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Siri Ported To iPhone 4 and iPod Touch 4G
Apple Revealed As Purchaser Of Mapping Tech Company C3
Nokia Vs. The Industry: A Look At The Global Battle Over Mobile Advertising [Infographic]
Daily Crunch: Glass

Siri Ported To iPhone 4 and iPod Touch 4G

Posted: 29 Oct 2011 11:06 PM PDT

In a moment as historic as Alexander Bell’s call to his assistant, an iPhone hacker wrote on Twitter that he had successfully ported Siri to the iPhone 4 and iPod Touch. He wrote “Actually, it just worked,” informing the world that he had completely ported Siri to the iPhone 4 and that more versions are on the way.

The hack requires a jailbroken device. By copying the app onto the device, the iPhone 4 can call up Siri and, more important, connect to the Siri servers. You can follow these instructions to install the app yourself and it seems to currently also work with the iPod Touch 4G although those instructions are forthcoming.

Mark Gurman at 9to5mac interviewed Steven Troughton-Smith, another iPod Touch/iPhone 4 hacker, answering a few questions about the feat:

Mark: Do you ever see Siri showing up in Cydia (or another jailbreak store) for non natively supported devices?

Steven: No, I could not be a part of that. I have no doubts that others will package this up and distribute it quasi-illegally, or try and sell it to people. I am only interested in the technology and making it work; proving that it works and works well on the iPhone 4 and other devices

Mark: So, you also got Siri working on the fourth-generation iPod touch, how is that working out?

Steven: We got chpwn's iPod touch up and running with Siri after proving it works on my iPhone 4. Unfortunately the microphone on the iPod is nowhere near as good as the iPhone – you will notice that the Siri level meter hardly moves when you talk to it. While it does work, you have to speak loudly and clearly to the iPod

We’ll give it a try this weekend and report back.

Apple Revealed As Purchaser Of Mapping Tech Company C3

Posted: 29 Oct 2011 04:49 PM PDT

Back in March, we posted a demo of C3 Technology’s extremely cool 3D maps. The reconstructions of landmarks and buildings are created by a technique (as I understand it) similar to the Kinect hack we posted that uses compiled depth and parallax data to continually build and refine a 3D model of whatever it’s looking at. C3′s version obviously works on a larger scale and thus has different strengths and requirements, but it’s almost completely automated as long as you can afford to send a plane or copter up with the equipment.

They were bought earlier this year, but the purchaser was not known at the time. 9to5Mac has been informed that the buyer was none other than Apple. It makes sense: Apple has bought two other mapping companies, Placebase in 2009 and Poly9 in 2010. It seems beyond a doubt that they are deep into a skunk works operation to revamp their maps.

The use of Google maps has always struck me as a bit incongruous with the rest of iOS — not that it doesn’t work well and look good, otherwise Apple would never have used it. But with the rivalry between Apple and Google growing more intense every year, having such a primary function of the iPhone essentially outsourced must have started to really rankle Apple.

Google actually fired the first shot: the latest version of Google Maps and Google Navigation, the ones with 3D buildings and so on, was unapologetically offered only on Android devices. I speculated at the time that this was Google beginning to turn the screws on Apple and differentiate by discriminating with their essential services. Apple, of course, was already planning for this, knowing they couldn’t have as good of a product at launch but also knowing that a few years of work might produce something even better.

The addition of C3′s technology puts a powerful tool in Apple’s hands, and of course takes that tool out of others’. Photorealistic 3D maps, likely with local business and deal overlays and traffic data (all areas where Apple has been buying companies, patenting ideas, or developing products), may be the major feature of the next release of iOS.

“Sputnik” is the name of the new team, and is based in Sweden, as C3 was originally. The reference to the early lead the commies (as we might have said at the time) had on the US during the space race is pretty clear.

The purchase amount was not revealed. The original report put the value of the company at a billion dollars, but based on Saab’s 57.8% stake being valued at $150 million, the total value of the company looks to be more like a quarter of a billion.

Nokia Vs. The Industry: A Look At The Global Battle Over Mobile Advertising [Infographic]

Posted: 29 Oct 2011 08:00 AM PDT

Mobile advertising as you’ve likely heard, is hott right now. (With two “t’s”, yes.) According to comScore, mobile advertising spend is projected to hit $2.5 billion by 2014, with $2.7 billion projected in mobile ad revenues for this year and $6.6 billion by 2016.

What’s more, in August, 84.5 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones, and that number continues to grow. In the U.S., the bigs in mobile OSes, Android, iOS, RIM, Symbian, and Windows, are duking it out for market share, with Android presently leading the pack. You can check out our post (and infographic) on the battle between iOS and Android for mobile advertising dominance here.

In Europe, the numbers for smartphone usage are very similar to the U.S.: As of July 2011, comScore reports, 88.4 million mobile subscribers (in the EU5) were using smartphones. Of the top smartphone platforms in Europe, Symbian led the way with 37.8 percent market share, with Android grabbing the second spot at 22.3 percent over iOS at 20.3 percent.

But what about the other players? Until Apple overtook it back in June of this year, Nokia was the largest manufacturer of smartphone devices by volume in the world. Earlier this year, Nokia loudly announced plans to replace Symbian and MeeGo with Windows Phone on most of its high end devices. The Finnish manufacturer has always had a wide array of products, but it’s struggled to find a foothold in the U.S. And, what’s more, it’s taken its fair share of heat in the press over the last 6 months.

The company’s new Windows phones won’t be hitting U.S. stores for at least a few more months, but as Chris pointed out earlier today, “these Windows Phones will be the first high-profile Nokia launches in years”, and no one is more aware of this than Nokia, which is struggling to maintain its relevance. As U.S. President of Nokia Operations Chris Weber said earlier this year about the company’s renewed focus on the U.S. market: “The reality is if we are not successful with Windows Phone, it doesn't matter what we do elsewhere.”

But, there is some hope. As Johnny Biggs wrote a few days ago, with Windows Phone, Nokia just may be poised to make a big comeback. Taking Apple’s table scraps and pushing RIM down may prove to be a good strategy for Nokia going forward, especially (as John points out) two familiar brands — Microsoft and Nokia — are better than one — RIM.

Nokia has been successful in Europe because its phones, stores, and service were local, useable, and cheap. If they can capitalize on brand recognition and first-time smartphone buyers, it just may work.

What’s more, thanks to a nifty infographic from inneractive, the mobile ad mediation platform, we have evidence of more good news for Nokia, and it comes in the form of mobile advertising.

As you’ll see below, Nokia’s absolute ad requests (which are what makes mobile advertising tick) continue to grow month-to-month, and when it comes to click-through-rates (CTR), Nokia has been consistently outperforming the rest of the industry (abroad), which includes the likes Android, iOS, and RIM.

As the infographic astutely reveals, with high ad requests and CTRs, this makes for a lot of happy Nokia developers and advertisers. Whether this trend can continue has Nokia moves its Windows Phone-powered devices into the U.S. remains to be seen, but, at the very least, it’s certainly a silver lining.

Without further ado, a look at global Nokia ad requests, CTR, distribution, and top countries:

(We’ll be updating with comparable fill rates and eCPM on Android and iOS for top European companies soon.)

Crunchbase

NOKIA

Company: Nokia

Website: nokia.com

IPO: NYSE:NOK

Nokia is a Finnish multinational communications corporation. It is primarily engaged in the manufacturing of mobile devices and in converging Internet and communications industries. They make a wide range of mobile devices with services and software that enable people to experience music, navigation, video, television, imaging, games, business mobility and more. Nokia is the owner of Symbian operation system and partially owns MeeGo operating system.

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