Year: 2012

Why Apple’s next iPhone launch is so important

Cody Lee ∙ April 19, 2012

A week from now, Apple will be announcing its sales figures for the past three months on its quarterly earnings call. Analysts think the company sold in upwards of 12 million iPads and 33 million iPhones, thanks to the continuous momentum of the new 4S.

But according to Goldman Sachs' Bill Shope, Apple's next smartphone launch is the one to watch. The analyst recently raised his Apple stock price target from $700 to $750 on the belief that the sixth-generation iPhone launch is the most important one ever...

One in ten men apparently more fond of iPads than the ladies

Oliver Haslam ∙ April 18, 2012

It's no secret that we are big fans of the iPad here at iDB. The clue is kinda in our name, but even we don't quite understand this latest statistic to come our way.

Put together by online casino Roxy Palace, a recent survey suggests that one in ten, or around 11% of men asked would prefer to get their greasy mitts on a new Apple tablet rather than a lady friend.

We had to read that a few times to make sure we hadn't imagined it but sure enough, that's what the numbers say. Just to add a little fun to proceedings, the poll also asked whether people would prefer any other kind of tablet to a new love, with the number dropping to just 4%...

Confident about its case, Apple wants trial on eBook price fixing allegations

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated January 25, 2016

Confident that the US Department of Justice's allegations that Apple sat down with book publishers to agree on eBooks prices are weak, the company wants to go to trial to defend itself, a lawyer for the company said today.

According to antitrust experts, the DoJ, which filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple and five other publishers last week has a weak case, and this probably explains why Apple is feeling so strong about the situation...

New App Store app lets you toggle bluetooth on/off with a single tap (UPDATE: pulled)

Cody Lee ∙ Updated January 22, 2018

As noted by MacRumors, a new app went live in the App Store yesterday called Bluetooth OnOff. As the name suggests, the software enables you to toggle your iOS device's bluetooth settings on or off with a single tap.

This is a big deal for a couple of reasons. For one, Apple has a history of denying or removing apps from the App Store that access iOS settings. And two, it makes toggling bluetooth much easier for non-jailbreakers...

Apple’s design guru Jony Ive shortlisted as a British Visionary Innovator

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 18, 2012

It's nominations time for Apple today. First we learned that Time magazine included Apple CEO Tim Cook on its annual list of 100 Most Influential People in the world and now a word has reached us that the company's design guru Jonathan Ive has been nominated for the prestigious British Visionary Innovator award by the UK's Intellectual Property Office.

The competition aims to celebrate innovators who earned fame by developing innovative products, services or designs, in in celebration of World Intellectual Property Day 2012...

The Samuel L. Jackson Siri ad you were hoping for (NSFW)

Cody Lee ∙ April 18, 2012

When word started to spread that Samuel L. Jackson was starring in a new iPhone 4S commercial, our imaginations ran wild. We figured that combining the outspoken actor with Siri could make for a humorous TV spot.

Obviously, Apple went the much more tame route. And the commercial that aired didn't feature any of Mr. Jackson's popular foul-mouthed catch phrases. That's ok. We found one that does (warning: explicit language)...

iMac user Sergey Brin “always admired Apple’s products”, I call BS

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated November 20, 2017

A recent newspaper interview has caused quite a stir when the blogosphere lit up yesterday with controversial observations from the mouth of Google co-founder Sergey Brin. In a nutshell, Brin painted Apple and Facebook as major threats to Internet freedom because neither company's been open enough, at least in the search giant's view.

This from a guy whose company's been seriously lacking openness in many competitive categories. Naturally, a backlash ensued, prompting the engineer to set the record straight and clarify what he called "distorted secondary coverage".

No, he did not mean what he said and yes, in case you were wondering, he is loving his iMac. I call BS on this one, here's why...

Create iOS games on your iPhone or iPad with Sketch Nation Studio

Cody Lee ∙ Updated February 28, 2018

Mobile software development is like a modern-day gold rush of sorts. With apps like Instagram and Draw Something being snatched up for millions (or in Instagram's case, billions) of dollars, it's certainly a great time to be a developer.

The problem, however, is that not everyone who wants to get into app-making has the ability — it currently requires a fairly extensive knowledge of complex programming languages. But this app is looking to change all of that...

Tim Cook makes it on Time’s list of 100 Most Influential People

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 18, 2012

Apple CEO Tim Cook has made it on the list of 100 Most Influential People published annually by Time magazine. Apple's late co-founder, of course, used to be regularly featured in various popularity charts that list iconoclasts, celebrities and entrepreneurs.

However, this is the first time the magazine included 51-year-old Cook on their list. Even more interesting than that, Apple board member, a former U.S. Vice President and environmental activist Al Gore penned a short and sweet description of Cook for the magazine...

Hackers starting to make progress with iOS 5.1 jailbreak

Cody Lee ∙ April 18, 2012

We haven't really heard much on the jailbreak front since iOS 5.1 came out. The software update patched all previous exploits, meaning anyone who upgraded, lost their ability to jailbreak (well, A4 devices can still be jailbroken).

But we have good news today for the folks that have updated their devices to 5.1. Pod2g, who was largely responsible for Absinthe and Corona, says that he now has all of the exploits necessary to start working on a new jailbreak...

Rumor: next iPhone will be machined from Liquidmetal and launch at WWDC

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 25, 2016

A new report out of South Korea alleges that Apple will be launching a sixth-generation iPhone at its annual developers conference this summer, likely taking place between June 11-15.

The phone is said to be a complete overhaul of the existing iPhone, with the biggest design feature being the use of the patented Liquidmetal amorphous alloy, presumably for its shell.

As you know, Apple obtained exclusive worldwide rights to use this zirconium-based alloy in consumer electronics products from Liquidmetal Technologies’ in August of 2010.

They already tested the substance with the SIM ejector tool that shipped with the iPhone 3G, but thus far the company did not switch its aluminum-based gadgets to Liquidmetal...

Greenpeace activists protest outside Apple’s Irish HQ, winning employees’ support

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 18, 2012

Just a day following an unpleasant report from Greenpeace, activists with the non-governmental environmental organization gathered outside Apple's Irish headquarters to distribute leaflets and place banners urging the company to "clean our cloud".

Greenpeace singled out Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and Twitter for using dirty coal energy while praising Google for their eco-friendly data centers and environmental consciousness.