Microsoft Windows 10 will allow for Android apps
Microsoft is determined to stay relevant in a world that is run almost completely by Android and iOS devices, with over 96% of the mobile market under their combined belt. That unfortunately only leaves about 4% for Microsoft and other manufacturers Well, Microsoft is not one throw the towel and give up, as today they have announced that they will be releasing some new tools that will help developers port over their existing apps for Android and iOS with as little work as possible.
Android developers will be given the ability to use Java and C++ code on Windows 10, so they won’t have to rewrite their entire apps code from the ground up to get it to work on Windows 10. iOS developers will be able to continue to use their existing Objective-C code, so they will have a little less of a hard time. All welcome addition for those few that may have been dying to port their apps over to Windows from either platform.
Microsoft is hoping that by easily allowing developers from both rival competitors to easy port their code over to Windows, they will be more willing to do so, since they will no longer be looking at having to either rewrite the entire apps code or have to learn a complete new programming langue to start development on Windows.
While this idea, in theory, sounds like it could be a great boon for Windows, reality is that there will likely not be many devs that are going to want to make the move over, no matter how easy the move may be. With Android and iOS holding such a major share of the mobile market, it would make more sense for devices to instead focus on improving their apps on their current platform instead of wasting resources to port it over to Windows.
Only time will tell of course as to whether this move will indeed help propel Microsoft back to the forefront of the mobile industry.
Source: The Verge, Digital Trends
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Samsung’s Mobile Business Sees Major Profit Drop Following iPhone 6 Launch
During its Wednesday earnings call, Apple rival Samsung Electronics reported net profit of 4.63 trillion won ($4.35 billion) for the January to March quarter, a 39% drop from its net profit of 7.49 trillion won in the year ago quarter. A sizable portion of the lost profit came from Samsung’s mobile division, which brought in 2.74 trillion won ($2.5 billion) in the first quarter of 2015, vs. 6.43 trillion won in the first quarter of 2014.
Despite the year over year profit loss, Samsung’s earnings release highlighted its quarter over quarter improvement and pointed towards increased sales of middle-end smartphones including the Galaxy A series. Samsung doesn’t divulge its smartphone sales, but analysts believe the company sold 83.2 million smartphones during the quarter, compared to Apple’s 61.2 million.
The high number of sales let Samsung regain its title of the worlds largest smartphone maker, but many of those sales were for lower-priced phones and not flagship devices, causing it to lose profit year over year. Much of Samsung’s profit loss can be attributed to the introduction of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, letting Apple devices compete with Samsung devices on screen size for the first time.
Ahead of the launch of the two larger-screened iPhones, big screens were a feature that set Samsung devices apart from iPhones and drew customers for the South Korean company, but with the iPhone 6 and the 6 Plus, Samsung has lost some of its grasp on customers seeking devices with bigger displays.
Samsung expects its profits to increase during the second quarter following the global launch of the company’s new Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge and on the strength of its semiconductor business. According to Samsung, demand for its curved S6 Edge has been high, but limited supplies have restricted sales.
Your Apple Watch is late because of bad haptic feedback parts
Wondering why your Apple Watch won’t ship for weeks, even though you ordered as soon as humanly possible? The Wall Street Journal might know why. Its sources claim that some Taptic Engines (the haptic feedback unit that vibrates your wrist) broke down in early testing, prompting Cupertino to switch suppliers and create a massive-but-necessary logistical headache. From all indications, Apple is pushing many orders to June simply because it expects to get up to speed by then. That won’t be much consolation if you’re staring at a bare arm for the next month or more, but you’ll at least know why you’re missing out.
[Image credit: iFixit]
Source: Wall Street Journal
Time Warner CEO ‘Pretty Confident’ Apple Will Launch Streaming TV Service
During a recent earnings call relayed by CNET, Time Warner CEO Jeffrey Bewkes said he believes Apple will launch an Internet-based television service and that Apple is “very forward-thinking” when it comes to TV.
“We think Apple is very forward-thinking about television,” he said, noting the computer maker’s deal with Time Warner as the launch partner of streaming service HBO Now. “It’s no surprise to anyone that Apple would be interested in launching a TV product.”
It is not clear if Bewkes’ has insider knowledge regarding Apple’s television plans, but Apple and Time Warner have been entwined in deals several times in the past, most recently with the HBO Now deal. Apple and Time Warner, HBO’s parent company, partnered up for the HBO Now launch, with Apple’s Apple TV and iOS devices being some of the first to offer the HBO Now service.
Aimed at cord cutters, HBO Now is priced at $14.99 and offers all of HBO’s content without a cable subscription. Beyond HBO Now, Apple and Time Warner have discussed television many times in the past and have attempted to establish service deals, but those have yet to materialize.
In mid-2013, rumors suggested the two were in talks about a streaming video deal that would potentially see Time Warner cable content available on the Apple TV, but though rumors suggested that deal was nearing completion, a comprehensive TWC channel with access to all TWC content did not make its way to the Apple TV.
Later rumors suggested Comcast’s impending purchase of Time Warner had delayed deals between Apple and Time Warner, but that potential buyout fell apart earlier this week. Apple was also said to have had trouble establishing deals with other cable companies and content providers, delaying some of its television plans.
Those issues may have been worked out, however, as recent rumors have indeed pointed towards the imminent launch of a streaming television service and possibly a new set-top box. Apple’s new service may include content from CBS, Fox, Walt Disney, and more, with approximately 25 channels available at a cost between $30 and $40 per month.
Apple’s rumored streaming television service may make an appearance in June at Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference.
Apple Watch in Short Supply Due to Taptic Engine Bottlenecks
The Apple Watch has been available in extremely limited quantities since pre-orders for the device launched on April 10, and a new report from The Wall Street Journal sheds some light on why supplies have been low. A key component of the Apple Watch, the Taptic Engine, was made by two separate suppliers, and the devices created by one of Apple’s suppliers was “found to be defective.”
After mass production began in February, reliability testing revealed that some taptic engines supplied by AAC Technologies Holdings Inc., of Shenzhen, China, started to break down over time, the people familiar with the matter said. One of those people said Apple scrapped some completed watches as a result.
Apple was unable to use the Taptic Engines from the supplier in Shenzhen, China, but a those produced by a second supplier in Japan did not have the same issue. The majority of Taptic Engine production is now being done in Japan, but with a single supplier making the component, it takes time for production to ramp up.
To resolve some of the supply constraints on the Apple Watch, Apple is said to be planning to add Foxconn as a second assembler of the Apple Watch, alongside Quanta Computer. Foxconn may begin manufacturing the Apple Watch in late 2015 at the earliest, so according to The Wall Street Journal, it may take several months for Apple Watch supplies to improve significantly.
Microsoft Unveils New ‘Edge’ Browser to Replace Internet Explorer
Earlier this year, Microsoft debuted a new browser designed to succeed Internet Explorer. At the time, it was still under development with the code name Project Spartan, but at today’s BUILD conference for developers, Microsoft shared additional details on the new browser and unveiled its name: Microsoft Edge.
According to Microsoft, the Edge name refers to being on the edge of consuming and creating. Microsoft is calling Edge “a browser built for doing,” with a simple, no-frills design and access to tools for enhancing the browsing experience.
Edge has built-in note taking capabilities, letting users annotate, draw, and take notes right within the browser, and then share those website notes with friends. Microsoft says that Edge uses “blazing fast core technology,” with more details available on the speed enhancements in the future.
Edge includes a distraction-free reading mode and a tab page for getting to frequently-used apps quickly. There’s support for Microsoft’s virtual assistant Cortana, a competitor to Apple’s assistant, Siri. Cortana integration helps to build a user’s home tab page, populating it with relevant content and making suggestions on related sites to visit.
One of Microsoft’s earlier BUILD announcements covered tools to bring Android and iOS apps to Windows 10, and similarly, the company has built support for Chrome and Firefox extensions into the Edge browser. These existing extensions will be able to be quickly repackaged and submitted to Microsoft’s extension portal, giving Edge users a wealth of extensions to use shortly after the browser launches.
One of the Chrome-based extensions that Microsoft demonstrated on stage was the Reddit Enhancement Suite, a browser extension for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari that improves the browsing experience on reddit. The RES extension took “virtually no work” to take it from the Chrome Extension store to Edge.
Edge browser running Reddit Enhancement Suite from modified Chrome extension
Microsoft Edge is a next-generation browser designed to replace Internet Explorer, but Internet Explorer will stick around as its used by many of Microsoft’s Enterprise customers. The Microsoft Edge browser will be built into Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 10 update.
iPad ‘test model’ swiped in Cupertino kidnapping
Despite Apple’s notorious love for secrecy, it famously lost a prototype device in the past (maybe even two), when one of its employees left it in a bar. Now, the company might have lost another: a 20-year-old man reported that a couple robbed his Cupertino home and took an iPad “test model” with them, along with $7,500, prescription drugs and more electronics. It’s unclear at this point what exactly “test model” means, and if it’s a prototype for an upcoming version or one for an earlier iteration. Either way, it hasn’t been returned yet, even though the couple is already in custody.
According to Mercury News, the victim was kidnapped by the duo after answering the woman’s advertisement (its nature wasn’t revealed) and meeting them two blocks away. They all drove to the victim’s house, where his guests pepper-sprayed him at knifepoint. While authorities refused to divulge more details about the tablet, we’ll likely hear more about it in case it’s an upcoming version. After all, Apple has already proven that it’ll go to great lengths to retrieve and protect its unreleased devices.
Filed under: Tablets, Mobile, Apple
Via: 9to5mac
Source: Mercury News
iOS 8 Adoption Reaches 81% Following Apple Watch Launch [iOS Blog]
Apple’s latest distribution numbers show that 81% of iOS devices are now running iOS 8 or later, less than one week after the release of the Apple Watch. 17% of devices used to access the App Store continue to run iOS 7 and the remaining 2% are running an earlier software version.
iOS 8 adoption rose 2 percentage points since Apple shared its last distribution numbers earlier this month, with the Apple Watch launch last Friday likely contributing to the marginal increase. Apple Watch must be paired with an iPhone 5 or later running iOS 8.2 or newer.
According to mobile analytics firm Mixpanel, approximately 91% of devices were running iOS 7 at this time last year, meaning that iOS 8 adoption continues to be slower, likely due to a wide range of reasons including software bugs and excessive storage space required to install updates.
Microsoft Announces Cross-Platform Add-Ins for Office Apps, Plans to Bring iOS Apps to Windows 10
Microsoft held its annual BUILD conference for developers this morning, where it made several announcements that may be of interest to Mac and iOS users. First off, the company announced cross-platform add-ins that will deeply integrate third-party apps and services into multiple versions of Office, including Office for iOS.
Microsoft’s add-ins (which can be thought of as plug-ins) will enable a range of third-party services to integrate with Office on Windows, iOS, Android, and presumably Mac when the new Office 2016 is released. For example, Uber might be built into Outlook, letting users call for rides directly from their calendar appointments. Another example shown on stage was PicHit, an app offering a photo marketplace within the PowerPoint app.
Uber in Outlook, image via The Verge
The implementation sounds similar to Apple’s own use of app extensions, letting third-party apps interact with Microsoft’s offerings in new ways, but with Microsoft’s tools, add-ins created for one platform will work on all platforms. On stage, third-party apps integrated into Office were shown off on an iPad and an iPhone 6.
According to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, deep cross-platform app integration is aimed at preventing users from needing to jump from application to application to accomplish tasks. The company’s vision is to make it easier to use Office apps and various services regardless of the device the software is being run on, turning Office into a platform.
Microsoft is also planning to make it easier for developers to bring their iOS and Android apps over to Windows 10, its upcoming cross-platform operating system, by releasing new tools. iOS developers will be able to compile Objective C code using Microsoft’s Visual Studio to quickly create apps compatible with Windows 10.
On stage at the conference, Terry Myerson demonstrated an iPad app that had been converted to a Windows 10 app. Getting Android apps on Windows 10 is even easier, as Windows 10 includes “an Android subsystem” to support Java and C++ code Android apps are already built from. App availability has always been the major downside to Microsoft’s Windows mobile devices, as they lag behind iOS and Android when it comes to the number of apps available.
The introduction of tools to make it simple to port existing apps over to Windows 10 could be a huge boon for Microsoft, growing its App Store exponentially in the coming months.
Microsoft’s final Apple-related announcement was the introduction of a Mac version of Visual Studio Code, its former Windows-only coding app. According to Microsoft’s site, the app is free and aimed at letting developers build and debug modern web and cloud applications.
Samsung takes back the lead in worldwide smartphone shipments
Samsung has had a rough past few months with declining marketshare, thanks to some serious competition from Apple and cheaper smartphone vendors. 2015 looks like the year they turn it around, though, as the company has reclaimed the top spot for smartphone manufacturer in the first quarter of 2015.
Global smartphone shipments grew about 21 percent, up to 345 million devices shipped in the first three months of the year. Samsung accounted for 24% of that, or about 83.2 million of those devices. Apple held onto second place, shipping 61.2 million devices with 18% of the market.
Lenovo managed to snag third place with a little over 5% of the market, partly thanks to their Motorola acquisition, and Huawei accounted for almost exactly 5% of the market. The remaining 40% of shipments from other OEMs like HTC, LG, and the smaller vendors.
Samsung can probably expect a strong second quarter as well, with their Galaxy S6 gaining popularity early on. And since Apple won’t be releasing anything new until later this year, it gives Samsung a few months to breathe a little easier.
source: Strategy Analytics
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