An interesting infographic on the development and continued growth in texting and mobile usage in our society.
Presented By TeleVox
mobile
What Does 2013 Hold for Mobiles
A new year means a new wave of different technological innovations. Considering our mobile phones are generally the single most used piece of technology, innovations in this particular field are of specifically strong interest to many of us. So what can we expect for mobile phones in 2013?
Microsoft & Research in Motion
There are two major companies hoping to be a massive success story in 2013: Microsoft, with their Windows Phone 8 and Research in Motion with their BlackBerry 10. So can any of these two make a real impact this year?
Both companies have put a lot of energy and resources behind their impending major smartphone releases, trying to create a breakout hit. Both will do well enough to keep going and to survive but tech experts don't see any of them really making a big impact.
Mobile Payments
Mobile payments and the ability to simply wave your phone over a cash register to pay for items, is a topic that seems to be going nowhere.
From Google to other mobile phone carriers to banks, there are a lot of big players pushing mobile payments as a new solution for the future. Unfortunately however, that hasn't really happened.
The problem has been Apple. The iPhone 5 did not include Near-Field Communications (NFC) technology, which is the key technology needed for mobile payments to work. As the iPhone 5 does not come equipped with NFC, there is a major stumbling block for mobile payments to really take off.
For mobile payments to really take off, it needs to be implemented almost everywhere and for this to be done it needs to be used by the masses. As the iPhone 5 doesn't have NFC and due to there simply being so many iPhone users, customers aren't going to see it as particularly useful.
This could change in 2013 with the iPhone 6 however.
T-Mobile
One company that could really spice things up in 2013 is T-Mobile. T-Mobile are offering a new way of paying for our phones. Instead of a subsidy, you'll have the option of paying up front with a lower data plan or paying a little initially and then paying monthly instalments.
Rather than having to sell my Netbook and sell iPad mp3 tablets to be able to afford a pricey smartphone, T-Mobile seems to be introducing a more financially manageable alternative to buying expensive phones.
The big question however, is how T-Mobile communicates this new plan to its new customers. Such plans are actually better overall for their customers in the long term, as it allows those buying their phone on subsidies to pay a lower monthly fee for data, voice service and text messages. The big challenge however is of course, whether T-Mobile can get this message across to consumers.
Right now their plans are working a little bit, but they really need to get aggressive with their messaging.
Test Driving the Droid Razr Maxx by Motorola
For a couple of weeks now I was able to take the Droid Razr Maxx by Motorola for a test drive on the Verizon network. First let me say the reason I chose the words “test drive” is because this phone is FAST!
My initial impression was that the screen on this phone was huge, which is important to me in a phone. I’m less worried about overall size dimensions as long as it’s fairly thin. I like being able to easily slip the phone into my pocket. After comparing it to my existing HTC EVO, the screen size is about the same size, but the casing and bevel makes it look much larger, without the phone being much bigger at all.
The second thing I noticed on this phone was that the battery seemed to last forever! Now I realize that some of this is due to it being a fairly new battery. I wasn’t testing the phone right out of the box, it’s already made it’s rounds through some other folks, but I swear I don’t think I had to plug the Razr Maxx in but maybe every other day perhaps.
Aside from overall speed, battery life and form factor, the other feature of this phone that really stood out for me is the proprietary SMARTACTIONS app. Here’s the quick and dirty:
Fight smart with smarter Droid RAZR Maxx’s advanced artificial intelligence monitors your behavior and self-optimizes to keep you running at peak effectiveness. Deploy your favorite apps even faster. Switch into silent mode automatically to avoid detection.
The first time this popped up I wasn’t sure what it was, but it said something like it noticed a meeting on my calendar and would automatically go into silent mode if I turned it on. You can setup other things to happen based on geo-location, time of day, plugging in headphones, plugging in to charge, etc. There’s a nice expanded review of features with more screenshots of the SMARTACTIONS screens on the Phonescoop.com site.
Of course we expect more from our phones now than just making phone calls, playing some games and using some other apps. The quality of the cameras (one front and back) on this phone are tremendous! It takes great photos and video for a device it’s size.
Oh, and like many of the other great phones from Verizon I’ve tried, you’ve got the Mobile Hotspot functionality, and this phone gives you support for connecting up to 8 devices with it’s 4GLTE connections. While I was using the phone I rarely had any issues with connectivity. Most of the time I’m always trying to use a wifi network when it’s available, but when that’s not an option, still no issues.
If you’re prone to really putting your phone through a beating, the Razr Maxx also defends itself against your abusive habits with a KEVLAR® casing. Yeah, that KEVLAR®, the bullet proof stuff. And the front screen is Corning® Gorilla® Glass
If there were a downside to this phone, the only thing that stood out to me was that there seemed to be a ton of default Motorola and Verizon apps installed. I’m not sure if I can delete these if I’m not using them, but since I’ve been having issues with my own HTC on the Sprint network not allowing me to delete apps I don’t want, I’m kind of hyper-alert of things on my phone that I don’t want and didn’t put there myself.