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If you want to map a locale or score some directions but want to avoid driving into a pole, you can now use your pipes . Google Maps now recognizes Search by Voice on Windows Mobile and Symbian S60 phones. Google introduced Search by Voice in 2008 and has been rolling that functionality out into different parts of the Googlesphere since. Now Google Maps 4.1 comes with voice search. Sponsor The categories of search that Maps will now recognize vocally includes the full spectrum of search fields already enabled for mobile. business name business category city, state ZIP code postal address intersection, city, state airport code latitude longitude Hands-free it is not, however. To start the search you still need to open Google Maps and hit "call" prior to making your search. The install is available on qualifying phones at m.google.com/maps . An interesting aspect of the language settings the ability to select not just your language but, if it's English, the accent you use. I wonder if this functionality will be available to Spanish-speakers or whether the different accents within Yue Chinese will eventually be recognized. Discuss
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Google Mobile Announces Search by Voice for Maps
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According to Smaato , a mobile ad optimization and advertising company, Internet users on Symbian phones, feature phones and Windows Mobile phones are far more likely to click on mobile ads than users on iPhones, Android phones, Palm devices and Blackberries. To get this data, Smaato , analyzed over 4 billion ad requests on 36 mobile ad networks . Worldwide, the click-through rate (CTR) for Android users declined markedly over the last two month. While Android still had an above-average CTR in January (just behind Symbian), Android ranked at the bottom of Smaato's ranking for March. Sponsor Android in South East Asia While the worldwide CTR for Android is down, however, the CTR for Android phones in South East Asia is far higher than for any other platform. Sadly, Smaato only publishes a comparative index doesn't release the actual click-through rates for all the ad networks it supports. Because of this, it isn't clear if this just means that the CTR for all the other platforms in South East Asia simply dropped, or if the usage patterns for Android phones in countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines are very different from the worldwide average. Who Clicks on Mobile Ads? Symbian and Feature Phone Users Surprisingly, users with Web-enabled feature phones are far more likely to click on ads than those on most smartphone platforms, even though the user experience is likely to be far inferior to clicking on an ad on a smartphone. According to Smaato's analysis, Symbian users are more likely to click on ads while surfing the Web on their devices than users on any other platform. While we can only speculate as to why this is the case, chances are that this has more to do with the different user demographics than the actual user experience on these devices. For more details from Smaato's report, including fill rates for different ad networks and data from previous reports, head over the company's website . Discuss
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Who Clicks on Mobile Ads? Symbian, Feature Phone and Windows Mobile Users
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Have you ever found yourself wondering why your friend hasn't called - even though they promised - only to realize you've been sitting in the cellular equivalent of the Dead Sea for the past hour and a half? Sometimes, it just happens that the spot you decided to wait out an important call had no coverage and now, you could know that beforehand. Even better, you can look at your city's coverage before you even choose a wireless service in the first place. Root Wireless today released its Root Mobile crowd-sourcing app for Blackberry and Android phones, which pulls data from phones and aggregates it into a street-level coverage map. Sponsor According to the company, the app is "a free beta application utilizing smartphones as network monitoring devices" to help people choose which cell provider to go with. Currently, the mash-up map , which is offered on CNET , provides information on 17 different areas for AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon. From the company on the specifics on the network testing: Root Mobile conducts tests that measure signal strength, data transmission speeds, network connection failures and other performance indicators. It is noteworthy that these tests differ from data transmission speed tests conducted by others using PCs, precisely because Root Mobile is engineered to determine real-world network performance as experienced by people using smartphones - findings that for the first time objectively measure and map true, real-world performance from the perspective of the smartphone consumer. Users can choose to run a network test when they want. The application otherwise runs unnoticed in the background. Apps for Blackberry and Android phones are already available with one for Windows Mobile phones on the way before the end of the second quarter. An iPhone app is said to be in development. We have to wonder if differences between handsets and reception have been taken into account or have we moved beyond that? The map lets us choose between what type of reported info we would like to see, whether "Signal", "Data" or "Network", but there is no device category. We can also see the number of zones reporting "No Bars", "Access Failure" and "Hot Zones" (such as dropped calls), but no information on how many people have reported these issues. With a crowd sourced app and mash-up like this, we'd love to know if the problem is widespread or if, in reality, there's been one person who's been there and not gotten any reception. Maybe they've dropped their phone one too many times? We don't know. Either way, it looks like a neat idea that we think we would like to compare with those carrier-provided coverage maps. Let's see if your map gets in the way of the game now, Verizon. Discuss
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Can You Hear Me Now? Check This Crowd-Sourced Mobile Coverage Map
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We're seeing a few glimpses from Mix10 of what Windows Phone 7 Series will look like for the enterprise. Perhaps most compelling is the continued emphasis on creating an experience more so than an enterprise "phone." It appears that Microsoft has learned a lesson that is more apparent every day. People want smartphones as much for personal use as for business use. Sponsor But Microsoft is saying little about what it does plan for the enterprise with its Windows Phone 7 Series. They say more is to come in the next few weeks but clearly the emphasis is on the consumer market, not the enterprise. Network World did a little sniffing around Mix10 and did get a few tidbits of what we should expect: Windows Phone 7 is no longer enterprise-centric but the user experience is still catching the fancy of independent software vendors that want to sell it into the business market. The iPhone and Google Android are proof enough that people will find relevance for smartphones in the enterprise even if the devices are meant primarily for consumers. A developer community is ready and waiting to make applications for Windows Phone 7. Developers can create applications within a development environment they understand. Network World notes: "Visual Studio programmers can drag and drop controls onto a Windows Phone surface, bring in existing Silverlight libraries or Azure cloud projects, and wire them up to data sources, behaviors and services, just like they do when writing software for a Windows PC." Microsoft is expected to offer a secure area within its Marketplace to accomodate enterprise applications. The intention wold be to provide a place where enterprise customers could download company specific software or the framework for their own marketplace. This would provide IT administrators with ways to administer applications within the enterprise. It's uncertain what security features will become part of Windows Phone 7. Microsoft has historically provided Microsoft Exchange Active Sync which enables Windows Mobile devices the ability to sync with Microsoft Exchange. Actice Sync has offered a number of security features such as remote data wipe and encrypted connections. Will this rich security framework be kept intact? With such a consumer focus, it's uncertain what will come of it. Windows Phone 7 includes an Office Hub, allowing people to create and edit Microsoft Office documents. Microsoft has put a lot of effort into making Sharepoint a mobile site. Windows Phone 7 will integrate with Microsoft Exchange. It appears users may set up tiles within Windows Phone 7 to edit and share Sharepoint documents. It appears that Microsoft may not necessarily have to focus on the enterprise. Its rich user experience may be enough to get people interested. Core enterprise features will only help give Windows Phone 7 a chance to compete more effectively. Discuss
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Will Windows Phone 7 Series Be A Smartphone for the Enterprise?
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Blockbuster is bringing its OnDemand service to both Windows Mobile and Google Android phones, starting March 24th with the launch of the T-Mobile HTC HD2 smartphone. On that device, Blockbuster customers will be able to download and watch new releases directly on their mobile phones while also gaining access to queue management and movie locator tools similar to those found in Blockbuster's iPhone application. The company has also confirmed that they're working on an Android app, which is likely to launch on the "select Motorola phones" Blockbuster previously hinted at when they partnered with the handset manufacturer last summer . Motorola is the maker of several popular Android-powered handsets including the Droid, Backflip, Devour, Cliq and Cliq XT, but Blockbuster won't yet confirm which of these will be able to utilize the new mobile service. Sponsor Focused on Mobile Although Blockbuster's annual report to the SEC hints at the company's financial troubles - troubles exacerbated by competitors like Netflix and the pop-up video rental kiosks from Redbox - the company has clearly not given up its will to compete. With offerings already available for PCs, Samsung Blu-ray players, Samsung TV sets and Tivos, Blockbuster's strategy going forward is attacking the mobile front with full force. In the works is an updated iPhone application, an Android application (apparently for the Motorola phones, although the company won't directly confirm this), the Windows Mobile application for the HD2 and the expectation that more carriers and manufacturers will want to partner with them once they see what the company's mobile apps can do. Blockbuster vs Netflix: New Releases vs. Back Catalog Where Blockbuster differs from Netflix is in its desire to forgo "streaming" in favor of downloads when it comes to their on demand options. Unlike Netflix's desktop streaming service and newly announced Silverlight-powered app for Windows Phone 7 Series devices , Blockbuster's OnDemand service for both desktop and mobile actually downloads content to whatever hardware it runs on. According to Scott Levine, Blockbuster's VP of Digital, it's not that the company is against streaming per se - it's just that streaming over 3G is more of a challenge. Instead of dealing with the network connectivity issues brought on by overloaded wireless carriers or relegating themselves to putting out a limited "Wi-Fi only" type of application, the company's free mobile apps will actually download the movie a customer rents or purchases to the handset and protect it using DRM (digital rights management) technology. This solution allows Blockbuster to serve new releases to their mobile customers as opposed to the "back catalog" content which is what, for the most part, Netflix's streaming service currently provides, says Levine. No Downloads on Apple Devices, but Working On Other Solutions However, the technology Blockbuster uses now to serve its movies to mobile devices limits what the company can offer to iPhone, iPod Touch and soon, iPad users. This is due to the fact that Apple restricts apps from saving movies to the device's hard drive, Levine explains. When asked if they had plans to work around these restrictions in order to launch an iPhone/iPad app, he would only say that the company was "exploring different options" and that they would "love to be there." For now though, iPhone owners who use Blockbuster's mail service can manage their account with the mobile application which will soon be updated with more features. In the new release, there will be improved remote control options for queue management plus tools that help you determine Blu-ray store inventory, games store availability and the availability status for movies in your Blockbuster queue. More Details on Devices T-Mobile has just launched the site for the new HTC HD2 smartphone which lists the Blockbuster service among its many features. The status of which Motorola phones will include the new mobile app is still unknown but Motorola's Android lineup includes several devices running different versions of the Android OS. Both the Backflip, Cliq and Cliq XT come with Android 1.5, but only the Blackflip is upgradeable to 2.1, according to Motorola's website . The Devour runs Android 1.6 and the Droid runs 2.0. However, Verizon is pushing out the 2.1 update to the Motorola Droid starting this Thursday.
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