'Excessive' operator costs mean small charities lose up to 20% of what people give via their mobiles.

Mobile-phone companies have been criticised for charging fees to process charitable donations made via text message, an increasingly popular way of giving. Many people who give money using their mobile phones are unaware that some of the cash may end up going to the operators, with smaller charities complaining they can lose as much as 20% of a donation via text message.

Although only a maximum of £10 can be donated via text message, the new form of charitable giving is a fast becoming a substantial income stream for many of the UK's 150,000 charities.

Comic Relief made more than £7m from text message donations last month. All mobile-phone operators waived their fees for the appeal, as they have done for all large one-off pleas such as those launched by the Disasters Emergency Committee and several big name charities. But many charities are not exempt from the charges.

"We appreciate that they have to cover costs, but the perception is that the costs are excessive," said Orin Lewis, head of ACLT, a charity helping people with leukaemia which receives about 15% of its funding through text donations.

As the top 6% of good causes receive 88% of all charitable giving, smaller charities complain the current situation hits them unfairly.

In a sign that the mobile-phone operators are anticipating a backlash from consumers, 02 and Vodafone have scrapped all charges.

"We're seeing a lot more charities use text donations and our customers keep telling us it's an easy and simple way of supporting charitable causes," said Vodafone UK chief executive Guy Laurence.

"It would be great if other mobile-phone companies followed O2 and Vodafone's lead," said Hannah Terrey, head of policy and public affairs at the Charities Aid Foundation. "If they can waive the fees for all charities we think the others could lower their charges, though we are realistic that it costs to transfer money and it's important that mobile phone companies sustain whatever they commit to."

Mobile-phone operator Three currently charges smaller charities 5% commission,which it insists is to cover its costs, while T-Mobile and Orange, which both give 100% to major charitable campaigns, charge 10% for donations above £2 and 20% below. T-Mobile said it was reviewing its charges while Orange stressed it had simplified its fees.

A spokeswoman for Virgin, which charges 11% for donations to smaller charities, said: "Work is under way to ensure all registered charities benefit from the full amount donated to them."

Charity text donation campaigns have been increasing in popularity since 2009 when they were exempted from VAT and network providers agreed to reduce their charges. Previously, as much as 40% of a donation made via a text message could be lost to tax and network handling costs.

Roger Craven, director of Vir2, a company specialising in text giving campaigns, said mobile-phone donations would be a common form of donating in the future: "Around 44% of donations are under £10, so if we can increase the efficiency with which charities process these payments it will have a huge effect on the sector."

Separately, pressure has been mounting on Apple to allow donations via iPhone apps. Apple's guidelines stipulate donations must be collected through a website or in a text message, not via an app. An online petition urging Apple to change its guidelines has attracted almost 40,000 signatures from around the world.

French startup Wysips has an awesome idea to bring solar energy to mobile phones. Instead of putting a large and ugly solar panel on the back of the device, they want to integrate it into a phone display in such a way that user wouldn’t even know there’s a solar panel on their phone.

The trick is in using a superthin, flexible and transparent film that is applied onto the mobile phone’s screen and which doesn’t interfere with the phone’s functionality, even allowing for touch-based controls.

A battery would still be required to provide the backup power and store the energy created by the film, but because the energy would be created constantly (not only from the Sun but also from other light sources), it [battery] could be smaller, enabling thinner mobile phone and tablet designs.

Sounds awesome and we’re not surprised such a technology earned Wysips 1st Place in CTIA’s 2011 Emerging Technology – Green Telecom and SMART Energy competition.

At the moment, Wysips is pitching OEMs and mobile display companies, with plans to integrate its technology into devices within a year. Love it!

What did we ever do before mobile phones and the industry movements behind it all?! Every time you blink there is either another new device or a new merger. One can only guess at how the duopoly of the AT&T acquisition will affect consumers, particularly those who consistently rack up the most in mobile expenditures each and every month: African-Americans. And since the ratings and statistical giant Nielsen also seems to think that our demographic is the key to the smartphone wars as well, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at one of the latest smartphones, Samsung’s Nexus S.

Now, those who are really into the smartphone game will know that this phone hit the market just a couple of months ago, but what is new is that Sprint just announced earlier this week that it will now make the phone available via its network in the spring of this year. So this phone poses a new option for those on that carrier who are toying around with upping their Android game. (The Samsung Nexus S is available currently on AT&T, T-Mobile only).

Peep the video below now to see me put the phone through its paces but also watch some “person-on-the-street” reaction as well. I also have some hot Playbook news right before the Nexus S demo jumps off…. Let me know what you think of the device in the comments below. Also note, while the Playbook comes out on April 19th pre-orders are being accepted right this moment.If you want to bypass the video tech review, here are the highlights:

The Nexus S, the world’s first handset to feature the latest version of Google’s Android operating system 2.3 he 4-inch Contour Display features a curved design for a more ergonomic (who made up that word, anyway?) style and feel when held in your hand and to your face. Nexus S also features Near Field Communication (NFC) technology which allows you to read information off of everyday objects like stickers and posters that are embedded with NFC chips. They’re not here yet, but they are coming. Mark my words and remember those three letters! Powered by a 1 GHz Samsung application processor, Nexus S produces rich 3D graphics, faster upload and download times and supports HD-like multimedia content. Nexus S is equipped with a 5 megapixel rear facing camera and camcorder, as well as a VGA front facing camera. In addition, Nexus S features a gyroscope sensor to provide a smooth, fluid gaming experience when you are tilting the device up or down or panning the phone to the left or right. Nexus S is reported to come with 16 GB of internal memory though the brand new unit I had for test-driving had 13 GB. Hmmmmm…
All in all, a hot device.

Important tip: don’t just always react just as a consumer. You know I always want you to think about how the phone can make you money, as well. Have a business? Sell a product? A mobile phone application is one of the hottest ways to brand and drive revenue. Of course, it’s got to make sense and provide real value for the end-user, but at least price need not be the factor which holds you back anymore. A new start-up called Mobiflex has developed a system for people to create an iPhone or Android mobile app incredibly low prices. No, it’s not going to offer 3D and all the other bells and whisles, but it’s a good start and can be customized accordingly. If you can build a PowerPoint presentation, you can now make an app. Google Mobiflex for more information.

Astudy has found that men who routinely wear their cellphone on their belt on the right side have reduced bone mineral content (BMC) and bone mineral density (BMD) in the right hip,according to the study by Fernando Sravi of National University of Cuyo,Argentina.

His research on how electromagnetic radiation from cellular phones may adversely affect bone strength appears in the Journal of Craniofacial Surgery.
Sravi writes,”The different patterns of right-left asymmetry in bone mineral found in mobile phone users and nonusers are consistent with a effect of electromagnetic waves not previously described.”Sravi measured BMC and BMD at the left and right hip in two groups of healthy men: 24 men who did not use phones and 24 men who carried their cellphone in a belt pouch,on the right side,for at least one year.

Measured using a test called dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry,BMC and BMD are standard markers of bone strength.Average hip BMC and BMD measurements were not significantly different between groups.
However,men who did not use cellphones had higher BMC in the right femoral neck (near the top of the thigh bone): a normal left-right difference that was absent in cellphone users.

Thus men who wore their cellphones on the right side had a relative reduction in femoral neck BMC in that hip.The phone users also had reduced BMD and BMC in the area near the thigh bone,close to where the phone would be worn on the belt.The difference between the left and right hip was significantly related to the estimated total hours spent carrying a cell phone.

There are concerns about potential harmful effects of phones.However,few studies have looked at if the electromagnetic fields emitted by them could affect bone mineralisation.With the rapid growth in cell use,any significant effect on BMD could have a substantial effect on the rate of osteoporosis.

Although small,the new study raises the possibility that long-term exposure to radiation from phones could adversely affect bone mineralisation.Larger follow-up studies will be needed to confirm or disprove this hypothesis,according to Sravi.He suggests that studies may be warranted in women,who have higher rates of osteoporosis;and children,who would have longer expected lifetime exposure to mobile phones.

12 March, 2011 - SAN FRANCISCO — Google has remotely purged Android smartphones of applications tainted with a malicious code that could take control of the handsets and steal information.

Mobile phone security firm LookOut said the purpose of the "DroidDream" code was to "download additional applications and install them silently as system applications on the device.

"DroidDream could be considered a powerful zombie agent that can install any applications silently and execute code with root privileges at will," it said.Google was patching the vulnerability that cyber crooks could exploit and adding measures to prevent applications containing the "malware" from getting into the Android Market of programs for mobile devices.

Google yanked the contaminated applications from the Android Market and then took the unusual step of hitting a "kill switch" that remotely removed from smartphones any of the more than 50 applications containing the dangerous code.

"We removed the malicious applications from Android Market, suspended the associated developer accounts, and contacted law enforcement about the attack," Rich Cannings of Android Security said in a message posted at the Google blog during the weekend.

"We are remotely removing the malicious applications from affected devices."

Google believed that hackers were only able to get codes identifying smartphones and which version of Android ran particular devices. The attack didn't work on handsets operating on Android 2.2.2 or newer.

With very few exceptions, killing people is bad for business.

Driving is good for business, since it gets your employees where they need to go. And mobile phone use is good for business, since it keeps them productive wherever they are. But driving while using mobile phones is bad for business, insofar as it leads to killing people, which it sometimes does. Twenty percent of crashes resulting in injury in 2009 involved reports of distracted driving; 18% of the fatalities in such crashes involved a phone.

All of which, on top of being very sad, could cost your business serious money. Distracted driving is "a ticking time bomb in terms of corporate liability," said Matt Howard, CEO of ZoomSafer, which announced a new $1.1 million in funding today.ZoomSafer works to control and prevent distracted driving. It does this in a number of ways. For individual clients who sign up, it can use your phone's GPS sensors to see whether you're speeding; if so, it will disable your cellphone until you stop the car. For corporations, ZoomSafer can be applied to your entire fleet, automatically preventing your employees from texting, tweeting, surfing, or doing any of the manifold other distracting things you can do with a phone while driving.

"FleetSafer," as ZoomSafer's fleet-wide service is called, also offers businesses analytics for employers to measure employees' cell phone use while driving. There's a few reasons why this analytics tool is important, Howard tells Fast Company. While ZoomSafer can exert and influence over smartphones, it can't do so over traditional mobile phones. And for the time being, smartphones are the minority of the market share (even though that will tip in the next year or two, say analysts). But FleetSafer Vision, the analytics tool, allows employers to monitor even those on traditional mobile phones. Flagrant violators of mobile-use policy can then be called into the office for a warning, based on the data.

FleetSafer Vision is also a more realistic product for companies that regard flat-out disabling phones as oppressive. There are some who say, "This feels a bit draconian, feels a bit Big Brotherish," admits Howard; for them, they might prefer to eschew the "big hammer" approach of disabling phones for the "small hammer" approach of passive monitoring. That way employers can single out the problem cases, and issue a few warnings before deciding to disable phones on the road.

Since helicopter parenting is big business, too, ZoomSafer also has a product called TeenSafer, which prevents your teenaged kid from texting or emailing from driving. In an effort to ease the inevitable, "But, Mom...!" conversation that follows the announcement of this new digital restriction on your kid, TeenSafer enables an automatic text-message response to friends you ping the teen while driving. A video shows an outgoing text on an iPhone: "matt received your text but is driving and focused on the road. Try ZoomSafer for free at www.zoomsafer.com."

ZoomSafer plans to use the new cash to expand marketing and develop new products. One of the most recent developments has been software for Android phones, which launched in January.

Are you tired of all the lies you companion tells you? Do you suspect that your employee is accomplishing anything mistaken with your online business? Would you desire to know who your children are talking to? If your response to people concerns is WITHOUT A DOUBT, then you certainly will need the help of a spy cell phone. What is it? Tips on how to spy on phone telephone works? Spying on cell phones is just not new nonetheless it was earlier than constrained to men and women who have dollars and used for secret operations. Now, spying on mobile telephone just expense several bucks and can simply downloaded on the internet.How to spy mobile cell phone operates? It’s uncomplicated as a, b, c. Locate a web page that presents spy on mobile phone, buy and obtain it for the cell cellphone of your man or woman you would like to monitor and that is it. Each of the conversations will be despatched towards the web site. You can simply discover the internet site by using other desktops as extended because it has net connection. Just enter your person identify and password on the website and you will see all the textual content messages finish with time, date and location. For telephone calls, time, date, place along with the duration of calls are also submitted. The number and locale in the receiver will even be famous.

Although acquiring the mobile phone of the person you desire to monitor may very well be challenging, you have to believe of a means on how to have it an install the spy on his cellular cell phone. In your loved ones, you may very easily acquire a whole new phone as being a reward and install the spy software 1st just before offering it. For personnel, you are able to allow it to be appear like it is really an incentive.

It is really genuinely uncomplicated on the way to spy mobile phone. The person whom you need to monitor could have no clue that he is getting monitored.

Mar 11, 2011 – Mobile phone accessories consumers usually wants to find out something new and unique coming in mobile market. Now a days mobile phone accessories are available new and unique in the mobile market. Mobile phone accessories are found to be in demand now as some brands came into competition. The most common mobile phone accessories that are used commonly are batteries, travel chargers, Bluetooth headsets, cases and pouches, LCD screen protectors, USB data cables and more. Mobile phone accessories adds new features to the mobile phone. A mobile phone cant be operated without mobile phone accessories. One of the mobile phone accessory which is usually in use is batteries. Batteries are the main mobile phone accessories used to operate a mobile phone. Travel chargers are another mobile phone accessories which is used to charge our mobile phone while we are in drive.

Usually mobile phone accessories used to protect our mobile phone. Mobile phone accessories can be used any time whenever we need. These mobile phone accessories can be shopped online. Shopping mobile phone accessories online is an easy way to purchase. Mobile phone accessories online shopping stores have came in vast now a days. People are confused to purchase from which mobile phone online store. Mobile phone accessories are in vast now available.

A professor at Osaka University came up with a creepy human-shaped phone that tickles you when it rings. The phone looks like a cross between Casper the friendly ghost and the freaky mutant things in Silent Hill. You talk into the phone’s stomach and it speaks back to you, playing the voice of the person on the other line through its face.

It also moves and is supposed to mimic the head and face gestures of the person on the other line as they’re talking. The team behind Elfoid claims they made it look fetus-like and androgynous so that people can imagine Elfoid as whoever they want.

The creepy creation comes from the mind of Hiroshi Ishiguro, a roboticist who created a realistic android based on himself. This newest Elfoid P1 creation appears to be a shrunken mobile version of the nightmarish Telenoid R1 from a year ago in the video above.

A new survey from casual gaming company PopCap shows that an incredibly high percentage of adults in the UK and U.S. is into mobile gaming.

This stat may be due in part to the uptick in smartphone adoption. According to a separate Nielsen survey, 31% of U.S. mobile users now own smartphones, and a Pew survey shows nearly half of cellphone users download and use mobile apps, too.

In PopCap's research, more than half (52%) of 2,425 respondents said they had played a game on a mobile device, whether their own device or someone else's, at some time in the past. The percentage for UK respondents was significantly higher (73%) than the rate for U.S. respondents (44%).Around one-third of all respondents had played a game on their own mobile phones within the past month, and one out of four respondents said they played games on a weekly basis. Still, some respondents admitted to only having played a mobile game once.

The biggest gaming group was smartphone users. A full 83% of smartphone-owning respondents said they had played at least one mobile game in the past week, putting them solidly in the "avid mobile gamer" category.

Interestingly, the male-to-female ratio in mobile gaming doesn't show the pronounced gender gap seen in console and PC gaming. Men play slightly more than women by a slim margin of 2-10%. This fits pretty well with the current picture we have of the social gaming scene as a predominantly female market.

And mobile gamers aren't just biding their time on mass transit; they're also contributing to the bottom line of game manufacturers across the major mobile platforms.

Around half of all mobile gamers in this survey said they had upgraded a free trial game to the full or paid version in the past year. And one out of four mobile gamers, or one out of three smartphone gamers, said they had bought "additional content" for a game within the past year.

Also, smartphone users are more likely to buy games than their feature phone-owning counterparts, for obvious reasons. The average smartphone-using mobile gamer bought 5.4 games in 2010, versus the 2.9 games bought by non-smartphone-owning gamers.

Also, the smartphone crowd said they spent more money on games -- $25.57 per user for the year, compared to $15.70 from feature phone owners.

If you have ever wanted to feel closer to the people on the other end of the line then researchers from Japan must have been thinking about you when they developed the world's first ever human mobile phone. It's not only shaped and made to look like a human being, but it also has a skin-like outer layer that feels like, well, human skin.

The Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International (ATR) issued a press release describing the gadget as a "revolutionary telecom medium." The press release also stated that the skin-like layer that covers the entire unit will make the mobile phone feel like the skin of the person that the user is talking to. In my opinion, this is kind of avante-garde in a strangely weird yet awesome way.

The photos of the prototype released to news agencies revealed that the phone is only slightly larger than a human hand. A closer look at the prototype shows a clear resemblance to the human physique but the details of the design are not very detailed so no one can really tell if it's a man or a woman. But I do think that it would be pretty cool (and quite an achievement) if these mobile phones will eventually be developed with specific genders.

The photo to the left shows ATR researcher Takashi Minato holding up a prototype of the human-shaped gadget. A speaker is installed into its the head while a light-emitting diode in the phone's chest flashes blue when the phone is in use and turns red when it is on standby.

The human mobile phone is actually a result of a joint project between major research institutions in Japan such as Osaka University and the country's premier mobile phone operator NTT DoCoMo.

The prototype is pale and pasty colored, which makes me wonder: are African-American human mobile phones next? Do they also have plans of releasing phones to represent the yellow-skinned Asian race as well? Only time will tell.

What the researchers do plan on doing is integrate extra features to the phone like image and voice recognition features with the hopes that they can put it in commercial production within a span of five years.

Source: Yahoo! News

This week, timed with the Game Developers Conference taking place in San Francisco, PopCap Games, announced the results of a new survey which found large increases in overall usage and frequency of mobile game playing among U.S. and U.K. adults. Conducted by Information Solutions Group, the survey also found that among mobile phone gamers, the mobile phone is now the primary gaming device of choice, leapfrogging video game consoles and personal computers in less than two years.

The survey was fairly extensive. Other findings include:

> 84% of all mobile phone gamers, and 97% of avid mobile phone gamers say they play games on their phone at least once a week; 92% of smartphone owners who play mobile games say they play at least once a week, and 45% say they play daily (compared to 35% of all mobile phone gamers).

> Among all mobile phone gamers, 50% said that the amount of time they spend playing games on their handset has increased over the past year, and among smartphone owners the figure climbs to 63%;

> Among all mobile phone gamers, 78% indicated that playing mobile phone games had become a regular part of their weekly activities, and more than half (59%) indicated that they saw such games as a regular part of their daily activities; for smartphone owners the figures were 84% and 68%, respectively.

> When asked which gaming-capable device they play games on most often, 44% of mobile phone gamers chose their phones, catapulting handsets past video game consoles (21%) and computers (30%) to the top of the list. 51% of avid mobile gamers and 55% of those mobile gamers who own smartphones indicated they played games most often on their phones.

Complete results of the new survey can be found at: www.infosolutionsgroup.com/popcapmobile2011. It takes you to a 94-page presentation.

5 Mac, 2011 - We can't say we weren't warned. Last August, Japan's Eager Co. Ltd. announced that it was planning to begin sales of the Telenoid R1 telepresence robot in October. The toddler-sized ghostly-looking robot is intended to be a physical stand-in for a remote user during internet communications, mirroring that person's movements via real-time face tracking software on their computer – their voice also comes out of the device. Well, Telenoid now has a little sibling. The Elfoid P1, as it's called, was unveiled at a press conference yesterday in Japan, and is intended to serve as a combination mobile phone and mini telepresence robot.

Both Telenoid and Elfoid were designed by Osaka University robotics expert Hiroshi Ishiguro, in collaboration with the Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International (ATR). Ishiguro has been in the headlines before, for creating very lifelike robotic doppelgangers of real people, including himself.

His two telepresence robots' "neutral" features are intended to allow them to represent any caller, regardless of age, gender, race ... or perhaps even planetary origin.

Elfoid is essentially a pint-sized Telenoid, with a built-in 3G mobile phone. Given the limited amount of information available so far, it's not immediately clear how one would dial the thing, as it seems not to have any external controls. Ishiguro and company plan on adding microactuators to get the face and limbs moving, but the present version is immobile – a phone doll, really. Given that future versions could presumably be a writhing, wriggling, pocket-sized version of the person you're talking to, though, and the fact that their outer surface reportedly feels like skin ... well, let's just say the possibilities are disturbing.

This isn't the first time someone has thought of using a little robot/mobile phone to add a dimension of physicality to phone calls. Faculty and students at Vancouver's Simon Fraser University have already created Callo and Cally, two miniature phone-containing robots that dance, wave their arms, and display animated faces in response to the actions and instructions of callers.

But why, you may be asking, can't we just use video calling to get that human touch? It seems that many people feel awkward about being on camera while having a phone conversation with someone else. Knowing that the other person is currently seeing them as an animated sperm-like doll, however, is apparently not a problem.

There's no word yet on when or if Elfoid will be commercially available.

5 March, 2011 - TORONTO — Virus experts are warning that the next big security threat is on mobile phones and that the attacks have begun in earnest.

For months, security researchers have been tracking how hackers were trying to take their exploits to a new platform and infect smartphones with malware that could remotely control the devices.

Earlier this week, Symantec released a report about the spread of an infected app called "Steamy Windows" on Google's Android platform. The simple but popular app makes it look like your screen is covered with steam, which can be cleared off with finger swipes.

Unknown hackers created a copycat version of the app, secretly loaded it with malicious commands, and released it to the web on unofficial app download sites.

It's not the first time such a threat has been detected, said Symantec's principal security response manager Vikram Thakur, but it's far more sophisticated -- and successful -- than what was previously spotted in circulation.

"It definitely had a lot more features than we've been seeing with Android threats in the past few months," said Thakur, noting the malware enabled a hacker to retrieve data from an infected phone, send out premium rate text messages, show advertisements, and launch any website.

The attack could not force the phone to dial out, or activate a built-in camera but it's probably a matter of time until other viruses can, Thakur said.

"We expect more sophistication," he said. "It's definitely a step toward getting more and more comprehensive in their actions but I'm very certain this is not the end of it."

While the infected Steamy Windows app wasn't available through the official Android Marketplace, dozens of virus-laden apps somehow managed to get past Google's screening and were pulled offline Wednesday after being reported by users.

Among the infected apps were "Photo Editor," "Hot Sexy Videos," "Chess," "Falling Ball Dodge," "Scientific Calculator," "Advanced Currency Converter," "Spider Man," "Music Box," "Super Stopwatch & Timer" and "Color Blindness Test."

Thakur said experts were quite surprised that so many infected apps made it past Google and were available for several days before being pulled.

"The fact that Google has vetted them and made them available on Google's controlled website, it does instil a certain amount of comfort in the user," he said.

"I was pretty impressed that Google was able to pull the reported apps in less than five minutes (after being alerted) but what remains to be seen is what kind of process improvements they make on their end before they vet any application onto their marketplace, if any at all."

So far, virus threats have mostly targeted the Android platform. That's due to a few reasons, Thakur said. Apple's app vetting protocol is extremely rigorous and sneaking viruses into the App Store would likely be very difficult, he said. And because BlackBerrys are often tied to a corporate IT infrastructure with system administrators watching network traffic, evasion could also be difficult. The use of the Android platform is also growing exponentially, which allows hackers to cast a wide net when trying to infect users, Thakur added.

"For the malware author, the first thing he looks at is 'Where can I get my money' and he's going to follow wherever the honey is. The immense success of the Android platform has kind of lured the malware authors," he said.

There are a couple of ways for Android users to protect against downloading infected apps, Thakur said. There's an option in the phone's settings to only allow installs of Google-approved applications, although if more apps sneak past Google, a phone could still be affected. Thakur also recommends against downloading apps from third-party sites, especially if they promise free versions of popular apps.

If a phone is infected there are consequences.

"The worst case scenario for the common user is, let's say, loss of data, whatever is stored on the person's phone --whether it's contact information or emails -- or a high monthly usage bill. If someone was able to remotely control your phone and start sending premium SMS messages all across the globe then chances are you're going to be getting a bill you were not expecting."

MOBILE, Alabama - The Mobile Bay Convention & Visitors Bureau has partnered with Alabama Coast Magazine to provide the first local smart phone app for the iPhone and Android designed for visitors in our city.

The app features events and live music schedules, dining, shopping and hotel information and also the ability to upload pictures from your phone.

You can download the free app today by visiting iTunes or the Android Market on your mobile phone and searching for 'Mobile Bay.'

The local smart phone app is just in time for Mardi Gras.

Just tap the special section and discover the complete parade schedules and which krewe will be rolling through the streets of downtown Mobile.

You can also find detailed parade routes so you’ll know where the best location is to catch beads, throws and the traditional crowd favorite, the Moon Pie!

The new smart phone app will help out-of-town guests enjoy what Mobile Bay has to offer all at their fingertips.

Imagine the frustration in Yuma, Ariz., last year when garage door remote controls just plain stopped working.

The receivers on the openers were overwhelmed when a nearby Marine Corps air station moved its radio traffic to a new spectrum — a wavelength close to the one used by civilians to heft open those doors.

Luckily, a $2 jury rig to most openers fixed the problem. But in a conflict between military necessity and consumer convenience, there was never much doubt which side would have to tinker with its gear.

Now a radio war is brewing between two large commercial interests. It’s far less clear which side might budge.

One side is on the continuing quest to increase wireless broadband for your cell phone, laptop or tablet.

It’s come up with a new technology combination that adds a satellite — in contrast to using cell phone towers only — to give you almost unlimited wireless coverage. And it brings fresh competition to curb high-speed broadband prices.

But that new technology has come smack up against satellite-guided navigation for your GPS device. The catch is that when the new signals move in, they’ll crowd out GPS traffic.

The GPS industry fears its devices could suffer the fate of those Arizona garage door openers — but without the simple fix.

So what might be a boon to cell carriers like Overland Park-based Sprint Nextel could mean trouble for GPS companies like Olathe’s Garmin Ltd.

“It’s not just soccer moms trying to find their way to the game,” said a Garmin spokesman. “It’s emergency response people, the military, all sorts of things.”

•••

Today’s mobile phones connect us over radio signals from cell towers that dot our landscape. They give you driving directions by separate transmissions from GPS satellites.

The budding new techno-combo would also use cell towers. But when those spots fall out of range, the handsets would look skyward to a satellite — not for GPS signals but to carry our voice conversations, text messages and such.

The handsets would run on a radio channel that cell phones haven’t used before. It rests right next to, and poses the danger of bleeding into, the wavelengths we use for GPS directions.

And that’s where the conflict lies.

On one side is LightSquared Inc., an ambitious venture hoping to toggle between ground-based cell towers and satellite signals. It aims to wholesale the either/or service to cell phone companies and electronics makers. It’s a job the company says can be done without fouling GPS.

The young company would give users high-speed connections when in range of its earthbound towers. And when out of range of those towers, its users could turn to the heavens for a slower connection.

Sprint is reportedly in talks with LightSquared to share towers and other network costs. Both companies declined to comment about that, although LightSquared said it does expect more partnerships in building its network.

LightSquared’s ground-based towers would use a technology called Long Term Evolution, or LTE. That so-called 4G or fourth-generation cell technology is already used by wireless industry leaders AT&T and Verizon Wireless.

Sprint is contemplating use of the technology alongside, or to replace, its 4G WiMax network.

Meantime, in a spectrum uncomfortably next to the one LightSquared hopes to fill, sits an anxious GPS industry.

Garmin is the largest player, with half the portable consumer gadgets in the market and 90 percent of the GPS hardware in small-plane cockpits.

The GPS maker sounded warnings in a January report. Garmin said its lab tests mimicking a LightSquared network easily jammed both aviation and handheld GPS devices. That poses a threat, the company contends, to its business and to public safety.

LightSquared counters that the two technologies can co-exist. It has tentative approval from the Federal Communications Commission to charge ahead.

“The facts are the facts when you test for interference,” said Jeff Carlisle, a LightSquared vice president. “It’s possible there will be disagreements as we move forward … We’re looking for what’s the most efficient and fairest way to work it out.”

At the crux of the clash is a radio spectrum ever more crammed by signals zipping to and from mobile gadgets.

“This is just a symptom of a broader problem,” said Dale Hatfield, a former chief engineer and technologist for the FCC. “When you run out of elbow room, people start jostling each other.”

•••

The story begins in what engineers and regulators refer to as L-Band 1. The frequency range ends at 1559 megahertz — right where the GPS band starts. That L-band long ago was set aside for satellite communications.

Yet for years, the L-band was like a mostly empty subdivision on the border of crowded neighborhood. Companies have chased grand plans before in pursuit of a profit from the derelict property — with almost no success.

Now comes Harbinger Capital Partners hedge fund billionaire Philip Falcone backing LightSquared.Unlike the failures that have tried satellite phone service, Falcone’s LightSquared is betting the marriage of a satellite with a network of conventional cell towers will prosper.

The company hopes to roll out wholesale service in Baltimore, Las Vegas, Phoenix and Denver this year. But in some ways, devices tuned to its network would have nationwide coverage almost immediately. Any LightSquared-friendly phone with a clear view to the southern sky will have a connection.

The FCC will ultimately referee the dispute between LightSquared and the GPS industry. The agency has reacted eagerly to the company’s plans, which would fit the Obama administration’s push for broadband wireless connections across the country.

It has granted a tentative license for LightSquared. The company would sell service to cell phone carriers like Sprint, to device manufacturers and to retail stores.

Still, the FCC has held back on a full go-ahead. An agency spokesman said LightSquared will only have full permission to use the L-band when worries about GPS jamming are satisfied.

The agency ordered a working group drawn from LightSquared and the GPS industry to hash out the question. The group has already filed one report to the FCC on the technical issues and testing methodology to figure out if GPS really is in danger.

LightSquared’s hope is that the Garmin study will be refuted. The GPS company tried to imitate real-world conditions by separating low-power devices a matter of feet apart, when LightSquared cell towers would be miles apart and typically, not always, miles from a GPS unit.

By putting in the right frequency filters on its equipment, LightSquared expects to avoid the interference that Garmin found in its Olathe lab. Garmin said it tried to buy a filter from LightSquared for testing, without luck.

Still, both sides talk about the possibility of figuring out a scientific way to be good neighbors on the radio spectrum.

Trimble Navigation Ltd., a California firm, is among those in an industry reliant on undisturbed GPS signals. Company vice president Peter Large said, “LightSquared’s proposed service could prove to be fundamentally incompatible with existing GPS uses.”

But he said the company “is confident that technical analyses … will lead to a clear regulatory decision that will protect GPS.”

•••

Some analysts think the jamming problem might be the side effect of the fact that GPS manufacturers for years could work in frequencies next to the mostly empty L-band. They might have saved costs by putting less precision into their receivers, especially when there was almost no traffic in the next-door spectrum.

“It costs more money to squeeze more people into the same space” of radio frequency, said Hatfield, the former FCC technologist who now teaches at the University of Colorado.

But Ted Gartner, a spokesman for Garmin, said it would be “spurious” to put any blame on GPS device makers. (In fact, Hatfield said, “there may be innocent parties on both sides here.”)

Gartner said reworking millions of circuit boards for new GPS devices could devastate the industry, shoot costs skyward and still not solve the problem of devices already in use. If there’s any adjustment to be made, he said, it will have to be done by LightSquared.

“We are in a signal spectrum,” he said. “We always have been and we will continue to be.”

To reach Scott Canon, call 816-234-4754 or send e-mail to scanon@kcstar.com.

Frustrated that you couldn't edit a Spanish term paper on your mobile phone? Worry no more. Google Documents now supports editing in 45 languages on your mobile phone, Google announced in a blog post.

The company has been consistently adding features to its word processing program. In January, Google streamlined the service, revamping the way files are organized to make it easier to display and preview documents. Google Docs also recently added the ability to play video, and it's been rumored, but not confirmed that a music player would also be incorporated.

Google launched mobile editing for the program in November. To edit Google Docs on your mobile phone, you must have a device running on Android Froyo 2.2 or higher or an iPad or iPhone running on iOS 3.0 or higher.

"With Google Docs, we're always trying to make you more productive – and part of that means making it possible for you to get things done from anywhere, at anytime," Google software engineer Andrew Grieve blogged when the company launched mobile editing.

To edit a document, open the browser on your phone and go to docs.google.com. Select a document and press edit to launch the mobile editor. Some of the supported languages are Chinese, Arabic, German, and French. The language settings must be changed on the desktop browser. They can't be altered on your phone.

For now, you can only edit documents on Google Docs via mobile devices, but you can't create new files.

SAN DIEGO — Wearing a lime green vest, dotted with patches and gold award buttons, it was clear that 10-year-old Angela Rosser of troop 1177 is proud to be a Girl Scout.

"It’s really fun right now," said Rosser, as she picked up a mobile phone.

Rosser is a member of Girl Scouts San Diego. Because of that, she's part of a two-week pilot program to test a mobile credit card device called “mophie marketplace.”

Rosser demonstrates how easily it worked. First, she downloaded a “mophie” application on her mom's smart phone. Then she slipped a small card reader onto the bottom of the phone and swiped a credit card.

Next, she filled in the desired number of cookie boxes on the phone’s screen and emailed a customer receipt.

Once the order was complete, the credit information and transaction was automatically erased from the phone.

It took less than a minute, and when it was done, Rosser smiled as she handed over two boxes of Thin Mints and a box of Samoas.

Rosser said using the device has improved her cookie sales and taught her troop a lot about credit cards.

“I think it teaches girls what credit cards are like. Some kids think they can just use credit cards for everything and they don’t realize it’s going to run out eventually. Now we know better," said Rosser.

In the first week of this year’s cookie selling season Rosser has sold 116 boxes of cookies. She credited her mother for her success and for helping her with all of the credit card transactions.

The money raised form selling Girl Scouts cookies is used to fund community service projects, troop activities and to pay for girls who otherwise couldn’t afford to join a troop.

TOKYO — Japanese mobile phones are a gadget lover’s dream. They double as credit cards. They can display digital TV broadcasts. Some are even fitted with solar cells.

And yet, for all their innovations, Japanese-made handsets have had little impact overseas. They account for just a sliver of a global mobile phone market dominated by the likes of Apple, Research In Motion and Samsung.

But now the Japanese phone industry hopes to go global — by adopting Google’s red-hot Android mobile operating system.

“We have the technology to compete in the United States,” said Naoki Shiraishi, who led software development for a new line of Android smartphones from Sharp, the largest Japanese cellphone maker. “It’s finally time for Sharp phones to go play in the major leagues.”

Sony Ericsson, NEC and Kyocera are among the other Japanese handset makers also betting on Android as their path to international sales.

While Android was initially overshadowed by the popular iPhone from Apple, its user numbers are now soaring. In 2010, global sales of Android phones reached 67.2 million units, ahead of iPhones, which sold 46 million units, according to the research company Gartner.

And Sharp, clearly hoping to edge onto Apple’s iPad turf, has introduced in the United States a lineup of tablet computers running a version of Android — the sort of competition Apple is hoping to stay well in front of with new versions of the iPad like the one it introduced Wednesday in San Francisco. For the Japanese phone makers, cashing in on Android’s popularity will mean learning some new skills, like marketing, while unlearning some old habits, like paying too much attention to the hardware and too little to the software.

Because Japan’s phone industry remains highly fragmented, no company so far has been large or savvy enough to make a strong overseas push. Instead, handset makers have long been content to serve as suppliers to Japan’s three largest mobile networks, which command a market of more than 100 million users, most of them on advanced 3G networks.

And in their hardware fixation, Japanese manufacturers have tended to bog down their handsets with clunky software platforms and fenced-in Web services that do not emphasize downloads of third-party applications.

That has put them at odds with the trend in much of the rest of the world, where attention has swung to devices like the iPhone, which runs software much as an ordinary computer does and lets users download apps from independent developers.

In fact, the success of the iPhone in Japan — together with Apple’s popular App Store, with hundreds of thousands of applications for download — has opened eyes.

“Japanese companies have been so pioneering in many fields, but they have failed to build a global business” of handsets, said Gerhard Fasol, chief executive of Eurotechnology, a Tokyo firm that advises companies on global mobile and telecommunications strategy. “What you need is a global infrastructure,” Mr. Fasol said, “and Japanese handset makers have nothing.”

Global scale is what the Japanese hope to build with Android.

Certainly the price is right: Google offers Android free to manufacturers. And Android has caught on since its introduction in 2007, as a growing community of software developers has written apps, sold via Google’s Android Market.

It took a while, but Japanese handset makers are now rushing to introduce Android devices, each married with cutting-edge technology. That includes Sony Ericsson, which dabbled with other platforms like Symbian and Windows Mobile for its high-end Xperia smartphones, but has used Android for its latest models.

And just last week, NEC introduced what it said was the world’s thinnest smartphone. At 8 millimeters thick, equivalent to about four stacked nickels, its Medias N-04C runs on Android and also comes with an electronic wallet function, digital terrestrial television and a five-megapixel camera. Although the phone is for sale only in Japan for now, NEC is planning an overseas push, focusing first on Mexico and Australia.

Another Japanese manufacturer, Kyocera, is planning soon for the United States release of an Android-based smartphone that comes with two screens, capable of running separate apps at once.

Sharp, for its part, intends to start with the fast-growing Chinese market, although officials say they also intend to bring phones to North America. Most global operators are preparing to use advanced LTE networks, which could make it easier for the Japanese phones to work on networks anywhere.

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I have wanted to like Android for quite some time. I really did. I kept trying device after device hoping that the next device would be “the one”. Sadly, that never seemed to happen. Even with those devices that I initially liked I found myself growing tired of both the device and the operating system within a relatively short period of time. As a result, the Android handsets I purchased ended up on eBay within a relatively short period, and those that I had received as loaner review units went back without any remorse on my part. Yes, I wanted to like Android, but none of the smartphones I tried were able to win me over.

That was, until now.

I’ve been using the T-Mobile MyTouch 4G for the last week or so, and I have to tell you… I like this device. I like it a lot. How much? Well, let me put it this way, I forwarded my iPhone’s number to it the other day and haven’t missed the iOS handset one bit.

Yes, this iPhone fanboy is actually using an Android headset as his primary device and… liking it!

Here’s why

Before we go any further let me get one thing on the table and out of the way; this is not a good-looking phone. In a beauty contest it would be lucky to come in 10th. If it were a model it would be starving. At a dance this phone would turn heads but not for the right reasons. Yes, this is an unattractive a piece of hardware that seems a bit “thrown together”.

It has a metal back that appears to have texture but is actually smooth. It has a rubbery material around the sides that makes it easy to grip but looks somewhat unpolished. That might be okay, except that the front of the device looks like it belongs to an entirely different headset.

Put it all together and the MyTouch 4G is a bit of a Frankenstein phone (FrankenPhone?) that seems to have a little bit from one device and a little bit from another, and then parts from a third or even a fourth. It makes for a truly hybrid-style device, and I don’t mean that in a good way.

But here’s the thing, I don’t care.

I don’t care that it isn’t the most attractive of handsets. I don’t care that it looks a little bit like a bunch of parts were slapped together. I don’t care because, as a whole, the device works so well for me that I can overlook just about any aesthetic issues I might have with it. This is a case of “function is so good that form becomes secondary”, and as I have used it, I have grown to like its looks more and more.

So let’s talk about what I find to be so great about this device.

First of all let’s talk about the build quality. It is phenomenal. The handset is rather heavy. At 5oz it is only slightly heavier than the iPhone 4 and the Motorola Atrix which weigh in at 4.8 oz each, but it FEELS significantly heavier for some reason. It’s well-built and it feels more solid than just about any other device I have used. It feels solid like the iPhone 4, but doesn’t feel like a delicate flower the way that an iDevice does. [Are you listening Apple?]

No, if anything, this phone feels like it’s a little bit more on the ruggedized side of the spectrum. The rubber material that goes around the side of the phone may not look all that attractive, but it makes the phone more durable, easier to grip, and it makes me feel confident when placing the device on any surface or trying to hold onto it while walking around. Yes, this is a smartphone that is meant for the real world!

After reviewing the Inspire HD for the AT&T network a few weeks ago, I was a bit concerned about the build quality of products being put out by HTC. Some of the back plates didn’t fit properly on that device and it got worse over time. It just didn’t feel like the high-end device that I know the company can create. I was concerned that this might be the new norm for handsets from HTC. Thankfully this phone shows that is not the case.

One example to explain what I mean. The metal plate on the back of the MyTouch 4G is thick and heavy just the way a phone’s back panel should be. It snaps into place quite securely and literally needs to be “popped” off when you want to access the battery; the fit is so good that if you are not careful you can lose a nail or two trying to open it. Unlike the Inspire HD, the fit is tight and perfect; strangely, both are made by HTC.

The Screen

The screen size strikes the right balance. It is a little bit larger than the iPhone’s screen but it isn’t too large the way those behemoth 4.3″ screens that are becoming so commonplace right now are. Yes, the size of the MyTouch gives you enough screen real estate to do what you need to do, but not so much that it’s difficult to hold the device and manipulate the phone with one hand.

The Buttons

And then there are the buttons. This phone actually has REAL physical buttons. You know, the type of buttons that actually have to be PUSHED and actually make a clicking sound. You know, the things Steve Jobs said we don’t need! Yes, the MyTouch 4G has real physical buttons and… I like them! A day into using the phone I suddenly came to the realization that I missed physical buttons. They are there to give the tactile feedback and make it easy to use the phone without looking at it, and I’m sold. They just work well and, like the rest of the phone, feel heavy-duty.

The optical D-Pad in the center took some getting used to, but after a few days I found it to be quite nice for navigating the phone.

The camera works just fine. The rear 5mp camera takes nice pictures and shoots decent video. Overall it is on par with the majority of 5+mp phone cameras I’ve seen recently, and it does mean you can go without a point and shoot or pocket camcorder.

The phone also has a front facing camera that shoots stills and video. This isn’t a camera you would want to rely on for pictures, but it will do fine for video chats.

The phone is running Android 2.2. Sure it would be better if 2.3 were pre-loaded but, at least at the moment, 2.2 seems to be standard. To me 2.2 seems like the first “mature” Android release.

HTC Sense

When I got the Nexus 1 last year I turned off a lot of the graphical wizbang features to save on battery life and to make sure it maintained enough speed. That’s not an issue with this phone. It has HTC’s Sense UI and speeds though it with ease. Sense actually works great on this device. I was tempted to use a 3rd Party program such as Launcher Pro, but I’ve really found that the Sense UI does what it needs to do with good speed. It, combined with some of T-Mobile’s unique features such as the MyFavs feature, makes this an incredibly customizable, and easy to use, handset.

Speed

We are now seeing the release of the first handsets with dual-core processors. That means that this handset is already old technology. That’s the bad news. Fortunately, there’s good news, too. The MyTouch 4G may not have a dual-core processor, but it is incredibly fast. If you didn’t know you had a single core processor, you wouldn’t think twice about the speed of this device. In other words, from a spec perspective it is old technology, but from an actual “real world usage” perspective it’s more than fast enough.

Yes, every now and then I found that it did have a period of slowdown, but it didn’t happen that often and it didn’t happen for very long when it did occur. The 1 ghz processor holds its own just fine.

The T-Mobile Factor

The other thing that made using this handset so enjoyable has less to do with the handset and more to do with the carrier. Usually having devices modified to be specific to one of the major carriers in the United States is a bad thing. They lock the handset down, they add tons of crapware and they replace some applications with paid services so they can make more money. In this case, however, having the handset designed specifically to work with T-Mobile in the US is a very good thing.

The Genius Button launches voice recognition powered by Nuance, and one of the standard keyboard choices is Dragon Dictation. It is, as I have often written, the best voice recognition currently available.

Then there’s T-Mobile’s WiFi calling feature. I’ve noted elsewhere on the site and on Twitter my AT&T iPhone gets lousy reception at home. I tried to get a microcell from them, but it isn’t available in my area. AT&T’s suggestion to me was that I dropped my iPhone down to EDGE speeds since I might see better connectivity that way; that’s unacceptable! T-Mobile, on the other hand, had a number of handsets can now use their “WiFi calling” feature. It’s built into this phone, and it simply means that you are able to make calls over any known a WiFi connection once you set it up. Sure, the WiFi calling feature uses plan minutes, but T-Mobile has great plans with unlimited minutes and even if it didn’t getting good reception at home is priceless … and T-Mobile doesn’t even charge for it.

The T-Mobile TV functionality that is there is interesting, but it costs $10 a month and isn’t something that I would ever use. But it is available and does not seem to crap up the handset.

Yes, there is a lot of good news with the MyTouch 4G. The handset is made by HTC ,and the build quality is great. (This is in contrast to the Inspire HD which was quite problematic in my opinion.) HTC’s Sense UI adds a degree of usability to the handset that is quite welcome. Some have written that the interface is a little bit stale, but that isn’t my experience at all. And the battery life is good; good but not great is how I would describe it, but that is pretty much the case with all current powerhouse smartphones.

Left HD7, Right MyTouch 4G

Unfortunately the news isn’t ENTIRELY good. Unfortunately this handset seems to suffer from an issue that I’m finding across all the current HTC devices I’ve tried. The speaker stinks. Seriously, it leaves a good deal to be desired. It is usable, but it is not enjoyable for more than a brief conversation. The sound is a bit crackly and it’s a little bit too soft. This is not a handset that you would want to use to listen to music unless you’re using a headset or some sort of connected speaker.

I have no doubt that HTC could do a great job with the audio quality of their handsets, but for some reason, at least in my experience, they don’t. Since the speaker is usable this isn’t anywhere near a deal breaker for me, but I really wish that the audio quality was better.

So let’s get to the bottom line of this phone. What do I think of it?

I’ve been using the phone as my primary handset for about a week and a half now. And in that time I’ve come to like using it more and more. I was impressed the first day, but that has been the case with most of the Android devices I have tried. This one, however, actually grew on me. I like its weight, I love the way it feels in my hand, the screen is gorgeous, and it’s fast.

Left Motorola Atrix, Right MyTouch 4G

In fact, I asked for a two-week extension on keeping the review unit so that I could find the time to compare it to the Motorola Atrix that just came for review and decide which one I want. Yes, for the first time since the iPhone came out, I am not using an iPhone as my primary handset.

Left iPhone 4, Right MyTouch 4G

In addition to the iPhone I also have a Windows Phone 7 handset that I can use if I like, but the MyTouch is the one that has been seeing the most use.

iPhone 4, Motorola Atrix, MyTouch 4G, HTC HD7

I think from an aesthetic perspective the iPhone wins hands down. From a power and cool accessory perspective, the Motorola Atrix now wins handily. From a “new stuff to play around with” the HD7 running Windows Phone 7 wins. But from an overall usability perspective, the MyTouch 4G is a winner. It’s easy to check and reply to e-mail via voice, and it’s easy to find what you need and to customize each of the home screens so that they work the way you need to work. Sure all Android phones do that, but HTC and T-Mobile add a whole additional layer. The battery life is good but not great. When are I lowered the screen brightness I found that it did much better, but it still leaves something to be desired. But after all isn’t that the way things are these days with pretty much all these powerful smart phones? I like that this phone doesn’t need to be “babied”.

I was ready to go back to my iPhone when this review period was over, but I can’t bring myself to do that. I’m finding it too easy to access and reply to my e-mail and to keep up with my social network messages. So, to T-Mobile I go… Unless the Motorola Atrix that just came for review wins me over.

One final note. The big winner for me when it comes to Android is the ability to use voice transcription anywhere you might use a keyboard. I wrote the vast majority of this review using the MyTouch 4G and its Genius Button integration. Try doing that with iOS.

The MyTouch 4G is available on the T-Mobile network for $250 on contract.

What I Like: Heavy and well-constructed; crisp middle-of-the-road screen size; physical buttons; good back camera, usable front camera; holds signal well; T-Mobile customizations add to ease of use; Genius Button/Dragon Dictation make this a great device to use on the go; rubber on sides makes it comfortable to hold

What Needs Improvement: Battery life is average; speaker is horrid; already “old technology”; Android 2.2

This post was written by:

Dan Cohen - who has written 1794 posts on Gear Diary.

Remember last month, when Facebook announced it was granting access to users’ mobile phone numbers and home addresses to third-party developers (upon users granting permission)? Soon after, the company suspended the feature as privacy concerns quickly escalated.

Facebook said it had received useful feedback that they could make people more clearly aware of when they are granting access to contact data. The company said it was temporarily disabling the feature.

Now, in a letter to Congress (pdf), Facebook (via CNET’s Declan McCullagh), Facebook is talking about bringing the feature back. In the letter, Marne Levine, VP, Global Public Policy says Facebook is "assessing potential additions to the permissions screen that would appear when an application requests a user’s contact information, to determine whether those additions would provide clearer notice to users regarding the information the application is requesting."

Poor etiquette by mobile users is rampant and getting worse every day as use of smartphones and other wireless devices continues to mushroom, according to an Ipsos survey of U.S. adults.

The survey found that 75% of the 2,000 adults surveyed believe mobile manners have worsened since 2009. And more than 90% said they have witnessed first-hand poor mobile behavior -- activities ranging from texting while driving or walking to talking on a mobile phone in a public restroom.

Some 19% of the repondents admitted having poor mobile habits themselves, but continued such activities because others were doing the same thing.

The survey, sponsored by Intel, was conducted from Dec. 10, 2010 to Jan. 5, 2011.

Intel, which makes processors that are used in some mobile devices, said the survey is part of its research into how people use technology to drive innovation. The company sponsored a similar survey in 2009.

Genevieve Bell, an Intel fellow who heads up research into human interactions and experience at Intel Labs, noted that because mobile technology is still fairly new, "it's no surprise that people still struggle with how to best integrate these devices into their lives.

"New digital technologies are becoming a mainstay in consumers' lives, but we haven't yet worked out for ourselves, our families, communities and societies what all the right kinds of behaviors and expectations will be," Bell added. The survey also found that:
# U.S. adults see an average of five mobile "offenses," including the use of mobile devices while driving or talking loudly on a mobile phone in public, every day.
# One in five adults admit to checking a mobile device before getting out of bed in the morning.
# Of the 91% of respondents who reported seeing offenses, 56% saw car drivers using a mobile device, 48% saw people using one in a restroom, 32% saw them used in movie theaters and 9% saw the devices used by people on a honeymoon.
# Nearly 25% of U.S. adults say they have seen a person use a laptop computer while driving.

The survey relates to a theme raised by some communications executives at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona recently.

On one panel there, executives cited how smartphones and similar devices can constantly interrupt our lives , keeping our attention on the devices instead of on friends, family and co-workers.

"We're starting to live in a world of interruption technology -- isn't anybody questioning this?" said MWC panelist Hampus Jakobsson, director of strategic alliances at BlackBerry smartphone maker Research in Motion. He is the former head of TAT, an interface design company acquired by RIM last year.

In response to a question on how RIM might reduce interruptions, Jakobsson suggested BlackBerry devices perhaps shouldn't run games that demand close attention from users.

Panelist and AT&T CTO John Donovan added that mobile devices have become the "serial interrupters" of modern society. "We owe it to the industry to restore simplicity where interactions and productivity are balanced," he added.

Elsewhere, Microsoft picked up on the theme of bad phone behaviors in a series of TV ads for its Windows Phone 7 devices.

The commercials lament the way typical smartphones can prevent people from engaging directly with others, and suggesting that the interface on WP7-based phones will allow tasks to be completed swiftly and thus let users more quickly get back to communicating directly with families and co-workers.

An Intel spokeswoman said the is not looking to prescribe a right or wrong way to use mobile technology by releasing the results of the survey. "We want to understand how people use and want to use their technology. It's an important part of our future product planning process," said spokeswoman Jessica Hansen.

She said Intel isn't aware of an industry group devoted to mobile technology etiquette despite the comments made at MWC and the Microsoft ads.

Intel, however, did quote tips from etiquette expert Anna Post.

In general, Post suggests that mobile users "be present ... [and] give your full attention to those you are with ... in a meeting or on a date."

Post also suggests that users stop and consider whether it would be best to postpone a call or to move away from others when talking, texting or e-mailing from a mobile device. She also suggests talking with family, friends and co-workers about setting ground rules for mobile device use.

Finally, Post said she believes that some places, such as restrooms, are private and should remain free of mobile device use.

Matt Hamblen covers mobile and wireless, smartphones and other handhelds, and wireless networking for Computerworld. Follow Matt on Twitter at @matthamblen , or subscribe to Matt's RSS feed . His e-mail address is mhamblen@computerworld.com .

Microsoft's recent deal with Nokia will put Windows Phone 7 on millions of Nokia mobile phones around the world. Microsoft in turn will shower billions of dollars on Nokia in marketing, engineering and other costs. The companies hope that together, they can make inroads into the mobile market that has increasingly become dominated by Apple's iPhone and Google's Android.

Some people have argued that combining the forces of two companies that have been failing in the mobile market will add up to little more than failure times two. But the deal may well save Microsoft from a slow-growth future. The partnership is one of the most important that Microsoft has made in recent years -- so important, in fact, that the billions of dollars it's spending may well save the company and ensure that its technology remains relevant, and its products stay viable, well into the fast-changing mobile future.

You could easily argue, of course, that Microsoft doesn't really need saving. After all, in its most recent earnings statement, for the second quarter of its fiscal year, Microsoft reported that it took in $19.95 billion -- the highest revenue ever for that quarter. Net income was a healthy $6.63 billion. That doesn't sound like a company in need of saving.

But a closer look at the numbers shows that the revenue was bolstered primarily by yesterday's technologies, not tomorrow's. Leading the way was Office, with revenue growth of 24%, "a huge quarter, exceeding everyone's expectations" according to Kevin Turner, Microsoft 's chief operating officer. Sales for mobile and Windows Phone 7 weren't even broken out, a clear sign they were lagging. And reports that came out after the earnings report confirmed Windows Phone 7's problems with gaining traction -- only 500,000 Windows Phone 7 devices were shipped for the entire month of December , and those were to retail stores, not to consumers. By way of contrast, Google says it activates 300,000 Android devices every day.

It's true that without having a successful mobile operating system, Microsoft will still survive. Windows isn't going away anytime soon. Nor is Microsoft Office, server technologies and other successful core products.

But none of those technologies are high-growth. If Microsoft relies solely on them, it will eventually become the tech equivalent of a utility company, reaping profits primarily by providing underlying infrastructure. The best engineers, designers, marketers and other creative professionals will look elsewhere for work, leading to a further spiral downward.

In a future that belongs to mobile, Microsoft would not be able to maintain high growth without Windows Phone 7 becoming a success. That's why the Nokia deal is so important to Microsoft. With a single contract, Microsoft ensures that it will become an important mobile player, not the afterthought it is now. Although Nokia no longer holds a dominant presence in the mobile market -- where it once had more than 50% market share -- even in its weakened state, it has a 29% market share, according to Gartner.

Without the Nokia deal, it was unlikely that Windows Phone 7 would ever gain traction. Even after its well-publicized launch this fall, it didn't make up any ground against the iPhone or Android. Every week, it's been falling further behind.

Several billion dollars may sound like a sizable bet for a company to make on a single contract, but in Microsoft's case, it was justified -- it's not just betting on a technology, but on its own future. By itself, Microsoft has shown it can't survive in mobile. With Nokia, it at least has a chance of success. The deal may be the best several billion dollars the company ever spent.

Preston Gralla is a contributing editor for Computerworld.com and the author of more than 35 books, including How the Internet Works (Que, 2006).

BARCELONA, Spain - Cell phones usually are used to communicate with people far away. This year, they'll get the ability to do the opposite: communicate with things that are close enough to touch.

It may not sound immediately useful, but phones will get some surprising capabilities with the addition of chips for so-called Near Field Communications, a wireless technology with a range intentionally limited to just a few inches.

The phones will be able to talk to payment terminals designed for "smart cards," replacing credit and debit cards. They could be used as mass transit passes. You could tap two phones together to exchange contact information.

Or you could tap a "smart tag" on a poster, product or sticker to get your phone to do something, such as retrieving information from the Internet or placing a call to the product's customer support line. Yankee Group analyst Nick Holland likens these tags to the links that take us from Web page to Web page, only now they're in the real world.

Adding NFC is like adding a whole new capability on the level of GPS navigation or a camera, Holland said.

The industry has been talking about including NFC in phones for years, mainly to turn them into "electronic wallets." Beyond a few trials, nothing much has happened, except in Japan and Hong Kong, where these systems have caught on for mass-transit ticketing.

But at the world's largest cell-phone trade show, held last week in Barcelona, Spain, it was clear that the log-jam has loosened, in part because NFC chips are now cheaper. Millions of NFC-equipped phones will be in consumer hands in the U.S. and Europe before the end of the year.

Jim Balsillie, the co-CEO of BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd., said at the show that "many if not most" BlackBerrys will have NFC chips this year. Google Inc.'s Nexus S already has one, and the company's latest Android software for that and other phones has NFC support. Nokia Corp., the world's largest maker of phones, has committed to putting NFC chips in all its next-generation smart phones.

Based on job postings at Apple Inc., there's speculation the new iPhone model due this summer will have an NFC chip. Apple wouldn't comment.

NFC turns the limitation of short-range communications into an advantage. When an NFC terminal senses an NFC-equipped phone, it knows that's because the user is holding it right up close and wants to interact in some way - for instance, paying for a can of Coke.

That means a lot of the complexity that comes with establishing wireless links - like logging on to a Wi-Fi hotspot or "pairing" Bluetooth devices with each other - can be dispensed with. Tap and something happens, but your phone probably will still ask you if you really want that can of Coke.

The simplicity of NFC also lets it cut through the complications of existing mobile payment systems, which let you send money through an app or text message. These systems have been more popular in Europe.

It's possible to upgrade some current phones with NFC chips. Small memory cards that are accepted by some phones can be given NFC capabilities. Both MasterCard and Visa are experimenting with "jackets" for the iPhone that have NFC chips, for instance.

But not all phones are compatible with these solutions, so the most likely way to get NFC into consumer's hands is with new phones. Research firm Yankee Group estimates that there will be 151 million NFC-enabled phones in 2014, up from 834,000 in 2010.

The wide support from phone manufacturers comes after nearly a decade of much talk but little action. Bill Gajda, head of Visa Inc.'s push into mobile payments, said the NFC idea has faced "a series of chicken-and-egg problems."

Phone makers didn't want to include the chips in their phones if the wireless carriers didn't want them. Wireless carriers saw no use for the chips if merchants didn't have terminals that accepted them. Merchants didn't want to invest in terminals if there would be no phones to use them.

With phone makers and wireless carriers now supporting the idea, the hope is that stores will take the jump, too, Gajda said. McDonald's Corp. restaurants in the U.S. and a few other chains already have contactless payment terminals, installed to accept cards that work on a principle similar to NFC. When New York City taxi cabs were upgraded to accept credit cards starting two years ago, they got contactless terminals, too.

The Smart Card Alliance estimates that there are half a million contactless terminals in the U.S., in 150,000 to 200,000 locations. That compares to perhaps 6 million locations in the U.S. with traditional card readers, as estimated by Todd Ablowitz, an electronic-payments consultant.

On the phone company side, France Telecom SA's Orange and Deutsche Telekom AG of Germany are rolling out NFC.

In the U.S., three of the four largest wireless carriers: Verizon Wireless, AT&T Inc. and T-Mobile USA, have formed a joint venture, ISIS, to roll out payment services in limited regions of the country in the next year.

It's not clear that payment services will attract consumers to NFC phones, given that using a phone over a card only saves a few seconds.

Rajeev Chand, head of research at investment bank Rutberg & Co., believes ticketing will be the "entry point" for NFC, as speed matters more when passing turnstiles.

In stores, phones with NFC could be popular if they do more than merely replace a wallet of credit and debit cards. They could help merchants track and reward loyal customers, replacing both loyalty cards and printed coupons.

On the payments side, well, NFC is only going to go so far, in Holland's opinion. It will take time for the terminals to spread, and cash isn't going away anytime soon.

"You're still going to have to carry your wallet for the next 20 years," the analyst said.

Originally published in the Athens Banner-Herald on Sunday, February 27, 2011