Hasta La Gadget!

A new analysis performed by The NPD Group shows that the United States has hit an impressive milestone. There are currently over 500 million internet-connected devices all across the nation. These devices include smartphones, tablets, laptops, PCs, video-game consoles, HDTVs, Blu-Ray players, and more. The NPD Group says that the main driver for this number is the increase in smartphone and tablet ownership.

The analysis shows that since 3 months ago, over 9 million more people made the change from regular cell phones to smartphones. It also showed that 18 million more consumers have purchased a tablet device. The number of connected devices per U.S. Internet household has grown from 5.3 internet devices per home to 5.7 internet devices. The study also shows that unsurprisingly, most of those devices are Apple or Samsung branded devices.

Smartphone adoption rose up 5% since 3 months ago, and tablet adoption rose up about 18%. The PC still remains the most commonly used internet-connected device in households, with over 93% of households owning at least one PC, a number that hasn’t changed in the past 3 months. John Buffone, director of devices at NPD Connected Intelligence, stated, “It’s hard to believe that tablets and smartphones are still somewhat in their infancy. But as we have seen in just the past few months, there is significant potential for this market to develop further.”

Consumers are adapting to mobile devices at a rapid pace, especially with the help of Android and its low-budget tablets. Android tablet sales are forecasted to dominate the tablet market this year thanks to the cheap options offered, such as Amazon’s line-up of Kindle Fires, Google’s high-end, yet affordable Nexus 7, and HP’s upcoming Slate 7. The IDC predicts that over 190 million tablets will be shipped worldwide this year.

[via NPD]

Over 500m devices connected to internet in U.S. is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

OS X Mountain Lion has been out for less than a year, and already we’re seeing the third update come around. This time, we’re seeing improvements and bugfixes to Boot Camp, which now supports Windows 8, and the Mac App Store also added support for gift card redemption via webcam, which is a feature that was recently introduced with iTunes 11.

Along with support for Windows 8, Boot Camp also added support for Macs with 3TB hard drives, a feature that is long overdue considering the storage needs of a lot of users. The 10.8.3 update also comes with several bugfixes including patches for Logic Pro and a fix for a bug that sometimes made audio stutter on some iMacs.

Overall, OS X 10.8.3 spent three-and-a-half months in beta, with 13 different beta version being released over that timeframe. That’s a long time for such a small OS update, but this isn’t anything new from Apple. They’ve been known to release several beta versions of updates before seeding it out to the public.

Hopefully todays update doesn’t cause any problems. In the past, several different OS X updates have wreaked havoc on particular Mac machines, so if you’re weary about updating this time around, then it won’t hurt to wait it off for a few weeks to find out if it’s causing any problems. Otherwise, the update should be ready for you, either in Software Update, or through the Mac App Store.

Apple releases OS X 10.8.3 with Boot Camp improvements and more is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

At launch, Apple’s new iMac was incompatible with VESA’s well-known and much-loved wall mounting systems. Fret no longer, space savers, because now you can buy the new iMacs with a built-in VESA wall adapter from the Apple store. More »

While Codemasters’s GRID 2 is set for release on May 28, the original GRID installment is just now being announced for Mac. Mac games publisher Feral Interactive will be releasing GRID on Mac come March 28. The original game is both developed and published by Codemasters, and it initially released in 2008 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC.

The Mac version of the game will come with the “8-Ball” and “Prestige” DLC packs, which adds an 18 extra cars, two new events, and one new track. Other than that, the game will include the same features that other gamers have been enjoying for years, including the excellent career mode and even the “Flashback” feature that allows you rewind a few seconds back if you crash.

GRID for Mac will be priced at $24.99 in North America, £17.49 in the UK, and €19.99 in Europe, which certainly isn’t a cheap price for a game that’s almost five years old, but it’s been a recent trend for older games to release on Mac near the price of when the game was brand new. However, $25 isn’t too bad, considering that GRID is about the best it gets when it comes to mixing simulation with a bit of arcade.

GRID 2 will be launching on May 28 on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. No word on a Mac version, and we don’t expect it to launch on Mac for a while, but knowing that GRID finally came to Apple’s platform, there’s now hope that the second installment may one day arrive for Mac users. Of course, the sequel will include all-new tracks and cars, as well as a new career mode to make your through.

GRID for Mac launching March 28 with DLC is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

TweetDeck has just released a statement saying that Twitter will be discontinuing several of its apps. TweetDeck for iOS and TweetDeck for Android will be removed from their respective apps store in May. Along with those apps, TweetDeck AIR will also be removed, and Facebook integration will cease. All of the apps will stop functioning shortly after they’re removed from the market. They state that the reasoning is because most of its power users only use its web-based app.

TweetDeck will focus all of its efforts to improve the experience for its power users. It is focusing entirely on developing its web-based app and Chrome app. It believes that most users are steering away from its TweetDeck mobile apps and opting towards Twitter’s official mobile apps and its feature-rich offerings like photo-filters, various editing capabilities, and enhanced search.

Despite cutting off support for its mobile apps, TweetDeck is doing exceptionally well. It has doubled its workforce in the past six months and it has massively improved its web/chrome apps. It has revamped its user experience, created a search term auto-complete feature, included search filters, and have included an auto-updating twitter stream feature. It also releases updates on a weekly basis.

Your TweetDeck mobile apps shouldn’t be discontinued until sometime in May, however TweetDeck has stated that it will be “retiring” its Twitter v1.0 API, the same API that TweetDeck’s mobile apps work on. So in the next couple of months, users who are still using the TweetDeck apps will experience several outages. TweetDeck understands that many users will be affected by this change and has stated, “And for those of you who are inconvenienced by this shift, our sincere apologies.”

[via TweetDeck]

Twitter stops support for Tweetdeck Mobile and Air apps is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.