Android

Companies still deploying iOS first as Android remains MIA online

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated April 11, 2018

You would think, given Android's raw numerical advantage, that app developers would first build for the larger market. However, Apple's iOS appears to offer companies other, more valuable qualities. Indeed, one need only look to last Friday, when Twitter unveiled its #music service - available initially only to iOS users. Another iOS exclusive, Twitter's Vine, has yet to hit the Android platform.

Key to why companies are still developing apps first for iOS are findings that Apple's mobile software is both used more often and the users are more loyal to the apps they download. What is Android's response: change how such things are measured....

Bono: Apple’s Jony Ive is Obi-Wan of design

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated October 6, 2016

Time Magazine's list of the 100 most interesting people for 2013 is packed with profiles of technology leaders. Apple design guru Jony Ive is among those listed, described as a Star Wars' Obi-Wan leading a team of Jedi employees.

The thread of Apple's innovation runs through other profiles, including Samsung's CEO, who is viewed by a former executive of the iPhone maker as carrying on the tradition of Steve Jobs...

Google’s new Babel chat platform includes ‘first class iOS experience’

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 9, 2016

More details are trickling in on what to expect of Google's upcoming unified messaging platform called Babel. Google's internal documentation and code snippets discovered Wednesday indicate the Babel thing will support media transfers during chat sessions and group chatting ability. More importantly, the service will be available as a native app on both Apple's iOS and Google's own Android platform.

Of course, Babel is also going to be available on the web, as a Chrome web app and inside Gmail. The upcoming messaging platform should solve Google's instant messaging conundrum that confuses users with nearly a doze different chat service that include Talk, Gmail, Google+ Hangout, Google Voice and Chat for Drive.

Even if way overdue, Babel will unify Google's many messaging platforms into a single service. The Internet giant is likely to formally announce Babel at its upcoming Google I/O conference, which runs May 15-17 in San Francisco...

Google’s Nexus 10 no threat to iPad sales

Ed Sutherland ∙ April 18, 2013

Here's an interesting tidbit we found this morning: Microsoft's Surface tablets could actually be outselling Google's latest Nexus 10. We understand every scuffle between Google and Apple is actually a proxy for the battle between Android and iOS, so the statement by blogger Benedict Evans caught our eyes. According to Evans, the Samsung-made Nexus 10 likely sold around 1.01 million of the Google tablets by the end of March.

This compares to the 1.5 million Surface tablets Microsoft has reportedly sold - not to mention the ten million iPad mini tablets purchased in just the last two months of the fourth quarter in fiscal 2012. While the latest Nexus tablet is no threat to the iPad, the calculations suggest something more important: strong distribution and a well-defined ecosystem can overcome big-name rivals...

Apple vs Android: debate continues as iOS proves more lucrative

Ed Sutherland ∙ April 17, 2013

The shift to mobility has certainly hurt the ability to pick clear winners and losers. In the era of beige-box PCs, bean-counters could glance at market share data. But growth of smartphones and apps shattered such easy measurements The battle between Apple's iOS and Google's Android is more of an optical illusion where the "winner" can triumph in terms of market share, but lose when it comes to revenue.

Still, people want clear winners and losers and Time magazine is just the latest to answer the call. According to the magazine's website, the winner is - well, that really depends...

Apple choice of 58% enterprises, Android choice of 97% malware

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated April 18, 2016

A pair of reports issued yesterday really put the growth of mobile in perspective. Currently, the mobile landscape is dominated by two players - Apple's iOS and Google's Android.

While Apple is increasingly favored by companies big and small, Android has become the go-to vector for mobile malware, it seems.

Attacks involving mobile devices has risen dramatically in the space of just one year, skyrocketing to more than 36,000 instances in 2012, up from only 792 cases, according to a security research firm.

Meanwhile, large companies are adopting Apple devices at a faster clip than Android, according to another report...

Apple vs Samsung price war in India

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated April 14, 2018

In another era, Apple and Samsung would be competing gasoline retailers, locked in a war to entice more automobiles to the pump. Update the picture to the 21st century, replace gas with smartphones and you have the modern-day equivalent of a price war playing out in India, according to a Wednesday report.

Android-based Samsung smartphones initially had the majority of the India market to itself. However, now Apple is shaking things up by offering discounts on its iPhone 4 - a move fueling the company's challenge of rival Samsung.

The South Korean company has responded with discounts on its Galaxy family of products - on top of the current payment plan. Both companies are jockeying to control a market full of potential smartphone buyers...

JellyLock is an Android inspired Lock screen launcher for iOS

Jeff Benjamin ∙ April 16, 2013

JellyLock is a jailbreak tweak that allows you to add an Android inspired Lock screen launcher to iOS. The tweak, developed by Max Katzmann, and only available via his beta repo, has proven to be quite popular amongst the jailbreak community — it's been downloaded over 19,000 times already.

Like its inspiration, Android Jellybean, JellyLock features a lock icon that you can drag to the edge of a circle on your Lock screen to unlock your device. It also features the ability to fully customize the look of the launcher and add up to three custom apps that can be launched directly from the Lock screen. Take a look inside as we go showcase JellyLock in our in-depth video walkthrough...

UK probing iOS in-app game purchases

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated December 16, 2022

Are iOS games pressuring children into buying items, sometimes wracking up bills for unsuspecting parents? That's the focus of a probe underway by the UK government, concerned that in-app purchases may unfairly target children. According to a BBC report, Office of Fair Trading (OFT) wants to hear from parents with the hope games developers will follow laws already on the books to protect children...

BlackBerry tops ‘don’t want’ poll ahead of iPhone and Android

Ed Sutherland ∙ April 11, 2013

Finally, a survey appears where BlackBerry is leading the big guys. On a twist of the usual polling of which device consumers want to buy, one research firm asked what smartphone would you not be caught dead using. The BlackBerry "crushed" the competition in the 'don't want' department. In fact, 71.4 percent of consumers polled by Raymond James said no feature would get them to use a BlackBerry.

Basic math tells us this corresponds to nearly three out of each four respondents. Additionally, nearly twenty percent said you couldn't give them an iPhone, or one out of each five. And, just over thirty percent replied they'd never touch a smartphone powered by Google's Android, or approximately one out of each three...

Hero devices help LG join Apple and Samsung at the top of the smartphone food chain

Ed Sutherland ∙ April 11, 2013

LG is now the No. 3 smartphone maker, for the first time, as sales of its higher-end handsets lift it above HTC and other brands scrambling for the scraps left by Apple and Android. Although Samsung and Apple combined for 71.4 percent of the market, sales by the South Korean LG rose to 3.2 percent as HTC fell to fourth place on word of disappointing profits, according to research firm Strategy Analytics...