Month: May 2013

Apple agrees to pay $53 million in class-action suit regarding faulty moisture indicators

Cody Lee ∙ May 28, 2013

Apple has today agreed to settle a long-standing class-action lawsuit with consumers over its AppleCare warranty service for the sum of $53 million. The suit, which was filed back in 2010, has to do with the company's policy on servicing liquid-damaged products.

In the filing, consumers claimed that the LCIs (liquid contact indicators) in older iOS devices were faulty, causing them to falsely signal that a gadget had been damaged by water. And Apple would deny customer warranty claims based on these defective indicators...

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iPhone manufacturer Foxconn launching Firefox OS-powered tablet on June 3

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated November 19, 2018

Yesterday, The Wall Street Journal said the world's top contract manufacturer, Foxconn, was looking to diversify beyond assembling Apple products.

Today, a Taiwanese publication reports that Foxconn has teamed up with the Firefox browser maker Mozilla on a mobile device to be powered by the Firefox OS.

This isn't a rumor: the two partners have invited the press to the unveiling of a new device on June 3. According to the people in the know, the mysterious gizmo will be a tablet. The development puts Foxconn in a somewhat odd position as it assembles Apple's iPhones and iPads, though I doubt Apple is worried much - if at all - considering the Firefox OS is an also-ran in the mobile arena...

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Volume Amplifier boosts phone call volume by 200%

Jeff Benjamin ∙ May 28, 2013

Volume Amplifier is a new jailbreak tweak that allows you to adjust the phone call volume on the iPhone 5 by up to 200%. Created by developer, Yaniv Danan, Volume Amplifier works by directly manipulating the speaker audio stream, which results in a significant amplification of sound.

Danan claims that his tweak differs from previous attempts at volume boosting tweaks, in that it manipulates the audio stream, instead of trying to alter specific configuration files. I've tested out Volume Amplifier for myself, and I can confirm that it does result in a significant boost in phone call volume on my jailbroken iPhone 5. Take a look inside as I go hands-on with Volume Amplifier on video...

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IDC: tablets to overtake laptops this year, all PCs in 2015

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated February 28, 2017

It was not long ago that people dreamed of providing a PC for every child on the planet. Well, the vision needs to be updated. Tablets - particularly  those in the iPad mini size range - are outselling laptops now and soon will overtake all PCs, research firm IDC reported Tuesday.

Some 229.3 million tablets are expected to ship this year for a 58.7 percent growth rate, compared to 2012. By contrast, PC shipments are down for the second year in a row, dropping 7.8 percent in 2013, the company announced.

The key takeaways: tablets are becoming smaller and cheaper, while at the same time being increasingly able to accomplish tasks once done by PCs...

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Apple patents auto iPhone volume based on proximity

Ed Sutherland ∙ May 28, 2013

Wouldn't it be great if the iPhone could detect when you are holding the handset to your ear or sitting on a desk, automatically adjusting the volume? Apple thought so, as well. Tuesday, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted the iPhone maker a patent on a way to adjust the speaker volume based on proximity.

The patent, filed just a year after the iPhone was unveiled, uses the smartphone's many sensors to detect the device's proximity from a user. Just as a proximity sensor is used to detect when the phone is at your ear (thus turning off the touch screen), sensors could also adjust speaker volume...

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Still renting discs? Blockbuster has an app for that.

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 22, 2018

Remember Blockbuster? The once popular video and game rental chain got pushed to the brink of relevancy as the likes of Netflix, Hulu, iTunes and Amazon took over.

But if you're stuck in the old age and still rent movies on discs, Blockbuster's re-written iOS app could come in handy for managing your physical rentals on the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad devices.

Some of the welcome features include the ability to scan your membership card for in-store checkout and check movie availability on a per-store basis. And for those of us that have long moved on, Blockbuster earlier this month released a brand new On Demand iOS streaming app...

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EU suggest clamping down on tax havens

Ed Sutherland ∙ May 28, 2013

European nations must stop offering incentives aimed at attracting companies seeking a haven from the U.S. government's 35 percent tax on repatriated money. The European Union's Tax Commissioner Algirdas Semeta Tuesday called on EU member nations to halt "specific incentives" aimed at attracting international corporations such as Apple, Google, Microsoft, Coca Cola and many others.

Semeta's comments in Brussels follows a week of high-profile discussion of ways Apple and other tech giants filter income through EU nations such as Ireland to avoid paying heftier taxes back home...

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Crazy rumor calls for 12.9-inch ‘iPad maxi’ in early-2014

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated July 24, 2016

Sorting through the ocean of rumors today, I stumbled upon a Chinese report suggesting a twice as sharp Retina display on the next iPhone. While there's some chance we could see Apple develop a higher-resolution iPhone at some point, another sketchy report claims that the company is also working on a much larger iPad with a 12.9-inch display.

If true, this would put the rumored 'iPad maxi' in the range of netbooks and notebooks and appeal to niche market verticals, such as digital photographers, pro video editors, designers, content creators and so forth...

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Let’s Talk Jailbreak 12: We had a wonderful time!

Jeff Benjamin ∙ May 28, 2013

Today we discuss whether or not Cydia developers should charge for updates to their tweaks. We also talk about the latest update to MiniPlayer, a new tweak called App Activate, and an updated Backgrounder app for iOS. We also discuss the hotly debated iLex RAT along with the long awaited Badger. It's a show that's filled with jailbreak goodness. We also lend you a sneak preview of AltKeyboard, an upcoming jailbreak tweak that allows you to use swipe gestures to type alternate keys on your keyboard. Needless to say, you don't want to miss this.

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Apple rumored to double iPhone 5S Retina resolution

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 12, 2018

Apple's Retina display may still be the best mobile display on the market, but not so much anymore in terms of the sheer pixel count and clearness.

Case in point: Samsung's five-inch Galaxy S4 with its full HD 1,920-by-1,080 resolution screen at a whopping 441 pixels per inch easily outperforms the iPhone 5's four-inch 640-by-1,136 Retina display at 326 pixels per inch. Another example: HTC's flagship One smartphone and its 468 pixels per inch display.

Now, a new rumor out of China alleges that Apple's next iPhone will have an upgraded Retina display with twice as much pixels as the current-generation...

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AirPlay streaming, HDMI out and web UI coming to Infuse media player

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 22, 2018

I was quite excited about Infuse, a versatile and nice-looking iOS media player by FireCore, the team behind the aTV Flash Black. The one and only major gripe I had with the software is its absence of AirPlay streaming, which is quite a limiting factor if you want to watch your media on the big screen TV through your Apple TV. While AirPlay support is definitely coming in a future update, the team yesterday issued a small update fixing minor inconsistencies and tweaking a few features...

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