"The new BlackBerry Z10 is designed to keep you moving," reads the copy on the website of a new promotional campaign for the recently-launched smartphone. "So we've given it to three people who never stop. These incredibly talented and ambitious people are always looking for the next exciting challenge." Yeah, that's pretty corny. But I was certainly surprised to learn that one of the three people involved in the Z10 campaign was the author (and longtime TeleRead favorite) Neil Gaiman. (The campaign's other two artists are the singer-songwriter Alicia Keys, and the filmmaker Robert Rodriquez.) But here's the interesting bit: As the promotion's website explains,...

The White House is supporting the consumers' right to unlock their cellphones once they have fulfilled the terms of their contract. In response to a petition on WhiteHouse.gov, the executive branch has stated that “The White House agrees with the 114,000+ of you who believe that consumers should be able to unlock their cell phones without risking criminal or other penalties. In fact, we believe the same principle should also apply to tablets, which are increasingly similar to smart phones. And if you have paid for your mobile device, and aren’t bound by a service agreement or other obligation, you should be...

The Online Publishers Association (OPA) released the results of a smartphone survey recently (title: A Portrait of Today's Smartphone User [click link for PDF download]), and assuming you have the patience to read between the lines, you'll find some fairly interesting trend predictors. For instance, the following comes directly from an OPA press release announcing the study: Smartphone users are cross-platform consumers: Smartphone users have strong cross-platform tendencies, with 84% identifying themselves as two-screen multitaskers (TV + mobile phone/tablet) and 64% identifying themselves as three-screen multitaskers (TV + PC + mobile phone/tablet). Smartphone is the preferred media device for many: 54% of multiple mobile device...

Better be careful if you use that e-reader while walking. The Washington Post has an Associated Press story on walker distraction causing accidents and injuries. According to the AP, reports of distracted walkers being treated at hospitals have more than quadrupled over the last 7 years, and there are almost certainly plenty of such accidents that don’t get reported. It’s unclear how many of these accidents can be attributed to personal electronics, but it may be due at least in part to e-reading’s rapid surge in popularity over the last few years. Of course, e-reading is far from the...

While not directly about e-books, the news that Leap Wireless and Sprint Nextel are going to offer the iPhone for prepaid cell phone service—the first US carriers to do so—could have be important to e-book readers. Before the Kindle came about, the iPhone and iPod Touch filled the gap left by the death of the Palm as a handy pocket-sized e-book reader. But up to this point, the only way to get an iPhone was to sign up for a costly AT&T service plan—something outside the reach of people who don’t talk on the phone enough to make...

The Innovative Educator has a fairly long blog post proposing a number of ways that schools could use students’ cell phones to increase engagement with reading and writing in the classroom. The piece starts with the startling assertion that texting actually helps students’ grasp of grammar, and goes on to list some interesting ideas for ways cell phones could help kids learn. Some of them have to do with using phones to text notes or journals to themselves, or send text messages to teachers so they can offer feedback without fear of being embarrassed in front of their peers....

PaidContent has a brief piece on world literacy program Worldreader, which has distributed over 75,000 e-books and e-readers to students in sub-Saharan Africa. (We’ve mentioned them a few times ourselves.) Worldreader is launching an application for Java-enabled feature phones that will allow them to read e-books and access web sites such as Facebook over ordinary mobile phone signals. The ultimate goal is to have “thousands” of e-books available on the app, Worldreader’s director of digital publishing Elizabeth Wood told The Bookseller: “Yes, this is a leap of faith for publishers, giving away some of their content...

Ars Technica and our sister blog Gadgetell have links to an interesting Pew Research survey on the demographics of smartphones. According to the survey, 46% of American adults now (think they) have smartphones. (8% aren’t sure whether what they have is a smartphone or not.) There are some numbers in the study relating to the demographics break down, but the most interesting takeaway for here, I think, is that now nearly half of American adults own a device that may be capable of reading e-books. It’s unclear how many of those people care about reading e-books on such a...

A lot of attention has been given to sub-$100 e-readers such as the new crop of Kindles. But a report from PaidContent suggests another generation of sub-$100 devices might be on the horizon: the sub-$100 smartphone. PaidContent reports that consultants at Deloitte see an impending wave of cheap smartphones hitting the market—as many as 500 million of them by the end of the year. By and large, these will not be Android, iOS, RIM, Symbian, or Windows Phone based phones, but rather they will run on closed, proprietary platforms. Most consumers care more about touchscreens or keyboards than...

A while ago, in my story about Route 66 and technology shifts, I mentioned Kodak’s failure to hop on the digital camera bandwagon quickly enough. In the last week or so, the Wall Street Journal reported Kodak is on the verge of filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, mainly so that it can sell off 1,100 patents through a court-supervised auction. The Journal article suggests Kodak has been having trouble finding a suitable direction over the last couple of decades: Casting about for alternatives to its lucrative but shrinking film business, Kodak toyed with chemicals, bathroom...

Responding to the incident in which Alec Baldwin was kicked off his flight for refusing to shut down his cell phone, Salon.com’s pilot columnist Patrick Smith has written a column about the question of interference from electronic devices—including e-readers—on takeoff. Much of it is about what you would expect—while it hasn’t been proven that cellphones are a flight danger, airlines choose to err on the side of caution. But I did find interesting the part that specifically addresses e-readers: As for the restrictions pertaining to computers, iPods and certain other devices during takeoffs and landings, this...

TechCrunch reports that a recent Pew Internet research project survey shows that 51% of US adult cell phone users used their phones within the last month to retrieve information they needed right away. It also reports on some of the differences between usage of cell phones and smart phones, and on the percentage of users who do things like take photos, send e-mail, play games, and so forth with the devices. (And 13% of respondents admitted to faking a phone call to avoid talking to someone physically present!) It is interesting to see smart phones being used as the...