Month: October 2012

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...

The iPad mini: are you ready for Scuffgate on a grand scale?

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated June 13, 2016

October 10 has come and gone without an Apple invitation (Fortune's Philip Elmer-DeWitt who called for it apologized), prompting watchers to wonder about a smaller and cheaper iPad Apple's rumored to be close to launching under the iPad mini moniker.

According to a supply chain report today, Apple is facing quality control issues with the device's display and chassis, suggesting that shipments are not smooth at the moment due to low yield rates. The report notes that the iPad mini will come in native and black-colored aluminum chassis said to be "more vulnerable to scratching". That doesn't sound good.

The manufacturing difficulties are being blamed on anodizing, a finish process where aluminum thrown into a pool of chemicals and then running an electrical current through the acid bath, which produces a skin-deep layer that can easily be peeled off. The anodized finish process on the black cases for the iPad mini is reportedly "more critical", resulting in lower yield rates...

Eric Schmidt on Maps situation, the Android-Apple platform fight

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated June 13, 2016

Google chairman Eric Schmidt sat down with The Wall Street Journal tech columnists Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher last night to talk Maps, Apple and Android. “Apple should have kept our maps”, he remarked. “Apple decided a long time ago to do their own maps", he revealed, suggesting Google very well knew way in advance that the iPhone maker would nuke Google Maps from orbit on iOS devices.

He also talks about the epic iOS versus Android fight and comments what it would take to persuade him to become an Apple CEO. A couple more highlights and a nice video right after the break...

Korean court delays iPhone and iPad ban awaiting appeal

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated April 10, 2018

Apple Thursday won a temporary reprieve from a South Korean court, keeping the Cupertino, Calif. company's iPhone and iPad on store shelves in that country. A Seoul judge whose court in August ruled products by both Apple and Samsung should be yanked from stores, approved Apple's request for a stay while the U.S. firm appeals.

According to Bloomberg, Samsung has yet to file for a similar injunction. The original ruling by the Seoul Central District Court also banned sales of the Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy Tab and Galaxy Tab 10.1. The court ruled both Apple and Samsung guilty of violating each others' patents...

iPod touch teardown: cheaper display assembly, weaker home button, low repairability

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 11, 2012

Apple's fifth-generation iPod touch, which debuted alongside the iPhone 5 during the September 12 keynote, is on sale now, first reviews are great and already the wizards at iFixit have done what they do best: they tore apart the device to peek under the hood and analyze its innards.

Unlike the iPhone 5 that runs the latest A6 chip with 1GB of RAM, Apple's ultra-thin (just 6.1mm) media player packs in the Apple-designed A5 processor with 512MB of Hynix-supplied RAM. The same silicon also powers the iPad 2 (the iPad 3 runs a souped up variant labeled the A5X). Perhaps unexpectedly, the new iPod touch has a weaker home button than that on the iPhone 5...

Japan’s Softbank wants to buy Sprint

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 11, 2012

This just in. According to a new report out this morning, Softbank, Japan’s third-largest wireless operator, is in talks to buy a controlling stake in Overland, Kansas-based Sprint, the nation's third-largest carrier. The transaction is said to be worth an estimated 1.5 trillion yen, or $19 billion, and would file as the largest purchase of a foreign company by a Japanese firm.

SoftBank used to be the only official iPhone carrier in Japan until the release of iPhone 4S last November. According to people familiar with the situation, Softbank is aiming to buy all of the outstanding shares in Sprint, which had more than 56 million users at the end of June...

Google+ app gains iPhone 5 support, new features

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 11, 2012

Google today finally updated its slick Google+ mobile client with some much-needed support for iOS 6 and the iPhone 5's four-inch display, so people don't experience the ugly letterboxing. More importantly, the program has received a couple new features that finally make it easy to edit posts on the go. And if you have your own page on the Google+ social network, you can now view, post and comment as your Google+ page...

HTC discontinues sales of tablets in the US

Cody Lee ∙ October 11, 2012

Much like it did with the MP3 player market, Apple breathed new life into the tablet space in 2010 and has dominated it ever since. Despite numerous attempts from the competition, the iPad has remained the best selling slate for the past two years.

But it's not just that Apple is selling more tablets than other companies — it's knocking them out of the marketplace. Last year, HP pulled its TouchPad due to lack of sales. And today, HTC announced it's pulling its tablets from the United States...

New iPhone 5 case claims to fix purple flare issue

Cody Lee ∙ Updated February 22, 2018

A few weeks ago, early iPhone 5 adopters started complaining of a purple haze in their photos taken with the handset. Apple responded to the issue, saying that users could remedy this by repositioning the phone.

But if that isn't good enough for you, you might be interested to hear that Fotodiox, an Illinois-based case-maker, has created an iPhone 5 case that it claims will eliminate the purple flare. Meet the camHoodie...

Joy of Tech on Apple’s Lightning to 30-pin adapters

Cody Lee ∙ October 11, 2012

Apple upset thousands of users last month when it introduced a new charging port for its mobile devices. It replaced the decade-old 30-pin dock connector with a new Lightning plug, rendering millions of cables and old accessories virtually useless.

Of course, Apple offers adapters that will allow users to connect their new iPhones and iPod touches to older accessories. But, at a minimum of $30 bucks a pop, this hasn't exactly won over the angry. In fact, for some this may have been the last straw...

This web app tells you if your device can be jailbroken

Cody Lee ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

If you're a frequent reader of iDB, then chances are you know which iOS devices and firmware can be jailbroken. We are always quick to announce when a new jailbreak is released, and every now and then we even do a "state of the jailbreak" post to bring everyone up to date.

But for casual readers, or novice jailbreakers, device eligibility is not necessarily common knowledge. That's why mathyr, Peter Em and mofodox decided to create JailbreakStats...