Research

Verizon Just a “Small Bang” in Overall iPhone Growth

Alex Heath ∙ July 28, 2011

When Apple unveiled the iPhone 4 on Verizon in February, everyone thought that the iPhone's cross-carrier distribution in the US would be the end of Android and other competitors. That hasn't been the case, as Verizon's adoption of the iPhone hasn't slowed AT&T sales of Apple's smartphone at all. Also, overall iPhone market share hasn't seen that impressive of an increase since Verizon picked up the iPhone 4.

A new report from Asymco details how Verizon is just a "small bang" in iPhone sales, and how the "big bang" is actually happening overseas.

Figure Out Who’s Calling You With Number Guru

Cody Lee ∙ May 31, 2011

In this day in age, it's hard to trust anyone anymore. With so many apps like CallerID Faker out there, you can't really tell who's who. Luckily, if you are constantly on the receiving end of prank phone calls or telemarketing pitches, there's an app for that.

While there are several applications that offer similar features, Number Guru seems to be the most adept. The iPhone software allows you to do a reverse lookup of a phone number, allowing you to find out where the number is based out of and other details that don't show up on CallerID...

Closer Look at iPhone’s Location-Tracking Database

Alex Heath ∙ Updated November 13, 2019

A couple days ago, we told you about a discovery made by two researchers concerning location data collection on the iPhone. Apparently, the iPhone logs your GPS coordinates for an unspecified amount of time and saves that data to a system-level consolidated.db file that is then synced over to iTunes upon backup.

This finding was demonstrated at the Where 2.0 conference by British programmers Pete Warden and Alasdair Allen. They claimed the discovery as their own, when in fact it has actually been a known issue in the security community since last year.

Federal Grand Jury Investigates Information Sharing Processes in iOS Apps

Cody Lee ∙ April 6, 2011

For once, it's not Apple facing litigation, but developers of apps in its popular App Store. BGR reported yesterday that New Jersey Federal Prosecutors are starting to get serious about their investigation with popular smartphone applications. The inquisition is looking to determine whether some app developers are in breach of Federal Law.

The post claims that a criminal investigation is underway by a federal grand jury on certain mobile applications. These apps are suspected of violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act with their methods of collecting and transmitting user's personal data...

Researchers Use iPhone to Measure Happiness

Alex Heath ∙ November 15, 2010

Track Your Happiness.org is a recent project from a group of Harvard scientific researchers. The project's goal is to, "investigate what makes life worth living." Specifically, to see how the wandering mind and happiness correlate.

But how could this type of a survey really be effective when you would need the ability to invade the mind of your participant throughout the day for effective results?

Researchers were able to do something that traditional physiology methods have not allowed in the past: to intrude on the lives of their participants in a non-threatening and targeted way. What better means to prick the wandering mind than through what is the usual cause of a wandering mind- the smartphone.

This specific way of data collecting was made possible through (you guessed it) the iPhone...