News and Analysis Results
Mobile games developers shift to iPhone
More games developers are working on content for mobile phones - and a big majority are targeting the iPhone. There are twice as many developers working on iPhone games as there are creators of titles for the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS. So says market watcher Game Developer Research, an off-shoot of Games Developer magazine whose …
Cultists aquiver as Applestore goes into hibernation
The Applestore went dead this morning, sending Mac cultists into a frenzy of speculation over what goodies Saint Steve might shower upon them later today. The store's petit mort came as just ahead of the opening of Macworld 2010 in San Francisco - not that Steve or anyone else from Apple plans to make an appearance there this …
Touchscreens take lead in smartphone biz
The world's smartphone makers shipped more touchscreen models in Q4 2009 than at any time in the past - and more touchphones than devices with buttons. During the quarter, 55 per cent of all smartphones shipped had touchscreens. That's just under 30m touchscreen handsets altogether, market watcher Canalys said today. …
iPad launch raises awareness, boosts disinterest
A follow-up survey from Retrevo has found that while a lot more people have heard of the iPad since the launch, fewer of those people are planning to buy one. Just prior to the launch of the iPad Retrevo randomly asked a thousand of its users if they'd heard of Apple's new tablet thing, and if they thought they'd be buying one. …
Mozilla becomes latest to dump Mac OS X 10.4 support
Mozilla will ditch support for Apple’s aged Mac OSX 10.4 - AKA Tiger - when it releases the next version of its Gecko rendering engine. The open source browser maker plans to push out Gecko 1.9.3 later this year, and at the same time support for Tiger will be dropped altogether, even though the Mozilla Foundation estimates that …
OpenOffice is the new David Hasselhoff
A new study from German web analytics firm Webmasterpro.de shows that adoption rates of open source productivity software suites swings wildly between different countries. According to the study, over 20 per cent of Germans, Czechs, and Poles run OpenOffice or other open-source productivity suites, while the UK and US lag …
Adobe apologizes for festering Flash crash bug
An Adobe product manager has apologized for allowing a potentially serious bug in Flash Player to remain unfixed for more than 16 months. The admission, by Emmy Huang, product manager for Flash, came a week after Apple CEO Steve Jobs lambasted Adobe engineers as "lazy" and said when Macs crash, "more often than not it’s because …
iPhone OS 3.1.3 unlock app posted
Owners of unlocked iPhones who want to upgrade to the recently released OS 3.1.3 and want to retain the ability to use whatever Sim meets their needs can now do so. The iPhone Dev Team have released a suitable version of its PwnageTool utility. The Team cautioned against updating. The iPhone OS update is claimed to improve the …
El Reg reader assembles own iPad
The fanbois out there whose lives have become a meaningless succession of days to be crossed off the calendar until the release of Apple's paradigm-busting iPad will be delighted to learn that they can fill the void by assembling their very own future of computing. And here's the proof, courtesy of visibly-fulfilled reader Craig …
Promise pops up in UK with Drobo-ish box
Promise Technology is setting out its stall in the UK with a product line that includes a Drobo-lookalike, the NS4600, which like the Drobo offers media serving functionality. Both boxes are curved edge black rectangles, with four empty drive bays, FireWire and USB connectivity, and can be upgraded with new disk drives as …
Google doppelgänger casts riddle over interwebs
Update: This story has been updated with comments from Google open source guru Chris DiBona and it has been revised accordingly. Sometime in the middle of October, Google silently launched a new net domain - a barely-disguised doppelgänger to the familiar google.com - and according to the latest stats from the site watchers at …
Google's Nexus One sales still sluggish
As Google's Nexus One smartphone celebrates its one-month birthday, word comes that Mountain View has sold a mere 80,000 of the devices. But if you believe Google's mobility chief Andy Rubin, that number is just fine with him. When Google's self-described superphone was released, Rubin told GigaOM's Om Malik that he thought …
Brits take iTablet moniker for 12in iPad rival
Apple may have decided against the appellation 'iTablet' - one of the rumoured names for the product now known as the iPad - but that hasn't stopped UK computer supplier X2 claiming the name for its own. The iTablet range comprises at least two models: one with a 12in, 1024 x 768 display, the other with a 10.2in screen of the …
Steve Jobs in secret NYT meet
Apple boss Steve Jobs had a secret meeting with New York Times' publisher Arthur Sulzberger and other executives to show off the iPad and explain what he thinks it means for publishing. Jobs ordered a mango lassi and penne pasta, neither of which are on the Pranna restaurant menu, New York magazine reported. Jobs, apparently …
Apple offers hush money for dodgy iMacs
Apple is offering cash payments to customers still having grief with their 27-inch iMacs, which have been plagued with various screen problems. In the UK there are no 27-inch LCDs screens available to fix the iMacs so instead Apple is offering full refunds plus 15 per cent, Gizmodo reports. Some of the machines have suffered …
Inside Microsoft's innovation crisis
The debate on how Microsoft is losing its innovative edge is as perennial and comfortable as how the summers were warmer and drier when you were growing up. In recent years, that debate was set in the context of the rise of the Linux, Apache, MySQL, Perl/PHP/Phyton (LAMP), JavaScript and the web - specifically Google - that …
Apple bans geo loco ads on iPhone, iPad*
Apple has warned developers that they can't use location-based services such as the Core Location framework to deliver ads to iPhone, iPod touch, and - come March - iPad owners based on where they are. Interestingly, this ban appears to run counter to Apple's own intents as hinted at in recent patent filings. Thanks to Macnn …
Dear Adobe: It's time for security rehab
The stories about Adobe software keep coming, and the news hasn't been good. Critical bugs in Reader and Flash have come under real-world, zero-day attacks so many times in the past year that the exploits almost seem routine. Security researchers such as Mike Bailey, Dan Kaminsky and Jeremiah Grossman and Robert "RSnake" Hansen …
iPhone App Store bars mention of Google Android
Apple has told a tiny mobile software developer that its application cannot be included in the iPhone App Store if it mentions Google Android. Flash of Genius offers a mobile app aimed at students preparing for their college entrance exams. "Flash of Genius: SAT Vocab" debuted on the iPhone, and at the end of last year, a …
AT&T lets 3G Sling TV onto iPhone
AT&T has reversed an earlier stand, allowing Sling Media's player for the iPhone touch to stream live or recorded television over 3G. As we reported last spring, AT&T originally restricted SlingPlayer Mobile to Wi-Fi connections - even though it allowed 3G streaming rights for Major League Baseball's MLB.com At Bat app. At that …
