Gameloft is giving off their latest car racing game, Asphalt 6, absolutely free! Usually, offers like these do not last longer than 24 hours so you might want to get it now if you’re the least bit interested.

It’s a big file download (545mb) so you can only download it if you’re on wifi or if you go through the iTunes store on your computer. All you have to do to be sure you get it before it is made $10 again is to click on the install button and enter your password. You don’t have to complete the download before the sale is over.

As expected, the game is already number 1 on the top free apps chart.

Get it now, and thank me later. It’s a really nice game.

It appears that the much awaited update to Apple’s famous iOS Software for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch appears almost set for launch as the last beta version (iOS 5 beta 8 ) is set to drop this Friday, 16th September (for developers only).

I have tried my hands on iOS 5 beta 7 which turned out to be quite buggy. Apple, as always, will definitely iron out all the glitches before its final release which is anticipated to be sometime in the next 3 weeks together with the rumoured iPhone 5 launch. I don’t know about you guys but Apple ‘fans’ around the world are already getting excited. (I know I can’t wait to get my hands-on review of the iPhone 5 here).

Among the over 200 new features that iOS 5 sports, my personal favourites are listed below:

1. Facetime over 3G

2. Nuance’s text-to-speech feature

3. New Notification Centre : The revamped notification style in iOS is a beauty to watch and a breeze to use.

4. Reminders App: This app comes with the ability to remind you to do something when you leave a certain location, or when you arrive at a destination.

5. iMessage App: Finally!!! My answer to all my friends asking for my BB pin. iMessage is Apple’s BBM style social messaging app. It’s exclusive to all iOS devices.

6. Twitter integration: With this new feature, you only have to login once for all your tweeting needs. You can tweet from almost anywhere in the iOS.

7. iReader in Safari: This feature, according to Apple, is just ‘phenomenal’. It gets rid of all the clutter in safari while reading webpages and sets the font size just right.

Let me know your thoughts.

What is your most anticipated feature in iOS 5?

It is no state secret that the latest Apple firmware for its iOS devices has been released. In fact, it went on air since Monday, 22nd November 2010. The update came with several new innovative features and a compelling ground for anyone using an iOS device to upgrade.

The devices supported in this update are the iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, Iphone 4, iPod Touch 2G, iPod Touch 3G, iPod Touch 4G and the iPad.

There are said to be more than a 100 new features and tweaks to the iOS 4.2.1. I would only list a few of the major new features relevant to our environment (Nigeria) and peculiar to this particular update are;

1. Airprint
   AirPrint makes it simple to print email, photos, web pages and documents right from your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. All you need to use this feature are a few taps and availability of Wi-Fi and a Wi-Fi compatible Printer. There isn’t any new needed software to download, no drivers to install and no cables to connect before using Airprint.
2. Airplay
   AirPlay allows you stream digital media wirelessly from your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch to your Apple TV or AirPlay-enabled speakers. So you can watch films and photos on your widescreen TV and play music through the best speakers in the house through Wi-Fi or yourinternet broadband.

3. Enhanced enterprise support
   Businesses can take advantage of stronger security features, new device management capabilities and improved enterprise integration.

4. Multitasking on iPad
   This is a new feature for the iPad. Any need to say that other iDevices have been enjoying this for long? iOS 4.2 brings multitasking from iPhone and iPod touch to iPad. The implementation of the multi-tasking is okay, every running apps work smoothly and efficiently — without slowing down the performance of the foreground app or draining the battery unnecessarily.

5. Folders on iPad
   Also new to the iPad. The ipad now has more rooms for more apps. You can now move apps into folders with drag-and-drop simplicity to declutter your Home screens and keep your apps organized for quick access. Should I say that I find this functionality invaluable for my iDevice. At last count the total number of apps on my iPod touch 4G/iphone 3G was about 312! About 5.3 Gigabyte in size! And there is no slowing of the UI or memory error on account of these number and size of apps! SO this option was really cool for me to keep my apps organized

6. Game Center
   Also new for the iPad. You can get more social with your gaming, Find friends or use auto-match to play multiplayer games against new opponents. Track achievements and compare high scores.

7. Even better Mail
   You can now See messages from all your accounts in a unified inbox (New to ipad) or separately. You can now also organize messages by threads and open attachments in third-party apps.

8. Find My iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch
   Find My iPhone, iPad or iPod touch is the MobileMe feature that actually helps you locate your missing iDevice in real time and protect its data. The icing of the cake is that it is now free on any iPhone 4, iPad or fourth-generation iPod touch running iOS 4.2.1. Once you set it up, you can find your lost device on a map, display a message on its screen, remotely set a passcode lock and initiate a remote wipe to delete your data. And if you eventually find your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch, you can restore everything from your last backup. Set up is easy; Just read the step by step guide at: www.apple.com/uk/ipodtouch/find-my-ipodtouch-setup/.

Other features include: Find text on web pages in Safari, Notes with fonts, Reply to calendar invitations, Keyboard and dictionary enhancements, Accessibility enhancements, and a host of others.

Conclusion
The ios 4.2.1 is a welcome update to anyone using any iOS devices. I just got an iPod touch 4th Generation, and after upgrading to to 4.2.1 (8C148), the improvement in the User interface along with the everyday usability tweaks in the new firmware was profound.

An area of praise is the Find My iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch feature. It used to be a paid service but it is now free. All you need to do is to sign up for a free mobileme service in your iDevice, if you don’t have an account before and then activate the Find My iPhone, iPad or iPod touch feature under settings in your device. And presto, you can now go! If peradventure you misplaced your iDevice, all you need to then do is to Sign in to me.com from a computer to see your iPod touch on a map, or display a message on it or set a passcode lock. Or you can even remotely wipe it!

You can also do these on another iDevice after installing a Find my iphone app! This is a Neat feature, if you ask me.

So what are you waiting for? Go update your ipad or ipod touch! But there is a word of caution to be sounded at this moment. If you are using a Jailbroken iPhone, then you MUSTN’T upgrade immediately, or otherwise you would Re-Lock your phone. You need to wait until a Jailbreak for the new version is available before upgrading to iOS 4.2.1.

I got my hands on an iPhone 3GS 8GB early today, and as usual I will be putting up a review of the device here on Mobility Nigeria.

While some may consider the 3GS a little old (it was released back in June 2009), the consequences of its age are not so severe, seeing that it runs the latest iOS versions. Minus the higher resolution display, higher specified camera, video calling, and some other features, the 3GS is a pretty much up-to-date device in the iPhone world.

Here are the specifications:

• iOS 4.1
• Weight: 135g
• Size: 115.5 x 62.1 x 12.3 mm
• 3.15 MP camera with autofocus
• 3.5-inch TFT capacitive touchscreen that displays 16 million colors at 320 x 480 pixels with Scratch-resistant surface
• 8 GB internal storage, 256 MB RAM
• ARM Cortex A8 600 MHz, PowerVR SGX535 graphics
• GPRS/EDGE/UMTS/HSDPA
• Multi-tasking
• Cut, copy, and paste
• TV-out
• GPS with A-GPS support
• Wi-Fi 802.11b/g, Bluetooth v2.1, USB 2.0
• 3.5 mm headset jack

First Impressions

The 3GS looks sleek and feels good in the hands. Turn on that screen and it looks even better.

Setting it up was just as easy as setting up my X10 Mini Pro. By setting up, I mean getting my contacts, mails and calendar entries on it. All I had to do was setup an Exchange account with my Google Apps email and in a few moments, I was home dry. This is something that Samsung/Bada and Nokia/Symbian in particular need to learn from and implement well. I remember the nightmares that I had setting up the S8003 Jet and N900.

Of course, for the very first time in my life I had to download and install iTunes (eeeek!) to my netbook. I connected the 3GS to my netbook and was prompted to setup an iTunes account. Thereafter, I was notified of an iOS 4.1 update, which I am currently running.

In the meantime, email looks good, web browsing has been good. My network’s internet settings were downloaded in the background and everything that needs data just worked out of the box. I am also glad that multi-tasking is here on the 3GS, as the absence of that would have been an immediate turn-off for me. I am also happy to see the cut, copy, and paste function.

Oh, I must mention too that taking screenshots is dead easy! Phew! No rooting; no hunting for 3rd party apps; no PC needed.

After completing the ongoing firmware update, I intend to download some free apps from the Appstore, including: Yahoo Messenger, Skype, and hopefully DropBox.

In the meantime, I am having to copy my files (documents, music, and video) from my MicroSD card to my PC so iTunes can sync them to the 3GS later. Why didn’t Apple just put a MicroSD card slot on this thing? Everything has to go through iTunes. Sheessh.

Anyway, so far so good. The 3GS has left me with good impressions and I look forward to bringing you the usual drill.

Just last week, Mobility Nigeria’s top executive, Mr. Yomi Adegboye published an article on the state of the Nigerian mobile ecosystem about new trends in the Nigerian mobile space. In that article, he dropped the hint that the Apple iPhone would soon be available from one of the major GSM network carriers in Nigeria.

Well, over the weekend MTN Nigeria published an announcement introducing “Micro SIM cards for the Apple iPad and iPhone 4 users in Nigeria” in the Sunday Vanguard Newspaper.

The MTN announcement noted that “in keeping with the fast pace of innovation in telecom services,” they have now introduced Micro SIM cards for use in compatible devices such as the Apple’s iPad and iPhone 4 Smartphones.

This micro-SIM card is said to measure 12 X 15mm and it is a diminutive plastic card about 52% smaller than a standard SIM card, and also has adequate storage space on chip for provider applications, increased control and security functions.

MTN Nigeria boasted that their customers “will be the first to in Nigeria to benefit from convenient access to Micro SIM cards”. The Micro SIM card would be available to both their pre-paid and post-paid customers at a cost of only 1,000 NGN.

This news though laudable still falls short of bringing the iPhone 4 and other iOS devices to Nigeria. Can we rightfully imply that with this announcement, MTN is preparing the ground for a more formal launch of the iPhone in Nigeria? Your guess is probably as good as mine. We can only wait and see.

The mobile ecosystem in Nigeria sure is changing – and almost too fast to keep up with.

Nokia has been in the news of late and they appear to be a key pivot in this change. For the first time, a manufacturer is taking pre-orders for a mobile device (the Nokia N8). For the first time in Nigeria, a manufacturer is meeting with developers, listening and actively supporting them. For the first time, we have a Nigerian-made application pre-installed on a smartphone (GTB app on the Nokia N8).

To add more spice, for the first time, a manufacturer is interested in sending out review units of their devices. Back at Mobifest 2010, I had spoken with Praveen Shetty, Head of Solutions at Nokia West Africa about getting review devices to Mobility Nigeria. At our meeting yesterday, he confirmed that he would work towards getting a Nokia N8 across to me for review once the first shipment arrives.

So, we can keep our fingers crossed and expect a detailed N8 review, all other things being equal.

I had a brief feel of the N8 at Nokia yesterday (both Praveen and Teemu had one each). Seeing and handling one in the flesh left good impressions. I can’t answer any questions on the N8 now, as my time with it was brief, but I am certainly looking forward to a review.

Nokia is not the only company rocking the boat. While I also cannot give details, I have it on good authority (this is not a rumour but a done deal) that the iPhone is coming to a Nigerian network soon. No; I can’t tell beyond this, so don’t ask.

Moving away from devices, there appears to be some progress on the m-commerce front. I gather that VTN is test-running their m-payment platform right now. MMIT is also at an advanced stage, having sucessfully sent money across national borders. The GTBank app pre-installed on the Nokia N8 already has me looking forward to using the device.

Once the hurdles of regulations are crossed, we can start rocking. We are looking forward to seeing home-grown apps and m-commerce blossoming.

The Nigerian mobile ecosystem is about to explode. Exciting days are ahead of us. Welcome to new possibilities!

Though it can be argued, I still believe that the Apple AppStore is the undisputed leader among mobile phone third party applications stores. Reports from several sources now show that the Apple app store has exceeded the 300,000 mark. This feat was accomplished in less than 2 months after it passed 250,000 applications count.

Gsmarena reported today that a “report from Mobclix puts the app count at just over 300 thousand and another report from 148Apps puts the count at 333 thousand (in the US App Store, counting inactive apps too)”.

By the way, the breakdown of the 300,000+ available apps is as follows:

• Paid apps: 207,000 (69%)
• Free apps: 94,000 (31%)

On the other hand, 50,000 of the total apps are books. These “book apps” may not be fully classified as Apps in the strict sense of the word, but they usually offer more functionality for instance than ebooks from the ibooks store or amazon. Even with this factored in, 250,000 apps is still more than 2 times larger than the nearest competitor which is the Android Application store that has 100,000 apps.

The true empowering apps are games which number 50,000. Games are an important part of any Smartphone ecosystem and also important in this statistics, because the Top 5 application titles in both the paid and free rankings are games.

An intriguing area to look into is the average cost for games. Games in the App Store cost an average 1.21 US dollars and other apps go for 2.85 USD on average. Apple has also changed their store policy and has made it more Developer friendly because the average time Developers have to wait to get their app/game approved is less than two weeks!

Via: Gsmarena

You have to give it to the guys over at Nokia Conversations. They have a tongue-in-cheek article in which they go into details about how you are free to hold your Nokia phones in a variety of ways without impacting signal reception.

By now, you know what iDevice the jab is at. And it is a pretty good one too. An excerpt:

The key function on any Nokia device is its ability to make phone calls. After all, that’s why we know them universally as mobile phones (or smart phones, feature phones or mobile computers – though the same grip styles work for those, too). One of the main things we’ve found about the 1 billion plus Nokia devices that are in use today is that when making a phone call, people generally tend to hold their phone like a…. well, like a phone. Providing a wide range of methods and grips for people to hold their phones, without interfering with the antennae, has been an essential feature of every device Nokia has built.

How’s that for some light relief?

As reported on engadget.com:

“It’s oftentimes easy for us to get swept up in Android mania and forget that Google’s mobile platform is still in its infancy. Then we get cold hard numbers like these — showing iPhone OS owning 28 percent of the US Smartphone market and closing in on RIM’s leading 35 percent — and we face up to the realization that Android handsets still account for less than one in every ten Smartphones owned by Americans today.”

Engadget was reporting on the Nielson Company’s findings on the Android versus iPhone marketshare battle.

From the Nielson report:

Between Q4 ’09 and Q1 ’10, Android and iPhone’s share of the smartphone market grew by 2% each. At the same time, smartphone leader Blackberry lost 2% share to fall to 35% of all smartphones while Microsoft’s Windows Mobile OS also lost 2% to fall to 19%.

Apparently, Android and iPhone devices are eating away into RIM’s Blackberry marketshare in the US and Android is yet to catch up with the iPhone in terms of total sales. This contradicts an earlier claim by NPD that Android had overtaken iPhone in the US market.

Readers will also be interested in Apple’s refutal of the NPD figures, of which Engadget rightly pointed out that Apple was “not disputing NPD’s report here — rather, they’re simply trying to change the subject, as any properly-trained PR department would.”

Another intriguing fact in this research was that there is strong loyalty amongst Android and iPhone owners/users. This insight from the research shows that 80 percent of iPhone owners and 70 percent of Android owners express a preference for the same OS in their next phone.

In contrast, Microsoft and RIM’s loyalty numbers stood at 34 and 47 percent respectively.

The Nielson report covers the US only and does not reflect global trends. The U.S. remains a small fraction of the global smartphone market, where both Android and iPhone, while growing, remain small players.

Here in Nigeria, both platforms have an insignificant standing with the smartphone market massively dominated by Symbian, followed from a distance by RIM (BlackBerry) and Windows Mobile.

The headline of this post is straight up from John Strand of Strand Consulting, a company that is regarded as one of the leading authorities on mobile technologies, business and revenue models and distribution strategies.

John Strand, very much like myself, has chosen to face reality and tell it as it is than swim in the waves of euphoria and hysteria. He starts off a very informative article with the following paragraphs:

A lot has been said and written about the iPhone and there is no doubt that Apple has created a beautiful phone that has many fans and that has received a great deal of media coverage. In fact, Apple has an army of devoted and almost religious supporters among journalists and other good people that really impresses me.

But the truth of the matter is that the iPhone only has a little over 1% of the total global mobile telephone market. In other words, there are more people with Polish passports in the world than iPhone users!

When Apple originally launched the iPhone in January 2007 many people asked me for my opinion. My answer was the same back then as it is today; it is a beautiful phone targeted at a niche segment and that it will be unlikely to have any great influence on a mobile operator’s total business case.

In this write-up, John mentions a Danish company contacting him about a new app they had developed for the iPhone – and how they were very angry when he told them that they would probably have a better business case selling coffee to Turkey than selling apps for the iPhone.

It is the same absurdity that we see with web designers creating iPhone-specific sites – that is they are targetting a mobile phone that only has around 1% of world sales. That is foolishness – the same foolishness that Dennis Bournique pointed out when he wrote iPhone Only Web Sites Are Bad Business.

It is also the same absurdity that I addressed in my article, iPhone myths propagated by US bloggers – and no, I am not anti-American, anti-Apple or anti-iPhone either. I just cannot bear to see facts twisted.

But my favourite line from John Strand’s article is the one that reads: “The iPhone reminds me of Paris Hilton – I really don’t understand why she gets so much attention either!”

Read the full report, John Strand: “No I do not hate the iPhone”. Enjoy!

Word is just out from Cupertino, Apple Head Quarters, that Steve Jobs will deliver the keynote address of the WWDC. The WWDC is the Annual worldwide Developers Conference for Apple where they use to launch new product line and the concept of the next phase of Apple products, inclusive of their MAC OS X, iphone and ipod range of products.

This year’s conference for Apple developers begins June 7, 2010. Apple’s chief executive has said once again through e-mail that Apple fans “won’t be disappointed” and that there’s “Not a chance” that Google’s Android is surpassing the iPhone.

Of course this is expected of Steve Jobs whose wind was taken out of him earlier when a research from NPD noted that the sales of Android phones in the US has surpassed that of the iphone for the first time.

On top of all these have been iphone leaks on the internet which has revealed core features of the upcoming iphone. According to Gizmodo.com (one of the sources of the leaks), the iphone 4g or HD (the name of the next generation isn’t determined yet) has improved hardware which include a front-facing camera and higher-resolution screen which definitely will make the next gen iphone up to speed and features with the latest Android phones from HTC and Samsung for instance.

There is actually no word exactly what Jobs will use the platform to announce, but the bet is that an official announcement of the 4th-generation iPhone will be made. The event is targeted at Apple developers and was sold out in eight days. Application Frameworks; Internet & Web; Graphics & Media; Developer Tools; and Core OS will be discussed.

This seems nice and timely and it is actually difficult to keep up with the wait, even though June 7th is just next week away. There would be a lot of other goodies for sure along with the repositioning of the iphone and similar products.

First quarter 2010 information from The NPD Group’s Mobile Phone Track reveals a shift in the smartphone market, as Android OS edged out Apple’s OS for the number-two position behind RIM.

Here’s how it plays out at the moment in the U.S. market:

1. BlackBerry: 36%
2. Android: 28%
3. iPhone: 21%

Here at MobilityNigeria, I have maintained that the OS that threatens Symbian is not Apple’s iPhone but Google’s Android. Android combines a fluid user interface with advanced functionality and wider reach than iPhone OS does. It is logical; isn’t it?

Well, here we go. Give Android a few more years and we’ll see.

Read the full report from NDP: Android Shakes Up U.S. Smartphone Market