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iPhone SMS notifications coming to Google Glass this week

Jordan Kahn Apr 21 2014 - 10:49 am PT

1 Comment

An iMessage sent to Glass

Google announced today that it’s about to bring SMS for iPhone and a new Calendar Glassware to Google Glass users following an update to KitKat and the introduction of new features earlier this month. First up, iPhone users will now be able to receive text messages on Glass but, as Google points out, they “won’t be able to reply from Glass due to some limitations with iOS.”

SMS for iPhone – iOS fans, by popular demand you can now get texts from your friends on Glass. Get started by going to your iPhone’s Bluetooth settings and turning on “Show Notifications” for your paired Glass. When you receive a new text message, it will appear as a notification on Glass. Keep in mind that you won’t be able to reply from Glass due to some limitations with iOS. (Android fans, don’t feel left out – you’ve got SMS on Glass already.)

The support for SMS is a feature that Glass users have long had access to when paired to an Android device. You’ll begin receiving notifications as long as the “Show Notifications” option for your paired Glass is selected from Bluetooth settings.

Apple enticing games publishers with promotion deals in return for exclusivity

Benjamin Mayo Apr 21 2014 - 1:23 am PT

3 Comments

The Wall Street Journal has published a report saying that both Apple and Google are actively pursuing exclusivity deals with game developers. Whispers of these type of arrangements surfaced last year, with reports highlighting a partnership between Apple and EA for Plants vs Zombies 2.

The Journal confirms that Apple’s exclusivity deals do not include monetary payments. In return, the companies offer “premium placement” (such as featured spots on the home page) for launching first on their platform.

In regard to the Plants vs Zombies’ deal, the report says EA gave Apple agreed about two months of exclusivity.

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MLB At Bat mobile apps adding Chromecast support today for Premium subscribers

Jordan Kahn Apr 17 2014 - 8:15 am PT

5 Comments

Google announced today on its Chrome blog that Major League Baseball is adding support for its $35 Chromecast streaming stick through the MLB At Bat app for Android and iOS. That means that users with the app and an MLB.TV Premium subscription will be able to stream live and on-demand video content from the app (or from a browser tab in Chrome through MLB’s site) to a Chromecast connected TV. You’ll also be able to use the phone or tablet you’re streaming from as a second-screen experience to “check scores, stats and news” while watching the game on the bigger screen:
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Marissa Mayer planning to push Apple to make Yahoo! the default iOS search engine

Mike Beasley Apr 16 2014 - 2:59 pm PT

41 Comments

Jony Ive and Marissa Mayer (right) eat pizza with other industry executives

Re/code reports that Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer is planning an attempt at persuading Apple to switch its default iOS search engine from Google to her company’s own offering. According to Re/code’s sources, Mayer has built what she hopes will be a convincing arguement in favor of the change.

Yahoo! current powers the weather and stocks apps and Notification Center widgets found in iOS 7 as well as a few Siri functions, such as sports, but lost out on the chance to power Siri’s web search to Microsoft’s Bing. Both Yahoo! and Bing are included as optional search engines in the Safari browser, but the default selection is Google.

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Death of Steve Jobs prompted Samsung’s U-turn on Apple attack ads

Ben Lovejoy Apr 16 2014 - 4:19 am PT

58 Comments

We learned yesterday from patent trial evidence that Samsung was worried about running ads that directly attacked Apple, wanting Google to do it for them. We now know that it was the death of Steve Jobs which prompted Samsung’s change of mind, running the Next Big Thing ads which directly mocked Apple customers.

An email trail shows that Samsung America’s VP of U.S. sales Mike Pennington cynically described the death of Jobs as “the best opportunity” to run the campaign, as consumers might be worried about Apple’s future product innovations following the death of its famous co-founder.

Sorry to continue to push this issue, but I have seen this far too long and I know this is our best opportunity to attack iPhone …

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Google debuts iPhone app for its Helpouts learning and tutorial service

Zac Hall Apr 15 2014 - 11:51 am PT

1 Comment

Google has added yet another app to its collection of iPhone apps today. This time it’s Google Helpouts, which connects users over its Hangouts service to experts knowledgeable in a specific subject for tutoring. Google’s Helpouts service first launched last fall.

Google on what Hangouts has to offer:

What you can do on the iOS app

Find and schedule a Helpout
Start a free Helpout
Give a free Helpout
Read reviews and listing details
Send a message
Report abuse
Leave a review
Change your settings
Receive text-message and mobile reminders

Google notes that Helpouts for iPhone does not support creating new listings for topics; that feature is currently limited to the Helpouts website.

Google Helpouts for iPhone is available for free on the App Store.

Opinion: Should Apple settle its Android disputes and move on?

Ben Lovejoy Apr 15 2014 - 6:59 am PT

119 Comments

With Apple in the midst of its second major court battle with Samsung over alleged patent violations, and all but one of the five claims relating to Android rather than to anything Samsung-specific, it’s gotten me wondering whether further cases of this kind are truly beneficial to Apple.

I understand it emotionally, of course. It’s galling to work hard on a hugely popular hardware design or user-interface only to see someone else copy parts of it, and the desire to hit back at that is a natural one. But I’m not sure that it makes too much sense rationally …
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Samsung wanted Google to do its dirty work in attacking Apple

Ben Lovejoy Apr 15 2014 - 4:33 am PT

28 Comments

Image: amongtech.com

Another interesting revelation from the ongoing Apple vs Samsung patent trial: concerned about launching attack ads on a company that was a customer as well as a competitor, Samsung sought to persuade Google to “launch a campaign against Apple.”

The then CEO of Samsung Telecommunications America, Dale Sohn, emailed his chief marketing officer to ask:

As you have shared previously, we are unable to battle [Apple] directly in our marketing. If it continues to be Samsung’s position to avoid attacking Apple given its status as as a large customer, can we go to Google to ask them to launch a campaign against Apple based on the many better Android products available in the market for Q4?

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Could Apple buy Square to accelerate its mobile payment plans?

Ben Lovejoy Apr 9 2014 - 5:55 am PT

21 Comments

Re/code is reporting that both Apple and Google have considered making acquisition offers for payments company Square, with CEO Jack Dorsey said to favor a sale to Apple.

In the last year, both Apple and Google have considered making acquisition offers for Square, according to industry sources familiar with the situation […]

[Dorsey] believes, sources said, that his company’s design aesthetic and values match up much more closely with Apple than Google …

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New Steve Jobs email a treasure trove of information about Apple TV, Google ‘holy war,’ and behind-the-scenes strategy

Mike Beasley Apr 4 2014 - 6:11 pm PT

13 Comments

A new email from Steve Jobs that was published during today’s Samsung lawsuit (via The Verge) has revealed a lot about Apple’s plans for its products in 2011 and beyond. As we’ve previously noted, Jobs referred to 2011 as a year of “holy war” against Google, but this document goes above that and describes how exactly Apple planned to wage this war.

A few choice bits are below, followed by the complete email.

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Apple, Microsoft and others group to lobby against upcoming patent troll legislation

Benjamin Mayo Apr 3 2014 - 8:24 am PT

4 Comments

Apple is worried that new legislation will limit its ability to protect its own intellectual property.

Reuters is reporting that Apple, Microsoft, Ford, General Electric, IBM and other companies are forming a lobbyist group called the ‘Partnership for American Innovation’. The group is worried that upcoming legislation focused on patent trolls may adversely affect true ‘innovators’ as well.

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What are the five iOS features Apple is claiming that Samsung (or Google) stole?

Ben Lovejoy Apr 1 2014 - 7:39 am PT

63 Comments

With the second patent battle between Apple and Samsung now underway, we thought it would be useful to look at each of the five features Apple claims Samsung (or Google) stole from iOS.

The patents are, of course, worded in the usual dense legaleze. If you want to read them for yourself, you can find them on the US Patent and Trademark Office website in the links below. But here’s my reading of what each one is about, in plain English …
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Apple vs Samsung patent jury selected, Phil Schiller confirmed as first witness

Ben Lovejoy Apr 1 2014 - 4:15 am PT

0 Comments

Image: Mobile Magazine

The jury for the second Apple vs Samsung patent case has now been selected after a number of potential jurors were dismissed for possible bias. Apple is seeking damages of up to $40 per device sold for those Samsung phones and tablets it says violate up to five Apple patents, while Samsung is counter-claiming that Apple devices violate two of its own patents.

Unlike the previous trial, in which the similarity of Samsung’s hardware to iPhones and iPads was a key issue, the patents in dispute here are all software ones, and include standard Android features, leading some to suggest that Google is the real target in this case.

Trying to find unbiased jurors in Silicon Valley was never going to be an easy exercise, and several of those with connections to the tech sector were accepted. The court also found it impractical to eliminate jurors because they owned products from one or both companies, and it’s been reported that most own at least one Apple device, with some also owning Samsung TVs.

The final jury comprises six women and four men. Occupations include a former IBM manager, county government employee, accountant, store clerk, plumber, secretary, police department community service officer and a retired teacher.

The trial opens today with a video providing an overview of patent law, before opening arguments from each side. Apple has scheduled senior VP of marketing Phil Schiller as its first witness. The trial is expected to last around a month.

In the previous patent case between the two companies, Apple was initially awarded $1B in damages before $450M was cut, with a retrial ordered to look again at the damages awarded for some of the patents. The retrial awarded Apple $290M instead for that portion of the case, giving Apple a revised total award of $930M. Apple did, however, fail in an attempt to obtain an injunction against the products found to infringe its patents.

Is Android the real target of latest Apple vs Samsung patent battle that starts today?

Ben Lovejoy Mar 31 2014 - 4:21 am PT

19 Comments

Photo: Reuters

Pieces in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal suggest that the real target of Apple’s second courtroom patent battle with Samsung may be Android.

Some features in Samsung devices that Apple objects to are part of Google’s Android operating system, by far the most popular mobile operating system worldwide, running on more than a billion devices made by many manufacturers. That means that if Apple wins, Google could have to make changes to critical Android features, and Samsung and other Android phone makers might have to modify the software on their phones …

Jury selection begins today for the second patent case between the two companies after mediation attempts failed. Apple is seeking around $2B in damages for five patents it alleges Samsung has violated, while Samsung is counter-claiming that Apple is in violation of two of its own patents.

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HTC unveils new One (M8) with dual-LED flash, Sense 6 software, Gunmetal design

Chance Miller Mar 25 2014 - 9:05 am PT

27 Comments

: iPhone 5s True Tone

: HTC One M8 camera & flash

HTC has just announced its 2014 flagship in New York. Dubbed the new HTC One (M8), the device is just as all the leaks have depicted it over the past few months. Most notably, HTC is touting the device’s high-quality metal construction, which it describes “like a premium watch.” (Remember when Jobs described the iPhone 4 as a “a beautiful old Leica camera”?) The device is available in a new Gunmetal Gray Hairline Finish that makes it look significantly more high-end than its predecessor. Taking a page out of Apple’s book, the device features a dual LED flash on the back, much like the iPhone 5s.

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Google Now notifications now available in Chrome for Mac

Benjamin Mayo Mar 24 2014 - 11:03 am PT

6 Comments

After spending about a month and a half in the beta channel, Chrome is rolling out Google Now notifications to all users. To activate the feature, Google says to sign in with the same Google account used on iOS.

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Google’s new Photowall app turns your Chromecast-connected TV into an interactive photo frame

Zac Hall Mar 24 2014 - 6:46 am PT

9 Comments

Adding to the capabilities of the Chromecast HDMI streaming stick, Google is out with a new app for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch users called Photowall that lets you turn your Chromecast-connected TV into a live, interactive photo frame.

Google’s Photowall app allows you alone or a group of Photowall users to beam not just one photo, but an entire collage of images to your TV through your Chromecast. The app includes the ability to doodle or annotate images before beaming to your big display as well.

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Non-poaching emails show Jobs was warring with Google long before iPhone was launched

Mike Beasley Mar 23 2014 - 8:08 pm PT

21 Comments

If you’ve paid attention to the ongoing feud between Apple and Google in recent years, you might think that the conflict is the result of Google’s decision to create a competitor to the iPhone after working in tandem with Apple to create the iconic device. And you’d be forgiven for thinking that.

But according to some emails sent by Google’s Sergey Brin back in 2005 that recently surfaced during a class-action lawsuit over the do-not-hire policies of the two companies (among others), that may not be the case. This “thermonuclear war,” as Steve Jobs put it, was a long time coming. Android was just the last straw.

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Profit machine: Interactive graphic shows Apple/tech company money making potential

Ben Lovejoy Mar 20 2014 - 5:35 am PT

2 Comments

Fortune drew our attention to a cool interactive graphic that lets you watch in real-time the revenues and profits made by a dozen tech companies. While Samsung wins the revenue race, Apple is by far the most profitable, at $71,000 a minute.

Apple is doomed …

Google drops its Drive storage pricing significantly, puts pressure on Apple to improve iCloud prices

Benjamin Mayo Mar 13 2014 - 12:19 pm PT

21 Comments

Google has just announced some new price plans for its Google Drive service. The new plans start at $1.99 for 100 GB (down from $4.99), $10 for 1 TB (down from $50) and 10 TB for $99.99. This storage is shared across Drive, Gmail and Google+ Photos.

It should be noted that Google bills customers monthly. Even so, these new price points make Apple’s iCloud storage offerings look awful in terms of value for money.

For iCloud storage, Apple currently charges $20 yearly for 15 GB, $50 yearly for 25 GB and $100 yearly for 55 GB (lumping in the free 5 gigabytes Apple gives to every user). Rather amusingly, Apple’s options do not even allow users to perform a 1:1 backup of their 64 GB and 128 GB devices — the top iCloud tier totals 55 GB of storage.

Whatever way you cut it, Apple’s prices are exorbitant in comparison to Google’s. Doing some basic arithmetic, for one gigabyte of cloud storage over a year, Google charges you 24 cents. Meanwhile, Apple charges you 1.8 dollars. This means Apple’s current rates are 7.5x more expensive than Google’s.

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Apple’s online services going down intermittently, DNS problem/hack likely culprit (Update: Mostly back)

Mike Beasley Mar 12 2014 - 4:07 pm PT

7 Comments

Update: The bad DNS entries appear to almost completely be purged and it appears that Apple services are working correctly.

[tweet https://twitter.com/RaceJohnson/status/443882675011469312 align=’center’]

Apple’s website and online stores are experiencing issues for many users, according to various tips and reports we’ve received across Twitter. Apple.com, iTunes, the App Store, and some other web services (but not all) are all reporting that they are unavailable.

Some services (like iMessage and Game Center) seem to be unaffected at the moment.

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Google Wallet adds “Orders” feature to track online purchases using receipts from Gmail

Jordan Kahn Mar 12 2014 - 11:42 am PT

0 Comments

From 9to5Google:

Google announced today on its Google Commerce blog that it’s rolling out an update for the Google Wallet mobile apps that includes a new “Orders” feature for tracking online purchases. Google says the feature will let you stay on top of your online orders (including past purchases) as well as get notifications for status updates regarding deliveries. How will Google know what you’ve purchased? In order to track your recent online orders, the feature pulls receipts out of your Gmail account :

Once you activate Orders in Google Wallet, you’ll be able to see any receipts sent to your Gmail right in the Google Wallet app. We’ve also worked with primary package carriers in the US so that when your order status is updated, you’ll get notified of the update through Wallet. So whether your order is shipped, out for delivery, or delayed, you’ll never wonder about the status of your order.

The app also includes “products you’ve ordered, merchant contact information, and shipping details in the app” for your purchases and links to quickly contact retailers.

Google said the feature is rolling out to Android and iOS users in the US this week. You can activate Orders by tapping “Activate” under “Track your orders” or by tapping “Orders” in the app’s main menu.

Doomed? Apple is #1 and growing in latest comScore smartphone numbers

Zac Hall Mar 7 2014 - 10:34 am PT

4 Comments

These are the kind of numbers you will likely hear Tim Cook and company quote during a keynote or quarterly earnings call with investors. Digital analytics tracker comScore is out with a new report today showing a steady lead and continuous gains by Apple among U.S. smartphone users in the three months leading up to the end of January 2014.

59.8 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones (66.8 percent mobile market penetration) during the three months ending in January, up 7 percent since October. Apple ranked as the top OEM with 41.6 percent of U.S. smartphone subscribers (up 1 percentage point from October).

On the platform side, Apple picked up a point (from Android and BlackBerry) during the three month period while Android held its lead but dropped half a point. The current difference between iOS and Android in platform rankings differs by about 10 points.

Compare these numbers to the year ago figures for extra fun.

Finally a smartwatch concept that I could actually see myself wearing

Ben Lovejoy Mar 7 2014 - 4:50 am PT

28 Comments

I’ve said before that if Apple or anyone else wants to persuade me to wear a smartwatch, they’re going to have to design something that looks like a stylish watch rather than a chunk of smartphone glued to a strap.

Even most of the concept images floating around haven’t really hit the mark in my view. But this one, by Hungarian designer Gábor Balogh and spotted by The Verge, does.

Granted, it suffers the usual concept image issue of being designed with little thought to practicality (what happens when I answer that call?), and it’s not an iOS interface we’re seeing, but Balogh himself says that he’s aiming to illustrate a principle rather than a specific user-interface. That principle being that a watch should, first and foremost, work as a watch.

Check out the full set of images on Balogh’s Bēhance page, and let us know in the comments what you think.