We told you yesterday that Path was secretly uploading your iPhone’s entire address book to its servers. Users of the inclusive social network voiced concern, and many decided to remove the app entirely until Path addresses the issue in an upcoming update.
It’s common practice for third-party apps to access and even store your contacts elsewhere. The problem with Path is that there was no indication that this activity was taking place. Path’s CEO stated that the app would make the activity opt-in when the next update is pushed out.
Thanks to a brand new jailbreak tweak, you’ll never have to worry about an app silently stealing your personal contacts data again.
It’s pretty much impossible to argue that Apple didn’t revolutionize and reshape the mobile intdustry in the U.S. and around the world. The iPhone changed the concept of what a smartphone could be in 2007. The App Store reimagined smartphone apps and how they could be sold in 2008. And the iPad revolutionized the face of tablet computing in 2010. Those are pretty significant accomplishments technically and culturally.
Now, we also know how Apple reshaped and grew mobile industry financially… and how all of that growth is pocketed in the process.
There’s something magical about the days of the original Macintosh and the first iPod. We were on the cusp of a new age in personal computing, and Apple was solidifying itself as a staple brand in the consumer technology market.
Some retro iPhone cases from a company called Schreer Delights replicate the original Macintosh, iMac and iPod with charming detail.
Ask a lot of people who don’t use iPhones like to dismiss Apple’s impact on the smartphone industry. Hey, we had PDA-like smartphones with touchscreens before the iPhone, so what’s the big deal?
Such logic is patently absurd, but as it often does, a picture says a thousand words about how a thousand shitty devices did things before the iPhone came around, and how the makers of these crappy phones do things now that the iPhone is the gold standard of smartphone design.
Think that’s pathetic? Check out how tablets changed after the iPad too. Unreal!
Often the first and biggest question that confronts any company developing a new mobile presence (or revamping an existing one) is whether to focus on developing a native app or a mobile web site. While each approach has its pros and cons, one way to decide may be to look at how users are accessing content on their mobile devices like the iPhone and iPad.
Unfortunately, the latest news from comScore is that users are evenly split between using a dedicated native app or using a mobile web browser to access content – making that criteria alone useless when it comes to developing a mobile strategy.
This fall, Sprint became the third U.S. carrier to offer the smartphone. Sprint is the third large largest carrier in the country and the only one to coninute to offer unlimited data plans to new customers – a point that Sprint makes in most of its advertising.
Sprint talked about the iPhone’s impact as part of its quarterly earnings Tuesday. Although Sprint reported large overall net loss of income, the company maintains that the launch of the iPhone was a success. It’s important to note that the iPhone, while helping Sprting add customers, was a factor than the larger than typical net loss, whichthe company expects to recoup in future quarters.
Everyone was jamming in the little corner where House of Marley was stashed during the official press event at CES, and a big part of that was due to their Bag of Rhythm dock — the Marley PR people carried it around slung on their shoulders, and it just rocked, man.
Apple sent out an interesting message to third-party developers today. iOS devs are now required to submit Retina display screenshots for their iPhone and iPod touch apps to the App Store. All updates to existing apps must also meet the 960×640 resolution requirement.
Not only does this new policy signal the death of 480×320 resolution apps, but it also indicates that the iPhone 3GS may not be around much longer.
During the past few weeks, one quote from Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs biography has bounced around the tech and mainstream media. It’s the quote where President Obama asked Jobs about Apple manufacturing jobs that had been shipped oversees and Jobs responds “those jobs aren’t coming back” – words the President decided to ignore during his State of the Union speech last month. Instead, Obama called on tech companies to bring those jobs back.
With all due respect to the White House, it seems pretty likely that those jobs aren’t coming back. Anyone that doubts that needs to reread the first New York Times piece on Apple’s manufacturing partners. The U.S. simply cannot match the manufacturing capacity in China and elsewhere. Get over it. Those jobs are gone but that doesn’t mean Apple and other tech companies aren’t creating new jobs right here at home. In fact, Apple and other tech company have create an entire to category of jobs and filled half a million of them with American workers.
In what can only be considered the very definition of irony, it has been discovered that Path 2 for iPhone secretly uploads and stores your entire address book to its servers. In case you didn’t know, Path is a hot iOS app that offers an exclusive, confined social network experience with a limited number of people. Unlike Facebook, Path only lets you accept 150 friends, indicating the intimate, safe environment that the app creators want users to feel at home in.
Developer Arun Thampi has uncovered that Path’s current iPhone app sends all of your contacts to its servers without notifying you. Oops.
Forgetting a password to any service is frustrating, especially if you’re itching to download the latest Angry Birds update. But when it comes to your Apple ID, it’s actually very simple to change or reset your password on your iOS device.
A report claims that in an effort to expand their US retail presence, Apple is in talks with Walmart subsidiary Sam’s Club to open new Apple stores inside the company’s warehouse retail locations. Both Walmart and Sam’s Club currently sell a number of Apple products, including iPhones, iPads, and iPods, but the retail giants are looking to combine forces with Apple to capitalize on the company’s astronomical success.
One of the best accessories you can purchase for your new iPhone is a little device that allows you to control your television and other audio/visual gear from your smartphone. It means you don’t have to search around for that lost remote, get up to change the channel, or keep replacing the batteries in all the remotes already littering your home.
The VooMote Zapper combines a universal remote control with a well designed app that allows you to control all of your equipment in every room using nothing but your iOS device. And it’s available now at Apple retail stores nationwide.
A big challenge for businesses and organizations is cost management, particularly in the current economic climate. Many companies are trying to maximise their budgets – one of the big factors pushing the BYOD trend. Where BYOD isn’t feasible, however, businesses may still have the need to support mobile professionals – and need to do so as cost effectively as possible.
Despite the common presumption that Apple solutions are more expensive, the iPhone offers companies unique advantages when it comes to keeping costs down – and those advantages aren’t likely to be found in Android devices.
A recent survey of mobile carrier execs by Deloitte highlights some of the major concerns over the next few years. Chief among them is losing control of the mobile industry and market space to platform developers – namely Apple and Google. As Galen Grumen points out for Infoworld, this scenario actually gives Apple more power than Google because Apple controls the entire iOS ecosystem, from operating system to hardware to app and media sales.
This situation has mobile carriers worried. Carriers in Europe have actually gone so far as to consider developing their own smartphone platform to compete with iOS and Android in the hopes of enough success to maintain bargaining power against the demands of Apple or Android manufacturers. But the big question is whether or not this is good for consumers and business customers.
A study by The NPD Group, a leading market research company, provided us with some interesting Q4 statistics. On the obvious side of things, the number of smartphones sold in Q4 were up, with Android and iPhone accounting for over 90% of those sales. While you probably didn’t need a study to tell you that iOS and Android lead the smartphone market, I bet you weren’t aware that Android was actually a favorite among first time buyers.
Haliburton’s decision to choose iOS as its new mobile platform was made after “significant research” indicated that iOS “offered the best capabilities, controls and security for application development,” according to a leaked memo published by AppleInsider. These capabilities, collectively known as mobile device management (MDM) features offer a solid framework that can be used to apply a number of security policies like complex passcode requirements and that a device’s data be encrypted. MDM features also include the ability to IT departments to restrict access to iOS features (say installing apps or taking photos) and to monitor devices remotely. Of course, they also include the ability to remotely wipe a device if it’s lost or stolen.
One excellent facet of MDM in iOS 4 and iOS 5 is the ability to monitor a device. There are a wide range of states that management software, including the Profile Manager service in Lion Server, can collect about managed devices. This includes seeing what apps have been installed, ensuring OS updates are rolled out, and being able to tell if a device has been jailbroken.
While all this may sound a bit like big brother, if you’re a major energy company with operations in dozens of countries, security can be a major issue. Of course, I could say the same thing about a medical practice needing to maintain privacy compliance.
Despite the fact that not only are current LTE chips too power-hungry and huge to fit into the iPhone without huge design and performance trade-offs, and the fact that the vast majority of the country has no 4G coverage, a lot of Apple’s Android competitors have been pointing their fingers and laughing at the iPhone over the last year for not embracing LTE.
Well, who’s laughing now? In response to profits that dropped 26% this quarter, HTC had admitted that making an early transition to LTE was a “big mistake.”
In what appears to be a watershed moment for Apple’s iOS, a leaked memo published at AppleInsider indicates the one of the world’s largest energy companies, Haliburton, will be transitioning to the iPhone as its exclusive smartphone of choice. That comes as a huge opportunity for Apple and iOS, and a huge blow to RIM.
According to the memo, the move will take place over the course of the next two years, but will be a complete transition from one platform to another with no plans to continues to support BlackBerry devices once the transition has been completed.
Microsoft has been pretty noncommittal when it comes to creating business tools for the iPhone and iPad. The company has dipped its toes in the iOS pool with consumer-oriented release of My Xbox Live and an iOS port of its Kinectimals virtual pet game. That’s in addition to an app that lets users access files stored in Microsoft’s cloud-based SkyDrive storage and a version of OneNote.
Although we still haven’t seen any firms signs of Office coming to the iPad beyond the handful of reports last fall, Microsoft is taking the iPad and iPhone seriously enough to include mobile apps for the devices for its Dynamics CRM 2012 suite as noted by ZDNet and 9 to 5 Mac.
Where To?, the popular discovery app for the iPhone, has received its latest update today, introducing support for another five navigation apps, and a number of handy new features including support for multiple images for each place listing, more reviews, and new categories.
Known for being overly protective of its “i” brand, Apple has taken aim at another iPhone case manufacturer whose name is dangerously close to that of Apple’s most popular products. The company in question is called “driPhone,” and it produces a waterproof case for the iPhone and other mobile devices. But that could be about to change if Apple has its way.
A rumored Apple television set has received just as much — if not more — attention than the company’s upcoming iPhone 5 in recent months, but the questions we’ve all been asking about its specifications have been answered… by Best Buy.
The retailer has been issuing surveys to its customers to obtain feedback on potential new products and services, but many were surprised to find details on a 42-inch “Apple HDTV,” which will apparently be available for $1,499.
Samsung’s bashing of iPhone users is becoming a regular occurrence. Its latest swipe came during yesterday’s Super Bowl, when it ran a commercial for its new, super-sized Galaxy Note smartphone, which sports a huge 5.3-inch display and includes a stylus.
Laaaaaaaaaaadies and Gentlemen, welcome to Friday Night Fights, a new series of weekly deathmatches between two no-mercy brawlers who will fight to the death — or at least agree to disagree — about which is better: Apple or Google, iOS or Android?
After this week’s topic, someone’s going to be spitting teeth. Our question: Is Siri Really A Revolutionary Feature? Android’s had voice actions and voice recognition for years, so what does Siri really bring to the table that’s new? Is it all just hype?
In one corner, we have the 900 pound gorilla, Cult of Mac; in the opposite corner, wearing the green trunks, we have the plucky upstart, Cult of Android!
Place your bets, gentlemen! This is going be a bloody one.
