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.
Apple has issued a reminder to developers warning them to not manipulate App Store rankings. Following Apple’s removal of a third-party developer’s collection of 68 copy-cat apps (titles like Temple Jump and Numbers With Friends) from the App Store, the issue of chart scamming has been brought into the light again.
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.
Those handy weather widgets commonly found on Android-powered devices aren’t available to iOS users, thanks to Apple’s tight control over third-party software. But you can find some weather apps in the App Store that will display the current temperature on your home screen using the “app badges” feature built into iOS.
My favorite is called Fahrenheit. Here’s how to get it set up and get the temperature displayed on your home screen.
Revealing some clues about the new hardware of the iPad 3 and iPhone 5, last week the US Patent & Trademark Office published an interesting trademark application from Apple for the word “Macroscalar” which many believe refers to Apple’s next generation A6 system-on-a-chip. Allowing a trademark to be revealed before its use is a move we’re not use to seeing from Apple. What the heck does a “Macroscalar” Processor do and how is it going to make your iPad 3 super insanely amazing?
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.
Google is working on a “secret project” that must need some product integrity as they’ve hired Apple senior director of product integrity Simon Prakash. Simon has worked for Apple for over eight years and is responsible for helping Apple remain top among product quality. This seems to be the first time Google has hired such a senior-level person directly from Apple, and this would certainly put the kibosh on any agreement Eric Schmidt and Steve Jobs may have had regarding poaching employees.
As you may have noticed, Cult of Mac brought in a new week with a brand spanking new redesign. Besides updating our old color scheme to be more subtly evocative of OS X Lion’s design instead of Snow Leopard’s, the guiding principle behind the new Cult of Mac design is to make it easier for our readers to know what’s new, what’s hot, what’s being talked about and what’s going on. Here’s everything you need to know about what’s new.
Crash analytics firm Crittercism released a new study this week, claiming that iOS applications crash more often than Android applications. After monitoring over 215 million apps across a wide range of different platforms, the report concluded that iOS 5.0.1 had the highest rate of application crashes. iOS in general also had more app crashes than its top competitor Android. These are interesting numbers that contradict the long held belief that iOS and the apps that run on it, are more stable than that of Android’s. So why such a large number of crashes on iOS?
Jailbreak developer Filippo Bigarella has brought his incredible jailbreak app, Springtomize 2, to the iPad. iPhone jailbreakers have already been using Springtomize 2 on iOS 5, and now iPad owners can get in on the action.
In case you didn’t know, Springtomize 2 offers incredibly thorough customization of iOS. You can change animations, add more apps to your dock and Home screen, customize your lockscreen, resize icons, tweak Notification Center, and more. If you want to tinker with the look and feel of your jailbroken iPad, look no further than Springtomize 2.
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.
If you’re still boasting a grandfathered-in unlimited iPhone data plan, AT&T’s just effectively said they’re going to stop honoring it. If you use more than 2GB of data per month, AT&T will now throttle your data speeds down to completely unusable levels.
Speak to most IT people about supporting Macs and you’ll hear the conventional wisdom that Apple doesn’t care about selling to large businesses or supporting enterprise customers. It’s an argument that has been made for years and it isn’t without some truth. But, like the conventional wisdom about Apple products always being more expensive than their competition, it’s starting to get a little stale.
MacWindows reiterated the story this morning while covering Forrester’s prediction that enterprise customers will spend $47 billion dollars on Macs and iOS devices within the next two years.
I’ll be one of the first to admit that Apple rarely behaves like other enterprise hardware vendors. The idea of offering up an 18 month or longer product roadmap, for example, runs completely counter to Apple’s DNA. But that doesn’t mean that Apple completely ignores its business and enterprise customers to the extent that is often portrayed.
Siri is still popular among many iPhone 4S owners, but not everyone uses it to its full potential.
When you ask most iPhone 4 owners why they didn’t get Siri in a software update for their devices when the almost-identical iPhone 4S came out, the common answer is extremely cynical: Siri is the arbitrary, software-only feature that Apple decided to limit to the iPhone 4S simply to differentiate it from the iPhone 4 in marketing,
The truth? Apple may not be as cynical as all that. In fact, according to a new report from a chips analyst, it all comes down to special noise-reduction circuitry unique to the iPhone 4S’s A5 chip.
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.
We’ve seen a number of Siri parodies since the feature made its debut on the iPhone 4S late last year, but this one is most certainly the best one yet. It’s called “Psycho Siri” from AndrewMFilms, and features some terrific special effects. There’s also a great storyline that will leave you terrified of your new iPhone 4S.
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.
As of this point, the current version of iWork for Mac has absolutely no iCloud functionality, while the iOS version fully supports it. This tends to be frustrating when moving files around, as it makes what should be a straightforward process into a disaster. In this video, I’ll show you how you can upload your documents directly to iCloud, to make file sharing much easier.
Apple’s recent quarterly earnings demonstrated insane success. As a result, failing companies like Sony and JC Penney have suddenly reorganized their missions to copy Apple.
Unfortunately, they will fail, because they don’t understand why Apple succeeds.
Avid has been making professional video editing software for decades, and with the introduction of the “pro-sumer” Final Cut Pro X, many industry leaders have turned back to Avid for their editing needs.
Interestingly, Avid has launched an official app called Avid Studio for the iPad. With more features than the iMovie iPad app, Avid Studio is the first semi-professional editing tool to hit Apple’s tablet.
