As people around the world were preparing for Christmas last week, Apple was getting ready for its last iPhone 5 rollout of 2012. And on December 21st, three months after its debut, the handset launched in its 101st country.
You can now buy Apple's latest smartphone in Barbados, Cameroon, Egypt, Uganda and several other new markets. But you wouldn't know it by looking at the interwebs, as this was one of the quietest iPhone 5 launches yet...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBkC9iBs-Y8
Welcome to The Daily Recap for December 27th, 2012. Watch our video for a quick look at some of the top stories from the day in less than two minutes. If you missed out on any of today's big news, this is a great way for you to get caught up fast.
For your convenience, you'll also find links to all of the stories listed in today's recap inside...
Fade is an extremely simple jailbreak tweak that forces the Home screen UI elements to fade when Notification Center is invoked. As you slide down Notification Center, elements like the app icons and the dock will progressively fade from view. As you slide the Notification Center pane up, the effect is reversed, and the elements fade back into view.
There are no options to setup or settings to configure, just install it and it starts working. Take a look inside as we demonstrate Fade on video...
Earlier this year, The New York Times published a bleak, extensive report on the poor working conditions inside Foxconn's factories. The manufacturer makes products for several companies, but the piece specifically called out Apple.
In the latest installment of its "iEconomy" series, The Times takes a look at the changes made by both Apple and Foxconn to improve the working conditions inside their Chinese plants. And from the sound of it, things are getting better...
Christmas is over and 2012 is winding down, meaning it's about that time where folks start reflecting back on the year. As such, Instagram has posted a list of its most popular picture-taking locations for the past 12 months.
Out of anywhere else in the world, Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport was the most popular, with over 100,000 photos taken there in 2012. Interested in the rest of the list? We've got the whole thing for you after the break...
Tablets appear to be more popular than eReaders, at least in the U.S., according to researchers. Devices such as Apple's iPad are owned by 25 percent of Americans responding to a Pew Internet & American Life survey, compared to 19 percent for eReaders, such as Amazon's Kindle.
Most telling, however, is the November survey finding that a third of people own a tablet, eReader or both to view electronic publications. That's a two-fold increase over December of 2011, when 10 percent of people surveyed reported owning either a tablet or eReader. In another sign readers are shifting away from traditional publishing, the survey found 23 percent of the U.S. population 16-years-old or above are using eReaders. In 2011, the researchers found that number at 16 percent. For authors, eReaders also increase their audience, Pew also found...
http://youtu.be/W_mn5rkwyCs
Seen above is the iSiri, the intriguing iWatch concept we recently shared. Plenty more iWatch concepts are circulating around the web as watchers increasingly believe Apple will some day enter the wearable computing space. Patent filings indicate as much and last December The New York Times reported that Apple was working on a Siri-controlled add-on that interfaces with the iPhone. And now, the German blog Mobile Geeks relays a Chinese site rumor claiming Apple and Intel are collaborating on an Apple-branded Bluetooth smart watch set for releases some time next year...
Apple, usually the benchmark for customer satisfaction, fell from its lofty perch during the all-important Thanksgiving and Christmas shopping period. After quickly jettisoning its senior vice-president of retail and suffering questions surrounding supplies of new products, the company "stumbled", falling to a four-year low, according to a customer satisfaction analytics firm Thursday. The iPhone maker fell 3 points to 80 out of 100, dropping it from the overall top five online holiday retailers and behind #1 Amazon.com, which was rated 88 out of 100 by Forsee...
Tim Cook's CEO salary for the calendar year 2012 was $4.17 million, which includes a $1.36 million salary and $2.8 million in compensation related to incentive plans, reveals a document Apple filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Now, a bunch of media outlets pointed out that Cook's salary dropped 99 percent versus 2011. Such sensationalist reporting couldn't be farther from the truth.
Cook's $376 million compensation in 2011 and $52 million in the year before was given to him in stock options and these won't vest until 2016 and 2021.
So yeah, Cook's 'salary' did drop 99 percent this year versus 2011, but without stock awards (his base salary last year was $900,000). The filing also reveals the company gave a pay raise to a select few members of its executive team to reflect their increased responsibilities following the departure of SVP of iOS software Scott Forstall, announced in October...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAV-Kkq-GtY
While the iTV rumors have continued unabated right throughout 2012, little concrete supply chain leads do we have of Apple building a full-blown television set. Meanwhile, the sunset of Japan's television business and ongoing struggles of Sharp, Sony and Panasonic combined have paved the way for the rise of new competition from South Korea, chiefly Samsung Electronics whose Smart TV sets have taken over the entire television market by storm. And as Apple is pondering its next move, its frenemy is building up on the CES 2013 hype with a teaser that promises a new TV launch...
Apple is reportedly in talks with Sharp to use the company's IGZO (Indium gallium zinc oxide) technology in its next-generation iPhones and iPads. The backplane tech, which has been a hot topic over the past several months, allows for thinner, high resolution displays that require substantially less power...
Earlier this month, Tim Cook sat down with Rock Center's Brian Williams for his first major TV interview since becoming Apple's CEO. And among the many topics covered in the conversation, Cook spoke about Apple's plans to bring manufacturing jobs back to the US.
Initial speculation suggested that Apple was going to start making Mac Pros in the States, because of the desktop's pricing and sales volume. But according to a new report out of Taiwan, it will actually be the smaller Mac mini that will soon be shifted to US production...