Tipping Point In US Mobile Phone Usage.

This does not really surprise me seeing as how many feature rich mobile phones and smartphones are out there, but 2009 marked the first year where data usage surpassed voice data usage on cellular networks in the US. I was admittedly late to the game when it comes to smartphones and even text messaging for that matter, but over the last 12 months I've gradually replaced much of the time I would have normally spent in front of my PC with time spent tapping away at my HTC's tiny keyboard. 

Still, even the telephone design industry has taken note. Ross Rubin, a telecommunications analyst with the NPD Group, said cellphones outfitted with numerical keyboards — easiest for quickly dialing a phone number — were no longer in vogue. Touch screens, or quick messaging devices with full “qwerty” keyboards, on the other hand, are. On the newest phones, users must press several buttons or swipe through several screens to get to the application that allows them to make calls."

“Handset design has become far less cheek-friendly,” Mr. Rubin said. Mr. Hesse of Sprint said he expected that within the next couple of years, cellphone users would be charged by the data they used, not by their voice minutes, a prediction echoed by other industry executives.

 More info at the NYTimes

Amazed At The Creative Minds Of Googlers

It's no secret, I'm a Google fanboy and I've been so since my first introduction to the search engine when it was merely a plain white page with a text box and a search button. I often like to ponder the culture that has been fostered within the company and wonder if the creative minds behind many of their great offerings are lured to Google by competent recruiting efforts, the promise of big money, or the opportunity to work with like minded people with wonderfully creative talents? I suspect that it's a little bit of all of the above, and maybe a few more that I've missed. With these thought in mind I bring you "A word is worth 884 pictures"...

Twitter Bug Uncovered Quite By Accident

In a twist of irony, news of a bug that allowed Twitter users to cause other users to unknowingly follow them was quickly spread across the internet via social sites and popular blogs. The NYTimes Bits blog explains the discovery "The bug was first revealed by a Turkish man who wanted to tell his friends on Twitter about a band called “Accept” that he enjoyed listening too. When the man typed “Accept pwns” into the update box on Twitter he noticed that a user by the name of @pwns was now following him on the site."

Twitter had this brief message on it's official blog: "We identified and resolved a bug that permitted a user to “force” other users to follow them. We’re now working to rollback all abuse of the bug that took place. Follower/following numbers are currently at 0; we’re aware and this too should shortly be resolved."

Huh, sounds more like an Easter egg or developer backdoor than a bug...

A Little Star Wars Humor To Start The Week Off Right

That Darth Vader... what a sense of humor! He cracks me up.