Posted by kenmay on April - 8 - 2012
Hugh Pickens writes “While Apple generates more than $575 in profit for every iOS device, and according to estimates in 2007 Apple earned more than $800 on every iPhone sold through ATT, Horace Dediu reports that Android generated less than $550m in revenues for Google between 2008 and the end of 2011, earning only $1.70 per year, per Android device — explaining how Apple is sucking up two thirds of the profit in the mobile phone business. Dediu’s starting point is a settlement offer Google made to Oracle of $2.8 million and 0.515% of Android revenues on an ongoing basis. His assumption is that those numbers represent Google’s revenue from Android to date. ‘If this is the case,’ writes Dediu, ‘We have a significant breakthrough in understanding the economics of Android and the overall mobile platform strategy of Google.’ Of course profitability is not the only reason Google is in the mobile phone business. ‘P&L considerations were not the only (or even at all) factors in investment for Google, Having a hedge against hegemony of potential rivals, having a means to learn and develop new business and having a role in defining the post-PC computing paradigm are all probably bigger considerations than profitability,’ writes Dediu. ‘My take is that [Android] is not a bad business. But it’s also not a great one.’” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Posted by kenmay on April - 7 - 2012
Why shell out cash for those extra tethering fees when you’ve got MyWi, right? Well, you’ll be happy to know the $19.99 jailbreak app has gone through a major revamp. MyWi v5.5 brings along a “total rewrite” for folks on iOS 5, while also promising a speedier connection, faster hotspot load times as well as improved overall reliability. Additionally, the overhauled application adds a couple of new features, including an upgrade to MyWi On Demand, which now uses Bluetooth to trigger hotspot mode. MyWi version 5.5 is up for grabs now via the App Cydia store, though you may need to keep it a secret from your carrier. MyWi gets friendlier with iOS 5, brings faster connection speeds and improved reliability originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 Apr 2012 15:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink Cult of Mac | Redmond Pie | Email this | Comments
Posted by kenmay on March - 16 - 2012
As a security professional who gets paid to hack into high-value networks, Mark Wuergler often gets a boost when his targets use smartphones, especially when the device happens to be an iPhone that regularly connects to Wi-Fi networks. That’s because the iPhone is the only smartphone he knows of that transmits to anyone within range the unique identifiers of the past three wireless access points the user has logged into. He can then use off-the-shelf hardware to passively retrieve the routers’ MAC (media access control) addresses and look them up in databases such as Google Location Services and the Wireless Geographic Logging Engine . By allowing him to pinpoint the precise location of the wireless network, iPhones give him a quick leg-up when performing reconnaissance on prospective marks. Read the comments on this post
Posted by kenmay on March - 5 - 2012
Steve Herrod wants to put a virtual machine on your phone. Even if your phone is an iPhone. More »
Posted by kenmay on February - 14 - 2012
redletterdave writes “If you were expecting a radically different-looking tablet from the iPad 2, prepare for a minor letdown. In the same way Apple upgraded the iPhone 4 into the iPhone 4S, the exterior of the iPad 3 mirrors that of the iPad 2, despite completely renovated and upgraded innards. iLab Factory reportedly provided Sharp with the necessary parts to build the high-resolution iPad 3 display, and in a company blog post, various iPad 3 components are displayed alongside those of the iPad 2 for quick comparison. In addition to a new camera mount that will reportedly match or improve upon the 8-megapixel camera system in the iPhone 4S, the post also revealed that the iPad 3 will be approximately 1 mm thicker than its predecessor to house Apple’s upgraded components, including a bigger battery, an improved camera, and a dual-LED lit system to make the 2048 x 1536 display even brighter.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Posted by kenmay on January - 25 - 2012
Jailbreaking or rooting your phone is pretty much a nerd birthright at this point. But soon it could once again be deemed illegal, if the acts’ exemption to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act runs out . That’s where you come in. More »
Posted by kenmay on January - 25 - 2012
zacharye writes with an except from an article over at BGR about Apple’s quarterly results: ” Disappointing’ though it may have been to some, the iPhone 4S propelled what is now confirmed to have been the most profitable quarter any technology company has ever recorded. Apple on Wednesday reported record earnings for the December quarter, revealing a profit of $13.06 billion on revenue that surpassed $46 billion. Among technology companies, Apple’s fiscal first quarter represents the most profitable quarter ever recorded. Only one U.S. company has ever posted a more profitable quarter — Exxon managed a profit of $14.8 billion in the third quarter of 2008 — and the driving force behind Apple’s record-setting performance was quite clearly the iPhone.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
