Over my time blogging, I have only spotted a few wood or faux wood skins for iDevices, but have never had the opportunity to review one. Thanks to my new friends at Toast, I have been using their real bamboo iPhone skin for a little over a week and my completely custom skin is getting even better everyday I use it. With the iDownloadBlog logo darkly emblazoned on the pale wooden backdrop, my iPhone skin is the talk of the town… Read More
First the iPhone turned the concept of mobile phones on its head, offering consumers apps as well as a dialtone. Soon, handsets became the go-to devices for taking snapshots. Now the iPod touch — a master at upending the market for music — is set to become your favorite point-and-shoot camera.
The new iPod Touch gains a 5-megapixel camera that also includes high-def images and Panoramic views. Now experts say the Touch has all the makings of a rival of the grab-and-go digital point-and-shoot camera. “I think this new Touch will appeal to many people both young and old, who are looking for a point and shoot camera that does more than just take photos,” writes Glyn Evans at the iPhoneography blog. Read More
At vonCase Designs, the team aspires to create an “exceptional iPhone case that is as unique as it is durable.” Utilizing American-made aircraft grade aluminum to craft complex designs with a hand-finished touch, vonCase enters with four eccentric iPhone cases that catch attention. Anodized for a permanent finish, the Variants, pop with vivid color and protect your precious device from drops and dings… Read More
The iPhone 5 is finally here.
After Apple in 2011 unveiled the iPhone 4S — when everyone and his mother expected the iPhone 5 — the wizards of Cupertino introduced a smartphone for everyone. Want something smaller? Check. How about a big screen? Got you covered. Need power? No problem. Although this was the first post-Steve Jobs iPhone rollout, there was enough technology and geekitude on display today that even the Man in Black would have had a tough time fitting in just one more thing.
Most of the rumors about the iPhone were confirmed. The iPhone 5 sports a 4-inch (1136 x 640) display enclosed in an aluminum and glass shell. That larger display is becoming defacto on smartphones. Not to be outdone designwise by Android, Apple pushed suppliers to use an in-cell manufacturing technique that embeds the technology used in an edge-to-edge touchscreen, eliminating the need for a separate layer. Read More
The iOS 6 GM dropped a little while ago, and with it comes the new Panorama camera mode touted during the iPhone 5 media event earlier today.
We were able to take Panorama mode for a spin on our iPhone 4S, and this is what we found.
To help you easily identify the differences, we’ve created a graphical comparison of the iPhone 5 vs iPhone 4S, taken from Apple’s spec page.
How does the iPhone 4S match up to its new, taller, big brother? Take a look at our comparison image inside… Read More
As we expected, Apple introduced some new price points for its current iPhone lineup alongside the new iPhone 5. As we just reported, Apple’s new handset starts at the usual $199.
This has effectively pushed all of the previous iPhone models down a peg on Apple’s list of smartphone models. The 3GS is gone, and the iPhone 4 is now available for free… Read More
As we all know, Siri, Apple’s now popular voice assistant, started out as a third-party iOS app. The story goes that Steve Jobs personally called up Siri co-founder Dag Kittlaus one day and made an offer to buy his work and team. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Shortly after the iPhone 4S launched, Kittlaus left Apple for personal reasons, but a majority of his team stayed on. Today, however, it’s being reported that Adam Cheyer, another co-founder and member of the Siri team, has also recently decided to leave the company… Read More
Last week we reported that AT&T was reportedly starting to unlock iPhones that were still under contract. Though they had been a few reports of this, we hadn’t been able to verify the information ourselves.
I decided to take the matter in my own hands and submitted a request to unlock my under-contract iPhone 4S via AT&T’s handy online form. I was a bit doubtful because I had previously asked AT&T if they could unlock this device for me, and at the time, they kindly declined, saying that they couldn’t because I was still under contract.
A couple days after filling out the request form, I received the following confirmation email from AT&T… Read More
Imagine being able to take a picture on your iPhone, and then quickly turn it into a Polaroid picture without having to connect the handset to a printer. Now stop imagining. Such a product exists. Well, sort of.
Introducing the new Impossible Instant Lab, a new Kickstarter project. It’s essentially a printer that can grab pictures from an iPhone and then quickly turn them into real photos. You have to see it to believe it… Read More
Apple is planning to open an iTunes store in Russia later this year or early 2013, a local business journal reports. The Russian iTunes Store could offer music cheaper than in the US. While licensing deals are still underway, the Cupertino, Calif. digital music giant is expected to unveil tracks costing under $0.99, the newspaper says.
The supposed deal could prop up flagging Russian sales of digital music. While physical music sales are in free-fall, even digital music purchases — which have been growing elsewhere — dropped by 40 percent to levels not seen since 2009. The chief reason: “a culture of copyright infringement,” according to music industry group IFPI. The nation’s leading music service is operated by vKontakte, which also offers file-sharing, according to the IFPI. Read More
Sprint two weeks ago added four more United States cities to its 4G LTE network deployment efforts and today the company announced that it will deploy the speedy network technology across a hundred major cities in “coming months”, including New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.
Sprint is late to the LTE party, having commenced the high-speed network deployment on July 15. Contrast this to AT&T and Verizon, the nation’s leading carriers, that began upgrading their towers to 4G LTE last summer and are expected to wrap up commercial deployment of their nationwide 4G LTE by the end of 2012 or in early 2013… Read More
Earlier this year, AT&T started unlocking iPhones for subscribers that were out of contract. Prior to that, users had to be jailbroken, or utilize third-party services to unlock their handsets.
Well, good news for folks with AT&T iPhones that aren’t quite out of contract yet. According to a new report, the carrier has started unlocking iPhones that are still under commitment… Read More
Apple is all set to unveil its new smartphone next week, and according to the rumor mill, it’s going to be quite the upgrade — larger display, thinner profile, and LTE compatibility are all on the menu.
In addition to the new handset, it’ll be interesting to see what Apple does with the rest of its iPhone lineup. A lot of folks think the 3GS is on the way out, but what about the other models? Read More
With just days before Apple is expected to unveil its new iPhone, AT&T Thursday announced its 4G LTE network is expanding into nine new US markets. The carrier also said it expects to add 43 more markets for the high-speed network by the end of 2012.
Although Apple’s not talking ahead of the Sept. 12 media event, observers expect the Cupertino, Calif. company to introduce a new iPhone that supports the faster LTE networks. The new iPhone would join the latest iPad as two iOS devices compatible with LTE. Read More
One of the latest accessory crazes to hit the mobile industry are smartwatches — wearable computers that share data with smartphones. There’s the Pebble, the Meta Watch, and now Casio has one.
Casio announced a new addition to its G-Shock line today — arguably one of the most recognizable wristwatch lines in the world. It has built-in Bluetooth, and can talk directly to the iPhone… Read More
There’s been a lot of hoopla in the weeks building up to the next Wednesday’s massive event that Apple’s next iPhone won’t be radically different to the existing iPhone 4/4S form factor, much to the delight of fans the world over (or horror, depending on where you’re standing).
Our own little poll suggested that people continue to be torn over the issue of the iPhone 5 design. Nearly 55 percent of respondents voted for the leaked design featuring an all-metal backplate with plastic bands at the top and bottom for wireless and cellular antenna, in addition to the relocated headphone jack and a miniaturized dock connector. The remaining 45 percent said the design looked fugly as hell.
If you’ve been keeping your fingers crossed for a last-minute surprise from Apple, here comes a shocker: a new credible report reaffirms claims that the next iPhone won’t look a whole lot different to the iPhone 4/4S form factor, sans a couple cosmetic changes and the two-tone thing on the back… Read More
Apple sent out media invites this morning for a September 12 event where many believe it will unveil the new iPhone. The handset is expected to become available for pre-order the same day, and launch in stores the following week.
The news has kickstarted the pre-announcement ritual of folks looking to sell off their old Apple gear to help pay for the new stuff. And if you’re looking to do the same, Amazon appears to be offering top dollar for old iPhones… Read More
Citing “channel checks”, one analyst estimated that Samsung’s three-month-old Galaxy S III smartphone has manage to outsell Apple’s iPhone 4S in the United States during the month of August. Take it with a grain of salt as Apple doesn’t break down iPhone numbers by model and Samsung stopped reporting phone and tablet sales for competitive reasons a year ago.
If true, this isn’t terribly surprising given that the iPhone 4S is now almost a year old and especially knowing folks have been withholding their purchases in anticipation of the next iPhone… Read More
Thanks to new in-cell display panels, a smaller dock connector and other modifications, the new iPhone is going to be thinner than ever before. How thin? The casing for the handset has been measured at 7.6mm.
While that doesn’t sound like a very big difference — just 1.7mm thinner than the 9.3mm 4S — it’s certainly noticeable. Just look at these two comparison photos showing the new iPhone, the 4S and the 3GS… Read More
