A new survey by well-known dating site Match.com might give consumers yet another reason to choose --- or not choose --- Android over iPhone: Android users are more likely to have sex on the first date than iPhone or BlackBerry users.
One notable piece of information: the data was obtained from Canadian Match.com users, so there's always the chance Americans might strike out if they go into a first date expecting "something."
That said, in addition, Android users might be the biggest dogs of all as well. Android users are the most likely to have a one-night stand (55 percent).
Other tidbits of information from the survey:
Android: 72 percent of Android users have visited an online dating site, though not necessarily Match.com, while only 58 percent of iPhone users have done so and exactly half, 50 percent of Blackberry users.
BlackBerry users are more likely to drink on a first date. 72 percent said they would have an alcoholic beverage on a first date. At the same time, they are very romantic, with 67 percent of BlackBerry users saying they have experienced "love at first sight."
iPhone users tend to be more clingy, or at least seem to be. iPhone users will generally reach out, either calling or texting the day after a date, while Android or Blackberry users will wait a couple of days before doing so (which we always thought was a sort of "unwritten rule" to avoid looking too desperate.
Kimberley Moffit, a Toronto-based psychotherapist and spokesperson for Match.com said that iPhone users may reach out faster because they "tend to be younger and more savvy with their tech."
We'd have to wonder about that, because Android is typically said to be the platform that's for technophiles, and that consumers who want something that just works should go to iPhone (we've seen plenty of senior citizens using iPhones, and seen very few using Android).
Also, iPhone users are the most likely to date someone in the workplace. Nearly a quarter of iPhone singles have had an office romance in the last five years.
To be clear, the study said that Android users were more likely to have sex on the first date, not that they would be sexier.
A new survey by well-known dating site Match.com might give consumers yet another reason to choose --- or not choose --- Android over iPhone: Android users are more likely to have sex on the first date than iPhone or BlackBerry users.
One notable piece of information: the data was obtained from Canadian Match.com users, so there's always the chance Americans might strike out if they go into a first date expecting "something."
That said, in addition, Android users might be the biggest dogs of all as well. Android users are the most likely to have a one-night stand (55 percent).
Other tidbits of information from the survey:
Android: 72 percent of Android users have visited an online dating site, though not necessarily Match.com, while only 58 percent of iPhone users have done so and exactly half, 50 percent of Blackberry users.
BlackBerry users are more likely to drink on a first date. 72 percent said they would have an alcoholic beverage on a first date. At the same time, they are very romantic, with 67 percent of BlackBerry users saying they have experienced "love at first sight."
iPhone users tend to be more clingy, or at least seem to be. iPhone users will generally reach out, either calling or texting the day after a date, while Android or Blackberry users will wait a couple of days before doing so (which we always thought was a sort of "unwritten rule" to avoid looking too desperate.
Kimberley Moffit, a Toronto-based psychotherapist and spokesperson for Match.com said that iPhone users may reach out faster because they "tend to be younger and more savvy with their tech."
We'd have to wonder about that, because Android is typically said to be the platform that's for technophiles, and that consumers who want something that just works should go to iPhone (we've seen plenty of senior citizens using iPhones, and seen very few using Android).
Also, iPhone users are the most likely to date someone in the workplace. Nearly a quarter of iPhone singles have had an office romance in the last five years.
To be clear, the study said that Android users were more likely to have sex on the first date, not that they would be sexier.
Google announced sweeping changes to its privacy policy, analysts are weighing on who might be most affected by it. Cecilia Kang reports:
Google this week announced a shift in its privacy policies that will allow it to follow the activities of users as they move across the firm’s Web sites, including its highly popular YouTube, Gmail and main search engine. The company emphasized in interviews that the change would apply only to users who are signed on to their Google accounts.
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A look at some of the major deals the Web giant has made or attempted in an effort to expand its reach.
The initiative could be of particular significance for consumers of Android devices, who are almost always signed on to their phones and tablets, experts said. Without signing up for an account, an Android smartphone owner would be limited in what he or she could do on the device, they said.
“I guess it’s theoretically possible to use an Android device without being logged on, but that wouldn’t be much of a smartphone,” said Kurt Opsahl, a senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a group that advocates for free speech and privacy online.
The company said users who activate Android phones without signing into a Google account can make phone calls, browse the Web and use pre-installed applications. But they couldn’t use their Gmail, chat functions or download Angry Birds, Pandora or other applications from the Android Marketplace.
Rumors about the upcoming iPad 3 --- which we know is coming, but not when or what --- are beginning to fly. That alone seems to point to a release in the next few months, with March in the bulls-eye right now, as that would match the normal one-year refresh cycle since the iPad 2 was launched.
The latest rumor, this time from Bloomberg, confirms earlier rumors from other sources. Earlier rumors said that Apple's Pegatron and Foxconn manufacturers had begun building iPad 3s for a March launch, and that an LTE version would be coming this year.
The newest report sticks with the March launch date, and also claims Apple will launch an LTE version as well. The earlier LTE report, though, estimated a launch date of mid-year for the LTE iPad 3. That actually makes more sense, as second-generation --- and thus more real-estate and battery friendly LTE chipsets are not expected until Q2 2012. Apple is very focused on battery life, and despite the iPad's much-larger-than-a-smartphone battery, it's hard to believe they would sacrifice battery life on the new device.
Of course, that late a launch would break the iPad's annual refresh cycle, but since Apple showed with the iPhone 4S that going off-schedule, or rather, the off-the-schedule-Apple-has-kept-thus-far won't hurt sales.
The tablet will also use a quad-core chip, two of Bloomberg's sources said. The first Android tablet with a quad-core chip, the Transformer Prime with the NVIDIA Tegra 3 SoC (system-on-a-chip) launched late last year, but the iPad's success, and Android tablets' lack, has shown that specs are not exactly a sales point with many consumers.
The report also stated that the iPad 3 will carry a high-definition screen. While not specifying the resolution, it's already been rumored that Apple will double the current iPad 2 resolution with a 2,048 x 1,536 screen on the new iPad 3.
Earlier rumors also said the iPad 3 would be visually nearly indistinguishable from the iPad 2, although it be thicker by about 1mm.
Corning's Gorilla Glass is strong, but it's not impenetrable and not scratch-proof, no matter what the marketing hype. You wouldn't expect the company to stand on its laurels, what with more mobile devices needing still better protection, and it's not: it plans to introduce Gorilla Glass 2 at CES, which runs Jan. 10-13, 2012.
While the company issued a press release for its upcoming introduction, it didn't detail much about the new product, and you wouldn't expect them to anyway. What they did say was that details on Gorilla Glass 2 would be included in an announcement planned for Monday, Jan. 9, pre-CES.
The company will also allow booth visitors to "try out" Gorilla Glass 2. We'd hope they would have some sort of comparative test, between the original and the new version.
Gorilla Glass was used in about 20 percent of the world's approximately 200 million mobile handsets in 2010, according to Wikipedia. Consumers are also usually quick to note when a handset or other mobile device was produced without Gorilla Glass --- and not in a good way.
While you await new revelations of the strength of Gorilla Glass 2, take a look at the video below showing some fun you can do with already super-strong Gorilla Glass.
Italians officials said in a statement that Apple failed to adequately inform customers that they were legally guaranteed two years of tech support under EU regulations, instead pointing them to Apple's own one-year warranty. Officials alleged that this led many people to pay extra for the company's AppleCare support program.
Apple provided "unclear information on payments for additional assistance offered to consumers" and had not "fully implemented the two-year guarantee by the producer."
Outside the EU, Apple's standard warranty on products generally lasts one year. AppleCare extends this guarantee for a year or two, which means the coverage overlaps with the legal warranty.
The penalties break down to 400,000 Euros for neglecting to point out the length of the EU guarantee, in both Apple's online and brick-and-mortar stores, and 500,000 Euros because it continued to offer AppleCare on top of the legal warranty.
The Authority said it is penalizing Apple's three Italian divisions, which includes Apple Italia, Apple Sales International, and Apple Retail Italia. Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In addition to the fine, the Authority said Apple must publish an excerpt of the ruling on its Web site to inform consumers. It is also required to amend AppleCare to indicate that customers are entitled to two years free support. Apple must act on these requirements within 90 days.
For more from the iPhone maker, check out PCMag's year-end review of Apple.
For more from Leslie, follow her on Twitter @LesHorn.
It's been said that the death of the Flip Video camcorder was a direct result of an increased number of smartphones with video recording capability. That may or may not be 100 percent true, but smartphones sure didn't help Flip Video, and neither are they helping point-and-shoot cameras, as a new study from market research firm the NPD Group suggests.
The NPD Group's "Imaging Confluence Study" shows what might be considered the obvious truth: the more spontaneous a shot is, the more likely someone will simply whip out their smartphone for some impromptu images or video.
Overall, combining both planned and unplanned filming activities, the percentage of photos taken with a smartphone rose from 17 percent to 27 percent year-over-year. Meanwhile, photos taken on all single-purpose cameras saw a sharp drop, from 52 percent in 2010 to 44 percent in 2011.
Liz Cutting, executive director and senior imaging analyst at NPD said, in a statement, "There is no doubt that the smartphone is becoming 'good enough' much of the time, but thanks to mobile phones, more pictures are being taken than ever before. Consumers who use their mobile phones to take pictures and video were more likely to do so instead of [using] their camera when capturing spontaneous moments, but for important events, single-purpose cameras or camcorders are still largely the device of choice."
The statistics in terms of the survey translate to retail sales impact, as well. NPD said that its Retail Tracking Service found that in the first 11 months of this year, the point-and-shoot camera market had dipped 17 percent year-over-year in terms of units shipped and 18 percent in terms of revenue.
Pocket camcorder and traditional flash camcorder unit were similarly "hit," with shipments down 13 percent and 8 percent respectively year-over-year, and sales down 27 percent and 10 percent, respectively.
At the same time, the high end of the market, which can't be "replaced" by a point-and-shoot camera or a smartphone, hasn't seem the same trend. Unit shipments and revenue for detachable lens cameras have each grown by more than 10 percent year-over-year (the average price for these types of cameras is $863, NPD said).
That wasn't all: higher-end point-and-shoots, which NPD defined as having an optical zoom of 10x or more, grew by 16 percent in units shipped and by 10 percent in terms of revenue thus far, this year. These products carried an average price of $257, NPD said.
This also makes sense; the availability of higher optical, not digital, zoom ratios is useful, in a point-and-shoot scenario, but not possible, at least for now, in a smartphone. So, can't replace it with your all-in-one device (smartphone)? Buy it.
It's still true: a dedicated device is always better than a do-it-all device. The question is, is the do-it-all device "good enough." In many cases, for video and still photography, the smartphone is.
Smartphones helped kill the Flip video recorder earlier this year and a new study from the NPD Group suggests they may someday take out low-end point-and-shoot cameras as well. That's because more and more people are snapping pictures with handsets like Apple's iPhone in lieu of using digital cameras, according to the market research firm's latest "Imaging Confluence Study."
The NPD study, published this week, found that the percentage of photos taken with a smartphone grew to 27 percent in 2011 from 17 percent the year before, even as photos taken on all single-purpose cameras fell from 52 percent in 2010 to 44 percent this year.
While smartphones are increasingly the favored tool for taking pictures and videos on the fly, the research firm said, single-purpose cameras and camcorders remain popular with consumers for more structured filming activities (see chart below).
"There is no doubt that the smartphone is becoming 'good enough' much of the time, but thanks to mobile phones, more pictures are being taken than ever before," said Liz Cutting, executive director and senior imaging analyst at NPD, in a statement. "Consumers who use their mobile phones to take pictures and video were more likely to do so instead of [using] their camera when capturing spontaneous moments, but for important events, single-purpose cameras or camcorders are still largely the device of choice."
The rise of smartphones as go-to filming devices is apparent in the survey of U.S. consumers that NPD used as the basis for its study, but also in actual numbers being tracked in the retail market. The research firm said its Retail Tracking Service found that in the first 11 months of 2011, the point-and-shoot camera market had dipped 17 percent year-over-year in terms of units shipped and 18 percent in terms of revenue.
it's a Xyboard -- Motorola's rebranded (for the US, anyway) Xoom 2. A 10.1-inch attempt at sidestepping the original Xoom's notoriety. With baked-in LTE of the Verizon variety, a slimmer waistline and a distinctive design, this Android 3.2 tablet could very well inject a dose of excitement back into the company's flagging category appeal. But with the spotlight-stealing ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime already on the map and dazzling consumers with its notebook-like functionality, will anyone even notice Moto's second swing at Honeycomb? Are LTE speeds and an improved silhouette enough to lure wayward users back into the company's willing embrace? Does anyone even care about non-Ice Cream Sandwich tablets? Read on as we explore the odd ends and angles of this curiously-shaped slate.
So let me get this straight: the former handset titan that badly needs another shot is debuting with the weakest nationwide carrier as its partner, using its middle-of-the-road phone as the kickoff device. Seriously?
Nokia needed to put its best foot forward with its first Windows Phone in the U.S. It needed a product that could stir up some excitement for the brand, not just for itself, but for Windows Phone as a platform as well. It needed to supply what Microsoft has badly coveted for its well-liked, but commercially challenged operating system: a true flagship phone.
Sorry, but the Lumia 710 isn't it.
Nokia faces a ton of challenges in rebuilding its presence in the U.S. Its brand here has faded from its dominant days a decade ago. Consumers, meanwhile, haven't exactly embraced the Windows Phone operating system on which the Finnish company has pinned its hopes.
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