Apple is working on Smart Stay like gaze detection feature for iPhone. May come in iOS 7. Or later
Samsung has one cool feature on its last year’s flagship – Galaxy S3 . Its called Smart Stay, and determines whether you are looking at the phone screen, then prevents it from auto-dimming the display until you move your eyes off it. When it works, it is a pretty useful thing when you take your [...]
iPhone 5S display may double pixel count to 1.5 million, come with iPad mini like narrow bezel
Chinese sites are ablaze with a new set of iPhone 5S rumors today. They seem to have originated with Wei Feng Network, and say that the new iPhone will come with a much narrower bezel, adopting the iPad mini like design. The display size will remain the same 4 inches, but Apple plans to double [...]
iPhone with OLED displays on the sides, fully flexible iDevices show up in Apple’s patent apps
Apple is doing some serious R&D in flexible displays, other flexible electronics. And their efforts are now starting to show up in public with increasing frequency, via various patent apps. Few weeks ago we told you about Apple’s iWatch patent app and the iPhone with wrap-around display. Before that we had those crazy ideas of integrating microphones and [...]
iPhone with flexible wrap-around display shows up in Apple’s patent application
When Apple introduced iPhone – they basically found an ideal form factor for a modern smartphone. Before iPhone, everyone was experimenting with different shapes and configurations of their mobile devices. We had candybar phones, sliders, clamshells and some really weird stuff like Motorola Aura. It took few years for an impact of Apple’s phone to [...]
Apple is working on camera with optical zoom and much better resolution for future iPhones and iPads
Apple may have found a way to add a camera with a true optical zoom into their next or next next iPhone and iPad. The new set-up is described in a patent application “Digital camera with light splitter” and shows a camera module with optical zoom lens, that can fit into a portable device that [...]
The One Thing iOS Got Right, Android Does Decently, and BlackBerry 10 Got VERY Wrong!
Before I even begin, I will just say that in case you didn’t know, this is an opinion piece, my opinion. The topic of this post is up for debate and I am going to be explaining my take, but it is by no means written in stone. A smartphone is a super personal device [...]
As Galaxy S4 launch approaches, has Samsung surpassed Apple where it matters most — Marketing Hype?
The real smartphone wars are nothing more than a battle between Samsung and Apple. No one else is even close. Blackberry and Windows Phone barely rise to the level of also-ran. Operating systems such as Tizen, Jolla, Aliyun, Firefox Mobile et al appear to be nothing more than tools for hobbyists. Across nearly every single [...]
iPads are not computers, Google does not do hardware, Facebook Phone and other predictions
EXCLUSIVE! Called it! First! We analysts love to point out what we got right. Rarely do we admit when we are wrong. If you look back over the past eighteen months, however, you will note that those of us who engage in mobile industry speculation are wrong nearly as often as we are right. Consider [...]
My son switched from iPhone to Android HTC One X. What do I do now?
This is war! Despite everything I taught him, my fifteen-year-old son chose an Android device – the HTC One X – over the iPhone. Despite the fact that I told him the iPhone is the best. No, despite the fact that iPhone is the best. Why would he do that? Teenage rebellion? The other kids [...]
The Smartphone Wars on Television. The best smartphone commercials.
Apple sold an astounding 47 million iPhones in Q4 2012. This was only good enough for second place in the “smartphone wars”. Samsung, the clear leader, sold nearly 65 million smartphones. The success of Samsung, which is dominating the Android market, is no doubt partly due to their constant, aggressive marketing. Expect more of this [...]
Enough with the App Obsession. Here are the Only 10 Apps You Need on iOS, Android, Windows Phone, and BlackBerry 10!
Am I really the only one that finds it completely ridiculous when people don’t buy a phone because it only has 70,000 or 150,000 apps? I can’t possibly be. If I hear one more person say that Windows Phone has no apps or BlackBerry 10 can’t succeed because it is “missing” 700,000 apps that iOS [...]
Apple’s wearable computing/personal items sensor network integrated with your iWatch or iPhone
Wearable computing as the next big thing where Apple could make a huge contribution and finally get the market going, has been chatted up on the interwebs for years. We here, on UV, have speculated about it too, saying that Apple should kill its iPod line and create an iPod Tricorder. It seems that Apple [...]
Top 10 things I hate about iPhone
Confession: I do not hate iPhone. I may love it, in fact. iPhone is my primary personal computing and communications device. I use it everywhere, all the time, and for an increasing – seemingly limitless – number of functions, tasks, activities, chores and stolen moments of leisure. But, I made a promise. In the interest [...]
Top 10 things I hate about Android
I admire Apple, and love their story. They are a wildly successful, highly innovative company, founded by one of America’s great visionaries, Steve Jobs. Apple’s story encompasses birth to boom to near-death to re-birth to conquering the world. Yet their best days lie ahead. I believe that mobile computing is the central computing paradigm for [...]
Forget digital wallet. Apple wants to turn YOU into an ATM via ad-hoc cash dispensing network
While Google, wireless carriers, Paypal and everyone else is working to turn your smartphone into a digital wallet, Apple has an even more interesting idea about money exchange. Apple would like to turn you and other people around you with iOS device, into a mobile ATM. The basic idea, described in a patent application “Ad-hoc [...]
If only Nokia had a Steve Jobs
Six years ago this month, January 2007, Steve Jobs stood before the world and announced the iPhone. His words were few and telling: “Every once in a while a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything” Accuse Steve Jobs of showmanship if you like, but in this case he was absolutely correct about iPhone’s [...]
FAQ for that cheap, big, new rumored iPhone
In a column for Unwired View late last year, I predicted that Apple will release a “phablet” in 2013: Apple will release two new iPhones next year. One will be the iPhone 5S. The other will be a much larger device, like the Samsung Galaxy Note or “phablet”. I’m going to go further this time. [...]
Apple should kill iPod, create iPod Tricorder and own wearable computing
How much weight have you lost so far this year? It’s been a week – have you gone for a run everyday, as you promised with your new year’s resolutions? Fitness, good health, good habits, these are all part of the annual promises we make. Quit smoking, always take the stairs, watch what we eat. [...]
Predictions for Apple in 2013: iTV, iPhone 5S, new iPads and Siri out of beta
Wow, what a year it has been for the tech world. We heard big news from Apple, Samsung, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and many other companies. Apple had many major headlines, from the maps hoopla to the introductions of the iPhone 5, iPad mini, and iMacs. Regardless of several new products being revealed this year, the [...]
Google xPhone: An attack on Samsung, not iPhone
Given how many elements Google Android has clearly lifted from iPhone, I am not surprised that Google’s semi-secretive xPhone project has a name so similar to iPhone. But, in fact, the xPhone is more an attack on Google’s own partner, Samsung. First, what is the xPhone? Last week, both Reuters and the Wall Street Journal [...]
