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AllThingsD: No native BlackBerry 10 Instagram app in sight
The mobile OS that needs more big name apps to tether their wagons to insure a boost in user adoption is less one key photography app. According to AllThingsD, there is no native Instagram app in development for BB10 handsets -- at least for the foreseeable future. Quoting sources close to the popular social / photo filtering app, the report goes on to say that future development is also uncertain. Of course, the outfit is working on an Android port that will be usable on BlackBerry's latest, but with significant compromises to user experience to come as the cost of admission. The new operating system did secure native support from Facebook, Foursquare, LinkedIn and Twitter at launch.
Nielsen: Americans have 28 percent more mobile apps in 2012, look down on the web with disdain
It's not hard to see that Americans love their mobile apps, and Nielsen can now tell us by how much. The average US smartphone owner circa mid-2012 now brandishes 41 apps, a pretty hefty 28 percent increase from a year earlier. They're preferring native apps to the web, as well: they're more likely to spend time with that direct port of Cut the Rope than the HTML5 version. Along with reminding us that smartphone owners are now in the majority in the country, Nielsen has added that there's a total of 84 million Android and iOS users in the US, or more than double what we saw just a year ago. We're a bit disappointed that the figures mostly exclude BlackBerry and Windows Phone owners, although they still paint a picture of a country that's entirely comfortable in its smartphone shoes.
Pew report: The Future of Apps and the Web
Pew Internet surveyed 1,021 technology stakeholders and critics and asked them about the future of apps and the web. Unlike many surveys, this latest one from Pew doesn't have a single, unifying answer. Instead, the survey highlights the diverse opinions that exist about how we will use native apps and web apps in the future. Rob Scott, the chief technology officer for Nokia, believes the web will dominate and argues, "Once HTML5 browsers and fully capable Web runtimes are in place on the common Kindle through iPhone, the Web app will begin replacing native apps." Technology author and consultant Fred Hapgood, however, sees the benefit of native apps. He claims that apps are convenient and notes that the "ease of use always wins." A third camp believes apps and the web will continue to co-exist. As Tony Smith of the Open Source Developers Club in Melbourne, Australia points out, "both will continue to grow in ways that are impossible for most to imagine." So where do you stand? Are native apps are our future, will the web continue to dominate or will we find a happy medium somewhere in between?
PlayBook native email, calendar and contacts finally get peeked, look ready for their close-up
We've been waiting very, very patiently, for RIM to make good on its promise to deliver a native email and calendaring experience to the PlayBook. So far, we've been sorely disappointed. Supposedly the essential productivity and contact management tools will be coming with the update to version 2.0 of the OS in February, but until now we've seen neither hide nor pixelated hair of the apps. At the BlackBerry Innovation Forum RIM finally took the wraps off and demoed the email, contacts and calendar suite for a presumably relieved audience of QNX fans. The photos snagged by BlackBerry Cool aren't the greatest, but you can see the experience has been carefully crafted for a tablet, and the smartphone apps have simply been blown up to fill seven diagonal inches. A particularly interesting feature is, as the number of appointments you have scheduled on a particular day increases, the date grows and becomes bolder to alert you to your hectic schedule (above). For a bunch more pics and few more details check out the source link.
BlackBerry PlayBook FAQ confirms native email, calendar and contacts apps, just not at launch
The native app situation on the BlackBerry PlayBook has been one point of contention since the device was first announced, and there's still a fair bit of confusion even now, less than a month from launch. We now have a fairly definitive answer for one key question, however, although it may not be the one you were hoping for. According to an official FAQ provided for a Verizon webinar, the PlayBook will indeed be getting native email, calendar and contacts apps in a "future software update," but you'll have to make do without them initially. That means either relying on the PlayBook's web browser, or using the "Bridge" mode to access the apps on your BlackBerry smartphone. So, the PlayBook may not technically be "reliant" on a BlackBerry, but it is certainly handy to have one around. [Thanks, Tom]
