applications

Mac market share continues to inch up

The Mac still owns a tiny market share compared with Windows, but it's one that's slowly been inching up.

In the U.S., Apple held 6.45 percent of all personal computers last month, according to new data from Net Applications, a gain from 6.03 percent from August. The growth from the prior month isn't a surprise, though, since Apple typically enjoys a boost in September thanks to what Net Applications calls "the Back-to-School Bump."

But the latest number also shows a slow but steady rise over the past couple of years from October … Read more

Chrome could unseat Firefox as No. 2 browser

Google's browsers edged closer to second place in both desktop and mobile markets, a gradual trend that helps Google's profitability and its long-term plans for the Web.

On personal computers, Chrome rose from 15.5 percent of global usage in August to 16.2 percent in September, according to Net Applications, whose Web-based analytics tools monitor usage. Chrome trails Internet Explorer, which dropped from 55.3 percent to 54.4 percent, and Firefox, which dipped from 22.6 percent to 22.5 percent. Safari rose from 4.6 percent to 5.0 percent, and Opera was flat at … Read more

Quora Q&As come to iPhone, iPod Touch

Question-and-answer site Quora has launched a new app for the iPhone and the iPod Touch.

The application, which was made available in Apple's App Store today, offers much of the functionality users find with the Web site version of the service. Users can ask questions, add answers on topics they're well-informed on, and search for questions on more than 60,000 topics, the company said.

To add a bit more functionality to the application, Quora is also utilizing the iPhone's location ability to add a new feature, called "Nearby." That feature lets users view topics on a map, and add questions about (and read answers about) the places or things around them. The Nearby feature also lets users explore other areas around the world to ask questions on topics related to a particular place.

Related stories: • Q&A search site Quora opens to everyone • A perfect storm for Q&A site Quora • Amazon cloud outage downs Netflix, Quora

Initial work on Quora began in 2009, and the service was officially launched to the public in June 2010. Since then, the question-and-answer service, which was founded by former Facebook employees Adam D'Angelo and Charlie Cheever, has attracted a loyal following made up of fact-seekers and experts that head to the site each day in the hopes of finding (or providing) the best answers to pressing questions.… Read more

Mac App Store tweak aims to curb accidental buys

In an effort to keep users from accidentally purchasing a piece of software they might have gotten elsewhere, Apple is included a new warning system in the Mac App Store that lets buyers know when they already have the app they're trying to buy.

The new warning, picked up by MacWorld this morning, only appears when you attempt to hit the buy button from the product page of an application that's already installed on your computer. A small drop-down warning then comes up to confirm whether you want to re-purchase the software before moving on to the payment … Read more

Samsung TV apps downloads near 10 million

Samsung's television application marketplace is starting to gain some steam.

According to the company, nearly 10 million applications have been downloaded from its marketplace since the service was made available last year.

The rate of growth in Samsung's store has been quite impressive. Late last year, Samsung announced that its store hit the one-million-downloads mark, 268 days after the marketplace launched. In January, the store reached 2 million downloads. What's more, the company's applications inventory is growing quite rapidly. According to Samsung, it now has over 900 applications available to folks to download to their HDTVs.… Read more

How HTML5 may become the standard for apps (Inside Apps)

The mass adoption of HTML5 as a way to create applications may be coming sooner than you think.

At least, that's what Rob Chandhok, president of Qualcomm's Internet services division, thinks. He recently sat down with CNET to talk about where apps are headed. And the direction solidly points to HTML5.

"We see HTML5 and Web-based mobile applications as the way it will end up," Chandhok said.

Companies such as Pandora and LinkedIn already use HTML 5 as the basis for their applications. He said in the next 18 to 24 months, the standard will reach … Read more

Android to overtake Apple in app downloads

Android is expected to surpass Apple in application downloads for the first time, according to research firm Ovum.

Android could notch 8.1 billion app downloads this year, compared with 6 billion for Apple's iOS devices. That marks an explosion of growth for both platforms; Apple had 2.7 billion downloads and Android recorded 1.4 billion last year. The total number of application downloads is expected to grow by 144 percent this year, Ovum said in a report issued today.

"Consumers' seemingly insatiable demand for mobile applications is set to continue this year, with downloads from app … Read more

Apple leads volatile mobile browser market

New statistics released today show a competitive volatility in the the mobile browser market absent from the slower-moving personal computer browser market.

Net Applications has long shown the total browser usage worldwide based on visits to a collection of Web sites using its analytics software. Now, though, it's separated PC browsing on desktops and laptops from mobile browsing on phones and tablets. With PCs, the story remains largely unchanged: Microsoft's Internet Explorer continues its gradual slide while Google's Chrome and Apple's Safari gradually rise.

But in the mobile market, there's a lot more jitter in … Read more

Apple applies for antenna technology patent

It has been over a year since the iPhone 4 Antennagate debacle filled the pages of most tech blogs. In that time, everyone from random people on the street to Consumer Reports criticized the iPhone antenna issues, problems that a new patent application from Apple seeks to solve.

Sniffed out by Patently Apple, this application for a window that acts as an antenna may end up being one of the more important filings you'll see this year. In a nutshell, Apple is developing a composite that contains foam cells and could house the iPhone's (or other iDevice's) … Read more