The holiday season has been dominated by Apple in the recent past and 2013 Christmas wasn’t any different. Apple’s gold iPhone 5s turned out to be the most popular smartphone during Christmas.

According to data published by uSwitch.com for December 2013 iPhone 5s won over Samsung Galaxy S4 for the third consecutive month. The data analysed was based on live searches, pre-orders and sales.

Samsung’s Galaxy S3 also saw some gains in popularity as it rose five places to become the third most popular phone in the UK during the holidays. Apple’s iPhone has been consistently popular with customers as it has topped the charts since March 2013 with iPhone 5 being the most popular phone for seven consecutive months which was later dethroned with the release of iPhone 5s.

In 2013 for the first time Apple released two new iPhone designs in the same year. iPhone 5c the colourful plastic version of iPhone 5c came in fifth in the popular smartphones list for December. Ernest Doku, telecoms expert at uSwitch.com said:

The iPhone 5S deserved to be the Christmas number one. As well as giving gleeful members of the cult of Apple hours of fun with its Touch ID feature, which can read more than just fingerprints, it also made gold the new black,

Doku further added that the battle for the top spot wasn’t an easy one. Galaxy S3 rise to the third spot was a surprise with the lower pricing acting as a key factor. Pricing of smartphones certainly act as an important factor since the technology leaps between two generations of products is becoming narrower.

The tech advancement from iPhone 4s to iPhone 5 is not the same as from iPhone 5 to iPhone 5s. Apple is expected to release iPhone 6 in 2014 which could have a new design and even feature larger screen according to many rumours in the recent past.

The price of iPhone 5c could also see reduction later this year as the device has not been as well received with customers as the company would have hoped for.

Did you buy iPhone 5s this holiday season? Which gadgets made it to your shopping bag this year? Let us know in the comments section below.

{via The Telegraph}

The holiday season sends iOS Developers scrambling each year in order to finish up their apps for submission before Apple stops accepting new submissions for the year. However, over the last three years, its become obvious that during this time, app developers experience much higher sales. This could be due to one of two things, either people are downloading more of the old apps because there is less to choose from during this time or because of Apple’s App Gifting service, accessible directly through the App Store.

During this time, popular game devlopers such as Gameloft and EA push out as many apps as they can to flood the market, in order to increase the number of downloads. EA and Gameloft apps often show up under the featured list, claiming #1 and #2 spots, and even App of the Week on many occasions.

Camera+[App Store] developer’s TapTapTap revealed their download numbers with MacRumors early Thursday, describing a significant increase in sales. Camera+ moved up and down the list between 4-8 and settled at position #8 in the Top 200 list during the holiday freeze. Camera+ typically experiences about 18,000 downloads on any given day, but jumped to over 73,808 sales on Christmas day.

Camera+ sells for $0.99 in the App Store, which means that after Apple’s 30% cut, TapTapTap received $51,665 in revenue only for the day of Christmas. That’s a significant increase, but not surprising considering the number of iPod Touches, iPhones, and iTunes gift cards being activated and given as presents on Christmas. The App Store is the basis for numerous success stories, about small developers making a hit with their apps and becoming millionaires overnight, some making anywhere from 10,000 to 15,000 dollars in one day.

A Snappy Christmas 3D Review: A storybook for kids based on the Snappy Dragons character. While the character is cute, the book is lacking in many areas.

The app is a reading book for children and offers options between English and French, and between Read By Myself or Read To Me. There are also three games included that give you a bit more to do than just the short story.

First the story itself, the plot felt a little weak and the characters were distant. Snappy and his friend Meline build a snowman in the woods but are missing a key piece until they get some help from Santa. Good enough for kids, I suppose, but there’s no real connection built with the characters.

The design itself has issues. First, the cursive font that was chosen is not suited for young children. It was difficult to read from time to time and would be hard for kids to identify some of the letters. And some words were highlighted in different colors, which might lead you to believe they were emphasized or interactive. They weren’t. Also, the narrator made an error and spoke an extra word that wasn’t printed. That is a critical error in a reading book for children.

Then there’s the technical side. The 3D layers effect was best thing about this app. And some of the animations were also good. But I had continual problems with the app crashing, even after an update was released. And it only works in one orientation that was upside down for most iPads with cases.

On the positive side, the app had a classic appeal and characters with potential. The UK English accent was engaging and clear. The sound effects added to the story. And adding a few simple games to the app gave it a bit more bang for the buck. There’s actually some good potential here. Potential.

A Snappy Christmas 3D disappoints in its execution, but leaves room for improvement. With a few tweaks and maybe some additional background on these two characters’ relationship (I mean how does a little girl come to have a dragon as a best friend?), there’s an opportunity for a successful series of books. While I might pass on this title, I’d be interested to see what they do with it in the future.

What we like:

• 3D effect background responds to tilting
• English or French

What to know:

• Story and characters pretty weak
• Doesn’t rotate – only works in one orientation
• Crashed repeatedly
• Font difficult to read and not suited for young children

The excellent game Jetpack Joyride for iPhone and iPad is free today and we recommend that if you are one of the few that hasn’t got it already that you take this opportunity to do so now.

Not only is it free today but it also received a recent festive themed update which includes:-
SANTA HAT – A classic, but still awesome. Barry wears it better than anyone.

SANTA SUIT – Wear the whole outfit for that Very Joyride Christmas!

DECK THE HALLS JETPACK – Strap a Christmas Tree to your back and rain down celebrations. Delicious and shiny!

SNOW MACHINE JETPACK – A jetpack that is extremely cool? Snow problem!

NEW SCIENTISTS – For body quality all around the world, we’ve added some extra tall scientists and some that ate a bit too much Christmas pudding. All that running around the lab should trim them down.

Jetpack Joyride is cute, addictive and has so much content that it just keeps you coming back for more. The method of completing achievements is perfect for quick blasts on the game when you haven’t much time as well as those longer session which may have your family wondering where you are over The holiday season as you keep playing just one more time!

Have you got Jetpack Joyride yet? What do you think of the new festive updates? Let is know in the comments below.

Update: It turns out that iPhone Download Blog has posted an update to this story and admitted that their reader sent them a fake email.

Once again it appears that Apple CEO isn’t happy running a successful tech company. He also wants to be a customer services rep, this time commenting on the mythical white iPhone 4.

Here’s how it went down.

An iPhone Download Blog reader saw fit to email Steve-o to quiz him on the availability of the much anticipated white handset, and received a prompt, and characteristically terse reply.

The initial email reads…

Hello Steve, My name is Nathan, I’m a high school student from San Bernardino. I also happen to be one of your biggest fan and a total Apple fanboy and proud to be

I’ve been saving up money to buy the new iphone 4. I want the white one but Apple said it won’t be available until later this year. I know you must be asked this question hundreds of times a day but do you think we can expect to get the white iphone for xmas?

I hope you can answer. Thank you Steve.

A mere 3 minutes later (does Jobs not have anything to do of an evening?) this uninspiring reply appeared in Nathan’s inbox.

Christmas is later this year.

So there we have it – Jobs points out the glaringly obvious yet again. Cheers for that!

Does this mean we can expect the white iPhone to land in-stores around Christmas time? I doubt it. This sounds like Apple giving themselves as long a launch window as possible.

Still, this IS Apple, and nothing would surprise any of us.