Survey: Droid advertising scaring men right into dutiful brand loyalty

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/24/survey-droid-advertising-scaring-men-right-into-dutiful-brand-l/

Glowing red cyborg eyes, bombs dropped from stealth fighters, emotionless calls of "DRRROOOIIID" every time you get a text message -- it's enough to scare yesterday's lunch out of anyone. Verizon's no-holds-barred advertising campaign for the Motorola Droid has been so hellishly frightening overwhelmingly successful, in fact, that it appears to be paying dividends either directly or indirectly against Moto's biggest rivals. YouGov's BrandIndex -- an ongoing survey measuring brand loyalty through some secret-sauce methodology that only analysts would fully comprehend -- shows a marked spike in Moto's score in the critical adult male category, while Apple and RIM have taken hits over the same period. These numbers look terribly volatile over a relative short span, so we're not going to be rushing to any conclusions -- but by any measure, it's pretty wild to see Moto go from a has-been to besting the bulletproof cult of iPhone in just a few short weeks. In the long term, it'll be interesting to see just how deeply Moto's and Apple's carrier relationships are factoring into public sentiment; after all, momentum's certainly on Verizon's side right now.

Survey: Droid advertising scaring men right into dutiful brand loyalty originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Chrome OS like lightning from a USB key: we could get used to this

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/24/chrome-os-like-lightning-from-a-usb-key-we-could-get-used-to-th/

We finally got around to prepping a USB key so we could boot to Chrome OS natively, and let us tell you: it's a world of difference. Of course, running something natively instead of virtualized is always going to be a treat, but what we're seeing with Chrome OS is actually on par performance-wise with our crazy expectations for a stripped-down OS. It boots in mere seconds and loads websites with the best of them. The build we're using, courtesy of @hexxeh on Twitter, who made all this possible with some great instructions and a masterfully-built chromiumos.img, was also able to log into the apps pane -- something we didn't pull off on our virtualized rig. We wouldn't call this our main Linux jam just yet, but even as we strut cockily back to our "big people computer," it's hard not to feel the love for something this simple and swift. If you want to do this with your own netbook, hit up Hexxeh's instructions at the read link below (we found the Windows how-to easiest to follow, for what it's worth), and if you want to be a mere voyeur you can hit up a video demonstration after the break.

Continue reading Chrome OS like lightning from a USB key: we could get used to this

Chrome OS like lightning from a USB key: we could get used to this originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Wikipedia's Brain Drain [Data]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/IMPiDaoQJ4M/wikipedias-brain-drain

The decay of time, bitter infighting, and the increasing scope and strength of regulations slowly strangle the life out of Wikipedia, with editors—its braintrust—fleeing in droves, even as traffic at the world's fifth most-popular website keeps growing. [WSJ]

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iPhone and Android Are Taking Over the (Mobile) Internet [Smartphones]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/im6PuNCoffQ/iphone-and-android-are-taking-over-the-mobile-internet

So, what does it take to snatch a combined 75% of US mobile internet traffic? Two operating systems, a handful of phones, and one great browser core.

That the iPhone is a massive source of online traffic isn't a surprise—that's been apparent since the week it launched. What's interesting here is Android's rise, which is dramatically quickening, already accounting for a fifth of mobile traffic in the US, when the real marketing push for the OS, starting with the MyTouch ads and the massive Droid launch, is only recently starting in earnest. What is a surprise, or at the very least a Sad Thing, is how poorly Palm is faring. Their tiny sliver of market share might seem understandable since they really only had one new phone for the duration of the survey, but this phone was supposed to be their savior; in the year since it was introduced, their mobile traffic actually fell.
Google and Apple's stark gain in the stats, collected by mobile advertising firm AdMob, is a little less spectacular worldwide, mainly because Symbian's established, but waning, 40% smartphone market share helps it snatch about 25% of mobile web traffic. Still though, two things are clear: Android and the iPhone are who mobile web developers are going to have to cater to, and WebKit, which Symbian uses in its browser too, is basically it.

Anyway, how about a bonus chart! Ever wondered how common the different Android handsets are, which i! s most p opular, and which don't register? Well hello, extra pie:

The G1 is the predictable star here, but the Droid is exploding. [AdMob via Techcrunch]

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The iPhone Already Has Multitasking, And It's Awesome [Btw]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/VudfSaILgmA/the-iphone-already-has-multitasking-and-its-awesome

In 2009, iPhone multitasking is a bit like apps were in the early jailbreak days. That is to say painfully, clearly possible, but simply not allowed. These jailbreak apps show how it could—and should—be done.

What you're seeing here is really the combination of two apps, standby jailbreak justifier and essential iPhone app Backgrounder, which lets your designate any app to run in the background, and new task switcher interface called Multifl0w. (There are other, more basic task switchers already, the most widespread being Kirikae) The new combo feels like magic: It's a little bit Android, a lotta bit Pre, and more importantly, an obvious improvement, at least on the speedier 3GS.

Granted, anyone who's used background knows that for the sake of your battery, you have to be careful how many apps you open, and how many you leave running. Honestly though? Every other smartphone manufacturer trusts their users to mind their own damn processes, which seems to work out pretty well. So, uh, when will we get this by default? OS 4.0? 5.0? Shut up, blogger?

You can give it a try now in jailbreak app manager Rock, and Cydia's on its way. Sadly, it's only free on a trial basis, after which it'll cost your five dollars. Backgrounder and Kirikae, though? They're still free, in all sense of the word. [MultiFl0w--Thanks, William!]

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