Friday, March 4, 2011

MobileCrunch

MobileCrunch

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Elfoid: Creepy Robot Cell Phone (Video)

Posted: 04 Mar 2011 04:07 AM PST

When it comes to bizarre robots, you can always count on Hiroshi Ishiguro: the so-called Elfoid [JP], a mix between mini humanoid, telepresence robot and cell phone, isn't exactly made by him but based on his Telenoid robot from last year. Developed by Japan's Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute (ATR), the Elfoid phone is supposed to make remote communication more intimate and personal. Read the rest on CrunchGear.


Trends Show Android Gaining Among The Young And Vivacious

Posted: 03 Mar 2011 02:11 PM PST


This little study by Nielson doesn’t actually say “vivacious,” but it’s implied — right there in the headline. The study is just an exercise in statistics and a look at the smartphone market, but it’s always worth taking a look and speculating based on the big bottom-line numbers like total market share.

These two attractive charts detail the distribution of OSes and manufacturers among smartphone owners, which, it should be noted, make up only about 25% (Update: Nielson actually says 34%, comScore says lower, around 27%, my estimate was low) of the mobile-using population, in the US at least. The information is through January of this year, so it’s quite current. So who’s winning? Everybody, it looks like. It really is a dead heat at the moment, but like Jell-O, there’s always room for analysis.

As always, Apple and RIM have a major inertial advantage in being both the manufacturer and OS provider. They have absolute control and consumers trust that. On the other hand, they are unable to cast off their skin and rebrand at will, as Motorola and HTC have done. This stolidity and inflexibility means that their brand doesn’t apply as much to the younger generation, and although the stats right now show only a very modest lead in the 18-24 demographic, it’s significant in that Android-related brands are not showing a weakness among the young.

We all know that Android has nowhere to go but up, considering that it has only barely begun to crack the feature phone market, which Apple and RIM aren’t really capable of attacking without damaging their brand. When Android starts to crack the “my first phone” barrier (perhaps with a simplifying skin cooked up by the likes of LG or Samsung), i.e. the pre-18 demographic, you better believe that age gap is going to widen.

On the other hand, it’s clearly a struggle for Android handset manufacturers to maintain their share, since they’re battling on multiple fronts. It’s fair to say that right now they’re fighting over scraps, dividing between them an equivalent share of the market as is owned solely by Apple or RIM, but establishing a pecking order early on means that once that share starts to grow, eventually a portion of the Android market may outsize the totality of the iOS market. That’s a long ways out, though, and one must never underestimate the competition. After all, the iPad is acting as a bulwark and gateway gadget, and of course Apple computers are far more popular in that young demographic, so it’s still anybody’s game.

These minor differences will grow, though, and while it’s a battle of inches right now, it’s still early in the race, if indeed the race can be said to have an end at all.

Apple Releases The iOS 4.3 Gold Master To Developers

Posted: 03 Mar 2011 11:30 AM PST

After just shy of two months of Beta testing, Apple has just released the iOS 4.3 “Gold Master” to the Developer Center.

Never heard the term “Gold Master”? Gold Master (besides sounding like the name of the boss in a poorly translated fighting game) simply means “the version we plan on shipping.” Unless there are any last minute mission critical bugs requiring a second GM release (which HAS happened before), this build is just about identical to the one that’ll be hitting devices on March 11th.

The GM build is also generally the first one that isn’t signed/tied to a specific developer account, which generally leads to it leaking onto the torrent sites within a few hours. But that’s a bit like peeking at your Christmas presents, wouldn’t you say?

Windows Phone 7′s Pre-Update Update Starts Hitting Samsung Handsets Again

Posted: 03 Mar 2011 10:56 AM PST

A bit over a week ago, Microsoft sent out an itty-bitty software update to Windows Phone 7 handsets. Intended as sort of a “Pre-Update” update, it was intentionally light on the features. In fact, it really only had two:

  1. It patched up a few bugs in the update system to make way for the impending Copy-And-Paste update would go smoothly.
  2. It randomly turned select Samsung WP7 handsets into paperweights.

Back when word broke that certain Samsung handsets were having issues (read: being bricked) by the update, Microsoft blocked all affected handsets from receiving the update and promised a second, less-dangerous update would be on the way in a few days. Sure enough, Samsung handsets have just started gettin’ the patch for the second time — and so far, so good. Got a Samsung WP7 handset, and a willing to test the waters? Let us know how it goes.

PayPal Launches Their Third Developer Challenge, $50k Up For Grabs To Android Devs

Posted: 03 Mar 2011 10:25 AM PST


Like money? Like helping other people spend money? Like writing line after line of code and battling semi-colons in an attempt to win money? Then listen up!

Just about once a year, PayPal launches a Developer Challenge program aimed at getting developers to develop their craziest PayPal-friendly idea in exchange for cold hard cash. They’ve had two of’em so far, both of which were pretty grand in scope; developers could build just about whatever they wanted, and there was a total of $150k in prizes being thrown around. They’ve just released the details for this year’s challenge.

It’s being scaled back a bit this time around; all submissions are to be built for the Android platform, and the prize total comes in at $50k ($25k for 1st, $15k for 2nd, $10k for 3rd) — but hey, that’s probably still enough to go all Scrooge McDuck. Devs have up until May 14th to get their applications in, and then are free to submit bug fixes/minor changes up until June 3rd. Winners will be announced June 29th. Interested? You can find all the details right over here.
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