China is planning to take on Apple and Google with a new homegrown operating system that will launch this year, as Chinese government seeks to distance itself from imported rivals.
The new operating system created by the Chinese government will hit desktops first when its released in October, according to a report from Reuters, and will hopefully supplant Windows, OS X and Chrome OS as the top desktop operating system in China within one to two years, with a mobile version planned as well.
Now that Samsung is pretty much the only Android handset manufacturer making any money, you’d think that Android’s fragmentation problem would start to get better, but the latest Android fragmentation report from OpenSignal reveals the madness of developing for multiple screen sizes, hardware specs, and various versions of Android, has only gotten worse over the last year.
In the smartphone race there are only two players: iOS and Android. That fact is clear in IDC’s new report for worldwide smartphone shipments for the second quarter.
Combined, iOS and Android account for a whopping 96.4% of global smartphone sales. IDC notes that there’s “little space for competitors,” which is a mild way of saying that every other platform has little to no hope.
We all know that in China, clones of the latest iPhone go on sale long before Apple actually starts selling them. But what’s it actually like to own an iPhone 6 knockoff before the iPhone 6 is even available?
Microsoft’s hopes of slowly taking over the U.S. tablet market just took another hit as Lenovo, the world’s largest PC maker, has decided there’s pretty much no demand for any Windows tablets under 10-inches.
Lenovo told PC World that they’re seeing stronger interest in larger screen sizes in North America, so they’re going to stop selling all of their small Windows Tablets in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, and push the ThinkPad 10.
The European Commission has issued some words to Google and Apple about both companies’ steps to ensure children don’t rack up huge amounts of money on in-app purchases without their parents’ permission.
In a statement released by the Commission on Friday, Google is praised for a series of changes that will be put in effect by the end of September — while Apple finds itself on the receiving end of some harsh criticism.
Apple has been waging a fierce war against Flash ever since the iPhone debuted without the power to run Adobe’s battery hungry, multimedia software. Finally, seven years into the battle, Google is adding another blow by flagging Flash content in mobile search results with a warning that sites might not work properly.
When I was a kid, we used to label everything: toys, boxes, file folders. My parents used one of those manual rotary label dispensers, the kind you had to squeeze hard enough to make each individual letter poke up through the hard plastic label tape. It was a good day when my brother and I got to use the label maker to title our shelves, toys and books (“Rob’s Stuff” was a common theme).
These days, printing labels is a lot easier thanks to computers and label printers like the ones from Dymo and Brother. Typically, you’ve got to connect these to a Mac or PC, and then use special software to send labels to the label printer.
The Brother P-Touch P750W (printer makers really need to work on their model names) is a label printer that can connect to your computer via USB, sure, but also connect either to your existing Wi-Fi network or create its own Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n network to print labels from any device, including iPhones, iPads, Android devices, Windows PCs and Macs.
Yeah, I’ve already labeled some shelves around the house. Old habits, it appears, die hard.
If you’re flying into or out of the United Kingdom, you’d better make sure your Android or iOS handset is fully charged. With the U.S. government recently announcing that all airline passengers with personal electronics devices will now be required to turn them on to prove that they work, the U.K.’s Department for Transport has announced that the same rules will now apply in the United Kingdom.
The new ruling follows reports that terrorists may be able to use phones and electronic devices as a conveyor of explosives that can get around current security checks.
The iPhone is far and away the most popular smartphone in the U.S., according to a new report by research firm ComScore. According to ComScore, 169 million cellphone users in the U.S. use smartphones — representing around 70 percent of all mobile users.
Of these, Apple can lay claim to 41.9 percent of users, while runner-up Samsung has captured 27.8 percent of the market. After Samsung, the numbers drop dramatically to 6.5 percent for LG, 6.3 percent for Motorola, and 5.1 percent for HTC.
This post is brought to you by StartApp.
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Watch the video showing how StartApp can help monetize your iOS app here.
Google’s keynote presentation at its I/O developer’s conference today offered a revealing picture of the company itself: meandering, unfocused, copycat and just a little bit evil.
The two-hours-plus keynote had a lot of everything, from a new version of Android to new phones, smartwatches, TVs, cars, Chromebooks and big data — but much of it was deja vu from Apple’s WWDC two weeks ago.
Tim Cook and Craig Federighi took a few swipes at Android during WWDC’s keynote, but now that Google is readying its hype machine for Google I/O tomorrow, Sundar Pichai, the head of Android, tossed a few jabs Apple’s way in an interview with Bloomberg this morning.
Pichai noted that all the data points to people adopting Android faster than any other operating system, but the dude’s so gosh darn nice, he couldn’t insult Apple without flattering them in the same breath.
Addressing Tim Cook’s comments that Android is a “toxic hell stew of vulnerabilities,” Pichai said it’s difficult to compare the two, because iOS is like the $100,000 Mercedes Benz of mobile platforms, and Android is like your cheap ass Honda Civic, taking over the world one delicious dessert fueled update at a time.
With all the new features coming to iOS 8 this fall, many Android users have commented that Apple’s upcoming update acts a lot like KitKat. In today’s video, see some of the new features of iOS 8 go head-to-head with similar iterations in Android to see which comes out on top.
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The world’s fastest keyboard is speeding onto iOS 8 faster than Jony Ive’s fabulous Bentley.
Third-party keyboards were only revealed two days ago for iOS 8 but it is taking developers no time at all to piece together some working betas amid the coding-fest at WWDC.
First up to the plate is Fleksy, who has already started teasing their upcoming keyboard for iOS 8, and if you’re lucky, they’ll might let you take it for a spin.
iOS still beats Android when it comes to quality apps and games. But lots of us use Android tablets and smartphones for one reason (price) or another (freedom), so we might as well make the best of it.
You can find some great games on the Android platform, many of them free or low cost, too. So don’t settle for the same old free-to-play crap — download these great Android games today.
A list of links and prices follows.
The best type of charging cable is the one you have on you. So stay prepared and leave that tangled mess behind with ChargeCard.
ChargeCard is your iPhone lightning cable, shaped like a credit card. It’s designed to fit into your wallet so you’ll always have a charging/sync cable on hand. And Cult of Mac Deals has it available for just $24.99 for a limited time.
Nokia’s incredible PureView camera technology is one of the reasons why so many Android users were desperate to see the Finnish firm ditch Windows Phone and bring Google’s platform to its flagship smartphones instead — and you could soon see the same technology in future iPhones.
Apple has used Microsoft’s recent acquisition of Nokia’s handset business as an opportunity to poach executives who are seeking new challenges, and the Cupertino company has just hired Lumia engineer and PureView camera expert Ari Partinen.
With this Cult of Mac Deals offer, you can take great selfies, group photos and videos from as far as 30 feet away! The Muku Shuttr is a genius remote shutter button that keeps you from getting stuck behind the camera.
Cult of Mac has reviewied the Muku Shuttr, and now we’ve got this slee, portable, and study apparatus available for just $39 during this limited time offer!
The iPod might be a dying business, but “dying” businesses for Apple are still businesses the competition would kill to have.
Apple’s iPod business, for example, is still worth $5 billion. Here’s an interesting metric to show how big the iPod still is in comparison to other companies, though. New mobile ad traffic data from Opera Mediaworks suggests that just a single iPod — the iPod touch — accounts for more web traffic than BlackBerry and Windows Phone combined.
One more way that Apple is challenging Google is by pushing for exclusive games on iOS, claims a new report.
The Wall Street Journal reports that as Android’s influence has grown, Apple has been offering games developers promotional perks — such as premium placement on their app store home pages — in exchange for first rights to particular titles.
Last August, Apple struck a deal with EA to receive a two-month exclusivity window for Plants vs. Zombies 2, which did not arrive on Android until November.
A similar deal saw the popular sequel to ZeptoLab’s puzzle game Cut the Rope arrive on iOS in December — but not make it to Android until late March this year.
Facebook announced this morning that it’s adding a new Nearby Friends feature to its mobile app for iOS and Android that lets you stay more connected than ever with your buddies by letting you stalk every step they take.
Among Jony Ive’s many changes brought to iOS 7 was the tinkering of the keyboard’s Shift key which has inexplicably gotten worse over time.
Streaks of successfully guessing whether the shift key is on or not should be award with showers of iTunes credits, but as designer Geoff Teehan points out, Apple could fix its keyboard woes with one simple change.
Check it out:
If you’ve ever dreamed of designing that killer mobile or desktop game, Cult of Mac Deals has exactly what you’re looking for.
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85% of iOS devices are running iOS 7 or later, Apple claims.
Refreshing its iOS usage numbers on Monday, Apple measured usage of its most recent mobile OS for a seven‑day period ending March 23, 2014.