Apple

The lengths Apple goes to in order to keep trademark filings undetected for six months

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 17, 2016

There have been at least 343 instances in which Apple took advantage of section 44(d) of the US Trademark Act to keep its trademark filings confidential for a period of six months, Quartz reported Monday in an interesting write-up titled “Why Jamaica knows about Apple’s new products before the rest of the world”.

The article explains that Apple files trademark applications in places where these databases are not searchable online, via shell companies to conceal its identity and six months before applying for the same trademark in the U.S.

iPhone display units are preloaded with a software kill switch to discourage theft

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 21, 2016

Apple's long preloaded special OS images on display devices in stores. When news broke that it's started removing security tethers from iPhone display units at flagship stores to let users try how the iPhone fits in their pocket, I thought the move would encourage thieves to lift untethered devices.

That could prove easier said than done due to a software kill switch that automatically disables the device if a customer goes out of range of the store Wi-Fi.

One out of five iPhone users in the U.S. have Limit Ad Tracking turned on

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated November 9, 2023

Survey conducted by mobile app marketing platform Adjust says one-fifth of total iPhone users in the U.S. have opted to prevent in-app ads from being targeted at them directly. About eighteen million iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users in the country have used the Limit Ad Tracking feature to explicitly opt out of targeted advertising, according to the report.

KGI: Apple could add 5-7 million iPhone sales due to Note 7 discontinuation

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 17, 2016

Global Note 7 recall and discontinuation could prove to be a blessing to Apple, helping the Cupertino firm boost iPhone sales by five to seven million units, according to KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

In a note to clients this morning, a copy of which was obtained by MacRumors, the analyst speculates that Apple and Chinese Android manufacturer Huawei could be the primary beneficiaries of the Note 7 discontinuation, with Apple potentially seeing an influx of orders for the iPhone 7 Plus due to its dual-camera system.

Tim Cook says Apple wants to use AI to boost iPhone battery life

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 17, 2016

Apple's boss Tim Cook traveled around Japan on a bullet train last week as part of his whirlwind tour of the country, his first visit since becoming CEO.

Speaking to Nikkei Asian Review, Cook expressed hope that Apple Pay will help realize a cashless society and hinted that the company's new research and development center in Yokohama, near Tokyo, would be “very different” from its Chinese R&D center as it would explore “deep engineering”.

He then said that Apple wants to use artificial intelligence to turbo charge the iPhone battery life.

Bloomberg: Apple gives up building a car, for now

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 17, 2016

Project Titan, Apple's ambitious initiative to build an electric vehicle by 2020-2021 reportedly fell apart amid management crisis, supply chain issues and departures, prompting the company's leadership to shift gears and focus on autonomous self-driving software, for now.

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reported Monday that Apple will decide fate of self-driving software by late 2017 as the new direction no longer includes building its own car.

How to export Safari bookmarks from your iPhone or iPad to a Mac or PC

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated July 11, 2025

Learn how to export Safari bookmarks from your iPhone or iPad to save as a backup or import into Google Chrome, Firefox, or Safari on a Mac or Windows PC.

When iPhone 7 Home button fails, iOS 10 offers a nice software workaround

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 20, 2023

MacRumors forum member “iwayne” has noticed that iOS 10 offers an interesting software workaround for when the iPhone 7's non-moving Home button fails.

Should that ever happen to you, iOS 10 will instantly create a software-based Home button centered at the bottom of the screen.

Not unlike the AssistiveTouch accessibility feature that many iPhone owners in Asia use regularly over fear of breaking the physical Home button, iOS 10's new onscreen button could hint at how a bezel-less iPhone 8 might work without a physical Home button.

US government bans Samsung’s Note 7 from all domestic flights

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 14, 2016

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and The Department of Transportation (DoT) have banned Samsung's recalled Note 7 smartphones from all domestic airline flights in the United States beginning Saturday, officials announced in an emergency order.

A few days ago, Samsung permanently stopped production of the troubled smartphone following incidents in which replacement devices it deemed safe exhibited the same fire-prone defect, even when powered down.

Early App Store Search Ads adopters seeing $0.40 CPA and 49.4 percent conversion

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 14, 2016

Announced in June of this year, first ads started cropping up in search results on the App Store beginning October 5. Aside from a few launch hiccups, App Store search advertisements seem to be performing pretty well in their early days.

A new study by mobile data intelligence firm Mobile Action—based on a random and anonymous sampling of 77 Search Ads campaigns—has determined that the average Conversion Rate (CR) is 49.4 percent while Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) sits around $0.40.

Search Ads, the survey concludes, is “the biggest opportunity in app marketing right now.”

Tim Cook meets Nintendo’s games designer Shigeru Miyamoto during Japan visit

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 28, 2019

Apple's boss Tim Cook met Nintendo’s legendary games designer Shigeru Miyamoto during a recent whirlwind tour of Japan.

As part of his itinerary, he also met with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and confirmed an upcoming technology center in Yokohama.

During the trip, Cook tweeted out a "good morning” message in Japanese and posted two images, one with Miyamoto and the other acknowledging that he had used Apple Pay to ride Japan's famous Yamanote transit line.

Instagram now has an app for Windows 10 tablets, but still not for the iPad

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 17, 2018

Popular photo-sharing service Instagram yesterday catered to the 'Other' category of mobile users by releasing an app for Windows 10 tablets. So what the heck is going on here? Last time I checked, Apple was still king of the hill in terms of tablet shipments and iOS (26 percent) was second only to Android (65 percent) in terms of tablet operating system share, while Windows tablets captured the remaining nine percent share.