It's difficult to remember what the iPhone was like before the App Store even existed. Back in 2007 when the original iPhone was launched, the App Store didn't exist, and the only way to extend the functionality of the device was performing a jailbreak to install and run unapproved third-party applications and games. Apple quickly cottoned on to the extraordinary potential of an app marketplace and launched their official App Store in 2008, with it now being made known that one million different apps have been approved for download through the store in the last four years.
With over seven hundred thousand apps in the iOS App Store that have managed to amass over thirty billion downloads, it's no wonder that the iOS devices like the iPhone and iPad are extremely popular with consumers who want to extend the functionality of their mobile devices. The power and versatility of the apps on the store do a great job of promoting Apple devices to prospective customers which could be one of the reasons that Apple are in the first stages of rolling out a new "App Discovery" reward to retail store employees.
In the ongoing patent war between Apple and Samsung, it seems one cannot sneeze without the other taking a strong interest, and with Apple having reached a settlement with Taiwanese rival HTC earlier this week, Samsung is seeking a copy of it.
Turning digital pages? There's a patent for that! And guess what - Apple has it. While all tech companies must keep the patents rolling through in order to protect intellectual properties, it's fair to say the Cupertino company has a bit of a reputation for being a tad over-zealous when it comes to sending sketches over to the USPTO. The latest, a design patent, concerns the turning over of fake pages.
The popularity of its product range, coupled with the colossal amounts of money exchanged in the purchase of said products, has made Apple a pretty strong target for fakery. China is one of the main sources of these bootleg products, and even though we're used to seeing copies of some of the higher-end Apple devices - iPads, iPhones and such, the latest product to be ripped from Apple's extensive roster is the Apple TV.
US Judge Permits Both Apple And Samsung To Include Jelly Bean And iPhone 5 In Ongoing Patent Dispute
Scarcely a week goes by without significant developments in the continual Apple vs. Samsung legal battle, and with Samsung forewarning Apple it would immediately bring the iPhone 5 into the dispute upon release, the Korean company has stayed true to its word. Both Samsung and Apple have recently requested newer devices be added to the fold, and US Magistrate Judge Paul Grewal has today given the Galaxy maker the go-ahead to include the iPhone 5.
Aaron Sorkin, writer behind the forthcoming film about Apple co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs, has today revealed exactly what kind of format the motion picture will take. Sorkin already revealed it wouldn't simply play out like your archetypal life story, and today, has revealed it will be separated into just three scenes - each lasting thirty minutes.
Although preceded by Windows Phone 7.x, the perception is that Windows Phone 8 is Microsoft's first real stab at today's mobile market. The experimental phase has now passed, and the Redmond company is all set to launch its assault on Android and iOS with its new improved ecosystem and to begin with, the Surface. Naturally, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has stepped out and criticized his two main rivals, and while he calls the Android ecosystem "wild" and "uncontrolled," he also states Apple's iOS is is as highly-priced as it is controlled.
The release of the iPhone 5 has, by and large, gone without major incident. The Antennagate scandal of two years ago with the iPhone 4 was regarded as the biggest tech fail of that particular year, and while the battery issue plagued a few iPhone 4S handsets back in October 2011, the software-related Maps app has been the only real issue this time around. With that said, not everybody has had such a great first two months with their shiny new device, and while a couple of complaints have arisen with regards to scratching of the anodized aluminum, some have had to contend with the altogether more pressing issue of poor Wi-Fi performance.
Apple and Samsung may require the help of a courtroom, judge and jury settle many of their differences, but when you consider what is at stake, perhaps the number of court cases and lawsuits isn't so disproportionately high after all. The two titans of the smartphone market now account for a whopping 46.5 percent of global smartphone sales according to a quarterly report by analytics firm Gartner, and in bad news for rivals, it doesn't look as though the dominance is about to plateau any time soon.
