Twitter has announced this evening that it will be discontinuing its mobile TweetDeck apps in favor of the web client. Both the Android and iPhone clients will soon be removed from their respective App Stores.
Interestingly enough, the desktop versions of the app will live on (except for TweetDeck AIR it seems). But it looks like they will do so without Facebook integration, as the feature will be completely removed...
In the never-ending quest to handicap the iOS vs Android horse race comes a new flash analysis for 2013 forecasting Android will dominate smartphone apps, while Apple remains the clear leader with tablets. According to ABI Research, Google's mobile operating system will control 58 percent of smartphone app downloads.
On the other hand, just 33 percent of apps will be for Apple's iOS. But with only two months into year, the research firm's findings are being questioned...
It has already happened in the United States and now comes word 2013 will mark the date when smartphones outsell simpler so-called feature phones globally. More than 918 million smartphones such as Apple's iPhone will ship this year, for the first time outnumbering feature phones.
According to research firm IDC, a nice 50.1 percent of mobile phones shipped this year will be smartphones, most destined for China. However, that small lead should widen greatly by 2017 as more emerging nations increase adoption of the powerful mobile devices...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sy51B9V8wNM
We have decided to stop telling you about Angry Birds content updates because of the excessive franchise milking, but this brand new game is worth mentioning. So Rovio teamed up with DreamWorks Animation on the official game for The Croods CG animated feature film.
The game is due for release on an Apple and Google app store near your on Thursday, March 14 and follows the Croods as they hunt and gather their way through "spectacular new landscapes as they tame fantastic and never-seen-before creatures," or so says the blurb. The above teaser highlights custom animation from DreamWorks and I've also included gameplay clip right below...
For the sixth year in a row, Apple was named the most-admired company in the world. In spite of a stock free fall and the Apple Maps gaffe, the iPhone maker topped rivals Google and Amazon, Fortune announced Thursday.
Described as a "financial juggernaut" which became the most profitable company on the globe, Apple was named the over-all most admired firm while also topping the list as the most admired technology firm of 2013...
If you thought Apple had already been through a rough period, just wait. That's the message from one Wall Street analyst who predicts the iPhone maker is "facing a very rough two-year period."
Although Apple's chief executive Tim Cook spent Wednesday defending his company's horde of cash, those concerns could evaporate as Apple spends billions to prop up slowing iPhone sales and works to improve demand in emerging markets.
Apple could see capital expenditures double, according to Jeffries' analyst Peter Misek, forecasting billions in payments for supplier upgrades, emerging-market payment plans and expensive technology updates all while iPhone sales plunge...
Remember the days when corporate IT departments looked at the iPhone as some kookie West Coast toy bound to mess up their networks? You know, when RIM - that is, BlackBerry - had a lock on big biz. Those days are definitely gone. Today, more than three out of four mobile phones in enterprises bear the Apple logo.
What's more, Android's presence in business has fallen to the point where Microsoft is nibbling at its heels. During the fourth quarter of 2012, Apple's corporate presence rose to 77 percent of mobile device, up from 71 percent during the same period in 2011, according to Good Technology. Even better for Apple executives, the iPhone and iPad took five of the top five mobile devices in businesses...
Guy Kawasaki, now a Silicon Valley venture capitalist and book author, was instrumental in marketing the Macintosh in 1984. A well-known blogger, Kawasaki just tweeted he has gone Android by accepting an advisory role at Google-owned Motorola which is said to be working on a mysterious iPhone contender tentatively code-named X Phone.
Kawasaki's new advisory role with Motorola will see him focus on product design, user interface, marketing and social media. One of the first orders of business was to create a Google+ community about mobile devices, he confirmed...
Nearly 35 percent of iDevice owners have adopted Apple's iOS 6.1.2 software in less than a week following its February 19 release, an ad network announced Tuesday. That iOS 6.1.2 became the most popular iOS version in such a short time is largely attributed to a glitch with Exchange calendars that resulted in increased network activity and reduced battery life for some iOS 6.1 users. While in line with previous iOS 6.x adoption rates, this particular data point evidently indicates folks continue to obsess over their mobile gadgets' battery performance...
The U.S. government and its defense agencies have been dropping BlackBerries for iPhones and Androids for some time and at an alarming pace, too. Back in March 2012, the U.S. Air Force placed a cool $9 million order for 18,000 iPads. Last December, The Washington Post dug up a Defense Department document revealing the Pentagon had tapped contractors to test iOS and Android devices.
Then Bloomberg last month claimed Consolidated Analysis Center Incorporated, a federal contractor, altered thousands of iPads for use by high-ranking government officials, including the President. And finally, Tuesday came the official confirmation that the U.S. Defense Department is working to open its networks to about 100,000 mobile devices from Apple and Google...
After describing India as having less potential than China, Apple is increasing efforts to compete in the world's second-largest cellphone market. The iPhone maker is now hoping installment payments, coupled with increased marketing can turn single-digit market penetration into a weapon against low-cost Androids.
In full-page ads in the Times of India, Apple calls its unsubsidized $840 iPhone 5 "your dream phone" available for a $93 first payment. Why the big push? The nation's smartphone market is expected to grow five-fold by 2016, setting the stage for the next battle between Apple and Google's free mobile software...
Oh, what a difference a month makes. That could be the message from new research giving Android the lead in U.S. smartphone sales during the three-month period ending in January 2012.
Apple's iOS had held the U.S. smartphones sales lead up through December. The new data gives Android 49.9 percent of domestic smartphone sales, with iOS taking second place with 45.9 percent.
The new standings means Google's mobile software added 6.4 percent of U.S. sales, compared to a year ago. Meanwhile, the lock on U.S. smartphone sales fell 4.7 percent from the same period in 2011. The flip-flop on the No. 1 and No. 2 spots was linked to a Sprint price cut for Samsung's Galaxy S3 during the final three months of 2012...