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iPad's Popularity Doubles The Number Of New Apps
Since the iPad SDK became publicly available January 27 there were more than 2,000 apps released in App Store. The mobile metrix firm Flurry analyzed some facts and made a conclusion: in comparison to December the number of new iPhone OS apps released in February is more than 185% higher. Most of them are customized versions of the apps released for iPhone/iPod Touch earlier.
Flurry said that iPad allowed AppStore to gain more apps and increase the distance between it and its biggest rival Android's Market Place.
Leave a commentGoogle And Apple - Confrontation Of Personalities
For the last few months we have been witnessing the competition between Google and Apple that becomes more and more significant. We tried to analyze some facts and made a conclusion that the confrontation is more personal than corporate.
Cloud Storage Services Come to iPhone
iSMEStorage is the first application for iPhone with cloud storage virtualization service that allows users to manage more than 10 different storage clouds from their device in 1 Cloud file. Clouds include Google Docs, FTP-as-a-cloud, Email-as-a-cloud, Gmail-as-a-cloud, Miscrosoft SkyDrive and LiveMesh, Apple Mobile Me and Amazon S3 and other.
SMEStorage CEO says:
"We are very happy to add the iPhone to the list of clients that users can use to get access to their files from our platform... It is the first [application] to virtualize storage clouds and make them available from one Cloud File System, and it is the first App of any kind in the App Store that enables access to Microsoft SkyDrive files."
iSMEStorage v1.01 is available in the Productivity Category from the AppStore only for 0.99$.
What's new in iPhone OS 3.2 Beta 4
Apple recently released iPad/iPhone OS 3.2 Beta 4 to developers. Let's see what's new:
1. Application "Photos" has been improved. Here is text from official changelog:
"Launching the Photos application under the iPad Simulator will initially show three tabs: Photos, Albums, and Camera. The Camera tab represents photos available via the Camera Connection Kit for iPad, and is not relevant for the Simulator. The Camera tab will disappear after a few seconds. "
Apple actually specified what we had seen in 3.2 beta 3. The tab Camera is for the Camera Connection Kit, and does not indicate any front camera on the iPad.
The fonts have been also improved and there are some new Gestures added for images.
2. The function Add Bookmark in Safari browser works now (previously only allowed to link to home).
3. When you press the button twice on the lockscreen the iPod controls appear, just like on the iPhone:
4. With the iPad simulator is open, pressing "cmd + shift + space bar" will appear a list of languages. By pressing the space bar you can change language:
Apple is the Most Admired Company Again
This year list of Fortune's Most Admired Companies, based on a polling of 4,200 executives from the world’s biggest companies, was again topped by Apple. This is the most favored mobile device manufacturer with the best brand management. Google was the company’s main competitor, but, according to analysts, Apple is sure to take the same record next time due to the popularity of iPad and introduction of updated versions of iPhone.
Gartner: iPad will "change entire PC ecosystem"
According to Gartner, PC shipments will increase worldwide from 305.8 mln. devices in 2009, to 366.1 mln. units shipped in 2010. The figures comprise not only traditional laptops and PC towers, but tablets and notebooks as well.
The variety of applications force vendors to provide users with something else rather than conventional general-purpose-PC-with-fast CPU approach. The new Apple's iPad belongs to the devices that will not only change PC ecosystem, but also overlap it with mobile phone industry. According to Gartner estimates, up to 10.5 mln. tablets (including new-generation devices) will be shipped in 2010. Analysts from Wall Street predict that iPad shipments will equal 5 mln. in 2010.
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."