Last week, The Next Web reported that Tuesday's iPad mini event was going to have a heavy focus on iBooks. This made some sense, considering the tablet's size and price is expected to put it up against other e-readers.
Today, the site adds weight to its story by posting a screenshot of an apparent leak in an e-book listing in Apple's iTunes Store. We've got the image after the break, note that it says "this book requires iBooks 3.0 or later."
If you were to ask someone what they thought of Foxconn today, chances are their response would be negative. And for good reason. Over the past few years, we've heard horror stories about the manufacturing giant regarding terrible working conditions and child labor, and we've seen the pictures of the windows with prison bars and the suicide nets.
And that's exactly the kind of scene James Fallows, a journalist for The Atlantic, prepared himself for, as he set out on a tour of Foxconn's famous Shenzhen campus. He was ready to see the dark, depressing work environment and the somber, joyless employees that he had read so much about in other reports. But it didn't go at all how he expected...
While it will likely be the star of the show, the iPad mini isn't the only new device Apple is going to be unveiling at next week's event. Word is that the company has a new MacBook and some updated desktops to show off as well.
And according to a new report, Apple is also going to introduce a retooled third generation iPad next Tuesday. The updated tablet is said to feature the new Lightning connector, global LTE support and other improvements...
I don't consider myself a hardcore iOS gamer, but I'll try almost any recommended title once, as long as it's free. I'm sure there's more than 200 games in my App Store's Previous Purchases tab to back that up.
But looking at my iPhone 5's home screen, you'll only find a handful of them. That's because I tend to lose interest in games rather quickly. And according to a new report from Playnomics, I'm not alone...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ca-lV3LRxEY
You must watch this live action television commercial for Electronic Arts' Need for Speed: Most Wanted, an open-world racing game - it will totally make your day. The racing sessions have you fighting the cops and the trailer depicts that.
I instantly fell in love with the spaghetti western type soundtrack. And don't you just love how they pixelated the finger the driver gave to the cops? Thank actor/writer/director Jon Favreau for that, he's behind the ad.
Developed by Criterion Games and published by Electronic Arts, Need for Speed: Most Wanted files as the nineteenth title in the long-running series, picking up on the Most Wanted IP rather than the Hot Pursuit reboot that Criterion developed previously...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDD6DVc0Mb8
For today's WTF moment, I present you this publicity stunt depicting the Surface RT falling from about 30 inches high and onto a hardwood floor, courtesy of Microsoft's Surface Reliability Lab and straight via the Surface team's official channel on YouTube. Unlike your ordinary drop test, this one has a twist to it, just watch. Spoiler: it survives the drop. Fortunately, Microsoft didn't go as far to credit the gizmo's vapor-deposited magnesium chassis for that.
Of course the clip is geeky - this is Microsoft, after all. The company is many things, but you can't blame them from exploiting social media on a Friday to spread the word about their iPad contender. The Surface RT runs an ARM-based chip, it looks snappy, and its tile-based interface introduces a fresh new approach to tablet computing. I've also included another video that shows off some of the features, right past the fold...
Earlier this month, we told you about an interesting panel discussion that was going to take place at the Hack in the Box conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The panel consisted of MuscleNerd, pod2g, and other well known hackers. And they were going to be discussing iOS security.
But if you missed the live stream, never fear. The folks over at HITBSecConf have uploaded a video of the entire 30 minute long discussion and we've got it posted for you after the break. If you haven't seen it yet, it's really worth watching. There's a lot of interesting jailbreaking info...
In what appears to be a repeat of the DST software bug - and we've been here plenty of times before - some owners of Apple's new iPhone 5 report that their handset is showing incorrect time and/or day. Several people on Apple's discussion forum decribe their device as displaying times and dates that are days, even weeks, ahead or behind actual ones. The issue appears to manifest itself on devices that have automatic date and time setting feature enabled. Specifically, owners of a Verizon iPhone 5 appear to be affected the most...
The Android camp has long insisted on pushing massive screen sizes to the point where even Apple felt compelled to respond by making the iPhone's screen taller. Excluding Gorilla-sized devices such as the Galaxy Note phablet, smartphones typically have displays between four and five inches diagonally and settle with the native 720p resolution (1,280-by-720).
But as HTC's upcoming J Butterfly shows, device makers aren't standing still and are now pushing 1080p smartphone screens. President and CEO of DisplayMate Dr. Raymond Soneira knows a thing or two about displays and he thinks packing twice as much pixels onto essentially the same surface area is marginally beneficial as your eye can hardly tell the difference between 720p and 1080p on a typical smartphone display...
Yesterday, I wrote about Apple's laughable iPhone market share in India that, according to IDC, was only 1.2 percent of all handset sales during the second quarter of this year, half the level a year earlier. It's hard to justify a $800+ phone in a country where folks make an average of $200 a month, if they're lucky. Meanwhile, cheap Android handsets have taken India by storm and now enjoy a commanding 50+ percent market share.
Though it remains to be seen if Apple's inexpensive smaller iPad fits the big picture in the 1.24 billion people country, a new report out today by The New York Times makes the case for a sub-$50 Android tablet specifically made for students in India...
A smaller iPad has gotta be one of the industry's worst kept secrets in 2012. It will also be competition's worst nightmare. Now, Apple last week issued invites for a media event scheduled to take place next Tuesday, October 23 in San Jose’s California Theatre rather than the usual venues, San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts or Apple’s own campus in Cupertino, California. We've heard whispers that general availability was already scheduled for November 2 and now more credible sources are chiming in to confirm the date...
Analysts are almost busting their buttons to tell investors just how big a deal they expect is a smaller iPad, widely thought to be up for an introduction next Tuesday. One well-known Apple watcher foresees huge headaches from rival seven-inch tablet makers, describing the so-called iPad mini as "competition's worst nightmare."
Shaw Wu of Sterne Agee writes the iPad mini will come on the scene as Apple's competitors are already running hard just to keep up with the larger iPad 2.
The Cupertino, Caliornia gadget designer may even phase-out the $399 iPad 2 in order to focus attention even more strongly on the leading brand. Add a 7.85-inch iPad mini expected to sell for under $300 - and rival tablet manufacturers lose both the size advantage as well as the lower price tag...