Tech Roundup: Dec 16, 2012
Google Maps comes at the most opportune moment:
The most awaited app on iOS 6 must have been Google Maps and September should have been the first time in Apple's history that many held off upgrading to iOS 6 for fear of losing a credible maps application. Fear no more, for the official maps app from Google is available on iTunes right now. It's almost fully featured: traffic, turn-by-turn navigation, transit directions, walking directions, satellite view, street view, indoor photos, restaurant reviews, and integration with your Google profile are all there. Though offline maps is missing, what's more noticeable is the fact that the user interface is cleaner and more streamlined than its Android counterpart, suggesting that an update is imminent on its home-turf as well.
Head to the iTunes store to grab the app, which is now the #1 free app in the App Store. Note that it is only for the iPhone/iPod Touch models and is not yet optimized for the iPad. The rollout comes close on the heels of Apple Maps suffering another embarrassing gaffe wherein Victoria Police authorities in Australia warned people against using the app after motorists looking for Mildura ended up stranded in the middle of a forest, some 70 km away from the exact spot Mildura should have been. While some were forced to walk through a difficult terrain, a few spent almost a day without food or water. Apple has since then fixed the inaccuracy.
Tech wars galore:
Apple is said to be reportedly blocking an update to Microsoft's SkyDrive on its iTunes App Store over revenue sharing. The problem started when Microsoft updated its cloud storage app to enable users to purchase additional storage. Since then, Apple has not allowed this update to appear on the App Store, the reason being Redmond not wanting to pay Apple 30% of the subscription revenue generated by the paid storage upgrade. It argues that the 30% share to Apple in each transaction is permanent even when the user, who opts for a paid upgrade, switches to another platform say, Android or Windows.
Apple has a standard policy for paid app purchases and revenue sharing. Users are charged for paid app purchases through their Apple ID account and it takes 30% of the revenues generated from such purchases. So far all talks of compromise between the two companies have ended in failure. Moreover, this has also affected other developers who develop third party apps that interact with SkyDrive. As a result, apps that have links to sign up for the SkyDrive service have also been rejected by Apple. That's not all. The issue seems to be extended to Office 365 as well, the productivity suite that it plans to bring to iOS next year, according to AllThingsD. Microsoft is pursuing Apple to take a smaller cut as per the exclusive report.
In other developments, after Instagram officially dropped Twitter integration last week, Twitter has now made the latest move by adding Instagram like photo filters to its Android and iOS apps. In the meanwhile, Facebook owned Instagram has added Foursquare integration to it. There's more. With year end around the corner, Google, as part of its winter cleanup, has decided to drop support for Google Sync starting January 20 next year. Google Sync works on Microsoft's XML-based Exchange ActiveSync protocol and by dropping this support, Windows Phone users will most likely suffer. Google is instead recommending CardDav for syncing your contacts, CalDav for calendar and IMAP for email.
While both iOS and Android has support for CardDav and CalDav, WP8 supports neither of them and hence anyone who wants to set up their Gmail on a Windows powered device after the stipulated date will be able to just sync their emails through IMAP. Worse, this won't support push email and will get synced only once in every 15 minutes, thus making you wait a bit more longer if you are awaiting an important communication. Windows Phone 8 does not have a official Gmail app unlike iOS or Android and Google has made it clear that it has no plans in the near future to invest in the Windows platform. Sadly, all these tech wars between the companies only end up causing inconvenience to the users!
Facebook goes ahead with its new privacy policy after dismal voter turnout:
The social networking behemoth has gone ahead with its privacy and data policy revamp after voter turnout wasn't simply enough to be taken to consideration. (As if Facebook took enough pains to let the users know of such a voting in the first place!) While more than 600,000 votes were cast, they were no way near the 30% mark (~300 million) for them to be taken into account. The new policy will unify data from all its services including its last year acquisition Instagram. Check out the complete results here at their Site Governance page. In addition, it has also introduced new privacy controls in an effort to manage user information. A privacy shortcut has been added to the top-right of the website to provide quick means to control who can see what about them on the social network. It has also finally confirmed the obvious: it plans to monetize Instagram; get ready for ads on it too!
Android's malware problem:
Google Android is open and is hence an enticing opportunity for those wanting to develop exploits on the platform. Since Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, Google has decided to step up the security by adding a built-in scanner that looks for any malware in the apps installed or to be. But does it work? Security researchers at the North Carolina State University recently put this verification system to test against 1260 malware signatures to find that it detected only 193 of them, a meagre 15%. By stating that third-party anti-virus apps do a better job of preventing malware than Google itself, the ball is back in search giant's court. Hope its recent acquisition VirusTotal helps it in this case! In the meanwhile, as Android phone users all you can do is only download apps that are completely legit and trustworthy and make sure you get them via the Play Store.
In other news:
The most awaited app on iOS 6 must have been Google Maps and September should have been the first time in Apple's history that many held off upgrading to iOS 6 for fear of losing a credible maps application. Fear no more, for the official maps app from Google is available on iTunes right now. It's almost fully featured: traffic, turn-by-turn navigation, transit directions, walking directions, satellite view, street view, indoor photos, restaurant reviews, and integration with your Google profile are all there. Though offline maps is missing, what's more noticeable is the fact that the user interface is cleaner and more streamlined than its Android counterpart, suggesting that an update is imminent on its home-turf as well.
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| Google Maps for iOS |
Tech wars galore:
Apple is said to be reportedly blocking an update to Microsoft's SkyDrive on its iTunes App Store over revenue sharing. The problem started when Microsoft updated its cloud storage app to enable users to purchase additional storage. Since then, Apple has not allowed this update to appear on the App Store, the reason being Redmond not wanting to pay Apple 30% of the subscription revenue generated by the paid storage upgrade. It argues that the 30% share to Apple in each transaction is permanent even when the user, who opts for a paid upgrade, switches to another platform say, Android or Windows.
Apple has a standard policy for paid app purchases and revenue sharing. Users are charged for paid app purchases through their Apple ID account and it takes 30% of the revenues generated from such purchases. So far all talks of compromise between the two companies have ended in failure. Moreover, this has also affected other developers who develop third party apps that interact with SkyDrive. As a result, apps that have links to sign up for the SkyDrive service have also been rejected by Apple. That's not all. The issue seems to be extended to Office 365 as well, the productivity suite that it plans to bring to iOS next year, according to AllThingsD. Microsoft is pursuing Apple to take a smaller cut as per the exclusive report.
In other developments, after Instagram officially dropped Twitter integration last week, Twitter has now made the latest move by adding Instagram like photo filters to its Android and iOS apps. In the meanwhile, Facebook owned Instagram has added Foursquare integration to it. There's more. With year end around the corner, Google, as part of its winter cleanup, has decided to drop support for Google Sync starting January 20 next year. Google Sync works on Microsoft's XML-based Exchange ActiveSync protocol and by dropping this support, Windows Phone users will most likely suffer. Google is instead recommending CardDav for syncing your contacts, CalDav for calendar and IMAP for email.
While both iOS and Android has support for CardDav and CalDav, WP8 supports neither of them and hence anyone who wants to set up their Gmail on a Windows powered device after the stipulated date will be able to just sync their emails through IMAP. Worse, this won't support push email and will get synced only once in every 15 minutes, thus making you wait a bit more longer if you are awaiting an important communication. Windows Phone 8 does not have a official Gmail app unlike iOS or Android and Google has made it clear that it has no plans in the near future to invest in the Windows platform. Sadly, all these tech wars between the companies only end up causing inconvenience to the users!
Facebook goes ahead with its new privacy policy after dismal voter turnout:
The social networking behemoth has gone ahead with its privacy and data policy revamp after voter turnout wasn't simply enough to be taken to consideration. (As if Facebook took enough pains to let the users know of such a voting in the first place!) While more than 600,000 votes were cast, they were no way near the 30% mark (~300 million) for them to be taken into account. The new policy will unify data from all its services including its last year acquisition Instagram. Check out the complete results here at their Site Governance page. In addition, it has also introduced new privacy controls in an effort to manage user information. A privacy shortcut has been added to the top-right of the website to provide quick means to control who can see what about them on the social network. It has also finally confirmed the obvious: it plans to monetize Instagram; get ready for ads on it too!
Android's malware problem:
Google Android is open and is hence an enticing opportunity for those wanting to develop exploits on the platform. Since Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, Google has decided to step up the security by adding a built-in scanner that looks for any malware in the apps installed or to be. But does it work? Security researchers at the North Carolina State University recently put this verification system to test against 1260 malware signatures to find that it detected only 193 of them, a meagre 15%. By stating that third-party anti-virus apps do a better job of preventing malware than Google itself, the ball is back in search giant's court. Hope its recent acquisition VirusTotal helps it in this case! In the meanwhile, as Android phone users all you can do is only download apps that are completely legit and trustworthy and make sure you get them via the Play Store.
In other news:
- Iran's version of YouTube, Mehr, hits the web.
- Sunderbari village in the state of Bihar, India bans women from using mobile phones to curb elopements.
- Pakistan Taliban opens Facebook page for recruiting new fighters; Facebook promptly takes it down.
- Co-inventor of barcode Norman Joseph Woodland passes away at the age of 91.
- Nokia announces affordable Lumia 620 and 505 in an attempt to reach first time smartphone users.
- Samsung may not unveil its next Galaxy smartphone at CES 2013, reports CNET.
- Apple working with suppliers to test large-screen high-resolution TV prototypes, reports The Wall Street Journal.
- Samsung shows off more features pertaining to the premium suite update for Galaxy S III.
- HTC 8X gets Windows Phone 8 'Portico' update in the form a WiFi fix and ability to reject calls with a text message.
- CEO Marissa Mayer announces a major facelift for Yahoo! Mail.
- Microsoft issues updates for Surface RT tablet to resolve WiFi issues.
- Surface RT emerges the most popular Windows 8 device.
- BlackBerry 10 L-Series smartphone shots leak ahead of its January 2013 release.
- Pope Benedict XVI joins Twitter at Pontifex; amasses over a million followers.
- Google Images Search tweaks its algorithm to crack down on porn in search results; shows up only when you explicitly request for it.
- US court finds Apple iPhone 5 to be violating three patents of MobileMedia Ideas involving call processing, call rejection and image capture.
- Amazon wins European Union e-book pricing war against Apple and publishers; can now sell e-books at a cheaper price than its rivals.
- Google+ adds Communities feature; makes it easy for you to find like-minded people.
- Windows Phone Store expands to 37 new countries; offers ability to install apps via SD card.
- Facebook app for Android eschews HTML5 by going native; brings in speed and performance boost.
- Apple announces a minor refresh to iTunes 11 for Mac and Windows; adds back the duplicate song finder feature.
- Google adds confirmation step on tapping mobile ads, inadvertently or otherwise.
- Dell to exit from smartphone business; sees no opportunity in Android for now.
- Gmail suffers from a mild outage; takes down Chrome Browser along with it due to a sync issue.
- Entrepreneur Jason Sadler auctions his last name for $45,500; to become Jason HeadsetsDotCom.
- Twitter adds option to download your every single tweet through 'Your Twitter Archive' feature.
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