| Yobongo Hits the App Store: Can It Deliver? Yobongo, the iPhone app that "makes it super fun and easy to chat with people nearby," has finally gone live in the iTunes App Store. After a month in beta testing, Yobongo has shown itself to be a well-designed, functional mobile chat room. Now, just one thing remains to be seen - can it deliver on its promise of "ambient real-time communication"?
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BlackBerry Messenger Rumored to Be Heading to Android, iOS There are rumors this morning that Research in Motion is preparing to bring to Android and iOS one of the key selling points of the BlackBerry phone: BlackBerry Messenger. BGR is reporting that it's learned from "multiple trusted sources" that the company plans to introduce the Android version some time this year, with an app for iPhones available at some point as well. Details are still sketchy, says BGR, and while the app may be free, RIM could also charge users a fee (either a one-time or a recurring fee) to access the BBM service via other platforms).
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Android Becomes Number One in U.S. Smartphone Market Share Today Nielsen is reporting that Google's Android mobile operating system (OS) has beat out RIM BlackBerry and Apple iOS to become the number one mobile OS in terms of consumer market share. Android has now reached 29% market share, compared with RIM's 27% and Apple's 27%. However, that's only one way to slice the pie. Nielsen also notes that when looked at from a different angle - manufacturer operating system share, a way to break up the market by the handset makers' individual takes - it's Apple and RIM (each at 27%) who are clearly ahead. HTC is in 3rd place using that metric, with devices running Windows Mobile/Windows Phone (7%) and Android (12%).
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Survey Finds Many in Java Community Worried About Oracle's Leadership We've been chronicling what has been a rather frought six months or so for Java, ever since Oracle filed a lawsuit against Google last summer for copyright infringement in its Android software. That lawsuit has prompted a flurry of responses from Java developers (including observations from the "father of Java" James Gosling) and from the Apache Software Foundation (which resigned from the Java Executive Committee in December). No surprise, then, this chain of events has resulted in what seems to be a shaken confidence in Java. Indeed, that seems to be the consensus from a survey taken at JavaOne last fall. The survey was meant to gauge the Java community's thoughts on Oracle and open source.
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Survey Says: 60% of You Plan to Buy an iPad 2 Today was iPad 2 Day and we've been running a poll asking readers if you'll plop down the $500 to buy one. I have to confess, I wasn't hugely moved by what was unveiled today and I don't know if or when I'm going to feel like buying a second iPad. Apparently most of our readers feel otherwise. Here's our summary of what was announced today. Nearly 60% of almost 1200 poll respondents, from 63 countries, today said they expect to buy an iPad 2 - and the percentage is even higher (62%) in the United States. More than 20% of respondents said they were going to buy one and that it would be their second iPad purchased. That sounds like a successful launch day to me - but of course we have a pretty geeky audience! You all won't have to wait long, either. The iPad 2 will be available on March 11th. We've got another poll for you below, though. Do you secretly wish an Android tablet would appear that could beat it?
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Alleged Wikileaks Leaker Faces Death Penalty Bradley Manning, the U.S. Army private who allegedly passed classified documents to the whistle-blowing site Wikileaks, has just been charged with 22 additional counts, according to his attorney, Lieutenant Colonel David Coombs. Among these are "aiding the enemy," a capital offense. Before we go on, you should understand two things. First, I am Son of Regular Navy. Second, I am not a fan of Wikileaks. Both of these things are relevant to my understanding of what has happened to Manning.
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Will the iPad 2 Make the Grade for Classroom Usage? Apple has always been popular in education, embraced by school teachers and tech coordinators for its ease-of-use for students, for its better selection of educational software, and for its more reliable hardware and operating system. Schools that went with Macs decades ago have stayed with Apple, even while the rest of the business world seemed to go with Microsoft in the era of the personal computer. Apple CEO Steve Jobs declared the end of the PC era today as he unveiled the iPad 2. And he touted the educational benefits of the iPad in his presentation, highlighting in one video the impact that the device has had in particular on autistic children. So is the iPad 2 ready for the classroom?
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Ashton Kutcher's Twitter Account Hacked at TED TV star Ashton Kutcher may have more followers than all but 5 other people on Twitter (6,393,559) but he apparently has at least one snarky and politically minded adversary at the prestigious TED conference this week. Kutcher's account on Twitter appears to have been compromised this afternoon, having posted two messages purportedly from someone else nearby. How excited will the stars Twitter seeks to get onboard be when they find out how easy it is for strangers to hijack their identities? Probably not very excited! "Ashton, you've been Punk'd," the first of two Tweets read. "This account is not secure. Dude, where's my SSL?" SSL, or Secure Sockets Layer, is a security measure that many people have called on Twitter and Facebook to enable by default. "P.S. This is for those young protesters around the world who deserve not to have their Facebook & Twitter accounts hacked like this. #SSL," read the next message. Update: It's been 4 hours now and it's getting harder to believe that Kutcher hasn't heard about this yet. He hasn't deleted those tweets or tweeted anything else since. It's odd.
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"Ladies Mapping Party" Strengthens Google's Africa Maps If you like the idea of a quilting bee but prefer your bits electronic instead of fabric, you might be interested in a "ladies mapping party." 70 Kenyan women were, and showed up to a Google-sponsored ladies mapping party at Nairobi's iHub in February. The women used Google Map Maker, and their specific local knowledge, to fill in schools, health centers, market centers, community development projects, restaurants and roads in a country too often neglected by cartographers.
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Why Twitter Suspended the Fake Steve Jobs Account (& Why It's Back) Yesterday the "ban hammer" struck one of the best known parody accounts on Twitter, @ceoSteveJobs. The account, well-known for its pithy and biting Apple-related tweets, had over 460,000 followers when GeekSmack first reported that the account had been suspended. The account has likely angered its share of Apple fan boys and company execs, but it's not the content of the messages that (necessarily) got the account in trouble. Beginning January 1 this year, an "online impersonation law" went into effect in the state of California, banning people from assuming someone else's identity online in order to defraud or harm. Several commentators have suggested that the fake Steve Jobs account may have run afoul of the law or that Twitter received a "valid report" complaining of infringement.
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