Year: 2012

WWDC 2012 tickets go on sale: June 11-15

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 25, 2012

Confirming speculation, Apple just announced via a press release that its annual developer conference will run this year from June 11 through June 15 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, a week after this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo show. Tickets are now on sale, available from $1,599 for conference passes.

If history is anything to go by, WWDC 2012 will sell out in a matter of hours. If you're planning on attending the conference, better get your tickets right now, right here.

Unlike previous WWDCs, however, this time around Apple is mandating that attendees with conference passes be members of one of their developer programs...

Sprint activates 1.5M iPhones in Q1, but posts $863M net loss

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 25, 2012

Just as Apple posted its massive earnings, Sprint Nextel, the third largest wireless telecommunications network in the United States, behind Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility, published on Wednesday their first-quarter earnings ahead of the bell.

The carrier activated 1.5 million iPhones in the quarter and 44 percent were to new customers, amounting to 660,000 new iPhone subscribers. That wasn't enough to save the day as the carrier reported a substantial $863 million net loss and operating loss of $255 million.

They lost $0.29 per share on wireless service revenues of $7.2 billion, a seven percent increase year-over-year. The carrier added 263,000 net prepaid subscribers under the Sprint brand - each spending an average of $4.03 more than last year.

Without the iPhone, Sprint would have actually lost 400,000 customers. The carrier's ARPU was $59.88, a new record. The company added 1.1 million new subscribers during the quarter and it now commands 56 million subscribers in total...

ITC judge finds Apple’s products in violation of Motorola Wi-Fi patent

Cody Lee ∙ April 25, 2012

Thomas Pender, of the International Trade Commission, passed down a ruling yesterday that could have some serious ramifications for Apple if the cards fall just right. Bloomberg reports that the ITC judge found the iPad-makers to be in violation of one of Motorola's patents.

Motorola was actually suing Apple over four patents, so the fact that Apple was only found to be in violation of one is a victory in itself. But the patent it is being charged with infringing upon, an invention involving Wi-Fi, is a pretty crucial component for iOS devices...

HackStore: it’s like Cydia for your Mac

Cody Lee ∙ Updated September 17, 2017

Cydia has become a household name in the jailbreak community over the past few years. The underground app store has withstood the tests of time and competition to become the de facto source for apps, themes and utilities that aren't allowed in the official App Store.

Last night, a similar app store launched for the Mac platform called HackStore. No, it doesn't include the same apps and tweaks that you'll find in Cydia. But it does contain apps and utilities that Apple wouldn't normally approve for its official Mac App Store...

Tim Cook speaks out on Apple’s patent battles

Cody Lee ∙ April 24, 2012

Along with making announcements regarding its quarterly performance, Apple also uses its financial earnings calls to offer analysts a chance to ask questions. After all, these are the folks that have to essentially guess how Apple will fair over the next few months.

On today's call, there was one particular question that was both interesting and relevant: "In terms of flexibility in cash and providing more color, how should we think about opportunities regarding patent disputes? Any thoughts about settling vs ongoing litigation?

And here's how Tim Cook responded...

Interesting stats from Apple’s earnings call

Cody Lee ∙ April 24, 2012

We just finished listening to Apple's quarterly earnings call for Q2 of this year, and we managed to pick up some interesting statistics.

As we reported earlier, Apple had another record-breaking financial quarter over the last three months. But it also hit several other high points...

Apple reports record second quarter results: 35M iPhones, 11.8M iPads

Cody Lee ∙ April 24, 2012

We've got just a few minutes here until Apple's quarterly earnings conference call starts, but the company has already released its sales numbers for the past three months. And as usual, they are record-breaking.

Apple posted $39.2 billion dollars in revenue for the quarter, netting close to $12 billion dollars in profit. This was led by sales of 35.1 million iPhones, and 11.8 million iPads. Keep reading for a full breakdown...

Sony’s magnetic fluid speaker dock makes speakers interesting again

Oliver Haslam ∙ Updated January 25, 2016

There isn't anything much more boring than iPhone speaker docks. They do what you would expect, and that's get audio out of an iPhone, iPad or iPod and tries to look good in the process.

Sony has somehow managed to pique our interest though, with two new speaker docks being announced that offer something a little different to the bland, boring speaker docks that have become the norm of late.

Sony's two new models, the catchily named CMT-V75BTiP and CMT-V50iP, feature a new type of speaker dampening. Rather than the traditional dampening, these new speakers are actually damperless, with magnetic fluid being used to passively damp the movement of the speaker cone...

How to use a third-party remote to control your Apple TV

Cody Lee ∙ Updated January 5, 2016

Although the Apple TV's remote control looks sleek, it leaves a lot to be desired. The tiny buttons on the awkward-shaped directional pad can make it difficult to browse through iTune's library of thousands of movies and TV shows.

As you know, you can easily replace the remote with your iPhone using Apple's Remote app. But did you know there's another option? You can control your Apple TV with a third-party remote. And it's actually fairly easy to setup...

In Japan, the iPhone outgrows Android as both now account for 95.6% of smartphones

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 25, 2016

With just one device family, Apple's iPhone has managed to outgrow Google's Android platform in Japan over the past three months, gaining market share, a survey note out today from research firm comScore indicated. While we've known for awhile that Japan's iOS-Android duopoly is a sign of things to come, the numbers are nonetheless eyebrow-raising.

Together, the two platforms accounted for a staggering 95.6 percent of all smartphones sold in Japan, where still just one in five own a smartphone.

Low smartphone penetration rate in Japan, compared to the one-in-two smartphone penetration rate in the U.S., actually bodes well for Apple. As more folks in Japan upgrade their dumb phones, they are likely to consider the iPhone 4/4S and especially a sixth-generation model that Piper Jaffray's resident Apple analyst Gene Munster deemed "the mother of all upgrades"...

Swipebright: adjust brightness by swiping your status bar

Jeff Benjamin ∙ April 24, 2012

This is probably one of the more intuitive ways to adjust your iPhone's brightness from anywhere. Swipebright allows you to adjust your device's brightness by means of a simple swipe of the status bar.

It may not sound all that exciting, but it's a fairly convenient tweak to have, and it only costs $0.99 to add it to your jailbroken iPhone.

Take a gander inside for a full video demo of Swipebright in action...

VOIP service Line2 gets updated with MMS

Cody Lee ∙ April 24, 2012

We've told you about Line2 before. The VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) service, which launched July 28th last year, turns your iPad (or iPhone) into a second phone line for just $9.99 a month.

We haven't heard much from the company since then, but this week they're out with a fairly big announcement. It seems they've added an MMS (Multimedia Messaging) feature to the service...