Google Adds Speech Driven Search for PCs and Chrome Browsers

Google has been supporting voice search on Android devices for a year or so. Now Google has added speech recognition into search on desktop for Chrome users. If you’re using Chrome, you’ll start to see a little microphone in every Google search box.

Simply click the microphone, and you can speak your search. This can be particularly useful for hard-to-spell searches like "bolognese sauce" or complex searches like "translate to spanish 'where can I buy a hamburger'".

Voice Search on desktop is rolling out now on google.com in English.

Official Google Blog: Knocking down barriers to knowledge

Netflix Streams Putting Pressure on Premium Cable Channels

According to The Diffusion Group’s (TDG’s) latest analysis of Netflix Streamers, people who stream Netflix content to their net-connected devices, the inclination to downgrade PayTV services has doubled in just the last 12 months.

In March 2011, TDG queried a random sample of adult broadband users that subscribe to cable, satellite, or telcoTV service as to the likelihood they would downgrade their PayTV service in the next six months.

In general, the percentage of Netflix streamers likely to downgrade their PayTV service increased from 16 percent in 2010 to 32 percent in 2011.

That should make sense. Netflix primarily is a source of movie content. What do premium channels provide? Primarily movies.

TDG: Proclivity to Downgrade PayTV Services Increasing among Netflix Streamers

U.S. Wireless Consumers Get Best Rates

Some of us can remember when mobile phones were the size of bricks and cost four figures. Likewise, there was a time when the United States trailed most other developed nations in wireless service penetration. That isn't the case anymore, of course.

The United States wireless industry offers subscribers the lowest revenue per minute of all OECD countries. Also, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch, average revenue per minute is nearly 70 percent lower than the averages of the other 25 countries.

Average revenue per minute is nearly 70 percent lower than the average European country.

As a result, the average wireless consumer in Europe used just 172 minutes a month compared to 793 minutes a month for the typical U.S. consumer.

The U.S. market also is the largest mobile data market and also has the most mobile Internet users, according to Nielsen Mobile."

US #1 for Wireless Industry Innovation | CTIA-The Wireless Association

Starbucks App Coming to Android

Beginning June 15, 2011, the Starbucks mobile payment app will be extended to include the Android platform.

The coffee giant also plans to add mobile payment capabilities to Starbucks shops in 1,000 Safeway stores, bringing the number of places where mobile payments work to nearly 9,000 in the U.S. That number includes 6,800 company-owned Starbucks and another 1,000 locations inside of Target stores, said Chuck Davidson, category manager for innovation on the Starbucks card.

“With the addition of Starbucks for Android to the Starbucks app line-up, a Starbucks mobile payment app may now be used on approximately 90% of smartphones currently in use,” said Adam Brotman, Starbucks’s vice president and general manager of digital ventures.

January marked the nationwide rollout of Starbucks’s mobile payment system. By the end of March — just nine weeks later — Starbucks told its shareholders that it had processed more than 3 million mobile paymentsvia its Starbucks Card Mobile application for iPhone and BlackBerry. See http://mashable.com/2011/06/14/starbucks-mobile-payments-android/#view_as_one_page-gallery_box1543

Starbucks extends smartphone payment app to Android devices - Computerworld

Digital Drives Media Futures, Hitting $555B In 2015 06/15/2011

Digital has emerged as the central driver for media companies' operating models, consumer connections and revenues, according to PwC's "Global entertainment and media outlook: 2011-2015."

Domestically, the entertainment and media market is expected to grow at 4.6 percent compound annual growth rates, reaching $555 billion in 2015, while online ad growth should average 12.2 percent annually through 2015.

Total U.S. advertising is expected to increase at a 4.2 percent CAGR, from $170 billion in 2010 to $208 billion in 2015.

PwC predicts that global entertainment and media spending will rise from $1.4 trillion in 2010 to $1.9 trillion by 2015, growing at a 5.7 percent CAGR.

MediaPost Publications Digital Drives Media Futures, Hitting $555 Billion In 2015

T-Mobile Father's Day "Free Broadband" Promotion

On June 18, T-Mobile is hooking up new and existing customers (with at least 18 months of contract tenure) with 12 months of free data ($10 a month worth) for signing a new talk, text, and data plan on a two-year contract. So if you’re looking to save Dad from all those data overage charges, perhaps the one-day-only Father’s Day sale at T-Mo is the way to go.

If you sign up for T-Mo’s 200 MByte data plan, the carrier will reimburse you every month with $10 in credit, covering the whole $120 cost of that size plan. If you opt for one of T-Mobile’s larger data packages (2GB, 5GB, or 10GB) with unlimited talk and text, T-Mobile will still offer $10 in monthly credit.

T-Mobile Offers A Year’s Worth Of Free Data For Father’s Day

Ericsson to Acquire Telcordia

Many readers will be too young to remember it, but Telcordia once was called "Bellcore," way back in the days after the breakup of the AT&T system, and designed to provide a similar function for the Regional Bell Operating Companies that Bell Laboratories traditionally had played for Western Electric and the old AT&T.

That function had changed over the years, of course. Bellcore was privatized in 1996, when it was sold to SAIC.

Did Apple Embrace the Cloud with iCloud, or Not?

Apple’s iCloud announcement can be read two different ways, it seems. Some say Apple's approach is more closed than open, more focused on device-based apps than cloud apps and actually is a private cloud, or a re-defined cloud. See iCloud and Apple’s truth.

Others disagree. "With iCloud, Apple is transforming the cloud from an almost tangible place that you visit to find your stuff, to a place that only exists in the background. It’s never seen. You never interact with it, your apps do — and you never realize it." See http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/08/apple-icloud-google-cloud/.

Apple is going after consumers who have absolutely no idea what the cloud is, and don’t care. Apple is saying they shouldn’t care.

Google seems to be aiming more for users who understand current computing paradigms and want to transition that knowledge to the future of computing, the cloud. Power users, if you will.

While the fundamentals are the same, Apple’s approach to the concept of the cloud is the opposite of their competitors. Apple’s belief is clearly that users will not and should not care how the cloud actually works.

Did Nokia Shoot Itself?

One false step and you’re dead. Or worse: You’re the walking dead. This is what awaits CEOs who mismanage a product transition and allow the existing revenue stream to run dry before the promising new product shows up.

The "Osborne Effect" is how some describe the problem. Osborne Computer Corporation in 1981 introduced a machine that was, in effect, the first commercially available portable computer, the Osborne 1. In 1983, the company announced two superior models in the works, the Executive and the Vixen.

Customers took his advice. They stopped buying the current model and waited…and waited… In 1985, the company ran out of cash and went bankrupt. Some would say Nokia is making the same mistake.

Transitions: The Nokia Way vs. The Microsoft Way | Monday Note

Facebook Dominates Social Sharing

ShareThis recently analyzed the sharing and clicking habits of over 300 million people per month who share links using a ShareThis button on more than a million websites, revealed that sharing now generates approximately 10 percent of all Internet traffic and 31 percent of referral traffic to sites from search and social.

Facebook comes out on top, accounting for 38 percent of all sharing referral traffic. This is compared to 17 percent of sharing referral traffic each for Twitter and email.

Facebook Dominates Social Sharing With 38% of Shares on the Web

Motorola Introduces "Televation" to Stream TV Around House

Motorola Mobility announced "Motorola Televation," a broadband device that works with a Wi-Fi router to allow consumers to watch live TV on a connected IP device anywhere around the home, whether they are preparing food in the kitchen or relaxing in the backyard.

According to Motorola’s 2010 Media Engagement Barometer research, Americans watch an average of 21 hours of video content a week and about 86 percent pay for TV service. Furthermore, in May 2011, Motorola conducted focus groups with consumers in the New York and Los Angeles metro markets. In many cases, consumers liked the idea of watching live TV somewhere other than a traditional family room and felt it would allow them to spend more time with loved ones if they had the ability to watch different programs in the same room.

Motorola Mobility Introduces Live Streaming Device For All the Other Screens in the Home

HP Working On Cloud Service For TouchPad

HP is reportedly working on an iCloud-like service for its new TouchPad tablet that will allow users to stream and download movies and music. Given that media consumption is a popular activity on tablets, if a brand wants to sell tablets, an in-house content storage, rental or purchase service is an obvious asset.

The service may work a lot like Sony's Qriocity, the service that allows users an all-you-can eat package of music and movies.

HP Working On Cloud Service For TouchPad

Google Chromebook Launch June 15

With so much attention focused on tablets, the new Google Chromebook is not likely to get as much attention from technology-forward observers, in part because of the "post-PC" thinking that now dominates much of the computing industry.



But tablets aren't always, maybe rarely, a fully functional substitute for a PC. Many tablets are used only at home or in offices where there is Wi-Fi connectivity, and primarily for light text entry such as email, and mostly for other forms of content consumption.



"Heavy lifting" in terms of content creation still occurs on PCs. But tablets have some advantages that Chromebook will also feature, for users who have "heavy lifting" chores and must rely on a PC. Chromebooks will boot up in eigher seconds, Google says.



If you talk to iPad users, one of the advantages quickly noted is that such devices boot up fast. The other issue is that Chromebooks are optimized for web use, cloud apps and storage, and will be most useful for people who do content creation, but "live on the web."



Chromebooks also will update automatically, when powered up and connected to Wi-Fi or 3G mobile networks.



read more here

Can Mobile Phones Interfere with Aircraft Safety?

A report by the International Air Transport Association, a trade group representing more 230 passenger and cargo airlines worldwide, documents 75 separate incidents of possible electronic interference that airline pilots and other crew members believed were linked to mobile phones and other electronic devices. The report covers the years 2003 to 2009 and is based on survey responses from 125 airlines that account for a quarter of the world's air traffic.

Twenty-six of the incidents in the report affected the flight controls, including the autopilot, autothrust and landing gear. Seventeen affected navigation systems, while 15 affected communication systems. Thirteen of the incidents produced electronic warnings, including “engine indications.” The type of personal device most often suspected in the incidents were cell phones, linked to four out of ten.

Can Mobile Phones Interfere with Aircraft Safety?

Samsung and Apple to end Nokia's smartphone reign | Reuters

Samsung Electronics will become the world's largest smartphone maker in the second quarter of 2011, overtaking struggling Nokia Oyj which has lead the market since 1996, Nomura analysts believe. Nomura also sees also Apple overtaking Nokia, pushing the Finnish company to number three in the rankings.

'Nokia looks set to relinquish its smartphone crown to Samsung and Apple,' Nomura analysts said in a research note. Research firms Gartner and Canalys both said they saw Nokia, which created the smartphone market with its 1996 launch of the Communicator model, losing smartphone volume leadership later this year.

Samsung and Apple to end Nokia's smartphone reign