the vendor set to Generic. This will mainly impact Android devices which were previously referred to as vendor ‘Android’, model ‘Generic’, now they’ll be vendor : ‘Generic’, model ‘Android x.x Mobile’.  Which is a little more specific than before. In cases where we cannot extract the operating system version (I’m looking at you, Firefox), we’ll report ‘Generic Android Mobile’ or ‘Generic Android Tablet’ without version information.  Example user-agents are :

Mozilla/5.0 (Android; Tablet; rv:17.0) Gecko/17.0 Firefox/17.0
Mozilla/5.0 (Android; Tablet; rv:18.0) Gecko/18.0 Firefox/18.0
Mozilla/5.0 (Android; Tablet; rv:19.0) Gecko/19.0 Firefox/19.0
Opera/9.80 (Android 4.0.4; Linux; Opera Tablet/ADR-1301080958) Presto/2.11.355 Version/12.10
Opera/9.80 (Android 4.1.1; Linux; Opera Tablet/ADR-1212030829) Presto/2.11.355 Version/12.10
Opera/9.80 (Android 2.3.6; Linux; Opera Tablet/ADR-1210241511) Presto/2.11.355 Version/12.10

In the examples above all Firefox devices would return Generic Android Tablet, wile the devices running Opera would return Generic Android 4.0 Tablet, Generic Android 4.1 Tablet, and Generic Android 2.3 Tablet.

Handset Detection has specific detections for Operating System and Browser, so consult those fields if you need more information on the browser, browser version, platform (operating system) or platform version (operating system version).

Additionally many Generic browser device profiles will shortly be removed in favor of the convention above.

Happy Detecting :)

The stats inside each site profile are correct, only the aggregate totals on the dashboard are effected. We’ll have it fixed tomorrow, sorry for the hassle folks.

UPDATE : The bug with incorrect usage totals on the dashboard is fixed and the figures now correctly reflect actual usage. Yay ! :)

Once in a while a blog or media outlet will post a little blurb about this newfangled “mobile technology” stuff. We kid! There are hundreds of important, interesting, fun and just plain cool mobile stories out there every day. Since mobile is our wheelhouse at Handset Detection, we thought we’d make it a point to round up the ones you don’t want to miss. Check back every Friday for the weekly roundup!

1. Unlocking Petition 

Remember in late January unlocking your phone became illegal? Smartphone fans everywhere immediately started a petition to make the White House take a look at the ruling, and the required amount of signatures (100,000!) was reached. Now we wait for the response.

2. Blackberry Delays

Unsurprisingly, the weeks following the Blackberry announcement have been full of turmoil, ups and downs. Pre-orders were going well but news came out they were pulling out of Japan and possibly Korea, and then there were the delays. However, all this news may just be buzz building schemes.

3. 128GB iPad

Apple launched the 128GB iPad just ahead of Microsoft’s launch of the Surface Pro. Although the two devices aren’t really meant to be competitors, you know there was something behind the timing of the release! 

4. World’s Smallest Charger

Tired of carrying around those burdensome chargers? LG aims to fix that with the world’s smallest charger, soon to come out in South Korea. It will eventually spread globally, giving everyone a chance to charge on the go without having to carry an extra bag just for the charger.

5. End of Texting?

Are we seeing the end of texting? Apps are outshining SMS and since text messaging is such a high extra cost we could see the end of it in 2013. Soon, look for all those “k” messages to be on Twitter or Google Talk.

6. LG Optimus G Pro

The upgrade to the Optimus G is around the corner, and man is it looking good. A giant 3,140 mAh battery tops the list of awesome but also includes a 1080×1920 full HD IPS-LCD screen and 32 GB of internal memory PLUS a microSD slot for cards up to 64 GB.

7. GPS Might Not Suck Soon

Every used your GPS in the city and found yourself more than a little lost? There are a ton of things that can interfere with your signal, but soon that may be a thing of the past. Geocaching just got a whole lot easier!                                                                                                                    

8. Surface Pro Sells Out…Sort Of 

Great news for Microsoft as the Surface Pro sold out relatively quickly…perhaps a little too quickly! Allegedly the shortage was simply due to there not being enough stock, and it’s kind of a “false sellout.” Still, it looks like the Surface is here to stay.

9. Android Takes iOS in US 

Perhaps Apple doesn’t have the stranglehold over the US everyone thought? Despite reports in the beginning of the year, Android has now taken over the top spot over Apple at 49.9 to 45.9 percent sales. Naturally, this could change at any point.

10. Google to Open Stores

Not content with owning the Internet, Google now wants to open physical stores around the world. However, some fear the company is biting off more than it can chew, and they should stick with what works for them.

Did we miss any big news from February? Let us know in the comments!

From March 18 we’ll be rolling out enhancements to the Handset Detection schema and re-jigging many of the device profiles.

Firstly, we’ll be adding HTML5 and CSS3 attributes into our device database – Yay ! We’ve had this on the radar for a while now, so we’re really happy to be shipping this enhancement. The fields will be hd_specs.general_browser_html5 and hd_specs.general_browser_css3. Each field will contain an array of features supported by this device. We’ll also be adding hd_specs.general_browser_csspixelratio for high-res and retina displays.

Secondly, we’ll be re-jigging many popular handset profiles to do a better job of breaking out raw handset model information. For example, currently we roll all the information for the Samsung Galaxy S3 into one profile, and in that profile we keep all the various different model numbers (Samsung sch-i939, Samsung GT-I9300, Samsung GT-I9308, Samsung SCH-i535, Samsung SGH-I747, Samsung SCH-R530, Samsung SPH-L710, T-Mobile Galaxy S III, SGH-T999, SGH-T999v, SHV-E210s, SHW-M440s, shv-e210k, shv-e210l) and the specs associated with that handset family. However this approach makes it difficult to separate out each model. So we’ll be changing that up to make finer grained detection possible by creating new profiles for each model. The current field hd_specs.general_aliases will become the retail name(s) of the device, in this case ‘Samsung Galaxy S3′ and hd_specs.general_model will become the manufacturer’s model name. Note : Multiple device profiles may now may share the same hd_specs.general_aliases field.

Got any ideas for enhancements or updates ? Let us know in the comments.

Thanks & Happy Detecting

Sometimes you just need to pop the clutch and take control yourself ! So, without further ado let me introduce Manual Override. Manual Override lets you disable Express Device Detection manually. Its super easy to use, you’ll be hip to the jive in seconds. Here’s how it works: 1) Check the Manual Override box on your Site Profile. 2) Add &expressredirect=false to your URL and presto like magic no redirection will take place :) .

This is super handy when you’re integrating a website link into a mobile app or when you want finer grained control over the redirection process.

There’s a mini write-up on the Express Device Detection – Advanced Uses page.

Happy Detecting