It’s just sitting there in your pocket. No noise. No vibration. The smartphone that’s doing “nothing” is probably a whole lot busier than you think. Many of the apps that require constant updates are fighting for the permission to check their respective networks through dormant connections. At times, as this graphic depicts, your phone may be trying to send signals as many as 30 times per attempted connection. As our friends at Amarillo Used Trucks knows, it’s not always what you know about that causes minor harm. If most of them are causing minor harm, the overall problem can be major. Click to…

Essentially everyone has a smartphone now. If you don’t, don’t feel badly – my phone is intelligent enough to function but doesn’t have all of the fancy additional features of an iPhone or Android. For those of you still waiting to jump into the world of smartphone users, Microsoft (yes, really, Microsoft) is trying to convince the world that it has the best and only real option for you. Let me preface this by saying that I don’t know anything about the new Nokia Lumia 900 that will be made available in new colors through AT&T this weekend on April 22, 2012. What I’d really like to focus…

If you’re like most people, you’ve lost a phone or two in your life. It’s not as simple as the old days when phones were connected to walls. Even cordless phones were easier to find because it wasn’t likely that they would be taken out of range of the base. In the smartphone world, a phone can be misplaced anywhere we go because they accompany us everywhere we go. The numbers behind smartphone losing is beyond belief. Every day, $7 million worth of smartphones are lost. This quick graphic breaks down the numbers behind our missing personal gadgets. Click to enlarge. Courtesy of: Background Check Blog…

It’s hard to let a good thing die. Most people who do not have navigation in their vehicle or a portable GPS system at the very least use their smartphones to get them from point A to point B. The days of looking up a route and printing it out are behind us… or so we thought. Nobody told MapQuest and as a result they’re still putting up some pretty decent numbers. This graphic breaks down 6 months of MapQuest user activity. It just goes to show that there are still people who don’t believe in GPS. From: MapQuest Via: Chattanooga Mitsubishi…

Recently, it feels as though new cell phones can do everything for you. Email, scheduling, GPS capabilities, games, messaging, and calls are but few of the standard features that many of us have grown accustomed to having on our phones. But now there are devices so artificially intelligent that they can use voice-activating programming to focus for you. Is this really a good thing? Some might argue that it isn’t. With phone features that can transcribe a message for you without ever having to type a single letter, maintain our schedules, find you the nearest place to go for dinner, and enable…

The world’s third-largest mobile phone maker has seen some recent success, posting their first profit in mobile for the first time in seven quarters. Now, they’re hoping to bank on the momentum by trying to partner with Google as a future provider of the Nexus phone. There’s a certain prestige that comes with having the Nexus name. Google’s own version of a handset that features Android has not had a ton of success with other phone makers, but it’s good for the companies that carry the name because it means the latest and greatest in Android technology. “We’re heavily in discussions,” Ramchan Woo,…

The mobile-device explosion may be getting fueled in recent months by Kindle Fires and iPads, but smartphones continue to be the foundation of the incredible growth the mobile industry is experiencing. Apps and devices are fulfilling many aspects of our everyday lives in ways that weren’t even imaginable just a couple of years ago. It truly is a mobile world today. This infographic by our friends at MyLookout breaks down the soaring growth of both devices and apps within the segment. Of the plethora of stats included in the graphic, perhaps the most startling is that they are projecting 982 million…

The Kindle Fire was just the start of Jeff Bezos’ and Amazon’s “Holiday Gadget War 2011″ against Apple (and everyone else). From now until next Monday, Amazon is selling all non-iPhones for a penny with a 2-year contract. The phones on the list aren’t old models, either. Included are the new Motorola DROID RAZR, Samsung Galaxy S II, LG Revolution 4G, and HTC ThunderBolt 4G. Many of the phones on the list retail for over $600 and are sold by carriers and retailers for over $200 with 2-year contracts. With the $199 Kindle Fire already expecting to break 5 million units sold in Q4, Amazon is clearly trying…

It may not have been their intention, but it’s definitely a clear indicator. By purchasing Ericsson’s half of the phone deal and announcing plans to move towards a smartphone-only model, Sony has unofficially declared the death of feature phones. It’s a trend that is likely to continue to hit other manufacturers. Sony’s president and CEO, Sir Howard Stringer, said it simply, “We’re phasing out feature phones.” Who’s next?…

It has been speculated that home entertainment would meld with online and app-based engagement more and more over time. Today, Nielsen revealed that 40% of tablet and/or smartphone owners use them while watching television. As people continue to Tweet or post to Facebook when watching TV while others explore and research information about the shows they’re watching, a growing number of people are using television time as email time. For most activities like email and surfing unrelated information, the gender gap is slim. The notable exceptions are visits to social networks (which women…