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Gartner: more than half of all handsets sold in 2012 were Apple, Samsung

Ed Sutherland ∙ February 13, 2013

The battle between Apple and Samsung for smartphone supremacy rages on. While the two rivals accounted for more than half of smartphones sold during 2012, demand for the South Korean firm's phones rose nearly 86 percent while iPhone sales rose by around 22 percent last year. According to Gartner, the two companies took No. 1 and No. 3 spots in overall while ranking first and second in the growing market for smartphones, respectively.

This as the cell phone industry saw its first dip in sales since 2009. Other vendors, of course, were left fighting each other for scraps...

EA announces Tetris Blitz for iOS and Android, a twist on the famous puzzler

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

Hot on the heels of launching its free to play Real Racing 3 this morning on the New Zealand App Store (two weeks ahead of schedule), games publisher Electronic Arts announced a new game for iOS and Android devices, Tetris Blitz.

It's an “innovative new twist on the world famous puzzle game,” says Electronic Arts. A bite-sized, frenzied Tetris Blitz experience challenges you with a two-minute sprint to clear lines and rack up as many points as possible before time runs out.

Electronic Arts, the super publisher which in 2011 alone raked in $1 billion in digital revenue, brought the original Tetris game to the iPhone back in December 2009. The iPhone version of Tetris costs 99 cents and the iPad version is an additional three bucks...

Valentine’s Day comes early: Real Racing 3 hits New Zealand, Australia

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 13, 2013

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZ8SljDv0yw

Today is a big day for iOS gamers as Electronic Arts launches the third installment in its popular Real Racing franchise. The game was originally scheduled for February 28 release so it wasn't clear why Electronic Arts decided to post it today, but we're not complaining even though the game initially launched in the New Zealand and Australia App Store.

The good news don't end here: as promised, Real Racing 3 is a free download with some unaggressive in-app purchases, a major strategic shift for Electronic Arts which typically prices its most recent iOS games between $5 and $10.

It's a massive download: you will need to have up to two gigabytes of free space on your device to install Real Racing 3, but Electronic Arts swears "it’s worth it"...

Analyst sees Apple TV media event in March (update: nope)

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 13, 2013

Apple could be holding an Apple TV-related media event next month, according to Jeffries analyst Peter Misek. Despite the mounting rumors that Apple is working on a standalone television set, channel checks led the analyst to believe that the assumed event will serve as a launchpad for a software development kit allowing programmers to write third-party applications for Apple's $99 set-top box, something a lot of people have been clamoring for...

Apple loses iPhone trademark in Brazil to an Android maker

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 13, 2013

Earlier this month came a rumor that Apple was in jeopardy of losing its ‘iPhone’ trademark in Brazil to the local electronics maker IGB Eletrônica SA, which applied for exclusive rights to the name back in 2000, winning the rights to the moniker. In 2007, Apple asked the Brazilian Institute for Industrial Property (INPI) to make iPhone its exclusive trademark, but a report lats week suggested the request won't pass muster. Today, Brazilian regulators have ruled that Apple does not have exclusive rights to use the "iPhone" trademark in the country...

Surface Pro teardown: Apple’s iPad wins the repair race

Ed Sutherland ∙ February 13, 2013

Microsoft's one-week old Surface Pro tablet already has some dings in its reputation. The device is more difficult to repair than Apple's iPad, according to a teardown by iFixit. The Surface Pro makes extensive use of glue to secure everything, including the battery and display, giving Microsoft's latest tablet a score of just one out of ten for repairability. And repairs could become common, given simply using the Surface Pro could be harmful to the hardware...

Apple in 2012 topped Japan’s mobile phone market

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated September 21, 2017

Apple may have a slight market share problem in BRIC markets (Brazil, Russia, India and China), but over in Japan the company has moved the needle in a big way. According to Hong Kong-based market research firm Counterpoint Research, Apple for the first time ended Sharp’s six-year run at the top to became the first non-Japanese company to rule the Japanese mobile phone market with a fifteen percent share in 2012, a notable increase from its ten percent market share in 2011...

Australian authorities again warn of inaccuracies in Apple Maps

Cody Lee ∙ February 13, 2013

Last December, Police in Victoria, Australia issued a warning regarding Apple's new Maps app in iOS 6, after several travelers became lost and stranded in a National Park due to poor directions. The advisory added insult to injury after Apple had taken months of criticism over the service.

Well, they're back at it today. Officials in Victoria, Australia are again warning users of Maps' inaccuracies, claiming that problems with the software are making it difficult to determine where fires are located in the city's Country Fire Authority bushfire information app 'FireReady...'

Evad3rs to present at HITBSecConf2013 in Amsterdam

Cody Lee ∙ February 13, 2013

The evad3rs are probably one of the hottest tickets around right now on the mobile security circuit. The four hackers were able to overcome Apple's highly regarded security systems in iOS 6, to provide us with the evasi0n jailbreak.

Well good news for those of you that will be in Amsterdam between the dates of April 8 - 11. The team will be giving a presentation at the Hack in the Box Security Conference in the country, at the Okura Hotel. More details after the fold...

Mailbox review: an email app that thinks different

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 14, 2018

Email on iOS is a mess, or that's at least what many app developers with the next big thing want us to believe. For me, it's not just that email is a mess on iOS, it's that email is a mess in general, regardless of the platform.

My philosophy has always been to just manage the email situation well enough, so that I'm not overtaken by its voracious appetite for more of my time. I've never been a so-called "inbox zero" ninja, and never really thought I was capable of doing so...until now.

Indeed, I was fortunate enough to get in a bit early on the Mailbox waiting list. The question is, if you're still waiting, is your pining over access to the app warranted, or will your wait turn into fermented disappointment? Full review, inside.

Bloomberg: Apple has 100 product designers working on wristwatch-like device

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 14, 2018

Over the weekend, we heard reports from two major news outlets—both The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal— that Apple is working on a smartwatch. It's said to feature a curved glass display and run a version of iOS.

Like clockwork, Bloomberg has chimed in with its own 'iWatch' report this afternoon. The site says that two sources inside the company have confirmed that Apple indeed has an enormous team working on a wristwatch-like device...

3 steps to protect your iOS 6 jailbreak

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated February 25, 2013

When you consider the amount of hard work that went into providing the public with an iOS 6 jailbreak, and how long it took for that solution to come to fruition, protecting the jailbreak is of paramount concern. Recently BigBoss added a section to each page of its highly visible repo addressing the concern, that's how important it is.

There are some basic fundamental steps that you should take for the sake of preserving your device's iOS 6 jailbreak. That's simply because, as you know, you never know how long it will take for the next jailbreak to come around. Once Apple inevitably addresses the exploits used in the evasi0n untethered jailbreak, chances are we'll have to wait deep into iOS 7's lifecycle before we get another jailbreak, if we do at all.

So again, it's of real concern for those of you who love your jailbroken device, to read the following 3 tips and strategies, and implement them.