Last month, Apple rolled out its latest handset in 15 new countries, bringing the total number of eligible countries to 44. The company has said that it plans to have the iPhone 4S in more than 70 countries by the end of the year.
It certainly seems like Apple is on pace to hit that goal before the December 31st deadline. MacRumors is reporting that the company plans to release the iPhone 4S to several new countries on the 16th of this month...
Despite selling iPhones like they're going out of fashion, it's not been all unicorns and rainbows for Apple's big releases recently. Some of the company's top software outings have suffered a bloody nose as of late, with iCloud and iOS experiencing more than a few hiccups.
Released alongside the iPhone 4S, iOS 5 has taken an aging mobile operating system and added some much needed bells and whistles. The software also fixes some of the long-standing issues that iPhone owners have been complaining about for far too long.
One thing that iOS 5 has introduced is not entirely welcome, and that's a very real battery life problem...
The Carrier IQ fallout continues as more and more information surfaces about the smartphone spyware. The user-tracking software was exposed earlier this week when a 25 year old systems administrator posted a startling video of it in action.
The video has prompted investigations, both here in the States and abroad, as government officials seek out more information on the eery application. In fact, Apple is having to answer questions from German regulators regarding the Carrier IQ agent...
A week after overturning a Samsung tablet ban ruling in Australia, a judge has now extended the ban for one more week, as reported by Bloomberg:
Apple Inc. (AAPL) won a one-week extension of a ban on Samsung Electronics Co.’s sales of its latest tablet computer in Australia, delaying pre-Christmas sales, in a battle that began in April in the U.S. and spread to four continents.
High Court Justice John Dyson Heydon today extended the ban on the release of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 to Dec. 9. On that day, the country’s top court will consider Apple’s request for permission to appeal a lower court’s order issued earlier this week, which lifted a ban on the product that has been in place since mid-October.
Drama down under!
Last week, Samsung started airing its latest TV ad which not-so-subtly poked fun at iPhone users. The commercial showed a group of young adults, waiting in what appeared to be a line for the new iPhone, drooling over a Galaxy S II handset.
A lot of folks dismissed the advert as bad marketing, as you typically don't want to criticize the audience you are trying to attract. But judging by its Facebook page, it seems the commercial was only the beginning of Samsung's anti-Apple campaign...
Patent applications aren't always a sign that something is definitely going to make its way to market, but they can often be a good indication of the kinds of things companies are looking at adding to products.
That said, we have another patent application from the boffins at Apple, and this time it appears to be a new way of sending and receiving data between two devices. The system will use the devices' cameras as a way of establishing a secure connection...
Following the carrier IQ debacle, Apple was relatively quick to comment on the matter, when it issued a statement a few minutes ago:
We stopped supporting Carrier IQ with iOS 5 in most of our products and will remove it completely in a future software update. With any diagnostic data sent to Apple, customers must actively opt-in to share this information, and if they do, the data is sent in an anonymous and encrypted form and does not include any personal information. We never recorded keystrokes, messages or any other personal information for diagnostic data and have no plans to ever do so.
Move along. Nothing more to see here.
Business Insider's Dan Frommer published an interesting article this morning titled "Why the iPhone's market share war with Android actually matters." In his piece, Frommer is spot on when he explains that gaining market share is important because this is what will build the dominant mobile platform for the next decade.
Historically, Apple never cared much about market share. Sure, it's happy when it's gaining slices of a market, but Apple is all about profitability and brand value. When Google makes $10/year from each Android user, Apple makes about $300 per iPhone sold. At this rate, it's not surprising that even though Apple may have a small share of the smartphone market, it's still owning about 50% of the entire industry's profits...
Apple's iPhone 4S just keeps on rocking. After garnering stellar sales worldwide and being met with great reviews, a new survey suggests that the people who spend their own money on an iPhone 4S are also pretty happy.
The survey, conducted by ChangeWave, took in the views of 215 iPhone 4S owners between November 2nd and 9th, with 96% of those questioned saying that they were satisfied with their new smartphone.
The news gets better, with 77% of those surveyed saying that they are "very satisfied" with the iPhone 4S. When combined with the 19% who were simply "somewhat satisfied," they make the iPhone 4S the most loved iPhone ever...
Over the last couple of days, there has been a lot of talk around the web regarding Carrier IQ. The company makes user-tracking software for Android, BlackBerry, and Symbian handsets that secretly logs keystrokes, text messages, and other data.
Initially, the program was thought to be exclusive to the above-mentioned operating systems, so we didn't feel the need to report on it. But chpwn, a well-known developer of jailbreak apps, has recently found Carrier IQ's software hidden within iOS...
There's a new jailbreak in town, and it isn't for the iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad. Research In Motion PlayBook tablet has been jailbroken. For the first time in the Blackberry maker's history, hackers have gained root access to the OS.
Why is this a big deal? Not only is it the first official "jailbreak" to occur outside of Apple's ecosystem, but it's also a slap in the face to RIM's enterprise-minded, security-conscious mindset.
It looks like Christmas came early for Samsung this year. Gizmodo is reporting that an Australian court has overturned the injunction against the Korean company that banned it from selling its popular Galaxy tablet on the continent.
The ban is the result of an ongoing world-wide patent dispute between the two companies and has been in place since late Summer. But, apparently, Samsung made a good case in its appeal it filed last week because the injunction has been lifted...