Apple could add as many as 17 million iPhones to its 2014 sales tally in a reported deal with China Mobile, said Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster
The two companies have signed an agreement, the Wall Street Journal said on Wednesday, citing a “person familiar with the situation.” The source told the Journal that — after months of speculation and anticipation — the iPhone is expected to roll out through China Mobile on December 18 to the carrier’s 760 million subscribers.
Game-maker Ubisoft on Thursday launched Assassin’s Creed: Pirates for iOS. The game is essentially a pirate simulator, allowing gamers to engage in naval combat, build up their pirate ship, and explore the Caribbean.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57614624-94/assassins-creed-pirates-sets-sail-in-apples-app-store/
According to Microsoft, 10 million app transactions happen every day and a total of 3 billion apps have been downloaded since the Windows Phone Store opened in 2010. The company also boasts that the Windows Phone Store has about 190,000 apps with 500 new apps added each day. All these apps have resulted in a 181% increase in monthly app revenue from a year ago and a 290% increase in overall app downloads from a year ago.
http://bgr.com/2013/11/21/windows-phone-app-store-downloads/
The Android maker on Thursday announced that the Google Play store now includes a category called “Designed for tablets.” Those on a tablet will see that as their default view, though they can still access non-tablet apps from the device.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57613473-94/google-play-warms-up-to-tablet-friendly-apps/
The US Department of Homeland Security’s ability to seek a shutdown of cellular and wireless networks in times of crisis, such as the potential of a remote detonation bomb threat isn’t new. Exactly how and when that authority can be used, however, must be disclosed, thanks to a new ruling by a Washington, D.C.-based court.
The US District Court for the District of Columbia has rejected Homeland Security’s argument that its reasoning and protocols for the so-called “kill switch” were exempt from public disclosure.
Apple and Samsung are in U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh’s court again, this time revisiting how much Samsung should pay Apple for violating its patents. Apple is seeking US$379.8 million for violation of five of its patents; Samsung wants to pay Apple $52.7 million. The proceedings, which began Wednesday, became necessary after Koh set aside a portion of the original $1 billion-plus award because the jury erred in making its calculations.
Forbes once again rates Apple as the world’s most valuable brand above Microsoft, Coca-Cola, IBM and Google. Forbes lists Apple’s brand value at $104.3 billion, nearly double that of second-place Microsoft. Interestingly, the list notes that Apple’s advertising budget is significantly smaller than the three brands directly behind it. Samsung, which “had the strongest one-year gain of any brand in the top 100″ and is up by 53% from 2012.
http://bgr.com/2013/11/07/apple-worlds-most-valuable-brand-2013/
Silent Text, uses a ZRTP-like proprietary instant messaging system over the Jabber XMPP instant message transport. Features include encrypted message attachments, a burn function with time delay that deletes the texts from sender and receiver devices, and encrypted geotagging for sharing locations.
Silent Circle is an encrypted voice, video, text and file-transfer protocol that’s available in app forms for Android devices. The voice or phone app uses the ZRTP key agreement protocol designed by the creator of PGP, or Pretty Good Privacy — a guy called Phil Zimmermann who is widely regarded as the father of encrypted communication tools.
iFixit on Thursday published its official iPad Air teardown, examining the device’s internal components and determining how easy it is to take apart and fix. The company, which tears down a wide array of technology products, gave the iPad Air a repairability score of just 2 out of 10, saying that if the tablet is taken apart, there’s a chance the device’s glass could be damaged
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57610366-94/ipad-air-launch-greeted-with-low-repairability-score/
Owners of Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus won’t be able to bite into Android 4.4 KitKat. In a new FAQ, Google broke the news that the latest flavor of Android won’t be available as a system update for the 2-year-old Nexus. The company said that the phone falls outside the 18-month time frame in which devices traditionally receive such updates.
Google has confirmed that the Nexus 4, Nexus 7, and Nexus 10 will all be getting a taste of KitKat. Unveiled on Thursday, the Nexus 5 already comes with Android 4.4.
Samsung has registered a design patent for eyewear that connects to a smartphone. The eyewear includes earphones that allow people to listen to phone calls or music. The eyewear also shows information on the lenses from the phone. The lenses can be transparent or not, depending on the usage needs.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57609271-94/samsung-eyes-smartphone-connected-glasses-patent-shows/
In Siegel & Gale’s Simplicity Index, Samsung has not only leapfrogged Apple, but now ranks above every other smartphone manufacturer on the planet, including the high-ranking Nokia and LG. Comparing these results with last year’s, Apple ranked 7th while Samsung did not appear in the top 10. Now Samsung has taken the 8th spot, while Apple has sunk to 19th.
http://bgr.com/2013/10/24/samsung-global-brand-simplicity-index-2013/
Adidas on Wednesday introduced the miCoach Smart Run, its new fitness-based smartwatch for runners, just a day after rival Nike introduced the latest update to its own Nike+ Fuelband SE tracker.The GPS-equipped device can track a runner’s location, along with speed and heart rate. It’s also equipped with onboard flash memory to store music. The Smart Run will be available Nov. 1 for US$399. The Smart Run does not connect with a mobile phone, however. Adidas maintains that it is not looking to produce the best smartwatch — but rather, the best running watch.
Every citizen in the European Union now has broadband Internet access at home, a goal the European Commission said it reached before its year-end deadline.
Pushing the needle all the way to 100 percent is satellite-based Internet access, which reached the 0.6 percent of homes that wired connections and mobile networks couldn’t reach, the EC announced Thursday. DSL, cable TV, and fiber-optic lines reach 96.1 percent, and mobile networks reach 99.4 percent.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57608022-94/european-homes-now-have-100-percent-broadband-coverage/
Just about every other major smartphone maker is trying to establish a foothold in the US and the increasingly lucrative Chinese market. Hirai ostensibly hopes his mobile plans could help Sony gain ground in area his competitors might be overlooking. Sony has been able to at least make a dent in Europe and Japan, its home country.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57607084-94/sonys-smartphone-focus-shifts-to-japan-europe-says-ceo/
“The jury is still out on what the consumer expects from a wrist device,” Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai said, according to the Journal.
That limitation sets them apart from smartphones, which have continually grown in size and can simply be stuffed in a pocket or purse. Smartwatches also work in tandem with smartphones, meaning people will have to carry both with them. That could present another obstacle as users try to bounce from one device to the other.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57607089-94/smartwatches-pose-real-estate-challenges-says-sony-ceo/
Enders Analysis analyst Benedict Evans has posted a chart on his Twitter account that uses data from the Umeng Analytics Platform to show that Chinese Android users only used Google Play for downloading 5.6% of all mobile apps on their devices. The vast majority of Android apps downloaded in China — a full 72.6%, Umeng found — are from third-party app stores.
In exchange for loading Windows Phone onto Android handsets, Microsoft would consider waiving licensing fees for using the mobile operating system,Bloomberg’s sources say. Amazingly, HTC is apparently warm to the idea and is pondering the logistics of making a dual-boot Windows-Android handset.
http://bgr.com/2013/10/04/htc-windows-phone-android-dual-boot/
Nokia handsets account for 88% of all Windows Phone devices in use as well as 9 out of the top 10 most used Windows Phone devices. Nokia’s budget Lumia 520 is the most used Windows Phone device with a 21.3% share, followed by the high-end Lumia 920 at 9.3% and the Lumia 620 at 9.1%.
BlackBerry still had a reasonably significant share of the smartphone market throughout most of 2009, two years after Apple first launched its iconic device. Things only start to go south for BlackBerry in 2010 when Android’s market share started exploding in the mobile landscape. Android has ballooned to an 80% share of the global smartphone market, Apple’s market share has remained remarkably consistent and has stayed in the 15% to 20% range for the past four years.
http://bgr.com/2013/09/26/blackberry-downfall-analysis-android/
A recent report from BI Intelligence, Business Insider’s subscription research service, digs into the latest mobile usage trends, explain why there’s still plenty of runway left for mobile industry growth, and identifies the businesses that stand to gain the most.
By year-end 2013 there will be some 2 billion active smartphones and tablets in the world, and they will outnumber PCs by a significant margin.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/mobile-centric-media-audiences-2013-9#ixzz2fRcCThVX
According to a survey released by The Festival of Media LatAm and Telefonica. The survey is comprised of the views of industry representatives from the region: advertisers, media agencies, media owners, and others.
There is a mixed picture around innovation in the market with 40% agreeing that there are many industry players innovating in the LatAm mobile ad market, and 36% disagreeing.Overall, 63% confirm that mobile is important to their and their clients’ marketing strategies – in fact 35% say it’s ‘very important’. And 79% think mobile is as effective as other types of advertising, with 52% believing it delivers strong results.
Read more: http://www.voxxi.com/latin-america-mobile-ad-industry/#ixzz2fRZyr2qT
A tiny chip in the new iPhone called the M7 “motion coprocessor” is designed to track your movement and automatically figure out whether you’re sitting on the couch, running a serious foot race, or simply taking a Sunday morning stroll. Apple has tapped longtime fitness partner Nike to create an M7-compatible version of its Nike Plus Move app .
The article features a brief attribute comparison between the gadgets and the iPhone.
Apple says that it isn’t storing full scans of users’ fingerprints on the device and is only storing “fingerprint data” that stays encrypted on the iPhone 5s processor. The data stored is made of fragmented pieces of information about users’ fingerprints rather than full images. Apple believes it will prevent hackers from being able to reverse engineer the users’ original scans if they crack the chip.
Samsung Knox smartphones will include mobile security software from Lookout to protect business users from mobile threats. The deal is part of Lookout’s plan to build and offer security products for businesses and enterprises. Currently, 45 million people worldwide use the Lookout product and mobile operators. Samsung Electronics’ Knox is an Android-based platform designed by the company to enhance security of the current open source Android.
Qualcomm’s smart watch will be out on the market for $300, instead of having the functional capability of a smartphone or tablet the Toq will sync with its users’ smartphone. The battery life of the Toq will last three to five days depending on the type of user. The device runs on Qualcomm’s operating system and as of now will only work with Android.
Qualcomm jumps into wearables with Toq smartwatch