Saturday, August 17, 2013

The 100 Best Android Apps of 2013

The 100 Best Android Apps of 2013 (update)
Apparently there are well over 800,000 apps on Google Play. That means if you wanted to see them all, you'd have to download and try over 90 apps an hour for a year. No one's got that kind of time, which is why we've put together this list of 100 Android apps that are sure to pique your interest.
We've been pruning and updating this list for over a year, trying to make sure it has a little something for everyone but also keep it fresh and interesting. While our tastes and yours may be different, we think our list is a good starting point. Hopefully the next time you stop by, you'll see something new.

Whoa, 10 pages? Uncool.
Paginated stories are pretty annoying, I agree. But with 100 apps, we had to break it up just to make it readable. We've even divided the article into themed sections, so you can skip over the first 50 or so if you're only interested in, say, music apps.

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Microsoft's Windows 8.1: When will users get the final bits?

Microsoft is closing in on its publicly stated target of the end of August for releasing to manufacturing Windows 8.1.
win81
But many of those waiting for the new release are less interested in the RTM date than the date when they'll be able to grab the final bits. And Microsoft officials still have said nothing about when that will be.
Just this past weekend, a fairly recent build (9471) of the OS leaked to the Web. This is a pre-escrow build (as far as I know), but includes the new tutorial and navigation aids, which Microsoft officials said back in June would be coming to Windows 8.1 by RTM.
(Escrow builds are typically builds that are near-final milestone builds on which development stops while final testing is done. One of my sources said August 5 is when Windows 8.1 actually entered escrow.)
Microsoft execs said last month that the company would deliver Windows 8.1 RTM code to its OEMs by the end of August. I'm still hearing that Microsoft is on track to finalize Windows 8.1 the last week of August.
Unlike the case with Windows 8, however, I'm hearing scuttlebutt that Microsoft is not planning to make available the final Windows 8.1 bits to its MSDN or TechNet subscribers shortly after the release RTMs. In the case of Windows 8, Microsoft RTM'd on August 1 and made the RTM bits available to MSDN and TechNet subscribers in mid-August, even though consumers couldn't get the final version until late October 2012.
The new word, one of my best tipsters tells me, Microsoft is going to hold off on making available the final Windows 8.1 bits until mid-October 2013 or so. That will be both the general availability date, as well as the "launch" date when new hardware running those bits will be available.
I've asked Microsoft if this is the case. I am still waiting to hear back.
I had heard months ago from my sources that Microsoft's plan with Windows 8.1 was to shorten the usual gap between RTM and general availability. The thinking, suposedly, was to provide existing Windows 8.1 users with the final bits very shortly after they RTM'd -- all part of Microsoft's more rapid delivery cadence goal.
Even if Microsoft waits until mid-October to release the Windows 8.1 RTM bits, the company still will have managed to deliver to customers a new release of Windows within almost exactly a year -- instead of three years after the previous release, as was the length of time between the release of Windows 7 and Windows 8.
Holding back the RTM bits immediately could give Microsoft other benefits. It could give the company more time to stamp out bugs remaining at RTM and deliver fixes for them to those with the preview build via regular patches and updates. It also could provide the company with more of a bigger bang launch event. The Windows 8 launch felt to many as though it was anti-climactic, as they had the final bits in hand for a month-plus before it happened.
If Microsoft does end up holding the Windows 8.1 bits close, many of those running the preview build won't be too happy. It's pretty buggy, but Microsoft is expected to do a fairly large update to the post-RTM bits shortly before it is generally available. In the meantime, as long as the company continues to patch and fix the preview on a regular basis, as it has been doing since June, maybe the sting won't be quite so bad....
I'd think Microsoft also will hold to a similar RTM-bit delivery schedule with Windows Server 2012 R2, the "Blue" server complement to Windows 8.1, which is being developed in lockstep with Windows 8.1. If that happens, no customers (not even volume licensees) would get the final bits until mid-October 2013. 

Monday, August 5, 2013

All Hail Samsung, King of the Android Market

If your name is Samsung, you should be pretty pleased with yourself these days. The company's smartphones and tablets are number one in South Korea, which should be no surprise because that's where it's headquartered.

But Samsung is killing it all around the world. According to the latest research from Strategy Analytics, "global tablet shipments reached 51.7 million units in the second quarter of 2013. Android secured a robust 67 percent global share, while Apple iOS declined further to 28 percent. Windows also fell back but secured a 4.5 percent global share." My own research suggests that of all the branded tablet vendors, Samsung sells the most Android mobile devices and has become Google's largest branded partner for Android. Keep in mind though, that a lot of this Android tablet growth came from white-box makers and ultra-cheap Android tablets.
So yes, Samsung should give itself a pat on the back. It has become aggressive in retail and even has its own dedicated stores within Best Buys, which allow it to sell through an additional channel as well as have a concierge desk to answer customers' questions on the spot.
But the secret to its success seems to be tied to its various promotions that make it tricky for researchers to track profits. I happened to be in the United Kingdom last week and decided to go to CarPhone Warehouse, a top smartphone retailer, to buy a cheap unlocked phone that I could use in Europe. While in the store a special Samsung promotion really caught my attention. For $26 per month with a 24-month contract you could purchase a bundle that included a Samsung Galaxy Ace smartphone and a 7-inch tablet. For $42 per month with a 24-month contract you could buy a Galaxy S III$249.99 at Amazon Wirelessand a 7-inch tablet. Both smartphone plans included 300 minutes of talk time and 500MB of data and of course, you could buy more talk time and data. This is a really good deal for U.K. customers but also for Samsung since both of the devices offered run Android and help Samsung double its sales to a single customer.
Similar aggressive promotions are going on in other parts of the world and I would not be surprised to see Samsung eventually do a promotion in the United States. This suggests that Samsung, of all the branded players in the Android market, is determined to stay on top of the smartphone and tablet market at all costs, and in the process champion Android for Google, at least for now.
While ultimately this is good for Google and the advancement of Android, I am not sure how good this is for Samsung. It is a unique company because it is vertically integrated, meaning it makes its own processors, screens, and memory. However, it does not completely control its destiny because it farms out its OS to Google and is thus highly dependent on Mountain View. Apple, on the other hand, completely controls its fortune since it owns the hardware, software OS, and services.
With such influence in the mobile market, Samsung should be able to go to Google and ask for a larger share of the Android-related revenue that flows through any Samsung device. But Google will refuse because sharing more of the revenue with Samsung would mean it would have to do that with other Android vendors as well.
With that in mind, many analysts are closely watching Samsung's decision to merge its own mobile OS, Bada, with another open-source OS called Tizen. While we don't expect Samsung to drop support of Android any time soon, the fact that it is also backing Tizen is quite interesting. Indeed, it recently launched its first Tizen smartphone and sources suggest a Tizen-based tablet is in development too. While all of the apps on the devices are Android, at least one software emulator is in the works that would allow Android apps to run on Tizen.
If Tizen was the core OS on a Samsung device, it could do deals with software developers directly as well as with various service providers and keep any shared revenue driven by paid apps and services all to themselves.
I find it hard to believe that Samsung wants to continue to boost Android without more control of this mobile OS and better revenue sharing. At some point, I believe Samsung could bite the bullet and migrate to Tizen.
One could argue that Samsung tinkering with Tizen is actually a ploy to get Google to compromise. I don't think that's the case. I think Samsung is feeling its oats and knows full well that it now has the clout to cultivate its own OS over time. I wouldn't be surprised if the company starts moving to Tizen in a calculated and strategic way in order to take control of its success and grow its market on its own terms, not Google's.


Thursday, August 1, 2013

Control your PC or Mac from your iPhone, iPad, or Android device

Is there a simple way I can control my desktop (and, if possible, my notebook) from my iPad or iPhone? I've had a look but I quickly got lost in a jargon! Is there something easy?
With the summer upon us – for a while at any rate – people want to spend more time away from their PCs and Macs. But that doesn't mean they don't want to be out of the loop. And a great way to do this is to set up your smartphone or tablet with the ability to remotely access your system.
I've tried dozens of solutions for controlling my systems remotely, but the one I keep coming back to – and the one that I use myself – is LogMeIn.
(Source: LogMeIn)
There are a number of reasons why I recommend LogMeIn over the competition:
  • Easy to set up – you don't need to know anything about networking!
  • There's a free version of the service that is ideally suited to 90 percent of users
  • It's platform agnostic, which means that you can drive PCs or Macs from other PCs, Macs, iOS or Android devices
  • Access multiple devices
  • You can wake up a system that's off remotely if that system supports "wake on LAN" (most modern systems do)
  • Connection between devices is encrypted
  • Built-in multi-monitor support
  • Syncs your clipboard, so you can copy data from a remote device
If you want more features – such as file transfer, remote printing, file sharing and more, then this is available for $69.95 per year. You can check out the features matrix here.
As long as you are in a 3G or Wi-Fi zone, you can get access to your systems. Screen quality will adjust according to your connections speed, but even at its worst, it is good enough for most applications.
You're probably wondering if it's really possible to control a desktop system from something as small as an iPhone? It is. You don't want to be doing something involved and complex like creating spreadsheets or editing images, but for quick and simple tasks, it is more than adequate.
Highly recommended!

Windows 8 share of the desktop OS market grew slowly

Windows 8 share of the desktop OS market grew slowly last month relative to a surge in new users in June.
Windows 8 gained 0.3 percent market share in July, bringing its share to 5.4 percent overall, according to figures from web analytics company Net Applications. Following the launch of the OS in October last year, Windows 8 market share has been edging up by less than one percent each month, but last month's growth rate is down from June, when its share increased 0.83 percent.
While Windows 8 has only been installed on just over one in 20 PCs and tablets according to the figures, some analysts believe adoption of the OS will grow following the release of Windows 8.1this year.

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Desktop OS market share in July 2013. Image: Net Applications

The 8.1 release will address criticisms about the usability of Windows 8 new tile-based interface, which some users of older Windows systems found confusing. The update will bring back the Start Button and make other UI tweaks, as well as introducing the ability to boot to the desktop and Internet Explorer 11.
Microsoft's Surface tablet, its flagship Windows 8 device, generated $853m between its launch and the end of June, less than the $900m writedown Microsoft took due to a Surface RT "inventory adjustment".
Windows 8 predecessor, Windows 7, shows little movement in desktop market share, continuing to hover around 45 percent, where it has been since the beginning of the year.
Share for the venerable but still popular Windows XP is also broadly static, at 37.19 percent, up 0.02 on last month. Vista's share continues to drop, down 0.38 points to 4.24 percent.
Windows is still found on 91.56 percent of desktops, according to the figures, while Linux OS had 1.25 percent share and Mac OS X 7.19 percent. The share for each OS is largely unchanged from June.
The Net Applications figures are based on data collected from 160 million unique website visitors.