Software : Huge spike in iOS 6 adoption looks tied to Google Maps

Huge spike in iOS 6 adoption looks tied to Google Maps
Twitter rolls out downloadable tweets archive
Intelecom links Connect to social media
Much-needed Apple Maps help could come from Foursquare

Huge spike in iOS 6 adoption looks tied to Google Maps

Posted:

The arrival of Google Maps on the App Store may have prompted a large number of users to finally make the leap to Apple's iOS 6 software.

Mobile advertising company MoPub, which monitors ad impressions for over 12,000 apps, saw a 29 per cent leap in impressions from iOS 6 in the five days following the approval of Google Maps on Dec. 12.

The biggest spike in unique iOS 6 users came over the weekend when users may have had more time to perform the lengthy software update.

MoPub CEO Jim Payne told TechCrunch: "We observed since the launch of Google Maps for iOS 6 a 30 per cent increase in unique iOS 6 users, and we think it's related to Google Maps.

"It verifies the hypothesis that people were actually holding back to upgrade until Google Maps was available."

Apple Maps disaster

Apple controversially ditched the popular Google Maps application in favour of its own in-house mapping solution when iOS 6 arrived back in September.

However, the launch proved to be an unmitigated disaster for the company, angered its customers and left many refusing to leave iOS 5 until Google's app was made available from the App Store.

Now the favoured navigation app is back in business on iOS devices, it seems those users are ready to embrace the latest version of the mobile OS.

Check out our Google Maps vs Apple Maps feature for a look at which iOS mapping service has the best shot at helping you find your way in the world

Twitter rolls out downloadable tweets archive

Posted:

If you've ever wanted to look back through your tweeting history on your desktop, now's your chance.

Twitter has started rolling out a new feature called tweet download, and it lets you do just that. The feature lets you store your missives as a ZIP file with a browsing page that shows activity for every month in every year your account has been active.

The feature was road-tested over the weekend.

Searching your tweet history

So why would you want to download your old tweets? Well you can search through them, see what you retweeted, and pick out certain hashtags. You can view your tweets by month, and retweet old messages if you think they're still relevant. Or they just happen to tickle you.

To try it out, head to the bottom of the Settings page. Click 'Request your archive', and you'll get an email when it's ready for downloading. The feature is only rolling out to English language accounts at the moment though. The rest of the rollout will be "over the coming weeks and months," according to Twitter.

Earlier today, the microblogging service announced it had more than 200 million monthly active users. "You are the pulse of the planet," it tweeted. "We're grateful for your ongoing support!"

Via SlashGear

Intelecom links Connect to social media

Posted:

The provider of hosted contact management technology said the system can link to major social media sites including Facebook, so that enquiries through those channels are routed into the contact centre. Agents can then communicate with customers by phone, email, CHAT, SMS, Facebook or others through a single application.

A spokesperson for Intelecom told TRBC that it has made the move in response to customers asking for features such as web callback, chat facilities and the capacity to receive immediate alerts from contacts on social media pages.

Other new features include Connect Control, a web based administration portal that gives supervisors information to manage customer contact operations in real time, and self-provisioning facilities that enable users to make changes without reference to Intelecom.

An updated statistics tool provides granular reporting on all areas of contact centre activity. The latest version makes it even easier to export data into multiple file-formats as well as build bespoke reports.

Christian Thorsrud, product manager at Intelecom Group AS, commented: "Over the past few years, there has been a significant shift towards cloud based contact centres and a greater emphasis placed on customer experience. Today, the focus is on bringing all customer contact together into one easy to use interface, creating a unified environment that harnesses the power of multiple consumer devices and new trends in social media interaction."

Intelecom said it now delivers contact centre services to over 2,000 businesses.

Much-needed Apple Maps help could come from Foursquare

Posted:

Rumor has it Apple is in talks with location-based social network Foursquare to boost its lackluster iOS 6 Maps offerings.

According a Wall Street Journal report published Monday, Apple is looking to share in Foursquare's map data, which could be used to integrate the latters' users tips and ratings directly into Apple's Maps.

Adding Foursquare's map data to Maps could improve the app's ability to locate businesses and other points of interest, which didn't live up to the standards set by Google Maps in earlier iOS versions.

The Journal's report claimed that Apple Senior Vice President Eddy Cue has spent the last few weeks meeting with Foursquare representatives, though nothing is concrete yet.

Fixing the 'maptastrophe'

Previous versions of Apple's iOS operating system used Google Maps, but Apple ditched Google in favor of its own, internal solution with the launch of iOS 6.

That didn't go over so well though, with users complaining of inaccurate and incomplete data in Apple's maps.

Apple has been playing catch up ever since, reportedly poaching Google Maps makers to fix its own app and issuing apologies straight from the mouth of CEO Tim Cook.

Foursquare apparently isn't the only company Apple's in talks with to improve its navigation offering: the Journal's report claimed that Cupertino is in talks with other companies to boost Maps' capabilities.

Google delivers

Google, meanwhile, responded last week with its own iOS 6 Maps app, which brought back many of the features - local transit, Street View, etc. - that iOS users had sorely missed.

Apple users turned up in droves to download the replacement Maps app; Google announced Monday that Google Maps for iOS 6 was downloaded 10 million times in the first 48 hours.

Now if only Apple would allow iOS 6 users to delete its in-house Maps app from their devices, everything could go back to normal.

TechRadar asked Apple and Foursquare to find out if the two companies have anything to say about the potential partnership and will update this story if and when the companies respond.

Yahuui Blog

Wednesday, December 19, 2012