| ComScore: Android's US market share passes 50 percent, BlackBerry OS and WP7 slide Apr 3rd 2012, 18:24 Another month, another round of ComScore's US mobile studies. For the three-month average period ending in February 2012, 234 million Americans age 13 and older were found to be using mobile devices, with Samsung having its products in the hands of 25.6 percent of the American mobile market. Behind it came LG (19.4 percent, dropping from 20.5 percent), Apple (13.5 percent, a 2.3 percentage point increase), Motorola (12.8 percent, down from 13.7 percent) and HTC (6.3 percent, a 0.4 percentage point increase). Overall, 104 million people were deemed smartphone owners, representing a full four million person uptick since just last month. Over on the platform side, Android managed to surge from 46.9 percent in November of 2011 to 50.1 percent, while Apple rose from 28.7 percent to 30.2 percent at the expense of RIM and Microsoft; those two managed to lose between two and three percent of their market share over the same period, but we're guessing the tide will turn for Microsoft as soon as that hotly-anticipated Lumia 900 gets to shipping. Eager for more charts and call signs? Head on down to the source. ComScore: Android's US market share passes 50 percent, BlackBerry OS and WP7 slide originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 03 Apr 2012 14:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink |  ComScore | Email this | Comments | | ViaSat Exede review Apr 3rd 2012, 18:00 Broadband in the boonies has long been an unreasonable ask. As slack-jawed farmers are fond of telling lost tourists "Ya can't get there from here," broadband-starved country bumpkins have heard from cable companies, "We don't offer service in that location." Options have been few, like paying said cable company thousands to run some copper a few miles down the road, or making a second mortgage payment for a dedicated T3 line. Over the years satellite internet has been offered as an alternative for broadband in places where bears do their business, but as we've seen it's never really worked. Bandwidth has been low, latency high and pricing on the tall side of average have made services like WildBlue and HughesNet untenable to all but the most dedicated wilderness lovers. Now a new player approaches, and the offerings certainly sound compelling. It's called Exede from ViaSat and it promises speeds of up to 12Mbps down and 3Mbps up -- comparable to your average household "broadband" connection. However, with monthly fees ranging from $50 to $130 depending on how much data you need, this has the potential to be considerably more costly. Worth it? Put on your best pair of overalls then click on through to find out. Continue reading ViaSat Exede review ViaSat Exede review originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 03 Apr 2012 14:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | Sprint LG Viper 4G goes on pre-order April 12 for $100, release date still TBA Apr 3rd 2012, 17:24 Sprint's finally starting to get the ball rolling with its first LTE devices, announcing this morning that it's ready to begin pre-orders of the LG Viper 4G on April 12, and the next-gen goodness can be yours for $100 (after $50 mail-in rebate). The actual release date wasn't specified, but at least we know this means it's coming up much sooner rather than later. As a refresher, the Viper comes with Gingerbread, a 4-inch WVGA NOVA display, a 1.2GHz dual-core Qualcomm MSM8660 Snapdragon S3, 1GB of RAM, NFC and Google Wallet functionality, a microSD slot, 50GB cloud storage from Box and a smattering of eco-friendly features. For the full rundown, gaze upon the press release below. Continue reading Sprint LG Viper 4G goes on pre-order April 12 for $100, release date still TBA Sprint LG Viper 4G goes on pre-order April 12 for $100, release date still TBA originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 03 Apr 2012 13:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | Instagram for Android hands-on Apr 3rd 2012, 16:40 By now, you've got to be familiar with Instagram. Sure, you may have never used the app, which until mere minutes ago had yet to make its way beyond iOS, but you've surely seen the results, in tweets, emails or littering your Facebook feed. And beginning this very moment, you can join in on the fun, even if you've never owned an Apple device. We took instantly to Instagram for Android -- the app offers an experience nearly identical to the iOS version, though the ability to capture and manipulate images on a larger device brought a unique twist to the wildly popular image manipulation experience. We decided to start off our snaps with a Samsung Galaxy Note, which not only offers a brilliant 1280 x 800-pixel display, but also a 5.3-inch surface on which to frame images and preview filters. Beyond the enormous variety of capture tools now available, it seems that not much has changed -- your favorite filters are still there, making those smartphone shots glow just as brilliantly as before. And, if you happen to despise the Instagram effect, this would probably be a good time to take that long-planned holiday from social media -- if it hasn't already, your screen is about to explode with colorful perfect squares of image funk goodness. Update: It appears that the Android version has yet to add the selective focus tool available in the iOS app. You can, however, brighten up the image and add or remove a frame. Instagram for Android hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 03 Apr 2012 12:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Instagram (Download) | Email this | Comments | |
