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The new iPod nano teardown analysis finds five Apple-branded mystery chips

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated May 10, 2017

Solutions provider iFixit tore apart Apple's seventh-generation iPod nano which was released alongside the iPhone 5 and the fifth-generation iPod touch at the September 12 media event. In addition to a Broadcom Bluetooth module and a touchscreen controller from Texas Instruments (whose mobile arm could be acquired by Amazon), the music player also packs in five Apple-branded mystery chips and scores a lower repairability score than the iPhone 5...

Chipworks takes a closer look at Apple’s Lightning cable

Cody Lee ∙ October 16, 2012

There's been a lot of talk about Apple's new dock connector lately. The company replaced its decade-old 30-pin connector with a new 9-pin Lightning plug in its latest round of iPhone and iPod refreshes last month.

Apple has reportedly added an authentication chip to its new cable to keep third party companies from making unapproved accessories. So the smart folks over at Chipworks decided to take a closer look at it...

Microsoft airs first Surface commercial

Cody Lee ∙ October 16, 2012

It seems like it's been months since Microsoft first showed off the Surface tablet —the company's first foray into the space. Actually, it's been four months. But never fear, the long-awaited release date is almost here.

Microsoft is set to launch the tablet on October 26th, alongside the latest update to its operating system, Windows 8. And it kicked off its advertising blitz last night with a new TV ad entitled: The Surface Movement...

Apple appeals Japan patent suit loss to Samsung

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 10, 2018

In late August, a District Court in Tokyo ruled that Samsung's mobile devices do not violate Apple's patents. Not only did Apple lose the lawsuit, but it was also ordered to pay all attorney fees and court-related costs.

Obviously, the decision didn't sit well with the Cupertino company, and they're not giving up without a fight. Reports surfaced late last night that it has filed an appeal with Japan's Intellectual Property High Court...

RedSn0w 0.9.15b2 released to add fixes for 3GS and iPad owners

Jeff Benjamin ∙ October 15, 2012

The iPhone Dev Team has released RedSn0w 0.9.15b2, which fixes a few items for owners of older devices.

The most outstanding fix is for 3GS owners with old bootroms — RedSn0w 0.9.15b2 brings back untethered jailbreak support for end users who fall into that category.

Most of the changes don't pertain to owners of newer devices, but it's always a good idea to ensure that you're running the latest and greatest version anyway. Take a look inside for the full release notes.

Study: Americans pay too much for their LTE plans

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated February 8, 2016

American smartphone owners are taking a bath on LTE and 3G pricing compared to European mobile consumers, a new study indicates. Verizon Wireless subscribers pay $7.50 per gigabyte on that carrier's LTE network versus an average of $2.50 in Europe, for example. Even more shocking: Sweden's LTE users pay as low as 63 cents.

According to the London-based GSM Association, despite the U.S. being the largest LTE market in the world, Americans pay much more for the superfast wireless technology than anyone else. The reason boils down to fewer choices...

FBI warns smartphone users of Android malware

Cody Lee ∙ Updated June 13, 2016

Though Apple takes quite a bit of criticism, from both users and developers, over its rigorous App Store approval process, there is one significant benefit to the approach: security. iOS sees just a fraction of the viruses and malware as other, more open platforms.

Case in point: the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), which does work for the Bureau of Justice Assistance and the FBI, issued a warning late last week to smartphone users regarding malware for mobile phones. And unsurprisingly, there was a focus on Android...

Modern Combat 4: Zero Hour trailer shows off unbelievable mobile graphics

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 28, 2019

Modern Combat 4: Zero Hour is coming this fall on iOS and Android and Gameloft today posted this second trailer to highlight the visual aspects of this awesome-looking first-person shooter. This follows a gameplay trailer released on September 25. The high-definition graphics promises to really shine on the iPhone 5, giving us some indication what its speedy in-house designed A6 chip with three GPU cores is capable of, at least until Infinity Blade Dungeons lands. I've also included a few totally eye-candy screenies right past the fold...

The new iPod touch lacks auto-brightness as Apple dropped ambient light sensor

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated April 10, 2018

Apple's fifth-gen iPod touch is unable to automatically adjust brightness of the display depending on your environment because engineers unexplicitly dropped the ambient light sensor from the device. This eyebrow-raising omission is that more puzzling knowing all prior iPod touch versions had that sensor, a common feature on iPhones and iPads as well.

News of this 'discovery' propagated throughout the Interwebs today, but our own Jeff Benjamin made a mention of the lack of ambient light sensor in his video review of the new iPod touch from three days ago...

Apple poaches a prominent Amazon search technologist to improve on Siri

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 25, 2016

According to a new report by AllThingsD, Apple has nabbed an Amazon search specialist William Stasior, who also held a senior position at AltaVista and Oracle. Stasior has reportedly landed the top job: Apple basically has charged him with running its Siri unit.

In hiring a new tutor for its underachieving digital secretary, Apple has indicated intentions to double down on enhancing Siri's skill set, per Tim Cook's promise a few months ago.

It also might signal a broader search agenda down the road that might give birth to an Apple-branded, more natural version of the traditional web search.

At any rate, the iPhone maker is interested in expanding Siri's scope, which in its current incarnation focuses on voice-activated artificial intelligence, leaving search queries to specialized search engines and data bases such as Wolfram Alpha.

This could change down the road, however, especially as Apple continues to lessen its reliance on Google technology for some software features of the iPhone...

How to downgrade pre-A5 devices easily with RedSn0w

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated February 7, 2016

RedSn0w 0.9.15b1 was a gargantuan update. In fact, we're still trudging through all of the new features. One new addition that has us really excited is the new direct restore option for pre-A5 devices.

This new restore option allows you to downgrade your device without having to fool with host files, stitching, Pwned DFU, iTunes, or anything else that made downgrading so incredibly cumbersome in the past.

We've made a step-by-step tutorial that shows you how to use this new restore feature, along with getting by those pesky Mismatched APTicket errors. Check inside for the full tutorial.

The iPhone 5 64GB ships to AT&T in 24 hours

Sébastien Page ∙ October 15, 2012

I just got back from a trip to my AT&T Store where I went to exchange my black iPhone 5 for the white version. I've actually tried to exchange my black iPhone 5 since I received it. For the last 3 weeks, I went pretty much every single day to my AT&T Store asking if they had received any iPhone 5. For the last 3 weeks, I was told the same answer: "no, sorry, we haven't received anything".

Today, one smart AT&T employee finally realized I had been coming every day for three weeks and told me that I didn't have to physically come and check, as I could simply order an iPhone from the store. You'd think they would have offered this solution before, but that's another problem that we won't even bother addressing here.

I was then directed to an AT&T employee who processed my order/return. Without much hope, I figured the AT&T employee probably didn't know anything about time frames and delivery estimates, but to my surprise, he said that because I am ordering a 64GB iPhone 5, it will ship within 24 hours.

Wait, what? 24 hours, as in one day? How is this possible when Apple's own website tells me that any iPhone 5 model ships in 3-4 weeks?