We’ve seen lots of demand for BBM on Android and iOS since BlackBerry announced in May that the service would finally go cross-platform. And the Canadian company has promised us that the app will be here by the end of summer. But how long is BlackBerry’s summer?
According to one company executive, we could be waiting up until September.
Nokia’s decision to only make Windows smartphones has been heavily scrutinized ever since CEO Stephen Elop made the announcement in 2011. Why go with Microsoft’s new platform when Android was already better established?
In a recent interview Elop revealed the reason Nokia didn’t switch to Android was because they felt it was going to get dominated by one company: Samsung.
That didn’t take long. Following AT&T and T-Mobile’s lead, Verizon has announced a plan for early upgraders that theoretically allows users on their Share Anything plans to update their phones every six months.
Just about every major tech company is working on two untapped product categories right now: wearable technology and streaming television over the internet. Apple is trying to draw in TV networks with advertising incentives, and even Intel is working on its own TV service.
It should come as no surprise that Google has been in talks with media companies about streaming premium TV over the internet. The company has reportedly demoed its new product to cable executives, but it’s still up to the networks to jump on board.
Apple and Samsung will meet in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit court next month as Apple steps up its bid to have a number of Samsung devices banned in the United States.
The Cupertino company is hoping to reverse the court’s decision not to remove then handsets from sale when they were found guilty of infringing Apple patents last August.
Uber is a popular car service that is on a mission to make taxis obsolete. It pioneered the idea of using your smartphone to summon and pay for a car, and now Uber has expanded to 35 cities and 14 countries.
Today Uber added a long-awaited feature. You can now split fares between multiple passengers with the app.
Dear Handset Maker:
Your company and hundreds of others are engaged in an epic battle for the smartphone handset market, which within a year or two will exceed a billion customers and $150 billion a year in revenue.
Don’t you want a big piece of that? Because if you do, you’re not acting like it.
Samsung gets most of the market share and some of the profits. Apple gets most of the profits and some of the market share. But Samsung fears with justification that its lead is slipping away to lower-cost and more aggressive vendors. Apple’s momentum has slowed horribly with the onslaught of Android phones.
The rest of you handset makers — let’s face it — are scrambling for crumbs on the floor.
Instead of taking one of the known-bad losing strategies, why don’t you try the obvious winning strategy?
I’m going to describe the losing strategies, then spell out the winning one.
Curious to see what the next version of iOS will be like but don’t have an iPhone? Now there’s an app on Google Play called Control Center that brings the iOS 7 Control Center user experience to Android phones.
The app functions pretty much identical to the Control Center found on iOS 7 except it’s more customizable. Swipe up from the bottom of your device and you get quick access to toggles for Wifi, Bluetooth, volume, a flash light, camera, and a couple of other basic functions.
The download is free in Google Play right now so if you’ve been eyeing some of the new iOS 7 features, here’s how to get one of them with out having to spend a cent on a new iPhone.
Via: Gizmodo
Source: Google
VimpelCom, owner of Beeline, Russia’s third-biggest mobile carrier, has cut its ties with Apple and decided it will no longer offer the iPhone. The company reportedly feels Apple’s conditions are too “harsh,” and so it has inked a deal with its biggest rival instead.
At the same Sun Valley conference where Apple CEO Tim Cook and Senior Vice President Eddy Cue are prowling around looking for iTunes deals, Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt says that the war between Google and Apple isn’t quite so thermonuclear anymore. In fact, he says Cupertino is thawing in many respects towards the search giant.
Pebble has announced that its popular smartwatch has now surpassed 275,000 pre-orders, and more than 93,000 of them have been shipped since to over 150 countries since January.
The accompanying app for Android and iOS has been downloaded more than a million times, and the company has vowed to continue improving its development platform and give third-party app makers deeper access to the watch’s technology.
O2, one of the U.K.’s largest cellular operators, has announced the launch of its free London Underground Wi-Fi connectivity for its mobile subscribers. Like both EE and Vodafone, O2 has entered into a partnership with Virgin Media – which has Wi-Fi hotspots at more than 120 tube stations across central London – to provide the new service to its customers.
TeamViewer has been around at the App Store since 2010, when its first iOS app allowed users to remotely pilot a PC or Mac.
Now TeamViewer has pulled a pulled a 180; the company’s latest trick allows any Mac or PC user to remotely peer into an iPhone, iPad or an Android device equipped with their new TeamViewer QuickSupport iOS and Android apps.
Samsung has overtaken Apple and Nokia to become the global leader in mobile web traffic, according to the latest figures from web analytics company StatCounter. It’s the first time the South Korean company has taken the lead in Internet usage, but Apple isn’t far behind.
It’s no secret the the U.S. government enjoys taking certain liberties with citizens’ privacy by wiretapping cellphones, but did you know that each time Uncle Sam decides to peek in someone’s phone records they get a big bill from the carrier?
AT&T charges the government a $325 “activation free” for each wiretap and then they rack up an extra $10 a day to keep the line open. Want the NSA to think twice before tapping you? Then maybe you should go with Verizon as their wiretaps cost the most at $775 per month and then $500 for each month after that.
Google has rolled out a major Google Maps update for Android smartphones and tablets, which is also “coming soon” to iPhone and iPad. It introduces a new design that finally boasts a dedicated user interface for tablets, as well as enhanced navigation and new features.
Well, that’s exciting! Apple and Amazon have apparently settled their differences over who can use the “App Store” name, making it possible for one or both companies to use it in their business.
US District Judge, Phyllis Hamilton, ordered today that the case be dismissed, as requested by both Cupertino-based Apple and Seattle-based Amazon. The trial, originally scheduled for August 19, will no longer occur.
Android has held a pretty sizable lead over the iPhone for a long time now, and in the United States, it would appear there’s little chance of that changing any time soon. But Apple’s smartphone is gaining ground on its rival, and it’s all thanks to T-Mobile.
Douglas Engelbart died this week. But his most iconic idea lives on.
The venerable computer mouse, originally prototyped as a pine box with three buttons and metal wheels, was dreamed up by Englebart fifty years ago.
The mouse has been upgraded and re-envisioned — for example, they don’t use wheels or even trackballs anymore. Some have scroll wheels on top, or side buttons.
But the basic idea of moving a thing over here (to control a mouse pointer over there) lives on. Entire generations have grown up using this funky contraption.
We now suddenly find ourselves in a world of superior alternatives — multi-touch user interfaces (of which Android is the leading brand), voice control and dictation and others.
Yet habit and inertia keep us using Englebart’s brilliant but now-obsolete invention.
It’s time to bury the mouse.
Iceland is so cool. Or weird. Or both.
The land that brought us Bjork and her oddly compelling musical artistry has a new commercial for the Samsung Galaxy S4 that–quite literally–takes a bite out of Apple.
The short ad begins with a poor, sad, white guy in a nice warm vest sitting on a mountainside in what I presume to be Iceland. He’s tapping and listening to an apple. Not an Apple, mind you, but an actual apple, as in the fruit.
After some confused facial gestures, the man is shown smiling and using a Samsung Galaxy S4 device.
That’s when it gets weird.
Apple’s iPhone 5 is “the most hated handset” currently available, receiving the most criticism on social networks, reports British tabloid The Daily Mail. Its biggest rival, the Samsung Galaxy S4, is the most loved — receiving just 11% of the complaints.
An Irish parliamentary committee has dismissed the opportunity to grill Apple and Google over their tax affairs in Ireland, despite requests for a change to the way in which it taxes large multinationals that do business in its country.
The move comes weeks after Apple and Google came under scrutiny for the way in which they use tax “loopholes” or “gimmicks” to avoid paying excessive taxes on international sales. It was revealed that Apple used an Irish subsidiary with zero employees to pay less than 0.05% tax on $78 billion over four years.
Samsung has produced a new Galaxy S4 commercial for Iceland, and it’s possibly one of its weirdest smartphone adverts yet. It features some really strange dancing from a bunch of unconvincing ninjas, and a less than subtle dig at Apple using real apples.
Duolingo is the developer behind a smartphone app for Android and iOS that helps users learn new languages for free. It has a great deal of appreciation for its users, so much so that it went out of its way to help one of them create a unique wedding proposal that they’ll never forget.
The fine folks at Lucky Frame (Bad Hotel, Pugs Luv Beats) have just announced a brand new game, this one coming to iPad and Android July 16th, with a desktop version for Mac and PC soon thereafter.
While there’s a definite shortage of pugs in Gentlemen!, there is definitely a surfeit of pigeons. This here is a frantic two-player game with a Victorian dueling theme, letting you go head to head on the same iPad or Android tablet. You’ll settle your grievance with bombs, knives, and (duh) deadly homing pigeons. You’ll need to find a balance of technique, cunning, and blind panic to come out ahead of the game, and win the duel. It’s two players, one screen, so if you’re lacking in friends, maybe get your pug to play along.
