iPhone News

Why Google retires some products

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 6, 2012

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8ss6NVp8wo

You've probably witnessed one of Google's spring cleanings when it retires a dozen or so popular services. Ever since co-founder Sergey Brin took the CEO role from Eric Schmidt, who is now Google's chairman, the company has been dropping less popular services at a rapid clip. iGoogle? Gone. The ill-fated Wave? Killed off. Wonder Wheel? That too.

Newsflash: even Google has a finite amount of resources so some features inevitably get thrown under the bus along the way. Google's Matt Cutts in the above clip lays out his company's approach to managing products and explains the decision making process which leads Google to retire some service whilst continuing to invest in others...

Spotify app finally receives update for iPhone 5

Cody Lee ∙ Updated August 24, 2016

Spotify users rejoice, the cloud-based music service has finally pushed out an update to its iOS app that makes it compatible with the iPhone 5's new 4-inch display. The company has taken a lot of heat from its subscribers over the past several weeks, as it was the last out of the big three music-streamers (Pandora and Rdio) to optimize its app for Apple's new handset...

Apple’s mobile graphics provider Imagination is buying MIPS

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 6, 2012

Imagination Technologies, a British-based mobile graphics provider, will buy MIPS, a Sunnyvale, California-headquartered semiconductor design company. The transaction, apparently worth a cool $60 million in cash, is expected to close in the first quarter of 2013. It reportedly includes 82 patents related to the MIPS processor architecture.

This development is interesting knowing that both Apple and Intel have ownership stakes in Imagination, whose PowerVR graphics technology powers Apple's mobile chips used inside iPhones, iPads and iPods...

Verizon and HTC announce November 13 media event

Cody Lee ∙ November 6, 2012

Apple continues to struggle to keep up with iPhone 5 demand, and Samsung just announced that it's sold more than 30 million units of its flagship handset, the Galaxy S III. Is there room for another big player?

HTC is hoping so, as the Taiwanese company has just sent out press invitations for a jointed Verizon media event to take place on November 13th. And word has it that it's going to unveil a new 5-inch superphone...

Physical Google Wallet Card for in-store payments is coming

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated May 16, 2018

Google Wallet, a mobile payment system from the search giant, has gained little traction over the past 18 months since its inception, mostly due to limited merchant and carrier support in the U.S. To solve this, Google is rumored to be on the verge of launching a physical card that will work in conjunction with the Wallet service to replace all plastic in your pocket.

The move should help the Wallet service pick up steam and might even establish the search monster as one of the biggest players in the mobile payment industry. Indeed, one card to rule them all with the elite Google Wallet physical card...

Apple sells out of iPhone 5 stock during first 24 hours of India launch

Cody Lee ∙ November 6, 2012

As we previously reported, the iPhone 5 went on sale in India over the weekend. And apparently it was quite the success. According to a new report, the handset sold out in the country in just 24 hours.

This is a pretty big deal for Apple, as India buys over 200 million handsets per year, but they're typically of the low-end, low-cost Android variety due to the country's larger prepaid wireless market...

Microsoft working on a 7-inch Xbox Surface tablet focused on gaming

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 6, 2012

This is really interesting. Hot on the heels of launching its full-sized Surface tablet to a mixed market response, Microsoft is thought to now have their sights set on the smaller form-factor tablet space, currently dominated by seven-inchers from Google and Amazon, in addition to Apple's iPad mini that launched last month. Microsoft's secret project for a mini Xbox, it's been said, involves a custom-built ARM processor and high-bandwidth RAM designed specifically for gaming tasks...

EU to accept Apple’s offer resulting in cheaper e-books for Amazon

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 6, 2012

In an exclusive report out this morning, Reuters reports that EU regulators are going to accept an offer proposed by Apple and four e-book publishers that will allow retailers like Amazon to sell digital books at lower prices compared to iBookstore. Publishers Simon & Schuster, News Corp unit HarperCollins, Lagardere SCA's Hachette Livre, and Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck, the owner of German company Macmillan, all offered concessions back in August and Apple in September abandoned its e-book agency model in EU in order to avoid a potentially harming anti-trust investigation...

Samsung to re-brand itself at CES 2013

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 29, 2016

It is no secret that the Samsung logo along with its brand appearance isn't the best fit to convey the South Korean conglomerate's many business. Samsung makes refrigerators, vacuum cleaners, smartphones, tablets, networked TV sets, computers and many more items. It's also a big player in construction, weapons tech, life insurance, advertising and theme park industries, to name a few.

The word on the street is that the company will launch a new brand image at CES 2013 and has enlisted the talent of Scott Bedbury, a freelance brand consultant who has also worked with Starbucks and is now reportedly tasked with creating a “more vibrant International brand image alongside the likes of arch rival Apple”...

Apple rejects Sparrow’s iPhone 5 update

Cody Lee ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

Bad news for folks who were looking forward to Sparrow's iPhone 5 update. It appears that it's going to take longer than anticipated, as Apple has rejected the update submission due to it violating its App Store guidelines.

Sparrow developer Dinh Viet Hoa announced the news yesterday afternoon via Twitter, saying that Apple had not approved the team's latest update for its iOS app, which included support for iOS 6 and the new iPhone...

The HiLO Lens: an angled camera lens for your iPhone

Cody Lee ∙ November 6, 2012

A friend of mine asked me the other day what I thought about add-on camera lenses for the iPhone. I told him the Olloclip was pretty popular, but I hadn't ever owned any myself so I probably wasn't the best person to ask.

You see, I've never really seen the point to these clip-on lenses. They just never seem to improve picture quality enough to justify the cost and hassle. But this new HiLO Lens might actually be worth taking a look at...