Data

Take that, Greenpeace! Apple’s iCloud solar farm is a go

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 25, 2016

Apple doesn't run the cleanest of clouds, we all know this. Fortunately, the company's strides to reduce reliance on "19th-century coal energy”, as Greenpeace put it, have received a boost from The North Carolina Utilities Commission which has now approved plans for a massive solar farm to power Apple's $1 billion data center in Maiden, North Carolina.

It's gonna provide 20 megawatts of power to power iCloud servers that host the iTunes infrastructure, your music, photos, contacts and iOS device backups, to name a few...

Verizon to end grandfathered unlimited data plans in LTE switch

Cody Lee ∙ May 16, 2012

Bad news for folks with unlimited data plans on Verizon looking to buy Apple's new [purported] LTE-flavored iPhone later this year. It appears that the carrier won't be honoring grandfathered unlimited plans in the switch to LTE.

Fierce Wireless is reporting that customers on the Big Red network will be forced to choose from a data-share plan when moving from a 3G handset to an LTE one. The news comes straight from Verizon's CFO Fran Shammo...

Awesome infographic shows Apple’s impressive stats

Cody Lee ∙ Updated January 26, 2017

In the last decade, Apple has grown from a computer-maker with fractional marketshare to a consumer electronics powerhouse. It's popular iPhone and iPad lines, and even its retail stores are constantly setting records.

We've mentioned a lot of these impressive statistics on iDB in the past, but we all know that pictures are much more effective. So we thought we'd share this cool infographic with you from the folks over at Sortable.

Here's Apple by the Numbers...

AT&T may be close to launching its shared data plans, CEO hints

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 8, 2012

According to a new report, AT&T, the nation's second-largest carrier, could in fact be close to launching its shared data plans, as rumored. The semi-official hint was dropped in a comment made by AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega who described himself as being "very comfortable" about his company offering shared plans in the near future.

The remark came in an interview on the sidelines of the CTIA Wireless trade show. It's a 180-degree turn for the executive, who just a few months ago was unsure about shared family and data plans, citing complicated IT and billing issues...

AT&T CEO talks the iPhone, unlimited data and iMessage

Cody Lee ∙ May 4, 2012

The New York Times points to some interesting comments, regarding Apple, made by AT&T's chief executive Randall Stephenson at the Milken Institute's Global Conference earlier this week.

During an on-stage interview, the CEO discussed a wide range of topics including his regret for initially allowing iPhone users to have unlimited data, and how it affected AT&T's bottom line...

Android holds 51% of US smartphone market, iOS at 31%

Cody Lee ∙ May 2, 2012

ComScore is out with a new report this week regarding US smartphone platform marketshare for the March quarter. And the highly-regarded marketing research firm provides an interesting look at the current smartphone landscape by OS.

Google, as you might have expected, is still in the lead with its Android operating system. Apple's iOS is in a [comparatively] close second, and RIM and Microsoft come in at a distant third and fourth. Keep reading for a full breakdown...

25% of iPad purchases are from first-time Apple buyers

Cody Lee ∙ April 26, 2012

The NPD, a consumer market research firm, is out with a new report today regarding its recent Apple Ecosystem Study. The firm asked more than 3,000 consumers, of balanced demographics, on whether or not they owned Apple products. And if so, which ones.

As usual, the results are pretty interesting. The study found that one-in-five Apple owner households owns at least one iPad. But current Apple owners aren't the only people that are being drawn to the new tablet: one-in-four iPad buyers are first-time Apple buyers...

Interesting stats from Apple’s earnings call

Cody Lee ∙ April 24, 2012

We just finished listening to Apple's quarterly earnings call for Q2 of this year, and we managed to pick up some interesting statistics.

As we reported earlier, Apple had another record-breaking financial quarter over the last three months. But it also hit several other high points...

Research finds that iOS users are far more active than Android users

Cody Lee ∙ April 21, 2012

Chitika, an ad network whose reach spans across more than 100,000 websites, is out with a new report this weekend regarding mobile platform usage. The firm has been tracking real-time activity on its network over the last 24 hours, and the results are pretty interesting.

Despite Android devices garnering close to 50% of the smartphone market, Chitika found that iOS seems to be the mobile OS of choice among its users. Here in the US, at least, devices running Apple's operating system accounted for nearly 70% of recent activity...

Greenpeace slams Apple over “19th-century coal energy”, praises Google

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 17, 2012

Non-governmental environmental organization Greenpeace has taken issue with Apple's $1 billion iCloud data center in North Carolina, accusing the Cupertino company of running a facility that operates on "dirty, 19th-century coal energy".

In addition, Greenpeace wrote in its latest report, Microsoft and Amazon are also running server farms that operate on dirty energy.

The slap in Apple's face came just as we learned the company is building the nation’s largest end-user owned solar energy farm to partially power the iCloud data center.

New iPad already accounts for 10% of all US iPad traffic

Cody Lee ∙ Updated February 7, 2016

Chitika, an online ad network and data analytics firm, has just released a report regarding recent iPad usage in the United States. The company serves up around 4 billion ads a month and uses that network to track mobile traffic.

According to the report, Apple's new tablet now accounts for more than 10% of all iPad traffic the ad company tracks here in the United States. Not bad for a product that was released just under a month ago...

How to closely monitor your iPhone’s data with ‘Data Usage Monitor’

Jeff Benjamin ∙ April 2, 2012

Data Usage Monitor is a cellular data monitoring tool available for $1.99 on Cydia's BigBoss repo. It's a tweak that has the ability to monitor and take specific actions once your cellular data reaches a user defined threshold.

On paper it looks to be a great tweak that could save you money from data overages, but as you'll see from our video walkthrough, it has a few opportunities for improvement before we'd deem it worthy of purchase...