Apple

iPhone 5 order cuts not nearly as severe as demand remains robust

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 15, 2013

After The Wall Street Journal relayed the vague and anonymously-sourced Nikkei newswire report on the supposed iPhone 5 order cuts amid what the Journal interpreted as a "weaker than expected" demand for the handset, nervous investors have immediately hit the panic button and punished the stock. Sane analysts, however, now are putting down the flames of the rumor, warning that the iPhone 5 demand remains robust as those order cuts aren't nearly as severed as originally reported...

Watch out for the iPhone ‘danger zones’

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 15, 2013

I've been a proud iPhone owner over the past six years, ever since the original iPhone debuted in June of 2007. I happen to pride myself with keeping my devices in pristine condition so I go the extra mile to handle my iPhone with care.

For instance, I typically lay it flat on the table on top of a napkin. And only a rare few people get to ever touch my device to play with it. And yeah, I do remove everything from my pocket before slipping an iPhone inside. It's suffice to say I'm overzealous about handling my baby.

But six years is six years and something had to give. A month ago, it just treacherously slipped out of my hand and fell on the concrete floor, its front glass smashing in an instant. Some of you could tell a similar story, I'm sure. But where are such accidents most likely to occur? Third-party warranty company SquareTrade has issued a report outlining so-called iPhone 'danger zones'...

Apple’s warranty practices in Europe draw ire of a Belgian watchdog

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 15, 2013

Apple's warranty adventure in the European Union is far from being over. After the company failed to properly communicate to its Italian consumers that they were entitled to a EU-wide two-year warranty (first warranty year provided by the manufacturer and the second by the seller), for which it was fined $264,000 last month and $1.2 million in March, now Apple has gotten itself into trouble with a Belgian consumer watchdog, Test-Aankoop/Test-Achats...

Budget iPhone to feature hybrid plastic/metal design, due later this year

Cody Lee ∙ January 15, 2013

Last week, DigiTimes released a report, claiming that its sources had seen prototypes of a low-cost iPhone floating around Apple's supply chain. Both The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg corroborated the story via their own independent informants.

Today, DigiTimes offers up a few more details about the fabled handset, claiming that Apple is toying with both an all plastic and a hybrid plastic/metal chassis for the cheaper handset, as well as a special 'see-through' design. More details after the fold...

Why Apple isn’t responding to vague claims of iPhone 5 order cuts

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 14, 2013

So Apple in a heartbeat dispatches its marketing honcho Phil Schiller to talk to a Chinese newspaper and kill the cheap iPhone chatter for fear the rumor might affect sales and yet the company remains completely mum on The Wall Street Journal article claiming iPhone 5 orders were cut in half amid what the author interpreted as a 'weaker than expected' demand.

It just doesn't make sense, no? I mean, the first rumor hasn't even had a chance to materially impact Apple's business while the other sent shares below $500 in pre-market trading this morning. What's going on here? Well, even if it wanted to, Apple couldn't officially respond to the rumor. Blame it on the United States government and its rules of the game...

Macworld takes a look at Apple’s pricing strategy

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 18, 2018

Marco Tabini of Macworld takes an interesting look today at how Apple manages to keep the prices on its products, and subsequently its profits, so much higher than other manufacturers. It turns out, the company uses a unique, two-pronged pricing strategy.

The first part of it has to do with wholesale pricing. Apple, unlike most hardware-makers, doesn't offer resellers much of a discount on products like the iPad or iMac, even if they're buying in bulk. This doesn't give retailers much incentive to carry the products, but with the kind of foot traffic they produce, it doesn't really have to...

Apple won more than a thousand patents in 2012, Samsung 4x as many

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 14, 2013

Ah, the patent mess. Nothing gets faboys and haters more worked up than Apple's inventions (or 'inventions', depending on your point of view). This is especially true for the submissions that cover the most obvious of ideas, like the rectangular iPad design Apple successfully asserted against rivals.

According to data from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and published last Thursday by IFI Claims, Apple has been awarded a total of 1,135 patents in 2012. This ranked the company 21st among all of the observed companies worldwide, a 68 percent increase. In 2011, Apple ranked 39th with 676 patents.

This notable rise probably means Apple's 'lifelong skier' and chief lawyer Bruce Sewell and his team have been submitting patents at a more rapid clip in order to protect Apple's business. Another take: patent offices around the world could have simply granted more Apple patents in 2012 (not all submissions get greenlit) than in 2011...

How to get Facebook Messenger working on a jailbroken iPad

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated March 19, 2019

Facebook a week ago issued invites for a major news conference due tomorrow to “come and see what we're building”. One source claims the iPad version of the popular Messenger client will be on tap as the social networking giant's last-minute "one more thing" surprise.

What you may not have known is that the current iPhone build of Messenger already has the iPad interface and code in place. And if you happen to have your device jailbroken (as most readers who frequent iDB do), you may want to unlock Messenger for iPad right now. Just follow this simple guide and Jeff's easy to follow video instructions, embedded right past the break...

IllumiRoom from Microsoft Research gives ‘immersive gaming’ a whole new meaning

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 14, 2013

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=re1EatGRV0w#!

Here's a killer concept I'd love to have installed in my living room. Courtesy of Microsoft Research comes this enhanced gaming experience that projects images beyond a television set, basically turning your entire living room into a video game. I know this is just a concept, but keep in mind that the popular Kinect motion sensing input device also started out as an idea in Microsoft's R&D lab.

What you're seeing in this clip is the real deal - no special effects were added in post processing or anything like that. Microsoft isn't saying when (or if, for that matter) the IllumiRoom project might get incorporated into a next-gen Xbox with Kinect. For now, it's just a a proof-of-concept system, but we wouldn't rule out the possibility of having something akin to this implemented on the Xbox console...

Apple’s legal chief joins ski resort board

Ed Sutherland ∙ January 14, 2013

Who knew Apple's legal honcho was also a ski bum? Bruce Sewell, the iPhone maker's General Counsel and Senior Vice President, becomes the latest Apple executive to join an outside board of directors.

In Sewell's case, he was named Monday to a chain of ski resorts, Vail Resorts, Inc. Trust me, we were flabbergasted as well.

Sewell, described as a "lifelong skier" who also participated in ski patrols between college and law school, is likely more known for his legal expertise away from the slopes. After losing in a dust-up between Intel and AMD, he joined Apple, where he made real Steve Jobs' call for 'thermonuclear war' against Google's Android...

Microsoft (barely) sells a million Surface units

Ed Sutherland ∙ January 14, 2013

If you're Microsoft, January can't end too soon. The company's Surface RT is taking a battering from the iPad, selling one million of the tablets during the holidays. According to one Wall Street observer, the consumer-oriented tablet has two strikes against it: being compared to Apple's product and too little retail exposure.

The one million figure is less than half of the two million units previously forecast by UBS analyst Brent Thill. In December, IHS iSuppli projected Microsoft would sell just 1.3 million units of the Surface RT...

Do reports of iPhone 5 part order cuts mean Apple’s in trouble?

Cody Lee ∙ January 14, 2013

The Wall Street Journal reported last night that Apple has been contacting suppliers to reduce iPhone 5 part orders due to 'weaker-than-expected demand.' The story has made some serious waves today, causing Apple's stock price to drop (at the time of writing) 16 points.

But for several industry watchers, including myself, the math on last night's report just doesn't add up...