In-app purchasing has had kind of a rocky go of it since Apple announced the feature in late 2009. It was the reason behind multiple lawsuits and was even rumored to be investigated by members of the FCC.
Well it appears that its legal troubles aren't over just yet, but this time it's not angry parents threatening with legal action. This time it's a small license-toting company that says that in-app purchasing infringes on one of their patents...
When Apple launched the first iPad a little over a year ago, it introduced a fairly new SIM format called Micro SIM. A few months later, those Micro SIMs were also implemented in the iPhone 4. Smaller in size compared to the standard Mini SIMs, Micro SIMs do the exact same job while using less space.
Always on the fore front of tech pioneering, Apple is now submitting a new requirement to the European Telecoms Standards Body (ETSB) for the use of even smaller SIM cards in cell phones and mobile devices...
Dang! I know a lot of companies that'd be happy with half the results Apple was able to pull in the first quarter of its financial calendar. As usual, Apple raked in some ginormous revenues, and some even bigger profits.
Historically, Apple has been a profitable company for a long time. Their secret is pretty simple: market shares don't matter; they want to sell less products, but at a higher price. And this has paid off quite well so far...
We've heard several rumors that the next iPhone will have Near Field Communications (NFC) abilities. Apple itself added fuel to the gossip-fire when it publicly announced the hiring of NFC expert Benjamin Vigier. NFC technology can handle anything from unlocking car doors, to wirelessly paying for goods and services.
It's expected to be the future of mobile payment systems and has already been imbedded in multiple Android phones. Many folks have been back and forth on whether or not Apple would include NFC in its next iteration of the iPhone, but BGR seems to be pretty confident that it will...
With the iPhone already available on AT&T, Verizon and being tested on T-Mobile USA currently, Sprint might be getting some iPhone love this year as well.
According to a new Apple job posting, Apple is on the lookout for a "Carrier Engineer" located in the Kansas City, Missouri area to work with carriers on technical issues. Coincidentally, Sprint headquarters is located in the Kansas City suburb of Overland Park, Kansas...
The iPad 2 is one of the most successful Apple products to date in a number of categories. One of those categories is, it has yet to be jailbroken. Now I say that lightly, because I realize that a handful of intelligent folks have hacked their iPad 2s. But nearly 3 months after its release, there is still not a widely available jailbreak solution for Apple's new tablet.
Recently we reported that infamous iDevice hackers p0sixninja and GeoHot were in a friendly competition to see who could break into the iPad 2 first. That unfortunately does not seem to be the case. In a recent online Q & A session with p0sixninja, the hacker confirmed that GeoHot has since declined the iPad 2 challenge due to media attention. I guess you can get a little paranoid after being taken to court by the likes of Sony.
So what now? Comex is out, GeoHot's not in, are we ever going to see a jailbreak for the iPad 2? A ray of sunshine cast down on the Twitter world yesterday, as p0sixninja once again speculated on the status of the new iPad jailbreak. A Twitter follower asked the Chronic Dev team member if the iPad 2 jailbreak would be weeks, months, or years. Apparently the answer is just weeks!
Joshua Hill (p0sixninja) seems to be the most vocal on the status of the iPad 2 jailbreak. After a known exploit was patched by Apple last month, the Dev Team and other hackers have been very quiet about their progress. It'll be interesting to see if Hill and the rest of the Chronic Dev team can deliver an iPad 2 jailbreak within weeks as predicted. I know of many iPad 2 owners that would greatly appreciate it. We'll keep you updated.
Any questions?
The notion of the next gen iPhone being a "4G" device has been debated for quite some time. Originally, it was thought to be a possibility that the next iPhone could bring 4G/LTE data speeds, but then Apple made a statement during its last earning's call that 4G would "force a lot of design compromises" that the company "was not willing to make."
A recent update to AT&T's marketing strategy changed the requirements for a device to be labeled "4G," and it was thought that the next iPhone would fall under these requirements. Now, another analyst from BMO Capital is stating that Apple won't release on iPhone with 4G speeds until at least 2012.
Don't you love when geekiness is fueled by creativity? This is exactly what Ronen Verbit's last creation is all about. Ronen is some sort of digital artist with an intense story and an even more intense website which almost got me to have a seizure in front of my iMac.
I don't know how long it took him to put this video together, but you can only agree that it is very well done and entertaining...
Around this time of year, next-generation iPhone rumors are usually coming left and right. According to a new report, Toshiba is building a 4-inch 720p Retina Display for Apple.
If you may recall, late last year Reuters reported that Apple and Toshiba were working together on a plant to make displays for iOS devices. Toshiba had announced that it would build a factory for 100 billion yen (about $1.2 billion) to produce future LCD panels.
Yesterday, Toshiba announced its next generation of mobile displays, which Toshiba will be showing off in LA this week. According to the press release, the mobile displays are sized from 3.3 inches to 4 inches, with resolutions from Wide VGA (480-by-864) to HD (720-by-1280).
Stefanie Gordon had no clue that she would soon be internet famous when she boarded a flight from New York to visit her parents in Palm Beach. During descent, the pilot of the commercial airline informed the passengers that they could be witnesses to the space shuttle Endeavour’s last launch.
It turns out that the best camera is the one that's always with you. And in this case, that camera was an iPhone. Who knew the iPhone could shoot a steady video at 15,000 feet from a passing airliner...
Apple Retail stores were initially met with some criticism. A lot of skeptics didn't think that Apple would sell enough products to turn enough profit to cover the expensive property taxes on posh locations like the Fifth Avenue store.
However, several years and locations later, the stores continue to be a success. The retail chain devoted specifically to selling and educating folks on Apple products is coming up on its 10th anniversary and BGR is claiming they've heard Apple's planning something huge...
Obviously when the word "rumor" is in the title, the content of the article should be taken with a grain of salt. We try and report any new next generation iPhone information, whether it be rumor or speculation, to give readers a full marker set to draw their own conclusions.
Combining all of the gossip we've heard so far, the iPhone doesn't sound like it's coming in June. While Apple has a tendency to surprise, I doubt they'd let millions of customers think that a new iPhone wasn't coming this summer, if it was. So if they're not following the typical release cycle, when can we expect Apple's next smartphone?