iPhone

Volkswagen iBeetle

Two iconic products will be forming an alliance later this year: the iPhone from Apple and the Beetle from Volkswagen. From that point on, the smartphone will interface to vehicle functions of the Beetle and Beetle Cabriolet via a specially developed app (“Volkswagen Car Net The Beetle”) and a docking station.

Sounds great.

AppGratis

Federico Viticci:

It may be called “gaming the system” or “forecasting downloads” — in both cases, I don’t think that “showcasing” apps by finding loopholes in the Developer Guidelines and leveraging advertising techniques as tools to manipulate Apple’s ranking algorithm is good for the App Store. I believe this is true for AppGratis and any other native iOS app that is based on this premise. It’s in Apple’s right — and developer agreement — to ban apps that work in this way.

Good story from Federico — worth a read.

Windows Phone chief trash-talks Apple

Terry Myerson, Microsoft’s head of Windows Phone, had disparaging comments about both iPhone and Android at the All Things D conference.

Apple settles iPhone/iPod warranty lawsuit

Apple is paying out about $53 million to settle a class action suit that prevented some iPhone and iPod touch owners from getting warranty service on their devices if a sensor tape showed water damage.

Paying for your apps

Lex Friedman has a great article on the app economy and some of the excellent work developers do to make the apps we all use.

ITC finds Samsung infringes another Apple patent

If it is upheld, the ITC can order any infringing device to be barred from importation into the United States. Apple has alleged that Samsung’s Galaxy, Transform and Nexus devices, among others, were among those made with the infringing technology.

The judge said Samsung did not infringe portions of another patent that detects a microphone when plugged into a headphone jack.

Lawsuit forces Apple to change VPN On Demand for iOS

Due to a lawsuit by VirnetX, Apple will be changing the behavior of VPN On Demand for iOS devices using iOS 6.1 and later.

Devices using iOS 6.1 and later with VPN On Demand configured to “Always” will behave as if they were configured with the “Establish if needed” option. The device will establish a VPN On Demand connection only if it is unable to resolve the DNS name of the host it is trying to reach. This change will be distributed in an update later this month.

Apple widens its lead on Samsung in the US

From comScore market research firm:

133.7 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones (57 percent mobile market penetration) during the three months ending in February, up 8 percent since November. Apple ranked as the top OEM with 38.9 percent of U.S. smartphone subscribers (up 3.9 percentage points from November). Samsung ranked second with 21.3 percent market share (up 1 percentage point), followed by HTC with 9.3 percent share, Motorola with 8.4 percent and LG with 6.8 percent.

And Apple is making ground on Google:

Google Android ranked as the top smartphone platform with 51.7 percent market share, while Apple’s share increased 3.9 percentage points to 38.9 percent. BlackBerry ranked third with 5.4 percent share, followed by Microsoft (3.2 percent) and Symbian (0.5 percent).

So, let me get this straight. Apple is widening the gap on Samsung, but analysts think Apple should be more like Samsung. Not only that, it’s closing the gap between iOS and Android, even though it’s competing with hundreds of Android devices.

And Apple is losing how?

iMessage encryption too good for the Feds

An internal Drug Enforcement Administration document seen by CNET discusses a February 2013 criminal investigation and warns that because of the use of encryption, “it is impossible to intercept iMessages between two Apple devices” even with a court order approved by a federal judge.

Safari dominates mobile Web browsers

Safari for iOS was responsible for 61.79% of total mobile internet traffic during the month of March, an increase from 55.41% in February. Safari’s closest competitor for mobile browser dominance was Google’s Android browser, which had a 21.86% share of Web traffic in March.

Once again this brings up the obvious question — what are all the Android people doing with their phones?

Facebook phone

Kevin C. Tofel:

There’s little doubt that Facebook will unveil a new phone on Thursday, but the star of the show will be software, not hardware, in this battle between Facebook and Google for user engagement.

T-Mobile will sell iPhone via installment plan

T-Mobile USA Inc. will begin selling the iPhone 5 on April 12, letting customers buy the Apple Inc. (AAPL) device via an installment plan that dispenses with the industry’s typical long-term contracts.

Qualifying buyers can get the phone for $99.99 down, plus monthly payments, T-Mobile said today at an event in New York. Service for the phone starts at $50 per month for unlimited calls and 500 megabytes of data.

Apple kills the competition in J.D. Power ratings

For the ninth consecutive study, Apple ranks highest among manufacturers of smartphones in customer satisfaction. Apple achieves a score of 855 and performs particularly well in physical design and ease of operation.

The average was 796 points. Nokia scored 795, Samsung 793, Motorola 792 and HTC 790. LG scored 744 and lowest of the manufacturers was BlackBerry with 732.

Basically, the battle is for second place.

Google Now has not been submitted to Apple

Google Chairman Eric Schmidt said that Google Now has been submitted to the Apple’s App Store and is waiting for approval, but Apple’s says that’s not true.

Apple told me today Google Now has not been submitted at all.

Why would Schmidt lie about this? Besides the fact he’s Eric Schmidt and works for Google.