Apple

France Telecom CEO: gold rush is over, budget iPhone is inevitable

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated May 16, 2016

Apple's rumored less-pricey iPhone has been envisioned over and over again in some damn good renderings. The rumor mills have been churning out their fair share of whispers on a regular basis and both the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg have thrown their credibility behind the meme. But despite all this crazy talk and tremendous speculation, Apple is seemingly unimpressed as the company's marketing honcho kinda shot down the rumor, recently telling the press his company isn't one to blindly pursue market share.

Be that as it may, analysts warn there's only that much room to grow in the saturated high-end smartphone market. Therefore, conventional wisdom has it, Apple's going to need a more affordable device sooner than later. This has now become a sentiment shared by one wireless carrier CEO who cautions of changing consumer behavior as a lot of folks are now unwilling to pay north of $600 for an unlocked smartphone...

Apple yanks China app carrying books critical of the government

Ed Sutherland ∙ April 4, 2013

Apple has again moved to prevent anger from China. The Cupertino firm has pulled one bookstore app from the China iTunes store which hosted several titles by authors critical of the government.

Among the ten titles affected by the bookstore app's removal were three by a banned Chinese author and political activist. The books focus on the long-running dispute over China's occupation of Tibet, as well as the author's detention by the country's state security.

The action follows an apology by Apple CEO Tim Cook, after criticism over the iPhone maker's warranty policy for smartphones sold in the country...

Apple’s perfectionism could delay iSpaceship further as budget balloons to $5 billion

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 4, 2013

Apple's upcoming 2.8 million square foot circular glass structure, officially called Campus 2 and also known as iSpaceship, could face further delays because it is now reportedly $2 billion over budget. Originally estimated to cost a whopping $3 billion to build, the budget for the new home to about 12,000 employees has now skyrocketed to nearly five billion dollars, Bloomberg Businessweek reports. Because of the risings construction costs, Apple’s Campus 2 could easily become an investor relations nightmare, the publication observes...

Flurry: one-third of app time spent on games

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

The average U.S. smartphone or tablet user spends two hours and 38 minutes on their device, the majority inside an app.

Just over half an hour is spent inside a mobile browser, while more than two hours each day is spent inside apps, such as Facebook.

According to the mobile analytics firm Flurry, games top the list of most-used apps, while Facebook is threatening to overtake Safari, Apple's dominant web browser, Opera Software's Opera Mini and other popular mobile web browsers as the most-popular way to access social and other content on the web...

Google: missing iTunes Store search links only technical mistake

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated April 11, 2018

If you're one of those conspiracy theorists, there's a bit of a tempest in a teapot happening over Google's search results. On the surface, it appears web links to iOS apps hosted on iTunes are being buried under related but not Apple-endorsed web sites. Meanwhile, some iOS apps from Google prominently appear at the top of search results. Is Google, which promotes its Android mobile operating system as an alternative to Apple's iOS, using its mammoth search database as a competitive weapon?

Or are Apple fans seeing phantoms? The Mountain View, California-headquartered Internet giant blames it all on a technical problem...

Samsung Experience Shops coming to 1,400 Best Buy stores to fight Apple’s retail lead

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated May 2, 2017

Responding to Apple's retail lead, the South Korea based maker of Galaxy smartphones and tablets has made a major move in partnership with Best Buy, which also sells Apple products. Samsung is calling it the final component in a three-legged approach to competing with Apple in the United States. Beginning Monday, April 8, the South Korean smartphone maker will open hundreds of so-called Samsung Experience Shops in Best Buy stores across the country.

The 460 square-foot shops will be at the front of the stores, staffed by Samsung product experts. In a first of its kind move, Samsung will gather all of its products, showing how the Galaxy S4 smartphone can transfer content among the company's smart TVs, laptops, and tablets. By June, the firm hopes to have smaller mini shops in around another 1,000 locations owned by the retail electronics giant, according to a Thursday report...

Colorized budget iPhone concept imagines translucent plastic shell

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 3, 2013

Apple’s rumored less-pricey iPhone has been widely reported by analysts, supply chain sources, pundits and big media as arriving later this year in a range of colors and encased in a super-thin plastic casing mixed with glass fiber. Taking it all in, concept artists Nickolay Lamm and Matteo Gianni have created created an interesting renderings depicting the four-inch device with a curved backside and a translucent plastic shell resembling Apple's G3 iMac...

Analyst claims iPhone 5S has fingerprint sensor

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated April 11, 2018

What voice-recognition did for the iPhone 4S, fingerprints will do for Apple's upcoming iPhone 5S, one technology analyst is telling investors. For the second time, an Apple observer forecasts a fingerprint sensor as a key feature of a new iPhone expected this summer. Such a sensor would let iPhone 5S owners use their fingerprints instead of passwords, as well as open the possibility of mobile credit card payments, according to a Wednesday report...

Safari continues to dominate the mobile browser space

Cody Lee ∙ April 3, 2013

Despite the fact that it has numerous challengers, Apple's Safari has dominated the mobile browser space. And that continues to be the case today, according to a new report from web analytics firm Net Applications.

The firm's data, which stems from its web network that sees more than 160 million visits to more than 40,000 websites each month, shows that last month, Safari accounted for 61.79% of the mobile browser traffic...

Duke Nukem II smashes its way onto your iPhone and iPad

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 6, 2018

As promised, Interceptor Entertainment and 3D Realms today launched Duke Nukem II for the iPhone and iPad on the App Store. The legendary game has made it to Apple's mobile platform as part of its 20th anniversary. Generation Y readers will remember that the original Duke Nukem II had been released way back in 1993 for Microsoft’s DOS.

It was then followed by Duke Nukem 3D in 1996, a Nintendo Game Boy Color port in 1999 and Duke Nukem Forever in 2011. The iOS version is an enhanced port of the original, which means souped up VGA graphics, a new soundtrack, online leaderboards and more. If you've enjoyed the original release, you'll be delighted to know that all of the 32 original levels have made it to the iOS version...

Apple says its iOS app economy created 80,000 US jobs last year

Cody Lee ∙ April 3, 2013

Apple has come under heavy fire in recent years by critics for outsourcing its manufacturing jobs to Asia. Folks don't like the fact that while the US struggles with unemployment, it pays Chinese factory workers to build its products just to save a few dollars.

In response to the criticism, Apple posted a new page on its website last year touting the more than 500,000 jobs it's either created or supported in the US with its business. In fact, according to its records, its app economy alone created 80,000 jobs last year...

Major SkyDrive update: revamped UI, full-res photos, iPhone 5 and iPad mini support

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 28, 2019

There's a good reason why Microsoft's SkyDrive cloud storage client for iOS has seen its last update in June of last year: revenue sharing. Per Apple's rules, third-party software is required to share 30 percent of proceeds from in-app sales with Apple.

For example, when you fire up Dropbox's excellent iOS client and upgrade to a paid storage tier within the app, your iTunes credit card on file gets charged and Apple earns its 30 percent share.

Though Microsoft wanted to introduce that same functionality into the SkyDrive app, it wouldn't share any revenue with Apple. Neither party would budge and a spokesperson previously said Microsoft was "in contact with Apple regarding the matter."

The two parties have supposedly reached an amicable solution because Microsoft today announced SkyDrive 3.0, a major new version rocking an overhauled interface, support for the iPhone 5 and iPad mini and a few other features...