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PARIS — Nokia, the cellphone giant battling to maintain its position in the face of competition from the iPhone and Android, said Tuesday that it was abandoning its 2011 profit targets after an unexpectedly poor second-quarter showing. Shares in Nokia tumbled 17.5 percent, closing at €4.75 in Helsinki, after the company, which is based in Espoo, Finland, said “multiple factors are negatively impacting” sales, particularly lower selling prices and a reduced sales volume.

“The Symbian portfolio is in terminal decline,” Mr. Jeffrey said, “so the importance of the Windows phone is even greater now.”

Nokia lowered its forecast for second-quarter sales in its devices and services business to “substantially below” the range of €6.1 billion to €6.6 billion, or $8.8 billion to $9.5 billion, it had previously forecast.

IDC’s Q1 scorecard for smartphones in western Europe is out. Nokia’s sales are sliding 10% year-on-year in a market for all phones growing at 5%, while the smartphone sector grew 76% (how long before we stop using the word smartphone, you might well ask). Nokia’s smartphone market share has gone from 57% to 19.6% in two years. Europe’s biggest handset maker is now Samsung and the fastest growing is HTC. The biggest platform is Android, with 35.7%, followed by Apple iOS on 20%, and then Symbian and BlackBerry OS.

4 out of those 5 companies are heavily committed to Android, and two are also committed to Windows Phone,

In the Android sphere, Sony Ericsson has announced the latest lot of Xperia phones. They’re keeping the Xperia Mini brand from the hit X10, and the Mini Pro gets a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. Both run Android 2.3/Gingerbread and get a new Facebook app.

I was especially interested in commentary on the Chinese market by Robin Goad, Hitwise UK’s research director, who adds some sharp focus on the huge growth in micro-blogging in China – and the tool of choice isn’t Twitter: [...] Chinese Internet users are primarily interested in micro-blogging when it comes to social media.  Sina Micro blog (China’s alternative to Twitter) accounted for 1 in every 158 Internet visits in China for April 2011. This makes China one of the most voracious micro-blogging nations worldwide, with a greater market share of visits going to micro-blogging sites in China than in the UK, US, France, Canada, Australia or India. Twitter is by far the most dominant micro-blogging platform in the UK and US, but Twitter accounted for 1 in every 250 visits online in the UK and 1 in every 555 in the US during April 2011, much lower than Sina Micro’s dominance of the online market in China. What’s more, this data doesn’t take into account mobile or 3rd party applications, so the actual usage of micro-blogging in China is likely much higher than our statistics suggest. The metrics Robin posted underline the sheer scale of what’s happening in China in terms of connecting people. Add that info to other metrics such as Royal Pingdom’s The incredible growth of the Internet since 2000. It shows China as clearly the top country on the internet with 420 million users (compared to 22.5 million in 2000).

Waze launches its social sat-nav app for traffic-mad UK drivers “For those unaware of Waze, here’s how it works. Just by using the app (on Apple iOS, Android, Nokia, RIM), drivers generate a real-time map of the traffic ahead and can even share live road reports on accidents, hazards, speed cameras and roadworks (though typing is disabled while driving, in case you were wondering). A recent feature enable drivers to create voice-based hazard reports by recording a quick voice message – this then alerts other Waze drivers behind them. This is potentially much more accurate that having a road organisation like the AA try and feed real-time information into the system via old fashioned means like road cameras. Waze’s real-time traffic news is even being fed to some local TV stations in the US. And I daresay the speed camera aspect will go down a storm in the UK. In addition, ‘driving groups’ let users to connect with other nearby drivers such as fellow commuters, friends etc heading in the same direction. It can also be used by taxis or delivery trucks and connects to Twitter accounts and Facebook pages.”

By 2030 we will be able to manage the contents of our dreams as in the movie ‘Inception’.

Remote virtual love making will be possible by 2030, allowing individuals to connect with their partner whilst away from home.

By 2030 it will be possible to diagnose some medical conditions by monitoring sleep patterns. Sleepwear featuring electro-responsive fabrics will enable measurement of skin conductivity (indicating stress or relaxation states), pulse, blood pressure and quality of heart signals.

We’ve changed how we use RSS

The simple truth is we’re less likely to use RSS or email subscription now compared to our RSS usage in the previous era of the Web.  We’re just less into RSS readers and start pages.

We’re using real-time web & social networking more

12.7 million check-in done on smartphones in March 2011, says comScore report Nearly 17 million US mobile subscribers used location-based 'check-in' services on their phones in March 2011, found a new study by comScore.The study showed that users have done 12.7 million check-in on smartphones, representing 17.6% of the smartphone population.The check-in service users, representing 7.1% of the entire mobile population, showed a high propensity for mobile media usage, including accessing retail sites and shopping guides. They also displayed other characteristics of early adopters, including a stronger likelihood of owning a tablet device and accessing tech news, when compared to the average smartphone user.

The research firm said that of the 16.7 million people using check-in services on their mobile devices, 12.7 million (76.3%) did so via a smartphone device.Android accounted for the largest share of check-in service users with 36.6% checking-in from an Android device, while 33.7% of users checked in from an iPhone. Apple had the highest representation relative to its percentage of the total smartphone market.RIM accounted for 22% of check-in service users, while Microsoft, Palm and Symbian each accounted for less than 5%.The study showed that more than 95% of check-in service users used their mobile browser or applications. Nearly 62% accessed news. Check-in user behavior was also consistent with that of traditional early adopters, with 40.3% of users accessing tech news and 28.2% owning a media tablet, both significantly higher than average.

Further, check-in service users also showed a high propensity for accessing retail-related destinations on their mobile devices. Nearly one-third of users accessed online retail sites on their mobiles, while one-fourth accessed shopping guides.Check-in service users were also more likely to be exposed to mobile advertising, with nearly 40% recalling seeing a Web or app ad during the month, compared to just 27.5% of smartphone users.

A few weeks ago, iPhone users were outraged to discover that their iPhones were tracking their every move, storing the information (in an unencrypted file, no less), and sending the data directly to Apple when synced with iTunes. Even more shocking was the news that iPhones do this even when they do not have location-based services enabled. Users concerned about their privacy were left vulnerable, with nothing they could do about it while they waited for Apple to offer a patch.

Naturally, Ashley Madison's specialty is guaranteeing privacy and anonymity for its customers (well, that and "an affair to remember!"). Users choose whom they share their photos with. Conversations on the site are password-protected. When users delete their accounts, also deleted is all evidence that they were ever members of the site. All messages and correspondence, photos, and personal data -- gone.

Ashley Madison is an online dating service owned and operated by Toronto-based Avid Life Media Inc. Nearly ten years old, Ashley Madison claims to be the world's largest dating site, with nearly 9.3 million members. What truly distinguishes Ashley Madison from its competitors, however, is its target demographic: married people.

In the fast-moving world of Internet innovation, the search for the winning combination of strategies often means companies are continually rolling out features to match their competitors.Take local deals, territory that Chicago-based Groupon claimed with its launch more than two years ago. Google, Facebook, Yelp, OpenTable and a host of other Web-based companies have introduced their versions of discount offers since then. And many of these players have started allowing users to "check in" to local businesses on their mobile phones, a concept popularized by Foursquare and other location-based services.This ongoing flurry of activity is underpinned by a common desire to conquer three important categories of growth for consumer-oriented Internet companies: mobile, social and local commerce. The race to find the right mix is crucial for capturing revenues and the loyalty of consumers whose sources for information and entertainment are becoming increasingly fragmented.

"A mobile and social Web, both on the advertising side and e-commerce side, is going to be more highly monetizable," said Mendez, whose private-equity firm focuses on privately held companies such as Facebook. "It's more likely to turn eyeballs and visitors into transactions and dollars spent."Companies are building on the three pillars of mobile, social and local commerce in different ways, focusing on core strengths before adding other capabilities.

Groupon, for example, built its business model on the idea of social plus local commerce, creating a group-buying platform as a new form of local online advertising. Last week, it launched a mobile application called Groupon Now that delivers deals to consumers based on their location.

Since location-based check-in app Foursquare was launched at South by Southwest in 2009, the app has seen exponential growth, reaching over 7.5 million users this year.

Apart from gamification through leaderboards and badges (or stickers, or pins), the motivation for users to participate in location-based networks is severely lacking.

1)make it easy and 2) create value. Users want to put in less effort and receive more value.

The Installer writes with news of yesterday's stock offering from LinkedIn, which shocked investors by closing at more than double the initial price. "Buyers crowded the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, and financial news networks flashed LinkedIn's stock price urgently all day. By the closing bell, the company had a market value of $9 billion, the highest for any Internet company since Google had its initial public offering seven years ago. Millionaires and even one billionaire were made, at least on paper. The stock, issued at $45, went as high as $122.70 just before noon and closed at $94.25 on a trading volume of 30 million shares." That price values the company at over 30 times its 2010 revenue, leading to speculation that this is either evidence of the second dotcom bubble (a possibility we discussed in February) or a "watershed moment for social media." Many experts are questioning the value of LinkedIn, while others are claiming intentional market manipulation.

Third-party apps are the weakest link in user privacy on smart phones. They often get access to large quantities of user data, and there are few rules covering how they must handle that data once they have it. Worse yet, few third-party apps have a privacy policy telling users what they intend to do. That was the message delivered at a hearing of the U.S. Senate committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation held yesterday. Companies and regulators are struggling to find ways to ensure that user data is handled properly by apps installed on smart phones, but the way apps are designed makes this difficult.

This week, Facebook joined Google and Apple on the hot seat. But all three companies run platforms that support thousands of third-party developers, and how to make sure those apps respect users' privacy, and explain their rules, is a major question. Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Arkansas) said at the hearing, "It's not clear that Americans understand how their information may be shared or transferred."

Microsoft's Kinect has been the fastest-selling consumer electronic device in history, has over 10 million owners, and connects nearly 35 million users through Xbox Live--all of whom are capable of online sharing. "This type of experience is really an untapped market because these devices already live at home," says Dawson. KinectShop is primed to seamlessly integrate with real-life shopping experiences. "With an experience like KinectShop, a shopper can easily scan a QR code or swipe their NFC smartphone to take their experience with them and use wayfinding tools to locate the product in-store," Luke Hamilton, Dawson's Razorfish colleague, writes to Fast Company in an email.

Paul Bradshaw, visiting professor, City University and founder of helpmeinvestigate.com used the principal of toys to give ideas on developing the data story and explained the importance of  “future proofing the information we are gathering”, saying “that’s one of the big commercial imperatives”.

Conrad Quilty-Harper, data mapping reporter at the Telegraph, explained how creating maps adds to a story by using the example of a map on bike sharing schemes he created (though did not publish) using “Google Fusion Tables and a bit of javascript”. He recommends Google Maps and says the trailblazer of a news site using Google Fusion tables is the Texas Tribune.

My proudest example” was a live interactive Royal Wedding map which “worked brilliantly for three hours”. It showed some of the best tweets and were geolocated on the map. “We’ve got the data and we’re going to analyse it and do something with it in the future,” he said. “It tells you what people in specific locations were thinking”. The Telegraph would like to use the technology in a crisis news story, such as an earthquake or conflict.

Having been relegated to our screens, are our friendships now anything more than a form of distraction?

Facebook isn’t the whole of contemporary friendship, but it sure looks a lot like its future. Yet Facebook—and MySpace, and Twitter, and whatever we’re stampeding for next—are just the latest stages of a long attenuation. They’ve accelerated the fragmentation of consciousness, but they didn’t initiate it.

The modern temper runs toward unrestricted fluidity and flexibility, the endless play of possibility, and so is perfectly suited to the informal, improvisational nature of friendship. We can be friends with whomever we want, however we want, for as long as we want.

People and businesses are spending a lot of time trying to engage people on every social platform in the universe. People put out content “betting” it will attract people to their advertisement, conversation, their offering or in lots of cases their scam.

To gain the currency of your conversational bet you must understand how to work them in your favor. The odds of creating conversational currency are based on the “human network” and not the “institutional network“. The difference between the two is creating “human content” vs. “institutional content“. The difference between those two is knowing how to speak in human terms. Human terms are based on an exchange of value received. If your conversations doesn’t create and give value you can “bet” the house will win. A few other things you can bet on.

If you try and steal peoples time and trick them into a conversation you can “bet” your not going to “get” any value back.

Google News has recently rolled out its Badges program and entered the world of meaningless digital rewards. Get excited. From now on, if you have a Google account, log in and enable your web history before reading articles on Google News, you will accrue what are basically experience points (my words, not theirs) which will unlock badges and eventually cause those badges to “level up” (their words, not mine) from bronze to silver, gold, platinum and finally “ultimate.” Badges are related to certain subjects and level up based on articles read about that subject. For instance, to use the example from the instructional video, if you read articles about basketball, you will level up your basketball badge. While you might expect a news-site achievement program to stop there, Google has gone the extra mile to implement a balancing effect. Gorging on a whole bunch of articles in one day won’t earn you as much xp as reading a moderate amount on a regular basis. Pavlovian conditioning much?

There is also, of course, a social networking application to be had here. Badges are automatically set to private but can be shared with friends.

There is something slightly juvenile about the concept of giving away badges for reading the news, and something condescending about Google giving you gold stars for browsing their websites, and you know what? I don’t care.

So what’s making gamification so popular today? Consider these four factors.

1. Consumers Want It

consumers are looking for new ways to entertain themselves — 40% of U.S. online adults have expressed this interest in a recent survey. What’s more, consumers want game elements everywhere. 60% of consumers play a video game online in a typical week. Consumers (especially Gen Yers) are increasingly accessing games online and on mobile devices.

Broadcom, the radio chipmaker is making a big bet on mobile payments finally hitting its stride with its latest Near Field Communications chip.

Craig Ochikubo, VP of the business unit that oversees NFC at Broadcom believes it’s finally time for mobile payments to shine.

NFC can be used to authenticate a device more easily than a Bluetooth pairing, so if someone wanted to share a video file from his phone to his television set, all he would have to do is swipe the phone against an NFC reader and ship the file over using a Wi-Fi or other large data rate protocol.

Earlier this year, the World Health Organisation (WHO) classified radiation emitted by mobile phones as a possible cancer risk, with a similar threat to lead and the banned pesticide DDT. And the European Commission also issued a warning saying that individuals should be protected from low-frequency radiation emitted by cell phones, masts and Wi-Fi systems.

Mr Stein, the chief group executive of Samworth Brothers

began suffering the effects of low-frequency radiation six years ago when he experienced pain when using his mobile phone. “I began getting weird sensations in my ear if I went near a computer or TV, any electrical equipment with a microchip” he said. “I took the view that I was a freak and kept quiet, but it was difficult because I couldn’t drive a modern car with computers on board.” Mr Stein’s research eventually led him to the diagnosis that he is electro-sensitive, a condition he shares with several thousand people in the UK. Electro sensitivity is caused by the thousands of magnetic fields that surround us, from mobile and cordless phones to other wireless devices, including car sat-nav kits. The symptoms include sleep problems, headaches, tinnitus and earache, chest pains, loss of memory, poor concentration and depression.