Year: 2012

Apple survey says folks predominantly go Android to stay with current carrier

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 13, 2012

Like Henry Ford did, Apple tends to never ask consumers what they want. But contrary to popular belief, the Cupertino firm does believe in market research and regularly polls people in respect to competition and its position in the marketplace. One of such research notes has surfaced today in court documents as we enter the third week of the Apple v. Samsung monster lawsuit.

In it, Apple asks consumers why they chose Android over the iPhone. Turns out regular consumers' choices have little to do with their love (or hatred) for Apple or Google, with more than four out of ten responding they had gone Android just to stay with their current wireless operator...

Play more than 100 old school Nintendo games in your iPhone’s browser

Cody Lee ∙ Updated October 11, 2018

Nintendo hasn't released games for its NES or Game Boy systems in more than 20 years, but that doesn't mean people have forgotten about them. Emulators for old Nintendo games exist on nearly every platform imaginable — even iOS.

Until now, however, your iOS device had to be jailbroken to play these older games. That, or you had to snatch up one of the handful of emulator apps that popped in the App Store before Apple pulled them. But we've found another way...

RIM confirms plans to license BlackBerry 10 OS to others

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 25, 2016

According to Bloomberg, Canada-based maker of BlackBerry handsets, Research In Motion, will be licensing its upcoming BlackBerry 10 operating system to a smartphone manufacturer, Bloomberg reports. Apparently the company is evaluating options as we speak, considering how other companies may be able to use it in a range of products. This is the last nail in the coffin of RIM as we used to know it...

Apple licensed its prized design patents to Microsoft with an “anti-cloning” agreement

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 25, 2016

A surprising revelation from the Apple v. Samsung litigation as Apple patent licensing director Boris Teksler took the stand today to testify before a San Jose court, revealing that Apple licensed its design patents to Microsoft, but with an "anti-cloning agreement" to prevent copying of the iPhone and iPad.

To make this matter more interesting, we're talking about essentially the same design patents that Apple is asserting against Samsung in the high-stake trial...

iPhone 5 pre-orders slated to begin September 12

Cody Lee ∙ August 13, 2012

Apple is expected to unveil the next-generation iPhone during a media event on September 12. And apparently, the handset will become available for pre-order the same day.

According to a new report, Apple is planning to start accepting pre-orders for the new iPhone on September 12, with its actual release still slated for the following Friday...

MIT says iPhone has crossed a significant threshold in security

Cody Lee ∙ August 13, 2012

The iPhone hasn't always been known for its security. In fact, when the handset first launched back in 2007, hackers could gain root access to the device through simple application exploits.

But it fixed that particular bug in early 2008, and has since then spent a lot of time and resources on beefing up its iOS security. And MIT says that the extra effort is paying off...

AT&T reportedly planning a September iPhone 5 launch

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 13, 2012

Recently, major news outlets all but confirmed that the next iPhone will be announced on September 12 and become available on September 21. Aligning nicely with that piece of information, a new report based on industry sources claims that carrier AT&T is planning to launch the iPhone 5 during the third or fourth week of September.

Moreover, the carrier apparently told its retails staff it has rescheduled a large training event for regional employees from the first week of October in order not to clash with a “huge announcement”...

Major US carriers, Google form mobile payments alliance, Apple not on board

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 13, 2012

In another sign that the industry has high expectations for mobile payments, four major carriers in the United States along with Google and a bunch of other players have struck a mobile payments alliance called Mobile Payments Committee.

The initial members include carriers AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint and T-Mobile USA, but also Google, Isis, VeriFone and PayPal, in addition to financial institutions Wells Fargo and Capital One plus credit card giants American Express, Discover, MasterCard and Visa.

Apple is conspicuously absent from the list, as is mobile payment startup Square, which last week announced an interesting partnership with Starbucks. The iPhone maker, of course, is believed to be putting NFC circuitry inside the next iPhone and just recently acquired NFC and smart sensors maker AuthenTec for $356 million...

Report: new dock connector has improved transfer rates, is orientation independent

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 13, 2012

As you know, Apple is planning to deploy a much smaller dock connector with MagSafe-like functionality across all future iOS devices this fall. And contrary to Reuters calling for a 19-pin design, purported photos from two days ago show fewer pins and noticeably smaller design compared to your regular USB connector.

And now, a new report sheds more light on the features the new I/O will provide, including faster data transfer and orientation independence...

Future Motorola phones will recognize who is in a room based on their voices

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 13, 2012

Upcoming smartphones from Motorola Mobility, now a Google-owned entity, will be able to determine who is in a room by employing some pretty advanced voice recognition techniques. Under Google's stewardship, the company has seen its management team reshuffled as forty percent of Motorola's vice presidents left the company following the $12.5 billion acquisition.

And because Motorola has been losing money in 14 of its last 16 quarters, Google's latest measures to achieve "sustainable profitability" for Motorola include cutting one-fifth of its global workforce. That amounts to about 4,000 people, a third from U.S. operations.

Furthermore, Google will be slimming down Motorola's portfolio of devices to focus on a dozen or so flagship phones, it will close a third of Motorola's 94 offices worldwide, dial down the handset maker's operations in Asia and India and reduce its R&D expenditure in Chicago, Sunnyvale and Beijing...

The iPhone 5 asymmetric screw? Just a viral hoax

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated June 13, 2016

Remember a vague rumor from last week which had some people concerned that Apple might employ a special tamper-resistant design for iPhone 5 screws? Turns out the report was a false alarm, an elaborate hoax by a Swedish design shop which wanted to highlight how Apple rumors propagate across the blogosphere.

Day4, the design company, revealed this in a blog post titled "How we screwed (almost) the whole Apple community", explaining that the team had decided to design a rendering of the non-existent screw and publish it through a throwaway Reddit account in order to see if the story would gain any traction...

Diagram shows claimed next-gen iPhone parts fit together

Cody Lee ∙ Updated February 7, 2016

At this point, there doesn't seem to be many details regarding Apple's new smartphone that we don't know. We've seen dozens of leaked internal and external parts, and there's growing evidence that these pieces are in fact legitimate.

Still not convinced? Then check out the above diagram, put together by the iPhone experts over at iFixYouri. The image shows that many of the previously leaked next-gen iPhone parts fit perfectly in the recently-leaked motherboard...