Android

Study: Android tablets catching up on the iPad

We can deride the quality and culture of Android tablets, but the once ginormous lead Apple's iPad had is shrinking amid the rise of tweener tablets.

In a bit of a two-edge sword, a new study finds 25 percent of Americans own a tablet, with Apple's device claiming just over half of the US tablet market. A year ago, more than 8 out of 10 tablets purchased bore the Apple logo...

Schmidt on patent wars: Google is friends with both Apple and Samsung

Google chairman Eric Schmidt is in South Korea to help with the launch of Nexus 7 in the country. As always, the outspoken executive defended Google's position on patents and addressed Apple's legal victory in the high-profile patent infringement case against South Korea-based Samsung.

Long story short, Schmidt is dissatisfied with Apple's efforts to fight Android backers in the courtroom, insisting that companies should compete with products. Of course patent disputes are hurting consumer choice and preventing innovation, Schmidt underscored. According to one patent expert, Android has infringed upon a total of 17 valid Apple and Microsoft patents. Plus, don't miss out on Schmidt dancing in Korea, Gangnam style...

Google Play Store: 675,000 apps, 25 billion downloads

Google is creeping up on Apple, announcing yesterday on its Android blog that its Play Store now has 675,000 apps which have been downloaded 25 billion times. It was just recently that Google bragged about half a billion cumulative Android activations and on September 5 the search Goliath announced it was activating 70,000 tablets and 1.3 million Android devices each day.

At this rate, Google should have no trouble surpassing Apple's platform by year's end. By comparison, Apple's App Store carried over 750,000 apps and the company sold a total of 425 million iOS devices, as of September 12. The iPhone maker said earlier at WWDC that customers downloaded over 30 billion apps as of June...

That didn’t take long: Passbook for Android lands

The brand new Passbook app in iOS 6 is garnering traction in both tech press and the real world with the likes of Starbucks, Target, theme park Accesso, airlines Delta, American Airlines, Virgin Australia and others all announcing they have or are implementing Passbook support.

As Passbook simply organizes digital coupons, tickets, loyalty cards and other items wrapped inside Apple’s new .pkpass file type, developer Attido Mobile was able to create a handy Passbook client for Android devices. It has been available for some time, is called PassWallet, does pretty much everything Apple's app is capable of and could easily be gone if Apple has any say over it...

Motorola spotlights iOS 6 Map flaws in new “iLost” ad

Apple has been taking a lot of heat over the past few days regarding its new Maps application. The company released iOS 6, the latest update to its mobile OS, to the public on Wednesday, which features the new Google Maps replacement.

Inaccuracies and missing features in the app have spawned a parody Tumblr and Twitter account, in addition to quite the uproar in the tech world. And it looks like Motorola is looking to capitalize on the criticism, with its new "iLost" ad...

Apple Maps to integrate Russian Yandex’s data in iOS 6, report says

Google's relationship with Apple may be on borrowed time. Apple Maps, set to appear soon in iOS 6, will reportedly use a local company's data Yandex to provide location-search details in Russia. A developer version of iOS 6 will send users to Yandex.Maps for further information regarding locations.

A search of Vladimir Lenin's Mausoleum, for instance, gets "more details on Yandex.Maps application or offers to download Yandex.Maps from App Store if the user doesn't have it installed," a Russian developer now using iOS 6 tells Bloomberg.

Check out first Bad Piggies gameplay footage

Angry Birds spinoff called Bad Piggies is slated to arrive on September 27 for iOS, Android and the Mac, but Rovio still wouldn't reveal gameplay video. Luckily, an exclusive hands-on by Yahoo! Games shows us the game's mechanics which takes cues from Amazing Alex, another physics-based game from Rovio.

This means Bad Piggies tasks you with building all sorts of funny vehicles and flying aircraft so that the pigs can steal more eggs. Contrast this to smashing things up in the Angry Birds series. That being said, the safest way to think about Bad Piggies is as the sibling of Angry Birds rather than its sequel. Check out exclusive gameplay footage right below...

Apple wins preliminary sales ban against Motorola devices in Germany

Hot on the heels of their big victory against Samsung here in the United States, Apple's legal team has just won another important decision against Motorola in Munich, German.

The German court has just awarded the Cupertino company a preliminary sales ban against Motorola's phones and tablets in the country, ruling that they infringe on Apple's patents...

Everything you need to know about today’s iPhone 5 event

The iPhone 5 is finally here.

After Apple in 2011 unveiled the iPhone 4S -- when everyone and his mother expected the iPhone 5 -- the wizards of Cupertino introduced a smartphone for everyone. Want something smaller? Check. How about a big screen? Got you covered. Need power? No problem. Although this was the first post-Steve Jobs iPhone rollout, there was enough technology and geekitude on display today that even the Man in Black would have had a tough time fitting in just one more thing.

Most of the rumors about the iPhone were confirmed. The iPhone 5 sports a 4-inch (1136 x 640) display enclosed in an aluminum and glass shell. That larger display is becoming defacto on smartphones. Not to be outdone designwise by Android, Apple pushed suppliers to use an in-cell manufacturing technique that embeds the technology used in an edge-to-edge touchscreen, eliminating the need for a separate layer.

Twitter enables web uploads on mobile site from iOS 6 and Android ICS devices

One of the cool enhancements in iOS 6 Safari is its broader support for standard HTML elements, including a regular HTML input element used on literally all sites requiring media uploading capability.

This support for media uploads lets Safari understand the standard Upload button that invokes a file picker on your desktop and replace it with standard iOS media picker.

Up until now, you could only test this on certain web sites, like the desktop Facebook interface in mobile Safari. Today, Twitter enabled on its mobile site photo uploads from a browser on iOS 6 and Android Ice Cream Sandwich devices, here's how it works...

Apple to launch Russian iTunes Store with tracks under $0.99

Apple is planning to open an iTunes store in Russia later this year or early 2013, a local business journal reports. The Russian iTunes Store could offer music cheaper than in the US. While licensing deals are still underway, the Cupertino, Calif. digital music giant is expected to unveil tracks costing under $0.99, the newspaper says.

The supposed deal could prop up flagging Russian sales of digital music. While physical music sales are in free-fall, even digital music purchases -- which have been growing elsewhere -- dropped by 40 percent to levels not seen since 2009. The chief reason: "a culture of copyright infringement," according to music industry group IFPI. The nation's leading music service is operated by vKontakte, which also offers file-sharing, according to the IFPI.