News tagged ‘Droid’

Research firm Gartner has published sales forecasts for the tablet market, stating that a lack of momentum from competitors will allow iPad to be absolute leader during the holiday shopping season. Looking further ahead, Gartner predicts that Apple will maintain more than 50 percent share of this market segment through 2014 even as Research in Motion’s QNX and Microsoft's Windows 8 platforms are expected to build up some momentum. Research vice president at Gartner Carolina Milanesi explains:

“This is because Apple delivers a superior and unified user experience across its hardware, software and services. Unless competitors can respond with a similar approach, challenges to Apple’s position will be minimal. Apple had the foresight to create this market and in doing that planned for it as far as component supplies such as memory and screen”.

Gartner has lowered its estimates for sales of Android tablets in 2011 by 28% over second quarter’s projections, noting very weak adoption due to its interface issues, high prices and limited app availability.

The company expects that Android will see growth as Google releases its next-generation Android’s "Ice Cream Sandwich" and addresses fragmentation across the Android ecosystem. However, according to Gartner's sales forecasts, Android tablets will not catch up the iPad by the end of projection period of 2015.

Investment research firm UBS conducted a study of 515 iPhone and Android users in order to judge consumer loyalty based on whether they plan to make their next purchase from the same manufacturer as their current handset. 89% of iPhone users report that they will purchase another iPhone. For other vendors such percent is falling rapidly. The second place was taken by HTC with 39% and the third one – by Samsung with 28%. Android phones in general are at 55 percent. 31% of Android users plan to switch to iPhone. Only 33% of current BlackBerry users planning to purchase another BlackBerry, down from 62% a year and a half ago. In overall 50% users of smartphone plan to move to Apple and only 10% of iPhone users prefer to stitch from Apple. The survey may not be terribly accurate due to a small sample size, but it helps understand market trends, demonstrating high loyalty of iPhone users.

Today Adobe announced in a blog that it will add new features to its AIR platform and Flash Player allowing for use of 3D-accelerated graphics in mobile and desktop devices. Also the company notes in a press release:

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According to Reuters, this morning Apple sued Samsung in Japan and requested the court to block sales of Samsung tablets and phones in the country:

"Apple has filed a suit with the Tokyo District Court seeking the suspension of sales of Galaxy S and its sequel S II smartphones and the Galaxy Tab 7 in Japan, according to sources close to the matter. The first hearing was held on Wednesday, the source said".

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Voice input in Android

9to5Mac has reported that Apple seeded some mobile carriers with a “near-final” build of iOS 5 with the enabling of Nuance's Speech to Text as a system-wide service:

According to a source testing the feature, it works almost identically (video above) to the Android operating system’s speech-to-text feature. It’s also very polished, quick, and accurate said the source – which is obvious for being an Apple product but also is indicative of the product being nearly complete.

The special microphone button was already noticed in iOS 5. This allows users to dictate rather than type. It seems that Apple plans to release its Nuance speech recognition system alongside the public release of iOS 5 set for launch in this fall.

(before Galaxy Tab 7.7 was pulled)

Yesterday Apple has achieved one more legal victory over Samsung by banning Samsung from selling its tablets in Germany. Last week pan-European CES-like IFA show featured new consumer products from almost every manufacturer except Apple.

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As it is known, iOS 5 will copy some Android features. Apart from notification system and  system-wide speech-to-text functionality, it was revealed that Apple will also implement Android-like activation of voice recognition Assistant feature.The Google’s promotional video above shows iPhone application for voice-powered search in Google.

As you can see in this video, with the app, you just have to move the iPhone up to your face, speak and in a few seconds Google will show you the page with search results. Apple plans to provide the same functionality to the iOS 5 users for its voice Assistant feature. According to code strings in the iOS 5 SDK, a user will need to put the iPhone to their ear, start speaking and the search results will be shown.

This activation method is much quicker than method in Voice Control. Currently users have to hold down the home button for several seconds to activate the service. Activation method in Assistant will not just rely on the iPhone’s proximity sensor detecting the distance from your ear, but will also rely on data from phone’s motion sensors for accuracy.

Google and Apple, two main parties on the smartphone market, are continuously fighting for consumers especially those who have not yet decided which OS they want to have in their next smartphone. According to Nielsen survey in July 2011, these ‘undecideds’ will be the customers which manufacturers will be hoping to win over. It is interesting that late adopters are least sure among likely smartphone upgraders about their next phone platform.

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Third-party Dolphin Browser app has become very popular among Android users and has been downloaded nearly 9 million times. As TechCrunch reports, Sequoia Capital invested over $10 million in this app, and some part of that sum will likely be directed to developing iOS version of the browser, which has just appeared in the App Store.

The iOS version has most of the features that made this app so popular among users of Android devices. They are convenient sidebar for quick access to bookmarks, built-in translations, customizable gestures, tabbed browsing, speed dial and more. It should be noted that Dolphin is based on Apple’s WebKit, as well as other third-party browser available on the App Store, default Safari app, and majority of browsers for smartphones.

This browser has some main competitors like Opera and several smaller competitors like SkyFire that are steadily gaining popularity among iOS users.

Android users will find out that add-ons are absent from the version for iOS devices, as iPhone’s technical limitation doesn’t allow using native application add-ons. These add-ons are mainly used to change the look and feel of the browser. However, according to TechCrunch, development of JavaScript-based add-ons for iPhone may be underway.

Dolphin Browser app is available for free from the App Store. (iTunes link)

Have you ever wanted to run your iOS applications on your Mac, Windows or Android device? Creator of iEmu, new Kickstarter project, want to raise funds to make this possible.

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Here is a nice video overview of popular Cydia apps.

My personal top 30 Cydia tweaks of 2011. The tweaks chosen are both new and old, popular and unpopular. 30 is a big number so, I hope that most of you are able to find a tweak that you will enjoy having on your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad. The tweaks are my personal picks and we all will have our opinion. I know that there are allot of other awesome Cydia tweaks that I was unable to mention but, feel free to tell us about them in a video response or comment.

Cydia tweaks include: Tab+, Multiconmover, Infiniboard, Infinidock, SBSettings, Alphacon, Android Delete, Graviboard, Grid Lock, Animate Battery, Winterboard, Flipover, List Launcher, Cy Delete, Folder Enhancer, Pull to Refresh Safari, RetinaPad, Barrel, Camera Wallpaper, icon renamer, double tap to open, Pagenames, iSwipe, Stayopened, iTypeappleicon, retina app, icons, page pusher, Bytafont, AndroidLock XT, Insomnia

If you have never done jailbreak, you might want to try

As New York Post reports (via BGR), Amazon is preparing to release the rumored Android-based tablets that will cost “hundreds less” than $499 current base model of iPad 2. It is likely that “hundreds less” implies $299.

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Research firm NPD has recently announced results of its Mobile Phone Track report for the second quarter of 2011. Android is still leading the U.S. smartphone with 52% of the market; Apple's iPhone has 29% while BlackBerry devices only 11% of the market. But the 14-month-old iPhone 4 is continuing to lead the market in sales, and the 8 GB 26-month-old iPhone 3GS takes the second place, perhaps, because its that price now dropped to $49.

Here are the top five best-selling phones during Q2, via NPD’s Mobile Phone Track service:

1. Apple iPhone 4
2. Apple iPhone 3GS
3. HTC EVO 4G
4. HTC Inspire 4G
5. Samsung INTENSITYII

Mozilla states that web apps will soon provide end users with a comparable to native apps experience and will represent better alternative for developers.

“We are aiming at providing all the necessary APIs to build a basic HTML5 phone experience within the next 3-6 months”

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DigiTimes reports citing a source that sales of iPad rivals turned out to be lower than it was expected, and the demand for them from retail companies continues to drop sharply, so manufacturers of non-Apple tablets will have to cut prices for their devices as early as late September. According to the source, this is the only way for them to sell numerous devices in warehouses and minimize their losses.

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