In the Mexican city of Tuxtla Gutiérrez in Chiapas state, an interesting experiment is unfolding that could be an early forerunner of a future trend—the use of cell phones as sensors. Under the city's "Vigilante Taxi Driver" program, cab drivers use GPS-enabled cell phones to send messages and photographs about everything from accidents and potholes to burst water mains, downed streetlights and criminal activity—effectively acting as additional eyes and ears of government to combat high crime rates and run-down infrastructure. The reports go to a control center for routing to the appropriate government agency. More
Tag Index / Showing 1 - 10 of 27 results for “mobile”
Slumping PC Sales Signal Rise of Mobile Computing
Consumers may be going mobile more rapidly than just about anyone in the computing industry could have predicted. Two new reports show sales of desktop and laptop machines dropping sharply in the first quarter of 2013. First-quarter shipments of PCs were down 14 percent worldwide from the same period last year, according to International Data Corp., with Gartner Inc. tallying an 11 percent decline. The numbers may vary, but the consensus is clear: more and more consumers are flocking to mobile computing. More
With Mobile the Future, How Does a Company Stay Secure?
A PC, Mac, iPad, Android, BlackBerry, and Nexus 7 all sit on Sam Curry’s desk one afternoon while he works from home. Though not everyone has access to such a range of mobile devices, this lineup offers a glimpse at the diversity of devices people now use to work. Curry is CTO of Identity and Data Protection at RSA, a firm specializing in information security. During a phone call last week, he said that all the devices on his desk provide connectivity for his work at RSA, each with its own unique set of capabilities and limitations. More
Why Zuckerberg Beamed as He Announced Facebook Home for Android
I've never seen Mark Zuckerberg beaming throughout an entire press announcement, as he did today at the launch of the new Facebook phone software. It shows that he believes the so-called "Facebook Home" for Android means Facebook has nailed an important piece in its evolution toward becoming central to the communications systems for all the people of the planet. That is, after all, his goal, as it has been since roughly late 2004. You can tell he has confidence that Facebook has made good decisions about what we need in a new interface for interacting with phones, and that he's certain of the quality of the engineering and design thinking behind the product. More
Kirkpatrick: Facebook Wants to Be There When You Turn Your Phone On
Techonomy CEO David Kirkpatrick appeared on Bloomberg TV yesterday to comment on Facebook's ambitions to amplify its presence in the mobile market. Kirkpatrick dispelled rumors that Facebook intends to launch a new phone, but said the company has plans to release a layer of software that will appear on the home screens of specific HTC smartphones. According to Kirkpatrick, this represents "the beginning of a whole series of Facebook initiatives in mobile that will probably lead ultimately to a lot more people having a home Facebook screen when they turn on their phone all over the world." More
Shanghai Street View: Toilet Technology
China’s economic miracle has captured global headlines for much of the last 30 years, but a much quieter revolution has also taken place in that time at the nation’s toilets. As China’s leading commercial center, Shanghai has been at the edge of this quieter revolution, which has just flushed past another milestone with the announcement of a new mobile app to help people locate the nearest public toilet. The new app uses GPS technology to locate the nearest of 8,000 public toilets now operating in Shanghai for users who feel the call of nature while walking around or driving outside. More
Media & Marketing Partner Insights
Spoiler Alert: Mobile Moviegoers Are the Biggest Movie Enthusiasts
Today, with the help of their smartphones and tablets, moviegoers can stay on top of the latest movie trends in real time, purchase tickets on the go and even post their own reviews on social networks before the closing credits roll. Overall, mobile-connected moviegoers are bigger movie enthusiasts than the average U.S. moviegoer, according to Nielsen NRG’s 2012 American Moviegoing report. They spend more, consume more content and are more actively engaged in the moviegoing process. Smartphone and tablet owners are heavier moviegoers than average, attending 9 percent and 20 percent more movies overall in the past year, respectively. In terms of size, 69% of moviegoers own a smartphone and 29% own a tablet, with 23% owning both devices. More
Innovative Retailers Use Instagram to Boost Sales
Instagram hasn’t quite figured out how to monetize mobile photo sharing—and the company is currently facing scrutiny about whether Facebook’s acquisition was in the best interest of Instagram investors. But hordes of users have turned Instagram into a profitable business opportunity, building new services on top of the existing platform. More
Predictions for the Cloud in 2013
What can we expect from cloud computing in 2013? Joe McKendrick at Forbes has aggregated a list of analysts’ predictions, including more hosted private clouds, a greater integration of cloud and mobile, and the personal cloud replacing the PC as the location where individuals keep and manage their personal content. More
E-Commerce Media & Marketing Techonomy 2012
Shopping Outside the Box (Highlights)
Mobile, responsive, and proactive—how will data and new ways to spend money transform commerce and retail? PayPal’s James Barrese, Dan Schulman of American Express, Walmart’s Gibu Thomas, and Erick Schonfeld of DEMO gather at Techonomy 2012 in Tucson, Ariz., to discuss. More
