News - iOS 5, iPhone 4S, iPad, Android, Windows Mobile & Blackberry

January 2012

January 30

BlackBerry, trying to avoid the hall of fallen giants

"Research in Motion", maker of BlackBerry smartphones and tablets, sent its co-chief executives packing last week and replaced them with Thorsten Heins, who had been RIMs chief operating officer.

January 27

Apple beat Google smartphones in US

Booming demand for the latest iPhone model helped Apple beat all phones using Googles Android platform in the US smartphone market in the fourth quarter, data showed on Wednesday.

January 25

The Apple textbook program will never work

The Apple textbook initiative announced recently is dead in the water due to one condition hidden in the details. After analysing the Apple licensing agreements and technical details, the iBooks textbook program seems to be a "mind-bogglingly greedy and evil license agreement".

January 25

Apple's mind-bogglingly greedy and evil license agreement

Apple, in this end user license agreement, is claiming a right not just to its software, but to its software’s output. It’s akin to Microsoft trying to restrict what people can do with Word documents, or Adobe declaring that if you use Photoshop to export a JPEG, you can’t freely sell it.

January 20

Apple announces iBooks Author, iTunes U to "reinvent textbooks"

Apple announced a Mac application called "iBooks Author", which Apple Senior VP of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller described as "powerful and feature-rich". It allows authors to format books through WYSIWYG interaction in a variety of ways. Just drag a Word file into the book creation space, the app automatically determines the best layout for the book. Users can add images, photo galleries, movies, presentations and 3D objects.

January 20

Apple launches the iBooks 2 eBook platform

Apple's new platform plans to "reinvent the textbook". Saying that there were 1.5 million iPads currently in use in Education (using 20,000 specific apps), the revamped book-stand now includes education-specific features to help the budding students of the world.

January 9

Extentia conducted a Mobile UI Design workshop on January 6th and 7th

Extentia conducted a Mobile UI Design workshop on January 6th and 7th at Extentia Tower. The event was well attended with enthusiastic participation from design professionals and students. Sessions were held by the Design Studio team. The participants created actual user interfaces for mobile applications on the second day, and were given completion certificates at the end of the workshop. The Sakal newspaper covered the event.

January 5

Aakash for Mumbai students at Rs 1000

Mumbai University students will now be able to purchase the Aakash computer tablet, which was launched in October, at just Rs 1,138.

iPad revolutionizing the Travel Industry

Ever approach the border with a sinking feeling that your passport is sitting at home next to the phone charger you also forgot to bring? Fear not, tech-savvy travelers, because apparently you can now just present your iPad to get into the United States of America.

January 4

Tips for purchasing eBook Readers

Shopping for an e-book reader is easy? Think again... With more and more players jumping into the market, its sure helps to do a little reading up before removing all your hard earned money from the pocket. The good news is that the Prices and features are better than ever.

January 3

IITian launches Aakash rival Classpad

Classpad has a touchscreen with a 7 hour battery life, 1.3 Ghz processing speed and a built-in memory of 4GB expandable upto 8GB. The tablet is available in three sizes - seven, eight and 10 inches - and costs between Rs 7,500 and 14,000.

January 3

1.4 million consumers order the Aakash tablet in just two weeks

It has been a pretty good last two weeks for Aakash tablet maker Datawind. According to a report in Economic Times, Datawind CEO has stated that 14 lakh consumers have shown their interest in buying Aakash in just two weeks of putting it on sale online.

December 2011

December 16

Mumbai school wants iPads in class

Podar International School, Santa Cruz, has instructed all its students to buy iPads to impart education.

December 13

Five mobile trends to look out for in 2012

Globally, it's estimated that 5.3-billion people have mobile phones. This means that there are more people picking up a mobile phone every morning than lifting a newspaper. Mobile data traffic is trebling every year. So, with only a few weeks left until 2012, here are some key trends to consider...

December 9

Apple Picks Instagram As The 'iPhone App Of The Year'

Apple released its iTunes Rewind 2011 and App Store Rewind 2011 today, the company's annual lists detailing of the top selling apps, music, TV shows, movies and podcasts for the year. For this year, Apple chose Instagram As the iPhone App Of The Year.

December 7

Apple to Samsung: Here's how not to copy us

Here is the list of all that Apple wants to 'teach' Samsung in design.

December 7

Sibblingz Launches Spaceport 3.0 to Replace Adobe's Mobile Flash Plug-In

In the wake of Adobe's announcement last week that it will suspend all further development of its mobile Flash plug-in, a vacuum has emerged for game developers seeking to take their Flash skill sets to mobile platforms.

December 1

Financial Trader App for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry PlayBook

Christophe Coenraets demonstrates Financial Trader, a cross-platform enterprise financial analytics app featuring 3D charts and real-time updates, which was developed using Adobe Digital Enterprise Platform with Flash Builder.

November 2011

November 11

Why Mobile Flash Died: An Adobe Employee Speaks Out

Adobe’s mobile Flash efforts have recently gone the way of the western black rhino, and Principal Product Manager Mike Chambers isn’t too pleased with how the Adobe chose to break the news. In fact, he feels so strongly about it that he’s offered up his own clarifications on the matter.

November 10

What the End of Mobile Flash Means

Adobe confirmed on Wednesday that it will no longer be developing mobile Flash, saying that HTML5 is the “best solution for creating and deploying content in the browser across mobile platforms.”

November 9

Scanadu Raises $2M: “Check Your Body As Often As Your Email”

Meet Scanadu, an innovative health tech startup I daresay you’ll be hearing a lot more from in the future. It’s not the easiest of tasks explaining what the company is building at this point, but let’s call it a personal, mobile, auto-diagnostics product – they refer to it as a Medical Tricorder.

November 8

With new iPhone, there’s not a dull moment

Alex Johnson, a freelance video producer in Indianapolis, has a self-esteem problem. Well, not really, but his new iPhone thinks he does.

November 8

What is Siri?

Siri is the intelligent personal assistant that helps you get things done just by asking. It allows you to use your voice to send messages, schedule meetings, place phone calls, and more.

November 7

The One Chart You Need To See To Understand Mobile

ComScore has data out on the US phone market and Asymco breaks them down, including this great chart at right on the evolution of the US phone platform install base.

November 3

How a medical student uses an iPad for patient care and education

iPads have been introduced into medical education mostly during the pre-clinical years. I’d like to share my experience using an iPad during my clinical year. I’ve found it to be exceedingly useful and versatile.