Yahoo has unveiled a new search for iOS Apps. Apple’s App Store has a nice detailed venue to discover iOS software, but there are flaws. Yahoo!, being one of the top search engines, led the search engine group in making this search engine. I’m surprised that Google and Microsoft being the huge companies they are didn’t fill the void themselves. Google usually dominates this type of search engine, but Yahoo! took it upon them. Yahoo!’s dedicated search engine is called Yahoo! App Search. Yahoo!’s search services go through standard app descriptors, but they also give the user recommendations. Yahoo! gives the user the ability to narrow categories down that search query, as well as user reviews on the web, ratings, and the usual options that Apple gives on their App Store.

iOS Apps have given the technology industry a huge uplift. Many companies will use it to their advantage to promote or make a profit off something as simple as a search engine. Yahoo! themselves have taken the iOS app into something everyone can use for something very useful. Yahoo! is also indexing Android apps and plans on adding other content stores in the future, including tablet apps for iPad, web apps for Facebook, Twitter and other services. Yahoo! might also widen their search engine to other mobile application stores. The iOS has changed the outlook on many companies because they can use the iOS application to their advantage. I hope many companies and the industry itself stays the way it is right now, because in the future, it will become a big part of the technology side of the world.

1. Apple
2. Google
3. Berkshire Hathaway
4. Southwest Airlines
5. Procter & Gamble
6. Coca-Cola
7. Amazon.com
8. FedEx
9. Microsoft
10. McDonald’s

As for my own opinion, I also admire Apple the most. What do you think? Leave a comment.

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There is also an alternative called the Google Way, which makes content free when it’s placed next to ads. The downside is that the content generator gets a tiny fraction of the minimal ad revenue generated.

A big issue about this is that Apple thinks it is simple that if Apple brings a new subscriber to the app, Apple should receive 30% of the revenue, but if a publisher brings an existing or new subscriber to the app, the publishers keeps all 100% of the revenue. But can you really say that Apple brought a person to the app if the person decides to search up the app for a subscription because they already knew ahead of time that they wanted to subscribe to that certain company? You can’t really say that Apple brought the customer to that app. Another big issue is that maybe companies will decide to not make an app to begin with anymore. Big companies may decide that they don’t need to provide their service on iOS devices. What will we do now? There are many issues that will arise from this and it would be best to avoid it. I think Apple should rethink their ideas.

Leave questions or comments below.

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You probably all noticed that when you use your apps, there might be ads somewhere on the side. There are many ad companies that are trying to take advantage of all the apps available to smart phones. Global mobile ad network InMobi is making a big step to gain smartphone ad share. Last year in June, InMobi offered a $2 million dollar promotion for Apple and Android mobile app developers. How did it work? Usually InMobi keeps 40% of the advertising revenue, while the developer takes 60%, but during the promotion, the developer takes 100% of the advertising revenue. That encouraged people to sign up. By October 2010, InMobi was serving up 5.8 billion ad impressions on smart phones. The iPhone holds the largest amount of ad impressions for any single device out their. InMobi has also stated that in December, Android surpassed iPhone OS in holding the largest amount of ad impressions.

Google also purchased AdMob last year. With mobile advertising greatly increasing, Google wants to take advantage of all the different apps that publishers and developers make. Mobile advertising plays an important role in the marketing force. Apple at first did not allow any third-party mobile advertisers on its iAds mobile advertising platform, but it changed its agreement to allow third-party ad publishers.

Another big factor in the amount of mobile ad impressions on Apple and Android smart phone devices is the amount of activation claims. There are sources that say that there is a 2.5 to 1 ratio of Apple iPhone sales to Verizon Droid sales, but than again, there are also many other Android devices on other carriers. With the iPhone 4 becoming available at Verizon on February 10, 2011, I think iPhone 4 activation claims will increase and the iPhone 4 will definitely increase in mobile ad impressions. Ad companies should definitely keep an eye on the iPhone 4.

What do you think?

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Now that I have expressed by grief, let’s get started on how we can access these services free through Google with a little help from Apple. I will only be covering the syncing features of: email, calendar, contacts, and the tracking service. However, if you want to sync photos, use Picasa. Picasa is straightforward and intuitive to setup. We will be using Google Sync, a service that is provided free to all Gmail and Google Apps users (like The Real Mac Genius.com Note: Google Apps Administrators must enable Google Sync). Google Sync synchronizes your email, calendar and contacts. To cover the tracking of your iDevices, we will use the kind help of Apple since they have enabled Find My iPhone/iPad for free – thanks Apple!

You might wonder, why is an Apple enthusiast blog advocating the use of Google instead of Apple’s service of MobileMe. Well the answers quite simple, “Why should users (Apple or not) need to pay for these services that are free.” Also, MobileMe is “OK”, so why don’t we just use services that are currently better. Overall, being raised from frugal parents, the best option is free.

Enough with the introduction, let’s start syncing.

Prerequisites:

-       20 Minutes of your time

-       iOS 4.2 running on your iDevice

-       Mac OS X 10.6

-       Gmail account or Google Apps (with Google Sync enabled) with IMAP enabled from the Settings

-       Apple ID (Apple IDs are created if you have ordered on the iTunes Store or Apple Online)

-       Backup of your: email, calendar, contacts – if something were to go wrong

Most access Gmail through the web interface, but if you like to use the native applications of Mail, let’s quickly go through how to enable the syncing of your contacts and calendar in Address Book and iCal.

Gmail will be used instead of writing Gmail and Google Apps.

Note: The Real Mac Genius.com is not responsible for any loss of data. It is your responsibility to backup your data.

Contacts

If Address Book is not open, go ahead and fire it up. Then on the top menu bar, click “Address Book” then “Preferences…” (Command + ,). Click on the “Accounts” tab and check “Synchronize with Google”. Enter your credentials for your Gmail account.

Leave Address Book running, your contacts will be coming in shortly.

Calendar

Launch iCal, if iCal is not already loaded. Like what we did in Address Book, navigate to the preferences of iCal. On the top of the menu bar find “iCal”, then “Preferences…” (Command + ,).  Navigate to the “Accounts” tab, then click the plus at the bottom left to add your Gmail account.

In the “Add an Account” box that has opened, change the account type from “Automatic” to “Google”. Then, enter your Gmail credentials, and click “create” when done.

Leave iCal running, your calendar will be coming in shortly.

Note: iCal, by default only shows one calendar. To enable more, go back to the “Accounts” tab in iCal Preferences (“iCal”, then “Preferences…” ).  Select your account, then click on the “Delegation” tab and check the “Accounts I can access:”, your calendars should populate the screen shortly.

Find my iPhone/iPad

Note: Setup is similar for iPad and iPod touch, the screenshots shown are of an iPhone.

On your iDevice, tap the Settings icon and chose Mail, Contacts, Calendars. Then the Add Account button and select MobileMe. Enter your Apple ID and password and press Next.

You will need to verify your Account. So navigate to the email of the Apple ID and verify. Click the Verify Now on the email sent by Apple.

Go back to the Mail, Contacts, Calendar screen and select the MobileMe account.  Then turn the Find My iPhone on, and tap allow at the prompt.

You can test Find My iPhone by logging into me.com.

Syncing on your iDevice

We will now add your Gmail account to your device. Tap Settings on the homescreen and select Mail, Contacts, Calendars. Then Tap Add Account… and select Microsoft Exchange.

Leave the Domain field blank. For the Username, enter your full Gmail address, then enter the password in the Password field and press Next. If Unable to Verify Certificate appears, tap Cancel.

When the Server field appears, enter: m.google.com and tap Next. Select the services you want to sync (Mail, Calendar, and Contacts).

Unless you wish to delete the existing Contacts and Calendars on the phone, select Keep on My iPhone.

Your device will start to populate with your contacts and calendar.

Success!

Hopefully, Google will implement editing on the iPhone and bring these features to the rest of the iOS family. For any regular Google Doc user, like us at The Real Mac Genius.com comes in handy!

The void has finally been filled with the launch of the Official Google Voice App for iPhone. Granted, a few brave souls have created Google Voice iPhone app, the Official Google Voice App provides features that are not present in the other applications such as Push Notification. Download the Google Voice App today, just sign in and your ready to place a call! It all begins here (Opens iTunes).

ChangeWave surveys also report satisfaction rates of the operating systems based on the percentage of people that are very satisfied with his or her operating system. 74% of customers who use the Apple iPhone OS are very satisfied. 65% of customers who use the Google Android OS are very satisfied. The satisfaction rate of the Apple iPhone OS and the Google Android OS are high compared to the satisfaction rate of the Palm OS/Web OS, BlackBerry RIM OS, and Windows Mobile. The Palm OS/Web OS satisfaction rate is a mere 32%. The BlackBerry RIM OS satisfaction rate is only 31% and the Windows Mobile satisfaction rate is only 24%.

In conclusion, the Google Android operating system is becoming the next best operating system, while the current number one operating system, the Apple iPhone operating system, is declining. The ChangeWave surveys demonstrate the upward momentum of the Google Android operating system and the downward momentum of the Apple iPhone operating system. Certain features are probably the reason behind the decline in the Apple iPhone operating system preference. The iPhone OS now allows you to multitask and organize folders, but the Android operating system already had those features. What do you think?

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Stop reading those rumor blogs (which have been on repeat since 2007) and start setting up your Google Voice number, which will allow you to shave some precious dollars off of your AT&T bill and introduce your iPhone to some next generation features.

Google Voice is free, and lets you create a new number (of your choice) and link it to your current mobile number. Calls, texting, and voicemail are all possible, linked to both numbers. This is all done Google style; call screening, in browser texting (on your PC), voicemail transcription, and contact-assignable custom voicemail greetings make you wonder why no wireless carriers have implemented these great online features.

Now to the money saving- you can actually cancel your texting plan (saving you ~$20/month), and effectively rely on Google Voice and your data/wifi connection; just make sure to give everyone your new number. Another plus – over wifi you can easily text, even without service. By default, Google forwards texts to  your old mobile number (you’d get charged for these) – but this is easily turned off, and you can access your inbox through the Google web App. While an official App Store app would be nice (Google doesn’t play those games), there are no real functionality limitations and it is amazingly fast for a webapp -probably the same speed as the native iPhone SMS app before the 4.0 update. There are no push notifications, but with the ability to email texts to a separate email address, this is not a problem. There is currently no MMS support, but there are many other (more efficient) options for sharing media.

Aside from eliminating your texting plan, Voice greatly enhances your texting and voicemail. Send and receive texts with your browser (using your keyboard!) – and your phone doesn’t have to leave your pocket. With the browser extension, texting becomes possible right on top of any web page. This makes it much more efficient, and much less distracting. While Apple’s visual voicemail is great, Voice takes it a step further, by transcribing and emailing voicemail right to your inbox. The transcriptions aren’t perfect, but they are easily decipherable, and are much more convenient than checking your voicemail traditionally. The audio is even embedded right into the email .

Google Voice is a pretty easy sell, saving you money on top of doing a lot more. When you create your number, make sure you think of a good word or two for your number to spell (you can search for a number by word) – that way you can tell everyone your number is 617-The-Dude (or something along those lines).

Now new hires are given the option of Apple’s Macintosh or to lead the way open source with Linux and its multitude of flavors. Some at Google may be saddened by the news, but others were already headed towards the Mac for security concerns. Other rumors are circulating that Google will run its Chrome OS, but it may not happen soon.

Unlike other large companies, Google has let their employees choose the OS of their choice. Should companies ban Windows because of the security risks they cause? Has Windows proven to be more of a hassle than help? Will other companies begin to eliminate Windows, or are does Windows control critical services unavailable on the Mac?

Let us know, leave a comment!