Google buys BlindType

Google has acquired a start-up called BlindType that aspires to improve typing on Android and iOS mobile devices.

According to BlindType, the company is excited to join Google, and look forward to the great opportunities for mobile innovation that lie ahead. The company hasn’t released the software as yet.

Typing on mobile devices has gone through some significant modifications over the last few years. The emergence of the iPhone from Apple and the Android smartphones from Google has changed the way people look at word processing on their mobiles. BlindType believes it’s got a better method for matching the letters people actually typed with the ones they meant to type.

However, correcting words through BlindType requires the user to type the entire word first. The modification doesn’t really works on the Android text prediction technology. As of now, BlindType exists only on videos from YouTube and one must admit, the demos do not fail to impress.

According to BlindType’s FAQ, the technology works with any language and it can make a good combination with Google’s extensive and international data for automatic spelling corrections selected from its search engine. Terms of the deal are yet to be disclosed.

T-Mobile G2: Pre-order sales to start up soon

T-Mobile has announced its new handset G2, which is  a HSPA+ device. The G2 is going to be up for pre-order starting tomorrow and it will go on sale at the latest by October 6th. The handset’s price is approx US$199.99 and currently only available to existing subscribers.

According to the reports T-Mobile is actually targeting the end of September for their initial deliveries.

The phone would also be made available on the Best Buy’s site. G2 runs on Android 2.2 on Qualcomm’s new 800MHz Snapdragon processor, and comes with a 5-megapixel camera, WiFi , along with a QWERTY keypad. With the new GPS software one can use the phone for finding places anywhere in the world. The phone also features YouTube, G-Talk, Picasa, Google search, G-mail, Maps. It also includes 8 GB memory card expandable up to 32GB microSD card support.

3UK to launch new options on PAYG

3UK a wireless carrier has announced a new options on its Pay As You Go (PAYG) offering, which will include the launch of a new plan for its customers. It is offering a new market plan that connects the value of contract with the flexibility of PAYG and makes mobile internet quicker, easier and more accessible for everyone.

According to the company, the customers can now enjoy more services with the nominal amount of US$ 15, which will include 3,000 texts, 100 minutes and 500MB.

It gives the impression that users are offered with the possibility to change the credit on their phone to the add-on they believe is useful for them.

According to William Ripley, Director of Voice at Three, all in one gives the PAYG customers marketing beating value for just US$15. Easy access mobile internet is at the core of this PAYG offering. Every top up on PAYG automatically gives customers 150MB worth of internet usage. That’s enough to browse 10,000 BBC.co.uk pages, 15,000 Facebook pages, search Google Maps 300 times or watch 2.5 hours of YouTube around 250 clips.

The company also declared the launch of lower international calling rates on PAYG for a number of twelve of the most popular countries for customer’s calling friends and family abroad.

The customers who make the calls to the international numbers will be able to make the call at the price of just 2p a minute. All the users need to do is add a 3-digit code in front of the international landline or mobile number.

According to Ripley, the All in One was built to give the PAYG customers the freedom to use their phone and tariff in the way they want to. The company’s range of smart phones, strong 3G network and now the competitive All in One plan means that the PAYG customers will enjoy the same great mobile Internet experiences as contract customers.

Motorola launches new version of Milestone Android mobile

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: A new version of the Milestone Android mobile phone has been launched by Motorola under the brand name the Milestone XT720.  8 megapixel camera with 10x digital zoom, 720p HD camcorder, Xenon flash and smart image capture are some exclusive features of the handsets.

HDMI out, 8GB microSD card expandable up to 32GB and 3.7-inch, WVGA (480X854) capacitive touch screen are also featured by the Android 2.1 handset. The earlier model had a Qwerty keypad with a slider while the new version is a tablet and can be slotted into a multimedia station for watching video.

Google Search, Google Maps, Gmail and YouTube as well as Motorola’s Motonav turn-by-turn navigation also makes the mobile exclusive.  Wi-Fi and HSPA access, a 3.5mm headset jack, FM radio, media player and the Webkit browser along with GPS is integrated in the device.

According to the company, Data Select will be the exclusive distributor of the handset in the UK and Northern Europe.

Latest Mobile Internet Statistics

A recent study by Morgan Stanley has brought to light the  important online trends flowing in the global market currently along with predictions of the future of internet. The report has forecasted more online shopping by showing the geographical distribution of Internet users across the globe.

According to the study, web usage has witnessed a dramatic shift across the globe in the past few months. If Morgan Stanley’s analysts are to be believed, devices such as web-enabled tablets, iPhone, Kindle, GPS system, wireless home appliances have showed that the growth of the mobile web has been exponential.

The report has clearly stated that if the current rate of change adoption continues then mobile web will become bigger than desktop internet ever by 2015. The two trends which have been driving the growth of mobile web are the proliferation of better devices and the availability of better data coverage.

When it comes to coverage, global 3G penetration is expected to hit 21% this year. In Japan, 96% of mobile subscribers already have 3G coverage. Western Europe is witnessing a penetration of 54% followed by the US which is just slightly above 46%. However in the developing or economically depressed areas like Middle East, Africa, parts of Asia, Eastern Europe and South America, the growth is still in the single digit. According to the report, 3G is the key point in the success of the mobile web.

If talking of social networking, then it is highly apparent that the former’s use has already eclipsed email use across the globe. People started spending more time on sites like Facebook and Orkut and Twitter in 2007 itself, however it was only in 2009 that an increase in the number of users of social networks than the users of email was recorded. Today while Facebook scores the highest point with the most attention gained throughout the world, YouTube holds the second position.

Some of the interesting findings of the study are:

  • Just five countries including Brazil, China, India, Russia and the US account for over 48% of all Internet users across the globe.
  • Video accounts for 69% of mobile data traffic.
  • With the rise in the demand of Apple and Android platforms in the mobile OS market, Windows Mobile, RIM and Palm are loosing their shine.
  • Facebook is the single largest repository for user-generated content such as pics, video, links and comments.
  • Mobile retail is expected to be driven by real-time technology and location-based services.
  • On an average an iPhone user appends only 45% of his on-device time making voice calls.

Chinese govt responsible for latest outage: Google

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The dispute between search giant Google and Chinese government does not seem to end as both of them are once again at a tiff after the search engine was largely unavailable in China. Google pinned the blame on the government’s filtering after initially declaring the outage a result of an internal technical glitch.

It was earlier revealed by Google that a change in the string of text that accompanies search requests was causing the blockage. But the company later changed its version of events prompting speculation that the disruption was driven by Chinese censors.

On Tuesday, Google.com.hk English and Chinese web pages could be accessed but the users could not complete any searches. The service was restored on Wednesday.

The company has reported for the first time that its mobile search service has been partly blocked while Google sites such as YouTube and Blogger are permanently blocked in China.

HTC Supersonic adds its video on YouTube

A video of HTC Supersonic has been added onto YouTube in which it showing the Supersonic booting up and what it looks like on the back. The aim of the HTC Supersonic is to be one of Sprint’s first 4G (WiMAX) enabled phones of the year.

A few days ago the first video for the Incredible was previewed which was followed by some more pictures that pooped up out of nowhere. Now a real-deal video of Supersonic is available on the YouTube and it doesn’t know the interface, an individual can actually feel for what the device looks like in hand.

Compared to the Incredible, while the Supersonic is also set to be a CDMA device, it also runs Sense. The due share AMOLED screens, 5-megapixel camera and Android 2.1. With the Incredible going towards Verizon, seemingly, at least, the Supersonic does indeed look like it will be heading towards Sprint.

Sprint & GetJar offer 60,000+ free apps

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Independent app store’s 60,000-plus free applications will be offered under the new partnership between Sprint and GetJar to all feature phone subscribers as well as BlackBerry and Windows Mobile smartphone users. A link to the GetJar catalog is now live on the Sprint portal across most of its handsets.

Facebook Mobile, Google Maps, YouTube, Weather Channel Mobile, ShopSavvy and Loopt are some of the popular applications offered by GetJar. 750 million GetJar apps have already been downloaded by the consumers worldwide.

According to Sprint director of product management and development Kevin McGinnis, the company has been fairly open about its views on storefronts and they want to provide the greatest amount of choice and support operating systems, as opposed to their own proprietary storefront.

MMSC to power MobileOne MMS traffic

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: MobileOne (M1), a leading mobile communications provider in Singapore, deployed Acision Multimedia Messaging Service Centre (MMSC), world’s leading messaging company, to support ongoing growth
in MMS traffic. The announcement was made by MMSC on December 10.

M1′s multimedia channel enables person-to-person, premium content and application-to-person messaging, needed to support mobile marketing activities and also enable uploads to social network and user generated content sites such as Facebook and YouTube. Acision’s proven MMSC architecture will provide M1 with the capacity to process high volume MMS traffic and efficiently manage that traffic during peak periods.

It can also create, manage and deliver multimedia-based marketing campaigns using the Acision Rich Media Broadcaster.

According to P Subramanium, Chief Marketing Officer of M1, MMSC would greatly enhance the capability and sophistication of M1′s multimedia message delivery service for both the enterprise and consumer segments. Besides, the clients in the retail and other commercial sectors would receive full multimedia effects of visuals and sound in its location-based advertising and application-based services.

YouTube teams with Cingular, ABC for talent hunt

YouTube, the popular online video-sharing service, is teaming up with major marketing and media partners for a competition to discover the most talented unsigned bands on its site.

The promotion announced on Wednesday, called YouTube Underground, is the latest step by the start-up company to build a mainstream media model around the thousands of videos uploaded by users and receiving more than 100 million views a day.

Bands can submit original videos from Oct. 2 through Oct. 18, and site visitors will vote for their favorites. The finalists will appear on ABC’s “Good Morning America” show. Walt Disney owns the ABC network.

Cingular Wireless also has signed on as a major sponsor.

YouTube, based in San Mateo, Calif., has been working on signing licensing deals with music companies and TV networks to ensure that they are paid when users view their content.

Earlier this week, YouTube announced its first deal to distribute music videos legally from a major music company by agreeing to a deal with Warner Music Group, home to Madonna and James Blunt.

Using technology developed by YouTube, Warner Music will be able to identify which of its music videos and audio tracks are consumed and get paid for them. It can also use the system to identify copyright-infringing material posted by users and ask YouTube to remove such material.

Source- http://news.zdnet.com

Technorati : , , ,
Ice Rocket : , , ,