Majority of cell phone owners still experience dropped calls, Pew poll finds

There’s no question that cell phones have made our lives easier, but they can also sometimes cause some pretty big headaches. Dropped calls, for instance, are always a major annoyance, and a new poll from the Pew Internet & American Life Project finds that the vast majority of cell phone users still find themselves dealing with them. 72% of respondents told Pew that they still experience dropped calls occasionally, which is a ridiculously large number of people when you consider how many of us own some kind of cell phone.

Of those people who answered in the affirmative, 32% said they suffer dropped calls multiple times per week or more frequently. Though we’ve only got 32% of polled cell phone users saying that they experience dropped calls frequently, the number that say dropped calls are still an issue is pretty staggering. Looking at the chart above, we can see that 6% of users say they deal with dropped calls on a daily basis, and another 6% say it happens multiple times per day, which we imagine is endlessly infuriating.

Elsewhere in Pew’s report, which was authored by Jan Lauren Boyles and Lee Rainie, 69% of users say that they occasionally receive unwanted marketing calls, with 25% of users claiming that it happens a few times per week. 79% of cell phone users say they text message, and 69% of those texters claim to occasionally receive spam messages. Finally, we come to mobile Internet download speeds. 55% percent of cell phone owners use their phones to access the Internet, and 77% of those mobile Internet users claim to be hit with “slow download speeds that prevent things from loading as quickly as they would like” every once in a while.

The sad news is that smartphone owners report these problems more frequently than “other cell owners.” Looking at the second chart from Pew, we see that smartphone owners report problems with dropped calls, unwanted calls and texts, and slow download speeds more often than the rest. Pew says that the poll took place during March and April 2012, and that the non-profit polled a total sample of 2,254 adults to get these rather interesting results. At least now you know that you aren’t the only one suffering when you experience a dropped call, right?

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Aussie judge calls Apple a monopoly in Samsung Galaxy Tab case

Australia is a beachhead for Apple’s worldwide crusade against Android in general, and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in particular. Apple’s lawyers scored a major victory earlier this year when a sales ban injunction was granted, essentially making Samsung’s tablet illegal to sell in the entire country. Naturally Samsung appealed the case, and at least one of the three appeals judges seems to be sympathetic, labeling Apple’s iPad market share as a monopoly.

Samsung’s lawyers take issue with the ruling granted by the judge in the original case, calling the decision grossly unjust, and accusing her of overlooking the core facts of Apple’s presented patents and business arguments.

If you have a fast moving product which if taken off the market, destroys the opportunities available to the newcomer and preserves the monopoly of the incumbent then you’d have to have a very close look at the strength of the case.

Another of the three judges took issue with Apple’s claims that a similar product would hurt its bottom line. He skeptically asked one of the lawyers if “the whole of Apple’s going to come tumbling down” because the Galaxy Tab 10.1 was allowed to be sold.

The developments are promising for Samsung, though they probably shouldn’t get too excited just yet – the civil case itself doesn’t begin until next year. Apple is unlikely to accept anything but a total sales ban, since they’ve already rejected Samsung’s settlement offer. If Apple manages to win the case, Samsung may simply release the slightly redesigned Galaxy Tab 10.1N, as they’ve already done in Germany.

[via SlashGear]

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Smart calls on public to give to ‘Baha Fund’

Leading wireless services provider Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart) is encouraging people to send help to those affected by typhoons Pedring and Quiel by making donations to Baha Fund.

The two typhoons that consecutively pounded most of Luzon left several towns flooded and without electricity, food, water and shelter. Proceeds of the Baha Fund will be forwarded to the TV5 Foundation to help augment and speed up its relief operations in hard-hit places in Metro Manila and the provinces.

“We are once again appealing to Filipinos all over the country to unite in helping our kababayans in need,” said Ramon Isberto, head of Smart Public Affairs. “We did it before when Ondoy struck. We can do it again. People need our help.”

To make it easy for anyone in the country to donate to the Baha Fund, Smart is opening an emergency Smart Money account and making it available to the public. Smart Money users can instantly send their donation by transferring funds from their bank accounts and/ or own Smart Money accounts to the official Baha Fund account number 5577 5130 6822 1104.

Donors may also deposit cash to this Smart Money account number in any Banco De Oro branch nationwide or through Hapinoy and Cebuana Lhuillier outlets.

PLDT-Smart Foundation, Inc. (PSF) is also accepting donations through its Banco De Oro account 00-5310-01388-2 (Makati Avenue-Ayala Branch).

Smart subscribers may also send their financial help to the Philippine Red Cross through text. To donate, one simply sends RED to 4143. Valid donation amounts are 10, 25, 50 and 100 and will be charged to the subscribers prepaid load or postpaid bill.

Aside from raising funds for typhoon victims, Smart has been continuously running its Libreng Tawag operations in several areas in Metro Manila, Camarines Norte, Bulacan, Pampanga, Nueva Ecija, Nueva Vizcaya, Isabela and Cagayan. In areas where communications signals were marred by the strong winds and heavy rains or power failures, Smart deployed Smart Link satellite phones to enable residents to contact their loved ones and to enable concerned agencies to facilitate rescue operations.

Smart also assisted in the rescue operations in Bulacan where several towns were submerged by flash floods. In Aurora and Nueva Ecija, Smart’s cell sites were also opened to the public for free cellphone charging.

“All our operations entail hard work and resources and we need the help of all our kababayans,” said Isberto. “Much more still needs to be done after Pedring and Quiel. Even now, we are already bracing for Ramon,” he ended.

For complete instructions on Smart Money activation and fund transfers, visit www.smart.com.ph/money.

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