It’s not quite a fair comparison, as the iPhone 5 is new and shiny (at least we think it’s shiny; we’ll see what Apple ends up unveiling) while the Nexus S is a little more than half a year old. But the contrast between the two phones highlights the frail nature of Android popularity. While all Android-based phones combined are arguably outselling the iPhone (Google’s controversial Android activation claims would be given more credit if they were backed up with documentation of actual phone sales), the iPhone 4 has been slaughtering the sales of each of the various Android phone lines individually. Verizon’s Droid lineup, for instance, was being outsold by a five to two margin by AT&T’s iPhone 4 at the time Verizon finally broke down and adopted the iPhone 4 as its flagship phone as well. But the real heart of Android’s problem can be seen with the Nexus line in particular.

The original Nexus One was a historical flop. It showed that while carrier-backed Android phones (like Verizon’s Droid, Sprint’s HTC EVO, T-Mobile’s G2, etc) have done well, Android phones which aren’t actively promoted by a carrier have failed miserably. The planned Nexus Two was canceled and replaced with the current Nexus S. How well has it done? That goes back to Android phone manufacturers conspiring to keep total phone sales a secret, only releasing isolated data over limited timespans when it suits them. But there’s no evidence suggesting that the Nexus S has fared any better than the Nexus One before it. And now that Best Buy is literally giving away its Nexus S inventory to anyone who shows up just to get rid of it, it appears that the retail giant is seeing the same trend that independent studies have been consistently showing: now that the iPhone 5 is set to debut simultaneously on both of the largest U.S. carriers (with a similar script playing out in other nations), Android users are overwhelmingly set to bail themselves out of the platform in favor of moving to the iPhone and its iOS 5 platform.

The reasons for the shift are various. There’s the aforementioned iPhone 5 carrier expansion, which sees those who wanted an iPhone all along, but settled for Android because that’s all their carrier had, now in position to finally get the phone they want. Then there’s the multiple data points showing widespread dissension among Android users in general. Last year, a study showed seventy-two percent of Android users vowing not to buy another Android phone in the future, and now that the iPhone 5 is upon them, more recent studies show that most of them still mean what they said. Of course that’ll require their upcoming deeds to match their deeds. But now we know that Best Buy, whose geek-laden sales staff leans as hard toward Android and away from iPhone as it can get away with, is betting that there will be no one to sell the Android Nexus phone to once the iPhone 5 sees its release date next month. And if Best Buy is giving up on its pet Android platform, then it’s perhaps the strongest sign yet that the air may be about to remove itself from the bubble.

[Thanks: http://www.beatweek.com]

Before I reflect, I should point out that the tips in this story might not be applicable to everyone. Even I was a bit surprised by a few twists, which I’ll explain below. However, certain constraints include the iPhone model, the carrier, which country you’re going to and maybe just how nice the sales person you speak to is.

So here we go. Ahead of jetting off to live in France for a year, I decided I still wanted to hang on to my iPhone (the first generation) to use abroad. I had never upgraded at this point, and at the time of departure, this smartphone was approximately three years old. (Obviously, I was eligible for an upgrade with AT&T at that point, but I was holding out for what would eventually be the iPhone 4 I have now.)

I knew my iPhone was locked, but I heard from friends who had moved abroad before that they were able to break or put their contracts on hold for various reasons. When I called AT&T’s customer service (Apple can’t really help in this regard, so don’t bother with them), I explained that I was moving for a work program, and I would be away from the U.S. for at least eight months. I asked what I could do, and the customer service rep informed me that I could only put it on hold in cases of extreme emergencies (i.e. health, death in the family, etc.) or if i was in the military. Neither exception applied to me. However, there was at least one thing I could do to save money:

Tip #1: If you’re going abroad for at least one month or more, cancel the data plan - if possible.

This could be catchy for some users as contracts often stipulate that you have to have both a voice and data plan. However, since I was well beyond the end date of my contract, I could do whatever I wanted with the plan. So I dropped the data plan, which meant I only had to pay $40 each month I was gone. (You might be wondering why I didn’t cancel altogether and just pay , but I still wanted to keep my U.S. number for personal and work-related reasons here.)

The next problem was figuring out how I would be able to use the iPhone abroad with another carrier’s SIM card. I had already resolved to put my AT&T SIM card in a Motorola Razr (which can be unlocked by oneself by just going to the AT&T account page and obtaining a code specific to that model). Using the Razr allowed by to have my U.S. number accessible when needed and then I would put a French SIM card in the iPhone as I would be using that more often and I planned to get a data plan over there.

Tip #2: Go to a local brick-and-mortar AT&T and Verizon store and ask for advice in person.

This is where I might have just gotten lucky based on who I spoke with. When I explained my situation to the employee, he actually gave me a 10 percent off coupon for another private mobile phone shop that would unlock my iPhone for $35 (when you incorporate the discount). This could have been because that local (and truly official) AT&T store had some kind of deal with this shop, and/or because my iPhone was so old that AT&T didn’t care about it anymore.

[Thanks: http://www.zdnet.com]

Despite Verizon’s attempt at obfuscation in the chart above, the only U.S. carrier with 4G service worth mentioning doesn’t have much to show for LTE so far. Only cities with the yellow circles actually have the service, the green stars being planned for later this year. Not surprisingly, that’s still better than AT&T, which claims “4G” service with its HSPA+ upgrade, with LTE having an “initial” launch sometime this year. That’s important to the prospects of an LTE iPhone, because Apple still sells about a third of its iPhones in the U.S., making it easily the single largest market.

Internationally, the situation is even less favorable for an LTE iPhone, though there is interest, notably in China. Last month, Bloomberg reported that Chairman of China Mobile Wang Jianzhou said Steve Jobs had “expressed his interest in an LTE iPhone and is willing to start the development at an early date.” China Mobile is the world’s largest mobile phone provider, with more than 600 million subscribers. China Mobile is currently in the process of large-scale testing of TD-LTE networks in several large cities.

It’s also rumored that China Mobile may be getting the next generation of iPhone for its TD-SCDMA network. That makes sense for Apple, as the company has explicitly stated China is a major focus for future growth. However, it’s unlikely LTE networks will reach maturity in China by even the end of 2012, unlike in the U.S. Since coverage should be quite good by 2012, we can very likely expect an LTE iPhone to debut in the U.S. next year. For that reason, the rumored iPhone 4S for this fall will be the first model I pass on. How about you?

[Thanks: http://gigaom.com]

But while you can grow a perfectly nice garden without any high-tech gadgetry, the smartphone is becoming an increasingly indispensable tool for the green-thumbed set. Whether you’re an iPhone or Android user, there are plenty of apps out there to make sure you get the most out of your garden this spring and summer.

Plan it Out

Before you plant your garden, it’s a good idea to plan it out first. The Eden Garden Designer (free) will help you figure out how much space you’ll need in between plants and how to arrange flowering plants so that you can achieve an optimal bloom this summer.

Tips and Hints

For general gardening tips, hints and tricks there’s the Gardening Toolkit ($2.99) on the iPhone and Botanica (free) for Android. Both apps put plenty of informative pictures and tips in the palm of your hand, covering everything from hardiness zones to sowing and harvesting guidelines, while also providing all-important watering reminders. For a more minimalist app, Gardener for Android (free) tracks planting and harvesting times, informing you of an impending summer bounty at a glance.

At $9.99 Botany Buddy is on the expensive side for a mobile app. But its extensive list of more than 2,000 plant species and nearly 10,000 photos can’t be beat. The database is fully searchable by a variety of search terms, enabling you to quickly identify whatever species you happen to stumble upon.

A Forager’s Feast

If you’d rather gather your sustenance than grow it in the backyard, the WildEdibles app (free) is your guide to a foraged feast. The app gives you the lowdown on hundreds of edible plants and fungi, while its detailed photos and descriptions keep you from making a potentially poisonous mistake. The basic version is free, but there are also paid versions that focus specifically on edible fruits, nuts, shrubs and greens. For an app that specializes in foraging for mushrooms, check out Audubon Mushrooms ($9.99), which has an extensive list of the most common species in North America. By allowing you to filter the database through a number of variables, that app enables you to quickly see whether that fungus you spotted is friend or foe.

Troubleshooting Problem Plants

If you maintain a garden, at some point problems will emerge. The Plant Doctor ($1.99) can help you diagnose a problem by walking your through a checklist of symptoms. Whether you’re suffering from pests, root rot or yellowing leaves, this app has got you covered.

While it’s important to guard against insects like aphids and beetles, not all creeping critters will damage your plants. Being able to tell the difference between a harmful species and the beneficial, pollen-spreading kind is key to growing a great garden. The aptly named Bugs and Insects ($0.99) gets right to the point, arming you with plenty of useful information on the variety of insects populating your garden.

[Thanks: http://www.foxnews.com]

Ranging across topics such as content - games, video and music - to app stores, advertising strategies, monetisation options, search, and more, it, and its networking opportunities, provided plenty of fuel for thought.

So here are ten points we think say something about the current state of the ecosystem.

1. The platform always corrupts

A general observation but one brought into specific focus by the continuing uncertainties over download incentivisation on the Apple App Store, a platform holder’s power over its platform means change will always tend to be in its favour.

Of course, this sort of behaviour isn’t limited to digital distribution. The same thing occurs with physical retailers such as Walmart and Tesco as they squeeze their supply chain in ways that improve their balance sheet.

For that reason - and many others - developers and publishers shouldn’t take an all or nothing approach. As well as maximising your potential audience, a cross platform strategy will limit your vulnerability to the mercurial attitudes of Apple, Google, RIM, Nokia, Microsoft, Amazon etc.

2. Whose line is it anyway?

There’s a broader point to be made on the previous subject. Digital distribution has removed many of the traditional players from the retail supply chain - notably distributors, the vast majority of publishers and, of course, retailers.

However this doesn’t mean the tasks undertaken by these specialists - ranging from sales and marketing to promotion, discounting and resupply have disappeared. Most have been taken over by the platform holder, while the biggest complaint for developers concerns discoverability; something they would have previously relied on publishers to undertake.

Equally, the disruption caused by digital distribution has created new areas of expertise; analytics, new promotion methods such as incentivisation and cross promotional networks, third party social platforms and even third party cross platform app stores. And it’s here where we will continue to see battles between these new players and the platforms holders over who has the rights or the best solutions to solve these problems.

3. The app store has peaked

But maybe we’re too hung up on app stores anyway. Some commentators are arguing we’ve passed the high point of the app store model, and the pendulum is now swinging back towards the browser as being the most important channel for content distribution in future.

Of course, the browser versus app store debate will always be with us as changes in technology make the inherent advantages of each approach more (or less) significant.

But with HTML5 being massively pushed by the likes of Google, Facebook and even Apple, it’s clear that certain content - although not necessarily high quality games - will be better distributed this way.

Indeed, Amazon’s integration of its Appstore for Android within its standard web storefront demonstrates the many advantages, in terms of search, recommendation and even billing, this approach delivers, all of which are weakness of the app model.

4. Here I am

One of the biggest current deficiencies with app stores is search. As has been pointed out many times, an app store search for ‘mad fowl’ won’t get you Angry Birds. Taking a web-style page rank approach doesn’t work well when you’re looking for a singular result.

However the problem is more general than just searching for specific apps. The functionality offered by apps isn’t well integrated into search, which only access an app’s name and its description.

Several companies, notably start up Quixey, are now attempting to tackle this problem using a so-called ‘deep search’ approach that enables search terms to connect with the functionality offered by apps. For example, this would solve the problem of searching for ‘open restaurants’, by launching an app such as Yelp, also automatically using functionality such as your location to improve the quality of the results.

Would it solve discoverability? No. It would shift the problem to SEO; perhaps moving us half a step forward.

5. Where are your groupies?

As with device fragmentation, developers complaining about discoverability is just another admission of failure.

Don’t expect anyone to do your job for you, or as one panelist put it, “You need to market your app just like bands build a fanbase.”

6. Large numbers aren’t enough

Although beloved by market analysts, venture capitalists and CEOs looking to sell their companies, the explosive growth of the smartphone business doesn’t mean it’s becoming any easier to make money.

Indeed, it’s clear that the tens of millions of new smartphone owners every month don’t have anything like the same app buying patterns as the early adopters of iPhone and Android. For example, the availability of the iPhone on Verizon didn’t boast App Store sales as expected, while much of the future growth of Android is going to happen with very cheap handsets in countries such as China and India.

Combined with a broad industry switch to free-to-play content, especially for games, and developers can boast of high download numbers and active users, while struggling generate meaningful revenues.

Brutally put, it seems that individual titles need 10+ million downloads while companies need 50+ million downloads to be noticed.

7. Be the best

As always happens as a market matures, there are two extreme approaches businesses can take to take advantage of a large, hard-to-monetise audience; become an aggregator (or large publisher), or specialise.

The latter is the only option for most developers, with VC panelists at AppNation, in particular, pointing to the value of being a category leader, especially in a cross platform world.

Of course, the trick is to choose the correct niche to attempt to dominate. We’d suggest the realistic vehicle racing, match-3, football (American and soccer), and physics trajectory categories are already well supplied.

8. Eastern disruption

China is often spoken about in extreme and confused terms. It’s either a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, or a place where your IP will be reversed engineered in minutes: a global threat to US economic and military power or a third world country containing a dozen first world city states.

The truth seems to be a bit of everything. There are clear obstacles to business in terms of the need to partner with Chinese companies and restriction on revenue repatriation. “What pays in China stays in China,” as one panelist put it. Additionally, China Mobile’s stranglehold across much of the industry limits innovation.

Yet the disruption caused by the rapid adoption of Android smartphones is shaking things up; even if no one knows how it will all play out.

Perhaps more exciting though are the changes occurring in Japan. Long the global leader in mobile networks, if not handsets, the sales of iPhone and Android - notably Samsung devices - is shaking up an otherwise mature and incredibly lucrative market.

Placed in that light, the $303 million and $104 million deals by DeNA and GREE respectively for smartphone social networks ngmoco and OpenFeint could be seen as defensive moves by cash-rich players worried their duopoly is about to be broken apart.

9. Will you be my friend?

Continuing the theme, we can now say the first wave of social mobile gaming platforms is over. OpenFeint and ngmoco were the two most successful players and their investors have cashed out big. As for the rest, AGON Online went bust, Chillingo’s Crystal remains effectively an underused proprietary system, while Scoreloop’s business is as a white label play for carriers. New players such as Papaya Mobile have also appeared.

The broader question concerning did any of these technologies actually make us more social mobile gamers remains unanswered though.

Certainly achievements and leaderboards are now seen as standard components in all games. Yet if personal experience is anything to go by, this, combined with inviting a few existing friends into my social graph, is - at best - the most coarse implementation of mobile sociability.

Social mobile gaming 2.0 will have to do much better, as well as actually being able to generate some revenues, if DeNA and GREE’s deals aren’t to be seen as massively overpriced.

10. The kraken awakes

Less a business point, more an observation. During AppNation, but unrelated to it, social gaming giant Zynga bought another mobile game studio. No surprise there you might think - it’s bought over a dozen in the past 12 months.

The symbolism of its acquisition of UK studio Wonderland however was that it developed ngmoco’sGodFinger game; Zynga previously bought Newtoy, developer of ngmoco’s We Rule.

Both titles have long been run as services internally by ngmoco following their initial development and launch, so there won’t be an issue in terms of player services. Nevertheless, it does suggest Zynga will finally be doing something significant in the mobile freemium space - and that in itself is significant.

[Thanks: http://www.pocketgamer.biz]

A group of cops were on the Lexington Avenue line to look for pickpockets accused of previous crimes. According to WCBS 2, “Callaghan said Thomas “began to crowd the plainclothes officer” and had a sweatshirt over his hand as he reached into the cop’s backpack and removed the iPhone.” Thomas has dozens of arrests for grand larceny and Callaghan said, “He a habitual offender, who just does his jail time, comes back out and regresses right back to the stuff he knows.”

Callaghan added, “People are very engrossed in using their iPhone or BlackBerry. They don’t seem to think it’s a problem. People just have to be cognizant of who’s around them and that these valuables are attractive to criminals.” Also, just don’t let strangers hold your precious gadgets when they ask you to, okay?

[Thanks: http://gothamist.com]

A report from two researchers, Alasdair Allan and Pete Warden, at a technology conference in California raises questions about how much privacy you implicitly surrender by carrying around a smartphone. It also questions the responsibility of smartphone makers to protect the sensitive data that flows through their devices.

Much of the concern over iPhone and iPad tracking stems from the fact the computers are logging users’ physical coordinates without users knowing it - and that information is then stored in an unencrypted form that would be easy to find for a hacker, a law enforcement officer without a warrant… or maybe, even worse - a suspicious spouse.

Apple devices have been retaining this information for some time, but it was kept in a different form until the release of the iOS 4 operating software last year.

Sean Morrissey, a security expert, said on Thursday that the tracking on Apple devices isn’t new, or a surprise, to those in the computer forensics community.

Sean Morrissey, Managing Director of Kanata Forensic, said, “This is to help the user use the applications that are on this phone. Because when you’re using anything that has any geo-location data, it needs to know where it is, and part of the function of the certain parts of the operating system and this file constantly let the phone know where I am.”

Researchers emphasize that there’s no evidence that Apple itself has access to this data.

But in London, privacy campaigners say that if consumers were more aware of the issue, it could affect sales.

Daniel Hamilton, Pricacy Campaigner, said, “If you went into a shop and said I’d like to buy an iPhone’and a sales assistant handed it to you and said ‘Before you buy this I need to make you aware that from now on Apple will be able to track everywhere that you go with this iPhone’, then clearly nobody would ever buy that product.”

Mobile User, said, “I feel like it could be a good thing if I lose it or something maybe, but other than that I think it’s kind of weird.”

Apple didn’t immediately respond.

[Thanks: http://news.xinhuanet.com]

By now you’ve no doubt heard about a certain iOS database file called consolidated.db. It made quite a splash yesterday when a pair of researchers, Alasdair Allan and Pete Warden, from O’Reilly Media announced the “iPhone tracking software” the duo had “discovered hidden on the phones.” Here’s the problem: they didn’t discover it, at least not originally.

The file, known to hold large amounts of geolocation data collected from WiFi access points and cell-towers, has been probed by forensic experts ever since the retail launch of the iPhone 4 back in June of 2010. Hell, Sean Morrissey and Alex Levinson published a physical book on the topic back in December 2010, entire excerpts of which can easily be found on Google.

So either the team from O’Reilly is being disingenuous with its claims or it’s being lazy.

Regardless, the story laid dormant for months until the O’Reilly team was able to visualize the data in a very personal way. Running the team’s open-source iPhoneTracker software to see the detailed locations of our worldly travels is absolutely fascinating. Imagining the same data file in the hands of a stalker, misguided detective, or a jealous lover is downright creepy.

But how is it possible that an issue like this has avoided the tech community at large for more than a year? And more importantly, what can you do about it? Read on to find out.

Sure the visualization is powerful, but so is the emotive energy that surrounds any issue related to Apple. Toss in big brother privacy concerns and you’ve just unleashed the perfect storm into the blogosphere echo chamber. Yet, we heard nary a peep emitted outside of forensic circles until yesterday. Ryan Block, lover of fine coffee and Engadget Editor Emeritus, postulated an answer to our question over at GDGT, theorizing that perhaps the forensic community, unlike the security world, is so insular that it lacks the incentive to go public with such privacy concerns. After all, criminals will change their behavior if they know what you’re tracking. But who’s the so-called “criminal” in this case?

For that, we have to dig into Apple’s privacy policy, something you accept every time you blindly click away Apple’s terms and conditions. The policy was last updated on the 21st of June, 2010 — the same day that Apple released iOS 4. Guess what? It talks a lot about collecting and using non-personal information, including location data. Here are a few choice paragraphs:

We also collect non-personal information − data in a form that does not permit direct association with any specific individual. We may collect, use, transfer, and disclose non-personal information for any purpose.

Apple then cites several examples:

We may collect information such as occupation, language, zip code, area code, unique device identifier, location, and the time zone where an Apple product is used so that we can better understand customer behavior and improve our products, services, and advertising.

The company later expounds on location services specifically:

To provide location-based services on Apple products, Apple and our partners and licensees may collect, use, and share precise location data, including the real-time geographic location of your Apple computer or device. This location data is collected anonymously in a form that does not personally identify you and is used by Apple and our partners and licensees to provide and improve location-based products and services. For example, we may share geographic location with application providers when you opt in to their location services.

Problem is, the location data is very personal and hardly anonymous because it’s stored right on your phone — the most personal device we own. The consolidated.db is also replicated (unencrypted by default) to any PC or Mac your iPhone syncs with, and subsequently any additional backup devices you might use (Windows Home Sever, Time Capsule, etc.).

Apple’s not alone in this behavior, either. Just last month, The New York Times ran a story titled, “It’s Tracking Your Every Move and You May Not Even Know.” In this case, however, “it” does not refer to Apple, it references the cellphone companies who have to track your location in order to provide the best possible service. That meant 35,000 longitude and latitude coordinates collected over a six month period for one very unhappy Deutsche Telekom subscriber who had to go to court in Germany to find out what his provider knew. See, like the United States, German carriers are not required to report the data they collect.

Don’t get us wrong, we’re not letting Apple off the hook here — we also want to know why the company needs to collect and maintain so much of our location data for such a long time. But we, as consumers, have to pay better attention if we want to reserve the right to scream foul.

If this issue really concerns you, then there are a few things you can do right now to take control of your privacy. First, you can go into iTunes and start encrypting your iPhone and iPad backups. Second, you can purge the consolidated.db files sitting on your various hard disk drives. Lastly, if your device is jailbroken, you can install the free Untrackerd app to continuously clean the consolidated.db file. That should keep you busy while we wait for Apple to respond.

[Thanks: http://www.engadget.com]

Despite the fact that Apple now requires users to enter passwords before making in-app purchases, Garen Meguerian says that minors can still easily make purchases on their parents’ accounts.

“Minors 13 and older are permitted to open their own Apple accounts, and minors younger than 13 may purchase Game Currency by using their parents’ general Apple password (no special Apple password is required to purchase Game Currency,” according to the suit, which was filed in a Northern California district court.

Since the passwords for in-app purchases are the same as the main Apple passwords, kids who are “aware of such password may purchase Game Currency without authorization from their parents for that purchase,” Meguerian argued.

Meguerian’s 9-year-old daughter racked up about $200 in in-app purchases while playing games like “Zombie Café,” “Treasure Story,” and “City Story.” Meguerian says he was “completely unaware” that these games included in-game currency and was shocked to find the charges on his account. According to receipts submitted in the lawsuit, his daughter made her purchases in February, before Apple’s in-app purchase requirement went into effect in March.

Apple’s in-app purchase policies got attention when lawmakers asked the Federal Trade Commission to examine in-app purchases and determine whether or not consumers were being unfairly charged. They pointed to a Washington Post article that discussed an 8-year-old who had racked up $1,400 in in-app charges via Capcom’s “Smurfs’ Village” game. Capcom later agreed to post a warning about in-app purchases.

The FTC said it was examining the issue, but Apple’s iOS 4.3 fixed the problem for App Store apps; Google added in-app billing to Android apps in late March.

Meguerian is suing Apple for breach of contract and unjust enrichment, among other things. He wants damages as well as attorneys’ fees and costs.

[Thanks: http://www.pcmag.com]

The issue was first reported on Apple’s support forum, where a user says an old picture of her and her boyfriend at work froze on the screen when she tried making a FaceTime call. This could be a believable glitch if the picture was from the last time she used FaceTime, but she says that, although she has used FaceTime at work, her boyfriend has not. So where did this picture come from? Is the iPhone actually taking pictures when we don’t know it? Or is this user just making stuff up?

Another user says that he has a dashboard mount in his car, and that he left his iPhone in it while running in to get a sandwich. When he gets to his destination, he begins to eat the sandwich and tries to use FaceTime, but a frozen image of him in his car 20-30 minutes prior shows up. He said he didn’t use his phone in the car and was not connected to WiFi, which is required to use FaceTime.

One user says it happens to her all the time. She recently used FaceTime and it flashed a picture of her at the gym taking a shower. She says she knows she didn’t take the picture, and that she never even brings her iPhone into the gym.

If I were a conspiracy theorist, I’m sure I could come up with some crazy ideas about how Apple is helping the government spy on us. But I just find it much easier to believe that these claims are being made up by some people with a little too much time on their hands and some creativity.

So far, Apple has not made a statement on the issue, and no one reporting on these claims has been able to recreate the problem.

[Thanks: http://technorati.com]