iPhone

∞ RIM and Microsoft sitting in a tree…

I imagine as the world changed millions of years ago, Dinosaurs gathered together for comfort — yesterday proved the tech industry isn’t much different.

Not knowing how to deal with their changing world, two tech dinosaurs — Microsoft and RIM — joined forces on Tuesday to fight for their survival. So what is it these two monoliths came up with to fight off Apple and Google?

From the Bing blog:

Read the rest of this story on The Loop

∞ Make-a-Wish Foundation makes Nine-year-old an iPhone developer

We’ve all heard about some of the great work that the people at Make-a-Wish Foundation do for kids, but the latest will be interesting for iPhone users.

Nine-year-old Owain Weinert is battling pre-B Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia, but he didn’t want to meet a rock star or great sports figure for his wish — he wanted to build his own iPhone game. With the help of the Foundation and PopCap Games, his wish came true, according to GeekWire.

Read the rest of this story on The Loop

∞ Apple's iPhone market share grows 115% in 2011

A new report released on Friday by market research firm IDC shows Apple’s iPhone had substantial grow in the first quarter of 2011.

According to the report, Apple’s iPhone shipments went from 8.7 million in the first quarter of 2010 to 18.7 million in the first quarter of 2011. That brings Apple’s market share from 2.8 percent in 2010 to 5.0 in 2011.

Read the rest of this story on The Loop

∞ The truth about Android vs. iPhone market share

There is an endless stream of reports coming out these days about how Android stacks up against the iPhone. The problem is, most of them are flawed.

Here is the first giant flaw — you may have noticed in the headline of this story. You cannot compare Android to an iPhone. That’s comparing an operating system to a hardware device.

There is no compelling argument that anyone can give that says that comparing an operating system to a hardware device makes sense. None.

We don’t see reports of Windows 7 being compared to a Dell computer and then making assumptions about market share based on their sales. Why? Because, that would be stupid.

Read the rest of this story on The Loop

∞ Steve Jobs discusses iPhone location data

Apple CEO Steve Jobs is speaking publicly about how his company doesn’t use location data.

“We haven’t been tracking anyone,” Jobs said in a telephone interview with Mobilized on Wednesday. “The files they found on these phones, as we explained, it turned out were basically files we have built through anonymous, crowdsourced information that we collect from the tens of millions of iPhones out there.”

Read the rest of this story on The Loop

∞ Report: Apple testing iPhone on T-Mobile

Apple is reportedly testing its iPhone to work on T-Mobile’s network.

According to a BGR.com report on Wednesday, Apple is testing a new prototype iPhone specifically designed for T-Mobile. The iPhone has an internal model number of N94, which fails in line with the N90 and N92 models released for AT&T and Verizon, respectively.

Read the rest of this story on The Loop

∞ Apple shines, Google loses steam for app developers

Apple’s iOS continues to be a bright spot among mobile app developers, while disappointing tablet sales and fragmentation are causing developers to pull away from Google.

The latest report from market research firm IDC and Appcelerator shows that the majority of developers are confident about Apple and its mobile operating. According to the study, 91 percent of developers say they are “very interested” in iPhone development and 86 percent are very interested in developing for the iPad.

Read the rest of this story on The Loop

∞ Apple, Google asked to appear before Senate over privacy

Privacy concerns among U.S. Senators have prompted Senator Al Franken to ask Apple and Google to participate in a hearing with the Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy.

According to Ars Technica’s Jacqui Cheng, the hearing will take place on May 10, 2011 at 10:00 am ET. The hearing will focus on recent reports that Google’s Android and Apple’s iPhone and iPad track user’s location.

Read the rest of this story on The Loop

∞ Apple sued for tracking user location on iPhone and iPad

It was only a matter of time before it happened and here it is — two Apple users have filed a lawsuit against the company for tracking user location.

According to Bloomberg, one of the people uses an iPhone and lives in Florida, and the other uses an iPad and lives in New York.

“We take issue specifically with the notion that Apple is now basically tracking people everywhere they go,” Aaron Mayer, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said today in a telephone interview with Bloomberg. “If you are a federal marshal you have to have a warrant to do this kind of thing, and Apple is doing it without one.”

Read the rest of this story on The Loop

∞ Apple vs. RIM: Who sells more smartphones?

Apple has clearly been upping its game when it comes to making the iPhone the most popular device on the market, but RIM is still making noise saying how good it is. I decided find out who was selling the most smartphones.

I looked at the last four fiscal quarters for Apple and RIM and get a feeling for which company was on the way up, or down, and who really did have the bragging rights.

Of course, fiscal quarters do not run like calendar quarters, so they are a bit off based on dates, but they are still pretty close. This isn’t meant to be scientific, but rather a look at four quarters to see how smartphone sales are trending.

Read the rest of this story on The Loop

∞ Steve Jobs says Apple doesn't track anyone

Apple hasn’t officially responded to reports that the iPhone and iPad track user movements, but CEO Steve Jobs apparently has.

Jobs reportedly responded to an email sent by a MacRumors reader asking about the devices tracking user’s location. The user asked Steve to explain why Apple would track its users. He also said in the email that he was going to switch to a Droid because it doesn’t track users.

Steve responded via email.

Read the rest of this story on The Loop

∞ Will U.S. Senators question Google about data collection too?

It didn’t take long for U.S. Senators to demand an explanation from Apple CEO Steve Jobs about why the company was collecting user location data on its iPhone and iPad. My question is, are they asking Google too?

Less than a day after it was first reported, Senator Al Franken, D-Minn., demanded an explanation from Jobs about why Apple is collecting the data.

“There are numerous ways in which this information could be abused by criminals and bad actors,” wrote Franken. “Furthermore, there is no indication that this file is any different for underage iPhone or iPad users, meaning that millions of children and teenagers who use iPhone or iPad devices also risk having their location collected and compromised.”

Read the rest of this story on The Loop

∞ Apple is the world's largest handset maker based on revenue

The good news just doesn’t stop for Apple. New research shows that Apple has become the world’s largest handset vendor based on revenue.

Writing for AllThingsD, John Paczkowski says that Apple’s iPhone revenues hit $11.9 billion for the quarter, outperforming Nokia for the first time ever. Nokia’s revenue from all of its phones was $9.4 billion.

Read the rest of this story on The Loop

∞ Apple's iOS outdoes Android by 116% in Europe

According to a new study by market research firm comScore on Thursday, Apple’s iOS is far outreaching that of Google’s Android.

The results of the study show that iOS on Apple’s iPhone, iPod touch, and iPads has a combined installed base of 28.9 million users. Android’s user base is at 13.4 million users. That number includes phones and connected media devices like the Samsung Galaxy Tab.

Read the rest of this story on The Loop

∞ iPhone data collection explained

Researchers on Wednesday discovered a file on Apple’s iPhone and iPad that contained location information of its user. However, the file is not new and the discovery of the file was written about months ago.

Alex Levinson, the Lead Engineer for Katana Forensics, actually wrote about the file in a book by Sean Morrissey called “iOS Forensic Analysis.” Levinson refutes all claims that Apple is gathering this data.

“Apple is not harvesting this data from your device,” wrote Levinson. “This is data on the device that you as the customer purchased and unless they can show concrete evidence supporting this claim – network traffic analysis of connections to Apple servers — I rebut this claim in full. Through my research in this field and all traffic analysis I have performed, not once have I seen this data traverse a network.”

Read the rest of this story on The Loop

∞ Apple's iOS clobbering Android

We often here about how Google’s Android operating system is outperforming Apple’s iOS, but a new report on Tuesday sheds new light on all those numbers.

According to research from comScore, if you factor in all of the devices that use iOS including iPhones, iPads and iPod touches, Apple reached 37.9 million people. Android, according to the data reached 23.8 million on phones and tablets, according to WSJ.com.

Read the rest of this story on The Loop

∞ Game developers association warns against Amazon Appstore

The International Game Developers Association’s (IGDA’s) Board of Directors have issued a strong warning to its members about putting software up for sale on Amazon’s new Android-based Appstore. The organization says that Amazon’s terms may ultimately have a “negative impact…on the game development community.”

Amazon’s Appstore has appeared recently as an alternative to the Android Market. It provides users of Android-based smartphones and tablets a way to purchase and download software for their devices, using their existing Amazon.com account information.

Read the rest of this story on The Loop

∞ iDygest brings tech news to iPhone users

I’ve been using the free iDygest app on my iPhone for some time, and have enjoyed the way it culls the news for me.

iDygest is not like a typical RSS reader. With an RSS reader, you enter in the sites you want to see stories from and it updates regularly. The problem is that many sites cover the same stories, which means you have duplicate content.

iDygest culls through hundreds of Web sites looking for the most popular stories and then brings them together in the app. You still have the option to read the story from your favorite site, but you don’t have to endlessly click through links of the same story.

Read the rest of this story on The Loop

∞ Apple releases iOS 4.3.2

Apple on Thursday released iOS 4.3.2, the latest update for its mobile operating system.

According to notes provided with the update, iOS 4.3.2 fixes an issue that occasionally caused blank or frozen video during a FaceTime call. It also fixes an issue that prevented some internatinoal users from connecting to 3G networks on iPad Wi-Fi + 3G.

Read the rest of this story on The Loop

∞ Windows App Store screenshots leaked

It’s hard to keep secrets these days. The design of Microsoft’s new Windows App Store is the latest project to be leaked on the Web.

TechCrunch posted supposed screenshots of the company’s Windows App Store that leaked onto the Web. The screenshots are not verified, but if they are real, it certainly shows some more copying of Apple.

It may also explain why Microsoft is fighting Apple so hard to make sure the term “App Store” remains generic.

Read the rest of this story on The Loop

∞ Report: iOS 4.3.2 will fix Verizon iPad 2 issues

An upcoming update for Apple’s mobile operating system could fix an ongoing issues with the iPad 2 and Verizon.

BGR.com on Monday got its hands on the latest unreleased update, iOS 4.3.2, which it says fixes the Verizon issues. Apple said last week that it was “aware that a small number of iPad 2 customers have experienced connectivity issues with the Verizon 3G network and we are investigating it.”

Read the rest of this story on The Loop