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iPhone leads customer satisfaction in Samsung’s home turf of South Korea

Ed Sutherland ∙ July 2, 2013

There's nothing like winning over your competitor's hometown audience. Apple, accustomed to topping nearly every customer satisfaction survey, must take particular pleasure in being named best by smartphone owners in South Korea, home of rival Samsung.

The survey found even a year after purchase, iPhone owners were more satisfied overall, as well as happy with the repair experience. Customer satisfaction is an often-cited metric by Apple CEO Tim Cook, a quality in which some see him well-suited...

Bloomberg: Time Warner Cable channels coming to Apple TV ‘in a few months’

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

Hot on the heels of releasing the Apple TV 5.3 software which enabled access to Disney's WatchESPN and HBO Go through the $99 set-top box, Bloomberg now reports that the iPhone maker is on the cusp of announcing a major agreement with Time Warner Cable.

The gist of the story: the deal would give subscribers of the cable television service access to channels via the Apple TV. HBO, of course, is owned by Time Warner, under the operating subsidiary Home Box Office Inc.

But it gets even better: Apple is apparently hiring away Hulu executive Pete Distad to help Eddy Cue, Apple's SVP of Internet Software and Services, in negotiations with media and cable companies. An agreement will be reportedly announced "in a few months". Tuesday news doesn't get any bigger than this...

Yahoo buys innovative iPhone video app Qwiki

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 23, 2018

There's no stopping Yahoo lately. The ink hasn't dried yet on the Internet giant's $1.1 billion acquisition of the world's #2 blogging platform Tumblr and today Marissa Mayer & Co. have acquired another startup. This time around, Yahoo set its sights on Qwiki, a NYC-based startup behind an iPhone app of the same name.

Qwiki launched in alpha testing mode on January 24, 2011 after winning the TechCrunch Disrupt Award in 2010. The ingenious iPhone software turns images and videos from your Camera roll and turns them into short and beautiful movies. Apple named Qwiki its Search and Reference application of 2011 and it received Apple’s Editor’s Choice.

Yahoo dropped a cool $50 million on Qwiki and promised to continue to support the Qwiki app. The Qwiki team will join Yahoo's New York city office "to reimagine Yahoo’s storytelling experience." More tidbits right after the break...

All premium Warner Bros games are 99 cents for a limited time

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated May 16, 2018

With the summer season officially here, game makers are increasingly turning to attractive discounts as a last-ditched effort to boost sales before games hit the beaches.

First was Sega, which slashed a bunch of iOS games to just 99 cents, followed by Epic Games' not-to-be-missed award-winning Infinity Blade II 99-cent sale. Those deals have expired now, but don't despair - Warner Bros. has you covered.

In a summer blowout sale promotion, the publisher has discounted its many triple-As to just 99-cents. We're talking big name releases here, such as Batman Arkham City Lockdown, LEGO games and the recently released Man of Steel movie tie-in...

FireCore releases aTV Flash (black) 2.3 with Apple TV 5.3 compatibility and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated May 16, 2016

If you frequent iDB, chances are you're familiar with aTV Flash, the popular Apple TV software suite that enhances your $99 set-top box by adding a web browser, a weather app, support for non-Apple media file types and other goodies. If you love your Apple TV jailbroken and flashed, pay attention: FireCore has just pushed a new version.

aTV Flach (black) version 2.3 includes a handful of new features, stability improvements and supports the recently released Apple TV software 5.3. There are also other goodies included in this update so jump past the fold for the full breakdown...

Rovio Stars’ next release Tiny Thief is coming to iOS next Thursday

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated August 24, 2016

Rovio's new publishing label Rovio Stars recently launched its inaugural title, A Viking Voyage by UK-based studio Nitrome. Their second game will be Tiny Thief, a nice-looking medieval adventure developed by Barcelona-based 5 Ants Studio. Just earlier this morning, Rovio announced that Tiny Thief will be available for iOS and Andoid tablets and handhelds from next Thursday, July 11, here's what we know so far about the game...

BRIC nations to overtake US as top smartphone markets by 2018

Ed Sutherland ∙ July 2, 2013

So-called BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India and China) are set to dominate smartphone market share by 2018, comprising four of the top seven markets, according to research released Tuesday. As a result, smartphone shipments to the US and Western Europe are forecast to drop to 33 percent of the smartphone market share, down from the current 39 percent.

At the same time, the top five countries in 2018 will account for just over half - 51 percent - of smartphone shipments globally. BRIC nations will account for a third of the shipments, according to ABI Research. The changing landscape means smartphone makers will need to keep pace...

Chromium-based Opera 15 now available for Mac

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 2, 2013

The Norwegian developer Opera Software, best known for its awesome Opera browser others ripped off wholesale, back in January announced it was dropping its proprietary Presto rendering engine in favor of Chromium.

The Norwegian company followed up with May's release of a sneak peek of Opera 15 powered by Chromium, marketed under the Opera Next label. Today, the final version of Chromium-based Opera 15 has been released into the wild...

Netherlands ‘Steve Jobs Schools’ to heavily use iPads in classrooms

Ed Sutherland ∙ July 2, 2013

Nearly a dozen schools will open in August in the Netherlands, the educational day centered around the products produced by the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs. In what creators call 'Steve Jobs schools,' children 4-12 years old will use iPads in place of textbooks and the role of teacher is turned into a 'learning coach,' according to a German magazine.

These concept schools also replace the usual structured classroom with learning tied to students's individual learning pace. Still, educators insists children in the schools won't always be in front of screens, allowing kids to be kids...

AT&T deploys 4G LTE in 30 new markets

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 27, 2016

Since its last expansion which enabled its fourth-generation Long-Term Evolution (LTE) speedy cellular radio technology in several new markets, U.S. wireless carrier has been pretty quiet.

The following day rival Verizon took the initiative by announcing its LTE was available in 500+ markets across 49 U.S. states and covering nearly 200 more markets than AT&T.

Stepping up its game, AT&T today announced expansion of its LTE which is now available in more than two dozen additional markets. If you live in any of the areas listed below the fold, you should start experiencing enhanced speeds on your LTE-enabled devices...

Track your favorite TV shows with the elegant TeeVee 2 app

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 2, 2013

As I tend to repeatedly mention here, I'm a big fan of movies and television shows (wanted to be an actor when I was a kid). Now, most of my premium entertainment is consumed digitally these days so I'm big on apps that help me manage and discover great TV shows and movies.

For the latter, I use Limelight which lets me organize and manage my movie library in style.

I'm also a heavy user of ToDo Movies to track upcoming releases and its eye-popping Motion Posters feature has to be experienced to be fully appreciated. You could imagine my excitement discovering TeeVee 2, an elegant and sophisticated iPhone application by Tomas Perzl which helps me keep track of next episodes of my favorite TV shows, when they are airing, the days remaining, the episode title/synopsis and lots more...

Reeder update enables Feedly and Feed Wrangler on iPhone

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 21, 2018

Silvio Rizzi's RSS client for the Apple platform, Reeder, has built quite a loyal following. It's one of the first full-featured RSS readers on the iPhone which won me over with its elegant and sophisticated user interface, clever use of gestures and the ability to efficiently manage hundreds of feeds without crawling to a halt.

Silvio has been diligently updating the software with new features and today he pushed a new version which enables two popular Google Reader replacement services just as Google's web-based RSS client went offline yesterday...