It seems like it's been a while since we've heard any news on the Apple/Samsung lawsuit front, which is not necessarily a bad thing. But today, the silence was broken as Judge Lucy Koh issued a new case management order to the two sides.
According to the order, the two will be battling it out over damages from their August trial this fall, with the next hearing scheduled for November 12. Here, Apple will get a chance to get back some of the $500M Koh cut from its settlement earlier this year...
Sprint's popular prepaid provider Boost Mobile will begin offering iPhone models this fall, according to an industry insider who claims to have direct knowledge of the company's plan. If true, it would be the fourth major US prepaid carrier to offer the popular handset.
But this isn't the first time rumors of a Boost Mobile, Apple partnership have surfaced. Last summer, the two were said to be working on a deal to bring the iPhone 4 and 4S to Sprint's network by the fall. Obviously, though, those particular claims never materialized...
For US PC buyers accustom to receiving items from China, here's a switch: new research indicates more computers are being shipped into China than America. After China became the largest PC market in terms of buyers, the country is now also the world's top market when it comes to shipping.
According to IHS iSuppli, in 2012 69 million PCs were shipped into China, compared to 66 million units headed for the United States. Despite its size, China still has some catching-up to do with the rest of the world. For instance, while most countries have moved on from desktop computers, a full half of PCs shipped to China are desktops.
That's just one of many intriguing differences in the world's largest PC market...
Ever since Apple's SVP of iOS Software Scott Forstall was ousted last fall, and hardware designer Jony Ive was put in charge of the human interface team, pundits and fanatics alike have wondered what future versions of the platform would look like.
We may find out soon enough. According to a new report, which cites "multiple people who have either seen or have been briefed on iOS 7", this year's software update is going to be a fairly significant one, bringing a redesigned interface, and more...
OS X 10.9, the next major revision to Apple's operating system for Macs internally codenamed 'Cabernet', is up for introduction later this year, according to a well-informed writer. Specifically, Apple is apparently bringing more of core iOS features to its desktop operating system.
This entails stuff like iOS style multitasking that should prove functional by allowing background tasks to pause like on the iPhone and iPad. Finder, the Mac's long-standing default file manager, is understood to gain power features such as tabbed browsing modes and tags.
An enhanced Safari browser is thought to include a redesigned backend for improved page loading, speed and efficiency, which reminds us a lot of Turbo browsing mode from the Opera mini browser...
Donald Trump, in his own words, owns "a lot of Apple stock" and misses Steve Jobs terribly, but that's not stopping him from demanding that Apple releases an iPhone with a bigger screen. The 66-year-old billionaire, magnate, president of The Trump Organization and the founder of Trump Entertainment Resorts is publicly urging Tim Cook & Co. to think beyond the iPhone 5's four-inch screen because "I like the larger screen" and because Apple will "lose a lot of business" unless it gets an iPhablet right...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z19vR1GldRI
Despite the massive marketing blitz, Microsoft's Windows Phone platform has managed to regain but a fraction of market share lost to iOS and Android in years past. Figuring it could take a page from Samsung's marketing handbook, Microsoft on Monday published on its YouTube channel a new Windows Phone commercial which takes a mandatory jab at Apple's iPhone and its Siri digital personal assistant while also poking fun of Gorilla-sized Android devices from Samsung. The funny ad is aimed at boosting Microsoft's and Nokia's stagnant sales of Lumia handsets in the United States...
Tim Cook caused quite a bit of commotion last week when he told investors that Apple "has some amazing new hardware, software, and services coming this fall." Most folks took it as we aren't going to see anything new from the company until then.
But that may not be the case, according to a purported leaked document from Japanese wireless carrier KDDI. The internal note, meant for sales floor staff, offers up plan pricing information and some details about the upcoming iPhone 5S smartphone...
For the first time, more messages are being sent via applications such as iMessage, WhatsApp and Viber than traditional texting. That's the message of a new study which found that messages sent using such apps outnumbered those sent through carrier-based SMS in 2012.
That lead is expected to widen this year as chat apps send twice as many messages as texting. The study by Informa suggests the lucrative business of text transmissions could be winding down for carriers.
Although traditional SMS has a larger user base, iMessage, WhatsApp or other chatting apps are sending more texts per user, giving them the momentum...
Boom, just like that Google has issued an update to its excellent Search app for the iPhone and iPad which enables some of the most popular Google Now features on the iOS platform. At least initially, Google Now on iOS devices doesn't support some of the features Android users have come to love.
Boarding passes, activity summary, events, concerts, Fandango and Zillow cards aren't included in the update.
All told, 22 of the 29 card types found in Android have made their way to the iOS edition, including weather, traffic, transit schedules and sports scores. Also: Google Now doesn't have Push Notifications, which makes the feature less useful than on Android, where Google Now can notify users via alerts of their upcoming appointments, changes to their flight schedule, weather and more.
Your promotional video, screenies and additional details are after the break...
KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has a very strong track record, having previously predicted a number of Apple products.
For example, he correctly assumed the MacBook Pro with Retina display would be offered alongside the existing models and called for the phasing out of the 17-inch MacBook Pro.
You'll recall that Tim Cook during last week's conference call advised against major hardware announcements until Fall. Be that as it may, Kuo now thinks Apple could at its upcoming five-day conference for developers refresh the MacBook notebook lineup with upgrades mostly revolving around a speedier Intel Haswell chips.
He is also expecting a new low-cost iPad mini model - the budget iPad mini, if you will - which should help the company fend off the onslaught of cheap Android tablets on the low-end...
After topping J.D. Power and Associates' customer satisfaction rankings for smartphones for the ninth consecutive study, Apple's iPad has now emerged victorious in JD Power's February 2013 tablet rankings. Specifically, the iPad recorded a score of 836 on JD Power's overall TabletIndex Rankings.
The index is based on a 1,000-point scale. Amazon's tablet scored 829 versus the study average of 828 points. The third and fourth-ranked Samsung and Asus tablets received respective scores of 822 and 818 while Acer came in fifth with a score of 782.
Despite Apple's relatively modest lead in TabletIndex rankings, the iPad fared far better in consumer ratings, another important metric of the JD Power study. Consumers rated the Apple tablet 'Among the Best,' giving it a score of five out of five. Interestingly enough, no other tablet was rated about 'Above Average' (four out of five) while Acer received the lowest ranking of 2 out of 5 denoting 'The Rest'...