iPhone snares global web usage crown from Nokia

Apple yet again became the beneficiary of Nokia's seemingly never-ending swan song, becoming the most-used mobile brand on the Internet in January. This despite Apple actually losing nearly three percent of mobile online usage. That the Finnish-based Nokia collapsed by more than fifteen points, dropping it out of first place to the third spot, also helped.

According to the independent website analytics company StatCounter, Apple had a nice 25.86 percent of mobile Internet usage in January 2013. Although that was a decline of 2.81 percent compared to the same month in 2012, Nokia's share in the same period fell from 37.67 percent to 22.15 percent, a significant decline...

Apple wants to ‘re-imagine’ iLife and iWork apps

Apple is looking for some fresh blood to join its iLife and iWork development teams and "re-imagine how user interfaces should be built and work", a series of job ads posted on its web site indicates. In addition to engineers in the iLife Frameworks QA department, Apple is also seeking a QA engineer to help test new features in iPhoto, a Senior User Interface Designer for iWork and two Senior Software Engineer positions which explicitly mention improving the user interface of iLife apps...

Gartner: more than half of mobile apps will be HTML5/native hybrids by 2016

A convergence of mobile trends is setting the stage for a day when more than half of the applications will support both HTML5 and native iOS/Android environments. That's the word from research giant Gartner, who predicts companies must support multiple platforms as well as native features, such as mapping, cameras and location-based services. Additionally, the researcher forecasts brand-name smartphone makers could be pushed out of the low-cost market as countries such as China and India produce home-grown alternatives priced as low as $50...

You will be able to convert an iOS 6.1 tethered jailbreak into an untethered jailbreak

If you're currently rocking an iOS 6.1 tethered jailbreak on the iPhone 4 or the iPod touch 4th generation, then you have a decision to make. It's being recommended that you go ahead and reinstall stock iOS 6.1 back on to your device, but you can, however, opt to remain as you are, and instead install a debian package that will provide the iOS 6 untethered jailbreak.

Just as with the previous Rocky Racoon jailbreak for iOS 5.1.1, users who already have access to Cydia by means of a tethered jailbreak can "convert" their tethered jailbreak into an untethered just by installing the debian package via Cydia once released.

Bureaucracy preventing French from getting LTE on their iDevices until year’s end

Owners of LTE-enabled Apple devices in France won't get to enjoy the benefits of speedy cellular downloads before the end of 2013 amid lobbying between the country's wireless carriers and the agency for telecommunications ARCEP.

The country's local carriers like Orange and SFR last year spent to the tune of €1.2 billion, or approximately $1.6 billion, to acquire the 800MHz band.

The problem is, this radio frequency is supported neither by the iPhone 5 nor by many mobile devices from other vendors, including Samsung. Moreover, these carriers are now asking the ARCEP to wait until at least end of 2013 before refarming the 1,800MHz spectrum, which is compatible with Apple's handset...

The iPhone moniker is in jeopardy in Brazil

When Apple acquired rights to the iPhone moniker from Cisco ahead of the 2007 iPhone launch, the company probably never dreamed that it could face losing naming rights in Brazil. Reuters in December 2012 relayed a local report explaining that the Brazilian electronics maker IGB Eletrônica SA owns a trademark for the “IPHONE” term in Brazil. And now, another report has it that IGB could indeed be the rightful holder of the iPhone trademark in the country...

iPad mini shipping times drop to 1-3 days in some countries

Apple has had a hard time catching up with demand for its new iPad mini. Since the tablet debuted last November, supply has been extremely constrained, and shipping estimates only recently dropped below a month.

But things are starting to even out now—either due to Apple ironing out supply chain issues or a recent drop in demand—because the mini is now showing shipping times (in some countries) of just 1-3 business days...

Apple introduces new short AppStore.com URLs

Apple last week posted an announcement to its developer portal, informing app-makers that they can now use short (or 'vanity') URLs to send out links to their App Store apps. For instance, a link to the iWork app would be appstore.com/iwork.

Typically, links to Apple-hosted software are comprised of lengthy URLs with ID numbers—nearly impossible for anyone to remember. But Apple is hoping that these new short URLs will make it easier for developers to market their apps...

Evasi0n could drop at noon EST tomorrow

By now, most of you have probably already heard that Evasi0n will not be arriving today. The evad3rs tweeted this afternoon that the final countdown towards 'tomorrow's release' has begun.

Of course, they didn't give us any idea of what time to expect it tomorrow. But, as a few folks on Twitter have pointed out, the progress bar on the Evasi0n page is set to expire at noon tomorrow...

Evasi0n will be released tomorrow – status moves to 91%

Apparently, Sunday isn't exactly Funday after all. Contray to popular belief, the iOS 6 untethered jailbreak will be released tomorrow (Monday), instead of Sunday. The evad3rs team just sent out a tweet confirming it.

In the meantime, evasi0n.com shows a status of 90% complete. All that's left to do now is to perform final tests and preparation.

Apple specialist Sam Sung gets a mention in Samsung’s Super Bowl commercial

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ae7E8J7h7Y

If you live outside the United States, you could be wondering why all the fuss about Super Bowl. But to many of our U.S. readers, Super Bowl is America's favorite national pastime. Regardless of the camp you belong to, pretty much all of us love big-budget Super Bowl commercials, that much is a given. And speaking of advertising, Samsung ahead of Sunday's Big Game has "leaked" its anticipated commercial.

Conceptualized by the Los Angeles-based creative shop 72andSunny and directed by Jon Favreau, it features Knocked Up stars Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd who are called in to pitch their concepts for Samsung's Next Big Thing.

But despite their best effort to bat around crazy ideas with Bob Odenkirk (example: "crowdsourcing... we won’t have to think of ideas!”), Miami Heat star LeBron James makes a tablet cameo and lands the gig instead. Though it takes jabs at both the NFL and ad industry and mocks Psy and his Gangnam Style, interestingly enough the commercial isn't about Apple at all, sans a subtle reference that almost escaped my attention...

Football helmet sensor sends concussion warnings to your iPhone

This is pretty interesting, and fairly relevant considering the Super Bowl is later today. The folks over at Impakt Protective have come up with a g-force sensor that fits inside a helmet, and measures the impact a player sustains from a tackle or collision.

If a player is hit too hard, the sensor, which is appropriately named the Shockbox, will send a color-coded alert to a designated iPhone or other mobile device. Impakt is hoping that this will help curb the growing rate of sports-related head injuries...