Android vs. iOS vs. Windows Phone 7: A mobile showdown Total Devices Total apps Tablet-optimized apps Unapproved 3rd party apps 4G Cloud integration Voice control Multitasking Navigation Search Dual-core devices Custom firmware Third-party keyboard apps NFC Showcase phones Showcase … Continue reading
Monthly Archives: December 2011
Get in touch
2011 in review: The year in iOS
iPad, tooFor fans of multitouch, 2011 was a big year. Let’s put our fingers on precisely why.
In March, Apple released the sequel to the world’s first successful tablet computer. The iPad 2 was acclaimed for what it added: two (admittedly mediocre) cameras, a zippier processor (the dual core, Apple-designed A5 chip), twice the RAM (512MB), and the magnetic appeal of the Smart Cover. But even as it added all those features, the iPad managed to take a couple significant elements away—namely, weight and thickness. The iPad 2 is just two-thirds as thick and 88 percent as heavy as the original.
In the fourth quarter of its fiscal year 2011 alone, Apple sold 11.12 million iPads. The product continues to do a brisk business, dominating the mind and market share for the still-developing tablet market. Of the iPad’s sales performance to date, Apple CEO Tim Cook said, “Some people are electing to buy an iPad rather than a Mac… A materially larger number are electing to buy an iPad instead of a Windows-based PC.”
Getting Siri-ous: The iPhone 4S
The iPhone 4S became available in October. It scored the same speedy A5 chip that powers the iPad 2, a dramatically upgraded rear-facing camera, and an overhauled dual-band antenna design.
But the feature that got everyone talking was the feature that got everyone talking: Siri. With its still-in-beta voice-powered virtual assistant, the iPhone 4S can handle a multitude of tasks for you, based solely on the verbal instructions you provide it. Despite the fact that Siri was hampered by occasional outages, early 4S adopters loved its power, itssense of humor, and its uncanny ability to understand just what you wanted it to do.
Apple hasn’t said when or if Siri will come to the Mac, the iPad, or earlier iPhone models, but ask any iPhone 4S user who has come to depend on Siri for sending texts, setting reminders, and making appointments: The more ubiquitous Siri becomes, the better.
Carrier on, my wayward son
2011 was also the year the Verizon iPhone rumors were finally put to rest; Verizon got the iPhone 4 back in February. With the release of the iPhone 4S, Sprint became the third U.S. carrier, and regional carrier C Spire became the fourth.
iOS 5 is alive
October also brought iOS 5, the newest incarnation of the operating system that powers the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. With it came Notification Center, a smart solution for the increasingly invasive blue alert boxes that had come to characterize the iOS experience. But iOS 5 didn’t just make alerts more manageable; it also introduced long-awaited niceties like wireless syncing, over-the-air iOS updates, iMessage, Reminders, Newsstand, system-wide Twitter integration, AirPlay mirroring, and more.
GarageBand of brothers
Apple launched the iPad incarnation of GarageBand in March, alongside the iPad 2’s release. An update at the beginning of November brought the app to the iPhone as well. The app combines Smart Instruments, loops, a drum machine, and support for devices like electric guitars and USB keyboards and microphones. In short, it turns an iOS device into a portable music studio.
The app makes amateur musicians sound good, and it offers plenty of powerful performance for professionals, too. If any one app raised the App Store bar—and proved that iOS devices can and should be used for creation just as much as consumption—GarageBand was that app.
Renew my subscription
Speaking of the App Store, 2011 saw one significant addition: iOS subscriptions. Introduced in February, subscriptions afford developers the option of taking recurrent payments—on a weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly, semiannually, or yearly basis—for digital services.
The first app to take advantage of subscriptions was News Corp’s The Daily, with its $1 a week issues (or $40 for the year). Subscriptions caught on, as a steady parade of major magazine publishers brought their publications to the iPad. Over time, Apple loosened its restrictionson how publishers could offer in-app subscriptions, allowing those publishers to offer free or discounted digital access to print subscribers.
Apple didn’t relent on some stricter policies, though; apps like Amazon’s Kindle were forced to remove links to their online stores to remain in compliance with Apple’s App Store rules.
Send in the clouds
October also saw the release of iCloud, Apple’s synchronization service for Macs, PCs, and iOS devices. With iCloud, you can backup your iOS device without needing a computer at all; sync iWork documents, contacts, emails, and calendars; locate your iOS devices; and more. With iTunes in the Cloud, you can re-download your iTunes Store purchases from your iOS devices, and newly-purchased apps download to all your devices automatically. And with iTunes Match, Apple’srecently introduced $25 per year iCloud add-on, you can store your music library in the cloud and wirelessly access it from your iOS devices.
Non-competes
Numerous iPad competitors came; most of them went. The RIM PlayBook was dead on arrival; theMotorola Xoom failed to catch on; and HP held a fire-sale to divest itself of its TouchPad inventory. The only device to make any major waves in the industry thus far is Amazon’s Kindle Fire, though reviews have been mixed at best. Some conclude that the Kindle Fire makes a great Kindle, but a lousy tablet. Perhaps that’s why Apple doesn’t seem that worried about it.
In the year 2012…
Predicting what’s next for Apple and the iOS ecosystem is never easy. And though the iPhone 4S was a zig when many expected an iPhone 5 zag, Cupertino spent much of 2011 ticking off long-rumored items on its list—new U.S. carriers, a new iPhone, and a new iPad. It seems certain that 2012 will bring another new iPhone and new iPad, but questions remain: Will the next iPhone sport a bigger screen? Will the next iPad score a Retina display? How many models of iPad should we expect? Is a 7-inch iPad in the offing?
There are but three ways to find out the answers: Get hired by Apple as a top-level executive; follow along with all the Apple news Macworld reports upon next year; or wait until the tail end of 2012 for next year’s roundup.
2011 in review: The year in iOS | Macworld by Lex Friedman, Macworld.com
In U.S., Android Has Upper Hand On The iPhone
Apple’s iPhones may seem more cool, but the Google-backed Android phones are much more popular in the United States. In 2011, Android’s U.S. market share was 53 percent, compared to 29 percent for the iPhone, according to the research group NPD.
And those Android phones are everywhere, even in foodtrucks. Kristi Whitfield owns Curbside Cupcake, a Washington, D.C.-area company. When customers show up without cash, Whitfield uses her Android phone to process their credit card payments with a system called Square. It lets her swipe the cards on her phone, and email or text receipts to customers.
Whitfield says that at first, she used an iPhone for the transactions. But then she switched to Android.
“We started on the iPhone,” she says, “but then as we got more phones for the trucks, we went to the Android. It was an affordable choice, and it worked just as well as the iPhone, and it was the right choice. We didn’t need all of the things that the iPhone did just to run our business.”
Pricing, usability and simplicity are all part of Android’s appeal. But Hiawatha Bray, a technology writer at The Boston Globe, says there’s one other thing that makes Android stand out — it’s its “open source.” Basically, Google lets the world see, and tinker with, their Android code.
“Anybody can take their software, break it down, analyze it, see how it works,” Bray says. It allows Android to get apps to its market with remarkable speed. So, when Apple introduced the voice-recognition technology Siri on the iPhone 4S, Android wasn’t far behind.
“There’s this guy in Bangalore, thought that [Siri] was cool,” Bray says. “[He] tried to create a knockoff, which he called Iris. Within a day or two of Siri, people started to get a crude imitation.”
But the Android app market is also something like the Wild Wild West, Bray adds.
“Google tells you outright — ‘We don’t do any kind of testing to make sure this app is safe,’” Bray says. That means malware and spyware can make it onto Android phones through apps. It’s a problem Apple doesn’t have because they test their apps.
Another advantage for Android is that it’s available on multiple phones and service providers, so there are many types of smartphones running the operating system. And some can do things iPhones can’t.
One example is the Casio G’zOne Commando. Verizon’s Brenda Rayney says the phone met a number of military requirements before it went on sale, making it possibly one of the toughest smartphones on the market.
Rayney says the Commando was submerged in water; survived winds up to 40 miles per hour; was subjected to heavy dust for six hours; and endured salt water spray for 24 hours. It also has withstood solar radiation, pressures at 15,000 feet below sea level, and survived high temperatures of 185 degrees Fahrenheit, and lows of 13 below zero.
You could call it the indestructible Navy Seal Team 6 of smartphones. I tested a Commando at home, with my friends Madeline Clayton and Ryan Whalen.
We threw it down the stairs. We tossed it into a frying pan. And the final test? Beer. We submerged the phone, which retails for between $179 and $449, in Budweiser.
The Commando rang when we dialed its number, as it sat in two beers. “And it’s bubbling!” exclaimed Clayton, as suds frothed from the phone’s vibrations. “It’s bubbling!”
You could try that with an iPhone, but you might not get the same result.
Bray says the Android-iPhone dynamic can be compared to another pair of competing brands. If Apple is Starbucks, then Android is perhaps Dunkin Donuts? “Both companies produce good coffee,” says Bray. “But I gotta admit, I prefer Dunkin Donuts because it’s so unpretentious and straightforward.”
It’s the kind of comparison that makes the case that the Android isn’t just an iPhone competitor, but almost its antithesis.
via In U.S., Android Has Upper Hand On The iPhone : NPR by SAM SANDERS.
Mobilewalla Ranks Users’ Favorites For Android, iPhone, BlackBerry, Windows Phone
A few days ago, we brought you a report on the most popular mobile apps of 2011, in terms of downloads. (Quick version: You all really love Angry Birds). Now, new research from mobile analytics firm Mobilewallalays out a different app landscape: The apps with the highest user ratings across iOS, Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone.
Before we reveal the list, let’s talk methodology: Mobilewalla didn’t simply look at the scores users gave to the apps in the Android Market, or the App Store, etc.; rather, it devised its own Mobilewalla score. Sarah Perez of Techcrunch defines it nicely and succinctly:
Instead of looking at raw user ratings, this scoring system is an algorithm that analyzes a variety of factors in addition to ratings, including an app’s position within its own category, volume, social media sentiment and more.
From there, each app is given a Mobilewalla rating from 0 to 100. Unlike in golf, it’s better to have a higher score.
And now, here are the top-rated apps on each mobile OS for 2011. We’ve split them up by OS, and by paid vs. free, for ease of reading. We’ve also included some brief descriptions for the apps whose titles don’t immediately make their purposes clear:
ANDROID (Free)
1. Pixlr-o-matic: 97.5 out of 100.
“Add retro effects to your photos in a snap!”
2. Super Stickman Golf: 97.5 out of 100
“Swing your way through over 280 unique holes. Use all your special abilities to help you par the courses including sticky balls, ice balls, air brakes, and nitro balls!”
3. Smurfs’ Village: 97 out of 100
“It’s up to you to build a new village for the Smurfs to call home.”
4. Crime Story: 96.4 out of 100
“Crime Story is a game where you can narrate your own gangsta story. Your stairway up to the mafia boss position starts with searching of your kidnapped brother.”
5. Marvel Comics: 96.3 out of 100
“Download hundreds of comic books featuring your favorite characters -— including Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Spider-Man, Wolverine and more — on your mobile device or tablet with the touch of a button.”
ANDROID (Paid)
1. MADDEN NFL 12, 93.6 out of 100
“BOOM! Feel the excitement of NFL Football, anytime, anywhere with Madden NFL 12 for Android. With hard hitting action and beefed up rosters, get the ultimate football experience – now fully optimized for Android Tablets!”
2. Dragon, Fly! Full, 92.9 out of 100
“Slide and fly over the beautiful hills in this fast paced one touch arcade game.”
3. Earth And Legend, 92.3 out of 100
“The most advanced full-scaled multiplayer 3D RPG for Android has arrived in HD! The time has come to call for a hero. Join the battle in this epic RPG adventure delivered in stunning 3D.”
4. Great Little War Game, 92.18 out of 100
“Take command of your army and battle the foe on land, sea and air but be sure to make wise decisions as you go. You want to deploy your soldiers to take full advantage of the higher terrain, natural choke points, ambush spots and defensive walls.”
5. SHADOWGUN, 91.8 out of 100
“Using state-of-the-art weaponry, ships, and the assistance of S.A.R.A.—Slade’s personal android assistant—SHADOWGUN combines intense tactical combat with 3rd person action.”
iOS (Free)
1. MLB.com At Bat Lite, 96 out of 100
News, scores and coverage of Major League Baseball.
2. My Horse: 95.3 out of 100
“Live the dream of owning and looking after a realistic horse, and share the experience with your friends!”
3. Family Feud® & Friends: 93.5 out of 100
The popular TV game show on iOS.
4. Funny Videos & Pics by Break.com: 92.8 out of 100
5. MetalStorm: Wingman: 92.3 out of 100
“Dominate the skies and master the world’s most advanced combat aircraft as you experience the best looking, most action packed jet fighting game for iOS.”
iOS (Paid)
1. Angry Birds Rio: 93.9 out of 100
2. Tiny Wings: 92.9 out of 100
“You have always dreamed of flying – but your wings are tiny. Luckily the world is full of beautiful hills. Use the hills as jumps – slide down, flap your wings and fly!”
3. Craigslist + Notifications. CraigsPro+ Craigslist + Photo Wall + Posting + Photo previews: 91.7 out of 100
4. Where’s My Water?: 91 out of 100
The popular puzzle game.
5. Lock My Photos – Password lock photos & picture data for peace of mind!: 89.7 out of 100
6. Bike Baron: 87.3 out of 100
Motorcycle racing game with user-made levels.
BlackBerry (Free)
1. Memory Booster Pro: 95.1 out of 100
“Memory Booster Pro will recover the lost/used up memory from the device making your applications
run faster and smoother.”
2. BlackBerry Protect: 95.1 out of 100
“BlackBerry® Protect is a free application designed to keep your information secure if your BlackBerry® smartphone goes missing.”
3. Memory Booster: 95 out of 100
“Memory Booster will recover the lost/used up memory from the device making your applications run faster and smoother.”
4. AppsLock – Password Protect Applications (Full Version): 94.7 out of 100
5. Slider Lock Free – slide to unlock your phone: 94.5 out of 100
BlackBerry (Paid)
1. Sea Storm Animated Theme 2.0: 94.7 out of 100
2. Love Is Love – Great Offer of Valentine’s Day: 92 out of 100
Valentine’s Day-themed live wallpaper.
3. Playboy’s Animated Luck O’ The Irish: 90.4 out of 100
“Enjoy 4 different St. Patty’s inspired Irish Playboy wallpapers along with custom color icons and an ANIMATED LOCK SCREEN!”
4. Underwater HD Animated Theme: 90.1 out of 100
5. Juicy Girl Theme – On Sale!: 89.5 out of 100
WINDOWS PHONE (Free)
1. TuneIn Radio: 96.7 out of 100
FM and streaming radio stations.
2. Penguin: 96 out of 100
“With your help, this Penguin can and does fly through a colorful, fun landscape.”
3. gMaps: 95.7 out of 100
Google Maps for Windows Phone.
4. PhotoFunia: 95.7 out of 100
Free photo editing tool.
WINDOWS PHONE (Paid)
1. Phone 8: 92.2 out of 100
Themes for the Windows Phone homescreen.
2. Weather Live: 91.7 out of 100
Robust weather app.
3. Fuse: 89 out of 100
Newsreader app for WP.
4. iFun: 89 out of 100
Transforms the Windows Phone look into the look of the iPhone, from homescreen to utilities to dialer.
5. SuperTube: 88.4 out of 100
“Enables you to play and download YouTube videos in HQ and HD by 3G or WiFi.”
—–
Boy, BlackBerry owners really like their animated wallpapers and themes, huh? A few other observations:
- Gamers on three of the operating systems rated games that could be placed in the “send an animal flying using slopes and hills” category — Penguin on Windows Phone, Tiny Wings on iOS and Dragon Fly on Android all have the same basic game play.
- Photo editing and maintenance also won big across OS’s — Pixlr-o-matic for Android, PhotoFunia for Windows Phone, and Lock My Photos on iOS
- BlackBerry users hate fun. This was the only OS without a game in the top apps, either paid or free.
- iPhone envy? BlackBerry’s “Slide to Unlock” app mimics the unlocking mechanism that Apple owns the patent for, while Windows Phone’s iFun straight up replicates the iPhone’s interface. Android’s Pixlr-o-Matic is a take on iOS’s popular Instagram photo-filtering app.
- Companies don’t always slum it when translating popular apps to mobile devices: Family Feud, Madden NFL ’12, MLB.com At Bat, and Smurfs’ Village all scored highly.
The Mobilewalla report isn’t available online, but you can browse around the analytics firm’s website here.
To view a more cut-and-dry list of users’ favorite apps this year, check out the most-downloaded free iPhone apps from Apple’s App Store, as well as Android users’ favorites.
via Best-Rated Apps 2011: Mobilewalla Ranks Users’ Favorites For Android, iPhone, BlackBerry, Windows Phone .The Huffington Post Jason Gilbert
Facebook Adds Timeline to iPhone App | PCWorld
Facebook now lets iPhone owners view its new Timeline layout and has added several extra handy features in an app update pushed out to iPhone users on Sunday. iPad users still can’t view Facebook Timeline layouts.
Facebook launched its updated Android apps last week when Timeline was released. Facebook has already updated its Android mobile app with the layout. It’s unclear why the iOS update was delayed until the weekend but possibilities include waiting for approval from Apple’s app store and bug fixes. The Timeline layout was shown earlier this year at the company’s f8 Conference.
[Read- Facebook Timeline: How to Get Started]
Timeline however isn’t the only new feature added in 4.1. The new version of Facebook’s app brings a lot of the new features that the social networking giant added over the last year to its mobile apps.
[Read- Facebook Adds Timeline Feature, Supercharges Apps]
You now have the ability to add and sort into Facebook’s lists feature to help them organize their friends. It also adds the subscribe to page feature that the company added along with it’s revamp of news feed. And, as originally reported byTechcrunch, the new app felt considerably faster than previous versions during my time with the app.
This new iOS update leaves only the company’s iPad app without the new Timeline layout. Facebook promised that an update for Apple’s popular tablet is on the way.
via Facebook Adds Timeline to iPhone App | PCWorld By David Daw, PCWorld Dec 19, 2011 10:49 AM.
Android Facebook app surpasses iPhone version – Crave – CNET Asia
For the first time ever, Android is being used more frequently than iPhone to access Facebook.
Facebook for Android has 58.3 million average daily users compared with an average of 57.4 million daily users who access the social network via an iPhone app, according tostats complied by AppData.
The Android app, which was released in September 2009–a full year after the iPhone app, still trails the iPhone in monthly average users accessing Facebook, tallying 85.4 million users to the iPhone app’s 99.1 million. However, the monthly user data doesn’t reflect the “stickiness” of the daily user data, or the number of users who return on a daily basis. In that measurement, the Android app’s 68.2 percent still leads over the iPhone app’s 57.9 percent.
One explanation for the leadership change could be the fact that more than 550,000 devices are being activated every day–up from a daily tally of 500,000 in June and 400,000 in May. More than 200 million Android devices have now been activated around the world, Google announced last month.
IPhones Guide Artillery as Pentagon Plans App Store – Bloomberg
At Camp Blessing in Afghanistan’s Pech Valley, some American soldiers played “Angry Birds” on their iPhones when off-duty. Jonathan Springer decided to put his device to a different use: building an app to help fight the Taliban.
“I wanted to give something back to soldiers that might help save their lives,” Springer, 32, said in an interview from his base at Fort Bragg,North Carolina.
The result is Tactical Nav, an iPhone application the U.S. Army captain built with $30,000 of his savings and a maxed-out credit card a year ago. The $5.99 app uses GPS technology and the iPhone’s camera to chart coordinates and guide artillery fire. It has been downloaded about 8,000 times by U.S., Canadian and Australian soldiers, as well as hunters and hikers, Springer said. From e-mails he has received from soldiers who have gone on patrol with it, the app has been used in both combat and training, Springer said.
If Teri Takai gets her way, American soldiers, sailors and marines may all soon be able to download Tactical Nav and other military programs through a dedicated U.S. Defense Department app store. Takai, the department’s chief information officer, wants to build a secure network of smartphone apps to help soldiers fight in new ways, from more precise maps to better manuals. If security challenges get resolved, the project will result in a revenue source for app developers and a potential boon for iPhones, iPads and Android devices.
“We would like a full range of devices to be able to securely operate with a DoD app store, but also be able to utilize commercial app stores,” Takai said in an interview in a small, windowless conference room at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia.
Combat Innovation
The Pentagon, whose research arm spawned the first version of the Internet in the 1960s, is now turning to technologies developed by civilians as it seeks to make its fighting force nimbler. Takai’s challenge is to create an environment in which soldiers can improvise on devices like Apple Inc.’s iPhone and iPad (AAPL) without letting the Pentagon’s security standards slip.
Soldiers “in a fight innovate and use all the technologies they have,” said Kenneth Minihan, who was director of the National Security Agency from 1996 to 1999. “It’s a very natural phenomenon to come out of troops in combat.”
Minihan runs Paladin Capital Group, a Washington-based company that invests in security-technology companies including software maker Fixmo Inc. He said the Pentagon is right to embrace these new innovations.
“If you go back to the Cold War, it was government- developed technology that we would introduce into the commercial sector,” Minihan said. “Today most of those technologies come from the private sector and get introduced to the public sector — it’s the reverse.”
via IPhones Guide Artillery as Pentagon Plans App Store – Bloomberg By - Dec 15, 2011.
Find out more