Mozilla is working on a new smartphone operating system called Firefox OS that hopes to compete with Android, iOS, and Windows Phone. The project was first announced back in 2011, and earlier this month, it was reported that Mozilla had made TCL Corporation its hardware partner.
It’s still early days for Firefox OS, but if you’d like to see what Mozilla has in store, you can now run the platform on your Mac using a Boot2Gecko (B2G) “nightly” build.
According to a report issued by the World Bank this week, there are now six billion mobile device subscriptions worldwide and the number of phones, tablets, personal hotspots, and other mobile devices continues to grow and unprecedented rates. The report noted that the number of active mobile devices and mobile carrier subscriptions/accounts “will soon exceed that of the human population.”
That raises some interesting implications for a world mobile market in which Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android are expected to dominate for the immediate and foreseeable future.
If you’re itching for some more Batman action after the credits have rolled in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises, then why not continue protecting Gotham City in Gameloft’s latest release for Android and iOS? As promised, Gameloft has released it’s newest game, The Dark Knight Rises, in conjunction with the blockbuster movie in theaters today.
A consulting firm has discovered that Apple’s existing iOS 6 betas will only support up to 500 installed apps at any one time, and that with any more than that, devices suffer from slow boot times, random reboots, and “other issues.” The firm has had to convince Apple that users need support for more than 500 apps to have the limit lifted.
About a week after an incredulous tweet from Runic Games, Apple has taken down Armed Heroes Online, an MMO for iOS.
In the tweet, Runic’s community manager Brian Ward claimed that assets were stolen from Torchlight – a Mac and PC game available on Steam – to be used in the iOS game by Entertainment Game Labs (EGLS).
The most expensive app I’ve ever purchased is now on sale for half the price. The SlingPlayer app has been discounted by 50% across all mobile platforms and can now be had for $14.99. This deal applies to both the tablet and phone apps and is well worth the price to have your full home cable service in the palm of your hands.
iTunes Match has expanded its reach in Europe today as Apple brings the music matching service to Hungary and Poland more than 18 months after it made its debut in the United States. The Cupertino company is yet to add these countries to its iTunes Match availability page, but users report that the service is now appearing in iTunes.
Apple is finally preparing high resolution graphics for its online store to accommodate the Retina displays on the new iPad and the next-generation MacBook Pro. Although the Cupertino company has already overhauled most of its website, the online store still includes plenty of old graphics that appear fuzzy on its latest devices. But not for long.
Back in June, Cult of Mac reported that Apple was set to introduce a new requirement for iOS apps that meant every single one had to ship with an icon measuring a whopping 1024×1024 pixels for Retina display devices. Developers are now reporting that the same requirement has been applied to Mac apps being sold through the Mac App Store, and that they cannot physically upload their apps without them.
Antivirus software specialist Bitdefender has found that nearly 19% of iOS apps access your address book without your knowledge — or your consent — when you’re using them, and 41% track your location. What’s most concerning is over 40% of them don’t encrypt your data once it has been collected.
That’s all going to change when iOS 6 makes its debut later this year, however.
There’s a growing consensus among IT leaders that organizations need a contingency plan in the event that RIM experiences a sudden and unexpected meltdown. That concern is so strong that 70% of IT managers are planning to replace RIM’s BlackBerry management tools with third-party options over the next one to two years – a move that could ease the transition away from BlackBerry devices to iPhones, iPads, and other mobile technologies.
Seeking to capitalize on that concern, mobile management powerhouse MobileIron announced yesterday that it is opening its training and certification services to any IT professionals that are administrators of RIM’s BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES).
MobileIron, which we profiled during our Mobile Management Month series, offers one of the most full-featured mobile management solutions on the market, and is the only company to offer training and certification centered specifically around mobile management technologies. Until now, however, the company’s MobileIron University training service was available only of MobileIron customers and partners.
The poor working conditions in Foxconn’s Chinese factories have been widely documented for some time now, but the reports have seemingly done very little to dissuade workers from applying for Foxconn jobs.
Thousands have reportedly turned up to the company’s Chengdu and Zhengzhou plants in the hope of securing a “summer job” that is likely to involve the assembly of Apple’s new iPhone, and possibly even an “iPad mini.”
If you’ve recently typed “weather” into Google search on your mobile phone, you may have noticed Google’s neat little interactive weather visualizations. The new weather visualizations give you a look at the current forecast, precipitation, wind direction/speeds, as well as an hourly and ten-day forecast. And now, these same cool visualizations are available in search on tablets.
The uses for Apple’s iPhone and iPad in healthcare seem to be growing by leaps and bounds. The latest field of medicine to take note of the power that iOS devices offer doctors and healthcare providers is ophthalmology. A new study shows that the iPhone may make a better tool when reviewing certain types of ophthalmology images that a standard desktop PC workstation.
What’s truly amazing is that the iPhone used in the study was a four-year-old iPhone 3G.
Back in June at the I/O developer conference, Google announced they are bringing their Chrome web browser to the iOS platform. Many Apple fans prefer Chrome over Safari on desktop machines, so the unveil was met with a lot of excitement from iOS users. However, it looks like Chrome has a long road ahead if it hopes to become a prominent power on the iOS web scene.
A new study by Chitika shows that after Google Chrome for iOS has been at the top of the App Store charts for weeks, it has earned a 1.5% marketshare of all web browsers on iOS. Safari dominates with an 85.6% marketshare, while other third-party browsers take up the other 13%. Chrome’s overall 1.5% browser share translates to a 10.3% share of the total iOS third-party browser market.
According to a new study, mobile technologies like the iPhone and iPad aren’t delivering all the applications and features that most small businesses feel they need to succeed. The issue is less with Apple (or Google or RIM) and more with the developers and technology partners that create and market solutions tailored to the somewhat unique needs of the small business market.
The study was performed by Techaisle, a research firm that specializes in the small to mid-size business (SMB) market. It looked at whether small businesses felt that they were getting adequate options and support from cloud and mobile technology vendors. It found that across several areas, mobile technology solutions are failing to provide needed capabilities.
Mobile management vendor BoxTone announced an aggressive pricing and sales campaign for its mobile management platform today. From now through the end of September, companies will be able to license BoxTone’s mobile device management (MDM) suite for a monthly fee of just $0.99 per device.
The move comes just a week after BoxTone announced the latest generation of its mobile management tools that includes the now-discounted MDM module as well as modules focused on mobile app management (MAM), mobile device support solutions for help desk agents and IT support teams, and a mobile operations module for monitoring and managing mobile IT staff.
If you’ve ever used Steam’s platform for purchasing and downloading games — and you probably have if you’re a Mac or PC gamer — then you’ll already be aware of just how great it is. In fact, if there’s one platform that beats the Mac App Store when it comes to buying games, it’s Steam.
And that rivalry could be about to get a whole lot greater. After a list of productivity software categories briefly appeared within Steam’s mobile app, it looks like the company could be about to take on Apple’s store by selling apps as well as games.
If you tend to stick to using the unified inbox in Apple’s built-in Mail app in iOS, then accessing your draft messages is a bit of a pain. First you have to remember which of your accounts you created the email with, then you have to hunt down the drafts folder for that account.
In iOS 6 beta 3, however, accessing all your drafts is as simple as holding down the new mail button, which takes you to the new page you see above. Isn’t that handy?
Source: Reddit
I spent a good chunk of my childhood playing Pokemon on my Game Boy, and I’d love to be able to relive those days on my iPhone. Unfortunately, Nintendo is adamant it won’t be bringing any of its titles to iOS. While that’s a huge disappointment to most of us, some developers see it as an opportunity to create some great alternatives.
Little Masters is exactly that — an alternative to Pokemon for iOS. And as you can see from the screenshots above, it’s remarkably similar.
While most CIOs and IT leaders are taking steps to reduce their reliance on RIM’s BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES), some major BlackBerry business customers are ready to abandon RIM’s services and its BlackBerry smartphones in one fell swoop. The latest company to announce such a migration is the Australian airline Qantas.
The company told the Australian (registration required) that it had made the decision to trade its 1,300 BlackBerry devices and related service packages for iPhones. The move, which Qantas expects will deliver significant cost savings, follows a company-wide survey in which a “large majority” of employees said that they’d prefer iPhones.
Like other companies and organizations that have announced similar transitions this year, Qantas chief information officer Paul Jones pointed to the iPhone’s ease of use and popularity as reasons for selecting the iPhone.
Microsoft’s free My Xbox LIVE app for iOS just got a brand new update that introduces the ability to use your iPad as a remote control for your console. You can use it to navigate your way around the menus, control media playback, and to “find fresh entertainment” in the new Discover section.
One of the many clever little touches accompanying last week’s official unveiling of the Tweetbot alpha for Mac was the icon: signifying’s the app’s alpha status, the blue robotic bird icon we all know and love on iOS was replaced with a metallic silver egg. Get it? Because it’s still not hatched.
I still love that joke, and it’s a great example of the little things Tapbots does that sets them apart from the rest… but I have to say, over the course of the last week using Tweetbot as my Mac Twitter client, I’ve missed having Tweetbot’s iconic blue bird in my dock. Here’s how to give Tweetbot for Mac the same icon as on iOS.
We’ve already shown you how well Android’s Jelly Bean voice search performs in respect to Siri, but one reviewer has managed to uncover a hidden obsession of Siri’s: Siri likes to show you pictures of stallions! After asking Siri and Android’s new voice search a barrage of real world questions, it became apparent Siri only had one thing on the mind: male horses.
Along with today’s launch of iOS 6 Beta 3, Apple has started to roll out iCloud.com email addresses to developers. When iOS users signed up for iCloud in the past they received an email address @me.com. Now that MobileMe has been shut down, Apple is starting to transition over to @iCloud.com email addresses.