Month: January 2013

Apple settles Retina image lawsuit with Swiss photographer

With all of the reports we hear every week regarding Apple's new and ongoing lawsuits, it's nice to hear about one coming to an end. After a year of battling, the Cupertino company has settled a lawsuit regarding the alleged misuse of an eyeball image during one of its keynotes.

Apple used the photo, which was taken by Swiss photographer Sabine Liewald, to promote its new MacBook Pro with Retina display during its WWDC keynote last summer, as well as on its website, without the proper licensing. And thus, Liewald filed an infringement suit...

Privacy app Clueful returns to iOS in web form

Clueful, a privacy app by Bitdefender, garnered a lot of attention last summer when Apple pulled it from the App Store without giving much of an explanation. It was odd, because the app claimed that it just identified privacy threats.

Well here we are, 6 months later, and we have still yet to hear a reason behind the removal. But obviously Bitdefender still sees a market for the app, as the software company has just re-launched Clueful as a web-based application...

The Daily Recap – Jan 9, 2013 edition

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ji6P_CKcz4

Welcome to The Daily Recap for January 9th, 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...

Six years ago today, Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone

As I look around and I see all of the touchscreen smartphones and tablets on the market, I think, it's hard to believe that Apple started all of this 6 years ago. That's right, 6 years ago today, Steve Jobs took the stage at Macworld '07 and unveiled the long-awaited iPhone.

Now, you can argue that there were smartphones before the iPhone, even touchscreen phones. But you can't say that Apple didn't change the mobile landscape forever that day in the Moscone Center. And as tribute, we've got videos of the keynote and more after the fold...

Apple now locking App Store screenshots to cut down on scamming

Have you ever downloaded an app on your iPhone or iPad, and it didn't look anything like the screenshots in the App Store? If so, you wouldn't be alone. Switching screenshots after Apple has approved an app has become a popular tactic for scammers.

But we have some good news this afternoon. Apple announced to developers today that, starting this week, all App Store screenshots will be locked after they are approved. And they'll stay that way until a developer submits a binary for an app update...

Apple slashes $49 Thunderbolt cable to $39, adds new $29 option

As is the case with the new Lightning I/O, part of the reason why Apple's official Thunderbolt cable costs fifty bucks is the authentication chip and electronics inside the connector on each end of the cable. So if you're in the market for a Thunderbolt cable, there's some good news: Apple has generously slashed the price of the 2-meter Thunderbolt cable by ten bucks, from $49 to $39. And in order to appeal even more to price-conscious buyers, the company is adding a new 0.5-meter cable to the mix, priced at $29...

Anobit founder on pressures at Apple: everything has to be amazing

Apple snapped up Israeli startup Anobit, a fabless designer of flash memory controllers, in December 2011 for a reported $390 million. It was a typical acqui-hire, a talent-related acquisition, that brought Anobit's engineers under Apple's wing to improve the efficiency of flash storage in its products.

For the first time since the transaction, former Anobit CEO Ariel Maislos, who left Apple last month for personal reasons, has shared a few juicy details on what it's like to be working for the man and how Apple goes about its engineering process...

Samsung looks to China as Apple cuts chip orders

Samsung is preparing for the day Apple - its rival and largest customer - stops placing orders with the South Korean corporation. Ahead of a CES keynote speech, a Samsung executive said it is looking to court Chinese smartphone makers which use the company's own Exynos-branded chips.

After a string of contentious court battles, Apple is planning to untangle itself from Samsung, finding new suppliers. Although Apple is expected to spend $80 billion with Samsung for everything from CPUs, flash memory and flat screens, the paycheck could shrink 80 percent by 2017, according to a Wall Street analysis...

iPad Inc: Apple tablet earns more than McDonalds on Fortune 500

Has all the gloom-and-doom talk about the iPhone and iPad gotten you down? Are you worried Apple's three-year-old tablet is a bit long in the tooth - especially against Samsung and other Android devices? Well, turn that frown upside down. The iPad isn't going away. Indeed, one analyst says iPad sales are bigger than McDonald's, Nike and many other Fortune 500 companies. In 2012, iPad sales reaped $32 billion, amounting to 60 percent of tablets sold. If the iPad was a company, it would be eleventh largest tech firm in the United States, says Bernstein's Toni Sacconaghi.

We won't see a repeat of that in 2013, however. No, the iPad is expected to rake in an astounding $46 billion and grow 75 percent...

Tablets to crush notebooks in 2013 as PCs become trucks

The argument over whether tablets should be classified as PCs could soon be moot. Shipments of devices such as Apple's iPad are expected to overtake notebook PCs in 2013. The cause: tablet (iPad) shipments are growing by double-digit percentages while PC demand is falling off a cliff - even in emerging markets...

CES 2013: $150 Pebble smart watch starts shipping January 23

The Pebble project has gone a long way since its early Kickstarter days. In fact, last April it became Kickstarter's most highly funded project to date. Nine months later, the customizable electronic-paper watch gets its release date as the company just confirmed in a media conference that the E-Paper Watch will be shipping to its backers on January 23...

Why your iPhone should always be locked

Los Angeles-based stand-up comic, actor and writer Chris D'Elia is funny as hell and he sat down with Conan O'Brien to talk pranks involving reaching someone's unlocked iPhone and tweeting out something very embarrassing, probably involving your parents. Your video is right past the fold...