iPhone News

President Obama outlines four government surveillance reform initiatives

Cody Lee ∙ August 9, 2013

Following a series of meetings with tech executives a government leaders this week, President Obama held a press conference this morning to describe his plan to assuage concerns among Americans and foreigners regarding the legality of US surveillance activities.

During his speech, the President said that the surveillance programs in use by government agencies right now are "operating in a way that prevents abuse." But the question for his administration, he posed, is how does it make "American people more comfortable?"

So he outlined the following four initiatives...

Apple’s request to suspend e-book ruling denied

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated April 18, 2016

Today's a big day for Apple as the company faces some major legal showdowns. First, the United States International Trade Commission handed down its final ruling on the long-running complaint against Samsung, ordering an import ban on infringing Samsung smartphones and tablets, which will take effect at the end of the 60-day Presidential review period.

It's a major win for Apple in its long-standing dispute against Samsung. However, the company is also waging another major battle, this one concerning the U.S. government's e-book price fixing allegations.

Apple's agency business model - where publishers get to price their iBooks themselves, with Apple keeping its standard 30 percent cut - has unfortunatelly suffered a major setback as its request to suspend Judge Cote’s ruling in e-book case has been denied...

Apple wins ITC ban on Samsung products

Cody Lee ∙ August 9, 2013

Apple picked up another major victory in its ongoing patent battle with Samsung this afternoon. The International Trade Commission has just handed down a decision in the company's case against Samsung, finding the Korean tech giant guilty of infringement.

The final ruling on the complaint, which Apple first lodged in July 2011, finds several Samsung products guilty of infringing on two of Apple's patents. An import ban has been ordered on those products, and will take effect at the end of the 60-day Presidential review period...

Cincinnati Bell landing the iPhone 5 on August 16

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 9, 2016

Another regional United States telco is about to land Apple's iPhone 5 soon.

Cincinnati Bell, the leading wireless carrier in Cincinnati, Ohio, and its nearby suburbs in the U.S. states of Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky, will start offering the Apple smartphone next Friday, August 16, The Cincinnati Enquirer newspaper has confirmed.

Although the device will be priced a bit higher versus other prepaid carriers, the launch festivities are said to include a nice $100 trade-in promo. I've included the full details after the break...

Blizzard posts StarCraft II World Championship Series streaming app

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 9, 2013

Blizzard, the maker of the award-winning Starcraft and Diablo series, has released a new iPhone and iPad app, called Blizzard WCS. As the name suggests, it's basically a client designed to allow for live streaming of the StarCraft II World Championship Series (WCS). If you can't make it to the WCS, the app will "keep you updated, informed, and entertained all the way through the Global Finals of the World Championship Series and beyond," Blizzard promises...

DoJ again accuses Apple of conspiring with publishers

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

In another twist to the e-book case involving Apple and five major book publishers, the United States Department of Justice (DoJ) on Friday said Apple and publishers have “banded together once again," arguing strict regulation is necessary. Apple of course argued a stay. The government may be attempting to gain leverage here by accusing (again) Apple of conspiring with publishers ahead of today's decision on punishment in the e-book antitrust case...

Best Buy offering iPhone discounts, double trade-in value this weekend

Cody Lee ∙ Updated October 16, 2017

The only thing better than scoring a cool gadget is scoring a cool gadget at a discount. So of course we just had to pass along this information regarding some hot deals that Best Buy will be running this weekend for smartphones and tablets.

As noted by CNET, starting today, the electronics retailer will be offering double the trade-in value on mobile devices for folks purchasing a smartphone from one of the 3 major carriers. Additionally, it's also taking $100 off select iPhone models...

President Obama meets with Tim Cook and other tech execs to talk surveillance

Cody Lee ∙ August 9, 2013

According to a report from Politico, President Barack Obama met with Apple CEO Tim Cook and a number of other tech executives yesterday for a closed-door discussion on government surveillance. The site says this was the second meeting of its kind this week.

Cook was joined by the likes of AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, Google's chief Internet evangelist Vint Cerf, and Public Knowledge President Gigi Sohn, to talk about various surveillance strategies and tother topics such as the recent NSA PRISM program scandal...

Preview: LockBar Pro

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 14, 2018

LockBar Pro is an upcoming jailbreak tweak that brings a little of the iOS 7 flavor to lesser firmware. A tweak that's obviously been influenced by the Control Center feature in iOS 7, LockBar Pro is sure to satisfy those who desire to have some of the feature set from Apple's newest firmware, but are relegated to iOS 6.

We've taken a little bit of time to go hands-on with LockBar Pro. Check past the break for a preview video that showcases some of its features.

Gorgeous Rise Alarm Clock goes free as App Store’s App of the Week

Cody Lee ∙ Updated December 4, 2013

Folks unhappy with Apple's stock alarm clock feature may want to check out the beautiful Rise Alarm Clock app by Kellen Styler. Not only is it one of the best-looking third-party alarm clock apps out there, but it's also free for a limited time.

Apple has named Rise its App of the Week, something it does every week for paid apps it believes deserve to be featured in front of millions of eyeballs. And after downloading the app for myself, it's not surprising that they picked this one...

T-Mobile sold 900K iPhones, 600K Galaxy S4s last quarter

Cody Lee ∙ August 8, 2013

Last night, T-Mobile announced its financials for its second quarter, and the numbers were fantastic. The carrier added more than 1 million new subscribers, and sold over 4 million smartphones during the 3-month period.

In the press release, the company wouldn't say how many of those 4 million phones were iPhones, only that the handset made up about 29% of their sales. During the conference call, though, it was much more forthcoming...