Facebook today announced it now serves a billion active users monthly, one out of every seven people on planet Earth. Even more interesting, Facebook now has more than 600 million mobile users. Celebrating the milestone, CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who started the social networking behemoth in his Harvard dorm room eight years ago, posted a short notice on the company's blog alongside a promotional clip and a fact sheet with some interesting numbers...
As expected, Google has started rolling out its popular Street View feature to the web version of its Maps app this morning, bringing the option back to iPhone 5 and iOS 6 users.
Early reports claimed that the data was limited to the US and Canada. But now it appears that the feature has gone live around the world. Keep reading for our first impressions...
As the wave of injunction motions and appeals requests continue in the aftermath of this summer's high-profile Apple vs. Samsung trial, another interesting tidbit has been brought to light.
According to recently-filed court documents, it looks like Apple tried to offer Samsung a cross-licensing deal involving 3G/UMTS patents back in April, hoping to avoid at least some litigation...
Shortly after introducing the App Store in 2008, Apple started running an ad campaign with the tag line "there's an app for that." It produced a series of TV commercials that highlighted iPhone apps that made otherwise arduous tasks, like counting calories and apartment hunting, a lot easier.
But in 2012, apps are doing a lot more than diet tracking and crawling rental property listings. Now they're parking cars, making coffee, and thanks to Apigy's new Lockitron deadbolt cover, they're locking and unlocking doors...
Finally, the moment we've all been waiting for. The real reason Passbook was invented — Starbucks.
Indeed, the official Starbucks app was just updated, and it brings the long awaited Passbook support with it. This means that you can now create a pass to store in Passbook, and pay directly with said pass.
It's super easy to setup, and apparently, it uses the same scanners that scan the "touch to pay" feature inside the official app. In other words, it's ready to use out of the gate.
Since the iPhone 5 launched two weeks ago with its new Lightning port, accessories have been extremely scarce. Lightning to USB cables alone have been hard to find, never mind docks and other add-ons.
Thus, we imagine we'll be seeing a slew of do-it-yourself solutions pop up over the next few months. In fact, one has already surfaced involving an Elevation Dock, some hacking and a Lightning USB cable...
Like its predecessor, the iPhone 5 starts at $650 here in the US. That's the full retail cost for the entry-level 16GB model, which is pretty expensive by most standards.
Luckily, many carriers will pay for $450 of that, knocking the price down to $199, if you're willing to sign a two year contract with them. How can they afford to do that?
Oh don't worry, they make their money back and then some...
Adamant to lure folks to its retail stores, Microsoft loves to hire famous recording artist to perform for its customers. For example, Flo Rida, The Black Keys, Justin Bieber and Lenny Kravitz all played for Microsoft Stores in the past.
But something clearly went wrong with this one. Much to the bewilderment of store staffers, young rapper Machine Gun Kelly a.k.a. MGK (not to be confused with an American gangster during the Prohibition era) at one point jumped on the floor displays to do his act.
He bugged out terribly, destroying several notebook PCs in the process until staffers abruptly cut his mic. I guess MGK won't be performing for Microsoft in the foreseeable future...
Popular Apple TV 2 jailbreak software, aTV Flash (black), has been updated to version 2.0.1, and brings multiple bug fixes, along with improvements to trak.tv features, and nested favorites.
aTV Flash (black) is popular, because it allows you to quickly add many new features to a jailbroken Apple TV 2 in one fell swoop. It also features a built in maintenance mode for easily updating to the latest version.
Take a look inside for the full change log...
Speedier, smaller and even more power-efficient mobile chip designs are already in the works for future iOS devices so it comes as little surprise that Apple remains on a hiring spree, seeking talented semiconductor experts left and right.
As you know, Apple's current system-on-a-chip (SoC) modules found inside iPhones, iPods and iPads typically pack in several processing and graphic cores, in addition to the memory controller, RAM and the essential control logic - all onto a single piece of silicon die.
A new job posting reveals Apple is looking for an "SoC Modelling Architect / Lead" who will be tasked with managing its in-house team which designs next-generation processors for iOS devices...
There has been a whole lot of hoopla concerning Apple deploying NFC technology on iOS devices, especially prior to the iPhone 5's release last month. NFC, or Near-Field Communication, facilitates close-proximity wireless payments on mobile devices.
Marketing boss Phil Schiller explained Apple passed on NFC with this year's iOS devices lineup because "Passbook does the kinds of things customers need today", noting that "it’s not clear that NFC is the solution to any current problem".
In the reality, Apple is working behind the scenes, taking its time to put the pieces of the NFC puzzle together until an NFC-equipped iPhone and the associated service is fully baked and ready for public consumption. It doesn't come as a surprise then that Apple is working with Sydney-based Microlatch to develop fingerprint technology for NFC apps...
Since its release two weeks ago, Apple has taken an enormous amount of criticism over iOS 6. The bulk of the heat has come over the new, so-called inferior Maps application, but there have also been complaints of Wi-Fi and App Store issues.
In fact, according to a new report today, some major companies are urging their employees not to update their iOS devices to the new firmware. But it's not because of Maps or Wi-Fi problems. It has to do with a major Exchange bug...