iPhone News

Japan’s NTT DoCoMo to land iPad Air real soon

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

NTT DoCoMo, Japan's top wireless carrier with about sixty million subscribers, accounts for more than half of that country's market for cell phones. Apple products - the iPhone in particular - are tremendously popular with the Japanese so fans will be delighted to learn that NTT will soon open sales for Apple's new iPad Air.

The confirmation came via a senior DoCoMo executive who said in Tokyo that his company will start carrying the iPad Air "in the not-too-distant future". I guess you could say the development's been in the cards ever since Apple announced an iPhone distribution agreement with the carrier in September...

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas coming to iOS in December with MFi controller support

Cody Lee ∙ November 26, 2013

Great news gamers! Rockstar announced this morning that it is working on a port for its popular Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas title, and it will be landing on iOS (and Android) in December. Additionally, it will support new MFi controllers.

Rockstar has already published a handful of GTA games in the App Store, but this one will be particularly sweet. First released for consoles in 2004, San Andreas won numerous 'Game of the Year' awards and sold over 27.5 million copies...

App Store search now corrects for small typos and misspelled queries

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 26, 2013

Apple is tweaking the App Store's search algorithm pretty much all the time so people have an easier time finding a needle in a haystack.

Three months ago, Apple deployed an improved algorithm for iTunes and App Store rankings, boosting the relevancy of search results up a notch.

And back in the summer, the iPhone maker gave the App Store storefront on iPads a new lefthand bar for easy alphabetical sorting of your Purchased items.

It's now come to light that Apple's team has once again made the App Store search better by automatically correcting for your mistakes and other misspellings. That's right, you no longer have to type in the exact app name when searching as the App Store will now list apps with fairly similar names...

iPhone 5s availability reaches 90 percent, now shipping in 3-5 days

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated December 6, 2013

Apple's flagship iPhone 5s used to be in short supply at both the company's own and carrier-owned retail outlets in the United States as suppliers struggled to meet high demand for the device. The prime reason affecting the handset's availability is Apple manufacturing partners' inability to ramp up production of the sensitive and sophisticated Touch ID fingerprint sensor that no one put inside the Home button before (this is also why the new iPads lack Touch ID).

Indicating improved yields, it would now seem that most of Apple's U.S. Apple Stores now have the device in stock, with one estimate finding that 90 percent of iPhone 5s models are now available in both Apple and carrier stores...

Let’s Talk iOS 004: Working in a onesie

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 14, 2018

Episode 004: Sebastien, Cody, and Jeff talk about what it's like to work from home and write about iOS all day, Sebastien's Oceanhorn addiction, favorite Google Reader Replacements, exciting ideas for the future of Touch ID, iPhone 6 rumors and more. Unfortunately, we experienced some technical difficulties with this week's episode, so the sound quality is significantly beneath our standard sound. This should be fixed going forward. Thank you for tuning in.

Digital scrapbook app Ember coming to iPhone and iPad in December

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 23, 2018

Ember, a digital scrapbook app from the Clear to-do app's creator Realmac Software, arrived back in July as a rather pricey $49.99 Mac App Store download. Despite its punishing price tag, I wrote that Ember struck me as an Evernote replacement I’ve long been yearning for. The team has since added a few new features such as Smart Drawing, Colours and iCloud sync, while squashing dozens of bugs.

And now, they've confirmed that the iOS version will be available in December. This is great news as I can now introduce Ember into my daily workflow, hopefully being able to jot down notes, create journals and manage my notebooks on whatever device I happen to be using, be it a Mac, iPad, iPhone or iPod touch...

Procreate 2 brings GPU-accelerated filters, 64-bit support, 4K canvas size

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated December 4, 2013

Procreate, the Apple Design Award winning illustration app for the iPad, is a seriously addictive and immensely powerful piece of software which turns your iPad into a digital painting canvas, thanks to the incredibly accurate and smooth Silica painting engine.

The team back in August enhanced Procreate by adding support for Wacom’s Intuos Creative Stylus along with the ability to make canvas recordings in full HD (1080p).

In a major iOS 7 focused update today, Procreate version 2.0 introduces full support for iOS 7 and Apple's 64-bit A7 processor, with additional optimizations for the new iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina display. More importantly, Procreate 2 now includes new filters and adjustments which take advantage of your tablet's GPU through a hardware-accelerated engine, a first for Procreate...

Court denies Samsung’s motion to stay damages in Apple patent retrial

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 26, 2013

As you know, in a retrial last week a jury of six women and two men determined that Samsung owes Apple $290 million for lifting patented iPhone technologies, bringing the total amount of damages to $929 million versus the original $1.05 billion ruling. The South Korean Galaxy maker has immediately filed a motion to delay the payout on the grounds of reevaluation of the validity of the Apple patent No. 7,844,915, which covers the famous pinch-to-zoom gesture.

The presiding Judge Lucy Koh denied Samsung motion's last night as she appeared concerned about the potential implications of such ruling, including whether granting a stay would unethically favor Apple...

Apple wins smartphone patent case against California inventor

Cody Lee ∙ November 26, 2013

Earlier this month we told you that California inventor Richard L. Ditzik was suing Apple, claiming its iPhone infringed on one of his patents. Well this week, the Cupertino company won the case against the 70-year-old electrical engineer.

Bloomberg is reporting that Apple was found not guilty of infringing on Ditzik's so-called 'smartphone patent.' A jury in Los Angeles made the call yesterday, completely rejecting the claim by NetAirus Technologies—Ditzik's shell company...

China Mobile to launch its 4G LTE network next month

Cody Lee ∙ Updated June 21, 2017

Rumors have been circulating for the past few weeks that China Mobile is on the verge of launching its LTE network next month. And it looks like the reports were true, as the news has been confirmed this week by state-run news outlet Xinhua.

This is big news for a couple of reasons. For one, this will be the country's first major rollout of 4G. And two, it means Apple will finally be able to start offering its two latest iPhone models on China Mobile, as they support its TD-LTE standard...

Considerate iPhone thief mails 1000 handwritten contacts to owner

Cody Lee ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

It's hard to imagine how someone could call a person who stole your iPhone 'considerate,' but that's exactly how some media outlets are referring to a certain Chinese pickpocket. The thief took a man's iPhone during a shared cab ride.

The reason why some are calling the criminal considerate is that shortly after stealing the handset, he mailed the owner a list of his contacts. And this wasn't simply a computer printout, he hand wrote over 1000 contacts–11 pages worth...

Survey finds that Apple Stores now account for 25% of US iPhone sales

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 11, 2018

During a summit in San Francisco's Fort Mason on June 27 of this year, Tim Cook spoke to Apple Retail Store leaders about upcoming changes to the company's iPhone marketing tactics. He said he was hoping the changes would help their stores start selling more handsets.

Well here we are, nearly 6 months later, and it looks like the changes have done just that. According to a new survey from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, the amount of iPhones purchased from Apple stores has increased from 20% to 25% over the past several months...