Apple

Contract-free iPhone 5s/5c launching on Virgin Mobile next Tuesday

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated July 17, 2017

Along with nine regional United States wireless carriers who yesterday announced October 1 availability of new iPhones, Virgin Mobile on Friday teased that it too will start carrying both the flagship iPhone 5s and the colorful iPhone 5c models pretty soon, as early as next week.

Considering nine of its regional rivals will start carrying the devices next Tuesday, there's little reason to believe Virgin would risk falling behind that schedule. Virgin Mobile is Sprint's prepaid carrier so the telco should offer the new iPhones subsidized and contract-free...

Apple hasn’t lost its coolness, declare UK brand experts

Ed Sutherland ∙ September 27, 2013

Apple once again leads the list of brands viewed as cool in the UK. In its twelfth annual CoolBrands Top 20 survey suggesting an improving British economy, the iPhone ranks No. 1 among luxury brands such as Aston Martin, Rolex and Bang & Olufsen.

The California-based gadget maker was able to shrug off stiff competition from 10,000 independent brands to retain the top spot. Android's Google dropped to the fifth spot with YouTube and Twitter also falling position. Microsoft's Skype even dropped out of the top 20, according to the Coolbrands rankings...

Inside Apple’s A7: dual-core CPU, quad-core GPU, Secure Enclave has 3MB SRAM

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated September 26, 2016

Following their initial analysis of the iPhone 5s's innards, silicon experts at Chipworks have now taken a closer look at the handset's 64-bit A7 processor to reveal a number of interesting tidbits in their initial low-level chip analysis. Based on transistor-level images of the Apple-designed, Samsung-built package, Chipworks was able to determine that the A7 consists of a dual-core processing core and quad-core graphics, tentatively identified as the four cluster version of Imagination Technologies’s PowerVR Series 6, the G6430.

Apple, along with Intel, is of course an investor with a ten percent stake in Imagination Technologies, the UK-based fabless semiconductor maker. Chipworks also focused on a portion of the A7 chip called Secure Enclave where Apple says fingerprint profile is stored securely and walled off from the entire system, except the Touch ID circuitry...

Apple patent envisions digital autographs

Ed Sutherland ∙ September 27, 2013

Have you ever read a book or listened to music and wanted an autograph of the author or artist? For printed items, the wish is easily granted - not so for their electronic equivalent. Now Apple has filed to patent a method for embedding autographs in ebooks and other digital material.

The patent application, titled 'Embedding an autograph in an electronic book,' describes a way an author can use a special application to digitally sign an ebook, video, song or author content, then share it with owners of the iPhone, iPod touch or iPad devices...

Apple yet again is most-innovative company, leading Samsung and Google

Ed Sutherland ∙ September 27, 2013

Apple again was named the most-innovative company. For the ninth year in a row, the iPhone maker topped a survey of senior executives polled Boston Consulting Group.

South Korea-based rival Samsung was No. 2 and Android's Google was listed as No. 3. Microsoft and automaker Toyota rounded out the top five...

Apple updates iBookstore for authors with larger in-book images and more

Cody Lee ∙ September 27, 2013

Apple sent out an email to authors and publishers last night, announcing that it has updated the iBookstore with a number of backend improvements including versioning support and increased pixels limits for book images.

While the changes won't be readily noticeable to iBooks users, they will eventually lead to an enhanced shopping experience once content providers begin utilizing them in their content. We've got more details after the fold...

Samsung’s own Touch ID is at least a year away

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 25, 2016

Despite its unreal size, Samsung of South Korea is an extremely agile company, one that moves at a blistering pace. The conglomerate has been called many things and is perhaps best-known as a fast-follower. The press attached that nickname to the Samsung brand due to the company's ability to swiftly apply what others are doing to its own lineup and flood the market with countless products with small variations to them.

For example, Samsung announced its own gold Galaxy S4 variants merely two weeks following Apple's September 10 iPhone 5s/5c keynote. And just 48 hours into Apple's double iPhone announcement, Samsung co-CEO Kim Yoo-chul was quick to confirm his company's next smartphones will have 64-bit processing functionality, even if “not in the shortest time".

But now, Samsung has incomprehensibly decided to sit on the sidelines and watch instead how this fingerprint scanning thing on mobile unfolds...

iPads and iPods reportedly coming to Staples online store next Tuesday

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated November 19, 2018

In another sweeping showing of Tim Cook's operational expertise and penchant for cutting deals, Apple is now rumored to be expanding the iPad's reach soon by bringing the device to the United States office supply retail chain, Staples. Talk of Staples gearing up to sell iPhones, iPads and Macs dates back to early-March of this year.

That's when MacRumors leaked internal training documents which indicated that at least some Staples locations would start selling a broader range of Apple products, including Macs, iPads and iPhones.

A new report Thursday has now asserted that several iPad and iPod models will be offered through the Staples Online Store in the United States...

Netflix Super HD streaming now available everywhere, including on Apple TV

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated March 19, 2019

If you're wondering why Netflix would label standard full HD 1080p video resolution as 'Super HD', that's because Super HD applies less compression to the 1080p image for greater clarity.

Now, Super HD video requires more data so it isn'y surprising that not many Internet providers were on board after Netflix soft-launched Super HD and 3D streaming in January 2012.

As of today, Super HD video streaming is available everywhere, regardless of your Internet service provider (but dependent on network conditions). Jump past the fold for the full breakdown...

Apple has raised $65 million for (Product) RED charity

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 14, 2018

Apple has raised more than $65 million for the (Product) RED organization—a charity spearheaded by U2 frontman Bono that aims to fight preventable and treatable diseases like AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.

(Product) RED is unique, in that it raises money by licensing out its brand to partners like Nike and Starbucks, in return for a percentage of their sales. Apple, for its part, has been selling RED products since 2006...

Apple’s iCloud status page now monitors iOS Device Activation servers

Christian Zibreg ∙ September 26, 2013

This summer, Apple's device activation servers folded under heavy load (or perhaps server issues unbeknown to us) in at least two instances, first in July and again in the following month. It's not a problem until it's a problem - there's nothing worse than wiping your device clean or restoring it from a backup only to be greeted with the dreaded “Your iPhone could not be activated because the activation server is temporarily unavailable” message.

At that point, there's nothing one can do but wait until iTunes activation servers come back online, which can take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours - even days in extreme circumstances. To help avoid loss of productivity due to bricked devices, Apple has now added a new iOS Device Activation entry to its iCloud status web page...