Tag Archives: UnitedStates

Census Bureau releases first mobile app, offers real-time stats on the US economy

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US Census Bureau releases America's Economy mobile app, offers realtime stats on the go

The US Census Bureau just released its first public API last month, giving web and mobile app makers access to its vast stores of statistics, and it's now also gone the extra mile by releasing its first mobile app. Dubbed America's Economy, the app draws on data from the Department of Commerce and the Department of Labor to provide a real-time picture of the US economy, offering details on everything from the country's gross domestic product to housing sales to the unemployment rate (all presented with the requisite charts and graphs). That's available for Android smartphones and tablets right now, while an iOS app promised in the "coming weeks." It's also the first of three planned apps from the Bureau -- the others are said to be coming over the next several months (both of which will also be available for both Android and iOS).

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Census Bureau releases first mobile app, offers real-time stats on the US economy originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Aug 2012 17:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink @uscensusbureau (Twitter)  |  sourceGoogle Play (Phone), (Tablet), Census Bureau  | Email this | Comments

Census Bureau releases first mobile app, offers real-time stats on the US economy

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US Census Bureau releases America's Economy mobile app, offers realtime stats on the go

The US Census Bureau just released its first public API last month, giving web and mobile app makers access to its vast stores of statistics, and it's now also gone the extra mile by releasing its first mobile app. Dubbed America's Economy, the app draws on data from the Department of Commerce and the Department of Labor to provide a real-time picture of the US economy, offering details on everything from the country's gross domestic product to housing sales to the unemployment rate (all presented with the requisite charts and graphs). That's available for Android smartphones and tablets right now, while an iOS app promised in the "coming weeks." It's also the first of three planned apps from the Bureau -- the others are said to be coming over the next several months (both of which will also be available for both Android and iOS).

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Census Bureau releases first mobile app, offers real-time stats on the US economy originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Aug 2012 17:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink @uscensusbureau (Twitter)  |  sourceGoogle Play (Phone), (Tablet), Census Bureau  | Email this | Comments

Akamai: peak internet speeds jumped 25 percent year-to-year in Q1, Germany tops the mobile world

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Akamai peak internet speeds jumped 25 percent year-to-year in Q1, Germany tops the mobile world

If you thought world internet access speeds were facing a large-scale slowdown, you can stop fretting for now. Data from Akamai suggests that average speeds were just 2.6Mbps, but that was a healthy 14 percent improvement over the fall and a noticeable 25 percent better than early 2011. Average peak internet connection speeds surged just as much in the first quarter of this year: at 13.5Mbps, the average maximum was a 10 percent season-to-season boost and that same 25 percent versus a year before. The leaders remain Asian territories with that ideal mix of dense populations and high technology, culminating in Hong Kong's blazing 49.3Mbps typical downlink. Akamai attributes much of the growth in peak speeds to an explosion in "high broadband" connections, where 10Mbps is the minimum -- countries like Denmark, Finland, South Korea, Switzerland and the US roughly doubled their adoption of extra-fast access in the past year.

Before cheering too loudly, we'd point out that mobile speeds are still trudging along despite HSPA+ and LTE making their presences felt. The most consistent speed came from an unnamed German carrier, which neared 6Mbps; the best regular American rate was 2.5Mbps, which underscores how far even some of the most developed countries have to go. There's also a clear gap in regular landline broadband quality if we go by the US' own National Broadband Plan standards. Just 60 percent of US broadband is over the 4Mbps mark, putting the US at 14th in the global ranks. We're hoping that projects like Google Fiber can raise expectations for everyone, but you can hit the source shortly to get Akamai's full study.

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Akamai: peak internet speeds jumped 25 percent year-to-year in Q1, Germany tops the mobile world originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Aug 2012 00:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Strategy Analytics: Android lost US market share in Q2, isn’t losing sleep just yet

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Strategy Analytics Android lost US market share in Q2, isn't losing sleep just yet

Android is most definitely on the upward march when it comes to the world stage. But you might be surprised at how it's faring in the US: it's down, according to Strategy Analytics' estimates. As of the second quarter, Google's market share dropped from 60.6 percent a year earlier to 56.3 percent. No one would call it a moment of crisis for Android, but it implies that Apple was drawing in more of the customers jumping ship from other platforms -- the iPhone climbed to 33.2 percent while RIM and others lost ground. The real tests of where the market is going, we imagine, will come in the second half of the year. Apple will have to survive an American summer full of Galaxy S III variants, while Samsung and the rest of the Android camp may have to cope with a bigger than usual iPhone update as 2012 heads into the sunset.

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Strategy Analytics: Android lost US market share in Q2, isn't losing sleep just yet originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Jul 2012 16:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink TechCrunch  |  sourceStrategy Analytics  | Email this | Comments

US Navy deploys SeaFox submarines to Persian Gulf for universal mine control

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US Navy deploys SeaFox submarines to Persian Gulf for universal mine control

Tasked with mine detection and eradication in the Persian Gulf, the US Navy has sent a fleet of unmanned submarines to help keep the Strait of Hormuz open in Iran. Dubbed the SeaFox, each vehicle houses an underwater TV camera, sonar and a dose of explosives. Tipping the scales at less than 100 pounds, the subs are about four feet in length and are controlled via fiber optic cable that sends the live feed back to the captain of each ship. SeaFoxes can dive to depths of 300 meters and boasts a top speed of six knots. The units are thrust into action from helicopters, small rubber boats and off the rear of minesweepers and are capable of disposing of the aforementioned weapons of both the floating and drifting sort. There is one small catch: the $100,000 submarine destroys itself in the process, making each successful trek a suicide mission of sorts.

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US Navy deploys SeaFox submarines to Persian Gulf for universal mine control originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Jul 2012 12:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink The Register, Business Insider  |  sourceLA Times  | Email this | Comments

Nielsen has Android near 52 percent of US smartphone share in Q2, iPhone ekes out gains

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Nielsen has Android near 52 percent of US smartphone share in Q2, iPhone ekes out its own gains

If there was doubt as to whether or not Android would soon become the majority smartphone platform in the US, that's just been erased by Nielsen. Google crossed the tipping point in the second quarter after getting close in the winter, with 51.8 percent of current smartphone users running some variant on the green robot's OS. As we've seen in the past, though, the increase is coming mostly at the expenses of platforms already being squeezed to within an inch of their lives, such as the BlackBerry (8.1 percent) and Windows (4.3 percent combined). Apple still isn't in a position to fret: it kept climbing to 34.3 percent and swung the attention of recent buyers just slightly back in its direction. The real question for many of us might center on what happens in a summer where Samsung has thrown a Galaxy S III-sized curveball at Americans and any new iPhone is likely still a few months away.

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Nielsen has Android near 52 percent of US smartphone share in Q2, iPhone ekes out gains originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Jul 2012 17:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple granted patent for accelerometer-aided theft-detection system

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Apple granted patent for accelerometeraided theftdetection system

Despite the added risk brought on by Apple's Find My iPhone feature, the iOS handset remains a frequent target for smartphone thieves, thanks to the device's resale value and compatibility with networks around the world. There's not much you can do to deter sticky fingers short of keeping your iPhone or MacBook in view at all times, but the issue does appear to have crossed the desks of Apple's design team, which was just granted patent number 8,217,792 for a sophisticated anti-theft scheme. The acceleration-based system would detect a "known theft condition" based on acceleration characteristics, sounding an alarm and disabling the device. The smartphone or laptop would ignore vibrations from passing cars or those caused by items being dropped onto a nearby surface, instead focusing on undisclosed scenarios that likely involve direct movement. The device owner would use a GUI to configure and disable the system, at which point the handset or computer would return to its pre-disturbed mode. Overall, it sounds like a fairly straightforward hardware/software solution, with the added benefit of a technique to filter out regular motion in an attempt to reduce the number of false alarms. You'll find the full patent at the source link below.

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Apple granted patent for accelerometer-aided theft-detection system originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Jul 2012 15:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nokia 808 PureView now available stateside, $700 via Amazon

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Nokia 808 PureView now available stateside, $699 via Amazon

Finnish phone purveyor Nokia has delivered on its promise to bring its flagship camera phone to US soil, with or without carriers' support. The company is offering up the PureView 808 on Amazon, complete with Carl Zeiss optics and Nokia Belle, for a cool $700 contract free. That's no small tariff for a device running a slightly antiquated mobile operating system, but if you've got a soft spot in your heart for Symbian -- and fancy yourself a photographer -- page through our review then head over to Amazon for the purchasing details.

Nokia 808 PureView now available stateside, $700 via Amazon originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 09 Jul 2012 09:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink GSMArena  |  sourceAmazon  | Email this | Comments

iFixit tears down the Nexus Q: made in the USA, and possibly somewhere else

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iFixit tears down the Nexus Q made in the USA, and possibly somewhere else

Is it possible to manufacture a sophisticated wireless-capable device entirely in the United States? That's vaguely the suggestion of Google's jet-black orb, launched last week at the search (and now hardware) giant's I/O event in San Francisco. Now, the Nexus Q is just dying to get undressed, and that's exactly what our iFixit friends have done, revealing each component's country of origin. Perhaps one of the most notable items, the Samsung 16GB moviNAND Flash Memory module, may have been made stateside (Austin, TX), but could also have been produced in Hwaseong, South Korea. Some parts, such as the Ethernet port (China) or optical-out connector (Japan) could only have been imported, as iFixit points out, though others are certainly domestic (a photomicrosensor made in California or Illinois). Ready to dive in yourself to verify those findings? You're not going to want to open this thing up on your own -- there's a bevy of capacitors inside, including one with output in the 400-volt range (a warning label alerts would-be trespassers). You can, however, poke around a bit more at our source link below.

iFixit tears down the Nexus Q: made in the USA, and possibly somewhere else originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Jul 2012 09:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HTC picks former AT&T exec Mike Woodward as North American president

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HTC picks former AT&T exec Mike Woodward as North American presidentHTC has been fighting to get a better relationship with US carriers lately, and it may have just chosen a clever (if roundabout) approach: hire one of their executives. As of today, AT&T's former phone portfolio VP Mike Woodward is now HTC's president of its North American division, reporting directly to worldwide sales head Jason Mackenzie. The new position won't necessarily get him any privileged access, but it certainly gives HTC someone who's well versed in what carriers want out of a device launch. We'll have to wait awhile to see what Woodward's strategy will be; suffice it to say that the company wants more One X-level anticipation and fewer of those bumpy, Inspire 4G-like releases.

Continue reading HTC picks former AT&T exec Mike Woodward as North American president

HTC picks former AT&T exec Mike Woodward as North American president originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 Jul 2012 16:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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