The only thing preventing this from happening sooner is the upcoming gift-giving frenzy of iPad minis, Nexus 7 and Kindle Fires in the U.S. China still doesn’t have the iPhone 5 or new iPad mini, but some carriers will start carrying the new iPhone next month. Read more »
iPhones and their smartphone brethren are hugely popular among thieves, especially in major cities. Popular gadget trade-in site Gazelle will now be checking all devices it receives against a database of stolen consumer electronics before handing over cash to customers. Read more »
Cumulative Android sales started surpassing that of iPhones in 2010, but as Apple improves its handset, it often gets a sales boost following each model launch. Thanks to iPhone 5, that boost was enough to beat out Android sales in the U.S., but not overseas. Read more »
Growing number of mobile apps on multiple mobile platforms made by the likes of Google and Apple means that app discovery has become a major challenge. For some companies, including the newly reborn Digg, now part of Betaworks, that represents an opportunity. Read more »
China may be Apple’s next frontier for smartphone growth, but the company has some catching up to do. Android handsets that cost one-third of the iPhone have taken the market by storm: Android now accounts for 90.1 percent of the smartphone market in China. Read more »
Though the free app isn’t released just yet, Nokia’s mapping app called Here could make Apple’s own Maps look behind the times. Here will be available online and offline. And more importantly for urban dwellers or those without cars, it will have public transit directions. Read more »
iPhones with 5- and 8-megapixel cameras are turning a lot of people into better and more prolific photographers. The Swedish company behind Foap, which lets anyone sell iPhone pictures through their app, has changed its quality standards and is offering a better incentive for users. Read more »
Apple and HTC have agreed to settle all outstanding patent litigation between the two companies, signing a ten-year licensing deal but not disclosing financial terms. The settlement ends one of the most prominent battles over Google’s Android smartphone operating system. Read more »
Samsung’s Galaxy S III was the best-selling smartphone model last quarter, says research firm Strategy Analytics. That may or may not be true due to the “shipped vs sold” argument. Truth be told, it doesn’t matter because only Samsung could possibly rival Apple’s iPhone. Here’s why. Read more »
After 4 days without power thanks to Hurricane Sandy, something arrived today that will help keep my mobile devices fully charged and connected to the web. I backed a Fenix ReadySet on Kickstarter, which is a large battery that charges with an included solar panel. Read more »
Live in Washington, DC; Baltimore or Houston? If so, you have something common with folks in Kansas City and Las Vegas: Your unlocked iPhone or other AT&T smartphone can now run on T-Mobile’s HSPA+ network instead of the carriers old 2G network. Read more »
At GigaOM’s Roadmap conference Monday, Birchbox co-founder Katia Beauchamp and Warby Parker co-founder Dave Gilboa each talked about why their companies hadn’t yet released mobile apps and what they have in store. Read more »
With your credit card connected to the Coaster iOS or Android app, you can order and buy a drink and tip your bartender all from your phone without having to saunter up to the bar or flag down a server. Read more »
Brand advertising’s focus on cross-platform media measurement has grown dramatically in the past five years. Within the next 36 months cross-platform digital video advertising will standardize, driven by the shift in media dollars to online viewing and the adoption of the Making Measurement Make Sense (3MS) initiative. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Samsung may have lost a patent dispute with Apple but it’s looking like a smart investment: The company kept its top-selling smartphone sales status and increased its lead over Apple. Meanwhile, Nokia fell out of the top 5 smartphone sellers for the first time ever. Read more »
While revenue was in line with expectations, earnings per share were slightly off: Financial analysts had been anticipating revenue between $34.28 billion and $38.04 billion, and around $8.75 earnings per share. Read more »
AT&T and Verizon are sold out of the iPhone 5 and have weeks of backorders to fill. But Sprint, according to analysts, has plenty of 32GB and 64GB iPhone 5 units on hand. Read more »
Google is working on an update to Google Wallet and it may include support for the iPhone. New users who request an invite to the next version of Google Wallet are asked what phone they use: Android, iPhone or other. Read more »
Samsung has been the top supplier of LCDs to Apple in the first half of 2012. But according to a new report, Apple has been cutting its reliance on Samsung Display since then. Now Samsung wants to end the display relationship altogether. Read more »
Stepping outside while using my new iPod touch had me thinking the device was broken: I couldn’t read the screen. Surely the auto-brightness was on, right? Turns out there is no auto-brightness function in the new iPod touch because there’s no ambient light sensor. Read more »
Analyst reports on PC sales are hitting the wire and they’re not good. Should this surprise? Not really when you consider how more capable and cheaper mobile devices are selling like hotcakes. The PC certainly isn’t dead, but it is dying a slow painful death. Read more »
Your hunches about the Twitter population are probably correct. A new study by an analytics firm of 36 million users confirms some assumptions but also present some intriguing facts about ordinary Twitter users. Read more »
The PaaS market is predicted to reach $20.1 billion in 2014. Huge brands occupy this space, including Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and Salesforce.com, as well as newer startups. As the market grows, watch for more consolidation, tighter integration with IaaS services, and more features. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Apple has been fairly quiet on the iPod touch release date, providing only a vague October time frame. As of Tuesday, the device is shipping from China, with delivery expected by mid-month. Perhaps using the same screen as the new iPhone has been the holdup? Read more »
In my original review of the camera, I noticed a purple glow in the left corner of my image. Since there was a blue diode on the speaker and my desk lamp was blue, I assumed it was reflections off the blue materials. I was wrong. Read more »
The iPhone 5 actually ranks pretty well when it comes to reducing the amount of toxic chemicals it uses, as well as energy efficiency. Read more »
Last week Snappli, a data compression app, found that among 5,000 of its iOS users, many quickly began using Apple Maps only to see 1 in 25 such users keep using it. Some questioned the data and today Snappli explains the methodology it used. Read more »
About 60 percent of iPhone owners have upgraded to iOS 6. iPad owners are close behind, with 45 percent upgrading in the first week and a half. iPod touch owners, meanwhile, were least likely to upgrade right away, with just under 40 percent installing iOS 6. Read more »
Apple updated its Find My iPhone app last week with some helpful new features. Here’s a primer on how to locate and keep track of all your various Apple devices using the service. Read more »
Any excitement Nokia generated with its “floating lens” technology in the Lumia 920 smartphone was quickly squashed thanks to a video demo that didn’t use the Lumia to capture footage. This hands on video, however, shows that Nokia’s stabilization technology is the one to beat. Read more »
App developers are the cornerstones of the multibillion-dollar app market, but the overall community remains largely unknown. As app downloads increase, organizations that can bring tools, resources, and a collective voice to this group will be an important factor in the evolution of mobile-app development. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Samsung’s Galaxy Note II launched in Korea with sales over the next three months expected to be triple that of the original Galaxy Note. The 5.5-inch phone / tablet is following Apple’s iPhone 5 launch as Samsung tries to stay in the smartphone spotlight. Read more »
Is it possible to build a better smartphone for consumers that costs less to produce? Apparently so, if you’re Apple. A preliminary teardown of the iPhone 5 shows that the most expensive iPhone this year is cheaper for Apple to make than the iPhone 4S. Read more »
Welcome to the fast-growing world of work media, a class of social tools oriented toward the needs of enterprises. Their emergence is due to the shifting expectations of an increasingly social workforce and the sense that older approaches to work like email are arguably approaching obsolescence. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The iPhone 5 hasn’t matched very high sales expectations, but it has exceded previous opening weekend sales. We take a visual look at first-weekend iPhone sales over the years. Read more »
There was a 16-month gap between the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S releases, and the 2011 September quarter saw an earnings miss as a result. By releasing iPhone 5 right before the end of the September quarter this year, Apple’s ensuring that won’t happen again. Read more »
Who needs a light switch when you have smart bulbs paired with smartphones? LIFX is just that: a Wi-Fi connected LED bulb that you remotely control or even change the color. But will consumers want one-off connected gadgets or centrally-managed smart homes in the future? Read more »
The wave of orders for Apple’s latest smartphone have far outstripped the supply Apple will have ready to deliver on Sept. 21. The 2 million preorders in one day doubled the record for fastest-selling iPhone set by the iPhone 4S last year. Read more »
On this week’s audio podcast with Matt and Kevin, find out which host upgraded to iPhone 5 while the other sold iPhone 4S and ordered a new iPod touch. Also: What happened to NFC in the iPhone and why so many LTE handset models? 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 »
