Samsung's new 1-click carrier-billing feature lets users pay for apps without a credit card.Josh Miller/CNET
If you own a Samsung smartphone, you can now buy apps from the Samsung Galaxy App store with a single click and charge it directly to your phone bill, thanks to a new agreement between Samsung and mobile payments company Bango.
This global 1-click purchase arrangement, announced by Bango on Wednesday, allows users to buy digital goods from the little-known Samsung Galaxy Apps store with one click.
Samsung is following in the footsteps of Google, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft and Blackberry, which have all partnered with Bango. The UK company serves more than 1.5 billion customers and lets smartphone users pay for charges through their wireless-carrier bill.
The Samsung Galaxy App store doesn't compete against the widely popular Google Play store, which has more than 1 million apps. Instead, Samsung focuses on apps that take advantage of its hardware, like apps for the S Pen stylus used with the Galaxy Note line of smartphones. The South Korean company has acknowledged that its app store isn't easy to work with and needs better software development kits, application programming interfaces and general developer support.
Though it will likely take more than just an easy-payment option to fix these issues, options like 1-click and carrier billing should make it easier and more convenient for consumers to buy those apps from their mobile devices.
Google Inbox is a free mobile app and Web service that may one day replace today's Gmail.Google
If you've been feeling overwhelmed by a mountain of email in Gmail, you may be glad to know that Google wants to help. But there's a twist: the help will come from Inbox, a free email app now available by invitation that promises to better organize messages.
Developed by the Gmail team, Inbox is intended to coexist with Google's flagship email product, not replace it. For example, it groups similar types of messages, and automatically highlights key information such as flight itineraries and event information. It comes as competitors, including Apple and file-sharing company Dropbox, have released or updated products aimed at making it easier to find online needles in a haystack.
A key Inbox feature called Assists will integrate real-time updates from the Web directly into email. An emailed flight itinerary will highlight the original itinerary but also show real-time status updates on your flights.
Other Inbox features are new twists on options that will sound familiar to Gmail users. The Bundles option automatically will group similar messages, such as receipts, and allow you to swipe them all away at once. You can also create custom message bundles.
Important factual details of a message -- think phone numbers, flight status, images and attachments -- will be available without having to open the message, much the way that you can see an email's subject line now without having to read the email itself.
Inbox also integrates Google Now reminders and lets you create your own reminders. You can snooze messages and set them to show up later, at a specific time or when you're in a specific location.
The app is available on smartphones running Google's Android operating system or Apple's iOS, and on the Web -- but only in Google's Chrome browser for now. While Google is sending out a limited number of invitations to try Inbox, curious Gmail users can request an invite through inbox@google.com.
The iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini won't have lines like this, for the iPhone 6 in San Francisco.James Martin/CNET
Say goodbye to long lines for the newest iPads.
There's no official retail launch date for Apple's newest tablets, the iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3,which means people won't be lining up for days. Instead, the devices will be available in stores as soon as their shipments arrive from Apple, some as early as Wednesday.
People who ordered the tablets online starting last Friday should receive their new iPads as fast as their packages ship. Most models of the iPad Air 2 are available to ship in two to four business days from the Apple Store online.
This will mark the first iPad launch that Apple hasn't specified a specific date -- and attracted long lines. When asked about the rollout, an Apple spokeswoman reiterated that the iPads are available this week.
Already, New Yorkers can nab the Wi-Fi versions of the iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3 at all stores in Manhattan, including the flagship Fifth Avenue store. The cellular model is not yet available at those locations. A sales representative at the downtown San Francisco store said the iPad Air 2 should be available in the next day or two, and other Bay Area locations -- including San Francisco's other stores, Palo Alto and Menlo Park -- also should have the tablets in the coming days.
Other cities that already have the Wi-Fi version of the iPad Air 2 include Austin, Boston, Chicago, Miami, Philadelphia and Washington, DC. West Coast cities -- including San Francisco, Los Angeles and Seattle -- typically appeared to be later on the list of tablet supply.
Apple has done the same type of rollout on occasion in the past. Last year's iPad Mini went on sale as soon as stores received their supply, and Macs typically launch in the same manner.Apple product launches have become something of a spectacle. Consumers line up for days -- or even weeks, in the case of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus -- to get their hands on the newest gadgets. Making the devices available on a sort of rolling basis is a different move for Apple. The company has tended to release its major new iPhones and iPads on Fridays, about a week after they're announced, and most people assumed that's when the new iPads also would hit stores. Apple executives, when unveiling the tablets last week, simply said they'd be available "later next week."
The rollout likely indicates how much (or more precisely, how little) demand Apple expects for its newest iPads. The updates to this year's products are much more minor than previous releases. The iPad Air 2 is thinner, lighter and has better specs, but the biggest changes come from the addition of the TouchID fingerprint reader and a gold model. The iPad Mini 3 is identical to its predecessor aside from TouchID and an optional gold casing.
Apple generates about two-thirds of its sales from the iPhone and iPad, but the markets for those gadgets are becoming saturated, with rivals including Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Samsung battling for customers and the billions they spend on mobile devices. Apple's newest iPhones, however, have attracted a record number of buyers since their launch last month. The iPhone 6 has the potential to be the biggest product launch in Apple's 38-year history.
Apple CEO Tim Cook on Monday said iPhone 6 and 6 Plus demand "is far outstripping supply," and it could stay that way through the end of the calendar year.
But demand is unlikely to be as high for the new iPads. Analysts say the incremental changes likely aren't enough to attract buyers in droves. The iPad may be a significant revenue driver, but the device hasn't been selling as well as it used to. Large-screen smartphones are eating away at the need for a tablet, and consumers hold on to their iPads longer than their smartphones. Apple now faces questions over whether the iPad's declining shipments are a temporary hiccup or a troubling trend.
Cook, for one, called iPad weakness "a speed bump" and said what while some customers likely are opting for Macs or iPhones over the tablet, iPad has a "great future." He also said it's too early to tell how long consumers will hold onto their tablets before upgrading, though they aren't buying new models as quickly as they upgrade their iPhones.
Google has launched a website called Switch that has one goal in mind: educate Apple iPhone and iPad users on how they can easily move their data to Android-based devices.
Essentially a manual, it describes how owners of Apple devices, which run the iOS mobile operating system, can take photos and music and bring them to devices running Google's Android, as well as transfer contacts, set-up email and find apps that they were using on their iOS-based devices.
While the site is somewhat small in its scope, it's an obvious shot at Apple. The site provides detailed instructions on getting content from one device to another and touts how "simple" it is to transfer that information.
Apple and Google have been in a war of words -- and a battle for customers -- over the last several years with each side hammering the other for seeming shortfalls. Apple at a special press event last week took aim at Android's alleged fragmentation, pointing out that the platform is having trouble getting users onto a single version of the software. Google, meanwhile, tends to focus on the benefits of Android and features where it believes its product stands out.
Google's Android has about a 51 percent share of the US market when it comes to smartphone platforms, according to a report last month from research firm ComScore. Apple has slightly more than 42 percent of the market.
The iPhone maker last month launched its own guide on how to switch from Android to iOS. Like Google, Apple provides directions on how to make the move and explains how it believes the switch is easy.
Neither Apple nor Google immediately responded to a request for comment
The Maverick was designed to access remote areas for missionary work.ItecUSAvideo/YouTube screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET
Two people have minor injuries after a Maverick flying car that took off from Dunnellon airport in central Florida, crashed back down and caught fire Tuesday morning, police say.
The flying car did, though, reportedly have an FAA registry number.
The Maverick, which retails for $94,000 (50 percent downpayment required), was designed by a nonprofit called the Indigenous Peoples' Technology and Education Center. Its mission is to "provide tools and technologies to God-followers in frontiers areas to meet their needs."
One of its developers, Troy Townsend, described in a YouTube video posted a few weeks ago how the Maverick -- which flies with the aid of a parachute -- had been to various shows over the summer to display its capabilities.
I have contacted I-Tec to ask whether it has comment and whether there's any sense that the cause of the two crashes might be similar. I will update, should I hear.
Google has acquired Firebase, a company that offers developers a mechanism to write mobile and Web-based apps that stay in sync with each other.
The Firebase employees will become part of Google's cloud-computing team, Google said Tuesday. Firebase offers a service that lets apps running in browsers or on Apple's iOS and Google's Android mobile operating systems work in lockstep by saving and sharing data using central servers. Google will continue to operate the service.
"Over the past three years, we've gone from a crazy idea that 'just might work' to a proven product used by 110,000 developers. Today, I couldn't be happier to announce that we've joined Google," Firebase co-founder and Chief Executive James Tamplin said in a blog post.
The acquisition is part of Google's effort to cater to programmers -- the independent developers in the world who create software and applications and help cement the technology giants' power and keep them competitive with one another.
The current computing market is dominated by a handful of those technology giants, with Apple, Google, Microsoft and Amazon at the top of the list. Each has technology that reaches from low-level hardware to high-level apps and services. It's the programmers who help make those technology stacks relevant by building the apps and services that the rest of use -- everything from social networks to company expense-report tools.
Firebase should help Google lower hurdles for those programmers, Google said:
Mobile is one of the fastest-growing categories of app development, but it's also still too hard for most developers. With Firebase, developers are able to easily sync data across Web and mobile apps without having to manage connections or write complex sync logic. Firebase makes it easy to build applications that work offline and has full-featured libraries for all major Web and mobile platforms, including Android and iOS.
If you're already a Firebase developer, you'll start seeing improvements right away, and if you're a Google Cloud Platform customer, you'll find it even easier to create great mobile and Web apps. The entire Firebase team is joining Google and, under the leadership of Firebase co-founders James Tamplin and Andrew Lee, will be working hard to bring you great new features.
Google has a big jump on Apple when it comes to cloud computing foundations, but its primary mobile rival has been catching up. As for Microsoft, it already has significant cloud clout with its Azure service, and Amazon Web Services is the first port of call for programmers trying to get new online tools up and running quickly. Cloud services, ideally, are easy to tap into, and customers pay as they use them, thereby avoiding heavy upfront costs of buying hardware, software and network capacity of their own.
Tamplin said being under Google management should let Firebase improve its services faster.
Microsoft's smartwatch will reportedly work with mulitple mobile platforms.CNET
Microsoft feels the time is right to enter the smartwatch sector, according to a Forbes report.
The tech giant is expected to launch a smartwatch in the next couple of weeks that will have health-tracking capabilities, including a heart-rate monitor, according to the report, which cited unidentified sources.
The device will reportedly be capable of syncing with devices running several mobile platforms, such as Apple's iOS and Google's Androidoperating systems, and last more than two days with regular use. The gadget is expected to be available to consumers by the end of the year, in time for the holiday shopping season.
Microsoft has been linked to current smartwatch efforts as far back as April 2013, when the company was reportedly shopping around suppliers in Asia for components to build a potential touch-enabled watch device. Reports earlier this year indicated that the device would physically resemble Samsung's Gear Fit with a full-color touch screen viewable on the inside of your wrist.
Microsoft has dabbled in the sector before, marketing devices running its once-hyped Smart Personal Objects Technology (SPOT). After pouring a lot of money into the effort and partnering with watchmakers such as Fossil, Suunto, and Swatch on high-end, touch-screen models that cost as much as $800, Microsoft pulled the stem out of the project in 2008.
Wearable devices such as smartwatches and smart glasses have commanded a great deal of consumers' attention and manufacturers' imagination in recent months. To differentiate their products from competitors, electronics makers have strived to create devices with varying options. While many smartwatches sport square faces reminiscent of digital watches of the 1970s, Motorola and LG have opted for traditional circular watch faces for greater fashion appeal.
But Microsoft seems to be focused on one of the key selling points that other players in the crowded smartwatch arena have already seized upon: health. Samsung's Gear S -- its sixth smartwatch launch in the past year -- was unveiled in August and includes a heart rate monitor, pedometer, and sleep tracking.
Meanwhile, Samsung rival Apple unveiled the highly anticipated and much-speculated Watch last month. The new smartwatch taps into apps that can track heart rate, calories burned, activity level and certain fitness activities. It also works with other fitness apps, such as Nike+.
Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report.
Phil Schiller, Apple's head of marketing, briefly talked about the iPad Mini 3 on Thursday.Screenshot by CNET
Apple usually looks to its next new thing to drive sales. In the case of the iPad, it's counting on the 2-year-old iPad Mini, now selling for just $249, to draw you into its stores -- and convince you to buy a more expensive iPad instead.
The Cupertino, Calif.-based consumer-electronics giant unveiled on Thursday new designs of its tablets-- the iPad Air 2 and the iPad Mini 3. But the company also said it would continue to sell its first iPad Minifor $50 less than before. The 7.9-inch device, introduced in late 2012, now becomes the cheapest tablet Apple has ever offered, at $249 with 16 gigabytes of storage. The 9.7-inch iPad Air 2 starts at $499 for the same amount of storage, while the iPad Mini 3, the latest design in the 7.9-inch line, is $399.
Apple has never been the low-cost player. Its devices, from the iPhone to the iMac desktop computer, carry premium price tags. And the company has long vowed to remain that way, putting its focus on protecting profitability rather than expanding its market share. But Apple is facing sales slowdowns in the tablet market that have caused it to expand its iPad line by offering an older product at a lower price.
Apple still may not be the "value" provider, but it's sure getting closer.
"For somebody that is looking for something very affordable, there's something," Apple CEO Tim Cook told CNET News after Thursday's product debut in Cupertino. "For somebody who's going to spend a bit more, you can get an iMac with a beautiful Retina display [for $2,500]."
For the past several years, Apple kept its year-old mobile devices on the market and sold them for about $100 less than the newer versions. The iPad Air, released a year ago, now starts at $399, for instance. The iPhone 5S,released in 2013, starts at $99 while this year's iPhone 6 is priced starting at $199.
Apple continued selling the iPad 2 for three years after it was unveiled in March 2011. But keeping the original iPad Mini is the first time Apple has offered five different iPad variants in its lineup instead of four.
Apple jumping into the low-cost battle
Apple's iPads remain the world's best-selling tablets, but people just aren't buying as many tablets anymore. Large-screen smartphones -- including the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 and 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus -- are eating away at the need for a tablet. And the iPad's design hasn't radically changed since former Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduced the device in 2010.
Unlike smartphones, which get replaced every two years or less, consumers are happy holding on to their iPads for much longer or passing their older devices to family members.
As if that weren't enough, almost everyone who wants a tablet in mature markets such as North America already has one. Kantar Worldpanel, which conducted a survey of 20,000 consumers in the US, found that only 3 percent of non-tablet owners said they definitely plan to buy a tablet in the next 12 months. Another 10 percent said they would probably buy one. But 43 percent said no.
Apple's solution? Drop the price of the Mini to get more people interested. It may be easier to talk yourself into spending $250 on a tablet than $300 or $500. That's part of the reason Amazon's Kindle Fire tablets, initially priced at $199, were popular when they hit the market. Apple can now get people in the door with its $249 iPad Mini, but analysts expect that many people will consider dropping $50 or $100 more for a better iPad.And many people seeking out new tablets are opting for cheaper ones, such as Amazon's $200 devices and similarly priced Google Android devices.
"There is a psychology in how the consumer moves up that staircase," IHS analyst Rhoda Alexander said. "'If I'm going to get this, why don't I get this?' As long as you have enough steps there, you have a much more complete series line."
Apple saw the same thing happen when it introduced the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C last year. The iPhone 5S, with high-end specs and a TouchID fingerprint sensor, started at $199, while the 5C -- essentially 2012's iPhone 5 in a colorful, plastic casing -- was priced $100 less. Unfortunately, few people actually bought the 5C, Cook admitted during Apple's earnings call in January. At the time, he attributed that to people being interested in TouchID and other features unique to the 5S.
Consumers looking for better iPad features undoubtedly will have to shell out for pricier devices. The original iPad Mini is the only tablet in Apple's current mobile lineup that doesn't have a high-definition Retina display. And if consumers want to use services such as Apple Pay, they'll need to pony up for the latest iPad Air 2 or the iPad Mini 3, the only tablets that support the new payment technology.
The $249 price-point also may appeal to people in developing markets, but many in places such as China typically aren't happy buying outdated devices. If they're buying a smartphone or tablet, they want the newest products available.
35 seconds on the iPad Mini 3
The iPad Mini 3 seemed little more than a footnote at Thursday's product launch. Phil Schiller, Apple's head of worldwide marketing, spent about 35 seconds talking about the new device. In terms of features, nothing changed between the iPad Mini 2 (formerly known as the iPad Mini with Retina) and the iPad Mini 3 except the addition of a gold model and the TouchID fingerprint sensor.
"Having effectively achieved parity between the iPad Mini and iPad Air last year, Apple has again opened up a gap between the two in terms of performance," Jackdaw Research chief analyst Jan Dawson said. "The iPad Mini is now again clearly the poorer of the two devices, and the $100 price difference between the iPad Mini 3 and iPad Mini 2 is somewhat hard to justify."
The iPad Mini was a popular device when it was introduced, but the larger, 9.7-inch tablet dominates iPad sales. Only 17 percent of iPads in use today in the US are iPad Minis, according to Kantar Worldpanel. That percentage will likely continue to fall as more consumers opt for the new bigger screen iPhones.
"If you have two devices that are close to one another [in size], you're not going to buy both of them," Forrester analyst J.P. Gownder said. "Someone will not buy an iPhone 6 Plus and an iPad Mini 3."
It's still too early to tell just how much Apple's tablet business will be affected by its larger iPhones. The company has long said if anyone is going to hurt sales of its products, it wants to do that itself. As Cook noted during Apple's fiscal fourth quarter 2012 earnings conference call, "We've learned over the years to not fear cannibalization. We'd rather do it ourselves than let someone else do it."
But there's evidence from competitors that bigger smartphones do eat into tablets. Samsung -- Apple's biggest rival in mobile devices and the second-biggest tablet vendor after Apple -- said in July that its tablet sales were "sluggish," with customers opting for 5- to 6-inch phablets over 7- to 8-inch tablets. Samsung pioneered the phablet category with its Galaxy Note line, and the devices have become popular with buyers.
That realization is likely what caused Apple to focus its efforts on the 9.7-inch iPad and update the iPad Mini only minimally. If people aren't buying the device anyway, why devote energy to including big updates?
"They're realizing [iPad Mini is] challenged in a market when you have people who absolutely love and swear by [iPhone 6]," Technalysis Research chief analyst Bob O'Donnell said. "This is the challenge any company has when it broadens its line."
