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Tim Cook is design-savy after all

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 14, 2013

When it comes to industrial design, watchers stubbornly refuse to give Apple's boss Tim Cook the benefit of the doubt. Cook is not a product person, critics argue.

He's a numbers guy who obsesses over spreadsheets while paying little attention to product design, haters often cry. And because of this, Apple of course is doomed.

Journalist Nick Bilton shares an interesting little anecdote in his Sunday piece for The New York Times that I think proves the opposite, that Tim Cook is very much aware of the importance of design in product development...

US holiday Mac sales rose as PC shipments fell

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated April 18, 2016

Apple Mac holiday sales in the US rose by 5.4 percent, countering the PC industry's overall 2.1 percent decline. The new numbers by research giant Gartner indicate Apple shipped 2.1 million Macs during the fourth quarter, up from two million for the same period in 2011. Meanwhile, pretty much every other vendor experienced a decline, with Dell reporting an abysmal sixteen percent decline.

Dell's US market share slid to 19.2 percent, down from 22.5 percent in 2011. All told, Apple now holds a 12.3 percent share of the US PC market, up from 11.4 percent last year, putting the company in the No. 3 spot, right behind Hewlett-Packard and Dell. PC vendors are now seeing US households letting the computers "age out" as they increasingly use tablets like the iPad for common tasks such as e-mail and web surfing...

AAPL tanks below $500 on ‘weaker than expected’ iPhone 5 demand rumor

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 27, 2017

AAPL fell briefly below $500 this morning following The Wall Street Journal and the Nikkei newswire reports of the iPhone 5 part orders halved amid what's being claimed a 'weaker-than-expected' global demand for the handset. Specifically, shares briefly sank to $497 in pre-market trading Monday as investors reacted to the news.

It's the first time since February 2012 that AAPL tanked below $500 a share. AAPL lost nearly 26 percent since a September 2012 all-time high of $705.07 a share. In the last three months alone, the Apple stock lost seventeen percent of its value. Rival Samsung seized its opportunity, having released this morning official numbers proving flourishing sales of its Galaxy S smartphone series, which surpassed the accumulated sales record of 100 million units (from the supply side) since its launch in May 2010...

Samsung Galaxy S device sales surpass 100M mark

Cody Lee ∙ January 14, 2013

Hot on the heels of reports that Apple has had to cut iPhone 5 part orders due to weaker-than-expected demand, Samsung has announced that its handset sales are still flourishing.

It appears that the Korean company's popular line of Galaxy S smartphones has recently reached a major milestone, crossing the 100 million unit mark in less than three years...

Apple seen cutting iPhone 5 part orders due to weak demand

Cody Lee ∙ January 14, 2013

The Wall Street Journal issued a report late last night, claiming that it had it on good authority that Apple has been telling its suppliers to cut their iPhone 5 part orders due to, what is believed to be, weak demand.

The publication's sources, who — you guessed it, are familiar with the situation — say that Apple has cut orders for multiple iPhone 5 components, but say screen orders specifically have been cut by nearly 50 percent...

CES 2013: the iOS accessories that impressed us the most

Jim Gresham ∙ Updated May 1, 2017

As you all know, CES came to a close Friday afternoon at the Las Vegas Convention Center, but only after an exciting week of new product announcements and unveilings. Sebastien and I made the Vegas trek to see the action first hand and we scoured the floor looking for the hot new iOS compatible products that will be hitting it big in 2013. Step inside for a run down of what we really liked and what could be making a splash over the next 12 months...

Facebook ‘totally’ ready to launch Messenger for iPad on Tuesday

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 8, 2016

You may have heard that Facebook has issued invites for a media event due this coming Tuesday to “come and see what [they're] building”. People in the know claim the news conference is a pretty big deal as Facebook could announce a brand new mobile operating system, even a so-called Facebook Phone of some sort. And now, another source has stepped forward with knowledge that the social networking giant will also launch an iPad version of its mobile Messenger app, which in a recent update has gained VoIP capabilities...

DismissMyKeyboard allows you to quickly hide the iPhone’s keyboard

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 10, 2018

DismissMyKeyboard is a recently released jailbreak tweak for jailbroken iPhones that allows you to easily dismiss the software keyboard. While the iPad already benefits from such a feature due to the device's larger area of real estate, the iPhone's keyboard has no room for a dedicated dismiss keyboard button like you see on its larger brethren.

DismissMyKeyboard solves this issue by allowing you to perform a swipe gesture right on the keyboard in order to dismiss it. Take a look at our video walkthrough inside to see how it functions.

The iDownloadBlog top news stories of the week – Jan 13, 2013 edition

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated April 24, 2017

Like every Sunday, we bring you the stories that were the most popular on iDB during this past week. Whether it is a news piece, an editorial, a tutorial, a new jailbreak tweak, or an accessory review, we sum it all up in one convenient place.

If you like what you're reading, please make sure to spread the love by sharing our posts on your favorite social network. We're usually hanging out a lot on Twitter and Facebook, more rarely on Google+...

‘TorchNC’ and ‘InstaSnap’ spice up Notification Center on jailbroken iPhones

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 10, 2018

Two new jailbreak tweaks have recently appeared in Cydia by the same developer, and they both happen to focus on Notification Center. Specifically, these tweaks aim to add handy shortcuts to the Notification Center pull-down pane.

The first tweak on the docket, TorchNC, adds a shortcut to activate the iPhone's LED flash. There are other tweaks and apps that perform flashlight functions, but I always find it useful to have it within Notification Center, or directly on the Lock screen.

The second tweak, like the first, is a shortcut for Notification Center. Instead of interacting with the iPhone's LED flash, InstaSnap is a tweak that allows you to quickly access the camera from within Instagram. Seeing as though this tweak doesn't require the iPhone only LED flash, it works with both the iPhone and iPod touch perfectly fine.

Take a look as we profile both InstaSnap and TorchNC in our walkthrough videos inside...

Rumor: Facebook to announce mobile OS next week

Cody Lee ∙ January 12, 2013

The Facebook Phone is one of the longest-running urban legends in the tech world. I can remember it being reported on as far back as 2010, and I'm sure it goes back further than that. But thus far, nothing has materialized, and Mark Zuckerberg himself has even denied its existence.

Despite all of this, a new report is out today claiming that the social network indeed has a handset in the works. And according to the usual "sources familiar with the matter," it's going to use its just-announced January 15th media event to unveil it to the world...

AL13: a slim aluminium bumper for your iPhone

Cody Lee ∙ January 12, 2013

Here at iDB, most of us have adopted the "no-case" policy for our iPhones. Cases are typically bulky, ugly, and although they are made to protect our handsets, they cover up the beautiful design Apple has worked so hard to achieve.

But the folks at the design firm 'm' think they have a cure for the common case. Their new AL13 is an ultra-thin bumper for the iPhone 4/5 that protects the device with lightweight aerospace aluminum without altering its look...