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Posts tagged with "iOS"

iOS Dominant In European Smartphone Usage

A report by RegHardware based on data from service StatCounter reveals that Apple’s iOS is still dominating the smartphone usage in Europe, in spite of its “gentle decline”. StatCounter isn’t of course installed on any website available on the internet, but it provides good indication of trends in the mobile space thanks to its 3 million tracked webpages.

Europe as a whole clearly favours iOS - its market share has run between 50 per cent and 45 per cent between January 2010 and January 2011 - which is well ahead of nearest rivals Symbian, BlackBerry and Android.

It’s no surprise to see the decline in Symbian usage - any more than it is to see the rise in Android mobile browsing, but BlackBerry usage certainly appears to have peaked, hitting 18 per cent and then falling back. And while Apple’s share is trending downward, it’s a very gentle decline.

UK stats provided by StatCounter also gives us a glimpse at the rapid increase of Android’s marketshare, while BlackBerry OS surpassed iOS’ web traffic in the last few months of 2010 in the UK. iOS and Android are clearly shaping up to be the two most important and relevant mobile platforms for years to come, with RIM’s BlackBerry and Nokia’s Symbian now left behind to generate lower numbers.

The number of tablets coming out in the next months running Google’s Android and Nokia’s adoption of Windows Phone 7 for its future handsets will likely affect the overall OS usage in the mobile environment, but analysts expect iOS to remain dominant throughout all 2011 with the release of the next-generation iPhone and an eventual price drop of the current-gen iPhone 4.

#MacStoriesDeals - Monday

Ah Monday, so will we see new MacBooks this week? Tuesdays are usually hardware update days for Apple. Here are today’s deals on iOS, Mac, and Mac App Store apps that are on sale for a limited time, so get ‘em while they’re hot!

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PhotoSync Enables iOS-to-iOS, iOS-to-Computer Photo and Video Sharing

PhotoSync, a universal $1.99 app available in the App Store, has quickly become one of my favorite tools to enhance my iOS devices’ photo and video sharing capabilities. The app, which requires a free Mac companion software to be installed from the developers’ website, allows you to share photos and videos from your iPhone and iPad libraries between computers and other iOS devices running the app. PhotoSync can send multiple photos at once or sync entire libraries with iPhones, iPads and iPod touches, as well as PCs and Macs. Read more

Minecraft To Officially Come To iOS This Year

Minecraft

Minecraft

If you’re as addicted to Minecraft as I am, then you’ll be excited to learn that the hit block building title will be arriving to iOS later this year. Gamasutra reports that Markus Persson has revealed to the site that the game won’t be an exact port, but rather will be granted features that “make sense” for touch screen devices.

Minecraft is currently in the beta stages, with a full release planned sometime this year. So far over 1.3 million copies of the game have been purchased, with nearly five million registered accounts on the official site.

Minecraft has been a massive success in indie gaming, and there’s been a lot of interest from the community in an iOS version since the game’s inception. Aron Neiminen, a new recruit to the Mojang team working on Minecraft, will be developing the iOS version that’s to be released at an unannounced date.

[Gamasutra via IndieGames]

iOS Devices Become Kinect Controllers In Dodgeball Game

In the past, we saw several interesting Kinect hacks making their way to iPads and Macs thanks to the efforts of a vivid developer community willing to get more out of Microsoft’s motion-controlling peripheral than simple Xbox pairing and gaming. In fact, we were able to get our hands (and eyes) on a free Kinect 3D viewer available in the Mac App Store and an iPad playing together with OS X in a cool futuristic experiment. But hackers, as usual, don’t stop at curious experiments that are worth nothing but a quick test.

A group of hackers last week managed to build a custom Kinect setup that allows iOS devices (iPhone and iPad) to fire balls in a dodgeball game playable by a gamer in front of Kinect. The UI design isn’t as beautiful and attractive as Microsoft’s version of the same thing built on top of Windows Phone 7, but as you can see from the video below it definitely seems to be working.

The video is available for your viewing pleasure after the break. Who’s going to build a Kinect Angry Birds with iOS devices as controllers now? [via Engadget] Read more

#MacStoriesDeals - Friday

Sorry for the lack of iOS apps today, there are no great deals but check out some from this week, many are still great! Here are today’s deals on iOS, Mac, and Mac App Store apps that are on sale for a limited time, so get ‘em while they’re hot!

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OpenFeint Connect Promises Cross-Platform Integration, But No Simultaneous Play

It looks like mobile gaming OpenFeint has no intention on leaving all the fun to Apple’s Game Center. In fact, OpenFeint has become more than a simple alternative to the Game Center with cross-platform integration (OpenFeint works on Android devices, too) and in-app purchasable content that’s not tied to App Store approval. The service sports 65 million users and it’s about to expand a lot more with the upcoming launch of OpenFeint Connect.

Connect will allow iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7, OS X and Windows users to communicate through the OpenFeint platform, share leaderboards and achievements as if everyone was playing the same game on the same device or computer. In fact, Connect could also work with Facebook games and a plethora of other online gaming services. Unfortunately though, simultaneous cross-platform play won’t be possible (guess it’s a little tricky to implement real-time multiplayer on iOS vs. Android).

A private beta of OpenFeint Connect is available here for developers who want to experiment with the API. [via Download Squad]

Gamerami Serves News, Upcoming Game Info On Demand

Growing up, I was a subscriber of Nintendo Power and the later (manlier) Game Informer as I grew into my predestined Xbox phase. High school was great for zombie killing, but between college and MacStories I’ve little time to play or let alone get a heads up about the latest upcoming games. Gamerami is a mobile news stand that makes sifting through the latest titles easy and rather painless, and it just might save your butt when you’re on the spot. At least now I don’t look like a total nobody when I’m asked what cool & new games are coming out on the PS3.

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