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Leaked document shows White House in favor of banning unlocking, jailbreaking

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 14, 2018

The last we heard, things were looking good in the fight to reform out-of-date policies on device unlocking here in the US. Last week, the FCC chairman sent a letter to the CTIA saying he'd like to see changes made before the holidays. But don't get your hopes up just yet.

According to information recently leaked by WikiLeaks, the White House—despite publicly supporting unlocking—has been secretly negotiating a treaty with other countries and special interest lobbyists that would make this and other processes illegal by international law...

Apple explains why it’s entitled to additional damages in Samsung case

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 19, 2013

As you know, Judge Lucy Koh shaved more than $400 million off the $1.05 billion verdict in the much-publicized Apple vs. Samsung case that took place in August 2013 over patented iPhone technology. The South Korean chaebol admitted to lifting Apple's inventions, but the jury improperly calculated damages on certain Samsung products, prompting Koh to order a partial retrial in order to re-calculate the remaining damages.

Although Apple is already entitled to more than $500 million in damages (with patent rulings being upheld as well), the company is now demanding an additional $379 million in pending damages over patent infringement and lost sales. Samsung, on the other hand, argues it owes Apple no more that a rather meager $52 million for iPhone patents and design features...

Apple updates Find My Friends for iOS 7

Cody Lee ∙ Updated December 4, 2013

Apple has finally posted the iOS 7 update for its Find My Friends application this afternoon. The app, which allows iOS users to locate friends and family members, was the last notable mobile Apple title utilizing the old skeuomorphic design language.

In today's update, the app's leather stitching and paper-like textures have been replaced with open spaces and sharp text—the usual changes we've seen in iOS 7-flavored updates. And the UI now lines up with Apple's other iPhone and iPad offerings...

Fifty-Three launches Pencil stylus for iPad

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

Steve Jobs once said, "If you see a stylus, they blew it" in regard to tablets which depend on the stylus as their primary means of input. That hasn't stopped the accessory industry from engineering dozens upon dozens differently shaped and sized styluses for use with popular tablet brands, Apple's iPad included.

Fifty-Three, the people who brought you the popular Paper drawing app, Apple's 2012 iPad App of the Year Editor's Choice, have been hard at work developing its upcoming Pencil stylus for quite some time. Last month, the gizmo surfaced in an FCC filing. Starting today, the $60 Bluetooth-enabled Pencil goes on sale...

Yahoo Screen and PBS channels added to Apple TV

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 1, 2018

Yahoo in September released its Screen iOS app. Billed as a remote control for web video with true AirPlay multitasking, the iPhone and iPad application acts as a one-stop shop for a bunch of web video sources, including licensed programming from Viacom and other Yahoo partners.

Today, Yahoo announced the arrival of Yahoo Screen for Apple TV. Provided as a new channel on your set-top box's main menu, Yahoo Screen lets Apple TV owners watch live news and events, stream such premium third-party shows as Saturday Night Live, The Colbert Report, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and content from MLB, UFC, The Onion, Martha Stewart, as well as enjoy Yahoo's original programming, all from the comfort of their couch...

Hurry, Instacast for Mac is on sale for 50% off

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated February 13, 2018

One of the better podcast clients for the Mac is available for 50% off its retail price. Instacast, the podcasting client from Vemedio is going for $9.99 on the Mac App Store for a limited time.

The nice thing about Instacast is that you can use it to sync your playlists with its iOS counterpart. That means that it's extremely easy to listen on your Mac, and pick up where you left off on your iPhone, and vice versa.

Instacast is a great way to keep up with all of the episodes of Let's Talk iOS. According to its description on the Mac App Store, this deal is slated to end in one day, so you'll want to be quick if interested.

Rumor: 12.9-inch iPad screen in production by ‘first tier display supplier’

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 19, 2013

We've heard some rumblings about a 12.9-inch iPad before and now The Korea Times reports Apple is moving to release a bigger iPad some time in 2014 as a "first tier display supplier" has reportedly kicked off mass manufacture of the panels. Apple will introduce a 12.9-inch iPad "early next year," the report claims.

Conventional wisdom teaches us that Apple may be interested to meet growing demand for larger form-factor mobile devices, especially with PC sales continuously shrinking and phablets by Samsung and others now moving millions of units. An iPad Maxi, anyone?

Google agrees to pay $17 million to 37 U.S. states in Safari tracking settlement

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

Google's nefarious overriding of both desktop and iOS Safari users' privacy settings in order to better track their web browsing activity backfired after the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in April 2012 took a long, hard look at the practice and decided to fine the search giant.

Google has previously agreed to pay $22.5 million fine to the government, with a judge approving the record-setting penalty. And now, the Internet giant will pay 37 U.S. states a cool $17 million to settle the Safari probe case...

Lone Wolf review: a new gamebook experience for iOS

Lory Gil ∙ Updated January 23, 2018

As many of our readers know by now, I am a huge fan of tabletop adventure games. Whether it is a Dungeons and Dragons style role-playing game, a stats-based board game, or a gamebook adventure, I’m interested in it. If it requires more than six-sided dice to play, I’m going geek over it.

Joe Dever’s Lone Wolf is a gamebook game that incorporates a bit of Infinity Blade style hand-to-hand combat against baddies that won’t go away. Hack your way through the city to clean out the riff raff and rebuild a destroyed community…

Yahoo Mail updated with message swiping

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated December 4, 2013

Yahoo Mail has been making some serious moves lately with a major redesign across the web and mobile apps. On the iOS side, the iPhone and iPad Yahoo Mail app recently saw a major revamp and feature additions, including folder management, multiple account support, native iPad interface and more.

I've been increasingly liking the 16-year-old web-based email service, especially now that every account comes with one terabyte of free storage. The app has been updated yesterday to version 2.0.3 with quite useful message swiping functionality and a few other tweaks...

Samsung sells just 50,000 Galaxy Gear watches in first two months [update]

Cody Lee ∙ Updated October 12, 2018

In September, Samsung launched a line of Galaxy Gear smartwatches. The move appeared to be little more than a response to rumors that Apple and other tech companies were working on similar products, and an effort to be "first" to market.

But going first in unknown territory doesn't always work in your favor, and it looks like the Galaxy Gear supports that theory. According to a new report, Samsung has sold just 50,000 smartwatches since it launched them nearly 3 months ago...