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Google and Samsung said to be working on 10-inch iPad contender

Cody Lee ∙ October 9, 2012

Nearly three years after breathing new life into the space, Apple has remained largely uncontested in the field of tablets. We've seen slates from RIM, the now defunct Palm, and countless Android manufacturers, and none of them have been able to take the iPad head-on.

But it looks like Google is looking to change that. According to a new report, the search giant is teaming up with Samsung to create a high-end, 10-inch tablet aimed squarely at Apple's iPad. And one of its headlining features is said to be a stunning 300 PPI display...

NYT looks at Apple and patent wars from both sides

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated June 4, 2018

As part of its ongoing iEconomy series, The New York Times on Sunday evening published a fascinating piece covering patent wars in excruciating detail, touching upon Apple's decision to go thermonuclear on Android, how the company changed its strategy after it had been forced to pay $100 million for the iPod user interface, why Apple is allowed to own patents covering basic software concepts and more...

Street View feature now available in Google Maps web app

Cody Lee ∙ October 4, 2012

As expected, Google has started rolling out its popular Street View feature to the web version of its Maps app this morning, bringing the option back to iPhone 5 and iOS 6 users.

Early reports claimed that the data was limited to the US and Canada. But now it appears that the feature has gone live around the world. Keep reading for our first impressions...

How Steve Jobs initiated Maps project, almost dropped Google search from iPhone

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated July 12, 2017

Bloomberg Businessweek has an interesting story up this morning which takes a look at Tim Cook's first year as Apple's CEO. The article also offers a few previously unknown tidbits related to late CEO Steve Jobs's role in the iOS 6 Maps project (originally an afterthought during the iPhone development). It also touches upon the retirement of hardware boss Bob Mansfield and his $2 million a month advisory agreement with Cook, Apple moving away from Intel, the iPad mini later this month and more...

Google Street View rolling out to iOS tomorrow?

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 3, 2012

iDB discovered a week ago that Google is set to introduce street-level photography on the iOS platform in form of a web app in about two weeks. Today, The Wall Street Journal columnist Walt Mossberg made it a fact, claiming that the software is coming as early as Thursday, possibly tomorrow. The journalist had some hands-on time with the web app which includes both360-degree photographic street views and interior photographic views of certain businesses...

iPhone share rising, everyone else looks flat or down

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 2, 2012

Analytics firm comScore is out with new research data concerning the mobile landscape in the United States during August. Good news for Apple: the iOS is on the rise among smartphones, going from 31.9 percent during the three-month period ending in May 2012 to 34.3 percent in June, July and August.

During the same timeframe, Google's Android went from 50.9 percent to 52.6 percent smartphone market share. Better still, Apple grew at a faster clip than Google. Microsoft's Windows Phone, Research In Motion's BlackBerry and Symbian? All losing ground...

New jailbreak app integrates Facebook and Google Chat into iOS

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 18, 2018

QuickIM is a new jailbreak tweak that allows you to quickly send Facebook messages and Google chat messages from anywhere within iOS.

Seeing as this feature is totally relegated to standalone apps on non-jailbroken phones, QuickIM is an app that's sure to catch the eye of fans of either of the aforementioned instant messaging services.

How exactly does it work? Check inside for a brief video explanation.

Google is now worth more than Microsoft

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 16, 2017

Shares of Google have been rising lately due to a number of factors boosting its revenue, from the growing Google Apps hosted productivity suite stealing biz from Microsoft to the successful launch of the Nexus 7 tablet and a new range of Motorola phones to nice ad sales, relentless Android march and steady dominance in search and maps, only highlighted by Apple's iOS 6 Maps woes. And now, the search giant has passed another milestone as its market capitalization surpassed that of Microsoft in early trading...

When Apple was designing the original iPhone, Maps was an afterthought

Christian Zibreg ∙ September 29, 2012

Piggy-backing on the ongoing Apple Maps drama, The New York Times gives us a couple interesting tidbits that help explain the origins of Google Maps on the iPhone. For starters, Apple never intended to put maps on the iPhone. It was a decision late CEO Steve Jobs made last minute, one that would cost Apple its reputation five years later as Apple rushed its own solution out of the door too early.

In a way, the report notes, Apple Maps continue on a string of Internet services missteps, with notable examples of the recently axed Ping social network for music, Siri, a controversial digital assistant, the MobileMe suite of web tools and recent iCloud outages.

These blunders expose Apple as a hardware and design-focused culture, which is more often than not a difficult match for online services on a world scale, where Google rules the landscape by a wide margin...

Google updates Gmail app for the iPhone 5

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

Google's been on a roll these days. They brought as the official YouTube app and the awesome Chrome browser, have improved Google Contacts sync in iOS, are working on a standalone Maps app and Street View on the web and will soon launch an interesting traveling companion app called Field Trip. Plus, Google's nice Gmail app for the iPhone and iPad is getting better with each iteration.

And earlier this morning, a minor update went live bringing support for the iPhone 5's taller four-inch dispay, so you can see more of your messages in the list view and more content in the message view without needing to scroll quite as much. Another benefit of the taller display: typing gets easier as the virtual keyboard in landscape mode is a bit wider.

Also, this...

As Apple drops the ball, Google brags about new high-res aerial and satellite imagery

Christian Zibreg ∙ September 28, 2012

If there’s one thing we all learned from Apple’s Maps mea culpa, it’s that mapping the globe is a tricky business. It took the search giant seven years and tremendous manpower to turn Google Maps into the world’s most popular mapping service. Quick to exploit rivals’ weaknesses, Google once more outlined its mapping advantage today just as Tim Cook’s apology was making rounds on the web…

Apple explains how to create home screen shortcuts to Google and Nokia maps on the web

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 10, 2018

Apple's boss Tim Cook just issued a mea culpa on Apple's awesome Maps in the form of an open letter published on Apple's website. What's really interesting is that the issue which threatened to snowball into a PR catastrophe has forced Apple to advise customers to use rival services "while we’re improving Maps".

It takes a tremendous amount of public outcry to force Cupertino into such a defensive position. I imagine heads will roll as Cook gives Apple's mapping team a kind of dressing down Steve Jobs once gave to the MobileMe team ("you should hate each other for having let each other down"). No matter how you look at it, the Maps fiasco has tarnished Apple's reputation, at least in my view...