BlackBerry smartphone owners are thinking of switching to either iPhone or Android notes a new study from Crowd Science. Android users are almost as loyal as iPhone owners.

Nearly 40% of Blackberry users continue to prefer an iPhone as their next smartphone purchase, but a third of them would also switch to the Android operating system, according to the second smartphone brand loyalty survey conducted semi-annually via Crowd Science. The Crowd Scientists also found Android users rivaling iPhone users in loyalty, with about 90% of each user group planning to stick with their current brand when buying their next phone.

Asked specifically if they'd swap their present phone for the Nexus One, 32% of Blackberry users said "yes," compared with just 9% of iPhone users. This figure zoomed to 60% for users of smartphones not made by Blackberry or Apple.

iPhone apps are usually used in the evening and on the weekend notes an hourly study of iPhone app analytics data by Localytics. Mobile app usage in the US and Canada peaked at 9:00 pm EST during the week and maintained peak usage throughout weekend afternoons and nights.

iPhone app usage on weekends and weekdays is both different in usage patterns and overall scale. iPhone users generate 7% more traffic on the weekend than the average weekday. Saturday traffic ramps quickly from a morning low at 6:00 am to over 90% of peak usage by 11:00 am--and stays near the peak for the rest of the afternoon and evening.

By comparison, weekday app usage is more concentrated in the evening with a slow ramp during the working day and a peak at 9:00 pm EST, when East Coast users are at home and West Coast users are commuting home.

The U.S. government in its efforts to expand broadband across the great digital divide is offering free web-testing on their website and Android as well as iPhone apps to check broadband speed. Their website is such a big hit, it, took 30 seconds to load, we're still waiting to view their original post.

The free Broadband.gov apps test broadband speed and gives the Feds a way to see if the carriers and providers are really giving the speed and service they say they do.

If you want to test your broadband speed from a computer they ask for your address, this test took us longer than Speedtest.net or other web based broadband testing sites It's powered by Ookla and M-Lab.  It tests latency and jitter. The web version does not work in Firefox or Safari.

The Android App is available on Android Market and the iPhone app is in the App Store.

We did a quick text on a Google Nexus One with only one 3G bar and the download and upload speed were good. If you think your carrier is not doing a good broadband job, you may want to download the app that reports your speeds to the FCC.

The applications are part of the FCC's national broadband plan, due out next Tuesday, to offer affordable broadband to all of the U.S.

CBS Sports has new mobile products for the 2010 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship. CBS is distributing both the premium, live-video app as well as a free "lite" version. The games will also be available on AT&T's  FloTV.

The NCAA March Madness on Demand (MMOD) premium application offers live streaming video and video highlights of the 2010 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship. Coverage begins with the NCAA Basketball Championship Selection Show on March 14 and continues with every game from the first round of the tournament through the semifinals and championship of the Men's Final Four.

New this year, in collaboration with AT&T, the live video will be delivered over 3G, EDGE and Wi-Fi connections. Premium app users can also receive score alerts and listen to live game radio broadcasts from Westwood One throughout the entire tournament, starting with the Opening Round game on March 16.

Getfugu,  mobile search tool, announced that they have added a new feature for its popular mobile search tool called "Get Tickets."

Getfugu users can search and purchase tickets directly on their mobile phone by simply saying the name of the event into their phone.

For example, a user could ask for events like Lakers (by saying "Lakers Tickets") or concerts (by saying "Bon Jovi tickets"). Getfugu's Get Tickets application will provide dates, times, specify the venue and even tell the consumer how many tickets are available for purchase.

Fotobabble is a new web and iPhone app that lets people to add voice to photos. The free service lets you create and share a "Fotobabble."  Upload a photo and record your voice directly through your computer's microphone to create a talking photo.

On your iPhone, after downloading the free Fotobabble app, select an existing photo or a snap a new one, hit record and you're done. Whether using a computer or your iPhone, you can share talking photos via e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, or embed them into a blog or website.

Gartner has publihsed their worldwide mobile report.  Although there was a slight decline in total sales and single digit growth, the market is considered positive due to increased strong smartphone growth and low-end handset sales. RIM's BlackBerry was 19.9% and Apple's iPhone was 14.4% of the world smartphone market.

Worldwide mobile phone sales to end users totalled 1.211 billion units in 2009, a 0.9 per cent decline from 2008, according to Gartner, Inc. In the fourth quarter of 2009, the market registered a single-digit growth as mobile phone sales to end users surpassed 340 million units, an 8.3 per cent increase from the fourth quarter of 2008.

"The mobile devices market finished on a very positive note, driven by growth in smartphones and low-end devices," said Carolina Milanesi, research director at Gartner. "Smartphone sales to end users continued their strong growth in the fourth quarter of 2009, totalling 53.8 million units, up 41.1 per cent from the same period in 2008. In 2009, smartphone sales reached 172.4 million units, a 23.8 per cent increase from 2008. In 2009, smartphone-focused vendors like Apple and Research In Motion (RIM) successfully captured market share from other larger device producers, controlling 14.4 and 19.9 per cent of the worldwide smartphone market, respectively."

Telemundo launched iPhone apps, "A la Mano." Each A La Mano market and station will have its own app. There are nine apps in total, including Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas, Miami, New York, San Jose, Houston, Puerto Rico and Phoenix.

The new apps feature all the informative "A La Mano" content, including news, weather, sports, entertainment, slideshows, high-quality video, lottery numbers and horoscopes, in addition to local market personalization in an easy-to-navigate design. It provides an enhanced environment for the iPhone and advertisers looking to connect with Hispanic consumers in a fresh and contemporary way. 

Google has acquired reMail, founded by Gabor Cselle who was formerly an Intern a and software engineer at Google.

According to Cselle's blog Google and reMail have decided to discontinue reMail's iPhone application, and we have removed it from the App Store. The reMail appl, it will continue to work. and support is provided until the end of March.

The reMail app downloade all email to the iPhone and enabled fast full-text speed. It has not been revealed if reMail technology will show up in Google products.

Millennial media published their first industry-first snapshot 2009 Year-in-Review Scorecard for Mobile Advertising Reach and Targeting (S.M.A.R.T.).
Highlights:

Here are Some of their Mobile Marketing Stats:

• Brand business grew 756%.
• Average deal size increased 353% year-over-year.
• Top Ten 2009 Advertising Verticals by Spend (this will likely radically change in '10, with Pharma, auto, and retail leading the charge)
  
• Non-U.S. impressions increased 117% year over year (Europe primarily drove this large increase)

Increased Impressions

• 357% increase in Apple OS impressions.
• 90% increase in RIM OS impressions.
• Of the top 5 devices on the network three are BlackBerry devices.
• Top ad impression are on the iPhone, BlackBerry Curve, T-Mobile G1 and BlackBerry Storm.
  

This year-end summary is based on observed traffic, server log reports, etc., on our network. Since Millennial Media is the largest mobile ad platform, we anticipate much of this data is fairly representative of the mobile ad industry as a whole.

Irish bookmaker Paddy Power analysis of the Samsung Wave suggests that the iPhone will best the Nexus One and Samsung Wave.

Paddy Power gives odds of 4/1 that Samsung's new touchscreen smartphone will outsell both the Google Nexus One and Apple iPhone globally this year.

The iPhone however remains the bookie's odds-on 4/6 favorite to wave goodbye to the competition and easily become the best selling mobile device in the world this year.

The Handmark Winter Sports apps gives you lots of 2010 Winter Olympic Games information on your BlackBerry or iPhone.. The app gives real-time access to news, photos, scores, and more straight from the Games.

Winter Sports Live is available to download free now in the App Store for iPhone and iPod touch users and BlackBerry App World for BlackBerry smartphone users.

The Winter Sports Live application, developed by Handmark, features trusted news content from the AFP organized into the following categories:

• Live from Vancouver - top stories, updated in real-time.
• Competition News - covering news on individual events.
• Word on the Street - general news, scores and analysis.
• Picture of the Day - the day's top moment in pictures.
• Photo Gallery - a collection of the best photos from the Games.
• Olympic Champions - features on past and present Olympic champs.
• Quotes of the Day - top comments from participants and spectators.

Opera Software, will reveal Opera Mini for iPhone at Mobile World Congress.Opera Mini is known for its compression technology, which results in faster webpage loading and reduces data surcharges. 

Apple formerly did not let other browsers in its app store.  Analysts think that the iPhone Opera Mini reveal is a play to pressure Apple to let Opera Mini into the App store. Other believes that AT&T will help Opera sing on iPhones.

While Opera Mini for iPhone will not be publicly available, Opera will unveil a host of other Opera-powered devices at Mobile World Congress.

AT&T now offers  the AT&T FamilyMap App on the App Store for iPhone. The app provides families with a more seamless experience when locating and connecting with one another on the go using iPhone. 

This app could come in handy if kids are out in the snow, because now parents can view maps of where their family members are on their phones.

The AT&T FamilyMap app brings a streamlined approach to helping families stay up to speed on each other's whereabouts by locating wireless devices within a shared family account. The app provides iPhone users with access to FamilyMap's features which until now, were only accessible through a computer

Interactive Map: View whereabouts within an interactive map, including surrounding landmarks such as schools and parks; and, toggle between satellite and interactive street maps.
Personalize: Assign a name and photo to each device within an account, and label frequently visited locations such as "Bobby's house" and "School."

Google has launched new controls that enable enterprise administrators to help ensure corporate policy enforcement across a range of mobile devices for Google Sync for iPhone, Nokia E series, and Windows Mobile devices. Google Sync enables Google Apps users to access and sync mail, calendar, and contacts from their mobile device to the Google cloud.

With this change, Google Apps Premier and Education Edition administrators will be able to manage their users' iPhone, Nokia E series and Windows Mobile devices right from the Google Apps administrative control panel, without deploying any additional software or having to manage dedicated enterprise mobile servers.

These new mobile device management capabilities will allow administrators to:

Apple has released an operating system update OS 3.1.3  for: iPhone OS 1.0 through 3.1.2, iPhone OS for iPod Touch 1.1 through 3.1.2.

If fixes some bugs including  one that caused crashing apps on devices with a Japanese keyboard and improves the accuracy of the battery level reporting.

There was a glitch that playing a maliciously crafted mp4 orTIFF image could lead to code execution or termination due to a buffering issue. There was also an issue with memory corruption with USB controls that allowed access to personal data on a locked iPhone or iPod Touch. The was also a problem with an opening for malicious code and data-minig in  FTP functions in the WebKit browser. There was also a glitch with HTML5

Apple says they have fixed the aforementioned issues in the update, but does not reveal security threats or secrets.

Logitech has released a free app for the iPhone, the  Touch Mouse app. It turns your iPhone or iPod touch into a wireless trackpad and keyboard for your computer, so you can point, click, scroll and type from afar, in any application, on a Mac or PC.

The iPhone Logitech Touch Mouse app,  works over Wi-Fi, so you can use it anywhere in your house. It works as a way to control your computer when it's connected to your TV and you're lounging on the couch. And to make typing easier, text is displayed on the screen of your iPhone or iPod touch as you type.

If you do not have a Wi-Fi network on your computer this app will not work.

Apple Computer, Inc. has updated the iPhone developer SDK to allow VoIP over cellular networks. iCall is the first VoIP application that functions on the iPhone and iPod Touch over cellular 3G networks.

VoIP on the iPhone has been the source of many debates with companies such as Google being denied access to the platform and the FCC inquiring as to the restrictions in the Apple App Store; iCall is one of the few VoIP applications that has been permitted by Apple to operate on the iPhone platform.

With the latest revisions Apple has made to the iPhone developer agreement and Software Development Kit, iCall for the iPhone and iPod Touch now enabled unrestricted free local and long distance calling over 3G data networks. 

The fees for the service are not clear.  It appears VoIP calls in the U.S. and Canada are ad supported and free. Unlimited US and Canadian calling is included in the Call Total Access calling plan, or costs 2.1¢ per minute on our pay as you go option.

Steve Jobs revealed this morning the latest sibling to the the iPhone, iPod family, the iPad.

"It's like holding the Internet in your hand," Jobs said. He thinks its better than a smartphone or a laptop.

The iPad runs the OS that is on the iPod and iPhone. The iPad comes with calendar, address book, email, Safari Browser, YouTube, iTunes and Google Maps. The multitouch iPad has an onscreen touchscreen and uses touch gestures for drop-down menus.

A main feature is that it has the iBook app, with virtual bookshelf from which you can buy and download ebooks directly to the iPad. There is a feature called iWork for spreadsheets and business apps withth Pages, Keynote and Numbers for documents, presentations and spreadsheets with charts, functions and formulas. The three apps will be available separately through the App Store for $9.99 each.

There are two models of iPad, one with Wi-Fi only and other with AT&T  3G connections with fees at  $14.99 per month for 250 megabytes  and an unlimited plan at $29.99 per month.

iPads come unlocked with GSM and SIM. Deals with  world carriers will be announced later. The SDK is available today for developers.

Google has introduced the Google Voice web app for the iPhone and Palm webOS devices. This HTML5 application provides a fully functional mobile experience for Google Voice because it uses the latest advancements in web technologies. For example, AppCache lets you interact with web apps without a network connection and local databases allow you to store data locally on the device, so you don't lose data even when you close the browser.

Since it is a web app, you don't have to download it, point your mobile browser to m.google.com/voice and sign in to your Google Voice account.

For quick access to the most important features like "Dialer", "Compose SMS", "Inbox" or "Contacts," you can add shortcuts to your iPhone home screen or Palm Launcher -- so cheap calls and messaging will be just a single click away. And because the Google Voice web app uses advanced features of modern HTML5 browsers, it offers native app-like performance and speed.