The implications of Apple’s recent billion-dollar victory over Samsung in a patent-infringement case go beyond the specifics of this particular battle — the reality is the war over software and design patents is bad not just for individual companies but arguably for society as a whole. Read more »
With a reported 50 percent of all smartphone owners not knowing how much mobile broadband their handsets use each month, data usage tracking tools are becoming valuable utilities. Boingo just added one to its Wi-Finder for iOS app, which can help save you money. Read more »
UBS analyst Steven Milunovich argues that the biggest threat to Apple’s dominance in the long run is not a plethora of copycat smartphone and tablet makers — but a competitor out-innovating Apple, which could be ushered in by Samsung losing and Apple winning. Read more »
A barista inputing your coffee preference via an iPad isn’t new. But the simplicity of touch-screen and cloud-based checkout could be a revelation for grocery owners used to paying tens of thousands of dollars for point of sale systems and the required training for them. Read more »
Don’t have the $2.5 billion budget that Nasa spent to design, build and launch the Mars Curiosity rover? For a fraction of the price you can virtually be in two places at once thanks to telepresence robots for every budget, including those using iPads or smartphones. Read more »
Here’s our daily pick of stories about Apple from around the web you shouldn’t miss. Today’s installment: Apple’s market capitalization is now the highest of any company ever, Apple responds to SMS security report, how the iPad is outgrowing the iPhone, and Apple’s moves in Russia. Read more »
After weeks of speculation, Samsung introduced its newest iPad competitor in the U.S.: the Galaxy Note 10.1 Wi-Fi tablet. Starting at $499 for a 16 GB model, the slate adds Samsung’s digital S-Pen with supporting software and the ability to run two apps on one screen. Read more »
Amazon launched a “Send to Kindle” extension for Google Chrome that lets users send articles to their Kindle. Other services, like Pocket and Instapaper, can do the same thing. Which one should you use? Read more at paidContent »
Between mock-ups and alleged leaked parts, you’d think we’d know what a smaller iPad would look like. But some of these ideas are off base showing a super slim bezel on the slate. Effective usability of 7-inch tablets requires a place to rest your thumb. Read more »
Market research firm IHS iSuppli shows that iPad shipments surged in Q2 2012, as Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble’s Nook Tablets saw major drops. Kindle Fire’s share of the media tablet market fell to 4.2 percent, with B&N’s at 1.9 percent. Read more at paidContent »
Barnes & Noble dropped prices on its Nook Tablets and Nook Color on Sunday, bringing the price of the Nook Tablet 16 GB in line with Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Google’s 8 GB Nexus 7. The bookstore chain has failed to gain much tablet market share. Read more at paidContent »
There are a lot of comic book readers out there. Here are the best tablet apps I’ve found for reading them, both commercial readers (apps that let you buy comics as well as read them), and an app that supports CBZ and CBR files. Read more »
We know that Apple started seeing some validation of the 7-inch tablet market some 18 months ago. Those reasons still apply, but there are even more to consider today. Here’s another look at a handful of observations on why Apple should enter this market. Read more »
How long has Apple been thinking about a smaller iPad? Since they read impressions about the Galaxy Tab 18 months ago. Matt shares experiences with Nexus 7 cases — and explains what pickleball is — while both hosts discuss the Chrome OS and T-Mobile’s new (old) Galaxy Note. Read more »
Apple executive Scott Forstall was asked to read an email in court Friday sent to him, CEO Tim Cook and others by fellow Apple executive Eddy Cue in January 2011 in which Cue said he believed there was a market for a 7-inch iPad. Read more »
Is it a sign that people are holding back on upgrading to the new iPad? Or a measure of the success the discounted iPad 2 is seeing here in the U.S.? Schools purchasing iPads were a key driver of Apple’s record-breaking iPad sales last quarter. Read more »
The Huffington Post has dropped the price of its iPad magazine to zero, and News Corp.’s The Daily has chopped almost a third of its staff — more evidence that the dream many publishers had about the iPad being their savior is still far from reality. Read more »
Apple put more distance between itself and tablet competitors last quarter, moving from a 62 percent share of the market in Q2 2011, to a 68 percent share this year. But an influx of smaller and cheaper iPad alternatives is coming by the end of the year. Read more »
Amazon takes another step on Apple’s digital media turf: Amazon Instant Video is now available for iPad, bringing another media option for movie purchases, rentals and television shows to Apple’s tablet. For now, Amazon is keeping this away from Android tablets, save its own Kindle Fire. Read more »
Fanhattan’s guide to entertainment on your iPad just got a lot more useful: The app added content from new partners, including NBC and HBO, and a new WatchList feature. The idea: Add your favorite movies and shows once, and get notifications whereever and whenever they’re available. Read more »
In a move aimed primarily at users of its textbooks, iPad publisher Inkling is making all of its titles available for the iPhone. The company’s interactive ebook publishing platform, Habitat, now works for iPhone as well. Read more at paidContent »
With the growth of sensors and microelectronics, the potential uses of wearable-computing technologies now reach to health and fitness, gaming, fashion, disabilities and augmented reality. Most importantly, the widespread adoption of wearables will drive the form function and market for mobiles in vital ways. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Revealed in court documents related to next week’s Samsung trial: the gross margins Apple Turns out Apple makes at least twice as much from each iPhone as it does from the iPad. Read more »
A U.K. judge who found that Samsung didn’t copy the iPad took the unusual step this month of ordering Apple to broadcast that finding to the British public. Now, Apple has won at least a temporary reprieve. Read more »
Apple spends a whopping $28 billion a year buying semiconductors for the millions of tablets, phones and computers it produces according to estimates released from IHS iSuppli, a research firm. That puts Apple far and away the largest buyer of silicon. Read more »
On Tuesday, Apple CEO Tim Cook declared that the adoption of the iPad by educational institutions was “unlike anything I’ve seen in technology.” It’s not just a cheaper iPad 2 that’s driving record K-12 iPad sales, but Apple’s total education apps package. Read more »
Apple’s OS X Mountain Lion is perfectly matched to not just Apple’s hardware but also with a new kind of Internet-centric usage behavior. It is the marriage of form and function. But most importantly, it’s a tip of the hat to the iPhone and iPad. Read more »
Proloquo2go, a communication assistance app for those who have difficulty speaking, is getting an important update Wednesday. Thanks to a major undertaking in text-to-speech, the iOS app now has real children’s voices that will play when a picture, phrase or word is tapped on screen. Read more »
Apple reported its fiscal third quarter earnings on Tuesday of $35 billion in revenue and $8.8 billion in earnings, or $9.32 per share. That’s ahead of what Apple itself had forecast, but below what Wall Street was expecting. Read more »
Amazon is expected to introduce up to 6 new tablets, including a 10-inch model. Why not? Few besides Amazon have the consumer data, shopping experience and content to make multiple screen sized tablets, proving that one size doesn’t fit all when it comes to mobile devices. Read more »
In a Q3 without a new iPhone, and one in which the iPad has continued to gather steam, it’s worth wondering if the iPad could finally rival the iPhone in terms of sales and significance to Apple’s bottom line when it reports earnings on Tuesday. Read more »
Here are my experiences with three options to connect to your axe to your iOS device. They’ll let you use your iPhone or iPad as an amp, or record your guitar, bass or keyboard on GarageBand for iOS. Read more »
Here’s our daily pick of stories about Apple that you shouldn’t miss. Today’s installment: Can Apple contain the crowds for its next China launch?, the murky grading process for EPEAT, checking in on the in-app purchase hack, and why people visit Apple stores. Read more »
Fotopedia users in China account for the largest chunk of its iPad audience by far. So naturally the travel app photo magazine for iOS is launching an app featuring the country itself. It arrives Thursday to coincide with the launch of the new iPad in China. Read more »
In the four months since the new iPad went on sale, usage has increased across most categories that CIRP tracks: using the iPad for social networking, web browsing, and apps, but no category of usage saw a bigger bump than business. Read more »
Trapit, an AI-based discovery engine for Web content from the group behind Siri, is releasing its iPad app Thursday after launching a Web version last November. Trapit wants to compete against news reading apps like Flipboard by offering better content. It’s planning publisher partnerships, too. Read more at paidContent »
Tablets featured prominently in the connected consumer space, both as a product category and as a component of broader platform strategies by major OS providers Microsoft, Google and Apple. Meanwhile Facebook began laying the groundwork to add payment processing to its platform. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Kickstarter continues to drain my monthy mobile gadget budget, this time for POP, which is short for “portable power.” The nicely designed device looks like a small trash can in shape, holding a 25,000 mAh battery and four retractable cords for iOS and micro-USB devices. Read more »
A British judge raised eyebrows last week when he ruled that Samsung’s tablets did not infringe Apple’s patents because they were not as “cool.” Now, the same judge has followed up with an unusual order. Read more »
Here’s our daily pick of stories about Apple from around the web that you shouldn’t miss. Today’s installment: How old is the idea for the iPad?, Chrome for iOS stats, the future of OS X, and Portugal may follow Italy in suing Apple over warranty practice. Read more »
