The 1stFone is a cute and colorful basic phone for kids

Although today's 4-year-olds are well capable of figuring out how an iPhone works, the ideal phone for little rascals shouldn't be smart. Because you know, kids don't need to check their emails all the time or anything like that. Instead, a basic phone for making good old-fashioned calls will suffice – a simple device that doesn't break easily and won't attract the attention of pickpockets. Well, a U.K.-based company called CyCell might have just the thing.

Introducing 1stFone – a simple, fool-proof phone meant to be used by children aged 4 to 9 years. It has no camera, no screen, and no advanced features whatsoever, but it is cute, lightweight, and its battery can last up to 1 year in stand-by. Instead of a keypad, the handset has a number of buttons – up to 12 of them, to be more specific, depending on the customer's needs. Phone numbers are assigned to each key at the time of purchase and the respective contact's name is printed on each button. Buyers have a ton of colors and designs to pick from, and an optional emergency button may be installed on the device as well.

The 1stFone can be ordered online for £55 ($85) with a service contract, but it is also available on a pay-as-you-go basis for £70 ($108). Variants of the device for seniors and those who just need a back-up phone are also available.

source: My Own Phone 

Survey: 30% of Airline passengers are forgetting to turn off their phones or tablets before takeoff

It is no secret that the FAA is considering changing the rules that force owners of portable electronic devices, like a smartphone or tablet, to turn off their devices prior to takeoff and landing. Considering that pilots now use Apple iPad tablets in the cockpit instead of paper maps, we'd say that the worry that a smartphone left on is going to bring down an airliner has been overdone. Meanwhile, a survey conducted by the Consumer Electronics Association has discovered some interesting things.

During the survey period, 69% of those who carried a portable electronic device (PED) onto a plane, used them in flight, while 30% accidentally left their PED on during the course of a flight. 61% of the devices that were left on by accident were smartphones. And prior to takeoff, when the flight crew asks those with such devices to turn them off, only 59% make sure that they have turned their smartphone or tablet or laptop completely off. 21% say they simply switch their PED to airplane mode, which shuts down the radios inside the unit but leaves them powered up.

"Airline passengers have come to rely ontheir smartphones, tablets and e-Readers as essential travel companions. Understanding the attitudes and behaviors of passengers that are using electronic devices while traveling will help the FAA make informed decisions."-Doug Johnson, vice president of technology policy, CEA

The study is going to be turned over to the FAA to help guide the agency in drafting new rules which are expected to be released in July. 40% of airline travelers say that they would like to be able to use their devices during all aspects of a flight including takeoff and landing. The most commonly used PED during flights is the smartphone which accounts for 28% of such devices. That is followed by laptops with 25% of inflight PED use. Tablets and MP3 players scored a tie, each accounting for 23% of device use on a plane. E-readers finished last with a 13% talley. The survey was taken between December 14th and December 18th of last year.

Current rules will probably get changed, but it will happen too late for some people. Who can forget that Alec Baldwin got kicked off an American Airlines flight in 2011 for refusing to turn off his Apple iPhone with which he was playing a game of Words with Friends. Baldwin refused to listen to the flight crew's demand that he turn off his handset prior to take off.

scource: CEA

NVIDIA beats Q1 expectations with $77.9 million in profit

After seeing the quarterly numbers from companies like Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Samsung, the numbers reported by NVIDIA look like a drop in the bucket. But, NVIDIA has beaten expectations for its Q1 earnings with $77.9 million in profit, causing the company's stocks to climb in after-hours trading. Not surprisingly, NVIDIA's Q1 profit numbers actually show a drop of about 55% from Q4 of 2012, but a holiday quarter tends to be a big one. The quarter still marked a 29% increase year-on-year for NVIDIA. 

NVIDIA reported today that the company had earned $954.7 million in revenue, and maybe the best news for investors: the company's profit margins are at the highest levels ever. All of this good news is leading NVIDIA to also announce that it will initiate a $1 billion program of stock buybacks and dividends for investors. 

Things are certainly looking up for NVIDIA, and the future looks to stay bright with the Tegra 4 on the way. 

source: NVIDIA 

YouTube paid subscriptions now live, starting at 99 cents per month

We knew it was in the works and today marks launch day for YouTube's paid subscription pilot program. Users were worried that their favorite YouTube channels would be switching to the paid model, but from the looks of the pilot channels, there isn't too much worry about that. Instead, the paid subscription channels are dominated by names you wouldn't expect to see (legally) on YouTube, like Sesame Street.

The current lineup of channels in the pilot program fall mostly into a few major categories. Of the 53 pilot channels, most seem to be either children's programming (Jim Henson's Family TV, National Geographic Kids, DHX Junior/Kids, Franklin), or sports/fitness (TNA Impact Wrestling, UFC Select, PGA Academy, Primezone Sports with Deion Sanders, iAmplify, Cars TV). The rest are a smattering of genre channels covering documentaries, comedy, Spanish language, LGBT, and even a woodworking channel. 

Every channel has a 14-day free trial, and afterwards the channels either offer a subscription fee starting at 99 cents per month, or purchases. For example, you can subscribe to Jim Henson's Family TV for $2.99 per month or $24.99 per year (which includes Fraggle Rock, but not Sesame Street); or, you can buy individual episodes of Sesame Street ($1.99 for SD, $2.99 for HD) or purchase full seasons ($17.99/$27.99). 

YouTube plans to continue rolling out more subscription channels with partners that will be adding more "TV-like" series.

Many people get angry at the idea of paid channels on YouTube, but we've defended the idea before, and we'll continue to do it. As you can see with the pilot program, paid subscriptions are bringing in big name content creators like Jim Henson productions, a channel presented by Deion Sanders, and HDNet. Big names like this are only a good thing for YouTube. They won't be crowding out the ad-supported channels, just adding a new tier of premium content. 

As we've said many many times before, it's just like online news. Only the top 5% of the most popular content on YouTube will be able to switch to paid subscriptions and end up making more money than with ad revenue. Just like only news sources at the very top, like NYT and WSJ, can put up a paywall and make it work. Everyone else has to stick with ad support.

source: YouTube Blog & YouTube Paid Channels

University of California wants to give 1 million people a physical by smartphone

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Not that long ago, we showed you a crowdfunded thermometer that connects to the earphone jack on the Apple iPhone. The Kinsa Smart Thermometer works together with an app to predict and track health issues. This appears to be just the start of how the smartphone is changing health care around the world. Data like blood pressure, and heart rate can be monitored using the iPhone. And a leak shows that Android 4.3 will offer developers the opportunity to use Bluetooth Low Energy which will pave the way for 'always on' accessories that will work on Android phones to monitor heart rate, pulse and other health metrics. 

Both platforms are being used to take a number of different meters and tools and replace them with attachments for one device. For example, diabetics need to carry around a glucometer that measures their blood sugar. An untreated reading that is too high can lead to a diabetic coma, while a reading too low means that too much insulin was injected and can also lead to coma or death. A small accessory called theiBGStar can be plugged into the bottom of an Apple iPhone 5 to check for blood sugar readings. AgaMatrix CEO Joseph Flaherty said that his comapny's goal is to make sure people have all the necessary tools to monitor their health, right in their pockets. Kaiser Permanente plans on putting the iBGStar up for sale in Georgia next to other glucometers as a test. Using the accessory will allow diabetics to carry around one less device with them.

Smartphones are becoming an important tool in fighting illness and disease

The ultimate goal for health care professionals is for a smartphone user to be able to have his or her smartphone help conduct a physical. Accessories could be utilized to look into a patient's ears, eyes and mouth and the phone could send pictures and information back to a doctor who could make a timely diagnosis upon receipt of the information. The University of California, San Francisco, is looking to sign up 1 million people in a study called Health eHeart Study. The goal is to see if mobile tracking of patients' heart rate and blood pressure can lower cardiovascular disease.

For many people with a fear of going to the doctor, using a smartphone might allow them to have their health checked for the first time in years. These people are so nervous about going to see a doctor, that their blood pressure actually rises sharply as soon as they step into the office. "White coat disease," as the condition is called, affects many people throughout the world. Even if a small percentage of those afflicted agree to a remote exam, a large number of lives might be prolonged or saved.

source: WirelessWeek 

Images from space, taken by NASA’s Android smartphone powered satellites

NASA’s PhoneSat project officially ended about a week ago, with the three Android smartphone powered nanosatellites, named “Alexander, Graham, and Bell,” burning up in the atmosphere on April 27th, after spending two weeks in orbit.

The primary goal of the mission was to see if a consumer-grade smartphone could be used as the primary computer to control avionics for a satellite in orbit, in this case two HTC Nexus One devices and a Samsung Nexus S.

While in orbit, the satellites sent hundreds of packets of data to ground stations around the world. NASA collaborated with amateur radio operators to collect the data from space and piece together the images that were taken with the smartphone’s cameras. The images were transmitted back to earth in pieces at only 1,200bps, accounting for some of the faults in the pictures.

The collection of images above and below is the result of several years’ work, culminating in the two-week space flight, launched from NASA’s Wallops Island Flight Facility in Virginia last month. NASA wants projects like this, a student led effort, to foster further research into commercial, academic and citizen-space applications.

Click here to see the PhoneSat page, including the dashboard of amateur operators around the world 

source: NASA

Global phone shipments dip 1% in first quarter 2013; Samsung on top with 29% of the market

The latest numbers from Strategy Analytics are in and it shows a 1% dip in the number of mobile phones shipped globally in the first quarter to 372.7 million units, from last year's first three months. The research firm blamed what it called "tighter operator upgrade policies for 3G phones, and slowing volumes of 2G feature phones," along with the slow to no growth economies in North America, Asia and Europe.

The latest numbers from Strategy Analytics

With a 29% market share, Korean OEM Samsung shipped 106.6 million units led by the Samsung Galaxy smartphones. Following Samsung in the quarter was Finnish handset producer Nokia. It wasn't all rainbows and puppy dogs for the company as its mobile phone shipments slumped a resounding 25% to 61.9 million units from 82.7 million phones the previous year. Weak demand for featurephones and Symbian powered smartphones led to Nokia's downfall. Neil Mawston, Executive Director at Strategy Analytics, said that there is still hope for the manufacturer to stabilize or recover thanks to the potential of its Windows Phone flavored Nokia Lumia line, and the Nokia Asha series.

Apple just reported its fiscal Q2 earnings whichincluded the news that it had shipped 37.4 million Apple iPhone units in the period. That was a small gain of 7% year-over-year. Strategy Analytics senior analyst Woody Oh had an interesting point when he said that Apple' s marketshare for handsets might have peaked and the company needs to launch new models and get a deal with China Mobile so that it can have access to the customers of the world's largest carrier. Just Thursday morning, Citigroup said that a TD-SCDMA version of the next iteration of the Apple iPhone and its low cost brother, will be launched in late September or early October for China Mobile.

Additionally, Korean tech giant LG saw its mobile phone shipments jump over 18% in the quarter, led by its LG Optimus smartphones. The company has been working on increasing shipments of its 4G LTE enabled smartphones. Lastly, China's ZTE had its lowest marketshare in three years with a 4% slice of the pie. The company is facing competition from the suddenly relevant Coolpad and from Samsung in Western Europe and in China.

source: StrategyAnalytics

Ubuntu Touch daily builds now based on 13.04

Ubuntu 13.04, (April 2013) codenamed Raring Ringtail, is in beta right now, and scheduled for full release next week on desktops. Ubuntu Touch seems like it has been slightly behind though, and it is just now getting 13.04 as the base for the daily builds of the mobile optimized version of Ubuntu.

The goal is to have Ubuntu Touch for phones ready in time for the release of Ubuntu 13.10 (October 2013), which would lead to Ubuntu tablets being released in time for the holidays, although Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth said not to expect Ubuntu phones on the market until 2014. Ubuntu Touch for tablets is planned to be part of Ubuntu 14.04 (April 2014). 

Of course, Shuttleworth had also said that Ubuntu Touch would be ready to be used as a daily driver as of mid-March, and we're still not seeing that level of polish on the platform. So, all of these dates are likely to be very much in flux. 

source: OMG!Ubuntu!

iPad survives after being accidentally embedded in car bumber

Here comes a story, the kind of which we don't hear every day. According to a recent news report, an iPad got stuck deep in a car bumper – so deep that a hammer was required in order to get it out. Surprisingly, the tablet lived to tell the story and even got reunited with its owner after all the trouble it went to.

It turns out that the misfortunate iPad flew off the roof of a moving car embedding itself into the bumper of a nearby vehicle. Its owner simply forgot it there and took off. Interestingly, the lady whose car got hit didn't see the iPad until she got back home and looked at the front of her car. Since the iPad was still working even after the accident – a proof that Apple's tablets are pretty well built, the lady who found it managed to contact the tablet's rightful owner. A video of the entire news report is available at the source link below!

source: ABC57 News via 9to5Mac

California judge says drivers cannot check maps on their handset while driving; all excuses are now shot down

In some states where talking on a cellphone is prohibited while driving, those pulled over by the cops used to get away with the excuse that they weren't in a conversation, they were just checking the map on their phone. Now this would work depending on how knowledgeable the cop who pulled you over was. Tell the officer that you were using Apple Maps and he might have requested a psychological evaluation for you. Heck, in Florida, using Apple Maps might have led the cop to 'Baker Act' you (Google it).

The heart of the case from the judge's ruling

Seriously though, using the excuse that you were using a mapping application in the past would have helped you escape a ticket for operating a cell phone while driving. It seems that while the police hate distracted drivers, they hate lost drivers wandering around their fair city even more. A judge in California has changed things and might have set a precedent for future cases. Judge W. Kent Hamlin has just made a ruling that in California drivers cannot do anything with their cell phone while driving a car. The case involved one Steven Spriggs who had been ticketed by the popo and appealed saying that he should not have been cited for using the cellphone while driving for something other than receiving or making a call. Spriggs had claimed that he was using his phone's mapping application while driving.    

The judge made his ruling simple and to the point. "This case requires us to determine whether using a wireless phone solely for its map application function while driving violates Vehicle Code section 23123.1 We hold that it does." The judge broadened the scope of the law by noting that distracted driving is distracted driving regardless if the driver is making a call or using a mapping application, sending or receiving texts or even using the phone for navigation. He asked himself if the original founding fathers of this great nationthose who wrote the bill or supported it meant to limit its application. In his ruling, the judge decided that the law was meant to cover all distractions. Judgment for the plaintiff. Whack. We wonder what Judge Judy would think.

source: PCMag

95% of mobile phone users leave location data more unique than fingerprints

We all know that people can be uniquely identified by their fingerprints. Now, a study reveals that 95% of mobile phone users leave location data that can be even more unique than fingerprints. Last week, a scientific paper titled Unique in the Crowd: The privacy bounds of human mobility was released and offers a study of 1.5 million mobile users between April 2006 and June 2007 in an unnamed western country. 

Because mobile phones ping cell phone antennas automatically as they are carried from place to place, a database was built up. And by tracking connecting antennas when a mobile phone received a call or SMS message, particular individual patterns could be discovered. Using spatial and temporal aggregation, a technique used by law enforcement,  a highly accurate prediction could be made as to where specific mobile phone users would be at a particular time of day. This is not to say that these people were identified as they did remain anonymous to the researchers. But with a warrant, we would imagine that individual names could be discovered. Apple has recently updated its privacy policy and will share spatio-temporal location of Apple iPhone users with "partners and licensees".

One important point to understand is that this study was done before the smartphone became part of everyone's daily arsenal. It also was done in the days before App Stores and apps that required your location. Apps like Twitter, Foursquare and Facebook to name a few, use geo-tagging. This data not only allows you to use certain features of these applications,it also helps advertisers focus a specific campaign on a certain area. It's all benign to be sure, but there is always the fear of abuse. If this study is right, location data could some day provide the "aha" moment in a courtroom. And by the way, this was not a paper done by a couple of morons. This was a project developed by MIT and Belgium's Louvain University.

source: Nature.com, FastCompany via textually.org 

Using a spatio-temporal filter, a mobile phone user's location can be accurately predicted as to place and time

China might have just declared cold war on Apple: here is why

"China is currently our second largest market. I believe it will become our first.” This is what Apple chief executive Tim Cook said in January, but he probably wouldn’t have said it now as what seems like an organized attack on Apple from China and its state-run media has begun. China Central Television (CCTV) ran a massive anti-Apple piece in its annual “3.15” investigative program saying Apple is discriminating against its Chinese users with shorter warranty periods, refurbished instead of new products and after-sale bonds.

The program has nationwide outreach and comments started pouring out on the Internet. Weibo, the massively popular Twitter alternative in China, saw 50 000 mentions of Apple within an hour after the program ended.

It all got interesting when popular Taiwanese actor Peter Ho with thousands of followers posted:

“#315isLive# Actually, Apple has so many tricks in its after-sales services. As an Apple fan, I’m hurt. Have you done right by your founder Jobs? Have you done right by the young people who sold their kidneys? It’s really true that big stores bully customers. Post around 8:20.”
The “post around 8:20” was a mess-up. This was clearly orchestrated by someone and China’s web users suspected CCTV. A couple of hours later the posting was deleted with Ho unconvincingly claiming his Weibo account was hacked. Hours later thousands of postings on Weibo that followed with the #PostAround8:20hashtag disappeared, censored.

Interestingly, more evidence surfaced that Weibo and CCTV often work together asking public figures with a lot of post certain things.

All of that makes it look like a very organized attack on Apple.

It’s not the first foreign company to suffer from an aggressively protectionist Chinese Government. While this first attack didn’t go particularly well, evidence has shown that earlier brands features on “3.15” were Volkswagen, McDonald’s and Carrefour, all suffering losses after that. Whatever the reason, it seems that China is on the offensive against Apple.

source: Forbes

Japan finds rare earth materials that could lower the cost of electronics

Rare earth materials are an essential part of modern electronics, including our favorite tablets and smartphones. The trouble has been that for about the last two decades, China has held the vast majority of these materials, which has led to high costs. But, Japan has now found large deposits of rare earth materials in the ocean, and may use this new find to bring down costs.

The find was made by professor Yasuhiro Kato and his team from Tokyo University in Japan's Exclusive Economic Zone around the island of Minami-Torishima. The materials were found in deep-sea mud at 5,700 meters below sea level; and despite the depth, the deposits can be extracted fairly easily using pressurized air. Professor Kato said a single ship drilling in the zone could supply Japan's needs for a year, and break strategic dependence on China. "We don't need to mine it intensively. All we need is enough to force China to lower its prices."

This is especially important because while other countries like the US and Australia have been increasing production of the seventeen rare earth elements, China still controls the heavier metals such as dysprosium, terbium, europium, and ytterbium. Making the situation worse, China began to restrict exports in 2009, and forced companies to build factories in China. 

In addition to mobile electronics, these rare earth materials are used in electronics including car parts, TVs, lasers, low-energy lightbulbs, and various military equipment and weapons. 

Here is the phone that powers NASA space robots (hint: it runs Android)

NASA embarked on an ambitious project a couple of years ago - using a smartphone to power its space robot, the SPHERES satellite. The robots are helpers used in the International Space Station (ISS) to examine cameras and check sound and radiation levels.

The project is now live and there are two smartphones in space on the ISS helping with operations, but picking the right phone and preparing it for its journey was not a trivial task. Interestingly, after looking at the HTC Nexus One, the team decided to skip on it and actually use the next generation Samsung Nexus S. Here is why:

"We knew of other projects that were using the Nexus One, and HTC had done some interesting things in that phone that didn't make it ideal for us. It has to do with [HTC's] battery technology—it has to be a proprietary battery or it won’t boot up,” Mark Micire, research scientist and project lead of the Intelligent Robotics Group at Nasa said.

The battery requirement has a lot to do with they way batteries crash. Conventional alkaline batteries leakage is much easier to contain and that’s one of the modifications the NASA team did for the Nexus S - it made it run on them.

Image courtesy of Ars Technica.

But then came the software challenges. Since not everything is publicly available, a lot of reverse engineering had to happen. Because of possible interference, NASA engineers had to put the phone in a constant airplane mode, and after some tinkering they found out that it was the TXRX amplifier that had to be removed to achieve that.

Ultimately, the Human Exploration and Telerobotics Project (HET) behind all that showed its respect for the big achievement that Android is saying “you just get so much that comes for free with the platform.”

"We made the right decision by going with Android because the ability to remove the lithium battery and have it run off of alkaline batteries I think would have been a lot more difficult with the Apple products... and having it work without a driver under Windows XP … It’s humbling to say that even NASA can’t outrun the advancements that are happening with the mobile phone,” said Micire.

source: Ars Technica

Watch Newsom the penguin set a personal high score on an iPad game made for cats

The animal caretakers at the Aquarium of the Pacific decided to kill some time by placing an iPad loaded with Game for Cats in front of a group of young and ambitious penguins, and hilarity ensued.

The penguins immediately locked that something was moving on the screen, and were pecking at the digital mouse imitation with fervor, gunning for the top score. 

It was Newsom the penguin who set a personal record of 1600 points, which your average house cat would only laugh at, but try and dip a cat in freezing waters, said Newsom unfazed.

Scientists use iPhone microscope to diagnose intestinal worms

The last big growth opportunity for mobile devices is in the medical field. Mobile is already a powerhouse for communication, entertainment, and as an information hub, but the work is still in progress to make medical devices more mobile. We've seen theoretical work, but this story is a pretty impressive practical application, because scientists were able to use a hacked-together iPhone microscope to diagnose intestinal worms in Pemba Island, off the coast of Tanzania.

The scientists converted the iPhone into a microscope by putting double-sided tape over the camera lens, then piercing a hole in the tape and placing a small $9 lens over the existing camera lens. The flashlight was used for illumination, the double-sided tape held the stool sample slides in place, and the image on the phone's screen was studied for intestinal parasites. It isn't a perfect system, but it was able to diagnose 70% of the infections compared to a conventional laboratory microscope. In many cases that may just be good enough, but more importantly, it is a very inexpensive option. 

Africa is an emerging market, and inexpensive smartphones have been huge in many areas there (as we've talked about before). Mobile phones have already been amazing for local trade, microtransactions, and even the arts, and more medical options can only be a good thing.

Multiple Congress representatives support cell phone unlocking and look to submit bills

It's refreshing to see that Congress can actually work and get things done. Soon after the White House officially responded to the petition to make unlocking carrier-locked cell phones legal, multiple congressional representatives from the House and the Senate have stepped forward not only to support the initiative, but to submit legislation to put the will of the people into action.

The first to come forward was Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) who said yesterday that she plans to introduce a bill this week in an effort to "get rid of the ban on unlocking cellphones." Soon after, Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) introduced a bill named the Wireless Device Independence Act. There is also support from Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO), Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), and Rep. Anna G. Eshoo (D-Palo Alto), Ranking Member on the Communications and Technology Subcommittee. 

Essentially, Congress is jumping all over each other trying to be the lead writer of a bill to make unlocking devices legal. There hasn't been any clear frontrunner, or consensus on what the bill should include, but given the bipartisan support, it looks like this one may go through relatively quickly. 

source: Senator Amy Klobuchar & The Hill

Marketing was the 'main reason' for Samsung success last year: here is the mind-boggling amount it spent

There are three huge things that happened in mobile in the past few years. First, Apple changed our perception of a smartphone with the launch of the iPhone in 2007, then Nokia could not react in time and lost its long-held leading position, and third Samsung started growing like a snowball. Fast forward to today, and Samsung is the world’s biggest smartphone and overall phone manufacturer, a hugely profitable company driven by booming sales of its Galaxy S and Note flagship lineups.

But it is not just the devices - marketing has an equally important role in Samsung’s success as the company spent a mind-boggling $11 billion on marketing, nearly ten times more than it spent on R&D in 2012 (it was $1.06 billion for R&D).

All of that spending came despite the ‘thermonucleal’ legal war going on when Samsung knew it could suffer financially if Apple won.

“Samsung’s focus on marketing was the main reason the company was so successful last year,” an anonymous source inside Samsung said.

Moreover, this marketing warfare is not likely to stop as long as the Galaxy device continue selling well.“With its strategic Galaxy S3 and Galaxy Note smartphones selling tens of millions, the company doesn’t care too much about allocating a gigantic marketing budget," the Samsung source added.

source: Korea Times

Earlier estimates of Samsung marketing spending.