News tagged ‘Google’

Media research firm Nielsen released its lists of top U.S. mobile phones, sites, and brands for the first ten months of 2009. The iPhone 3G took the top spot among mobile phones with 4.0% of the market. The iPhone placed slightly ahead of Research in Motion's BlackBerry 8300 series at 3.7%, and well ahead of the remainder of the pack, which was led by Motorola's RAZR V3 series at 2.3%.

Apple also made an appearance on Nielsen's list of top ten brands accessed via mobile networks for the January-September 2009 timeframe, taking tenth place on a list topped by Yahoo! and Google.

Here are the results:

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According to Impress, the iPhone has taken over 46.1 percent of the Japanese smartphone market. This is extremely surprising, because the Japanese are known for being impervious to alien cellphones, preferring their japanese mobiles. Apple wins top two positions: the iPhone 3G commands the ranking with 24.6%, while the iPhone 3GS tops at 21.5% for number two. According to survey, the reason of this huge advance in only one year is the app store and the iPhone's ease of use.

The iPhone 3G was introduced in Japan in summer 2008 (the iPhone 3GS followed earlier this year). Sources in Japan say that the iPhone user base in Japan now stands at 3 million, which is an impressive 10% of the global userbase.

Here is a full Japanese Smartphone Market top list:

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MacWorld has listed their 20 favorite apps of the year for the iPhone and iPod touch. With over 100,000 apps in the App Store, MacWorld focused on 20 categories and narrowed it down to the best performer in each category.

Here is the list:

Best Messaging App: BeeJive IM
Best Photo App: Best Camera
Best Notification App: Boxcar
Best News App: CNN Mobile
Best Book App: Eucalyptus
Best Social Networking App: Facebook 3
Best Casual Game: Flight Control
Best Search Tool: Google Mobile App
Best Reference App: iBird Explorer Plus
Best Reader: Instapaper Pro 2
Best Multimedia App: MLB.com At Bat 2009
Best Education App: Pocket Universe
Best E-Mail App: Postage
Best Designed Game: Ramp Champ
Best Sports Game: Real Soccer 2010
Best Shopping Tool: RedLaser
Best Platform Game: Rolando 2
Best Strategy Game: Strategery
Best Twitter Client: Tweetie 2

You can read a bit more about these apps MacWorld's site.

MacRumors has found a new Apple job listing seeking an iPhone Software Engineer to join the iPhone and iPod Touch Maps team with the goal of taking the iPhone's built-in Maps App to "the next level":

The iPhone has revolutionized the mobile industry and has changed people’s lives and we want to continue to do so. We want to take Maps to the next level, rethink how users use Maps and change the way people find things. We want to do this in a seamless, highly interactive and enjoyable way. We’ve only just started.

Apple and Google have increasingly become competitors in the mobile space while Google's mapping data remains an integral part of the iPhone's Maps application. Add this job listing to previous news that Apple quietly acquired Placebase, a would-be Google Maps competitor, back in July, and it certainly looks like Apple is planning something interesting (and less dependent on Google) for future Maps.app updates. Rumors say this new app will have navigation functionality.

Google today announced that it has issued an update to Google Earth the companion iPhone and iPod touch application to the company's desktop application offering virtual globe and other geographic information.

Among the biggest changes in Version 2.0 of Google Earth is the ability to view custom maps stored in the "My Maps" section of users' Google Maps accounts:

By logging in directly to your Google Maps account, you can view the same maps that you or others have created, using the My Maps interface.

What's new:

• Take your maps with you wherever you go. View Google Maps created on your desktop computer on your iPhone.
• Visual feedback when you select photos, businesses, and other icons. It's now much easier to browse.
• Improved performance
• Available in many new languages and countries

The app is free and avaliable in AppStore (link).

Have you ever tried to imagine the iPhone with an operating system other than Apple's one? Here is an iPhone clone running Google Android OS (v.1.5).

This device is made in China. It has a 3.5" capacitive touchscreen screen, 130MB of RAM and 256MB of internal memory expandable with a memory card. There is also a 2 MP camera, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.

Google created a new application called Google Maps Navigator. This is a full and free navigation software supported by advertising. The app will have turn-by-turn navigation, traffic information, POI, voice search, sattelite, 3D and street views. There is only an app for the Android platfom, but an iPhone version will be released soon. Hopefully Apple will not reject it. Let's watch the video:

It looks like Google and Apple have been steadily moving from friends to enemies. Google created Android and CloudOS, Apple rejected Google Voice and Google Latitude, Google’s CEO left Apple.

So Back in July Apple stealthily acquired Placebase, a mapping company that provides a service similar to Google Maps, but with more robust customizations and set of APIs, called Pushpin.

The obvious interest Apple would have in the company would be the mapping content and expertise that they are currently relying on Google for in their iPhone maps application. Placebase, however, also offered additional functionality that is not currently available in Google's offerings that Apple could theoretically take advantage of.

Given that Apple wrote the iPhone Maps app themselves, and just used Google for the backend, a switch to Apple Maps might even be transparent to the end user.

Placebase CEO Jaron Waldman LinkedIn profile now listed his position as part of the "Geo Team" at Apple.

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What is the coolest brand? Austin Martin or iPhone?

Apple has taken three of the top five places in this year’s CoolBrands list, with the iPhone at top of the poll, Apple itself in third place and the iPod securing fourth place in the list. This list was led by Aston Martin for the last three years.

BlackBerry improved, made it to 7th place, while the BBC’s iPlayer was the only new entry to take a top 20 slot. Google’s YouTube was recognised as the number one online brand.

Here is the full list:

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Action Menu, utility that extends traditional Copy / Paste functionality, is updated to version 1.0.1.

Here is an official changelog:

• No longer allow copying secure text fields
• Add option to disable extended menu support
• Support for launching Birdfeed via the Tweet action
• Remember language in Translate service
• Allow carriage returns in Lookup (for supported services)
• Option to sort Favorites alphabetically
• Translations now work (Italian, German, Japanese, French)
• Additional Support for more apps
• Fix for Facebook crash
• Fix for copying song or album name in iPod app
• Fix biteSMS-button related crashes
• Fix crash when Lookup action is used inside SpringBoard
• Fix Copy All breaking copy in the Photos app
• Fix crash in iTunes password dialog
• Fix for freeze in Fast Notes
• Fix annoying popup on Wifi network/ringtone cells in Preferences
• Revert 1Password to value-only copying
• Prevent Safari freeze when invoking inside a window.prompt (temporary fix)

Action Menu can be installed or updated via Cydia on a jailbreaked iPhone (iPod Touch).

Action Menu is a new utility that extends traditional Copy / Paste functionality. You can now "Copy All" or add text to a stack ("Favorites") that allows you to paste phrases frequently at any time and in any application.

The application is free but you can also buy an extension pack (costs $2.99) which will add new features, such as:

• History: keep the history of all copied sentences / words / numbers;
• Lookup: find online matches for phone numbers and words, using Google Search, Wikipedia, Dictionary, and Google Translate;
• Tweet: send selected text through a Twitter client installed on your iPhone (currently support Tweetie, Twitterific, Twittelator and TwitterFon).

We found this utility quite useful. It can be installed via Cydia on a jailbreaked iPhone (iPod Touch).

The latest statistics provided by PinchMedia show that, despite the statements from Apple's official website, the phenomenon of Jailbreak is increasing.

In a single week in fact, it has gone from 8% to 8,43%. This is a small percentage which probably expresses the disappointment of users faced with some decisions of Apple, such as the refusal of the application Google Voice.

The CydiaStore is open for business. Below you can find purchase process so you can see how it works.

Cydia store packages are going to be in blue writing. when you click on one, your install button says “purchase” instead of “install”.

The Cydia store uses two layers of authentication: 1) Authentication 2) Payment. Currently, amazon is used for payments and you can use either facebook or google for authentication. If you have an existing amazon account, facebook account, or google account, this is easy.

You can choose to have this automatically remembered so you don’t have to go through these steps again if you want. Also you now need to link the device you’re using to your account:

After this is done, you now need to setup payment. There are steps to take on teh very first time, but if you allow it to be kept, it will be remembered for the second purchase. Note you can also set pay limit for one-click installs without having to reenter a password in the future:

After, sign in with your Amazon password and finish checkout:

After this, you hit the “close” button and wait. It took about 20 seconds for me. Now the package shows that it’s purchased and ready for download:

After this, updates and such are treated normally. If you selected the correct options, it will be very easy to purchase the next item.

UPDATE: you can use paypal now

via thebigboss

Yesterday Apple blocked an official Google Voice app from the App Store; meanwhile, they also kicked out unofficial versions, f.e. GV Mobile. But you can still get GV Mobile for free... via Cydia.

The developer of GV Mobile has decided to go ahead and release GV Mobile for free rather than let his work go to waste. You have to jailbreak iPhone to get this app.

Here is a CNet review of Google location services for iPhone that were recently announced: