If one thing Apple is staying consistent and it looks like they are at it again. No it’s not another product it’s Apple exercising further editorial judgment in terms of the applications that will get onto their iPhone.
The difference from some of the past application censorship is that this time it isn’t the bare breasts and games of violence.  This time the problem is about a denied application that would allow a user to see the level of radiation that their iPhone is emitting.
When Apple was asked for comment their spokesman declined comment on the issue.
Friedlander, the Tawkon co-founder, talked about how Apple had responded just a few days after the application was submitted by Tawkon to be an application within the iTunes Store. The response was stated that the graphical user interface was a good one but that through supplying information to consumers about radiation levels through the application could cause a significant amount of confusion.
Friedlander additionally talked about the fact that they are very clear about the fact of they will make the content decisions on whether or not they want to post something or not.
Of course any company has a right to censor content for their products but the apparent move from Apple comes as there is mounting research, mostly coming from Europe, that puts an indication of linkage of cell phone usage and cancer. Part of the concern is whether or not this information is actually factual and would the application actually give a false positive of some sort, etc… The United States phone carriers, manufactures as well as groups, with one being the NIH (National Institute of Health) concluded that the research at this point doesn’t make a clear connection from someone using a cell phone and cancer/cancer risk.
There are some public health experts and other consumer advocates that are talking about the exponential growth of cell phone usage, especially among that of teens starting usage at an early age, warrants much more study in regards to whether or not there is an actual link between cell phone use, radiation and cancer.
One of these people is a health expert by the name of David Carpenter. David Carpenter is a physician and professor at the University of Albany. Dr. Carpenter spoke recently at a hearing at the legislature in Maine on whether or not the state should put out a mandate that puts a warning label on cell phones.
The application from Tawkon would give the user a reading on the level of radiation that is emitted by the iPhone which would be dependent on environmental changes as well as the distance they are from cell towers.
Some of the criticism though is that the phone doesn’t actually measure any radiation and that it does nothing more than an estimate calculation based on the phones parameters and that the estimate is by no means exact. With that in mind I really can’t blame Apple for denying this application.

Share on Facebook

With Google rolling out Google Buzz in the first quarter of the year Google made the announcement that everyone was anticipating with the smartphone craze of Google incorporating Buzz into a mobile interface. Google Buzz is the social networking equivalent to let people know what the “buzz” is through Google’s popular email giant Gmail.
Everyone was excited on what Google Buzz is able to do with your computer desktop but what’s really going to be exciting is what you’re going to be able to do with Buzz in your pocket with your mobile phone. (more…)

Share on Facebook

New figures just released from the company comScore have shown that the Android has made an exceptionally large leap in terms of the United States market share of smartphones through the month of January. Most of this market share gain was for the most part at the expense of Windows Mobile.
The comScore market and media analysis firm’s figures that were just released for the United States mobile phone market were for the months of Oct 2009 to Jan 2010. The released results gave the Android figures that showed that it made huge bounds in the smartphone market share by the 2.8-7.1% jump that it made from the Oct 2009 to Jan 2010 time span. That’s a 4.3% net point change in comparison to the entire market and the share gain is over 150% comparative to the Oct share.
With the comment made earlier about the Androids growth being at the expense of the Windows Mobile platform from Microsoft, let’s put it into perspective. Over that same date range period of Oct 2009 to Jan 2010 the Windows Mobile lost 4% of the total market share. The previous share was 19.7% and that dropped to 15.7%.
The market share leader though, results from comScore, still remains the company from the Canadian RIM (Research in Motion) which saw that its shares of the popular Blackberry platform come from 41.3% to 43% pulling in a 1.7% net gain over its already massive market share. Apple is still the number two in market share with their iPhone. The iPhone took in 25.1% with a small net gain from the 24.8% they had in the previous Oct. The Android and Microsoft were the next two and the Palm was number five having a 2.1% net decline of 5.7% from its previous 7.8% share.
According to the figures from comScore the United States smartphone market came in on average of at right about 42.7 million people from Nov to Jan which was an 18% net increase from the Aug to Oct 2009 figures.
With the declines that came in for both the Palm and Windows Mobile devices their market share declines might come in with as much at fault with product cycles than just the popularity increase of the Android.
The current Windows Mobile 6.5 is long overdue for a refresh. Microsoft is finally bringing this refresh in for 2010 with the Windows Phone 7 Series. It’s important to note though that this series is not backward compatible so for any users that are really seeking out a new device they are likely to start to migrate to another platform.
In regards to the decline in the Palm market share that could possibly be attributed to the Palm users beginning to trade up from their older Palm Treo and Centro devices to newer smartphones.
The one thing to know for sure if the Palm and Windows Mobile users are starting to trade in for new mobile devices the one thing that we know for sure is they aren’t all staying with Palm OS or Windows Mobile smartphone platforms.

Share on Facebook

In late 2008, the T-Mobile G-1 with Google was released, and for the first time users were able to get a look at the Android operating system.  Recently, T-Mobile released its second Android OS smartphone, the Google Ion (also known as the HTC Magic).  The Ion improves greatly on the G-1’s design and comes with the updated version of Android which is ready for T-Mobile’s 3G network.

(more…)

Share on Facebook

Android Market is Google’s answer to Apple’s iPhone App Store— it is where owners of phones that support the Android operating system, such as the T-Mobile G-1 with Google or the new Samsung I7500, can purchase applications for their smartphones.  The main difference, besides the manufacturer, is that the Android Market makes available applications made by third party developers without having them cleared first.

(more…)

Share on Facebook

The T-Mobile G-1 has many features that make it appealing to a wide demographic.  To maximize user friendliness, it comes with a full touch-screen in addition to a side slide-out QWERTY keyboard. You can use the screen to type as well, but with the option of a full, 5-Line QWERTY keyboard, you can type either way.  There are also specific End, Send, Home and Back keys, along with a scroll wheel and volume keys on the side.

(more…)

Share on Facebook