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Solar: where weather melts with design

Guest Author ∙ Updated February 22, 2018

Since the dawn of the smartphone, one of the most basic informative features that everyone loves having at the tip of their fingers is weather. Regardless if you’re planning your day, making small talk, or just really into meteorology, accessing weather info almost instantly is key.

Solar is described as a hyper-sensorial, interactive display of the day's weather, rendered in dazzling colorscapes. It has no vector polygons, no dew point calibration, and it doesn’t remind you if you need to wear a jacket. It is, very simply, an exquisitely minimalistic designed weather forecast app – a modern accessory for the aesthetically inspired adventurer...

NYT: Apple talking to Twitter about investing hundreds of millions of dollars

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 10, 2018

Apple has apparently been in talks with Twitter officials in recent months about making a possible investment in the micro-blogging platform, reports The New York Times. Described as "a strategic investment", it could value Twitter at more than ten billions.

Apple's attempts at social were limited thus far. Its social thing for music, Ping, will likely be discontinued with the next major iTunes update. That promised Facebook integration in Ping had been pulled last minute was blamed on “onerous terms that we could not agree to”, as Jobs put it. Nonetheless, Apple has opted to partner with both Twitter and Facebook to support their services throughout iOS and OS X.

UPDATE: The Wall Street Journal says Apple talked to Twitter about this a year ago, claiming no immediate acquisition is in the cards.

Go past the break for the latest...

Apple airs new adverts about Geniuses

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 27, 2012

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Apple has begun airing interesting new commercials, possibly marking a subtle change in advertising direction. The adverts debuted during the Olympic Games opening ceremonies tonight. Rather than focus on the newly released Mountain Lion, the nine-month-old iPhone 4S or Siri (which is increasingly working against Apple these days), these new clips depicts Apple Store Geniuses solving problems for customers.

The first advert that can be seen above is aptly named Mayday and depicts a Genius on board an airplane helping a customer solve an issue before landing. Two more commercials are included right below for your viewing pleasure...

AT&T launches LTE in four new markets, expands in several others

Cody Lee ∙ July 27, 2012

Great news for those of you with AT&T-branded LTE iPads. The carrier has just announced new markets and expansions for its long term evolution network.

Folks in south Florida, parts of Maryland and Massachusetts will now be able to browse the web at lightning-fast 4G speeds. Keep reading for the full list of new areas...

Annual iPhone cycle helped Samsung destroy Apple in Q2 smartphone sales

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 27, 2017

It appears Samsung is creeping up on Apple slowly but surely. Not content with overtaking Apple and Nokia as the world's largest smartphone and cell phone vendor, respectively, Samsung during the June quarter managed to widen its lead by selling twice as much smartphones as Apple.

Driven by the surprisingly strong start of its latest flagship handset, the Galaxy S III, Samsung has managed to increase its worldwide smartphone share while Apple slid. Man, Apple really needs to refresh the iPhone twice a year because this annual update cycle is becoming the company's Achilles' heel...

Apple and Google duking it out over Kodak patents

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 27, 2012

Kodak filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January and Apple's been attempting to transfer its patent dispute with the imaging company out of bankruptcy court ever since, but to no avail. As Kodak now looks to sell off a trove of 1,100 patents related to digital cameras, smartphones and tablets, bidders are lining up, including the usual suspects, technology giants Apple and Google...

Do you know what the most commonly used words in app titles are?

Cody Lee ∙ Updated May 16, 2018

As Apple announced on its quarterly earnings call earlier this week, the App Store is now home to more than 650,00 apps. As you can imagine, this makes it tough for developers to come up with all-new ideas.

But it also makes it tough for them to come up with all-new app titles as well. A new report is out today that takes a look at what the 25 most-used words in application titles are. Keep reading to see the list...

Open-source components of Sparrow now available for download

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 25, 2016

Sparrow was recently snapped up by Google and people continue to have mixed feelings about this sell-out no one saw coming. The Sparrow team made it clear in a blog post they would cease work on new features (apart from minor updates) as Google has tasked its newly acquired team with improving Gmail mobile apps.

Today, the Sparrow team announced plans to open-source parts of the Sparrow apps for personal use only. If you're good at reverse engineering, why not take a closer look at the Sparrow code?

How to catch all of this year’s Olympic action on the go

Cody Lee ∙ Updated January 22, 2018

The 2012 Olympic Games are set to kick off tonight in the newly-built Olympic Stadium in Stratford London. And over the next two weeks, this stadium will play host to the top athletes from around the world.

Whether you're a basketball fan, football fan, or just a fan of sports in general, these next 16 days are going to be packed full of action. And here's how to catch all of that action when you're not near a TV set...

Analyst: Apple bought AuthenTec for enterprise security

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 25, 2016

The news that Apple bought AuthenTec for $356 million is making rounds today, leading many to speculate that AuthenTec's technology will help turn into reality Apple's patented and yet unreleased iWallet and iTravel mobile apps that rely on NFC technology.

One analyst has a different take, saying Apple simply snapped up the NFC and smart sensors maker to keep it from falling into Samsung's hands, potentially making Galaxy tablets and smartphones more appealing to enterprise customers who above anything demand strong security...

Some Samsung tablet buyers thought they were getting iPads

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 27, 2012

A new set of court documents filed ahead of the July 30 mega-trial between Apple and Samsung reveals that retailers like Best Buy informed Samsung that an unknown portion of buyers were returning Samsung's tablets because they thought they were getting iPads. Furthermore, court documents also show that several Samsung employees did discuss the similarities between Galaxy products and Apple's iPhone and iPad themselves...

Microsoft admits Surface competes with PC makers

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 27, 2017

In a surprising reversal of its position on competition related to the Surface tablet, Microsoft admits in an annual report its tablet competes with PC makers after all, going as far to note that the Surface might even hurt Windows 8 sales. Redmond has been criticized a lot for entering the hardware game to compete with vendors who make various Windows devices.

PC makers are unable to compete with Microsoft on level ground because their already thin margins are stretched even thinner as they must pay license fees to Microsoft to use Windows 8 on tablets, an added cost that makes their gadgets more expensive...