Google has a new greeter for one of their campus buildings. Google’s new Android Statue on its Mountain View campus looms over Building 45′s entry, its chrome arm waving to those on the campus and the nearby highway. Hello, Android. (more…)
Earlier this week, a mysterious Chinese company released an early preview of their ambitious project: WindowsAndroid. Socketeq, the Chinese company, claims they’ve ported Android OS to run natively on Windows. Immediately after the news went viral, their website went offline for several days due to traffic overload.
Socketeq’s website is now back online, but instructs visitors to search the web if they want to download the preview program. Luckily, I managed to download a copy and have been testing it out. Initial impression and video after the break. (more…)
The holidays are over, the New Year celebrations have passed, and 2013 is ahead. Well, the first month of the year is technically already over, but that’s not my point. Like every year, both the App Store and Google Play saw tremendous sales over the last few months.
But that’s not all that’s worth noting about January’s App Annie index. The Apple App Store earned “over three-and-a-half times that of Google Play in December 2012.” The month was also a record for the platform, and while App Annie does not disclose actual numbers, Apple has said in the past that the store typically brings in “around $333 million per month.”
Google Play, however, is undoubtedly on the rise. App Annie notes that “from Q3 to Q4, Google Play app revenue doubled, while iOS App Store revenue grew by about one-fifth.” Both platforms are surely growing, but as you can see in the graph above, Google Play is finally beginning to really take off. I would attribute this to a cohesive lineup of devices, such as the Samsung Galaxy S III and the Nexus line. What about you?
As part of its iOS 6.1 release announcement this morning, Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller confirmed that nearly 300 million iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices are now running iOS 6. That number is incredible, especially considering that iOS 6 was just released in late September. (more…)
The latest numbers for smartphone operating system market share are in, with Android and iOS continuing to dominate as the top two platforms. Together, the operating systems accounted for a 92 percent share of the market, nearly suffocating BlackBerry, Windows Phone and other smaller platforms.
This most recent data, which comes from Strategy Analytics, estimates that just over 152 million Android smartphones were shipped during the quarter. Comparatively, Apple recently announced that it sold a record-breaking 47.8 million iPhones in the fourth quarter. (more…)
Unofficially unlocking an iPhone, Galaxy S III, or literally any other cell phone that runs on the United States’ airwaves is going to be illegal starting Saturday. An action that once was just a breach of a contract with a carrier could now be prosecuted as a criminal issue. AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, or any other carrier can prosecute someone who unlocks their device and use it on another carrier (perhaps for a completely legitimate reason, like traveling overseas).
Doesn’t really seem fair. But how could one protest? There’s already a petition, currently at only 509 signatures, on WhiteHouse.gov. This petition has a relatively simple goal: (more…)
iFans forum member dancerdudes is at it again, this time with an impressive guide outlining how to use your Mac, PC, Android Phone, or Raspberry Pi with AirPlay.
Using various third-party applications you can use almost any device as an AirPlay speaker, but the gem of this tutorial is the ability to use your Raspberry Pi micro-computer to turn any ordinary pair of speakers into AirPlay speakers. All it takes is $40 and about a dozen Terminal commands to set up a household AirPlay-enabled speaker system. This is a bargain compared to store-bought AirPlay speakers that can cost upwards of $600.
Head over to the comments of this story for the full guide, and if you’re so inclined, check out dancerdudes’ other tutorials; Custom App Icons Without a Jailbreak, and Create Blank(ish) Icons Without a Jailbreak.
Have an Android smartphone, but need some more cloud storage? We all could use more storage, so this may be worth a look: MediaFire, a popular file uploading website, has released an app for Android. New users of the service will be able to get 50 GB of free cloud storage, and the app itself looks very nice.
APC is a designer of micro-computers not distant in function from the Raspberry Pi. These low-power computers serve many purposes from providing students in third world countries the ability to code, to setting up a simple network storage device. These micro-computers, though, don’t typically ship with a case. This little guy is a bit different. (more…)
Every mobile operating system has its share of pros and cons. As for Android, there happens to be a lot of really good things that end users benefit from. It was interesting to sift through the responses received in the previous article, and to see where the community agreed on the various strengths of the Android operating system. Therefore, I decided to make a visual representation of those patterns.
Follow after the break for a brief assessment of the iFans community’s thoughts from my previous article, What Do You Like Best About Android. (more…)