i-OS

Apple's smartphone share rises, but Android still on top

Apple and Android both grabbed a bigger piece of the pie last quarter, but Google's mobile OS kept the top spot with almost half of all U.S. smartphone customers.

For the quarter, Android's market share rose to 47.3 percent, according to ComScore, up from 44.8 in the prior quarter. Apple also watched its share rise to 29.6 percent from 27.4 percent but remained in second place by a wide margin.

Apple enjoyed a huge gain in smartphone sales during the holiday quarter, selling a record 37 million handsets. But Android continued its onslaught … Read more

Reckless Racing 2 power-slides into the iTunes App Store

The sequel to one of our favorite iOS racing games is out today, and new game modes, customization options, and car upgrades make Reckless Racing 2 the best in its genre at the iTunes App Store.

When the original Reckless Racing came out, it was a revelation of what a savvy developer could do on an iOS device. With great-looking graphics, ultra-realistic physics, and a retro edge, Reckless Racing demonstrated a new breed of racing game on iOS.… Read more

Apple calls iMessage bug story an 'extremely rare situation'

Apple has weighed in on a controversial issue with its iMessage service that keeps accounts on devices even when the owner has wiped the phone.

A story posted by Gizmodo yesterday detailed the dangers of the issue after a reader sent the outlet photos and details of iMessage exchanges that appeared on their iPhone after having it serviced at an Apple store.

According to their story, it all stemmed from that employee using their own phone's SIM card as part of the repair, which linked up the customer's phone to that employee's iMessage account. That resulted in … Read more

iPhone users grabbed 6 million free apps a day in December

iPhone users were busy in December downloading more than 6 million of Apple's top free apps each day.

For the last month of 2011, the iPhone app store witnessed a record 6.04 million downloads per day, a 7 percent jump over the previous high of 5.45 million daily downloads in November.

Compiled by mobile ad firm Fiksu, the App Store Competitive Index looks at the total number of downloads of the top 200 free iPhone apps in the United States. The downloads have been gaining momentum since September when the average daily number was 3.8 million.… Read more

Apps for foodies: 12 apps for finding or making good food

Our cookbooks are spending more time on the shelf. My laptop has fewer tomato stains. In place of these trusted recipe sources, our iPads and iPhones are becoming fixtures in our kitchen.

My wife and I are using iOS apps to discover new recipes and restaurants, shop more effectively at the grocery store, and keep track of noteworthy meals. Also, I found In-N-Out Burger's app, which I hope to use frequently on my next trip to the West Coast.

What you won't find here is anything in the way of a shopping list app. The cookbook apps below … Read more

Your complete guide to Apple AirPlay

AirPlay, the wireless tech that lets you stream content from one Apple device to another, is certainly one of the cooler perks of owning a suite of iDevices.

At the tap of a button, AirPlay lets you wirelessly stream movies, music, and photos from any iDevice (iPad, iPod, iPhone, or computer) to your television with Apple TV ($99). The feature also works with any AirPlay-compatible speakers and AV receivers for streaming music.

To use AirPlay, you'll need:

iPad, iPhone (3GS or later) iPod Touch, or a computer with iTunes 10.2 or later. The iDevices must be running iOS … Read more

Two apps that one-up Facebook on smartphones

There's more than one way to use Facebook, especially if you're mobile.

That's a good thing, since while Facebook has its own mobile products, the main Facebook iOS and Android apps are, at least in my opinion, bloated and confusing. (The Windows Phone app is stronger.)

Facebook also has its own highly focused app just for sending messages. From a usability perspective, it's a better bet. Two other new focused apps from third parties are similar, philosophically: They both slice off one piece of Facebook and give you a nice, clean mobile-friendly interface to it.

First … Read more

How to share and find good food with the Foodspotting app

The Foodspotting app, available for both iOS and Android platforms, lets you find good dishes in your area and share marvelous plates of food with others.

Foodspotting is like Foodily without the recipes. Or Instagram solely for meals of food. In fact, you can connect your Instagram account to Foodspotting, and Instagram photos tagged with #food or #foodspotting will show up in your Foodspotting feed. (Maybe I need to wait longer for the two to sync, but the Instagram photo I tagged with the #foodspotting tag has yet to show up in my Foodspotting feed.) The app lets you upload … Read more

FingerPrint turns any printer into an AirPrint printer

Ever wish you could beam a photo from your iPhone or iPad to your printer?

That's the promise of Apple's AirPrint technology, which debuted way back in iOS 4.2. Unfortunately, few printers support AirPrint, meaning most users are stuck copying photos to their PCs and then printing them.

A little over a year ago, I posted a workaround: Make AirPrint work with non-AirPrint-compatible printers. It works for some printers, but not all--and it's kind of a hassle to implement.

For example, I recently dug out an old HP Photosmart 475 "lunchbox" photo printer, harboring dreams of churning out snapshots right from my iPhone. Alas, my workaround didn't work. And the Photosmart 475 isn't supported by HP's ePrint app.

Then I found FingerPrint, a clever utility that turns nearly any printer connected to your PC into an AirPrint-enabled printer. It works, and it's pretty cool.… Read more