Displaying items by tag: iOS

I read something today that had me thinking about how quickly the tables have turned on Apple. In 2011 pundits and analysts were crowing about the invulnerability of Apple and their iPhone and iPad. The going belief was that Apple would continue to dominate the consumer electronics market until 2018. Even conservative estimated put Apple as the market leader until 2015. So why would the media be talking about a survey which claims Apple will overtake Android by 2016?

Apple has released the schedule of this year's WWDC (10-14. June) Conference which is held every year in San Francisco and regularly used to introduce new Apple gadgets and software. Usually the content of the conference is to some extent hidden, but it seems that Apple this year has something different in mind. It was announced that on the conference we will see a new version of OS X but also much more interesting iOS.

Apple is continuing their divorce of Google as they are now rumored to be in talks to bring in another search partner. The parent in question is none other than Google rival Yahoo!. We are not sure what Apple hopes to accomplish by partnering up with a search company that has fallen as far as Yahoo has, but we are betting that some of it has to do with removing as much Google as possible. In the past year Apple has moved away from Google Maps and pulled YouTube as a pre-installed App.

Although users would like to see Mozilla and Firefox on iOS platforms, this might not happen in near future, maybe even never. The problem is Apple's insistence that other web browsers for iOS need to browse the web using Apple's UIWebView component, while Apple for their web browser saved advanced Nitro JavaScript engine.

Photoshop is now available to users of mobile phones with Android or iOS operating systems. The new application name is Photoshop Touch, in relation to the version for tablet devices; the interface is changed, while the functionality remains pretty much the same.

Samsung's Wallet application was launched on Tuesday at the MWC show in Barcelona and joins Apple and Google in the market of electronic archiving and scanning tickets, membership cards and discount coupon from a smart phone. This presentation comes just two days after Samsung announced that it has entered into a global agreement with Visa which will integrate the Visa payWave application on their mobile devices that support NFC technology.

Shazam announced that they globally have over 300 million users of their services. This application for detecting the performer of songs is available on smartphones and tablets. Andrew Fisher, Shazam CEO said “The number of Shazam users and their level of engagement continue to grow rapidly. We now have over 300 million Shazamers globally with an increasing proportion of whom use our app on their iPad or Android tablet devices to interact with television. This new version of Shazam optimizes discovery, engagement, transactions and exploration in a tablet environment“

Mozilla has released new details about the availability of Firefox OS devices. Just before the start of the Mobile World Congress Mozilla they released a list of telecom operators, hardware manufacturers and the countries where smartphones running OS Firefox will initially be available. Some of the companies listed have already announced they have started development of smartphones with this OS. Among those listed are Samsung, LG and ZTE, and later this year they should be joined by Huawei. All these producers will make their models based on Qualcomm's Snapdragon mobile processors.

Market analysts are forecasting significant growth in expected shipments of tablets during this year. According to the analysis, this year between 170 and 180 million tablets will be sold worldwide, while supplies last year amounted to about 130 million.

Shortly after the Apple replaced Google Maps with own solution with the launch of iOS6, it was quite obvious that if Google were to release a Google maps application it would be a hit on the platform. Immediately after the launch of Google maps it has become the most popular application in the App Store and the matter is now confirmed with the official results on the number of downloads.