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The company's refusal to license the tech for an accessory that also features its 30-pin connector, had put the kibosh on the POP mobile charging dock concept, which raised $140,000 on the crowd sourcing site.
The POP's creator had, on Friday, lashed out at Apple in an expletive-laden rant, calling the Cupertino-based giant a 'bunch of a**holes'.
However, CNET has learned that Apple has decided to change the tech specifications for the Lightning tech so both types of connector will work in a single accessory.
This means the POP charger, whose enthusiastic backers doubled its funding goal - will now go ahead after all.
Unexpected
Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr told CNET: "Our technical specifications provide clear guidelines for developing accessories and they are available to MFi licensees for free.
"We support accessories that integrate USB and Lightning connectors, but there were technical issues that prevented accessories from integrating 30-pin and Lightning connectors so our guidelines did not allow this."
Naturally, Edison Junior CEO Jamie Siminoff was delighted by the unexpected change.
"It's great news. It's crazy," he told CNET.
"If you had asked me yesterday morning 'what did we think was going to come out of this?' I wouldn't have even thought anybody - not even a line-level employee - would have seen this at Apple."
The company's refusal to license the tech for an accessory that also features its 30-pin connector, had put the kibosh on the POP mobile charging dock concept, which raised $140,000 on the crowd sourcing site.
The POP's creator had, on Friday, lashed out at Apple in an expletive-laden rant, calling the Cupertino-based giant a 'bunch of a**holes'.
However, CNET has learned that Apple has decided to change the tech specifications for the Lightning tech so both types of connectors will work in a single accessory.
This means the POP charger, whose enthusiastic backers doubled its funding goal - will now go ahead after all.
Unexpected
Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr told CNET: "Our technical specifications provide clear guidelines for developing accessories and they are available to MFi licensees for free.
"We support accessories that integrate USB and Lightning connectors, but there were technical issues that prevented accessories from integrating 30-pin and Lightning connectors so our guidelines did not allow this."
Naturally, Edison Junior CEO Jamie Siminoff was delighted by the unexpected change.
"It's great news. It's crazy," he told CNET.
"If you had asked me yesterday morning 'what did we think was going to come out of this?' I wouldn't have even thought anybody - not even a line-level employee - would have seen this at Apple."
According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, Google and its Motorola branch are working on a future high-end smartphone to rival the Apple iPhone and the Galaxy S lineup.
Dubbed simply the “X Phone”, the device is expected to show up some time next year, according to WSJ’s source. The project is reportedly being led by Lior Ron, who has previously worked as a Google Product Manager, but now is busy at work with the Motorola team.
Additionally, Motorola engineers are also working on an "X" tablet, that's going to launch after the “X” phone debuts. In the meantime, the company is going to continue its work on the DROID lineup of smartphones.
Motorola's CEO Dennis Woodside (former Google top sales exec) said in an interview with the WSJ that the company is “investing in a team and a technology that will do something quite different than the current approaches. ”
The project’s leader, Lior Ron, reportedly has demanded the phone to sport killer camera. In its quest to make the phone truly unique, Motorola has looked into incorporating different materials such as ceramics, which would make the “X Phone” more resistant to drops.
WSJ sources add that Motorola’s acquisition of gesture and facial recognition company Viewdle will also be thrown in to the mix to bring some truly unique features to the device. Could the X Phone, intriguing as it sounds, be ready for Google’s I/O 2013 event in the summer of 2013? We’ll have to wait and see.
What will happen to phones over the next 12 months?
Every year we think the evolution in smartphones must have finished. Every year we're wrong. Very wrong.
2012 saw quad-core processors become the norm among the high-end Android world, while Apple finally yielded in the screen size arms race by launching the taller, bigger iPhone 5.
Even Nokia broke a few boundaries with its high-spec imaging technology, sticking unbelievably powerful camera equipment in its latest phones, giving us access to mobile technology that even a couple of years ago would've seemed impossible.
So what can we expect to see in 2013? Will any maker be mad enough to launch a phone with an "octo-core" processor? Will Samsung expand the Galaxy Note's enormous screen by another inch or two, forcing trouser manufacturers the world over to expand pocket sizes accordingly?
Some things are guaranteed. There will be an iPhone update of some sort and Samsung will launch a few thousand differing Galaxy models, but what will be the big movers and publicity-grabbers of the 2013 smartphone scene?
1. 1080p displays and 5" screens become the norm
We've seen a few models arrive with 1080p resolution displays, such as the international HTC Butterfly, and with phone power and size surely about to reach a plateau we expect display resolution to be one area where makers can still out-boast each other next year. By the end of 2013 we'd expect most flagship models to come with 1080p displays. One of the recent Sony rumours, for example, claims it's working on a phone codenamed Yuga, which should offer a 5" display running at 1080p resolution. There will be plenty more.
2. Samsung Galaxy S4 to dominate
This one's a banker. Samsung's absolutely crushing the world with its Android models, with the Galaxy S flagship range an annual winner when it launches each spring. Last year's Galaxy S3 was a smash, teaming Google's Ice Cream Sandwich software with Samsung's own complex and feature-packed user interface. It was a bit light and flimsy and nicked plenty of features from other hardware makers, but had enormous amounts of power and was a joy to use.
Early rumours suggest the Galaxy S4 will arrive with either an updated quad-core processor or even an eight-core brain, and with screen sizes inching ever higher, expect it to be bigger than ever. Literally.
How big can Samsung go in 2013?
3. Windows Phone takes off
Yes, seriously. The latest Windows Phone 8 handsets are looking very impressive, with the recent Nokia Lumia 920 and the decent HTC 8X proving that it is possible to build a glamorous, exciting smartphone around Microsoft's software. All Windows Phone needs now is the public to fall out of love with Apple and Android and give Old Man Microsoft's ecosystem a fair trial. Which is a big ask, but anyone who's used HTC's 8X will know that it's definitely possible.
4. 64GB of onboard storage becomes more widespread
Samsung's been working on enhancing its memory chip production, resulting in newer, smaller memory chips with 64GB of capacity. For those who are yet to switch their media storage to the cloud, that's going to be a big draw. Samsung's recently made a 64GB version of the Galaxy S3 available for order, so expect this high-end storage option to feature heavily in 2013.
Apple has been leading the way in offering 64GB versions of its iPhone, although users after storage space on a budget will still opt for a rival model with an SD card slot and save a couple of hundred quid.
5. iPhone 5S
Another absolute cert for 2013 is an iPhone upgrade , although early rumours suggest we'll be seeing a minor iterative update akin to the iPhone 4S, rather than a full-on redesign and refresh. Could we see another bump in screen size? The iPhone 5 was bordering on the perfect from an Apple user perspective, with its safe software and lack of thrilling innovation the only downside. What's left for Apple to tweak with the iPhone 5S?
Apple's fans will be milked again, but will it be a worthwhile upgrade?
6. Flexible displays
One of the most consistent tech rumours over the last few years has been the coming of flexible displays. It's unlikely a flexible screen would lead to a bendy phone you could fold up, as a bendy phone would require bendy batteries, a bendy processor and bendy circuit boards, but if a more flexible screen would help a phone survive a drop on to the kitchen laminate, that'd be a feature worth paying an extra £1.50p a month for over a two year contract.
7. Tougher than ever
With pretty much all smartphones now offering great levels of power and performance no matter what price point they're pitched at, we should start to see makers differentiate their models more based on hardware sex appeal. HTC started this trend in 2012 with its gforgeous and innovative HTC One X and HTC One S, which combined power and the latest software with a physical design that helped the phones stand out from the crowd.
More crazy space-age composite materials from the future, please
8. Bigger batteries
2012 finally saw phone makers give us what we wanted, with several models like the Razr Maxx featuring bigger batteries that enabled them to stay alive significantly longer. Hopefully shipping something with a 1,500mAh battery will soon become a crime, with quite a few of the Android hardware makers backing up their ever-growing displays with bigger, longer lasting batteries, as Samsung did with the 2,100mAh unit inside its Galaxy S3. We'd happily trade a couple of millimetres and gain 20 grams of weight for a phone that won't leave us bored and disconnected by 4:30pm.
Hopefully we'll get more fatter phones with usable power reserves
9. Budget models to dominate
Gone are the days when the sub-£100 category got a you barely usable piece of rubbish. Today's budget models along the lines of the Huawei G300 offer great power and the very latest operating systems, with the trend set to continue in 2013. Huawei's Ascend G330 brings dual-core power to the bargain bucket, while Chinese rival ZTE is set to be preparing a 5" monster to challenge Samsung's premium Galaxy Note range. 2013 will be the year you pay less and get more. In the phone world, at least.
10. A Blackberry blip
RIM's set to launch its BB10 models in 2013. While any new BB is unlikely to challenge iPhone or the high-end Android models when it comes to capturing the hearts and minds of modern smartphone users, the latest Blackberry phones and hardware are bound to capture a few dihard RIM fans. What we've seen of BB10 so far isn't groundbreaking, but clever touches like RIM's software keyboard ought to counteract the doom-mongers who claim BB10 will be dead on arrival. We give it at least three or four months.
People are buying iPhones and Android as if it's the end of the world.
Apple is the leading smartphone maker in the United States according to new data released today, but the same sales charts show that Google is taking a bite of Apple's pie throughout Europe.
"Apple has reached a major milestone in the U.S. by passing the 50% share mark for the first time," said Dominic Sunnebo, global consumer insight director at Kantar Worldpanel ComTech.
His report cites the iPhone 5 launch as a boost to the company's improved marketshare, lifting Apple to 53.3 percent of sales this year from 3.58 percent last year.
"Further gains [are] expected to be made during December," which is good news for Apple... in the United States.
Stay Calm and carry an Android
Apple isn't having as much luck in Europe, however, giving Google chairman Eric Schmidt more reason to gloat over what he calls a cold war between the two companies.
Android's marketshare is now 61 percent, which is nearly a 10 percent increase from last year's 51.8 percent in the EU5.
In France, Android handsets saw a 9.4 percent jump compared to Apple's more modest 4.4 percent gain.
Germany was home to a 7.2 percent Android sales bump, while iPhone's gains barely registered with a .03 percent increase.
iPhone's marketshare was down in Italy and Spain, and non-European countries Australia and Brazil. The contrast was starkest in Spain, where Apple controlled 2.5 percent fewer smartphone sales than last year, while Android lept up a significant 25.4 percent.
Great Britain was the only European country in the report where Apple cut into Google's lead. iPhone sales increased 5.3 percent compared to Android's bump of 4.9 percent.
Of course, Google still controls this market, with the newewst numbers standing at 51.5 percent for Android handsets and 36.1 percent for the iPhone during the 12-week reporting period.
Apple, Google dominate app downloads
Apple and Google were both winners on their respective mobile operating systems when it comes to dominating app installs.
Publishers with the top app downloads in 2012 were Apple on iOS and Google on Android, according to a report compiled by Distimo analyst Gert Jan Spriensma.
With six iPad apps and seven iPhone apps, averaging $7.43, Apple landed the number one spot on its own App Store charts.
Apple's Garage Band app was cited as a "popular app example" in the analysts' 2012 recap, finishing ahead of game developer Gameloft in second, and Google in third.
Google did manage to pull off a first-place finish in the same report's analysis of top Google Play downloads. Facebook checked in at No. 2, while Angry Birds publisher Rovio slingshot its way to No. 3.
More Google vs. Apple to come
Apple's marketshare have grown tremendously in the U.S. in 2012 due in part to the iPhone 5, but the Apple vs. Google fight will rage on.
Google's more affordable smartphones are driving its numbers up in Europe and the company is set to top one billion Android activations by next year.
Less than a week after rumors cropped up about a Facebook product that mimics the hot new app Snapchat, the social network has released its very own self-destruct messaging app called Poke.
You probablying remember poking as perhaps the most annoying thing that Facebook allowed you to do – or allowed to be done to you. Now, however, Facebook is resurrecting it and spinning it into a new mechanism that doesn’t just subtly ping you, but sends over a private piece of content with an expiration date.
“With the Poke app, you can poke or send a message, photo, or video to Facebook friends to share what you’re up to in a lightweight way,” says Facebook. “You can poke an individual friend or several at once. Each message expires after a specific time you’ve set, either 1, 3, 5, or 10 seconds. When time runs out, the message disappears from the app.”
Snapchat has only just entered our consciousness and already Facebook is capitalizing on the self-destruct messaging trend. Snapchat has risen to the top 10 free apps in the App Store and captured young users’ interest – in some cases, unfortunately so, as we all by now know there are always ways to save those supposedly secure images. (Hint: screen capture is faster than you think).
Facebook makes no attempt to shield this as anything other than a Snapchat clone. You can manipulate photos before sending them, there’s an alert system so you know if someone took a screenshot, and you get the same timing options. Of course, Poke allows you to send more types of media, and there is a group messaging capability. This could be a death sentence for Snapchat, which, despite its popularity and early rise to the top of the App Store, can’t compete with Facebook’s social graph and the inarguable ease of a client that can offer access to (for many of us) nearly all of our connections.
It will be interesting to see if Facebook ends up folding Poke into its proprietary app. Camera and Messenger started out as standalone apps that worked with, but weren’t embedded in, the original app. These two still exist on their own, but now also within the main Facebook mobile app. It’s been Facebook’s mobile strategy thus far, to build out mobile products and eventually weave their features into Facebook proper. Poke will probably receive the same treatment.
