So You Want to Build an App…

“Consumers are becoming ‘digital omnivores,’ adopting all sorts of smart, web-connected consumer technology with lots of cool sensors.”

General Motors will introduces Apple’s chatty voice assistant Siri into several of its car models in 2013.  The feature will be available to iPhone 4S and iPhone 5 owners, and Siri will be working through these cars’ standard Chevrolet MyLink infotainment system.  Users will be able to make hands-free calls to contacts on their iPhone, [...]

An FTC study has examined both the privacy policies and actual practices within each of the 400 apps -Apple’s App Store and Google’s Android Market- that were selected for review, finding that only 16 percent provided a privacy policy to parents before downloading and 20 percent after downloading. The disclosures provided were often full information that would [...]

As a result of losing the direct viewing of Instagram photos Twitter went swiftly ahead in releasing a photo filtering service. The service will be very familiar to Instagram users who will still be able to share their filtered photos but they will appear as a simple link rather than a rich media preview of [...]

An absolutely negative PR blow for Apple, and their mapping system is now threatening people’s lives as described in this short article: Victoria Police Online News Centre – Police concerned with Apple iOS 6 mapping system.

Just a few months ago, “a San Jose jury awarded Apple more than $1 Billion dollars in its case against Samsung, the trial’s judge, Lucy Koh, is now aiming to settle the issues between the two companies.” ““I think it’s time for global peace,” Judge Koh told Apple and Samsung’s lawyers at yesterday’s hearing, according [...]

Rewind back a few years, before the iPhone took over the world. Japanese phone carrier NTT Docomo was the subject of every U.S. report on how mobile in Japan rocked in every possible way. Well that was then, Docomo has just reported its biggest-ever loss in subscribers: 40,800. The reason?” As Reuters notes, competitors Softbank and KDDI carry the iPhone. Softbank [...]

“T-Mobile has entered into an agreement with Apple to bring products to market together next year. Additional details will be made available at a later date,” T-Mobile spokesperson told ABC News. T-Mobile wouldn’t elaborate on the exact products to ABC News, but T-Mobile USA CEO John Legere said while speaking at the Deutsche Telekom conference [...]

Adverts on smartphones and other roaming devices could become obsolete under plans by  Adblock. On the 27th November 2012] Eyeo – developer of AdBlock Plus – will launch a version of its popular program for Android phones in a move that is likely to cause headaches for the mobile advertising industry. Some 50 million people have already [...]

Kickfolio is a neat little start-up backed company that is really making a push to be relevant. Kickfolio offers, “a way for developers to upload builds of their mobile applications to its platform, allowing others to then interact with the apps on the web, as opposed to having to download a test build locally to their mobile [...]

In the increasingly crowded mobile payment card-reader space, it’s not just technology that’s being cloned. In the scramble to build traction and outrun the pack, startups are borrowing each others’ business strategies too. The latest move comes from Berlin-based mobile payment startup SumUp, which opened for business in August backed by more than $20 million in [...]

On Thursday, Foursquare announced an update aimed at businesses: the ability to add events to their listings. The company is touting it as a new way for businesses to leverage the location-based social network over at business.foursquare.com. While there are already movie, concert, and sporting events in the Foursquare app, which anyone can see and [...]

The new Premium Suite upgrade from Samsung has added some new features  to Galaxy S3. Samsung launched a video today showing just some of the features coming to its flagship handset. The upgrade, which was previously announced for the Galaxy Note 10.1, adds a new featured called Page Buddy that predicts what the users want to do based on [...]

“Samsung is gearing up to produce plastic flexible displays for mobile devices, the Wall Street Journal reported. The screens are lightweight, nearly unbreakable, and could result in flexible devices down the road.” via Technology News: Emerging Tech: Samsung Channels Gumby With Unbreakable, Bendy Phone Screen.

MetroPCS shares are down 7% on Tuesday after their merger with T-mobile has started. The week before its shares spiked as it was rumored Sprint would counteroffer MetroPCS for a merger. However, Sprint has not counter offered so their shares have begun to fall. The focus on Sprint’s part in this merger has undervalued MetroPCS’s [...]

T-Mobile will finally have the iPhone, dispelling a shadow that had long hung over the carrier, some customers just won’t come to a T-Mobile store if there’s no iPhone, regardless of whether they plan to buy the phone. The move is part of a broader shift to go completely toward its “Value” plans, in which customers [...]

“‘T-Mobile has entered into an agreement with Apple to bring products to market together next year. Additional details will be made available at a later date,’ T-Mobile spokesperson told ABC News. T-Mobile wouldnt elaborate on the exact products to ABC News, but T-Mobile USA CEO John Legere said while speaking at the Deutsche Telekom conference [...]

While some see potential in Microsoft’s Surface tablet, most industry watchers appear to have written off the device at this point. Orders were reportedly cut in half following a slow launch, and Microsoft’s debut slate has been hammered time and time again by reviewers and analysts. The latest to pile on is Boston-based brokerage firm Detwiler [...]

The time we spend making calls on smartphones pales in comparison to the other activities we use it for, like surfing the web, logging into Facebook, streaming music and video, and of course playing games. It’s that latter functionality that a startup called Green Throttle wants to tap into, and given the horsepower of today’s [...]

Marketing companies have been focusing on the number of cores a smartphone has as a major selling point in recent years.  The obsession with mobile processors has been a boon to the chip makers, giving added visibility to companies such as Qualcomm and Nvidia.  Recently however, the chip industry has gotten to the point where [...]

The world’s most downloaded ad-blocking software has plans to release a mobile version of its product.  Worldwide revenue from mobile advertising alone measures 5.3 billion dollars a year.  The release of Adblock Plus mobile will no doubt make these advertisements on smartphones and roaming devices obsolete.   http://www.gomonews.com/ad-blocking-software-causes-stir-in-mobile-industry/

The iPhone 5 is scheduled to launch in South Korea on December 7th along with over 50 additional countries being added in December as well. Including Brazil, Russia, and Taiwan. This will boost iPhones sales vastly. This will further increase the iOS presence as a major mobile leader. http://www.mobiletechnews.com/info/2012/12/04/035900.html

” Samsung announced on its Samsung Tomorrow blog that the Galaxy S III will be getting a special “Premium Suite” upgrade that will add Galaxy Note II features such as Multi Window, Page Buddy and Contextual Awareness and more. With Multi Window, users can open two app windows at once, Page Buddy will add smart [...]

“Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski announced today that the four largest wireless carriers in the U.S. have agreed to fast track a service that will let people text the emergency 911 line. AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, and T-Mobile have all signed on and major deployments are planned to roll out in 2013 and the [...]

“Today’s word that T-Mobile plans to sell Apple products in 2013 certainly sounds like great news to the iPhone and TMO faithful. The question remains, however, if the carrier can deal with the increased load Apple’s uber-phone will put on its network. ” [source]

“Canada’s wireless industry is vowing to combat mobile device theft following months of pressure from the federal telecom regulator, police and politicians. The Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association, an industry group representing carriers, announced a plan on Thursday to make it more difficult for criminals to reactivate stolen devices, such as smartphones and tablet computers. At [...]

A patent agreement between Apple and HTC forbids the Taiwanese company from making and selling mobile devices that copy what is described as the ‘Distinctive Apple User Experience,” according to a redacted version of the agreement filed in a California court. The ‘slide to unlock’ feature at the bottom of the screen of some Apple [...]

Individual developers may feel like it’s an uphill battle trying to get consumers to open their wallets, but taken as a whole, the market for mobile apps has grown an unprecedented amount. According to ABI Research’s most recent market data, the cumulative revenue base made from pay-per-downloads, in-app purchases, subscriptions and in-app advertisements will pass [...]

By the end of this year, around 831 million smart devices – smartphones and tablets – will be sold. In 2013, that number will reach 1.2 billion, according to the forecasts made by Gartner. It looks like mobile smart devices are the new big technological advancement taking over the world. With over 1 billion to [...]

Traveling over the holidays can be hectic. But Google is doing its part to simplify matters some.Google announced today that it is updating its Search for Android application and its Google Now predictive search tool.Why? The Internet search giant is rolling out new features intended to boost streamline holiday travel.“As you head off this holiday [...]

Hong Kong: Apple’s rank in China’s smartphone market, which is set to become the world’s largest this year, fell to No 6 in the third quarter as it faces tougher competition from Chinese brands, research firm IDC said on Thursday. Apple’s third quarter ranking was two spots below its position in the second quarter in [...]

Link New smartphone regulations in China have caused concern among technology companies. The regulations, filed by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to a WTO database of technical barriers to trade. China’s WTO trade barrier notification listed safety, rather than national security, as the chief reason for the regulations. China has long made use [...]

Key chips for the iPhone and iPad are being made in the U.S. — future U.S.-made Macs, asdisclosed today, notwithstanding. This year, CEO Tim Cook has been talking about U.S. manufacturing more than usual. Partly to counter Apple’s largely make-it-in-China strategy but also because of U.S. manufacturing strengths. The same essential points he made in a Bloomberg interview today he [...]

LTE connections in North America rocketed to 22.3 million — adding almost 19 million subscriptions in 12 months and representing 51 percent of all 43.7 million LTE connections worldwide at the end of the third quarter of 2012, reported 4G Americas, according to data from Informa Telecoms & Media. Another “billion” milestone is expected by [...]

Qualcomm Incorporated (QCOM) today announced that its subsidiary, Qualcomm Atheros, Inc., introduced a new ultra-low power near field communication (NFC) solution that will enable mobile devices with contactless communications and data exchange, including next-generation mobile payments. The QCA1990 is the industry’s smallest, ultra-low power system-on-chip (SoC) with an overall footprint that is 50 percent smaller [...]

A village council in an Indian Village voted to ban the use of mobile phones for girls and unmarried women, giving the reason that mobile phones promoted extramarital affairs and unsanctioned marriages. Even with mobile phones becoming a key device of importance, many traditional societies still have issues with the new technology. This ban only [...]

According to an U.S. mobile analytics firm called Flurry, this year mobile app use has risen. Between December 2011 and 2012 mobile app usage went from 94 minutes a day to 127 minutes a day. While T.V. stayed at 168 and web browsing went down two minutes to 70. For mobile app developers this is [...]

Minimizing the likelihood that miscommunication could lead to lower quality medical care, Polyglot Med Spanish offers the immediate audio translation to over 3,000 common medical words, phrases, and assessment questions in both Spanish and English.  The app is free and can be found in both the Apple AppStore and Google Play marketplaces. via:  Mobile Technology [...]

YouTube has released an app optimized for the iPhone 5 and iPad, returning true, full-screen mode to users who have been without it since the launch of iOS 6 in September.  YouTube was forced to launch its own independent app in September, but it was optimized only for iPhones and iPod Touches with 3.5-inch screens, [...]

New startup called AddAppt has introduced their app for the Apple AppStore. The application allows the user to sync their contacts information between users mobile, desktop, and iCloud address books. Some of the functionality on synching contacts already exists but the new startup claims to have found the right solution for the problem. The app [...]

iPad models continue to dominate the tablet market even after the introduction of new tablets including the Windows Surface that has had a slow start. Apple decided to updated their large iPad with the new iPad mini even that the older model was only six months old. The supply has caught up with the demand [...]

Mobile devices are a key player in the growth of Social Media with consumers, in fact it allowed for 63 percent of the year-over-year growth in users accessing social media through mobile apps and mobile websites. Forty-six percent of social media users say they use their smartphone to access social media, and 16 percent say they use [...]

After three months of testing, Facebook is rolling out its Facebook Photo Sync feature to all users. The upgrade allows people to automatically sync those photos taken on their phone to a private album on the social network. From there, users can pick their favorites and share with family and friends via the Timeline.   Read [...]

Apple has just passed LG as the second largest phone (not smartphone) maker in the United States. As of October 2012, Apple owned 17.8% of mobile phones, up from 16.3% in July. Samsung also gained a bit of marketshare, increasing its 25.6% share to 26.3% in the United States. Because of this, LG fell to third [...]

The mobile operations support systems (OSS) market grew 8.6% in 2011 to reach US$9,079 million. Operations support systems are computer systems, software, procedures, and tools used by telecommunications service providers to ensure the smooth running of their networks. Despite the economic climate, investment in the mobile OSS is expected to still sustain 3.3% growth in [...]

On Thursday evening Apple quietly updated its online store to offer an unlocked GSM version of its latest iPhone, untethered from any carrier and contract.

The wait is finally over, Apple has finally released iTunes 11 which includes some cool new features and interface enhancements. “The new app contains a refreshed iTunes store design that takes cues from the iOS app store. Elements of the store also extend deeper into the UI. For instance, albums not only gain a new [...]

Apple announced earlier this week that the iPhone 5, iPad mini and 4th generation iPad will be available in Chine this december. “Reservation requests for each device will begin the day before they launch from Apple retail stores, and they’ll also be available for purchase from Apple’s online store and official resellers. Of course, nothing [...]

Cyber Monday was a big success with shoppers taking in 8.5 million page views per minute and online sales that jumped 30.3% over 2011. Mobile access to deals presented some issues, including app performance issues within retail stores. There were also some worthy attempts at reaching mobile users, like Macy’s apps offering “unpublished” deals to shoppers who are [...]

According to a new report from mobile app analytics firm App Annie, Google’s Play software store is gaining on rival Apple’s iOS app marketplace. The revenue gulf between the two stores is often cited as a reason why Apple is able to attract more top-tier developers and quality titles, so a lessening of the gap between the [...]