It seems like iOS game controllers are a dime a dozen these days. There's the iControlPad 2, the iCade 8-Bitty and the Bladepad, to name a few. But we still haven't seen a single controller pull ahead of the pack.
And that's a good thing — at least for accessory-makers anyway. It means that the controller market is still anyone's game. That being said, we've got another one to show you today, and it's called the iMpulse...
Rumors that Apple had plans for a smaller version of its popular iPad tablet go back at least two years. Our earliest report on the topic dates all the way back to August 2010.
But the gossip has gotten a lot more serious over the past 9 months or so, and the iPad mini is widely expected to debut at Apple's recently announced October 23 event.
It's actually been interesting to watch this story unfold this year. And if you missed any of it, never fear, the folks over at GimmeTech put together this infographic timeline...
It's been a busy year for Apple acquisitions. The company has picked up Chomp, an app discovery startup, AuthenTec, who makes NFC chips and smart sensors, and there was even talk of it buying The Fancy.
Well it looks like we might be able to add another one to that list. Reports are coming in tonight that Apple has acquired Particle, a San Francisco-based creative consulting firm that specializes in HTML5 web apps...
According to a new report from the marketing research firm ABI Research, the average size of an iOS app measured 23 megabytes in September, an increase of more than 16% in the last six months.
The increase, it says, can be contributed to number of factors, including the release of the Retina display iPad back in March, and the recent bump in the over-the-air App Store download limit to 50 megabytes....
It's just sad that such a great company can become so disillusioned and lost in time. Apparently, as reported by The New York Times, BlackBerry devices have become a magnet for mockery and derision from iPhone and Android owners. Worse, people apparently suffer from shame and public humiliation because their BlackBerry cannot do cool things like iPhones and Android devices.
Now, I use both the iPhone and an Android device and it never even crossed my mind to judge someone by their smartphone, even if that's apparently how some bosses behave these days. As a result, people are becoming increasingly wary pulling their BlackBerries in meetings (I'm not making this up).
Remember, stylish (and mostly black) BlackBerry phones with their clickety-clack keyboards used to be a status symbol of the high-powered and the elite. What a difference a few years make...
Ostium is a new jailbreak tweak that adds a screen splitting animation to Notification Center. The tweak works with a two finger pinch gesture, along with the more traditional slide from status bar gesture.
At first it appeared that the developer was only going to release Ostium for iPad, but iPod touch and iPhone support were added late in the game. I can definitely see the two finger pinch being more suited for the iPad's larger screen, but as you'll see, it works reasonable well on the small screen too.
This year's roundup of iPhone rumors, like many years before it, included chatter that the iPhone 5 would finally receive NFC technology. But as we found out in September, those reports were once again unfounded.
Despite the fact that several Android handsets support the wireless connection, Apple has yet to add it to its mobile products. But according to a newly granted patent, it may be working on some kind of alternative...
Foxconn is the world's largest contract manufacturer and Apple's favorite contractor. Its sweatshops in China are under a constant barrage of criticism regarding labor conditions. Apple and Foxconn have been working to cut long hours and increase wages (twice), but when you have to deal with a workforce of approximately one million individuals, it's virtually impossible to deal with individual abuses that may occur.
Except, of course, that Foxconn has a pattern of underage labor and other serious workplace violations. Also, being the world's biggest manufacturer doesn't help because the media tends to zero in on Foxconn and Apple to make an example. The following story underscores how the two parties have not done nearly enough to prevent workplace abuses...
Following up on today's Surface price list, pre-orders and a pretty nice commercial, Microsoft has also posted another interesting thingie which I think highlights how the engineering team went about designing Microsoft's iPad contender. Make no mistake about it: with the Surface, the Windows maker has raised the water line on its platform’s functionality. This tablet's here to stay. It is at any rate refreshing to have a fresh approach to the tablet other than the boring iOS-Android duopoly. Microsoft also has a few other promo clips for the Surface, all included past the fold...
Apple has traditionally used Samsung displays in products and lately has begun sourcing portable screens from other suppliers, namely LG Display, Japan Display and Sharp. If a new business report out of Japan is correct, Panasonic will exit the TV biz to focus on churning out displays for portable electronics, with a strong focus on Apple's iPad.
It actually makes sense. Due to price wars eating into the already razor-thin margins, LCD TV sets have become a highly unprofitable affair for Japan's consumer electronics makers - just ask Sharp.
Perhaps having sensed that Foxconn and Apple grew tired of saving Sharp and coping with yield issues plaguing its cutting-edge display plant in Osaka, Panasonic is now thought to have already sent sample LCD panels to Cupertino and Apple "seems to be satisfied"...
With Apple and Microsoft both teasing their upcoming tablet launches earlier this morning and Microsoft finally announcing price points for its iPad contender, we are beginning to wonder just how competitive price-wise the iPad mini is going to be against other products, seven-inchers in particular.
Apple has economies of scale playing to its favor which it readily exploited to deliver the original iPad, billing it as a "magical and revolutionary device at an unbelievable price" at then unheard-of $499. A lot has changed since 2010.
Nowadays, for half the price one can get a perfectly capable seven-inch Nexus 7 tablet from Google with sixteen gigabytes of storage ($199 for the eight gig version). It doesn't run your App Store apps, lacks the iPad's build quality and skimps on certain hardware features, but otherwise is a pretty decent tablet. And with Android Jelly Bean running on Nvidia's quad-core Tegra 3 processor, Google's tablet certainly is no slouch.
There's also the new Kindle Fire tablet from Amazon (it sells at cost). With those inexpensive devices rapidly picking up steam and catching up on the iPad, no wonder Apple had to respond. Now, the third-generation 9.7-inch iPad begins at $499 and goes all the way up to $839 for the flagship 64GB model with 4G LTE networking.
The company also kept the previous-generation iPad 2 with 16 gigabytes of storage and WiFi-only networking at a reduced price of $399, a hundred bucks cheaper than before. Which brings us to today's poll: where should a small-factor iPad start at?
Yesterday we emphasized the lack of an ambient light sensor in the 5th generation iPod touch after initially highlighting the omission in our iPod touch 5th gen review.
Now a reader claims to have emailed Apple's SVP of worldwide marketing, Phil Schiller, and received a response explaining the drop of the sensor. The reason for the omission? It's just too thin.