Find: Apple accounts for 51 percent of new mobile activations this Christmas

Apple accounts for 51 percent of new mobile activations this Christmas
// The Verge - All Posts

Christmas Day is always a good yardstick for success in the mobile industry. New devices are unwrapped and activated, and manufacturers get a clear idea of how they compare to their rivals. This year, however, it wasn't difficult to work out a winner: Apple easily beat off the competition, with analytics company Flurry reporting that the iPhones and iPads accounted for 51 percent of all new devices activated worldwide. The iPhone 6 was the most commonly activated device overall, while the iPhone 6 Plus was also in the top five.

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Find: Meet the company that's behind HP's smartwatch



Meet the company that's behind HP's smartwatch
// The Verge - All Posts

HP threw a curveball when it announced a surprisingly good-looking smartwatch earlier this year, the Michael Bastian-designed Chronowing. It doesn't have the horsepower of an Android Wear device or the to-be-released Apple Watch, but the Chronowing still manages notifications from your phone, has a neat subdial that simulates an analog watch face, and — this is key — actually kind of looks like a real watch.

But HP didn't make the Chronowing, it turns out. Multiple sources familiar with the relationship have confirmed that the manufacturer behind the timepiece is Meta, the Fossil spinoff that recently launched its own M1 line of smartwatches penned by former Vertu designer Frank Nuovo.

The relatively low-resolution, monochrome square...

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Find: Talent magnet: The new Citrix building

Yup. I'd work there. 

*** 

Talent magnet: The new Citrix building
// Walter Magazine

VIEW FROM THE TOP: The building itself was created using ShareFile and other Citrix software, said Steve Nicholson, who directed the site selection, design and construction of the new building remotely, in part, from his base in Santa Barbara. He says he spent several months after Citrix’s acquisition of ShareFile “just watching how they do what they do” before deciding what kind of building would best suit the group’s needs.

VIEW FROM THE TOP: The building itself was created using ShareFile and other Citrix software, said Steve Nicholson, who directed the site selection, design and construction of the new building remotely, in part, from his base in Santa Barbara. He says he spent several months after Citrix’s acquisition of ShareFile “just watching how they do what they do” before deciding what kind of building would best suit the group’s needs.

by Liza Roberts
photographs by Nick Pironio

“The way people work is changing,” says Citrix vice president Jesse Lipson. “Work and play used to be clear-cut. Those lines are blurring.” As a result, “The nature of an office has changed.”
Lipson’s office, anyway.
The Duke philosophy major turned successful software entrepreneur sold ShareFile, the cloud-based file sharing software maker he founded, to Citrix for more than $50 million in 2011. On Oct. 9, to much fanfare, he unveiled its new Raleigh workplace.
The Citrix building on S. West Street took a former Dillon Supply warehouse and turned it into a place that has to be seen to be believed. With 170,000 square feet of custom-made, customizable Herman Miller workstations; a basketball court; a two-story living wall of 8,000 plants; nooks for naps; a rooftop yoga studio; art from North Carolina artists; a racquetball court; a gourmet café; fresh air from sliding doors and windows; a giant, fully equipped gym; bikes to borrow; and a bocce court with the best view in town, it’s no ordinary office. It’s green in all of the important ways, and has technology imbedded in everything from responsive lighting to automated ambient noise control. To say it’s the office of the future is like saying the Tesla Roadster is the car of the future. It’s extraordinary, but most of us will be lucky to get a test drive.

The two-story living wall – which hangs from a crane left over from the building’s previous life as an industrial warehouse – is home to 8,000 plants from 14 different species. They include several varieties of philodendron, orchid, and fern.

The two-story living wall – which hangs from a crane left over from the building’s previous life as an industrial warehouse – is home to 8,000 plants from 14 different species. They include several varieties of philodendron, orchid, and fern.

The building’s center is created by a cantilevered tower of eight recycled shipping containers, all named for different philosophers: Aquinas, Aristotle, Bacon, Boole, Camus, Cicero, Derrida, and Descartes. It seems entirely likely to a visitor that Citrix vice president Jesse Lipson, a philosophy major at Duke, won’t take long to tackle the rest of the philosopher alphabet as the company continues its warp-speed growth.

The building’s center is created by a cantilevered tower of eight recycled shipping containers, all named for different philosophers: Aquinas, Aristotle, Bacon, Boole, Camus, Cicero, Derrida, and Descartes. It seems entirely likely to a visitor that Citrix vice president Jesse Lipson, a philosophy major at Duke, won’t take long to tackle the rest of the philosopher alphabet as the company continues its warp-speed growth.

Envy was the running joke on ribbon-cutting day. Just about every person who toured the place – who ranged from elected officials including Gov. Pat McCrory and Mayor Nancy McFarlane to an assorted who’s-who of the Triangle’s business and community leaders – had the same thing to say, with a laugh for the sake of tact: Citrix, will you hire me?
Which is the idea.
Lipson, who found this unlikely spot for as many as 900 employees – in what was then an empty warehouse on a mostly empty street – says the building is designed not only to facilitate creative work from teams of people – but to convince them to work there in the first place. And to stay, once they do.
At first, Lipson says he hesitated to suggest such a massive, complex, expensive, and risky idea – gutting a warehouse to build an office like this one – to his then-brand-new boss, Mark Templeton, Citrix’s CEO. “I didn’t want to be the guy who got us into this disastrous real estate deal,” Lipson recalls. Templeton’s response sealed the deal: “He said, is this the place that will help you attract and retain the best talent in the Triangle? If yes, do it.”
That was two years ago. At that point, the company committed to add 340 jobs within five years – to grow from 130 to 470 workers – in exchange for more than $9 million in state and local incentives. As of last month, the company had blown past those numbers.  More than 600 employees fill the building today, and Lipson says the number will likely reach 900 in the next couple of years.
“It’s about inventing the future,” Citrix CEO Templeton told the 200-plus crowd gathered on opening day. “Powered by a whole new generation of people.” The N.C. State graduate says Citrix doesn’t have to look far to find them: “North Carolina is creating talent. The talent is here.”

 

Whiteboard tabletops and morphing conference rooms are made for collaborative work. Among the many pieces of recycled material from the Dillon Supply warehouse incorporated into the new Citrix building are several railroad ties that form the bases for glass-topped conference tables.

Whiteboard tabletops and morphing conference rooms are made for collaborative work. Among the many pieces of recycled material from the Dillon Supply warehouse incorporated into the new Citrix building are several railroad ties that form the bases for glass-topped conference tables.

 

A rooftop bocce court is one of the building’s many recreational options on every floor.

A rooftop bocce court is one of the building’s many recreational options on every floor.

OUTSIDE IN: Folding glass NanaWalls turn a rooftop patio into an alfresco dining spot.

OUTSIDE IN: Folding glass NanaWalls turn a rooftop patio into an alfresco dining spot.

A ride-in bike storage area has room for 80 bikes, including eight loaners for employees who need to zip to a cross-town meeting, or to take home if ride-share buddies leave them behind.

A ride-in bike storage area has room for 80 bikes, including eight loaners for employees who need to zip to a cross-town meeting, or to take home if ride-share buddies leave them behind.

'Climbing Figures', a sculpture by Ranier Lagemann, scales the parking garage.

‘Climbing Figures’, a sculpture by Ranier Lagemann, scales the parking garage.



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Find: Apple releases WatchKit developer tools alongside first iOS 8.2 beta



Apple releases WatchKit developer tools alongside first iOS 8.2 beta
// Ars Technica

As of today, developers can officially begin writing software for the Apple Watch.
Megan Geuss

The Apple Watch is set to launch early in 2015, and back in September Apple said that developers would be able to write software for it using a new set of APIs called WatchKit. Today Apple has officially issued the first beta of WatchKit to third party developers, who can get started writing and testing Apple Watch software now.

According to Apple's WatchKit page, Apple Watch apps are actually divided up into two parts. One is "a WatchKit Extension" that actually runs on your iPhone, and the other is "a set of user interface resources that are installed on Apple Watch." The iPhone's more powerful SoC will actually be executing the code, and you interact with that code through the UI on the watch's screen. Apple's introductory video at the bottom of the WatchKit page explains the basics of how the phone and the watch will communicate, and how apps will work—we'll sum up some of the most interesting parts, but developers especially will want to watch the whole thing.

This is an interesting way to handle things, because it takes some pressure off of the hardware inside the Apple Watch itself (Apple called the entire system the "S1" in its presentation, but aside from that we know little about it). One worry that has surfaced as pundits have debated the watch's price tag is the replacement cycle—does Apple expect you to replace your watch every year? Every two or three years, like you do with your phone? Some guesses on cost, particularly for the gold Apple Watch Edition, have gone up to $1,000 and beyond, and watch aficionados who spend that much on these things generally expect them to last.

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Find: Google changes stance on net neutrality four years after Verizon deal

A big deal: google flips to say mobile data should also be net neutral. 

Google changes stance on net neutrality four years after Verizon deal
// Ars Technica

Four years ago, Google teamed up with Verizon to argue that most network neutrality rules should not apply to cellular networks. The companies got much of what they wanted, with the Federal Communications Commission passing rules that let wireless operators discriminate against third-party applications as long as they disclose their traffic management practices. Wireless companies were also allowed to block applications that don't compete against their telephony services.

Verizon sued anyway and won when a federal appeals court struck down the FCC’s prohibitions against blocking and discrimination. The decision has set off months of debate, yet Google—once a strong supporter of net neutrality—has largely remained silent.

That changed today with Google sending a message to subscribers of its “Take Action” mailing list urging them to “Join Take Action to support a free and open Internet.” Within this page is evidence that Google has changed its mind on whether net neutrality rules should apply to wireless networks.

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Find: Apple announces iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus

Apple announces iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus
// Ars Technica

17 more images in gallery

CUPERTINO, CA—As expected, Apple has just updated its iPhone lineup with brand-new handsets. While last year's 5C and 5S were both variants of 2012's iPhone 5, the new phones feature a redesigned chassis made to hold their larger 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch screens. The new enclosures are thinner, too, with the iPhone 6 measuring 6.9 mm and the Plus coming in at 7.1 mm—both thinner than the iPhone 5S's 7.6 mm.

This is just the second time that Apple has changed the size of the iPhone's screen since the original model was introduced back in 2007, and it's the first time Apple has changed the width of its screens—the 4-inch iPhone 5 design just made the previous 3.5-inch displays taller. The new phones are better-suited to compete against ever-increasing screen sizes from Android phone OEMs like Samsung, HTC, LG, and Motorola. According to Apple slides revealed during the Apple vs. Samsung case, Apple is aware that most of the growth in high-end smartphone sales is coming from large-screened phones.

The 4.7-inch iPhone 6 has a resolution of 1334×750 (326 PPI) and the iPhone 6 Plus is 1920×1080 (401 PPI), They won't be as sharp as displays in many premium Android phones, some of which have 2560×1440 display panels, but as we've seen, those panels can be a big drain on the battery.

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Find: Apple reveals long-rumored Apple Watch

Apple reveals long-rumored Apple Watch
// Ars Technica

On Tuesday, Apple finally unveiled the Apple Watch, the company's first dedicated wearable device.

Once rumored for an October reveal, the Watch was only recently linked to today's iPhone announcement event, and while it follows devices from the likes of Samsung, Motorola, and LG, the Watch stands out thanks to its total integration with the iPhone and iOS ecosystem. The Apple Watch comes in two different sizes—one larger and one smaller.

According to CEO Tim Cook, the Apple Watch has been in development for a considerable amount of time and required a reassessment of how users interact with devices. Not content to take the iPhone experience and simply shrink it to wrist-like proportions, the Apple Watch discards traditional gesture controls like pinch-to-zoom, since they are impractical in the tiny form factor. Instead, the primary means of interaction is with the "digital crown," the tiny dial on the watch's side. Per Cook, it lets you interact with the watch without blocking its screen (although, confusingly, a screen-obscuring swipe appears to be the most common gesture used with the Watch). A press on the "digital crown" returns you to the home screen.

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Find: Apple explains why your iOS app keeps getting rejected

Apple explains why your iOS app keeps getting rejected
// Ars Technica

If you've ever developed an app for the iPhone or iPad, you've had to deal with Apple's App Store Review Guidelines. The lengthy list of rules encompasses many different areas, and Apple has just published a new page to explain what rules are broken the most often—and what developers can do to avoid rejection.

Apple's graph (which reports app rejections for the week leading up to August 28) shows that "incomplete information" is the most frequent reason for rejection—this includes providing demo account credentials for apps that require an account, failure to adequately explain any special settings needed for evaluation, and failure to provide an accompanying demo video for apps that only work under specific circumstances (when attached to a particular piece of hardware, for example). In short, tell Apple what it needs to know to evaluate your app, because the company isn't going to take extra time to do research if your app isn't self-explanatory.

Bugginess is another big reason for app rejections, as is failure to comply with Apple's Developer Program License Agreement. A fuzzier problem that takes down six percent of apps is a "complex or less than very good" user interface, which could mean that the interface is too cramped or not finger-friendly—Apple provides many UI explainers to developers, and failure to take them into account can get your app thrown out even if it's otherwise useful. The chart above and the page itself explains how to comply to these guidelines as well as the others on the list, though they won't help you much if your app was one of the 42 percent rejected for "other reasons."

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Find: Android is more fragmented than ever. Should developers or users worry?

Android is more fragmented than ever. Should developers or users worry?
// Technology

OpenSignal finds the variety of devices has grown by 58% from 2013, and now developers have to content with sensor fragmentation too

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Find: ComScore: Most people in the US don't download apps on a regular basis

ComScore: Most people in the US don't download apps on a regular basis
// Engadget

While smartphone apps come in handy for a variety of uses from sharing photos to navigating a new locale, it appears that most folks in the US barely download them at all. According to ComScore, 65.5 percent of those users 18 and above who wield a...

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The state of Android updates: Find: Who’s fast, who’s slow, and why

Nexus and Motorola phones update rapidly, Samsung and lg very slowly. 

*** 

The state of Android updates: Who’s fast, who’s slow, and why
// Ars Technica

Aurich Lawson

Android 4.4, KitKat was released on October 31, 2013, or at least, that's what you can say about one device: the Nexus 5. For the rest of the ecosystem, the date you got KitKat—if you got KitKat—varied wildly depending on your device, OEM, and carrier.

For every Android update, Google's release of code to OEMs starts an industry-wide race to get the new enhancements out to customers. So how did everyone do this year? Who was the first with KitKat, and who was the last? What effect does your carrier have on updates? How has the speed of Android updates changed compared to earlier years?

Given all those variables, we wanted to check in on the specifics of Android in 2014. There are lots of slightly different ways to go about measuring something like this, so first, a word about our methodology. All of these charts measure KitKat's update lag time in months. For our start date, we're picking October 31, 2013, the day KitKat was released on the Nexus 5. For our finish time for each device, we're going with the US release of an update via either OTA or downloadable system image. OTAs are done on a staggered release schedule, so it's hard to tell exactly when they start and finish—we just went with the earliest news of an update.

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Find: This is how we shop in the future

On the transformation wrought by mobiles. 

*** 

// The Verge - All Posts

By Ellis Hamburger and Ben Popper

There’s something special about the mall. The smell. The squeaky-clean floors. The blinding light and ethereal music that seems to emanate from the air itself. The suburban mall has always been an essential communal watering hole, a place to see and be seen, and a place to window shop. But — the golden age of the mall is over, it seems. During the 2013 holiday season, US stores got half the foot traffic they did three years ago, says The Wall Street Journal.

Instead, we’re shopping online and shifting our attention towards new watering holes — apps like Instagram, Pinterest, and Wanelo — places to show off our new designer jeans and designer vacations. It is estimated that by the end of 2014, nearly a...

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Find: indystate - Chinese smartphone makers are eating away at Samsung Galaxy sales



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Find: example of why webdev is hard

Browsers aren't truly standard. Here, WebKit is different from ie


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Find: Your smartphone will replace room keys at Hilton hotels by end of 2016

Phones are keys. 

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Job: Validic

A health startup 



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Find: A Closer Look at Android RunTime (ART) in Android L

With each android version google focuses on a new "thing". This time it's performance. 

Google does it with discarding jit compilation for compile at first execution, improved garbage collection, and going 64 bit. 


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Find: the dark side of phone way finding

In almost a third of us states, cops are recording where you are without warrant. 

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Find: Get a warrant for cell phone location tracking, US appeals court says

The Supreme Court will decide if police can track you without a warrant. I believe they can tail you with a car without warrant, but tracking by phone seems too broad an expansion to me. 


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iOS 8 strikes an unexpected blow against location tracking

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Subject: iOS 8 strikes an unexpected blow against location tracking [feedly]
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Finally, there's a hoodie that can text your mom [feedly]

Maybe. But just mom? Just this hoodie? Would it often call mom by accident? 

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Microsoft bets on Kinect-like gestures for the future of Windows Phone [feedly]

Some good ideas here, but easily taken too far. Probably, I'd say. 


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Remembering Danger Incorporated [feedly]



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Find: Microsoft hints at renewed HTC partnership



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Watch Android Wear in action on an LG smartwatch



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Find: Tech-sector economics guru proclaims: No tech bubble in 2014


Tech-sector economics guru proclaims: No tech bubble in 2014
// Ars Technica

It’s become somewhat of a tradition for the tech sector to stop for an hour every year and listen to what former Morgan Stanley analyst and current Kleiner Perkins (KPCB) investor Mary Meeker sees as the important Internet trends of the moment.

Meeker, who delivered her annual internet report at the Code Conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, on Wednesday (a day before reports emerged that the US economy shrank last quarter), painted a fairly rosy picture of the current health and future prospects of the technology sector, both nationally and globally. This despite lots of chatter in recent months from the peanut gallery (including Fox Business) that we're experiencing a technology bubble.

In her presentation, which included 164 densely packed slides, Meeker acknowledged that some tech company valuations are indeed high, and that Internet growth slowed to less than 10 percent last year (down from near 20 percent in 2007, and nearly 40 percent growth in 2002). Nevertheless, the signs of a bubble that were present in the late 90s, like frequent initial public offerings and unreasonably inflated stock valuations in the technology sector, are not present today, she said.

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Find: HTC's head of design is leaving the company

Very bad news. 


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Find: Taking Google’s modular, upgradeable smartphone from concept to reality

Will people prefer ara modularity and longevity to its added size, weight and reduced battery life? 

I think they may, if it helps reduce hardware and software costs. Google would also be wise to allow customization of appearance. 


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Find: Project Ara video reminds us why we want a modular phone

 


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Find: “Android Wear” is Google’s wearables platform; hardware and SDK announced

Here you go. Next up: ios. 

*** 


“Android Wear” is Google’s wearables platform; hardware and SDK announced
// Ars Technica

Google has taken the wraps off its fabled Google Watch platform today, announcing  "Android Wear," its new platform for wearable devices. While the system is Android based, it also occupies the same position that Android does in the market—an OEM agnostic platform with a focus on app development, Google integration, and compatibility with many different types of hardware.

Google released two videos of the project showing off interface screens and several pieces of prototype hardware. The demo Android Wear devices are entirely touch- and voice-powered, with "OK Google" hot word detection. Google says one of the focuses of the OS is to "give you information when you need it most," alluding to heavy Google Now integration. Fitness is also an area of focus for Google, with the blog post saying Android Wear will pull down information from fitness apps. Android Wear will also be able to control other devices, with Google mentioning a voice command to start up a music player or to "cast" (read: ChromeCast) a movie to your TV.

The developer preview sign-up is live now, although Google says that getting in might take up to 24 hours. Google says it is working with hardware partners, including "Asus, HTC, LG, Motorola, and Samsung." Motorola has already announced the Moto 360, an Android Wear watch with a round display screen and metal body, due out in summer 2014. We've signed up for the SDK and will start digging through it as soon as we get it. Stay tuned!

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Samsung’s “Tizen SDK for Wearable” will let anyone make a Gear smartwatch app




Samsung’s “Tizen SDK for Wearable” will let anyone make a Gear smartwatch app
// Ars Technica

Google's wearables SDK is supposed to launch sometime next week, and it will mark the launch of a new Android-based platform that Google hopes will take over the wearables market the way that Android captured the smartphone market. The difference this time is that Google won't have the biggest Android OEM in its corner: Samsung is going out on its own.

Well, the company is at least dipping its toe in the "going out on its own" pool. Today Samsung is launching an SDK of its very own (first spotted by Engadget) for the new Tizen-powered Gear smartwatches. The Samsung Gear is the sequel to the company's disappointing Galaxy Gear smartwatch, and with the new hardware (actually three new pieces of hardware), Samsung has switched from Android to the Samsung-made Tizen OS. Samsung's rise to power in the mobile industry has been entirely fueled by Android-powered devices, but now the company feels it is big enough to try its hand at ground-up OS and ecosystem building.

Apps for the original Galaxy Gear were hard to come by. While there were some third-party apps, the SDK was only available to developers approved by Samsung. The awkwardly named "Tizen SDK for Wearable" is a public release, though, allowing anyone to make a Gear app. The Gear will need apps, too, because thanks to the switch to Tizen, the app pool is starting over from scratch.

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Find: Webstate - chrome gains vs firefox on desktop, vs safari on mobile

Desktop: 5:2:2:1 ie:ffox:chrome:other 
Mobile: 5:4:1 safari:google:other 

*** 

Weeks before expiration date, Windows XP still has 29% OS market share
// Ars Technica

In February we saw the usual small movements in the browser market. More significantly, however, we didn't see any significant movements in the operating system market. For the second month in a row, Windows 8.x's share is basically unaltered... and so is Windows XP's.

The desktop browser space today seems steadier than it has been for a long time. Internet Explorer's share was virtually unchanged, down 0.02 points. Firefox also fell, down 0.40 points, and Safari dropped 0.13 points. Chrome grew, up 0.56 points. Chrome and Firefox haven't been this close since last July; perhaps 2014 will be the year when Chrome pushes Firefox into third place.

Absent some big reason to shake things up, this is unlikely to change any time soon. The impending loss of support of Internet Explorer on Windows XP should hopefully push users of that operating system to, if not switch operating systems entirely, at least switch to Firefox or Chrome; Mozilla and Google will both support their browsers on Windows XP for at least a year after Microsoft drops support. But in practice, anyone conscientious enough to switch browsers because of the lack of support would switch operating systems too.

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Find: Verizon has most reliable cellular network in test, AT&T has the fastest




Verizon has most reliable cellular network in test, AT&T has the fastest
// Ars Technica
RootMetrics

A nationwide test of the four major US carriers' cellular networks puts Verizon Wireless and AT&T in a near-tie in most categories, with Sprint and T-Mobile lagging well behind their bigger rivals.

Verizon was the winner in four out of five categories, including reliability, data, calls, and texts. AT&T won the speed test by a hair and finished slightly behind Verizon in the overall score.

Test results for the second half of 2013 were revealed today by RootMetrics, which calls itself an independent mobile analytics firm. The tests don't appear to be funded directly by any of the carriers, but RootMetrics' business sells "subscription data products to strategic wireless carriers, infrastructure companies, and device manufacturers."

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Find: Indystate - Android tablets outsell the iPad in 2013

Finally!

*** 


Android tablets outsell the iPad in 2013
// The Verge - All Posts

It's been a long time coming, but Android tablets finally overtook the iPad in market share in 2013, according to new research from Gartner. More than 121 million Android tablets were sold last year, Gartner reports, giving it 61.9 percent of the market. Meanwhile Apple's iPad sold an estimated 70 million units, enough for 36 percent of the market. Notably, Android's high market share doesn't necessarily translate to high profits for manufacturers. Gartner reports that Android's success in the tablet market came because low-priced tablets put them within reach of more consumers than the iPad, which continues to sell at a premium. The fact that cheap tablets would eventually grab the lion's share of the market was all but certain. More...

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Apple's CarPlay moves ios into cars

Sounds like they're starting at the high end. 

Ms, android and bberry also in the game. A new front. 

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Apple's CarPlay puts iOS on your dashboard
// The Verge - All Posts

As was rumored on Friday, Apple is today finally ready to launch a new iPhone integration setup for car infotainment systems. Calling it CarPlay, the Cupertino company claims it's "designed from the ground up to provide drivers with an incredible experience using their iPhone in the car." CarPlay is built primarily around the use of Siri voice commands and prompts, providing an "eyes-free" experience where you can respond to incoming calls, dictate text messages, or access your music library. It's also predictive, claiming to know where you'll most likely want to go based upon addresses found in your email, texts, contacts, and calendars. Apple's Maps are also an integral part of the service, which was previewed back in June of last...

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Find: Yota's latest E Ink smartphone takes a great idea and makes it pretty

Interesting. 

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Yota's latest E Ink smartphone takes a great idea and makes it pretty
// The Verge - All Posts

YotaPhone is an Android smartphone with a regular touchscreen on one side and an E Ink display on the other. It's been around for well over a year now, and in our time with previous prototypes we've been impressed with its premise, if not Yota Devices' execution. At MWC this year, the Russian carrier-turned-manufacturer is showing off an all-new prototype it believes solves many of the original model's flaws.

The new YotaPhone improves over its predecessor in many ways. The original's 4.3-inch 720p display is now a 5-inch 1080p unit, and its blocky corners have been replaced with smooth curves. All of the specs you'd expect to improve have: it has a quad-core processor in place of a dual-core, a thinner profile, a lower weight, and it...

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4K mobile gaming is here

More is coming. 

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4K gaming is coming to an Android tablet near you
// The Verge - All Posts

Qualcomm announced its Snapdragon 805 processor back in November, but it wasn't until today that we could try out its promise of Ultra HD graphics for ourselves. The American chipmaker has built its own 4K tablet — spanning a 3,840 x 2,160 resolution — to demo the graphical capabilities of its latest chip and the consequent benefits of owning a 4K Android device. That tablet is on show here at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

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Find: Google will start teaching people how to build their own smartphone parts this April

Project ara lives!


Google will start teaching people how to build their own smartphone parts this April
// The Verge - All Posts

Google announced today it will host the first Ara Developers’ Conference this April. The series of three conferences will show developers what they will be able to do with the company's modular phone project. This is the first word of Project Ara's future since Google announced plans to sell off Motorola for $2.91 billion to Lenovo in January. Phonebloks, a community of modular smartphone supporters working with Google, put out the video below about the project's most recent updates.

The first conference will be held online with a a live webstream and an interactive Q&A. A limited number of people will be able to attend in person at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. According to the project's website, the...

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Find: Motorola Watch and New Moto X Coming

The wave of watches has begun: pebble, samsung, motorola, apple...

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Motorola Press Event at MWC: New Watch and Moto X Coming
// AnandTech

Despite Motorola’s current state of flux regarding their acquisition by Lenovo, there are plenty of products in the pipeline.  At the press event this evening, Rick Osterloh made a couple of interesting statements.  The first is the position of wearables, and that Motorola is in the process of developing a smartwatch.  The focus for the watch will be making it stylish – their current issue with current devices is the lack of style and finding a device that people actually want to wear.  Motorola will try and fix this.

Also, for the briefest of moments, the panel was asked regarding the next version of the Moto X.  The answer was simply ‘sometime in the summer’.



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Find: Mozilla aims for the emerging world with plans for the $25 smartphone



Mozilla aims for the emerging world with plans for the $25 smartphone
// Ars Technica
In Barcelona today, Mozilla announced its Firefox OS plans for the next year. The highlight: plans for a line of smartphones starting at $25 each, bringing HTML5-powered smartphones to billions of people who can't afford more expensive devices.

Central to this plan is a partnership with Chinese fabless semiconductor designer Spreadtrum. The company has designed a trio of chipsets built around the ARM Cortex A5 processor.

While a $25 smartphone might be a step down from the high-powered phones of Samsung and Apple, Mozilla is positioning its new products at an audience that currently only has feature phones. As such, it's not a step down, it's a step up.

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Find: Google’s “Project Tango” is a smartphone with Kinect-style computer vision




Google’s “Project Tango” is a smartphone with Kinect-style computer vision
// Ars Technica

Google is launching yet another crazy moonshot project. This one is a prototype called "Project Tango," which squeezes 3D computer vision technology—similar to that used in the Xbox Kinect—into a smartphone. The device is being cooked up by Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) group, which just moved over from Motorola. Johnny Lee, the Technical Program Lead at ATAP, described the project:

Project Tango strives to give mobile devices a human-like understanding of space and motion through advanced sensor fusion and computer vision, enabling new and enhanced types of user experiences – including 3D scanning, indoor navigation and immersive gaming.

The computer vision is enabled by a new co-processor from Movidius, called the "Myriad 1." The chip was designed from scratch to bring Kinect-style computer vision to smartphones, where size and power-draw are a huge challenge. In fact, the man quoted above, Johnny Lee, is a former Microsoft employee and worked on the Kinect technology before jumping to Google. Google's goal with Project Tango is to produce the hardware, ship the phone out to developers, and see what they come up with. TechCrunch, which was pre-briefed on the device, says Google is giving the device out to 200 developers, and signups for access start today. Developers that apply will have to pitch their ideas to Google. 

My favorite video.

The computer vision isn't meant to enable Leap Motion-style hand waving for input, but to let the phone know where it is in 3D space. The rear of the phone is packed with sensors that would allow the device to "scan" a room and build a 3D model of it, which apps could interact with. This sounds like Google is making an augmented reality platform that could really tell what is in a room, instead of crudely guessing the room geometry based on a 2D camera feed. 

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Find: E-Z-2-Use attack code exploits critical bug in majority of Android phones

Attack targets android browsers. 

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E-Z-2-Use attack code exploits critical bug in majority of Android phones
// Ars Technica
A screen showing the status of a Metasploit attack exploiting a vulnerable Android handset.

Recently-released attack code exploiting a critical Android vulnerability gives attackers a point-and-click interface for hacking a majority of smartphones and tablets that run the Google operating system, its creators said.

The attack was published last week as a module to the open-source Metasploit exploit framework used by security professionals and hackers alike. The code exploits a critical bug in Android's WebView programming interface that was disclosed 14 months ago. The security hole typically gives attackers remote access to a phone's camera and file system and in some cases also exposes other resources, such as geographic location data, SD card contents, and address books. Google patched the vulnerability in November with the release of Android 4.2, but according to the company's figures, the fix is installed on well under half of the handsets it tracks.

"This vulnerability is kind of a huge deal," Tod Beardsley, a researcher for Metasploit maintainer Rapid7, wrote in a recent blog post. "I'm hopeful that by publishing an E-Z-2-Use Metasploit module that exploits it, we can maybe push some vendors toward ensuring that single-click vulnerabilities like this don't last for 93+ weeks in the wild. Don't believe me that this thing is that old? Just take a look at the module's references if you don't believe me."

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