Dec 02

Opera Mini Serving 2.4 Billion Page Views Per Month

Posted in: mobile, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on May 23, 2008 by CyberNet.

opera mini stats-1.pngOpera Mini was born back in 2005, but it wasn’t put into the hands of the public until January 2006. Since that time the browser that fits in your pocket has experienced a tremendous rate of growth. As of March 2008 it has wiggled it’s way into the hearts of over 44 million users. Pictured to the right is what their growth rate has looked like since its public launch.

Those 44 million users aren’t just browsing a single page either. In March 2008 Opera Mini served up over 2.4 billion page views, which works out to about 55 page views per user. All of those page views come out to 33 million megabytes of data, which is about 31 terabytes. Yikes!

So what sites are people using Opera Mini for? In the United States here are the top 10:

  1. myspace.com
  2. google.com
  3. mocospace.com
  4. yahoo.com
  5. facebook.com
  6. live.com
  7. hi5.com
  8. wikipedia.org
  9. itsmy.com
  10. ebay.com

And then here are the top 3 sites visited for each of the top 10 countries that use Opera Mini:

  1. Russia: vkontakte.ru, win.mail.ru, google.com
  2. Indonesia: friendster.com, id.yahoo.com, google.com
  3. China: sina.com.cn, baidu.com, google.cn
  4. United States: myspace.com, google.com, mocospace.com
  5. India: orkut.com, google.com, in.m.yahoo.com
  6. South Africa: facebook.com, google.com, intl.yahoo.com
  7. Ukraine: vkontakte.ru, google.com, darkworlds.ru
  8. United Kingdom: facebook.com, google.co.uk, live.com
  9. Germany: google.de, studivz.net, wer-kennt-wen.de
  10. Poland: nasza-klasa.pl, lajt.onet.pl, google.pl

Note: You can get the top 10 sites for each of the countries above by viewing this report.

Opera Mini’s success is pretty huge (especially in Russia), and I think everyone has used it at least once when browsing the Internet on a mobile phone. As they continue to garner approval there’s a very good chance that mobile device manufacturers will select Opera Mini as the browser to bundle with their products. There’s definitely a bright future for Opera Mini.

Copyright © 2010 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

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Nov 30

Angry Birds Surpasses 7 Mil Downloads

Posted in: Apple, iPhone, mobile, Today's Chili, video games

Thumbnail image for angry_birds_cake.jpg

Rovio’s Angry Birds was a runaway success on the iPhone, so it’s perhaps only logical that the title would be the to put Android gaming on the map. The game has been downloaded seven million times since its launch last month.

The number is closing in on the application’s iPhone download number. That version of the app has been downloaded more than 10 million times since it was introduced roughly this time last year.

Rovio initially offered the game as a download through third party app store GetJar, soon moving it over to the Android Market, after a massive download push took the former offline.

Of course, the Android version of the app has at least one major advantage over its iPhone counterpart–Rovio is offering it as a free, ad-supported download (the iOS version is a $0.99 download).

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Nov 19

Cox enters wireless market with ‘Unbelievably Fair’ contracts

Posted in: carrier, launch, mobile, network, official, Sprint, Today's Chili, Wireless

We’ve been hearing about Cox’s intention to make a splash in the wireless space for a good long while, but today the cable company’s finally made that move official. The venture will start off with three markets — Hampton Roads, VA, Omaha, NE, and Orange County, CA — and the big selling points will include MoneyBack Minutes, which gives you cash back for disused minutes, and free usage alerts to help you avoid gnarly overage charges. Bloomberg reports that service will be provided using Sprint’s 3G airwaves for now, with Cox building out its own network for the future. Tie-ins with the company’s other services include DVR-controlling software coming preinstalled on handsets, along with one free upgrade (such as a free premium channel like HBO) if you’re already using any of Cox’s landline, internet or cable services. We can’t say that sounds like a bad deal, and the phone selection includes the HTC Desire at $70 on a two-year contract. Skip past the break for the full PR.

Continue reading Cox enters wireless market with ‘Unbelievably Fair’ contracts

Cox enters wireless market with ‘Unbelievably Fair’ contracts originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Nov 2010 07:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceCox Wireless  | Email this | Comments

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Nov 17

Dell’s mobile chief Ron Garriques is out

Posted in: mobile, motorola, Phones, streak, Today's Chili

Ron Garriques, who has been leading Dell’s mobile communications group ever since its formation a year ago, is leaving the company. Ron originally joined Dell in 2007, after a high profile career at Motorola, and has overseen a rather ambitious entry for the company into the phone industry. Now Dell is folding the communications unit into its “core operating structure,” and Garriques won’t be along for the transition. Of course, it’s not like there haven’t been some missteps and head scratchers along the way (we still don’t know if the Streak is a phone or a tablet or a phonelet or a tabset or whatever), and it’s a little hard to tell whether Ron decided to leave willingly when he heard his unit was being absorbed, or if Dell gave him a little “push.” True or not, it would be the perfect comeuppance for the man who re-dubbed the Lightning the Dell “Venue Pro.” Not that we’re bitter or anything.

Dell’s mobile chief Ron Garriques is out originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Nov 2010 19:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceYahoo! News  | Email this | Comments

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Nov 14

Firefox Mobile Progress Update

Posted in: Freeware, mobile, Pre-Release, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on August 14, 2008 by CyberNet.

It was almost one year ago that we first got a glimpse of what Firefox Mobile looked like running on the Nokia N800. Then in January we saw some mockups of what their iPhone-like interface might look like for other devices, and even more recently we saw a video demonstration that knocked our socks off with an intuitive tab navigation system.

Where’s the project at now? The version that runs on the N800 is making some steady progress. As it stands the first Alpha release, codenamed Fennec, should be available in the next month or two. At that time they’ll have the basic functionality included, but the fancy things we saw in the latest video demonstration are nowhere to be found. According to Mark Finkle, Mozilla’s Platform Evangelist, those things are to come:

We have been focusing on some of the underlying, platform work. The UI changes will come in future releases to be sure.

The latest version, Milestone 6, is available for Nokia N8x0 owners to test out. Here is a snapshot of what it looks like:

firefox mobile-1.jpg

A Windows Mobile version of Fennec isn’t a top priority on their list, but it is expected to debut at some point. There’s no mention as to whether other phones, such as the Blackberry, will also be considered for development.

Keep an eye out for the next milestone because that’s when some of the interface updates are supposed to land. According to this page on the Mozilla Wiki the end result should look something like this:

Recent Fennec Mockups (Click to Enlarge)
fennec mockup 1.jpg fennec mockup 2.jpg fennec mockup 3.jpg

We’ll definitely be watching close as new versions are released, and will keep you posted of anything interesting that we find. In the meantime any of the Nokia N8x0 owners out there should take the new release for a whirl and let us know how it is. I’ve read a few reports of it not being too stable, but no one is giving up hope this early.

[via Mozilla Developer Center]

Copyright © 2010 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

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Nov 11

Angry Birds Cake Almost Too Good to Eat (Almost)

Posted in: Games, mobile, Today's Chili, video games

angry_birds_cake.jpg

I imagine the most difficult part of making a cake that
looks like this is the part where you actually have to let people eat the thing. A baker
on Flickr concocted the above delicious homage to the popular mobile game.

It’s almost enough to make you put down the game for a second.
Almost. 

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Nov 10

SlingPlayer arrives in Windows Phone 7 Marketplace, headed to iPad next (updated)

Posted in: app, apple ipad, AppleIpad, application, availability, available, ipad, launch, media streamer, MediaStreamer, mobile, release, stream, streaming, Today's Chili, windows phone, windows phone 7, WindowsPhone, WindowsPhone7, Wp7

Got yourself a big new Windows Phone 7 device and need something to fill its screen with? Sling Media has your back with its SlingPlayer Mobile app, which has hit the Marketplace just in time to earn its Launch App Partner achievement. Pricing for the software is set at $30 in the US, C$32 in Canada, £23 in the UK, and €21.10 in Europe plus local tax, though you’ll obviously need to have a Slingbox to communicate with as well. It ain’t cheap, but good things rarely are.

Update: We’ve also just come across a signup page for news updates on an iPad version of SlingPlayer Mobile. It’ll be priced identically to the company’s smartphone offerings, at $30, and looks to be coming soon. Thanks, Blake!

Continue reading SlingPlayer arrives in Windows Phone 7 Marketplace, headed to iPad next (updated)

SlingPlayer arrives in Windows Phone 7 Marketplace, headed to iPad next (updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Nov 2010 02:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nov 08

Fighting Words: Defining “Mobile” and “Computer”

Posted in: ipad, Miscellaneous, mobile, Today's Chili

The easiest way to stop an argument is to contest the meaning of words. That’s what debate coaches teach, and it’s what lawyers, philosophers and clever toddlers do every day. It’s also what Mark Zuckerberg did last week when he was asked about developing an app for iPad at the company’s “Facebook Mobile” event.

“The iPad’s not mobile,” Zuckerberg retorted. “Next question.” When the crowd murmured, he added, “It’s not mobile! It’s a computer. It’s like a different thing.”

“I think Apple would disagree with you,” said Mashable’s Ben Parr. “Well, sorry,” Zuckerberg responded.

A moment later, he walked it back: “I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to be rude towards Apple there. I mean, look, we all love Apple products here, and we want to work with them, and all that; I just want to keep the event focused on what we’re doing today. I think that the iPad is not a mobile platform in the way that a phone is, and that’s what we’re talking about today.”

I’m left wondering whether the perceived rudeness (towards Apple, not the reporter) wasn’t about Zuckerberg not answering the question, but about him refusing to call the iPad mobile and calling it a computer instead.

In the tech world, there are plenty of perfectly ordinary descriptive words that also function as insults: “netbook” (applied to a lightweight notebook), “feature phone” (applied to an entry-level smartphone), “cable company” (trust me, fiberoptic IPTV companies do not like being called that).

You can also cut someone down by denying something a label. “Open-source” is a good example, but I’ve got a more surprising one. When Barnes & Noble unveiled Nook Color, I was surprised to see how many commenters at Wired.com were absolutely certain that (as jaxruffian66 put it) “No e-ink=not a reader. End of story.” I had no idea that we’d already completely defined what an e-reader was, based on the presence or absence of one specific technology. I don’t quite know what we’ll do when Pixel Qi, Mirasol and color E Ink screens show up.

Is “mobile” like this? Is being a mobile device inherently something good, so that not being inside that clique is something bad? What exactly was wrong with the word “portable” for tablets and laptops? (Netbooks used to be called “ultraportable”; now, you’re more likely to hear them called “ultramobile.”) Is there any consensus about what does and doesn’t constitute a mobile device? Or even whether it necessarily refers to a hardware device and not a platform?

One irony of Zuckerberg’s statement is that “computer” usually is used as an approbation, not an insult. Tablets like the iPad aren’t “real” computers because (the argument goes) they don’t have keyboards — or don’t allow users to access the filesystem, or whatever line you want to draw.

The Atlantic’s Alexis Madrigal wonders whether the presence or absence of a keyboard still defines what we think of as a computer, or at least a PC. That term, too, is changing: It very rarely means a specific platform anymore, Windows instead of Mac or Linux, but instead a personal computer (including those running Mac OS X or Linux) rather than a tablet or smartphone.

Or consider “social network.” This could be entirely offline: just a set of people and their relationships to each other. Then it became synonymous with dedicated sites that provided online social networking, then activities of people using those sites. Eventually it migrated to “social networking features” of other websites, services and objects, and finally just became “social”: like “mobile,” an entire field of activity, including both hardware and software, commerce and anthropology.

Like “mobile,” “social” is good. Social is where everything is headed; it’s the future. Nobody wants to be left out of the future.

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Nov 08

How Microsoft Hit CTRL+ALT+DEL on Windows Phone

Posted in: Microsoft, mobile, Phones, Today's Chili, windows phone 7

Corporate vice president and director of Windows Phone Program Management, Joe Belfiore, holds his prototype Samsung device running Windows Phone 7 on campus at Microsoft in Redmond, Washington. Photo: Mike Kane/Wired.com

Microsoft staff refer to December 2008 as “The Reset” — the month that the company killed all progress on its Windows phone project and started over.

It’s a measure of how deep a hole Microsoft had dug itself into that the employees interviewed by Wired.com were unanimous in calling this a good thing. Even though the software titan had a head start on phone software beginning with Windows CE back in 1996, the subsequent Windows Mobile OS suffered from steep declines in market share when pitted against more user-friendly phones, like the iPhone and the Android-powered Droid.

“It was trying to put too much functionality in front of the user at one time,” said Bill Flora, a design director at Microsoft, reflecting on Windows Mobile’s mistakes. “It resulted in an experience that was a little cluttered and overwhelming for a lot of people today. It felt ‘computery.’”

More Windows Phone 7 coverage on Gadget Lab:

An un-sexy OS didn’t bode well for Microsoft. The outdated design of Windows Mobile contributed to a stereotype that Microsoft cared little about customers and was focused only on big sales to big companies. It symbolized a software leader losing its edge.

Furthermore, Windows Mobile’s shrinkage in the market was embarrassing for a company whose CEO Steve Ballmer previously laughed at Apple’s iPhone for its lack of a keyboard and high price tag, only to admit three years later that Microsoft had fallen far behind.

“We were ahead of this game and now we find ourselves No. 5 in the market,” Ballmer said at an All Things Digital Conference. “We missed a whole cycle.”

Recognizing it needed to play serious catchup, Microsoft essentially hit CTRL+ALT+DEL on Windows Mobile, rebooting its mobile OS like a balky, old Windows PC and making a fresh start.

The company spent six weeks hatching a plan for a Windows phone do-over, and it set a deadline of one year to build and ship a brand new OS.

The end result was Windows Phone 7, an operating system with a tiled-based user interface that looks nothing like its predecessor. The first Windows Phone 7 handsets will hit stores today in the United States.

The reset was no simple task: It involved bringing in new managers, reorganizing the Windows phone-design department and opening new test facilities dedicated to mobile hardware.

Here’s how the company did it.

Corporate vice president and director of Windows Phone Program Management, Joe Belfiore, listens to Don Coyner, General Manager of US Shared Studios as he discusses Windows Phone 7. Photo: Mike Kane/Wired.com


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Nov 04

Google Instant for Mobile goes live on Android and iPhone (video)

Posted in: Android, froyo, Google, iPhone, mobile, search, Today's Chili, video

We’d heard Google Instant was quietly popping up in mobile form for a lucky few, but it’s officially widespread now — the query-while-you-type search technology’s just hit open beta on Android 2.2 and iOS 4. Just go to Google in your favorite mobile browser and press the “Turn on” link, and you’ll be able to rush into the arms of your favorite technology blog with four fewer clicks. We maintain that it’s nigh-useless on most standard-sized mobile devices, as you can only ever see the top result without scrolling up and down, but it won’t cost you a penny to pick up your handset and form an opinion for yourself. Video demo after the break.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading Google Instant for Mobile goes live on Android and iPhone (video)

Google Instant for Mobile goes live on Android and iPhone (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Nov 2010 22:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceThe Official Google Blog  | Email this | Comments

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