We now have the official reports from market research firm TrendForce on our hands and it reveals the smartphone food chain around the world, based on the second quarter of 2016. The first thing that we noticed is that Samsung's plans for global domination continue to be a success with a market share of 24.5% internationally! Apple is in the second place of course with 15.1%, but the huge difference between the two giants does tell a story. Chinese OEM Huawei comes in at the third spot with 9.2% market share, leaving behind the likes of LG (5.4%) and Oppo (5.6%).

China is the world's biggest market for smartphones and it is being led by none other Huawei once again, with an amazing 20.8% of the total market share. Oppo (12.7%), Vivo (10.6%), Lenovo (10.3%) and Xiaomi (10%) followed respectively from there on. As you can see, the competition is really tight from the third spot onwards with virtually nothing separating the competitors from each other. In addition to Samsung's continuing domination over the global smartphone market, one should notice that the Chinese manufacturers are rapidly rising with each passing quarter, especially Huawei.

Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)

Corning has just announced the fifth version of their protective glass for smartphones and tablets and it is a significant improvement over the Gorilla Glass 4. According to the manufacturer, a device sporting Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection will be able to stay unscathed even when dropped from a height of up to 1.6 meters and on its face. They believe that this will protect dropped smartphones in about eighty-percent of the cases.

Apparently, Corning concentrated on and established 1.6m as the benchmark after doing quite a bit of market research. It was found that 60% of the smartphones that are dropped by users fall from an altitude that ranges in between waist height to shoulder height. Although one can argue that the shoulder height and the waist height will vary from person to person, we guess Corning chose the 1.6m mark as the average. Have you ever dropped your phone from a height higher than 1.6m? If you did, did your smartphone survive the nasty fall or did the screen shatter? Feel free to share your experiences in the comments below.

Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)

Since the advent of mobile technology, it has been inevitable that mobile devices would overtake so called ‘fixed devices' in many capacities. The next step in mobile development is expected to be viewing online videos.

Worldwide, consumers spend an average of 19.7 minutes a day viewing online videos through their mobile devices (Tablets and Smartphones) compared to 16.0 minutes on fixed devices such as desktop computers and Smart TVs. Overall, this is a 39% increase for mobile devices on last year where 14.2 minutes were spent viewing online videos through mobile devices. It is anticipated fixed device viewing will remain the same thanks to Smart TVs becoming more accessible to offset the decline of the desktop computer.

The growth in mobile video viewership is primarily being driven thanks to the growing popularity of mobile devices and the increased accessibility thanks to lower cost options becoming available. As the devices become steadily more advanced; so too do the connection options such as much wider spread Wi-Fi coverage and the high speed 4G.

Mobile video consumption will continue to grow by a projected 33% in 2017 and 27% in 2018, according to reports, taking the average viewership to around 33.4 minutes a day which may sound like a lot but it's perfectly feasible when you consider how much you personally view at present. The projections suggest mobile devices will account for 64% of all online video consumption by 2018 but it isn't all bad news for fixed devices as it is anticipated by 2018 the average viewing will be 18.7 minutes as Smart TV's become more common in homes.

You may have noticed, whether you view online video via mobile or fixed devices, that advertising has become much more common and that is down to increased investment from advertisers in the online market. We've all attempted to watch a YouTube channel or playlist and had every video interrupted by an advert as a precursor and this shows no sign of slowing down as video advertising will account for 68% of all online video advertising this year - down from 75% last year which may be a semblance of good news.

Most online video viewership is mobile but the bulk of online video advertising is aimed at fixed devices and will continue to be into 2017. This is more evident in the gambling market where brands such as SBAT explore new channels. Video adverts are believed to be more engaging on larger screens and also more effective so progressively more money is to be invested in fixed video advertising.

Most brands treat online video as a compliment to traditional television rather than competition, most online video providers offer previously broadcast programs as the bulk of their offering anyway. As a by-product of this, online advertising is treated in much the same way as televised advertising: roughly 30 seconds focussing on the brand - such as a bookmaker offering free bets, the central focus of the advertisement will be the brand.

Some brands have found online advertising more effective than others, especially when offering extended content online only as televised advertising is more expensive. Consider Nike's advertising campaign for Euro 2016; the gist of the advert was displayed on television but the full five minute film was only available online.

Mobile devices will dominate online video consumption and may even eliminate the competition before long and most advertising will soon make the move from fixed broadcasts to mobile broadcasts instead. The future is coming, much quicker than many expected. 

Nick Lee from Tendigi came into the lime light recently, after he managed to run Windows 95 on the Apple Watch and he has come forward once again with another hack. Apparently, Lee has managed to run Android Marshmallow on an iPhone with the help of both software and hardware. Lee modified the Android build found on the Nexus 5X expertly enough to stream it on to an iPhone. We say "stream" because this isn't a custom ROM that you can just flash on to your iPhone. Instead, the Android OS runs after you put your iPhone into the 3D-printed custom case, that has a micro-SD card slot, a micro-USB slot, an USB slot, a HDMI slot and of course, a lightning plug to connect to the iPhone.

Do you want to do this? If you do, then you better know what you are getting into because this isn't one for the layman. For starters, you will need to install an app on your iPhone and put it in the 3D-printed case, which isn't up for purchase. We could see a prominent lag in the video that Tendigi posted on YouTube, but it's still a tremendous breakthrough. Check out his instructions to know more if you are interested.

Source:

https://blog.tendigi.com/finally-android-on-the-iphone-99b0c8b3adc#.hij4p89u0

Author: Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)

You have probably used a magnetic air vent car mount before, but the chances are pretty high that you have never used one quite like the Spigen Air Vent Magnetic Car Mount. What sets the cheap yet useful hands-free device apart from most of the others is the fact that it doesn't need magnetic stickers for it to attach to the smartphone. The ones we have used before, usually have the included magnetic stickers which you must apply at the back of your phone for the setup to work, but not with this one. The Spigen car mount simply uses the magnets that are already present inside the compatible smartphones to attach itself to them.

The system is simple to work with and of course offers more flexibility than magnetic sticker-based car mounts and it doesn't let go of your phone during bumpy rides either. Considering that it costs about $6.99 on Amazon right now, we would say that this is an excellent buy, or even a MUST buy! As of now, the Spigen Magnetic Car Mount is compatible with the Galaxy S6, S6 Edge, S6 Edge+, Galaxy Note 5, Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge.