Home automation has been around for decades. But with the recent advent of the smartphone and the tablet, the market has started to evolve much more quickly. Just look at products like the Nest Learning Thermostat and the Philips Hue.
It seems like you can control pretty much anything with your smartphone or tablet these days, and we've come across a cool example of that. Check out this video of a house that has $80 grand of iPad-controlled home automation equipment...
After a six-month absence on the Apple watch, Citi has returned - and with a strong recommendation to buy shares of the consumer electronics giant. After hitting a particular rough patch that included a sell-off one observer called "the insanity of insanity", Apple's stock is set to rebound 20-50 percent.
Citi's new Apple watcher, Glen Yeung, told investors Monday that Apple's drop in share price has likely hit bottom. Indeed, in most cases, shares will climb back within twelve months. Yeung said the stock should hit $675...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgzzQUvNm8U
Microsoft's inaugural ad for the Surface tablet initially captured our attention, with its pro dancers performing all sorts of crazy moves with their tablets certainly helping a great deal with that. The software maker then followed up with the somewhat subdued teaser on the eve of Surface's launch.
On Cyber Monday, Microsoft has stepped up its game with a new television commercial seen above. It kinda looks familiar. Pretty sure I saw a similar concept involving jumping gadgets somewhere before...
Questions of whether Apple can supply enough iPad minis to meet demand continue to linger. After cutting ties with Samsung for its displays, one of the two alternative suppliers reportedly face production problems. All of which makes the executives at Cupertino nervous amid Cyber Monday mania.
Apple reportedly chose LG Display and AU Optronics to replace Samsung. As we reportedly last week, LG Display makes most of the displays for the iPad mini, which is widely viewed as a top pick among Christmas shoppers. However, now comes a report out of Asia that AU Optronics is having problems producing the displays...
This just in: Apple and Facebook have agreed to make digital iTunes gift cards available on Facebook via the social networking giant's Gifts platform. It's pretty straightforward: simply select a desired iTunes Digital Gift Card and Facebook will charge the amount using the credit card on file. You can then choose a Facebook friend to send the card to. An e-commerce initiative involving Facebook and Apple: now, that's something to write home about, isn't it?
Be that as it may, it certainly blows my mind that Apple agreed to give up some of the revenue from these cards. And how could it not to: Facebook handles these transactions rather than the iTunes Store. By the way, the iTunes Gift Card is a $2 billion business annually...
A member of The Verge forums posted a series of intriguing images depicting an à la carte heaven where the Apple TV box serves entertainment from pretty much any source imaginable, be it DLNA devices on the local network, your cable or satellite provider web sources like iTunes and YouTube - even premium channels like HBO and Fox. Regardless of the source, the concept calls for a unified interface bringing together all the different media sources in one central place, with voice-activated search, electronic program guides and other perks...
Cloud-storage startup Dropbox has quickly become my favorite solution for storing and sharing files in the cloud, collaborating on projects, backing up my photos and more. Today, an update to the free Dropbox iOS client has been issued, bringing with it a couple new features and tweaks. For starters, streaming of video files from your Dropbox is now improved. Another nice-to-have: Dropbox finally features support for password-protected Microsoft Office documents, an iOS 6-only capability...
No children are building Samsung devices in China, the South Korean smartphone maker announced Monday. According to an audit of 105 Chinese suppliers, there are problems with too much overtime and being fined for lateness or absences. The four-week monitoring of its suppliers' production facilities follows earlier accusations that one of Samsung's suppliers hired underage workers.
Although Samsung insisted it has "zero tolerance" about child workers, the company said today it will require that all suppliers follow new hiring procedures, including the use of a device that spots false IDs. By the end of the year, suppliers must stop fining workers when they are late or absent, the firm announced today...
Echoing earlier reports, folks in China can now officially get an iPhone 5 as China Telecom, the smallest of the country's three telecom carriers, started taking pre-orders for the device yesterday. According to a local report, a member of the customer service staff at the carrier's Beijing branch confirmed iPhone 5 pre-orders in mainland China.
The country's largest home appliance retailer, Suning, started taking pre-orders for the device earlier in the month. No word on availability of CDMA iPhone 5 models on Apple's long-time iPhone distributor, China Unicom...
Carrier Sprint, the nation's #3 telcon, announced Monday that its 4G LTE rolled out to customers in eleven new United States markets, including Harrisburg, Pa., South Bend/Mishawaka, Ind., Muncie, Ind., Peabody, Mass., and Salina, Kan. Per usual, folks can enjoy boosted data speeds on Sprint's 4G LTE network with an Everything Data plan with Any Mobile, AnytimeSM, which includes unlimited data, texting and calling to and from any mobile network in the country. Sprint and other major US carriers started selling the iPad mini in mid-November...
If a report published Monday by Focus Taiwan is to be trusted, Taiwanese should have a chance to get their hands on the iPhone 5 starting December 14. Local carriers Far Eastone Telecommunications, Taiwan Mobile and Chunghwa Telecom all confirmed they are in the final stages of signing a distribution agreement with Apple as the sides are apparently working out the details. Taiwan's carriers plan to start taking pre-orders for the device a week before the planned December 14 launch...
Demand for Apple's latest handset continues to outstrip supply, but availability has been improving lately. Throughout September, Apple's online store consistently quoted a 3-4 week shipping estimate for the handset before improving to 2-3 weeks mid-November. And as the handset became easier to find in Apple's brick-and-mortar stores, some international online Apple Stores today updated iPhone 5 shipping times to just one week.
This bodes well for Apple's holiday sales because it indicates the company is catching up to iPhone 5 demand. Apple is expected to soon roll out the device to additional countries, per its promise to make the iPhone 5 available in about a hundred countries and through 240 carriers by year's end...