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]

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]

The iPhone turns into a stalking, four-legged spider in “Psycho Siri.”

(Credit:
Screnshot by David Carnoy/CNET)

There have been plenty of Siri parodies but a new one entitled “Psycho Siri” is being lauded as one of the best yet.

Made by andrewm films, the short four-minute video, which carries the one-line synopsis, “An abandoned iPhone turns out to be a killer of a deal,” is quickly racking up the hits on YouTube.

It’s got some nice special effects and a couple of memorable lines, including:

“I overheard you saying something about you selling me. I’m afraid I can’t let that happen.”

Creepy.

Source: The Next Web via Cult of Mac.

[Read more]

One of the most powerful data sets on your iOS device is your list of contacts. Many of the amazing features the iPhone and iPad have are predicated on the information available from your address book. To help get the most out of your iDevice experience, you can use Twitter to beef up your contacts.

iOS 5 added quite a bit of Twitter integration, including the ability to automatically retrieve usernames and profile photos for any of your contacts who have Twitter accounts.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Joe Aimonetti)

Essentially, if your contact has an e-mail address associated with a Twitter account, you can choose to use the profile photo associated with that account as your contact’s photo, as well as add that person’s Twitter username to contact information on your device.

To get your contacts synced with Twitter:

Open Settings on your iOS device and tap Twitter.Sign in to your own Twitter account (if you haven’t already).Tap the “Update Contacts” button and wait for the sync to happen.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Joe Aimonetti)

Now, when you access your contacts, you can tap on the Twitter account name to send your friend a tweet (directly from iOS) or check out what your friend has been tweeting (which opens the Twitter app on your device). Of course, you can also manually add Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Flickr, a… [Read more]

Apple was named the best-selling U.S. handset brand during the fourth quarter, according to a new report from the NPD Group.

However, the findings suggest that while iOS has won this battle, Android is really winning the war.

Take a look at the graph below:

(Credit:
The NPD Group)

Not only do 48 percent of all smartphone buyers own Android smartphones (versus a close 43 percent on iOS), there is a much bigger disparity for first-time smartphone buyers. Android is attracting more than half of them at 57 percent, while Apple is considerably behind at 34 percent.

Related storiesiPhone soaks up 75 percent of all mobile phone profitsiPhone 4S propels Apple to massive earningsiPhone 4S pushes Apple into No. 3 spot for global phone salesApple tops in smartphone sales, but Samsung hot on its heels

There are several po… [Read more]

A diagram of Audience's sales pitch: identify the speaker's voice and isolate it from background noise.

(Credit:
Audience)

Apple ‘s A5 processor includes noise-reduction circuitry licensed from a start-up called Audience, and a chip analyst believes that fact resolves an iPhone 4S mystery and explains why the iPhone 4 lacks the Siri voice-control system.

Audience revealed details of its Apple partnership in January, when it filed paperwork for an initial public offering (IPO) of stock. Teardown work from iFixit and Chipworks revealed a dedicated Audience chip in the iPhone 4, but the iPhone 4S integrates Audience’s “EarSmart” technology directly into the A5 processor, the company’s S-1 filing said.

The details answered a question that Linley Group analyst Linley Gwennap had about the A5 chip that powers the iPhone 4S: why is it so big? Larger processors are more expensive and can consume more power, and chip designers strive to trim every last square millimeter fr… [Read more]