Google Maps app now includes Waze incident reports

Putting its June acquisition of the popular social mapping and location startup Waze to good use, the Internet giant Google today announced that crowd-sourced incident reports from Wazers will be soon available through the Google Maps mobile apps for iOS and Android.

This means when Wazers report accidents, construction, road closures and more on Waze, their updates will also appear in real-time on the Google Maps mobile apps in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, France, Germany, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Switzerland, UK and the US…

“Not only will we continue to outsmart traffic and keep citizens updated via the Waze app and broadcast partners, but Waze real time incident reports will appear on the Google Maps for Android, iPad and iPhone,” the Waze team wrote in a blog post.

Incident reports within Google Maps will not include Wazer profile information, but contributors will still earn points on the Waze side.

And writing on its Lat Long blog, the Google Maps team wrote that the updated Waze Map Editor (below) is now available with support for Google Street View and satellite imagery, making it easy for Wazers to report map errors.

The company has also updated the free Waze app for iOS and Android with built-in Google Search, which joins a host of other search providers featured on Waze, such as Foursquare and Yelp.

Previously, Google started monetizing users by injecting relevant advertising into Google Maps search results across mobile platforms.

Moreover, the search monster has killed the Google+ Local iOS app and posted a new Google Maps SDK which lets third-party iOS developers implement Street View and Indoor Maps in their warez.

Though Apple was speculated to have been interested in Waze, the deal never went through as Google snatched the startup out from under Apple in a surprising move.

Since that hiccup, Apple has moved to snap up public transit and navigation data providerHopStop and location-based data startup Locationary.

In addition, the iPhone maker recently advertised a number of Maps-related positions on its website. Eagled-eyed readers could also note Apple is set to release a standalone Maps Mac app as part of its upcoming Fall release of OS X Mavericks.

You can download Google Maps free from Apple’s App Store or Google’s Play store.

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Android device activations unofficially surpass 1 billion mark

A few months ago, Google announced at its Google I/O developer conference that lifetime Android device activations had reached the 900 million mark. At the time, Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt also confirmed that those activations were occurring at a rate of 1.5 million devices per day, a number that Google CEO Larry Page echoed during the search company’s second quarter earnings call on Thursday.

At that rate, there have been approximately 100,500,000 Android devices activated since the Google I/O keynote on May 15th, meaning that total activations should have exceeded the 1 billion plateau as of this weekend. An important caveat to remember, however, is that Android activations presumably fluctuate each day, meaning that these numbers are just approximate measures. There has been no official word yet from Google, but this is big news…

Google showed the above video at its Google I/O keynote on May 15th

This is an important milestone for Google to have achieved. Considering that Android devices only totalled 400 million as of Google I/O 2012, it has been a remarkable 14 months for the Mountain View-based company. Under the new leadership of Sundar Pichai, the Android division has experienced incredible growth, and is becoming increasingly competitive with the iPhone and other competing platforms.

The first half of this year has been witness to the release of two flagship Android smartphones in the Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One, alongside Google Editions of those devices running stock Android Jelly Bean. Those handsets, along with a myriad of other Android smartphones and tablets available on the market, have contributed immensely to the surging adoption rate of the Android platform.

To put the 1 billion activations number into perspective, it means that 1 in every 7 people worldwide have an Android device of some sort. Comparatively, there have been just over 600 million iOS devices sold to date — a number that should get higher when Apple announces its own second quarter earnings results next Tuesday. Windows Phone and BlackBerry remain paltry in comparison.

As the percentage of smartphone sales compared to feature phones continues to rise, offset by consumers becoming less excited about the latest and greatest devices, the next few years will be particularly interesting for both Google and the broader mobile space. I am curious to see what efforts Apple, Google, Samsung and other tech companies — perhaps Motorola — will take to remain competitive in the market.

Will the next 1 billion be more challenging than the first?

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Apple joins alliance of tech companies in push for better NSA transparency

Apple is reportedly teaming up with Google, Facebook, Microsoft and a number of other tech companies that will demand dramatically increased transparency from the US government regarding surveillance by the NSA and other agencies.

In a letter to be published tomorrow, the alliance—which includes 63 companies, investors, and non-profit orgs—will call upon President Obama and congressional leaders to allow them to report more specifically on security requests…

AllThingsD has obtained a copy of the letter and posted the following excerpt:

“Basic information about how the government uses its various law enforcement–related investigative authorities has been published for years without any apparent disruption to criminal investigations,” a copy of the letter obtained by AllThingsD reads. “We seek permission for the same information to be made available regarding the government’s national security–related authorities. … Just as the United States has long been an innovator when it comes to the Internet and products and services that rely upon the Internet, so too should it be an innovator when it comes to creating mechanisms to ensure that government is transparent, accountable, and respectful of civil liberties and human rights.”

Specifically, the companies are asking that they be allowed to report the number of government requests for info on their users and of individuals, accounts, or devices. They are also asking that the government issue its own request report.

As the site notes, this is easily the largest push we’ve seen for greater government disclosure of digital communications monitoring since a slew of slide leaks regarding a secret PRISM program exposed the National Security Agency’s capabilities.

Apple was one of the 12 companies listed on the slide as a ‘willing participant’ in the PRISM program, but has said that it doesn’t provide any government agency with direct access to its servers, and any requests for its info must be court-ordered.

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Google Issues Patch to Android Partners That Fixes Major Security Hole

Google has pushed a security patch to its manufacturing partners to fix a major Android security issue that could affect close to 900 million devices, a company spokesperson confirmed to ZDNet.

 

Gina Scigliano, Google’s Android Communications Manager, said that while Google didn’t have a statement, she could “confirm that a patch has been provided to our partners – some OEMs, like Samsung, are already shipping the fix to the Android devices.”

Bluebox Security recently discovered a security hole that gives a malicious user the potential to convert a legitimate application into Trojan malware. All applications installed on Android have a cryptographic signature, to prevent unapproved modifications or tampering, but this flaw allows an attacker to bypass that signature and make changes that go unnoticed.

It is now up to Android partners to seed the necessary software updates to users, and at least Samsung is already confirmed to be doing so at this point. In the meantime, Android users should keep a close eye on the publisher of the app in which they are planning to install. Google Play does have additional security checks in place, putting users that install apps outside of this marketplace at the greatest risk.

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Google Reader is shutting down tomorrow, here’s everything you need to know

In case it’s somehow skipped your mind, Google is going to be turning off Google Reader, it’s popular RSS aggregating service, on July 1st. That’s tomorrow. And if you haven’t taken the proper steps, such as backing up your feeds or syncing them with a suitable replacement, you’re going to lose them.

But never fear, as usual, iDB has you covered. Here’s everything you need to know about this week’s Reader shutdown…

What happened?

Google originally announced that it was going to be shutting down Reader back on March 13. The news came via a blog post titled ‘second spring cleaning.’ It explained that while the service has a loyal following, its usage has dramatically declined over the past few years. Thus, it obviously had to go.

Unsurprisingly, the announcement sent shockwaves through the tech community because at the time, a lot of third-party RSS readers, technology sites and pundits were still dependent on the service. A petition even popped up online to keep Reader running, and it has since collected over 150k signatures.

But as Richard Gringras, Google’s Senior Director of News and Social Products, points out, the shutdown is really just a product of the times. Users are moving from the old model, where they would read the news over breakfast or at the end of the day, to getting news updates live through sources like Twitter.

Reader Alternatives

When news hit that Google was going to be shutting down its RSS service, third party companies came out of the woodwork to announce their alternatives/replacements. We’ve already put together a list of 14 great alternative services, but there are a few that have come to stand out in recent months.

• Feedly - it seems like Feedly directly benefited from Reader’s impending doom the most— word has it that it’s added over 3 million new users since Google made the announcement in March. It has made a copy of Google’ Reader API, and when the service shuts down tomorrow, its clone will kick in for a “seamless transition.” Bonus, it’s available on Android, iOS and as a plugin for most major browsers.
• Digg Reader – Digg reinvented itself last summer, following a major selloff and other issues. It’s hard to gauge how well it’s doing now, but it certainly seems to be making a lot of commotion with its new Reader project. The service just went live via a pair of iOS and web apps (and is scheduled to hit Android next month), and it’s capable of syncing your Google Reader feeds in seconds.
• AOL Reader – AOL, once known as the source for your daily internet news, recently announced that it has an RSS reader of its own in the works. It seems more like a ‘me-too’ effort to try and regain some relevance with mobile users than anything else, but it has the resources to make something good. The down fall is, it’s only available in beta right now, on an invite-only basis, at reader.aol.com.

What do I need to do?

That’s up to you. If you’re ok with losing you’re saved Google Reader feeds, which will likely happen tomorrow when the service shuts down, there’s no rush to do anything. You can simply evaluate which alternative service suits your needs if you’re interested in finding one on your own time without worry.

But if you’d like to save your feeds, and you haven’t backed up or synced them with another service yet, you’re a little more pressed for time. Theoretically, Google could shutdown Reader servers tonight at midnight, taking your feeds with it. So you’ll obviously want to make sure you do something before then.

I would recommend at least syncing them up to an app like Flipboard, Feedly or Digg Reader, which let you sync your feeds by simply logging in with your Google Reader credentials. This way, even if you don’t end up using them later, your feeds will be backed up somewhere in the event you ever want them.

Of course, it’s possible Google could completely reverse course tomorrow and either extend the deadline or cancel the shutdown all together. Stay tuned to iDB for more info.

Questions, comments?

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It takes 72,000 downloads a day for an app to reach top 10 spot in the App Store

You have a whiz-bang idea for an iOS app, but want to know how much effort it will take to get into the top 10 list? On general, it requires 4,000 daily downloads for an app to reach the top 10 paid apps, and it requires earning $47,000 per day for paid apps to reach rank 10 in the grossing charts, a new study finds. For the bean-counters in the audience, that translates to $32 in purchases per minute or $1,920 per hour.

Another tip: never try to break into the top 10 during weekends. Instead, you’ll have better luck on Thursdays. If you want little competition, try Google or Amazon, where all you hear are crickets chirping, according to an app analytics firm…

The numbers from Distimo’s monthly iOS App Store trends report, averaged app revenue and downloads during May. According to the report, apps looking to become No. 50 need on average to pull in $12,000 per day, less than one-third of that required to break into the top 10.

For free apps it’s all about downloads.

To enter the top 50, your app must get 23,000 downloads per day. Around a three times more downloads – 72,000 – are needed each day to enter the top 10 at Apple.

If the challenge is too stiff, you might want to focus on iPad-only apps.

A paid app needs to gross just $10,200 per day for top 50 status. For free apps aiming for the top 50 iPad list, you need just 8,200 downloads each day, nearly three times fewer than for iPhone apps.

Maybe competition for iPhone and iPad app status is too much for you.

If so, check out Google Play or even Amazon’s Appstore. A No. 50 app on Google Play earned $6,600 per day during May – half the $12,000 raked in at Apple’s iOS App Store.

The numbers are even more miserable at Amazon. It requires only 2,500 downloads per day to make it into the top 50 at Amazon – 9 times fewer than at Apple.

As in many things in life, timing can be everything – and that includes making it big at Apple’s App Stores.

For instance, weekends mean a crush of competition as apps compete for a slice of a huge audience. Think of it as the App Store equivalent of the rush hour.

Instead, you might be better off trying on Thursdays, which demand the fewest number of downloads to rank on the App Store.

Today’s findings aren’t that surprising, given Distimo’s previous report which found the top App Store earnings brought in 4.6 times that of top apps on Google Play.

And this is why there is such a demand to break into the App Store and the others are left to the crickets.

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Forrester: iOS is shoppers’ platform of choice

Owners of mobile gadgets running on Apple’s iOS operating system are more likely to make purchases from their iPhone, iPod touch or iPad and use their iDevices for product research. According to research firm Forrester, iOS owners are nearly one-third, or thirty percent, more likely to make purchases using their smartphone or tablet and fifteen percent more likely to research products, compared to Android users.

Although Apple’s software is overwhelmingly chosen by shoppers, 96 percent of e-businesses planned to develop mobile applications for both Android and iOS. However, while companies such as Microsoft and others encourage developers to create apps for their platform, only very large companies intend to stray from the iOS-Android duopoly…

The prime reason for sticking with iOS and Android: budgets for developing mobile apps are a drop in the bucket compared to money spent on overall marketing.

Some 41 percent of businesses have just $500,000 to spend on mobile, while more than half (56 percent) have under $1 million, according to the Forrester report that polled some 50,000 U.S. professionals.

Because developing apps for iOS and Android requires much from companies, fewer resources are allocated to building mobile products for other platforms.

Per TechCrunch:

The more resources developers have to devote to catering to those top two platforms, the fewer they have available to spread out on a third or fourth horse, to the continued detriment of smaller players like BlackBerry and Microsoft.

Indeed, BlackBerry announced in May its much-vaunted BlackBerry Messaging app would be available for both iOS and Android. And over at Microsoft, they even held a workshop to convince developers to write for its Windows platform.

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Google ostensibly close to buying WhatsApp for $1 billion

WhatsApp, the cross-platform instant messaging application for smartphones, is rumored to be close to negotiating a landmark acquisition deal with Google. Sources reportedly close to the negotiations claim the Internet giant is considering dropping a whopping one billion dollars on the popular service that as of March 2013 had a cool 200 million users, a hundred million ones on Android alone.

The report ties nicely with talk of a new instant messaging brand from Google called Babble, and even more so given Facebook with its new Home UI layer for select Android devices is basically encouraging its one billion users to use its Messenger service right from their Lock screen or from whichever app they happen to be using at any give moment…

DigitalTrends reports that while the deal started four or five weeks ago, “we’ve been told that WhatsApp is ‘playing hardball’ and jockeying for a higher acquisition price, which currently is ‘close to’ $1 billion right now.”

The acquisition might make sense for both parties.

For WhatsApp, Google’s scale and reach would mean rapid adoption, especially on Android devices. More importantly, the software would probably gain video chatting, a feature it’s been conspicuously missing.

WhatsApp’s 200 million users come from more than a hundred countries and across an astounding 750 mobile networks.The number one paid app in more than a hundred countries, WhatsApp on New Years Eve 2012 alone saw a record eighteen billion messages processed in a day.

DigitalTrends lets us in on WhatsApp’s business model, said to pull in about $100 million in revenue:

WhatsApp has a proven monetization scheme. Its yearly but nominal $0.99 subscription fee keeps the service ad-free. Behind the scenes however, WhatsApp also generates revenue through profitable partnerships with international telecommunications companies.

For instance WhatsApp’s monthly local plan in Hong Kong with mobile operator 3 HK costs just $8HK ($1.03 USD) and an international package will run for $48HK ($6.18 USD) per day. And whatever Whatsapp is doing is working: The app has even had a direct hand in declining SMS usage around the world. 

It’s interesting that although Google played its cards well with Android, it somehow has managed to drop the ball when it comes to the mobile instant messaging playground.

The company is now rumored to be consolidating its many instant messaging offerings under the new Babble brand so it could certainly use a standout app such as WhatsApp to drive people away from rival offerings and give them another reason to go Android.

The search giant’s Nikhyl Singhal told GigaOM last June that “we have done an incredibly poor job of servicing our users here.”

WhatsApp is thought to be toying with a subscription model on iOS and has suffered its share or privacy-related hiccups. Google previously acquired some other popular developers who made names for themselves creating popular apps for Apple’s iPhone, iPod, iPad and Mac.

Most notably, it boughtemail client Sparrow last Jul and mobile productivity suite QuickOffice in June 2012. Last September, the company unexpectedly acquired Nik Software, the maker of the popular photo editing software Snapseed.

Viber, another popular IM app, has for some time been in a neck and neck race with WhatsApp over which service gets to become the default cross-platform messaging solution on mobile devices.

But taking advantage of Viber’s feature shortages and slow pace of development, WhatsApp zoomed past its rival, which as of February 26, 2013 had 175 million users.

Which one do you prefer for cross-platform messaging, Viber or WhatsApp?

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Apple wins court order blocking class action in anti-poaching lawsuit

Apple, along with Google and five other Silicon Valley technology heavy-weights, has won a court order blocking a potentially devastating class-action antitrust lawsuit concerning alleged anti-poaching conspiracy.

Bloomberg reported that U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh Friday denied class action certification over accusations that said companies illegally conspired not to recruit one another’s employees, which the plaintiffs said resulted in their incomes being held down by their employers…

Joel Rosenblatt, writing for Bloomberg, reported that the ruling prevents former employees from claiming class action status in their suit, though Koh left the door open for the plaintiffs to try again for class certification and eventually sue as a group…

The case can’t proceed now as a class action, partly because “plaintiffs examples, though compelling, may not be sufficient to show that all or nearly all class members were affected by the anti-solicitation agreements without additional documentary support or empirical analysis,” Koh wrote in the ruling.

A lawyer for the plaintiffs said in a written statement that a renewed motion will be filed, citing the significant amounts of evidence suggesting these illegal anti-poaching agreements were commonplace. As we reported earlier, the case could see the current Apple CEO Tim Cook and the former Intel CEO Paul Otellini both questioned.

In addition to Apple and Google, the suit also names four other high-profile companies: chip giant Intel, Photoshop maker Adobe, media empire Walt Disney’s Pixar animation unit, software maker Intuit and film and television production powerhouse Lucasfilm.

Reuters adds that Judge Koh was “keenly aware” new evidence had recently become available that could support class certification.

Should the plaintiffs’ succeed with a renewed motion, Apple, Google and others may potentially face civil damages in excess of hundreds of millions of dollars based on tens of thousands of people who were affected by the alleged anti-poaching agreements.

Bulk of the evidence includes email communication exchanged between top executives, including late Apple CEO Steve Jobs and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt. One such incriminating piece of evidence is the back-and-forth between Steve Jobs and Palm CEO Edward Colligan where Steve complained about our Apple employees being actively recruited by Palm rather they deciding themselves they wanted to join Palm.

Jobs also sent an email to the then Google CEO Eric Schmidt in 2007, demanding that the Internet giant stop poaching Apple employees. The Verge has a nice gallery of these email messages, if you’re eager to read them.

What’s really interesting is that most of those exchanges end with lines like “no one can know about this” so clearly these CEOs had been aware they were engaging in illegal practices.

Be that as it may, such gentleman’s agreements no doubt hurt workers as in turn both their wages and employment choices on the free marketplace get severely restricted.

Perhaps we need stricter laws preventing these kinds of workforce abuse?

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Alleged Google Now for iOS promo video surfaces on YouTube

This is pretty interesting. An alleged promotional video showcasing a Google Now—Google’s impressive voice assistant that debuted in Android Jelly Bean last summer—for iOS app surfaced on YouTube this afternoon.

The big deal here is that while Google added some Now elements to its iOS Search app last fall, it kept location and contextual-based features exclusive to Android. But if the promo clip is real, that could be changing soon…

Engadget was tipped off to the [what would have to be] leaked video earlier today. And they were able to grab a copy of the clip before it was ‘mysteriously’ pulled. Sorry, it is a low-resolution video and it does require Flash.

The site notes that while it’s very possible that it’s an elaborate fake, it does seem to feature the same voice actress that did the original Google Now video. So that, and the fact that it was pulled earlier lend weight to its credibility.

Google has received much praise for its Now feature, which quickly repsonds to a range of informational and trivial questions, among other things. In fact, it’s a bit odd that it would want to port such a big part of Android to iOS.

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