AT&T announces Aio Wireless prepaid brand with $35-$70 tiers

By Christian Zibreg on May 9, 2013

While its fierce rival Verizon has chosen to sit on the sidelines and watch T-Mobile regain consumer trust with its newly found ‘Uncarrier‘ business model and no-contract plans, AT&T has jumped on the prepaid bus with a new Aio Wireless brand rounding on T-Mobile’s offering. Just like Sprint’s Boost and Virgin, Aio Wireless is a MVNO wholly owned by AT&T and marketed as a standalone brand.

As we explained last week, Aio (as in ‘All In One’) is aimed at those eager to avoid committing their soul to AT&T at all cost by opting for a month-to-month service instead. The offering includes $40/$55/$70 tiers (pricing varies by market) with unlimited talk/text and 250MB/2GB/7GB of data.

Aio Wireless also offers Apple’s iPhone 5 and a few popular Android and Windows Phone handsets. Go past the fold for more information… Read More

 

Canalys: one in five smart devices are Apple

By Ed Sutherland on May 9, 2013

Research firm Canalys Thursday offered data on first-quarter smart mobile device shipments, with an estimated 300+ million new units for a 37.4 percent year-over-year growth. Google’s Android powered 59 percent and Apple’s iOS powered a little over nineteen percent of these devices, according to researchers. Key takeaways: Android leads the smartphone race, Apple is holding onto the tablet market and laptop demand continues falling.

Pay attention to Canalys’s parlance because ‘smart mobile devices’ include smartphones, tablets and laptops. Another important caveat: Canalys stats don’t divulge shipped vs sold units. This is an important distinction as a device shipped into a channel does not automatically result in a device sold to a consumer… Read More

 

USPTO publishes Apple’s extensive Lightning connector patent

By Ed Sutherland on May 9, 2013

Much has been written about Apple’s new Lightning connector, introduced with the iPhone 5 to supercede the aging 30-pin Dock connection. Thursday, the United States Patent and Trademark Office published three Apple patent filings from 2012 detailing how the Lightning connector is built. Among the questions addressed: how did Apple create an “orientation agnostic” connector design while also ensuring stability and proper alignment? Read More

 

Alleged next-gen iPhone circuitboard part suggests optimized camera design

By Christian Zibreg on May 9, 2013

As WWDC 2013 draws near – and with supply chain increasingly pointing to Apple’s procurement of components for production of a next-generation iPhone – small wonder various parts are now cropping up on the web. It’s the very nature of the game: Apple just can’t control each and every one of its suppliers in Taiwan and China, let alone their individual employees.

A Japanese parts retailer, which recently leaked a next-gen iPhone components, is back at it, having published Thursday an image believed to depict a motherboard component, presumably belonging to an upcoming iPhone refresh… Read More

 

Samsung’s cash pile triples, but still no match for Apple’s $145B hoard

By Ed Sutherland on May 9, 2013

Much is being made of Samsung’s hoard of cash, estimated at $28.5 billion once the South Korean conglomerate’s debt is taken into consideration. At any rate, the Galaxy maker has watched its net cash almost triple in the past year, thanks to double-digit profits fueled by the rising sales of its mobile division which makes smartphones and tablets.

In just three years, mobile phones have grown to be 74 percent of Samsung’s profits, overshadowing sales of LCD TVs and memory chips. On other words, three out of every four dollars Samsung earns come from mobile devices.

However, Apple remains the industry’s most-profitable player, retaining a $145 billion cash pile while offering anxious investors a $100 billion stock buyback. Is Samsung destined to follow Apple’s footsteps, or repeat the errors of other Asian giants, such as Panasonic, drowning in debt? Read More

 

Apple close to striking landmark iPhone deal with China Mobile

By Christian Zibreg on May 9, 2013

Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty was visiting Hong Kong and Taiwan recently. She is now back from China with some interesting Apple news. Tim Cook & Co., she wrote in her note to clients, may be close to striking an iPhone distribution agreement with China Mobile, the world’s top wireless carrier by revenue and subscribers.

Specifically, Huberty wrote that “TD-LTE licenses, and related phone launches, are expected by year-end,” in her note to clients. China Mobile debuted small-scale TD-LTE network in 2010 and last year expanded coverage to select large cities. In case you were wondering, TD-LTE is a variant of the fourth-generation Long Term Evolution radio technology, also known as LTE… Read More

 

Pegatron ramping up hiring for budget iPhone production?

By Christian Zibreg on May 9, 2013

Just a day after contract manufacturer Pegatron warned investors its second-quarter earnings could drop up to 30 percent due to softening demand for iPad mini, other tablets, e-books and games consoles comes word that the company has ramped up hiring as it needs an additional 40,000 workers on top of its existing 100,000 employees.

The 40,000 additional workers are needed to presumably assemble a rumored less-price iPhone model for Apple, Reuters speculated Thursday, reiterating it heard from suppliers that Apple is indeed “developing a cheaper model of the phone” in order to broaden its sales base to lower-income buyers in growth markets such as China and India… Read More

 

Facebook updates Pages Manager app with photo filters, stickers and more

By Cody Lee on May 9, 2013

Facebook rolled out its Pages Manager app about this time last year as a way to help users—you guessed it—manage their Facebook Pages. These are essentially profiles for businesses, schools and other organizations that want a presence on the social network.

Anyway, users will be happy to hear that the app received a fairly significant update last night, bringing it to version 2.0. Facebook says that it has completely rebuilt the app for better performance, and it’s added support for photo filters, stickers and more… Read More

 

New Nokia video pits PureView camera against iPhone 5, Galaxy S3

By Cody Lee on May 9, 2013

Nokia has yet to find an answer to the iPhone or Samsung’s Galaxy line, but it’s hoping it’s getting closer. The Finnish phone-maker is expected to release a new flagship handset, the Lumia 928, within the next few months featuring its patented PureView technology.

Adding to the speculation, Nokia posted a new video yesterday on the Lumia’s landing page of video shot with the 928′s PureView camera, and compared with footage taken with the iPhone 5 and the Galaxy SIII. And I’ll give you one guess who comes out on top… Read More

 

‘iPhone 6′ allegedly listed in Vodafone retail system

By Christian Zibreg on May 9, 2013

These things are easily fabricated (as is any Apple rumor, for that matter) so it pays to take this one with a few pinches of salt.

A new report Thursday by Stuff.tv suggests Apple this year could abandon iPhone S-upgrades, based on an alleged listing in Vodafone UK’s retail system which mentions a product listed as a ’4G iPhone 6’.

Evidence backing the report: a blurry image of a retail system listing purportedly taken by a Vodafone employee. Now, we’ve heard crazy stories of Apple potentially releasing not one, but a few new iPhones this year. However, the most credible sources point to an iPhone 5S upgrade and the rumored budget iPhone model in 2012, eventually followed by an iPhone 6 in 2013… Read More

 

App.net releases new Passport app for managing accounts and finding clients

By Cody Lee on May 8, 2013

In what appears to be an effort to spur user adoption, the folks over at App.net have released a new iPhone app called Passport. No, it’s not a client for browsing the Twitter-like social network. It’s more of just an account management tool.

In Passport, users can create their own App.net account, and find and follow other members. It also gives you the ability to update your bio, profile and cover phots, and includes a library of third-party apps that feature App.net integration… Read More

 

MiniPlayer 2.0 is out with a new look courtesy of Surenix

By Cody Lee on May 8, 2013

Earlier this week, we told you about a new jailbreak tweak called MiniPlayer. It’s essentially a hidable widget for your device’s music controls, which was based on a concept from Auxo-designer Sentry, and looks a lot like the iTunes 11 mini player.

The initial release saw mixed reviews, but if you weren’t a believer before you need to checkout today’s update. MiniPlayer 2.0 just hit Cydia, and thanks to a complete UI overhaul by Ayecon theme designer Surenix, it looks and feels much better… Read More

 

Apple to begin producing multiple new iPhones next month, per Morgan Stanley

By Ed Sutherland on May 8, 2013

A well-known Wall Street Apple observer expects Apple’s manufacturing partners to start producing multiple new iPhone models in June or July, with the new smartphones introduced around September.

While the analyst note meshes with today’s report of Sharp gearing up to begin mass production of the iPhone 5S screens next month and other reports mentioning multiple iPhones on Apple’s roadmap, what’s perhaps most interesting is word that any drop-off in iPhone demand seems to be over.

And in her additional remarks bolstered by others, Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty tells investors Wednesday that Apple could sell many iPhones in China even if the device were not priced cheaply… Read More

 

T-Mobile’s new iPhone 5 ad uses ‘Intertubes’ metaphor

By Christian Zibreg on May 8, 2013

In his now legendary attempt to criticize an amendment that would have prohibited service providers from charging for a tiered Internet structure, former Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens in 2006 likened the web to a series of tubes. “The Internet is not a big truck,” he famously said, “It’s a series of tubes.”

Tapping that meme, T-Mobile USA on Wednesday posted its third iPhone 5 commercial that literally depicts its network as a sewage pipe which pumps out twice as many gak compared to its rivals. The message couldn’t be clearer: T-Mobile’s pipes aren’t as clogged up as its competitors’ are.

I’ll be revisiting that commercial in a year or so to check how clogged up T-Mobile’s tube gets after data-hungry smartphone users crowd its LTE network. As for the commercial, T-Mobile won the Internet for today. Your video is right after the break… Read More

 

T-Mobile announces 500,000 iPhones sold in first month

By Cody Lee on May 8, 2013

T-Mobile released its earnings report for its first quarter late last night, and the numbers aren’t looking too good. The carrier saw a 7% dip in its revenue from the same three month period last year, as well as a 7.5% drop in profits.

But it wasn’t all bad news. T-Mobile’s newly-acquired iPhone handsets seem to be doing very well, with the company reporting that it has sold more than 500,000 of them since they officially went on sale last month (the 12th)… Read More

 

‘Secretary’ reads you your messages and missed notifications

By Cody Lee on May 8, 2013

Looking for a new way to sort through notifications on your iPhone? If so, you might want to check out Secretary, a new jailbreak tweak that will read your notifications aloud to you upon connecting your device to a Bluetooth speaker or headset.

Once activated, the tweak can tell you how many unchecked missed phone calls and messages you have, as well as the number of impending calendar events. It can also read your text messages aloud to you using text-to-speech, similar to Siri… Read More

 

Sharp expected to begin iPhone 5S display production in June

By Cody Lee on May 8, 2013

Earlier this year, it was believed that the iPhone 5S would go into production in March ahead of an early summer release. But after rumors of manufacturing issues began to circulate, the handset’s expected arrival time was pushed back to the fall.

And a new report out of the east this morning corroborates that theory. A Japanese newspaper is reporting that Sharp, one of Apple’s primary panel partners, is gearing up to begin mass production of LCD displays for the iPhone 5S next month… Read More

 

You can now sign up for Boingo subscriptions with iTunes credentials via Wi-Finder

By Cody Lee on May 7, 2013

You wouldn’t think that an update to an app that maps out Wi-Fi hotspots would be newsworthy, but this new release from Boingo Wireless could have a significant impact on how travelers access the internet.

The hotspot provider updated its Wi-Finder app today with the ability to sign up for access to its wireless internet in-app. So signing up for a Bingo subscription is now as easy as typing in your iTunes password… Read More

 

Apple patents smart audio splitter

By Ed Sutherland on May 7, 2013

Many of us have shared a pair of earbuds with a friend. The problem crops up when you enjoy rocking out at max volume while your friend enjoys a more modest audio level. Enter Apple with what’s essentially an intelligent audio splitter.

Instead of enduring the default sound level of the iPhone or iPod, an adapter envisioned by Apple would allow you to customize your individual audio, according to a patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Tuesday.

Additionally, the headphone splitter would permit two people to use built-in mics to speak over the soundtrack, opening up some wild possibilities with gaming… Read More

 

Apple manufacturer Foxconn looks past iPhone, anticipates iTV orders

By Christian Zibreg on May 7, 2013

Hon Hai Precision Industry – better known in the Western world as Foxconn – is the world’s top manufacturer of consumer electronics. And with Apple products – the iPhone in particular – accounting for at least 40 percent of its revenue, the contract manufacturer’s fortunes are tied to Apple’s.

Needles to say, the company’s leadership never complained about relying on Apple so much as long as sales were growing substantially. But with Apple’s growth cooling off amid a broader sales lull affecting pricey high-end smartphones like the iPhone, Foxconn is now looking to lessen its exposure on the Apple smartphone and is apparently gearing up for a mass-scale production of an Apple-branded television set, the rumored iTV… Read More

 
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