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Pew Says Americans Turn to the Internet for News More than They Do on Newspapers, Radio

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Another day, another Internet research findings. This time it’s from Pew Internet  saying that more Americans are turning to the Internet to get their daily news fix, rather than the traditional print newspapers and radio.

Pew Internet’s study on “Understanding the Participatory News Consumer”  revealed that 46% of Americans are getting their news from four to six media platforms/online sources including social networking sites, Twitter and Facebook as well as on their mobile phones.  Only 7% get their news from a single media platform.

Pew’s findings also revealed that 33% of mobile phone owners get their news from their devices, 28% have personalized their mobile phone’s home page to include news from various sources and on topics that interest them and 37% of internet users have contributed to the creation of news, either by commenting or disseminating them on various social media sites such as Twitter or Facebook.

What’s peculiar about the current trend on reader behaviour is that news is being shared socially. Just like when reading a newspaper and you find an item that is interesting enough, you share that news orally, but now, news sharing is done almost as quickly as you’re done reading them – through social media tools. [Read more…]

Originally posted on March 1, 2010 @ 11:01 am

Seesmic Makes its BlackBerry App More Powerful

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So aside from releasing their Android app, which is a very good If I may say so, Seesmic is also releasing an improved version of their app for BlackBerry devices.  The latest version of the BlackBerry app now supports multi-Twitter account handling, Ping.fm support as well as a facility for choosing the size of photos you will upload. Plus some other minor enhancements that made the app almost close to its iPhone and Android counterparts.

If you’ve used Seesmic before in any of its versions – dekstop, browser, iPhone and Android phones you’d know that one of its strongest features is the multi-account support. This is one feature that makes Seesmic stand out from the rest of its competitors.  You can now simultaneously verify your Twitter accounts and once you’ve verified them, you can easily navigate from one account to another on your BlackBerry device. You can add as many Twitter accounts as you want, although I’m not really sure why would you have more than 3 Twitter accounts. Seesmic will make one of your accounts as the default and will open that account first everytime you log in to Seesmic on your BlackBerry.

The other feature which is integration with Ping.fm. If you have a Ping.fm account you can easily integrate it to your Seesmic for BlackBerry and engage with your social network friends even if they are not on Twitter. You need to create an account in Ping.fm if you don’t have one yet.

The other new features of Seesmic for BlackBerry is photo sharing/uploading via TweetPhoto service as well as an option for you to select the size of the photos that you are posting on Twitter via Seesmic.

I just installed the app on my BlackBerry Bold 9700, as well as on my Nexus One Phone and in fact, I also have it on my iPhone. So, how do I compare Seesmic for BlackBerry to its versions in the two other smartphones? Quite surprisingly, it does compare well given what the device can handle.

Originally posted on February 26, 2010 @ 5:45 pm

Palm Releases WebOS 1.4 via OTA

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True to the rumors that have been going around the web the past few days, Palm just announced the availability of their WebOS 1.4 for Palm Pre and Pixi devices. The updated OS will be pushed to current Palm handset owners via over-the-air update. It will be available for Sprint customers in the U.S., O2 UK, O2 DE, O2 Ireland and Movistar in Europe. While those under other network carriers will have to wait a little longer before getting the OS update.

Key features of the new WebOS 1.4 include:

  • video capturing, editing and sharing – you can now do quick edits on videos you’ve capture using your Palm WebOS phone as well quickly share them via Facebook or YouTube or via Email and MMS.
  • enhanced productivity apps – major enhancements to Calendar, Phone, Messaging and Email apps to simplify most commonly done tasks.
  • enhanced notifications – the LED in the gesture are lights up and pulses when new notifications is incoming. The email, messaging and calendar notifications can also be easily customized by selecting new sounds. You can set this up in the Preferences options of each apps.

Other features of the new WebOS 1.4 include improved battery life, faster loading and more responsive apps, accessibility of Microsoft Exchange Server through universal search, more shortcuts for doing various options such as messaging or making a call. You can also now turn text chat into a phone call in one touch.

More details about the WebOS 1.4 here.

Originally posted on February 27, 2010 @ 6:08 am

U.S. Android Phones to Get Firmware Update, Finally

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Finally, after being available for Google Nexus One for quite some time now, the latest version of Google’s mobile OS – Android 2.1 will soon be available for all Android phones released in the U.S. so far.  The folks from Android and Me broke the news citing “several inside sources familiar with the matter.”

Now while, all these U.S. Android phones will get their firmware upgrade via over-the-air update in due time, some features of the Android 2.1 may be missing though. For instance, those cool live wallpapers of Nexus one phones will not be making its way to all Android phones. I think, this is one feature that makes the Nexus One feature unique afte all.

Another important point that you should also remember, in case you own an Android phone is that some phones will require a complete wipe when they are upgraded to Android 2.1. Likewise, some phones will require PC-based install and OTA update will not work afte all.

In  case you’re interested to know, only the Nexus One and the Motorola Droid  are curerntly running Android 2.1. And according to Android and Me, around 80% of Android phones are still running on the earlier version of the OS.

And now for the schedule of Android 2.1 updates – expect it to happen sometime in Q2 2010. Owners of phones such as G1 and myTouch 3G will be the among the first gen Android phones will get the firmware update first.

There, hope everyone feels happy with that news. And hopefully, Android and Me’s sources are realiable enough. Google badly needs to spike up interest with the Android OS as well as the different phones that use it. Nexus One could not advance Google’s mobile strategy agenda alone.

Originally posted on February 27, 2010 @ 8:35 pm

FarmVille Played on a Nexus One Running HTC Sense ROM

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FarmVille fans who also happen to have the Google Nexus One, rejoice! Recently, some modders were able to install the HTC Desire ROM that  brings HTC Sense and  Flash 10.1 support to Google’s flagship mobile phone. If you still don’t believe that HTC Sense on the Nexus One can support Flash 10.1, well here’s a proof – Redmond Pie has posted a short video showing FarmVille being played on Facebook.com on the Nexus One browser.

The result, although not as flashy and clean as you may expect is still something worthy of perhaps rooting your Nexus One and going through all the trouble of installing the HTC Desire  ROM. Well, I mean if you’re a huge FarmVille fan and you couldn’t stop playing it. Well, here’s your chance to play the game even while on the go, on your  the Nexus One.

If you don’t want to go through the trouble of installing the ROM, you might want to wait up for future upgrades of Android OS as it is rumored to have Flash capability already. But if you can’t wait that long, follow these steps to install the HTC Desire ROM with HTC Sense UI on your Nexus One.

I’m not really thrilled by the fact that installing the HTC Desire ROM on Nexus One will bring Flash 10.1 which will allow you to browser flash-based sites including FarmVille since I’m no t going to take the chances and brick my phone. What I’m particularly excited about is the fact that this feature could be in the next version of Android OS.

Originally posted on February 23, 2010 @ 10:48 am