iOS

Android has pulled ahead of Apple's iOS in U.S. smartphone sales, according to data out today from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech.

During the three months ending with January, Android scored 49.9 percent of all U.S. smartphone sales, a 6.4 percent gain from the same period last year. Over the same time, iOS took second place with a 45.9 percent cut of smartphone sales, a drop of 4.7 percent from a year ago.

Microsoft's Windows Phone eked out its own slice of growth, taking home 3.2 percent of U.S. smartphone sales.

The … Read more

Apple has released a new beta of iOS 6.1.3 for developers.

Dubbed iOS 6.1.3 beta 2, the update is supposed to fix a hole that can let someone gain access to your iPhone by sneaking past the lock screen. Through a small series of steps, including making an emergency call, a person could bypass the passcode in order to make phone calls, listen to voice mail, and check contact photos.

Apple acknowledged the bug last week. promised to squash it in a future iOS release. iOS 6.1.3 will fix that problem, the company said, … Read more

An Apple smartwatch seems to be on the drawing board after all, according to a patent application published today.

The application -- filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in August 2011 but just published -- is titled "Bi-Stable Spring With Flexible Display." It describes a flexible touch-screen device that can display information. The device can be worn in any location, according to the patent, though one of the drawings shows it being worn around the wrist.

The patent doesn't specifically refer to the device as a smartwatch and instead envisions it as an electronic … Read more

iPhone and iPad owners who jump to iOS version 6.1.2 can still jailbreak their devices courtesy of Evasi0n.

Just a few hours after Apple released its latest iOS update yesterday, the Evad3rs team was out with Evasi0n version 1.4 designed to work with iOS 6.1.2 devices. An Evad3rs team member tweeted the news late yesterday.

Even the prior version of Evasi0n seemed unaffected by the iOS 6.1.2 update, at least according to preliminary testing. But Evasi0n version 1.4 makes it official.

IDownloadBlog has posted a page with step-by-step directions on how to jailbreak your iOS 6.1.2 device … Read more

Apple has put out yet another small software update to iOS 6 that addresses a bug that could cut device battery life.

This morning Apple put out iOS 6.1.2, a supplemental update that promises to fix "an Exchange calendar bug that could result in increased network activity and reduced battery life."

The update was previously rumored to arrive sometime this week by Apple news site iFun.

No word yet on if the update also closes a security exploit used by jailbreaking solution Evasi0n, which has become the fastest adopted jailbreaking tool ever.

If Apple is hard at work on an "iWatch," it will have to overcome battery issues bedeviling existing smartwatch makers.

This new crop of wrist devices has a lot more in common with smartphones than your old Timex. They have increasingly large displays, and can ferry over notifications and other data, acting as a second screen of sorts for your smartphone. For many of the latest models, that extra utility is not without a compromise: You've got to plug it in at the end of the day.

Charging a smartphone every day can be an annoyance, but … Read more

There are a ton of great iPad apps out there, priced 99 cents and up, that are worth every penny.

But you know how it is. Sometime you catch yourself browsing the App Store for some free app that can offer some momentary entertainment.

Apple keeps a running tally of its most popular free iPad apps over on iTunes, which is updated constantly to reflect current trends. At our request, we asked Apple to provide us with a list of the Top 5 most popular apps based on their most recent weekly totals.

The following CNET Top 5 video recounts … Read more

Back in the old days, before last month, releasing software was easy.

You wrote your code, uploaded it to an app store, and let people download it and start using your service. Many apps launched this way. Some were even successful!

Then came Mailbox. Mailbox is an e-mail app. It has a nice user interface and can remind you to respond to e-mails you've allowed to languish, but at the end of the day it's an app that lets you read and write e-mail.

Mailbox's biggest innovation wasn't its reminders, though. It was the virtual velvet … Read more

Apple may be prepping iOS 6.1.2 for launch early next week. At least, that's the claim from German Apple blog site iFun.

In a blog out today, iFun cited evidence that the next iOS update would probably be available before Wednesday.

Courtesy of Google, the English translation of the German page reads a bit rusty. But the information was apparently based on checks with different mobile carriers, according to 9to5Mac.

This sounds like something strictly for the rumor mill. However, iFun correctly pegged the launch of iOS 6.1.1 based on intel from the same sources, … Read more