New Cellular Phone | Specification and Features

Application for Dirty Pictures Deletes after Seconds

noreply@blogger.com (Irawan Wibisono) — Mon, 28 May 2012 16:31:00 +0000

Every celebrity needs to download this app. Snapchat for the iPhone lets you send all of the dirty, embarrassing, personal pictures you want – but the recipient only gets to view them for a few seconds.

You set the time limit for up to ten seconds; this is how long your recipient will have to take in all of the filthy goodness of your picture. After that, the photo deletes itself from the second phone forever (you’ll still have to remember to delete it from your own phone).

For tricksy texting buddies who try to take screen shots of the naughty pics, Snapchat has a built-in preventative. The app doesn’t allow the screen shot and notifies you so that you can scold the would-be cheater. The company behind the free app knows that adding barriers to poor behavior – like uploading an ex’s personal pics to a social networking site – can go a long way toward deterring some of that behavior. Of course, if you’re really worried about personal pics of you making their rounds online some day, the easy way to avoid it is to just not take them in the first place.

Sleeping With The Smartphone Makes Productivity and Life Balance Possible

noreply@blogger.com (Irawan Wibisono) — Sun, 27 May 2012 18:39:00 +0000

’ll admit I’ve been one of those people. You know, the ones who are a bit disoriented when they are away from the cellphone. You have to give me a break. Analytics requires internet access, so I have heard, and a multi-feature smartphone with hotspot capability has become the “Ernie” to my Macbook Pro’s “Bert.”

But as ‘bring your own device’ has spread and more professionals are looking to accomplish tasks while on the go, the methods organizations have learned to manage an always-on work environment, if not society, have been called into question. Rieva Lesonsky’s post on flextime is an example of how valuable work-life balance research has grown.

Extending the charge for new life balance is the new book Sleeping With The Smartphone: How to Break the 24/7 Habit and Change The Way You Work by Leslie A. Perlow. When I read my publisher copy, I could not help but realize how essential we need a rethink in professional availability. This brief book speaks to large business, but also works for small business networks that are emulating big business processes more by the day.

Break the Cycle of Responsiveness

Sleeping With The Smartphone opens with its first chapters examining Perlow’s experiment with Boston Consulting Group, a high demand advisory firm that serves global firms. The experiment was to have a few teams try Predictable Time Off (PTO), a specific schedule away from the regular team tasks. PTO “won’t solve all your problems.” Instead it “unlocks a more persuasive opening about work related and work life issues.” That openness, according to Perlow, can lead to better planning and discussions because issues surface that would otherwise be ignored.

PTO at first glance may not sound like breakthrough thinking. But the fact of the matter is that we can be so focused on managing “always on” devices and processes that basic “what-are-we-doing” conversations are overlooked. Perlow calls this focus “the cycle of responsiveness” – altering one’s time to meet the increased demand on their time. And I can say I am seeing this as much of a challenge for small business as it can be for the consulting profession Perlow examines. As the first half of the book covers the experience Boston Consulting Group, you will get to draw some of yourself from the experience.

So what were the results of the experiment? Perlow noted a comparison of teams, ones that embraced PTO and others that ignored it. In that comparison, several notable differences in attitude towards work and working together resulted – attitudes which, in real-life, would lead to teams better suited to address problems and solve them:
80 percent of those teams that embrace PTO report doing everything they can to be effective, compared with 42 percent of teams that dismiss PTO.
BCG individuals engaged in PTO were more likely to see themselves at the firm a long time and were more likely to perceive that they were providing significant value to their clients.

The results also imply a thought shift – teams felt more confident to take more beneficial risks. Thus, people are better able to consider more strategic ways that ultimately influenced how a business is run:

“…as it becomes evident that the work could still get done as well, and often better, people’s willingness to take risks with regard to issues they raised and attempted to address – both work and personal – further increased…leading to an evolution in what was “acceptable” to say and do.”

Workaholics or Successaholics?

That the question the second half makes a team answer, through its explanation and how-to implementation. For fostering communication, I felt the steps Perlow offers are as valuable for small business teams as well as corporate teams. Again there is no earth-shattering new concept – how to manage a team’s time – but the book provides a good arrangement of “what to do” in your team or organization.

The takeaways and implementation steps are useful:
How a team can form goals to support a common PTO schedule.
Pulse Check, a set of questions aimed at the team, is meant to push analytical people to go outside their comfort zone to describe how they feel.
Tips for effective facilitation of PTO are meant “when people most find it is hardest to make time for it.”
Avoid dilution of goals, ensuring that the team “buys into the system.”

All these chapters are linked with the author’s emphasis on a slow process in infusion, requiring champions to develop the right level of expectations for improving productivity. It reflects a wisdom of building trust which technological usage can make us forget easily.

Sleeping With Your Smartphone may not solve every challenge you face, but it will enlighten any team trying to sync among themselves while questioning the worthwhile of on-demand accessibility. To note Perlow’s coined successaholic question – Is on-demend accessibility really worthwhile or just a badge of honor? It’s up to you to decide. And you may still be one of “those” people – if so, welcome to the club, brother! But after reading this you’ll be more aware of your teammates conferenced on the smartphone who feel they can deliver your deliverable and still have a life.

Samsung Galaxy Nexus, Most Popular Android Phone

noreply@blogger.com (Irawan Wibisono) — Mon, 21 May 2012 19:29:00 +0000

Looking for a decent Android phone? Sure, we know the market will be completely different within a few months (or even weeks) but we wanted to know which Android devices you thought were the best right now, and the masses have spoken. Last week, we asked you to nominate the Android device you thought was the best on the market right now. Then we featured the top five Android phones, based on those nominations. Now we're back to highlight the overall winner.

The "Google Phone" itself, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, took the top spot with just over 39% of the vote. Behind it in second place with 23% of the vote is the Samsung Galaxy S Series, with many of you anticipating the announcement of the Galaxy S III as soon as this week. Hot on its heels in third place is the HTC One Series with 18% of the votes cast. In fourth place is the Samsung Galaxy Note, with 10% of the overall vote, and bringing up the rear is the venerable Droid by Motorola line of Android phones, with 9% of the votes cast.

Android, How To Use

noreply@blogger.com (Irawan Wibisono) — Mon, 21 May 2012 19:22:00 +0000

Android is awesome and powerful, but it has, shall we say, a learning curve. That scares some people away. After all, iOS is so intuitive that babies can use it. Literally. But you're not a baby.

Android may require a little effort to learn and set up, but you get a tangible return on that investment: A properly configured Android phone can get you the stuff you want faster and with less work than any other mobile operating system.

These tips will get you started exploring. Don't stop! Once you're comfortable with the basics, customizing your phone is actually kind of fun. Many of us fell in love with technology because the process of mastering it brought with it a sense of accomplishment. And once you get an Android phone tailored to your needs, you just might realize you don't want something that's all set up right out of the box—because nothing beats a custom fit.

The Most Basic Basics

• Most of you will be guided through the set-up process the first time you hit the power button. Don't skip it. Especially not the part where you add your Google account. If you missed it in the setup, just go to Settings > Accounts & Sync. Then decide what stuff you want to sync. I sync everything with my personal Google account, and then for my work account I just sync Gmail, Calendar, Contacts, and Docs.

• Once you're at the main screen, check out that little bar at the top; that's your notification window. Drag it down and you can see all of your incoming notifications (text messages, emails, calendar appointments, etc). If your phone is running Android 4.0 (aka Ice Cream Sandwich) or later, you can dismiss individual notifications by swiping them off with your finger.

• The app drawer is at the bottom of your screen. Tap it, and behold the icons for every app on your phone. That's essentially what the iOS home screen is (just a bunch of apps). Android goes a different direction, borrowing the desktop metaphor from computers. So you have a desktop you can organize and customize, and you have an app drawer where you can see everything.

• Settings. There's a gear-shaped icon in your app drawer, but there are shortcuts. In phones runnings Android 4.0 or higher you can find your settings in the notification window. Just drag it down and click Settings to open it up. If you're using Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) or lower, from the desktop, you just hit your menu button, and then select Settings.

• How the hell do you get to the menu within apps? Within most apps in Android 4.0 the menu button looks like three vertical dots. Why do three dots represent a menu? I have no idea, but it does. In Android 2.3 and below, use the physical menu button.

Clean House

You see all of those icons and widgets that came pre-placed on your desktop? Get rid of them. They're mostly carrier or manufacturer junk, and it's better to start with a clean slate. To banish something you don't want, long-press it, then drag it to Remove (that doesn't uninstall the app, it just takes the shortcut off your desktop). If you see something that you love and you know you want to keep, drag it over to a screen off to the side for now.

Apps

So after you've set up your Google account, open up the Play Store (the Android Market) at least once and sign in (it's in your app drawer, looks like a grocery bag with a dumb triangular icon on it). After that, you should be able to install everything through the Play tab on your computer's web browser (it's in that black bar at the top of Gmail, etc). This makes browsing through apps and installing them stupid easy. You just click Install and you're done—the app will automatically install on your phone over the air. You can also just click these links on your phone, or browse through the Play Store on your phone, but it's way easier this way.

One thing first. In the Play Store app on your phone, hit Menu (the three dots) > Settings, and scroll down to "Auto-add widgets." You want to UNcheck that, otherwise your pristine desktop is going to get mighty cluttered.

Okay, here are some apps to get you started. Clicking them will take you to their Play Store page where you can just click Install:

• Keyboards. In most cases you're going to want to install a replacement keyboard. There are tons of options, and there's probably a perfect one for you, depending on what you like. If you're coming from iOS (or have iPhone envy) check out iTap (paid/free). Sliding keyboards (like Swype) are a super popular, where you drag your finger between letters. If you don't have Swype pre-installed on your phone, try SlideIT. Personally, I really like SwiftKey X with its spookily good text prediction, but some whom I've recommended it to hate it. (No accounting for taste.) There are dozens of others you can play with.

• Quick Profiles lets you switch a bunch of settings all at once. Handy, especially for turning off all your ringers, but leaving your alarm on loud. The paid upgrade has a rather handy widget.

• While there are some benefits to using the stock text messaging app, Handcent SMS is a replacement app for text messaging that is vastly more customizable. You can enable popups for messages and even assign different notification tones for different contacts. If you use it, make sure you make it your default messaging app and turn off notifications in the stock app, otherwise you'll get double notifications. Alternatively, if you've made the switch to Google Voice, it can completely replace your text and voice message apps.

• Social stuff. You can grab apps for Facebook, Twitter (or a Twitter client like TweetCaster),Instagram, GroupMe, Foursquare, Reddit, StumbleUpon, and others.

• Other stuff we like. Dropbox, Evernote, Kindle, Yelp, Google Reader, Spotify, Netflix, and so on. If you've heard of an app, it's very likely in the Play Store. Just browse around, pay attention to ratings, and experiment. (Oh, not neccessarily neccessary, but check out Samurai II: Vengeance. That game is so damn fun.)

Embrace the Widget

Yes, it's a dumb name, but widgets are worth it: They put a live information and instant controls right on your homescreen. Want to see your upcoming appointments? Try CalWidget. Everyone should have an LED flashlight widget on their desktop (turn it on/off right from the home screen). For the current weather (in your city or another), check out The Weather Channel. Install the Power Control and Music widgets (that come preloaded in Android). Keep up on your social media with the Twitter or Foursquare widgets. Why do these things? Because you can control your music, turn on/off Wi-Fi, adjust your screen's brightness, see your next appointment, turn on your LED flashlight, all without even having to open an app. You can do these things with a single touch, swipe, or just a glance to your desktop. It's incredibly convenient. Many widgets are resizable and scrollable. Do not fear the widget.

Get Organized

Once you've installed a bunch of stuff, take like 10 mins and organize your homescreen. Think of it as your actual desk. If you just pile everything on there randomly, it's going to be messy and it will only cause you frustration. But if you place things deliberately, so you know where everything lives, you can get to what you want without even thinking about it. You only have to do this once (and you can always tweak at will).

To move apps to the desktop, just open the app drawer, long-press the app, and then drag it to the home screen. Dragging one app onto another creates a folder (which you can then label, if you want). In stock Android 4.0, widgets are installed through the app drawer—just click on the widgets tab and drag the one you want to the desktop. In Android 2.3, and some skinned versions (like HTC Sense 4.0) add widgets by long-pressing on the homescreen.

Put the stuff you will use most often right up front on the center home screen. Things you'll use often on the screens just to the right and left. On one of my screens there's nothing but shortcuts to my "favorite" contacts (which I marked with a star) and my Power Control widget. On another, there are folders labeled "Social Apps," "Games," and a bunch of other semi-frequently used stuff. Your resulting home screen might look something like this one. Is it pristine and beautiful? No. Is it highly functional and easy to use? Yes. Take the time to make your homescreen yours. You'll be happy you did.

Media

Put some tunes on there. Either mount it to your computer via USB and drag some music over, or give Google Music a shot. Get the uploader on your desktop and upload a bunch of your music folders or your whole iTunes library. You get to store something like 20,000 songs free. Import some pictures and videos too, while you're at it. If you're using Android 3.0 or higher and you are a Mac user, download the Android File Transfer utility. That may make transfering files via USB a little easier.

Other Tweaks

• If you're running Android 4.0 or above, set up Face Unlock. It's kind of a gimmicky, but it's fun and it saves time (usually). Settings > Security > Screen lock > Face Unlock. Once you've set it up do the "Improve face matching" thing a few times at different angles (especially from a bit lower, because we usually look down on our phones) and in different light. It works pretty well.

• You probably don't want your phone to ring every time you get a freaking email. To turn off the sounds for email, open Gmail and go to Settings > (your email account) > Ringtone & vibrate. then set it to silent. You'll have to do that on each of your accounts separately, which is annoying, but I guess some people have important email accounts and unimportant ones (you can also set it so certain labels will ring—handy when you have an email-happy boss).

• Not only can you use any MP3 you have saved on your phone as your default ringtone, but did you know you can assign specific ringtones to specific contacts? You'll know your BFF is calling without even having to look at your phone. The easiest way to do it is with a free app calledRingtone Maker. It lets you set the in/out points of a song if you want, built in fades, and assign it to specific contacts if you want. Super easy.

• Voice commands. Siri isn't the only game in town, in fact, as we've shown, in some waysAndroid's voice actions are superior to their iOS sister's. In Android 2.3 and below you can long-press the search button to activate voice actions, which was a very nice feature and is sadly absent in the newest versions. In Android 4.0 you'll have to use the Google Search bar on your desktop. Just tap the mic and make your demands. Android is also very good at taking dictation. Whenever you're entering text, look for the mic icon on your keyboard to use the built in speech-to-text features.

There are tons and tons of other tips and tricks. Do you have some favorites that you love to tell new Android users? Shout them out in the comments. We may even add it to our list if its good enough. In the meantime, have fun getting to know your new exobrain.

iPhone Headset Remote to Work With Android Devices

noreply@blogger.com (Irawan Wibisono) — Mon, 21 May 2012 19:13:00 +0000

Everyone loves the iPhone's headset with volume and music controls on the inline remote, but if you have an Android phone, you can actually get iPhone-designed buds working with your device. All it takes is a little DIY magic.

Android users have a few headphones on the market with inline remotes, but if you already have some iPhone ones lying around—or if you've found a pair of iPhone ones you like better—you can make them Android compatible with a few small resistors. You'll need to be careful opening it up and you'll need to know how to solder, but when you're done, all three buttons should work with any Android device. While you're at it, you may want to check out Headset Button Controller so you can further customize what each button does. Check out the video to see the modded buds in action, and hit the link below for the full how-to.

Meet the New Android Emperor, Samsung Galaxy S III

noreply@blogger.com (Irawan Wibisono) — Mon, 21 May 2012 19:03:00 +0000

Thanks to the previous Galaxy model's success, Samsung is now the world's biggest phone manufacturer, a title it will no doubt keep once the slim and pebble-like Galaxy S III hits stores shortly. At 4.8-inches, you can tell Samsung worked really hard at retaining the slightly-smaller Galaxy S II's footprint, so despite the 22 per cent larger display, it's only 16 per cent bigger than the S II. We hear HTC's One X is already quaking a little in fear.

Reassuringly, Samsung seems to have cottoned on to the fact that there's only so far you can go with hardware at the moment. Rather than bolting a silly 16MP camera sensor on, or slimming it down to the slim widths of the Motorola Droid RAZR, they've instead focused most of their attention on upgrading Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) with some much-needed features, and in several cases, new tweaks and additions that you never knew you wanted before.

Specs

But before we get bogged down with the glossy stuff, let's talk hardware. The 4.8-inch display is a Super AMOLED panel with 720 x 1280 (306ppi) resolution, and inserted just above that display? Why, it's a 1.9MP forward-facing camera which shoots 720p video. Over on the Galaxy S III's backside, it's got a simple 8MP camera that can shoot 1080p video. But don't let that lowly sensor number put you off - Samsung's got a few camera tricks in store this time, which I'll touch on in a minute.

Running on one of Samsung's beastly new 1.4GHz Exynos 4 Cortex-A9 quad-core chips, it comes with 1GB of RAM, and a choice of either 16, 32 or 64GB internal storage configurations (all of which also let you chuck a microSD card up to 64GB in, as well.)

In certain territories (the US, Japan and Korea), the S III will be available in LTE, but we'll have to make do with HSPA+ here in the UK. Seven sensors, including an accelerometer; RGB light; digital compass; proximity; gryoscope; NFC, and barometer have been shoved in too.

All of this in a body that weighs 133grams, measures 136.6 x 70.6 x 8.6mm, and houses a 2100mAh battery; Samsung's first smartphone with a battery that size.

The names for the two colour options, marble white and pebble blue, should lead you down the garden path and knocking on the door of Samsung's inspiration with this phone, but if it doesn't, then the lock screen and wallpaper skins will scream "nature" at you, even if you live in a concrete jungle with nary a potplant in sight.

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Android Tweaks

As mentioned before, Samsung's overhauled ICS with some nifty new tricks. These include:

Smart Stay, which uses the forward-facing camera to determine if you're looking at the phone. You can set time intervals from as little as 15 seconds, which result in a small flashing eye logo in the Android notification bar. If it recognises that your eyes aren't focused on the phone anymore, the screen dims.
Direct Call, which will auto-dial a contact if you have their contact details or a message open. By moving the phone to your ear, the proximity sensor; accelerometer and gyroscope all kick into use, and automatically dial the contact's number.
Smart Alert, which will make the phone vibrate in your hand and flash an LED if you pick the phone up after a missed call.
S Voice, which is a Siri-like voice recognition feature, that you can use to enquire about the weather; take a photo ("Hi Galaxy, please take a photo" to open the camera app, or "cheese" to snap it), and other tasks such as locking the phone, or controlling music. Each demand can be configured by the user.
Social Tag, which links photos of friends in your photo gallery to their Facebook or Google+ accounts, using facial recognition.
S Beam, which pairs other Galaxy S III phones (and only them, for now) via NFC, shares photos, videos, files or even albums of media over Wi-Fi. If your friend's S III doesn't have Wi-Fi enabled, S Beam will automatically turn that user's Wi-Fi on, and then off.
AllShare Cast, which pairs to TVs, laptops or tablets over Wi-Fi, mirroring whatever's on the S III. You can also use the S III as a game controller.
PopUp Play, which will literally pop a video out of its player, rendering it in a small thumbnail so you can continue watching while surfing the web or doing other functions on the phone. The thumbnail is movable around the display, even if it's pretty small.

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Camera

A bright light should be shone on the Galaxy S III's camera and its new features, as this brings them right up against HTC's One series in terms of performance. While I couldn't get an accurate feel for photo quality during my briefing (there wasn't enough time, and the room wasn't the brightest), anyone who's interested in taking photos on their phones (that's all of you, let's face it), will be pleased to hear of these new additions:

Minimal lag. Samsung minimised reloading time drastically with the S III, so there's virtually no lag between pressing the button and the shot being taken.
Burst Shot / Best Photo, which takes 20 shots in quick succession (six photos per second), and then recommends the best photo (using algorithms to determine which has the best light, and which has all eyes open, for example). You can of course override the phone's choice, if you prefer those shots where your subject is staring blankly outside the frame.
Face Zoom, which recognises individual faces in a live view, so you can tap a face and zoom in, taking a photo only of them. Sorry, other ugly people in the shot.
Photos while filming. Like the feature HTC added to their One series, Samsung also thought about those people who like to take photos at the same time as filming video. It's possible now.
Face Slideshow. Once some photos have been taken (or loaded onto the phone), a slideshow showing all your merry photos will zoom across each photo, but also take turns to focus on each person in the frame's face, so no-one gets left out like they often do on Apple TV, for example.
Group tag. Auto-generated from your contact groups, you can view all photos of your family, for example, as long as you've tagged all contacts in certain categories. Facial recognition will do the rest.

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A Few Black Marks

If I had any complaints about the Galaxy S III, based on my brief play with it, the crux would revolve around the build quality. Samsung still hasn't got it right, in my eyes, however beautifully-designed the phones are (and they are beautiful - check out the photo gallery for some comparisons with the Galaxy Nexus and Galaxy S II). Perhaps my heart belongs to HTC and its "batshit-crazy space-age materials", but Samsung's products always feel too plasticky for my liking.

Saying that, it's remarkable that Samsung's managed to trim the bezel down so the overall footprint is only 16 per cent larger than the previous model, and the extra-rounded edges really add to that whole pebble look they're going for. (Though thankfully they've not been as obvious as their Pebble MP3 player from years ago was.) Despite its relative lightness, the phone doesn't have that too-thin feel; it's still got some weight in your hand, meaning you won't easily drop it.

And yes, before you ask: Samsung has pre-installed various apps and a Samsung app store / music hub / game store etc. Though some of them, like Dropbox (Samsung has thoughtfully included a 50GB allowance for three years), are genuinely useful. The rest, you can ditch ‘em.

Final Thoughts

While we're waiting for a review sample to arrive on our doorstep, we can't give a definitive thought on the Galaxy S III just yet. But it should be fairly obvious to all that Samsung's holding on tight to their crown, won fairly and squarely by the Galaxy S II which stole hearts and took names thanks to the sheer amount of features and specs it crammed inside.

The third iteration under the Galaxy S name feels a lot more polished and thought-out than other Samsung products, and zips about comfortably with its powerful engine and responsive display. I only wish I could say the same about my post-Samsung-conference knees. The Galaxy S III will be available in the US this summer.

The Worst Phones You Can Buy

noreply@blogger.com (Irawan Wibisono) — Sat, 19 May 2012 16:44:00 +0000

You might find this hard to believe: not everyone owns an iPhone or one of the several thousand decent Androids for sale or even a Windows phone. Crazy! But what's even more insane is the number of shockingly horrible dumbphones major US carriers are still selling like it's 2006. Here are the worst of the worst.

There's still a need for the cheap phone. Maybe you dropped your smartphone in the toilet and need a loaner. Maybe you can't afford a phone. Maybe you just don't care about phones at all! Maybe you just want something that makes calls and maybe you'll check a webpage or maybe not. In all of these cases, there are swell, completely free phones that you can get from every major carrier. Yes, you need a data plan with those. And yes, we're deep enough into the 21st century that it's worth it.

And then, there's what you find below. A buffet of horrendous hardware, redundant mediocrity, and straight ugliness. Phones that are both bad and not free. Dumbphones that pretend to be Android. Thing thing. Why do they exist? Presumably, because people are buying them—but why are there so many? Why sell ten flavors of ass soup? We don't know, but here's the menu.

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The Samsung Gusto not only has a dumb name, but it costs $80 with a two year Verizon contract. It's a flipphone. It costs $80. Like every other phone listed here, it has a pitiful camera, no real web browser, and no actual specs to speak of. A dumbphone in the keenest sense.

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The Samsung Brightside looks like a fake Android phone. Maybe it is? But its counterfeit chic look doesn't come with a counterfeit price: $120, with Verizon contract.

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I'm really not even sure what this is. The Samsung Flight II is $40 on AT&T for some reason.

Not only does Kyocera still make phones, it makes this faux BlackBerry "Brio." It comes with a calendar, and is $220 sans contract, or a freebie with one from Sprint.

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T-Mobile says you can "have fun and discover new things while you stay connected" with this phone, but the truth is that nobody will be your friend if you own it. This thing is only $10 with contract, but it literally has a ": )" in its name (Samsung :) t359), so here we are.

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Pantech Jest is free, but it's also a Pantech Jest.

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The LG Revere is another inexplicable $80 flipphone, courtesy of Verizon.

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If you like the idea of the Pantech Jest but don't want to commit to a phone that is a square, here's the Pantech Hotshot. It's called the Hotshot because you'll feel like a real "hotshot" while using it. It is free, because Verizon is merciful.

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The LG Xpression looks exactly like the Hotshot, and is also a make believe pseudo-Android—but this one will take $50 of your money (with two year AT&T contract).

It's impossible to tell the difference between the LG Xpression and the Pantech Ease, which is also $50 from AT&T and is also terrible.

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This thing, the LG Extravert, is $100 from Verizon.

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Noooooooooooooooooooooooo. $100 with AT&T contract.

Why are these awful phones for sale—some for very much money!—when you can buy phones that aren't awful and cost zero dollars? Corporate apathy, manufacturing antipathy, a large populace of people who will literally walk into a store and buy anything, like molecules bouncing around in a void—all possible. Or there might not be an answer to this question, which is perhaps the most terrifying answer of all.

It Could Be Your Next SIM Card

noreply@blogger.com (Irawan Wibisono) — Sat, 19 May 2012 16:38:00 +0000

Over the past few months, Apple, Nokia, RIM and Motorola have all been getting very worked up over something rather boring: SIM cards. After Apple's attempt to capture the market, there's finally a new proposed design—which might actually find its way into your next phone.

The new nano-SIM design, put together by RIM and Motorola, takes Apple's previous suggestion and adds tweaks that the other three manufacturers want to see. In the words of The Verge, "it's 80 percent Apple and 20 percent RIM/Motorola."

Despite its diminutive size—it measures just 8 millimeters by 12 millimeters—it's designed to be backward compatible with older SIM cards, and the notch is there so it can be pushed in and out of a spring-loaded slot.

The only final hurdle is getting agreement from Apple but, given that the design is largely theirs, that seems at least plausible. Either way, there's not long to wait: the next meeting to settle things once and for all—in conjunction with the European Telecommunications Standards Institute, the body that governs international SIM standards—happens at the end of this month.

Sprint Kyocera DuraMax, Specs Direct Connect

noreply@blogger.com (Irawan Wibisono) — Wed, 09 May 2012 03:18:00 +0000

Sprint Kyocera DuraMax

Kyocera DuraMAX Sprint, its generation, beginning with the second push to talk support Duramax Kyocera, October announced the launch of a direct connection.

With the help of Qualcomm, as compared to phase out in 2013 and a new connectivity platform to operateSprint’s 3G CDMA network directly, iDEN for Nextel is currently provide faster data rates and network. Another advantage of next-generation services are widely reported. Sprint, iDEN square miles of coverage area three times the IMS Connect CDMA voice that covers the direct, expect the best, said in early 2012.

In addition to the usual push-to-talk, Direct Connect, text alerts, e-mail notification of availability continues to connect the group, also known as chirp signature was sent successfully provided by the call The.

Of course, new services, new mobile phone, Duramax and you have to do, and Kyocera’s first model of support. A rugged flip phone meets military specifications, features a built-in display 2 inches QVGA, 1-inch monochrome external display, 3.2 megapixel camera, 1GB microSD card up to a stereo or Bluetooth (up to 32GB supported .) Telephone mail-in rebate and $ 50 costs $ 69.99 after a two-year contract.

Sprint Kyocera DuraMax

In addition to the Direct Connect Motorola in Q4, Duramax at the end of the year, and Android-based device offers print Duracore Kyocera virus. Date and price of the two models is given at this time.

Samsung Galaxy S III versus iPhone 4S

noreply@blogger.com (Irawan Wibisono) — Tue, 08 May 2012 07:17:00 +0000

Today Samsung took the veil off the Galaxy S III, the newest smartphone in the line. The debut of the new device puts more fuel on the fire in the war between Samsung and Apple, but how do these phones stack up against one another?

Voice Recognition:

Each device has fully-integrated voice controls. Apple has Siri, and Samsung has S Voice. With both you can speak to the assistant, and ask it to do tasks like send a text, make a call, or schedule and appointment, and so on. It's too early to say how S Voice compares performance-wise, but Android Voice Actions has already proven demonstrably better than Apple's offering, so color us hopeful.

Notifications:

With iOS 5, Apple completely revamped its alerts into the catch-all Notification Center, where you can see all the recent activity on not only your calls and texts, but also your apps. Texts are also less intrusive, popping up in the top of the screen.

The Galaxy S III, meanwhile, makes some improvements to Android's stock notification functionality. Smart Alert looks especially promising; if you miss a call, the phone will vibrate and flash an LED the next time you pick it up.

Streaming and Sharing:

Apple's iCloud puts all of your content in its cloud. So if you download a song on iTunes from your phone, it will automatically pop up on in the library on your computer. Samsung's S-Cloud was rumored to arrive along with the SIII, but didn't make an appearance at today's press conference. Google's G-Drive, though, gets the job done for Android devices.

Samsung has a couple of different services that equip you to access your content remotely. AllShare Cast, in particular, pairs to TVs, laptops, or tablets over Wi-Fi and lets you mirror what is playing on the S III. To accomplish the same with an iDevice, you need an AppleTV.

Connecting:

There are a couple of advantages to communicating with a friend that owns the same device. The S III offers S Beam, which pairs other S IIIs together and lets them share photos, videos, files, albums, etc. via NFC over a Wi-Fi connection. Similarly, Direct Call knows to dial someone automatically if you have their contact information open and move your SIII up to your ear.

Two iPhone 4S users can connect via iMessage, a free instant messaging service that is free between a pair of these devices. It also has Find my Friends, which uses GPS to help you locate your other iPhone 4S toting pals on a map. Video chat with other iOS devices is available through FaceTime, but Direct Call is a neat trick that the iOS hadn't thought of yet.

Camera:

The SIII's camera has a feature called Burst Shot/Best Photo that quickly snaps 20 photos in a row, then recommends the best one out of the series. If you disagree, you can override that option. By comparison, Apple's phone has HDR, which captures three images in one shot, each at a different exposure level. This trio is then combined into one image, which is supposed to have better overall quality.

The iSight camera has face detection, which will display a square around a subject's head. The S III's answer to this is something called Face Zoom, which allows you to select a specific mug and zoom in on it.

Social Media Integration:

The iPhone 4S debuted with deeper Twitter integration, which let you snap a picture and automatically post it to your stream, without ever having to exit your photo roll. On the other hand, the SIII's Social Tag links the pictures of your friends in your photo gallery to their Facebook or Google+ accounts.

Specs:

Full size

So Who Wins?

On paper? Give the Galaxy S III the edge for specs, but don't count out the power of Apple's popular ecosystem. It's also way too early to make any final judgments; the Galaxy SIII won't be out in the US until the summer, and the next iPhone—one with a whole new suite of specs and tricks—will be hot on its heels. What Samsung's done, though, is put out a great-looking phone with some intriguing features. Ones that we can't wait to play with soon.

HTC One X : The Best Android Phone Right Now

noreply@blogger.com (Irawan Wibisono) — Mon, 07 May 2012 11:07:00 +0000

HTC is bringing its A-game in a big way. The One S was good, but the screen and radio were weak links. The One X aims to fix that. It brings a bigger, more beautiful screen, and LTE connectivity. It's beautifully designed. But is it enough to eclipse the best Android phones—or even the iPhone?

Why It Matters

The One X is the flagship of the new HTC One line. The company went for broke on this one. It has a 4.7-inch screen, Qualcomm's newest 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor, and it runs Android 4.0 with HTC Sense 4.0. It's on AT&T's superfast 4G LTE network. And the materials, physically, look and feel cool and futuristic. Seriously, this thing is gorgeous.

Using It

The first thing you'll notice is the screen. By the beard of Zeus, the screen. The 4.7-inch Super LCD2 is simply the best screen on a mobile device. Ever. Yes, at 312 pixels per inch (PPI) it doesn't quite reach the iPhone 4S's 326ppi, but it more than makes up for those 14 missing pixels (which you won't see anyway). It's bright enough to be clearly visible at high noon, colors are rich and accurate, and the pixels are all but invisible. Plus, the viewing angle is just insane on this thing. It looks like it's printed on a glossy magazine page. It's awesome.

The form-factor is excellent. It's different from the cold, hard aluminum of the One S, but the machined polycarbonate unibody on the One X feels plenty strong. Plus, it's a freaking machined polycarbonate unibody—it feels like the future. There is a nice, brushed feel to its blend of soft curves and sharp lines. The camera juts out of the back a little, but because of the phone's subtle curve it sits perfectly flat on a table. Just superb attention to detail here. On top of that, it's very thin (.35 inches) and very light (4.55 ounces). The screen is a bit big for small hands, though.

In general Ice Cream Sandwich with HTC's Sense 4.0 is a very smooth and quick experience. As stated in the One S review, it's both an improvement and a step back compared to stock Android. It has Beats by Dre audio, which gives a little bass boost, but it's not particularly remarkable. The One X's camera has all but non-existent shutter-lag and it captures very good photos. The HDR mode is pretty good. The panoramic mode is very good. It holds its own against the iPhone 4S, though the HTC's video quality is definitely not as good.

Like

The screen and the design are amazing. You will want to rub it on your face.

The radio on this phone has superpowers. In NYC, it hit speeds up to 33.7Mbps download and 19.2Mbps upload. It's got an NFC chip (unlike the One S), which will be good if the mobile payment revolution materializes.

Battery life is excellent. Despite abusive usage (tons of gaming, web surfing over LTE, shooting a gajillion photos and videos, and lots of emailing, texting, and calling) it always made it though the day. Really impressive, considering how big and bright the screen is.

Call quality was very good, though not as good as Sprint's HD Voice, rolling out later this year. Sense 4.0 actually makes some improvements over stock Android, in the lock-screen, multitasking, and the camera software. Over all, the phone just provides a great user experience. It's nice for reading and games. It's nice-looking. It's just nice.

No Like

The U.S. version of the One X has the exact same dual-core 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 processor as the One S (the Euro version of the One X has the quad-core Tegra 3). Despite that, the One X is actually not as fast as the One S, which has fewer pixels to drive on its 4.3-inch qHD screen. You might prefer the dope screen over the speed, but it's an unfortunate tradeoff.

There is no camera button. Really? The upcoming HTC Evo 4G LTE on Sprint (which is almost a twin of the One X) has a camera button. Why the awesome camera with no camera button? There's no expandable storage, so you're limited to the 16GB.

Some elements of HTC Sense 4.0 are not as good as the Ice Cream Sandwich OS. The worst tweak is the keyboard—it's buggy, and generally not pleasant to use. With SwiftKey X, or another replacement keyboard, the phone becomes much more usable. The calendar app is another example. There's no weekly view, and the monthly view shows you no information at all. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. That said, this is by far the most usable incarnation of HTC Sense.

Last, despite having NFC, Google Wallet gave an error message, saying it was not yet certified for this device/carrier. Pay for a pack of gum with cash? What is this, 2011?

Should I Buy It?

Totally. The one caveat is that you must like big phones. They're not for everybody, and that's a totally respectable position. If you do like big phones, though, this is easily the best Android phone on AT&T, and very possibly the best Android phone period (the other current contenders are the HTC Evo 4G LTE and the Samsung Galaxy SIII).

You could argue that the HTC One X is better than the iPhone 4S. Yeah, you heard that! The screen is most definitely better, the rest comes down to personal preference. Also, at $200 on contract, this thing is a steal.

(A note on ranking: if this phone is as good as the iPhone 4S, why is it only 4 stars, when the iPhone is 4.5? Because we're adjusting for 2012. In the revised rankings the iPhone 4S would be 4 stars as well. Brave new world.)

HTC One X Specs :

OS: Android 4.0
Screen: 4.7-inch Super LCD2
Processor and RAM: 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 / 1GB RAM
Storage: 16GB (no SD slot)
Camera: Back: 8MP, Front: 1.3MP
Weight: 4.55 ounces
Battery: 1800 mAh Li-Po
Price: $200 w/ 2yr contract

Samsung overtakes Nokia, Apple

noreply@blogger.com (Irawan Wibisono) — Wed, 02 May 2012 03:37:00 +0000

Korean handset manufacturer Samsung is predicted to have outsold Nokia, which was previously the world's largest cellphone manufacturer.

According to research house Frost & Sullivan, Samsung's first quarter results, released on Friday, indicate its focus on the smartphone market seems to have paid off.

Samsung reported a first quarter profit of 5.05 trillion won ($4.45 billion), up 82% from the previous year's 2.78 trillion won. Sales were up 82% to 45.27 trillion won.

Although Samsung do not release the exact figure of units sold per category, it is estimated that 93 million mobile phones were sold, compared to the 83 million sold by Nokia, says Frost & Sullivan.

Frost & Sullivan says it is also predicted that Samsung may have outsold the iPhone in the lucrative smartphone market. With Samsung set to release their next version of the popular Galaxy S phone, in the next month, its record is expected to continue, says the research firm.

“Samsung is expected to continue [its] market domination of the mobile phone market, as the shipment of the Galaxy range continues to yield high returns”, says Frost & Sullivan's team leader for ICT Africa, Ian Duvenage.

“Significant growth is also expected in China, Central and South America, the Middle East and Africa. Samsung recently showed off some of the products specifically designed for Africa, purposely built to deal with the environmental conditions, like the inconsistent power supply experienced in country. In so doing, they are placing high focus on the growth in Africa and serving the needs of clients on the continent.”

Why Camera Phones can't Replace Standalone Camera

noreply@blogger.com (Irawan Wibisono) — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 20:44:00 +0000

While most attention in the gadget world is on the breakneck pace of innovation in mobile phones, tablets and computers, another device has resolutely refused to die: the camera.

Despite the onslaught of camera phones - the iPhone 4 has this year become the most popular device for posting snaps to the photo-sharing website Flickr - cameras are still being sold. Japan, the world's largest manufacturer, shipped nearly three times as many cameras in January as it did in the same month of 2003, when the camera phone was still in its infancy.

"For several years, it has been predicted that smartphone adoption would cut into digital camera sales," said Prashant Malaviya, Associate Professor of Marketing at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business. "In fact, the exact opposite has happened."

Driving this is a number of factors, analysts and enthusiasts say. And, while most point to a continuing role for cameras for both professional and personal users, the device's future is far from assured.

Firstly, photography is personal. We may be happy taking snaps with our cellphone or simple point-and-shoot camera, but it turns out that most of us won't entrust key memories to such basic devices. Surveys by NPD Group last November show that while more than a quarter of all American photos were taken by a smartphone, more people were buying cameras with detachable lenses or cameras with optical zooms of 10x or more.

This, says NPD Group senior digital imaging analyst Liz Cutting, is because those people taking important family photos don't want to trust them to a device that isn't up to the task. "Camera photography is certainly not dead," said Cutting. "We're just seeing a skewing towards what the smartphone can't deliver. People are recognizing that and are going for a higher end camera."

This in turn benefits the established players, because users are reluctant to entrust their photos to an untested brand. We may be ready to try out a new brand of cellphone, laptop or TV, but when it comes to family snaps we're more conservative. "It's part of who you are, showing the kind of brand of camera you have," Cutting said. "But it's also trusting the quality of that memory because that's how you remember your life."

This has helped entrench several key players, some of whom have dominated the scene for a generation or more - Canon Inc, Nikon Corp, Sony Corp, Olympus Corp, Pentax, Fuji and Panasonic Corp.

Canon fodder

Canon has been one of the main beneficiaries of this, maintaining a strong brand from the professional high end to the point-and-shoot bottom, says Christopher Chute, global imaging chief at International Data Corp. Canon has seen its camera business grow as the proportion of its overall sales to more than 25 percent in 2008 from below 11 percent in 1999. In a survey of more than a quarter of a million users of Ontario-based gadget website Sortable.com, Canon was the most popular brand, with a third of the vote.

Not that its rivals are standing idle.

Panasonic, Olympus, Pentax and Nikon have in the past few years launched a new kind of camera that matches the quality of lenses of a professional model with the sleek, light body of a pocket, point-and-shoot device. Although these mirrorless cameras aren't a lot cheaper than the professional digital single lens reflex (DSLR) model, they are lighter and more compact.

This has won them fans among both those trading up and those looking to replace or supplement their professional gear. Ong Hock Chuan, a hobbyist who runs a Jakarta public relations company, recently sold his heavier Canon EOS 50D for a mirrorless Sony NEX-7. Price wasn't a factor. "I was tired of lugging around an SLR and getting a hernia for it," he said. Canon has yet to announce a mirrorless model.

Not only are camera manufacturers seeking an edge over each other: They're battling the encroachment of camera phones on to their territory.

At the bottom, Nokia and other mobile manufacturers have long partnered with lens makers like Carl Zeiss to improve the quality of photographs and phones, a trend which has meant many mobile phones now do a better job of a point-and-shoot camera. The appeal of the camera phone has also grown as social media services like Facebook make it possible to share a photo with friends and family as soon as it's taken.

This leaves the compact point-and-shoot camera segment of the market vulnerable.

In markets such as the United States and Japan, says Japan-based IHS analyst Kun Soo Lee, there's not many more people who want to buy one. On the one hand, this is eating into sales that Canon and others traditionally dominated. On the other, the ease with which photos can be taken on a phone is feeding an interest in taking better photos, expanding the middle of the market into a "pro-sumer" segment of devices which cost a bit more but offer the user options so far unavailable on the mobile phone: An optical, rather than digital, zoom, for example, better flash, and image stabilization.

Cannibalisation, innovation

This is driving manufacturers to push more and better technology from their upper end models into cheaper devices. Prices have fallen dramatically in the past decade, says Mark Walters of U.S.-based website TechBargains.com. Ten years ago a 3-megapixel DSLR camera would cost $3,000; now a better quality 18-megapixel DSLR can be found for less than $500. "The technology that has trickled down into the more consumer-targeted DSLRs is incredible," he said.

Lowering prices and raiding the technologies of formerly professional models is not without danger. "This pricing strategy has certainly caused some cannibalization of sales at the higher end for the likes of Canon and Nikon," said Walters, "but they make up for it with volume at the low end by selling more critical accessories like lenses and flashes."

Manufacturers are also competing through innovation.

Apart from mirrorless cameras, there have been improvements in sensors and a technology called high dynamic range (HDR) imaging, which layers images at different exposures. "There's an amazing amount of innovation in digital photography equipment at the moment," said Melbourne-based Sydney Low, a former Internet entrepreneur who now takes sports photos for a living. "More so in many ways than Apple, HP and other computer manufacturers."

While enthusiasts like Low believe that still cameras will eventually be replaced by video cameras - from which scenes can be grabbed - others believe that eventually mobile phone and camera will start to look and feel more like each other.

A range of cameras launched in the past few months, said NPD In-Stat's Cutting, have for the first time included WiFi chips, making it possible for users to share their photos much as a smartphone user might. "It has to be easy, and we haven't hit that yet," she said.

Just as the camera gets smaller and more sociable, so will the mobile phone evolve to incorporate features presently only available on a camera. IHS's Kun said the introduction of 12 megapixel cameras into smartphones, for example, is a "kicker to change the market."

Then, said J Gerry Purdy of cellphone analysts MobileTrax, there's Polaroid's SC1630, announced in January and due to be launched this year: an Android device with an optical zoom. These and other innovations, Purdy said, may usher in a future where a smartphone camera "will perform as well as today's digital cameras with large optical zoom and larger lenses." California-based Pelican Imaging Corp, for example, promises a camera that will improve image and video quality while allowing for thinner smartphones.

How traditional players react to these challenges is unclear. Canon, for example, has no obvious strategy to combat the rise of the smartphone, said IHS's Kun, and so will have to keep on peddling digital cameras. In the meantime other technologies may arise either inside or outside the industry.

Tips Counter the Rising Cost of Wireless

noreply@blogger.com (Irawan Wibisono) — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 08:03:00 +0000

Smartphones can pull off a growing number of high-tech tasks, but the cost of cell phone service is growing as well.

The average cellphone bill is now $71 a month, up 31 percent since 2009, according to J.D. Power & Associates. That cost can quickly rise to more than $200 for a family of four.

CNNMoney has outlined several steps to help counter the rising cost of wireless.

Sorry kids -- It's time for mom and dad to intervene. Parents should ask their carriers about parental controls to limit texts, minutes and the amount of money spent on apps. Teens can really crank up bills. A 2010 Nielsen survey found the average teenager sends or receives more than 3,000 texts a month.
Create a family budget -- Sascha Segan, a cellphone analyst at PCMag.com, suggests setting up text alerts to keep tabs on your teen's phone usage. And let them know there will be restrictions if exceed limits.
Dial down data usage -- Avoid streaming content, which eats up bandwidth and can cause smartphone owners to go over their data allowances. Use a website's mobile version instead of the full version.
Call or text for free -- Make use of apps like Skype, Google+ and Hangouts.

Galaxy S II beats iPhone 4S, Best Smartphone 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Irawan Wibisono) — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 08:33:00 +0000

The GSMA today announced the winners of the 17th Annual Global Mobile awards, held at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

The Samsung Galaxy S II won for best smartphone beating out the iPhone 4s which won best mobile device in 2011. Samsung also won the award for Device Manufacturer of the Year beating HTC who won in 2011.

“The 2012 Global Mobile Awards continue to showcase the greatest, most creative and also innovative services and products driving the mobile ecosystem today and in to the future. Having a record number of high calibre entries this year, it’s a significant achievement to have been honoured in today’s ceremony,” said Michael O’Hara, Chief Marketing Officer, GSMA. “The GSMA congratulates winners and commends all those taking part for raising the benchmark of contributions to mobile communications across the entire industry.”
.

Lose a Smartphone, And You Lose a Lot

noreply@blogger.com (Irawan Wibisono) — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 18:20:00 +0000

Say you just lost your wallet with $40 cash in it. You'd feel bad, right? There's the inconvenience of canceling cards, getting a new driver's license, etc. But what if you lost your wallet with $900 in cash in it, plus your address book and your bank passwords? That's what it's like when you lose your smartphone.
Now that really hurts.

How much does it cost to lose a smartphone? One of our readers found out the hard way. Her iPhone was stolen while she was on public transit. She didn't have phone insurance, her renter's insurance didn't cover the loss, and she was told if she canceled her phone contract, she would be liable for a hefty early termination fee. In the end, she paid a small fortune and learned a big lesson.

Some 60 million smartphones and cellphones are lost, stolen or damaged each year, according to Asurion, a provider of cellphone insurance.

Your total cost will depend on your carrier, what kind of device you have, and whether you're willing to settle for a reconditioned, used device or want a new smartphone.

If you lose your top-of-the-line iPhone, say, and want to replace it with the same device—and you aren't eligible for an upgrade anytime soon—you could pay as much as $849 for the device alone.

Here's a breakdown, based on the major carriers:
Sprint: If you have insurance through Sprint, you pay the deductible of $100 for smartphones and will receive a replacement phone—a used, refurbished phone, not a new one—without having to extend your contract. If you don't have insurance, you can buy a used device or a new one, and you will not have to purchase a new contract. I found a certified pre-owned Blackberry Curve 3G for $79.99 on the Sprint website.

Insurance offered through Sprint includes a free application with a device locator, data backup and lock-and-wipe capabilities. Sprint's policy is to not re-activate a phone that has been reported lost or stolen unless it is able to verify proper ownership.

Verizon: With insurance through Verizon, you can pay your deductible of up to $199 and get another smartphone—again, it won't be a new phone —without having to sign a new contract. If you don't have insurance and you want to stay under your current contract, you will have to buy a new or refurbished smartphone.

Verizon sells refurbished phones for $300 to $500. The company offers a free backup-assistant app that gives customers access to the contact information stored on their phone. If you have the company's insurance, you'll be able to locate your phone on a map, send a phone alarm, remotely lock your phone to secure your data or remotely wipe your contacts out. If you put your phone on the company's "lost or stolen" list, Verizon won't activate the phone if someone brings it into a store.

AT&T: The company declined to answer specific questions and referred us to its website. That site advises customers to report a lost or stolen phone and suspend their service, buy a new device and then reactivate service.

Once suspended, your wireless service cannot be used to make or receive calls, forward calls, retrieve voicemail or access data services. Suspending your wireless service does not release your wireless phone number, and you will be charged the monthly recurring fee while service is in a voluntary suspended status.

***

Here are some tips to keep in mind if your smartphone goes missing:

1. Find my phone.
Many new smartphones, including the iPhone, come with a "find my phone" app that allows you to locate the device, regardless of your carrier or insurance. See whether your device has this option and activate it.

2. No new replacement.

Your smartphone insurance likely does not cover a brand-new replacement device. You'll get a reconditioned phone and it may not be identical to the one you lost.

3. Check your calendar.
Keep track of when you are due for an upgrade on your carrier contract. You might be able to use an old phone until you qualify for the new replacement smartphone at a discounted rate.

4. Keep your old phone.
Whenever you buy a new smartphone, hold on to your old device. If the new one is lost or stolen, that old iPhone or Blackberry could come in handy.

5. Assume the worst.
No matter which carrier you use, treat your phone as stolen, even if you think it's only misplaced. It's not just a phone; it likely also contains important personal information, and phone and email contacts.

6. You may not have to pay.
If someone makes unauthorized long-distance calls, you may not be liable for these charges—even if your carrier says you are until the phone is reported lost or stolen. Some states have laws on the books protecting consumers from unauthorized charges from any telecommunications device.

7. Watch out for shady deals.
Beware of buying smartphones from third-party sellers or from private parties via classifieds like Craigslist. These phones might be stolen or damaged and you'll have no recourse against the seller.

Smartphones, Tablets take over Mobile Market

noreply@blogger.com (Irawan Wibisono) — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 18:11:00 +0000

Things have changed at the Verizon cellphone store since Dave Finch joined the company nine years ago.

Now a Verizon district manager who oversees seven stores in central Illinois, Finch has witnessed a technological upheaval. "Nine years ago we offered six different handsets. I think we had one smartphone. Now we have 43 different devices," he said.

While cellphones that are strictly phones are still available, that category is on its way out, judging from national statistics.

Nearly half of U.S. mobile phone subscribers now own smartphones, according to information released earlier this year by Nielsen Mobile Insights. That's up from 36 percent of last year.

Two-thirds of those buying new devices in recent months have chosen a smartphone over a traditional cell phone, according to Nielsen.

In the beginning
Before Americans became entranced with mobile devices, of course, there was long love affair with the landline telephone.

We have a long telephonic history. The first telephone exchange was installed in Hartford, Conn., in 1877, with the first exchange linking major cities established between New York and Boston in 1883.

The first automatic telephone exchange was installed in 1892 while the first rotary dial telephone was developed in 1923 in France.

Although the first commercial mobile telephone service became available in St. Louis in 1946, the mobile telephone would not become common for another four decades.

But the mobile phone has definitely become common in the 21st century. Now we not only have a device that serves as a phone but as a camera, clock, light, stock ticker, weather service, TV set, movie screen (admittedly a small one), typewriter and, yes, you can even send Morse code - only now it's called texting.

So many choices
The choices are numerous: There's the Razr Maxx made by Motorola. This is an Android phone, which means that the software was designed by Google.

There's also the Samsung Galaxy S II ($200 to $230 with a two-year contract from AT&T, Sprint or T-Mobile). It's lightweight and quite popular. Another highly-rated phone is the HTC Amaze 4G ($260 with two-year contract from T-Mobile).

There's also the wildly-successful iPhone from Apple. Even those of us who don't have an iPhone, of course, have heard about it.

But if there are winners in the smart device marketplace, there are also losers.

The BlackBerry had been the smartphone of choice, "once a badge of success in the corporate world," as the Wall Street Journal recently noted.

Fabulous iPad Cases

noreply@blogger.com (Irawan Wibisono) — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 18:22:00 +0000

above: one of Fendi's new luxury tapestry iPad cases

Tufted and textured leathers, tapestry, furs and skins in hard frames with handles were carried down the Milan runway in Fendi's 2012/13 Autumn Winter collection.

above image composite by laura sweet for if it's hip, it's here

At first glance they appeared as handbags, but the fabulous accessories are actually new iPad cases from the Italian brand that blend convenience with style and luxury.

Fur:

Leather:

Skin:

Tapestry:

Samsung Guru FM E1220

noreply@blogger.com (Irawan Wibisono) — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 16:10:00 +0000

The Samsung E1220 is an ultra affordable budget ready mobile phone to fill the basic needs or simply for what the mobile is invented for making calls, receiving or sending SMSs and in additional it has been blessed with a FM radio tuner, for enjoying your favorite station even on the go, plus it has also got a 3.5 mm audio jack that allows you to choose any headset of your choice or even portable speakers.

Furthermore, it has a 1.8-inch display with 65K colors and supports QQVGA resolution, and incorporates an alpha numeric dust resistant keypad to bear rough usage. Additionally, it has a 800 mAh battery that lasts longer up to 8 hours while you are making calls.

Samsung C3011 Specifications and Features

noreply@blogger.com (Irawan Wibisono) — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 15:59:00 +0000

Samsung C3011 enters with Bluetooth and micro USB connectivity and VGA camera with video recording. Samsung C3011 Specifications and Features include digital zoom and photo effects, 3D audio system, FM radio with radio data system, personal management and Java support. Now take a look at the specifications list.

Samsung C3011 Specifications and Features :

Display: 2-inch TFT LCD
Memory: 20 MB Integrated
EDGE and GPRS Data
Java MIDP 2.0 Emulator
Connectivity: Bluetooth and USB
Camera: VGA and Video-Recording
Digital Zoom and Photo Effects
3D Audio System
FM Radio with Radio Data System
Personal Management Organizer
Battery: 800 mAh Li-ion Standard
Standby: Approx 700 hrs
Talk-time: Approx 8 hrs
Dimensions: 110.5 x 45.8 x 12.2 mm
Weight: Approx 85 g

Samsung Metro C3520 affordable flip phone features

noreply@blogger.com (Irawan Wibisono) — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 15:44:00 +0000

Touchscreen phones are what most prefer today, but this does not stop Samsung from launching a flip type phone called the Samsung Metro C3520 with an affordable price tag. So all those users who love the flip phones, C3520 is another model that you can count on.

The Metro C3520 is a basic phone with a weigh of 97.3 grams and 16.8 mm thick. The display screen is 2.4 inches with 240 by 320 supported resolutions. Flip open the phone to reveal the alphanumeric keypad. The handset is available in two colours metallic silver and charcoal gray.

The Samsung C3520 comes with 28 MB internal memory and does support microSD card. You can use external storage space up to 16 GB. This handset does comes with a built in FM radio and media player. Media files such as MP3, H.263 and MP4 are supported. FM recording is also supported.

Samsung Metro C3520

The Samsung Metro C3520 is not a 3G phone but EDGE / GPRS is supported. Again this is a basic phone and does not come with Wi-Fi and GPS. Other features are WAP, Bluetooth, 3.5 mm audio jack and mobile tracker.

If you are active on Facebook, Twitter you can use the Facebook / Twitter apps that come pre-installed using GPRS / EDGE connectivity.

Ten Ways Your Smartphone Knows Where You Are

noreply@blogger.com (Irawan Wibisono) — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 18:39:00 +0000

One of the most important capabilities that smartphones now have is knowing where they are. More than desktops, laptops, personal navigation devices or even tablets, which are harder to take with you, a smartphone can combine its location with many other pieces of data to make new services available.

"There's a gamification aspect, there's a social aspect, and there's a utilitarian aspect," said analyst Avi Greengart of Current Analysis. Greengart believes cellphone location is in its second stage, moving beyond basic mapping and directions to social and other applications. The third stage may bring uses we haven't even foreseen.

Like other digital technologies, these new capabilities come with worries as well as benefits. Consumers are particularly concerned about privacy when it comes to location because knowing where you are has implications for physical safety from stalking or arrest, said Seth Schoen, senior staff technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Yet most people have embraced location-based services without thinking about dangers such as service providers handing over location data in lawsuits or hackers stealing it from app vendors.

"This transition has been so quick that people haven't exactly thought through the implications on a large scale," Schoen said. "Most people aren't even very clear on which location technologies are active and which are passive." Many app-provider practices are buried in long terms of service. Risk increases with the number of apps that you authorize to collect location data, according to Schoen, so consumers have at least one element of control.

There are at least 10 different systems in use or being developed that a phone could use to identify its location. In most cases, several are used in combination, with one stepping in where another becomes less effective.

1. GPS

Global Positioning System was developed by the U.S. Department of Defense and was first included in cellphones in the late 1990s. It's still the best-known way to find your location outdoors.

GPS uses a constellation of satellites that send location and timing data from space directly to your phone. If the phone can pick up signals from three satellites, it can show where you are on a flat map, and with four, it can also show your elevation.

Other governments have developed their own systems similar to GPS, but rather than conflicting with it, they can actually make outdoor location easier. Russia's GLONASS is already live and China's Compass is in trials. Europe's Galileo and Japan's Quasi-Zenith Satellite System are also on the way. Phone chip makers are developing processors that can use multiple satellite constellations to get a location fix faster.

2. Assisted GPS

GPS works well once your phone finds three or four satellites, but that may take a long time, or not happen at all if you're indoors or in an "urban canyon" of buildings that reflect satellite signals. Assisted GPS describes a collection of tools that help to solve that problem.

One reason for the wait is that when it first finds the satellites, the phone needs to download information about where they will be for the next four hours. The phone needs that information to keep tracking the satellites. As soon as the information reaches the phone, full GPS service starts.

Carriers can now send that data over a cellular or Wi-Fi network, which is a lot faster than a satellite link. This may cut GPS startup time from 45 seconds to 15 seconds or less, though it's still unpredictable, said Guylain Roy-MacHabee, CEO of location technology company RX Networks.

3. Synthetic GPS

The form of assisted GPS described above still requires an available data network and the time to transmit the satellite information. Synthetic GPS uses computing power to forecast satellites' locations days or weeks in advance. This function began in data centers but increasingly can be carried out on phones themselves, according to Roy-MacHabee of RX, which specializes in this type of technology. With such a cache of satellite data on board, a phone often can identify its location in two seconds or less, he said.

4. Cell ID

However, all the technologies that speed up GPS still require the phone to find three satellites. Carriers already know how to locate phones without GPS, and they knew it before phones got the feature. Carriers figure out which cell a customer is using, and how far they are from the neighboring cells, with a technology called Cell ID. By knowing which sector of which base station a given phone is using, and using a database of base-station identification numbers and locations, the carriers can associate the phone's location with that of the cell tower. This system tends to be more precise in urban areas with many small cells than in rural areas, where cells may cover an area several kilometers in diameter.

5. Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi can do much the same thing as Cell ID, but with greater precision because Wi-Fi access points cover a smaller area.

There are actually two ways Wi-Fi can be used to determine location. The most common, called RSSI (received signal strength indication), takes the signals your phone detects from nearby access points and refers to a database of Wi-Fi networks. The database says where each uniquely identified access point is located. Using signal strength to determine distance, RSSI determines where you are (down to tens of meters) in relation to those known access points.

The other form of Wi-Fi location, wireless fingerprinting, uses profiles of given places that are based on the pattern of Wi-Fi signals found there. This technique is best for places that you or other cellphone users visit frequently. The fingerprint may be created and stored the first time you go there, or a service provider may send someone out to stand in certain spots in a building and record a fingerprint for each one. Fingerprinting can identify your location to within just a few meters, said Charlie Abraham, vice president of engineering at Broadcom's GPS division, which makes chipsets that can use a variety of location mechanisms.

6. Inertial Sensors

If you go into a place where no wireless system works, inertial sensors can keep track of your location based on other inputs. Most smartphones now come with three inertial sensors: a compass (or magnetometer) to determine direction, an accelerometer to report how fast your phone is moving in that direction, and a gyroscope to sense turning motions. Together, these sensors can determine your location with no outside inputs, but only for a limited time. They'll work for minutes, but not tens of minutes, Broadcom's Abraham said.

The classic use case is driving into a tunnel: If the phone knows your location from the usual sources before you enter, it can then determine where you've gone from the speed and direction you're moving. More commonly, these tools are used in conjunction with other location systems, sometimes compensating for them in areas where they are weak, Abraham said.

7. Barometer

Outdoor navigation on a sidewalk or street typically happens on one level, either going straight or making right or left turns. But indoors, it makes a difference what floor of the building you're on. GPS could read this, except that it's usually hard to get good GPS coverage indoors or even in urban areas, where the satellite signals bounce off tall buildings. One way to determine elevation is a barometer, which uses the principle that air gets thinner the farther up you go.

Some smartphones already have chips that can detect barometric pressure, but this technique isn't usually suited for use by itself, RX's Roy-MacHabee said. To use it, the phone needs to pull down local weather data for a baseline figure on barometric pressure, and conditions inside a building such as heating or air-conditioning flows can affect the sensor's accuracy, he said. A barometer works best with mobile devices that have been carefully calibrated for a specific building, so it might work in your own office but not in a public library, Roy-MacHabee said. Barometers are best used in combination with other tools, including GPS, Wi-Fi and short-range systems that register that you've gone past a particular spot.

8. Ultrasonic

Sometimes just detecting whether someone has entered a certain area says something about what they're doing. This can be done with short-range wireless systems, such as RFID (radio-frequency identification) with a badge. NFC (near-field communication) is starting to appear in phones and could be used for checkpoints, but manufacturers' main intention for NFC is payments.

However, shopper loyalty company Shopkick is already using a short-range system to verify that consumers have walked into a store. Instead of using a radio, Shopkick broadcasts ultrasonic tones just inside the doors of a shop. If the customer has the Shopkick app running when they walk through the door, the phone will pick up the tone through its microphone and the app will tell Shopkick that they've entered. The shopper can earn points, redeemable for gift cards and other rewards, just for walking into the store, and those show up immediately. Shopkick developed the ultrasonic system partly because the tones can't penetrate walls or windows, which would let people collect points just for walking by, CTO Aaron Emigh said. They travel about 150 feet (46 meters) inside the store. Every location of every store has a unique set of tones, which are at too high a frequency for humans to hear. Dogs can hear them, but tests showed they don't mind, Emigh said.

9. Bluetooth Beacons

Very precise location can be achieved in a specific area, such as inside a retail store, using beacons that send out signals via Bluetooth. The beacons, smaller than a cellphone, are placed every few meters and can communicate with any mobile device equipped with Bluetooth 4.0, the newest version of the standard.

Using a technique similar to Wi-Fi fingerprinting, the venue owner can use signals from this dense network of transmitters to identify locations within the space, Broadcom's Abraham said. Nokia, which is participating in a live in-store trial of Bluetooth beacons, says the system can determine location to within 10 centimeters. With location sensing that specific, a store could tell when you were close to a specific product on a shelf and offer a promotion, according to Nokia.

10. Terrestrial Transmitters

Australian startup Locata is trying to overcome GPS' limitations by bringing it down to Earth. The company makes location transmitters that use the same principle as GPS but are mounted on buildings and cell towers. Because they are stationary and provide a much stronger signal to receivers than satellites do from space, Locata's radios can pinpoint a user's location almost instantly to as close as 2 inches, according to Locata CEO Nunzio Gambale.

Locata networks are also more reliable than GPS, he said. The company's receivers currently cost about $2500 and are drawing interest from transportation, defense and public safety customers, but within a few years the technology could be an inexpensive add-on to phones, according to Gambale. Then, service providers will be its biggest customers, he said. Another company in this field, NextNav, is building a network using licensed spectrum that it says can cover 93 percent of the U.S. population. NextNav's transmitters will be deployed in a ring around each city and take advantage of the long range of its 900MHz spectrum, said Chris Gates, vice president of strategy and development.

Comparison: Motorola Razr XT910 and Galaxy Nexus GT-i9250

noreply@blogger.com (Irawan Wibisono) — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 12:18:00 +0000

As the Android smartphone market is in tough competition, Google and Motorola seems to be proving themselves superior to each other. At one side, Motorola has already marked its success by launching its Razr XT910 in India for Rs. 34,000. On the other side, Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus is still waiting behind the curtain, expecting to get launched in the middle of the holiday season – December. There is still no news for the pricing of Galaxy Nexus.

Meanwhile, let us compare the specs of both these high-end smartphones.

Appearances :

While considering the design part of both the handsets, we must say that Motorola Razr is more appealing than the Nexus. The looks are something unique and amazingly beautiful and to increase its pride, Razr is available with its 7.1 mm of slimness whereas; Nexus fails in being ultra-thin and is 8.8 mm thick. Another plus point for Motorola Razr is its back cover which is made of Kevlar plastics, capable of withstanding heavy blows. If we focus on the Galaxy Nexus, it is more similar to the Samsung Galaxy S II and Google Nexus S. There is not much flaw while comparing both the handsets as both features one or the other thing as best. The slim profile of Razr is something to praise for, but the large display that fits perfectly in the thin body is not less appealing in Galaxy Nexus. As per the design and overall appearances, both the smartphones are equally attractive.

Display of Motorola Razr :

Super Amoled display which becomes more fascinating due to the PenTile pixel arrangement scheme
4.3 inches of display
960×540 pixels of qHD resolution
256 pixels/inch of pixel arrangement density

Display of Galaxy Nexus :

Super Amoled display with similar PenTile Pixel arrangement scheme as incorporated in Razr
HD quality with 1280×720 pixels of native resolution
Pixel density is of 316 pixels/inch

Both the phones’ displays are quite charming, but when it comes in selecting one out of two, we will rate Galaxy Nexus as the best.

Operating system :

Both the smartphones hold Google’s operating system, but the versions are different. Galaxy Nexus is the first smartphone which will soon be launched in the market with its Android 4.0.1 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system. The phone will feature a fresh interface along with several other newest features due to which many people are desperately waiting for the availability of this phone.

Apart from this, Motorola Razr is run by an Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread on which we don’t have any other information. However, as per the company’s announcement, Razr can be updated to Ice Cream Sandwich update.

Due to the highest software update, Galaxy Nexus again wins the game in this comparison.

Camera :

Google and Samsung have offered only 5 megapixels of camera which can be found at the top back cover of the Galaxy Nexus. Yet, the video recording is quite a fun with its 1080p full HD quality. A 1.3 megapixels of front facing camera is also available for video chatting and other use. The front camera can record 720p of HD video.

Focusing on the camera of Motorola Razr, an 8 megapixel with 1080p full HD wins the game. Video recording can be made at 30 frames/sec. If comparison is made on the quality of full HD video then no doubt, Motorola Razr is the best. However, there is not much news about the front facing camera of Razr. So, we cannot comment on whether or not its 1.3 megapixel front facing camera is capable of recording 720p HD video.

Graphics and Processors :

Both Motorola Razr XT910 and Galaxy Nexus GT-i9250 house 1.2 GHz TI OMAP dual core mobile processors. Galaxy Nexus boasts 1.2 GHz TI OMAP 4460 processor whereas; Motorola Razr features 1.2 GHz TI OMAP 4430 mobile processor. The processor of Nexus is fitted under the hood with PowerVR SGX 540 graphics chip which is clocked at 384 MHz. Besides, Razr’s processor possibly features 304 MHz. All in all, again Nexus in this better graphic performance becomes superior to Razr.

Storage and Memory :

Both the handsets use different types of memory, but they carry similar 1 GB RAM. Motorola Razr comes with 1.2 GHz TI OMAP 4430 and is perhaps have a 1GB LPDDR2 RAM. On the other hand, Galaxy Nexus holds 1.2 GHz TI OMAP 4460 and so it will feature a 1 GB LPDDR3 RAM. The primary difference which you will find in both the handsets is the higher memory bandwidth as well as quick performance as promised in Nexus. Focusing further, users can use 16 GB of on board storage and can extend the memory up to 32 GB with the help of a memory card slot. In this matter, Nexus fails the competition as it offers 16 and 32 GB of on board memory without any option of expandable card slot.

Connectivity :

Nexus is equipped with NFC (Near Field Communication support) whereas; Razr does not possess any such support option. However, Motorola promotes its smartphone with its own web top app which enables the phone to function with its larger screen.

Both the phones have good Bluetooth facility but Nexus has 3.0 version and Razr has 4.0 version of Bluetooth. Yet, this is not something to flaunt as there is no real world benefit what the user can enjoy. Other connectivity option in Nexus is its dual band Wi-Fi support with 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. In this case, Razr holds a slower single band support.

Battery life :

1750 mAh battery is integrated in Galaxy Nexus whereas; Razr has received a 1780 mAh battery. So Razr may seem to be the winner, but the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich OS of Nexus is likely to offer much better powered management than Razr’s Android Gingerbread. Moreover, non-removable battery can be found on all the Razr devices due to which the phone becomes much thinner. Nexus boasts a conventionally removable battery and the thickness goes more.

Network and SIM :

Galaxy Nexus will be available with an HSPA+”>HSPA+ version for the Indian market
Possibly will come with a 4G LTE chip
If it happens, then Nexus would be able to provide max. download speeds. Consider the speed to be offered between 8 Mbps to 25 Mbps
Yet, the major difference in Nexus and Razr is the SIM type. Razr offers a microSIM

Final words :

The comparison is very tough as both the smartphones – Galaxy Nexus and Motorola Razr are quite like stars in their class. However, as there is always only one winner after the competition, the crown goes to Galaxy Nexus. It fails in front of Motorola Razr when comparison is made in terms of camera, design and storage expansion. But at the end, Galaxy Nexus is an overall performance package which tech-lovers would like to have.

Nokia’s Lumia Ads Say Your Phone Is No Good

noreply@blogger.com (Irawan Wibisono) — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 11:38:00 +0000

Nokia’s strategy to sell its new Lumia smartphone is to make you feel dumb about what you already have. New video ads from Nokia, the Finnish phone maker, suggest that iPhones and Android phones are flawed, unfinished “beta” devices, which makes you a sucker for having one.

The campaign, called The Smartphone Beta Test, involves a series of videos depicting fictional decision-makers discussing the purported flaws of some unnamed smartphones. A blurred-out image of what appears to be an iPhone or Android phone appears at the start of each ad. “If you ever thought that maybe your smartphone wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, that’s because it wasn’t,” says a deep-voiced narrator.

One video demonstrates the iPhone’s infamous “death grip,” in which holding the handset a certain way leads to signal loss — an issue that some customers reported when the iPhone 4 was released in 2010. The second ad shows the actors discussing the difficulty of reading a phone’s screen in the sun. And the third ad shows them saying it is just fine to sell a fragile smartphone, because they can sell new ones whenever they break.

At the top of SmartphoneBetaTest.com is a timer counting down to the debut of the Lumia 900, scheduled for release April 8 on AT&T’s network.

The ads imply that Nokia is hoping to sell the Lumia 900 to AT&T customers who already have smartphones. That’s unlike its strategy with the Lumia 710 on T-Mobile USA, which was to focus on cellphone owners who had yet to buy their first smartphones. About 50 percent of cellphone owners in the United States are still using non-smartphone handsets, according to Nielsen, the research company.

For Nokia, luring away iPhone and Android users will be an uphill battle. Last year, Apple became the world’s largest smartphone maker, according to Gartner, a research company, and Android remains the most widely distributed mobile operating system.

Nokia will be getting help from AT&T in its efforts. The carrier said last week that the launch of the Lumia 900 on Sunday will be its biggest product introduction ever, surpassing even the iPhone’s.

Smartphones may Make Kids Smart

noreply@blogger.com (Irawan Wibisono) — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 11:31:00 +0000

Can using a smartphone make your child smarter?

Children have always been fascinated by their parents' gadgets and parents are more than willing to indulge their curiosity. A recent study by BabyCenter.com found that 75 percent of moms regularly hand over their phones to their kids.

In addition, researchers at the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at the Sesame Workshop estimate that almost 20 percent of children ages 5 to 7 use a cellphone.

Not surprisingly, new apps for kids are popping up every minute with an increasing number of manufacturers marketing educational products directly to parents who want their children -- some as young as 2 -- to get a head start on learning.

Which leaves parents and educators alike wondering: Do these products live up to the hype?

While some experts view smartphones as just another digital distraction, others think their potential far outweighs any disadvantages.

"My daughter has one at home and she has lots of things on it," said special education teacher Barbie Lomas. "They think they're having fun but they're learning."

Lisa Quig, a Hockessin mom, agrees. Her kids, Aidan, 8, and Austin, 5, spend about eight hours a week with their iPads.

"My older one knows so many presidential facts, probably more than I do," she said. "My 5-year-old is already reading and he doesn't start kindergarten till fall."

Lauren Bacon said the apps are a great way to review what her 3-year-old son, Dylan, has learned in preschool.

"They reinforce some of the things he's learned in preschool and at home with me -- letters and numbers, shapes, colors, things like that," she said.

Two-year-old Kyle likes the app that teaches him about farm animals.

"I think a lot of these apps help with their fine motor skills," said Bacon, 31, of Newark.

Special-needs children can benefit as well.

"A lot of times our children learn better through computer or TV rather than through interaction with a person," said Lomas, who teaches in Delaware's autism program. "It's less pressure on them."

Robin Delaney said the iCommunicate app her 13-year-old son Josh uses has made a big difference in his ability to learn.

"It allows him to see his schedule every day so he knows what's coming next and that takes away the anxiety and helps with the behavior," said the 38-year-old who lives in Stanton. "It's also helped him to read much better."

Older kids who are beyond the three Rs also can benefit from informational apps. Bridget Gillespie Paverd of Greenville said her sons William, 19, Philip, 16, and Simon, 12, use their smartphones to obtain movie reviews, learn about different cultures when traveling and keep abreast of current events.

"I think if it's managed, these kids become extraordinarily resourceful and creative," she said.

But not everyone is convinced. Critics note that while PBS did a study showing the benefits of its app "Martha Speaks" for children 3 to 7, there doesn't seem to be any thorough research backing the claims manufacturers make for their products.

"A lot of it is hype, just like 'Baby Einstein' -- you use the word 'educational' and everybody jumps, when it's just the opposite," said Roberta Golinkoff, Ph.D., the H. Rodney Sharp Professor in the School of Education at the University of Delaware. "Kids learn most when they're working on their own and creating on their own."

Indeed, some experts wonder what, if anything, kids are getting from a screen.

"There's something called the 'video deficit,' " said Golinkoff. "They may be interested in the changing colors, but it's not clear what they're getting."

More important, time spent with an app is time not spent in creative play.

"Think of what your kid could be doing with no-cost, low-cost things like dress-up clothes, blocks, balls, a pencil and newspaper," she said. "These are the circumstances from which kids learn most, not from passively absorbing the creativity of others."

That's what concerns Sarah Etshman of Hockessin. Her children, 3-year-old twins Wyatt and Alec and 5-year-old Adelaide, do not have access to a smartphone.

"From everything I've heard, that learning tends to be more passive learning," said Etshman. "I'm not an early-learning child development specialist, but I just think that children are going to learn more by doing the real thing by touching and feeling, rather than sitting with a computer."

Does she worry that her kids will be behind their peers who already know how to use technology?

"I don't think it's going to limit their ability to understand and use technology," Etshman said. "They're going to soak it up like a sponge when the time is right. I just don't think they need to be staring into a phone just yet."
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