While Apple has been getting dominated by Android in terms of the sheer number of smartphones sold, iOS users have still managed to capture the lion’s share of worldwide mobile web share company, but it looks like the size of their pie is shrinking.
According to the latest survey from NetApplications, iOS’s worldwide mobile web share has dropped 11% since August of 2012. While iOS is still at the top with 54.9%, Android has risen from 20.9% in August 2012, to 28.1% in August 2013.
Using Facebook is usually one of the quickest ways to log in to apps and other services without creating an account, but there’s nothing more annoying on Facebook than giving an app access to your account only to have them post spam on your wall without permission.
Facebook announced today that it has finally come up with a solution by updating Facebook Login for mobile so that apps have to ask you separately for permission to post on your behalf.
The update should result in 31% faster load up times, too. And if you decide later that you really want to share all your progress from Kitchen Scramble, or any other apps, you can do that too.
Source: Facebook
Via: The Verge
Rockstar may not have a massive catalog of games on Android and iOS, but with the likes of Grand Theft Auto and Max Payne, there’s no denying that it has some of the best. And they’re currently on sale in the App Store and on Google Play for a limited time.
Flipboard is no longer a service that you can only enjoy on mobile devices. From today, more than 2 million magazines on every topic imaginable are available to read in your web browser. Each one boasts Flipboard’s signature look and feel, but they’re been optimized for the larger screen on your desktop.
Android’s share of the worldwide smartphone market may be sizably bigger than that of its rivals, but when it comes to mobile advertising, iOS remains king. According to the latest data from mobile ad firm Velti, Apple’s share grew from 59% to 64% between May 2012 and May 2013.
Opera 15, the first Opera browser powered by Google’s Chromium engine, is now available to download on your Mac. In addition to a “fresh new look,” it comes with a new Speed Dial page that provides one-click access to your favorite sites, plus a feature called Discover that offers a range of content you might be interested in.
Microsoft announced earlier this week that it is bringing the PC classic Age of Empires to Android and iOS, and that sparked speculation that the software giant may be into porting Xbox games over, too. But don’t get your hopes up, because Microsoft Game Studios boss Phil Spencer has confirmed that it’s not going to happen.
Spanish mobile operator Telefonica has partnered with Microsoft in a bid to boost Windows Phone 8 adoption. The two companies plan to launch an “enhanced marketing effort” that will fight back against “the current duopoly” of Android and iOS.
Google’s YouTube apps for Android and iOS have helped the company triple advertising sales on mobile in the past six months, the company has said. Mobile ads now contribute an estimated $350 million to YouTube’s revenue, with around a quarter of the site’s 1 billion users accessing videos on smartphones and tablets.
Rockstar Games has today updated Grand Theft Auto 3 for iOS to finally introduce support for the iPhone 5’s larger display. The update also adds the ability to play custom playlists in-game, and sync your game saves between other iOS devices via iCloud.
Later.fm is like Instapaper for music. And like Instapaper, it is beginning its life as a web-only app, although it works so well in Mobile Safari that you won’t care about the lack of an actual iOS app right now.
Seriously, have you gotten your tickets, yet? Star Trek: Into Darkness is coming this weekend, and it looks like the entire US is heading tot he theater to see it, en masse.
Fandango is having a good run of it, claiming that 71 percent of the pre-release ticket sales are coming through it’s very convenient service, with 32 percent of that traffic coming via mobile apps.
Further, they just told me that 15 percent of the mobile ticket sales through the Fandango app are coming from iPhone users, while 6 percent are coming from the Android mobile app.
EA has confirmed that it is developing a mobile version of its Frostbite game engine called Frostbite Go for Android and iOS. The engine will empower “EA game developers with Frostbite’s proven excellent workflows and features to bring true Frostbite experiences to all major mobile platforms,” EA says on its website.
Google I/O kicks off today, and one of the announcements you can look forward to is a new Google Maps service. Google accidentally teased major changes ahead of its official unveiling by opening up a new webpage that allowed users to request an invite to a new Maps service.
That page has now been pulled, but not before screenshots began making their way around the Internet.
The U.K.’s Office of Fair Trading is investigating children’s games that charge in-app purchases for additional content and virtual items. The watchdog will look at games on mobile and on the web, and it’s calling for parents to report titles that “aggressively push” in-app purchases to children.
Android may have a larger share of the smartphone market than iOS, but Apple’s Safari browser is still king of the mobile web. According to the latest market share data from Net Applications, Safari accounted for 61.79% of the mobile web traffic throughout March.
For some reason, ComScore just hasn’t gotten around to adding mobile users to its measurements on how much traffic websites get until today. Now that mobile traffic is being accounted for, Apple has quickly gone from the 11th most popular website in the world to 8th.
ComScore just released its latest rankings for websites and Apple benefited the most from the addition of mobile audience scoring by adding 54% more unique viewers to its score.
Gameloft’s Modern Combat 4: Zero Hour is, without doubt, the best first-person shooter available on mobile. It’s the latest edition to the company’s Modern Combat series, and it promises to “push the boundaries of mobile gaming even further” with stunning visuals, an awesome campaign, and a completely redesigned multiplayer mode.
If you haven’t already got it and you’re a fan of FPS titles, then you’re crazy. But now’s the best time to pick it up, because its price tag has just been slashed from $6.99 to $0.99 for a limited time.
Google pays Apple around $1 billion a year to be the default search engine on iOS, according to Morgan Stanley analyst Scott Devitt, and that figure is going to rise in the years ahead. That’s more than a lot of companies turn over in a year, and Apple banks it for doing literally nothing.
One of the better Yuletide traditions is the venerable holiday Advent Calendar, in which each day of December leading up to Christmas is marked off on a special calendar by opening its corresponding door to find a small gift, toy or chocolate squirreled away inside.
This year, we here at Cult of Mac decided we wanted to give our readers their very own Apple-themed advent calendar, filled with the year’s best apps, gadgets, stories and other curios. So each day in December, we’re going to lovingly peel back the door on the Cult of Mac 2012 Advent Calendar to reveal another delicious morsel, something really special that came out this year that we think every one of you should enjoy.
So what’s behind the door on Saturday the 15th? Arcane Legends for iOS, a free-to-play, massively multiplayer online game (MMO) that’s bound to please.
I’d say the single most annoying part of my mobile experience is when I accidentally click on a strategically placed ad. Most of the time, ads are placed in close proximity to where a user needs to touch in order to scroll or advance — not to mention there’s little screen real estate to begin with. Thankfully, and surprisingly, Google has been working on making accidental clicks a thing of the past.
In the battle of the mobile platform wars, Android has been extending its lead over Apple’s iOS platform at a steady rate for over a year. Google’s Chairman Eric Schmidt believes that the battle between Android and iOS is similar to Microsoft’s desktop expansion in the 1990s.
Schmidt say down with Bloomberg to talk about the mobile war with Apple and said that with 1.3 million new Android devices being activated per day, he thinks it’s pretty obvious that Android is winning now.
During a roundtable session at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London, world-renowned entrepreneur Elon Musk gave his opinions and impressions on a number of topics. Issues ranging from sustainable energy to planet colonization were bounced off the brain of Mr. Musk. As the man behind multiple $50 billion companies shared his insight, the billion dollar question was asked: “Who will come out on top: Apple, Microsoft, Google, or Facebook?”
Samsung has dealt Apple a nasty blow by increasing the price of its mobile processors — the ones built into every iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch — by 20%. According to a person familiar with negotiations between the two companies, Apple initially disapproved the price hike, but was forced to accept it with no replacement supplier available.
Echofon has announced that it will be “phasing out” its desktop applications for Mac, Windows, and Firefox this fall to focus on its mobile apps for iOS and other platforms. Desktop apps will continue to function normally in the “immediate future,” Echofon says, but it’s not planning any further updates for the popular Twitter client.