Social.FM to be distributed through Handmark
A distribution agreement has recently been announced between Social.FM, a Web music service, and Handmark, a mobile media distributor. Social.FM provides over-the-air access to your music collection, social connectivity and access to your buddies’ music libraries, and thousands of radio channels, podcasts, and other audio. Handmark reaches five major operators (AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, Orange, and Telus) in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Austria, Germany, and the Netherlands.
New findings on mobile Internet and consumer usability published
A recent study commissioned by Bytemobile found, among other things, that mobile users in the U.S. are accessing the mobile Web on a daily basis more frequently than those in the U.K. (57 to 46 percent); mobile video isn’t being watched mainly because of device constraints (such as screen size, memory capacity, and battery life); 96 percent of consumers want their mobile Web browsing to function the same as their PC browsing.
"World's smallest" Bluetooth headset released
A Bluetooth headset weighing less than 6 grams (.21 ounces) and measuring l.3 inches long and .63 inches wide was released by INVISIO, who claims that the G5 is the "world’s smallest Bluetooth headset." The headset provides up to 4 hours of talk time and 150 hours of standby time and comes with a "Protective Charging case" that charges the headset each time it is placed in the case. When used with this portable rechargeable charger, INVISIO states that the G5 provides up 20 hours of talk time and 30 days of standby time.
Entertainment application sales outpace business apps
According to the annual Handango Yardstick trend report that tracks smartphone application purchases, entertainment software garnered the highest percentage of application downloads with 17 percent last year, while business applications come in second with 16 percent. Two years ago, business apps were at number one with 18 percent, while entertainment came in third place. The most popular device for mobile content in 2007 was the BlackBerry Pearl, according to the report. For Windows Mobile Standard users, entertainment application sales easily came in first with 36 percent, while business app sales came in a distant second with 12 percent.
Gates foresees big technology leaps
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates recently spoke about his vision of technological leaps in the next 10 years to the Northern Virginia Technology Council. He speculated that the most important advances would be the ways in which people will interact with computers, such as speech and handwriting recognition technology and touch screen interfaces that will integrate a wide-ranging amount of information. Gates also spoke of television as becoming a targeted medium in which viewers could select customized content for news, sports, and entertainment. Gates also noted that he foresaw nothing that would impede the advance of technology, pointing out that academia and corporate researchers continued advancements after the Internet stock bubble burst in 2000.
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