A US Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan approved Kodak's request today to extend the deadline for its bankruptcy case through February of next year. The one-time imaging giant filed for bankruptcy earlier this year, and it's hoping to use the extra time to sell off its patent collection to pay off its creditors. And according to the report, Apple and Google are still among the potential buyers...
As mobile phones become smarter, Samsung and Apple continue to rule the landscape as the world's best-selling cell phone brands. As for Google's Android platform, it now controls more than seven out over every ten smartphones in consumers' hands, a new report suggests. Both Samsung and Apple controlled 46.5 percent of the smartphone market in the third quarter.
The iOS-Android duopoly had a commanding 86 percent platform lead in the third quarter, according to research firm Gartner. Individually, the South Korean smartphone maker held 32.5 percent of the market while Apple held 13.9 percent, the researcher announced Wednesday. Android now controls an astounding 72.4 percent of the mobile operating system market for smartphones, up from 52 percent in the year-ago quarter...
WebOffline for Chrome is a new jailbreak tweak that integrates offline reading capability directly into the Google Chrome browser for iOS. As someone who does a lot of offline reading, and as someone who's a huge Google Chrome proponent, this sounded like the perfect tweak for me. Sadly, the tweak falls short due to its bugs.
As you'll see in our hands-on video, WebOffline for Chrome has tons of potential, but unfortunately it needs a few more hours in the oven before it's really ready for primetime.
Bloomberg reports that Google is facing an ultimatum from FTC on antitrust deal talks. Apparently, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jonathan Leibowitz is pressuring Google to make an offer and finally settle FTC's antitrust investigation over whether the dominant search engine abused its market power in search and misused patent protection in smartphone wars. And should Google fail to "make an acceptable settlement proposal", sources say, the FTC is prepared to mount a massive case against the search giant whose "Don't be evil" motto has long become the subject of mockery...
Apple doesn't get a whole lot of respect from the tech world when it comes to innovation. The company is seen more as a re-innovator than an innovator, as it typically builds its products on top of previous inventions.
But according to a new report by Global management consulting firm Booz & Co, Apple is the most innovative company in the world. The iPad-maker finished ahead of the likes of Google, 3M and its rival Samsung...
Hot on the heels of another jailbreak tweak that allows you to search the new Google Search app using only your voice, comes Activoice — a similar tweak from Ryan Petrich.
Like the NowNow tweak that we covered yesterday, Activoice allows you to easily invoke the new voice portion of the Google Search app similar to the way that you using Activator. Take a look inside for our hands on video coverage of the tweak in action.
Well that didn't take long. Just a week after Google's revamped Search app with new voice technology made it into the App Store, a jailbreak tweak has been released that will allow users to supplant it for Siri in iOS.
The voice recognition tech in the new Google Search app has received a lot of praise for its speedy response times and accurate results. And now, thanks to the new tweak NowNow, you can access it from anywhere...
The Verge in an exclusive report this morning offers a detailed look into Office Mobile, a long-rumored version of Microsoft's productivity suite, said to hit iOS and Android devices in early 2013, with the iPhone and iPad version hitting the App Store first. The suite, the publication has it, will apparently include free viewer apps that will require a Microsoft account. Limited editing functionality will reportedly be available with an Office 365 subscription. More tidbits right after the break...
Apple's just expanded its second lawsuit against Samsung, seeking to include the South Korean company's 10.1-inch Galaxy Note tablet on a list of allegedly infringing products. In addition, the iPhone maker has alleged that Google's Android version 4.1 software, also known as Jelly Bean, infringes upon its patents. This could be the first time Apple directly sued Android over alleged patent infringement, though it wasn't immediately clear whether Apple's complaint involved the entire Android OS or just Samsung's TouchWiz overlay. The case is scheduled for trial in 2014. And so it continues...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8ss6NVp8wo
You've probably witnessed one of Google's spring cleanings when it retires a dozen or so popular services. Ever since co-founder Sergey Brin took the CEO role from Eric Schmidt, who is now Google's chairman, the company has been dropping less popular services at a rapid clip. iGoogle? Gone. The ill-fated Wave? Killed off. Wonder Wheel? That too.
Newsflash: even Google has a finite amount of resources so some features inevitably get thrown under the bus along the way. Google's Matt Cutts in the above clip lays out his company's approach to managing products and explains the decision making process which leads Google to retire some service whilst continuing to invest in others...
Google Wallet, a mobile payment system from the search giant, has gained little traction over the past 18 months since its inception, mostly due to limited merchant and carrier support in the U.S. To solve this, Google is rumored to be on the verge of launching a physical card that will work in conjunction with the Wallet service to replace all plastic in your pocket.
The move should help the Wallet service pick up steam and might even establish the search monster as one of the biggest players in the mobile payment industry. Indeed, one card to rule them all with the elite Google Wallet physical card...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWtFeIw8MVM
Apple's iPhone turned five back in June and today marks the fifth anniversary of the world's most widely spread mobile platform, Google's Android software. When Apple was developing its handset, then Google CEO Eric Schmidt enjoyed his seat on Apple's board knowing his firm had already acquired Android Inc. As the two platforms evolved, on August 3, 2009 it was announced that Schmidt would resign from the board of directors at Apple due to conflict of interests.
We now know the main point of contention was Google's work on Android, which went on to become the leading mobile platform in terms of unit sales, capturing 75 percent of total smartphone shipments and together with iOS forming a strong market duopoly. In some ways, Android out-innovated the iPhone, prompting changes in Apple's corporate structure as the company preps for the biggest overhaul of iOS since its inception.
iDB is an Apple-focused blog but we also strive to bring you most important news from the Android camp because it pays to keep tabs on what competition is doing and mostly because healthy competition drives Apple to keep innovating for the benefit of us all. So happy fifth birthday, Android and here's to many more years of competition...