Apple

Apple invites employees to participate in San Francisco’s annual LGBT Pride Parade

San Francisco is many things to many people. To us, geeks, the city is synonymous with hot technology startups that challenge the status quo and strive to change the world. But if you're a lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT), San Francisco has a much deeper and more personal meaning as it's home to some of the most vibrant LGBT community on the planet.

Because Apple has always pushed for equality in workplace, it's really no surprise that the leadership team is encouraging its employees to march in the annual San Francisco LGBT Pride Parade...

Mavericks 10.9.3 release imminent

After seeding eight major builds of the upcoming third Mavericks software update to its developers, Apple appears to be on the verge of releasing the software for public consumption. According to web reports, the iPhone maker has now distributed a new OS X Mavericks 10.9.3 build 13D62 to AppleCare employees, a tell-tale sign of an imminent arrival as Apple's support army familiarize themselves with the new software...

Apple’s PR chief Katie Cotton retiring

Apple’s longtime PR boss, Katie Cotton, is set to retire after spending eighteen years with the company. As Apple's Vice President of Worldwide Corporate Communications, Cotton managed Apple's media relations and handled all public relations matters under both Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and current CEO Tim Cook.

Her retirement was first reported by Re/code. An Apple spokesman said Cotton was leaving because she had wanted to spend more time with her family "for some time now"...

Apple discontinues iPhone 4 in India, all over again

According to a new report, Apple has discontinued its four-year-old iPhone 4 smartphone model in India. Although the Cupertino firm had re-launched the handset in the 1.24 billion people market back in January, it's now been removed after mere 4 months.

This is an unusual move on Apple's part: the iPhone 4 was re-introduced as Apple's most affordable phone in India in order to help regain some of the share Apple rapidly lost amid the onslaught of cheap Android handsets.

During the January-March quarter, Apple's unit share in India was a CyberMedia estimated 2.4 percent versus the #1 Samsung which took 38.9 percent of handset sales...

TSMC reportedly ships first batch of Touch ID sensors for upcoming iPhones and iPads

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the world's top semiconductor foundry, has reportedly shipped the first batch of the second-generation Touch ID sensors to Apple for use in the upcoming second-generation iPad Air, third-generation iPad mini and of course iPhone 6.

As iDownloadBlog exclusively reported earlier this month, code fragments in iOS 7.1 indicate that Touch ID is coming to iPads, possibly this year and to other iOS devices as well, a discovery further corroborated by previous supply chain reports...

Pegatron receives orders for 4.7-inch iPhone 6 ahead of fall launch

According to a new report, Pegatron has received orders from the Cupertino company to start production on the iPhone 6. Taiwan's Industrial and Commercial Times says that the supplier has been tasked with producing around 15% of all units of the upcoming 4.7-inch handset.

The news matches up with previous chatter, which claimed that Apple would be splitting up iPhone 6 orders between Foxconn and Pegatron. It was initially believed, however, that the split would be somewhere around 50-50, so it's unclear what—if anything—has changed...

Apple now number two online retailer behind Amazon

According to data from e-commerce research firm Internet Retailer, Apple is now the number two online retailer in the world. Amazon, of course, still has a large lead in the number one spot, but the Cupertino firm recently surpassed Staples to take over second place.

The jump in position is due to a couple of factors. For one, Staples saw flat online sales of $10.4 billion over the past year, representing just a 1% increase over 2012. And two, Internet Retailer is accounting for both hardware and digital content sales for the first time...

Google Maps 3.0: offline mode, lane guidance, Voice Search, pins and much more

The Internet giant Google today refreshed its native Maps iOS app with a handful of stuff, including lane guidance in turn-by-turn navigation, Uber integration, Voice Search and more.

A major update, Google Maps 3.0 - available free of charge in the App Store - now allows you to save maps so you can access them without an Internet connection, a major advantage over Apple's built-in Maps.

While you could previously save maps by typing 'ok maps' into the search field, version 3.0 takes this further by providing a proper menu item for the feature and syncing your saved maps across devices. There's lots more to get excited about this Google Maps release so jump past the fold and have a look yourself...

Rovio soft-launches Flappy Bird-inspired ‘Retry’ in Canada, Finland and Poland

Flappy Bird by Vietnamese developer Dong Nguyen, I'm sure you'll agree, has set the gaming world on fire with its addictive concept, simple mechanics and charming characters.

Realizing it's been high time to think beyond bird-slinging - and not being content with independent developers like Nguyen stealing its thunder - Finish mobile games maker Rovio has reckoned to branch out into this territory with a brand new iOS game, Retry.

Unlike Nguyen's game that has you controlling a bird, Retry challenges you to guide a loop-de-loop plane through a bunch of levels without crashing into anything. Now, the suggestive name could have you thinking that Retry has been designed to bank on the Flappy Bird success, but you'd be making a mistake to dismiss it as a blatant Flappy Bird rip-off.

Created by the guys "sitting in the room next to the guys who made Angry Birds", the old-school Retry is apparently so hard and addictive that you'll think "you've stepped into an 8-bit time machine and gone back to 1986".

A freemium release with optional in-app purchases, Retry is available early on the iPhone and iPad to players in Finland, Canada and Poland. The game should launch in other markets sooner than later so keep your eyes peeled. In the meantime, go past the jump to check out the in-game video and a few screenshots...

Tumblr’s iOS app now supports theming

Yahoo-owned Tumblr has an excellent iOS app available in the App Store and they have been consistently adding new features to it.

In today's update, Tumblr for iOS has picked up long-expected support for blog themes so you can now easily change the look and feel of your posts right from your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad.

The new Tumblr version 3.6, a 16.4MB download in the App Store, supports themes on both the iPhone and iPad.

Of course, you've had the ability to customize your Tumblr blogs with themes for quite some time, but on desktop only - this is the first time that theme customization has been implemented in Thumblr's mobile apps...

ESPN releases official 2014 Soccer World Cup app

If you're looking to follow the 2014 Soccer World Cup on your iPhone, there's now an app for that. The U.S.-based global cable and satellite television channel, ESPN, has released an iPhone application called ESPN FC Soccer & World Cup that wants to be your one-stop shop for everything related to the upcoming games.

Available free in the App Store, it allows soccer fans to follow full-time and exclusive in-game highlights, breaking news and analysis, as well as ESPN's comprehensive coverage of all the major club leagues with videos, highlights, news, opinion and personalized reports...