Fully Charged: iPhone commands about half of UK mobile traffic, Shell’s VR engine tour, and a glimpse at a day’s worth of transatlantic flights

iPhone responsible for nearly half of UK mobile traffic, says report

According to a report released this week by online advertising network Chitaka, the iPhone is responsible for nearly half of all of the mobile traffic coming out of the UK. The firm analyzed millions of smartphone ad impressions during a week in June, and found that Apple devices were responsible for 48.9% of the impressions, a slight drop from 49.7% in January.

Samsung followed with 22.8% (up from 21.4%), with the sample taken after a heavy barrage of publicity for the Galaxy S5 launch. BlackBerry came in third, down to 15% (from 16.8%), while HTC, Nokia, Sony, Google, and Motorola each represented 3.1% or less of the UK traffic apiece during the span.

Chitaka’s analysis says that Apple and Samsung are likely to remain the leaders in this space—no real surprise—and that BlackBerry’s sinking tally shows handset owners likely moving towards other devices; again, stop us if you’ve heard this one before.

However, the report summary fails to acknowledge the pending launch of Amazon’s Fire Phone—which, granted, doesn’t yet have a UK release target. Still, it’ll be interesting to see how that distinctively-featured device shakes up the handset wars in the coming months and years.

[Source: Chitaka]

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Shell’s Oculus Rift experience takes you on a tour of an engine

Ever since Facebook bought up Oculus Rift, gamers have been complaining that they’ll turn the VR headset into a marketing device. In truth, the marketers have already got there, as we found at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Shell has created its own Oculus Rift Experience—a virtual tour through a V6 engine, narrated by Murray Walker in the style of a race.

It’s an odd beast; the on-rails experience makes you slightly queasy, while looking down reveals that your virtual avatar doesn’t have any arms. Still, it’s an interesting look at how VR is set to become increasingly ubiquitous – and it’s not as pants-wettingly terrifying as Alien: Isolation on Oculus Rift.

READ MORE: Alien: Isolation on Oculus Rift is so frightening, you might not want to play

Here’s a look at a day’s worth of transatlantic flights

From National Air Traffic Services (NATS) this week comes this alluring visualization of what the 1,400 (or so) transatlantic flights it handles each day looks like on a map. The clip is based on a day’s worth of traffic data from last August.

Upwards of 80% of oceanic traffic runs through the UK-controlled Shanwick Oceanic Control Area, which spans about 700,000 square miles. Because radar only offers about a 250-mile range, NATS relies on pilot-provided reports via satellite or radio to determine location and keep so many planes well separated in the skies.

NATS’ Prestwick Centre in Scotland is ground zero for staying atop the mayhem, and both the video above and the informative blog post on the NATS site provide an interesting look at this challenging task.

[Source: NATS via Engadget]

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