Apple

Joy of Tech on Apple’s Lightning to 30-pin adapters

Cody Lee ∙ October 11, 2012

Apple upset thousands of users last month when it introduced a new charging port for its mobile devices. It replaced the decade-old 30-pin dock connector with a new Lightning plug, rendering millions of cables and old accessories virtually useless.

Of course, Apple offers adapters that will allow users to connect their new iPhones and iPod touches to older accessories. But, at a minimum of $30 bucks a pop, this hasn't exactly won over the angry. In fact, for some this may have been the last straw...

Apple doubles down on the iPod touch, finally posts ‘new’ ad

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 8, 2016

Apple just uploaded to its YouTube channel an old ad for the new iPod touch that started shipping along the seventh-gen iPod nano yesterday, landing on store shelves today to some raving review. Here's that ad, again. The clip is titled "Bounce" and depicts a bunch of colorful iPods jumping to a catchy tune. The homepage was also updated with a prominent link leading to this ad, streaming direct from Apple...

Google redesigns mobile site with slide-out navigation bar, it’s pretty dope

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 22, 2018

Google is rolling out a revamped mobile experience on smartphones as we speak. It's pretty slick as Google has finally adopted the design language used across its other web properties. The company really hit the ball out of the park in terms of design: the refreshed site features a black navigation bar which slides in and out of view smoothly, akin to the Facebook app.

Matter of fact, it almost feels like a native app. Knowing it's been ages since Google updated its Search app on the iPhone, the prettified mobile site will certainly better serve your needs. My favorite capability has to be the ability to navigate Google's most popular services with ease, all without losing track of content at hand...

Two months later, Apple still hasn’t approved Google Search update

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 10, 2018

Back in August, Google showed off an update for its iOS Search app that included its new Google Now digital assistant technology. It's the same tech it uses in Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean).

During the showing, the company said that it had submitted the update to Apple and was awaiting approval. But more than two months have passed now, and we haven't heard a peep...

The Woz calls for Gorilla-sized iPhones

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 10, 2012

For five years Apple's iPhones have had the same 3.5-inch screen when competition moved up to bigger canvases, measuring all the way up to five inches and beyond. With this year's iPhone, Apple increased the screen to four inches. The company even defends the move with ergonomics being the primary concern for making the screen taller but not wider. Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak reflects on Apple's stubborn insistence on one-size-fits-all approach and wishes the iPhone came in at least two sizes...

iPad Democracy: California voters using iPads to register

Ed Sutherland ∙ October 10, 2012

While online voting is not likely to happen in the US nationwide anytime soon, there are some encouraging signs the political process partially has entered the 21st Century. The iPad is replacing the paper and pen when it comes to voter registration in California.

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and Facebook investor Ron Conway spent Tuesday registering city voters with the help of the Apple tablet, TechCrunch reports. Conway, who heads sf.citi, a group promoting technology, released a video of Silicon Alley bigwigs extolling the virtues of ways tech could improve government. This comes as California adopts online voter registration, according to the San Francisco Chronicle...

Groupon rolls out nationwide POS system for restaurants based on Apple’s iPad

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated June 13, 2016

A better headline for this story would be "Apple's iPad puts the cash register to shame" or something along those lines. Groupon, a popular deals web site, today announced an interesting initiative to put iPad-based point-of-sale (POS) terminal system called Breadcrumb in restaurants across the United States.

Basically a sales, order management and reporting system for restaurants, bars and cafes, Breadcrumb is based entirely around the iPad and it puts last-century cash register to shame. The system was designed by a start-up founded by Seth Harris, which Groupon acquired back in May...

Apple, Samsung, Google and others meet with UN for patent licensing pow-wow

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated April 10, 2018

Apple, Google, Samsung and others meet today - not in a courtroom but in neutral Switzerland. The discussion, moderated by the UN's International Telecommunications Union, focuses on whether the key principal of patent licensing is preventing products from coming to market.

The talks follow Apple and Samsung high-profile patent dispute and the EU investigating whether a number of companies are abusing the patent guidelines...

Motorola pulls all Android phones and tablets from Germany following patent rulings

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated April 10, 2018

Handset maker Motorola Mobility, a Google subsidiary, has pulled all of its phones and tablets from the German market, following unfavorable rulings over patents. This has got to be a huge blow as the search Goliath has been struggling to return Motorola to profitability after it had acquired the ailing cell phone company for $12.5 billion, gaining a treasure trove of 17,000 mobile technology patents. Motorola reported an operating loss of $233 million during the second quarter so you could imagine that any disruption in sales is not going to look good in its next earnings report...

Microsoft (again) mentions Office for iOS and Android

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 10, 2012

We've been receiving vague hints that Microsoft, which is currently busy for the big Windows 8 launch scheduled for October 26, is also working on bringing the Office suite to the iPad. Today, a new report quotes a Microsoft executive as confirming that the software giant is in fact hard at work developing a native Microsoft Office suite for both iOS and Android. The software should hit the two mobile platforms "sometime after March 2013"...

First Windows 8 ads leak ahead of October 26 release

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

As Microsoft gears up to launch Windows 8 later this month, arguably the most important software release in Redmond's history, first television commercials have surfaced, revealing how the company will communicate the benefits of its first touch-focused operating system to the general public.

Windows 8 has a new tile-based interface consistent with the Metro design language, can run both legacy apps and those optimized for the touch interface, includes a digital store akin to the Mac App Store, features a unified kernel and scales up from the tiniest to the biggest screens and much more.

True to its form, Microsoft plans to offer Windows 8 in a bunch of flavors, including ARM and x86-based tablet versions, Windows Phone 8 for smartphones and standard desktop and server versions. Three more ads are right below the fold...

Developers say Apple knew about Maps issues months ahead of launch

Cody Lee ∙ October 10, 2012

With all of the criticism and complaints Apple has received over its new Maps application in iOS 6, you have to wonder, how did it not know that it had all of these issues? Isn't that what the three month beta testing period was for?

Well apparently, Apple was aware of the problems. A number of developers have come forward this week saying they submitted several bug reports to the company regarding Maps issues in the months leading up to its launch...