TTR Ep 4209: Police turn to twitter for this year’s muck up day, Apple expands e-commerce on the iPhone, Microsoft’s Outlook is the target of the week for those keen to peddle malware, Twitter begins Lists Beta, and the Italian town of Venice rolls ou

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DATE : Mon, 19 Oct 2009 23:01:47 +1100
Entered in Database : 2009-10-19 12:01:47
length : 50000000
Link to the Show / Show Notes

It never ceases to amaze me how dependent Australians are on mobile phones and new research, released last week by Microsoft Australia, reveals just how integral the mobile phone has become to Australians - with some extremely interesting results! Would it surprise you that we’re now more reliant than ever on mobile phones, and for much more than just making phone calls.


The Microsoft-commissioned research also found that Australian adoption and use of text and MMS has blown sky high, with over half of respondents indicating that they text more now than they have in the past two years. However, despite the importance that Australians place on their phones, many are still damaging or misplacing their prized possessions:

Nearly a quarter of the population has broken their mobile phone, dropped it in water, or lost their mobile phone altogether.

77 per cent of Australians regularly misplace their phone and have to call it to locate it.

And nearly 50 per cent of Australian males surveyed, aged between 16 and 19, have lost their phone.
Only 20 per cent of females in the same age group have lost their phones.

The survey also revealed that as Australians become more dependent on their phones, and less dependent on their own memory, they are more at risk of losing important information numbers and photos stored on their phones. Most Australians (63%) don't know how to retrieve some of the information stored on their phones, or back it up, risking permanent loss:

Only one third of Australians surveyed know their best friend's phone number by memory and only half of all Australians surveyed know their own office phone number - they rely on their phones for this information. Yet, only one third of Australians have all their phone numbers backed up elsewhere.

Around one in six Australians regularly have issues accessing saved numbers. The same number of Australians are unable to download mobile phone applications.

Three quarters of all females under the age of thirty have cherished photos saved on their mobile phone, yet one third don't know how to retrieve them, and only one third of females have their photos backed up elsewhere.

Australian’s may be quick adopters of technology, but it still looks like the majority of users are Luddites. Does this mean the ubiquitous mobile phone is a necessity in this day and age, or is it peer group pressure that drives us to purchase our new best friend? Maybe it’s neither. Maybe we’re just keeping up with the Jones’

This week on TTR

Adam turns his attention to freeview’s latest shenanigans
Police turn to twitter for this year’s muck up day,
Apple expands e-commerce on the iPhone,
Microsoft’s Outlook is the target of the week for those keen to peddle malware,
Twitter begins Lists Beta, and the Italian town of Venice rolls out city wide wifi

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