iPhone News

Google Search iOS app to get Google Now in a couple of days

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 8, 2012

Google is holding a search-related press event in San Francisco and the company just mentioned that it will be updating its Search app for the iPhone and iPad with Siri-like Google Now functionality, which we first caught a glimpse of at Google's Nexus 7 tablet announcement back in June.

The prettified interface features smooth animation and capabilities mimic those found in its Jelly Bean counterpart, including contextual awareness of where you are, what you may be interested in and what you are searching for...

Verizon’s secret 20GB shared data plan

Cody Lee ∙ August 8, 2012

For the two largest wireless carriers in the US, unlimited plans are out. Verizon introduced its new shared data plans back in June of this year, and AT&T has quickly followed suit.

The removal of unlimited plans have left some power mobile users looking for alternative solutions. After all, Verizon's shared data plans only go up to 10GB per month. Or do they?

Full on image of the next iPhone dock connector suggests MagSafe functionality

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 8, 2012

Both big media and bloggers agree that with the next iPhone release come this September, Apple is going to debut a brand new dock connector to replace the aging 30-pin thing present on existing devices. The company will allegedly deploy the new dock connector across all future iOS devices.

Built with space in mind, the new connector was originally said to have 19 pins or fewer. A new report surfaced today sporting a crisp shot of the new dock connector with a metal ring inside the casing cutout, suggesting an exciting possibility: that the cable could attach magnetically, just like the MagSafe connector for Apple's notebooks...

You’ll soon be able to pay for lattes at Starbucks using Square

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 25, 2016

Twitter and Square founder Jack Dorsey last evening announced an interesting partnership with Starbucks, an international coffeehouse chain, that will allow coffee lovers to pay for their lattes via Square's iOS and Android app, as well as its merchant software and the iPhone credit card reader dongle.

Micro-payments will be initially accepted at nearly 7,000 Starbucks locations in the United States. Furthermore, Starbucks will invest millions in Square as part of the company’s Series D financing round. Not bad for a little more than two-year-old mobile payment startup...

Samsung could buy RIM to rival Apple in enterprise

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated June 13, 2016

Canada-based Research In Motion is declining rapidly. Its ailing BlackBerry platform has been reduced to a single-digit market share, it has a $1 billion backlog of unsold tablets and smartphones, corporations are abandoning their phones in droves and the BlackBerry 10 operating system has been delayed until 2013.

In between staging stupid stunts and fighting Apple over Nano SIM, the embattled company found time to replace its co-CEOs with a new guy, Thorsten Heins, who is shedding jobs left and right as creditors and advisers plot possible scenarios, including selling off its server messaging platform and the BlackBerry hardware biz...

Apple suspends Apple ID password resets over the phone

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 8, 2012

You've no doubt heard about a scandalous security oversight which has enabled hackers to break into former Gizmodo writer Mat Honan's iCloud account to remotely wipe his MacBook Air, iPhone and iPad. He was easily hacked because Amazon used to publish the last four digit of users' credit card on the web, which happens to be exactly what Apple's customer support reps need to reset one's Apple ID password over the phone (in addition to your name and billing address).

Reacting to the security outbreak, Amazon has stepped up its battle to prevent this kind of social engineering. The online retailer on Monday closed a privacy hole that could allow anyone to access to Amazon accounts over the phone using just a name, email address and mailing address.

Amazon also promised to no longer allow adding new credit cards to accounts over the phone. Today, Apple reportedly sent a notice to its support staff, temporarily halting Apple ID password resets over the phone...

Steve Jobs’s marketing whiz on what makes Apple tick

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 8, 2012

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Ken Segall is the guy who dreamed up the iMac name and one of Steve Jobs's most-trusted ad men who advised Apple's late mercurial CEO on advertising concepts since the NeXT days, which includes work on the famous Think Different campaign. Segall is also the author of Insanely Simple: The Obsession That Drives Apple’s Success, a book on Apple that focuses on the company's Simplicity mantra.

Segall sat with TIME’s Editor-at-large Harry McCracken to talk for more than an hour about the ingredients that made Apple such a success, the company's DNA, leadership tips, marketing, advertising and much more...

Internal Samsung report says Galaxy should be more like the iPhone

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 10, 2018

The high-profile court battle between Apple and Samsung has already yielded several interesting documents and secrets from both companies, and another morsel just surfaced.

This time it's a 132-page internal report from Samsung, submitted into evidence by Apple in its ongoing effort to prove the company copied its smartphone and tablet designs...

Conan O’Brien pokes fun at Apple-Samsung trial

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 10, 2018

With billions of dollars hanging in the balance, and both companies' reputations at stake, the Samsung-Apple trial is one of the most high-profile in history.

But you wouldn't know any of this unless you frequently visited tech sites, like iDB, or you happened to be watching tonight's episode of Conan O'Brien...

Apple’s attention to detail extends to ads

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 7, 2012

If you're subscribed to Apple's official YouTube channel and have email notifications for new uploads enabled, an alert may have hit your inbox today saying Apple just uploaded the Siri ad starring film director Martin Scorsese (go here for a parody treatment).

And just like that, because the video has replaced the original clip, a bunch of web pages that have the original embed code in place now show empty boxes (don't worry, I already updated our article with a new code).

At first glance, the commercial is exactly the same as the original ad from two weeks ago. At closer inspection, the new version removes the AT&T branding and fixes a minuscule editing error that only the pickiest of eyes would catch. That's attention to detail for you...

This is how thin the new iPhone might be

Jeff Benjamin ∙ August 7, 2012

We've heard the rumors that the new iPhone will be 7.6mm thick, but what does that actually mean? Obviously, it will be thinner than the outgoing iPhone 4S, but exactly how thin will it be?

Is there anything that we can use to get a good picture of how thin the new iPhone will be, before it's officially unveiled in September? Well, actually, yes. And the good news is that you probably already have one in your possession.

The next iPhone could be 7.6mm thin

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 7, 2012

Last week, a video made rounds depicting a 0.1mm thinner front glass part said to belong to Apple's upcoming iPhone, in addition to a smaller home button and other interesting tidbits. Today, a new report out of Asia asserts that the next iPhone's enclosure is going to be just 7.6mm thick.

That's a marked improvement over the iPhone 4/4S that measures 9.3mm deep. So much about Tim Cook promising that "We're doubling down on security. I mean it"...