Month: November 2011

New Samsung TV Ad Takes a Stab at iPhone Users

Apple and Samsung have been involved in quite the court battle over the last 6 months. Apple accused Samsung of copying the trademarked design of its products, and since then, the two companies have been in and out of court.

Now it looks like the war is about to spill out into the advertising arena. Although companies have taken shots at Apple's popular smartphone in commercials before, none of them compare to the Korean manufacturer's latest TV spot...

New $250 iPhone Case Features Three Rotating Camera Lenses

Not only does Apple make a fortune from its iPhones, iPads, and anything else with a lower-case "i," but it also spawned thousands of awesome accessories. The iPhone especially has seen some interesting accessories come its way, and "interesting" is probably the best way to describe this particular case.

Weighing in at $250 and sporting three rotatable lenses, the Lens Dial is perhaps more than a normal case, but it is also one of the more whacky.

The Lens Dial, carved from aircraft-grade aluminum, packs the three lenses shown in the picture, allowing photographic types to take all kinds of images using the iPhone's built-in shooter...

Apple Expands App Subscriptions to Games

Apple unveiled its App Store subscription service in February of this year to mixed reviews. Publishers appreciated the opportunity to expand into the iOS ecosystem, and its millions of users, but they hated the terms.

The company has since revised its in-app subscription policy, and the service has grown to be moderately successful. So successful, in fact, that Apple has decided to open up the service to game developers as well...

How to Send Group Messages and Emails With Siri

Now that folks have had over a month to play with the new iPhone 4S, more and more Siri tips are starting to surface. Siri can do so many things that new commands are constantly being discovered.

Earlier today we told you how to use Siri to see planes flying above you using Wolfram Alpha's database. Now we've come across a tip that lets you use the assistant to send group text messages and emails...

The AT&T/T-Mobile Merger Ain’t Looking Good

Besides Verizon, it looks like no one is in favor of the $39 billion AT&T/T-Mobile merger. According to AllThingsD's Ina Fried:

You can add the chairman and staff of the Federal Communications Commission to the list of those who believe AT&T’s deal to acquire T-Mobile USA would hurt competition. [...] FCC officials said on Tuesday that the agency found in its review not only that the deal would hurt competition, but also that it represents an unprecedented reduction in competition. In every market except Omaha (where T-Mobile does not offer service), the agency found that the merger would reduce competition to a meaningful degree.

Obviously AT&T is not giving up and they'll use every possible mean to have the deal go through. Some lawyer firms are about to make a lot of money!

A Helpful Explanation of How Siri Works and Why a Port Can’t Be Released

Ever since rumors of an impending Siri port started circulating, non-iPhone 4S owners have been wondering why Siri can't be made available on older iDevices. We've seen video of hackers running Siri on the iPhone 4, iPod touch 4G, iPhone 3GS, and even video of Siri controlling random devices, like a thermostat.

While these specific instances show that Siri can indeed run on non-4S devices, publicly distributing Siri poses a whole other set of problems. The complex system that Apple's servers use to authenticate with Siri on the iPhone 4S is one of the main reasons that a Siri port can't be made available to everyone at the moment.

Just How Small is the Non-Apple Tablet Market?

To say that Apple dominates the tablet market would be an understatement. The iPad has been successful enough to not only run other companies out of the tablet-making business, but it has also been enough to make even PC manufacturers nervous.

We've seen statistics before regarding Apple's share of the tablet market, but we had no idea the numbers were this bleak for the competition. According to a recent NPD Group report, there has only been 1.2 million non-iPad tablets sold in the United States this year...

iOS 5 Causing Loss of Wi-Fi Connectivity For Some Users

Apple's introduction of iOS 5 has been accompanied by plenty of problems. Launched alongside the iPhone 4S, iOS 5 has been blamed for all kinds of things, but most prominently a considerable loss of battery performance.

Apple may have another potential problem on its hands, with reports beginning to crop up of iOS 5 devices struggling to connect to Wi-Fi networks. Even when a iOS 5 device does join a Wi-Fi network, users are reporting flakey connections that constantly drop.

As with the infamous battery problems that have plagued the newest release of Apple's mobile OS, this issue appears to span across all of Apple's 'i' products, and not just the new iPhone 4S...

Siri Can Tell You If a Plane is Flying Above Your Head

File this one under "crazy things that Siri can do." Apparently, thanks to the magic of Wolfram Alpha, Siri on the iPhone 4S is able to give you flight path trajectories. The real kicker is that Siri can use your iPhone's GPS data to determine if there are planes currently flying about your area.

Now you have a new way to see if your friend is ready to get picked up at the airport!

AT&T iPhone 3GS Price Bump is Meant to Prevent Fraud

Since AT&T increased the price of the iPhone 3GS from a bargainous FREE to the perplexing $0.99, we've all been asking the same question: Why? When Apple announced the iPhone 4S, they made a point of repricing the iPhone 3GS as a free option.

Why would AT&T take the unusual step or increasing the price of a handset that Apple itself had declared would be free, and increase it by just a dollar? Strange indeed.

The move was perhaps not as strange as we originally thought. One forum member claiming to work for AT&T believes they may have the answer, and it's all about stopping fraudsters from stealing handsets...

iPhone 4S Now the Second Most Popular Camera Phone on Flickr

The iPhone 4S' rebuilt 8MP camera is one of the new handset's most talked about features. It captures sharper images with much better color in low-light situations than its predecessor, with 60% more pixels.

Apple has even been touting the 4S as a point-and-shoot camera replacement, and it seems like iPhone 4S owners agree with that statement. The handset has just become the second most frequently used camera phone on Flickr...

Hidden Code in iOS 5 Contains Interesting iPad 3 References

The folks over at 9to5Mac have uncovered some interesting information hidden deep within the code of iOS 5. The site has exposed several secret features in the new software by code-digging over the last few months, including Siri.

Recent find pertain to an unreleased Apple product, codenamed "J2." The site believes that this could actually be the next version of the iPad. Not only that, but it thinks that this could be the Retina display-equipped tablet everyone has been talking about...