Now that Christmas is just a tiny spec in our rear-view mirrors, it’s time to start looking ahead to the next gift-giving holiday: Valentine’s Day. And this morning, Apple started doing just that, highlighting the affair on its web store with a new “There’s more than one way to say I love you” iPad advertisement… Read More
We’re still gaining insights from holiday sales of Apple products. The latest finding: the iPad mini is now dubbed the “kid’s tablet” after one survey found post-Christmas usage of Apple’s smaller tablet rose 270 percent among families with young children. The new data comes from the makers of Kindertown.
Kindertown makes an app which helps parents find child-suitable apps. Among other findings culled from the software’s more than 200,000 users: while the iPad 4 was popular as a family gift, children also adopted the original iPad as a technological hand-me-down. Elsewhere, iPhone’s were not a big gift item for this demographic, after-Christmas usage of Apple’s handset not rising following the holidays… Read More
Get ready to rumble! Best Buy, a gadget retailer that sells more iPhones than anyone but Apple, is charging the world’s biggest retailer Walmart with unfairly pricing the iPhone 5 during holiday.
A number of states’ attorney generals are looking into the allegation. Best Buy says it lost $65,000 a day trying to match the $150 price (later cut to $127) Walmart promoted in December.
The electronics retailer charges Walmart didn’t have sufficient supplies to fulfill its holiday promotion of the regularly-priced $199 smartphone… Read More
So much about Angry Birds running its course. Finnish developer Rovio announced today that its Angry Birds series, which just turned three, has been downloaded thirty million times during the Christmas week, raking in over eight million downloads on the Christmas Day alone. The 99-cent holiday sale of Rovio’s iPad games might have helped with that. It was an Angry New Year for Rovio indeed and the company produced a charming infographic that highlights other interesting holiday sales stats… Read More
How did holiday sales of tablets shake out? Although sales numbers aren’t yet available, we can get some idea of which devices were in most demand. For instance, Amazon’s Kindle Fire, followed by Samsung’s Galaxy tablets and Google Nexus devices were the top three non-iPad products serving ad impressions in December, according to an ad firm.
Although the iPad (both the full-size versions and the iPad mini) accounts for 87 percent of U.S. and Canadian tablet-based ad impressions, the Kindle Fire was next best with 4.25 percent of tablet traffic. The Samsung Galaxy tablets had 2.65 percent, while the Google Nexus family of tablets garnered 1.06 percent of tablet traffic, according to ad network Chitika… Read More
Put on the cheesy music and pour the egg nog, it’s finally Christmas Eve! And for millions of kids around the world, that means that it won’t be long now until Santa Claus shows up.
In this day and age of GPS technology, it’s never been easier to track Santa on his 20,000+ mile route around the planet. In fact, you can actually do it right from your iPhone… Read More
Here’s a nice last minute holiday gift idea: if your loved ones use Apple products, give them iTunes Gift Cards that can be used to add credits to their iTunes account. Usually these things are delivered physically, but Walmart is having a sale where it’s offering a $50 iTunes Gift Card for $40, an instant $10 saving.
Additionally, you card gets delivered through email right after purchase, depending on your credit card issuer’s rules. Walmart is no stranger to such promotions. Back in August, the retailer was selling $100 iTunes cards for $80… Read More
Here is an early Christmas gift for you, courtesy of EA Games. The game developer is having a gigantic sale with all its games available at the low price tag of $0.99. Some of them are even free.
If you were on the fence about any of the following games, today is your lucky day. Act fast before they go back to their normal price… Read More
Not sure whether or not you saw Samsung’s TV ad starring Santa and Mrs. Claus where the characters share their sex tape using “the magic of S Beam on the Galaxy S III and the Galaxy Note II”.
I know it’s a rehash of Samsung’s earlier (and pretty funny) take on a sex tape exchange between a guy and his wife. Let’s be clear – I have absolutely no problem with sex in advertising, but that’s a preposterous thing to air as we head into Christmas.
Just what exactly are kids supposed to think after being exposed to such a dramatized sexual innuendo involving their childhood hero? Seriously, what’s next? A sexting Santa commercial? Thanks for ruining my childhood, Samsung! Read More
‘Tis the season for Angry Birds maker Rovio to step forward with its 2012 holiday promotion. Just this weekend, the Finnish mobile games developer is offering all its high-definition titles for iPads and Android devices for 99 cents each. The promotion includes major Rovio games, from every HD version of Angry Birds to Bad Piggies, an Angry Birds from the piggies’ perspective, to Amazing Alex, a physics-based puzzler which tasks you with building all sorts of contraptions. Your iTunes link and additional tidbits are right past the jump… Read More
Just in time for my birthday, retailer Walmart is shaving $72 off the entry-level iPhone 5 with sixteen gigabytes of storage. Beginning December 17, you’ll be able to purchase the device for just $127, that’s $22 less than the lowest price we could find at RadioShack, Target and Best Buy, which all offer Apple’s phone with a cool $50 discount (and some gift cards). Walmart is also offering the previous-generation iPhone 4S for just $47 and a fourth-generation iPad for $399, a $100 saving… Read More
When I come to think of it, technology buyers often times are an unpredictable bunch. Seven out of each ten told iDB they would never buy a non-Retina iPad mini, lots of folks appeared disappointed post-announcement and more than half told us they would never buy and iPad mini. Heck, even kids haven’t fallen for Apple’s advertising blitz as they want full-size iPads for Christmas.
Fast forward to today, when NPD DisplaySearch estimates the iPad mini is now outselling its bigger brother as Apple doubles display panel orders with LG Display and AU Optronics to more than twelve million units, up from the previous estimate of six million holiday units… Read More
It’s that time of year again, when we’re all scrambling around trying to find that perfect gift for the loved ones in our lives.
If you’re anything like me, you revert to type and try desperately to find something with a technological bent. Be it earphones, an iDevice stand or some fancy software; gifts are hard enough to buy at the best of times, let alone when you know nothing about the subject matter.
Here I’ll showcase a handful of handy gift ideas across the world of tech and specifically, Apple. Some are cheap. Some not so much. But hey, it’s Christmas… Read More
Christmas is rapidly approaching, and a quick glance at the calendar tell us we only have about two weeks left to finish up our last-minute holiday shopping. Luckily, for those of you that are still having trouble deciding what to get that special someone, iDB is here to help. Over the past few days we’ve been bringing you our top picks for Christmas gifts as part of our first ever iDB holiday gift guide. And now that you know what Sebastien and Jim suggest, here are my personal recommendations… Read More
European fans have grown accustomed to Apple’s holiday promotion called 12 Days of Christmas because they can count on a free download every day in a period following Christmas and until early-January. It’s not just apps, Apple usually gives away songs, books and music videos as well.
A dedicated app is crucial to the promotion and today the company has updated the 12 Days of Christmas app for the iPhone, iPod and iPad with gifts for the 2012 holiday season. Download it now to get your free gift starting with December 26, the day after Christmas. The only downside: the promotion is valid outside of the United States only… Read More
Just spotted an interesting notice over at the online Apple Store, where Apple promises to deliver your iPad mini by Christmas if orders are placed by midnight December 5. “Order iPad mini by midnight December 5 for guaranteed delivery before Christmas”, reads Apple’s holiday shopping page.
A lot of kids’ faces in the U.S. are gonna light up after unwrapping their Christmas gift. Over in the United Kingdom, however, shoppers must order the gadget by midnight today, or by December 4 in Canada. Apple’s also sweetening the deal with free shipping and laser engraving. Hopefully, Santa won’t say you’ve been a naughty boy… Read More
The only thing better than a good app, is a discounted one. And with the 4th of July around the corner (tomorrow, actually), there’s a number of apps on sale worth mentioning.
Electronic Arts, Capcom and Firemint are all participating in the festivities, with a large portion of their app libraries under a buck. Keep reading to see a list of our favorites… Read More
Still trying to figure out what to get your mom for Mother’s Day? Well you could always opt for the traditional bouquet of flowers. But a recent survey shows that it’s not blossoms moms are after — it’s iPads.
Techbargains, a bargain-hunting site that points users to the best deals on consumer electronics, recently polled a number of female users on what they’d most like to receive for the upcoming holiday… Read More
Every year the Electronic Frontier Foundation releases its “wish list,” a list that points out the flaws the EFF sees in tech companies and their openness. This year has seen Apple only appear in that list once, and in a particularly predictable manner.
The EFF, according to its list, would like Apple to allow users to easily gain root access to their devices, giving them complete control over how they work as well as offering a way to install apps without going through Apple’s App Store.
Unsurprisingly Apple is not so keen on taking that approach, though there are ways to get root access should you really want to… Read More
This isn’t the first time that Apple’s Find my iPhone service has helped to recover a lost device, but with Christmas involved in this particular story (as well as a resoundingly happy ending) we thought we would share it.
At around 3:30am on Christmas morning, a Westlake Village man was awoken by the noise of a burglar stealing Christmas gifts from his house. Amongst them was an iPad, which had, thankfully, already been activated and set up with an Apple ID. After a short foot chase the thief got away, but not for long.
The next morning, the owner of the iPad set about tracking the device and discovered that it was only a few doors away… Read More
