iOS

iTunes slip-up reveals auto app-updates feature

A message that appeared in iTunes briefly last night before being taken down by Apple hints that automatic application updates are on the way to iOS users as part of the upcoming system update.

Discovered by MacRumors, the hint came inside of the iTunes app update page, where users can opt to have the iTunes software fetch application updates in bulk, as opposed to waiting for them to update one at a time on the device itself. The boilerplate text on this section was otherwise identical to what's been there for years, with the exception of the end line, … Read more

Platformer arcade games for iOS

Once game consoles hit their stride in the '80s and '90s, the platform game became enormously popular. Especially with the release of the now legendary Mario games, just about every developer rushed to produce a game that offered that perfect mix of running, jumping, and collecting items for points, all while exploring a strange and often fantastical world.

This week's collection of apps includes modern twists on the old-school platform games many of us remember. The first lets you explore deep mines for treasure; the second will bring back memories of precision-heavy, rage-inducing platform classics; and the last offers up cartoonlike graphics as you explore a dreamlike fantasy world.… Read more

Rumor: Apple to make A6 quad-core, iPad-only

According to conjecture from Linley Gwennap (reported by Barron's), senior editor at Microprocessor Report, Apple's next-generation mobile processor, the A6 chip, should be quad-core but only available in iPads.

Gwennap wrote a piece examining the structure of Apple's current A5 processor found in the iPad 2 and come up with two interesting conclusions about how Apple is using their own processor technology to advance their hardware faster and more efficiently than their competitors.

One conclusion is that Apple:

"has gone for bigger chips than the 'merchant' silicon offered by vendors such as Nvidia because it can get greater performance at the same price: Apple doesn't pay the markup it would have to give to Nvidia or another company. Larger chip, same money, in other words."

When you make your own product, you reap all the rewards--only fair if you accept all the risk of doing so.… Read more

Apple, Android grab more market share in U.S.

Google's Android retained the top spot of the U.S. smartphone operating system market over the three months ending in April, gaining 5.2 percentage points to capture 36.4 percent of all smartphone users, said ComScore today.

In second place, Apple's iOS also managed to win over more of the market, eking out a 1.3 percent gain to grab 26 percent share.

Next on the list was RIM's BlackBerry with a 25.7 percent share, down almost five points from the prior quarter. Microsoft's Windows Phone and HP's PalmOS both also lost share, … Read more

Five big questions heading into Apple's WWDC

Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference kicks off early Monday morning in San Francisco. It's the company's annual tradition of gathering its developers to provide training sessions, networking opportunities, and most importantly--introduce new products and services.

This year's edition is no different, except for the fact that Apple has already played its hand. Earlier this week, the company announced that CEO Steve Jobs would be taking the wraps off iCloud, a new "cloud services offering," as well as new versions of the Mac OS and iOS. By comparison Apple merely said that Jobs was keynoting last … Read more

iCloud logo unveiled as Apple sets up for WWDC

SAN FRANCISCO--As it does every year, Apple started setting up for its Worldwide Developers Conference days in advance of its kickoff, offering a glimpse at what will greet attendees next week.

Signage put up by the company today inside the lobby of San Francisco's Moscone Center doesn't unveil anything we didn't already know from a press release issued earlier this week, but offers the first look at the logos for iCloud and iOS 5.

iCloud was first mentioned and named by the company on Tuesday, along with word that Apple CEO Steve Jobs would be doing the … Read more

WWDC 2011: There's an app for that

Ahead of next week's Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple has published a full schedule of the show, along with a special iOS application for those who are attending.

The application (iTunes), which works on both iPhones and iPads has a full conference schedule, which users can bookmark to create their own itineraries. It also has maps of San Francisco's Moscone West (where the conference is being held) so that attendees can find their way around. Additionally the app has a reservation tool that can get attendees a slot at one of the various developer labs, just like they'd … Read more

Windows 8, iOS 6 set for tablet face-off in 2012

The next version of Microsoft's Windows operating system puts a much bigger emphasis on tablets, yet by the time it's released Apple could be a whole two versions ahead from where it's at with its current tablet OS.

During Microsoft's public preview of its tablet-friendly next-generation Windows at the D9 confab earlier today, Windows and Windows Live boss Steven Sinofsky said the software would not be released this fall, and that a safer estimation would be that the company releases a new version of the software every "two to three years." As a frame … Read more

Android users download the most data

Users of Apple's iPhone typically do a bit more with their phones, but Android owners are grabbing the largest amount of data each month, according to a study released yesterday by Nielsen.

Analzying almost 65,000 cell phone bills in the U.S. during the first quarter of the year, Nielsen found that Android users on average gulped 582MB of data each month, compared with iPhone users, who grabbed 492MB of data.

The difference in data usage is significant because iPhone users seem to do slightly more with their phones.

The study discovered that 79 percent of iPhone owners … Read more