Track your Carbon Footprint using your GPS-enabled Cell Phone

Several weeks ago, we got really excited about a potential smartphone application that can track your carbon footprint that came out of the UCLA’s Center for Embedded Network Sensing (CENS). The application, when downloaded onto a GPS-enabled phone, could track information such as the amount of smog produced while driving, pollution inhaled while walking and other tools that measure harmful environmental impact. The news was incredibly exciting until we realized that the application, still in beta testing, is only available to UCLA students and faculty who want to participate in the testing, with no consumer release date available.

Today, we became excited again. This time, Andreas Zachariah, a graduate student at the Royal College of Art in London came up with the idea for a carbon footprint calculator for your cell phone. The application, Carbon Diem, can be downloaded to your GPS-enabled phone to track your carbon footprint. In fact, the only thing you need to do is carry your phone with you. No inputting numbers or routes or types of transportation. The application tracks your travels and mode of transportation based on the speed you’re going, with nearly 100 percent accuracy on airplanes and trains, and slightly lower accuracy on buses, according to the testing done with Nokia and Blackberry phones. While Carbon Diem has not been released, a launch has been planned for next year.

Most people are concerned about the environment; a lot of us even attempt to do something about it. It looks like mobile carbon footprint calculators are about to change the way we view our impact on the world. I told you it was exciting news!

Nielsen Mobile Reports Increase in Smartphone Usage

Most Americans recognize Nielsen as the leader in television ratings. However, with Internet and mobility divisions, Nielsen Media endeavors to understand all media usage. Nielsen Mobile recently released a report based on smartphone usage, prodded by the interest in the Apple iPhone. Although the iPhone is still widely popular, the findings supported growth in all smartphone technologies.

Not surprisingly, Nielsen found that nearly half of all smartphone users were business people and half of that group is lucky enough to have their phones paid for by their companies. Research in Motion, HTC and Palm still lead the smartphone industry with Apple coming in fourth place, quite a feat for a corporation with only two phones on its shelves. Apple leads the pack with overall customer satisfaction with its devices. In addition, the average cost of a smartphone is $205 with service plans costing $110 per month. Who’s carrying these smartphones? The findings indicated that the majority of users are male (although purchases have increased for both men and women), between the ages of 25 and 54 and boast a household income of at least $100,000 (one-third of all smartphone users do).

We’ve mentioned before the penetration of smartphones on the US and global mobile market. With Nielsen surveying the mobile landscape, it’s only a matter of time before smartphone domination is confirmed.

Privus Mobile President Greg Smith Wins Tech Titans’ Emerging Company CEO Award

I’m starting the day with a big pat-on-the-back for Greg Smith. The Privus Mobile president was awarded the Tech Titans’ Emerging Company CEO Award for his leadership of Accudata Technologies. At Friday’s Tech Titans Awards Gala, Smith received the prestigious award that honors the North Texas leader who made the greatest impact in new technology business in 2008. Accudata has been on the Tech Titans’ Fast 50 list five consecutive times during Smith’s tenure, making this weekend’s honor one more in a long line of Accudata’s accomplishments. Congratulations, Greg!

New Nokia, Pantech, Samsung Phones Heading to AT&T?

Rumors are flying that AT&T will be acquiring five new phones soon: Nokia’s E72, Pantech’s Matrix and a trio of Samsungs – the A867, Sangria and Mirage. The E72 is essentially a Nokia E71, said to be customized exclusively for AT&T users. The slim phone with 320x240-pixel screen, QWERTY keyboard, digital camera, GPS and memory card slot is rumored to include Symbian’s S60 Feature Pack 2, properly dominating its E71 predecessor. The FP2 allows for easy messaging, multi-tasking and downloading, with instant media playback during the download.


The Pantech Matrix dual-slider is the company’s follow-up to the Duo. While the Matrix has some great features, this affordable phone’s one downside might be Pantech’s weak operating system. Users will have to find solace in the 1.3-megapixel camera, Bluetooth, Video Share, QWERTY keyboard and numeric pad, which come housed in three color options: red, green or blue.



Samsung phones have been under intense scrutiny lately. The A867 was once thought to be the elusive OMNIA, but as there is no mention of WiFi for this device, and the signature Samsung smartphone “i” is missing from the device number, it seems unlikely. The Sangria (A767) looks like the Samsung i620 and i640 devices, but without Windows Mobile, making it a lower-range consumer-targeted phone. The Mirage (i907) is said to be AT&T’s version of the i780 and has been referred to in recent rumors as the Blackjack III. This slim phone has a QWERTY keyboard, 320x320-pixel touch-sensitive display, optical mouse, 624MHz processor, quad-band GSM with WiFi and digital camera. The Mirage will run on Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional operating system.

Essential Cell Phone Dictionaries, Phrasebooks for Your Next International Trip

International business and travel are a part of the landscape of today’s culture. While a good portion of the world is amazingly bilingual, trilingual and even multilingual, the rest of us are left with the anxiety of traveling to a foreign country. We are left with two options: butcher our way through another language or hope for an English-speaking native to help us out, neither of which is incredibly appealing. Luckily, smartphones continue to improve our lives, this time with talking phrasebook applications that make both learning and accessing other languages a breeze.

Apple’s iPhone has the most popular language application, iLingo by Talking Panda. The ten iLingo app languages – translating English to French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Cantonese, Mandarin Chinese, Korean or Japanese – were specifically chosen and organized to make traveling easier. Words and phrases are grouped into categories, such as Greetings, Shopping and Getting Around. The word or phrase is then spoken in a voice native to the country or region you’re visiting. As an added bonus, each language is tailored to the region you’re in, making it easy to find food and cultural activities. iLingo is very affordable at $9.99 per language, but the small price accompanies a small, travel-centered dictionary.

Beiks offers language applications for mobile phone users. Talking phrasebooks are available for Blackberry and Windows Mobile users. Beiks offers 14 English-conversion travel phrasebooks for Windows Mobile, as well as a Euro bundle, which gives English-speaking travelers access to French, Spanish, German and Italian, all in one application. Beiks also offers 21 other language phrasebooks, such as French to Turkish and German to Hebrew translations. Their collection for Blackberry is even larger, with 14 phrasebooks originating from five languages (English, French, Spanish, German and Italian). Each language also has its own bundle. Prices for Windows Mobile and Blackberry are the same, with individual phrasebooks for $19.95 and bundles for $39.90.

LingvoSoft also offers dictionaries and talking phrasebooks. With dictionaries for your phone in 47 different languages (including Hindi, Farsi, Bengali and Yiddish) and 50 different talking phrasebook options (nearly 30 of these offering English to another language translations), LingvoSoft works with Windows Mobile, Symbian and Palm operating systems. Prices range from $27.95 to $39.95 for talking phrasebooks.

The prices for traveling internationally might be damaging to your bank account, but the time and energy these applications save will be worth every penny. Happy traveling!

Try out your new language software and see if you can translate this French pop song by Yelle.