This is a pretty alarming revelation to many iPhone owners. It must be thrown out that this type of information is kept on many platforms, not just the iPhone – so the issue is definitely not limited to iOS users.

however, I was alarmed by many of my more nerdy friends who said comments on Facebook and Twitter such as “well, we tweet and Facebook locations all the time – why are people freaking out about this”?. It was my response to them and others is that *mainstream* smartphone users are not on these platforms and would be floored if location data was more readily available.

Yesterday, some numbers came out that validated my thoughts. According to TRUSTe, an Internet privacy service, privacy is a leading concern for smartphone users with security a close second. Yes in our terms of service, location use and broadcasting is spelled out, but the fact is that we don’t read these ridiculous terms when we use our technology.

Also, according to the study, 77% of respondents say that they do not want to share their location with app owners and developers. Additionally, 85% say they are uncomfortable with advertise tracking.

Apple’s response to the inquiries has been that location is tracked so app developers can send you notifications based on your location. I can see the use of this – how about a task tracking application that reminds you to pick up bread as you pass by the store?

The use case is definitely there, but it seems there is still some issues to be settled to make smartphone. Perhaps companies such as Apple and Google need to better define what’s going to happen with your personal data. Simplified controls could go a long way to make customers more comfortable.

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Majority Don’t Want To Share Location

To check out the application, you must have an Android phone running Android 2.1 or better with a screen size of HVGA 320×480 or better. You can use the Android application at the same time as your iPad or iPhone controller, or even alongside the app on your PC or Mac.

I tested the application on my T-Mobile G2 last night and I was  blown away. I’m used to Android applications that don’t look or act as fluid as the iOS counterparts.  However, Sonos has created a beautiful and functional application that gives me full control over my S5 boombox and ZonePlayer hooked up to my main stereo system. Companies who release Android applications should reference Sonos Controller to see how Android apps should look and act.

In Other News

In other news, Sonos released version 3.4 of the Sonos System Software that brings support for Apple AirPlay, iOS multi-tasking and more.  For further information, check out their Software Release Notes.

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Sonos Releases Android Controller Application

The folks at Nokia BetaLabs have been hard at work trying to make the N8 useful and easier to use. I’ll highlight three of the most recent gems to come out of Helsinki in the recent weeks.

Nokia Sleeping Screen

Most mobile phones are useless when the screens are turned off.  Especially the iPhone – that thing is just dark with no LED light or indication of a missed call email. Nokia Sleeping Screen aims to give you some indication of what’s going on with your phone while it’s been sitting on your desk, with the screen powered down for battery saving.

With Nokia Sleeping Screen, time and date are always present on the device while it sleeps. If you miss an SMS, call or calendar event; an attractive animation pops up and alerts you to this event. Also, there’ s a cool battery charging animation that pops up when you’re charging.

See the video below for more info:

Nokia Drop

One feature I love about Android is Chrome-to-Phone. This utility allows you send links, maps/directions and other bits to your Android phone, straight from your browser. The Chrome-to-Phone feature is standard in Android 2.2+, and Nokia Drop is Nokia’s stab at emulating this awesome utility.

Nokia Drop comes in two pieces – first is an application that downloads to your phone and waits to get push notifications from your browser. The other piece is a browser plug-in, either for Google Chrome or Firefox, that can send three types of content to your phone: 1) links, 2) sending images to your phone as a file, and 3) sending an image and having it assigned as your phone’s background.

Granted Drop is a little limited in what it can do now, but Nokia will be adding functionality as time goes on. I’d love to see the ability to send links from an address and see Ovi Maps pop up with automatic navigation and further ability to send files through the cloud.

As before, here’s a video that explains the concept further:

Nokia Situations

I love my phone to be smarter than me. That is, when I am going into certain contexts, I want it to sense this and do certain things. Such as, when I go to work, go in to Meeting mode so my phone only beeps when I have a call, rather than ringing loudly.  Also, from 10:00 PM to 7:00 AM, I want the phone to be silent because my I am sleeping.

I do these tasks routinely, but wouldn’t it be nice for the phone to do it in the background? Nokia Situations facilitates this. For example, when the phone senses my workplace’s wireless network, the phone goes into Meeting mode. You can set a variety of triggers to do certain actions, based on the time, wi-fi networks or location.

It’s a great utility and I’m glad it’s a reality now in Nokia devices.

Another obligatory video:

Conclusion

It’s awesome to see BetaLabs pumping out awesome apps that give us some visual eye candy and effective utility to our Nokia devices. Kudos to the BetaLabs team and keep it up!

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Three New Amazing Apps from Nokia BetaLabs

Facebook announced today that they are up to 250 million mobile users, up from the 100 million they announced last February. This means that in just 14 months, Facebook’s mobile population has grown by more than 2x…wow!

While most Facebook users likely access the service through an app for their mobile phone, whether it’s for Android, iPhone or BlackBerry, the Facebook mobile website just got a revamp that should make the site better for mobile browsers as well.  You see, those on advanced phones were directed to touch.facebook.com while those on smaller, cheaper featurephones has been directed to m.facebook.com — a degraded site that had lesser graphics and user interface.

This difference is no more as the two sites are now one.

Do you use Facebook on a mobile device?  If so – how do you like to interact with the site…by updating status and posting photos?  I look forward to learning from your use!

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Facebook: Half Our Users Utilize Mobile

However, comScore has released its figures recently and affirmed the results. In the period from October 2010 and January 2011, 65.8 million people in the US owned smartphones during that time, up 8 percent in the prior three-month period. Google’s Android OS led the way wit ha 31.2 percent market share, followed by RIM with 30.4% and Apple hanging on to 24.2%.

It should be noted that Android is eating a way at iOS marketshare, but more importantly, iOS is starting to take away share from RIM. The market share battle appears to be a three-way race at this point.

According to the study, 234 million Americans aged 13 or over owned a mobile phone and used it during the period. Samsung led the way for hardware manufacturers with 25%, followed by LG at 20.8% and Motorola at 16.5%, showing that a variety of hardware manufacturers help Android get a high market share.

So, what do people do on their phones? It seems 69% of Americans send text messages while only 37% utilize the mobile browser. Almost a third download and utilize applications and a forth utilize social networking or blog reading.

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comScore Affirms: Android Owns Smartphone Space

There is one arena where smartphone users are whipping their phone out to either save a buck, research a product or read a review: and that’s while they are shopping. According to Momads, a mobile agency in the UK and Belgium, product research whilst shopping has doubled.  In most cases, consumers are looking for price information, comparing products, and seeking exact product specifications.

For myself and my friends, I can easily confirm these facts. For instance, in my case, my wife is constantly asking me to utilize my T-Mobile G2 Android phone to use the Amazon app to scan barcodes while we’re shopping for products for our house. in 5 separate cases, we’ve found products to be vastly less expensive than in stores.

Mobile apps on phones make shoppers more intelligent. Retailers, in turn, should embrace mobile devices and rise to the challenge to be more transparent and have better prices. Perhaps by utilizing mobile barcodes, retailers can make it easier for users to do their own research while in the stores, armed with their phones.

Check out the infographic below for more detailed information.

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Infographic Shows How Mobile Influences Shopping

I went to SXSWi last year (my first episode of the Austin super networking festival) and I was completely reliant on my mobile – using a mix of text messaging, Twitter and Facebook, I was able to meet up with friends no matter where they were in Austin. Yobongo attempts to do the same, but all inside a hopefully addictive application.

There are other apps that do this including GroupMe and Beluga (as the Techcrunch article points out), but Yobongo hopes to stand out in March come SXSW.  For me, I see a few factors stacked against Yobongo including:

• As of now, it’s iPhone only. At SXSW and other technical conferences, they *used* to be iPhone dominated, in 2008 and even 2009.  But in the last two years, I’m seeing MANY Android handsets and even BlackBerrys (and a few Palm devices here and there). Being iPhone only will automatically limit the audience for any app trying to make a dent amongst the mobile SXSW-ers.
• They’re fighting the incumbents. We already have apps such as Foursquare, Twitter, BlackBerry Messenger, Facebook and plain SMS (text messaging for those in North America) to find out where our friends are and what they’re doing – can Yobongo stand out enough?
• Yobongo isn’t innovative enough. Um, watch the video below…yeah, the app is interesting- but it’s not intriguing enough to alter the existing applications and behaviors surrounding then that are listed above.

I can’t wait for SXSW Interactive – it’s coming up in just a few weeks. To test out every app possible, I’ll bring my Android handset, BlackBerry device and even my iPod Touch to test out iOS apps…I have an open mind and can’t wait to see what apps rise to the top in the 4 day festival.

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SXSWi’s Darling App: Can Yobongo Do It?

ComScore, a mobile research firm, looked at how Brits use their phones and saw that Facebook’s 7.5 million unique mobile users spent 2.5 billion minutes on it’s side in the month of December 2010. What site ranked second?  Google – with only 9.5 million users spending a weak 702 minutes on it’s site. This delta in time spent on Facebook and Google might be hard to comprehend without a little bit of graphic aide – so check out the chart below.

So, as you can see, Facebook is absolutely killing the competition when it comes to “stickyness” on mobile. One question this raises to me is: how does Facebook usage compare to other activities on mobile such as time spend in mobile email or text messaging?

New Facebook Phones from HTC

Mobile World Congress is the event grabbing all the headlines in most tech blogs this week. While Android phones and tablets are catching most people’s eyes, the social networking world should hone in on two devices from Android phone maker HTC. The powerhouse in mobile phones has released two phones with a distinctive feature:  A dedicated Facebook button prominently placed on the front of the devices.

The HTC ChaCha and Salsa are the first social phones with a Facebook button on the front. The Facebook button launches an app that allows you to update your status, share web links and post the music you’re listening to. The ChaCha is an all-touchscreen phone with a 3.4″ display, a 5-megapixel camera.  GPS and Wi-Fi. The Salsa has a full QWERTY keyboard for those most interested in messaging. Both phones will be available in the coming months.

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Facebook On Mobile: Astounding Usage and New Facebook Phones

One of the great things about Android is the open source community that releases really interesting custom versions of the Android OS. Because Android is fully open source, groups can create custom versions of the OS for different Android phones.

CyanogenMod is one of those groups. The organization has released a release candidate of Version 7 of CyanogenMod OS for many popular Android phones. Version 7 brings Android 2.3 Gingerbread to more than two dozen devices, long before Gingerbread has been officially been made available by Google or the handset maker itself.

What else does CM7 bring? As a part of Android 2.3.2, you will see a new music player, better calendar app, a new upgraded UI (more black and updated look and feel).

I loaded the release candidate of CM7 on my T-Mobile G2 (also called the HTC Vision) and so far I’ve been impressed. I have been waiting for a Gingerbread update from T-Mobile and since the carrier or HTC hasn’t produced the update, CM7 is for me.

If you have a rooted Android phone that is supported, launch ROM Manager and download CM7 RC1 today!

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CyanogenMod 7 Available for Many Android Devices

I’m a huge fan of Sprint – they have a rockstar network and are getting some really innovative handsets that make them a real player in the US mobile market.  In the number three spot behind the big boy networks including Verizon and T-Mobile, Sprint needs to keep innovating to keep things fresh and new to keep existing customers and win new ones over.

However, this morning, Sprint releases some news that will counter their ability to gain new customers.  For every new customer that signs a contract to Sprint, the company is going to institute a $10 data premium on all new customers who get a smart phone with a data plan.

This is really bad news for prospective Sprint customers who were thinking of hopping on board now have 120 reasons (the $10 cost spread across 12 months) per year to think about NOT to join.

Sprint, in their press release, tries to justify the expense by explaining that, “The charge will assist Sprint in offering simple and affordable unlimited plans for its customers while maintaining a wireless network able to meet the growing appetite for a richer mobile experience.”

I have long felt mobile data plans are way too expensive.  I understand corporations need to make money to stay alive and satisfy shareholders, but raising the price on already pricey data plans is out of line.

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Sprint Pumps Up Data Plans $10 A Month