Month: January 2013

iPhone 5 order cuts not nearly as severe as demand remains robust

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 15, 2013

After The Wall Street Journal relayed the vague and anonymously-sourced Nikkei newswire report on the supposed iPhone 5 order cuts amid what the Journal interpreted as a "weaker than expected" demand for the handset, nervous investors have immediately hit the panic button and punished the stock. Sane analysts, however, now are putting down the flames of the rumor, warning that the iPhone 5 demand remains robust as those order cuts aren't nearly as severed as originally reported...

Watch out for the iPhone ‘danger zones’

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 15, 2013

I've been a proud iPhone owner over the past six years, ever since the original iPhone debuted in June of 2007. I happen to pride myself with keeping my devices in pristine condition so I go the extra mile to handle my iPhone with care.

For instance, I typically lay it flat on the table on top of a napkin. And only a rare few people get to ever touch my device to play with it. And yeah, I do remove everything from my pocket before slipping an iPhone inside. It's suffice to say I'm overzealous about handling my baby.

But six years is six years and something had to give. A month ago, it just treacherously slipped out of my hand and fell on the concrete floor, its front glass smashing in an instant. Some of you could tell a similar story, I'm sure. But where are such accidents most likely to occur? Third-party warranty company SquareTrade has issued a report outlining so-called iPhone 'danger zones'...

Apple’s warranty practices in Europe draw ire of a Belgian watchdog

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 15, 2013

Apple's warranty adventure in the European Union is far from being over. After the company failed to properly communicate to its Italian consumers that they were entitled to a EU-wide two-year warranty (first warranty year provided by the manufacturer and the second by the seller), for which it was fined $264,000 last month and $1.2 million in March, now Apple has gotten itself into trouble with a Belgian consumer watchdog, Test-Aankoop/Test-Achats...

Glitch in Sprint’s GPS service points Find My iPhone users to innocent man’s house

Cody Lee ∙ January 15, 2013

Imagine you are awoken in the middle of the night by someone pounding loudly at your door. It's a man and his girlfriend, and they're upset because someone just stole her iPhone, and the Find My iPhone app led them straight to your house. Now imagine this is a regular occurrence.

Unfortunately for Wayne Dobson, he doesn't have to imagine. Due to a glitch in Sprint's location-tracking services, phone finding apps have been sending owners of missing iPhones and other handsets, as well as police, to Dobson's home in North Las Vegas for the past two years...

Budget iPhone to feature hybrid plastic/metal design, due later this year

Cody Lee ∙ January 15, 2013

Last week, DigiTimes released a report, claiming that its sources had seen prototypes of a low-cost iPhone floating around Apple's supply chain. Both The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg corroborated the story via their own independent informants.

Today, DigiTimes offers up a few more details about the fabled handset, claiming that Apple is toying with both an all plastic and a hybrid plastic/metal chassis for the cheaper handset, as well as a special 'see-through' design. More details after the fold...

The Daily Recap – Jan 14, 2013 edition

Jeff Benjamin ∙ January 14, 2013

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hq4TCj5ah64

Welcome to The Daily Recap for January 14th, 2013. Watch our video for a quick look at some of the top stories from the day in less than two minutes. If you missed out on any of today's big news, this is a great way for you to get caught up fast.

For your convenience, you'll also find links to all of the stories listed in today's recap inside...

Cellular version of new iPad and iPad mini to go on sale in China on January 18

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 10, 2018

Back in December, Apple rolled out the Wi-Fi only versions of both the 4th generation iPad and new iPad mini in China. The Cellular version was missing from the launch, however, and there was no word when it would land.

Then last week, Tim Cook confirmed that carrier-flavored versions of the two tablets would be available in the country in late January. And today, Apple delivers on that promise, announcing an official arrival date of January 18...

Write your own jailbreak tweaks on the fly with upcoming ‘Flex’ utility

Mike Schnier ∙ Updated February 25, 2013

John Coates, the developer behind the MissionBoard Pro jailbreak tweak, has posted a thread on Reddit about an upcoming jailbreak app called Flex. Flex is an exciting new app that allows users to make and share their own runtime patches, not just to iOS itself but to any app you have installed.

What can you do with Flex? From the looks of it, you can modify just about any app's behavior. In the preview screenshots, there are patches for unlimited skips in Pandora, removing the lock screen's camera grabber, nixing the ratings warning when downloading from the the App Store, and even cheating in games like Tiny Tower. Think of it as a Game Genie for iOS...

“Tap to unlock” from the lock screen instead of sliding with ‘tapUnlock’

Mike Schnier ∙ Updated February 25, 2013

tapUnlock is a new jailbreak tweak from the makers of MapsOpener and BrightVol. The tweak replaces the 'slide to unlock' bar with a 'tap to unlock' button. Personally I'm a fan of the classic slider, as it's part of how Apple introduced a new paradigm of capacitive screens to the mass market, and it's something I will always associate with the iPhone.

Unfortunately 'slide to unlock' isn't for everybody. If you know someone who has difficulty using the 'slide to unlock' gesture on the lock screen, maybe because of arthritis or another fine motor control difficulty, you'll get good mileage out of tapUnlock. Alternatively, you might just want it to have something different...

Why Apple isn’t responding to vague claims of iPhone 5 order cuts

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 14, 2013

So Apple in a heartbeat dispatches its marketing honcho Phil Schiller to talk to a Chinese newspaper and kill the cheap iPhone chatter for fear the rumor might affect sales and yet the company remains completely mum on The Wall Street Journal article claiming iPhone 5 orders were cut in half amid what the author interpreted as a 'weaker than expected' demand.

It just doesn't make sense, no? I mean, the first rumor hasn't even had a chance to materially impact Apple's business while the other sent shares below $500 in pre-market trading this morning. What's going on here? Well, even if it wanted to, Apple couldn't officially respond to the rumor. Blame it on the United States government and its rules of the game...

Macworld takes a look at Apple’s pricing strategy

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 18, 2018

Marco Tabini of Macworld takes an interesting look today at how Apple manages to keep the prices on its products, and subsequently its profits, so much higher than other manufacturers. It turns out, the company uses a unique, two-pronged pricing strategy.

The first part of it has to do with wholesale pricing. Apple, unlike most hardware-makers, doesn't offer resellers much of a discount on products like the iPad or iMac, even if they're buying in bulk. This doesn't give retailers much incentive to carry the products, but with the kind of foot traffic they produce, it doesn't really have to...

Apple won more than a thousand patents in 2012, Samsung 4x as many

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 14, 2013

Ah, the patent mess. Nothing gets faboys and haters more worked up than Apple's inventions (or 'inventions', depending on your point of view). This is especially true for the submissions that cover the most obvious of ideas, like the rectangular iPad design Apple successfully asserted against rivals.

According to data from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and published last Thursday by IFI Claims, Apple has been awarded a total of 1,135 patents in 2012. This ranked the company 21st among all of the observed companies worldwide, a 68 percent increase. In 2011, Apple ranked 39th with 676 patents.

This notable rise probably means Apple's 'lifelong skier' and chief lawyer Bruce Sewell and his team have been submitting patents at a more rapid clip in order to protect Apple's business. Another take: patent offices around the world could have simply granted more Apple patents in 2012 (not all submissions get greenlit) than in 2011...