mobile tech

AT&T and FaceTime - Why are you Surprised?

FaceTime over cellular from AT&T will only be available to Mobile Share customers: Customers who stay on a grandfathered unlimited plan or a tiered plan will be limited to using FaceTime over a WiFi connection.  (Via TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog) Not to be a jerk, or anything. But duh. You really thought AT&T was going to allow unlimited free long-distance video calls over their network? I’ve been telling people for years that holding on to an old grandfathered unlimited plan was a waste of…

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Market Share isn't Everything

> In fact, Nokia, Samsung and LG combined sold roughly 400M mobile handsets worldwide in the first half of 2010 with a combined value share of 32% of handset industry profits, while Apple sold roughly 17M units over the same time period and captured an estimated 39% of industry profits, or greater than the top three global handset OEMs combined. Apple leads the industry in every metric except for unit share… via [tech.fortune.cnn.com](http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/09/21/pie-chart-apples-outrageous-share-of-the-mobile-industrys-profits/)Apple figured out a long time…

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Consumer Reports on the iPhone 4 (again)

> The consumer buying advice group [announced](http://blogs.consumerreports.org/electronics/2010/09/apple-iphone4-free-bumper-cases-program-ending-finishing-dropped-calls-antenna-design-issue-problem-iphone-4-cases-giveaway.html) Monday on its official blog that it continues not to recommend the iPhone 4. Apple’s decision to discontinue the iPhone 4 free case program was seen as “less consumer-friendly.” > > “Putting the onus on *any* owners of a product to obtain a remedy to a design flaw is not acceptable to us,” wrote *Consumer Reports*. via [appleinsider.com](http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/09/13/consumer_reports_condemns_end_of_iphone_4_free_case_…

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Open and closed?

> A new release from Web traffic firm Net Applications has revealed that iOS share [overtook Linux](http://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=9&qpcustom=iOS,Linux&sample=36) in July, when it represented 1.06 percent of all Web traffic, verus the 0.93 share of Linux. Apple’s mobile platform grew even more in August, when it represented 1.13 percent, compared to a shrinking share for Linux, down to 0.85 percent. via [appleinsider.com](http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/09/03/apples_ios_tops_linux_…

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Android and anti-piracy

> Google Android evangelist Tim Bray responded to Case’s concerns in a [post](http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2010/08/licensing-server-news.html) on Google’s official Android blog. He says that the sample verification code supplied with the LVL framework wasn’t really intended to be used unmodified. Because it was created to demonstrate how to use the framework, it was deliberately written with an emphasis on simplicity rather than robustness. Bray also contends that the sample applications compromised by Case didn’t use robust code obfuscation, which would have made…

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