Month: April 2013

Apple publishes ‘A Decade Of iTunes’ interactive anniversary timeline

Hot on the heels of announcing its quarterly earnings yesterday and promising this morning to show off the next major versions of iOS and OS X at WWDC 2013, Apple has posted a new web page in celebration of ten years of the iTunes Store.

What started out twelve years ago as a jukebox application eventually evolved into the Internet's biggest content store responsible for the vast majority of a record $4.1 billion in Apple's first quarter revenue from its software and services division. The interactive web page titled "A Decade Of iTunes" features ten tabs, each corresponding to a particular iTunes milestone...

Apple announces WWDC 2013 for June 10-14, confirms iOS 7 and OS X 10.9 previews

Having posted better-than-expected quarterly earnings yesterday, Apple this morning officially announced that its annual developers conference will take place at Moscone West in San Francisco from Monday, June 10 until Friday, June 14. I know what you must be wondering: will the five-day conference serve as a launchpad for a next major revision to Apple's iOS and OS X operating systems, right?

According to Apple's marketing honcho Phil Schiller, that's in fact in the cards. “Our developers have had the most prolific and profitable year ever, and we’re excited to show them the latest advances in software technologies and developer tools to help them create innovative new apps," he was quoted as saying in a press release...

AppShopper Social brings networking to the app discovery service [review]

When I first heard that AppShopper was pulled from the App Store for clause 2.25, my emotion could best be described as “outraged.” How it is that Apple thinks their app aggregate service is “similar to or confusing with” the App Store is beyond me. Of course, AppShopper remained on both of my devices and is used on a daily basis to find new apps, discover sales, and find out what is trending.

Yesterday, when I heard that AppShopper was back in business in the App Store, I was overjoyed, to say the least. While there have been some changes made and some of my favorite features are still not available, I’m getting used to the new social aspect.

AppShopper Social is an app aggregation service from AppShopper.com. It automatically updates you with the newest apps, the most popular lists, and all price drops. Instead of simply being a port of the website, this app features a social networking aspect that allows you to follow what your friends are discovering, too...

Sprint activates 1.5M iPhones in Q1, 43 percent to new customers

Sprint Nextel, the nation's third-largest wireless carrier, Wednesday posted its fiscal 2013 first quarter earnings. The telco saw strong smartphone sales of five million units, with iPhone sales exceeding 1.5 million with 43 percent to new customers.

A whooping 86 percent of quarterly Sprint platform postpaid handset sales were smartphones. Sprint described the 43 percent of iPhone sales that were to new customers as a rate "that continues to outperform larger competitors"...

The best note-taking apps for iPad

The iPad can be a workhorse for your productivity needs if you know how to use it. Whether you are building a business network, making your way through college, or just trying to run a brick-and-mortar record shop, the iPad can be one of your greatest allies.

The iPad is the perfect sized tablet for taking notes. If you are in a meeting, listening to a lecture, or coming up with ideas for your next masterpiece, you can find an app that will accommodate your needs. We’ve got a list of the best note-taking apps for iPad that we think rise to the top. Feel free to add your own favorites in the comments section.

Tim Cook talks new product categories, downplays chances of larger iPhone

Apple's Q2 earnings conference call just ended, and by most counts it went rather well. The company beat Wall Street estimates for iPhone and iPad sales, and revenue, and announced a huge initiative to return $100 billion back to investors by 2015.

So why has Apple's stock fallen from its huge after-hours spike back down to where it started? Well, it might have something to do with Tim Cook's comments on Apple's product pipeline. The CEO indicated that we won't see any new stuff until the fall...

Upcoming tweak lets you unlock iPhone by playing the piano

I know, sounds crazy right? But we have the video evidence that shows an in-progress tweak that allows you to do just that. The tweak is called Piano passcode, and just as its name suggests, it allows you to play a tune on a set of piano keys that reside on your lock screen. Playing the right tune unlocks the device.

15 interesting points from today’s earnings call

Apple just announced its earnings for its first quarter of 2013, second fiscal quarter, and despite all of the lead-in 'doom' talk, the numbers are actually very impressive. The company beat Wall Street projections in nearly every metric.

We’re just finishing up the conference call, where Tim Cook and company have made several announcements and dropped a number of impressive statistics. And as usual, we've rounded up the 15 most interesting points for you…

Apple Q2 2013 earnings: 37.4M iPhones, 19.5M iPads, $43.6B revenue

The news headlines for Apple have been getting progressively worse over the past few months, as rumors continue to swell of falling iPhone and iPad demand, and the company's stock dipping below $400 for the first time since 2011.

But it looks like they might be able to change the conversation. Q2 numbers are out, and Apple beat Wall Street projections in nearly every category, selling 37.4 million iPhones, 19.5 million iPads and producing $43.6 billion in revenue...

How to bypass Facebook’s Chat Heads limit on iOS

Yesterday we showed you a couple of free, handy jailbreak tweaks that allow you to activate the new Chat Heads and sticker features in Facebook's 6.0 app. And that's great for the folks that didn't have access to them, but what about everyone else?

Don't worry, we have you covered too. For those of you who already have Chat Heads enabled in the Facebook app, there's a new jailbreak tweak out called FB Unlimited Chat Heads that removes Facebook's pesky 4-Chat Heads-or-less limitation...

CameraTweak HD supercharges the iPad’s stock Camera app

Hopefully you're not one of those people, but if you are, then listen up. I am, of course, talking about people who take pictures and record video with their iPads. Not only is it awkward, but it's also incredibly goofy looking.

With that in mind, I was taken aback a bit when an email from the developer of CameraTweak — a tweak that I had already reviewed for the iPhone — arrived in my box. The email stated that there was a new app, CameraTweak HD, and they wanted my opinion on it.

I immediately thought to myself, "cool, an upgrade to the awesome CameraTweak for the iPhone," but soon after I realized that this was for the iPad. Admittedly, it did take me a while to get used to the idea of using my iPad to take pictures, but I somehow got through it.

My conclusion goes a little like this: If you're going to look silly and take photo and videos with your 10" tablet, then you might as well do it with the best available software out there. Ladies and gentlemen, like its precursor, CameraTweak for iPhone, CameraTweak HD is hands-down the best camera oriented jailbreak tweak for the iPad. If you want to take awesome photos and videos while having a plethora of options at your disposal, then look no further.

AT&T activates 4.8M iPhones in Q1

Just as we're counting down the remaining time until Apple's earnings release, the company's trusted iPhone distributor AT&T reported corporate earnings related to the first three months of this year. The company added 1.2 million new subscribers and sold six million smartphones, of which 4.8 million were iPhones, accounting for a whopping 80 percent of new smartphone additions.

By contrast, rival Verizon last week said it added 677,000 net new subscribers during the first quarter. Additionally, out of the 7.2 million new smartphone owners in the quarter, Verizon reported that four million were iPhones.

Even with the slowing growth slowed, key metrics matched Wall Street expectations. That wasn't enough to prevent shares from going down by nearly 1.25 percent in after hours trading. We'll be listening to AT&T's conference call later this afternoon for additional data points...