The Mobile Spoon - Smartphones, iPhone, Android, Windows Phone

Mobile in the enterprise – Infographic by ClickSoftware

noreply@blogger.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 22:32:00 +0000

Check out ClickSoftware's latest infographic about workforce preferences, ROI statistics, and more than a dozen other facts about mobility in the enterprise.

How strong is the BYOD trend? What are the top 3 barriers to BYOD? Is Laptop still considered to be a mobile device? Mobility in the cloud, the role of tablets and much more – all included in this beautiful Infographic (click on the image to see the entire set).

10 useful iPhone tips you may or may not know about

noreply@blogger.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 22:59:00 +0000

I was sitting with some friends the other day, comparing smartphones (you know the "My Android is OPEN" vs. "my iPhone LOOKS BETTER" kind of pointless discussions), when it occurred to me that most of the iPhone owners were not aware of some cool hidden tricks that were recently added.

I decided to summarize some of the things I know of, I'm sure there are more, but hey, we need to start with something, right?

So here are 10 useful iPhone tips & tricks you may of may not know about:

Do more with your iPhone Calendar:

Tip #1: Switch to landscape mode and get a weekly calendar view

Yep, I bet you didn't know about this one; Open your calendar, rotate your phone to landscape mode, and you will be able to view 3-4 days in one snapshot. Oh, and BTW, you can also use finger gestures to navigate between days in case you haven't found this one yet.

Tip #2: Create new calendar events quickly using a long finger touch

I always hated the way iPhone's calendar lets you add new meetings: you need to click on the plus button, then select the date, time, details, it's painful.

Recently I discovered (and maybe it was there all along) that if I touch a certain time slot for more than 2 seconds – it creates an event on the fly. You can even drag & drop it all over your calendar, resize, change day. This is the fastest way to create new meetings, events, or reminders using the calendar. Great stuff isn't it?

Few cool tricks to do more with your camera and pictures

Tip 3#: Open your camera without unlocking your iPhone

Yep, that's now doable with iOS5: just double click your home button and you will see a small camera button. Click it, and you will get into the camera. This one is a basic one I'm sure most of you are already familiar with.

Tip #4: Use the 'Volume Up' button to take a picture

Clicking the camera's virtual shutter button in the middle of the screen is hard, especially when you are trying to focus on the moment you are trying to document without moving… I always hated the fact there is no real physical button for the iPhone camera.

Well, now there is; the Volume Up button acts as the camera shutter. It makes the entire experience of taking pictures with your iPhone feel much more… well… normal (as it should have been 3 years ago to be honest).

Tip #5: Slide right to switch from camera to pictures

When using the camera, you can now easily slide your finger to the right in order to skip directly to your pictures folders.

Tip #6: Do more with your pictures

The default pictures app was kind of basic in the past. This is why there are so many pictures apps in the AppStore. In iOS 5, there's a collection of nice improvements added to the pictures app: you can now create folders on the fly, directly from your iPhone, and multiple copy images from one folder to another.

More importantly; you can modify existing pictures (rotate them, cancel red-eyes, crop your pictures, etc.) without having to download 3rd party apps for that.

Other tricks worth mentioning

Tip #7: Modify the phone volume directly from the lock-screen

iOS 5 added some new capabilities to the iPhone lock-screen: notifications, quick access to the camera, and one additional thing not many people are aware of:

When you double click your home button – it shows the lock screen with two additional elements: camera button (opens the camera directly, without unlocking the phone), and volume bar. The volume bar is there in order to allow easy, accessible way to change the volume without unlocking the phone. You can use either the volume buttons on the left side or slide your finger in the slider. Either ways it means you do not need to unlock your iPhone to tune the volume.

Tip #8: Place a folder with your favorite apps in the iPhone's dock

Folders are great, but what most people need is a way to have more apps accessible from everywhere (meaning: from the dock panel in the bottom of each page). If you try to drag one app onto another app located in the bottom dock area (where those fixed shortcuts are located) you will notice you can't create a folder over there in the same manner you can create them in other places.

It's as if Apple blocked the way to place folders in the dock area. The good thing is that there's a workaround for this limitation: you can create your folder somewhere else and then drag the entire folder to the dock area. The end result is that you can create folders and place them in the dock area, where they will be accessible all the time and from any page.

Is that cool, sexy, shocking, eye-opening, all at the same time or what?

Tip #9: Deleting a single SMS message without deleting the entire thread

Let's say your wife or girlfriend sends you messages with some dirty stuff (never had it). And let's say your phone is used for work, ending up reaching the wrong hands at the wrong time (say, even your boss. Not that I ever experienced this situation). You want to delete some messages, but you don't want to remove the entire thread (it's nice to have it in your recent threads as a shortcut). With iOS 5 you can now click the 'Edit' button (when inside the thread) and select the messages you wish to delete.

No no, don't thank me… this is what I'm here for. If I won't do it – who will?
Oh, you insist? in that case – go up, retweet this article and show us some love!

Tip #10: Type faster using your own shortcuts

Typing email addresses (when you register or log-in to apps or sites) is a pain. With iOS new custom shortcuts you can now make this process much more simple using your own shortcuts.

Suffer from a long email address like I do (try 'Gil.Bouhnick'… it's long!)? Now you can create a shortcut so that typing 'gil.b' will auto-complete the entire email address.

Of course you can use shortcuts for other phrases as well and not just emails and url's, which makes this feature great for faster typing from your phone.

That's it for this one. If you have any additional tip you believe most people haven't discovered yet – please share it with the rest of us. More tips coming soon.

Technorati Tags: iOS,iOS 5,iPhone,iPhone Tweak

DraftCraft - an elegant app for blogging from your iPad

noreply@blogger.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 22:56:00 +0000

Hello everybody!
This is a test done by an app I just purchased called DraftCraft.

It's a clean, elegant blogging app that allows you to easily manage your drafts, review and rate them, and update them on the move.

I've been looking for a blogging app for a long while now. Non of them work for me when I'm with my iPad. This one looks better although I already found that the spellcheck feature doesn't work here (just the auto-correct).

The app allows you to add your tags and labels, place images, and save your drafts locally or publish them once they are ready. Lovely!

Capabilities:
Ok, so first of all, you can set a text to be bold... As I just did.
Secondly, you can place an image.

Modifying the images is not yet supported. Hopefully this feature will be added soon.

What about links? Well, as this is my first post with this app, how about we give it a try?
http://www.mobilespoon.net/
Working? Well, you tell me...
There is also a way to mark some text as a link. Let's try it out: the mobile spoon.
Cool!

One thing I already noticed is that the app crashes too frequent. 4-5 times already is a lot. After all, I'm just writing this sort post as a test, nothing more... The good thing, though, is that most changes are saved even if the app shuts down.

Well, that's it for this short review. Cute app, it costs $3.99, and still misses some basic stuff, but definitely has a great potential. I think I will keep it. (well, i already paid for it...)

Posted via DraftCraft app

5 reasons why you shouldn't be checking your emails all day long

noreply@blogger.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 22:34:00 +0000

Emails have become an integral part of both our work and personal life. We respond to emails no matter where we are or what we are doing; shopping, going out, shepherding, taking care of our kids, watching TV, working out at the gym, etc. The emails are just there, jumping all over us, waking up our sleepy smartphones, turning on the screen (or any other visual indication), playing those well-known sounds, and we simply cannot restrain ourselves from taking a peek.

A small peek, and then a short reply, nothing serious, then another one, and another one…

It's an addiction.

And most of us are addicted: 70% of employees with smartphones regularly check their emails outside of normal business hours. 43% of employees use their smartphone emails to ease their workload for the following business day.

The problem is that emails have slowly changed from memos into one giant, endless, time-wasting chat which is done with just about everyone including customers, colleagues, bosses.

Here are 5 reasons why you shouldn't read your emails when you are not working:

1. Because you deserve a real break

Sure, it's just email, it's not real work. It's short, you just finish that sentence and then you are free again. Until the next email, that is…

Emails are one of our biggest distracters during the working hours. They encourage chatty discussions over short, efficient, focused decisions. They distract our minds, they make us switch our context frequently.

THEY ARE OUR PRODUCTIVITY ENEMIES!!! (OK, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit…)

The same goes with our personal life. Breaks are important. Spending time with the family, quality time with the kids, hanging out with our friends, neighbors, greengrocer, whatever – those things are important and should not be distracted by an email.

The problem gets even worse when receiving an annoying email that might piss you off exactly when you are trying to have some fun. It takes a second to become upset about an incoming email. It will take minutes (or even hours) before you forget about it.

2. Because of the people surrounding you

They deserve better than seeing you fading away to your smartphone, trying to understand the meaning of the email you just received. It's never fun to be with a person who gets distracted every few minutes. You hate it when people are doing it to you, they hate it too…

It's bad for relationships. It's a bad example of restlessness to your kids. It's bad.

3. Because it's not as efficient as it seems

Reading long email is hard when it's done from a smartphone. Typing is slow (and might have embarrassing typos, especially if you do it while working out at the gym – the fingers tend to be shaky when working out…). Many attachments or links cannot be viewed properly. It can sometimes take the sting out of the bite; you know you have to do something, you know you just can't do it now, but it keeps bugging you.

Reading emails without being able to properly respond from your mobile is annoying, and many times those emails get lost in your growing inbox as you might accidently think you already handled them. After all, they are in "read" status, right?

4. Because of your boss

Being able to respond to incoming emails during your non-working time turns you into a working beast. Every time they need you – you are there - for the rescue! Regardless to the timezone, day of week, holidays. You might even get some positive credit for being so responsive (at first at least).

You are there, ready to add your two cents, ready to respond to a customer asking about something, ready to solve that technical problem. It's great. But it also creates expectations.

Ah… Expectations. What a great word. But a problematic one as well.

If the business you are into is global, and you are answering emails all day long, then the expectations are that you keep on doing so. Before you know it, people will start scheduling meetings during your evening, days off, etc. calling you 24/7. After all – they need you.

Oh, and if for some reason you didn't reply – they might get disappointed.

Your boss BTW, will too. After all - he is, just like you, answering his email when he is not supposed to, and as your boss, half of his emails end up becoming YOUR action items…

5. Because of your career

99% of the emails are tactical/operational ones: issues, red flags, questions, ongoing threads.

Dealing with emails during your free time means your brain keeps dealing with those short term issues instead of getting some rest. Most innovations come when you least expect them to, when your brain is free to think outside the box, not when you are thinking how to respond to a question asked by one of your colleagues or customers.

To innovate, and come up with fresh ideas, you need to free up some cells and clean your head from repeating distractions.

Convinced?

Need help getting over it?

Don't worry.

The Mobile Spoon is here for you. Stay tuned for our second part of this one, where we will try to address some useful tips to get over the emails addiction.

MobileSpoon Recommends: Woody Woodpecker Game For iOS [iPhone, iPad]

noreply@blogger.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 20:36:00 +0000

My dad recently bought an iPad. He was never afraid of new technologies but smartphones were never something he looked for. The iPad is a different story though. The size, the internet browsing, the classic advantages. He and my mom are downloading games, apps, calling us to make FaceTime calls with the kids and it seems like they really enjoy it.

Still, every time we meet I need to teach them how to operate the emails, calendar, or relatively complicated apps they download.

This weekend, my dad showed me something for a change (how cool is that?); a really cool game he downloaded: Woody Woodpecker.

The game is a race where you need to tune your speed by jumping between valleys. It's simple, short, requires little fingers acrobatics – just the kind of games I like for my iPhone/iPad. The graphics are great, the UI is perfect. I love it!

Oh, forgot to mention you get to play with all the famous characters. Which is another plus for this game.

So head over to the iOS AppStore and look for the game: Woody Woodpecker.
The game costs $0.99 and believe me – you will like it. There's an iPhone version and iPad (HD) version as well.

Free App Alert: Get Cheap Car Insurance

noreply@blogger.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 20:04:00 +0000

[Guest Post]

There’s nothing better than finding out a quicker way of doing something that you really don’t enjoy, especially if it can also save a bit of money in the process.
Take buying car insurance, for example. Nobody likes the annual hassle of trying to get a good deal.

Car insurance comparison sites like Moneysupermarket have made the whole process easier by allowing motorists to head to one site to get a comprehensive list of quotes from a variety of different insurance companies. And now Moneysupermarket have brought out the first car insurance comparison app to be launched in the UK.
The car insurance app is free and even though it is initially only available for iPhone users, is expected to be out for Android phones soon. The app is a doddle to use and could see drivers pocket themselves average car insurance savings of £375

Simply put in your details and then access an array of quotes within seconds. Then you can either ‘click to call’ insurers or just complete the transaction on the spot. The whole process of getting car insurance can be over and done with for another year in a matter of minutes.
“The cost of running a car has been increasing markedly over the last few years, with petrol prices on the up and car insurance a yearly necessity for all drivers,” said Moneysupermarket’s Julie Fisher.

“People are naturally keen to take action, and shop around to switch to the best possible car insurance deal. The launch of the Moneysupermarket car insurance app has made it even easier for people to find the right car cover for the best possible price – allowing people to compare a huge range of quotes quickly and easily – anytime, anywhere.”

* Image courtesy of moneysupermarket

How would you call your next Android phone model?

noreply@blogger.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 23:34:00 +0000

With so many Android models being released so frequent, it's really hard to keep up with the different model names.

In fact, except for Samsung, which is doing a fairly good job in promoting the Galaxy brand, all the other model names always sound similar, as if they were taken from another disappointing Transformers movie:

Incredible, Legend, Dream, Optimus, Transformer, Magic, Plus, Pro, Prime and so on. Those are all great names, but they sound the same, which is probably a bad thing for the companies who selected them.

Here's an idea: how about calling HTC's next device: HTC FAIR?
Like saying: "it's a fair model, fair price, fair design. It's fair."

Or maybe: LG Passable?
Like saying: "Hey, it's not the Galaxy S2, but it's enough for most of you people…".

LG Marketing team, HTC Product Strategy Group – there's more where it came from – I'm easy to find.

Back to our topic. Here's a site that took the Android phone names seriously and decided to do something to help all of those phones manufacturers in the process of picking the names for their products.

Head over to Android Phone Name Generator, and start playing with the model names that were not released yet.

Enjoy!

The Mobile Spoon Summarizes 2011. Is It Possible That Nothing Has Changed?

noreply@blogger.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 17:15:00 +0000

2011 is officially over, and boy, was that a crazy year or what?
Well, actually, despite of all the action, if you think about it – nothing has really changed this year. The winners are still winning, the losers are still losing.

The winners:

Samsung Galaxy – HTC? Motorola? LG? Nokia? Give Samsung a break. 2012 was the year of the Galaxy. A number of amazing models that placed Samsung at the top of the phones manufacturers pyramid.
Google Android - climbing to new heights in terms of sales and activations per day, but despite of all the success, Google is still looking for a bit of personality to its' successful robot, re-inventing the user interface every few months.
Apple iOS – iPhone 4S is disappointing? iOS 5 failed to innovate? Who cares. Users are happier than ever, Siri rocks, and iPad continues to be the undisputed king. On the other hand, the momentum is constantly slowing down; Apple lost Steve Jobs, the stock is not as happy as usual, and iOS is officially the oldest mobile OS in today's market.
Amazon Kindle Fire – sales are rocketing, the Fire seems to be the first true competitor to the iPad. 2012 could become the year of Amazon in mobility. On the other hand, I heard about more people who returned the Kindle Fire saying it's a crappy device than people that are actually happy with it…

The Losers:

RIM BlackBerry – it's hard to believe how RIM, once one of the most successful companies in the world is impotently surrendering without a fight. Try one of RIM's latest BlackBerry devices and you will understand why analysts are not giving RIM a lot of hope.
Microsoft Windows Phone 7 – year after year I'm writing about Microsoft's failing mobile products. I actually bought a Windows Phone 7 devices, I even like it a lot. I'm all in favor of Metro UI, yet it took me 6-7 months and then I went back using an iPhone. The apps, the user experience, the possibilities… Microsoft still has a long way to go.

The Tragic Hero:

Palm's webOS – I'm thinking of all the ups and downs webOS had this year,and I cannot help myself from thinking about the engineers who built webOS and how they must feel about it. A brilliant piece of work that never had a chance to make it in this cruel world.

So you see? 2011 had so much activity, and yet nothing has really changed.

Here's 2011 as it was presented here at the mobile spoon:

December, 2011

iPhone 5 rumors emerge once again. Feels like we've been there already: new design, bigger screen, new materials, different back-cover… talk about a Déjà Vu!
HP announces that WebOS would be available as an open-source project. Yet another zigzag by HP.
Android activations reach 700,000 per day.
It doesn't change the fact consumers and developers prefer iOS over Android.
Microsoft continues to fail in smartphones sales.

November, 2011
RIM continues to decline and seems to be loosing the enterprise world too. Android is still doing great, but is being considered to be "too risky" for the enterprise webOS continues to look for a new home Motorola Razr is making an official comeback with a legendary model. Flash is officially dead for mobile. HTML5 is the new way to go.

	October, 2011
	iPhone 5 turns out to be iPhone 4S. What about all the rumors? Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) is officially released. Targeted to challenge iPad's dominance in the tablets world. BlackBerry devices stop synchronizing for 3 days. iPad surpasses netbooks sales Steve Jobs dies

September, 2011
Amazon reveals its' new Kindle Fire. The first HTML5-based App store is released Microsoft reveals Windows 8. It's going to kick ass, but will it be sufficient to compete with iPad? We think of 3 possible scenarios. Regardless to the growing competition, 90% of tablets users are interested in iPads. Mobile Spoon finally reveals what is the most popular smartphone in the world

	August, 2011
	HP TouchPad is sold out. Did HP find a winning formula? Nope, they actually decide to dump all webOS products and sell its' Personal Systems Group. Mobile patents war crosses a few red lines We explain why Android smartphones are just like Tamagotchi

July, 2011
First WP7 Mango devices show up. Will Mango be a game changer for Microsoft? Users are happier with iPhone and Windows Phone, than with Android. It doesn't help Microsoft, that is still making more money out of Android than it does out of WP7…

	June, 2011
	iOS 5 is announced – is it a lame catch-up or a final blow to competition? Android continues to rage, 500,000 activations per day. Windows Phone barely exists… Android vs. iOS, the apps comparison shows Android Market full of crappy apps.

May, 2011
BlackBerry. Chronicle of a death foretold? WP7 sales look very bad. It doesn't change Microsoft's decision to bring Metro UI to windows 8. HP's webOS sales look very bad too. Modu is making a comeback in the shape of a WebTop.

	April, 2011
	The world is in shock – Apple and Google are collecting our information! iPhone products generate more revenue than entire Google. Studying UI - How can user interface change the way you hold your smartphone? Mobile Spoon Predicts: By 2013, Html5 Will Rule Enterprise Mobility

March, 2011
Google is tired of low quality devices manufacturer, ruining the Android code – does not release Android 3 as an open source NFC is here The Mobile Spoon App is available in Windows Phone 7 MarketPlace

	February, 2011
	Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) is released, targeted to challenge iPad's domination in the tablets world. (Didn't I just said that?) Android activations per day reach 400,000!
	Palm/HP is back! TouchPad, Pre3, and Veer are announced. Is there still hope for webOS? Windows Mobile future is a bit blurred…

January, 2011
RIM's decline seems inevitable: even Windows Phone 7 is considered to be more attractive than BlackBerry. iPhone 5 rumors begin; new design, bigger screen, new materials, different back-cover… talk about a Déjà Vu!

What a year! So much action, yet so little have changed.

Here are some of the most popular articles of 2011:

2011 is officially over now. Thank you all for reading the mobile spoon. See you all next year!

Happy new year,

Gil Bouhnick, The Mobile Spoon.

How to push your RSS Feeds to your Notification Center using Push? [iPhone]

noreply@blogger.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 22:06:00 +0000

As part of my attempts to turn my iPhone Notification Center into a all-in-one productivity tool, I spent some time looking for a News Reader with Push Notifications.

My requirements were fairly straightforward:

An iPhone RSS Reader App, with Google Reader support, and Push Notifications.

Let's write it one more time (mainly for SEO's purposes and my personal fun):

RSS Feeds with Push Notifications, and Google Reader support for iPhone!

I tried many great RSS Readers, but most of them do not support Push Notifications. The reason is that in order to have Push Notifications the application needs to have a dedicated server, and that design typically conflicts with the simple RSS engine approach.

Focusing on the push capabilities, I managed to find a few nice RSS Reader apps with push capabilities. I actually purchased them for the sake of the research, (and got very disappointed from some of them) – but eventually I found the winning one!

RSS2Push – Disqualified.

A free app that allows you to manually subscribe to RSS feeds. I've tested it for a while, and the push does work for the RSS Feed, however, the app is limited to only one site subscription! (What's that?) It says something about a full version available in the AppStore, but no details are given as to how to get it… brrr… that was enough for me to disqualify this option. Next please…

FeedRunner – The Crashing One

Did you ever purchase an app just to find out it doesn't work? I just did. And – I paid good money for it too ($2.99?? that's much more than $1.99!). FeedRunner looks great in pictures, I was positive that would be my winning app. The only problem is – it crashes all the time (5 seconds after loading to be more accurate). How bad is it? It cannot be used. The crashes are consistent, the app is currently not working (for me at least, I'm sure the developers will fix it soon).
For now, FeedRunner wins the doubtful category of "the crashing one".

BlogKeen – Almost?

BlogKeen is another app for reading news and RSS feeds. It has a great user interface and it works well. It lets you configure "push notifications" for certain feeds, however – you cannot view them in your Notification Center (only lock screen is supported).
Besides that limitation, I think BlogKeen (free app) is a solid RSS Reader with some cool additions too, but there are better news readers out there with more sophisticated features. As I was looking to the complete push experience and this app doesn't show the pushed messages in the Notification Center – it is still lacking.

Feed Push – Good Enough (and free!)

Feed Push is a free app that lets you import specific sites from your Google Reader and set them to a "push" mode. It's working for the most parts, unfortunately the push itself is a bit clunky. The UI is not the strongest side of this app, but at least you can manage your subscriptions in a nice manner.

I am still testing this app, I like it, but something is not perfect with it. For now, Feed Push is almost the best one in my list, with a good potential to become the champion in one of the next releases. It's free, so you should give it a shot.

BoxCar – The Interesting One

BoxCar is a well known iPhone app. It lets you subscribe to a huge list of services and get notified via push notifications whenever something changes in one of those services. It's an all-included Push machine, and it looks like a killer app.

Unfortunately for my humble needs (following some RSS Feeds using push) it never worked. I subscribed to a variety of blogs and got no push notification…
Still, I recommend checking out BoxCar (it's a free app) – you may find one of the included services to be useful.

You can read more about BoxCar for iPhone in here: Boxcar 2.0 Is A Must-Have For the iPhone. It's The Best Push Notification App Yet.

Push Reader – The champ

Push Reader for iPhone is the best RSS Reader with Google Reader integration and fully configurable Push Notifications.

Yes, I know, the UI is not perfect, and you cannot see thumbnails of the images in those RSS lists. You can definitely find better RSS Readers. However, as I was looking for a way to get those RSS notifications to my lock screen and notification center, almost in real-time – this app gives the best value for money (and it does cost $1.99).

You can define when will the push mechanism work (and define a "night mode" when you are sleeping) and you can import all of your Google Reader subscriptions and select only few ones to be pushed to you.

The app still has some areas to improve, but for this list of RSS Readers with Push Notifications capabilities – Push Reader is the champion.

Terms you may have been looking for:

How to push RSS Feeds to your iPhone, RSS feeds in notification Center, How to push RSS feeds? Push Notifications with Google Reader, Google Reader RSS in Notification Center

Technorati Tags: iPhone App,Push Notifications,iOS 5,Notification Center

Who's Afraid of Siri?

noreply@blogger.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 23:06:00 +0000

Happy holidays season! Here's a great video to celebrate those great holidays, by RoosterTeeth.

Enjoy!

Android, iOS, Windows Phone, Smartphones war by the numbers

noreply@blogger.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 20:40:00 +0000

700,000 Android devices are activated every day. Got that? 700,000 more people every day are using Android!

As a comparison;

iOS has 275,000 activations per day,
Windows Phone 7 has something like 29 activations per day (oh wait, actually it's 29 activations every week, not day… sorry…)

What an amazing momentum: half a year ago the numbers stood on 400,000. In June it went up to 500,000 and in July it was 550,000.

However, when taking into considerations some other statistics from the mobile world…

Here are the real numbers:

Every day, 350,000 people around the globe are making a small decision that will make them unhappy.
210,000 confused consumers go back to their mobile store every day asking for a real iPhone.
Summarizing Android, iOS, BlackBerry - there are 1 million smartphones operating systems activated daily (that's 1,000,029 if you include Windows Phone 7 as well).

Having fun? Here are some more:

AT&T is selling 100,000 new smartphones every day
Samsung broke its' own record selling 300 million mobile phones (not just smartphones) during 2011. Average of over 800,000 units per day. (source)

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Want to see Siri plays the piano? You don't? Oh, stop it! You know you do!

noreply@blogger.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 19:24:00 +0000

Cool? Weird? Stupid? People are so obsessed with that Siri stuff, and it just doesn't stop.

Here's Siri playing the piano… Yep, I kind of feel silly to even write it.., but that's what it does… here's the video if you do not believe me.

Click here if you are interested to understand how this is working…

Is there a real future for Windows Phone 7?

noreply@blogger.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 20:52:00 +0000

Few years ago, Microsoft was still under the impression that Windows Mobile can be sufficient for consumers' need to have a powerful smartphone in their pockets. It was a tragic mistake.

Then iPhone was released (followed by Android) and Microsoft realized that Windows Mobile will never be a match. In a very late step, Microsoft re-developed a completely new operating system. One that is all about smartphones: small screen, small devices, minimalistic design (Metro UI) – exactly what a smartphone needs. Nothing more, nothing less.

The rest of the world belongs to Windows.

But guess what? While Microsoft was celebrating its' return to the mobile world, came Apple and once again shook things up, and proved that Microsoft is still 3 years behind…

iPad was released, expanding the term "mobile" beyond smartphones, inventing the next generation of tablets, and guess what: it had nothing to do with Windows, laptops, netbooks and the likes.

Once again, Microsoft found itself far behind: there are over 100 models of Android tablets out there today. iPad is a selling beast, Kindle Fire joins the party, and where is Microsoft?
Still trying to figure out the smartphones market with Windows Phone 7.

Windows 8 should be the answer to the tablets world, and a damn good answer if you ask me.

The problem is timing, which doesn't look good (end of 2012?). Another problem is consistency; If you own an iPhone, you are half way to get an iPad: you already find your way around, you know the apps, you know the platform, you are probably happy with it. And then the opportunity comes and you get yourself an iPad. It's as simple as that.
Microsoft wishes to create that consistency using the Metro UI, but at the moment it seems too little and a bit too risky (not everyone likes Metro, and it's definitely doesn't seem like the reason for people to switch to Windows 8 tablets or Windows Phone 7).

OK, so now what?

What can Microsoft do in order to change the balance of power?

Based on a mixture of official roadmap presentations, some rumors, and internal changes done inside Microsoft, it seems like there is going to be some changes involving Windows 8:

Microsoft understands the right strategy should be to combine platforms, join forces.
They call it Unified Ecosystem.
Recent changes inside the Windows Phone division in the company seems to confirm that this is indeed a possible direction. Here's a terrifying scenario (for WP7 owner, that is):

"One possibility is that the “new” Windows 8-based phone operating system cuts loose the current platform and is a second reboot of Microsoft’s smartphone strategy. Such a move would burn some consumers and, more significantly, the many developers who have taken the plunge with Microsoft’s smartphone platform.

Redmond has already made one major smartphone transition—Windows Phone is wholly incompatible with Windows Mobile, leaving developers for that platform with no migration route—and making a second such move would squander the good will that the company has built up. It would be extraordinarily dangerous, especially if the current platform does start to pick up steam as the Nokia partnership starts to yield fruit." (Read the rest of this article)

According to Mary-Jo Foley:

"Microsoft is believed to be swapping out the Windows Embedded Compact core in Windows Phone for a Windows-based (MinWin) one in order to more closely align the two platforms, and to give developers a single, unified platform to which they can code. That change could happen as early as mid- to fall-2012 when Microsoft is expected to launch Windows Phone 8, which will run an operating system codenamed “Apollo.”

Windows 8 based smartphones? Tablets based on Windows Phone 7? I guess the first option more likely to happen, eventually.

That is, unless something extremely unexpected happens with the Microsoft / Nokia partnership. Something that will boost things up for Windows Phone and convince Microsoft to continue investing in it.

So far it doesn't look that promising for Nokia and Microsoft, and although there are some funny reports by some Windows Phone 7 fan-blogs talking about so called impressive quarterly sales, looking closely at those numbers shows that the quarterly numbers can almost match with Android's sales per… day…

Talk about perspective…

On a personal note – I'm a huge fan of Windows Phone. I loved it from the first day I laid my hands on it, (well, actually maybe from the second week… took me a while to get used to it).

Still, talking about my "loyalty" to WP7, I do find it a bit disturbing that I say so many good things about Windows Phone while still using an iPhone…

How to make your iPhone logo glow like a MacBook

noreply@blogger.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 06:26:00 +0000

It seems like a natural addition to every iPhone, isn't it? Making the Apple logo glow just like any MacBook cover. Still, this cool addition did not come form Apple (Although we have seen Apple protects it against companies that tried to sell such covers – so maybe it is coming in the future?). Anyways, here is a short video explaining how to build your own glowing Apple logo in your iPhone. No guarantee your phone will still be functional afterwards, of course…

Off-topic: Tribute to Wonder Woman

noreply@blogger.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 13:22:00 +0000

My kid is going through a "superheroes phase" claiming he is the real Spiderman, I'm Batman, his 1 year old brother is the Incredible Hulk, and his mom is… Wonder Woman…

Remember Wonder Woman? I'm sure you somehow relate this character with some stage of your youth. I used to watch the TV series as a kid.
She was impressive, beautiful, strong, quick, sharp, unstoppable – right?

Well, wait until you see this video (below)…
Things were probably a bit different back then; the human eye must have been moving slower, it didn't notice unreliable acting or bad quality actors. For some reason we believed those bad guys were actually trying to run away by…walking away?

Well, one thing haven't changed – and that is the fact that Lynda Carter was HOT.
(but slow! she moves soooo slooooooow!).

BTW, there is supposed to be a new version of Wonder Woman in a film which according to IMDB will be released around 2015.

Kindle Fire Actual Sales Numbers Shows an iPad Problem

noreply@blogger.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 13:03:00 +0000

Analysts predict that the Kindle will grab half of Android tablet market in 2012. This is huge in terms of market share and will make Amazon the leader of the the Android tablets arena.

(and if my prediction will indeed happen, a leader in the entire tablets industry).

Forrester analyst Sarah Rotman Epps expects to see 5 million Kindle Fire tablets sold this year.

But what about actual numbers?
(I would assume that if you follow me on twitter you would see them!)

Amazon do not typically exposes sales numbers but recently the company released the following press release indicating more than 3 million Kindle devices (notice they do not say what devices so it's probably all of the Kindle models including the Black & White ones) were sold in the last 3 weeks in a rate of 1 million Kindles per week! Numbers that if will remain, will help Kindle bypass all other tablets including… (horror sound effects)… the iPad…

Convinced that the Kindle Fire is your next tablet of choice?

I must admit I still have my doubts…

Read more in here:

Will Kindle Fire turn Android into the leading tablet OS?

Kindle Fire Will Grab Half of the Android Tablet Market, Analyst Predicts

Kindle Fire sales forecasts: 5M by end of year

Kindle Fire Singes iPad Sales; iPhone More Than Offsets

Mobile Spoon predicts: By mid 2012, Android will lead tablets market

Consumers prefer iOS over Android, developers too…

noreply@blogger.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 23:01:00 +0000

Consumers prefer iOS over Android (yes, I know Android sells more, but believe me, it's all a matter of price, contracts, nothing more), and now we learn that developers prefer iOS as well.

According to Flurry Analytics, (never heard of them, did you?), 75% of all mobile software startups choose iOS (up from 63% in Q1, 2011).

The main reason is fragmentation. Understandable.

As the company I work for develops HTML5-based mobile applications, we have seen this fragmentation problem even in a browser-based application, where you would assume that the environment (Android Browser) should be fairly stable. But no, every different Android device has differences in the core operating system and also in the browser behavior. Examples vary between buggy keyboard behavior in Samsung devices to slightly different touch quality between devices which are felt well when implementing drawing tools, and other unexpected issues.

Android is a great platform, everyone agrees, but the number different versions of it is so bad for the ecosystem and developers are the first ones to know it.

Free App Alert: Photos Wall For iPhone

noreply@blogger.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 00:10:00 +0000

Photos Wall is a sweet little app that lets you place up to 10 pictures in one canvas and design their layouts based on predefined templates or a free style layout which can be edited manually.

It's cool. It is well made.
Perfect for pathetic parents like me who keep taking boring pictures of their kids and show them to poor people they run across.

Here are some screen samples:

10 Weirdest iPhone Cases You Should Definitely Try (Or Not…)

noreply@blogger.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 00:30:00 +0000

So here's the deal: for many of us, true gadgets fans, the fact that you need to wrap your sexy looking iPhone with a dumb goofy case is a fashion disaster; We better see our phone slip away to its' miserable death than hanging out with this piece of dirt magnet, crappy condom, wrapping our beloved one.

So just for you, the ones that just can't stand the iPhone "bumpers" – here are some unusual iPhone cases you should try (or not…).

They are all, by the way, based on real (weird) products.

Enjoy!

10 Weirdest iPhone Cases You Should Definitely Try:

"Need a hand?" case

OK, this one isn't that weird actually, who wouldn't want to have a hand tied up to the back of his iPhone?

Brown wooden box

Great model, one known issue (which is documented in the product documentation) – no slide to unlock support…

Old-style iPhone case

Not sure that one will fit your pocket, but I'm pretty sure it will get people to stare at you.

Robotector – the only Android that will protect your iPhone…

Ear-case

Why ear you ask?

Why not? (Not sure I follow the question…)

Chocolate bar

OK, just because you didn't like the ear thing, here's something more conservative: Chocolate bar styled iPhone case. Looks yummy.

Gun-style Case

iPhone Case with Cute-little… Balls

What? Why do you laugh?

Haven't you ever seen balls before? Common, we all have them. Stop being childish…

It's a metaphor; like Apple is grabbing us all in the balls… You know?

Metaphor…

Oh god, what is that?

It's a dead snake swallowing an iPhone after he gave him a proper sting!

Cassette-style iPhone Box

How cool is this one? I just loved using cassettes when I was a kid. It was way before the CD came and ruined the challenge of skipping a song and trying go straight to the next song without too many trials…

The Winning Case

OK, that was fun, but there could only be one winner, and I think it would be fair to say the iPhone balls case is pretty much weird enough and certainly funny, so let's enjoy another moment of pure quality content, here, at the mobile spoon:

If you have other weird cases you would like to share with us – feel free to comment and add links.

If you are searching for the best iPhone deals, Broadband Genie compares the cheapest online.

Technorati Tags: iPhone,iPhone Cases,iPad Cases

Free App Alert: Minigore for iPhone

noreply@blogger.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 01:02:00 +0000

I rarely play shooting games but I saw somewhere some recommendations for a game called Minigore and decided to give it a try.

Minigore is mostly about walking around and kill bad guys that are becoming bigger and harder to kill as you progress. It is well developed with sounds, scenes, and graphics.

The nice thing about this game is that it is extremely easy to navigate using the virtual joystick, something I cannot really say about too many games.

In addition, the weapon sounds, the automatic shooting are just too cool to ignore.

So as this game has recently gone free for a limiter time, I recommend you give it a try. It's fun, and hey, this is why I'm writing about it straight from my iPhone, to be able to continue playing.

Enjoy!

Free App Alert: 10000+ Wallpapers HD for iPhone

noreply@blogger.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 13:16:00 +0000

Look out! Loads of pictures and wallpapers ahead of you!

The Mobile Spoon Recommend: 10000+ Wallpapers HD for iPhone.

I came across many wallpapers apps for iPhone, Windows Phone, and Android.

10000+ Wallpapers HD is probably the best iPhone app for getting tons of really cool wallpapers to your lockscreen and homescreen.

Why I like 10000+ Wallpapers HD for iPhone more than other apps?

It's fast (seriously fast)
It probably has the biggest 3D, art, and cute pictures collection which I like the most for using in the lockscreen
It has a simple UI that doesn't annoy you while you are working (trying to find the best images that is…)

Oh, and it's free.

So head over to the AppStore and start working on your wallpapers with 10000+ Wallpapers HD.

Here are some nice examples I picked while sniffing around…

iPhone 4S with Siri generates higher satisfaction rate than any previous iPhone model

noreply@blogger.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 12:40:00 +0000

iPhone and me:

When I first started using an iPhone (almost 4 years ago, talk about how time flies) I often thought to myself: "this technology is from out of space!". Coming from Windows Mobile and BlackBerry phones, the iPhone was different in each and every parameter: design, speed, sexiness, user interface, innovation, entertainment.

Time went by. I got used to most of the innovating features in iOS. Android took over, webOS was released, Windows Phone 7, they all ripped off many of the things no one ever thought about before Apple did, but in many cases they made those things even better. And, they didn't include that annoying "Apple-ness" many of us can't stand. People (and me included) forgot how this mobile era started. Just as a stupid yet good example: Remember how we used to scroll lists before the iPhone? With Windows-style Scroll-bar, using a stylus! Could you imagine how mobile scrolling would look like if it wasn't for the iPhone's scrolling gestures?

iPhone 4 was a low point for me: I didn't like the hardware design, the Antennagate pissed me off, the progress was not enough to describe it as "out of space" and I felt it's time to move on: I bought a Windows Phone 7 based Samsung Omnia, and I must say I really enjoy it. I tried some Android devices (except for one, none of them convinced me to switch over to the Android side), I even went back to BlackBerry for a short while (couldn't last… sorry RIM, you are done…). iPhone was history.

iPhone 4S:

Like most people, I was very disappointed to see iPhone 4S instead of iPhone 5. I was sure it is going to become Apple's first failure in the iOS period. It had no new design, it included some minor improvements in the CPU, camera and… yeah, it included that SIRI thing, no one could expect how well it will catch.

I was totally wrong.

Not only the phone sells like crazy, it seems like people loves it. iPhone 4S owners are satisfied with their phones much more than Android users for instance.

In fact, according to a recent survey by ChangeWave Research, the iPhone 4S has topped iPhone 4 in customer satisfaction:

That's 96% which are overall satisfied with their iPhone. Amazing numbers.

Customers ranked Siri voice-recognition system as their favorite feature. Seems like Apple managed to pull that one off once again. Siri seems like a winning feature. The battery life, however, seems like iPhone 4S's biggest pain at the moment. I wonder if it can be fixed in the software level…

Just for the record: when Apple released the iPhone, people made fun of it, comparing it to a rock, and other funny objects for not having multi-tasking, 3G support etc. When Apple came out with iPad – people made fun of it too, comparing it to a breadboard, rock, etc.

Why do we do that? Why do we continue to doubt Apple's ability to bring exactly what consumers are looking for? Nothing more, nothing less. Just the things that make people happy with their products. What an art.

Anyways, now I'm doubting whether I should switch back to iPhone or stick with my Omnia 7 for another year until the real iPhone 5 is released. Dilemma.

Read my first part of the mother of all comparisons: iOS 5 vs. WP7. I started a process, hopefully it will help me decide which one is better…

Thank you for your support!

noreply@blogger.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 20:05:00 +0000

Participating in an international contest is not something I often get to do, not to mention winning one!

This is why I was so surprised to find out I actually won the SUPERSTAR title (that's first place!) in the Mobile Star Award for category: Visionary In Enterprise Mobility Software.

So although it's a cliché, please allow me to say it just this once:

Gil Bouhnick, Awarded Visionary: Enterprise Mobile Software.

Thanks for everyone who took those 5 minutes to vote for me. I appreciate it.

The Mobile Star Awards were given to a list of companies and applications such as DropBox, Shazam, FourSquare, Skype, in the different consumer sections, and SOTI, AirWatch, Honeywell, Panasonic, and others. ClickSoftware, BTW, won 7 awards!

Check out the complete 2011 Mobile Star Awards™ Winners list.

Now, let's get back to work…

See you soon in my next mobile spoon post.

Get The Mobile Spoon straight to your email inbox

noreply@blogger.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 22:39:00 +0000

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Want to experience Windows Phone 7 from your iPhone? Check this one out!

noreply@blogger.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 21:03:00 +0000

iPhone is considered by many to be the prettiest smartphone with the nicest looking mobile operating system, but when I got my Windows Phone 7 device, about a year ago, I constantly got excited reactions from people looking at my phone, asking what is that, and how come this Samsung Galaxy looks completely different than what they are used to (of course it looks different stupid. It's a Samsung Omnia phone, running WP7).

You see, that's the thing about Windows Phone 7: many people have no clue what it is. Others think that it's the best looking operating system but it doesn't bring them to actually buy it.

Poor Microsoft, what else can it do to promote Windows Phone?

How about pushing the unique Metro UI to all other smartphones users? Give some proper exposure to it? Show iPhone owners what a real UI looks like? Why not I say.

iPhone/Android users: here's a link that will take you to a website demonstrating Windows Phone 7. Open the following link (aka.ms/wpdemo) directly from your phone and get excited with some Metro coolness.

BTW, the experience in the real phone is much MUCH MUCH better, so the demo actually doesn't do any good to WP7 (although it guides you through the basic apps which is very nice indeed).