Tag Archive for 'iPhone'

Mobile internet use set to soar [stats].

Published on November 29, 2010 in business, mobile and technology. View Comments

Here are 2 slides I think are interesting in relation to growing mobile internet use around the world.

The slides are from a recent presentation by former Morgan Stanley (now moving to Kleiner Perkins) tech analyst Mary Meeker. The full presentation can be downloaded from here. Click on the images below to see them in a larger size, in a new window.

In short, 3G subscription growth is climbing at very high rates in some countries with very large populations, such as Brazil, China, Indonesia and Russia, and is still around 25-35 percent year on year in many other countries around the world.

mobile internet growth

Additionally, it’s astonishing how steep the curve is when the Apple iPhone, iTouch and iPad are shown together, in comparison to the first 20 quarters from the launch of some other products and services. It seems clear that mobile still has a big future ahead.

Apple iPhone + iTouch + iPad useage

The whole presentation is embedded over at Business Insider.

Have you tried Instagram iPhone app for image sharing yet?

Published on November 2, 2010 in Facebook, Foursquare, Twitter, mobile and social media. View Comments

Here’s a little iPhone app I’m now using that I think is pretty cool.

Instagr.am is a  new image sharing service (currently just for iPhone) that enables you to take a photo, or use an existing photo from your iPhone photo library, and share it. There is also a decent choice of interesting filters you can quickly apply to each photo and preview before uploading.

Instagram iPhone app

I think the really handy things about this service are that it’s really easy to use, and that you can crosspost the images to Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and Tumblr if you so desire – greatly increasing the sharing aspect. You can also locate a photo using Foursquare before you share it. As Foursquare doesn’t yet have image uploads the way Gowalla does, it’s a welcome addition.

It’ll be interesting to see how this service develops, if it develops. Surely they’ll be adding platforms other than iPhone, if they have the funds to do so.

If you’ve used Instagram, what do you think of it? Good enough to keep using? If you haven’t, do check it out.

The future is already here: amazing wearable interactive technology.

Published on October 5, 2010 in Google, business, mobile, technology and video. View Comments

One of the criticisms I often hear from people about the web (even social media) and computing in general, is that it tends to divorce us from the ‘real world’. The main criticism seems to be that as we spend more time interacting with screens, we are less present and attentive in the physical world, and with the people around us.

However, it could be argued that with the recent development and popularisation of mobile devices such as smart phones and touch screen tablets, we are increasingly able to interact with the world of data while being more ‘present’ in the physical world. We are no longer stuck in one room in front of a screen. Increasingly, the worlds of computing and digital connectivity are going mobile.

There are also many new applications being developed in response to this new digital mobility. One such development is Google Googles, which just today has been released onto the Google iPhone app, in addition to the existing Android platform. Another example is the recent proliferation of augmented reality apps for mobile platforms.

The embedded video however, shows something on a whole new level in terms of the possibilities of the physical world interacting with the world of data. It’s nothing short of amazing. In the video Pranav Mistry demos his SixthSense wearable device, which allows an incredible degree of interaction between data and the physical world. And to my mind, two of the great things about his invention are that he’s making the technology open source and surprisingly, it’s not expensive!

Are we seeing the future of popular mobile technology here?

Hat tip to David Hood

How do you use Posterous or Tumblr? Here’s how I do.

Published on July 5, 2010 in blogging, mobile and social media. View Comments

Posterous

Today came the news that Posterous has grown by over 700 percent during the past year. As TechCrunch points out, Tumblr has been around for longer and is seeing around 23 million unique visitors a month, and Posterous (launched in June, 2008) is now seeing around 5.3 million a month.

The increased growth in Posterous over the past year seems to be in no small part due to its introduction of an iPhone app that allows you to post photos and thoughts. Even without the app, it’s easy enough to email content in from a mobile device, which is my preferred method if I’m mobile. It’s also easy to cross-post to other services such as Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and many others, even WordPress.

So, if you use either Tumblr or Posterous, how do you use them? I’ve found myself using Posterous on a increasingly regular basis lately. I’ve tried both these services over the years. Although I think it’s good, I gave up on my Tumblr account because I couldn’t really think of a decent use for it. I found that I already had more than enough to be going on with. I guess it just wasn’t the right time for me.

Having said that, later when I found out about Posterous and tried it, I found the fact that you can send images via email from a mobile device very handy. In addition to using it for posting various images and videos from my iPhone, I’ve also found myself using it for increasingly regular posts on various subjects I’m interested in that don’t fit the theme of this blog.

It’s really a way for me to discover and comment on additional themes and subjects I’m interested in, and to share them with others. Maybe some of these thoughts will turn into other more substantial projects later on, maybe not, but for now it seems an appropriate place to experiment. Also, sometimes the 140 character limit of Twitter is just not enough.

How about you? Do you use either Tumblr of Posterous, and in what way? Feel free to share your URL in comments.

Will you pay for the future of news? 10 top starter iPad news apps.

Published on June 1, 2010 in Google, blogging, business, mobile and technology. View Comments

Just days after the international release of the iPad, comes the news that Apple has sold two million iPads in less than two months. Clearly, there will be many millions of iPads around before too long. And surprise, surprise, Google seems to be developing an iPad rival as we speak.

With these new digital developments as a backdrop, we have the much discussed failure of most traditional media companies to so far make adequate money from their online news content. Rupert Murdoch has famously pledged to start making readers pay for online news.

BBC News iPad app

On twitter recently, Malcolm Turnbull reminded me that Murdoch has stated that “The Internet will destroy more profitable businesses than it will create.” I wonder if Murdoch really meant News Corp businesses there. In any case, Google is claiming to have helped to generate about $54 billion of economic activity for American businesses in 2009 alone, but I digress.  What is clear is that the media landscape is rapidly changing, and iPads are the latest manifestation of the changes.

Most online news content is currently free and widely accessible. In addition, it’s easily searchable through services such as Google News, and through real-time search engines such as OneRiot. The question is: do devices such as the iPad offer additional hope to news organisations, in terms of making decent money from news content? Will people be prepared to pay for news delivered via these new devices, and in sufficient numbers? If so, who will be the winners – the traditional news organisations or new (media) players?

I certainly don’t have any answers but I will assert that journalism is not dying, as some are currently crying. Journalism is just going online, and these devices will most certainly be a decent part of the picture in terms of news delivery. If you own an iPad or similar device, why would you now get your favourite newspaper delivered or go to a shop and buy it, when you can now (or soon) have it delivered in digital form before you even get out of bed? Sure, the reading experience needs to be a pleasurable one. I can tell you that it is on an iPad. It stands to reason that the future is upon us.

10 current chart toppers

It’s very early days but here are the top free and paid news apps currently in the iPad App Store charts (in Australia). It’ll be interesting to see how this lineup changes over the coming months. Some of the big news organisations have certainly been giving their new apps a push through their other media, and many of the popular blogs (such as The Huffington Post) don’t yet have iPad apps available. Things could change.

Will you pay for news delivered through an app if it’s good content? Do you think the prices are about right here?

iPad news apps

Top 5 Free iPad News Apps (In some the content is not free)

1. BBC News (3 star user rating)
“Get the latest, breaking news from the BBC and our global network of journalists.”

2. TIME Magazine (2 star user rating)
TIME Magazine on the iPad. This app allows you to purchase each week’s digital issue through iTunes, and to read and store all the issues within the app.

3. NYT Editiors’ Choice (3 star user rating)
Offers a selection of the latest news, opinion and features, automatically updated.

4. Reuters News Pro for iPad (almost a 4 star user rating)
“Professional-grade” news and market data from Thomson Reuters. On or offline access to the latest breaking news, images and video, together with financial data, corporate information and interactive financial charting.

5. Financial Times iPad Edition (3 star user rating)
Free access until the 31st July 2010. News, video, comment and analysis, optimised for iPad – the entire Financial Times edition.

Top 5 Paid iPad News Apps (In some the content is free)

1. The Australian (3 star rating)
From News Digital Media, this app is updated and edited with content throughout the day “Experience our world-class journalism in one convenient and seamless experience”. 1 31 Day subscription is ($4.99).

2.WIRED Magazine (Almost a full 5 star user rating.)
From Condé Nast, WIRED magazine, includes some exclusive iPad content ($5.99).

3. The Early Edition (4 star user rating)
“Your own personal daily newspaper. Takes the news sources that you enjoy and presents their content in a familiar newspaper format. You can import feeds from Google Reader or OPML file, discover feed URLs by entering links and categorise news feeds into sections, like a traditional newspaper ($5.99).

4. Pulse News Reader (3 star user rating)
Takes in up to 20 news sources that you follow, and creates a visual mosaic of your news. Tap on an article and you’re presented with a rendered view of the news story ($4.99).

4. NewsRack (4 star user rating)
Full featured RSS reader for iPhone and iPad (5.99).

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