At the Black Hat security conference, which is being held this week, research firm Lookout told about malicious application that was found in Google's Android Market. It was collecting private data (such as phone's SIM card number, text messages, browsing history, voice mail password and subscriber identification) and then sending it to a web site imnet.us, which is owned by an unknown person in Shenzhen, China.
According to VentureBeat report, written by Dean Takahashi, an app was claimed to load custom background wallpapers and was submitted by Jackeey Wallpaper. Read the rest of this entry »
Yesterday Silicon Alley Insider reported that Palm had a chance to be acquired by Apple, but eventually HP’s bid was higher. Referring to an anonymous source that was familiar with the negotiations, author Dan Frommer wrote:
"Apple was mostly interested in Palm's huge library of intellectual property and patents (450+ patents on file, another 400+ applications on file). And unlike some other bidders, Apple even seemed committed to funding Palm's operations, perhaps to challenge RIM's dominance in the keyboarded segment of the smartphone industry, our source says."
It is reported that Google also wanted to purchase Palm to spite Apple, but the company didn't know whether Apple was actually bidding for Palm, so no moves were made in that direction.
Eventually HP acquired Palm and now has plans to use its webOS in company's future tablet devices that will compete with Apple's iPad.
This Thursday Larry Page and Eric Shmidt (one of Google founders and its current CEO respectively) gave an interesting interview at the Allen & Co. conference.
According to Reuters, Page said that Jobs' opinion about animosity between Apple and Google that was caused by the latter (because it was Google that decided to compete with the iPhone by creating Android mobile platform) is "a little bit of rewriting history".
"We had been working on Android a very long time, with the notion of producing phones that are Internet enabled and have good browsers and all that, because that did not exist in the market place. I think that characterization of us entering after is not really reasonable."
Shmidt also added there are no "zero-sum games, which are battles to death", as the market is large enough for Google and Apple to thrive. Besides, Google still remains to be an important strategic partner for Apple by being the default search provider and powering Maps and Youtube application on all iOS devices.
Well-known blogger Jonny Evans from ComputerWorld posted yesterday an interesting article where he analyzed some of recent trends in Apple's success and made few conclusions about the company's next steps. Here is a short list of it: Read the rest of this entry »
A new version of the Google Docs Viewer has been launched by the company for the iPad, Android and iPhone to let you view PDF, doc, docx and ppt file uploaded to your documents list without needing to download the file itself.
With our mobile viewer you can switch quickly between pages and pan/zoom within a page. On your iPhone and iPad, you can pinch to zoom in or out. You can try it out by going to docs.google.com on your Android-powered device, iPad or iPhone and select any document in these formats that you've previously uploaded.
A new version of the Google Docs Viewer has been launched by the company for the iPad, Android and iPhone to let you view PDF, doc, docx and ppt file uploaded to your documents list without needing to download the file itself.
With our mobile viewer you can switch quickly between pages and pan/zoom within a page. On your iPhone and iPad, you can pinch to zoom in or out. You can try it out by going to docs.google.com on your Android-powered device, iPad or iPhone and select any document in these formats that you've previously uploaded.
After the iPad launch in early April, Google created a formatted version of Gmail for iPad that uses its HTML5-based platform in order to create a 2-column format which is similar to the one used for Apple’s Mail on iPad. After the launch Google remarked that the process of testing interface design and features of iPad Gmail was still on, and today we have a new proof that the testing isn’t over yet.
The present 2-column interface of the Gmail for iPad is going to be supplemented with a new full-screen window that will appear over the Gmail window and will make it easier to write emails on iPad. Read the rest of this entry »
DevTeam successfully jailbreaked new iOS 4. They updated jailbreak utility redsn0w to version 0.9.5b5-3. Supported devices are iPhone3G and iPod Touch 2G (not MC). New redsn0w is also able to hacktivate iOS 4.0 for iPhone3G.
Another iPhone 4 has been discovered in the world, and this time the place is the Czech Republic! We already know what the external design of the iPhone 4 looks like but thanks to some Czech folks from the website called Jablickar.cz we now have something much more!
The official photographs taken under optimal conditions by the iPhone 4 are already out but what about the iPhone 4 potential in real conditions? Now we’ve got exclusive images taken with the rear camera as well as an HD-quality video. Read the rest of this entry »
According to Mobile Mix Survey, conducted in May by advertising agency Millennial Media, 56% of all developers in the USA write software for Apple’s mobile platform iOS. This is almost as twice as more than Google’s Android developers. 5% goes to Nokia’s Symbian and 4% of devs work on software for RIM’s BlackBerry OS.
When Gizmodo showed new iPhone's prototype most of us stopped expecting from Jobs anything shocking on WWDC 2010. But he amazed us, and not only with new display's resolution, FaceTime function and 802.11n support, but also with gyroscope. Many developers instantly realized - this is a new breakthrough.
While conventional accelerometer measures linear acceleration as a change of direction apart a change in velocity, a gyroscope measures angular acceleration, or in other words, a change in both direction and velocity at the same time. Thus the device can sense its rotation while ignoring hand jitters and linear movements, which is impossible for accelerometer. Read the rest of this entry »
New reports made by Mac Stories and PadGadget reveal new data on App Store. Here are the most interesting facts:
Over 2,100 titles in the Apple's App Store are iPad games;
78% of all iPad apps are paid (which is almost equal to 80% value of previous Moblix report);
Almost 75% of all 225,000 iPhone apps are also paid;
2,5 months needed for iPad apps library to reach the 10,000 milestone (For comparison, it took five months for iPhone apps and 11 months for Google's Android Market to get the same result).
Currently iPad apps store is the third biggest after iPhone and official Android apps store.
RIM's BlackBerry App World, Nokia's Symbian platform and HP's Palm/webOS have less than 7,000 apps.
It is important to note that Google currently forbids putting Android Market on non-smartphone devices, so there is no opportunity to compare the actual numbers of Android and iPad apps.
As you remember, this Monday Apple unveiled iPhone 4 and its new feature, which allows Wi-Fi video chatting via iPhone's cameras. It's called FaceTime and the company is going to make it an open industry standard to allow communicating with other devices and services.
This news made major online chat providers like Skype and Google to express interest in the new technology, but at the moment they decided to take wait-and-see strategy. Read the rest of this entry »
Nielsen revealed the results of a new poll of 11,734 U.S. users that claims Apple is the No.2 smartphone maker with 28% market share of mobile devices, thus gaining 2% in compare with the previous quarter. The biggest share belongs to Research In Motion, which has 35% with its Blackberries. Other smartphone makers are showed on the pictures below.
It is interesting that study reveals most of the Android and iPhone users are male, and Android users are younger, less educated and less wealthy. If only 28% of Android users earn $100,000 every year, there are 40% of iPhone users that have the same income. 34% of all smartphone users have six-figure salaries. Read the rest of this entry »