Apple’s designers come up with ideas around a kitchen table

Apple may be unlike other companies in many regards, but when it comes to thinking stuff up, its designers gather around good ol' kitchen table to come up with bright new ideas. I'm not making this up, this little nugget was just revealed in a testimony by a member of Apple's design team during the afternoon hearing in the Apple vs. Samsung mega-lawsuit....

Apple confirms iCloud email outage for some, App Store and iMessage hiccups reported

Looks like something is amiss with that $1 billion North Carolina data center as Apple just acknowledged that a limited number of iCloud users are having issues accessing their iCloud email. A bunch of people reported the problem earlier today on Apple's discussion forums.

The Cupertino, California company is working to resolve the problem "ASAP", reads a notice on Apple's iClod status page. It appears that the issue is not contained just to iCloud email as some users are beginning to complain about hiccups with the App Store and iMessage services as well. Moreover, looks like FaceTime is down for some, too...

UPDATE: All services are now back online...

FCC tells Verizon to stop blocking tethering apps

This is pretty interesting. Verizon has just reached a settlement with the FCC in their ongoing dispute regarding tethering apps. The carrier will pay out $1.25 million to the US Treasury, and will stop blocking the use of third-party tethering apps.

Unfortunately, the decision only applies to Verizon customers for the time being, as it comes as a stipulation in the carrier's deal to purchase 700 MHz of wireless spectrum from Cox and other cable companies. FCC press release is after the break...

Apple vs Samsung day 2: rectangles, prior art, finger pointing, Android redesign

With the ten-person jury selected, a plenty of tidbits hit newswires as Apple and Samsung locked horns this morning inside a San Jose courtroom. Samsung is basically saying that Apple didn't invent the rectangle, while Cupertino insists that Samsung lifted the best iPhone ideas.

Before Apple could portray itself as a smartphone underdog in the opening remarks, the packed courtroom received an 18-minute video primer on how the patent system works, seen right after the break.

Coincidentally or not, in what could foreshadow a major design change for Android amid heating patent wars, Google has filed for an interesting patent which promises to bring radial menus to its mobile operating system and Chrome devices...

JailbreakCon 2012 schedule: here’s how it’s all going to go down

If you haven't grabbed your tickets for this year's JailbreakCon event, you may want to hurry up and do that. The largest jailbreak-centric convention on the planet is coming to San Francisco, California in just two short months.

The convention is going to be held at the South San Francisco Conference Center, and it already has an impressive list of guest speakers slated to appear. Want to see how it's all going to go down? Here's the 2012 WWJC schedule...

The next iPhone and in-cell display tech

A certain hit-and-miss Asian trade publication (I know, don't start) reported this morning that the initial shipment of a sixth-generation iPhone could be disrupted due to yield problems with in-cell panels the device is believed to adopt.

Apparently, suppliers are experiencing yield rates too low to generate profits, despite the fact that Apple allegedly offered an estimated $10-15 per-panel subsidy. Really, what's up with in-cell tech and the next iPhone?

iOS hacker P0sixninja leaves the Chronic Dev Team

Famous jailbreak master Joshua Hill, known in the community as P0sixninja just announced on his Twitter account that he is leaving the Chronic Dev Team, a reputable group of iOS hackers he helped create a few years ago, and of which he was considered the front-man, up until now.

At this point of time, it is unclear what the motivations behind the departure are. A follow up tweet sent by P0sixninja makes it sound like it might be a money matter, but my sources tell me it is far more complicated than that.

Apple nearly shelved the iPhone because it wasn’t good enough

Despite producing multiple iPhone prototypes (here, here and here) leading up to its blockbuster 2007 release, the company's brain trust nearly shelved the project because it didn't believe the device was up to Apple's exacting standards of what a mobile phone should be, Cupertino's vice president of industrial design Jonathan Ive revealed in an interview.

One of the issues that had the team consider axing the iPhone involved the device's touchscreen accidentally initiating a phone call when put against one's ear. Apple later solved this by equipping the iPhone with a proximity sensor which automatically turns off the display to prevent spray input from your face...

Apple TV gets Hulu Plus with one-week free trial

Hulu announced today that folks can now use its paid service to stream thousands of television shows and movies to their television through the Apple TV set-top box. The app's been in the works since last year (though a tweak for jailbroken Apple TVs lets you access your Hulu Plus without too much fuss). It's now finally ready for public consumption, right from your main menu...

Apple’s arrogance blamed for low iPhone penetration in Russia

The iPhone is as popular in the nearly 150 million people market of the Russian Federation as it is elsewhere. However, unlike in the United States, Western Europe and in most other developed countries, Russian customers are expected to pay through their nose to get their hands on the sought-after device.

If you ask carriers, Apple's arrogance in dealing with its Russian wireless partners is behind the company's relatively low penetration in that market. This of course creates a sizable opportunity for Android cheapos. If I were Tim Cook, I would book a flight to Moscow to discuss lowering shipment commitments in exchange for a more flexible pricing scheme lest I lose their support...

You can now save Facebook posts for later

Recognizing a growing popularity of dedicated services that save articles for later reading, the social networking giant Facebook today quietly updated its backend to enhance its mobile and desktop apps with this functionality.

Aptly named 'save it for later', it does just that: you can now save other people's posts for later reading through the new Saved option under the lefthand pane revealed when you tap the sidebar menu button...

Disable double-height status bars with MonoBar

In the world of jailbreak tweaks, there are some that are really worth getting excited about. These would be tweaks like Dashboard X and Springtomize, that add significant functionality to iOS.

This, however, is not one of those tweaks. MonoBar is just a simple hack that disables the double-height status bar that appears when you're recording a voice note, or in a phone call...