04/27, 9:40pm
Tony Fadell says three iPhone ideas tested
Apple had considered one of three core ideas for the iPhone, one of which included a hardware keyboard, former Apple executive and now Nest founder Tony Fadell revealed Friday. Speaking in an evening session with The Verge, he mentioned that the all-touch design that eventually shipped first had come after he wanted to try a virtual keyboard before resorting to the hardware option. The key iPod architect had understood the potential of an on-screen keyboard, which has infinite customization and can disappear when not needed, but didn't rule out physical keys at first.
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04/14, 3:45pm
Pew underscores technology gap in US
A new Pew study has emphasized the rift in technology adoption for the US. About 19 percent of Americans have a tablet of some sort, researches said, and as many have an e-reader. A full 22 percent of Americans, however, had no Internet access at all, a figure that has remained largely constant since 2009.
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03/01, 12:35pm
Pew shows smartphones now majority in US
More Americans now own smartphones than basic cellphones, Pew Internet deduced on Thursday. By looking at those who either said they had a smartphone or mentioned it using a smartphone platform, the study found that 53 percent of American cellphone owners had a smartphone as of February. With 88 percent of the entire adult American population using a cellphone, that translated to 46 percent of all adults owning a smartphone.
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12/08, 3:30pm
Bypasses restrictions of StyleTap emulator
StyleTap has released the StyleTap iOS Wrapper SDK, a new tool for developers. The code lets users bring PalmOS apps to iOS in a way that doesn't violate App Store guidelines. A Palm app is wrapped into the StyleTap platform, the company explains, in such a way that anything restricted by Apple is removed. Developers receive an Xcode template project, and guidelines for internal use or submitting to Apple. PRC and PDB files along with StyleTap license info must be inserted into the project, which can then be built out to create the final iOS app.
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11/29, 3:20pm
Nielsen breaks down US share from Q3 2011
Android's share of the US smartphone market started leveling off in the summer, Nielsen said Tuesday. With Android at 42.8 percent, its overall summer share was the same as what it managed in August. Apple was also unaffected and held the iPhone firm at 28.3 percent.
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07/11, 6:55pm
Pew reveals many use smartphone as only access
Pew Internet in a new study on Monday revealed that a full quarter of American smartphone owners use the device as their main Internet source. The tally leaves 10 percent of all US cellphone owners more dependent on their phones than a computer to get online. About a third of those have no home broadband at all, leaving them either partly or completely dependent on the phone to get online.
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11/16, 6:20pm
Palm's Rubinstein explains loss of phone edge
Palm leader and now HP executive Jon Rubinstein today told those at the Web 2.0 Summit that his company should have led the smartphone market. The company was one of the very earliest in the category, having established PDAs with the Palm Pilot and getting into smartphones early with the Treo, but squandered its lead and let others catch up. He likened his position from 2007 to the situation Steve Jobs faced at Apple in 1996 and 1997, when the goal was primarily to fix years of mistakes.
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09/22, 3:35pm
Android in 15pc of work phones, iPhone at 31pc
Android's footprint in the workplace has gone up 60 percent in just a few months, ChangeWave found in a study today. Only 10 percent of US companies used Android in May, but the number shot up to 16 percent in August. The iPhone was the only other platform to grow but moved up just slightly to 31 percent.
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03/10, 12:35pm
iPhone now a quarter of all smartphones
RIM's BlackBerry line managed to hold off Apple to claim the top spot for US smartphone market share at the start of the year, new comScore data shows. The BlackBerry line only grew its share slightly but held on to exactly 43 percent of the field. Apple passed a symbolic milestone and now has more than a quarter of the entire market, but its iPhone sales grew at a slower rate and put it at 25.1 percent.
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01/22, 1:55pm
Android users more likely to want free extras
Myxer in a study today revealed that users of Android, and most other smartphone platforms, are much more likely to look for free ringtones and wallpapers than iPhone owners. Of all the downloads in the fall, the combined Android platform resulted in seven times more downloads than for Apple's lineup. Visits to the website were also three times higher as Android users make up about 12 percent of all traffic.
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09/30, 3:35pm
AdMob August 2009 gives iPhone the lead
Apple's iPhone OS has successfully overtaken Symbian for the lead in all mobile web traffic, according to the latest data from AdMob. The combined iPhone and iPod touch share has jumped from 33 percent in February to 40 percent in August. Symbian, meanwhile, has almost exactly traded positions with Apple and fell from 43 percent near the start of the year to 34 percent in August.
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06/26, 3:45pm
Palm on Licensing webOS
Palm chief Jon Rubinstein during the company's fiscal results call yesterday evening detailed the company's stance on licensing webOS as well as some of the early reaction to the Pre. Addressing a question on whether Palm would ever let other companies make webOS phones, the executive was emphatic that there were no current plans for this but explained that it was "not a religious issue" for the company. Although not directly stated, the implication was that Palm didn't share Apple's opinion that software exclusivity was essential to integrating with its hardware.
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06/04, 9:15am
Palm Pre Review Roundup
Reviews have surfaced today for the Palm Pre that suggest the device is the closest rival to the iPhone but has drawbacks that may limit its scope. The New York Times' David Pogue describes it as the "iPhone remixed" and an "elegant, joyous" device. He praises webOS as very smooth and particularly highlights app multitasking, which isn't possible with iPhones. He also singles out Synergy, which merges offline and online contacts, as well as the native iTunes sync, as strong points.
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05/01, 2:40pm
Palm Foleo Revival Rumor
Palm is reportedly poised to revive its canceled Foleo companion as a webOS device, an investor note from Global Equities Research says. Analyst Trip Chowdhry claims to know that the design will largely be similar to the original concept on the outside but will use webOS and serve as a true, stand-alone computer. By using an ARM processor and a Qualcomm Gobi chipset for 3G, the Foleo remake would get 8-10 hours of battery life while still having Internet access most anywhere.
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04/23, 3:00pm
AdMob Mar 2009 Phone Share
The use of the iPhone online has accelerated to where it's now outranking Symbian in terms of sheer traffic, AdMob's March 2009 metrics report shows. Tracking access worldwide based on ad requests, the firm says OS X iPhone grew to represent 38 percent of smartphone traffic and just slightly edged out all Symbian phones, which have fallen to 37 percent. Both are sharp changes from February, when Symbian held a comfortable lead at 43 percent while the iPhone had just crossed the 33 percent mark.
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04/01, 5:50pm
WebOS to get PalmOS Hooks
A demo of Palm's webOS platform has revealed that the mobile software should include legacy support for PalmOS apps. Once thought to be completely cutting off the older software, Palm has now shown PreCentral a version of webOS which includes a "Classic" icon in the app launcher. A company spokesman discouraged running the shell but has promised that Palm would 'talk about that later,' possibly hinting at an update promised sometime today at the Web 2.0 Expo.
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02/11, 1:00pm
Palm at Thomas Weisel Conf
Palm doesn't expect there to be any disputes with Apple over patents for multi-touch technology in webOS or the Pre smartphone, company chief Ed Colligan said today at the Thomas Weisel Technology & Telecom Conference. The executive believes there are "no issues with Apple" iPhone patents and says that Palm is "very respectful" of other companies' intellectual property, preferring to dodge around conflicts altogether rather than setting itself up for a challenge. Palm has about 1,500 patents that Colligan is confident gives his company a safe foundation.
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07/25, 3:40pm
Jupiter on Zune Phone
Any attempt by Microsoft to release a Zune-branded phone would clash with the very fundamentals of Microsoft's mobile operating system business and with the partners it depends on to succeed, according to early observations by Jupiter Research analyst Michael Gartenberg. He warns that the frustrations with success in the market that led to the creation of the Zune media player don't exist with Windows Mobile. While companies selling Windows Media-compatible players and the relevant protect music format had largely struggled before the Zune launched in November 2006, Windows Mobile is still considered successful with 20 million copies sold for various devices in the company's fiscal 2008.
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07/03, 8:55pm
Duarte Reworking Palm UI
One of the most prominent phone interface designers is now working for Palm for its next operating system, Engadget confirms in a hunt for new information. Matias Duarte, who designed much of the interface behind the Danger Sidekick and later moved on to Helio's custom interface, is now known through checks with sources and Palm itself to be a Senior Director in Palm's Human Interface and User Experience design group. The new executive quietly left his former post at Helio for the new position nearly two years ago in September 2007.
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