Apple Surpasses Android in US Mobile Web Traffic

iOS mobile traffic has inched up across the US after the iPhone 6's launch in mid-September, while Android traffic has dipped, according to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster. 

The iPhone 6 gave a small shot in the arm to Apple's mobile Web traffic in the US after the smartphone hit the market in mid-September.

Specifically, the share of mobile Web traffic from Apple iOS devices in the US crept up to 61.4 percent from 60.6 percent during the nine weeks following the phone's launch, according to analyst Gene Munster. 

 

Citing data from Piper Jaffray and analytics firm Quantcast, Munster noted that traffic from Android devices decreased from 38.4 percent to 37.5 percent over the same period.

Android is still the leader in US market share in smartphone hardware, based on data from such research firms as ComScore and Kantar Worldpanel ComTech. But iOS has significantly held a lead over Android in US Web traffic, even before the launch of the iPhone 6. So there must be some reason why Apple is tops in this specific area.

The data from Quantcast looks at 2 billion mobile page views per month. Estimates point to around 150 million smartphones used in the US, which each one generating around 15 page views per day.

About Anna Harris:
Anna Harris working as web content writer and a strategist for a major IT firm specialized in various mobile application development services for iOS, Android, Windows Phone and other operating systems.

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"Wire", A Skype Competitor Launched By Its Co-Founder

Since its launch more than 10 years ago, Skype has become the primary tool for making VoIP calls and instant messages. 

 

Microsoft scooped up Skype from eBay back in 2011 for a meaty $8.5 billion, and now Skype's co-founder Janus Friis has revealed a new tool that will compete directly with Skype. Called Wire, the service is now available for iOS 8 and above, OS X 10.9 and above, and Android 4.2 and above.

"Skype was launched more than a decade ago. A lot has changed since then -- we are all used to free calls and texting, and we have taken to carrying our computers in our pockets," said Friis. "It is time to create the best possible communication tools, as beautiful as they are useful. Wire is just that."

According to the company, Wire users will be able to share images, YouTube video and SoundCloud music, and they'll be able to do VoIP calling and individual and group instant messaging.

To start a call, users simply click on the name of the person displayed in the friends list, and then click on the phone icon. To end the call, users must click on the X in the upper left corner. To transfer the call to another device, users must click on the "Transfer Call Here" button found on a banner flashing on the other device. Free calls require that both parties use Wire.

Check-Out The New "Wire"

Prior to that report, Microsoft revealed in October that as part of the WebRTC standard, the company is now supporting the new Object Real-Time Communications (ORTC) API. This will allow Skype users to chat and make calls directly from Internet Explorer without the need for a browser plug-in.

About Anna Harris:
Anna Harris working as web content writer and a strategist for a major IT firm specialized in various mobile application development services for iOS, Android, Windows Phone and other operating systems.

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High Speed Camera Captures Light At 100 Billion Frames-Per-Second

For most of us, high-speed image capture, say 120 or 240 frames per second, is enough to get a good look at stuff happening in the blink of an eye -- like a water droplet hitting the ground or a Bichon Frisé snagging his favorite ball.

For faster subjects, industrial-strength high-speed cameras can grab tens of thousands of frames per second (or more). But when your rapidly moving target is light itself, you're going to need something a bit quicker -- to the tune of 100 billion fps, according to Nature.

Using a technique called "compressed ultrafast photography" (CUP), researchers at Washington University in St. Louis can track light as it travels and interacts with objects. It's a new spin on the streak camera method, where a sensor moves along with the light to record its motion.

Previous streak camera setups have been limited to narrow, one-dimensional views, but the CUP technique allows for two-dimensional image capture. One example video shows a laser pulse sauntering by and reflecting off a mirror in a few tens of picoseconds (trillionths of a second).

So far, researchers have used the technique to explore a handful of phenomena, including how light reflects and refracts, as well as how photons behave when transitioning from one medium to another (e.g., from air to a resin). Nature reports the CUP technique could be used in the development of so-called invisibility cloaks that work by bending light around an object.

So while it may not be the absolute fastest high-speed camera system currently out there, perhaps someday it'll help us get a bit closer to realizing those Star Trek/Harry Potter dreams.

About Anna Harris:
Anna Harris working as web content writer and a strategist for a major IT firm specialized in various mobile application development services for iOS, Android, Windows Phone and other operating systems.

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Review Of The New Sony Smartwatch: Currently The Best Android Wear

It feels much longer, but it’s been less than 6 months since Android Wear hit the market. They have stealthily crept into use without much fuss, despite revolutionizing the wearables market. 

 

Reducing the time spent interacting with your phone, but still mining all of that lovely data for Google. The launch devices were pretty average, the Moto 360 wasn’t for everyone despite its anticipation. So now its time to see, perhaps one of the more experienced smart watch maker, Sony take on Android wear. The Sony Smartwatch 3 review is straight ahead.

Despite claiming they had no intention of making a watch for Android Wear, they have followed up two generations of Sony Smartwatch running their own OS, with a third – this time running Android Wear. 

 

The imaginatively titled ‘Sony Smartwatch 3’ has the same rugged lifestyle proof ratings that their phones do. Each Android watch has been water resistant, but the SM3 sports an IP68 rating mean you can submerge it in water for up to 30 minutes, should you feel the need.

Choose any color band you like, but they all are made of the same high quality rubber, with a matte finish. Matched with a clasp similar to that of a normal fashion watch, you have the making of foolproof comfy fitting. Unfortunately this is the sole area that lets the Smartwatch 3 down, and does it quite badly. 

Get A First Look On Sony Smartwatch 3

 

The screen is the same 1.6 inches we have seen before, with a new ‘Transflective Display’ providing the 320×320 display. This fancy technology means that while the screen isn’t as vibrant and colorful as that seen on the Moto 360, you can see it clear and accurately in even the brightest of sunlight.

A fantastic improvement to what was the biggest gripe of the first wave of Android Wear watches.

About Anna Harris:
Anna Harris working as web content writer and a strategist for a major IT firm specialized in various mobile application development services for iOS, Android, Windows Phone and other operating systems.

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iPhone 6 Drives Apple to All-Time UK Sales High

Strong sales of the iPhone 6 has driven Apple's share of the UK smartphone market to its highest ever level. Apple's share of the UK smartphone market has reached an all-time high thanks to strong sales of the iPhone 6.

iPhones now account of 39.5 per cent of British smartphone sales, the Californian company's highest ever UK market share, a rise of 10.4 per cent during the three months to October 2014.

The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus were released in the UK on September 19, and swiftly become Apple's best-selling product to date, shifting more than 10 million units within three days.

The new phones represented Apple's first foray into creating smartphones with larger screens, which are growing in popularity across the UK. The 4.7-inch iPhone 6 outsold the 5.5-inch 6 Plus by 4:1 in the UK, Kantar said.

Use of Apple's iOS operating system saw a 5.7 per cent rise across Europe, compared to a drop of 2.6 per cent for rival Google's Android system between October 2013 and October 2014.

Although Apple did not participate in Black Friday discounting, it donated a portion of every sale made through its retail and online stores on Friday November 28 Monday December 1 to the Global Fund to fight Aids.

Sales of iPhone 6 Crosses Mile High

About Anna Harris:
Anna Harris working as web content writer and a strategist for a major IT firm specialized in various mobile application development services for iOS, Android, Windows Phone and other operating systems.

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Yota introduces Double Sided Mobile Phone to Improve Battery Life.

The Yotaphone 2 was first teased back in February, and now people in the UK can finally get their hands on the device.

• The Yotaphone 2 launches in London at 6pm GMT
• It will rollout to the rest of Europe later this month and worldwide next year
• Prices for the two-sided handset have not yet been announced
• The 5-inch colour screen works in the same way as typical touchscreens
• While the 4.7-inch electronic paper display is similar to the screens found on e-readers such as the Kindle
• Yota claims second screen boosts battery and lasts for more than 50 hours

The dual-screen handset combines a traditional colour touchscreen on one side, with an e-book display on its rear.

This second screen is a ‘low power display’ that shows emails and text messages, and can be used to post to Facebook and other sites without using as much energy as the colour screen.

The handset launches in London at 6pm GMT. It will then rollout to the rest of the UK, into Europe later this month, and worldwide early next year.

Prices have not yet been announced.

'YotaPhone’s arrival on the market last year marked one of the first game changers in smartphones in many years,’ said Yota Devices boss Vlad Martynov.

'Yota Devices proved that there is an antidote to the always-dark smartphone screen.’ 

 

About Anna Harris:
Anna Harris working as web content writer and a strategist for a major IT firm specialized in various mobile application development services for iOS, Android, Windows Phone and other operating systems.

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Google Now Targets Children With New Search Engines, YouTube & Chrome Apps

Google is developing special versions of it's most popular products for children, it has revealed. The firm hopes that a child friendly version of YouTube and its chrome browser could make the internet safer for youngsters.

It says it is aiming the news products at under twelves.

• Google hopes apps will make web safer you children to use
• Has created special lab at its Googleplex HQ to study children
• Recent study said iPad has now number one brand among 6-12 year olds

"The big motivator inside the company is everyone is having kids, so there's a push to change our products to be fun and safe for children," Pavni Diwanji, the vice president of engineering charged with leading the new initiative, told USA Today.

"We expect this to be controversial, but the simple truth is kids already have the technology in schools and at home," says the mother of two daughters, ages 8 and 13.

"So the better approach is to simply see to it that the tech is used in a better way."

Google is developing the products in a secret room at its Mountain View,"Googleplex" called the Kids Studio.

The annual study, conducted by leading youth and family research firm Smarty Pants, ranks more than 250 brands each year. 

 

"iPad's number one status among kids represents the culmination of the 'tablet takeover" – a movement from shared screens and TV network dominance to curated content on personal devices,' said Wynne Tyree, president of Smarty Pants.

"Kids increasingly turn to iPad for games, TV shows, videos, books, homework help and communicating with friends and family."

About Anna Harris:
Anna Harris working as web content writer and a strategist for a major IT firm specialized in various mobile application development services for iOS, Android, Windows Phone and other operating systems.

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iPhone To Rotate In The Air To Prevent From Damage

Apple has been granted a patent for technology that detects that a phone is about to hit the ground and rotates it mid-air to limit damage.

The US Patent and Trademark Office has issued Apple a patent for a protection system that will consist of two parts - the detection and the rotation.

The phone will be able to detect that it is rapidly falling downwards and identify its distance and angle from the ground.

To do this, the patent said it will take advantage of the components, most of which are already present, such as the "accelerometer, gyroscopic sensor, distance or position sensors (eg, radar, ultrasonic, and the like), location sensors (eg, global position system, compass), image sensors (eg, camera), sound or audio sensors (eg, speakers, microphones) which may be used as a sonar combination."

It is likely that combination of the different sensors will be responsible for the effective ..

For the perfect landing, the force used has to be precisely calibrated, but the patent said that the phone may collect data, to produce a memory bank of sudden impacts.

Rotating iPhone App

About Anna Harris:
Anna Harris working as web content writer and a strategist for a major IT firm specialized in various mobile application development services for iOS, Android, Windows Phone and other operating systems.

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