Everyone moans about their cell carrier. According to a brand new Pew survey on that very topic, 77 percent of us are dissatisfied with with download speeds; 72 percent gripe about dropped calls; and 69 percent are annoyed at the amount of text message spam we receive. But what annoys you most about your cell carrier? [Pew] More »
HTC’s closure of its South Korean office may seem yet another blow to the company this year, but don’t be alarmed: we saw it coming. It’s a given that Peter Chou’s gang is cutting back in response to its recent weak performance, but the more interesting takeaway here is the fact that the South Korean smartphone market is one tough nut for foreign brands to crack open. Just walk into any carrier shop in Seoul and you’ll see the shelves dominated by devices from Samsung, LG and Pantech. If you’re lucky, you may spot the odd Sony, Motorola and HTC phones cowering in a corner. So why is that the case? Let’s take a look at the how it all started.
Continue reading Editorial: HTC’s departure from South Korea proves a tough fight for foreign brands
Filed under: Cellphones
Editorial: HTC’s departure from South Korea proves a tough fight for foreign brands originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Aug 2012 15:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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These days, you’re never more than a few months away from a Facebook phone rumor. Now, despite the fact it could prove to be an awful idea, Bloomberg is reporting that Facebook is working closely with HTC (again) to launch a Facebook phone by 2013. More »
Wondering if Samsung’s new flagship has hit its sales goal yet? Breathe out — it did. According to Yonhap, Shin Jong-kyun, head of Samsung’s information technology and mobile communication division, told reporters the firm has moved more than 10 million Samsung Galaxy S IIIs since its unveiling. Jong-kyun wasn’t able to give specific numbers, but we know from history that the handset is outpacing its predecessor, which took five months to make eight digits in sales. As for the goal, Sammy previously pegged the 10 millionth unit for early July, noting that it was fighting component shortages along the way — all in all, mid-month isn’t too far off. Thinking of helping the firm bolster its numbers further? We’ve got a whole series of reviews you may want to take a look at.
Filed under: Cellphones
Galaxy S III sales breach 10 million, satisfy Samsung executives originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 22 Jul 2012 20:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Such is the natural order of things. First the blurrycam, then the FCC sighting (albeit the Sprint version) and if you’re lucky, a final juicy leak. This is the story of the Samsung Jasper for Verizon. Details of the mid-range chin-heavy phone just showed up on Twitter, and claim the device will have a dual-core 1.5GHz Snapdragon MSM8960 processor, a mediocre 800 x 480 display and Android 4.0. The skinning looks lighter than some other Samsung attempts, and the buttons along the bottom are also a deviation from other recent big hitters. While the DNA all seems a bit familiar, it seems Verizon will finally have a version to call its own.
Filed under: Cellphones
Samsung Jasper for Verizon leaks on Twitter, dual-core Snapdragon and ICS in tow originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Jul 2012 05:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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After seeing Dhani Sutanto from London embedding a RFID Transit Card into a ring, Becky from Adafruit thought that it would be a cool idea to try and embed one into her iPhone.
The process is pretty straightforward. First, you need to dissolve away the plastic of the card in acetone. Then you need to extract the antenna and chip. This needs to be installed under the iPhone backplate. You’ll probably have to experiment with paper and tape in order to insulate the chip from the guts of your phone.
The result is that you can carry around your transit card without actually carrying around your transit card. Of course, as NFC technology continues to come along, chances are that someday you’ll be able to pay for public transit just by holding your phone up to the reader anyhow. But for now, this is a clever hack and works with today’s systems.
[via Make:]
Ofcom, the UK’s communications regulator, has performed a research which discovered that most UK adults prefer to send a text message instead of making that phone call – making it the most preferred method of communication over a featurephone or smartphone. The average UK phone user is said to send around 50 text messages each week, and if you were to total that up, 150 billion text messages were sent in 2011, where just five years ago, the figure was 30% of that amount.
Not only that, Ofcom’s research points out that the number of text messages which were sent by post-pay subscribers increased in volume by 22% last year, in comparison to nearly a dozen per cent for pre-pay subscribers. This trend does not seem as though it is going to stop anytime soon, considering how more folks are relying on contracts instead of pay-as-you-go tariffs. Which category do you fall under – do you think you make more calls than you text?
Come to think of it, you can get a whole lot more information across in one minute of talking compared to 60 seconds of texting – but I guess texting does have one major advantage – it is proof of what one party has ‘said’ to another.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Cell phone nesting dolls that do not hail from Russia, Britain’s Got Talent app lets you cast your vote,
It’s always funny—if a little gross—when you see a friend launch a spot of spittle across the room as they chat on the phone. But new research suggests that frequent cell phone users actually slobber more, making those discharges all the more common. More »
We’re no CSI, but if we were Amazon, planning to make a phone, we’d definitely want to make sure developers were happy, that we had some weight in the patent world, and had an idea of the end design. With that all sorted, we’d likely hire a senior Director of Business Development from a major competitor — which is exactly what has happened. Robert Williams, formerly of said position at Microsoft Windows Phone is joining his fellow WP alumni, Brandon Watson, over at camp Bezos as Director of the App Store. Of course, this could just be a strategic move on behalf of the company’s Android market, and the Amazon phone is still very much just a rumor, but with more pieces of the puzzle starting to fit, and the book seller’s ability to turn things on their head, we’re far from ruling it out just yet.
Filed under: Cellphones
Former Windows Phone Director Robert Williams joins Amazon, stirs rumor pot originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Jul 2012 04:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Last week Bloomberg reported that Amazon was in the process of developing a phone. Now, the Wall Street Journal is going one step further, by suggesting that the company is testing a handset, and even getting ready to go into production. More »
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