Apple customers protest factory worker abuse, will present petition tomorrow
Apple customers are protesting the company’s role in factory worker abuse by bringing a 250,000-signature petition to the Apple store at Grand Central Station in New York City tomorrow and elsewhere around the globe.
In particular, the petitioners are asking Apple to make the iPhone 5 its first product produced under entirely ethical working conditions.
“I have been a lifelong Apple customer and was shocked to learn of the abusive working conditions in many of … Continue Reading
Sprint sells 1.8M iPhones, reports smaller loss than expected
If the fourth quarter earnings are any indication, Sprint executives are probably sending a gift basket to Cupertino about now.
In its first quarter of selling the iPhone, Sprint has managed to lose less money than analysts expected it would. It has also added more subscribers than it has in any quarter since 2005 — (Thank you Apple).
The company reported operating income (before depreciation) of $842 million for the fourth quarter on revenues of … Continue Reading
iPhone tops US handset sales, Android attracts more newbies, says NPD
Corroborating what just about every other research firm has noted by this pointed, the NPD Group announced today in its latest report that the iPhone has become the best-selling handset in the U.S. during the fourth quarter.
No big surprises there, but the group also pointed out another interesting statistic: Despite the iPhone’s dominance, first-time smartphone buyers still overwhelmingly jump to Android.
In the fourth quarter, Apple overtook LG and Samsung with the iPhone 4S, … Continue Reading
Google hires a senior director at Apple for a top secret project (exclusive)
Google has pulled off a coup by hiring an Apple senior director of product integrity for a secret project, VentureBeat has learned.
The recruiting feat is historic since Google has never hired such a senior person away from Apple. The hiring is also interesting because the Department of Justice is investigating Google and Apple for allegedly working out a “no poach” agreement where the companies — along with Pixar, Lucasfilm, Intel and Intuit — allegedly … Continue Reading
How Camera+’s John Casasanta made millions off a $1 app
Earlier this month, Tap Tap Tap reported that its Camera+ iPhone app had raked in $5.1 million since launching in June 2010. In this exclusive interview with Tap Tap Tap founder John Casasanta, we talk about the company’s run-ins with Apple, the secrets behind its record download numbers, and developers’ hopes for the iPhone 5.
VentureBeat: Camera+ has been out since June 2010 and has had its ups and downs (volume button shutter release, anyone?). … Continue Reading
Android users are more likely to have sex on first date
A recent survey by Match.com has revealed Android users need lovin’ a little quicker than iPhone and Blackberry users.
The survey was broken down by Match.com’s “Relationship Insider” Kimberly Moffit, who revealed that 75 percent of Canadian singles believe e-mail and texting have significantly improved their dating life. “More so than zodiac signs or astrology, smart phones are the new way Canadian singles can decode their dating style and determine if they’ve met their match,” … Continue Reading
Glooko raises $3.5M to sync diabetes glucose meters to iPhone app
Glooko has raised $3.5 million in a new round of funding that will enable it to release new versions of its solution to help people with diabetes monitor their glucose intake more easily.
The round was led by The Social+Capital Partnership along with existing investors. The company’s product is one more example of the “quantified self” trend, where people can gain self-knowledge through quantification of the things they do in life.
About 25 million people … Continue Reading
Apple takes back world’s top smartphone maker crown from Samsung
In what will likely be a constant back and forth between Apple and Samsung, the iPhone maker has apparently reclaimed the title of the world’s largest smartphone vendor for the fourth quarter of 2011.
That’s according to research firm Strategy Analytics, which points out that Apple shipped 37 million iPhones during the quarter versus Samsung’s 36.5 million. Samsung still remains king for all of 2011 though, with 97.4 million smartphones shipped compared to Apple’s 93 … Continue Reading
New to-do list app Clear simplifies and color-codes organization
Is there such a thing as being too organized? A new to-do app called Clear aims to cut down on the amount of time you spend managing to-do lists so that you can actually, well, do things. The app is being demoed for the first time Thursday at the Macworld/iWorld expo in San Francisco.
There is no shortage of feature-filled to-do apps in the App Store. Apple even launched its own in October called Reminders, … Continue Reading
Contact information app Hello wants to replace your contact list
Evernote chief executive Phil Libin believes alphabetical contact lists are outdated. And even though his contact app Hello took off like a lead balloon, he hopes that updates coming in the next couple of weeks will help it kill the typical contact list and replace it with a mosaic of photos.
Ever since the note-taking startup Evernote launched, it has been on a quest to capture and organize every bit of data from your life. … Continue Reading
Apple’s staggering Q1 earnings by the numbers
Apple investors jumped for joy at the company’s first quarter earnings report today, with results that beat high Wall Street expectations. The company earned a record net profit of $13.06 billion on revenue of $46.33 billion and sold a record 37 million iPhone units.
Apple notably missed Wall Street’s expectations for the first time in a long time during its last earnings report. But the company changed the release of its iPhone launch schedule by … Continue Reading
Apple sells record 37M iPhones in Q1 2012
Apple sold a record 37.04 million iPhone devices in the first quarter of 2012, a startling figure that puts the newest iPhone model, the 4S, on track to be one of the most popular smartphones ever produced.
We suspected the phone would be mega-popular from Apple’s announcement that more than 4 million iPhone 4Ses were sold its first weekend of availability. The iPhone 4S in particular has been so desirable that it is eating heavily … Continue Reading
Apple smashes Q1 estimates with $13B profit; record iPhone, iPad, Mac sales
After disappointing Wall Street last quarter, Apple has made a massive comeback reporting record net profit of $13.06 billion on revenue of $46.33 billion for the first quarter.
Analysts have been speculating since December that this would be a blowout quarter for Apple. Meanwhile, Wall Street expected earnings of $10.07 per share on revenues of $38.76 billion, according to Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster. Simply put, Apple blew pretty much every estimate out of the water.… Continue Reading
Mobile data shrinking app Onavo raises $10M, working on compression for Android
Onavo, a company known for its iPhone app that shrinks mobile data, announced today that it has raised an additional $10 million in a second round of funding from Horizons Ventures and Motorola Mobility Ventures.
Guy Rosen, Onavo’s co-founder and CEO, told VentureBeat the funding is an “excellent validation” of the company’s work. The company has won several awards and accolades for its seamless data compression technology (including top prize at our MobileBeat 2011 conference) … Continue Reading
JunoWallet scores big as its mobile wallet for gift cards goes viral
In a sign that we are living in a truly mobile world, mobile gift cards are taking off like crazy.
During the holidays, grocery store clerks cheered whenever Chris Sweis, the chief mobile officer at JunoWallet, showed up to buy gift cards. That was because he gave the stores some huge business, buying every single iTunes card on the racks in the store.
He took them back to the office so employees, like Abel Jimenez … Continue Reading
The view from CES: The top 10 trends in technology for 2012
The International Consumer Electronics Show is a huge festival of gadgetry, but there’s no better place to get a bead on where technology is going in the coming year.
Among the 153,000 attendees at the show in Las Vegas last week were five VentureBeat staffers who were sniffing out the big trends. This story is our list of the most evident trends among the rows and rows of gadgets at CES.
The convention is like … Continue Reading
iPhone 4S helps Apple catch up with Android among recent smartphone buyers
Apple’s iPhone 4S is incredibly popular with consumers — so much so that it’s eating heavily into Android’s market share among those who’ve purchased smartphones within the past three months.
Apple’s market share among recent smartphone buyers in the U.S. rose from 25.1 percent in October to 44.5 percent in December, while Android’s fell from 61.6 percent to 46.9 percent last month, according to the latest numbers from Nielsen.
The numbers don’t exactly come as … Continue Reading
Airbnb launches Android app, saves itineraries locally
Airbnb, the website that lets you turn your house into a nightly hotel, introduced its Android application today, along with a new mobile website.
Airbnb lets people list their homes online for short-time renting. The company says that nearly 10 percent of its traffic comes from mobile users. Currently, the company only has an iOS application, which has been downloaded 500,000 times. But as popular as iPhones are, they are still not the No. 1 … Continue Reading
Wireless controlled cameras let you broadcast your ski run live to Ustream
Contour is a fast-growing video camera company that lets you capture your favorite outdoor activities — like skiing down a momentum — at the moment of maximum fun.
The company announced a partnership with Cerevo that allows you to stream your video live to your friends via Ustream, so your friends can see the view from your helmet or your surf board. Contour made the announcement at the Consumer Electronics Show.
Marc Barros, chief executive … Continue Reading
iPhone mainstay Camera+ continues to be profitable, makes $5.1M
There’s no tap dancing around it, iPhone photo app Camera+ is a money-making machine.
The sophisticated photo capture and edit application, built by iOS development shop Tap Tap Tap, has been purchased more than 6 million times on the App Store. Camera+ has also made its makers $5.1 million in revenue to date, company principal John Casasanta revealed Friday.
Camera+, which currently retails for $0.99 and offers for-charge in-app upgrades, has been a consistently strong … Continue Reading
