News

Apple surpassed multi-year leader Samsung to become the top selling mobile phone vendor in the US during the fourth quarter of 2012. Strategy Analytics estimates that Apple sold a whopping 17.7 million mobile phones for a record 34 percent market share. Samsung fell to second place with 16.8 million phones shipped in the same period, adding up to 32 percent of the US market.

According to NPD Group, the iPhone 5 was the top selling smartphone in the US during the last quarter, followed by the Samsung Galaxy S III. The iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, and Samsung Galaxy S II were in third, fourth and fifth place respectively. There's nothing like a new product launch right before the holidays to drive sales. The iPhone 5 made up 43 percent of all iPhone sales, and accounted for almost two thirds of all post-paid smartphones above $199.

T-Mobile will finally offer Apple products early in 2013. Millions of iPhone users already count T-Mobile as their wireless carrier, even though an official deal between Apple and the company is fresh off the presses. Details are lacking, however 9to5 Mac reports other carriers are interested in T-Mobile's plans to eliminate subsidies.

It's possible T-Mobile could offer its iPhone purchasers a lower up-front cost along with a monthly installment plan, spreading the total cost of a new device across 20 payments. These individual installments would cost around $15-20 per month and could be billed with the wireless subscription plan.

National Geographic has updated their first-rate World Atlas iOS app to version 3.0.1 and is celebrating the occasion by offering the software for free. iPad, iPhone and iPod touch users can grab a copy sans charge for a limited time. The download tops 203 MB so a Wi-Fi connection is required.

The World Atlas application features Retina display compatibility, a redesigned user interface and added features, along with National Geographic's impeccable research and cartography. All maps have been updated for 2013 and can be viewed in antique, classic, road map or satellite modes. Built-in measurement tools can be used to compute distances accurately.

If you're like me and ignore all app updates, or delete games if they're not updated every 20 seconds, you'll want to check your Middle Manager of Justice app. The new game from Double Fine Productions has received its first and much needed update. Version 1.1.0 brings a Valentine's Day mystery that you must solve in 29 days, new items to buy (Grass-fed Yak!) and a new mystery hero. The new version also fixes a few bugs, adds some new villains and achievements, and offers better iCloud support.

I wish the update brought more customization for your office building, and more costumes, but I'll take this for now. Hopefully the Double Fine Productions team has many more updates planned for the future.

This is not a drill. Unlike some of the fake iPhone 5 jailbreaks we've seen in the recent past, evasi0n is for real. The software will be supported on Linux, Mac OS X and Windows machines, and jailbreak all devices running iOS 6.0 through 6.1.

The project comes from the evad3rs, a team which includes some familiar names from the jailbreak community. MuscleNerd, pimskeks, planetbeing, and pod2g are currently finishing work on the graphical user interface and report that evasi0n is now 60 percent complete. Private beta testing is next.