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Grooveshark's HTML5 app goes international

Grooveshark is making sure that its music Web app will play on any device and anywhere in the world.

A spokeswoman for the music service told CNET today that starting tomorrow, the company will make its HTML5 Web app available globally. The new app will make it possible to access the service on iOS and Android Web browsers and anywhere in the world.

Last month, the company rolled out the Web app in the United States after Grooveshark's original app was banned from Google Play. Google hasn't detailed why it booted the app but Grooveshark's legal disputes … Read more

Protesters take to skies asking Google to quit U.S. Chamber

The skies over Mountain View will bear a message of protest today aimed at Google: quit the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

SumOfUs.org, a nonprofit that has been campaigning for corporations to end their financial support of the Chamber, said it would fly a plane over the Googleplex Monday at noon with a trailing banner that reads "Google: Quit the Chamber."

The group opposes the Chamber for reasons including its opposition to climate change legislation and its support for anonymous corporate spending on elections. It has mounted similar campaigns designed to get Microsoft, IBM and Pepsi to … Read more

iPhone 5 sales top 5M units over first weekend, Apple says

Apple said today that it sold 5 million of its new iPhone 5 smartphones over the weekend, topping the mark set by last year's iPhone 4S by 1 million units.

The Apple frenzy on Friday continued its memorable run with lines snaking out of some of the company's most high-profile stores, as consumers eagerly snapped up the iPhone 5. The figure, however, isn't quite as high as some analysts expected, with one notably having predicted 6 million as his "worst-case scenario" for first-weekend sales.

Still, the iPhone 5 re-establishes Apple's dominance in the smartphone … Read more

Hacker: I've ported Google Maps to iOS 6

Google Maps seems to have found its way onto iOS 6 with help from a hacker, though it's not quite ready for its public debut.

Self-proclaimed iOS hacker and engineer Ryan Petrich tweeted yesterday that he was able to coax Google Maps to work on iOS 6 "with a little trickery." Though mum about his methods, he said that he was able to port the iOS 5.1 version of Google's app to run on an iPhone 3GS that had been updated to iOS 6. Petrich also included a short video clip showing Google Maps in action … Read more

Google's Motorola goes after Apple maps in new ad

How many fronts can a good war have?

An infinite number, if the bazooka fire around the iPhone 5 can be believed.

For Google's Motorola doesn't want to be left behind Samsung and Nokia, both of whom have already tried to mock Apple's new elongated marvel.

I am indebted to TechCrunch for coming upon a Motorola Google+ post (also on Motorola's Facebook page) that enjoys an ad with a mocking tone.

What reason could Motorola have to mock the iPhone 5? Why, it's the iOS 6 Maps app, of course. You know, the one that doesn't seem to quite get the locations right.… Read more

iOS 6 map mess was no big surprise to Apple

After users this week discovered glitches in Apple's update to its mobile operating system -- the first to include the company's mapping technology instead of Google's Maps app -- the conventional wisdom had it that Apple acted in a very un-Apple-like manner by pushing live an obviously defective product.

On the surface, the episode also made for an intriguing story line: With Steve Jobs, the micromanager par excellence, no longer around to obsess over the smallest detail, might this constitute a first small weakening of the Apple juggernaut? In the year since Tim Cook became CEO, Apple … Read more

Local search field test: Apple Maps vs. Google Maps

Yesterday we performed a field test of the turn-by-turn directions on both the iOS 6 Apple Maps app on the iPad and Google Maps on a Samsung Galaxy Tab. Both fared pretty well with getting us to our destinations, but Google Maps came out on top. As we pointed out yesterday, a number of people have been complaining about the Apple Maps app, from inaccuracies to poor directions.

Today, in part two of our testing, we did a number of searches for landmarks and other destinations to see how each app performed. After only a couple of tests, it was … Read more

New Google Voice Search, Siri are closely matched (hands-on)

This article updates the original hands-on comparison posted on July 2, 2012, to include changes to iOS 6. I also compare Siri on iOS 6 to Samsung's S Voice (found in the Samsung Galaxy S3 flagship phone.

Back in June, Google's Android 4.1 Jelly Bean managed to bring Android's voice actions to the forefront in a meaningful way. Mostly, by dressing up the voice search interface like Apple's Siri, and making voice search available from any screen. (Samsung's attempt for select Android phone, S Voice, falls behind .)

Luckily for Google, Voice Actions was fairly accurate in our tests. Thanks to an iOS 6 update that brings even more capabilities, Siri can do more than Google Voice Actions. That's a definite benefit for iPhone 4S and iPhone 5 users. However, Google Voice Actions' accuracy remains on point.

The two of us, Brian and Jessica, each tested commands on the iPhone 4S or iPhone 5 and on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus updated with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. Brian tested the phones in New York and Jessica tested in San Francisco. Here's what we found.… Read more

Why Apple made the right decision with iOS 6 Maps

Imagine you are Apple CEO Tim Cook. You control the single most profitable phone on the market, the iPhone. You have full control over your mobile OS -- iOS -- and the applications that run on it.

Except that's not actually true. You don't have full control over your mobile OS, because two of your default applications rely heavily on technology and data provided to you by Google, your greatest enemy. I am talking, of course, about YouTube and Google Maps, which have been part of iOS since the very first iPhone.

Removing YouTube is simple enough. Google wanted full control of the YouTube app, … Read more