Small slates are expected to account for 32 percent of all tablet sales this year says iHS iSuppli. After nearly two years of saying there’s a market for the 7-inch tablet, it’s good to see the analysts reaffirm my own experiences. Now: Where’s that 7.85-inch iPad? Read more »
Google’s purchase of Nik Software, the German company behind Snapseed, shows Google is looking to improve photo editing within its overall ecosystem and is interested in boosting the fast-growing photography community currently flowering within Google+. Read more »
In the five years since the iPhone hit the market, Apple and Google have delivered more than 40 billion cumulative downloads of apps. Other sources predict the app marketplace will swell to surpass 66 billion downloads in 2016, a growth fueled by tablet, entertainment, and enterprise apps. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Tablets (or any gadget) are supposed to be our companions for a long time. And in order to review them, you really have to live with them. So, after using the new Kindle Fire for about three days, all I can offer are my early impressions. Read more »
Here’s our daily pick of stories about Apple from around the web that you shouldn’t miss. Today’s installment: The iPhone 5 event will also include iPods, Apple’s winning event formula, the security expert who solved the Apple UDID mystery, more iPads in the air, and more. Read more »
After releasing Google Drive for iOS in June, iPhone and iPad owners were disappointed by the lack of editing capabilities. Google fixes that with an app update today, but it’s still fairly limited: Only documents can be edited, even though Google’s demo video shows spreadsheet editing. Read more »
What’s normally a quiet time turned into a busy week: Before the new Kindle Fire HD tablets launched, Motorola introduced three new Razr phones while Samsung touted its Galaxy S III sales figures: 20 million to date. Android tablets sales are on the rise too. Read more »
The common belief that “there’s no tablet market, just an iPad market” may be changing. Based on the number of daily device activations, the gap between Google tablet sales and those of Apple’s iPad is closing. Improved software and the Nexus 7 tablet are likely reasons. Read more »
Here’s our daily pick of stories about Apple from around the web that you shouldn’t miss. Today’s installment: Images of what the iPhone 5 will look like, why Apple’s gotten so bad at keeping secrets, a Chinese company tries to patent iPhone 5 design, and more. Read more »
With the adoption of iPads, tablets and smartphones into our work flow instead of just sitting at a laptop computer here are five categories of apps positioned well for becoming a fundamental part of our day to day work environment in this mobile era. Read more »
Amazon says the Kindle Fire is sold out, meaning the company will definitely announce a new tablet at its press event next week. Meanwhile, Amazon says the Fire makes up 22% of the U.S. tablet market — suggesting actual sales far lower than early analyst estimates. Read more at paidContent »
While cloud, mobility, social, and analytics have been driving demand for IT products and services in 2012, the worldwide IT spending picture has become dimmer as the year has progressed: We’re looking at 5.1 percent worldwide IT spending growth in 2012. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Sick of staring at the seat in front of you during your flight’s takeoff and landing because all you have is a book on an e-reader? Well, the FAA is asking whether or not portable electronic devices might be okay to use during the entire flight. Read more »
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 »
