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Samsung's Galaxy Watch 3 ECG tracking comes to 31 more countries
Samsung has announced that it’s expanding the ECG and blood pressure tracking features in its latest Galaxy Watch models to the UK and Europe, along with Chile, Indonesia and the UAE for 31 new countries in total.
Apple's App Store is coming to 20 more countries
Apple is planning the largest expansion of its App Store since 2012 by adding 20 new countries, according to an article on its developer portal. The company asked developers to log into their accounts to accept the latest license terms so their apps will be available in those regions. Apple didn't say when the rollout would begin, but it asked devs to update their info by no later than April 10th.
Apple's iPhone 6s and 6s Plus are now available SIM-free
Apple is now selling unlocked versions of the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, giving you options if you'd rather not be tied to a contract or want a handset that works in other countries. The downside, of course, is that you'll pay the full retail price without those carrier subsidies -- starting at $649 for the (controversial) 16GB iPhone 6s at Apple Stores or online. In addition, Apple has started rolling out its latest iPhones in 36 new countries, including Mexico, Russia, Taiwan and Spain. They're now available in 48 nations, and will hit about 80 more by the end of the year.
Apple TV coming to seven more countries next week
Apple's little black set-top box is due to arrive in seven more countries next week, according to a release from Apple sent to MacRumors. Belgium, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland are all on the list of those receiving the device for sale, so if you're in one of those places and need more content on your TV, there you go. In Finland, the price will be set at €119 including the VAT charges, which is pretty standard for that region of the world. AppleCare for the units will also be available, for an extra €29. The Apple TV is a pretty popular device worldwide at this point, and adding these countries into the mix should make for even more growth for the unit. Not to mention that since Apple TV is rumored to get some form of iOS apps in the future, now's an excellent time to get in on the action.
Switzerland leads in Mac market share around the world
The official Pingdom blog did a little research into Mac market share around the world according to StatCounter (all based on browser visits to a pretty solid sample of 3 million websites), and it turns out that Switzerland is the most Mac country in the world. OS X has a 17.61 percent market share there, making it the country with the highest share on the planet. We've actually heard this before -- the Macworld Expo has been to Switzerland, and there are a number of terrific Apple Stores in that country as well. The Swiss really love their quality computers, apparently. Luxembourg follows next on the list, and the United States comes in at third with 15.36 percent Mac share. The United Kingdom, strangely, didn't make it into the top 10 of the list at all, and the Mac share in Asia, where Apple is making big pushes lately, is only 1.61 percent. Granted, one percent of a couple billion computers is still a lot, but you'd expect that to grow over the next few years. The least Mac-savvy region in the entire world? South America, where Mac OS X, according to these numbers, claims only a 1.08 percent market share. Looks like more of our friends to the south will have to look into just how enjoyable using a Mac can be. [via 9to5Mac]
Google expands Android's reach, accepting paid apps from 20 more countries, selling to 18 more
Android may be climbing the charts when it comes to market share, and the Market may be quickly approaching the 100,000 apps mark, but the whole thing is hardly a global proposition. As of earlier this week, paid apps were able to be purchased in just 14 countries, submitted by developers of just nine nationalities. That changes now, with Google adding 20 countries to its list of approved submitters, meaning developers living in 29 nations are eligible to submit paid apps to the Market. Over the next two weeks the purchasing of those apps will be flipped on for users in 18 countries, 32 in all that will have the "buy" button enabled -- music to the ears of Java app developers everywhere. Which flags are newly embracing app capitalism? We have the lists waiting for you below. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
WoW celebrates four years in the EU
Slorkuz posts that yesterday, February 11th, marked the four-year anniversary of World of Warcraft's release in the EU, and Blizzard is throwing a few contests to celebrate. You can see all of the giveaways over on their site -- there's some nice Swagdog and Dell gear to win for coming up with a great t-shirt slogan, a piece of fan art, or answering some lore questions. Unfortunately, participation in the contests is limited to only a few countries, due to local rules, but if you're interested and able, have at it.Congrats to Blizzard and the EU for four full years in Azeroth! North America had our anniversary late last year, and WoW Insider put together a look back at what it was like for us. We all (including the EU) got the anniversary pet as well, so apparently, other than these contests, Blizzard is just giving this date a nod rather than a big in-game celebration. But there's always the ten year anniversary -- we'll see you in 2014!
