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If you're sipping your lunch, you probably have an iPhone. If you're enjoying pizza from Little Caesars, you're probably on Android. Consumer choices have always been about picking this or that, and the current either/or decision is between smartphone operating systems. Your choice when it comes to operating systems says a lot about you, including what you like to eat, according to data provided to CNBC by NPD Group's Checkout Tracking. IPhone users were much more likely to go for a liquid lunch, with soup and smoothies taking the top spots for iOS choices. Soup had an iPhone-to-Android index of...

If your rocking a Samsung smartphone, you could be vulnerable to hackers, thanks to a preinstalled keyboard on your device.The vulnerability was discovered by Ryan Welton from mobile security specialists NowSecure. The issue is with the preinstalled Swift keyboard which looks for language pack updates over an unencrypted line. Welton found that a hacker could create a spoof proxy server and send a fake update to the device with malicious code. The hacker could then exploit the device by eavesdropping on incoming and outgoing messages or voice calls, access personal data such as pictures or text messages, tamper with apps,...

Up to 500million Andriod users who use or have used Android software could be at risk from having personal information shared after tests revealed it's impossible to clear data from many devices. A report by Cambridge University showed that private text messages, images, videos and email details can be recovered, even after a total wipe - or factory reset - has been done. It means that people who have given away, sold or lost phones are now at risk from having their personal details and any private or sensitive information in messages or emails seen by whoever now has their...

Security researchers have developed an automated system for detecting Android apps that secretly connect to ad sites and user tracking sites. There are essentially two starkly different environments in which to download apps. The first is Apple’s app store, which carefully vets apps before allowing only those deemed fit to appear. The second is the Google Play store, which is more open because Google exercises a lighter touch in vetting apps, only excluding those that are obviously malicious. But because Google Play is more open, the apps it offers span a much wider quality range. Many connect to ad-related sites...

At their long, developer-focused Build conference this morning, Microsoft announced a plethora of new things regarding Windows 10 and its new identity as a service-based company. Windows 10 is the company’s new attempt at recapturing the interest of longtime Windows 7 users, after a fairly limited turnout for Windows 8.In case you haven’t heard, yes—Microsoft skipped “Windows 9” and went straight to Windows 10. The good news is that the OS looks to be a pretty balanced and powerful system that takes the best of Windows 7 and Windows 8 and finds a happy medium in between the two....

A drunken argument over whether Android or Apple smartphones were superior turned violent early today when two Oklahoma roommates began assaulting each other during the bloody telecommunications debate. According to Tulsa police, Jiaro Mendez and Elias Acevedo were outside their apartment around 1 AM when their phone quarrel moved to the stabbing stage. As they tussled in a parking lot, Acevedo allegedly struck Mendez in the back of the head with a beer bottle. When cops subsequently apprehended Acevedo, he was “covered in blood” and “also had several lacerations on his body from the fight.” Both men were treated for...

At a recent Windows Hardware Engineering Community summit in China, Windows chief Terry Myerson revealed a number of newsworthy tidbits about Windows 10,... At the very end of the news items, almost as an aside, came word of a unprecedented trial that Microsoft is undertaking "in partnership" with popular Chinese handset manufacturer Xiaomi. According to Myerson, a select group of Xiaomi Mi 4 owners (power users, he calls them) will be invited to test out a custom Windows 10 ROM on their devices. Devices that ship running not Windows out of the box, but Android. Let me restate that, so...

Just over a year ago, we introduced Office Lens for Windows Phone—and over that time the app has become one of the most popular free apps on Windows Phone, with an average rating of 4.6 stars (out of 5) from more than 18,500 reviews. Today, we’re releasing Office Lens for iPhone and Android phones. Office Lens is a handy capture app that turns your smartphone into a pocket scanner and it works with OneNote so you’ll never lose a thing. Use it to take pictures of receipts, business cards, menus, whiteboards or sticky notes—then let Office Lens crop, enhance and...

The leading German news agency, dpa, just reported that Apple has been granted a preliminary injunction against Samsung's Android-based Galaxy Tab 10.1, barring with immediate effect all distribution of the product in the entire European Union except for the Netherlands on the grounds of an alleged infringement of Apple's iPad-related [European] Community design no. 000181607-0001. I can confirm that Apple has a separate lawsuit underway in the Netherlands as well, asserting the same Community design. This was also confirmed by a court in The Hague to Dutch website Webwereld. There are differences in competition law between Germany and the Netherlands,...

Google’s Android has gobbled up market share world wide, now accounting for over 80% of all smartphone shipped globally. But when it comes to actually making money, Apple is eating all the profits as it continues its focus on premium devices. Today Strategy Analytics said that Apple in Q4 last year accounted for 89% of all smartphone profits, equating to $18.8 billion, with Android taking only 11%, or $2.4 billion. The blow for Android is softened only slightly less so only by the fact that other platform players like Microsoft, Blackberry and Firefox seemingly made no profit at all.

The long reigning king of the desktop OS is in trouble. Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella, is rapidly steering the company into the back office and service spaces, while their nascent mobile and desktop platforms are crumbling around them. Microsoft is putting on a brave face continuing to heavily advertise the 2-in-1 Surface debacle, but Nadella is only buying time, as he must surely know that Apple and Google is the two-headed beast that Microsoft can not stop. In less than a decade, Microsoft will be associated with IBM or Oracle, not Apple or Google. Apple’s iOS is poised for...

Apple, in its flush of new, bigger iPhone 6 handsets, has been selling record numbers of its older and newer model smartphones in the last few months, and now it’s passed another significant milestone: it has managed to overtake sales of Android devices in the key market of the U.S. for the first time in three years. [more below]

Apple’s newest operating system, iOS 8, is installed on 72 percent of iOS devices almost five months after it first launched in September of 2014, according to new numbers Apple shared on its App Store support page for developers. Installation numbers are up 9 percent since mid-December and have jumped 3 percent since January 20, following the launch of iOS 8.1.3 at the end of the month. As iOS 8 adoption grows, the number of users running iOS 7 has dropped to 25 percent. 3 percent of users continue to use an earlier operating system. iOS 8 adoption has been...

As per copyright requirements, link only: Malicious Google Play apps (may have) hosed millions of Android handsets Android users need to read this article. . . your phone may be infected and you may not know it. It may take weeks before the malware raises its head and releases its malicious payload. Specific apps are listed.

I’ve already spoken about one of the plays made by Apple and Tim Cook to damage Android. This was the push to 64-bit computing in the iPhone 5S. As that smartphone was announced, the roadmaps for Android devices did not have 64-bit computing planned in the near future. Manufacturers and component suppliers were bounced into making bold claims that they would join Apple in the 64-bit world. They had no choice but to do this. Android’s success was built around the promise of being faster, better, and stronger than its rival OS. If Apple was 64-bit, Android had to be...

After years of failing to do much more than embarrass Samsung Electronics in legal battles over patent infringement, Apple has rapidly obliterated Samsung's mobile division profitability, rendering it as barrenly unprofitable as every other Android or Windows licensee with razor thin margins in the phone, PC and tablet market. Samsung's collapse in profits caused by Apple, not Xiaomi While Apple's critics might prefer to credit Xiaomi for Samsung's decline, the South Korean giant's plummeting profitability is not due to a major drop in its low priced, high volume phones and tablets but rather an implosion of Samsung's profitable, high end...

Apple’s newest iPhone customers aren’t just old customers upgrading older devices – in fact, the vast majority are migrating from other platforms. Apple CEO Tim Cook told the Wall Street Journal in an interview that a large percentage of consumers buying iPhones lately are coming from devices that aren’t iPhones, and that most of those are shifting over from Android. This is potentially better news for Apple than its record-breaking 74.5 million iPhones sold during the past quarter, because it means there’s plenty of headroom to improve on that number in the future. A lot of the apprehension that crops...

Microsoft sure does like to change the way things are named! Windows CE gave way to Handheld PC and Palm PC, then to Palm-Sized PC, then Pocket PC was replaced by Windows Mobile Standard, Professional, and Classic. Windows Phone came along when Microsoft rebooted the platform in the wake of competition from Apple and Android. Windows Phone 7 was followed by Windows Phone 7.5, then 8.0, and most recently 8.1. Did I miss any? Are you confused yet? Then again, one could argue whether or not Microsoft’s naming has been more or less confusing than Android’s “sweet tooth” classification (it...

BlackBerry's CEO John Chen wants companies to stop "discriminatory practices" against BlackBerry by not allowing them to use certain apps. Chen called out Apple and Netflix in a blog post about net neutrality and what he called a "two-tiered wireless broadband ecosystem" where developers create apps only for iOS and Android devices. "Unlike BlackBerry, which allows iPhone users to download and use our BBM service, Apple does not allow BlackBerry or Android users to download Apple's iMessage messaging service," he wrote. Apple's iMessage service is only available to customers using the company's ecosystem of devices. Calling out Netflix, Chen said...