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Edoardo Maggio

Italian. Geek, video games, photography and music lover, comics-based movies enthusiast, and a sucker for good design. Amateur photographer (VSCO, 500px), tech writer and reporter.

Opinion: From the enthusiast to the general consumer, Apple’s recipe for success has become boring

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[First of all, I would like to say that this is but my very own take, which is not necessarily shared by my colleagues here at 9to5Mac and therefore not an editorial, staff-wise opinion piece. It represents my view and my view only, so try to keep that in mind.]

Up until not too long ago, I used to ask myself a simple question: if I were to pick one company — and one company alone — to rely on for all of my “tech needs”, which one would I choose? The answer would come rather swiftly: Apple.

As a critic (by nature more than profession) I have always seen the vast majority of products skeptically, but that didn’t take from the fact that the Cupertino giant made what I considered to be the best smartphone, the best tablet, the best computers and even two of the most valid operating systems around, accounting for a sweet, unified and well-connected package that would make me feel like I didn’t have to look outside of it. It was Apple’s dream of ecosystem lock-in, essentially.

However, as my view of this universe has got more and more panoramic — especially in the last year of collaboration with the sister site 9to5Google, which has helped me a lot to gain even more direct experience with Apple’s competition — I started to have a feeling that this bubble was somewhat bursting.

And this feeling is something I simply haven’t been able to shake, and one that has brought me, like apparently many others, to think that the well-oiled profit machine Apple Inc. may have lost some of its touch, for what concerns the present and, more importantly, the future…


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Apple bolstering Siri intelligence by hiring expert to lead AI research team

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One of the areas where Apple has seemingly fallen behind its competition — or, more likely, not yet ready to disclose its technology’s full potential — is artificial intelligence. However, there’s no denying that the company is pushing hard towards bettering its existing products (like Siri) behind closed doors, and the latest AI hire is but another proof of such commitment…


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Huawei’s plan is to take on Samsung and Apple to become the “world’s biggest smartphone maker”

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Huawei has told a Hong Kong conference that it is aiming to overtake both Apple and Samsung to become the world’s biggest smartphone maker within five years, reports the WSJ. Huawei director Richard Yu made the statement at the Wall Street Journal and f.ounders-held Converge technology conference.

“We want to be the number-one smartphone maker in the world. It’s a long distance race, and we have the patience,” said Yu.


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Apple loses market leadership to Samsung as number one smartphone OEM in the US

In the middle of seemingly stalling profits and a general slowdown of the smartphone industry — like Apple‘s notable first quarter of YoY growth drop in yearsSamsung seems to be enjoying a moment of sunshine bathing.

Eleven months after losing the leadership to the Cupertino giant, the Korean manufacturer has climbed once again to the top of the US vendors’ list, as per a Counterpoint Research report (via Business Korea)…


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iOS App Store brings in 2x more revenue than Play Store despite seeing half the downloads

For both Google and Apple, the operations on their virtual stores are hugely important, as they account for millions of dollars. However, there has historically been a disparity between the number of downloaded applications and the actual money generated by them, a trend that seems to have peaked in the first quarter of this year.

According to App Annie‘s Index Market for Q1 of 2016, in fact, Google’s Play Store saw a number of downloads that roughly doubles that of the iOS App Store, which in turns represents the platform with the highest profitability, with over 90% more revenue generated over its counterpart…


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Microsoft introduces Evernote, Facebook and Wunderlist integration in Outlook with calendar apps

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If there is one thing we learned from CEO Satya Nadella’s corporate restructuring of Microsoft over the last couple of years, it’s that he wants its services to be everywhere. And that doesn’t just mean apps like those in Office 365‘s suite keeping your productivity up even on non-Windows systems, but something that aims at a much deeper integration.

With today’s update rolling out for iOS and Android, the Outlook app is adding what the company calls “Calendar Apps”. While you could already see your calendar from within the dedicated tab inside the app, the new addition — which likely comes from the Sunrise acquisition — will allow services like EvernoteFacebook and Wunderlist to integrate as well…


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Facebook Live update brings ability to go live in Groups, interactive features, more

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It was perhaps unimaginable just a few years ago, but live streaming has become particularly popular thanks to apps like Meerkat and, most notoriously, Twitter-acquired Periscope. Not to be left out, Facebook joined the race last summer — albeit initially only for public figures via the dedicated Mentions app — and then pushed beyond earlier this year with the open introduction of “Facebook Live” in the US, a feature within the mobile app that allows anyone to live stream to their friends.

The experiment seems to be working well, and with the app update — which begins its rollout today — Facebook is adding a variety of features to enhance the Facebook Live experience; according to the company, adding a dedicated tab for finding live as well as archived video will “give you more ways to discover, share, and interact with live video, and more ways to personalize your live broadcasts”…


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Nest’s GPS-enabled Home/Away Assist feature makes your smarthome devices much smarter

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Alphabet-owned Nest is best known for its smart thermostat, but the company works on a number of devices which, albeit being generally good at their given task, do not communicate with each other particularly well. And that’s mostly due to the fact that said devices have always had a hard time detecting whether you are actually at home or not.

With the upcoming implementation of GPS support via the Nest app, however, it looks like your house is about to become decidedly more efficient – and smart…


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