Year: 2012

Report: TSMC to begin making quad-core mobile chips for Apple beginning 2014

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 20, 2017

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the world's largest dedicated independent semiconductor foundry with its headquarters located in the Hsinchu Science Park in Hsinchu, Taiwan, will according to an analyst's research note begin making next-generation quad-core mobile chips for iPhones, iPod touches and iPads sometime in 2014. We heard before that TSMC has a “good chance” of winning Apple’s chip biz in 2014 and this report reaffirms the notion...

Apple does the right thing, licenses the iPad clock design from Swiss Railway

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated April 29, 2017

After Apple was accused of lifting the iPad clock design from the timeless railway clock created by designer Hans Hilfiker for the Swiss Federal Railway service (SBB), and following a round of negotiations between Apple and the railway service, the Cupertino, California headquartered gadget maker has agreed to license the iconic timepiece look for the new clock app in iOS 6. The information has been confirmed officially by the SBB. Good move Apple, good move...

iPad mini announcement confirmed for October 23

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated June 13, 2016

October 10 came and went without an Apple media event (here's why), but that doesn't mean the rumor-mill is standing still. According to a new report by a Wall Street Journal-owned blog, Apple will hold an iPad mini event on October 23 (that's a Tuesday). And instead of holding a presser at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, where the iPhone 5, iPads and other products were introduced in the past, Apple has reportedly opted for a more intimate setting at Town Hall Auditorium on its Cupertino, California headquarters.

UPDATE: Jim Dalrymple of The Loop has weighed in on the rumor with his trademark "yep".

New iPod nano gets software update

Cody Lee ∙ October 12, 2012

Owners of the newly-introduced iPod nano might be interested to know that there is now a software update available for the device. That's right, Apple just started shipping the refreshed MP3 player a few days ago, and there's already new firmware for it.

The update brings the nano's OS to version 1.0.1. Keep reading for more details...

The state of the iOS 6 jailbreak

Cody Lee ∙ October 11, 2012

It would seem that we're now in the heart of what some folks call the jailbreak season. Apple has just released a new iPhone, iPod touch, and a major update to iOS. And as usual, this has really shaken up the jailbreak scene.

When will the new devices be jailbreakable? What about iOS 6? We've seen a dramatic increase in these kinds of questions recently. So we figured it was time to give everyone an update. Here's the state of the iOS 6 jailbreak...

iPod touch 5th generation review

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 10, 2018

I never planned on purchasing a new iPod touch, but the impulse bug got me. I bought one last year for testing purposes. But despite that justification, I still had buyers remorse soon afterwards. That's how bad the iPod touch 4th generation was. It lacked power, had a terrible screen, and the design was, well, disgusting.

But when Apple showed off the new iPod touch hardware last month, my interest was piqued. Still reeling, though, from the 4th generation product, I kept myself from getting too excited about it.

Unfortunately (thankfully?) I struggle to control myself when it comes to Apple product purchases. But that lack of control allowed me to witness first hand a marvelous turnaround to the iPod touch line. Yes, the iPod touch 5th generation shares little with the previous generation hardware, and that's a good thing.

Indeed, the new iPod touch is — wow — it's actually good. I mean, it's really good. If you haven't yet seen it in person, you owe it to yourself to check out this review...

Samsung’s chip wizard defects to Apple

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 8, 2016

An interesting development here in the never-ending Apple-Samsung saga. Per The Wall Street Journal, Apple has successfully lured Jim Mergard, one of Samsung's most noted chip design luminaries, who joined the Mac maker to presumable help its silicon team create new processors for Apple devices. This has gotta be a blow to South Korea-based Samsung, whose components arm manufactures processors for iPhones, iPads and iPods, which are designed internally by Apple's team of silicon engineers.

Mergard is said to have been tasked with developing ARM chips for servers at Samsung. Prior to joining Samsung, the chip expert was charged with the development of a “high-profile AMD chip that carried the code name Brazos and was designed for low-end portable computers”. It wasn't immediately clear from the report whether Mergard joined Apple's team that creates mobile chips of the unit which develops desktop products...

Microsoft targets Android’s Google Maps app in German patent lawsuit

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 11, 2012

Google's pricey $12.5 acquisition of handset maker Motorola Mobility didn't change the dynamics of patent wars as Google hoped it would. Recently, Microsoft and Apple scored a major win in a patent dispute in Germany, forcing Google's Motorola subsidiary to pull all of its Android-based smartphones and tablets from store shelves in the country.

Luck continues to be in short supply at Mountain View, California. Today, the Windows maker has expanded the Motorola patent case to include Google Maps for Android, specifically naming Google as a defendant.

As the public fight between Google and Microsoft gets uglier, Google faces a real possibility of Google Maps becoming unavailable in Germany as early as next spring. Ouch!

Appeals court reverses Galaxy Nexus sales ban as a new Nexus phone looms

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 27, 2017

The Galaxy Nexus, a Samsung-made smartphone providing so-called stock Android experience (one free of carrier crapware and skinning) may soon be back on store shelves in the United States as the country's appeals court warned that a "district court abused its discretion".

Back in June, U.S. Judge Lucy Koh granted Apple’s request for a preliminary injunction. The appeals court now reversed Apple's injunction warning that the iPhone maker did not prove people bought Samsung's phone because of the infringing technology.

The appeals court has sent the case back to a lower California court for reconsideration...

Sega’s Crazy Taxi now available in the App Store

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 10, 2018

A few days ago, Sega announced that it would be bringing its popular Crazy Taxi title to the iOS platform. It posted a short video of gameplay footage, and said that its release date would be sometime in October.

Well it looks like "sometime in October" meant "later this week," because Crazy Taxi showed up in the App Store this morning. Now you can play the classic open-world driver on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch...

Samsung launches the compact Galaxy S III Mini with four-inch display

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated May 16, 2018

In a twist of self-inflicted irony, South Korea-based Samsung today launched a smaller version of its flagship Galaxy S III handset, giving it a four-inch display instead of a whopping 4.8-inch screen found on the original. This is the same company which readily slams Apple in advertising over the iPhone 5's four-inch display which the ads suggest isn't massive enough for people's tastes.

Well, guess what? Looks like four inches is the perfect screen size for the new Galaxy S III Mini. This Jelly Bean-driven smartphone with Samsung's TouchWiz interface inherits much of the Galaxy S III's software and hardware features and appears to be aimed squarely at the iPhone 5...

Bad Piggies cookbook app lands on the iPad

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 22, 2018

From the apps to the merchandising, Rovio appears to be making money hand over fist. Yesterday, the brains behind the popular Angry Birds physics puzzler series updated their original game with 30 new levels. But it looks something else has been cooking in Rovio's kitchen as today the Finnish developer launched at Frankfurt Book Fair a new app for the iPad.

It's called Bad Piggies’ Best Egg Recipes and you guessed right, it's an e-book, basically an interactive replica of the dead tree version ($9.99 on Amazon) Rovio published last year, which contains 41 egg recipes. We've got a teaser clip and a hands-on video for your right after the break...