Monday, June 24, 2013
Friday, June 21, 2013
The drop test : iPhone 5 vs Samsung Galaxy S4
Protect Your Bubble, a gadget insurance company has carried out a series of drop tests on the iPhone 5 and the Samsung Galaxy S4 in an attempt to figure out which phone is more durable. Which one you reckon will survive the fall from various heights? Check out the video below for the outcome.
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
iOS 7 - Biggest Revamp done by Apple so far
The new iOS 7 update gives the mobile operating system a radical new look and some first-for-Apple features for iPhone and iPad fans, like quick-access system controls, automatic app updates, and Apple's AirDrop file-sharing system.
The visual overhaul is a clean sweep that changes absolutely everything, from the typography and color schemes to the typical icon and button shape across the entire platform.
Below are some of the notable features added :
- Control Centre is among the 'hundreds of new features,' providing users with access to Airplane Mode, wi-fi, Bluetooth, screen brightness and more. It's accessible with one upwards swipe from the bottom of the screen.
- Notification Centre is available from the lock screen to offer users an overview of their alerts. The new Today feature offers a summary of events for the day ahead, such as meetings and so on.
- Multitasking is also reportedly improved, with developers able to integrate functionality that offers their creations the ability to run in the background.
Camera app features filters inspired by Instagram. Users will be able to make real-time photo effects and switch between four camera options with a swipe.
Photos app features Moments, a function that organises media based on time and location. It comes with iCloud sharing which allows family and friends to share and connect their collections in one place.
Safari redesign supports full-screen browsing, while iCloud Keychain stores all passwords and credit card details securely across all devices. Parental Controls are enhanced to block access to adult material and other sites.
Siri has new male and female voices and Twitter search integration, so users can ask what people are saying on the social network. Wikipedia and Bing are also integrated. Integration with Bing is definitely a smack in Google's face.
Music app comes with iTunes Radio internet steaming service, which features over 200 stations. Available across iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Mac, PC and Apple TV.
- App Store now comes with more than 900,000 apps and features a new Kids category.
For the WWDC keynote video, you can check out the video below :
You can also check out the official iOS 7 promo video below :
Feel free to comment and tell me whether the new features are game changing. Has Apple done enough to stay ahead of the game or they are going to play catch up to Android?
Friday, June 7, 2013
Thursday, April 18, 2013
App Annie: Apple App Store revenues still 2.6x higher than Google Play
Apple's App Store generated revenues 2.6x greater than the rival Google's Play store front during the first quarter of 2013, down from a multiple of 4x during the fourth quarter of 2012, analytics provider App Annie reports.
The US continues to lead all international markets on iOS app downloads, unchanged from the previous quarter. Here are the top 5 :
1. US
2. China
3. UK
4. Japan
5. France
China has started to gain momentum in the iOS App Store and was the leading contributor to the increase in iOS downloads from Q4 2012 to Q1 2013. While Games were the top category for downloads growth in China, gains were seen in many other categories as well. All together, these four key countries have been driving roughly half of total iOS downloads.
The top 5 by revenue for iOS are :
1. US
2. Japan
3. UK
4. China
5. Australia
U.S. and Japan together are responsible for close to half of all App Store revenues.
The U.S. tops all markets on Google Play downloads as well. The top 5 are :
1. US
2. South Korea
3. India
4. Russia
5. Japan
China is not listed as the Play Store was not launched in China otherwise I reckon China should also be high up on the top 5 list. The top four countries represented roughly 40 percent of Android installs during the first quarter, compared to about 50 percent for iOS.
Top 5 by revenue for Android :
1. Japan
2. South Korea
3. US
4. UK
5. Germany
The top 3 countries dominate Google Play, covering approximately 70 percent of its worldwide revenue. Their revenues are largely driven by games than any other countries' with South Korea surpassing the 95 percent mark, while Japan has exceeded 90 percent.
Games continue to drive the overwhelming majority of worldwide revenues in both the App Store and Google Play, App Annie added. As of the first quarter, the category accounts for 70 percent of iOS revenues and close to 80 percent of Android revenues.
In short, its a still a gaming economy on both App Stores and it will continue to be driven by Games. The Play store is definitely catching up very quickly thanks to the exponential Android OS take up rate. Apple has to buck up quickly if they want to continue to dominate the space.
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
FREE Subscriptions Giveaway on Zinio
In collaboration with Zinio, I will be giving away 10 magazines subscriptions for free to the FIRST 10 readers who respond back to me! All you need to do is to download the award winning app from App store, provide me your first and last name, title of choice and your email address. Here are just a few sample titles : PC MAGAZINE, POPULAR SCIENCE, and MACLife.
About Zinio
- Thousands of top magazines from around the world. You can browse and purchase subscriptions or single issues instantly from your computer or mobile device to read wherever and whenever you like
- Explore section lets you read - even without a subscription - thousands of articles from your favorite magazines and share them with friends
- Use on iPad, iPhone, Android mobile phones and tablets, laptop or desktop
- For use on Kindle Fire, follow these steps: http://imgs.zinio.com/faq/fire.html
Friday, January 4, 2013
Flurry: 1.76bn Android and iOS apps downloaded in last week of 2012
Happy Belated New Year and apology for the long hiatus as i have been busy wrapping up quite a few things and making plans ahead for 2013. 2012 has definitely been a huge mobile year for everybody and I m expecting 2013 to be another record breaking mobile year. The ride ahead is going to be an exciting one as i m certain the forecasted growth will surely be overwhelmed.
2012 ended with a bang as Flurry had just released jaw-dropping figures showing 1.76 billion Android and iOS app downloads were made during the Christmas week from December 25th-31st, while 328m downloads were made on Christmas Day itself.
Comparatively, 1.2 billion apps were downloaded during the last week of 2011, while 242m were downloaded on New Year.
The download surge was stimulated as more than 50m new devices running on Google and Apple's respective operating systems were activated in the final week of 2012, while around 17.4m were brought to life on the 25th.
In fact, Flurry says the period accounts for the highest number of device activations and app downloads of any week in history.
Meanwhile, the US, China, and the UK all broke past 100m downloads to account for 604m, 183m, and 132m, respectively.
Flurry predicts that one-billion-download weeks will become the norm in 2013 and break past a two-billion download week during Q4.
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Facebook back on track after growing 6 fold on mobile ads revenue in one quarter
Facebook reported a respectable quarter at $1.3bn/$0.12, beating most analysts consensus. While the payment business was soft due to Zynga (dropping almost 20%), the surprising strength in advertising more than offset that weakness.
Mobile was the key driver to the outperformance, contributing 14% of ad revenues and yielding a run-rate of 6x over last quarter. Current daily mobile run-rate is about $3 million and this is mostly coming from the sponsored daily feed on the mobile.
Management attributed the success to three factors: (1) users are more engaging on mobile and spending more time on Facebook; (2) the company introduced more ad products on mobile, increasing audience reached by advertisers and (3) mobile ads yield higher performance, on average 8x more than the desktop.
The company is getting better on mobile monetization, which alleviates a major investor concern and thus improves sentiment going forward. Facebook is well positioned over the long term for the multi-screen environment due to its larger base of socially connected users and its ubiquitous reach on the web and apps. With the roll out of their mobile ad exchange, I m bullish of the future prospects in the mobile ads space. Well done to the team at Facebook and this would certainly put pressure on Google to step up to continue their domination in the same space. I wont discount Apple iAds as they can easily get back into the game having access to so many iOS devices and customers data out there.
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