Apple granted patent for a proximity-sensing touchscreen originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Jan 2010 07:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Patently Apple | Email this | CommentsOpera has published its State of Mobile Internet report for the month of December 2009 (link) and the top visited sites from India are:
And interestingly, all the top handsets belong to Nokia, topped by Nokia 5130 XpressMusic, followed by Nokia 2700c and N70.
Moreover, it’s important to note that Gmail fell off the top 10 list (and is that because of the pop/new nokia phones are better integrated with gmail pop features)?
What’s your take on this report.
Related posts:
Reader KW pointed me to this rant essay from Ruby on Rails enfant terrible Zed Shaw on what computer programmers don't know about statistical analysis, but should. (Spoiler alert: a lot, apparently.) Perhaps surprisingly, building complex software systems often involves a lot of simulation, experimentation, and measurement for which statistical methods would be an asset. But according to Shaw, many programmers often have no idea how many iterations to run a test for, or why an average is often meaningless if you don't also consider the variation, or how confounding factors can mess up an experiment. There's actually some good statistical advice here, illustrated with examples from R.
Zed Shaw: Programmers Need To Learn Statistics Or I Will Kill Them All
Take a look at unemployment benefit funds state-by-state. Includes future projections. (via)
The Social Analyst is a weekly column by Mashable Co-Editor Ben Parr, where he digs into social media trends and how they are affecting companies in the space.
Did you know that it’s been nearly twenty years since the first website was placed online? Have you ever thought about how the Internet and the web have evolved in time?
Ponder it: the Internet, a complex series of interconnected networks, protocols, servers, cables, and computers, has evolved from its early days as U.S. Department of Defense research project into the foundation for the World Wide Web, what we use today to interact with one another via browsers, email, Twitter, Skype, and millions of other online tools.
As we approach the imminent launch of the Apple Tablet and analyze new trends coming out of out of this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (our full coverage), now is good time to reflect on what the web will look like in the next decade — and beyond.
I have four big predictions to share for what the web will look like in the near future. This is what I expect in the evolution of our online lives:
Our society couldn’t operate today without Wi-Fi, but it didn’t become prevalent until the early to mid-2000s. Before that, we used Ethernet cables and before that, our primary method of connecting to the web was via phone lines. Every few years, our method of accessing the web changes to be faster and more accessible.
Two things make me believe that the web will be accessible from anywhere and at any time: the rise of wireless 3G and 4G networks and the likelihood for nationwide Wi-Fi to blanket the U.S. and beyond.
Let’s first talk about 3G: since its introduction in the early 2000s, it has quickly spread to major cities worldwide. Accessing the web is now as simple as pulling out your smartphone, and it’s getting faster with the introduction of 4G networks and 4G phones. The Apple Tablet is even rumored to have a data plan on Verizon and AT&T’s 3G networks. More and more laptops come with built-in 3G access as well.
Nationwide Wi-Fi is the more exciting prospect, though. In 2008, the FCC had an auction for for the 700 MHz wireless spectrum. A lot of attention was focused on that auction when Google joined as a multi-billion dollar bidder. Some speculated that Google wanted to turn the spectrum into a nationwide Wi-Fi network. While Verizon eventually won, a nationwide Wi-Fi network is still very possible and, in fact, seems logical given the direction of web technology today.
The point is that more devices will have access to these networks and that these networks will be more prevalent as time goes on. Ten to twenty years down the road, people will wonder how we managed with laptops disconnected from a Wi-Fi or 4G signal.
In a column on CNN earlier this month, Mashable’s Adam Ostrow explored one of the biggest trends at CES: the embedding of the web outside of the computer . At present, we focus our Internet use in the U.S. on our laptops. In Japan though, many more access the web primarily through their phones, a trend that is just beginning to sweep the states.
This is just the beginning. New Internet-enabled TVs will allow us to browse from the living room and soon our cars will become Wi-Fi hotspots.
The Apple Tablet looks to be the next stage of this evolution. Rumor has it that not only is the device going to have 3G access, but Apple envisions it is a shared piece of hardware among the family. Instead of having to jump onto the computer to check your email, you can just have your girlfriend or boyfriend pass you the tablet to check out what’s going on.
In ten years, computers will only be a small percentage of how we use our web. We’re going to be accessing it from nearly every device and appliance we own.
I think the time of text-based interactions is going to diminish until they’re just a minor component of our web experience. Yes, we will always write, blog, and tweet, but as more and more devices adopt touchscreen interfaces and alternatives to the keyboard and mouse (it’s already happening), our reliance on videos from YouTube and Hulu, social games like FarmVille, and interactive interfaces like the iPhone OS will grow rapidly.
Here are some of my thoughts on how I think this media-centric web will come to be:
- Voice-to-text technology will be a major part of the media-centric web. The technology isn’t accurate enough to use daily yet, but devices like the Nexus One are pushing its limits. In a decade or two, it’ll be accurate enough to be a viable replacement to our keyboards.
- Interfaces that rely on motions are going to be more important to computing and the media-focused web. Apple popularized phone touchscreen interfaces, and the Tablet has a good shot and popularizing that type of interface on larger-sized screens. While I think we have a lot more to figure out before touchscreens are popularized on the desktop, I do think it’s time isn’t far away. I look forward to abandoning the old mouse and keyboard interface.
- In the future, you won’t even have to touch the screen. HP’s “Wall of Touch” actually doesn’t require users to touch the screen in order to interact with it, and Microsoft’s Project Natal looks to turn gaming into a controller-less experience. This is the future.
- These interfaces simply make it easier to bring up images, videos, music, and other multi-media. It’s not about keyboard commands, but about apps, drag-and-drop, and having an immersive experience.
Stats published by Nielsen show that social media usage has increased by 82% in the last year, an astronomical rise. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogs, and social interaction are becoming the focus of our online interactions, even more than search.
We’re social creatures, so it was only a matter of time until we figured out how to make the web an efficient medium for communication, sharing, and forging friendships. Now that we’re finally implementing the social layer though, it’s tough to find a scenario where the rise of social media doesn’t continue.
In ten years, when you access the web, most of the time you spend will be to connect with your friends. Almost all of that will be on social networks and through social media. It will be the #1 reason why we ever pull out our phones, tablets, or computers.
Tags: apple, Apple Tablet, Column, facebook, future, internet, Internet of Tomorrow, ONLINE VIDEO, Opinion, The Social Analyst, twitter, video, web, World Wide Web, youtube
When companies search for a new salesperson, you know they scrutinize each candidate's track record before making an offer. When consumers hire a real estate agent to sell their home, however—probably the biggest asset they own—the choice is often made by chance. Enter Homethinking, a site that aims to bring transparency to U.S. real estate agents so as to help homeowners pick the best one for them.
New York-based Homethinking puts agents under a spotlight so consumers can quickly identify the ones that shine. Toward that end, it crawls the web to find out what each agent has accomplished in the past, including how many houses they've sold, in what areas and for what prices, and how the actual sale price compared with the one that was advertised. Homethinking also interviews the people whose houses the agent sold for information such as how well he or she interacted with prospective customers, how they set expectations around the sales price and how responsive they were when questions arose. It then presents all the resulting data for consumers' perusal, in an easy to use form that's browsable and searchable by city, state and ZIP code. When they've found one who looks promising, consumers can contact him or her at their own initiative.
Of course, it's not just consumers who stand to benefit from this new transparency. Realtors themselves can claim and edit their profiles, contribute neighbourhood reviews and otherwise showcase their talents; they can also upload their listings and have them syndicated for free to Craigslist, Trulia and Zillow. And that, in turn, is where the transparency tyranny becomes transparency triumph. Embrace the new openness and make it your own, and you too will share in the glory. One to partner with or emulate in other parts of the world...?
Website: www.homethinking.com
Contact: feedback@homethinking.com
Spotted by: Susanna Haynie
Could IBM be prepping more of its own location-aware technology and devices? According to a recent patent filing, it looks like it. On Thursday, Big Blue filed for a patent for a “method and system for location-aware authorization.” The inventors appear to be IBM engineers based in Rome, Italy.
According to the filing, the technology would provide a method and technology to control access to a device based on the location of that device. IBM gave the example of a company that only wanted employees to use a particular device in the office or their home and believe that their technology would allow the employer to control where the particular device can be accessed.
Here’s an excerpt from the filing:
The invention provides a method and system for location-aware authorization such as for electronic devices (e.g., mobile electronic devices). One embodiment involves authorizing access to a standalone system such as a mobile device, by collecting user credentials on the device for authentication, obtaining location information (e.g., geographical position) for the device from a locating module such as a satellite navigation module attached to the device, accessing profile authorization information for authenticating the user based on the user credentials and device location information (localization), authorizing access to the device by the user if the profiled authorization settings match the credentials and the position of the device.
Talk about GPS-lockdown. In an age of mobile workers and telecommuters, such a product might be more of a hindrance than a help for most organizations. But I could see putting something like that on servers or machines with super-sensitive data that are not supposed to leave the premises. The big question looms: what will Big Blue, which reported strong earnings for 2009 this past week, do with this technology?
Thanks for the tip Anand S.
Hi, I'm Jeff and this is my personal blog. I live in Orange County, CA.
I have 2 great kids and a wonderful wife, Ami. I am partner at ProjectCanopy and liaison as a Software Architect. Thanks for visiting
