Android has held a pretty sizable lead over the iPhone for a long time now, and in the United States, it would appear there’s little chance of that changing any time soon. But Apple’s smartphone is gaining ground on its rival, and it’s all thanks to T-Mobile.
Duolingo is the developer behind a smartphone app for Android and iOS that helps users learn new languages for free. It has a great deal of appreciation for its users, so much so that it went out of its way to help one of them create a unique wedding proposal that they’ll never forget.
Android’s share of the worldwide smartphone market may be sizably bigger than that of its rivals, but when it comes to mobile advertising, iOS remains king. According to the latest data from mobile ad firm Velti, Apple’s share grew from 59% to 64% between May 2012 and May 2013.
Egadz is a glitch musician, using video game sounds and samples to create original electronica music. He’s been at it for a while, with a number of releases–some from as far back as 2002–to his credit.
Today, however, Egadz has released an mobile game, with a version on Android, iOS, and Windows 8, based on his new single, “Ghosts,” the video of which can be seen below.
Rovio, makers of the all-mighty Angry Birds franchise, kicked off the launch of its new publishing company last month with its first game Icebreakers: A Viking Voyage hitting the App Store last month, but the company already has a new game on deck.
Earlier this morning Rovio announced that its second game, Tiny Thief, will be hitting iOS and Android next week. Details on the new game are pretty scant, but Rovio says its a stealth-based puzzle-solving game.
Based on the trailers it looks like you’ll be trying to steal hidden items by covertly creating a chain of events to open up the map for ultimate thievery.
Here’s the latest Tiny Thief trailer:
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Apple is stil the top smartphone maker in the U.S. according to the latest quarterly report from comScore. While HTC, Motorola, and LTG continued to lose marketshare in the U.S. over the last three months, Apple and Samsung have continued to outpace the competition.
As of May 2013, comScore found that the iPhone now accounts for 39.2% of the U.S. smartphone marketshare. Even though Apple has the lead in hardware, Android is still the top ranking smartphone platform in the U.S. with 52.4 percent market share.
Here’s how Apple stacks up against the competition:
We had expected BlackBerry Messenger to make its debut on Android and iOS on June 27 thanks to T-Mobile U.K., but when it became apparent that the carrier’s announcement was incorrect, we started to wonder just how long BlackBerry would keep us waiting.
But during a quarterly earnings call this morning, CEO Thorsten Heins again reiterated the company’s plan to make BBM a cross-platform service “before the end of the summer.”
While the iPhone has been slowly making its way to carriers all over the world since its release in 2007, there are still a number of major operators that are yet to offer it. One of those is China Mobile, the world’s largest carrier with over 800 million subscribers; and another is DoCoMo, a Japanese carrier that serves almost half of the country’s mobile market.
But DoCoMo isn’t at all concerned, even though it’s losing customers to other carriers that do offer Apple’s device. A company executive has acknowledged that the iPhone is an “attractive” device, but points out that it also comes with some disadvantages, and insists that the latest Android-powered offerings are just as good.
Google made a big splash into wearable tech with Glass and even though they haven’t sold a single unit in stores yet, Google already has its sights on making a smartwatch – similar Apple’s rumored iWatch – and a videogame console powered by its Android operating system.
The Wall Street Journal reported this afternoon that Google is developing the products on its own in an effort to combat the rumored iWatch and the possibility of an updated Apple TV that could support third-party apps.
Microsoft announced earlier this week that it is bringing the PC classic Age of Empires to Android and iOS, and that sparked speculation that the software giant may be into porting Xbox games over, too. But don’t get your hopes up, because Microsoft Game Studios boss Phil Spencer has confirmed that it’s not going to happen.
Digg Reader, the service hoping to secure as many Google Reader users as it can when the service closes on July 1, has just begun rolling out in beta to early testers. The news comes just as the official Digg Reader app for iOS is expected to hit the App Store.
Spanish mobile operator Telefonica has partnered with Microsoft in a bid to boost Windows Phone 8 adoption. The two companies plan to launch an “enhanced marketing effort” that will fight back against “the current duopoly” of Android and iOS.
The iPhone 5 has been branded the “slowest smartphone” by Which? magazine after going up against its latest rivals in a group of tests that evaluate processing power and graphics capabilities. The Galaxy S4, Samsung’s latest Android-powered flagship, came out top in the tests, with a rating almost double that of the iPhone’s.
Microsoft has teamed up with Japanese development studio KLab to bring its 1997 classic Age of Empires to Android and iOS. Microsoft is hoping the real-time strategy simulator will capture some of the success of the growing mobile game market, which is currently luring gamers away from traditional handheld consoles like the Nintendo 3DS and the PlayStation Vita.
Sony Music Unlimited for iPhone has been updated to offer offline playback and high quality 320 Kbps music streaming. These features were first introduced to the Android version of the app back in January, so it’s nice to finally see them on iOS with the version 1.3 update.
BlackBerry has today launched its Secure Work Space service for Android and iOS, allowing enterprises to manage their fleet of devices through the BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 administration console — regardless of the platform they’re running.
The service promises a higher level of control and security on Android and iOS, and the ability to secure and separate managed applications and data from personal content.
With Best Buy and even Apple itself offering deep discounts on iPhones, it seems like everyone is getting into the act. AT&T just announced a plan to offer users a trade-in plan for up to fifty percent off online or in-store purchases of mobile devices like the iPhone 5, Galaxy S4, or HTC One when an older phone is traded in towards the purchase.
Imgur has today launched its official Android app via Google Play. The free download brings all of your favorite Imgur features to your mobile device, including the ability to browse viral images, comment and vote on images, and upload images directly from your smartphone.
Don’t worry, iOS users — Imgur is also coming to the App Store soon.
Apple has begun charting iOS adoption figures to help developers establish the percentage of users running different versions of iOS. Google has been doing the same thing for Android developers for some time, and Apple’s chart only highlights the massive difference in fragmentation between the two platforms.
Over at The Atlantic, a fascinating study has been published that connects location data from smartphones with the layout of a heavily populated city. The findings are that the most iPhone activity is coming from wealthier areas, while Android usually dominates lower income districts.
An exciting new update that brings new maps, weapons, and guns to Gameloft’s Modern Combat 4: Zero Hour is now available to download on iOS. Called Meltdown, the update is free to existing owners of the popular first-person shooter, and it’s one of the biggest the game has received since it hit the App Store back in December.
Apple’s iOS platform has continued to be the top platform for users who actually like to buy stuff via their smartphone, says a new study from Forrester. Consumers with iOS devices are 30% more likely to buy something via their device, than Android users.
Even though iOS is where more of the money is at, Android isn’t getting ignored by U.S. companies. Forrester’s study also reported that 96% of ebusiness professionals surveyed for the study plan to launch a native or hybrid Android app by the end of 2013, while 99% said they plan to do the same for iOS.
Gameloft has today released a new teaser trailer for Modern Combat 4’s upcoming Meltdown update, which brings new maps, new weapons, new game modes, and more to the company’s popular first-person shooter. The update is coming to both Android and iOS, and it could be the last before Modern Combat 5 makes its debut.
