Following comments made by Google co-founder Larry Page yesterday, which suggested Steve Jobs’s thermonuclear war against Android was simply “for show” to rally the troops, Walter Isaacson has confirmed that Page is wrong, and he has insisted that Steve’s war against Android was real.
Sonos is ditching its dedicated CR200 remote control in favor of mobile apps. According to Sonos boss John MacFarlane, this was the plan all along. Now, though, there are enough people with smartphones and tablets to finally make the hardware controller obsolete.
I have some great news for users of the popular cloud storage service Dropbox. Earlier today, the Dropbox team announced that they would be doubling the amount of free storage awarded in their referral program. That’s right, from now on, any friend you get to install Dropbox, you’ll both get 500 MB of free space. For those with a free account, you have the ability to invite up to 32 people for a total of 16 GB of extra storage. Those with Pro accounts will now earn 1 GB per referral, for a total of 32 GB of extra space. Now isn’t that just doubletastic!
Late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs famously said that he intended to wage “thermonuclear war” on Android. The rift between Apple and Google has been growing wider over the years, and the two companies have essentially become sworn enemies in most areas of business.
In an interesting profile by Bloomberg Businessweek, current Google CEO Larry Page says that Steve Jobs’ public defamation of Android was “for show” to rally Apple around its obvious enemy. Page also talks about topics like the current state of Google, the Motorola acquisition, and more.
Take a look at your cellphone. Now take a look at your camera. Pretty sad, huh? It’s a big chunky old thing, with knobs and dials for navigating menus. It’s also dumb, and disconnected. To edit and share your photos, you need a computer. To get those photos onto your computer, you have to plug the camera in with a cable. Did anybody tell Nikon or Canon that this is 2012 already?
Your cellphone, on the other hand, will let you snap, edit and share your photos in seconds, and even place them on a map so you can find them later. Camera manufacturers are understandably terrified by this, but what can they do? The answer might be Android.
One of the consumerization of IT trends is the use of cloud storage. Most of us already have experience with iCloud and other personal cloud services like Dropbox, Google Docs, and SugarSync. The big advantage to all these solutions is their ubiquity – you can access documents and files in the office, at home, on the road using your iPhone or iPad, and pretty much anyplace else. Though they may raise data security and privacy concerns, personal or public clouds are extremely easy to use and always available.
The popularity of major cloud providers is causing a number of companies to offer easy to configure private cloud options that businesses can physically deploy on their own network or that can be hosted by the developer or a cloud service provider.
This week, ownCloud, which already offers an open source cloud storage and sync, announced new business and enterprise options that offer a great deal of flexibility.
If you didn’t hear the news, Android got a slick new Instagram app this morning that has brought salvation to millions of smartphone users across the globe. Finally, we can all take pretty ugly pictures of nature and cats and food and post them with the loving assurance that they are viewable to 80% of of the world’s smartphone users. Horray! Instagram is finally a really awesome global party!
Well stop right there with the happiness, because a lot of iPhone users are pissed that Instagram came out with an Android app. Twitter has been flooded all day with elitest iPhone owners bemoaning the flood of “ghetto” “poor” Android toting riff raff smashing into their beautiful walled zen garden. The sheer abundance of snooty pretentiousness is enough to give a sensible person a lethal dose of dysentery.
Here’s some of the most ridiculous anti-Android Instagram posts we’ve seen so far:
Social network Path came under great scrutiny after it was discovered that the app would upload a user’s entire address book to Path’s servers. The worst part, for iOS users at least, was Path never let them know. After a public apology, Path worked diligently to remedy the issue and came up with a few enhancements to the way they handle user privacy. Today, Path has rolled out an update to both its Android and iOS apps reflecting the changes and assuring users that they take their privacy seriously (or at least now they do).
How awesome is Instagram for Android? Well, just take a look at the photo above. Instagram may not be stable, but at least you’ll have hipster filters to make every random crash, well… hip! This photo, taken by reader Alan Liddell, is aptly named “functionality,” and shows that not every app launch goes off without a hitch and perhaps Instagram should have spent a little extra time in the dark room filtering its code for Android.
RIM has launched iOS and Android support in its BlackBerry Mobile Fusion mobile device management (MDM) software. The new feature known as Universal Device Service follows February’s initial launch of BlackBerry Mobile Fusion. The initial launch primarily provided the ability to manage RIM’s PlayBook tablet. The launch of the iOS and Android components of the software have been expected for quite some time.
The release is likely to be welcome news to companies and IT departments that are established customers of RIM products. Beyond those customers, however, BlackBerry Mobile Fusion simply joins a long list of existing MDM services that support iOS, Android, Windows Phone, and Even RIM’s own BlackBerry OS.
AT&T’s twelve market 4G LTE rollout is scheduled to begin on April 8th. Of the twelve markets we reported on last month, only three appear to be receiving 4G LTE on the 8th. The following markets will be the first ones to receive the upgrade:
A new Israeli start-up on the scene named ZooZ has founded a new SDK, which allows developers to implement an in-app payment system into their apps easier. To get the system implemented, all developers have to do is add three lines of code into either an Android or iOS app, which will then get things rolling. From there, customers who would like to purchase something from within the app can use Paypal or a credit card with ZooZ’s system. Check it out:
The hysterical crybabies over at Consumer Reports — who, ever since the iPhone 4 came out, never have been able to let a new iOS product pass without Chicken Littling it — have just released a report “supplementing” their earlier one, saying that while the new iPad gets “harmlessly hot” in testings (more on this below), well, so do other tablets… like the Galaxy Tab 10.1 (which reached the same 121 degree temperature in their tests) as well as the Asus Transformer Prime (which was close, at 117 degrees).
If you’re interested, you can go read their report here. Here’s something to note, though: although in an email to Cult of Mac tipping us about their additional tests, Consumer Reports writer James McQueen said that the most they found was that the iPad could get alternatingly “harmlessly hot” or “harmlessly warm” (a direct quote), this phrase (or even just the word “harmless”) never appears in their public report, nor did it appear in their last report. Hard to get people all fired up — wokka — about harmless heat, isn’t it?
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGwY70jkdY4
With its Lumia 900 set to make its much-anticipated debut in the U.S. on April 8, Nokia has kicked off a new advertising campaign called Smartphone Beta Test, in which it mocks devices like the iPhone and Android-powered rivals. Its most noticeable stab is at the iPhone’s “Death Grip,” which can be seen in the clip above.
As a gamer, I’d love nothing more than to see a proper physical controller for my iOS devices. Sure, the touchscreen works great with titles like Angry Birds or Words With Friends, and accessories like the iCade work well with retro games. But for first-person shooters, soccer sims, 3D platformers and the like, nothing beats a physical controller with real analog sticks and real buttons.
Google’s Android operating system already supports external game controllers, and that’s one of the few things it has over iOS. But maybe not for long. According to one source, Apple is working on a physical controller of its own that will make iOS gaming even more incredible.
Note: Title has been changed to reflect “in-app” revenue
You may have seen this report around the web about the Amazon Appstore generating more in-app revenue than the Google Play Store. While that in itself it impressive, everyone seems to be missing the most important detail of the report: Android is generating more in-app revenue than iOS. At least that’s what this report is claiming.
The immensely popular MMO Pocket Legends is turning two and Spacetime Studios is throwing a celebration to honor all of its milestones and devoted fan base. The now cross-platform global hit, Pocket Legends, was originally launched on iOS April 3rd, 2010. Since then, Pocket Legends has been played in every country on the planet (with the exceptions of Cuba and North Korea) by over five million people. That’s an impressive feat for a mobile MMO! Spacetime Studios thinks so too, that’s why players will now have access to all Pocket Legends premium content areas for free!
Earlier this Box launched its new OneCloud feature, the goal of which is to integrate a range of iOS business and productivity apps around Box’s cloud storage. The biggest advantage to OneCloud is that it neatly sidesteps the lack of file management in iOS, essentially functioning almost like cloud-centric iOS version of the Finder.
Box isn’t the only company looking to get around the iOS file limitations while also connecting users to the cloud. Quickoffice this week announced its new Connect solution, a dedicated app and cloud service combination that aims to make it easy for users to access, edit, share, and sync files and documents across all their devices as well as across a range of third-party cloud services.
Looking for a great deal on the tablet that proved to manufacturers that price matters? Amazon is offering up certified refurbished Kindle Fires at a ridiculous price of $139. It’s a limited time, limited quantity deal, so you’ll want to act fast. The Amazon Kindle Fire blazed into the tablet market with its perfect price and treasure trove of content. It was the first tablet to successfully steal a sliver of the market away from tablet titan Apple. At $199 it opened the door for budget conscious consumers to experience digital content in a new and exciting way. It was a good deal then and at $139, it’s a great deal now!
2012 Mobile Game of the Year, The Dark Meadow, received a pretty major update on iOS today. Aside from all of the new features, the game has also gone freemium. The freemium version, entitled Dark Meadow: The Pact is a separate download on the App Store and as far as I can tell is exactly the same as the original paid version. The decision to go freemium may benefit the developers over the long term and is the reasoning for the jump. Although it is only available on iOS at the moment, it is scheduled to hit Android next month.
Quick, what makes more money for Google: iOS or its own Android operating system? If you didn’t know anything about what a farce Android has become, you’d assume that Google was making more advertising revenue out of its own platform and ecosystem, but you’d be wrong: the search giant makes up to four times more off of iOS. Ouch.
Smartphones are close to becoming the primary type of mobile phones sold in the U.S. for the first time. Market research giant Neilsen’s latest analysis of the mobile industry shows that about half of all mobile phone owners in the country now own a smartphone – up significantly from this time last year.
In addition to smartphones gaining major traction, the company also released its data on the makeup of the U.S. smartphone market that shows gains by Apple’s iPhone and significant losses for RIM’s BlackBerry. Android, however, still manages to hold the biggest share of the market overall.
According to an HTC patent filed back in 2011 and a new device design discovered by Patent Bolt, it appears HTC is working on a handheld PMP device to rival the ever dominant iPod Touch. With companies like Philips, Sony, and Samsung all failing to chip away at the iPod Touch’s domination, I guess it couldn’t hurt to give HTC a chance. This new device combined with the new Google Play model could give this HTC device a fighting chance but I wouldn’t put my money on it.
Setting up a passcode for your iOS device is one of the first steps you can take to keep your data safe. It prevents access to your device, blocking unauthorized user from accessing your personal data, photographs, contacts, messages, and anything else you have stored inside.
However, that passcode lock is useless when it comes up against a piece of software called XRY from the Swedish security firm Micros Systemation. With XRY, your personal data, call logs, GPS location data, contacts, and even keystrokes can all be extracted and decrypted in under ten minutes.
Ever wonder who exactly Samsung hired to test out the Galaxy Note before shipping it out to retailers across the globe? It was no easy task finding a quality assurance team that measured up to the pure magnitude of the Galaxy Note, but after interviewing nearly a dozen teams, Samsung went with lead QA Engineer Peter the elephant and his expert team of mixed mammals.