iOS - page 109

Many workplaces are looking at options for social collaboration. The idea is to harness the power of social networks as an internal communication and collaboration tool. While there are some powerful and full featured options in this space, a new iOS and Android app called Pride aims to provide the core benefits of social networks in a free service that’s extremely easy to set up, manage, and use. More importantly, Pride delivers a fun and playful experience that is likely to encourage employees to use it while delivering some very tangible business benefits.

Pride was created by mobile and social enterprise startup DoubleDutch, a company that delivers mobile CRM and event management solutions. The company’s approach is all about using mobile technology to engage with key partners – customers, clients, sales staff, event attendees, and pretty much anyone else involved in a business. That shows through in Pride as well as the companies other products.

On average, iOS is the most expensive mobile platform for developers. It’s the second most profitable mobile platform overall behind RIM’s BlackBerry. One in three mobile developers can’t earn enough money to living from the apps that they produce.

Those are some of the details contained in a new report from mobile analyst and strategy company VisionMobile. The report delves into the heart of the so-called app economy and provides a range of information and statistics about app development, its costs, and the income potential that comes from being an iOS, Android, BlackBerry, or Windows Phone developer. If you’re considering a career as a mobile developer, this is must-read report. For the rest of us, it’s a fascinating sneak peek into the experience of app developers around the world.

Yesterday we brought you news of Tweetbot for Mac, officially confirmed by Tapbot’s own Paul Haddad via tweets sent out from the application. Today, Mark Jardine, Tweetbot’s graphic designer, has posted this picture of Tweetbot for Mac running on the new, Retina display MacBook Pro.

If you were asked to name a company who would finally solve all of your password woes, who would it be? Apple? Google? 1Password? Lastpass?

Good guesses, but no. The company who’s going to end all of your password juggling problems is Detroit carmaker Ford. And they’re going to do it with an iOS app and a Chrome extension that means that just sitting down in front of your Mac with your iPhone in your pocket will be enough to unlock all of your accounts and profiles on the web, instantaneously.

One of the ironic twists about the anti-trust lawsuits against Apple and the major publishing companies is that Apple’s entrance into the ebook market actually broke Amazon’s virtual monopoly on the ebook business. In the process, publishers gained the ability to control ebook pricing, which can be seen as actually encouraging competition in the industry.

While the U.S. Department of Justice and attorneys general from many states are pursuing lawsuits around the matter, not every country would see the situation in the same terms as the U.S. government. In France, for example, publishers can legally control pricing and are protected from booksellers undercutting their business as Amazon had been doing with its power over the ebook market. It’s even possible that France’s laws protecting publishers may have served as inspiration for the agency model that Apple used in building the iBookstore.

Gameloft’s Asphalt series has been one of the most successful racing titles on iOS, and its latest addition promises to the “newest, fastest, most visually stunning” edition yet. It’s called Asphalt 7: Heat and it’s available today on iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch for just $0.99.

For that you get the chance to race over 60 cars — including a DeLorean! — over 15 tracks, in both single and multiplayer game modes.

Remember SlideWriter, the innovative iPad text editor that turned one impressive keyboard concept into a real app, which we told you about back in May? Today it’s finally available to download from the App Store for just $0.99 for a limited time.

Enterprise security vendor Fortinet decided that the best way to understand members of the millennial generation (or Gen-Y) and their potential impact on IT and security policies was to ask them directly for their views on technology in the workplace. What Fortinet learned will probably keep CIOs and IT leaders up at night.

Most millenials view BYOD programs and the ability to choose the technology they use for work as a right rather than a privilege and have few qualms about outright ignoring policies that restrict that right – even in situations where they know that important data breaches could be the result.

Most worrying for IT leaders, however, is that most young workers feel that device and data security is their personal responsibility even when sensitive business data is stored on or accessed from their personal iPhone, iPad, or other device.

According to a poll conducted by discount site CouponCodes4u, less than one-quarter of American consumers will consider buying Microsoft’s newly unveiled Surface. The discount site used the poll to study the overall tablet space and to determine brand awareness and perceptions across the U.S. market. It found that only 22% of respondents would consider buying one of the Surface tablets.

The survey, which was taken by 1,578 Americans in the 21 to 35 age bracket, also found high brand loyalty among tablet owners for both the iPad and for Android.

On-demand news radio service, Stitcher Radio, dropped a nice update in the laps of Android and iOS users today. Starting today, Stitcher Radio will follow in the footsteps of services such as Pandora or iTunes Genius, by providing personalized recommendations based on your listening activity. This new feature has been dubbed “Smart Station” and claims to be a first for talk radio.

Alien Blue, undoubtedly the best third-party Reddit client for iOS, has just received a great new update on the iPhone. In addition to a long list of improvements and optimizations, version 2.6 brings the ability to sort your subreddits into groups, and then sync them via iCloud; Retina subreddit icons, a native Imgur album browser, a native GIF player, and lots more.

Following several security concerns over the way in which iOS apps access and record our data — with the recent Path scandal being the most notable — Apple decided to implement some new privacy settings in iOS 6, which allow you to fine-tune how much of your personal data each of your apps has access to.

Every time you open up a new app that wants access to your contacts, calendars, or any other data, you have to give that app your permission. However, one security director believes this approach will annoy iOS users more than it helps them, and that the new privacy settings are designed to protect Apple from lawsuits rather than its users from data theft.

Doctors may be fans of the iPad as a clinical tool, but they’re not certain that Apple’s iPad, the 5000+ health and medical apps in the App Store, or other mobile technologies are safe and effective health tools for patients. That’s the gist of a report by PwC Global Healthcare. The report was based on surveys of physicians, healthcare management professionals and payers, and mobile technology users in ten countries around the world.

According to the report, just under two-thirds (64%) of healthcare providers acknowledged that mobile technologies offer potential benefits for patients, but feel that mobile health (also known as mhealth) is virgin and untested territory. As a result, the majority of doctors (73%) don’t suggest iOS or mobile health apps to their patients and some (13%) even discourage patients from using them.

Sydnee from Kanex is a new accessory that allows users with an entire family of iOS devices to charge all of their gadgets (well, four of them) simultaneously. It requires only one main socket, and it coverts that into four USB ports — capable of pumping out 2.1 amps of power — for your iPhones, iPads, or iPod touches.

iPhone users on the go will now have access to the same great Google offers as Android users thanks to the new Google Offers app for iOS. The app allows users to browse and redeem hundreds of local offers as well as deals from the dozens of participating deal sites. With Google Offers for the iPhone you’ll enjoy:

Mobile advertising as an industry has been slow to evolve since the introduction of the iPad. A study that we reported earlier this year found that many advertising companies fail to take advantage of the mobile ad capabilities offered the iPad even though iPad users are significantly more likely to interact with ad content.

A more recent study shows that companies hesitant to develop iPad and tablet-optimized ad content are passing up major opportunities to engage customers. It turns out that, in addition to being more likely to interact withs ads, iPad users are more likely to make purchasing decisions based on iPad or tablet-optimized ads.

Bento originally made its iOS debut on the iPhone 3G way back in 2009, and it has been supporting iOS devices ever since. Today the latest release, Bento 4, which promises to be the “redesigned, reinvented and revolutionary new version of the leading personal database app,” is now available on the iPad.

And it has 50% off its regular price tag for a limited time.

Microsoft’s announcement of its new Surface tablets got the entire tech industry’s attention yesterday. The announcement was big on drama but not so big on details. Despite showing off the new Surface devices and using them to build hype for Windows RT and Windows 8, Microsoft left out some key points of information like pricing and a clear understanding of how the devices will fit into mobile tech market.

The announcement also left many technology pros scratching their heads in confusion about Microsoft’s decision to own the entire computing process in the way that Apple does – from hardware to OS, to the app market. Another head scratcher, particularly for CIOs and IT leaders, is how or where Surface devices will fit into businesses.

In an email sent out to iOS developers today, Apple has announced a new rule that requires all apps to be submitted for approval with high resolution 1024 x 1024 icons and artwork. That’s a higher resolution than the display built into the iPad 2 — for an icon.

Google’s VP of Product Management, Bradley Horowitz, announced that Google has partnered with Flipboard to integrate Google+ streams into the popular magazine-styled reader. Google+ will join Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and a host of other social services available on Flipboard thanks to new extended APIs. This new integration is a great step forward for users, especially those who enjoy accessing all of their social content from a single app such as Flipboard.

Apple’s new Maps app that’s coming to iOS 6 looks really incredible. Its detailed 3D maps blow the traditional satellite view right out of the water, and allow you to view high resolution images of cities like San Francisco, Chicago, Las Vegas, and more. But what happens when those detailed images get into the wrong hands.

Well, U.S. Senator for New York, Charles E. Schumer, is worried the detailed images could be used to aid criminals and terrorists, and he has privacy concerns over the military-grade spy planes Apple uses to capture these images.

As I mentioned in my post about Sparrow for iPhone yesterday, it is by far my favorite mail client on both Mac and iOS. Despite a lack of push support — for now — Sparrow contains some really awesome features, which are detailed in my review. If you haven’t picked up this terrific app yet, now’s the best time, because it’s just $0.99 for the next 48 hours.

Spotify is gearing up to issue an update to its iOS app today, which will bring its popular radio feature to the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch for the first time and allow the service to take on rivals like Pandora or Slacker. What’s more, unlike its traditional music streaming service, the radio feature will not require a paid Spotify Premium subscription to use on mobile devices.

It’s safe to say the majority of us already know the story behind Peter Parker and how he came to be Spider-Man. In case you aren’t familiar with this iconic story, Gameloft has released a prologue video to not only familiarize you with the history, but to show off some more in-game footage.

Do you know how to code a circle? If you’re a software developer, the answer is probably yes. But what about interface elements, complex icons and other fancy graphics? Sure, you could probably get it done, but what a pain. That’s what PaintCode is for.

PaintCode is a Mac app which takes your complicated vector-based designs and translates them into Objective C code, ready to be pasted straight into Xcode.