Archive for the ‘mobile’ tag
Speaking About Reasons of Apple’s Actions
After the news about Apple’s lawsuit many of us have been wondering why Apple did this. Obviously, the thing is not about money as the company already has $40 billion of cash and investments. Digital Daily’s editor John Paczkowski thinks the reason is a desire to extend iPhone’s growing lead on the market.
“Apple is suing to make an example out of HTC and lengthen the engineering time-to-market for Android handset builders.”
While other Android smartphone manufacturers will spend their time solving a problem with developing of noninfringing technologies to avoid lawsuits, Apple will continue to iterate the iPhone.
Ok, this is clear, but why Apple accused HTC now?
Apple Accuses HTC of infringing its patents!
Yesterday morning began with shocking news about lawsuit that was filed by Apple against HTC. As it turned out, Cupertino’s company is accusing smartphone manufacturer of infringing 20 Apple patents tied to the iPhone. Google Nexus One, Droid Eris, T-Mobile G1, Touch Pro2, Touch Diamond and the Imagio are listed as exhibits in the litigation.
Copies of the suit can be read and . Short list of patents at issue is under the cut.
iPad Uses Cortex A8-based Chip
As you remember, Steve Jobs clearly said at the iPad’s presentation that the device will have a 1 GHz A4 Chip. But after that event there was no information given about this secret two-letter name “A4″. And this isn’t usual, as almost every company reports the specification of every announced device before it’ll come to market.
Later it was rumored that the chip is based on Cortex A9 with dual cores. But finally Arstechnica author Jon Stokes revealed that A4 is a 1 GHz custom system-on-chip with a single Cortex A8 Core and a PowerVR SGX GPU. Though the information is not announced publicly, the author is sure it is true.
Associated Press Has Plans for iPad’s Customers
Yesterday the Associated Press announced plans to create a new unit named “AP Gateway”. It will focus on creating an application for mobile platforms and particularly for iPad tablet device.
It is likely that their app will require a paid subscription, but at first it may appear as free, according to AP senior vice president Jane Seagrave.
AP Gateway will work with local news affiliates to create package of their own content.
Other publishers are still expressing concern over the profit that will be shared with Apple and the latter’s unwillingness to report information about subscribers (which is important for marketing and tailoring publisher’s content).
Adobe comments about “Flash on iPad”
The Wall St. Journal published a small article about Adobe Chief Executive Shantanu Narayen’s talk at the Goldman Sachs technology conference this week. Adobe’s CEO spoke on his view of why the iPad wasn’t equipped to play Flash:
Narayen said Apple’s decision likely had everything to do with its business model as it tries to keep a proprietary, closed system so everything goes through its iTunes store, and has nothing to do with the Flash technology. He said about 85 of the top 100 Web sites in the world use Flash, and 75% of the video on the Web today is in Flash, including Google Inc.’s (GOOG) YouTube, News Corp.’s (NWS) Hulu and broadcasters such as ABC and Fox.
Flash will be on every Android device sold at the end of the year. It will also be on Nokias, Palm Pres, Windows Mobile, Blackberries and just about anything else with an ARM Cortex processor. Not to mention 98% of all the Macs and PCs (and Windows/ChomeOS Tablets) throughout the world. It looks like Apple has it’s own vision of what is good and bad for the business.
iPod Touch is for kids?
An interesting fact was revealed by Admob Mobile Metrics when they ran an opt-in surveys on iPhone, iPod Touch, webOS and Android devices to understand how they are engaging and interacting with applications.
As you see on the photos below, it becomes obvious that iPod Touch is more popular for teenagers. Moreover, as latter are mostly supported by their parents, they use these devices differently, and that is why the number of free downloads is so high for iPod Touch users.
Apparently, iPods make a high profit to Apple, but is this so because of children?
Steve Jobs is called Personality Of The Year
Despite the fact that Steve Jobs and Apple representatives were not to be seen at the Mobile World Congress (Barcelona, Spain) this week, Apple CEO won the top title “Mobile Industry Personality of the Year.”
Among the other winners (19 categories) were BlackBerry (the creator of Enterprise Server 5.0) and HTC (for their HTC Hero).
The famous actor and humorist Stephen Fry hosted this week’s ceremony. He proclaimed himself to be Apple fan and was impressed with iPad after having seen it at San Francisco demonstration.
MWSF 2010: Box.net services, OWC SSD, HyperMac batteries, Blue Mikey Microphone
Box.net finally presented its services to iPhone users, Other World Computing created the fastest SSD on the market, HyperMac offers a new line of batteries for Apple devices, and Blue Mikey Microphone is a new recording sound solution for iPhone.
Box.net presented an iPhone app that connects to their services and allows quick accessing to all your stored files. Now you can also connect to the Box.net service with QuickOffice Connect Mobile Suite (US 9.99$). We can only imagine how comfortable it will be to use on iPad.
Other World Computing presented a few of their new products – USB 3.0 drive, new portable RAID array and (attention!) the fastest SSD on the market! It’s called OWC Mercury Extreme Enterprise SSD and loads Adobe CS4 applications in seconds, which looks really amazing compared to slow 5400 rpm hard disks.
Opera showed their browser for iPhone
Opera had finally demonstrated new Opera Mini for the iPhone at the Mobile World Congress.
In comparison to the default iPhone browser it looks pretty quick – Opera Mini loads the New York Times like 5x faster than its rival. Its main disadvantage is that it lacks the all-important feature pinch-to-zoom, and the only alternative is a method of double-tapping the webpages. Generally, the iPhone owners will find that the usual silky smooth scrolling through favorite webpages and responsive interface are maintained at the very best.
Unlike other platforms, the iPhone variant actually remembers the website you happened to browse last – the feature that will obviously be favored by a legion of iPhone admirers.
Company says as soon as beta tag is removed the browser will be submitted for approval. And it is not obvious whether Apple approve it or not, because it maintains the option of rejecting any app that “duplicates functionality” of the apps Apple builds into the iPhone. Opera co-founder Jon von Tetzchner has his own point of view on this:
“Opera Mini is the world’s most popualr mobile browser and users on the iPhone deserve a choice.”
New App Store Rival To Launch Soon
AT&T, Telefonica, Orange and 9 other world’s leading mobile phone operators created an alliance to build an open technology platform that is designed to deliver applications to mobile phone users. The decision will be announced tomorrow at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. There are rumors the presentation is supported by Samsung, Sony Ericsson and LG.
According to the Times, Vodafone hasn’t yet committed to the new alliance. It is collaborating with Verizon Wireless, Softbank of Japan and China Mobile to create a new common technology standard.
Google Buzz now available on iPhone
Google Buzz – is a new social communications feature that was revealed yesterday. It really looks like a mix of Google Wave and Twitter with an ability of posting media and status updates in an ongoing conversation. New service is running in almost every Gmail account and in the Mobile Safari web app. The latter has the same features as the main service and additionally includes an option to see “buzz” nearby while you’re out and comment on like other people’s “buzz”.
The service is new, and many people discuss on how it will affect on Twitter and social networks popularity. But it is important that Google made iPhone fully compatible with Buzz in spite of a tense Google/Apple relationship.
Hell Has Returned! DOOM II for iPhone is now available!
Hell has returned! Prepare yourself for DOOM II RPG for the iPhone and iPod Touch, the sequel to id Software’s hit mobile game Doom RPG. The forces of Hell have invaded our dimension once again, and you’re the one to stop them from conquering the Earth! Read the rest of this entry »
Opera Mini for iPhone will be shown next week at MWC 2010
Opera Software company just announced that it plans to show Opera Mini browser for iPhone during the Mobile World Congress 2010 (MWC).
“We are thrilled to offer journalists and partners an exclusive preview of Opera Mini for iPhone during the year’s biggest mobile event,” said Jon von Tetzchner, Co-founder, Opera Software. “This is a unique opportunity to introduce the fast, feature-rich Opera Mini experience for the iPhone, and to showcase our latest beta releases of Opera Mobile and Opera Mini on other platforms and devices. Opera’s mission is to bring the Web to the world, and by making Opera Mini available on yet another platform, we are one step closer.”
But remember that Apple would never allow alternative browsers that are not based on WebKit. So what’s the point of all this? A Cydia Store release? The real intent might be to draw attention to Opera’s Mobile and Mini browsers running on other platforms where the software is actually released like Symbian, Windows Mobile, and Android.
Apple Could Lower iPad Pricing
Credit Suisse analyst Bill Shope recently met with Apple executives:
Apple wants the iPad to be the best device for a few key use cases. For instance, the company believes it could eventually be seen as superior to both handheld and notebook devices for browsing the Internet, using the App Store, and consuming mobile media (video, photos, and e-books). Nevertheless, in other areas, notebooks, the iPhone, or an iPod may be more appropriate. This clear segmentation of capabilities suggests that cannibalization may be less of a concern than most currently believe.
Shope writes about the price:
it remains to be seen how much traction the iPad gets initially, management noted that it will remain nimble (pricing could change if the company is not attracting as many customers as anticipated).
Sounds great. What do you think about $200 iPad? Would you buy one?
iPhone games are more popular than those for Nintendo DS and Sony PSP
19 percent of all game developers are writing for the iPhone and iPod Touch, according to a new study from Game Developer Research. It is more than twice as high as for the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS and results in 3/4 of all mobile game developers writing for Apple’s gadgets.
Developers claim their choices of platform dictated by the level of market influence and ease of writing code. The cost of development and the ability to port code are important too.
The transition to the iPhone is evident through the number of ports. While many companies are producing original titles, games like Civilization Revolution and Assassin’s Creed series are actually Nintendo DS versions modified to use the touchscreen and the better performance of Apple’s devices.
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