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If Apple loyalty holds up, iPhone will surpass Android in U.S. market share by 2015

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

Whenever I stumble upon a survey predicting that Apple's iPhone will loose traction to not just Android, but Windows Phone as well, my blood starts to boil in my veins.

And just like clockwork, you can count on the likes of IDC and Gartner to come out of the woodwork every now and then with wild predictions of the iPhone's demise by 2015, 2016 or 2017.

History has taught me to take such long-term predictions with a healthy dose of skepticism, even more so if data comes from big name firms whose crystal ball peering is based on "polls" that sample a few hundred random people, at best.

With that in mind, here's a survey that paints a rather rosy future for the Apple smartphone. Noting that Android is actually losing one out of every six customers to other phone vendors, Yankee Group ran their spreadsheets and determined that Apple will surpass Android in U.S. market share by 2015, provided Apple brand loyalty numbers hold up in the coming years...

We’ve got the latest version of Velox. Here’s a sneak peak

Jeff Benjamin ∙ April 26, 2013

We've scored a 95% complete build of Velox 1.0, and considering that the tweak is a very hot topic on Twitter right now, we wanted to provide you guys with a brief update.

Apex Development is putting the finishing touches on the tweak, fixing small graphical issues and other minute bug fixes. Here is what we know thus far...

Old iPhone bug continues to drop last word from some iMessages

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 26, 2013

As if the now regular outages weren't enough, an old and utterly bizarre bug continues to plague Apple's iMessage service, one that deletes the last word of certain texts and iMessages.

The issue actually raised its ugly head last December, but blew up recently as many disgruntled users took to Twitter to complain about the hiccup. The problem appears to manifest itself with certain phrases and certain words only.

Exhibit A: sending someone "I could be the next Obama" followed by a trailing space could result in "Obama" being hidden from the received message. Instead of "Obama", the recipient gets a big blank space where “Obama” should be. Likewise, sending "The best prize is a surprise" could similarly result in "surprise" being dropped on the recipient's side...

LEGO Batman: DC Super Heroes arrives to iOS

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 26, 2013

LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes landed on the Mac last year and now an iOS version is here for your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. Produced by TT Games under license from the Lego Group and published by Warner Bros. Entertainment, LEGO Batman: DC Super Heroes (I hate capitalized brand names so I'll just write 'Lego' henceforth) has Batman and Robin characters joining forces with other Dark Comics heroes like Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and others.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to stop the notorious villains Lex Luthor and The Joker from destroying Gotham City. The game scored nice reviews due to its 3D platforming mechanics and light puzzle solving. I've include the launch trailer and more in way of detail after the fold...

Why Apple is borrowing money to pay for $60B stock buyback

Ed Sutherland ∙ April 26, 2013

To bolster its stock in the eyes of investors, Apple recently announced it would buy back $60 billion worth of shares. Such a move makes sense - after all, the iPhone maker does have this cash hoard of nearly $150 billion. However, it turns out Apple won't touch that money, opting instead to borrow the funds.

By borrowing the money, Apple keeps its billions out of the reach of U.S. taxes, saving the corporate giant money while also retiring expensive stock dividends.

You didn't think there was any altruism involved, did you? The move, however, isn't without its pitfalls. Moreover, Apple isn't alone in a corporate game of chess where it's all about manipulating the tax code, according to a report Friday...

iMDB adds global release dates, actor heights and aliases, more eye candy

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 12, 2018

IMDb, the popular online film database owned by Amazon since 1998, issued its last major update to the iOS client back in December 2012.

That release (version 3.0) brought out a fresh new look on the iPad while enhancing iPhone filmographies with TV episode details and prettier image galleries, among other features. Today, iMDB version 3.2 landed on the App Store.

The software continues to refine the experience for movie buffs. For starters, non-US users will be pleased to know that the app now lists worldwide movie release dates, for example. They also enhanced the database with all-new actor heights and aliases, crazy credits and other tidbits, included right after the break...

A first: smartphone shipments outnumber feature phones

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated February 28, 2017

For some time, the mobile phone industry has been shifting toward more powerful smartphones and away from basic mobile phones. Now comes word that smartphones outnumber feature phones for the first time. The line was crossed in the first quarter of 2013 with 216.1 million smartphones shipping, accounting for 51.6 percent of all handsets sold. Smartphone shipments grew 41.6 percent during the quarter, up from 152.7 million units shipped during the same period in 2012, one industry research firm announced Thursday...

No iOS VPN changes on already shipped devices

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 26, 2013

On April 5, Apple acknowledged via a support document that it “will be changing the behavior of VPN On Demand for iOS devices using iOS 6.1 and later” due to a lawsuit by patent holding firm VirnetX file against Apple in November 2011. VPN technology, which stands for Virtual Private Networking, extends corporate networks securely across public networks like the Internet, allowing users to access a private network as if they were directly connected to it.

Apple originally planned to remove the 'Always' configuration option for VPN On Demand with the 'Establish if needed' option. The revised document specifically mentions Apple will not be changing the VPN behavior on "devices that have already been shipped"...

Swype talked to Apple over its keyboard tech

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 24, 2018

Swype virtual keyboard technology is pretty popular on Android devices, and it's easy to see why. With error-correction algorithms and a powerful language model to guess the intended word, Swype lets you enter words by sliding a finger from the first letter of a word to its last letter, lifting only between words.

While Swype's owner Nuance partners with Apple on the voice recognition technology powering Siri, the iPhone maker never implemented the Swype input method on iOS devices, instead choosing to advance its own intelligent virtual keyboard technology. That said, it's interesting that Swype and Apple have had discussions concerning the feature...

Display shootout: iPhone 5 vs Galaxy S4

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 26, 2013

CEO Tim Cook during an earnings call re-iterated Apple very much remains focused on providing the highest quality mobile screens and argued his company would never compromise the experience by creating a Gorilla-sized iPhone with a subpar display. Specifically, Cook painted color reproduction, power consumption, quality and other factors determining the quality of a mobile screens as progressively suffering on larger displays.

"We would not ship a larger display iPhone while these trade-offs exist," he said Tuesday. But is that really the case? Display wizards over at DisplayMate took Apple's iPhone 5 and Samsung's Galaxy S4 through a battery of tests putting the screens through their paces. The results are surprising...

Apple posts new App Store section about in-app purchases

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated December 16, 2022

In-app purchasing via mobile applications is receiving some unwanted attention, with disgruntled parents increasingly accusing the iPhone maker of doing too little to protect kids from falling prey of greedy developers who pressure them into buying items and in turn wracking up bills for unsuspecting parents.

The UK government, for example, is conducting a probe into iOS in-app game purchases and Apple previously settled a class action lawsuit over the controversial feature. Of course, iOS 6 has decent parental controls which let users disable in-app purchasing altogether.

While adding a warning for in-app purchases in freemium apps and moving age ratings atop App Store pages helped clear up any confusion as to the nature of in-app purchasing, Apple though it could do better and on Thursday launched a new App Store feature titled 'Learn More About In-App Purchases'...

Free alternative to Apple’s WWDC launches

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated August 26, 2017

Getting a ticket into WWDC is increasingly becoming akin to winning a lottery. And with tickets to this year's conference selling out in under two minutes, and only five thousand of $1,599 seats available, Apple's annual pilgrimage for developers is quickly becoming too crowded a place. Enter #AltWWDC, a free and open five-day alternative to Apple's summer event.

Basically the conference that happens outside the conference, #AltWWDC takes place June 10-14, 2013 at the San Francisco State University's Downtown Campus at 845 Market Street, only a block from the Moscone building...