The real problem with wireless internet exposed: Censorship
Smartphones are taking over the world, and mobile internet usage continues to shoot up. But there’s a real and growing problem with that, even in our own backyard, as a new report published today by the Open Rights Group reveals: the over-zealous site-blocking carried out by mobile networks. Whatever happened to net neutrality?
While a court ruling forcing fixed line broadband ISPs to block The Pirate Bay this month racked up headlines and even earned the wrath of Anonymous, an even more serious problem has been quietly brewing in the background: mobile censorship.
A report published by the Open Rights Group NGO and the London School of Economics (LSE) this week highlights just how recklessly mobile
operators are censoring sites with their child protection filters.
LG Optimus LTE II: How LG is losing the war by winning the spec battle
Meet the LG Optimus LTE II: LG’s most recent flagship smartphone. With its 4G LTE speeds, it is a South Korea-only model for now, but the organization says it’ll be heading overseas soon, according to the Linked Press. It’s also a spec-beast, and the 1st smartphone to cram in a massive 2GB of memory, making it a possible multi-tasking powerhouse. But is it missing the point completely?
Do not get me wrong: although the LG Optimus LTE II’s four.7-inch screen and Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 dual-core processor make it a phenom phone on paper, the message it’s sending out is entirely the incorrect 1. The smartphone war merely isn’t about specs any longer.
LG’s never struggled to make decent smartphone hardware. Last year’s LG Optimus 3D was a benchmark beast, and LG was the very first with 720p HD display on a phone. But something’s amiss: right now, LG isn’t making a penny of profit on its mobile operation, although arch-rival Samsung is raking it in.
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Global mobile phone sales now in decline
Despite some vendors seeing record smartphone sales, worldwide sales of mobile phones declined two% year-more than-year to 419.1 million units in the 1st quarter of 2012, according to research firm Gartner. The decline represents the 1st of its type given that the second quarter of 2009. “Global sales of mobile devices declined more than expected due to a slowdown in demand from the Asia/Pacific region,” stated Anshul Gupta, principal analysis analyst at Gartner. “The initial quarter, traditionally the strongest quarter for Asia – which is driven by Chinese New Year, saw a lack of new product launches from top producers, and users delayed upgrades in the hope of far better smartphone offers arriving later in the year.”
In the smartphone market place, Android accounted for much more than half of all smartphone sales, with a 56.1% marketplace share in the 1st quarter of 2012. Apple’s iOS captured second location with an boost from 16.9% in 2011 to 22.9%. “Samsung’s Android-based smartphone sales in the very first quarter of 2012 represented a lot more than 40 percent of Android-based smartphone sales worldwide,” the firm highlighted. “No other vendors achieved far more than a 10 percent share of the marketplace.” Gartner’s press release follows below.
How five new Nexus phones will help Google seize control of Android
Final night, the Wall Street Journal filed a startling report: according to its sources, Google is massively expanding its Nexus program for the next Android release, codenamed Jelly Bean. Rather of sticking with 1 launch partner, it’s roped in no fewer than five this time. With this new approach comes a brand new enterprise model – and it might just help Google seize manage of its operating method back from the all-potent mobile networks.
With preceding releases of Android, Google has worked with one particular manufacturer (HTC, Samsung or Motorola) to create an optimum device operating a vanilla version of Android, typically branded a ‘Nexus’ device. It’s meant to be the benchmark model for other people to adhere to, but only once it’s gone on sale does every manufacturer get access to the source code. That means a huge delay: in the case of Android 4., five months went by from the Samsung Galaxy Nexus’ launch to the arrival of HTC’s initial Android four. phone.
The upshot? An extremely slow roll-out for each and every version of Android: it takes months, or even years, for the most recent release to become the most employed, and by that time, a new Nexus device is virtually upon us. That’s a headache for app developers who find themselves having to test apps on a myriad of devices and Android versions, compared to just a handful of iOS devices. The restricted assistance for Sky’s Go Android app is testament to that.
Samsung announces Ice Cream Sandwich update for T-Mobile phones
Samsung recently updated its site to consist of a list of T-Mobile devices that will get Android 4. Ice Cream Sandwich upgrades. “Samsung is in close communication with each Google and our carrier partners to upgrade devices to Android four. Ice Cream Sandwich as rapidly and as smoothly as feasible,” the organization wrote on its site. The manufacturer will be issuing more than-the-air updates to the Galaxy S II, Galaxy S Blaze 4G, Galaxy Tab 7. Plus and Galaxy Tab ten.1. Unfortunately, neither T-Mobile nor Samsung have announced a release schedule for the upcoming updates.
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Google reportedly expanding Nexus program, will sell direct to consumers
Google’s Nexus system has always created some of the finest devices operating the Android mobile operating system, but most customers have not had access to these fabled handsets. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Google is working with multiple hardware partners to revitalize the Nexus program this fall. This would mean far more access to un-skinned Android for consumers, and earlier code access for OEMs.
The WSJ claims that the practice of relying on a single “hero device” each and every vacation season is getting accomplished away with. Rather, Google is going to be operating with as several as 5 hardware partners to make Nexus devices simultaneously. Five OEMs would basically constitute the entirety of the Android ecosystem. This move also assists ease issues more than favoritism in the Nexus system. The maker of the device each year will get access to the new version of the platform early, which can be a real advantage. With Google’s pending Motorola acquisition, it requirements to preserve impartiality.
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T-Mobile reveals Samsung Galaxy S III pricing
14 May 2012 13:00 GMT / By Danny Brogan
T-Mobile has finally announced its pricing for the Samsung Galaxy S III before it arrives on 30 May.
CoPilot GPS satnav app goes free: Ball’s in your court, TomTom
The navigation wars continue to heat up: CoPilot GPS, a new freemium version of ALK’s satnav software for smartphones, is launching on the iPhone App Shop and Google Play shop for Android these days. Where ALK’s present app, CoPilot Live, provides voice turn by turn navigation and offline mapping for £20, CoPilot GPS is free of charge, pitting it straight against Google Maps Navigation on Android.
We’ve written ahead of about how ALK has smartly dodged the difficulty of piracy on smartphones with aggressive pricing and a sensible attitude towards engaging customers, and CoPilot GPS is the subsequent logical step. It’s a navigation app that takes a “freemium” approach pioneered by several mobile games developers.
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