Android – Iphone – Applications

Dell, AT&T, and Google are in a partnership to launch a smartphone, powered by Google Android next year according to The Wall Street Journal. AT&T would become the fourth major U.S. telecommunications company to sell a smartphone powered by Android.

Clearly this is an interesting turn because AT&T is exclusively selling the Apple iPhone in the U.S.. By selling smartphones powered by Android, that gives more choice to AT&T customers which essentially is not a good thing for Apple.

Google first announced the Android operating system in 2007 and launched it on about 9 smartphones since. Given that Dell does not have much experience in developing smartphones, all the companies involved have to be careful in making sure nothing goes awry.

Thus far Motorola, HTC, and Samsung have launched Android mobile phones. Nokia is rumored to be launching Android on a netbook too. Motorola launched a custom version of the Google Android operating system called Motoblur. The phone is expected to launch the vote in early 2010.

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written by Duy Phong \\ tags: Android, App, Apple, Google, Iphone

Want to know how big the mobile short messaging market is? Well I’ll tell you. About 4.1 billion text and SMS messages are sent per day. This is based on a CTIA semi-annual wireless industry survey report that states that 740 billion text messages were sent in the first half of 2009 in the U.S. This is double the amount of text and SMS messages that were sent in the same period last year.

“Once again, the new survey results indicate that mobile broadband is an integral part of everyday life for many Americans,” stated CTIA – The Wireless Association CEO and President Steve Largent in a press release. “The wireless ecosystem—infrastructure suppliers, service providers, device manufacturers, operating system providers, and applications developers—are simultaneously working together and competing against one another to generate valuable and unparalleled products and services for consumers. The survey proves that more people are quickly embracing these advancements and integrating them into their daily lives.”

Other statistics include:
- 1.1 trillion minutes used in the first half of 2009
- 6.4 billion minutes of use per day
- Wireless service revenues were about $76 billion in first 6 months of 2009

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written by Duy Phong \\ tags: App, Application, Google, OS

I’m not going to lie, I like the submissions that make it to the homepage of Digg.com. I visit their homepage at least once per day. The news is often times entertaining and relevant in every day news. Many people have built a brand around the stories that they’ve submitted on Digg.

For example, the icon of power Digg user Mr. Baby Man (Andrew Sorcini) built a brand around his Digg icon that features a stick figuring digging with a construction sign. Muhammad Saleem, another power Digg user built a brand around his black spade icon. Many people even decorate their icons depending on what holiday is coming up. If Christmas time is near, people will stick a Santa hat on their icon.

Now when a story is submitted, the user’s icon will not show up anymore. There is still a hyperlink that links to the user’s profile that submitted the story, but I don’t think that is fair for people that have built a brand for their icon. In a way, it makes the Digg community seem less relevant.

Why did Digg do it? Apparently they did it to save costs. Digg engineer John Quinn stated “Today, we’re also making some changes to reduce page payloads and minimize HTTP requests with subtle UI changes. By removing the 16px user icon from stories on the home page and other story lists, we’re reducing HTTP requests to Digg for a warm cache load by around 75%.”

What are your thoughts on the changes? Perhaps you prefer to see the icons? Or do you just not care at all?

Popularity: unranked [?]

written by Duy Phong \\ tags: App, OS

Rumor has it that T-Mobile and AT&T will both be selling the BlackBerry Bold 2 on October 21. The BlackBerry Bold 2 is also known as the Onyx and the model number 9700. This BlackBerry uses a touch-pad interface. Other specs include high-gloss black finish, leather grain detail on the back, 3G web browsing, WiFi calling capable, visual voicemail, corporate/personal e-mail options. The phone comes preloaded with BlackBerry App World, TeleNav GPS, and the Amazon MP3 store.

Popularity: unranked [?]

written by Duy Phong \\ tags: 3G, App, OS

Rapper Fabolous who is known for the songs “My Time,” “Throw It In The Bag,” “Make Me Better,” “So Into You,” etc. Fabolous grew up in the Brooklyn area of New York which is within 15 miles where 50 Cent was raised in South Jamaica.

On October 6th, Fabolous wrote the above Twitter message and 50 Cent’s blog wrote that he wrote the message because he wasn’t invited to the ThisIs50 Fest. The ThisIs50 Fest had artists performing such as Kid Cudi, Wale, Wyclef, G-Unit, Slaughterhouse, Maino, Jadakiss, Papoose, Crooked I, Uncle Murda, Jim Jones, and Juelz Santana.

Fabolous wrote “Its interesting to c 50 Cent unit wit NY artists when he’s 1 of the reasons NY hip hop became so isolated & crumbled..DO u agree NY??” Thats a pretty bold statement considering that 50 Cent is one of the most prominent rappers from New York.

50 Cent personally responded to the statement on his blog:

Reading what Fab said about me on Twitter was disappointing.
I have extended myself to Fab personally to allow him to expand himself as an international Touring Artist.
I Thought we were Friends but that’s cool.

Law #2: Never put too much trust in Friends, Learn how to use Enemies
Be wary of friends—they will betray you more quickly, for they are easily aroused to envy. They also become spoiled and tyrannical. But hire a former enemy and he will be more loyal than a friend, because he has more to prove. In fact, you have more to fear from friends than from enemies. If you have no enemies, find a way to make them.
—50th Law of Power.
Am I 50 Cent or Am I Machiavelli? Dammmm!!!

After 50 Cent responded and Twitter users were angry with what Fabolous said, the rapper from Brooklyn immediately regretted what he wrote as displayed in the below tweets. 50 Cent has about 1.7 million followers on Twitter and Fabolous has about 300,000.

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written by Duy Phong \\ tags: App, Mac, OS