Apple patents push-to-talk, double-sided touch panels

By Ed Sutherland on May 24, 2013

Among the more than two-dozen patents granted to Apple by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office earlier this week is one hinting the iPhone maker could finally enter the Push-to-Talk (PTT) arena and another one indicating the firm may breathe new life into its rumored plans for wearable devices.

The PTT patent likely is the result of a $4.5 million purchase by Apple and others of a portfolio of intellectual property sold by Nortel Networks in 2011. Meanwhile, the USPTO granted Apple a patent on flexible touch panels which could potentially be used for even smaller devices, such as the much-rumored iWatch… Read More

 

Apple to nearly double lobbying efforts on tax fight

By Ed Sutherland on May 24, 2013

Apple finds itself in unfamiliar territory. Accustom to acting behind the scenes and producing gadgets with overwhelming appeal, the iPhone maker and its CEO Tim Cook are front-and-center in a debate over corporate taxes and how some companies navigate loopholes in the laws to keep billions from the IRS.

In a sign of how concerned Apple is about changing the U.S. tax landscape, it in 2013 may spend nearly $4 million on lobbying Congress – double the amount of just a year ago. Meanwhile, European leaders are asking tech giants to play by the rules… Read More

 

Jony Ive’s iOS 7 remake: black, white, flat all over

By Ed Sutherland on May 24, 2013

When Apple’s former iOS honcho Scott Forstall was dumped, stories were told of he and design guru Jonathan Ive nearly coming to blows over the prevailing use of realistic shapes and textures within the mobile software. Now comes a claim the design change of the upcoming iOS 7 will be “black, white, and flat all over.”

Ive, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Industrial Design and newly-minted head of Human Interface across the company, has essentially proposed a radical break with the iOS former Apple co-founder Steve Jobs unveiled in 2007, introducing a look and feel he believes will stand the test of time… Read More

 

Apple could actually start repairing faulty iDevices in June

By Christian Zibreg on May 24, 2013

A letter Apple allegedly sent to Brazilian Authorized Service Providers signals significant changes to how the company handles iPhone and iPad repairs. Specifically, rather than replace faulty devices with their good-as-new refurbished counterparts, Apple should finally start performing device repairs in-house as early as next month, reports AppleInsider which got hold of Apple’s letter to distributors.

We heard earlier in the month that major changes are coming to Apple’s AppleCare warranty this fall so the development could signal Apple’s intent to test the new policy in Brazil ahead of a broad roll-out later this year… Read More

 

Best Buy taking $50 off every iPhone in 4-week promo beginning this Sunday

By Christian Zibreg on May 24, 2013

U.S. retailer Best Buy is set to shave $50 off every iPhone 4, iPhone 4S and iPhone 5 sold with a two-year contract with Verizon, AT&T or Sprint in a four-week promotion that kicks off on Sunday, reports AllThingsD. The retailer has previously discounted Apple’s iPhone 5 a few times in time-limited promotions, along with other retailers such as Walmart which last December discounted the device to as low as $127… Read More

 

Judge says court will likely find Apple guilty in e-book price fixing case

By Cody Lee on May 24, 2013

By now, most of you have likely heard that Apple will be going to trial with the U.S. Justice Department next month. The iPad-maker is set to defend itself against charges that it conspired with book publishers to raise e-book prices.

According to U.S. District Judge Denise Cote, it doesn’t look good. In a rather unusual pretrial move, the presiding Judge offered up her tentative view on the case. And she thinks it’s likely that the court will find Apple guilty… Read More

 

AT&T reportedly adding iPhone to GoPhone prepaid lineup today

By Cody Lee on May 24, 2013

AT&T is reportedly on the verge of significantly expanding the reach of its GoPhone prepaid brand, starting today. The carrier is said to be adding cellular data to the wireless service in both HSPA+ and LTE flavors, as well as official support for the iPhone.

This means that users will be able to activate their existing iPhone (or a new one purchased at full retail) on one of GoPhone’s 3 prepaid service plans, which start at $65 per month and include unlimited talking, unlimited texting, and 1GB of cellular data… Read More

 

Apple bolsters Maps Flyover support in California

By Cody Lee on May 24, 2013

Apple billed 3D Flyover as one of the headlining features of its Maps app, when it replaced Google Maps in iOS last fall with its own in-house software. Unfortunately, at the time, the feature was only available for a handful of cities.

But the Maps team has been awfully busy in recent months, adding Flyover support to a number of new areas. Earlier this month, it expanded Flyover coverage in Paris, France, and this week it’s bolstered support in greater California… Read More

 

Watch out Facebook, Google’s also considering Waze buyout

By Cody Lee on May 24, 2013

Whatever the folks over at Waze are doing, they must be doing it right. Earlier this month, we heard that Facebook was looking to acquire the Palo Alto-based startup and its popular crowd-sourced navigation app for a cool $1 billion.

But as it turns out, they’re not the only ones interested. According to a new report, a number of tech companies have approached the Waze team over a possible buyout deal, including Google, meaning a bidding war could be afoot… Read More

 

Apple posts new ‘Music Every Day’ iPhone ad

By Cody Lee on May 23, 2013

Apple has started airing a new TV commercial for its iPhone this evening. The ad, which it has also posted on its YouTube channel, is called ‘Music Every Day,’ and it focuses on the handset’s ability to play music.

The spot looks strikingly similar to the ‘Photos Every Day‘ ad that started airing last month. There’s a subtle piano backtrack, ambient noise, and people from different walks of life using the popular smartphone… Read More

 

How to use iLEX RAT to restore your jailbroken device back to “stock”

By Jeff Benjamin on May 23, 2013

Last week we brought you a tutorial showing how the upcoming SemiRestore package will work once released. SemiRestore is a tool that you can use to restore your iOS device to an almost stock configuration.

A few of you in the comments brought up iLEX RAT, another tool — one that’s been around much longer than SemiRestore — that allows you to do something similar. I had tried iLEX RAT once before, and I experienced some issues with the early versions of the tool and gave up on it. At your urging, I decided to take the latest version of iLEX RAT for a spin. Here’s what I found. Read More

 

Electronic Arts unleashes Tetris Blitz globally

By Christian Zibreg on May 23, 2013

Electronic Arts’ mobile gaming arm today released a new (and free) game for iOS and Android devices, Tetris Blitz. Announced in mid-February, it’s a twist on the block-dropping Tetris puzzler rather than a remake of the original game. The game actually landed on the Canada App Store a week ago in a soft-launch manner, but today rolled out across App Stores globally. Trust me, this one’s worth a download. Besides, you can’t really go wrong with a high-profile release costing zero bucks, now can you? Read More

 

gMusic updated with support for Google’s new All Access music service

By Cody Lee on May 23, 2013

I’ve been keeping an eye on the gMusic Twitter account all week. Last year the app was first to iOS with support for Google’s cloud-based Music storage, and I knew it’d be the same way this year with support for Google’s new All Access subscription service.

That support arrived today in the form of gMusic 6.0. And in addition to ‘All Access’ access, the update brings a number of useful playback and management features like the ability to create and play radio stations, and to search for/ add music to your library… Read More

 

Clinging for relevancy, Rhapsody revamps iOS app with tons of goodies

By Christian Zibreg on May 23, 2013

Remember Rhapsody, the jukebox app and music subscription service that once pitted itself as a chief rival to Apple’s iTunes, only to fail miserably? It’s been lingering out there ever since, watching its user base erode to not only iTunes, but to streaming music services Pandora and Rdio, which both received nice little updates yesterday. But don’t write Rhapsody off yet. Today, they’ve revamped their iOS app which they likened to “the Ferrari of iPhone apps”… Read More

 

Verizon Cloud client now available on the App Store

By Cody Lee on May 23, 2013

Good news Verizon customers. Just in case the dozens of cloud storage options currently available aren’t enough for you, Big Red has just released an iOS version of its mobile Verizon Cloud client, finally bringing its backup services to Apple’s mobile platform.

Like the other offerings, Verizon’s Cloud allows you to sync up your documents, photos and other media between your devices. But unlike the others, it has the ability to save things like contacts and text messages, as well as the ability to restore them to a device… Read More

 

Live the celebrity life with the Cannes Film Festival app

By Lory Gil on May 23, 2013

This year’s Cannes Film Festival takes place from May 15 – 26. Every year, France’s epic movie party brings celebrities from all over the world to preview unreleased films. If you make it at Cannes, you’ll make it in theaters. Of course, this prestigious affair is by invite only, so regular folks like us have to find out about it in the news.

Festival de Cannes – Official is the sanctioned app of the entire event. You can read news about attendees, see photos of the daily events, watch trailers of films that will be presented at the festival, and much more. If you aren’t elite enough to make it to Cannes, you can pretend like you are thanks to this comprehensive app… Read More

 

More Evernote awesomeness: native reminders launch in iOS/Mac client

By Christian Zibreg on May 23, 2013

What started out as a simple note-taking solution is quickly becoming the Internet’s favorite information management platform.

We’re talking about Evernote, of course, the Jack of all trades, at least when it comes to note-taking, and I’m using the term loosely here. But if there’s one feature that’s been notably absent from Evernote it’s the concept of time – but no more.

Thanks to a major update issued earlier today, Evernote users on iOS and OS X can now take advantage of reminders, right in their notes. With this helpful new feature, Evernote just leveled up in a major way.

Reminders sync across devices seamlessly, facilitate to-do lists, deliver in-app and email alarms, can be notebook-specific and allow for a range of interesting capabilities not possible before. Let’s get down to the nitty-gritty, shall we? Read More

 

New report claims budget iPhone production begins soon, 5S has dual LED flash

By Cody Lee on May 23, 2013

Say what you want about the idea of a ‘budget’ iPhone, but industry insiders seem to be extremely confident that the handset is coming. We’ve heard a number of reports over the past few months regarding Apple’s efforts to create a sub-$300 smartphone.

In fact, another report has surfaced this afternoon claiming that the cheaper iPhone is on the way. This one comes from the folks over at Macotakara, a Japanese blog with a fair track record in Apple intel, who allege to have new details about the device… Read More

 

AT&T slaps customers with all-new Mobility Administrative Fee

By Christian Zibreg on May 23, 2013

AT&T fanboys, beware – as of May 1, your favorite carrier has instituted a new Mobility Administrative Fee which adds an extra $0.61 per line, per month to your wireless bill.

Yes, you’ll hardly notice the additional charge, but it does work out to an extra $7.32 per phone line per year, or nearly thirty bucks annually for a family account with four lines.

But multiply the figure by AT&T’s nearly 70 million postpaid customers and that paltry $0.61 per-line charge quickly adds up to an additional hundreds of millions of extra dollars for the telco, each year. Wait, what’s a Mobility Administrative Fee, you ask… Read More

 

Angry Birds Space goes free as Apple’s App of the Week

By Cody Lee on May 23, 2013

It’s pretty mind-boggling to think about what the folks at Rovio have done with the Angry Birds franchise. What started out as just a simple game has turned into a multimedia empire complete with its own clothing line, TV show, and feature film.

And for those of you who’ve yet to see what all of the fuss is about, I have some good news for you. Apple has just named Angry Birds Space as its ‘App of the Week’, meaning you can download the game (iPhone and iPad) for free for a limited time… Read More

 
Page 112345...