These days, when the Internet is virtually everywhere, one cannot be faulted for thinking that Ponzi and other pyramiding and fraudulent investment schemes would not fool anyone anymore.

After all, almost everybody has a smartphone or access to an Internet café. And these sources of information should have provided people with ample enough warning to stay away from such schemes and their purveyors.

Apparently, however, having access to information doesn’t necessarily mean acquiring or developing common sense. Once again, we are harshly reminded that it remains one of the rarest commodities.

I guess the government has to do a better job of protecting our people, especially from themselves.

 Android is King

Two of the world’s leading market research firms said three out of four smartphones sold during the third quarter of 2012 were Android-running devices. IDC said Android was in 75 percent of smartphones sold during the period, while Gartner had it at 72.4 percent.

Setting aside these research companies’ differing methods of measuring market shares, one thing is as clear as the most pure crystal — Android is winning the mobile wars.

Although most market analysts have been quick to add that perhaps the decline in the iPhone’s market share was due to consumers’ decision to wait for the coming of the iPhone 5, this corner thinks it never had that much impact.

Android is king of the mobile world. And IDC said Google’s mobile OS is set to expand its reign into the tablet market where Apple saw its share dropping from 65 percent to just over 50 percent in the second quarter.

Mobile Shopping Boom

A survey of more than 5,000 American consumers by Deloitte revealed that almost 70 percent of smartphone owners plan to use their device in doing their holiday shopping. With 46.1 percent of American consumers owning a smartphone, this survey’s findings could mean something big for US retailers.

Increasingly, retailers are using mobile technology to market their products to technology-enabled consumers by adding QR codes to their print ads, enabling purchasing from smartphones, or alerting consumers about new promo deals through their smartphones or tablets.

That is one big boon for retailers. Some consumer advocates, however, would say that it’s more like retailers using a relatively expensive device that consumers paid for themselves to condition them to buy more.

Well, that’s capitalism and consumerism 101 for the rest of us.

Photo Lenses for Mobiles

While taking photos using a smartphone or tablet computer has been spreading rapidly like a new dreaded disease, and public acceptance (or is it tolerance?) of people doing it is becoming more or less universal, it doesn’t make the act any less comical, if not stupid looking.

And to add pain to the insult, the quality of photos taken with the typical smartphone or tablet usually doesn’t compare with those of pictures shot using a standalone camera.

Camphone-shooting consumers, however, need not fret for long.

A research team from the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom is working with several manufacturers to launch a “super-thin lens” that can be attached to a smartphone or tablet's built-in camera. The lens can function as a convex or a concave lens.

Soon, although you would not look less the fool, you would at least take better-quality photos using your smartphone or tablet camera.

That’s all for the meantime, folks. Join me again next time as we keep on watching IT.