year
Source: http://gizmodo.com/5583881/how-a-small-studio-pulled-off-a-major-3+d-film-using-energy+saving-technology
Traditionally, only the mammoth Hollywood studios could afford to work with 3D—it’s too expensive to build the necessary, air-conditioned 24 hours a day, server farms. The company behind Despicable Me decided to try something new, and cut the AC.
Illumination Entertainment, the company behind Despicable Me, decided to try something new. Instead of using air-conditioned server farms to render images, the company asked IBM to built a customized server farm using the iDataPlex system, a processing system that cuts down on energy use by 40% compared to traditional server farms.
The iDataPlex has two key advantages: a flexible configuration that doubles the amount of systems that can run in a single IBM rack and the ability to run an ambient temperature room (no costly air-conditioning required). The system has been on the market for over a year, but Illumination is the first studio to use it for animated film.
This doesn’t mean that any scrappy studio with a dream can now produce a high-end 3-D animated film. Illumination used a 330-person team of artists, producers, and support staff to produce 142 terabytes of data. And the rendering farm, which processed up to 500,000 frames per week, was built in conjunction with Mac Guff Ligne, a French digital production studio.
But the iDataPlex gives Illumination a leg up in the graphics rendering process. Illumination Entertainment’s server farm, for example, is the size of four parking spots. That’s half the amount of space the company initially allotted to the farm. “Oftentimes a small studio like Illumination really wants to put their energy behind creating as compelling of content as possible,” explains Steve Canepa, Vice President, Media & Entertainment Industry at IBM. “By minimizing the technological issues associated with building and managing the [rendering] environment, we allow studios to reduce the amount of time, energy, and resources necessary to create an underlying technological platform.”
It’s a compelling idea for studios—even major ones—that want to cut costs and look environmentally conscious at the same time. IBM is already working with a number of other studios to implement similar solutions. Canepa concedes that studios could build similar systems by purchasing off-the-shelf racks and processors, but the iDataPlex’s unique configuration of servers packs a lot of processing power into a small space—and that’s not easy to replicate. Don’t expect these rigs to be appearing in suburban garages anytime soon.
Fast Company empowers innovators to challenge convention and create the future of business.
Tags: ability, air-conditioning, ambient, ambient temperature, amount, amp, animated film, canepa, company, configuration, conjunction, content, day, Despicable, Don, dream, energy, energy use, entertainment, entertainment industry, example, farm, Film, film illumination, flexible configuration, french digital, Hollywood, hollywood studios, IBM, iDataPlex, Illumination, industry, leg, Ligne, Mac Guff, mac guff ligne, market, mdash, Media, Oftentimes, parking, person, person team, President, process, processing, processing system, production, rack, Room, server, server farm, server farms, size, something, Source, space, staff, Steve Canepa, studio, support, support staff, system, team, technological issues, temperature, temperature room, terabytes, time, traditional server, use, using energy, vice, Week, year
Source: http://gizmodo.com/5584118/google-quietly-invests-over-100-million-in-zynga-readying-google-games
Whoa. TechCrunch reports that Google has invested between $100 and $200 million in Zynga, the social gaming behemoth behind Farmville, Mafia Wars, and others, in preparation for the launch of Google Games later this year.
TechCrunch’s “multiple sources” say that Google itself, not its venture capital division Google Ventures, has invested between $100 and $200 million in Zynga, a huge power play presumably with the aim of eroding Facebook’s social media dominance.
It seems that Google sees Zynga as the best way to hit the ground running with Google Games, a social gaming service from the search company that’s set to launch later this year. TechCrunch points to this job opening for “Product Management Leader, Games” at their Mountain View campus as proof that we’ll be seeing a lot more about Google’s move into gaming in the near future.
With Google Me, the company’s purported Facebook killer, continuing to take shape, this major investment in Zynga is just further proof that Google is making a very serious effort to hit Facebook where it hurt, namely, the farms. [TechCrunch]
Tags: 100 million, AIM, behemoth, campus, capital, company, division, dominance, effort, Facebook, Farmville, future, gaming, gaming service, google, ground, investment, job, job opening, killer, launch, leader, leader games, lot, Mafia, mafia wars, management, management leader, media dominance, mountain, mountain view, move, opening, play, power, power play, preparation, Product, product management, proof, search, search company, service, shape, social gaming, Source, TechCrunch, venture, venture capital, view, way, Whoa, year, Zynga
Source: http://gizmodo.com/5584255/analyst-blockbusters-last-gasp-to-occur-in-2011
Blockbuster? We knew it was dying, courtesy Redbox, Netflix and the changing ways people consume their entertainment, but when will it finally expire? Probably next year, according to one analyst and the company’s own balance sheet. Updated.
It’s a balance sheet that’s continually losing money, with the latest blow coming last quarter, when Blockbuster bled $65 million, reported 24/7 Wall St analyst Douglas A. McIntyre. Life’s become so dire, in fact, that Blockbuster is mulling Chapter 11 to eliminate debt.
While the remaining 6,000 stores is nothing to sneeze at (my late hometown one not amongst them), there is precedence for massive, simultaneous closures in rival Movie Gallery. That company had 2,400 stores, you see, and it shuttered them all back in February.
Ending on a positive note, the company could have a Redbox/Netflix hybrid future with its existing supermarket kiosks and mail service. So here’s hoping that happens, some people can keep their jobs, and Blockbuster’s predicted “demise” in 2011 is merely a metamorphosis into something a bit leaner and meaner. Competition is good, and all that.
Update: Reader Josh writes in with an additional bit of depressing news for Blockbuster:
[W]hen considering the future of Blockbuster kiosks, Blockbuster doesn’t actually own any of kiosks. NCR owns and operates all of them. Blockbuster just gets a small licensing royalty for them. So, Blockbuster definitely doesn’t have a chance at sustaining itself on those kiosks.
Ho hum. [Yahoo via Neatorama]
Tags: analyst, balance, balance sheet, bit, Blockbuster, blow, chance, chapter, chapter 11, company, competition, courtesy, debt, demise, Douglas A, entertainment, fact, February, future, gallery, hen, Ho, hometown, jobs, Josh, kiosks, last gasp, last quarter, licensing, life, mail, mail service, McIntyre, metamorphosis, money, movie, NCR, Neatorama, Netflix, news, note, nothing, precedence, Quarter, Reader, Redbox, royalty, service, sheet, sneeze, something, Source, supermarket, update, Updated, wall, Yahoo, year
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/08/pews-2010-mobile-access-survey-shows-more-people-are-doing-more/

As smartphones continue to extend their pocket-swelling domination of the mobile market, it should come as no surprise that people are less worried about talking and more concerned with doing other stuff on their handsets than ever before. But, still, if you want some hard numbers to make you feel better about making such conclusions, the Pew Research Center‘s 2010 Mobile Access survey has ‘em. Compared to April of last year, 76% of people take pictures with their phones, up from 66%, and over a third play games, up from about a quarter. A third of people now play music on their phones, compared to 21% in 2009, but the biggest jump is in recording video: 34% vs. 19% before. Given the number of new movie-capturing phones released over the past year, it’s easy to see why. So, no shocking numbers here, but sadly there’s no indication of the one usage statistic we think might actually be falling: making calls.
Pew’s 2010 Mobile Access survey shows more people are doing more things on their phones originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Jul 2010 08:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Tags: access, April, biz, Center, conclusions, domination, EDT, email, Engadget, gamesindustry, handsets, indication, Jul, jump, market, Mobile, mobile access, mobile market, music, nbsp, number, Permalink, Pew, pew research center, pews, play, play games, Quarter, research, Source, statistic, stuff, surprise, survey, Thu, usage, usage statistic, use, video, year
Source: http://gizmodo.com/5576453/youtube-gets-it-will-allow-ad-skipping
There’s nothing worse than watching a 30-second ad to watch some 30-second clip of something the world inevitably finds funnier than you do. Google/YouTube are acknowledging this phenomenon of the consumer psyche and will introduce an ad-skip button this year.
The idea is as simple as this: If an advertiser’s commercial isn’t captivating enough to watch in its own right, it’ll be skipped by viewers. If viewers don’t watch the ad, Google doesn’t charge the advertiser.
Now I know what you’re thinking: Why would anyone watch an ad voluntarily? See exhibit A, the lead video in which the god of the infomercial, Ron Popeil, does his thing. The only way that 9-minute clip could be more captivating is to put ANOTHER 9-minute Ron Popeil clip in front of it.
This skippable ad model will inevitably lead to better ads—at least in terms of catering the online attention span—and, for those of us* with the libidinal fortitude to turn a blind eye on GoDaddy-esque BOOBIES BOOBIES BOOBIES teasers, a lot more free time. [WSJ via Fast Company]
* OK, maybe I don’t skip every such commercial. But I only** watch them to be educated enough to write about them on Giz.
** This is a flat-out fabrication***.
*** What sort of monster have I become?
Tags: advertiser, ANOTHER, Anyone, attention, attention span, blind eye, BOOBIES, button, Clip, commercial, company, consumer, esque, exhibit, eye, fabrication, Fast, fortitude, free time, front, funnier, Giz, God, GoDaddy-esque, google, idea, infomercial, libidinal, lot, mdash, minute, model, monster, nothing, online, phenomenon, psyche, right, Ron Popeil, something, sort, Source, span, thing, time, video, Watch, way, World, WSJ, year, YouTube
Source: http://gizmodo.com/5573995/microsoft-would-like-to-remind-you-that-theyre-still-quite-ginormous
Sure, Microsoft may have given away its lead and legacy in mobile and probably jumped into too many hyper-competitive sectors, but they still have the widest reach in technology. And they’re still pretty damn successful.
In recent years, Microsoft may be a step or two behind, but they’re relevant in nearly every sector. And with Office 2010, a new Xbox 360, Kinect, and perhaps most importantly, Windows Phone 7, all receiving substantial upgrades this year, 2010 is shaping up to be absolutely huge for them. And that’s coming off a 2009 where Windows 7, Bing and the Zune HD were introduced. We’re just so used to Microsoft being around that we sort of take them for granted for all the good that they do.
So Microsoft revealed some numbers to serve as a reminder:
• 150 million Windows 7 licenses sold
• 7.1 million projected iPad sales in 2010
• 58 million projected netbook sales in 2010
• 355 million projected PC sales in 2010
• less than 10% of US netbooks ran Windows in 2008
• 96% of US netbooks ran Windows in 2009
• 16 million subscribers to the largest 25 US daily newspapers
• 14 million Netflix subscribers
• 23 million Xbox live subscribers
• 173 million Gmail users
• 284 million Yahoo Mail users
• 360 million Windows Live Hotmail users
• $5.7 billion Apple net income for fiscal year ending in Sept 2009
• $6.5 billion Google net income for fiscal year ending in Dec 2009
• $14.5 billion Microsoft net income for fiscal year ending in June 2009
Yes, they’re patting themselves on the back a bit but the numbers are just staggering. If you’ve forgotten, now you know: Microsoft will always be a very, very big deal. [Official Microsoft Blog via Bits]
Tags: 1 million, apple, back, bing, bit, Bits, blog, daily newspapers, deal, Dec, fiscal year, Gmail, Good, google, hd, Hotmail, hotmail users, income, iPad, June, Kinect, lead, legacy, Live, mail, mail users, microsoft, million subscribers, net income, netbook, Netflix, new xbox 360, Office, official, phone, reach, reminder, sector, sectors, Sept, sort, Source, step, substantial upgrades, take, technology, US, Windows, windows phone, Xbox, xbox 360, xbox live, Yahoo, year, Zune
Source: http://gizmodo.com/5561454/sony-lcd-3dtv-gets-disappointing-first-look
Gary Merson at HD Guru has seen Sony’s new KDL-55HX800 LCD 3DTV live and in person. His first take? Even a slight tilt of the head makes you see double and lose the 3D effect. Uh oh.
Merson found a whole range of things to be troubled about in his time with the Sony: double-vision, color shift, relatively shallow depth. But the main issue—as Mark reported at this year’s CES—is that LCD and OLED screens just aren’t up to 3D. At least not in the way that plasma displays clearly are.
It’s also worth mentioning that the HX800 Merson viewed is actually the lowest end 3D model Sony offers, and in fact is technically a “3D-ready” set, meaning that it uses a separate sync transmitter instead of the integrated 3D functionality of the LX900 series. We won’t know how big, if any, a difference that makes until we’re able to compare the two side by side. But for now, the early returns suggest that plasma’s still the early king of 3D technology. [HD Guru]
Tags: 3d effect, 3d technology, 3dtv, CES, color, color shift, D. At, depth, difference, double vision, DTV, early returns, effect, end, fact, functionality, Gary Merson, guru, hd, head, issue, KDL, King, LCD, Mark, mdash, model, OLED, oled screens, person, plasma, plasma displays, range, ready set, series, shallow depth, shift, side, sony, sony lcd, Source, sync, take, technology, tilt, time, tmpPost, transmitter, way, year
Source: http://lifehacker.com/5559357/iphone-vs-android-showdown-which-phone-is-best-for-power-users
The newest iPhone comes out in two weeks; the Android OS continues to deploy on better and better hardware; and both operating systems roll out exciting new features and innovations with each release. So which deserves your hard-earned cash?
A Starting Point
You can evaluate iPhone and Android devices from countless angles,[1] so rather than pretend that we’ve got the One True Comparison, it only seems appropriate to highlight that we’re not necessarily your average user. For more specifics on how we judge these devices, read this footnote.
For our purposes, we’re measuring each phone OS against 20 features we care about most, declaring a winner (or a tie) for each category, and adding it all up. The extent to which our measurements match up with what you most care about may vary, but we suspect that many of you share similar values when it comes to your smartphone.
Note: The table below indicates the device we think “wins” each category. A happy Android means we think Android is better in that category; an Apple means iPhone outperforms Android; categories with both an Android and Apple are ties.
![Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown] iPhone vs. Android Showdown: Which Phone Is Best for Power Users?](http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/17/2010/06/500x_iPhone-versus-Android.jpg)
Artwork by Adam Dachis
Below, we’ve broken down the categories above and explained whey we chose the winners as we did.
Ease of Use; Winner: iPhone ![Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown] AppleLogoIcon1 Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown]](http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2010/06/AppleLogoIcon1.png)
Android has come a long way in a short time, but from an ease-of-use perspective, the iPhone wins out. You can pick up any iPhone and quickly, easily understand what’s going on. It’s got one main button on the front of the device, and everything you do consists of tapping app icons from the home screen. Android devices have several buttons on the front of the device that perform a variety of functions, and once you unlock the screen (and depending on which Android device you have), you’re confronted with many different possible home screens and ways of doing things from those home screens.
Openness; Winner: Android ![Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown] AndroidLogoIcon1 Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown]](http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2010/06/AndroidLogoIcon1.png)
We really like that the Android operating system open source, but what’s more important to most end users is openness in terms of what you can run on these devices. The operating systems themselves are clearly important, but one thing’s abundantly clear: the applications make the phone. And while Google has yet to get in hot water for rejecting apps based on anti-competitive fear or censorship, Apple’s has. A lot.
Battery Life; Winner: iPhone ![Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown] AppleLogoIcon1 Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown]](http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2010/06/AppleLogoIcon1.png)
Apple has taken battery life extremely seriously in their careful development of the iPhone, and it’s shown. While Android devices get a kitchen-sink’s worth of features that you may consider to be a fair tradeoff for battery life, there’s little question that the iPhone’s battery life outlasts that of most Android devices. Battery performance definitely varies from Android handset to Android handset (the recently released EVO is taking big hits for its poor battery performance), but the iPhone’s battery performance—particularly the new iPhone’s performance—generally outlasts Android’s.
Multitasking; Tie
![Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown] AndroidLogoIcon1 Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown]](http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2010/06/AndroidLogoIcon1.png)
It’s a big deal that the iPhone is finally getting some multitasking support in iOS4, and while it’s still not as true of multitasking as Android users enjoy, the tradeoff in terms off battery life improvements is important enough that, overall, we’d consider multitasking to be a wash.
Software Keyboard; Winner: iPhone ![Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown] AppleLogoIcon1 Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown]](http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2010/06/AppleLogoIcon1.png)
If you talk to anyone who’s used both the iPhone and Android with some frequency, the general consensus is that the iPhone’s software keyboard is a good deal better than Android’s default keyboard. That’s unfortunate for Android users, but the consolation is that you can install any custom keyboard as your default keyboard on Android, and we’ve seen some solid keyboard alternatives. Still, the advantage, if only by virtue of being better out of the box, goes to the iPhone.
System-Wide Search; Tie
![Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown] AndroidLogoIcon1 Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown]](http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2010/06/AndroidLogoIcon1.png)
Apple’s implementation of Spotlight on the iPhone searches contacts, media, email, applications, notes, and calendar. Android searches most of that (but notably not email), but also integrates with auto-suggest web searches; it also lets other applications plug into it, so the more supported apps you install, the more robust the universal search becomes.
Notification system; Winner: Android ![Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown] AndroidLogoIcon1 Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown]](http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2010/06/AndroidLogoIcon1.png)
This may seem like a silly thing to care too much about, but the iPhone’s modal notification system is particularly user un-friendly, especially for a device as friendly as the iPhone. You have to act on a notification, and you can only see one notification at a time before the next one dismisses the previous one entirely. Android’s brilliant pull-down window shade notification tray, on the other hand, is a beautiful thing that could make any iPhone owner jealous.
Voice-to-Text; Winner: Android ![Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown] AndroidLogoIcon1 Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown]](http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2010/06/AndroidLogoIcon1.png)
Nearly every text field on an Android device can be filled with a few words from your mouth, and it works surprisingly well. You can respond to emails by voice, send long text messages by voice while you’re walking around Target, respond to your editor’s IMs while you’re at a graduation ceremony, and so on, as long as you’re comfortable talking to your phone (it is a phone, so you should be). Apart from voice-to-text in third party apps, iOS doesn’t support voice-to-text at all.
Syncing; Winner: Android ![Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown] AndroidLogoIcon1 Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown]](http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2010/06/AndroidLogoIcon1.png)
iPhones can be incredible standalone devices, but they’re surprisingly old-fashioned when it comes to syncing, requiring users to plug into their computers and connect to iTunes to do all sorts of syncing and activating that could be more conveniently done wirelessly. Android phones support pretty great over-the-air syncing with your Google account, so much so that if you were to lose your previous Android phone, simply entering your Google account into a new one can get you up and running with a usable phone in a jiffy.
Non-Google Sync; Winner: iPhone ![Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown] AppleLogoIcon1 Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown]](http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2010/06/AppleLogoIcon1.png)
Android’s great at syncing seamlessly with Google’s servers, but it’s not so keen on syncing with other popular sources of data—like, say, Outlook, Address Book, or iTunes. If you’re a heavy user of any of those applications, the iPhone is the easiest option.
Tethering; Winner: Android ![Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown] AndroidLogoIcon1 Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown]](http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2010/06/AndroidLogoIcon1.png)
The cost of tethering on Android devices varies depending on the provider, but so far the Android tethering situation is better off than what AT&T is offering on the iPhone. In the States, AT&T will charge you $20/month just for the privilege of tethering your iPhone’s data connection to a computer—despite the fact that you’re already paying for a metered data plan. The situation isn’t necessarily much better across the Android-sphere (Sprint is also planning to charge for tethering on the EVO, for example), but currently most Android carriers are sticking with “unlimited” plans, versus AT&T/iPhone’s 2GB limit. It’s still a close race on this point, but Android edges ahead with the ability to turn your handset into a Wi-Fi hotspot that can deliver wireless to you and seven of your closest friends.
Release and Update Consistency; Winner: iPhone ![Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown] AppleLogoIcon1 Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown]](http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2010/06/AppleLogoIcon1.png)
These days, your mobile OS is just as important (if not more) than mobile hardware, and Apple has set the consumer expectation to expect that their device will receive new feature updates even if it isn’t the latest phone. To that end, it’s extremely easy to keep track of what’s going on in the iPhone ecosystem. Apple releases one new phone a year, and one major update each year. When an update rolls out, every phone receives the update at the same time (unless it’s particularly old; the original iPhone won’t upgrade to iOS4, for example). In contrast, Android runs on a lot of different devices, and when Google pushes out a new update, there’s no telling when or if it’s going to make its way to your phone. In the future Google is planning to change to yearly Android updates similar to iPhone OS updates, which will likely help this situation, but in the meantime, it’s a source of frustration for Android users.
Apps; Tie
![Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown] AndroidLogoIcon1 Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown]](http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2010/06/AndroidLogoIcon1.png)
A lot of people may disagree on this assessment, given that Apple’s App Store has around four times the number of applications the Android Market does, but there’s also a lot of crap in the App Store, and at this point, most popular, mission-critical applications have been developed for both the iPhone and Android. What’s more, some potentially very popular applications end up locked out of the App Store for, if we’re being generous, arbitrary reasons. At the end of the day, it may be a big deal that your must-have application X is missing from the Android Market/App Store, and those may end up to be dealbreakers for you, but overall we’d call them pretty even.
Web browsing; Tie
![Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown] AndroidLogoIcon1 Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown]](http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2010/06/AndroidLogoIcon1.png)
The iPhone’s Mobile Safari browser, while not without its faults, is a very nice, very usable mobile browser. Android’s browser, while not as smooth an operator as Safari, supports (or can support) Flash. The extent to which that matters to you may vary, but it’s big enough that we’re considering it a tie.
Gaming; Winner: iPhone ![Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown] AppleLogoIcon1 Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown]](http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2010/06/AppleLogoIcon1.png)
We’re frugal productivity nerds at Lifehacker, so we don’t really care all that much about gaming. And while the number of solid gaming options available in the Android Market continue to grow, it’s still not on par with what’s available for the iPhone.
Music Player; Winner: iPhone ![Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown] AppleLogoIcon1 Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown]](http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2010/06/AppleLogoIcon1.png)
Android may do a lot of things well, but one arena where its users regularly voice complaint is with its default media player. Where the iPhone comes with a very solid iPod app, most Android users quickly go looking for alternative players. Google is hyping over-the-internet streaming of all your music from your desktop computer eventually, but until we see something great there, the iPhone still wins out.
Free Turn-by-Turn Navigation; Winner: Android ![Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown] AndroidLogoIcon1 Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown]](http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2010/06/AndroidLogoIcon1.png)
After the Google Voice debacle from last year, it’s looking less and less likely that Google will ever develop another new app for the iPhone. Unfortunately, that means that extremely cool applications like Google Maps Navigation, Google’s free turn-by-turn GPS application, will never make it to the iPhone, and so far there isn’t anything as good for the iPhone that’s also free. The iPhone does have its share of solid for-a-price GPS utilities in the App Store (and some decent inexpensive-to-free options), but Maps Navigation is built into Android and outshines the iPhone’s free alternatives.
Integration with Google Apps; Winner: Android ![Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown] AndroidLogoIcon1 Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown]](http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2010/06/AndroidLogoIcon1.png)
If you rely on Google tools like Gmail, Google Contacts, Google Calendar, and the like, Android just does it better. The iPhone’s still no slouch, and can sync over-the-air with Contacts, Calendar, and even does Gmail push for instant new message notifications, but if you’re a serious Google or even just Gmail user, the iPhone doesn’t stack up to Android.
Google Voice; Winner: Android ![Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown] AndroidLogoIcon1 Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown]](http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2010/06/AndroidLogoIcon1.png)
It may seem absurd to make this a separate point of comparison from Google Apps, but Voice is a very phone-centric app with potentially huge influence over how you use your phone. Apple had the option to approve a Google Voice app for the iPhone and completely blew it. And since we really love Google Voice, it only makes Android look that much more attractive.
Customizable; Winner: Android ![Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown] AndroidLogoIcon1 Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown]](http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2010/06/AndroidLogoIcon1.png)
You may be able to add a wallpaper to your iPhone desktop when iOS4 rolls out, but beyond that, there’s not much you can do to tweak your iPhone to exactly how you like it—without jailbreaking, that is. In comparison, Android devices are Mr. Potato Heads of customizability.
Overall Score: Android: 13; iPhone: 11 ![Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown] AndroidLogoIcon1 Which Phone Is Best for Power Users? [Showdown]](http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2010/06/AndroidLogoIcon1.png)
Clearly our scorecard is extremely subjective, so take this evaluation with a grain of salt, and consider how important the features we listed (and maybe those we didn’t list) are to you and come up with your own assessment. If your priorities are similar to ours, you’re likely looking at an Android for your next purchase. Frankly, it feels a little like a draw overall. (My ideal would be Android running on the iPhone 4, which is actually possible, eventually.)
In fact, in our recent poll on the subject, 66 percent of Lifehacker readers said they prefer Android; 30 percent prefer the iPhone, and 4 percent preferred neither. Whichever end of the spectrum you fall on, we’d love to hear more about what’s driving your decision in the comments.
Why just Android and iPhone? The iPhone and Android operating systems are not the only mobile OSes on the block, but they’re what we’re focusing on in this post. It’s cool if you’re really into Windows Mobile/Phone 7 or webOS. For the purpose of this post, we’re focusing on what we consider to be the most popular options among our readers. [
go back up]
How we judge: We consider ourselves power users who care about things like openness, user control, and customizability; we also care about ease of use, high quality design, and quality hardware. For better or worse (usually worse), these qualities often end up at odds with one another in the current smartphone market, but they make up the measuring stick against which we’re evaluating these devices.
It’s also probably worth noting that, Android OS and hardware aside, we’re big fans of several of Google’s services, and so some of those play an important role in some of the categories above. It may not seem fair to Apple and the iPhone to do so, but in most instances (like Google Voice), Apple had the opportunity to accept Google-focused applications to the App Store.
Finally, the state of Android devices can be somewhat confusing because they’re released by different carriers and on lots of different hardware. We tried to strike a balance between acknowledging faults on some of the worst incarnations of Android hardware while also keeping in mind the best. To the extent that older iPhones aren’t up to snuff compared to the new iPhone, we’ve done the same thing in discussing the iPhone. [go back up]
Adam Pash is the editor of Lifehacker; you can read more of his stuff here at Lifehacker and follow him on Twitter.
Tags: account, amp, android, angles, app, apple, application, Artwork, browser, computer, device, email, end, example, extent, field, footnote, gaming, google, hand, home screens, innovations, iOS, iPhone, lot, market, mdash, measurements, modal, mouth, music, navigation, new features, Notification, number, openness, operating systems, owner, perspective, phone, player, point, power users, Safari, search, shade, short time, situation, specifics, store, system, text, thing, Tie, ties, time, tmpPost, tray, true comparison, update, user, voice, Voice-to, Web, window, Winner, year
Source: http://gizmodo.com/5556346/iphone-os-triples-androids-market-share-for-now
Nielsen’s new “iPhone vs. Android” report offers up the latest numbers in the big mobile battle: Both platforms have loyal users, but Apple’s still on top by a long shot.
They don’t come as much of a surprise, but with all the talk of Android’s surging popularity and explosive app growth, Nielsen’s numbers do serve as a reminder that Apple still has a comfortable lead. Versus Android, that is—nationally, the iPhone’s still in second place, with a 28% market share compared to RIM’s 35% (Android has 9%; Windows Mobile has 19%).
But it will be interesting to see how things shake out over the course of the year. With the new iPhone dropping in a matter of weeks, prospective smart phone buyers (23% of U.S. mobile customers now have them) will be faced with the choice of hopping on the Apple wagon or exploring the multitude of Android options. As Matt noted in his Froyo review, Android is as polished as it’s ever been and is likely to improve even more in coming months. And while it’s hard to top the iPhone hype machine, reception to early versions of iPhone OS 4 hasn’t exactly been rapturous.

Another Nielsen graph shows that both platforms enjoy loyal users—80% of iPhone users want another iPhone; 70% of Android users want another Android phone—with Android’s group slightly more curious about the iPhone than the other way around. But in my experience, it seems like things are trending to the opposite. With Android’s app offerings increasingly matching up with the iPhone’s, I’m seeing more and more people considering Android a viable option for themselves, as well as one they can recommend to others.
Though still on top, Blackberry’s loyalty is only 47%, and as current Bold owner, I’m definitely of the 53% that’s planning on jumping ship when it comes time to buy my next phone. I’m just not sure what ship I want to jump into. [Nielsen via CNET]
Tags: android, app, apple, battle, BlackBerry, Bold, choice, CNet, course, experience, Froyo, graph, Group, growth, hype, hype machine, iPhone, lead, loyal users, loyalty, machine, market, market share, matt, matter, mdash, Mobile, mobile customers, multitude, Nielsen, offerings, opposite, option, owner, phone, place, planning, platforms, popularity, reception, reminder, report, review, RIM, share, ship, shot, smart phone, Source, surprise, talk, time, tmpPost, U.S., Versus, viable option, wagon, way, Windows, windows mobile, year
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/19/idc-and-gartner-award-smartphone-growth-prizes-to-apple-and-goog/
Get ready to rumble, the latest Gartner and IDC smartphone numbers are out to give us a pretty good idea of how things shape up globally. Remember, IDC measures vendor shipments while Gartner measures actual handset sales to end users. So what does the data tell us? Well, to start with, in terms of smartphone devices, Gartner claims a 48.7% increase in smartphone sales of 54.3 million units in Q1 2010 compared to Q1 2009 — IDC pegs growth at 56.7% on 54.7 million units for the same period. Both estimates easily outpace the 17% or 21.7% growth in worldwide units of mobile phones moved according to Gartner and IDC, respectively.
IDC’s list of top 5 smartphone device makers (pictured above) has Nokia at the number one spot repeating its 39.3% share as it did in Q1 of 2009 while RIM is down slightly from 20.9% in 2009 to a 19.4% market share in 2010. Apple (up from 10.9% to 16.1%) more than doubled its device shipments in the last year as HTC (up from 4.3% to 4.8%) and Motorola (up from 3.4% to 4.2%) all managed to increase their shares on higher volumes.
Regarding smartphone OS market share, Android’s global numbers echo its success in the US jumping from a 1.6% market share to 9.6% in just one year. Gartner claims that sales of Android-based phones increased 707% year-on-year to displace Windows Mobile in the top 5 for the first time. Apple’s iPhone OS also saw growth from 10.5% in 1Q09 to 15.4% in 1Q10 as both RIM (down from 20.1% to 19.4%) and Symbian (down from 48.8% to 44.3%) dropped. See the OS numbers broken down into a no-nonsense table after the break.
Continue reading IDC and Gartner award smartphone growth prizes to Apple and Google
IDC and Gartner award smartphone growth prizes to Apple and Google originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 May 2010 04:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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