Apple

This is what new ‘EU Internet’ switch in iOS 8 Beta 4 does for you

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 28, 2014

The most recent beta of iOS 8 has introduced an easily overlooked new option under the Cellular section of the iOS Settings app. It's called 'EU Internet,' applies only to those traveling in the European Union and is a bit puzzling.

As a quick recap, exorbitant roaming charges for data downloads in the European Union have already been reduced in an effort to make prices more realistic for those using mobile devices outside their home country.

That's just the beginning as the European parliament recently passed a new regulation, currently needing an approval by the Council of the European Union, that promises to render all roaming charges in the EU illegal by December 2015.

As a result, European customers will always pay the same price for all phone calls, text messages and mobile data usage everywhere in the EU...

T-Mobile unveils time-limited $100 per month family plan with 10GB LTE data

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 28, 2014

"Leaving my office last week, I pulled alongside a bus covered with yet another ad for AT&T’s 'Best-Ever Pricing' for families," writes T-Mobile USA's outspoken CEO John Legere in a blog post Monday.

As is his wont, Legere couldn't resist offering a scathing critique of AT&T's family plan, calling it "funny" because "their deal is no deal at all" compared to the pricing of T-Mobile’s Simple Choice Family Plan.

Regardless, Legere went on to announce a new competitive offering which will be launching later this month to give a family of four a total of ten gigabytes of high-speed LTE data (2.5GB each) in exchange for a cool hundred bucks per month. By comparison, AT&T's “Best-Ever Pricing” offers four lines for $160...

Don’t expect to see iWatch or 5.5″ iPhone 6 before December, new rumor cautions

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated August 29, 2016

I don't think anyone in their right mind would seriously question Apple's motivation to reportedly market and sell bigger iPhones this year.

Moreover, many pundits and watchers are in agreement that Apple will indeed enter new product categories this year with a rumored iWatch wearable device, said to combine health and fitness functions.

What's unclear though is the timing for these product launches. We already know it's going to be action-packed Fall, but you'd be wise not to keep your fingers crossed for a simultaneous launch of both new iPhones and iWatches...

European Commission green-lights Apple’s $3B Beats buy

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 28, 2014

The European Commission has okayed Apple's purchase of the Beats Music streaming-music service and Beats Electronics' premium headphone business, concluding that the agreement would not be detrimental to consumers across Europe. This is an important though expected development as Apple hopes to complete the $3 billion transaction by the end of the September quarter, pending regulatory approval in the United States...

Microsoft airs Cortana vs. Siri ad showing contextually-aware tasks

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 11, 2016

Microsoft on Monday shared a new television commercial which the company first showed off at its annual conference back in April to rally up developers who were concerned that the software giant was losing its mojo.

The 30-second video depicts a showdown between Cortana, Microsoft's own digital personal assistant baked into Windows Phone 8.1, and Apple's Siri.

Microsoft's assistant is shown completing a number of contextually-aware tasks using a plethora of services and data sources...

Apple said to be buying Swell Radio app

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 29, 2018

Following a TechCrunch report last Friday which claims that Apple has recently acquired data-style book analytics services BookLamp (basically a “Pandora for books”) to beat Amazon at its own game, Re/code is reporting early Monday that the Cupertino firm has another acquisition target in its crosshairs - a radio/podcast app Swell ("Pandora for talk radio") which raised $7.2 million from investors including DFJ, Google Ventures and InterWest Partners...

Swatch says it doesn’t need Apple, will launch its smart watch next year

Sébastien Page ∙ July 27, 2014

Some silly rumor made the rounds last week claiming Swatch was in talk with Apple to produce a line of iWatch devices. This was quickly denied by Swatch, who's now saying it will bring its own smart watch/fitness tracker to market by next year.

Swatch CEO Nick Hayek recently told Swiss newspaper NZZ am Sonntag (via Reuters) that the company will soon update its Swatch Touch line, which will be equipped with features appealing to athletes:

Claimed circuit board hints at NFC-enabled iPhone 6 – again!

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 26, 2014

Combing through our archive of posts mentioning "iPhone" and "NFC" is all it takes to realize that talk of Apple allegedly adopting NFC is intensifying, not dying down. In fact, rumors calling for NFC-enabled iPhones date as far back as 2011!

Thus far, however, the iconic smartphone has not picked up support for NFC technology, which is an acronym for Near Field Communication. On the other hand, Apple has numerous NFC-related patents.

Additionally, it doesn't really hurt to mention that a growing number of high-end Android handsets include NFC as part of their standard feature set. Well, today a claimed image has surfaced apparently picturing an iPhone 6 printed circuit board with what appears to be an embedded NFC chip...

Tweetbot 3 quietly rolls out animated GIF support via iOS media player

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated May 17, 2018

You're probably aware that Twitter began supporting animated GIFs via its web interface in mid-June. If so, you may also recall that Twitter's iOS client has picked up support for this popular file format a mere week later.

The feature isn't exclusive to the company's own mobile apps: Twitter soon after updated its API to let makers of third-party clients implement direct GIF sharing via pic.twitter.com links.

Tapbots' Tweetbot, one of the best Twitter clients for the Mac and iOS devices, does not officially recognize animated GIFs. That's why tapping a pic.twitter.com GIF link in Tweetbot for iPhone opens the detail view for the tweet itself rather than play the embedded animation inline.

This has been driving me nuts - but not anymore. As it turns out, Tapbots yesterday issued a maintenance update to Tweetbot for the iPhone and iPod touch which apparently adds support for animated GIFs via Twitter's pic.twitter.com links. Strangely enough, the official release notes make no mention of this nice little addition whatsoever...

BlackBerry, Dell not concerned about Apple-IBM deal

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 17, 2018

You would think hearing that Apple is teaming up with IBM to push further into the enterprise space would be worrisome for competitors. But both Dell and BlackBerry, who are each in the process of reshaping their businesses, say they're unfazed.

In an interview this week, Dell's John Swainson said that while he thought the announcement "made for a good press release," he fails to see how the pair can prosper. Likewise, BlackBerry CEO John Chen likened the deal to "two elephants dancing."

Apple acquires book recommendation startup BookLamp

Cody Lee ∙ July 25, 2014

During Apple's quarterly earnings conference call on Tuesday, Tim Cook said that the company has acquired 5 companies in the last 4 months, not including Beats electronics. We've known about two of the purchases, Spotsetter and LuxVue, and today we add a third.

TechCrunch is reporting that Apple recently acquired BookLamp, a startup based out of Boise, Idaho, that developed big data-style book analytics services. Described as "Pandora for books," the service recommends books through digital analysis of author writing styles...

Big increase in Apple spending suggests major new products incoming

Cody Lee ∙ July 25, 2014

For those of you still skeptical that Apple is gearing up for a blockbuster fall, check out this report from Morgan Stanley's Katy Huberty. The analyst dug through its just-released 10-Q filing, and she says it reveals a lot about its upcoming plans.

Huberty explains that the company's significant increase in spending all-but-confirms that we'll see some major new products this year. In fact, its quarter-over-quarter increase is the largest we've seen since it introduced the first iPhone in 2007...