Facebook Tries, Tries Again on a Smartphone: The New York Times reports that several Facebook employees report (anonymously, of course) that Facebook plans to release its own smartphone next year. According to these people, they’ve hired former iPhone and iPad engineers, one of whom Mark Zuckerberg “peppered with questions” about the inner workings of smartphones.
If this smartphone actually comes into being next year, it’s more than likely that they’ll compete primarily against Android rather than Apple. It should be interesting to see what developing for the “Facephone” (or whatever it gets called) is like.
Mobile Devices Now Make Up About 20 Percent of U.S. Web Traffic. These results come from Chitika, an online advertising network, who say that tablet and mobile phone internet usage peak during the evening hours. They also say that iPads account for 95% of tablet-based traffic, while iPhones account for 72% of phone-based web traffic. Android account for 26% of phone-based web traffic, and Windows Phone web traffic is one-third the traffic from BlackBerry phones.
Designing (and converting) for multiple mobile densities: In this article, Teehan+Lax’s Travis Hines explains how to design mobile user interfaces in a world of differing screen tech, from non-retina MDPI to HDPI to Retina to XHDPI.
Mobile Online Shopping Holds The Real Opportunity In Mobile Payments. Bill Ready, CEO of Braintree, talks about mcommerce — mobile commerce — and its opportunities.