Because sometimes Siri is just a little too snarky…

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Screenshot by Eric Mack/CNET)

If you’ve ever wanted to take out the day’s frustrations on your iPhone , go grab the nearest hockey stick and get ready to vent.

Today, G-Form–the Rhode Island company behind heavy-duty iPad covers that it likes to test by dropping tablets from great heights–is debuting its first rugged protective cases for the iPhone 4 and 4S. True to form, the product demonstration for the new “X-Protect” case is pretty punishing.

Check out the video below to see the $39.95 case turned into a puck and surviving what G-Form claims is an 82 mph slapshot. The iPhone case is also available in different colors and in an “Extreme Grid” design. It can be preordered now and is set to arrive by the end of the month.

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Snap! The Gizmon iCA makes your iPhone look like a vintage camera.

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Shawn Low/CNET Asia)

YOKOHAMA, Japan–We’ve previously reported on the Gizmon iCA, an iPhone case that makes your smartphone look like a vintage rangefinder. The company was at the CP+ Camera and Photo Imaging Show, and we learned it has plans to launch a whole system of special-effect lenses and accessories for its flagship case soon.

New filters and accessories are coming for the Gizmon iCA.

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Shawn Low/CNET Asia)

In addition to the fisheye and macro lenses already available, future attachments will include tele, wide, tunnel effector, mirage, and circular polarizing special-effects filters. Sure, some of these effects could be easily reproduced using apps, but doing it the old-fashioned way and getting it right the first time without post-processing has a certain appeal. Other accessories include a car stand, mounted flash unit, mini tripod, remote shutter release, and silencer.

Admittedly, we’re fans of vintage film cameras and therefore found the iCA case to be pretty interesting during our brief hands-on with it. The prospect of “pimping” our smartphones is irresistible, especially with a range of optional attac… [Read more]

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Samsung,Apple )

Apple and Samsung together hoovered up more than 95 percent of mobile phone profits last quarter, leaving little left for other players, says Canaccord Genuity analyst Michael Walkley.

Actually, there wasn’t a whole lot left for Samsung, either, once Apple was done with things.

With strong demand for the iPhone 4S, Apple alone took home around 80 percent of all mobile phone profits in the fourth quarter, up from just 56 percent in the third quarter, according to the analyst. Yet the company holds just 8.1 percent of the global mobile phone market.

At the same time, Samsung’s share of industry profits shrank to 15 percent from 26 percent, but its share of Android customers jumped to 39 percent from 35 percent.

For the quarter, Apple sold 37 million iPhones, helping it ring up overall earnings of $13 billion. Samsung didn’t reveal how many smartphones it sold, but one analyst pegged the number as high as 35 million.

Apple and Samsung spent the better part of 2011 battling each other for the top crown. C… [Read more]

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Screenshot by Rafe Needleman/CNET)

The great, free car navigation app Waze (see Rafe Recommends) is getting an update today that gives it a limited hands-free, voice-controlled interface.

Waze is now perhaps the only app to use the phone’s promixity sensor to turn on the input interface, since Google removed that feature from its iPhone Search app. A wave of the hand over the iPhone brings up the voice control prompt.

Waze only accepts a limited set of voice commands. You can navigate to two pre-sets (“Drive to home,” and “drive to work”), and you can create traffic alerts, to tell other Waze users about traffic jams, hazards, or police sightings.

It is a fun little update, but more tantalizing than truly useful. Other than your home or work, you can’t enter an address or location while on the move, even if it’s a pre-set. So much for “navigate to school,” for parents going to get their kids. And while use of the proximity sensor is nice, apps can have useful and safe eyes-off controls without it: The podcast app Downcast uses a double-tap to pause and resume playback, and broad gestures for functions like rewind.

One upside of the extremely limited vocabulary is that it should m… [Read more]

Apple has finally scored a win in its never-ending patent battles with Motorola Mobility.

A German judge today found that the iPhone maker did not infringe on a Motorola patent related to wireless technology, according to Florian Mueller’s Foss Patents legal blog.

The patent in question covers 3G/UMTS wireless communications and in tech jargon refers to a “method and system for generating a complex pseudonoise sequence for processing a code division multiple access [CDMA] signal.”

Motorola had argued that any use of 3G/UMTS by Apple would violate the patent. But Judge Andreas Voss was unconvinced, finding that Motorola failed to provide evidence that any Apple products had adopted the specific invention either through hardware or software code.

“Since the asserted patent claim is centered around the ‘means’ used to generate a number that optimizes wireless transmissions, the court would have wanted to see proof that Apple ‘s products contain such ‘means,’” explained Mueller. “[Motorola Mobility] didn’t show any kind of actual implementation (neither hardware nor software), and arguing merely on the basis of the specifications of the standard was insufficient to win.”

… [Read more]

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Apple )

If you were still wondering whether the iPhone had made a significant mark on society, news that London’s Kensington and Chelsea College has a course offering students the ability to learn iPhoneography (the art of taking photographs with your iPhone ) should be enough to answer the question.

The new evening course will be entirely devoted to teaching students how to snap photographs on their iPhones, send them to various post-production processing apps, and create stunning pictures, according to a report by the BBC.

Richard Gray, the instructor for the course, claims that, “with the right apps and skills, the iPhone can be a powerful creative tool.”

I couldn’t agree more. The old adage rings truest here: “the best camera is the one you have with you.” Can you remember the last time you went somewhere without your iPhone ? I can’t. As a fashion photographer, I am certainly used to the fancier digital cameras available, but there is no way I’m going to carry one around wherever I go.

Instead, it’s my iPhone that ends up capturing the day-to-day things I want to recall, often posted to Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook after being processed by any number of apps.

Related stories… [Read more]

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IDC)

Apple has been crowned the victor in last quarter’s smartphone wars by yet another research firm.

Among the top five global manufacturers, Apple grabbed the top spot with a market share of 23.5 percent, according to IDC. That proved a healthy gain over the 15.9 percent share from a year ago.

The iPhone maker also shipped the greatest number of phones last quarter at 37 million, compared with just 16.2 million in 2010′s fourth quarter.

Brisk sales for the iPhone 4S helped Apple narrowly surpass its smartphone rival Samsung. The Korean handset maker’s share rose to 22.8 percent, a leap from 9.4 percent last year. Samsung shipped 36 million phones for the quarter, just a percentage point behind Apple .

The new iPhone helped Apple achieve a record number of shipments, both for itself and across the entire industry, according to IDC.

The heavy demand came despite some initial disappointment that the iPhone 4S would not be the rumored iPhone 5 with a larger screen size and other whiz-bang fatures. But the combination of holiday shopping, a delay in the iPhone ‘s launch to the fourth quarter, and the addition of Sprint as a carrier all added up to higher volumes.

Samsung may have come in second for the quarter but its 275 percent growth in shipments was tops among all five vendors. The company kept expanding its Galaxy-class lineup, focusing on both high-end handsets such as the G… [Read more]

According to a report from AppleInsider, oil field services provider Halliburton has decided to drop Research In Motion’s BlackBerry platform in favor of Apple ‘s iOS for its workforce.

An internal newsletter outlined the plan for the nearly 70,000 employees who work for Halliburton in more than 70 countries. “Over the next year, we will begin expanding the use of our mobile technology by transitioning from the BlackBerry (RIM) platform that we currently use to smartphone technology via the iPhone .”

After what is dubbed as significant research, Halliburton determined that Apple ‘s iOS offers greater security, capabilities, and control when considering future app development for the company.

Related storiesiPhone soaks up 75 percent of all mobile phone profitsRIM cuts BlackBerry PlayBook prices again–but should you buy in?Apple ‘s smartphone share rises, but Android still on top

Of course this is a huge blow to RIM as it continues to fall from its once … [Read more]

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There must be hundreds, if not thousands, of to-do-list management apps in the iTunes App Store, but which one should you choose?

I found a couple of new task management apps recently that add something extra to the category. But using them made me realize that an old favorite of mine still stood up to the test of time and remains a great choice for lists and tasks.

It’s no secret that many people like to use lists to get through daily projects, but when you have a task manager on your iPhone , you get handy additions like alerts, notifications, and editable tasks when your goals change. Whether you’re just making a grocery list or planning a big business project, a good task management app can focus your efforts and keep you on point for success.

This week’s iOS apps are all to-do-list managers that go the extra mile to simplify your projects. The first is an old favorite of mine that separates tasks into color-coded tabs and lets you store notes and ideas. The second turns your task list into a role-playing game with experience, leveling, and loot to reward your hard work. The third relies on simplicity and excellent design to make task management easy.

Color-coded categories make it easy to get the lists you want immediately.

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Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET)

… [Read more]

Apple may not be the world’s leading mobile phone maker but its cut of both profits and sales puts it firmly at the top.

Though it holds only around 9 percent of the global mobile phone market, Apple raked in 75 percent of all profits across the industry last quarter, according to Asymco analyst Horace Dediu.

That left rival Samsung with 16 percent of the profit pie, RIM with 3.7 percent, HTC with 3 percent, and Nokia rounding out the list of 1.8 percent. All together that pie represents around $15 billion in profits for the final quarter of 2011.

With heavy demand for the iPhone 4S, Apple also regained the top spot in mobile phone sales, capturing almost 40 percent of the industry’s overall revenue. Samsung took second place with 25 percent of all sales, followed by Nokia with 12.6 percent and RIM with 8 percent, according to Dediu’s calculations.

Drilling down further, HTC accounted for 5.5 percent of all mobile phone sales, Motorola 4.4 percent, and Sony Ericsson 2.7 percent.

Related storiesiPhone 4S propels Apple to massive earnings… [Read more]