Gogo published the above infographic yesterday on the state of devices using its in-flight network that covers the air over much of North America.
Interestingly, Google’s Chromebooks currently offer free usage of Gogo’s in-flight wireless service yet tablets out number laptops (and by tablets we’re talking iPads). While Apple still owns 84 percent of the device market, Android is gaining some ground after climbing from a 3.2-percent low in 2011 to a 16-percent share in 2013.
Blackberry and Windows Phone? Combined, they don’t make up .02-percent of the share.
Solavei, the T-Mobile MVNO offering $49-per-month unlimited on the carrier’s newly enhanced HSPA+ network, today announced the availability of nano SIM cards for unlocked iPhone 5 owners. That means iPhone 5 customers will now be able to sign up to the unlimited voice, text, and data plans by purchasing a nano SIM direct from Solavei for $9.
Solavei®, an affordable contract-free mobile service provider, today announces the availability of nano SIM cards, compatible with the iPhone 5, and widening the company’s phone compatibility to include all major smartphones. For $49 per month, members can now bring popular phones such as Apple’s iPhone 5, Samsung’s Galaxy SIII or Google’s Nexus 4 to Solavei and enjoy unlimited voice, text and data mobile service.
For those unfamiliar, on top of unlimited $49 per month plans, Solavei offers users the ability to offset their bills by earning monthly income from recommending others to the service. For every three users you sign up, the carrier will put $20 toward your monthly bill. Signing up an additional six will pay your entire bill and earn you a bit of extra money. Solavei said it uses the system in lieu of traditional advertising and noted it has paid out over $6.5 million through the program: Expand Expanding Close
AAPL stock has been in the news a lot lately, whether it comes to Warren Buffett’s opinion on buy-backs, the issue of preferred stock, or even its teetering market cap, but a closer look at the company’s NASDAQ fluctuation over the last year oddly shows a parallel to GOOG.
The graph above illustrates both Apple and Google’s highs and lows since September 2012, and, for the most part, they clearly mirror each other. The companies notably entered the zero-sum game in December 2012 and have continued this trend to present day.
The graph above is a more micro look at 2013, and it shows, again, that Google goes up every time Apple goes down.
Temple Run: Oz: Developers of the Temple Run franchise have once again teamed up with Disney to release a game built on the Temple Run 2 engine but set in the world of an upcoming Disney film. This time Imangi Studios brings the Temple Run gameplay experience to the world of Oz in support of the upcoming Oz the Great and Powerful film. The game is available for 99 cents now and features new gameplay elements you haven’t seen in past Temple Run titles.
NEW FEATURES
• Stunning environments inspired by the film – explore them all.
• Fly in a hot air balloon – earn even more coins.
• Explore different locations in Oz – follow sign posts!
• The environment changes as you run – test your reflexes.
• Compete in weekly challenges – beat your friends!
Google Maps version 1.1: Google Maps for iOS gets the ability to search Google Contacts, quickly access search for local places, and select between Kilometers or Miles. Google announced the new features in a blog post and also noted that it is rolling out the English version of the app to seven new countries including: Bahrain, Egypt, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and UAE.
Your Google Contacts are now integrated into Google Maps for iPhone – meaning that when you’re signed-in and search for a friend’s name, their address will appear as a suggestion (if you have their address saved). Simply tap their name to see the address, which will visible only to you, on the map. To learn an easy way to keep your Google Contacts synced with your iPhone, click here.
* Search your Google Contacts; sign in to have your saved addresses show up when you search for friends and family by name.
* Quickly search for local places by selecting popular categories such as restaurants, bars, cafes, gas stations, etc.
* Choose between Kilometers or Miles for your preferred distance units.
* Note that some features may not be available in all countries.
RunKeeper version 3.1:Many new features for the popular RunKeeper iOS app today including a Night Mode, In-Activity Settings, and weight logging and visualization tools: Expand Expanding Close
We heard reports that yesterday’s Chrome browser update is crashing on Jailbroken iPhones. It appears there was some code that detected jailbreaks in the browser and assumed that crash-reporting was enabled. The fix is unsurprisingly enabling crash reporting.
We have found a bug that affects jailbroken devices with crash reporting and metrics *disabled*. The fix will be in our next release (we can’t say when that will be, please don’t ask).
One workaround is to enable crash reporting. Open “Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Local State” and change the “reporting_enabled” flag to “true”. That will enable reporting without needing to reinstall the app. Mind you, we haven’t tested this ourselves. :-) If you do not wish to do this, or are not comfortable doing this, you’ll need to wait for the next release. The other workaround is to uninstall and re-install and enable crash reporting, but you might lose data if you don’t use sync.
For those who are hitting crashes with 3rd-party add-ons, this workaround is not sufficient and you will need to contact the 3rd-party developer directly and have them update their add-on to work with Chrome M25.
@googlechrome Your jailbreak detection code has a scheduling issue. Bet it's fun explaining to Apple why you need a fast update.
The parties are ordered to get together between themselves for “royalty” mediation settlement for future use of the technologies in dispute or the judge has stated that he will make a ruling if not reached within 45 days.
Patent troll, East Texas kangaroo court, lawyers making a lot of money over ideas that seem obvious (transparent VPN and DNS). AAPL is down slightly in pre-trading this morning.
We heard reports in October that the U.S. Department of Defense was preparing to approve a large number of iOS and Android devices for use on government networks. Those reports were followed earlier this month with news that CACI International Inc. was modifying thousands of iPads for use in U.S. government agencies. The Pentagon confirmed in a statement today that it plans to open its networks to 100,000 new devices from Apple and Google by February of next year:
The Pentagon said it wants employees to have the flexibility to use commercial products on classified and unclassified networks. It plans to create a military mobile applications store and hire a contractor to build a system that may eventually handle as many as 8 million devices.
The move comes as iPad and other iOS devices continue to be adopted by government agencies over BlackBerry. Documents from October revealed the U.S. Department of Defense planned to deploy up to 8 millions devices partially made up of iOS devices, while a number of other U.S. agencies also switched from BlackBerry to iPhones over the last year. As for the App Store and system for managing the up to 8 million devices, the DOD will select one or more companies by summer to develop the necessary software: Expand Expanding Close
Apple’s stock share price has risen today, after being down this morning, due to a rumor of an imminent stock split announcement. SeekingAlpha points to a tweet from The Street’s Doug Kass that seems to be the original source of the rumor. Apple’s next shareholder meeting will be held tomorrow, and this is where the announcement is rumored to take place.
We’d caution that this is just a rumor (if reliable, why didn’t he post it on the Street.com?)at this point and Kass’s past hits include things such as:
“I am also hearing that Google CEO Eric Schmidt has already begun low-level discussions with several Apple board members regarding his role as a possible temporary replacement to Steve Jobs should the options-backdating issues intensify at legal levels.”
Also Kass has a big personal interest in AAPL’s share price: Expand Expanding Close
Runtastic version 2.10.1: Personal fitness tracking app Runtastic gets a nice update today that brings more Sport types, improved Facebook integration, and number of other bug fixes and performance enhancements.
DataMan Pro version 6.3: After some trouble getting by Apple review guidelines with its last update, DataMan Pro is back on the App Store today and is 50% off for a limited time to celebrate. The app has also been completely redesigned:
The resurrected DataMan Pro has been completely reinvented to feature a stunning new interface, an intelligent real-time data usage forecast, and most advanced app tracking… The powerful App Watch technology that users love is also back. You can see the usage statistics for all apps. This amazing capability empowers you to root out data-hungry apps… The new DataMan Pro includes Smart Forecast and the beautiful interface that were recently introduced in DataMan Next. Combined with precise real-time tracking, you can say goodbye to overage.
Orbitz Flights, Hotels, Cars 3.0:Yesterday Orbitz launched its first “fully native, in-app search and book experience” for the iPad with an update to its Orbitz Flights, Hotels, Cars app that brings support for the larger screen and new iPad-specific features:
Our award-winning app (App Store Editors’ Choice & Hall of Fame inductee) is now also optimized for iPad and iPad mini! iPad users enjoy *all* the same app features as iPhone users, plus iPad-exclusives like a dual list/map view of hotels and the ability to compare details of multiple flights, rental cars, or hotels from a single screen.
Adobe Muse:Adobe announced today that it is updating Adobe Muse with some highly requested new features: Expand Expanding Close
Facebook announced on its Developers blog today that it is releasing version 3.2 of its SDK for iOS. The updated SDK makes it even easier for iOS app developers implementing Facebook features, with improvements to APIs and better tools for tracking usage and optimizing ads. Version 3.2 includes improved analytics and new metrics such as the ability to track “iOS 6 native share sheet and built-in native UI controls usage.” Facebook also noted that it is including a beta for select partners showing off upcoming support for “logging in-app purchase events.”
Better mobile analytics – We’ve added support for measuring additional usage metrics and optimizing ads to help improve an app’s quality and monetization potential
Enhanced error handling – SDK support and documentation now enabled for all classes of error responses
API improvements – A new FBAccessTokenData type makes it easier to open a session from token data explicitly, and to better handle app and deep linking
Facebook also said the updated SDK included enhanced error handling, improved web dialog support, and a several API improvements and bug fixes. Improvements to Facebook’s SDK are important, as the company’s noted over 45 percent of the top 400 grossing iOS apps are now integrated with the social network.
The rumors were true: Google just announced the Chromebook Pixel. It’s a 12.85-inch touchscreen Chromebook with a 2,560-by-1,700 display that packs in “the highest pixel density (239 pixels per inch) of any laptop screen on the market today.”
Let’s start with the screen. This Chromebook has the highest pixel density (239 pixels per inch) of any laptop screen on the market today. Packed with 4.3 million pixels, the display offers sharp text, vivid colors and extra-wide viewing angles. With a screen this rich and engaging, you want to reach out and touch it—so we added touch for a more immersive experience. Touch makes it simple and intuitive to do things like organize tabs, swipe through apps and edit photos with the tip of your finger.
As for the chances of Apple ever making a touchscreen notebook, Steve Jobs made it very clear at the 2010 MacBook Air refresh event that Apple did “tons of user testing” and concluded “it doesn’t work. It’s ergonomically terrible.”
We’ve done tons of user testing on this and it turns out it doesn’t work. Touch surfaces don’t want to be vertical. It gives great demo. But after a short period of time you start to fatigue, and after an extended period of time your arm wants to fall off. It doesn’t work. It’s ergonomically terrible. Touch surfaces want to be horizontal. Hence, pads.
Google is launching retail stores by the end of the year to sell its own products, we’re reporting over at 9to5Google. Will Google try to squeeze into the local Mall between the new Microsoft store and the existing Apple store? Will it be able to supplant some of Apple’s MacBook sales with its $249 Chromebooks? iPhones with Nexuses? Find out more. Expand Expanding Close
We told you about an iOS 6.1 lock screen bug earlier today that—although not extremely easy to accomplish—allows users to bypass the device’s passcode and view at least the phone application. Apple has confirmed now that it is working on a fix, and the company noted in a comment to AllThingsD that it “takes user security very seriously.”
Reached for comment, Apple said it is hard at work on a fix. “Apple takes user security very seriously” spokeswoman Trudy Muller told AllThingsD. “We are aware of this issue, and will deliver a fix in a future software update.”
Following a report from Strategy Analytics earlier this month that had Apple as the No.1 mobile phone vendor in the United States for the first time, research firm comScore is out today with its stats for the three-month period ending in December 2012. ComScore looked at the top smartphone subscribers by OEM and the top smartphone platforms, which doesn’t include mobile phones other than smartphones like Strategy Analytics’ report.
According to the report, Apple was able to increase its share from 34.4-percent in the September quarter to 36.3-percent last quarter. Samsung also increased its share—although was significantly behind Apple but still up from 18.7-percent in the quarter before—to 21 percent of the market. HTC, Motorola, and LG rounded out the last three spots in the category with 10.2-percent, 9.1-percent, and 7.1-percent of the U.S. market in December. While Apple was able to grab the top smartphone vendor position, Android maintained its lead over iOS as the top smartphone platform during the quarter.
Google captured 53.4-percent of smartphone subscribers with Android in Q4, up from 52.5-percent in September. In comparison, Apple came in at 36.3-percent and posted a slightly larger increase than Android with two points from 34.3-percent the quarter before. Growth for iOS and Android, like in previous months, comes at the expense of declines for BlackBerry and Microsoft.
Canalys also released a report today that tracked worldwide PC shipments in the fourth quarter—a category that also includes iPads. According to the report, Apple continued its lead in the PC market by hitting over 20 percent for the first time with over 27 million units shipped. Macs accounted for 4 million of those units, while the report estimated iPad mini made up about half of the remaining 23 million iPads:
If you have not jailbroken an iOS device in a while, you might wonder what all the excitement is surrounding today’s launch of the evasi0n jailbreak tool for iOS 6. (Note: Some people are having issues with the default Apple Weather app after install.)
Over the years, many features that were once jailbreak-only made their way to iOS or via third parties through the App Store. However, there are still many things you can do with jailbreak tweaks that aren’t possible on non-jailbroken devices. With over 270,000 active users at any one time on evasi0n today, we put together a list of some of the most interesting and useful tweaks that caught our attention in recent months: Expand Expanding Close
The Federal Trade Commission released a report today that recommends how owners of mobile platforms can better inform consumers about how their data is being handled. The FTC named a number of companies in its report, including: Amazon, Apple, BlackBerry, Google, and Microsoft, as well as “application (app) developers, advertising networks and analytics companies, and app developer trade associations.”
The recommendations follow the FTC updating its online child privacy law to require parental consent before collecting data from children under the age of 13. It also came as Path agreed to pay an $800,000 settlement to the FTC forviolations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protections Act. Path posted a response to the FTC settlement on its website.
In the report, titled “Mobile Privacy Disclosures, Building Trust Through Transparency,” the FTC issued a number of recommendations. The FTC recommended that all platform owners “Provide just-in-time disclosures to consumers and obtain their affirmative express consent before allowing apps to access sensitive content like geolocation.” It recommended app developers take the same measures in addition to having “a privacy policy and make sure it is easily accessible through the app stores.” The report also suggested that companies implement a ” a one-stop “dashboard” into their operating systems so consumers can easily view how their data is being handled by specific apps.
Other recommendations the FTC asked Apple and others to implement include new icons that “depict the transmission of user data” and a “Do Not Track” option for users to easily opt out of their data being sent to third parties.
“FTC staff strongly encourages companies in the mobile ecosystem to work expeditiously to implement the recommendations in this report. Doing so likely will result in enhancing the consumer trust that is so vital to companies operating in the mobile environment. Moving forward, as the mobile landscape evolves, the FTC will continue to closely monitor developments in this space and consider additional ways it can help businesses effectively provide privacy information to consumers,” the report states.
A full list of the recommendations made by the FTC for mobile platform owners, advertising agencies, and app developers is below: Expand Expanding Close
Google agreed to pay a record $22.5 million Federal Trade Commission fine in August following an investigation into whether it bypassed mobile Safari security settings to install tracking cookies without user consent. Now, 12 iPhone users in the United Kingdom have launched a lawsuit against Google that seeks compensation related to the tracking. They also want a “proper explanation” about how their personal information was used. The Telegraph via Business Insider has the full story:
It is thought the case, being brought against Google by law firm Olswang on behalf of the internet users, is the first of its kind in the UK. They say that cookies, small tracking files, were installed by Google on the Apple computers and mobile devices of those using the Safari internet browser without their knowledge .
Claimants thought that cookies would be blocked because of assurances given by Google in the time their devices were allegedly affected, from summer 2011 to spring 2012, and also because of Safari’s default settings.
“We hope that they will take this opportunity to give Safari users a proper explanation about what happened, to apologize and, where appropriate, compensate the victims of their intrusion.”
YouTube Capture version 1.1: Google has updated its newly released YouTube Capture app with some welcomed features including 1080p video uploads:
· 1080p uploads!
· Improved audio sync
· More detailed upload feedback
· Share to networks after uploading
· Bug fixes & stability improvements
Vine — Make a scene version 1.0.2: Just released yesterday, the app for sharing short video clips (and recently acquired by Twitter) today updated with improvements to profiles and more reliable Twitter integration:
* Logging in through Twitter is more reliable
* You can now update your profile photo from your Camera Roll
* Character limit for usernames and bio field
* International keyboards have better support
* Various bugs that caused crashes have been fixed
Google Currents version 2.0: Google is updating another one of its apps today, its magazine style news reader for tablets and smartphones now sports a new catalog design. The update also includes an Edition sidebar for quick access to categories, a new fast scan feature (Vertical swipe to scan an edition, horizontal swipe advances to next edition), and a new breaking stories section ranked by Google News. You can also now star to save stories for future reading: Expand Expanding Close
The iPhone may have recently captured a record 53 percent of the U.S. smartphone market. However, when it comes to its steady second place position in the U.S. handset market (smartphones and feature phones combined), a new report claimed LG bumped Apple to third position during December on strong sales of its Optimus G.
Yonhap News covered the report from Hong Kong-based Counterpoint Research, which said on Sunday that LG captured 13 percent of the U.S. market last month, bumping Apple to third place for the first time since the launch of the iPhone 4S. Apple recorded 12 percent of the market, which puts both Apple and LG well behind leader Samsung at 33 percent. LG recently announced sales of 1 million units for the Optimus G worldwide, but it’s unclear if the LG-made Nexus 4 from Google was a significant contributor to the company’s rise during December.
LG Electronics had maintained the runner-up position until the third-quarter of 2011 but fell to third place after Apple’s iPhone 4S hit the market… Market insiders attributed LG Electronics’ sales growth to the popularity of its latest Optimus G handset, with over 1 million units sold across North America.
Apple CEO Tim Cook has been ordered by U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose to give a deposition related to an ongoing private lawsuit that claims Apple, Google, and others entered “no-poach” agreements, as reported by Bloomberg. Cook isn’t the only executive named in yesterday’s order. Google Chairman Eric Schmidt will also be deposed on Feb. 20, as well as Intel Chief Executive Officer Paul Otellini later this month.
Koh told lawyers yesterday that Apple founder Steve Jobs was copied on e-mails at issue in the case, and that she found it “hard to believe” that Cook, as Apple’s chief operating officer at the time in question, wouldn’t have been consulted about such agreements.
The judge said she was disappointed that senior executives at the companies involved hadn’t been deposed before yesterday’s hearing over whether she should certify the case as a group lawsuit. The class would include different categories of employees whose incomes, their lawyers argue, were artificially reduced because of the collusion. Koh didn’t rule on class certification. Expand Expanding Close
Apple hinted in November at its plans to add more features to Siri in the near future with a job listing that sought individuals to translate Siri into a handful of new languages. Today, we came across another interesting job listing posted by Apple. This one looks for a creative writer skilled in character-driven dialog to “help the Siri team evolve Siri as a distinct, recognizable character.” Not only will the person help “refresh and refine” existing Siri content, Apple is also looking for someone to “develop and write original dialog to support new Siri capabilities.”
Apple clearly thinks Siri’s personality and lifelike AI is just as important as her functionality, noting in the job ad that “Siri’s known for ‘her’ wit, cultural knowledge, and zeal to explain things in engaging, funny, and practical ways.” It looks like Siri’s witty responses will be something that Apple continues to focus on to differentiate Siri from the competition.
We’re looking for a uniquely creative individual to help us evolve and enrich Siri, our virtual personal assistant. Siri’s known for ‘her’ wit, cultural knowledge, and zeal to explain things in engaging, funny, and practical ways. The ideal candidate is someone who combines a love for language, wordplay, and conversation with demonstrated experience in bringing creative content to life within an intense technical environment.
According to the latest numbers from comScore MobiLens for the United States mobile phone market, Apple and Samsung both continue to gain marketshare as the leading OEMs as Android and iOS move closer toward a duopoly with a combined almost 90 percent of the market. ComScore’s latest numbers track the three-month period ending in November, which saw Apple jump from 17.1-percent in August to 18.5-percent of the U.S. mobile phone market. Samsung continued its lead jumping up 1.2-percent to 26.9-percent, while gains for both companies come at the expense of decreases in market share for LG, Motorola, and HTC.
As for the U.S. market by platform, iOS and Android both experience slight gains over August numbers. With a joint 88.7-percent of the market for Apple and Google, RIM is the closest competitor dropping from 8.3-percent of the market in August to just 7.3-percent in November. Microsoft dropped from 3.6-percent to 3 percent:
In November, 75.9 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers used text messaging on their mobile device (up 0.3 percentage points). Downloaded applications were used by 54.2 percent of subscribers (up 0.8 percentage points), while browsers were used by 52.1 percent (up 0.1 percentage points). Accessing of social networking sites or blogs increased 0.9 percentage points to 39.2 percent of mobile subscribers. Game-playing was done by 33.7 percent of the mobile audience, while 28.7 percent listened to music on their phones (up 0.4 percentage points).
Update #2, Jan. 03: TechCrunch’s MG Siegler just posted a report claiming the rumor of Apple acquiring Waze for up to $750m was little more than a rumor. While citing “multiple sources close to the situation,” Siegler claimed “There is no deal is happening. At least not now or anytime soon.” A little birdie told Cnet the same thing.
That’s huge news for a few reasons: Apple rarely makes startup acquisitions — Waze is a hot startup with good buzz — the Apple Maps fiasco — the list goes on. But there’s just one little problem: the deal isn’t actually happening.
That information comes from multiple sources close to the situation. And while Mike Butcher also claimed multiple sources in his original post, you’ll note that he was quick to qualify the information as a “rumor”
Update: Butcher later updated the post to add that another source confirmed Apple is in advanced negotiations with Waze to purchase the company for a figure ranging from $400M to $750M:
Another source confirms that negotiations are advanced, but Waze wants $750M and Apple is willing to do $400M plus $100m in incentives. Waze had less than $1M in revenues last year (primarily from ads). Negotiations may take awhile.
Following rumors that Apple may partner with Foursquare to better its mapping experience, Mike Butcher of TechCrunch offers a great case as to why Apple may purchase social sat-nav smartphone app Waze. For those unfamiliar, Waze is a popular mapping solution in the United Kingdom, Asia, and Middle East (areas where Apple is having trouble with its in-house Maps). Here’s how Apple could benefit:
Because Waze maps are built on the location of moving cars, it’s far more accurate than check-in apps. Outside of Google’s project to map cities with Streetview cars – something which has taken years to complete – and the real-world mapping undertaken by volunteers on the Open Streetmaps open source project, there has been little to match Waze’s approach.
It would also cost Apple northwards of $500M+ to buy Foursquare (which has raised $71 million is known to be raising another round), and gain, what? The location of restaurants, bars and airports? Given Waze has raised $67 million, Apple could acquire far better mapping data and a real driving app.
Adding to an earlier report, the Wall Street Journal today says that chip giant Intel’s TV initiative isn’t nearly ready for primetime. Intel, which has little background in developing consumer-friendly experiences, seems like a long shot at cracking the digital TV nut.
The Intel Plan:
Intel has pitched media companies on a plan to create a “virtual cable operator,” which would offer U.S. TV channels nationwide over the Internet in a bundle similar to subscriptions sold by cable- and satellite-TV operators, people familiar with the effort said previously. The company, besides expertise in chips for set-top boxes, has expertise in server technology that could help serve up video programming and other content.
Interesting idea…but not so fast, says the cable operators!
Persuading companies to license individual channels would require far higher fees than the companies currently receive, this executive said, noting that his company and Intel were far from reaching an agreement on financial terms.
But Intel has so far reached at least one content deal, one of the people familiar with Intel’s plans said, without identifying the partner.
One content provider does not a cable TV replacement make. And this is the problem not just for Google and Intel but also for Apple. How do you convince the cable companies to let you have content in a more consumer-friendly format that will make them less money and take their power position away?
Steve Jobs may have been able to convince the music industry to do so, but it is pretty clear Eddy Cue is having a hard time cracking the TV biz (Jobs’ bio notwithstanding).
