Category: I-phone

No surprises here: the iPad is dominating the tablet market in the US right now, with over 80 percent of users owning a version of Apple’s tablet. The latest survey by Nielsen gives that figure, and says that 3G and Wi-Fi versions are almost equally split among owners, with 39% sticking with Wi-Fi, and 43% preferring 3G. “Dominating” is exactly the right word, too — the Samsung Galaxy is the next tablet on the list, with only a 4% market share, and the Motorola Xoom only showed up with 2%. Sure, the tablet market is still developing quickly, but for now, Apple has it locked down and then some.

Nielsen also polled about how people use their tablets, and over half of users are the only people who use the tablet they own, so it’s still a very personal device. 35% of tablet users say they use their desktop computer less, and 32% of tablet and laptop owners say they use the more traditional laptop less. And as for why users are using their tablets, the portability seems to be a big draw, with 31% of respondents listing tablets as “easy to carry/take with you.”

[via AppleInsider]

Nielsen: iPad maintains 82% of tablet market originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 05 May 2011 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The UK newspaper The Telegraph has released version 2.0 of its iPad app. The updated app features a 30-day archive, night reading mode, and greater depth of content including video, picture galleries, graphics and cartoon archives. However, the big feature of the updated app is the pricing plans.

Users can now download the paper each day for £1.19 (US$1.99). Admittedly, that is rather pricey, but The Telegraph makes up for its daily rates by offering monthly subscriptions for £9.99 (U$16.99). That’s 70% off the daily rate and considering The Telegraph is published every day, that’s quite a bit of information for your buck (or quid). For those keeping track a monthly subscription to the paper edition is £26.40, so the iPad edition saves you quite a lot. Also, Telegraph readers who currently have a subscription to the paper edition can download the iPad edition for free by entering their subscriber number.

Readers should note that, as with traditional newspaper subscriptions, the monthly subscription to the iPad edition is auto-renewing, so users will need to cancel it or they will be automatically billed when the next month comes up.

The Telegraph for iPad is a free download.

[via Electronista]

UK newspaper The Telegraph offers subscriptions through iPad originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 05 May 2011 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I’m neither a doctor nor a lawyer, but you don’t have to have an MD to realize that medical apps are becoming an ever-more-important tool in managing our healthcare choices, costs and overall wellness. In a similar vein, medical accessories to our iDevices could make home medical care cheaper and easier.

Whether you’re monitoring your blood sugar, looking up first aid advice or trying to find an emergency clinic, mobile medical apps are going to be huge; that is, they will be if the legal system doesn’t stifle innovation in the space. As for hardware — where are the devices we were promised?

There’s very little case law around the liability of medical apps should something go wrong, ditto hardware and regulatory issues. Remember 2009, when Apple brought Johnson & Johnson’s folks on stage for them to announce the LifeScan app for glucose monitoring, and then in 2010 when sanofi-aventis showed off the iBGStar? Both products replicate the functionality of existing glucose meters on the market, yet neither one has made it to the approval stage yet. There could be technical hiccups, there could be problems on the marketing front… or maybe there’s a liability angle. We’re still waiting on the Withings blood pressure cuff, although the iHealth unit has actually shipped — a notable exception in the realm of iDevice health attachments.

This article from TechNewsWorld raises the point that liability for a medical app has yet to be determined in the courts. Who takes the blame if your first aid app winds up giving you incorrect advice on CPR — the carrier, the developer or the distributor? Josh McKoon, a Georgia Senator and lawyer at a firm specializing in healthcare legal issues said “they all could be sued.” Of course, you can sue anyone, any time. Luckily apps have disclaimers, and in reality anyone who (at this point) is solely dependent upon a smartphone app for their health is likely going to lose a lawsuit.

As the article points out, there are lots of issues at play here. FDA regulations, murky legal rulings, pending litigation: they all make medical apps a legal minefield should something go wrong and your disclaimer provide less-than-adequate coverage. In other words, it’s a mess. Medical apps are cranking out all the time, but medical devices you dock with your iOS device, not so much. We’ll have to wait and see how case law shapes this emerging market. Read the article from TechNewsWorld for a comprehensive breakdown of where this market is at now, and consider the future up for grabs.

The legal implications of mobile health apps and devices originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 05 May 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I am intrigued by this growing trend of “co-viewing” or “second screen” mobile apps: These are apps designed to be used while you’re watching or doing something else, either something like enjoying a live concert or watching a movie or TV show. We’ve seen a few of these before, but VH1 has released an app called VH1 Co-Star that’s designed exactly for this type of experience.

Mashable has a pretty good write up — while you watch the show itself, the app feeds you tweets and other information that goes along with what you’re watching. There’s even a “DVR” feature, where you can get information streamed as if it were live from shows that you’re not watching live.

The app’s free, of course, and you probably don’t have any reason to download it unless you’re a big VH1 fan. But as I said, this trend of using mobile apps to expand a viewing experience is intriguing — more and more people are using their mobile devices, especially the iPad, while some other media is playing in the background, and apps like this both increase engagement and provide a deeper experience for the viewer. [They also motivate viewers to watch the event live, rather than DVRing and time-shifting, which means better ratings and more ad impressions for the channels. -Ed.]

I suspect we’ll see much more of this in the future — sports specifically seems like a big field (so to speak) for growth on this one. We have seen sports organizations like MLB and ESPN take advantage of Apple’s iOS store, but I think this is a prime area for them to try and implement soon.

VH1 introduces “co-viewing” app for iPad originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 05 May 2011 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dear Aunt TUAW,

During the day, I often switch between the screen on my 13″ Unibody MacBook and an external monitor. Of course, this wreaks havoc upon all my poor windows with resizing, moving, and so forth.

I have to drag them back to their places, and scold them for their impertinence. How dare they move?!

Is there a window manager app that will remember where I like my windows, and move them back where they belong in each of these display sizes?

Thanks a ton,

Your favorite nephew,

Rich

Continue reading Dear Aunt TUAW: Help my windows stay put

Dear Aunt TUAW: Help my windows stay put originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 05 May 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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According to German research group research2guidance, The Android Marketplace could surpass Apple’s App Store in size this year. As TechCrunch points out, another analytics company, Distimo, paints a similar picture. The research groups assume that the current growth rates of both markets remain the same. If so the crossover date will happen sometime this August when both app stores hit 425,000 available apps.

However, the store with the most apps doesn’t necessarily translate into the store with the most downloads. A few days ago iSuppli issued a report stating that Apple will snag 76% of the app download market in 2011 and even by 2014 Apple will command 60% of the market with Google a moderate second. For anyone who remembers the shareware scene (Mac vs. Windows) in the 90s, it also doesn’t mean “more” means “better.”

In the early years of app stores the number of apps the store had was seen as the most important factor, as it enticed consumers to by hardware for which there were a large number of apps. However, as app stores mature, it’s likely the paradigm will shift and quality will be seen as the guiding drive behind app store-supported devices. Indeed, Apple already seems to be moving in that direction, removing “sexy apps,” eliminating potentially fake reviews and ratings garnered from app promo codes, and banning pay-per-install apps. That’s not to say quantity isn’t important, but once a store has a few hundred thousand apps the quality of those apps really become the deciding factor in what makes one app store superior to the other.

Android Market could surpass App Store in size this year, research suggests originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 05 May 2011 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EA held a conference call yesterday to talk about the past year’s revenues, and it’s no surprise that the mobile division is doing great. The mobile revenue total was $70 million for the last quarter, up 27% from the same period last year. It doesn’t sound like things were quite as busy as the holiday season that set records recently, but iOS and its mobile counterparts are definitely a moneymaker for the big traditional gaming company. iOS specifically, says EA, is up “over 100%” in revenues from the previous year. And that even compares favorably to the more traditional handheld consoles — the DS brought in $28 million and PSP picked up $16 million, both sizable numbers, but lower than the mobile total for sure.

The recent Firemint acquisition was also mentioned during the call, but only tangentially. Eric Brown didn’t mention the actual purchase price, but he did say that “overall on price, it’s less than $25 million.” He also called the deal “a great pick up and we’re super excited to have that talented team join EA.” EA is definitely building quite the mobile powerhouse.

EA iOS revenues up 100%, Firemint mentioned originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 05 May 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Research firm IDC has published the results from its most recent survey on smartphone shipments in the first quarter of 2011. There’s lots of interesting insights from the data, but most interesting of all is that Apple appears to be in the last leg of its runup to overtake Nokia as the world’s top smartphone vendor.

Currently Nokia sits in first place, controlling 24.3% of the smartphone market with 24.2 million phones sold. Apple holds the second spot holding 18.7% of the market with 18.7 million iPhones sold in the first quarter of 2011. That’s a difference of only 5.5 million units and is bad news for Nokia as Apple’s Q1 2011 iPhone sales grew 114% year over year, while Nokia’s smartphone sales only grew 12% in the same period. (The growth champion is Samsung, which shot up 350% year over year but started

Overall, the smartphone market grew almost 80% last quarter, with second place Apple and fourth and fifth place Samsung and HTC, respectively, leading most of the growth. From the numbers, it can be inferred that unless your smartphone is running iOS or Android, your potential growth faces severe limitations. As mentioned, first place vendor Nokia only grew 12% in units shipped, and third place vendor RIM grew 31%.

Apple closing in on Nokia as world’s top smartphone vendor originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 05 May 2011 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The New York Times Company Research and Development Lab has developed its own tool to take advantage of location-tracking data that caused a kerfluffle when it was discovered that Apple was collecting said data. Although the issue has been resolved, the newspaper points out that regular people can benefit from the information as well as Apple.

Openpaths is a database where anonymous users can contribute their personal location data by uploading it from their phones. The data is password-protected and contributors can only reveal who they are when they grant access to research requests. Participants can browse their own data after it’s uploaded.

If you’re interested in joining the project, head over to the Openpaths site to sign up. The site warns that the OS 4.3.3 update can disable access to the data that the site is looking for.

New York Times website harvests iPhone location data originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 05 May 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Last September we wrote about a fascinating project that, if successful, may ring in the future of digital curricula for K-12 education. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, a major publisher of textbooks with an abiding interest in technology, embarked upon a large scale pilot project in digital education.

As soon as their new Holt McDougal Algebra 1 textbook was finished, it was decided to re-imagine it as an iPad app named HMH Fuse Algebra 1. The app would include exactly the same content as the 950-page book, but it would also contain over 400 videos, animations, a graphing calculator, multiple presentation methods and numerous other features. John Sipe, the general sales manager of HMH, blueprinted what he wanted the app to be and worked with developers to bring it to fruition.

The free app, which weighs in at 141 MB, only gives you a taste of how it all works, but it doesn’t include any course content. Seeing that requires a US$59.95 in-app purchase. Loading all the content takes up a whopping 4-6 GB of space, but chapters and videos can be downloaded, erased and reloaded at any time.

HMH took this quite seriously and poured some major money into a full-year pilot project; four California school districts were chosen, and teachers were asked to volunteer to teach a number of classes using the textbook and other classes using the app for the entire school year. HMH wanted to measure if students tested better using the app over the textbook and explore attitudinal changes in both teachers and students. All classrooms using the app needed to be Wi-Fi enabled. There was no intention of replacing teachers or turning them into mere facilitators in the HMH Fuse classes. Sipe and HMH wanted to see if delivery methods affected learning, and if so, how?

Continue reading HMH Fuse and the future of K-12 mobile education on the iPad

HMH Fuse and the future of K-12 mobile education on the iPad originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 05 May 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Although Apple has caught a lot of heat lately over the location-tracking issue that was recently resolved with the iOS 4.3.3 update, there are several apps out there that do track where you are with amazing detail. They range from Find My iPhone to apps such as Footprints.

Footprints for iPhone and iPad runs in the background with minimal battery drain and tracks your movements in real time. Once you go through a quick setup process and permit someone to see your movements, they can trace wherever you go. There’s a parental control feature that prevents kids from disabling the tracker.

Using Google Maps, you can see where the person your tracking is and how long they’ve been at that location. Call it Google Latitude for the very paranoid. However, unlike the location-tracking data issue with Apple, you must grant permission to people who want to view your data. The app’s developers tout it as not only a way to keep track of kids and spouses, but employees as well.

Footprints is a free download and the first 60 days of the service is free. After that, you can do a 3-month subscription for USD$0.99, yearly subscription for $2.99 or 2-year subscription for $4.99.

Footprints tracks your movements and who they’re shared with originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 05 May 2011 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Have you ever wished you could get the Instagram experience on your desktop? Well, that’s what the guys behind InstaDesk thought when they set out to use the recently released Instagram API.

InstaDesk is a cool US$1.99 app from the Mac App Store that lets you view your feed, what’s popular, or your own pictures. It also lets you view your followers and who you follow, and you can search for new users, all from within a familiar, Mac-like interface. The app sits in your menu bar, showing you the number of new photos available at a glance and opening up to the full size app you see above. You can view the images full size, view and post comments on your fellow Instagrammers’ creations, and “Like” some choice ones directly from the app.

You can download images to your Mac, share them via email, Facebook or Twitter, or open them in a browser. You can even create your own albums of photos and view them in a slideshow with some really great transition effects.

About the only thing that InstaDesk doesn’t do is allow you to post from your Mac to Instagram. Unfortunately, that’s something that’s simply not allowed by Instagram API, and therefore there’s not much the folks behind InstaDesk can do about it. Does that make the app less useful? Perhaps. But if you’re more a consumer of photos rather than a poster, InstaDesk provides a slick, simple, desktop way to view and appreciate the photos of others.

TUAW’s Daily Mac App: InstaDesk originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 05 May 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft hopes to lure iOS developers to Windows Phone 7. A new website published by the company earlier this year now offers guides and testimonials specifically designed to entice iOS developers to transform their iPhone apps into Windows Phone compatible software.

Currently, Microsoft finds itself on the wrong side of the mobile application availability debate. Mac supporters are used to hearing about the thousands of additional software titles available for the Windows platform on the desktop. In fact, those numbers often influence a customer’s purchase decision. Similarly, the nearly 400,000 apps for iOS and 300,000 titles for Android eclipse the mere 15,000 applications available for Microsoft’s newest mobile platform. The massive app markets available to iOS and Android may influence customers to choose those devices instead of Microsoft’s.

Continue reading Microsoft makes appeal to iOS developers

Microsoft makes appeal to iOS developers originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 05 May 2011 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The latest quarterly results from News Corporation say The Daily, the much-publicized iPad newspaper, has lost US$10 million. Much of the loss is associated start-up costs. News Corp. reports The Daily costs about $500,000 a week to produce, and revenues depend on advertising and subscriptions. The company has not revealed how many of the people who downloaded the free introductory subscriptions have converted to the pay model.

When The Daily came out I thought the $39.99 annual subscription cost was reasonable, but the content mix turned me off. I’m not sure if the magazine has the proper flavor of news that would appeal to iPad owners. The Daily looks great, and works very well on the iPad, but without compelling content I’ll never be a customer.

Several other magazines have experimented with the iPad, often focusing on cost. Most recently, Time Magazine has offered free iPad issues to customers with paid subscriptions. Many publications are too expensive on the iPad, and cost more than the paper equivalents. Other solutions, like Zinio Newstand, have a nice mix of magazines at reasonable prices, but basically you get a PDF of the magazine which is a pain to read because you are constantly re-orienting the page to get the best fit. The Zinio app also offers a text mode, but then the layout and illustrations vanish.

What are your thoughts? Have you been willing to pay for magazines on the iPad? If not, what would it take to get you to open your wallet?

The Daily gets 800K downloads but loses $10 million this quarter originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 05 May 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tweetdeck, whose fate is currently in the air, just received an update. Specifically, version 2.0.1 for the iPhone adds the following features:

• Support for image uploading via Twitpic and Mobypicture.
• Added the ability to create a column with your own tweets and edit the title of custom-made columns.
• Various bug fixes

Tweetdeck 2.0.1 is a universal app and is now available via the App Store. Tweetdeck 2, the major overhaul of the app, was released in late April.

Twitter has apparently purchased TweetDeck for a tidy sum estimated to be between 40 million and 50 million dollars. The app has a loyal following across platforms. We’ll have to wait and see what the future holds for the popular app.

TweetDeck for iPhone updated additional image uploading options originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 05 May 2011 13:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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