Feb 11

The New York Times App Reaches 3 Million Downloads

By Chris Samaras Interesting Phone Stuff, Phones In The News No Comments »
Photo via BusinessInsider.com

Photo via BusinessInsider.com

Back in November, I did a post about how GQ’s app  for new and used cell phones marked the beginning of a shift to the paradigm of the magazine world. It seems the explosion of the “App” world has had the same effect on the newspaper industry as The New York Times app has recently reached 3 million downloads. In December alone, they had 75 million page views from mobile sites and apps.

It seems that apps have squelched fears of the Internet killing printed media (in revenue at least). According to Business Insider, The Time’s fourth quarter Internet revenues “increased 10.3% to $102.0 million from $92.5 million, and Internet advertising revenues increased 10.6 percent to $90.6 million from $81.9 million, thanks to a considerable boost from About.com.”

Although the days of actually getting your fingers dirty from flipping newspaper pages may soon be history, continued advancement in the fields of cell phone and tablet technology will no doubt offer the printed media industry an arena in which to thrive. A piece of me will miss the feel of the pages on my fingers but, hey, it’s good news for trees, right?

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Jan 21

Walking and Texting Accidents Are On The Rise

By Chris Samaras Interesting Phone Stuff No Comments »

1765772958-padding-protect-pedestriansThe New York Times recently published an article about how the amount of people injured by walking into something while distracted by their new or refurbished cell phones is on the rise, which was both funny and kind of sad as I’ve definitely run into a few stationary objects mid text.

According to the article, more than 1,000 people visited the emergency room in 2008 because of a walking/running accident that occurred while they were using their cell phone. Apparently that number had doubled from 2007, which was twice the number from 2006.

Jack L. Nasar, a professor of city and regional planning at Ohio State, points out that the actual number of injuries incurred from being distracted by mobile phones is much, much higher, but most of the injuries aren’t serious enough to warrant a visit to the emergency room, so they go unrecorded.

The night after I read this article I visited my favorite restaurant, and the waitress told about how she had just walked into the corner of her coffee table because she was texting her boyfriend. I can’t help but laugh at myself every time I walk into something, but I guess it would be a lot different if it were an oncoming bus that I stepped in front of. Note to self: Look up more often while texting.

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Dec 16

Rumors of the new Google Phone Seem True

By Chris Samaras Phones In The News No Comments »

google-phone-coryobrien-twitterIt seems that the rumors about Google releasing a new Android phone (like the Motorola Droid) are true. Word on the street is that Google gave a number of its employees a sample of their new Nexus One, a name will not likely be the official name when it is released.

The Nexus One is rumored to be the first cell phone to run on Anroid 2.1. It is also supposed to be a little shallower in depth than the iPhone and posses a larger touch screen. Most exciting to me, is that it seems fairly certain that the Nexus One will be sold directly from Google as an unlocked cell phone, so you will be able to use it on T-Mobile or AT&T.

If the rumors are true, and day-by-day it seems clearer that they are, the new Google Phone should be released in January. Whether or not it will be fabled “iPhone killer” remains uncertain, but I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: if anyone has a shot at taking down Apple, it’s Google.

For more on the new Google Phone, visit Engadget or The New York Times.

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Dec 11

Be Careful With Your Text Messages

By Chris Samaras Phones In The News No Comments »
Photo via The New York Times

Photo via The New York Times

I’ve been reading a lot of articles lately about text messages sent from people’s new and refurbished cell phones being used as evidence in court, especially in divorce cases. Text messages can now be used to prove infidelity, which can lead to the loss of some serious cash so if you’re a cheater, watch what and to whom you text.

If you are sending incriminating texts, there are some things you should know about how your phone works, especially if your carrier uses GSM and SIM cards. Apparently, when you delete a text message, it doesn’t actually delete the message from your SIM. Instead, it frees up the space used to store the message so until that space is actually replaced with new data, the text message can still be retrieved from your SIM.

In addition to your SIM card, text messages (even if deleted from your phone) are stored with your carrier for up to a few weeks. An article from The New York Times shows that AT&T stores text messages for seventy-two hours and Verizon stores messages for five to ten days.

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Sep 21

Your Mobile Phone Can Help You Save Your City

By Chris Samaras Phones In The News 1 Comment »

CitySourced-Logo

The political action group FreedomSpeaks.com has recently launched a company called CitySourced, whose goal is to give the average citizen the ability to improve their city. CitySourced will soon release a pretty cool application for Blackberries, the iPhone, and Palms. The app will allow smartphone users to report any problems that they encounter in their city such as potholes, graffiti, fallen trees, etc., instantly. Via the app, any notification sent from a citizen will go straight to the city department responsible for fixing the issue.  GPS will even tell the department exactly where the problem was reported.

The program was demonstrated at the TechCrunch 50 conference in San Francisco earlier this month, and the city of San Jose, California has already purchased the program. Palm has also invested in the program, and they plan on marketing the app in conjunction with their phones in the near future. The app should be available for Blackberrys and the iPhone by the end of November.

Pete Constant, a member of the San Jose City Council who participated in CitySourced’s demonstration said that, “Currently, people typically wait until they get home to report a problem and may not do it for a few days, he said. The tool should also save city workers some of the time they now spend looking for problems.”

Once the program is in place in your city and you encounter a problem, filing a report will be quite simple. You need only to take a picture of the problem, open the application, choose a report type from a menu, type a few words in the report box, and hit send. There will also be a way for you to rate the severity of the problem so that the city will be able to prioritize responses.

The app seems like a great idea as long as the city is quick to respond by fixing the reported issues. Undoubtedly, conscientious citizens of major cities across the US are eager to participate in the improvement of their city, given the convenient opportunity. For more, visit the complete article from The New York Times.

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