LAS VEGAS, CES 2013 – Every year Samsung attends CES it seems like they try to guess what Apple is going to do with TV. One year they announced a TV that has Netflix and other apps built in. The next they included swappable processors and voice controls.
This year, Samsung’s bet is that if Apple ever decides to make a TV it will be able to predict what you want to watch. It will help you find out where to buy an actor’s clothes. And it might come in a soccer goal shaped frame?
When you’re designing an app for iOS, you need to take into account what specific devices you’re building for, whether it be just the iPhone, iPad, or both. There are several Retina and non-Retina screen resolutions to remember, and then there are other nerdy elements like PPI and color temperature.
User interface designer Ivo Mynttinen has published an updated version of his handy iOS Design Cheat Sheet, “a collection of useful data about iOS devices and things you have to keep in mind when designing something for iOS.”
Whether you’re a novice iOS dev or a seasoned pro, this cheat sheet is a handy thing to bookmark for future reference. There’s a clean chart for all of the iOS device resolutions, display stats, icons, and common design elements.
Source: Ivo Mynttinen
Ever wonder how long it’s going to take to charge your iPhone up all the way? Would it be helpful if your iPhone made some type of sound if it was ready to be taken off the charging cable?
Cleverly named iOS app, Battery, can help you with both of these things, and it’s free to boot. Check it out.
At CES in Las Vegas, Madfinger Games just announced Dead Trigger 2, the sequel to its mobile first-person shooter Dead Trigger, to be available on iOS and Android in the second quarter of this year.
According to mobile industry analyst, Bernie Evans, Facebook reported a huge growth in mobile app Facebook use, with Android users growing from 66 million users in September 2011 to 175 million users this past September. iPhone users also increased greatly, with the number of users of the iPhone Facebook app growing from 91 million last year to 140 million this year.
You wouldn’t normally associate HP devices with the Android or iOS platforms, but the company’s latest gadget plays nicely with them both. It’s called the Pocket Playlist, and it allows you to stream all of your media wirelessly to all your smartphones and tablets. It boasts 32GB of internal storage, and it can stream to up to five devices simultaneously.
Griffin has a new lineup of charging accessories at CES in Las Vegas, one of which is ideal for those who have collected an entire family of iOS devices. It’s called the PowerDock 5 and it charges up to five devices at any one time, storing them away neatly to save space on your desk.
Apple has today announced that the App Store has surpassed a whopping 40 billion downloads, with almost 20 million seen in 2012 alone. A record-breaking December, helped by another successful Christmas, boosted this year’s figures, with more than two billion downloads during the month.
Picking up a new skill is a very popular new year’s resolution. And this Cult of Mac Deals offer will go a long way in helping you pick up a skill that can bring both pleasure and profit – designing iOS apps.
The iOS App Design Course bundle is just $79 for a limited time, and if you have beginner level knowledge of Photoshop and a desire to learn iOS app design, this course trio will help you quickly learn how to design both iPhone and iPad apps and icons.
Michigan readers, rejoice, as AT&T announced today several new 4G LTE markets in the eighth most populous state in the US.
Users in the following areas of Michigan should start to see the little LTE symbol at the top of their iPhones and Android handsets very soon.
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Beverly Hills, Michigan
Birmingham, Michigan
Monroe County, Michigan
Kent County, Michigan
Ottowa County, Michigan
You like robots? You’re gonna love this. This is an iPad app all about robots. Just robots, nothing but robots, loads and loads and loads of robots. It’s made of robots, in the same way we are made of meat. It’s fantastic.
G-Form is a case manufacturer that’s famous for taking expensive devices and running them over, throwing them off balconies, and dropping bowling balls on top of them. The company is so confident its cases can withstand damage of this magnitude that it’s more than happy to prove it. Its latest trick sees Apple’s latest iPod touch take a 100,000-foot free fall inside the company’s new Xtreme iPhone 5 case. It survives without a scratch.
Forbes Magazine has today made its debut on Newsstand, and it promises to provide you with the “ultimate Forbes experience combining all the original magazine reporting on business, technology, and investing with the dynamic interactive content from Forbes.com” Users can buy single issues as and when they wish, or commit to a monthly or yearly subscription.
This year is likely to be another big one for Apple — even if we don’t see that much-anticipated television set. One new product the Cupertino could have up its sleeve is an internet radio service called “iRadio.” It’s reportedly been negotiating the necessary deals with the music labels, and one analyst expects the service to be integrated into iTunes within the next 12 months, competing with the likes of Pandora.
Today, Facebook updated its Messenger app for both iOS and Android, adding a voice messaging capability to the app on both platforms.
There have also been reports that Facebook has been rolling out a pilot VOIP feature to the Messenger app, which will let users call other Facebook Messenger friends for free, or at least without incurring carrier voice minute debits.
The VOIP option is not available for all users, as the iOS app is the only one with even a mention of the feature in the app description. TechCrunch reported that the pilot program is only available in Canada for now, as well.
The battle for smartphone supremacy between iOS and Android has been going on for years now, and even though a host of other manufacturers and operating systems have been introduced, no one has been able to slow down the popularity of the iPhone and Android.
The iPhone continued to increase its marketshare at the end of 2012 according to the latest analysis from comScore. While other platforms shrank in size, Apple’s iPhone now accounts for 35% of the U.S. smartphone marketshare, with Android smartphones taking 53.7%.
While iOS may not be as flexible or as customizable as Android, on the whole it looks a whole lot nicer. Android is steadily improving, that’s for sure, but it’s hard to deny that iOS developers appear to spend more time making their apps prettier, even if you’re a diehard Android fan.
And that was proven when Chris Hulbert, an iOS developer, went to work at Google for three months. In a post on his blog, Hulbert reveals the differences in attitude towards design for iOS and Android, which help explain why Android apps aren’t quite as pretty as they could be.
Zinio, the popular digital newsstand available to Android and iOS devices, has slashed up to 50% off its top 100 magazine subscriptions until. The deal includes titles like Macworld, GQ, Wired, Playboy, PC Magazine, and many more, and it’s valid until Monday, January 7.
Apple and Samsung are the only two smartphone manufacturers currently seeing any growth in the United States. The pair are slowly eating away at the market share held by their rivals, including LG, Motorola, Research in Motion, and HTC. In the three months leading up to November 2012, Samsung increased its market share from 25.7% to 26.9%, but Apple is catching up with the Cupertino company enjoying slightly more growth.
Angry Birds continues to be one of the most successful games available on Android and iOS, and despite already racking up more than 1 billion downloads across all platforms, it continues to be a big seller. This Christmas, the surge in Android and iOS sales saw Angry Birds downloads boosted again. In just one week, the title was downloaded more than 30 million times.
As I’m sure you’re already aware by now, the Do Not Disturb feature Apple debuted with iOS 6 stopped working as it should on Tuesday as the world turned over into 2013. While it has no problem activating itself when it’s told to, it doesn’t understand when it should shut off, meaning users must do it manually or they’ll miss their notifications.
Apple’s promised that the feature will automatically fix itself on January 7, but why did it stop working in the first place? And why will it suddenly start working as it should on Monday? Well, it seems Apple has trouble when it comes to date and time handling.
According to Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition Creative Director, Trent Oster, the development team has “hit a snag” in getting the game up and running on Android OS.
According to a Tweet on his Twitter account, Oster says that the Android version of the highly regarded RPG will be a bit longer in development.
You may have noticed that on January 1st the Do Not Disturb feature on your iPhone stopped working. Rather than turning itself off automatically, on January 1st many users found out that the Do Not Disturb feature stayed on and they didn’t get any notifications.
Apple’s aware of the issue and they’ve already released some information on the bug, saying that it will be fixed on January 7th.
Apple launched a temper-tantrum when Amazon decided to title their marketplace for mobiles app as the “Appstore.” Apple was there first and they started using “The App Store” way before anyone else, so they told the United States district court that Amazon is trying to mislead customers.
Not everyone sees things Apple’s way though and the U.S. district court has dismissed Apple’s claims that the Amazon Appstore is false advertising and deceives customers.
File under: Rampant Speculation. Apple Maps is pretty bad compared to Google Maps, and they need to get it fixed in a hurry, by either chaining their engineers to their desks, or buying another company with enough talent to fix Scott Forstall’s biggest snafu.
There was a ridiculous rumor last month that Apple might acquire TomTom to fix Maps, and now the web has sprouted another crazy rumor that Apple might acquire a different mapping company to fix Maps: Waze.