Cycle of future : Competition

Devin Coldewey

Oregon Manifest, a nonprofit located in Portland, has been running a competition over the last few months in which students and pro teams work to create a next-generation city bike. This isn’t about speed (like the McLaren Venge) or concept design (like the Vienna Bike), but rather about creating a bike that provides the maximum amount of utility for someone looking to ditch their automobile.

These innovation-from-competition events are really blowing up; there have been lots lately aimed at creating everything from mega-efficient cars to electrically-powered aircraft. This one had 34 entrants who mostly had some variation of a cargo bike with electric assist, but they all varied in execution. I have to agree with the people’s choice, though, a collaboration between IDEO and Rock Lobster (pictured).

You can see the other winners here (I like the campus bike and the two-seater), but the Faraday, as the IDEO-Rock Lobster bike is called, really just hit me right in my future bone. Minus some of the slightly retro trappings, I can picture thousands of these crowding the streets. The design is just that well thought-out.

The front wheel has a hub motor powered by that battery underneath the seat there. The battery can be quick-charged at an outlet and are actually the same kind found in the Chevy Volt. The porteur-style front rack has been brought into the 21st century with a removable flat-rack that attaches or detaches in seconds by means of spring-loaded bolts, and the fronts of the support tubes conceal a pair of LED headlights. The rack is mounted on the frame, not the fork, which improves stability. I’ve always been a fan of paniers but this works nicely as well. Reminds me of this bent-wood bike basket. Core77 has a nice design diary for the project, and IDEO has a page for it as well.

It does have some design issues to work out: it’s rather tall, the seat-handlebar relationship is off, and it needs a more potent braking system. But there’s still a weird sort of elegance to the design.

A bike like this for a decent price would go a long way toward replacing cars for many people in the city. Human-powered, compact, and simple, yet able to go long distances and carry groceries. It’ll be a while before they’re really affordable, but the promise of the electric-assist bike, already taking effect elsewhere in the world, seems destined to come to our shores as long as there are people creating things like the Faraday and the other entries to the contest.

Steve Jobs: Great innovator / Aster Global Services

Chris McGrath / Getty Images

Apple Reflects on its Founder

Apple's board of directors issued the following statement:
"We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today. Steve's brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve. His greatest love was for his wife, Laurene, and his family. Our hearts go out to them and to all who were touched by his extraordinary gifts."

Another statement on Apple's website at apple.com/stevejobs reads:
"Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of use who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple. If you would like to share your thoughts, memories and condolences, please e-mail rememberingsteve@apple.com"

New Apple CEO Tim Cook sent the following e-mail to Apple employees:
"Team, I have some very sad news to share with all of you. Steve passed away earlier today. Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple. We are planning a celebration of Steve's extraordinary life for Apple employees that will take place soon. If you would like to share your thoughts, memories and condolences in the interim, you can simply email rememberingsteve@apple.com. No words can adequately express our sadness at Steve's death or our gratitude for the opportunity to work with him. We will honor his memory by dedicating ourselves to continuing the work he loved so much. Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife Laurene and his children during this difficult time. Tim”

World Reacts to Steve Jobs' Death

By: Allie Townsend

David Paul Morris / Bloomberg / Getty Images

Jobs' Family Responds

A statement from Jobs' family reads, in full:
"Steve died peacefully today surrounded by his family. In his public life, Steve was known as a visionary; in his private life, he cherished his family. We are thankful to the many people who have shared their wishes and prayers during the last year of Steve's illness; a website will be provided for those who wish to offer tributes and memories. We are grateful for the support and kindness of those who share our feelings for Steve. We know many of you will mourn with us, and we ask that you respect our privacy during our time of grief."

Pixar Remembers a Visionary

John Lasseter, Chief Creative Officer & Ed Catmull, President, Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios:
"Steve Jobs was an extraordinary visionary, our very dear friend and the guiding light of the Pixar family. He saw the potential of what Pixar could be before the rest of us, and beyond what anyone ever imagined. Steve took a chance on us and believed in our crazy dream of making computer animated films; the one thing he always said was to simply 'make it great.' He is why Pixar turned out the way we did and his strength, integrity and love of life has made us all better people. He will forever be a part of Pixar’s DNA. Our hearts go out to his wife Laurene and their children during this incredibly difficult time."

Statement from Walt Disney president Bob Iger:
"Steve Jobs was a great friend as well as a trusted advisor. His legacy will extend far beyond the products he created or the businesses he built. It will be the millions of people he inspired, the lives he changed, and the culture he defined. Steve was such an 'original,' with a thoroughly creative, imaginative mind that defined an era. Despite all he accomplished, it feels like he was just getting started. With his passing the world has lost a rare original, Disney has lost a member of our family, and I have lost a great friend. Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife Laurene and his children during this difficult time."

Tech Titans Reflect on a Role Model

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg:
"Steve, thank you for being a mentor and a friend. Thanks for showing that what you build can change the world. I will miss you."

Google co-founder Sergey Brin:
"From the earliest days of Google, whenever Larry and I sought inspiration for vision and leadership, we needed to look no farther than Cupertino. Steve, your passion for excellence is felt by anyone who has ever touched an Apple product (including the MacBook I am writing this on right now). And I have witnessed it in person the few times we have met. On behalf of all of us at Google and more broadly in technology, you will be missed very much. My condolences to family, friends, and colleagues at Apple."

Google co-founder Larry Page:
"I am very, very sad to hear the news about Steve. He was a great man with incredible achievements and amazing brilliance. He always seemed to be able to say in very few words what you actually should have been thinking before you thought it. His focus on the user experience above all else has always been an inspiration to me. He was very kind to reach out to me as I became CEO of Google and spend time offering his advice and knowledge even though he was not at all well. My thoughts and Google's are with his family and the whole Apple family."

Dick Costolo, Twitter (on Twitter):
"Once in a rare while, somebody comes along who doesnt just raise the bar, they create an entirely new standard of measurement."

Jerry Yang, Yahoo! founder:
"Steve was my hero growing up. He not only gave me a lot of personal advice and encouragement, he showed all of us how innovation can change lives. I will miss him dearly, as will the world."

Politicians Salute a Leader

Statement by President Barack Obama:
"Michelle and I are saddened to learn of the passing of Steve Jobs. Steve was among the greatest of American innovators - brave enough to think differently, bold enough to believe he could change the world, and talented enough to do it. By building one of the planet’s most successful companies from his garage, he exemplified the spirit of American ingenuity. By making computers personal and putting the internet in our pockets, he made the information revolution not only accessible, but intuitive and fun. And by turning his talents to storytelling, he has brought joy to millions of children and grownups alike. Steve was fond of saying that he lived every day like it was his last. Because he did, he transformed our lives, redefined entire industries, and achieved one of the rarest feats in human history: he changed the way each of us sees the world. The world has lost a visionary. And there may be no greater tribute to Steve’s success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented. Michelle and I send our thoughts and prayers to Steve’s wife Laurene, his family, and all those who loved him."

Statement from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.:
"Steve Jobs was a visionary who changed the way we live, an innovator whose products brought joy to millions, a risktaker who wasn't afraid to challenge the status quo, and an entrepreneur who led one of the most creative companies of our time. His sage advice was respected by policymakers on both sides of the aisle. His courageous fight against cancer brought strength to many. I hope it is a comfort to those who loved him, especially his family, that so many grieve his loss and are praying for them at this sad time."

Statement from California Gov. Jerry Brown:
"Steve Jobs was a great California innovator who demonstrated what a totally independent and creative mind can accomplish. Few people have made such a powerful and elegant imprint on our lives. Anne and I wish to express our deepest sympathy to Steve's wife, Laurene, and their entire family."

Statement from New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg:
"Tonight, America lost a genius who will be remembered with Edison and Einstein, and whose ideas will shape the world for generations to come. Again and again over the last four decades, Steve Jobs saw the future and brought it to life long before most people could even see the horizon. And Steve's passionate belief in the power of technology to transform the way we live brought us more than smart phones and iPads: it brought knowledge and power that is reshaping the face of civilization. In New York City's government, everyone from street construction inspectors to NYPD detectives have harnessed Apple's products to do their jobs more efficiently and intuitively. Tonight our City - a city that has always had such respect and admiration for creative genius - joins with people around the planet in remembering a great man and keeping Laurene and the rest of the Jobs family in our thoughts and prayers."

Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, on Twitter:
"Steve lived the California Dream every day of his life and he changed the world and inspired all of us. #ThankYouSteve"

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Steve was a great innovator. He was expert in management. He made a powerful imprint on people's life. He was very sipmle and down to earth. we bid goodbye to Steve Jobs....our great hero!

Facebook Look Will Change Shortly

Make Facebook Look More Like MySpace With Timeline Cover Photos From FBCovers

Sarah Perez

Last week, Facebook introduced one of the boldest makeovers to the Facebook profile page since the company’s launch with the new Facebook Timeline. The updated profile provides a deeper look into your past, with navigation that lets you time travel back through the previous months and years spent on Facebook.

The most noticeable and eye-catching change to your Facebook profile, however, is not the Timeline navigation – it’s the large banner-sized photo that’s displayed at the top of the page where, as of today, a series of smaller profile pictures appear. But what if you don’t have a good photo to feature there? That’s where the newly launched Cover photo resource at MyFBCovers comes in.

To be clear, we’re not exactly recommending this site, which is buggy, ad-filled and whose Facebook app requests permission to send you emails. Instead, MyFBCovers offers a somewhat frightening look into the future of Facebook’s design.

Essentially, MyFBCovers is a wallpaper site for Facebook Timeline Cover photos. It’s not entirely remarkable in and of itself, and will likely be just one of many similar sites to appear. But it’s one of the first out of the gate, targeting those of you experimenting with the developer build of the Facebook Timeline. (And we know you are).

The site provides two styles of banners. The first style offers the traditional, wallpaper-esque photos featuring animals, cartoon images, nature scenes, sports, schools, companies, celebs, and dozens of other categories. The other style lets you build banners containing a collage of photos from your own Facebook albums.

The results are a little icky, in my opinion. Where Facebook profiles once looked clean and minimalistic in their design, the new banner photo – especially when it’s a wallpaper-like picture, make your profile page look more like MySpace than like Facebook.

FBCovers even insists on putting its little tag on the photo’s bottom-right corner, so you can tell others exactly how you junked up your profile. And like every other Cover photo change, the news is posted to your Facebook News Feed so your friends can like and comment on the picture.

I get that a lot of people will find FBCovers and similar services handy. I know that not everyone has a professional-looking, quality photo they want to feature big and bold on the top of their Facebook profile page. But I saw what my friends did to their MySpace profiles back in the day, and frankly, a lot of people out there have very bad taste.

How much longer till we’re presented with bikini-clad women, Lady Gaga tributes, crass cartoons, photos of beer, stupid quotes and other such nonsense?

Oh, starting today? Awesome.

Courtsey :TC

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comScore: Apple Assumes #2 Spot Among Smartphone Platforms In The U.S.

comScore this morning released some interesting data from its MobiLens service, reporting key trends in the U.S. mobile phone industry during the three-month average period ending April 2011.

According to the measurement specialist, 74.6 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones during that period, up 13 percent from the three-month period ending in January 2011. Roughly 234 million Americans ages 13 and older used mobile devices.

Google’s Android ranked as the top mobile platform, with 36.4 percent of U.S. smartphone subscribers, up 5.2 percentage points. Apple also gained share, assuming the #2 position with 26 percent of the smartphone market. RIM ranked third with a 25.7 percent share, followed by Microsoft (6.7 percent) and Palm (2.6 percent).

The comScore study surveyed more than 30,000 U.S. mobile subscribers and found Samsung to be the top handset manufacturer overall with 24.5 percent market share, followed by LG with 20.9 percent share and Motorola with 15.6 percent share.

On that front, comScore says Apple jumped to the #4 position with 8.3 percent share of mobile subscribers, while RIM rounded out the top five with a 8.2 percent share.

ComScore further reports that 68.8 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers used text messaging on their mobile device in April 2011. Browsers were reportedly used by 39.1 percent of subscribers (up 2.1 percentage points), while downloaded applications were used by 37.8 percent (up 2.4 percentage points).

Accessing of social networking sites or blogs increased 2.7 percentage points, representing 28 percent of mobile subscribers. Playing games comprised 26.2 percent of the mobile audience (up 2.5 percentage points), while listening to music represented 18 percent.

Order iPad 2 now

Slightly ahead of the announced 1 AM PST launch time, Apple’s iPad 2, which was introduced earlier this month, is now up for sale at the company’s US online store.

Estimated shipping date for iPads are from March 18 to March 25th. That day, the iPad 2 will also be made available in 26 additional countries – Apple says further international availability and pricing will be announced at a later date.

Online orders will ship within 3 to 5 days, and buyers are limited to two units per order.

Later today, at 5 PM local time to be exact, the iPad 2 will go on sale at all 236 Apple retail stores as well as at AT&T, Best Buy, Target, Verizon Wireless, Walmart and select Apple Authorized Resellers.

Other than that, not much to report.

Question is: are you buying? And if so, which model, and which color?

(I did not purchase an iPad 1, but I will be buying a black 64GB iPad 2)

Android Media Player :Hits 1 Million Active Users

Today, the Android media player doubleTwist reached a big milestone: 1 million active users between its mobile and desktop apps.

We’ve been following the media player closely for over a year now, watching to see if it would find enough adoption to make it the premiere Android alternative to iTunes.

Back in November, the company launched its wireless syncing software called “AirSync” that automatically syncs your music, movies, and photos whenever you’re in wireless range — and offers us a glimpse into the future of mobile tech.

Adobe: Flash Coming To Android Tablets

Earlier today there was quite a bit of commotion in the tech press over a Verizon ad that stated that Flash wouldn’t be making its way to Android tablets until Spring 2011. Which has the potential to be pretty far off (as late as June), especially given that the Motorola Xoom — the first tablet to run Android Honeycomb — will be coming out in a few days.

Now Adobe has issued a blog post clarifying just how long we’ll have to wait: they say it will be available “within a few weeks of Android 3 (Honeycomb) devices becoming available, the first of which is expected to be the Motorola Xoom”. Which sounds like it should be around mid-March, though Adobe has still left itself some wiggle room. At least it’s a lot better than June.

Chomp will solve : Android App Search

Regardless of what you think about the Android platform, there’s no denying that the Market experience for finding apps is pretty poor. And that’s putting it nicely. Google has evolved the experience over the years, and the web-based Market helps a lot. But on the phone, even with Gingerbread, it’s far from great. Today, Chomp, the app search engine, launches an experience for Android that is great.

If you’ve heard of Chomp before, it was likely from their iPhone app, which focused on not only search but also personalized recommendations. But with the Chomp for Android experience, co-founder Ben Keighran decided they wanted to strip the service to its core, based on the usage patterns they’ve seen on both the iPhone and the web.

“We found out that while early on, people enjoy the social stuff, it wasn’t very sticky and people weren’t returning to the service,” Keighran tells us. “What we found was that users were actually typing into the search box what type of app they wanted to use — things like ‘expense trackers’, ‘food’, and ‘puzzle games’,” he continues. And so that’s what Chomp decided to focus on.

Keighran gave me a demo last week of just how poor this experience currently is on Android’s Market. Typing in any category gives you and handful of results that appear to be completely out of context. That’s because the search in the Market uses a combination of metadata, titles, and other signals that are obvious — and can obviously be gamed.

“We’ve developed the algorithm that really stands out on Android since search is so bad,” Keighran says. “It learns the topic and function of every app in the store. And using AI and machine learning, it builds a whole new database of apps,” he continues noting that they’ve had 20 computer scientists working on this patented technology.

And it’s not just what’s underneath — Chomp on Android actually looks really good and gives you a pleasing way to browse apps. Navigation is simple and intuitive, and the core way to browse when you find the category you’re looking for is just to swipe from side to side across different apps until you find the one you want.

And when you do find the one you want, installing it is as simple as it is in the Market. Thanks to the deep APIs that Android offers, you can download an app in the background and then be placed right back where you were in Chomp.

Alongside the Android update, Chomp’s website is getting an overhaul today as well to highlight the aforementioned things. Chomp’s key value proposition isn’t that it’s great for iPhone app search or Android app search, but rather that it’s great for all app search. And that’s why others like Blekko are now serving up their results. The big boys — Google, Bing, and Yahoo — don’t yet use Chomp’s app results, but I would not be surprised at all to see one of them getting on board soon.

Google Social Gold in May 2011

Google was originally set to debut in-app payments support for Android in the fourth quarter of 2010, and recently said that the launch would be delayed until the end of this quarter. Be that as it may, the company is set to launch another much-anticipated (at least by many app developers or publishers) Web-based in-app transactions product in May 2011.

iPad2..more features launched

Editor’s Note: Jim Dalrymple has been writing about Apple for more than 15 years. You can follow him on Twitter @jdalrymple and on his Web site at The Loop.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs on Wednesday introduced the iPad 2 at a special event in San Francisco, taking even more momentum away from its competitors.

I’ve had a lot of people in the last 24 hours tell me that the iPad 2 isn’t as revolutionary as the first generation device. Yes, that’s true. But not every device a company releases has to be or can be revolutionary.

Apple has released three revolutionary products in the last decade alone: iPod, iPhone and iPad. I really can’t think of any products from Apple’s competitors that fit in the revolutionary category in that same time period.

People also said that Apple wasn’t very forthcoming with the specs of the iPad 2. Again, that’s true, but there’s a good reason for that—nobody cares.

Well, some people care. Those of us who are geeks care about specs. However, have you ever noticed that when you sit with your non-geek friends and start listing off specs their eyes glaze over and they rest their chin in their hand.

That’s because they couldn’t care less.

The iPad 2 is no slouch either. It lost one-third of the thickness of the previous generation, and therefore it is one-third less than the size of the iPad competitors too. It also has new technologies like a gyro built-in that will launch another round of cool apps.

Yesterday’s iPad 2 announcement wasn’t about the geeks—it was about all the other people who will buy an iPad. What those people want to know is “what can I do with it?”

If it fits into their lifestyle, most people are good with that. Apple showed many ways how the iPad 2 can fit into your lifestyle.

From the very beginning, Apple was very smart with how it marketed the iPad. The first thing it did was get the device into businesses and promote the fact that it could be used to get work done. And it was quite successful with that.

In an analyst call in October 2010, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer said the iPad was already being used in 65 percent of Fortune 100 companies. That was four months ago and the iPad has grown since then, so we can only imagine where that number is now.

This strategy allowed Apple to do two things. If it came out with the iPad and pushed the gaming capabilities of the device, the business world would have looked at it as a toy. That would have certainly meant slower adoption. It also allowed them to work on some consumer software, two of which we saw yesterday.

In addition to the iPad 2, Jobs also unveiled iMovie and GarageBand for the iPad. This is what people want to know about—what can I do with the iPad that’s exciting and new.

Obviously, creating movies and being able to edit and share them with friends and family is a very popular thing to do these days. iMovie makes that easy.

Creating music, whether a novice or pro is also a cool thing to do. GarageBand is a great app to get that done and you can move your projects to your Mac and continue working on them.

It’s not just about the hardware. Apple delivers the whole experience that nobody else can. Jobs said yesterday that there are 65,000 apps on its App Store specifically designed for the iPad. That’s a lot of things you can do.

The Crowdfunded iPhone Accessory :Blogger’s Dreams

Meet The Satarii Star

I’m really starting to love this whole crowdfunding thing. Even if you look beyond gargantuan success stories like the TikTok Nano watch, you’ve still got all sorts of all sorts of wonderful concepts like the PadPivot, the mBrace, and the C-Loopall taking huge steps toward production thanks to ultra-early-adopters who were willing to pledge their cash up front.

Last week, I had the chance to sit down and chat with a new company called Satarii, which is a pretty small operation (just a couple of engineers in a garage) banking on crowdfunding to help push their product — the Satarii Star, an iPhone/Camera base that rotates to follow you around the room and keep you always in frame — over the last few hurdles in the journey to production. Really, though — check this thing out.

The idea is simple enough: plop your iPhone (or any phone/camera that will fit, or that Satarii will make an adapter for) into the Star base, stick a little 1″x2″ marker somewhere on your person, and flip the switch to turn the system on — bam! You’re no longer stuck behind your camera, or stuck with the duty of finding someone to shoot the video for you. Using a combination of optical tracking and undisclosed technology (or, as Satarii puts it, the “secret sauce”), the Star base rotates up to 180° horizontally based on the position of the marker. Imagine FaceTime chats that follow you as you walk around the room, or being able to snag a clip of that new skateboard trick without having to subject a buddy to watching you fall a few dozen times.

Seems like an obvious concept, right? And yet, it doesn’t appear that anyone else is doing this — at least, not for smaller devices, not within the past decade or so, and not anywhere near the $200 price point that Satarii is aiming for.

Satarii says that their goal is to have the first batch of these things going out within about 6 months, with their first real retail endeavors beginning in about a year. Right now, the Star exists in two forms: a non-functional “Looks Like” prototype that represents how things will (hopefully) look in the end, and a totally-functional “Works Like” prototype which proves the concept with a slightly bulkier, slightly-less-sightly package built from off-the-shelf components. The Works Like prototype does indeed work as promised — in fact, I put it to use a few times in the video up above.As someone who has to frame and shoot their own videos just about every week, I’m definitely rooting for these guys. Pop on over to their page on IndieGoGo to find out more, or, if you feel so inclined, drop a few bucks into the project.

The White iPhone 4 Still A No-Show

With The White iPhone 4 Still A No-Show

A White Nexus S Appears

If you’re still waiting for the thus-far-mythical white iPhone 4 to actually ship, you’re probably feelin’ pretty burned by now. Perhaps you’re even feelin’ burned enough to jump ship over to Android? Perhaps you’ll fill that gap in your heart and that space in your pocket with a Nexus S, instead? If this latest leak is any indication, you won’t even have to forego your love for white phones; the Nexus S, it seems, might just be gettin’ a white variant of its own.
The shot above comes from German tech blog BestBoyz.de

. According to their tipster, this thing is a sure thing to ship in Germany — as for the rest of the world, we’ll have to cross our fingers and wish real hard. Alas, it looks like only the back of the phone rock’s the white hue; the front and bezel are the same black as the standard model.

Unlimited Data Plan For iPhone

Verizon Confirms They’ll Offer $30 Unlimited Data Plan For iPhone

Users [Update: But Not For Long!]

Back in June of 2010 (right before the launch of the iPhone 4, no less) AT&T dropped their $30 Unlimited Data plan. Current and would-be iPhone owners were rightly bummed — but given the whole one-carrier situation the iPhone was in back then, there wasn’t much anyone could do. Besides complain, of course. Which we did, of course.

Proving that a little competition is always a good thing, here’s what Verizon COO Lowell McAdams said to the Wall Street Journal

today:

“I’m not going to shoot myself in the foot,” he said. Not offering an unlimited plan would put up a barrier for customers who might otherwise switch from AT&T, he said

These customers McAdams is referring to, of course, are the presumably massive group who’ve managed to keep AT&T’s now extinct $30 data plan by simply not changing a thing. Folks who had the $30 plan before could keep it as long as they didn’t opt-in to their new (terrible ripoff) 200 MB/$15 plan, or try to tack on the tethering option.

The plan, according to details McAdams shared with the WSJ, will cost the same $30 AT&T’s did before they changed things up.

Update: Sad trombone

. That $30 Unlimited Plan? It won’t last for long. Shortly after he made this statement, Lowell McAdams went on to clarify that the unlimited plan will be a limited-time deal and that Verizon plans to make the jump to tiered data plans sometime after the iPhone launch.

Need To Dial 911

On Your Verizon Fascinate?

You’ll Have To Unlock It First

Just a quick PSA for all our readers rockin’ the Verizon Fascinate: the recent over-the-air update (DL09) introduced a bit of a nasty bug. You know that little “Emergency Call” button that shows up at the bottom of the screen on the pattern unlock screen, so you can dial 911 without unlocking the handset? Yeah, that button doesn’t work.

Samsung’s comment on the matter:

It has come to the attention of Samsung Mobile during the recent DL09 OTA (Over-the-Air) update for the Samsung Fascinate that some users utilizing the Pattern Lock are finding that the Emergency Call shortcut is not automatically launching the dialer. However, unlocking the device will allow the user to make calls as they normally would, including emergency calls. We apologize for the inconvenience and are continuing to evaluate the issue, including if the issue is linked to the update

Apple Releases iOS 4.3 Beta 2 To Developers

Just 7 days after the first Beta of iOS 4.3 hit the Developer Center, Apple’s ready with take 2. In other words: iOS 4.3 Beta 2 is now available to developers.

What hidden treasures lay within? If there’s anything noteworthy in there to find, it’ll probably take a while for folks to scrounge up — in the mean time, feel free to catch up on all the new goodies found in Beta 1

New In iOS 4.3:iPod

What’s New In iOS 4.3?

It’s that time again, folks: Apple has just dropped a new build of iOS into the Developer Center, and people are already hard at work tearing it apart in search for all the little hidden gems within. You know what makes hard work easier? Team work!

We’ll keep a running list of everything we’ve spotted that has made its way into iOS 4.3 — drop a comment and let us know if we’re missing something, won’t you?

The List So Far:

• Personal Hotspot (turns your iPhone into a WiFi router for up to 5 devices) functionality is baked right in, and seemingly not just for Verizon. This will most likely be a feature that carriers can decide whether or not to enable.
• AirPlay Video Support has been opened up third party applications.

• A new (and, uh, sorta not-pretty) Facetime icon for iPod Touches [Via 9to5Mac]
• Fullscreen iAds
• iOS 4.3 doesn’t currently appear to support the iPhone 3G or iPod Touch 2G (or earlier models), as no builds for those devices are being made available to developers. This may change by the time iOS 4.3 officially ships.

iPad Only:

• At launch, the sliding switch on the side of the iPad acted as an orientation lock. In 4.2, this was changed into a mute switch, with the orientation lock being pushed into the slide-out App Switching drawer. You can now choose to assign the sliding switch to either mute or orientation lock. [Via Giz]
• New Gestures! The iPad now supports 4 and 5 finger gestures. Swiping up will show the App Switching tray, swiping left/right will switch apps (Like cmd-tab! Whoo!) These gestures don’t seem to actually be working yet, unfortunately.

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iPhone User? 90% Chance You’re On The Latest OS

As a member of the media, I was lucky enough to get my hands on a Nexus S running Android 2.3 “Gingerbread” a few weeks ago. It’s great, easily the best version of Android yet. I hope one day soon you all get to try it out. But the likelihood of that is pathetically small. In fact, don’t be surprised if Android 3.0 “Honeycomb” is out before most of you even get a chance to use Gingerbread — maybe even for phones as well as tablets.

With the iPhone, it’s a much different story. The likelihood that you are already running the latest version of the iOS software is much, much higher. In fact, it’s something around 90 percent, if some numbers shared by the CEO of Bump are to be believed.

David Lieb shared his numbers last week on a Quora thread entitled: What proportion of all iPhone owners use iOS4.* today?

“With Bump, our download and usage base is so large that it should be a good statistical sample. Here’s our data from all Bump users between January 7 and January 10, 2011. *Note that this includes all iOS devices, not just iPhone as the question asks,” Lieb writes.

He then gives the following stats:

Binned by major rev:
4.X: 89.73 %
3.X: 10.25 %
2.X: 0.02 %

In other words, just about 90 percent of Bump users are using the latest major update to iOS. He gives some more detailed numbers, indicating individual revision breakdowns, but the above ones are probably best to compare with Android revisions because .X updates in iOS tend to be pretty minor (bug fixes), while .X in Android are usually pretty major (new features).

Further, Ian Peters-Campbell, an engineer at Loopt, confirmed that they’re seeing the same basic breakdown, with perhaps even more iOS 4.X users.

(Oh, and those other 10 percent of iPhone users not on iOS 4? They could certainly upgrade if they wanted to — they’ve probably just cracked and/or jailbroken their phones.)

So, iOS 4 has 90 percent share amongst iOS device owners. What about Android 2.3? 0.4 percent, as of a couple weeks ago. Yes, that’s zero point four percent.

Okay, I realize it’s a little unfair to compare iOS 4 to Android 2.3 since the latter was just released and is only available on one phone (again, the Nexus S). Still, the fact that it’s still only available on one phone weeks after being made public says a lot.

But for the sake of this being slightly more fair, let’s compare iOS 4 to Android 2.2 — an OS which came out well before iOS 4. The adoption rate there? 51.8 percent. That’s still pretty pathetic.

Obviously, this isn’t the Android users’ faults. The problem is that the OEMs and carriers are holding these updates up for a wide variety of reasons, 99 percent of which are undoubtedly bullshit. Here’s a perfect example. Supposedly, the Android 2.2 update is all ready to go for Samsung Android phones on T-Mobile, but Samsung doesn’t want to push it out so that they can entice people to buy the newly announced Vibrant 4G+ instead.

Lovely.

Instead, many Samsung T-mobile Android users are struck with Android 2.1. An OS that while perhaps only a year old, is now two full revisions old in Android land. A dinosaur, in other words. And they’re hardly alone. Some 35.2 percent of all Android users are stuck on this same version of the OS.

Imagine if 35 percent of all iOS users were stuck on iOS 2 (which is so old that it wasn’t even called ‘iOS” at the time), while a few of us had iOS 4 and the majority of us had iOS 3? Yeah…

Even more humorous is the fact that over 12 percent of Android users are still stuck on Android 1.5 and 1.6. I mean, Android 1.5 is nearly two years old now. And again, more importantly, it’s four major revisions ago. iOS hasn’t even gone through four major revisions yet.

So it’s sort of like if a few iPhone users had iOS 4, the majority had iOS 3, a good number had iOS 2, some had iOS 1, and then nearly 5 percent were stuck using MotoROKRs.

Google, meanwhile, keeps promising that this sad trend is going to improve. They’re sure that the carriers are eventually going to see the light and get in line any day now. Those 99.6 percent of Android users who’ve seen Android 2.3 — but can’t use it — are waiting awfully patiently.

Meanwhile, the iPhone will launch on its second U.S. carrier in less than a month. And it will launch with either iOS 4.2.5 or iOS 4.3. The same OS that every single other iOS user will have access to.