Following Apple’s blowout December quarter during which it shipped a record 37 million iPhone handsets and 15.4 million iPad tablets, a significant shift has taken place. iOS’s share of U.S. Web traffic as observed during a six-month study conducted by leading ad network Chitika has surpassed Apple’s Mac OS Web traffic share for the first time. Read on for more. (more…)

Microsoft’s Windows operating system continued its slow decent in September as Apple’s Mac OS and Google’s Android platform again showed gains. Advertising network Chitika’s research division, Chitika Insights, published an infographic on Monday outlining operating system usage share on its network in the month of September. After losing nearly three-quarters of a point last month, Windows again dipped 0.592% to land at 77.7% for the month of September. The Windows OS has now dropped a...

New data shows that usage of Microsoft’s Windows operating system declined so far in August while Apple’s OS X and iOS usage increased, as did usage of Google’s Android OS. Chitika Insights, the research arm of ad network Chitika, published an infographic on Tuesday showing that Windows’ usage share dropped to 78.282% so far in August from 79.049% in July. Mac OS grew from 8.895% in July to 9.551% in August, iOS grew marginally from 5.278% to 5.491% and Android grew from 3.135% to ...

Microsoft announced on Monday that it has sold 400 million Windows 7 licenses to date, but that hasn’t stopped the tech giant’s share of the global operating system market from sliding. According to market watcher Net Applications’ data for June 2011, Microsoft’s global operating system market share slid to 88.29% as it continued on its slow but steady decline. The second most popular OS in the world was Apple’s OS X, which was up a nominal amount to 5.37% of the global OS market...

A new independent study by security experts at Symantec attempted to measure how secure Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android platform are, and also to determine how these mobile platforms stack up against desktop operating systems. Symantec claims that these mobile platforms are much more secure than today’s popular desktop operating systems, though the firm does note that the key variable, as always, is the human element. “Today’s mobile devices are a mixed bag when it comes to security,â...

It looks like we may finally see Apple unveil its mid-2011 MacBook Air models some time this week. Best Buy has stopped shipping all MacBook Air notebooks as of this past weekend. The online retailer is still taking orders, however, which indicates that Apple will likely not adjust pricing when it issues its refreshed models. Of note, unless Apple introduced an entirely new model at a much lower price point, this puts earlier rumored sales targets of 8 million units well out of reach. Several sellers on the A...

Apple on Thursday released the latest public build of its Mac OS X operating system, version 10.6.8. Release notes are as follows:The 10.6.8 update is recommended for all users running Mac OS X Snow Leopard and includes general operating system fixes that enhance the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac, including fixes that:- Enhance the Mac App Store to get your Mac ready to upgrade to Mac OS X Lion- Resolve an issue that may cause Preview to unexpectedly quit- Improve support for IPv6- Improv...

Operating systems are big business. But just how big you ask? According to research firm Gartner, sales of server and desktop operating systems totalled nearly $30.4 billion in 2010 alone. “As the global economy recovered, worldwide operating system (OS) revenue totaled $30.4 billion in 2010, a 7.8 percent increase from 2009,” explains Gartner. “Among client OSs, Mac OS was the fastest-growing subsegment in 2010 as the unit shipments of Mac desktop/laptop devices saw strong sales, although f...

Earlier today, Apple announced that it will be holding its annual Worldwide Developers Conference from June 6th to June 10th in San Francisco where it said that it will “unveil the future of iOS and Mac OS.” That suggests that Apple may stray from its usual schedule of announcing an updated iPhone during the show each year. “You get caught up in patterns, and it holds true, until it doesn’t,” Michael Gartenberg, an analyst with Gartner, told The Loop. “There is no reason f...

A new rumor cites an anonymous “inside source” in suggesting that Apple plans to launch its Mac App Store one week from today, on December 13th. According to the rumor, Apple CEO Steve Jobs wanted to launch the new App Store today — and developers were reportedly told to have submissions ready by today — but delays pushed the launch back to next week. First announced last month, the Mac App Store will be OS X’s equivalent to the iOS App Store; a one-stop-shop for software that simplifies...

Haven’t got your Steve Jobs email fix for the day yet? Good, because another one is making the rounds and this time it’s about Apple’s AirPrint feature. If you have been keeping up on the saga, Apple announced AirPrint with support for some select HP printers, but it also indicated you’d be able to print to any shared printer on your local Wi-Fi network. At iOS 4.2 launch, however, only the HP models are officially supported (and enabled). Here is a reported email to Steve Jobs on the ...

If rumors circulating today are to be believed, Apple is set to have a pretty big week in terms of software updates. It’s no mystery that Apple has several new software builds in the works but as always, the company has not announced specific release dates. A new report claims to peg dates for three major upcoming releases, however, and they’re all due this week. First up, OS X 10.6.5 and iTunes 10.1 are both said to be slated for release tomorrow, November 10th. The report also states that iOS 4....

We just scored a brand new Apple MacBook Air 11″ laptop at the 5th Ave store, and well, how could we not report back what we think of it? For starters, and this has probably been said already, but you really need to see this in person to appreciate how absolutely slim and compact this thing is. Our major concern has to be the processor, as this wasn’t a built-to-order unit it’s only rockin’ a 1.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 2GB of RAM — not the slowest thing out there, but obviously...

TechCrunch noticed a FaceTime app icon in the dock of the demo machine being used to demo the new iLife ’11 features, and well… it looks as if FaceTime will really come to desktop computers — so awesome! Apple has since gone on to confirm the news, stating that FaceTime for Mac will be available as a public beta today. (more…)