Worldwide Opera is No. 1 with iPhone behind. In the United States and United Kingdom iPhone is No. 1 with iPod Touch second. China has Nokia No. 1 (way ahead of the others) followed by Opera, Sony and iPhone. And, to throw in a really strange stat, in South Korea — 91 percent of mobile web browser use went through iPod Touch, with all the others muddled together in the single digit percentage range.

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The report says, via an AT&T executive, that 50 percent of data traffic on AT&T is used by iPhones. Only a few million of AT&T’s 78 million subscribers are using iPhones.

“Carriers everywhere are increasing the bandwidth on their backhaul networks to handle this exploding IP data traffic,” said Michael Howard, Principal Analyst.

The report expects the number of mobile broadband phone subscribers to increase to 1 billion by 2010.

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The improvements include:

• Faster load times for actions such as opening an e-mail or searching
• Ability to read Gmail over a flaky or non-existent network connection
• Floating bar appears so you can manage multiple e-mails at the same time. Bar floats on the screen as you scroll up and down.
• Labels from the desktop Gmail now appear on your mobile
• Search field moved up into the header
• Any one else bothered like me that some of the Google mobile pages did not have homescreen icons? Back in the day, they were all light blue and white — go to your favorite Google web app such as Gmail, Reader or Calendar now and you’ll see they all have colorized, better-looking homescreen icons.

Screenshots below from my iPhone show some of the improvements. Video (by Google) below shows the new changes.

Google shows off new web interface

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TweetGrid’s site today shows a message: “NEW! TweetGrid for iPhone. Point your iPhone or iPod to http://tweetgrid.com/iphone/ for a unique TweetGrid experience.”

My first reaction? Wow, why isn’t this how the web-version works?

The standard web version is a bit ugly, but it works great. Go to tweetgrid.com, choose a grid shape, and create custom searches in each cell. The grid automatically updates.

The mobile version is a web app, go to http://tweetgrid.com/iphone/ and has a custom homescreen icon (though the icon is a bit cluttered, IMHO). It allows users to authorize multiple Twitter accounts (click on Settings on the top right to authorize accounts).

Not sure yet if I think this is better than the iPhone Summize app. At first glance, I like Tweetgrid better than Summize for my phone because of the ability to add Twitter accounts (so I can save search terms for my @sonyanews account and for when I’m representing my company on @ocreggie) and ability to change settings unavailable in Summize.

Here’s the full list of features for the new iPhone web app from TweetGrid:

• Real-time auto-updates of Twitter Search results
• Multiple account authorization through OAuth
  • Authorize as many accounts as you want under the main screen “Settings” arrow
• Tweet from the results page
  • Click the “Tweet” button in the top right title bar
  • Choose any of your authorized accounts to send the tweet
• Save your searches for quick access from the home screen
• See and search current Trending Topics
• Sticky Settings for:
  • Auto update – on/off
  • Refresh Interval – 10 to 60 seconds
  • Show Avatars – on/off (handy for EDGE/slow connection)
  • Show TwitPic thumbnails – on/off (just for fun…)
  • These settings persist for each new search

Related news around the web: Rumor: Palm Pre coming on 4/30, says some guy on Twitter, YouTube Adds A Twitter Button, Follow The Hires: Twitter Looking To Ramp Up Search And Platform APIs, Twitter To Start Serving Local News To Users?, Twitter Creates, Then Kills Bogus Palm Pre Launch Rumor.

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Sure, you can already pluck chickens out of a coop in Chicktionary, build cities in Textropolis or play the old classic Scrabble. But Scramble Live, the latest offering from Zynga, wants to be different.

To understand how Scramble is different means explaining Zynga’s first app for the iPhone: Live Poker. The game (Texas Hold ‘Em Poker) started on Facebook and MySpace and was added to the iPhone. In the game, from desktop or mobile, you can play against your friends who are playing from all over — MySpace, Facebook or iPhone.

“Scramble Live” wants to do the same thing — but this time for word-creating folks with an iPhone in tow and an addiction to the Facebook version. The company says Scramble on Facebook has more than 1 million monthly active users.

“Games are more fun when they are played with real friends, which is why we wanted to give iPhone and iPod Touch users the opportunity to play a classic word game with people they know,” said Mark Pincus, CEO of Zynga.

Here’s how the company describes the game play (app sells for $4.99 — with a price point at $2.99 for a limited time — the game was launched today). NOTE: Check back later for a review of this app, which I’ll be testing out soon.

At the end of each round, players are shown how missed words are formed on the board.  The game includes three modes of play:

• · Solo – Play in ladder mode to beat your friends’ scores
• · Live – Play against other users in real time
• · Play & Pass – Play with up to three other people sitting next to you on the same device

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1.Bluetooth 3.0

Gartner: The Bluetooth 3.0 specification will be released in 2009, with devices starting to arrive around 2010. Bluetooth 3.0 will likely include features such as ultra-low-power mode that will enable new devices, such as peripherals and sensors, and new applications, such as health monitoring.

mblapps: Bluetooth 3.0 would allow for health care applications (and other unique apps)  that would sync with monitoring devices. If Bluetooth 3.0 uses less battery life that means more power to play games on your cell.

2. Mobile User Interfaces (UIs)

Gartner: UIs will be an area of intense competition in 2009 and 2010, with manufacturers using UIs to differentiate their handsets and platforms. Better interfaces will make the mobile Web more accessible on small devices, and will be a better channel to customers and employees.

mblapps: Customers will be more likely to buy more advanced phones (that can use more applications) if the phones are easy to use. Compiled by mobile firm Mformation, a recent survey found that 85 percent of users reporting they were frustrated by the difficulty of getting a new phone up and working. An easy-to-use interface could also make customers enjoy using their phones, meaning they would be more likely to use their phones for more and more tasks.

3. Location Sensing

Gartner: Location awareness makes mobile applications more powerful and useful; in the future, location will be a key component of contextual applications. Location sensing will also enhance systems, such as mobile presence and mobile social networking. The growing maturity of on-campus location sensing using Wi-Fi opens up a range of new applications exploiting the location of equipment or people. Organizations delivering business or consumer applications should explore the potential of location sensing; however, exploiting it may create new privacy and security challenges.

mblapps: Gartner above spells out how location sharing will help mobile apps. The more users have access to GPS-enabled phones, the more people using services such as Loopt, Brightkite, urbanspoon and other location-based apps.

4. 802.11n

Gartner: 802.11n boosts Wi-Fi data rates to between 100 Mbps and 300 Mbps, and the multiple-input, multiple-output technology used by 802.11n offers the potential for better coverage in some situations. 802.11n is likely to be a long-lived standard that will define Wi-Fi performance for several years. High-speed Wi-Fi is desirable to stream media around the home and office.

mblapps: Increasingly faster Internet offered on mobile devices means developers will have more access than ever to mobile phones — skipping the downloading-apps business model to make web-only apps.

5. Display Technologies

Gartner: During 2009 and 2010, several new display technologies will impact the marketplace, including active pixel displays, passive displays and pico projectors.

mblapps: Mobile phones can be used to play games, watch movies and share presentations — but better displays make cell phones direct competitors with devices such as the Nintendo DS, Sony PSP and ultra-portable computers.

6. Mobile Web and Widgets

Gartner: The mobile Web is emerging as a low-cost way to deliver simple mobile applications to a range of devices. It has some limitations that will not be addressed by 2010 (for example, there will be no universal standards for browser access to handset services, such as the camera or GPS).

mblapps: Better access to the web from mobile phones means some standardizing of mobile Web sites, more opportunities for Web sites and services who could develop mobile sites rather than mobile apps and a chance for companies to increase branding by offering a similar experience from physical locations, the desktop web and mobile phones.

7. Cellular Broadband

Gartner: Wireless broadband exploded in 2008, driven by the availability of technologies such as high-speed downlink packet access and high-speed uplink packet access, combined with attractive pricing from cellular operators.

mblapps: These advancements would allow for faster transfers of large volumes of data — a key development to make video work on mobile phones, less battery life wasted while waiting for data transfers and less dependency on mobile networks.

8. Near Field Communication (NFC)

Gartner: NFC provides a simple and secure way for handsets to communicate over distances of a centimeter or two. NFC is emerging as a leading standard for applications such as mobile payment, with successful trials conducted in several countries. It also has wider applications, such as “touch to exchange information” (for example, to transfer an image from a handset to a digital photo frame, or for a handset to pick up a virtual discount voucher).

mblapps: Companies and customers would become less dependant on things such as credit cards, business cards, USB cords, coupons and other items as those could all someday be transferred wirelessly using mobile applications.

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Yes, the new WhiteHouse.gov Web site has an elegant design, blog, an RSS feed with more promised and information on many topics. But still, there is no mobile version.

CNN.com wrote a  story declaring that Obama will be the country’s “first wired president.” And, you can see in this tweet below the difference between the old and new WhiteHouse.gov sites.

rachelsklar Nice one – Rex captured screengrabs of WhiteHouse.gov before and after inaug. Vive la difference! http://tinyurl.com/9dblao

Maybe this is getting ahead of things a little, as Obama was just sworn in a few hours ago. But still, Obama is known across the country for being addicted to his BlackBerry and his campaign was noted for its use of social media, including the mobile-friendly Twitter.com.

The screenshots at right show how the new White House site looks on my iPhone, and how there is no auto homescreen icon for the phone. Any one with a BlackBerry want to check and see how it looks?

Related post:

Links to the latest mobile Obama inauguration news

Related posts on other sites:

Obama’s Inauguration Speech – eBooks

Is the Web Breaking Under the Inaugural Strain?

The Inauguration: Most User-generated Content Ever?

O.C. firm enhances cell-phone service at inauguration ‘tenfold’

WhiteHouse.gov takes a page from Twitter’s playbook

New Year, New President, New Blogs

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