As most of the Internet goes wild this afternoon over the release of the iPad mini — yet another mobile platform — a few people in the government tech world are taking a step back, noting how little of the jump from Web to mobile is really complete. The folks over at the General Services […]
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If it feels like you not only have more apps on your iPhone, but that you’re spending more time in those apps, then you should congratulate yourself on being as savvy as pollster Nielsen. According to a report from the organization, the number of apps on the average smartphone increased from 32 to 41 — a jump of 28 percent — over the past year.
As you can see from the Nielsen infographic at the top of this post, the percentage of time spent by smartphone owners in apps rather than on the web has also climbed. The average smartphone user spends only about 19 percent of his or her time on the web; the rest of the time, native apps are being used.
The one other fascinating tidbit on the chart shows that the number of smartphone owners in the US has climbed from 38 million in 2011 to 84 million in 2012 — that’s a jump of 121 percent in just one calendar year.
[via Engadget]
Report: Americans have 28 percent more mobile apps in 2012 originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 17 May 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Having got my first pair of bifocals recently, this two dollar smartphone add-on that tests vision just caught my eye. Pocketables recently picked up on the Netra, which was shown off in a TEDxBoston event by Ramesh Raskar, Associate Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at MIT’s Media Lab. The Netra clips to a phone and users tap buttons on the touchscreen display until images seen in the Netra are aligned. The device can measure for nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism.
In developed nations, eye care is readily available, but Raskar notes that of the 2 billion in the world with corrective vision needs, not all of those have access to eye exam equipment; particularly in developing areas. Uncorrected vision leads to a higher illiteracy rate, higher unemployment rates and other related challenges. For these areas, a low-cost device such as the Netra can help solve this problem. Here’s a closer look at how this device works — it creates an inverse Shack-Hartmann sensor for measurement — and what it could mean to hundreds of millions that may have smartphones closer than a eye doctor.
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We already knew the iPhone 4S camera was good thanks to its small pixel size and backlit sensor. That’s helping the iPhone 4S rise up the ranks of most popular camera on Flickr. It may also help the iPhone 4S become the most used smartphone in a microscope.
Before you think, “say what?” have a gander at this 400x video scan of a tubular adenoma of the colon, taken with an iPhone 4S and the Skylight, a smartphone adapter for microscopes that’s now a Kickstarter project.
The SkyLight actually works with nearly any other smartphone as well, but it should excel with an iPhone 4S, if not some of the high-end Nokia models that use superb optics. Most focusing is done on the microscope itself, but the SkyLight relies upon a smartphone’s auto-focus feature for fine focusing.
This Kickstarter project already raised more than $22,000, which is greater than the $15,000 goal originally set. CSI types can still get in on the action with a pledge of $60 or more for a SkyLight. The microscope? You’ll have to supply that yourself.
I especially like how you can record video through the microscope with a SkyLight. Kids telling parents about what they saw in biology class is one thing; to share an actual video is quite a different experience.
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Mobile workers just don’t put the phone down, according a new report from iPass, which provides Wi-Fi and 3G network access to enterprise clients for use by their employees. The company surveyed more than 3,500 people from 1,100 large corporations worldwide and asked them about their mobile device work habits. The results may not be all that surprising, if you’re a mobile worker, but they are somewhat terrifying (or maybe just really depressing).
iPass found that mobile workers have a hard time being physically separated from their smartphones, even when it’s ostensibly time to sleep. More than half at 61 percent of those surveyed keep the phone in the bedroom, and 41 percent have it within arm’s reach of where they sleep. Those figures jump to 77 and 60 percent respectively when you’re talking about the younger crowd (respondents between the ages of 22 and 34). Just over a third at 35 percent of mobile workers check their email before doing anything else when they wake up in the morning, and another 38 percent admit to checking their email at various times during the night.
Mobile workers also tend to own a surprising amount of tablets, given how relatively fresh on the scene those devices are. iPass found that 41 percent of those surveyed have one currently, and 34 percent are planning to get get one within the next six months. Tablet use in the mobile workforce is heavily dependent on what workers bring to the job themselves, as the report reveals that 73 percent own their own tablets, while only 27 percent of those who use one receive a device from their employer.
Employers will be interested to learn that mobile workers work, on average, 240 hours more per year than the workforce in general. That lends credence to the belief that employees who aren’t tied to the office put in more time on the job than their traditional counterparts.
Check out the infographic below for even more interesting (and depressing) data points from the iPass Global Mobile Workforce Report.
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