Crazy rumor suggests Apple will announce new iPhone on August 7th

Last year, Apple changed the refresh cycle of its most popular product, the iPhone. Instead of introducing a new model in the summer, like it had done in previous years, it waited all the way until October to unveil the 4S.

The consensus of the tech world, along with common sense, says that we can expect a similar schedule this time around. But a new report is out today, claiming that Apple will reveal its next smartphone on August 7th...

Apple says it’s investigating in-app purchasing exploit

Earlier today, news broke of a new exploit in the App Store's in-app purchasing system that allows users to gain access to paid content, free of charge. The method does not require a jailbreak, and can be completed in a few simple steps.

As you can imagine, this has caused quite a stir in the iOS community, forcing Apple to take notice. This afternoon, the Cupertino company released the following statement...

More purported next-generation iPhone cases surface

The rumor mill has been pretty active this week, coughing up more information regarding Apple's next smartphone. In the last few days, we've seen not one, but two sets of pictures of purported engineering samples for the unreleased handset.

With that, it seems like the evidence is really piling up in favor of the taller, two-tone iPhone design that first surfaced back in May. And apparently that's enough for accessory-makers, who are already churning out large batches of next-gen iPhone cases...

Following customer complaints, Apple puts every product back on EPEAT

Wow, here's something you don't see everyday: following a number of customer complaints, Apple has decided to return its products to the EPEAT registry. The news comes just a week after we reported that its products had been removed.

Apple's Senior Vice President of Hardware, Bob Mansfield, took to Apple's website in Steve Jobs-like fashion this morning, writing an open letter explaining the whole situation. We've got the full letter after the break...

Add Bluetooth audio to any speaker dock with Pear

Doesn't it bother you there's no easy way to send text messages or give someone a buzz while your phone is docked to a music station? Enter Pear, a Kickstarter project by Brendan Kelso which seeks to tackle this unpleasantry with a nice dongle that attaches to your speaker so now you can take your iPhone and browse the web, check email, message people and what not, all the while being able to stream your music via Bluetooth. Unless you have an AirPlay-enabled audio gear or Bluetooth speakers, Pear could be just the gizmo you need...

Retina display supplier Samsung, others settle price fixing suit for $1.12B

Apple's key components provider Samsung which supplies, among other items, Retina panels for the new iPad, agreed along with other defendants to settle a price fixing class-action lawsuit for a whopping $1.12 billion.

Samsung has agreed to pay $240 million, AU Optronics will pony up $170 million, Toshiba will pay only $21 million and LG Display will settle for $380 million in damages.

This settlement - the largest consumer class-action price-fixing settlement ever - is in addition to previous settlements from ten manufacturers and prison terms for some executives, The Wall Street Journal reported...

Russian hacker cracks iOS in-app purchasing, no jailbreak required

iOS in-app purchasing mechanism which lets you buy digital items in games, upgrade to full versions of apps and purchase additional content, has been cracked by a savvy Russian hacker who posted a proof of concept video, embedded below.

First noticed by Russian blog i-ekb.ru (via 9to5Mac), the hack is credited to Russian developer ZonD80 who runs the conveniently named In-AppStore.com website where he collects donations to support development of the project.

What's special about this method - and potentially devastating to the development community - is that it doesn't require a jailbreak and can be completed in a few simple steps by even the most inexperienced users. UPDATE: contrary to reports that Apple took the proxy site down, developer confirms it's simply under high load and says the info site is being moved to Blogger.

Unlock your iPhone’s picture-taking potential with 3RDi

Between its 8MP sensor and internet connectivity, the iPhone 4S is one of the best point-and-shoot cameras around. It can download thousands of photo-editing apps and upload images to a number of services.

But the lack of interchangeable lenses, a weak flash, and other missing features means that the iPhone won't be replacing your DSLR anytime soon. Unless, of course, you had something like the 3RDi camera kit...

FireCore updates aTV Flash (black) with trakt.tv support and more

FireCore has released a significant update today for its aTV Flash (black) software. The suite allows jailbroken Apple TV users to playback different file types, surf the web, and much more.

With version 1.7, FireCore has added a number of new features and enhancements to the list, including trakt.tv integration and a new Ratings system. Keep reading for the full change log...

New Food and Drink category now live in the App Store

Earlier this month, several iOS developers reported receiving word from Apple that it was adding a new category to the App Store called Food and Drink.

The new section would showcase a number of applications regarding the topic, that previously got lost in the gigantic Lifestyle section. And now it's live...

How to easily access photo exif data on iOS

Searching for a quick way to access meta data for photos stored on your iPhone? If you're jailbroken, then a new Cydia tweak might be just what the doctor ordered.

PhotoExif is a recently released tweak that makes it easy to access photo meta data using the photo app's share button. Take a look inside for the full video walkthrough...