Apple buys indoor location company WifiSlam
Apple is said to have paid around $20 million recently for the small, 2-year-old Silicon Valley company. Read more »
How closely knit design and engineering teams put Pinterest on a rocket ship
For companies in Silicon Valley who want to prioritize design, the real question is how to do it while also shipping engineering products to market. At Pinterest, the designers and engineers are vocal that you can, in fact, do both. Read more »
Why the EU is unlikely to crack down on Apple over its carrier contracts
photo: Shutterstock / Lisa F. Young
French carriers have reportedly made an unofficial complaint to EU competition authorities over Apple’s iPhone sales quotas. The Commission is unlikely to see this as a matter for an antitrust investigation. Read more »
Review: Apple’s Podcasts app catches up with the competition
With the Podcasts 1.2 update released Thursday, Apple’s own app is now on par with other iOS podcasting apps. One area in which it really excels now is automatic downloads of new episodes. Read more »
Apple warns developers it will stop accepting apps that access UDIDs on May 1
Other apps that won’t make the cut: those that are not optimized for the iPhone 5 or Retina displays. Read more »
Apple’s Podcasts app gets playlist creation, iCloud syncing and custom stations
Improvements to the app are long overdue since the Podcasts feature was broken out from iTunes as a standalone app last fall. Read more »
Google’s Motorola wins patent for octagon smartphone shape
photo: GigaOM
Do you remember Apple’s rounded rectangles patent? Well, this week Motorola obtained a patent for eight-sided smartphones. Read more »
Apple sued again, this time over security patents by Intertrust
Intertrust has 250 patents related to digital copy protection software security and has licensed them to plenty of Apple’s peers. Now it is using the iPhone maker for infringement. Read more »
Subscriber Content
How energy data will impact the smart grid
The deployment of smart meters combined with the growth of cloud computing infrastructure has created opportunities to build business models around the volume of emerging energy data. Those who use data to solve customer problems and leverage decades of software development and advances in big data will attract investment dollars. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Adobe’s CTO leaving the company and heading to Apple
The move to Apple is tinged with a bit of irony considering the bad blood between the two companies. Read more »
Apple issues fix for lock screen bug with iOS 6.1.3 update
Apple says its latest iOS update should fix a security flaw discovered in February; it also includes an update to Apple Maps in Japan. Read more »
EU says Apple still not conforming with warranty laws
Apple’s warranty practices come under fire again in Europe as EU Justice Commissioner calls for better enforcement of current consumer protection laws. Read more »
Subscriber Content
How the mega data center is changing the hardware and data center markets
photo: Facebook
Mega data centers’ innovations in serviceability, automatically detecting and recovering from failures, procurement practices, and so forth will become standard practice in all modern data centers. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Pot kettle BlackBerry: Thorsten Heins thinks the iPhone is outdated
While it’s amusing to hear critiques of iOS coming from the guy stuck with running BlackBerry, it’s clear that Apple’s competitors sense an opening. Read more »
Why I stopped wearing my iPod nano as a watch
I was an enthusiastic early adopter of the iPod nano with wristwatch case that arrived in 2010. But as a practical solution, it didn’t work. Here’s what I’m hoping a true Apple watch solution would be like and what it would avoid. Read more »
Media outlets will argue in Apple, Samsung appeal over sealed documents
Last years’ gigantic court fight between Apple and Samsung continues to have ripples in the court and the press. This week, an appeals court agreed to let the New York Times and others argue that documents in the case should not be secret. Read more »
Former Apple retail chief John Browett admits he was a bad fit at the company
It was apparent former Dixon CEO John Browett probably wasn’t going to fit in at Apple to many of us watching. Five months after his firing, he says his tenure ended over “fit, not competency.” Read more »
Mark Zuckerberg ousts Tim Cook as top employee-approved tech CEO, according to Glassdoor
photo: Flickr user Anirudh Koul
A year after Apple’s CEO topped Glassdoor’s employee rankings as best chief executive, he dropped down to No. 18 this year. SAP and Facebook’s CEOs are the new highest-rated CEOs. Read more »
On eve of Galaxy S4 launch, Apple exec dumps on Android
Surprise! Apple thinks Android is lame. In a brief, curiously timed interview with the Wall Street Journal, SVP of Worldwide Marketing Schiller ticked off reasons why he thinks iOS is better. Read more »
Judge rules Apple CEO Tim Cook must testify in ebook antitrust case
photo: Chris Hondros/Getty Images
A federal judge ruled Wednesday that Apple CEO Tim Cook must testify in the Department of Justice’s lawsuit against Apple for conspiring to fix ebook prices, citing Steve Jobs’ death as a key factor in her decision. Read more at paidContent »
Samsung spent $401M on Galaxy ads and iPhone mockery in 2012
photo: Samsung
Samsung’s U.S. smartphone spending in 2012 saw a huge jump from a total of $78 million in 2011. In the meantime, the company actually outspent Apple, which put $333 million toward iPhone ads during the year. Read more »
IDC tablet takeaway: Androids to outsell iPads this year as tablet sizes, prices shrink
That small slate market — which in Apple’s eyes, didn’t exist — will account for more sales than larger slates, says IDC. And due to lower prices, Android’s tablet market share will reach just past that of iOS this year. Read more »
Spotify hits 6 million paid users as market for music streaming heats up
A report shows that music subscription service Spotify continues to grow at a rapid pace. The growth validates Spotify’s business model but is also inviting a growing cluster of rivals. Read more at paidContent »
Like Amazon, Apple wants to create a marketplace for used digital goods
In a patent application filed Thursday, Apple outlined the possible creation of a marketplace for used digital goods. Amazon recently won a patent to create such a marketplace. Read more at paidContent »
6 ways to watch your own videos from your iPhone or Mac on your TV
A guide for how to watch one of your home movies in the privacy of your own home using the Apple TV, a Mac or an iOS device. Read more »
Analyst: Apple, could you be more like IBM, please?
UBS compares Apple and IBM and suggests based on their similarities Apple should do a bigger stock buyback and start a yearly analyst meeting to get analysts more face time with company executives. Read more »
Always taking the weather with you? Here’s a cool thermometer dongle for better readings
Danish weather app firm Robocat plans to move into hardware with Thermodo, a tiny digital thermometer for mobile devices. An SDK is promised, too, opening possibilities for new temperature-aware apps. Read more »
Comscore: Android still top US smartphone OS, but iPhone top smartphone and iOS gaining
photo: Samsung
Even though it fell 1.3 percent between October and December to 52.3 percent share, Android still is the most popular smartphone operating system in the U.S. Apple’s share grew 3.5 percent to 37.8 percent. Read more »
Why telcos may finally be moving past app store envy
photo: Shutterstock / Stanislav Komogorov
In the slicing-up of the mobile content pie, carriers have been left out over the last few years. But, according to a new analyst report, that situation’s starting to change. Read more »
Report: Apple still talking about a music streaming service
A Reuters report says Apple’s CEO and SVP of Internet Services paid a visit to the CEO of Beats Electronics, which is launching a music streaming service this year. Read more »
Europe hits Microsoft with $730M fine over browser choice ‘error’
photo: Shutterstock / Mati Nitibhon
Microsoft was naughty and got caught, and now it has to pay handsomely. Here’s the rundown on what happened, why it mattered, and why it may not happen again in quite the same way. Read more »
Google’s 10 rules for designing data centers
Google’ vice president of data centers, Joe Kava, outlines how the search giant’s pursuit of data center designs corresponds nicely to the company’s ten governing rules. Well, almost. Read more »
Steve Jobs biographer dropped from Apple ebook case, James Murdoch named in email
The case accusing Apple of fixing ebook prices is heating up. New court documents show that Steve Jobs’ biographer have been dropped from the case but that Jobs himself is still at the center of it. Read more at paidContent »
Google Maps for iPhone gets Google contacts integration
The latest update to the app also includes quicker nearby search options and English language versions of the app and a choice of kilometers or miles in seven Middle Eastern countries. Read more »
Updated: Apple expands iBookstore in Japan with new publisher partnerships
For the first time Apple’s iBookstore will offer paid ebooks in the Japanese market, from major Japanese publishers including Kodansha and KADOKAWA. The iBooks 3.1 update also brings reading improvements for other Asian languages. Read more »
A future iWatch could test Apple’s cloud chops
Like MobileMe and Apple Maps did, a future iWatch could reinforce the notion that Apple isn’t good at web-based services. But — if done right — it could push Apple to get its web-based act together. Read more »
Amazon execs set to testify in price-fixing case against Apple
photo: Getty Images / Spencer Platt
Amazon won a court ruling last week that restrict Apple’s access to its executives and documents. Filings from the case also show that senior Amazon executives are poised to testify for the government in its price-fixing case against Apple. Read more at paidContent »
Ticking down to an iWatch debut: Reports say device to arrive this year
Both Bloomberg and The Verge say it could debut in 2013. Plus, other details emerge about potential battery life and feature set. Read more »
Browsing the web on an iPad stinks–and Apple likes it that way
photo: Apple
Safari on the iPad utterly dominates tablet web traffic. Yet the experience of the web with tablet browsers is terrible, as users get an irritatingly predictable experience. Read more »
GigaOM Reads: A look back at the week in tech
Groupon CEO Andrew Mason fired, Google CEO Sergey Brin feels emasculated by phones but not by nerd glasses and Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is putting an end to remote work. Plus Oscars & Fashion. Here is our take on the week that was! Read more »
