Apple said to begin iPhone 5S production in March ahead of summer launch

With so much talk about the current-gen iPhone seeing weaker-than-expected demand swirling about, analysts and industry watchers have already begun to look forward to Apple's next-generation handset, believed to be the 'iPhone 5S.'

The company is widely expected to break its handset's traditional, annual release cycle this year, releasing the new iPhone well before fall. And a new report today supports that theory, saying Apple's next smartphone will land in June...

‘EnablePixelQuadrupling’ constant could suggest Apple is working on a “super Retina” device

Users of retina iPhones and iPads are used to the phenomenon of pixel doubling, where two-by-two squares stand in for a larger, lower density pixel. But how would you feel about a display that needs pixel quadrupling?

Just hours ago Ryan Petrich, the developer behind excellent jailbreak tweaks such as BrowserChooser, FullForce, and Display Recorder, stumbled across a constant in Quartz Core which may suggest that Apple is working on a super retina device...

Survey: the iPad mini becomes ‘kid’s tablet’ for holiday gifts

We're still gaining insights from holiday sales of Apple products. The latest finding: the iPad mini is now dubbed the "kid's tablet" after one survey found post-Christmas usage of Apple's smaller tablet rose 270 percent among families with young children. The new data comes from the makers of Kindertown.

Kindertown makes an app which helps parents find child-suitable apps. Among other findings culled from the software's more than 200,000 users: while the iPad 4 was popular as a family gift, children also adopted the original iPad as a technological hand-me-down. Elsewhere, iPhone's were not a big gift item for this demographic, after-Christmas usage of Apple's handset not rising following the holidays...

Instagram reminds us that new terms of service go into effect on Saturday

Photo sharing service Instagram in an email notice issued to its users today warned that the new terms of service pertaining to images are about to go into effect later this week. The official email communication acknowledges that the updated Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, that now "take into account the feedback we received from the Instagram Community", will be in effect this coming Saturday, January 19, 2013.

When it first announced new terms of service that mentioned “advertising” and “your photos”, many users feared the service would be able to sell their Instagrams to advertisers and use them elsewhere. After the fallout ensued, Instagram returned to the original terms of service and clarified in a blog post that "Instagram users own their content and Instagram does not claim any ownership rights over your photos"...

Apple launches Back to School promotion in Australia and New Zealand

Apple has launched its Back to School promotion in Australia and New Zealand ahead of the new school year. The promotion is open to students, parents and staff members of K-12 or higher education schools and requires an eligible purchase be made between January 15 and April 1. Akin to the company's Back to School promotion in the US and Europe last June, students in Australia and New Zealand who purchase a 9.7-inch iPad with Retina display will get a free AU$50 (NZ$65) Student Gift Card. Some notable Macs are also eligible...

Russian Railways sues Apple over trademark infringement

I don't know what it is with Apple and European railways, but another one has taken up a beef with the Cupertino company. Today, Russian Railways announced that it has issued a trademark infringement suit against Apple.

The reason behind the lawsuit is still not entirely clear, but it looks like it has something to do with third-party apps in the App Store that use RZD's (that's the abbreviation for Russian Railways) logo without permission...

Samsung to preempt the iPhone 5S with the Galaxy S IV rocking a full HD display

South Korea-based Samsung through its subsidiary Samsung Electronics is expected to update the flagship Galaxy S III smartphone in the first quarter of this year. The Galaxy S IV successor is expected to make much noise ahead of Apple's next iPhone release, especially with its full HD 1080p five-inch display and powerful innards thought to run Samsung's new quad-core system-on-a-chip.

And if you consult Samsung's latest AMOLED release schedule, the first device incorporating the firm's full HD mobile display is coming in the first quarter of 2013...

Smartphones top tablets as hungriest data gadgets

For carriers, the name of the game is data consumption. The more data consumed, the more revenue. For observers, data consumption also provides a clue to how new devices are used.

For the first time, smartphones are outpacing tablets as the "hungriest" mobile devices.

In 2011, tablets comprised two out of three of the devices consuming the most data. By 2012, all of the top three mobile devices were smartphones, led by the iPhone 5.

According to Arieso, a European company helping optimize networks to meet changing demand, iPhone 5 users consume four times as much data as the iPhone 3G users, and 50 percent more than the iPhone 4S owners. Meanwhile, the Galaxy S III and the HTC Sensation XL rounded out the most voracious devices in Europe...

iPhone 5 order cuts not nearly as severe as demand remains robust

After The Wall Street Journal relayed the vague and anonymously-sourced Nikkei newswire report on the supposed iPhone 5 order cuts amid what the Journal interpreted as a "weaker than expected" demand for the handset, nervous investors have immediately hit the panic button and punished the stock. Sane analysts, however, now are putting down the flames of the rumor, warning that the iPhone 5 demand remains robust as those order cuts aren't nearly as severed as originally reported...

Watch out for the iPhone ‘danger zones’

I've been a proud iPhone owner over the past six years, ever since the original iPhone debuted in June of 2007. I happen to pride myself with keeping my devices in pristine condition so I go the extra mile to handle my iPhone with care.

For instance, I typically lay it flat on the table on top of a napkin. And only a rare few people get to ever touch my device to play with it. And yeah, I do remove everything from my pocket before slipping an iPhone inside. It's suffice to say I'm overzealous about handling my baby.

But six years is six years and something had to give. A month ago, it just treacherously slipped out of my hand and fell on the concrete floor, its front glass smashing in an instant. Some of you could tell a similar story, I'm sure. But where are such accidents most likely to occur? Third-party warranty company SquareTrade has issued a report outlining so-called iPhone 'danger zones'...

Apple’s warranty practices in Europe draw ire of a Belgian watchdog

Apple's warranty adventure in the European Union is far from being over. After the company failed to properly communicate to its Italian consumers that they were entitled to a EU-wide two-year warranty (first warranty year provided by the manufacturer and the second by the seller), for which it was fined $264,000 last month and $1.2 million in March, now Apple has gotten itself into trouble with a Belgian consumer watchdog, Test-Aankoop/Test-Achats...

Glitch in Sprint’s GPS service points Find My iPhone users to innocent man’s house

Imagine you are awoken in the middle of the night by someone pounding loudly at your door. It's a man and his girlfriend, and they're upset because someone just stole her iPhone, and the Find My iPhone app led them straight to your house. Now imagine this is a regular occurrence.

Unfortunately for Wayne Dobson, he doesn't have to imagine. Due to a glitch in Sprint's location-tracking services, phone finding apps have been sending owners of missing iPhones and other handsets, as well as police, to Dobson's home in North Las Vegas for the past two years...