Nexus One Gets A Taste ...

Google may have run out of love for the Nexus One as far as Ice Cream Sandwich is concerned, but that doesn’t mean the legions of loyal Android developers have. An intrepid dev named TexasIce on the XDA forums has managed to get an early build of CyanogenMod 9 up and running on Google’s first Nexus device, and it looks mighty impressive for a work-in-progress. Most of the basics seem to run without a hitch: text input and phone dialing work with a minimum of lag, as does web browsing and poking around in the Android Market. Nearly all of Ice Cream Sandwich’s functionality is present and accounted for, though it isn’t all sunshine and roses. Neither the camera nor USB mass storage work yet, and the lack of hardware acceleration means the build has a tendency to chug when it comes to some of Ice Cream Sandwich’s more impressive animations. Fortunately, TexasIce is working to address the ROM’s issues at a respectable clip: the project only went live a few days ago, and already the 9th alpha build went online earlier today. It’s certainly a work in progress, but I’ve got high hopes for a smooth ride by the time a stable CM9 release sees the light of day. If I may indulge in a little bit of nostalgia, CyanogenMod was one of the first custom ROMs I ever flashed onto a device, and it made my G1 run like butter. Nexus One users who want to join in the fun now can head over to the thread in question , but newbies (as always) should proceed with caution.

Another Study Shows Dat...

Data caps on your broadband, while in principle sound troublesome, are at least understandable. Bandwidth is a limited resource and we all have to share it, and presumably if we all were maxing our connections out all the time, we’d tax the system beyond its capacity. But who uses the most bandwidth and when is a more practical thing to investigate, as knowing that could prevent congestion at peak hours and so on. Some studies and theories have suggested that so-called bandwidth or data hogs, in other words people who use the entirety of the product they paid for, aren’t really a great source of congestion, and the data caps intended to prevent such users from maxing out all the time aren’t an effective countermeasure. The guys at Diffraction Analysis examined data from “a mid-size company from North America” that was interested in understanding its consumers’ use patterns. Good for them, by the way. The data they submitted was bandwidth consumption throughout the day, with five-minute granularity. The study’s aim was to determine whether a small subset of users (the hogs) could indeed affect the quality of others’ service, and whether caps were an effective deterrent. The conclusions, briefly stated, were that while heavy users do in fact consume far more data in aggregate than the average (288GB vs. 9.6GB in this study), their contribution to congestion during peak hours, and when the network is at 75% of its capacity or above, is in fact not much greater than the average user. What the statistics bear out is this: during peak hours when service is most likely to be affected by overcrowding, heavy users only make up a small percentage of those consuming bandwidth – 14.3%, to be precise. And of the heavy users, only half of them were on the fastest connection, further driving home the fact that while they may consume more in total, they are not contributing more than anyone else to the actual problem, which is slowdown in peak hours. So why the data caps? Clearly a limit of, say, 300GB a month (or lower) won’t prevent peak usage from affecting service quality. In fact, if people are limited by draconian data caps, they are likely to limit their usage to peak hours: streaming a movie in the evening, or browsing YouTube when they get home from work. This would in fact contribute even more to the problem of peak crowding. What’s the solution? Bandwidth caps seem more important, and advertising a range of values instead of a maximum would be both more honest and indemnify the ISP against slowdowns. If a dynamic bandwidth cap let you download at 30Mbps in the middle of the night but limited you to 5Mbps during peak hours, it’s the best of both worlds and nobody has to worry about overage charges. And how would you make money to replace those overages, not that they amount to much? Sell a limited number of premium accounts that aren’t limited during peak hours. Since the ISPs control the number and width of the pipes, they can calculate how many premium and how many standard they can offer. This seems much more logical than imposing a total data limit that’s a pain for some and immaterial to others, though both contribute equally to the problem ostensibly being addressed. The whole report is available for purchase here for the sum of €750, though the executive summary provided by the author is illuminating as well.

Familiar Turns Your Scr...

Familiar , the artist formerly known as Picadee , launches in beta today. Familiar has an incredibly simple yet compelling value proposition, namely that billions of screens worth of untapped real estate are worth taking advantage of … Familiar is basically a socially programmed screensaver (yes, screensaver) which allows you to share and display photos with contacts you select through Facebook and via email. In the beta version, all photos you upload to Familiar will turn into a collective screensaver for the people you’ve connected with, combining with photos that other users have shared in Familiar’s ‘The Shuffle’ function. To share photos, you can either drag and drop selected images into Familar’s downloadble desktop app or use the web interface to sync from Facebook Albums (via Facebook Connect), Flickr and Picasa. Familiar co-founder Marcus Womack tells me that they plan on supporting mobile services like Instagram and possibly others. “The [photosharing] fragmentation is great for us – people receive photos from their friends in email, on Facebook, or via links to a dozen different websites,” says Womack, “With Familiar, we make it simple: your family and closest friends send photos directly to each others’ screen, even if everybody is using a totally different app to take, manage, or share photos.” After Familiar users have built up a palatable collection of photos, they can go to Familiar ‘Preferences’ and decide whether to use ‘The Shuffle’ as their screensaver and/or ‘Photos I Love’ (which they can designate by clicking the ‘

Foursquare Launches Imp...

You’re reading New York magazine online when you spot a review of a new sushi restaurant. It’s in a part of the city you go to a few times a month, and you’d like to check it out. If only you had an easy way to remember all the details. . . Introducing, the new and improved Save to Foursquare button ! When a reader clicks the button, they get a pop-up that allows them to add the location to their Foursquare To Do list. If the user has Radar enabled on their new iPhone, they’ll receive a notification when they are in the area, reminding them to stop by. Without Radar, notifications will only pop after check-in, which is rather pointless. But even without the notifications, the new button is an excellent way to drive traffic to local eateries, stores and events. The button is currently being used on websites for New York, Time Out, AskMen and CBS local news but is available to any publisher who wants to employ it. They’ve even  simplified the back-end , so the button pulls the metadata from the page — no hand-coding needed. It all sounds pretty brilliant, but is it worth the effort? eMarketer reports that only 12% of smartphone owners use a check-in service . They say that the novelty has worn off these kinds of services, suggesting that being “Mayor” isn’t the perk it used to be. Consumers are still interested in location-based services, but they want them to be more functional and less of a game. Directions and recommendations are still the number one use and more consumers are interested in location-based mobile offers. When was the last time you used a check-in service? Pilgrim’s Partners: SponsoredReviews.com – Bloggers earn cash, Advertisers build buzz!

Amazon’s New App Allows...

Amazon is debuting another holiday shopping app, but this offering is geared towards kids. Amazon Santa is a free app for Kindle Fire and the iPad that allows children and their parents to create holiday Wish Lists to share with friends, family and of course, Santa Claus. Basically, Amazon Santa brings the e-commerce giant’s wish list functionality in a kid-friendly app. Kids can browse and search more than 500,000 toys, games, books, clothes and other kids items. Kids can then make holiday wish lists that can be shared with loved ones. Of course, kids under a certain age will need to a little help from parents in creating wish lists. Amazon has also made the wish lists secure—lists created by kids through the app will only be able to be seen by authorized viewers who receive the Wish List link. Parents can review and edit the Wish List as needed and the list shows recipients wished-for items, including those that have already been purchased, similar to a gift registry. It’s actually a useful app to have when it comes to shopping for children. It can be tough to know what “Santa” should bring kids for Christmas and this provides a fun way for children to create their lists, and an easy way for grandparents, aunts, uncles and more to find the right gift.