Pew

Foursquare and similar location-based check-in apps might sound silly to some, but they're gaining in popularity nonetheless.

A new survey from the Pew Internet & American Life Project has found that at least 28 percent of U.S. adults have found a liking for mobile and social location-based services.

Kathryn Zickuhr, a Pew Internet Project research specialist and co-author of the report, explained in a statement:

Americans are not currently all that eager to share explicitly their location on social media sites, but they are taking advantage of their phones' geolocation capabilities in other ways. Smartphone owners are using … Read more

Too busy to keep up with the tech news? Here are some of the more interesting stories from CNET for Friday, August 26.

• As Hurricane Irene approaches and East Coast residents are on lock down, CNET offers up some of the best ways to track the storm online and even through smartphone apps.

• Apple has ditched the 99-cent video rental plan, which was offered through Apple TV and iTunes. Why? CNET's Greg Sandoval said, "The Hollywood studios and TV networks don't want another Netflix. Look around. They're trying to stuff that genie back into the bottle.&… Read more

One of the many findings of a recent Pew Research Center study called "Americans and their cell phones" is that "42 percent of cell phone owners used their phone for entertainment when they were bored."

The study also found that 40 percent or respondents have used their phone to deal with an emergency and that "13 percent of cell owners pretended to be using their phone in order to avoid interacting with the people around them." For more, see Eric Mack's post "Ever faked a cell phone call? You're not alone.&… Read more

Almost a third of all those twentysomethings you see walking around talking on their cell phones are just pretending--perhaps so they can avoid you.

That's one of the findings of a new Pew Research Center study that surveyed more than 2,000 U.S. adults about their cell phone usage habits. Thirty percent of survey respondents between the ages of 18 and 29 said they had used their phone to avoid interacting with the people around them at some point in the last 30 days.

When expanded to cell phone owners of all ages, only 13 percent pretend to be on the phone to get out of unwanted small talk or confrontations with the landlord.

We probably shouldn't be surprised that so many of those calls in public are just for show, because who actually makes a call instead of texting these days?

Pew found that 92 percent of smartphone owners and 59 percent of other cell phone owners text from their phone. Sending and receiving texts is the most common use for cell phones outside of voice calls, tied with taking photos. But only 80 percent of smartphone owners and 36 percent of feature phone users actually send those photos via their phone.… Read more

Searching and e-mailing remain the two top activities in the online world, according to a recent study from Pew Internet.

Released yesterday, the results of a Pew survey conducted in May found that 92 percent of online adults use search engines to hunt for information on the Web, and 59 percent do so on a typical day.

Matching search in popularity was e-mail, with 92 percent of adults polled last November sending and receiving it, and 61 percent doing so on a typical day.

Drilling down further, search proved most popular among the younger crowd (18 to 29), 96 percent … Read more

Smartphone adoption is growing in many demographics, according to a recent survey by the Pew Research Center.

The Pew poll estimates that 35 percent of American adults own a smartphone device. The data is based on a survey conducted in May, which found that 83 percent of U.S. adults have a cell phone, and 42 percent of those people have a smartphone.

The types of people adopting smartphones vary, but Pew found the highest concentration of individuals range from "financially well-off and well-educated; under the age of 45; and African American and Latinos."

Internet access is critical … Read more

More people are hopping aboard the Twitter bandwagon, according to new data out today by Pew Internet.

In its Twitter Update 2011 report, Pew Internet found that 13 percent of online adults now use Twitter, compared with just 8 percent of those polled for a similar study last November.

Among those on Twitter, 95 percent own a cell phone, and half of them access the site via their mobile device, noted Pew.

Drilling down the results further, Pew found that Twitter usage has about doubled for most age groups. Among those 25 to 34, Twitter use grew to 19 percent … Read more

Almost 25 percent of Internet users have made phone calls via Internet Protocol services such as Skype and Vonage, according to a study (PDF) released yesterday by Pew Internet.

Of the U.S. adult population in general, 19 percent had made Internet calls, based on the poll. On an average day, around 5 percent of Internet users are likely to make a phone call online, the poll found.

The latest findings show a dramatic increase over previous Pew surveys that asked similarly-phrased questions about online phone calls.

In February of 2007, Pew found that only 8 percent of Internet users … Read more

The United States fell one spot to third place in clean-energy investment last year as the lack of a national energy policy hurt purchases in wind and solar power and other technologies, according to a new report.

China came in first and Germany second, according to today's report "Who's Winning the Clean Energy Race" (PDF) by the Pew Charitable Trusts, an independent, nonprofit group.

In the previous year the United States had fallen from the top spot to second place, behind China.

A comprehensive energy bill died in the Senate last July. Washington also has failed … Read more