Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Monday, August 22, 2011
Mobile Miscellany: August, 2011
This week was packed with news on the mobile front, so it was easy to miss a few stories here and there. Here's some of the other stuff that happened in the wide world of wireless for the week of August 15, 2011: • Vodafone's very own budget-friendly Facebook Phone, the Vodafone 555, is now on sale. £62.50 is all it will take to get the non-touchscreen featurephone in your fingertips. [via SlashGear]
• A spec sheet and screenshots of the Sony Ericsson Nozumi leaked this week. The handset will likely feature a 1.4GHz single-core Qualcomm S2 CPU, Adreno 205 GPU, and 4.3-inch display with 1280 x 720 resolution. Interestingly enough, the phone is rumored to require a micro SIM, much like the iPhone 4. [via XperiaBlog]
• US Cellular launched two new Android devices for its prepaid lineup, the Samsung Gem and HTC Merge. The Gem offers a 3.2-inch WVGA display, 800MHz CPU, and Android 2.2 for $140, while the Merge is a global-capable QWERTY slider with a 3.8-inch display, Android 2.2, and more for $300. [via US Cellular]
• Immediately following Google's acquisition of Motorola, discussion centered around the possibility of the latter company becoming the preferred OEM for Android -- a privilege that would, in theory, include designing and producing the next Nexus. Andy Rubin, the head honcho for the open-source OS, put such rumors to bed by offering more insight on the approval process for upcoming Nexus phones, and insisted that HelloMoto will continue to be treated the same as every other OEM; it will have to bid for the job just like every other company does. [via AndroidCentral]
• The Huawei Blaze, a budget Android handset that runs on Gingerbread, may arrive in the UK as early as September. The Blaze would mark the first time we've seen the company offer a phone under its own branding in the UK. [via CNet]
• Shocked to hear the Kyocera Echo isn't selling as well as the company had hoped? Yeah, neither are we. Nonetheless, in the hopes of sparking sales, it's started offering twelve premium games for free to the first 10,000 downloads as part of its "summer of free apps" campaign. Good luck with that. [via Electronista]
• With all of the buzz rightfully centered around Nokia and its quest for Windows Phone dominance, how bright does Vertu's future look? If Eldar Murtazin is to believed, Espoo's luxury phone branch will also be on the receiving end of WP7 devices. The main difference with Vertu's version compared to the rest of Nokia's lineup? It'll most likely be covered with gold and diamonds. [via WMPowerUser]
• The Samsung Galaxy Q, another name for the Gravity Smart, is now available on Rogers. The device is geared toward the lower end, so it may not be the most lustworthy letter in the Samsung Galaxy alphabet. [via MobileSyrup]
Friday, July 22, 2011
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Thursday, July 7, 2011
How Save on your mobile data usage
- Streaming video and videoconferencing. The biggest offender. One minute of YouTube-quality video eats up 2 megabytes. If you're on a plan that gives you 200 megabytes per month, you can't even watch Lady Gaga's "Telephone" video once per day. If you're on a 2 gigabyte plan you can, but don't make your iPhone a replacement for a TV. In either case, it's fine to indulge in YouTube and Netflix if you're on Wi-Fi.
- Streaming audio. The second biggest offender, and potentially more serious. While video is something we need to see to enjoy, Internet radio is more of an accompaniment to other activities, such as jogging or doing dishes. That means some people like to keep it on for hours. Audio consumes about a quarter of the data that video does, but 10 minutes a day will break the bank if you're on a 200 megabyte plan. One hour a day of Pandora consumes nearly a gigabyte, which you can afford if you're on a 2-gigabyte plan and don't use other data-hogging apps.
- Photos. If you're a real shutterbug, photos can consume significant amounts of data. Sending and viewing photos both count toward your monthly limit. Posting 10 photos per day eats up most of a 200 megabyte plan. If you're on a 2-gigabyte plan, you probably don't have to worry about photos.
- Maps. Navigation apps consume lots of data when they retrieve map images, up to a megabyte a minute. You're also likely to use them for long periods of time when you're away from Wi-Fi, such as when you're driving. Watch out for these.
- Web surfing. Web pages vary widely in size, so this will depend quite a bit on whether you like to visit graphically rich sites (lots of data) or spare, text-oriented ones (less data). But roughly speaking, ten pages a day will eat up about half of a 200 megabyte plan. Again, those on 2-gigabyte plans don't need to worry much about surfing.
- Facebook. Roughly equivalent to Web surfing. Status updates won't take much data, but sending photos and viewing friends' pictures will.
- Email. Most emails are tiny, in terms of data. Basically, you can send and receive email all you want, as long as they don't have attachments such as photos.
- Twitter. Like email, these short messages don't use much data, but if you follow a lot of people and click on links, usage adds up.
- Weather apps. Small, focused apps that report simple but useful things, such as the weather forecast, save data (and time) compared with looking up the same information on a Web page.