iPhone News

Best Buy and Walmart now offer prepaid iPhone 5 on T-Mobile

In an apparent move to clear stock ahead of a next-generation model introduction, U.S. retailers Best Buy and Walmart have been running interesting promotions for some time now, offering deep discounts on iPhone sales and attractive device trade-ins.

As for the iPhone 5, both companies have long offered Apple's flagship handset with a two-year contract with U.S. carriers AT&T, Verizon and Sprint. And this past weekend, each has added a prepaid iPhone 5 option on T-Mobile to its roster...

Renewing and non-renewing subscriptions for Mac App Store apps coming this Fall

Apple with the iOS 5 release on September 19, 2012 brought in-app subscriptions to its mobile operating system. The feature was originally conceived to allow for the creation of subscription-based digital magazines and newspapers sold on the iOS Newsstand, along with enabling app-managed content offered on a subscription-basis. And now, subscriptions will be definitely coming to Mac apps carried on the Mac App Store when OS X Mavericks is released this Fall...

Apple allegedly in talks to launch iPhone 5S with LTE Advanced in South Korea

T-Mobile USA may be planning to leapfrog its rivals by becoming the first U.S. wireless carrier to offer up to three times faster LTE Advanced cellular radio technology, but over in South Korea the SK Telecom carrier already announced last Wednesday it's become the world's first telco to launch LTE Advanced network.

As you could imagine, Samsung Electronics CEO J.K. Shin wasted no time confirming his company will launch an LTE Advanced version of its flagship Galaxy S4 smartphone, thanks to Qualcomm's Snapdragon 800 chip. And now, SK Telecom is understood to be in talks with Tim Cook & Co. over offering an LTE Advanced variant of Apple's upcoming iPhone 5S handset...

Investigators raid Apple France offices over unfair business practice

Apple's woes with French authorities persist with news that the country's watchdog has conducted a thorough raid of the company's offices over accusations of unfair business practices. According to local news reports, French watchdog is investigating claims that Apple has screwed the country's major wholesalers and distributors by offering better deals with its own retail stores.

This isn't actually terribly surprising given some third-party retailers have been complaining for years that Apple has been discriminating them. However, this is the first time a major antitrust organization is investigating the company over the assumed business practice...

Alleged iPad 5 schematics picture iPad mini-like design

A French blog which earned a reputation of posting images of geniunie-looking Apple product parts is back at it again, posting this morning a set of purported design schematics claimed to be for Apple's fifth-generation iPad.

Matching up a number of past reports, these alleged photographs suggest the iPad 5 indeed has adopted a form factor very similar to the current iPad mini model...

Rumor: Foxconn has started shipping budget iPhone for Fall release

Leaks and sketchy pieces of information concerning Apple's rumored less expensive iPhone continue to trickle in. This past Saturday, for example, a credible blog has brought us images of a purported budget iPhone rear panel, a solid indication that Apple might be well beyond the research phase for the alleged product.

Today, a Chinese tech blog writes that Apple's favorite manufacturer Foxconn has started shipping first units as Apple shoots for a Fall release...

Apple moves to trademark ‘iWatch’ in Japan

If you needed proof that Apple is actively researching a wearable device akin to a smartwatch, look no further than a Japan Patent Office filing from early June for an ‘iWatch’ trademark. As discovered by Bloomberg, the filing specifically mentions a “watch device” and a “handheld computer”. While this by no means such a product will see the light of day, it certainly fuels speculation that an Apple-branded smartwatch is in the works...

p0sixninja reveals plans for ‘openjailbreak’

A few days ago, Joshua Hill, better known as iOS hacker p0sixninja, sent out a cryptic message from his Twitter account saying that he has a lot of amazing things coming soon. He didn't say what it was, but he advised to 'think bigger than a jailbreak.'

Today, though, Hill elaborated on his project with the following message: "Ok, I hate redsn0w, I hate sn0wbreeze, and I hate 6.1.3. I'm ready to get this #openjailbreak off the ground." What is 'openjailbreak,' you ask? We'll tell you right after the fold...

Ryan Petrich posts screenshot of jailbroken iPod touch running iOS 7

Ryan Petrich tonight posted an interesting picture to his Twitter account that appears to answer the long-standing question of "can iOS 7 be jailbroken?" The image is of his popular tweak Activator running on what looks like an iPod touch with iOS 7 installed.

Of course, it's easy to speculate about something when there isn't much to go on. But looking at the stock app icons in the dock, the flat text in the alert box, and the Activator icon on the Home screen, it certainly looks like Petrich's iPod touch is jailbroken...

Google Reader shuts down tomorrow, here’s everything you need to know

In case it's somehow skipped your mind, Google is going to be turning off Google Reader, it's popular RSS aggregating service, on July 1st. That's tomorrow. And if you haven't taken the proper steps, such as backing up your feeds or syncing them with a suitable replacement, you're going to lose them.

But never fear, as usual, iDB has you covered. Here's everything you need to know about this week's Reader shutdown...

Activator gains scheduled actions in 1.8 RC release

Jailbreak developer Ryan Petrich has been extremely busy lately, adding new features to his Activator tweak. In this month alone, he's seeded beta updates that add flick icon gestures, custom email events and shutter actions, and collapsible menus.

And as you've probably guessed by now, Petrich posted another new version of Activator this weekend. This time the update, which brings the tweak to version 1.8 RC, includes the ability to schedule standard actions in iOS to occur at certain times...