The mobile app craze, which was started by Apple's iPhone and has been perpetuated by any smartphone worth its plastic, shows no signs of slowing down, according to Gartner. The market researcher says mobile app revenue, which equaled $US4.2 billion last year, will hit $29.5 billion in 2013. For consumers, that's a good thing, because mobile apps rule. There's been some talk of Web apps eventually killing off the downloadable app market, and that may hold true in the long, long run. But, right now, mobile apps rule. Here are five reasons why.
The US$1000 iPhone app is back, and unlike 2008's utterly worthless I Am Rich (which showed only an image of a jewel), this one could pay for itself over time.
Spooked by the use of an Internet Explorer exploit to attack Google and other firms in China, France and Germany are both urging their citizens to stop using Microsoft's Web browser.
Poor Nexus One. Despite earning mostly positive reviews and becoming an obsession in the tech blogosphere, the Google phone reportedly sold just 20,000 units in its first week. That's just 10 percent of the Motorola Droid's debut sales.
Those check boxes on your iPhone wish list? The latest rumor says a few of them are covered in the next-generation iPhone.
From complaints over the Nexus One's slow and confusing customer service to eye-popping early termination fees, Google's proving to be just another phone maker, not the revolutionary we once hoped for.
Imagine a GPS device that makes fun of you when you miss a turn. Or one speaks to you with pet names -- names that only those close to you know. Or a GPS that laces innuendo into its instructions. Garmin's Voice Studio software makes it all possible.
With Apple expected to unveil its rumored tablet at the end of January, the debate over the usefulness of such a gadget has reached a fever pitch. Betanews's Joe Wilcox lit the fire by declaring that the world doesn't need an Apple tablet or any other tablet for that matter, drawing plenty of venomous responses. Maybe I've come too close to the Steve Jobs reality distortion field, but I'm starting to come around to the tablet logic. Here are five ways I might use this newfangled product:
Deleting your Facebook profile is easy. Just follow the link and submit your request. But merely disappearing from Facebook might not be cathartic enough for people who've grown to despise social networking. For them, there was the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine, a service that didn't just delete Facebook profiles, it actually disemboweled them.
Google's pretty good at keeping its Web and search developments secret, but it's quickly learning that hardware's a different beast, as details on the <a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/184555/googles_nexus_one_test_phone_details_emerge.html">Nexus One, a.k.a. the Google Phone</a>, are leaking all over the Internet.
Let's give Tapulous props where they're due: US$1 million in monthly sales from the iPhone's App Store is a staggering feat, especially when the marketplace is filled with more than 100,000 other choices. But claims that business is booming and that mobile app development could breed the next great tech company are overblown.
Let's just assume for a minute that Yelp doesn't need the US$550 million that Google reportedly offered it in a failed acquisition attempt.
Here's a rhetorical question: How are netbooks any less attractive to consumers when Intel improves the Atom chips inside them?
Those who want a little less Google on their iPhones will soon be able to put a lot more Bing on their handsets. Microsoft is prepping a Bing iPhone app for immediate release via Apple's App Store to give iPhone users a Google alternative.
A small fraction of teens have engaged in sexting, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, which spoke to 800 teens around the country. The nonprofit research group found that 15 percent of teens who own cell phones have received these messages, and four percent have actually sent them. Sexting is jargon for the practice of sending nude or sexually suggestive text messages.