A Scottish holidaymaker was hit with a shocking £1,200 phone bill when he returned from Thailand, despite never making a call or sending a text whilst abroad…

It’s terribly difficult to get reliable statistics, as numbers tend to vary drastically depending upon whom you ask, but if you’re inclined to believe that Android is mopping up Apple and RIM’s declining mobile mindshare in the US, you’ll find nothing but corroboration from Quantcast. The analytics firm reckons a full one-quarter of mobile web traffic stateside comes from devices running Google’s OS, though it’s important to know that the iOS tallies apparently don’t include the web-friendly iPad. You also might want to note that this is mobile web traffic here — these days, we spend an increasing amount of our internet time in apps — and since we’re on a roll with the disclaimers, let’s just add that these numbers have nothing to do with a company’s financial success. Nokia can attest to that.

Android accounts for one-quarter of mobile web traffic, says Quantcast originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 04 Sep 2010 19:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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After a flood of leaks, Verizon’s just officially announced its prepaid data plan for smartphones. The new 3G Prepaid data package will offer smartphone users “unlimited” data for $30 a month, while feature phone users can score 25MB of data a month for $10 with a 20-cent-per-meg overage fee — all contract-free, of course. The prepaid smartphones include all of Verizon’s Android phones, the Pre and Pixi Plus, as well as most recent BlackBerrys, which is a pretty solid list of choices — and you can sign up for them today or online on September 28. Of course, you’re still on the hook for a full price phone and a voice plan (and there’s no mention of texting), so whether or not this works out to be a deal is up to you, but we’re definitely seeing the prepaid data market start to significantly heat up, and we like it. PR with full device list after the break.

Continue reading Verizon officially announces prepaid smartphone data packages

Verizon officially announces prepaid smartphone data packages originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Sep 2010 13:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Computers

Hey, amateur astronomers, listen to this: A couple of at-home space nuts recently discovered a pulsar with a screensaver that uses idle PC time to process data collected from telescopes. By using Einstein@Home to ‘donate’ a PC’s processors to the pursuit of science, the program harnesses thousands of willing computers, rather than one supercomputer, to analyze data. This helps on-the-clock astronomers to cheaply continue their research while they sift through data collected from the Arecibo radio telescope and the LIGO gravitational wave detector.

Wells Fargo computer professionals Chris and Helen Colvin personally built the “run-of-the-mill” computer, which first discovered the pulsar on June 11th, before it was confirmed by another user, Daniel Gebhardt, in Germany on June 14th. The Colvins told Fox News, “It’s just something that runs in the background and we don’t think about it very much.” The trio likely won’t receive anything (besides bragging rights) for their discovery, but we think, at least, they should get to name the star. After all, their PCs could’ve just been wasting time playing retro video games instead. Check out an interview with the Colvins and Gebhardt after the break. [From: Science, Einstein@Home and The National Science Foundation, via: Fox News]

Continue reading Citizen Scientists Use Einstein@Home Screensaver to Discover a New Pulsar

Citizen Scientists Use Einstein@Home Screensaver to Discover a New Pulsar originally appeared on Switched on Sun, 15 Aug 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Computers

Facing rising crime rates, the Memphis Police Department turned to a predictive crime analytics program developed by IBM back in 2006, thus making the threat of ‘Minority Report’ one step closer to reality. According to GovTech, the CRUSH (Criminal Reduction Utilizing Statistical History) software, which puts crime data on a digital map of the city, has helped the MPD reduce crime by 31-percent in the past four years.

Police officers know the precise time and place crime is most likely to occur. “We could see the base, the time of day, day of the week and the types of crimes, and we were able to deploy resources at the exact time the crimes were occurring,” John F. Williams, a crime analysis unit manager, told GovTech. “It blew our minds how accurate things were.” Before using this software, it took a lot of manpower to create complex spreadsheets to analyze crime patterns. Now, the MPD can base its strategy on the instant analysis of data from the previous 24 hours, 48 hours and 28 days. In January 2010, it led to more than 50 drug arrests and a 36.8-percent reduction in crime in one neighborhood alone. Besides being the music capital of the South, Memphis might be leading the way in refining crime technology, too (and delicious ribs, of course). [From: GovTech and IBM, The Guardian, via: PSFK]

CRUSH Software Helps Memphis Cops Predict Crime originally appeared on Switched on Mon, 26 Jul 2010 17:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We oftentimes hear raw numbers of apps bandied about in mobile OS comparisons, but we rarely get any idea of just how many developers are behind the scenes working for each platform. This is the void of knowledge filled by AppStore HQ today, who have gone to their dev directory — claimed to be a complete listing of all 55,000+ coders whose work is currently available for consumption in the Apple App Store or Android Market — and stacked them into neat piles of Apple, Google and Gapple programmers. It’s immediately apparent that single-platform development is the norm (with Apple holding the predictable edge), but AppStore HQ also provides a list of some of the most well known (and well funded) apps doing the cross-platform dance, and suggests that a movement is afoot toward making software available for both sets of users. Then again, the BNET article below points out the difficulties faced by smaller outfits, who might struggle to find the resources required to port their content over and maintain the skills required to be multi-platform, resulting in them sticking to one environment, irrespective of what allures others might throw their way. Give them both a read, we say.

iOS has a bigger dev army than Android, but will cross-platform apps rule the day? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 05 Jul 2010 04:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Roaming gouging has been an ongoing issue in Europe for some time — an issue EU officials have been looking to solve as of late — and a big step in capping that garbage goes into effect as of today, July 1. Data roaming will now be automatically cut off by law when a user’s roaming bill breaks the €50 ($62) mark, though users can call their carrier to set up an alternative cap if they’re going to need more (or less). The maximum charges for voice roaming is also falling, with outgoing calls dropping to €0.39 from €0.43 per minute and incoming calls hitting €0.15 from €0.19 previously. It’s still not cheap, but considering how easy it is to get from London to Paris to Vienna and back, it’s a critical start.

European limits on roaming charges go into effect today originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Thu, 01 Jul 2010 17:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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