Year: 2012

Siri’s reliance on Google cut in half since iOS 6

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated April 10, 2018

Siri, what happened to Google? The voice-activated personal assistant (which debuted alongside the iPhone 4S last October) and the Internet giant aren't as close as before. Apple's digital secretary is fast becoming a stranger to Google as one Apple watcher says Siri's reliance on Google has been cut in half since iOS 6.

While 60 percent of Siri queries sent iPhone owners using iOS 5 to Google data, iOS 6 reduced the percentage to 30 percent. Apparently, Google Maps took the heaviest hit as Apple Maps became the destination for 24 percent of Siri's answers, up from zero percent in iOS 5. Siri - now competing with Google's own voice assistant - is also a wee bit more accurate...

Buoyed by strong sales, Apple orders 2M extra iPad minis

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 20, 2012

Apple's smaller iPad is indeed turning into competitors' worst nightmare. After announcing sales of three million new iPads in three days, the iPad mini is now outselling full-size iPads and could easily comprise half of all iPads sold in December.

And with eight out of each ten iPad owners planning to stick with Apple, no wonder the Cupertino firm has now increased orders for the 7.9-inch tablet, with the volume reaching twelve million iPad minis by year's end...

Tesco’s Clubcard unofficially repurposed for Apple’s Passbook app

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 22, 2018

Apple's Passbook app in iOS 6 has seen an encouraging uptick as various brands continue to implement Passbook support for loyalty and coupon cards and tickets, like Starbucks, mobile payment startup Square, Coupons.com, MLB, Discover, Apple (of course) and a host of airlines, to name a few. Passbook is also used by real estate agents and now Passverse founder Tomas McGuinness has brought an unofficial support for Passbook to the Clubcard from Tesco, UK’s biggest supermarket chain...

Verizon brings LTE service to 29 more markets

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

Carrier Verizon Wireless Thursday morning announced another wave of expansion, bringing its fourth-generation Long-Term Evolution (LTE) network to 29 more markets in the United States, including Selma, Alabama; Clarksburg, West Virginia; and Port Angeles, Washington.

With the addition of these 29 cities, Verizon's LTE is now available in 470 markets to more than 250 million people in the United States...

EU to file antitrust charges against Samsung

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

The European Union will "very soon" charge Samsung over its practice of filing injunctions against Apple in Europe, Reuters reported Thursday. The news arrives after Samsung dropped all of its injunctions and injunction requests against Cupertino, California-based Apple's gadgets in Europe and following a U.S. ruling that threw Samsung's alleged jury misconduct claim out of the window.

The European Union in January launched a formal investigation into a potential breach of EU antitrust rules concerning Samsung's use of standards-essential patents...

NIBIQÜ: a Surface-like keyboard case for your iPad

Cody Lee ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

Despite lackluster sales, Microsoft's new Surface has been praised for its innovations. Windows 8 RT certainly doesn't look like anything else on the market right now, and the tablet's ultra-slim Touch Cover keyboard is an interesting concept.

In fact, a lot of folks are asking if there is something similar available for the iPad. There are, actually several keyboard covers that are compatible with Apple's tablet, but none of them come closer to the Touch Cover than the NIBIQÜ...

Tumblr app finally updated with iPad support

Cody Lee ∙ December 20, 2012

Good news today for all of you Tumblr users. The popular microblogging platform has finally updated its iOS app to work natively on the iPad. Previously, if you wanted to access your Tumblr blog, or view the work of others, from your tablet, you either had to use the website, a third-party application, or the official iOS app in 2X mode. But not anymore...

US Patent Office invalidates another key Apple patent

Cody Lee ∙ December 19, 2012

We've seen the United States Patent and Trademark Office reject or invalidate a few important Apple patents in the last few months, including one covering the infamous 'rubber banding' UI feature, and one covering the iPhone.

Today, the USPTO added another key patent to the list, tentatively declaring Apple's US 7,844,915 invention — widely referred to as the pinch-to-zoom patent — invalid. It's just a preliminary decision, but it's still a fairly big deal...

The Daily Recap – Dec 19, 2012 edition

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZ61grpnRP8

Welcome to The Daily Recap for December 19th, 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...

Apple breaks ground on 1 million square foot Austin campus

Cody Lee ∙ December 19, 2012

Over the past few weeks, Apple has started work on a new 39-acre campus in Austin, TX that will be the future home of the company’s US operations. The new buildout will be an extension of Apple's current campus, which sits just off of Delcour Drive in northern Austin.

It's not going to be as big as the iSpaceship campus Apple is working on in Cupertino, but Apple's plans for the expansion include seven office buildings, combining for slightly more than 1 million square feet of office space, and the creation of some 3,600 local jobs...

Tim Cook talks about being recruited by Steve Jobs and more in Time profile

Cody Lee ∙ December 19, 2012

Hot on the heels of yesterday's news that Tim Cook had been shortlisted in the running for Time’s 2012 Person of the Year award, the magazine has published an extensive profile on the CEO. In it, Cook talks candidly about a wide range of topics, including how he was recruited and hired by Steve Jobs, and the unpredictability of Apple. We've highlighted some key excerpts from the piece for you after the fold...

Walt Mossberg agrees that Google Maps is better on iPhone than on Android

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 19, 2012

Google's new iOS Maps app is universally accepted as the best experience on any mobile platform. First Google told The New York Times columnist David Pogue that it "admits that it’s even better than Google Maps for Android phones", which Pogue says has accommodated its evolving feature set "mainly by piling on menus". And now, Pogue's peer over at The Wall Street Journal, Walt Mossberg, seems to agree as he calls Google's iPhone mapping software "better in most respects" on the iPhone than it is on Android phones, where "it looks inelegant by comparison"...