Year: 2012

DOJ files antitrust lawsuit against Apple, five publishers for alleged price fixing

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 11, 2012

As expected, the United States Department of Justice has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple and five major book publishers over an alleged price fixing related to digital books. Three publishers are reportedly close to settling with Uncle Sam in order to dodge costly and lengthy litigation and avoid risking potentially high damages.

However, Apple and two other publishers are not willing to cut a deal with the government and are said to be gearing up for a fight with the U.S. Justice Department in court, if necessary...

Apple stores in London gearing up for Olympic “onslaught”

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 11, 2012

Apple's retail stores in London are gearing up for the Olympics as the company is reportedly stocking them with iOS gadgets, as well as international replacement MacBook Pro, MacBook Air and MacBook keyboards.

According to sources, the company is expecting an "onslaught" of journalists and international Olympic visitors and wants to bank on on a foot traffic increase.

We're talking an expected extra 325,000 daily visitors to London for the games, in addition to 10,000 print journalists alone.

Brazil commemorates Apple’s co-founder with Steve Jobs Avenue

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 11, 2012

Jundiai city council in Brazil has confirmed Steve Jobs Avenue, a moving gesture aimed at commemorating Apple's late co-founder, a local blog reported yesterday.

It’s interesting that the city of Jundiai is located near São Paulo where Foxconn runs a new manufacturing facility that produces iPhones in Brazil...

Thoughts on the 4-inch iPhone theory

Cody Lee ∙ April 11, 2012

Yesterday, an intriguing theory on how Apple could build an iPhone with a 4-inch screen made its way around the tech world. The idea is based on the fact that Apple could make the display larger, without drastically increasing the size of the handset.

Judging from the feedback I've gathered from our readers, on Twitter, and on other websites, the consensus seems to be that this theory is way off base; Apple would never do anything like it. But to me, it feels like everyone is overlooking a few things...

iTunes 11 to include iOS 6 support and deeper iCloud integration

Cody Lee ∙ April 10, 2012

9to5Mac is reporting tonight that it has learned some details regarding the next major iteration of Apple's media management software, iTunes 11. Apparently Apple has been working on it for months now, and has recently seeded an internal beta.

According to the report, the iTunes update will feature a host of new additions including support for iOS 6...

DOJ could sue Apple as early as Wednesday over eBook pricing

Cody Lee ∙ April 10, 2012

Reuters is reporting tonight that the US Department of Justice could file a lawsuit against Apple as early as tomorrow morning over its iBook Store. The store utilizes an 'agency' model, which allows publishers to name their own eBook prices.

The DOJ believes that Apple is acting in concert with a number of publishers, who have recently raised their eBook prices across multiple platforms, to raise prices across the industry — which happens to be a violation of federal antirust laws...

Four-inch iPhone concept gets mocked up

Cody Lee ∙ April 10, 2012

Earlier today we shared an interesting theory with you regarding the argument for a four-inch iPhone. The case for the larger-screened device was laid out by a Verge forum member, and has since garnered some serious attention around the web.

So much in fact, that a mock-up of the conceptualized handset has already surfaced. 9to5Mac reader Spencer Caldwell created the image you see above, which gives us a good idea of what an iPhone with a 1152x640 display could look like...

TinyUmbrella updated with ability to save your device’s BBTicket

Cody Lee ∙ April 10, 2012

Semaphore, also known as notcom, has just announced that he has pushed out an update for TinyUmbrella, bringing it to version 5.10.11.

The new software contains a feature that allows users to save their BBTickets from their iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, and CDMA iPhone 4 for later use...

Stride: unlock your iPhone with impeccable style

Jeff Benjamin ∙ April 10, 2012

Stride is a brand new jailbreak tweak from excellent jailbreak developer and designer Adam Bell. It allows you to unlock your iPhone using an 8-bit styled drawing for security, in lieu of iOS’ boring passcode option.

When you try out the tweak for yourself, it's immediately obvious that there's some highly calculated design behind this effort. Indeed, Stride allows you to unlock your iPhone with impeccable style...

SiriHeights: easily adjust the height of your iPhone’s Siri window

Jeff Benjamin ∙ April 10, 2012

SiriHeights is a brand new jailbreak tweak that allows you to easily adjust the size of the Siri window after initially invoking your personal assistant.

If you use a custom Siri theme, this tweak can help expose your theme instead of leaving it hidden behind the overlay.

Check out our video demonstation inside...

Turn your iPad into a laptop with the NoteBookCase

Cody Lee ∙ Updated August 24, 2016

9to5Mac spotlights an interesting iPad accessory that appears to turn the popular tablet into a miniature MacBook Pro. The NoteBookCase houses your iPad in a clamshell-like case with an Apple-style keyboard.

Of course, there is no shortage of keyboard-packing iPad cases on the market — both Zagg and Kensington make some pretty popular models. But none of them pack near the amount of features as the NoteBookCase...

Siri speaks Hindi with a little help from a proxy server

Cody Lee ∙ April 10, 2012

Last month, Apple released iOS 5.1 to the masses. The update included few new features, but it did bring Japanese Siri support. This brought the digital assistant's number of compatible languages up to a whopping... four.

But if Siri doesn't currently support your language, that doesn't mean you're out of luck. Developer Kunal Kaul took matters into his own hands and taught Siri to speak Hindi — with a little help from his proxy server...