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1,026 'Google' stories August 2010 - October 2012

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Zagg ‘iPad Mini Screen Protector’ will run you $24.99 + a little faith

9to5 Staff Oct 7 2012 - 6:12 pm PT

Zagg, a well-respected iOS device case and accessories maker, unveiled its “iPad Mini Screen Protectors” this weekend. We have seen no shortage of iPad mini cases from third-party manufacturers; however, with the possible exception of these cases from Devicewear, no established/reputable Apple accessories maker has announced iPad mini products

Apple is expected to announce the iPad mini at an event later this month with the actual launch of products expected to come shortly after, perhaps in the November timeframe.

Zagg does not offer any iPad mini mockups, but it does offer this:

The iPad Mini is another amazing Apple product, and ZAGG is here to help you protect that product. The iPad Mini screen protectors by ZAGG will keep your Mini new and clean.

Two website screenshots are below (Thanks, Alex&Ross!).

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Google Maps web Street View goes live on iOS devices

Seth Weintraub Oct 4 2012 - 5:17 am PT

.

As predicted yesterday, Google’s Street View is now available on Mobile Safari and Chrome on iOS devices. Having a quick look around, the service is very fluid, especially for a web page, and the quality is superb with graphics that really look solid on a Retina display.

Perhaps Apple should make a “pop-out” service that lets you open a Street View web page from within the new iOS Maps.app?
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Facebook passes 1B active monthly users [video]

9to5 Staff Oct 4 2012 - 4:54 am PT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7SjvLceXgU&feature=plcp

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced today that the service he started in his Harvard dorm room roughly eight years ago now has over 1 billion monthly users (or over one-seventh of the world’s population).

“Helping a billion people connect is amazing, humbling and by far the thing I am most proud of in my life,” wrote Zuckerberg. “I am committed to working every day to make Facebook better for you, and hopefully together one day we will be able to connect the rest of the world too.”

The … video above was made for the occasion. Apple is obviously a huge partner with Facebook due to deep integration on both iOS 6 and Mountain Lion, and Zuckerberg talked with Matt Laurer on the “Today Show” about his relationship and admiration for the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs:

Zuckerberg also mentioned that current Apple CEO Tim Cook sent him an iPhone 5 and most people actually access Facebook on the mobile web rather than an app.

More big numbers, including 1.13 trillion likes, 140.3 billion friend connections, 219 billion photo uploads, 62.6 million songs played, 600 million mobile users, 17 billion location-tagged posts, were revealed in the data sheet (DOCX).

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Apple jumps to No. 2 on Interbrand’s 2012 Best Global Brands Report

Jordan Kahn Oct 2 2012 - 2:48 pm PT

While still behind Coca-Cola, which retained its No. 1 spot from last year’s report, Apple is one of Interbrand’s top risers as the No. 2 brand in its 2012 Best Global Brands Report. Apple sits just above IBM, Google, and Microsoft with a brand value of $76, 568 million—up 129 percent from last year’s study. You can see a full list of brands that made this year’s top 100 list here and a chart of Apple’s growth below:

Study: Samsung Galaxy S III sales spike following Apple verdict & iPhone 5 launch

Jordan Kahn Oct 2 2012 - 8:50 am PT

A new report from research firm Localytics today suggested sales of Samsung’s Galaxy S III have been growing on a weekly basis with huge spikes following the Samsung/Apple trial and the iPhone 5 introduction. The full story is at 9to5Google.com.

…and Samsung files suit against Apple over iPhone 5 (9to5mac.com)
Samsung mocks iPhone 5 line sitters (again) in new Galaxy S III ad (9to5google.com)
Analyst: Samsung’s Galaxy S III bests Apple’s iPhone 4S sales for the first time since it was released a year ago (9to5google.com)

Pew: Apple loses share but still over half of all tablets owned in 2012

Élyse Betters Oct 2 2012 - 8:37 am PT

A new survey by research organization Pew Internet & American Life Project depicts how Apple’s iPad slid from 81 percent in 2011 to 52 percent in 2012, in terms of U.S. adult tablet ownership, due to lower-priced Android slates steadily gaining traction.

Pew’s Journalism website elaborated:

Over the last year, tablet ownership has steadily increased from 11% of U.S. adults in July of 2011 to 18% in January of 2012, according to PEJ data. Currently, 22% own a tablet and another 3% regularly use a tablet owned by someone else in the home. This number is very close to new data, released here for the first time, conducted in a separate survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project on July 16 through August 7 2012 that found 25% of all U.S. adults have a tablet computer.

The growth in tablet adoption is likely related to the advent of the lower-priced tablets in late 2011. Overall, about two-thirds of tablet-owning adults, 68%, got their tablet in the last year, including 32% in 2012 alone. That has lessened Apple’s dominance in the market. Now, just over half, 52%, of tablet owners report owning an iPad, compared with 81% in the survey a year ago.

Android-based devices are now at 48 percent overall: approximately 21 percent own the Android-forked Kindle Fire, 8 percent own the Samsung Galaxy, and the remaining is a mix. It is worth noting Android would only hold 27 percent without the $199 Kindle Fire.

The survey did not include Google’s Nexus 7 or Amazon’s Kindle Fire HD, however, as they were not yet introduced. The final numbers also mirror world sales data, according to Pew, which place the iPad at 61 percent and Android at 31 percent.

Check out Pew for more related information on smartphone ownership and operating system loyalty.

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Apple no longer calls iOS6 Maps ‘the most beautiful, powerful mapping service ever’

Seth Weintraub Sep 29 2012 - 6:24 am PT

As noted by iDaily.de, Apple has not only begun recommending competing mapping services but it also removed some superlatives from the Maps page.

All of which may just make this app the most beautiful, powerful mapping service ever.

Changed to:

All in a beautiful vector-based interface that scales and zooms with ease.

One of our readers predicted the call, below:
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Apple launches alternative Maps app section in App Store

Élyse Betters Sep 28 2012 - 10:35 am PT

Apple is prominently spotlighting alternative solutions to the new Maps app on the App Store.

The promotion of third-party apps is in conjunction with CEO Tim Cook’s open letter from this morning that apologized to iOS customers for the company’s less-than-perfect Maps offering. Apple further detailed on its website today how to add Google and Nokia maps website icons to an iOS 6 device’s Home screen.

[tweet https://twitter.com/djmexi/status/251729875046645760]

In related news, Reuters created an infographic recently that illustrates a side-by-side comparison of the key features available on mobile map apps from Google and Apple’s iOS in 27 countries (as seen below):

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Apple nabs Google veteran Sally Cole for Communications Director role

Seth Weintraub Sep 25 2012 - 9:17 am PT

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Apple hired Sally Cole as the Director of Employee Communications last month. Cole comes from cross-town rival Google, where she served as the Director of Internal Communications for almost six years. The Scarsdale native has a B.A. in history from Yale and a J.D./M.B.A. from nearby Stanford University, from which both companies hire liberally.

As someone intimately familiar with Internal Communications at Google, Cole’s experience could prove very valuable at Apple. Apple is rumored to be after Google Maps employees, for instance, where Cole’s Rolodex could prove “fruitful.” Google and Apple previously had a “no-poach” agreement instituted by former Apple CEO Steve Jobs. Clearly, that is no longer the case.

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Google Exec comments on iOS 6 Maps [Video]

Élyse Betters Sep 20 2012 - 6:52 am PT

[ooyala code=”BrOWh4NTpclZ6spl7Lv0IUL4nC19XOSe”]

Google UK Marketing Director Dan Cobley briefly spoke with Bloomberg TV today on Apple’s decision to remove Google Maps from iOS 6, but the most intriguing part about his statement concerned how people could continue to use Google Maps after updating.

Cobley noted folks on iOS 6 can still “use Google Maps by downloading them or going to the Google Maps website.” This is an interesting comment, however, as there is no Google Maps-related app from Google available in the App Store aside from the Google Earth app. It features 3D layers, including roads, borders, places, photos and more, but it is not an adequate Google Maps replacement. There is also no existing option to download a map from Google Maps in mobile Safari.

Therefore, it is currently unclear what Cobley meant by “downloading them.” SearchEngineLand asked Google today when iOS would get a new Google Maps app, though, and if it would feature turn-by-turn navigation. Google replied:

We believe Google Maps are the most comprehensive, accurate and easy-to-use maps in the world. Our goal is to make Google Maps available to everyone who wants to use it, regardless of device, browser, or operating system.

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Poll: Are you worried that iOS 6 Maps ‘update’ won’t have important data that Google’s maps did?

Jordan Kahn Sep 18 2012 - 11:29 am PT

image via reddit

When Apple demoed its new in-house, iOS 6 Maps app at WWDC in June, replacing the Google Maps backend used in previous versions of iOS, first impressions from many users raised concerns over whether it could compete with the old Google Maps iOS app they were used to. Apple has been steadily improving the Maps app with each beta release, including recently expanding coverage of 3D maps to new cities, but its limitations could be a source of frustration for upgrading iPhone owners in the coming weeks.

Macworld’s Jason Snell raised some alarm bells this week at the post-iPhone 5 roundtable (11:00 in), saying Maps did not feel ready and he was concerned that long-time Maps users would be disappointed. We received lots of comments and forum posts from users who refuse to update until transit times were included.

[tweet https://twitter.com/jon889/status/248130694319046657]

The move was not surprisingly viewed as a strategic one for Apple, and fueled by powerful technologies from Placebase, C3 Technologies, and Poly9 acquisitions, but will Apple be able to smooth iOS 6 Maps app enough to keep users happy when they update to iOS 6 and make the transition from Google Maps later this month?

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Apple’s next huge data center will be in Hong Kong, groundbreaking Q1 2013

Seth Weintraub Sep 18 2012 - 7:10 am PT

Map of Hong Kong post handover

We’ve received word that Apple is building another enormous data center—this time in Hong Kong SAR, China.

Apple recently finalized a location in the New Territories region of Hong Kong near the Shenzhen China border for the data center. We spoke to a bidding contractor employee who, on the condition of anonymity, told us the planned data center’s scale is unprecedented for his business: “There is simply nothing to compare it to and therefore it is hard to make estimates on size based on the materials required.” We were told that construction is to begin in Q1 2013, and it will likely take over a year for operations to start in the data center. The aim is to have it operational by 2015, which is the same time that Apple’s Spaceship Campus 2 is scheduled to go online.

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Google snaps up iPad app of the year

Élyse Betters Sep 17 2012 - 9:02 am PT

Google just bought the brainchild behind popular iOS app Snapseed, Nik Software.

Snapseed, which has some features of the hit iOS app Instagram in terms of jazzy vintage filters, is just one of many desktop and mobile photography apps that Nik Software develops. Snapseed launched on Apple’s iPad in June 2011, winning “iPad App of the Year” soon after, and then it landed on the iPhone in August 2011 and Mac OS just four months later. The app also boasts a Windows counterpart.

Today’s announced buyout could notably help Google’s budding social network, Google+, better combat direct rival Facebook, which recently acquired Instagram and its 100+ million users.

Get Nik Software’s statement at 9to5Google.

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Do Siri’s quirky answers boasting Apple products constitute sponsored advertising?

Jordan Kahn Sep 17 2012 - 6:56 am PT

We know Siri has a tendency to provide surprising answers that can cause a bit of controversy in some cases. Many reported earlier this year that Siri responded with “Nokia Lumia 900” when asked what the best smartphone is (an answer based on data from the Web). Apple quickly appeared to tweak the responses with answers that promoted the iPhone, such as: “The one you’re holding.” Now, PocketNow reported law student Sean DeVries is suing Apple over the “sponsored responses”:

Instead of actually providing information based on web search results and user reviews, Apple’s Siri software will provide a “sponsored answer” instead that advertises Apple’s products… of our law-student Pocketnow readers decided to sue Apple about this on-device false advertising simply out of principle. Sean DeVries’ goal is to get Apple to at least change their website and end user agreement to include this information though an indicator of “sponsored responses” would be best during Siri’s answers. Sean’s court date is scheduled for October 9th.

Siri co-founder Adam Cheyer reportedly leaves Apple (9to5mac.com)
Google/Motorola claims Apple infringes seven patents, relate to Siri, location-based reminders (9to5mac.com)
Apple is putting Google’s Voice search app through purgatory yet again (9to5google.com)
Apple’s A6 isn’t an ARM processor design, it is Apple’s first CPU design (9to5mac.com)

Most Yahoo employees now have the option of getting an iPhone 5

Seth Weintraub Sep 15 2012 - 8:49 pm PT

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A fantastic, if not very accurate, title at BusinessInsider: “Marissa Mayer Just Gave Every Yahoo Employee An iPhone 5”! Well, not really, but it backs up an earlier claim.

The former Google executive did offer high-end smartphones to most of its employees (if the memo BI received is legit) including the iPhone 5, three Androids and a Nokia Lumia Windows Phone. These are probably the top phones on the market today, and they will replace the BlackBerries that Yahoo! employees were given until this point.

The memo is below. Mayer was notorious for her use of Apple’s iPhone, even within the walls of Google.

We have a very exciting update to share with you today – we are announcing Yahoo! Smart Phones, Smart Fun! As of today, Yahoo is moving off of blackberries as our corporate phones and on to smartphones in 22 countries. A few weeks ago, we said that we would look into smartphone penetration rates globally and take those rates into account when deciding on corporate phones. Ideally, we’d like our employees to have devices similar to our users, so we can think and work as the majority of our users do.

Moving forward, we’ll offer you a choice of devices as well as provide monthly plans for the data and phone.

The smartphone choices that we are including in the program are:

* Apple iPhone 5
* Android:
– Samsung Galaxy S3
– HTC One X
– HTC EVO 4G LTE
* Windows Phone 8:
– Nokia Lumia 920

We’re getting started right away and taking orders starting now

Clearly, Yahoo will buy a lot of iPhone 5s for its employees if they truly have freewill in the decision.

Cheap! Amazon new 7-inch Kindles now on sale starting at $159

9to5 Staff Sep 14 2012 - 12:03 pm PT

From 9to5Toys.com

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAOJyBxjpcs]

Amazon just opened the floodgates to its forked-Android powered Kindles (7-inch only so far).

The original with some beefed up internals is just $159. The new HD version (which closely matches up with the Google Nexus 7) is $199 for 16GB and $249 for 32GB.

(Or you could wait a month and probably not hate yourself :P)

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Twitter picks up iPhone hacker Charlie Miller for its security team

Jordan Kahn Sep 14 2012 - 10:45 am PT

[tweet https://twitter.com/0xcharlie/statuses/246598708865679360]

Forbes reported on Twitter’s latest hire: Charlie Miller. He is a well-known iOS and Mac hacker who discovered various exploits for the platforms in recent years. Miller will join Twitter’s security team with the title “Software Engineer, Systems.”

Miller has a long list of epic hacks in his recent past: In 2007, he was the first to fully compromise the iPhone through its web browser. Six months later he won the Pwn2Own hacking competition in Vancouver by compromising a Macbook Air in two minutes. In 2009, he revealed a technique that would have allowed an attacker to hijack iPhones via text message, virally spreading from phone to phone. He’s found a method of infecting Macbooks with malware via their power adapter, and had his Apple developer license revoked for successfully sneaking an iOS app past Apple’s safeguards. Most recently he’s shifted his focus to Android, defeating Google’s “Bouncer” program for detecting malware in the Android Market and using near-field communications chips to wirelessly compromise Samsung and Nokia phones just by waving another device near them.

YouTube iPhone app from Google lands in the App Store just month after Apple’s version disappears

Seth Weintraub Sep 11 2012 - 4:11 am PT

On Aug. 6, Beta 4 of iOS 6 came out with one huge gaping hole: Apple’s YouTube app. There was speculation on both sides of the fence that Apple might have pulled it because of the ongoing war with Android or perhaps Google pulled it because it wanted more control of the app and/or it wanted to show more ads. In reality, it was probably a little of both.

Whatever the case, just a month after being pulled and just a day ahead of Apple’s iOS 6/iPhone 5 event, Google has released its own homegrown YouTube app into the App Store. It is formatted for the iPhone only (an iPad version is in the works), but it already has many features that its Apple-built counterpart lacked.

Description

Watch the world’s videos and keep up with your favorite YouTube channels with the official YouTube app for iOS. Sign in to access your subscriptions, playlists, uploads and more.

Features:
✓ Enjoy YouTube’s vast video catalog, including official music videos
✓ Find videos and channels more easily with voice search and query autocomplete
✓ Subscribe to channels and instantly access your subscriptions with the channel guide UI
✓ Read comments, browse related videos, enable subtitles and more – all while watching
✓ Easy video sharing to Google+, E-mail, Facebook and Twitter

Did Google throw this together in just one month or did it have some advance warning? We are thinking the latter; it is already receiving some good reviews and appears to be a well-polished product.

As TheNextWeb points out, it is not certain how you will upload videos to YouTube in the new app. Matt Panzerino postulates that Apple will allow YouTube to be granted rights in iOS to have a file handling menu option. We are not so sure that Apple cares if you can upload to YouTube natively (see Mountain Lion) from the OS. We are thinking that you will eventually need to open the YouTube app manually, browse to the video, and do it the old-fashioned way.

The more important question now becomes: where is the Google Maps app for iOS?

More… including a walkthrough YouTube video below:

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Apps & updates: Google Drive, Kindle for Mac, WSJ, more

Jordan Kahn Sep 10 2012 - 10:37 am PT

As always, we’ll be updating the list below as more notable apps and updates hit the App Store today:

Google Drive version 1.1.0: We already knew it was coming when Google leaked the update last week, but today we get all of the details with the update officially hitting the App Store. Included in version 1.1.0 of the Google Drive iOS app is the ability to create, collaborate and edit with Google documents. You will also now be able to create and organize new folders and documents, upload photos and videos from your device, and delete files from your Drive. Google said the updated app also includes a “Richer Google presentations with animations and speaker notes.”

– Edit Google documents with formatting and collaboration
– Edits to your Google documents appear to collaborators in seconds
– Richer Google presentations with animations and speaker notes
– Create a new folder or Google document
– Upload photos and videos from your device or a photo directly from your camera
– Move an item to a folder in your Drive
– Delete and remove files from your Drive
– Drive is now available in over 30 languages

Kindle for Mac version 1.10.3: The Kindle Mac App Store app received a nice update today that brings full sport for Lion gestures including panning and swiping, and support for Kindle Format 8 books. Amazon also performance for content that includes a high number of highlights and notes, and included support for Japanese and larger libraries.

The Wall Street Journal version 4.0: With this release of the WSJ app, the updating Now edition is finally available on the iPhone and you can now access archive downloads on demand for up to seven days. A full list of what’s new is below:

• WSJ is now available on your iPhone! Get the updating Now edition on your iPhone, with the latest news, market data and multimedia
• Faster downloads and improved performance
• More frequent news updates
• 7-day archive downloads on-demand

With this release of The Wall Street Journal app, we have made substantial changes to improve app performance. Please note: when you update to version 4.0, any full issues you have saved will be deleted. All previously saved individual articles will remain.

Before you update, you can go to saved issues and save individual articles to keep them going forward.

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Airlines begin integrating Passbook for mobile boarding passes ahead of iOS 6 launch

Jordan Kahn Sep 7 2012 - 5:26 am PT

While we expect a ton of businesses to soon start integrating iOS 6’s Passbook feature for storing boarding passes, loyalty cards, coupons, etc., it appears one airline has already done so. Australian Business Traveler reported that a reader was recently able to load a boarding pass into Passbook while checking in to a Virgin Australia flight by simply using his iPhone running iOS 6:

AusBT reader Shaun Lorrain checked in for a Virgin Australia flight using the airline’s mobile website on his iPhone, which is running a developer preview edition of iOS 6 – and this is what he saw…. Yes, iOS 6 detected the mobile checkin and offered to save the boarding pass into Shaun’s Passbook account…Passbook also offers live updates to these e-passes, such as flight delays and changes to the airport boarding gate…United Airlines has already committed to supporting Passbook with its own mobile boarding passes, and other airlines won’t be slow to jump onto that bandwagon.

Interestingly, this popup message is not actually coming from iOS itself, but rather from the airline’s website, which has detected iOS 6 as the phone’s operating system. This means, at any time over the next few days, other airlines and businesses could start adding Passbook support to their websites too. The web is not curated like the App Store, so these updates can roll out without approval from Apple.

If you spot other websites updating to support Passbook, be sure to tip us at tips@9to5mac.com.

Apple’s stock opens at record $680 with $637B market cap following win against Samsung

Élyse Betters Aug 27 2012 - 6:55 am PT

Apple’s stock opened at a record $690 per share following its triumph in the pivotal patents trial against Samsung last Friday. Today is the first day of trading since Apple came out on top and its latest record soars past the previous best of $674.88 per share. The unparallelled all-time high also forced Apple’s market capitalization to $637 billion.

[tweet https://twitter.com/jaydeezy17/status/240086109554606080]

Check it out: NASDAQ:AAPL

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Google’s attempt to block U.S. imports of iPhone and iPad thwarted as ITC remands investigation of one patent

Jordan Kahn Aug 24 2012 - 4:24 pm PT

Following the verdict in the Apple vs. Samsung trial today, where Samsung was found guilty of infringing various Apple patents related to the case, Apple is also coming out a winner, at least temporarily, in Google/Motorola’s attempt to block imports of iPhones and iPads to the United States.

In late June, we told you about Google’s attempt to block U.S. imports of iPhones and iPads based on a previous ruling that Apple infringed on one standard-essential Motorola patent. The initial ruling was under review by the ITC, which has power to block U.S. imports of Apple devices from Asia, with a decision expected at a hearing scheduled for today.

The ITC has now concluded its review (via paid blogger FossPatents), finding no violations for three of the four patents in the initial suit (including the one mentioned above), but remanded an investigation on a fourth, non-standard essential patent to Judge Thomas Pender. The result? According to FossPatents, there might be a violation and import ban related to the patent, but a remand and ITC review could take up to a year:

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Amazon adds ‘Parks and Recreation’ to Prime Instant Video, with more popular NBCUniversal content

Élyse Betters Aug 24 2012 - 7:33 am PT

Amazon, NBCUniversal Cable and New Media Distribution announced an agreement today that will bulk the online retailer’s Prime Instant Video selection with hundreds of award-winning TV episodes.

Amazon’s Instant Video touts 22,000 movies and episodes for Prime members to stream on the Android-powered Kindle Fire or other supported devices like the iPad. A few of today’s catalog additions include “Parks and Recreation”, “Parenthood”, “Friday Night Lights”, “Heroes” and “Battlestar Galactica”.

Check out the full story at 9to5Google.com.

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Is this how Microsoft’s team built its logo? (Hint: Like everything else, start with Apple)

9to5 Staff Aug 24 2012 - 6:08 am PT

Frankly, at this point, it would be more surprising if Microsoft did not lift its designs from Apple products. Andrew Brett Watson shows us how it is done.

Interesting that what they ended up with reminds people of Google’s Chrome browser logo as well.