By Aldo Panessidi
The world's greatest tech show - CES 2012 - kicked off on Monday,  January 9th... and will run until Friday January 13th.
With more than four decades of success, the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) reaches across global markets, connects the industry and enables CE innovations to grow and thrive.   The show is produced by Consumer electronic Association, the preeminent trade association promoting growth in the $186 billion U.S. consumer technology industry. CEA represents more than 2,000 corporate members involved in the design, development, manufacturing, distribution and integration of consumer electronics products. All profits from CES are reinvested into industry services, including technical training and education, industry promotion, engineering standards development, market research and legislative advocacy.
This year's show is held at the Hilton Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas and will cover more than 1.8 million square feet which is equivalent to 35 American football fields with over 2700 [...]

By Megan Fleet
Every brand and company has its shtick, its M.O., its press friendly sound bytes. Google is no different when espousing the virtues of its Google Android operating system at each event they are able to use a soapbox and spread their smartphone evangelism. The main gospel is the Android culture of openness and the lack of limitations is to the benefit of the consumer.

This is great PR spin. And this writer truly loves a good euphemism laced with truth. So, while Android is more open that its competitors, it is comparative. When held up to open-source software like Linux, it is actually quite closed. Hence, a Hollywoodesque Benniffer moniker is bound to catch: Clopen.
At the moment, Google makes the Android OS source code available to companies and individuals to customize to their liking. Very open and transparent, non? Flip side of this coin is the Google mobile suite [...]

By Megan Fleet

Many pro-business advocates will espouse the virtues of patents and their being upheld with patent law in the free market world. A clear comparison in the schools of thought: free market vs. controlled market is the US vs. China. The latter is known for its corporate espionage, systemic lack of creativity, and lack of respect for the rights of intellectual property. The former sometimes has the opposite problem where obscure patents and a muddy system work against entrepreneurs and fail to promote the sharing of information and technology. Strangely, the proprietary model of Apple and their inclination to sign carrier exclusive deals instead of providing carrier agnostic unlocked cell phones seems counterintuitive to this pro-business strategy they’ve pursued.
With these polar opposites at work in the global corporate world, the HTC / Apple patent infringement case actually made me a smile a bit as it is a rare case [...]

By Aldo Panessidi
While the mobile carrier options are different, the mobile device brands, their popularity, and availability are very comparable between the US and Canada. In particular the convenience of unlocked cell phones which better serves mobile consumer in North America with the freedom to choose their service provider  and subscription plan that best meets their lifestyle needs.
So what are the trends and popularity for this year? Two words: Samsung cell phones and Android. According to research giant ComScore, Android is chipping away at the market share previously held by the beleaguered RIM’s BlackBerry OS… In a short three month period Android captured an additional 4.4% of the market as RIM dropped 4.5%.

Samsung's recent successes have allowed them to gain market momentum thanks to the growing of their  Samsung Galaxy SII cell phone and Galaxy Tablet.   In fact, Samsung’s smart phones account for over a quarter of the mobile [...]

By Aldo Panessidi

Before October, the casual smart phone consumer was likely blissfully unaware of the existence of a company by the name of Carrier IQ. Thanks to researcher Trevor Eckhart, it has come to light that the stealth software company is recording keystrokes, SMS messages and other information and possibly reporting the data back to their servers. Carrier IQ’s response? Issuing a cease and desist letter to the whistleblower, Eckhart, and releasing a media alert dismissing the accusations saying that they are “not recording keystrokes or providing tracking tools.” Enjoy the freedom brought about by unlocked phones... which allow you to choose not only the service provider but the plan that best meets your lifestyle needs.
The potential privacy contagion is rumored to be limited to certain smart phone OS’s, so be an informed consumer and review all your mobile device options. The best part is the great offerings and [...]

By Megan Fleet
Most travelers would expect a European capital to have a bustling international airport.  However, most first-time visitors to Finland would be in for a surprise.  This Nordic beauty has a mere population of 5 million... hence, its Helsinki airport resembles a small regional airport . It may be home to global mobile phenomenon, Nokia, but its population doesn’t appear to be sufficient to keep the former industry leader ahead of the competition. In fact, the Taloussanomat report out of Helsinki is the loudest singing canary in the global coalmine – a drop in Nokia brand popularity from 76% to 31% in a short 12 month period.  Discover the vast selection of unlocked phones in particular the Nokia smartphone phones .
 
The major change agent in this scenario?  In an inability to independently weather the unknown market climes and customer inclinations, Nokia partnered with Microsoft and released the Nokia Lumia800 [...]

By Megan Fleet
In an era where patents are sold and bought  like commodities in lieu of protecting intellectual rights;  and where mall innovators are snapped up for their technological visions and execution, - HTC is a wonder to behold.  The rising star of the smartphone world has « arrived. »
Ten years ago HTC couldn’t even be considered a boutique cell phone to set yourself apart from the mundane crowd of Motorolas and Nokias. It was, however, a company earning its chops manufacturing hardware for Windows Mobile-powered devices for household names like Compaq and XDA.  Now HTC is manufacturing the Raider, Amaze and Desire line of cell phones coupled with a plethora a innovative protective solutions and premium electronic accessories
HTC's big break came in 2008 : with the Android. The Dream and G1, which launched the brand into the periphery of the ever growing smart phone consumer market.  Its years as a technological innovator [...]

Written by: Aldo Panessidi
It's the most explosive development in the tablet market since the release of the original iPad and the latest apple tablet the iPad2. The launch of the Amazon Kindle Fire represents a major shot across the bow at Apple, according to a new ChangeWave survey which primarily targeted North American consumers.
According to ChangeWave demand for tablets this holiday season is three (3) times higher than for the same period last year.
It seems that today, shoppers have broadened their tablet interest from to include the Kindle Fire from Amazon... you can view more in this consumer demand survey
The more interesting stat, perhaps, is that more than a quarter of respondents in ChangeWave’s survey who confirmed an imminent Kindle Fire purchase said they would buy the Amazon tablet in place of an iPad.
“Tablet providers (Iconia, Xoom, Flyer, Galaxy Tab, PlayBook, etc) have failed to gain appreciable traction against iPad’s [...]

If you are a current subscriber to T-Mobile’s 5GB webConnect data plan the recent announcement made by the wireless network may be some good news or bad news depending on how you look at it.  T-Mobile recently announced that the carrier will no longer be charging its $.20 per megabyte overage fee for any data used beyond the 5GB limit.  Instead of these overage fees the wireless network will be implementing bandwidth throttling on any data used on top of the standard 5GB.  While T-Mobile did not say exactly how much they will slow things down this latest announcement effectively makes the 5GB webConnect data plan an unlimited plan. 
This new data structure will also affect those customers who are on the 200MB monthly plan for their iPhone or other devices.  While these customers will not see any bandwidth throttling they will see their overage charges cut in half from $.20 [...]

In yet another internal memo it looks like the Sprint Hero is set to receive the Android 2.1 update in early May.  According to other internal memos the Hero was supposed to have had Android 2.1 last week so we can not really count on these memos to be highly accurate.  However, this latest news does come from two different sources.  The guys over at Android Guys got a customer service rep on the phone who said:
Agent (Jolly K): “I am sorry for misinformation. The updates says that Android 2.1 HTC Hero is being launched in the first week ok [sic] May”

At about the same time the fellas over at Phandroid got their hands on a camera shot of a memo indicating the same thing saying the Hero can expect the upgrade to Android 2.1 in early May.
For those of you wondering what the hold up might be Sprint is [...]