Off on vacation, back July 12

Off on vacation, back Monday July 12.

mobile advertising could make up 10% of Apple's revenue by 2012

According to The Age, mobile advertising could make up 10% of Apple's revenue by 2012.

In its first eight weeks of selling iAds, Apple garnered $US60 million ($73 million) worth of commitments for mobile ads to run in 2010's second half, from 17 blue-chip brands including Unilever, General Electric and Citigroup.

... Just like the iPhone app store, there will be a simple revenue split. Developers will keep 60% of revenues, however, rather than the 70% they are awarded for iPhone apps. In return, Apple will host and deliver all of the iAds.

Read full article.

FCC issues advice on traveling with mobile phones

As the U.S. enters the summer vacation season, the FCC has launched an educational program to remind mobile-phone customers traveling internationally how to avoid high-cost calls.

At Wireless World Travel, mobile users planning a trip abroad will find tips and options to avoid unanticipated roaming or data service charges.

[via Network World]

Smartphone owners to spend $168 million this year on games and virtual goods

According to esearch and consulting firm Frank N. Magid Associates, virtual goods such as in smartphone games are expected to hit sales of $168 million this year.

Among the more than 70 million U.S. smartphone owners -- 23% of the population -- nearly half (45%) play mobile games and 16% spend an average of $41 annually on in-game virtual goods.

Read full article in USA Today.

Twittering public servants waste the work of four fulltime staff

Australian public servants spend at least 8482 hours a year on Twitter, a Dominion Post investigation suggests – the equivalent of a year's work for four full-time staff. Stuff reports.

The annual figure was extrapolated from a one-month snapshot obtained under the Official Information Act.

It's likely to be conservative, because four of the 20 departments surveyed could not measure how long workers were logged in to the social networking website, and two could measure only the number of times Twitter was opened.

It was not known how much Twitter browsing was for legitimate work, including maintaining official Twitter accounts operated by five government agencies.

Read full article.

Doodle Jump Reaches Five Million Downloads

The makers of the Doodle Jump game app for iPhone, which sells for 99 cents in the iTunes store, has now sold more than five million copies.

[via Bits]

More people grabbing directions via mobile phones

People are increasingly relying on their mobile phones to deliver maps and directions on the go, according to ComScore. News.com reports.

Data released by ComScore on Friday discovered that 14 percent of all mobile phones users in the U.S., or 33.5 million people, accessed maps on their devices at least once a month over the three months ended April, a 44 percent rise from the same period in 2009.

Read full press release.

New Mobile App for Implant Surgery Scheduling and Inventory Management

InVivoLink of Nashville, TN has released an app across the major mobile platforms (including the iPad) to make the routine of medical device reps more streamlined. Instead of making calls and manually managing the delivery of devices, the system helps reps to automate the supply line and schedule procedures. [via medGadget]

In their own words:

With the IVL mobile application, called “Remote Control,” important case and inventory data for surgeries literally is at the reps’ fingertips – instead of buried within piles of hard-to-read, difficult-to-access faxes or scribbled notes from phone calls. Whether using the mobile app or InVivoLink’s Web application on a laptop or netbook, IVL users work when, where and how they want, because critical events don’t just happen during “office hours.”

Full press release

New Device Uses Mobile Phone To Test Vision In Developing Countries

A team of researchers at MIT's Media Lab has created a simple and inexpensive device that when used with a mobile phone can help diagnose vision problems. Gearlog reports.

The test takes less than two minutes, during which the patient is asked to look through a small device attached to the screen of a mobile phone. The device uses small lenses and pinholes that require the user to focus at different depths.

If any vision problems are discovered while looking at the test patterns, the user adjusts the display until it can be seen clearly. This quickly provides exact measurements, potentially more accurate than the current system, which requires patients to decide which of two separate, serially viewed options is better.

... The NETRA system recently won a prize in te MIT IDEAS competition, and the prototype and supporting research papers will be presented at this summer's SIGGRAPH computer graphics conference.

Read full article.

How Wi-Fi Drains Your Cell Phone

Interesting, from Technology Review, how Wi-Fi drains your cell phone.

Some simple changes to the software running on Wi-Fi access points could significantly extend or even double cell phone battery life. That's the finding of a study that investigated why using Wi-Fi on a cell phone, and on some other portable devices, sucks up power so quickly. It found that a protocol designed to reduce Wi-Fi power drain often has an opposite effect.

Read full article.

Russian President Medvedev joins Twitter

Russian president, 44 becomes the latest world leader to join Twitter @KremlinRussia

"Hello everyone, I'm at Twitter and sending my first message," Medvedev said in his inaugural tweet. Or more accurately:

Всем привет! Я в Твиттере и это мое6 первое сообщение!

[via The Guardian]

IPhone 4 Reviews: The Pundits Weigh In

Technology reviewers and blogs all around the world are weighing in with their thoughts about the new iPhone 4. Click here for a collection of reviews and pointers from the technology world (including engadget, David Pogue, CNet and WSJ Walt Mossberg) rounded up by Bits.

Companies help nontechies create killer apps for iPhones

The LA Times on how would-be entrepreneurs supply an idea for an app to companies that do the programming and the marketing.

... Since Apple and later Google Inc. began allowing developers to create apps for their smart phones in 2008, eager developers have churned out more than 250,000 of the small programs. Mobile app producers will make nearly $7 billion in revenue this year, and double that in 2011, according to technology research firm Gartner Inc.

But most people don't know how to write computer code, and that's where companies like Appsnminded come in. For a few thousand dollars, the companies will take your idea and turn it into a working application in a matter of weeks.

And if you don't have the cash upfront? Not to worry, arrangements can be made.

Read full article. Image from BindApple.

Related:

-- The Rise of the App entrepreneur

--Swebapps and Mobile Roadie enable anyone to create an iPhone app

-- 3 Day Course on How to start an iPhone app business

-- iPhone App Classroom teaches people to make their own Apps thanks to "Codeless iPhone Development."

-- Red Foundry lets you build iPhone apps in minutes

-- AppMakr lets you make an app in minutes

FrontlineSMS Credit, the future of microfinance

Ben Lyon - FrontlineSMS:Credit from Africa Gathering on Vimeo.

CreditSMS which has teamed up with FrontlineSMS to form FrontlineSMS:Credit, anopen source software solution that connects microfinance platforms and mobile payment systems to serve the entrepreneurial poor.

Side note, FrontlineSMS:Credit has just added everyone's favorite Jan Chipchase and Menekse Gencer mPay Connect, to their advisory Board.

Lieberman Backs Away from 'Internet Kill Switch'

Sen. Joseph Lieberman on Sunday dismissed the idea that a recently introduced bill (The Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act of 2010, S.3480,) would give the president access to an Internet kill switch as "misinformation." He then said, however, that the government needs to be able to "disconnect parts of its Internet in a case of war." PCMag reports.

"The president will never take over -- the government should never take over the Internet," Lieberman said during CNN's "State of the Union," according to a transcript. Earlier this month, it was reported that Lieberman and Sen. Susan Collins were prepping a bill that would allow the government to "take over" civilian network in an emergency. The news prompted many to dub this option an "Internet kill switch."

On Sunday, Lieberman denied that this was the case, but said the government needed the option to shut down certain parts of the Web should they come under attack.

Read full article.

Nike launches "Write the Headline"

Nike Football lights up Johannesburg with an interactive LED installation on a massive scale. CoolHunting reports.

Taking over Johannesburg's towering Southern Life Center building, Nike Football's interactive LED light show "Write the Headline"allows fans around the world to root for their favorite World Cup player in a big way. The installation, almost the size of half a football pitch, displays submissions from Facebook, Twitter (#nikefuture), QQ (a Chinese chat program), and Mxit (a South African IM app) that read from distances as far as 2.5 kilometers away.

"Write the Headline" asks you to choose the player you think will write the future, projecting an animation along with your personal message—up to 57 characters in length—on Johannesburg's fourth tallest building.

Each night, from 6pm to 6am selected headlines will appear between 20 minutes to 24 hours from uploading and can be written in 12 different languages with Nike delivering images of the chosen headlines back to the writers via the social media method they used to submit it.

Using the Twitter hashtag #NikeFuture or the Facebook app send in your headline for the day's biggest playmaker.

[via MobileBehavior]

Related campaigns:

-- Students project Tweets on Building - Drexel University students projected tweets onto the side of a campus building. Using the "Social Graffiti" system, anyone can digitally tag Twitter messages with @digmGraffiti to be projected onto Nesbitt Hall.

Similar installations but with text messaging. Not tweets but the same idea:

-- Paul Notzold's "Txtual Healing" performances around the world - Interactive public projections and performance formats that encourage creation of dialog through text messaging from mobile phones.

-- The HelloWorld Project - Text messages were projected by a laser beam on mountains and buildings in several cities in 2003.

-- Hello Mr President - A laser projector beamed messages onto the snow during the Davos WEF summit in 2001.

Text messages become a growing weapon in dating violence

The Washington Post on "textual harassment," a growing aspect of dating violence at a time when cellphones and unlimited texting plans are ubiquitous among the young. It can be insidious, because messages pop up at the sender's will: Where r u? Who r u with? Why didnt u answer me?

... One challenge is that many teens do not view excessive texting as a problem and may not recognize abusive behaviors. "If you're getting 50 messages an hour and you want 50 messages an hour, that's not a problem," says Marjorie Gilberg, executive director of Break the Cycle, which works to end dating violence. "But if you're getting 50 messages an hour and

Read full article

iPhone App Store Reality Check

According to Communities Dominate Brands @tomiahonen:

-- 85 of all downloadable apps are free

-- The proportion of spending on apps is under 3% of the amount spent on the device

-- The average app development cost is between $15,000 and $50,000 dollars

-- For an investment of of $35,000 in an app that gets average downloads, it would take 10 years to recoup its development costs

Mobile phones bring revolution to developing world

A wave of mobile technology spreading across the third world promises more efficient disaster relief, cheaper energy and a faster route out of poverty. The Guardian reports.

We all know how fast technology can change markets and businesses. Now the web and the mass proliferation of mobile phones, as well as falling costs for all kinds of technologies, are allowing rapid change to affect more than just the developed world.

And advances in technology and the falling cost of delivery are driving big corporations as well as entrepreneurs to take new or renewed interest in solving some of the most seemingly intractable issues we face as a global community, from health care to education, from economic development and rolling out affordable alternative energy to coping with the social and economic fallout from natural disasters.

Read full article.

Phone Software Takes the Taps Out of Typing

New technology called Swype allows users to glide a finger across the virtual keyboard to spell words, rather than tapping out each letter. The New York Times reports.

Swype’s software detects where a finger pauses and changes direction as it traces out the pattern of a word. The movements do not have to be precise because the software calculates which words a user is most likely trying to spell.

Capitalization and double letters can be indicated with a pause or squiggle, while spacing and punctuation are automatic.

Read full article.

Kenyans turn to mobile phones for entertainment services

According to a TNS technology report, Kenyans are now turning to mobile phones as their central entertainment platform, reports AllVoices.

The report states that the demand for music, social video like YouTube and maps is high among the Kenyan consumers.

The trend of turning mobile phones into entertainment platform is not only taking place in Kenya.

... Kenyans spend 38 of their time listening to radio through phones compared to 25 per cent spend by the African population and 23 per cent by the global market.

Read full article.

Utah uses Twitter to announce execution

Mark Shurtleff, Utah's attorney general, is being criticized for tweeting a murderer's execution. An inappropriate chanel? Isn't Twitter used for breaking news? What's right or wrong is the execution, not the news of it. [via CNET]

At Twitter.com/MarkShurtleff, he offered his more than 7,000 followers tweets as to the progress of the state's most recent execution.

Thursday he tweeted:

"A solemn day. Barring a stay by Sup Ct, & with my final nod, Utah will use most extreme power & execute a killer. Mourn his victims. Justice"

I just gave the go ahead to Corrections Director to proceed with Gardner's execution. May God grant him the mercy he denied his victims.

Read full article.

Adult drivers use cell phones as much as teens

Adults are just as likely as teens to have texted while driving and are substantially more likely to have talked on the phone while driving, according to a new study by Pew Internet Research Center's Internet & American Life Project.

... The findings by Pew Internet & American Life Project suggest that 27% of adults and 26% of teens send or read texts behind the wheel, while 61% of adults and 43% of teens talk on their cell phones.

[via TIME]

Pew Internet & American Life Project Report: Adults and Cell Phone Distractions

Police to allow gun users renew licences with iPhone app

According to The Telegraph, UK's Sussex Police is designing a series of 'apps' which will let members of the public access news, appeals and other services at the touch of a button - including updating their firearms licences.

The force proposes allowing people to make requests to renew shotgun and firearm licences with a new iPhone app as part of a £3m ($4.5m) cost-cutting drive. The applicant would then be visited by officers in person.

Read full article.

Colbert's response to NY Times banning the (silly) word "tweet"

Stephen Colber objects to the New York Times ban of the word "Tweet" (silly) on The Colbert Report.

The BBC quoting NY Times standards editor, Philip B. Corbett:

"Some social-media fans may disagree, but outside of ornithological contexts, 'tweet' has not yet achieved the status of standard English. And standard English is what we should use in news articles."

[via CNet]

Real Mirror App for iPhone

Spotted on Gadgetwise, the promise of a mirror app for the iPhone 4G.

Mirror App by DLP Mobile takes advantage of the front facing camera on the new iPhone and simply acts as a mirror, with a few extra digital features throw in.

Most apps currently in the iTunes store that claim to offer the functionality of a mirror simply turn off the phone’s display to provide a reflection in the phone’s glass surface.

Read full article.

The North Korean Soccer Coach’s Invisible Phone

TIME Newsfeed picket up on an article published in Soccernet, on how North Korea’s World Cup coach called up the country’s Supreme Leader for some advice - on an invisible phone.

It's been suggested that North Korea leader Kim Jong-Il gave the coach advice on how to reach the World Cup. Kim Jong-Su, the general secretary of the North Korean FA, has said the 'Dear Leader' gave "in-depth guidance" on how to develop the game in the country and the coach himself has claimed he received regular tactical advice during matches, apparently using mobile phones that are not visible to the naked eye. Jong-Il is said to have developed the technology himself.

[via The Huffington Post]

State Dept sees diplomatic potential in SMS

While newer technologies such as Twitter are capturing more headlines, the State Department still sees untapped diplomatic potential in the humble text message. The Hill reports.

Caitlin Bergin of the State Department's Office of International Information Programs said Foggy Bottom has experimented with a number of public diplomacy programs that make use of text messaging during a panel in Washington on Wednesday.

Mobile phones with texting are more widely available internationally than other tools like Twitter that require mobile broadband service. Oren Levine, marketing manager at Nokia said his firm is working to reduce the costs of owning a cell phone to $5 a month, less than half what it is now.

Bergin said texting can a very good channel for citizens that feel unsafe speaking out loud about certain issues. For example, last fall the State Department began working with Mexican authorities to develop a channel for citizens to report crimes via text messages.

... Bergin also pointed to an example from President Obama's recent trip to Africa where the State Department collected more than 200,000 questions from Africans via instant messaging and texts. The questions were later posed to Obama by African journalists on a podcast.

"Our goal is to give a voice and open a dialogue to as many people as we can," Bergin said. "Having innovations from other places besides the West is really exciting."

Read full article.

What your cell phone says about you

Funny. From FunnyCrave: What your cell phone says about you.

Excerpt on the iPhone

What You Think It Says:

I am on the forefront of technology. iPhones are the most advanced smart phones on the market, and it’s important for me to be a part of the movement toward the future of communication. I’m also suffering from a crippling addiction to Angry Birds.

What It Really Says:

I am a socially inept person, so having a phone with a million different ways to waste time is a godsend for me. Instead of just looking like a loser in a bar, I can look like a loser who may or may not be sending an important email in a bar!

Find out what is says about you if you own a Flip Phone, a Nokia brick phone, a Blackberry, Droid, a watch phone or a Zack Morris phone.

Related:

-- What your cellphone said about you in 2006

-- Links to "You are your ringtone" articles.

San Francisco Passes Cellphone Radiation Law

San Francisco voted on Tuesday to require all retailers to display the amount of radiation each phone emits, reports The New York Times.

The law — believed to be the first of its kind in the nation — came despite a lack of conclusive scientific evidence showing that the devices are dangerous, and amid opposition from the wireless telephone industry, which views the labeling ordinance as a potential business-killing precedent.

Related:

-- San Francisco to vote on cell phone radiation labels

-- Main to legislate over cancer warnings on cell phones

-- SF Mayor back mandatory cell phone radiation labels