Apple

iPod touch 5th generation review

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 10, 2018

I never planned on purchasing a new iPod touch, but the impulse bug got me. I bought one last year for testing purposes. But despite that justification, I still had buyers remorse soon afterwards. That's how bad the iPod touch 4th generation was. It lacked power, had a terrible screen, and the design was, well, disgusting.

But when Apple showed off the new iPod touch hardware last month, my interest was piqued. Still reeling, though, from the 4th generation product, I kept myself from getting too excited about it.

Unfortunately (thankfully?) I struggle to control myself when it comes to Apple product purchases. But that lack of control allowed me to witness first hand a marvelous turnaround to the iPod touch line. Yes, the iPod touch 5th generation shares little with the previous generation hardware, and that's a good thing.

Indeed, the new iPod touch is — wow — it's actually good. I mean, it's really good. If you haven't yet seen it in person, you owe it to yourself to check out this review...

Samsung’s chip wizard defects to Apple

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 8, 2016

An interesting development here in the never-ending Apple-Samsung saga. Per The Wall Street Journal, Apple has successfully lured Jim Mergard, one of Samsung's most noted chip design luminaries, who joined the Mac maker to presumable help its silicon team create new processors for Apple devices. This has gotta be a blow to South Korea-based Samsung, whose components arm manufactures processors for iPhones, iPads and iPods, which are designed internally by Apple's team of silicon engineers.

Mergard is said to have been tasked with developing ARM chips for servers at Samsung. Prior to joining Samsung, the chip expert was charged with the development of a “high-profile AMD chip that carried the code name Brazos and was designed for low-end portable computers”. It wasn't immediately clear from the report whether Mergard joined Apple's team that creates mobile chips of the unit which develops desktop products...

Microsoft targets Android’s Google Maps app in German patent lawsuit

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 11, 2012

Google's pricey $12.5 acquisition of handset maker Motorola Mobility didn't change the dynamics of patent wars as Google hoped it would. Recently, Microsoft and Apple scored a major win in a patent dispute in Germany, forcing Google's Motorola subsidiary to pull all of its Android-based smartphones and tablets from store shelves in the country.

Luck continues to be in short supply at Mountain View, California. Today, the Windows maker has expanded the Motorola patent case to include Google Maps for Android, specifically naming Google as a defendant.

As the public fight between Google and Microsoft gets uglier, Google faces a real possibility of Google Maps becoming unavailable in Germany as early as next spring. Ouch!

Appeals court reverses Galaxy Nexus sales ban as a new Nexus phone looms

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 27, 2017

The Galaxy Nexus, a Samsung-made smartphone providing so-called stock Android experience (one free of carrier crapware and skinning) may soon be back on store shelves in the United States as the country's appeals court warned that a "district court abused its discretion".

Back in June, U.S. Judge Lucy Koh granted Apple’s request for a preliminary injunction. The appeals court now reversed Apple's injunction warning that the iPhone maker did not prove people bought Samsung's phone because of the infringing technology.

The appeals court has sent the case back to a lower California court for reconsideration...

Samsung launches the compact Galaxy S III Mini with four-inch display

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated May 16, 2018

In a twist of self-inflicted irony, South Korea-based Samsung today launched a smaller version of its flagship Galaxy S III handset, giving it a four-inch display instead of a whopping 4.8-inch screen found on the original. This is the same company which readily slams Apple in advertising over the iPhone 5's four-inch display which the ads suggest isn't massive enough for people's tastes.

Well, guess what? Looks like four inches is the perfect screen size for the new Galaxy S III Mini. This Jelly Bean-driven smartphone with Samsung's TouchWiz interface inherits much of the Galaxy S III's software and hardware features and appears to be aimed squarely at the iPhone 5...

The iPad mini: are you ready for Scuffgate on a grand scale?

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated June 13, 2016

October 10 has come and gone without an Apple invitation (Fortune's Philip Elmer-DeWitt who called for it apologized), prompting watchers to wonder about a smaller and cheaper iPad Apple's rumored to be close to launching under the iPad mini moniker.

According to a supply chain report today, Apple is facing quality control issues with the device's display and chassis, suggesting that shipments are not smooth at the moment due to low yield rates. The report notes that the iPad mini will come in native and black-colored aluminum chassis said to be "more vulnerable to scratching". That doesn't sound good.

The manufacturing difficulties are being blamed on anodizing, a finish process where aluminum thrown into a pool of chemicals and then running an electrical current through the acid bath, which produces a skin-deep layer that can easily be peeled off. The anodized finish process on the black cases for the iPad mini is reportedly "more critical", resulting in lower yield rates...

Eric Schmidt on Maps situation, the Android-Apple platform fight

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated June 13, 2016

Google chairman Eric Schmidt sat down with The Wall Street Journal tech columnists Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher last night to talk Maps, Apple and Android. “Apple should have kept our maps”, he remarked. “Apple decided a long time ago to do their own maps", he revealed, suggesting Google very well knew way in advance that the iPhone maker would nuke Google Maps from orbit on iOS devices.

He also talks about the epic iOS versus Android fight and comments what it would take to persuade him to become an Apple CEO. A couple more highlights and a nice video right after the break...

Korean court delays iPhone and iPad ban awaiting appeal

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated April 10, 2018

Apple Thursday won a temporary reprieve from a South Korean court, keeping the Cupertino, Calif. company's iPhone and iPad on store shelves in that country. A Seoul judge whose court in August ruled products by both Apple and Samsung should be yanked from stores, approved Apple's request for a stay while the U.S. firm appeals.

According to Bloomberg, Samsung has yet to file for a similar injunction. The original ruling by the Seoul Central District Court also banned sales of the Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy Tab and Galaxy Tab 10.1. The court ruled both Apple and Samsung guilty of violating each others' patents...

iPod touch teardown: cheaper display assembly, weaker home button, low repairability

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 11, 2012

Apple's fifth-generation iPod touch, which debuted alongside the iPhone 5 during the September 12 keynote, is on sale now, first reviews are great and already the wizards at iFixit have done what they do best: they tore apart the device to peek under the hood and analyze its innards.

Unlike the iPhone 5 that runs the latest A6 chip with 1GB of RAM, Apple's ultra-thin (just 6.1mm) media player packs in the Apple-designed A5 processor with 512MB of Hynix-supplied RAM. The same silicon also powers the iPad 2 (the iPad 3 runs a souped up variant labeled the A5X). Perhaps unexpectedly, the new iPod touch has a weaker home button than that on the iPhone 5...

Japan’s Softbank wants to buy Sprint

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 11, 2012

This just in. According to a new report out this morning, Softbank, Japan’s third-largest wireless operator, is in talks to buy a controlling stake in Overland, Kansas-based Sprint, the nation's third-largest carrier. The transaction is said to be worth an estimated 1.5 trillion yen, or $19 billion, and would file as the largest purchase of a foreign company by a Japanese firm.

SoftBank used to be the only official iPhone carrier in Japan until the release of iPhone 4S last November. According to people familiar with the situation, Softbank is aiming to buy all of the outstanding shares in Sprint, which had more than 56 million users at the end of June...

Google+ app gains iPhone 5 support, new features

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 11, 2012

Google today finally updated its slick Google+ mobile client with some much-needed support for iOS 6 and the iPhone 5's four-inch display, so people don't experience the ugly letterboxing. More importantly, the program has received a couple new features that finally make it easy to edit posts on the go. And if you have your own page on the Google+ social network, you can now view, post and comment as your Google+ page...

HTC discontinues sales of tablets in the US

Cody Lee ∙ October 11, 2012

Much like it did with the MP3 player market, Apple breathed new life into the tablet space in 2010 and has dominated it ever since. Despite numerous attempts from the competition, the iPad has remained the best selling slate for the past two years.

But it's not just that Apple is selling more tablets than other companies — it's knocking them out of the marketplace. Last year, HP pulled its TouchPad due to lack of sales. And today, HTC announced it's pulling its tablets from the United States...