Boston rail commuters will soon have the ability to use their smartphones to buy and display their train tickets. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority will launch the U.S.’s first smartphone rail ticketing system this fall through a partnership with London-based Masabi. Read more »
There are 25 billion apps in Apple’s App Store, 450,000 in Google Play and 82,000 in Microsoft Windows Phone Marketplace. Making a successful app that stands out means looking beyond the popular gaming market toward areas like weather, news and productivity apps. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
By integrating the touch sensor and display on the next iPhone, Apple could shave half a millimeter of thickness from the handset. Reverting to a metal back would also reduce thickness. But it makes far more sense to use that space savings for a higher-capacity battery. Read more »
When Apple announces its 2012 second fiscal quarter earnings on Tuesday, it’s sure to boast about new iPad sales. But the iPhone is still the product that will have the biggest impact on the company’s results and how Wall Street reacts. Read more »
Big data meets the quantitative self with a project to collect every heartbeat for science. Dr. Leslie Saxon wants everyone to send in their heartbeat data to a website to create a database to track heart health. Such a database could help predict heart health. Read more »
We’re likely months removed from the introduction of the next-generation iPhone, yet predictably rumors about the device, its components, its appearance and when it will arrive are already flying fast and furious. Here’s our quick rundown of the scuttlebutt surrounding Apple’s highly anticipated next phone. Read more »
Custom ringtones are great for knowing who’s calling, but those of us whose phones are on vibrate get left out of that party. One of the less advertised features of iOS 5 is the ability to to assign custom vibration patterns to individual callers. Here’s how. Read more »
In the first quarter of 2012 all eyes were on the screen, both big and small. Apple’s new Retina display pushed video streaming, and broadcast-TV streaming service Aereo’s launch was quickly followed with litigation. These events and more are discussed in a new quarterly report. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Apple and Samsung are closer than ever to a possible settlement in their long-running legal showdown over smartphone and tablet technologies. The both companies agreed to send their respective chief executives and general counsel to meet face-to-face in the next 90 days. Read more »
Research In Motion is reportedly weighing options with financial advisors in an effort to stem the company’s continued fall from grace. RIM doesn’t plan to sell itself, but is considering a strategic investment and would lean towards licensing its BlackBerry software. But who might want it? Read more »
Smartphone sales surged both in the U.S. and worldwide, carriers struggled to cope with the ever-increasing consumption of mobile data, and the fight for spectrum remained front and center in the first quarter. Our latest quarterly wrap-up analyzes these trends and more. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
This quarter the EV market struggled to find its footing. Meanwhile, the smart-grid sector solidified and low-power technology proved itself important in the data center. Read more to learn what these news pieces and others mean for the larger space over the next few months. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
And the latest entry into the cloud storage sweepstakes is … LogMeIn, the company that built its business with its easy-to-use remote access service. The company hopes to woo both consumers and businesses with a beta of its Cubby service, said LogMeIn CEO Michael Simon. Read more »
Placeme for iOS and Android may be both the scariest and amazingly futuristic app I’ve seen yet. The free software uses every sensor in your handset to track your activities, location and environment. Scary, yes, but it could power the smartphone personal assistant of the future. Read more »
Computing in the business market will change radically in the coming years thanks to mobility, apps and a shift toward tablets. Here we gather a survey of GigaOM Pro readers to examine the future of enterprise mobility. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
A Kickstarter project to bring a new smartwatch to market blew through its $100,000 funding goal in its first day, and two hours later it crossed the $200,000 mark. What’s so unique about the Pebble E-Paper Watch? It works with both Android devices and the iPhone. Read more »
Can’t keep track of who’s suing who in “The Game of Smartphones”? This image will help. And two key Steve Jobs quotes explain not only why the smartphone battle is moving to the courts, but why it’s happening right now and why this will get worse. Read more »
What is about Instagram that has made Facebook open up its checkbook and spend nearly a billion dollars in stock and cash to buy up a company only in its third year. There are many reasons, and the biggest one is fear. Read more »
China is very much on its way to becoming the world’s most important market for mobile devices. But how many iPhones and iPads specifically are there in China right now? A research firm says 21 million. Here’s how those numbers could get even higher. Read more »
About 20 years ago, I was a pretty good guitar player. Once it hit me that I was never going to be a rock star (although I did have a fun four summers setting up stages for some instead) guitar playing fell off the radar. I […] Read more »
A recent survey found the vast majority of photo enhancing and editing is done on a computer: just 15 percent of smartphone owners take and edit photos on their mobile device. This is good news for the growth opportunities of Instagram and other mobile photo apps. Read more »
Hyperlocal mobile advertising is at a critical juncture: Leading analysts predict that mobile ad spending will increase by more than five times between 2011 and 2015. But what are the forces at play, and how effective are HyLoMo ads? Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Google CEO Larry Page is either experiencing amnesia or consciously rewriting the history of Apple and Google in the battle for mobile developers and consumers. In an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek, Page says that for Apple, the “Android differences were actually for show.” Read more »
Snapguide and Paper had successful iOS debuts last week. Both appeal to the creative side of mobile users, and it’s these app that are going to provide a roadmap for more iOS apps to come that appeal beyond entertainment, consumption-oriented or specialized productivity apps. Read more »
A recent ComScore survey of smartphone owners in the U.S. and U.K. shows that iPhone users are far more likely than their Android-toting counterparts to take advantage of Wi-Fi networks when available. But the same thing is true for iPad users. What accounts for the difference? Read more »
If you spend a lot of time writing in the margins of reports or filling out endless forms, there’s something you should know: You should be using a tablet for all of these things. Here are four iPad apps to get you on your way. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
All this talk about how much money Google may or may not have made off of Android misses the point. Google’s decision to enter the mobile operating system battle wasn’t primarily about money — it was about ensuring competition in the next great personal computer market. Read more »
The Wall Street Journal (NSDQ: NWS) is running a 24-hour “Digital Open House.” For today, all subscriber content on the website, mobile site… Read more at paidContent »
Chipotle stock is up more than 470 percent over the past three years — a run that beats out even the impressive one Apple’s stock has been on. Despite that, hedge funds and stock analysts are picking the iPhone maker over the burrito maker far more often. Read more »
Netflix customers may be moving away from mailed discs in favor of streamed content, but that doesn’t mean it should be difficult to manage Netflix discs. ScanFLX, a nifty $0.99 iOS app, can add titles to your list of DVDs or Blu-Rays by scanning them. Read more »
Two star hires and a well-reviewed phone-and-tablet operating system do not necessarily remake a company, but they do ease the perception — prevalent in recent years — that Microsoft is on its last legs. Could the once-dominant software giant be on the comeback trail? Read more »
Aereo, the controversial technology that turns iPhones and iPads into portable TV sets and DVRs, will not disappear anytime soon despite eff… Read more at paidContent »
Now that Forbes has 460,000 subscribers on Flipboard and 900,000 across properties on Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Currents, the brand is close to ad… Read more at paidContent »
Cloud computing, mobile computing and the consumerization of IT are changing the game for IT departments. Section one of our three-part report describes and quantifies each of these trends, demonstrating that they are real now, growing rapidly and perilous to ignore. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
About two weeks ago, I sat down with Zygna founder and CEO Mark Pincus to discuss the importance of mobile gaming to his company and evolution from Mark the entrepreneur to Pincus the CEO of a company that is valued at billions by Wall Street. Read more »
The new iPad isn’t exactly like Oakland and Gertrude Stein – there’s a there, there — but it won’t be obvious to most people. Read more at paidContent »
Two Android phone users who purchased defective products from Google’s app-store have filed a lawsuit, saying the company’s 15-minute refund… Read more at paidContent »
Quick question: How many times have you seen someone using a tablet to capture video or take pictures? The odds are likely that most will answer “never,” but with the introduction Apple’s new iPad I think that answer is about to change, for three reasons. Read more »
The audio file is no longer the product when it comes to digital music. Instead, the experiences built around it are, and services like Spotify, Facebook, Topspin and others are leading the way into this new era of dynamic, interactive and social music. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
One of the most popular camera apps on the iPhone, Camera+, is rolling out a significant update Wednesday. It will add improved sharing and UI tweaks and introduce its first API, making photos taken and edited with it easier than ever to integrate with other apps. Read more »
