It looks like we can add one more purpose to the smartphone – a coaster! Ad agency, Fischer & Friends, have created a beer glass called the Offline Glass that can only sit up-right as long as there is a smartphone underneath to prop it up. It’s promised to “rescue people from the online world” and encourage human interaction.

The Offline Glass has been unveiled at Salve Jorge bar in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Owners, Flavius Cinira and Wanderley Romano, believe this glass will bring friends together and help them escape reality while they drink from this glass.

I think the Offline Glass serves a noble purpose. Although we love our handy smartphone devices, have we become a generation where what’s going on in our palm is more important than what’s going on in front of us? I’m not too sure if I’d be fond of putting my iPhone under a sweaty beer mug but I’d be more than happy to put my phone away – especially if I have a beer and good company to keep me occupied.

Would you let your smartphone prop up your beer? Do you think this will help face-to-face interactions? Let us know in the comments below!

Tablets Galore

As a nation driven by technology and convenience, it’s no shocker that we love our tablets. Pew Research Center conducted a survey and found that 1 in 3 American adults owns a tablet.

Tablet sales for adults have seen a huge boost in the past 3 years. In May of 2010, only 3% owned a tablet. A year later, 8%, and last year 18%.

I found it interesting that if you break down the adult demographic from ages 35 to 44, we find that nearly half of these adults own a tablet. They actually happen to account for the highest sales than in any other bracket. If you break down household income and education, we find that 49% of these adults with a college degree own a tablet and 56% of these adults with a household income of at least $75,000 or more own a tablet as well.

It’s pretty impressive that in a few short years, a few hundred MILLION tablets have been sold and in less than 4 years from now, these tablet sales are expected to generate $65 billion in U.S. retail sales alone. Sounds stimulating

Most of the mobiFriendly team owns their own tablet (some even own 2!) and it’s difficult to image life without them – we want to know, are any of you a part of this huge number and own a tablet? If so, let us know!

It seems to be a frequent occurrence for Samsung as of lately and yet again, a few images and videos were leaked of their newest smartphone. Last week, we told you about their newest phone from their wildly popular flagship, the Galaxy S4 Mini. This week, the Galaxy S4 Active has been announced.

With the likes of the Sony Xperia Z and ZR, the S4 Active is a rugged smartphone. It can withstand dust and water particles as well as endure a variety of not-so-common environments. The phone has the capability of being under 3 feet of water for 30 minutes, plus it has a water-resistant earphone jack so you can enjoy music while swimming on a summer’s day or every day like my boss.

The Active comes with a 5.0 inch full HD TFT LCD screen and an 8-pixel rear camera with “aqua-mode” so it can enhance image quality when underwater. When watching a video, the Active uses optical cues, so if you look away it will pause and if you look back at the screen it will begin again (pretty cool, huh?). Air View and Gesture are another exciting feature, which let you flutter over content for different previews or scroll pages and take calls by the simple wave of your hand.

We have a few outdoor aficionados in our office that would definitely enjoy using this new smartphone. The phone is set to initially launch in Sweden and the United States sometime this summer.

What do you think about a rugged and fully functional smartphone? Let us know in the comments below!

Moto X is self-aware and Woodside says it certainly puts the “smart” in smartphone. When I first read it was self-aware, that seemed to be a broad term as to what that could mean, however, Woodside illustrated that it has the capability to know when you are reaching for your smartphone and taking it out of your pocket, it can figure out when you want to take a photo by turning on the camera app for you, plus it will know when you are traveling in a vehicle.

There is no doubt that this phone is incredibly innovative and if Google’s acquisition with Motorola Mobility comes into play, that will be a huge step in the right direction. However, there are some potential issues that should be addressed such as:
1. Will Google burn bridges with Samsung and HTC if Google Now and Moto X are integrated together?
2. What about Motorola’s limited global market share?

On the contrary, Moto X has one MASSIVE advantage that no other smartphone has… it will be ‘Made In America.” Woodside stated, “Moto X is the first smartphone that will be made in the U.S. We’re building it in Texas. We are going to employ about 2,000 people outside of Fort Worth at a 500,000 square foot facility. That’s a plant that once made phones for Nokia and at one time employed 6,000 people.”

‘Made In America’ is not only a huge selling point for purchasers but the fact that it will stimulate our local economy and create jobs is always a plus in any American’s book.
Unfortunately, no images or specs have been released that we can share but we want to know, would you purchase a self-aware smartphone? What do you think? Let us know!

There has been lots of talk about a Galaxy S4 Mini this week since their image and specs were accidentally leaked. Samsung made a quick recovery by introducing the flagship’s new, mini version.

The Galaxy S4 Mini supports most of its larger counterpart’s features and services, but it has:

• a 4.3” qHD Super AMOLED display
• 107g lightweight and compact design
• 1.7 GHz dual core processor

“We appreciate such unprecedented demands for the GALAXY S4 that we aimed to provide users with life companion for a fuller, richer and simpler life. And now, we want to give people more choices with GALAXY S4 mini, similar look & feel of GALAXY S4 for more compact and practical usages. The new GALAXY S4 mini provides consumers with a new way to enjoy the flagship GALAXY S4 experience,” said the CEO and President of IT & Mobile Communication Division at Samsung Electronics, JK Shin.

There is no set date as to when Samsung lovers can purchase the Mini but the media and invited partners will be able to check out the Galaxy S4 Mini hands on at Samsung’s 2013 Galaxy & ATIV Premiere in London.

**UPDATE: Here is a video of the S4 Mini >>

What do you think of the Galaxy S4 coming out with a “Mini” version? Let us know in the comments below!

 If you take a look at his “Dominance of Apple & Samsung” chart, you will see that depending on how you read it – you can justify that Samsung is winning on one side while Apple is winning on the other. But how can both be winning when we are so fixated on the Apple versus Android race?

As Benedict stated, “To put this another way, looking at ‘smartphone share’ or ‘profit share’ or ‘platform share’ all tell you something about the industry, but all three metrics mislead you if you try to treat them as a way to see who’s ‘winning’, because ‘winning’ means different things for Apple, Samsung or Google. After all, Google may well still make more money from searches on iOS than it does from searches on Android. There’s no easy way to fit that into any of these charts.”

We want to know, what do you think matters more – profits or units sold? Do you think there can only be one, clear-cut winner or does it vary? Let us know if your comments below!

The past 27 days have been very good for Samsung and their newest flagship, the Galaxy S4. In less than a month, they have managed to sell over 10 million of these smartphones worldwide, estimating four units per every second.

This is a huge accomplishment for Samsung because their previous S3 took double the amount of time (50 days) and the S and S2 took roughly five to seven months to reach this milestone.

Samsung stated, “The Galaxy S4 sets a new record for Samsung, generating sales quicker than any of its predecessors.”

Although these numbers are a major accomplishment for Samsung, they still do not stack up to the success of Apple’s latest flagship, the iPhone 5, which sold 5 million devices in its first weekend.

The impressive number of the S4 are expected to keep Samsung as the leader in the $294 billion smartphone market. Although the Apple and Samsung competition continues, Samsung held 31.7% of the smartphone market in the first quarter while Apple only held 17.3%.

We enjoy watching the massive smartphone market continue to grow with each new flagship and see the competition volley back-and-forth.

What do you think of Samsung’s accomplishment? Let us know in the comments!

Whether you have ever used your phone for extended period of time, or you’re guilty like myself of forgetting your smart phone in your vehicle, you may have found your phone to overheat and not be usable until it has cooled off, often taking at least a few minutes.

NEC has introduced the Medias X N-60E to solve your overheating problems. This phone runs on a 1.7 GHz quad-core Snapdragon processor with a 4.7 inch OLED screen and 13.1 megapixel camera. What sets this phone apart is it’s liquid cooling pipe that runs behind the display and processor. It has the ability to dissipate the heat and make your experience more “comfortable.” No one likes a sweaty palm

credit: NEC

credit: NEC

This phones spec are comparable to many of our favorite smartphones on the market. We want to know, do you think this technology is necessary or not? Let us know in the comments!

This month’s platform update has a lot to do with speed and performance. We continually strive to make the entire mobile web experience from design to redirection a positive one for both you and your clients. Take a look at the ways we are improving and expanding our platform for you, your clients and the end-users worldwide!

Check out this months newsletter here: https://www.firedrummarketing.com/public_message_view.jsp?s=2a1a386r2m!