Pogie awards for the brightest ideas of 2012

Good evening, and welcome to The Dalles, Ore.! Here in the cafetorium of the James A. Garfield Middle School, we meet every year for the biggest event in technology the Pogie awards!

Windows Phone 7.8 coming soon to Nokia Lumia 510, 610, 710, 800, 900

There's good news for owners of Nokia Lumia phones with Windows Phone 7.5. According to a report over at Nokia Power User (NPU), the update is now available at NaviFirm, indicating it should become officially soon enough.

Microsoft beats Google to become 'Santa's official maps partner'

In the battle for Christmas, Microsoft has scored a win over Google as the official maps partner for Santa and his reindeer.

Microsoft's #DroidRage Twitter campaign backfires, leads to #WindowsRage

Microsoft Windows Phone team kicked off a #DroidRage campaign on Twitter earlier this week encouraging users to share their stories related to malware on their Android smartphones. In return, Microsoft promised "get-well presents" to the best/ worst stories.

"Do you have an Android malware horror story? Reply with #DroidRage with your best/worst story and we may have a get-well present for you."
-- Windows Phone (@windowsphone) December 5, 2012

While the campaign received some genuine responses, it wasn't long before it backfired on Microsoft, as people started sharing their horror stories related to Windows Phone, tagging them with #WindowsRage. Here are a couple:

"I once thought about writing malware for a @windowsphone but then I thought, aren't they suffering enough? #DroidRage #WindowsRage"
-- Mohammad Tarakiyee (@Tarakiyee) December 5, 2012

"You'll never get Malware from our Windows Store. You'll never find any third-party support either! #WindowsRage"
-- Ollie Reardon (@ojdon) December 6, 2012

This is not the first time Microsoft has targeted Google, though this is likely the first time things have gone wrong so spectacularly for Redmond. Microsoft held the #DroidRage campaign last year as well, with not-so-embarrassing results.

More recently, Microsoft attacked Google in a series of TV ads, describing the dominant search engine as a lousy holiday shopping guide in its latest attempt to divert more traffic to its Bing search engine. To punctuate its point, Microsoft warned consumers that they risk getting "scroogled" if they rely on Google's shopping search service.

Earlier, Microsoft launched a campaign called "Bing It On", trying to show web users the quality of its Bing search engine is better than Google's. The software company unveiled the site "bingiton.com" where users input five search queries and the unbranded search results of Bing and Google were shown in two columns. For each query, users were asked to choose a winner (or a draw) and the test showed which search engine come on top in the end.

 

Android will power more than two-thirds of smartphones sold in 2012: IDC

 Google's Android operating system will power more than two-thirds of smartphones sold worldwide in 2012, and will remain the dominant platform for at least the next four years, a survey showed Tuesday.
The survey by the research firm IDC showed Android will be the platform for 68.3 percent of smartphones shipped in 2012, far ahead of 18.8 percent for the iOS platform used on Apple's iPhone.

"IDC forecasts Android to be the clear leader in the smartphone mobile operating system race, thanks in large part to a broad selection of devices from a wide range of partners," the market tracker said.
"Samsung is the leading Android smartphone seller though resurgent smartphone vendors LG Electronics and Sony, both of which cracked the top five smartphone vendors during the third quarter, are not to be overlooked. IDC believes the net result of this will be continued double-digit growth throughout the forecast period."
The report said Android will retain the top position through 2016, when it will have 63.8 percent of the market in the face of increased competition from Apple, Microsoft's Windows Phone and others.
"Android is expected to stay in front, but we also expect it to be the biggest target for competing operating systems to grab market share," said Ramon Llamas, research manager with IDC.
"At the same time, Windows Phone stands to gain the most market share as its smartphone and carrier partners have gained valuable experience in selling the differentiated experience Windows Phone has to offer."
Llamas said other players jockeying for market share will include Research in Motion's BlackBerry, which releases a new operating system next year, and the open-source Linux system.
BlackBerry, which until a few years ago was the dominant smartphone, will see its market share slide to 4.7 percent in 2012, according to IDC, and to 4.1 percent by 2016.
Linux will be used on two percent of smartphones this year and 1.5 percent in 2016, it said. Windows will grow from 2.6 percent this year to 11.4 percent in 2016, IDC said.
Apple's iOS will remain the clear number two platform but will be "cost prohibitive for some users within many emerging markets," IDC said.
"In order to maintain current growth rates, Apple will need to examine the possibility of offering less expensive models," it said.
The report said the overall worldwide mobile phone market will grow just 1.4 percent in 2012, the lowest annual growth rate in three years. The total number of devices sold is expected to be around 1.7 billion.
The forecast reflects an estimated 39.5 percent growth in smartphones, but declines in sales of other kinds of mobile phones.
"Sluggish economic conditions worldwide have cast a pall over the mobile phone market this year," said IDC's Kevin Restivo.
"However, the fourth quarter will be relatively bright due in part to sales of high-profile smartphones, such as the iPhone 5 and Samsung's Galaxy S3, in addition to lower-cost Android-powered smartphones shipped to China and other high-growth emerging markets."