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.

Next week sees the beginning of CES, and with it I’m hoping to see a deluge of new Lightning accessories. All of Apple’s star mobile devices have switched over to the new connector, but the accessories industry still hasn’t caught up.

I have a few adapters to make my old gadgets play nice with my new iDevices, and they work great. But the tiny new Lightning plug will not only shrink current accessories, but also make whole new classes of gear possible.

Automatica is a very clever take on in-car audio. It’s a USB stick which grabs new audio content whenever it is in range of a known Wi-Fi network, and it can be managed right from your iPhone via a custom web app.

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’s Newton platform was considered to be ahead of its time, even though Steve Jobs eventually axed the iPhone-like device when he made his return back to Apple. But even though the Newton was futuristic, it could have been even better if Apple had listened to Qualcomm’s advice.

During an interview with Charlie Rose, Qualcomm’s CEO Paul Jacobs said that he tried to convince Apple to put a radio chip in the Newton PDA during the 90s, but was shot down, so he struck up a deal with Palm instead.

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.

Just because you’re blind and can’t see what you’re taking pictures of does not mean you can’t use Instagram. Thanks to the Accessibility features in iOS, Tommy Edison is able to use an iPhone and take pictures through Instagram to give his followers a view of his world, even though he can’t see.

The process is mind blowing and seems incredibly tedious, but it’s awesome that even blind people can connect with people through Instagram. And you know what, Tommy’s photos aren’t all that bad compared to some of my friends’.

Source: Tommy Edison

Via: Kottke

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.

Microsoft has beaten Apple and Google to the acquisition of R2 Studios, a small home entertainment technology startup from the founder of Sling Media. R2 is famous for an Android app that allows users to control things like lighting and appliances throughout their homes, and its thought the company’s technology will help Microsoft push its Xbox console even further into home entertainment.

Even for a guy like Steve Jobs, you don’t just wake up one day knowing how to build a phone, let alone the iPhone. So when Jobs had questions about the nitty-gritty of mobile phone design back in 2006, he called up AT&T (then Cingular’s) COO, Ralph de la Vega, for help… but in typical Steve fashion, he became angry when Cingular told him his phone needed to have physical keys.

DockMinimal is – surprise! – a minimal dock. It’s only minimal in looks, though, as this thing not only holds your iPad at pretty much any angle you want, it also works with almost any tablet-like device you have.

Hell, there’s even a hidden stylus.

If you believe all the rumors you read about the next iPhone, then you’re probably expecting it to come in all kinds of sizes and a wide variety of colors. The latest claims that Apple is set to ditch the iPhone 5’s in-cell touch technology after just one year in favor of a new “touch-on-display” technology from Chimei Innolux. According to the report, the move will prevent the interference issues Apple has had with the iPhone 5’s display.

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.

When I was a kid, magnets promised everything and delivered nothing. Wile E. Coyote’s scheme to feed the Road Runner iron filings and trap him with a giant horseshoe magnet mightn’t have work exactly as planned, but the magnet did at least drag any and every metal object in the vicinity into Mr. Coyote’s cave.

These days, magnets are as strong as the cartoons always promised. And they make things like Mesh’s JustMount possible.

Parental Controls are built right in to OS X, and they’re a great way for parents to set time limits for their children. My daughter is quickly becoming a teenager, what with her wanting to be online playing games or emailing friends and such at all hours of the day and night. The answer for us was to set her older Macbook up with time limits, using Parental Controls to only allow her Mac to be used with her account during waking hours.

It’s not only for kids, though, as you can set up time limits on your own Mac to help you practice a little self control, or to help you get away from work or online games (looking at YOU, Guild Wars 2!) and spend more time with family. Here’s how to make that happen.

So you’re starting a new venture in 2013. Need a new logo for it? What about getting that web design dealt with so you can launch your first website? Perhaps it’s time to finally consider styling up your business cards?

Whatever your design needs may be, why limit yourself to one designer when you can tap into the talent of hundreds of talented artists? That’s what 99designs offers – and Cult of Mac Deals has an offer that lets you get $50 of high quality design services for only $25!

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.

If you’ve been playing Borderlands 2 since it came out for the Mac a while back, you’ll know how very wacky and inappropriately violent it is. If you’ve already blasted your way through the main storyline and side quests, though, you might be feeling a little bereft at the end of your time on Pandora.

No worries, then, as Aspyr’s got your back, with their port of the DLC, “Mr. Torgue’s Campaign of Carnage,” available now on both Steam and the Mac Game Store.

If you haven’t been playing Borderlands 2, what’s up with that? Get on it, Vault Hunter!

Cregle, the makers of the iPen, a Kickstarter-funded iPad stylus, have upped their game with plans for a second generation digital pen, called appropriately enough, the iPen 2. It’s also gotten a Kickstarter project, and it’s also going to have an iPad model. What’s different this time, though, is that the iPen 2 will have a Mac version of the digital pen, allowing you to write directly on your iMac or Apple Cinema Display.

The holidays were great for me, but they were probably even better for Apple. Fiscal Q1 is when Apple always has record-breaking sales numbers, and this year will probably be no different.

Apple has announced that they will release their first quarter earning report and call on Wednesday, January 23, 2012 at 2:00pm PT.

As a photographer, I love playing with new lights that can change the look and feel and my portraits. So when Adorama asked me if I’d like to review their new $99 Flashpoint Ring Light, I was intrigued.

Could such an inexpensive piece of lighting equipment perform as well as gear that costs hundreds more? I’ll answer that question in a moment, but before I do, let me tell you a little bit about what ring lights do.

CES 2013, the world’s biggest cornucopia of cutting-edge gadgetry, kicks off in Las Vegas in under a week, and as always, Cult of Mac’s team of writers will be at all the booths, announcements and parties that matter, getting you the scoop on what’s coming up in the world of tech.

There’s a lot for any Apple fan to get excited about in the run-up to CES, but this year, we think you want to pay a lot of attention to what’s coming out of Las Vegas in relation to home automation. Chances are, everything from your oven to your lights to your thermostat are going to be controlled by your iPhone in just a few years time… and even Apple wants in on the action.

As a person with a funkily spelled last name, at least for English speakers, I appreciate that Siri tries to say my name, but I never really assumed she could pronounce it correctly. If you’re having trouble with Siri’s pronunciation of any of your contact names, here’s an easy trick to get her to say it correctly.

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.