Granting permission to an iOS app to use your location data also gives the app the ability to copy your address book, according to a test conducted by the New York Times. Luckily no app has been caught doing it — at least not yet. Read more »
Searching for a new lease of life, Mozilla is joining forces with Spanish operator Telefónica to build handsets that have web technologies at their heart. But can Mozilla succeed where Palm failed? And is there room in a difficult market for more players? Read more »
With new products from a variety of players like Google and Isis comes a potentially confusing year as the term “mobile wallet” gets thrown around repeatedly. What exactly is the “mobile wallet”? Here are some important definitions for those looking to make a move in the space. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
What will 2012 bring to our mobile world where tablets are trying to take the place of PCs and we’re carrying small computers in our pockets? ComScore helps predict 2012 by looking at 2011 in its Mobile Future in Focus report, published on Thursday. Read more »
Apple and EMI announced that the iTunes store is exclusively selling ringtones from The Beatles for $1.29 each. The 30-second tones are from the The Beatles no. 1 hits album called 1, which represent the 27 top Beatles tunes in the U.S. and UK. Read more »
Tablets represent the next evolution in the advancement of mobile computing, and by 2015 or 2016, the tablet will begin to replace the laptop and the desktop operating systems market will begin to level off or perhaps decline. Our latest forecast examines these trends in detail. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
With its new iOS app, Clear, Realmac Software has taken the “less is more” axiom to its ultimate conclusion. Fjord’s Alfred Lui and Aynne Valencia explain why we’ll soon see more of this stripped-down approach to interface design, thanks to three big industry trends. Read more »
Don’t Run With a Plasma Sword is one of those games you just have to try out based on the title alone. With its straightforward gameplay and nearly endless level-ups, this game has more to offer than its modern update on that nostalgic alien soundtrack “Woo-EE-Euh.” Read more »
While Siri and VoiceOver can assist visually impaired iPhone users, new software out of Georgia Tech looks to supplement these accessibility options. BrailleTouch uses traditional Braille input on the iPhone’s touchscreen, allowing people to type up to 32 words per minute with 92 percent accuracy. Read more »
Apple is testing smaller screens for a new mini iPad model, according to The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday. It’s about time a smaller iPad arrived for a number a reasons. And the idea that iOS won’t work on a 7- or 7.85-inch touchscreen is flawed. Read more »
When HP CEO Meg Whitman addresses thousands of partners Wednesday, there will be a lot on the line. She has to convince them that the management snafus of the last two years are firmly in the past. The partners would love to believe that. Read more »
In this week’s edition: Bloons 2 ($0.99 Universal) is the latest in a series of highly addictive games by Digital Goldfish featuring a dart-throwing monkey with a thing about popping balloons. Read more »
Mechanical Engineer is an app for the iPad that’s a cool and useful way to store and use hundreds of conversions and formulas that mechanical engineers — or those studying to be one — need when they’re designing brakes or fans or bridges or elevators. Read more »
Much of today’s business communication activity still happens in email, but that presents a problem for the current on-the-go workforce. This report, based on a recent survey of business managers, highlights some of the problematic areas around business content collaboration and provides options for working through them. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Based on a growing number of data points, Android’s sales dominance may be nearing its apex while iOS is on the rise. Even as a daily user of both an Android smartphone and tablet, I can’t deny the facts that Android’s future won’t rival Android’s past. Read more »
This report outlines the myriad issues at play in Facebook’s move, from examining how CEO Mark Zuckerberg wants to rewire the world to understanding the company’s infrastructure dependency. But from every angle, it’s clear the effects will ripple throughout the startup and tech communities. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Calendar apps are great, but sometimes you need to track how many days until a future event or project. In some cases, you might want to track days from the past. D-Day is a free, simple iOS program that manages both scenarios on iOS devices. Read more »
The solar industry has begun 2012 with some trepidation, with many on the warpath to cut costs and reduce output. These moves give the market a chance to reduce inventories and get production more in sync with demand. But recovery will likely come slowly. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
This year’s CES was the biggest in the show’s 44-year history. It boasted 15 miles of exhibit hall aisles, 3,100 booths and 153,000 attendees. It is easy to be jaded by the endlessly repetitive products, but the thousands of innovations point toward a future of connectivity. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
IOS development is not for the faint of heart, and a new blog post by developer Kent Nguyen does a good job of pointing out exactly why. Nguyen targets those who would be footing the bill for app development, in the hopes of lessening sticker shock. Read more »
Apple’s record quarter is prompting a lot of analysts and Wall Street watchers to up their estimates for the stock’s performance. A slew of investor notes released Wednesday suggest few believe Apple’s fortunes have reached their apex. Investors seem to agree, as Apple’s stock opened strong. Read more »
China is Apple’s second-most-important market after the U.S. But when it comes to finding other new emerging markets to sell its wares, Apple has its eye on Brazil. CEO Tim Cook spoke of the country’s growing importance during Apple’s quarterly earnings call on Tuesday. Read more »
OnLive’s game service is already available for Android devices, but there’s an iOS version in the works. Here’s a hands on demo with the beta client on an iPad, along with the OnLive wireless controller, which I think brings a much better experience than the touchscreen. Read more »
Run Roo Run is a simple to learn, yet hard to master side-scrolling game that rewards accuracy. If you were a gamer that toiled over Mario to get the timing of jumping from pipe to pipe just right, then this is the game for you. Read more »
The fourth quarter may have lacked a dominating big-event product announcement like Q3’s Facebook platform extension or Q2’s unveiling of Google+, but the NewNet world continued to buzz along. In the battle for mind share, everyone wanted to be a platform. Meanwhile, consumer and social technologies continued to gain momentum, and new vehicles for content and service discovery presented both challenges and opportunities for NewNet companies. And it is hard to ignore the overcrowded but growing world of daily deals. This quarterly report analyzes these trends and others, and it also provides a near-term outlook of trends, technologies and companies to watch in 2012. Companies mentioned in the report include Amazon, Facebook and Socialcast. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
CES and Macworld are hogging the event spotlight right now, but what about events for developers? Last year’s WWDC sold out quick, and this year’s probably will too, so you may want to plan on alternate conference and training opportunities in 2012. Here’s a list. Read more »
Is the PC “dead”? Of course not, but if you don’t see the trend moving away from local / desktop computing and towards mobile / cloud computing, you’re missing the sales figures for each market: Nearly 50 percent of recent device sales are mobile. Read more »
Trenches II is the latest in a lineup of World War I-themed games from Thunder Game Works. Falling somewhere between Plants vs. Zombies and Flight Control, Trenches II offers slightly more advanced, compelling gameplay, so much so that it approaches the realm of real-time strategy gaming. Read more »
On the day Apple was set to sell the iPhone 4S for the first time in China, huge crowds gathered outside the Shanghai and Beijing stores. At the Beijing store, crowds became so unruly Apple had to close the store and SWAT teams were called in. Read more »
Apple is in for another huge iPhone 4S launch, if early lineups are any indication. Lines outside Apple’s five official retail stores in China have already extended into the hundreds ahead of Friday’s launch, which is good news for Apple’s next-quarter results. Read more »
Target will soon offer store-within-a-store-type setups in 25 of its locations, the company revealed during a presentation on Thursday. The move backs up a report from last week that suggested Apple may be extending its partnership with the U.S. retail chain. Read more »
The big buzz out of CES on Thursday is that Intel has been “talking” to Apple, among other manufacturers, about using its new line of Medfield chips in upcoming mobile devices. But the discussions are clearly very preliminary, and Apple has good reason to remain aloof. Read more »
Shazam, best known for its music tagging app, is now rolling out its first new app, called Shazam Player, a free app that replaces the iOS music player and provides a deep set of features including lyrics, social sharing, smart playlists, bios and more. Read more »
Innergie just launched its PocketCell portable battery, and sent me a review unit for use at CES. The portable battery and cable system has already saved my hide here at the show and I’ll be buying my own as soon as I get back home. Read more »
I spent some time playing with Google Insights to find out what parts of the country are most interested in technology and when that interest hit its peak. It wasn’t surprising to see Silicon Valley rank highly, but did you know Utah was into next-generation programming? Read more »
Samsung ended 2011 with a bang: its best quarterly profit ever. Now that we have an idea of how Samsung did in mobile sales this year, it’s time to see how it did going head-to-head with Apple and the iPhone this year. Read more »
It looks like development superstar Ray Ozzie is about to come out of stealth mode: The force behind Microsoft’s Windows Azure Platform-as-a-Service project and Lotus Notes is starting to hire developers for his new “Cocomo” project. Read more »
Apps are, at the end of the day, very personal pieces of software. And your favorite mobile app isn’t mine. So we decided to poll the staff here at GigaOM to see what apps changed our lives in 2011. Read more »
