mobile devices

A new study reports that the strongest growth in purchases of Apple's iPhones comes from those earning less than the median household income.

According to the digital-media research firm comScore, iPhone adoption since June soared 48 percent among those earning $25,000 to $50,000 annually, and by 46 percent among those earning between $25,000 to $75,000. Under $25,000, the growth rate was 16 percent.

Cost Savings

About 43 percent of iPhone buyers still earn more than $100,000 annually, but the growth rates for the lower earners is three times greater.

If you can't manage to occupy yourself Web surfing, e-mailing or listening to tunes on your iPhone, EA Mobile has just announced a raft of games for the iPod touch and the iPhone. Phone games have become a real phenomenon as more and more mobile devices have enough screen real estate and processing power to become a viable game platform. The EA announcement Friday focused on the release of Spore Origins for the Apple mobile market, but the company also released details of nine other upcoming mobile game titles.

Mobile Spore Origins

IBM announced new software and services for mobile workers Friday, including applications for the iPhone and Blackberry devices. The Armonk, N.Y.-based company cited a surge in mobile devices as an important new market for traditional desktop, storage and server vendors.

IBM's internal research by its Institute for Business Value estimates that more than one billion people will be connected to the Internet this year -- a 191 percent jump from 2006. This makes mobile computing one of the fastest-growing markets in the world.

Mobility@Work

Having staked out a position on your PC and many mobile devices, Google now has its sights on your living room. Late last week, the search giant announced the release of a free beta version of Google Media Server, a Windows application that seeks to bridge the gap between a PC and a TV.

That gap is between the explosion of TV programs, movies, music and homemade videos on the Web and television sets. A variety of solutions have been launched by Microsoft, Apple and others, and now Google is entering that ring.

Gadgets and UPnP

Having staked out a position on your PC and many mobile devices, Google now has its sights on your living room. Late last week, the search giant announced the release of a free beta version of Google Media Server, a Windows application that seeks to bridge the gap between a PC and a TV.

That gap is between the explosion of TV programs, movies, music and homemade videos on the Web and television sets. A variety of solutions have been launched by Microsoft, Apple and others, and now Google is entering that ring.

Gadgets and UPnP

Finnish handset maker Nokia has taken GPS a step further with the announcement Monday that it is acquiring Plazes, the developer of a social-networking Web site that lets friends locate each other.

Currently in beta, the Berlin-based Plazes site lets users update their locations and activities using either Plazes software or by sending text messages. Users can subscribe to activity streams from their friends or groups of friends, as well as to streams from specific locations.

On Monday, Nvidia upped the ante on Intel. The company introduced the Tegra family of processors, a single-computer chip that promises rich high definition and Internet exploration consumers have grown accustomed to on PCs -- but on small mobile devices.

The Nvidia Tegra is a computer on a chip, smaller than a U.S. dime. Nvidia designed the chip from the ground up to enable the "visual PC experience" on a new generation of mobile-computing devices while consuming the smallest amount of power.

Google Inc. showed off its nearly completed mobile software system to about 3,000 computer programmers Wednesday, hoping to cultivate more services and advertising for people on the go.

Although brief, the demonstration at the Internet search leader's annual developer conference in San Francisco represented the most extensive public look so far at "Android" -- an open-source platform being designed for "smart" phones and other mobile devices that surf the Web. Android was first announced nearly seven months ago.

The Associated Press and more than 100 of its member newspapers are launching a service Monday that will make news stories available on Apple Inc.'s iPhone and other mobile devices.

AP had announced the Mobile News Network at its annual meeting April 14 in Washington. AP's president and chief executive, Tom Curley, said then that six newspaper companies were working to help develop the new service.

It's no secret that we at Ecogeek are fans of the e-ink display technology. The low battery consumption and superior readability compared to laptops and other mobile devices, not to mention the thin form factor, all combine to bring us closer to a digital literary future.