Skycore launches cross-carrier delivery of Apple’s Passbook items by MMS

By Christian Zibreg on May 24, 2013

Apple’s Passbook reads data from .pkpass files, which can be attached to email messages and embedded on web sites. The system lets Safari and Mail clients running on Mac, iPhone, iPod and iPad devices to automatically import tickets, digital coupons and other items into the Passbook application and sync them across devices via iCloud. That’s all fine and dandy, but what if there was an easier way to share Passbook passes? Thanks to a company called Skycore, Passbook items can be now delivered to users via MMS… Read More

 

Jony Ive’s iOS 7 remake: black, white, flat all over

By Ed Sutherland on May 24, 2013

When Apple’s former iOS honcho Scott Forstall was dumped, stories were told of he and design guru Jonathan Ive nearly coming to blows over the prevailing use of realistic shapes and textures within the mobile software. Now comes a claim the design change of the upcoming iOS 7 will be “black, white, and flat all over.”

Ive, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Industrial Design and newly-minted head of Human Interface across the company, has essentially proposed a radical break with the iOS former Apple co-founder Steve Jobs unveiled in 2007, introducing a look and feel he believes will stand the test of time… Read More

 

After being dumped from App Store, AppGratis launches Android version

By Ed Sutherland on May 23, 2013

After great wailing and gnashing of teeth about its banishment from Apple’s App Store earlier this year, AppGratis is back – for Android users. The app recommendation engine was yanked after Apple outlawed iOS apps which promoted other apps.

Now in the Google’s Play store Android repository, developers claim AppGratis “is designed from the ground up” for the iOS rival. Yet, the service appears much like the AppGratis ejected from the app’s first choice, the App Store… Read More

 

Samsung’s $800,000 competition lures devs to write exclusive Galaxy apps

By Ed Sutherland on May 20, 2013

Samsung wants more developers writing apps that require features exclusively found on its own devices, such as the Galaxy S4 flagship smartphone – and is willing to pay. In an $800,000 competition, the South Korean conglomerate is seeking entries which highlight its own sharing service and proprietary software development kit.

The first-prize winner takes home $200,000, three second-place finalists receive $100,000 each, while six third-place finishers get $50,000 each, according to the Wall Street Journal. The competition’s goal is to improve Samsung’s standing against Apple’s iPhone… Read More

 

U.S. Air Force could save $50M using 18,000 iPads

By Ed Sutherland on May 17, 2013

Taking a lesson learned by civilian airlines, the U.S. Air Force has purchased 18,000 iPads expected to save more than $50 million over the next decade. The move from bulky paper flight manuals to tablets should save nearly $6 million each year in fuel and printing costs.

In an interview, the airlift arm of the U.S. military said the switch to 32GB Wi-Fi Retina iPads as electronic flight bags would reduce aircraft weight by 90 pounds per aircraft – up to 490 pounds for huge C-5 transports. In 2012, American Airlines received FAA go-ahead to use iPads in the cockpit… Read More

 

iOS and Android gamers spend 3X as much as handheld console owners

By Christian Zibreg on May 17, 2013

I still remember vividly how industry heavy-weights Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft initially laughed off gaming on the iPhone. It was right after Apple slashed the iPod touch to the sweet $199 price point that it became clear to me that gaming on high-end smartphones and tablets would eventually outgrow that on dedicated handheld consoles such as Sony’s PSP and Nintendo’s DS family.

Enter a new report by research firm IDC and analytics service App Annie which reveals just how far along mobile gaming has come. According to the study, users of smartphones and tablets spend nearly three times as much purchasing games on Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store as handheld device owners.

If these numbers are anything to go by, smart mobile devices will soon relegate dedicated handheld consoles to a niche market, if not eventually kill the category altogether… Read More

 

IDC: Apple, Android own 92% smartphone volume, Windows Phone beats BlackBerry

By Ed Sutherland on May 16, 2013

Just days after rival research firm Gartner released quarterly sales for iOS and Android, rival IDC today announced similar numbers for shipments of smartphones. Combined, iOS and Android maintained their stranglehold on the smartphone market, accounting for more than an astounding 92 percent of shipments during the first quarter of 2013.

In a surprising move, shipments of the Windows Phone smartphone operating system surpassed the BlackBerry OS, putting Microsoft in third place behind Android and iOS. I bet you didn’t see that one coming… Read More

 

Another concept imagines iOS 7 running on next-gen iPhone

By Christian Zibreg on May 16, 2013

Following recent budget iPhone concept by Martin Hajek (itself based on nice iOS 7 mockups by 3D artist Dámaso Benítez), German blog Apfellike.de yesterday shared a similar rendition by Jürgen Ulbrich. Like many 3D artists before him, Dámaso is striving to envision what iOS 7 running on the next iPhone might look like. I’m liking his work a lot and have included a few images and a nice video mockup right after the break… Read More

 

EA bringing its Frostbite game engine to iOS

By Christian Zibreg on May 15, 2013

Games super publisher Electronic Arts is bringing its Frostbite game engine to the iOS and Android platforms, the company confirmed Tuesday.

Developed by EA Digital Illusions CE, creators of the Battlefield series, the Frostbite engine supports Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 platforms and powers a wide range of video game genres, from first-person shooters to racing game and real-time strategies.

A mobile version called Frostbite Go will target “all major mobile platforms,” Electronic Arts confirmed, specifically mentioning iOS and Android… Read More

 

Martin Hajek’s new concept pictures budget iPhone running revamped iOS 7

By Christian Zibreg on May 14, 2013

The renderings use Hajek’s past budget iPhone concepts as the basis for the hardware. As for the software, he incorporated a round of nice concepts by 3D artist Dámaso Benítez, picturing a flattened iOS 7 user interface that Apple’s design head Jony Ive and his team are widely believed to be working on.

His mockups, Hajek explains on his personal blog, serve to illustrate “how Apple might introduce the new, cheap iPhone.” More awesomeness can be found right past the fold… Read More

 

New iOS 7 concept depicts Zen-like simplicity

By Christian Zibreg on May 10, 2013

Another day, another iOS 7 concept. In an attempt to depict what Jony Ive-ified, flattened user interface in iOS 7 might look like, digital agency Simply Zesty created this elaborate concept.

The video focuses on a clean look UI and pictures Lock screen widgets, a revamped Notification Center as well as a beautiful new Windows Phone ‘Metro’-fied stock apps like Calendar, Music, Siri and Camera.

I love the cleaner Notification Center with animated widgets. If that’s the future of iOS 7, then I’m very much looking forward to it… Read More

 

iPhone passcode security prompts law enforcement requests

By Ed Sutherland on May 10, 2013

Apparently, the law enforcement community needs to hire a few 13-year-olds able to crack the passcode on Apple’s iPhone. There is such demand to help unlocking iPhones that one federal agency had to wait nearly two months for Apple, which even manages a waiting list, to unlock the smartphone. One “flaw” in Apple’s otherwise tight mobile security could worry privacy advocates: the company reportedly does not inform iPhone owners when it bypasses the device’s security measures… Read More

 

Apple expands Maps Flyover coverage in France

By Christian Zibreg on May 9, 2013

3D Flyover, a headline feature of Apple’s in-house mapping service available on compatible iOS 6 devices, initially included only a handful of U.S. cities. The last major expansion was in March, when Apple added 3D Flyovers in twelve new cities – including such venues as Tokyo Station, Japan Imperial Palace and Tokyo Tower – and expanded Flyover coverage in more than a dozen U.S. cities.

Today, the company added 3D buildings for Paris, France and surrounding areas. I have a feeling iDB’s own Sebastien Page will have lots of fun playing with Maps on his iPad… Read More

 

Canalys: one in five smart devices are Apple

By Ed Sutherland on May 9, 2013

Research firm Canalys Thursday offered data on first-quarter smart mobile device shipments, with an estimated 300+ million new units for a 37.4 percent year-over-year growth. Google’s Android powered 59 percent and Apple’s iOS powered a little over nineteen percent of these devices, according to researchers. Key takeaways: Android leads the smartphone race, Apple is holding onto the tablet market and laptop demand continues falling.

Pay attention to Canalys’s parlance because ‘smart mobile devices’ include smartphones, tablets and laptops. Another important caveat: Canalys stats don’t divulge shipped vs sold units. This is an important distinction as a device shipped into a channel does not automatically result in a device sold to a consumer… Read More

 

iOS 7 spikes in web traffic logs ahead of WWDC

By Christian Zibreg on May 8, 2013

With a little over a month until Apple’s summer conference for developers, web site owners are now beginning to see a noticeable spike in traffic from devices that run iOS 7 beta code. Analysis of traffic logs and IP addresses reveals some of that traffic originating from Apple’s Cupertino campus, which is usually a tell-tale sign that Apple is seeding the work-in-progress code internally to select engineers.

However, the mobile site conversion firm Onswipe over the past week or so started seeing iOS 7 traffic spikes across a bunch of web sites that incorporate its solutions… Read More

 

Apple wants to take a peek inside Android source code

By Christian Zibreg on May 8, 2013

Apple’s proxy fight against Google and its Android platform has just taken an interesting turn as the iPhone maker asked the court to force Google into turning over Android’s source code. The request is part of Apple’s ongoing California patent fight against Samsung. Bloomberg reports today Apple is dissatisfied with Google’s handling of the request.

According to Apple’s lawyers, the search giant in “improperly withholding information” related to Android’s source code documentation. Google’s mobile operating system, Apple argues, “provides much of the accused functionality” and argues the Google platform is used in all of Samsung’s allegedly infringing products… Read More

 

New FIPS 140-2 certification could broaden government use of iOS 6

By Cody Lee on May 7, 2013

There’s been a lot of talk lately regarding Apple and its efforts to broaden the use of iOS in government agencies. The latest report says the US Department of Defense is close to granting both the iPhone and iPad approval for secure use.

Today comes word that the DoD might have just received the green-light it needed to move forward. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (or NIST) just announced that iOS 6 has achieved FIPS 140-2 certification (Level 1)… Read More

 

AllThingsD reaffirms Apple is working on ‘deForstallization’ in iOS 7

By Cody Lee on May 1, 2013

After months of silence, reports regarding the next major version of iOS have really picked up in recent weeks. Most chatter points to the same thing: iOS 7 will sport an all-new, flatter interface, and the redesign has Apple running behind.

And this afternoon, those two points are reiterated in a new report by AllThingsD. The tech blog says that, according to its sources, iOS 7 is such a big design overhaul, Apple has had to pull engineers from other projects to help it along… Read More

 

Bloomberg: Apple’s design guru Jony Ive ‘methodically reviewing’ iOS 7 overhaul

By Christian Zibreg on May 1, 2013

It’s been six months since Tim Cook reshuffled Apple’s leadership team, firing iOS architect Scott Forstall over his abrasive management style and unwillingness to collaborate with other members of the executive team, namely Apple’s industrial design guru, the 46-year-old Jonathan Ive.

As a result of the shake-up, Ive has assumed much broader responsibilities that now encompass all of Apple’s design, both the look and feel of its hardware and software.

Apple’s press release stated that America’s most influential Briton “will provide leadership and direction for Human Interface (HI) across the company” and today Bloomberg sheds more light on the difficulties Ive faces in the massively challenging overhaul of iOS 7, Apple’s mobile operating system powering iPhones, iPads and iPods… Read More

 

Chart: Android owns two-thirds of smartphone sales – or does it?

By Ed Sutherland on May 1, 2013

Some intriguing numbers were released Monday on how one research firm views the smartphone race between iOS and Android. According to Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, Google’s Android averages a 64 percent unit share of the smartphone market across ten countries.

Apple leads in Japan while Android’s doing its best in Spain, where the mobile software owns an astounding 93 percent of the smartphone market.

In the U.S., the race is much tighter, with Android holding 49.3 percent and Apple owning 43.7 percent of the domestic market. But the rivals might be even closer as observers question how accurate Kantar is, given recent iPhone sales reports by U.S. carriers… Read More

 
Page 112345...