Mobile Devices

Kicking like a 20-year-old baby, the Internet may finally be entering its long-awaited young-adult phase. It's about time: Folks have awaited "Web 2.0" since at least 1999. Part of Web 2.0 is what some call "The Apps Revolution," app being short for application , a small program you can download into your mobile phone. In Web 1.0, you sat at a desk, looked at a screen, visited search engines and sites on something called "the Web," and looked at what they had. In Web 2.0, people are less tethered to desks and moving toward, among other things, the mobile phone to make a customized, self-created universe of Internet uses.

The Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism and its Internet & American Life Project released a 23-page report Monday: "How mobile devices are changing community information environments. " The findings, based on a 26-question telephone survey conducted during two weeks in January with 2,251 adults, can be summarized in fewer words than your average Twitter feed: Not much. To expand (but in the spirit of the subject, only a little), the public's attitude toward palm-of-the-hand media is: Give us the weather, not the news.

Gov. Christie signed legislation Wednesday to allow the use of hand-held gaming devices. The devices will allow customers at Atlantic City's dozen casinos to gamble while sitting poolside or waiting for a restaurant reservation, or roam anywhere on the casino property. Assemblyman John Burzichelli (D., Gloucester), who co-sponsored the bill, said the devices could bring in new revenue for A.C.'s struggling gambling houses, which will own and control them. Las Vegas has had the mobile devices since 2006.

Comcast Corp. made available to its cable-TV subscribers the WatchESPN service for iPhone and iPad devices, part of the TV Everywhere initiative. The WatchESPN app is free and allows Comcast subscribers to stream ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3 and ESPNU to the mobile devices. Comcast subscribers also can watch the channels on WatchESPN.com if they provide their Comcast credentials. Later this week, Comast says WatchESPN will be available on XfinityTV.com. Comcast acquired the mobile-streaming rights to ESPN content in a 10-year rights deal, valued at about $26 billion, with the Disney Co in January.

SAN FRANCISCO - Apple CEO Steve Jobs briefly emerged from a medical leave yesterday to unveil a free service that lets customers share calendar entries, songs and other files among their devices more easily. The company also announced software to make Mac computers behave more like mobile devices and Apple's mobile devices more like rival smartphones. Jobs received a standing ovation as he appeared at Apple Inc.'s annual developers' conference, his second major public appearance since he went on medical leave in January for unspecified reasons and duration.

LONDON - Publisher Pearson PLC on Friday raised its full-year earnings guidance as its expanding international education division led a gain in first-half operating profit. Pearson, publisher of the Financial Times and Penguin books, reported that sales were up 3 percent to 2.4 billion pounds ($3.9 billion) and adjusted operating profit rose 17 percent to 208 million pounds. As a result, the company said it expected earnings per share of 80 pence for the full year, up from 77.5 pence last year.

Steve Jobs didn't live to see the outcome of the bruising war that pitted his iPhone and iPad against mobile devices that use Google's Android software. But he issued the call to arms. "I am going to destroy Android because it's a stolen product. I'm willing to go to thermonuclear war on this," Jobs told Walter Isaacson, author of a posthumously published biography of the Apple co-founder. "They are scared to death because they know they are guilty. " Apple won a resounding victory Friday in a lawsuit against Samsung Electronics Co., in which jurors found the South Korean manufacturer had infringed on six of Apple's patents for mobile devices.

A company whose mobile app offers a "social reader" that can be customized to capture news and blog content that users find especially engaging. A company whose software connects people with similar interests as they search the Internet, and fosters collaboration among them. A company that aims to improve the effectiveness of ads delivered to mobile devices. Those are the three new tenants of the Project Liberty Digital Incubator, founded by the parent company of The Inquirer, the Philadelphia Daily News, and the Philly.com website to encourage innovations in digital media and funded by a $250,000 grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

"One of the greatest losses in not expanding Medicaid [is the loss of] opportunity to put together all the various pieces of the system. " - Al Black, COO, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. " . . . We cannot ignore the $4.1 billion in state-only taxpayer costs over the next eight years that could occur as a result of expanding Medicaid in Pennsylvania. " - Carey Miller, spokeswoman, Pennsylvania Department of Welfare. "It's confirmation of a trend.

"One of the greatest losses in not expanding Medicaid [is the loss of] opportunity to put together all the various pieces of the system. " - Al Black, COO, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. " . . . We cannot ignore the $4.1 billion in state-only taxpayer costs over the next eight years that could occur as a result of expanding Medicaid in Pennsylvania. " - Carey Miller, spokeswoman, Pennsylvania Department of Welfare. "It's confirmation of a trend.

LAS VEGAS - Nearly six years after Apple's iPhone turned the smartphone into a hub of the high-tech universe, mobile technology continues to capture an outsize share of a trillion-dollar global consumer-tech market. But this year's Consumer Electronics Show, which opens here Tuesday, demonstrates that the focus on mobile apps hasn't slowed innovations of every variety. Reports on the eve of CES 2013 showed that spending on smartphones and tablets continued to surge everywhere in 2012, even as Europe struggled with a recession, U.S. growth sagged, and sales of single-function devices such as cameras and GPS units slumped - cannibalized by the growing capacities of apps on mobile devices.

Facebook Inc. posted sales that topped analysts' estimates after getting business customers to adopt new tools that deliver advertisements to users of handheld devices. Third-quarter sales rose 32 percent to $1.26 billion, Menlo Park, Calif.-based Facebook said. That compares with the average estimate of $1.23 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Profit excluding certain items also exceeded projections by a penny. Chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg is making headway in a drive to boost mobile-advertising revenue at the social network.

ATLANTIC CITY - New Jersey has cleared the way for casino patrons to gamble on their tablets, smartphones, and other mobile devices. But amid uncertainty about whether Internet gambling will ultimately be approved or banned, the Atlantic City casinos seem to be taking a wait-and-see approach. The state Gaming Enforcement Division issued temporary regulations governing gambling on handheld devices that took effect Monday. The state passed a law this year permitting the use of mobile gambling devices.

NEW YORK - T-Mobile and MetroPCS have agreed to combine their struggling cellphone businesses in a deal aimed at letting them compete better with their three larger rivals. The combined company will use the T-Mobile brand and have about 42.5 million subscribers. Although T-Mobile will stay No. 4 among U.S. wireless companies, it will get access to more space on the airwaves, a critical factor as cellphone carriers try to expand their capacity for wireless broadband. That could ultimately mean more choices and better services for customers, though Forrester Research analyst Charles Golvin doesn't believe the deal will make a "revolutionary difference" for U.S. cellphone customers.

Steve Jobs didn't live to see the outcome of the bruising war that pitted his iPhone and iPad against mobile devices that use Google's Android software. But he issued the call to arms. "I am going to destroy Android because it's a stolen product. I'm willing to go to thermonuclear war on this," Jobs told Walter Isaacson, author of a posthumously published biography of the Apple co-founder. "They are scared to death because they know they are guilty. " Apple won a resounding victory Friday in a lawsuit against Samsung Electronics Co., in which jurors found the South Korean manufacturer had infringed on six of Apple's patents for mobile devices.

IN THE REGION Christie signs mobile devices into law Gov. Christie signed legislation Wednesday to allow the use of hand-held gaming devices. The devices will allow customers at Atlantic City's dozen casinos to gamble while sitting poolside or waiting for a restaurant reservation, or roam anywhere on the casino property. Assemblyman John Burzichelli (D., Gloucester), who co-sponsored the bill, said the devices could bring in new revenue for A.C.'s struggling gambling houses, which will own and control them.

Gov. Christie signed legislation Wednesday to allow the use of hand-held gaming devices. The devices will allow customers at Atlantic City's dozen casinos to gamble while sitting poolside or waiting for a restaurant reservation, or roam anywhere on the casino property. Assemblyman John Burzichelli (D., Gloucester), who co-sponsored the bill, said the devices could bring in new revenue for A.C.'s struggling gambling houses, which will own and control them. Las Vegas has had the mobile devices since 2006.

For the nation's new weather-alert system, Wednesday was a spectacular local debut. The frightening "Severe alert! Flash flood warning" messages certainly caught the attention of mobile-phone users across the region. The only problem: Most of the folks who received the warnings that afternoon were in no danger whatsoever. Philadelphians learned what people in the San Diego region had discovered two days earlier: The alert system has a major technological glitch. Some of the areas warned were far removed from the areas endangered.

A company whose mobile app offers a "social reader" that can be customized to capture news and blog content that users find especially engaging. A company whose software connects people with similar interests as they search the Internet, and fosters collaboration among them. A company that aims to improve the effectiveness of ads delivered to mobile devices. Those are the three new tenants of the Project Liberty Digital Incubator, founded by the parent company of The Inquirer, the Philadelphia Daily News, and the Philly.com website to encourage innovations in digital media and funded by a $250,000 grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.