The United States Patent and Trademark Office has published a number of interesting patents and applications belonging to Apple today. Earlier we saw a patent application for iDevice cooling fans. And now this.
This is actually pretty cool: it's a patent app detailing a new kind of retail packaging for Apple's iOS products that not only protects the device during shipping, but also doubles as a dock for iPhones and iPads...
Apple in an email communication sent to its registered developers confirmed that it will be shutting down the iTunes Connect service for the holidays, between December 21-28. During that period, developers will not be able to use the iTunes Connect portal to upload new app submissions, make price changes or update apps. As a result, the state of the App Store will remain frozen for the holidays so customers should not expect new apps or app updates...
The nation's fourth-largest carrier continues to experience the side-effects of remaining the sole major U.S. telco without Apple's popular iPhone. The company this morning reported third-quarter earnings and the results are depressing. It lost 492,000 contract customers, down from the 557,000 loss in the June quarter but also up over the year-ago quarter when it reported loss of 389,000 contracts.
As a result, revenue for the quarter shrank to $4.9 billion, a 6.4 percent decline, while service revenue experienced an 8.7 percent drop...
The working conditions inside Foxconn's plants are constantly under scrutiny. But different reports seem to paint different pictures about what it's really like beyond the gates. One month we'll hear that Apple isn't doing enough to prevent child labor and long hours inside the factories. And the next we'll hear the opposite, with the factories passing inspections and praised for their improvements.
So what gives? Well according to a new study, the Fair Labor Association — the group responsible for holding Apple and its supply chain accountable for this stuff — has been going way too easy on them and has even been fabricating its reports...
http://vimeo.com/49780741
A lot of ordinary people upon seeing Aatma Studios’s concept of an iPhone with a holographic keyboard thought Apple was working on one (Fox News certainly fell for it). Florian Kräutli, a computing student at Goldsmiths, University of London, had a better idea.
Instead of a laser-projected virtual keyboard, he uses the iPhone's sensitive accelerometer sensor to measure the strength and frequency of microscopic vibrations that occur when "typing" on a surrounding surface area. Enter Vibrative Virtual Keyboard...
More than ever before, Apple's iPhone faces relentless competition, namely in markets where Android cheapos are all the rage. China, home to 1.33 billion people, is Apple's fastest-growing market, amounting to an ever-growing portion of its fortunes. But Apple's China problem is two-fold. First, the company's retail presence in such hugely important market leaves a lot to be desired, even with new flagship stores such as the recently introduced massive Beijing outlet. And second, China's buyers have always been price-sensitive. Outside the elite, folks are picking up inexpensive phones in droves, with local Chinese vendors happily providing low-cost handsets...
The future is looking up for consumers hoping to lay their hands on an iPhone 5. After doubts arose over whether suppliers could meet high demand for Apple's new handset, a Wall Street observer told investors Thursday the situation has "much improved" since September. Stern Agee analyst Shaw Wu believes the Cupertino, California company will sell 46.5 million smartphones in the December quarter, a huge increase from September's 26.9 million iPhones shipped...
Hot on the heels of another jailbreak tweak that allows you to search the new Google Search app using only your voice, comes Activoice — a similar tweak from Ryan Petrich.
Like the NowNow tweak that we covered yesterday, Activoice allows you to easily invoke the new voice portion of the Google Search app similar to the way that you using Activator. Take a look inside for our hands on video coverage of the tweak in action.
Is there a fan in the future for the iPad or iPhone? That question is front-and-center following word Apple has filed to patent a fan to cool its popular mobile devices. The measure is seen as a response to criticisms that the iPad grows hot due to powerful processors and CPU-intensive tasks.
The patent application, entitled "Cooling system for mobile devices", indicates a mechanical system comprised of fan, motor and an alert which potentially would vibrate the device. Because of the tight quarters, the motor would do double duty, driving both the fan and the alert, when required. Air intake and exhaust would likely employ an existing outlet in the devices, such as a headphone jack or the new Lightning connector port...
Following a massive retail and advertising push, Samsung's flagship Galaxy S III handset overtook Apple's iPhone 4S as the world's best-selling smartphone in the third quarter of this year, according to a Strategy Analytics survey. The Samsung phone sold an estimated 1.8 million units more than the iPhone 4S. Samsung's lead will be short-lived as Strategy Analytics estimates that the iPhone 5 will become the world’s #1 smartphone in Q4.
Analysts previously estimated that the S III outsold the iPhone 4S, but only in the United States. Samsung stopped reporting device sales last year for competitive reasons and we also don't know how many of the 18 million S III channel shipments ended up in customers hands. Still, that's a nice accomplishment for Samsung, which earlier in the week confirmed beating its self-imposed goal of shipping 30 million S III units before year's end...
Realmac Software has just released a new OS X version of its popular Clear to-do app. That's right, the popular list-maker is now available for the Mac, and it includes a lot of the same gestures and UI stuff from the iOS version.
Speaking of the iOS version, Realmac also released a major update to its iPhone app yesterday. Clear 1.2 contains several new features including iCloud-syncing, which goes great with the new Mac app, quote sharing, and more...
DC Entertainment, one of the top comic book publishers in the world, announced yesterday that its entire line of DC comics are now available in digital e-book format. Fans of the comics will be able to find them in Amazon's Kindle Store, the Barnes and Noble Nook Store, and of course the iBookstore...