Month: March 2013

FCC questions ban on unlocking cell phones

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated April 14, 2018

The federal government is expressing concern about the recent criminalization of unlocking cell phones. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said Thursday his office will look at the subject to see if and what the agency can do. Earlier this year, an exemption in a digital copyright law expired, prompting outrage from some mobile phone owners.

The head of the FCC said he is "concerned" that a return to the ban on unlocked cell phones could stifle competition or limit innovation. As Cody reported last month, a White House petition calling for again allowing unlocking drew more than 100,000 signatures...

iPad mini sales overtaking full-size iPad faster than Apple envisioned

Ed Sutherland ∙ March 1, 2013

Yesterday came more evidence that the 7.9-inch iPad mini is outselling Apple's larger tablet. The findings show increasing sales of the iPad mini amid declining demand for the 9.7-inch iPad. Between December and January, shipments of 9.7-inch panels (such as the iPad) fell from 7.4 million to 1.3 million units. In contrast, shipments of 7.9-inch display panels rose to more than five million units, according to the findings by hardware research firm NPD DisplaySearch that echo recent supply chain chatter.

The changing levels of demand suggests consumers prefer the smaller footprint of smaller tablets. However, this faster adoption of the iPad mini over its big brother is causing analysts to revise expectations for 2013 tablet sales...

iTunes exclusively streams free David Bowie’s new album until its March 12 release

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

It's been a decade since musician David Bowie's 2003 album, "Reality". To promote his upcoming album entitled "The Next Day", Bowie turned to Apple's iTunes, the leading music store in the world which previously cut exclusive free streaming deals to promote new albums from the likes of Red Hot Chili Peppers, Ke$ha, One Direction, Matchbox 20 and Jack White.

That's right, iTunes is going to stream the upcoming David Bowie album in its entirety, free of charge, until its March 12 release. "The Next Day" can be pre-ordered for via iTunes right now, as either the $11.99 'normal' release or the $13.99 Deluxe version which comes with three bonus tracks. By the way, the album is Mastered for iTunes...

Barclays: budget iPhone and China Mobile-compatible iPhone 5S due in August

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 1, 2013

Per a rumor out of China, Apple won't release a new iPhone at its upcoming summer developer conference. Instead, Tim Cook & Co. are thought to be targeting an August 2013 launch for both the iPhone 5S, a specs upgrade, and an inexpensive iPhone model, aimed at emerging markets that sell mostly unsubsidized handsets. And for the first time, the next iPhone will be Apple's first truly world phone capable of supporting a bunch of flavors of fourth-generation Long-Term Evolution (LTE) radio technology, including China Mobile-compatible TD-SCDMA network...

Apple executives required to hold 3x base salary in AAPL stock

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 11, 2018

If you wanted to make sure that your business' executive team was deeply committed to making it thrive, it'd probably be a good idea to make sure they held a lot of company stock. That way, their livelihoods directly depended on its success.

And that's exactly the way it works at Apple. The company has amended its corporate bylaws to require that executive officers hold three times their annual (base) salary in AAPL stock, and it's even higher for Tim Cook and his board of directors...

Shazam stats: One in five US iPhones run the app, 10M songs tagged per day

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 12, 2018

Speaking to the UK's The Guardian newspaper at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Shazam's marketing boss revealed that last month twenty percent of iPhones in the United States used its media discovery and recommendation software. It gets better as even more fans overseas in countries like France and UK used Shazam on their Apple handset, as much as forty percent of them.

And with iPads growing stronger and the next iPhone looming around the corner, any increase in the installed iPhone base is bound to reflect positively on Shazam's numbers. On Monday, Shazam announced it passed 300 million active users globally, 90 million in the United States alone.

The company also launched an update to its iOS client with a revamped iPad interface, a much faster tagging and more streamlined sharing features...

Apple opposes iPhone tracking class-action bid as ‘desperate’

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated April 15, 2024

Apple is once again in U.S. District Court, attempting to derail a lawsuit claiming apps for the iPhone and iPad collected location data and other personal information without explicit permission from users. Responding Thursday to an effort by plaintiffs' attorneys to classify the lawsuit a class action, Apple's legal team argued no harm was suffered and suggested the call for class action status is a "desperate attempt" to collect legal fees...

Oxford University researchers show off iPad-powered self-driving Nissan Leaf

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 28, 2017

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaPMmniK4o4

Forget Google's self-driving cars, here's something totally different and unique. Researchers at Oxford University have developed a new auto-drive technology drive by Apple's iPad which allows drivers to hand control of the wheel to the robot system to drive itself. Unlike Google's self-driving cars, this technology combines the best of both worlds: drivers can control their vehicle themselves, but the iPad can optionally take over when the system determines it knows a route.

They built the tablet into the dashboard of a Nissan Leaf and the driver can activate the autonomous driving mode with a single tap. Of course, this technology is still in its infancy and far from commercialization. Currently, the prototype navigation system costs a whopping £5,000, or about $7,500, but researches believe that over time it will work its way down to about just a £100, or approximately $150. I've included a bunch of interesting clips just past the break...

The Croods: Official game hitting iOS on March 14

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sy51B9V8wNM

We have decided to stop telling you about Angry Birds content updates because of the excessive franchise milking, but this brand new game is worth mentioning. So Rovio teamed up with DreamWorks Animation on the official game for The Croods CG animated feature film.

The game is due for release on an Apple and Google app store near your on Thursday, March 14 and follows the Croods as they hunt and gather their way through "spectacular new landscapes as they tame fantastic and never-seen-before creatures," or so says the blurb. The above teaser highlights custom animation from DreamWorks and I've also included gameplay clip right below...

AutoResponder 2 for iOS is out, 50% off for a limited time

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 11, 2018

If you've been jailbreaking for a while, chances are you've heard of AutoResponder. The tweak allows you to set up an auto-reply for your text messages, sending a pre-generated reply to anyone who messages you.

Well good news for folks who love the tweak, and even better news for those that want to try it. It was updated this week, released as AutoResponder 2, with support for iOS 6. And for a limited time, it's 50% off...

Planetbeing releases Signal 2, a Cydia app that maps out nearby cell towers

Cody Lee ∙ Updated March 18, 2016

Planetbeing, known best for his work on the new evasi0n jailbreak, is also a developer of apps and tweaks. He helped write the popular IntelliScreenX tweak, and has an app called Signal, among other things.

And this afternoon, an update for Signal—aptly-named Signal 2—popped up in Cydia. Planetbeing announced its arrival on Twitter, saying that the new version now works with both CDMA and GSM devices.

So what does it do?