LONDON: Google is reportedly planning to expand its existing voice-recognition assistant for Android that will allow users to perform actions in their natural language similar to how Apple iPhone's Siri functions.
According to AndroidandMe.com, the company is planning to add a natural language processing feature to Google Voice Actions, already available on most Android phones.
Voice Actions allows users to give commands by saying keywords such as "send text to". But the updated software could allow it to respond to commands by using more natural verbiage, similar to Apple's Siri.
THE country’s leading telecom giants, Globe Telecom and Smart Communications, are in a tight battle again, this time over this year’s hottest gadget, the iPhone 4S.
Starting tomorrow, Friday, Globe and Smart subscribers can start availing themselves of the iPhone.
Globe was the exclusive dealer of iPhone for three years since 2008. Smart got the dealership license for the new model in October.
The war is expected in pricing. Neither Globe nor Smart wants to reveal its prices. Obviously, one is feeling its way on the other. One will try to outsmart or outsell the other by offering a lower price.
Taipei, Dec. 15 (CNA) Taiwan's major telecom giants and Apple Inc.'s participating stores will start selling iPhone">iPhone 4S, Apple's latest handset model, Friday at more than 1,000 venues nationwide.
It will mark the first time that Apple's premium outlets will synchronize sales with Taiwan's three largest telecom operators-- Chunghwa Telecom Co., Far EasTone Telecommunications Co. and Taiwan Mobile Co. iPhone">iPhone 4S will go on sale at more than 1,000 telecom outlets and at 16 Apple stores, according to market analysts and Foxlink Group, the parent company of Studio A Inc., a premium reseller of Apple products in Taiwan and Hong Kong. The mobile carriers will bundle handset sales with telecom services, while Apple stores will sell standalone handsets.
Sales for Apple’s new iPhone 4S smartphone will be launched in Russia at midnight, two months after its launch in the United States and at a higher price than the previous version.
The handset will sell for 35,000 to 46,000 rubles ($1,120-1,500), depending on memory size, retailer, and color.
The iPhone 4S will be priced higher than the iPhone 4 with the same memory size at the launch in Russia in the fall of 2010.
Twitter has done its year in review, Facebook revealed the top shared news stories of 2011, so it’s only natural that Google would follow suit with its very own annual recap.
The search giant has unveiled its UK Zeitgeist 2011 search list, and few will be surprised to learn that the Royal Wedding between Prince William & Catherine Middleton topped the list, in an event that saw hundreds of millions of people watch from around the world.
The dramatic saga (at least according to phone geeks) of the Verizon Galaxy Nexus ends today as the device appears in stores for $299.99 with a 2-year contract. There has been loads of hype surrounding the device, but before you get too swept up on the moment I wanted to offer up ten reasons that I am sticking with my Apple iPhone 4S on Verizon. As regular readers know I have now had my own HSPA+ Galaxy Nexus for two weeks and can speak from experience with both devices.
15 December 2011 - To celebrate the tenth anniversary of crime epic Grand Theft Auto 3, Rockstar Games has released a mobile version of the seminal PS2 classic on iPhone, iPad and Android.
The game lets you run loose in Liberty City -- a toothy satire of New York -- doing driving missions for mob bosses, shoot-out chores for corrupt cops or just causing chaos with reckless abandon.
GTA made popular the open world, something that's been influential in endless sandbox games that followed, and caused a stir in tabloid headlines for its senseless violence: something that's stuck with the franchise ever since.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Dec 15, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Today, Mobidia Technology, Inc., a leader and innovative provider of mobile data solutions, announced the launch of the iPhone version of their smartphone application, My Data Manager, a popular smartphone application that helps mobile subscribers understand and manage their data use on their phones with real time information. The new application is also available to mobile operators and handset and tablet OEM's as a component of a fully customizable and extendable carrier-grade data management and analytics solution. The Windows Phone and Blackberry versions will also be available in the very near future.
Gwyneth Paltrow is letting us in on her NYC recommendations in her goop City Guide iPhone app. Find out if it's worth downloading.
Gwyneth Paltrow releases iPhone app
Most days we wake up and wonder: "How does Gwyneth Paltrow spend her days in New York City?"
Our prayers have finally been answered: Paltrow's email newsletter, goop, now has its very own iPhone app.
"I have always dreamed of finding a city guide that would be just right for me, like a trusted friend whose opinion you knew you could count on," Paltrow wrote in this month's goop.
It is the fifth generation of the iPhone, a device that combines a widescreen iPod with a touchscreen, mobile phone, and Internet communicator.
Highlights include a voice recognising and talking assistant called Siri, personal computer independence, cloud-sourced data (iCloud) and an improved camera system. A selection of the device's functions can be controlled by voice.
The iPhone 4S comes in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB.
The recommended retail price starts at RM 2,190.
Panasonic has announced plans to re-launch its range of mobile phones in Europe, after an absence of almost six years.
The Japanese manufacturer said it would launch its first 'global' smartphone next year. The new handset will be released in Europe in March 2012 and later in the US, China and elsewhere in Asia.
Panasonic said the phone featured a 4.3-inch OLED screen and would be waterproof and dustproof. The company did not confirm any other specifications for the handset.
(Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd said on Sunday its annual mobile handset sales this year had exceeded 300 million units for the first time in the company's history.
The world's second largest handset maker by volume said in a statement it had broken its sales record by the end of last month.
Handset sales in 2010 were about 280 million.
"We look forward to extending this success going into 2012," JK Shin, President and Head of Samsung's Mobile Communications Business, was quoted as saying.
Microsoft on Monday released an iPad version of OneNote as well as versions of its Lync corporate communications program for iOS, Android and Symbian.
It’s part of the difficult balancing act facing Microsoft in mobile. While Redmond does its most extensive work for its own Windows Phone operating system (and did so for Windows Mobile before that), the company knows it can’t afford to ignore the more dominant operating systems.
Microsoft has a number of iOS apps, including PhotoSynth and Bing, among other titles. It recently added an Xbox Live app, though its features are considerably more narrow than the Xbox Live capabilities available on Windows Phone.
It was back in June 29, 2007, when Steve Jobs transformed the mobile phone market with the launch of the very first iPhone. Thus started the era of smartphones. Since then, hundreds of thousands of mobile phones got launched in their bid to play catch up with the flagship phone from Apple.
Whoever had imagined that Google would launch a whole new mobile OS, Android? Even the traditionally sloth Microsoft went back its drawing boards and came up with a very polished operating system, something very uncharacteristic of their corporate image. And then there was WebOS that was fancy, fresh and intuitive, and yet could make no mark in the market. Thanks to Android being open source, a lot of OEMs were born and reborn. Some of them are Samsung, HTC, Micromax and Lava. And there are much more trying to make a mark.
Is what you see in the image, the "Sony Ericsson Atrix Black Z Plus Prime," the name of a phone or an American Gladiator?
Sadly, this is a question I've asked myself before, as cell phone names have become a bit ridiculous these days. It appears that I'm not the only one who feels this way either because a company called YinzCam has come up with an entertaining way to poke fun at phone-naming schemes.
Sometimes, the simplest gadgets turn out to be the most useful, and such is the case with the Macro Cell Lens Band.
What you see here is pretty much what you get: a rubber band with an embedded macro lens that you can wrap around any smartphone to take close-up photos. When not in use, you can simply wear it on your wrist or store it in your wallet on a credit card.
KARACHI: A strong demand for cellular phones has led to their higher imports which increased by 60 per cent in the last four months.
Mobile phone imports in July-October 2011 swelled to $220 million from $137.3 million in the same period of last year while imports in July-June 2010-2011 went up by 66 per cent to $523 million from $315 million in July-June 2009-2010.
The cell phone market is now bustling with buyers because of a wide range of varieties.
By now, you have already heard about the claims made by 25-year-old Trevor Eckhart that the Carrier IQ software - designed by an eponymous Mountain View company - can be considered a rootkit that logs practically all actions made by the mobile phone users on which the software has been secretly installed.
You also might have heard about the company trying to make Eckhart retract his claim, threatening him with legal action and denying that its software does anything except collecting information needed by carriers to improve the quality of their services.
Though the Apple Store memorials have since given way to long lines for the iPhone 4S, it's still difficult to imagine the technology company without Steve Jobs at its helm. And while much has been written about the gadgets that defined perhaps Jobs' most productive decade, it's tough to isolate one device for its impact above the rest.
But this Sunday marks 10 years since the keynote that announced the iPod—a device that started the chain of successes in an Apple renaissance, and one that completely redefined the experience of listening to music, as well as making it.
The largest study of its kind found no link between long-term use of mobile phones and increased risk of brain tumours, the British Medical Journal (BMJ) reported on Friday.
Danish researchers found no evidence of enhanced risk among more than 350,000 mobile-phone subscribers whose health was monitored over 18 years.
Earlier research on the possible link between cell phone use and cancerous tumours has been inconclusive, partly due to lack of long-term data.
Sunday 23 October 2011 - NINE drivers were caught using mobile phones in north east Fife during a police crackdown.
An increased presence on the area’s roads between September 1 and October 6 led to more than 70 motorists being charged with various offences.
The initiative was in response to concerns raised at community engagement meetings across north east Fife — particularly about people using mobile phones while driving.
A condition dubbed "text neck" is being seen in people who spend time hunched over their mobile phone and tablet computer screens, British chiropractors say.
The say the condition occurs because the joints and tissue in the neck are not meant to flexed for long periods, and hours spent peering down at a screen causes too much stress, The Daily Telegraph reported Friday.
"Imagine sitting on your ankle sideways for 10 minutes," Rachael Lancaster of Freedom Back Clinics in Leeds said. "It would feel stiff and sore when you returned it to its natural position.
By Doug Gross, CNN
Editor's note: This is part of "Our Mobile Society," CNN's weeklong series examining how cell phones and other electronic devices have revolutionized the ways we work, play and communicate.
(CNN) -- It's a mobile society.
Call it good. Call it bad. It just is.
With an estimated 5 billion mobile phone connections in the world, not to mention the emerging number of tablet computers and other on-the-go connectivity gadgets, mobile technology has altered the way we live.
Mobile phone maker Motorola is being sued by Intellectual Ventures over the use of six patents, BBC reports.
The patents are all used in Motorola-produced Android smartphones, the BBC report says. According to the report, Intellectual Ventures is accusing Motorola Mobility of “using its technology to perform file transfers, updates and remote data management and other functions on some of its smartphones.”
The two companies had reportedly been discussing a licensing deal for the patents since January. When no agreement was reached, Intellectual Ventures filed the lawsuit. Intellectual Ventures is reportedly seeking a trial and unspecified damages.
The post-midnight call a few weeks ago arrived on one of our cellphones. They were getting their usual overnight charge in the kitchen while we were one floor up and many dark steps away in the bedroom.
It was the sort of situation Panasonic had in mind when it developed new cordless home phones with a technology it calls Link-to-Cell.
Link-to-Cell uses Bluetooth communication to connect a set of conventional cordless home phones with one or two cellphones. Once the devices are linked, any incoming cellular calls will ring through to one of the Panasonic handsets.
With mobile phone theft the fastest growing crime on our streets, people are reconsidering the value of having insurance to replace their handsets -- if not the annoyance of being without it.
Gardai have said that hundreds of handsets are being swiped by "bicycle thieves" snatching phones from unsuspecting pedestrians.
A recent spike in thefts of iPhones has resulted in a new initiative deployed to stop them, but as long as people like to "walk and talk", it's an on-going problem, especially where fancy iPhone 4 is involved -- the gadget of choice of the thieving population.
LG Mobile has hooked up with stylist Rachel Zoe to launch its newest phone -- dubbed the "Marquee"-- as the company sets its sights on attracting young female consumers.
The crux of the initiative is an LG Mobile-sponsored web series dubbed "Style Rules." The series will feature a competition in which Ms. Zoe tasks style bloggers with creating looks tied to the Android smartphone's brand: "Thin, Light and Bright." The phone product, which Ms. Zoe will use to communicate with the contestants, launches Oct. 2, and beginning today, six webisodes will air on sites across the Alloy Digital Network once a week through November.
Decide.com, the only electronics shopping service that predicts when to buy consumer electronics with no regrets, has expanded its offering to include phones, making it easy for shoppers to stay current on top product price changes and new model releases. Decide also enables shoppers to "follow" the iPhone to get the latest news and rumors on the upcoming iPhone 5 launch from hundreds of sources including CE manufacturers and expert news services like CNET, Engadget, Gizmodo, MacRumors and others. Now shoppers can use the power of Decide's price and model prediction technologies plus news aggregation to purchase phones with no regrets.
Internet access is switching from standard wireline use via PCs to mobile access via smartphones. That's the news coming from Framingham tech market research firm IDC, which found in its research that the switch in majority Internet access may take until 2015 to happen.
IDC noted in a report released today that smartphones have begun to outsell simpler feature phones, and that media tablet sales are taking off. IDC predicted that the number of mobile Internet users will grow by a compound annual growth rate of 16.6 percent between 2010 and 2015. As a result, IDC says that the number of people accessing the Internet through PCs in the U.S. will level off, and then start to decline, with Japan and Western Europe following the same trend.
Mobile UI is becoming bigger every year. I did a post call 25 Beautiful Mobile Websites showcasing some really beautiful UI for mobile websites. Underworld Magazines will be launching a mobile tab soon on the website just to give you guys all the latest updateds on mobile and some tutorials. In this post you will find 18 Mobile Phones UI Design PSDs that will help you with the UI design. Mobile websites and apps will keep getting big over the years, so if your a designer its about time to get your hands on Mobile UI designs.
