Apple

BlackBerry tops ‘don’t want’ poll ahead of iPhone and Android

Ed Sutherland ∙ April 11, 2013

Finally, a survey appears where BlackBerry is leading the big guys. On a twist of the usual polling of which device consumers want to buy, one research firm asked what smartphone would you not be caught dead using. The BlackBerry "crushed" the competition in the 'don't want' department. In fact, 71.4 percent of consumers polled by Raymond James said no feature would get them to use a BlackBerry.

Basic math tells us this corresponds to nearly three out of each four respondents. Additionally, nearly twenty percent said you couldn't give them an iPhone, or one out of each five. And, just over thirty percent replied they'd never touch a smartphone powered by Google's Android, or approximately one out of each three...

First budget iPhone part allegedly leaks: dual-head vibration motor

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 11, 2013

In what could be the first physical evidence of a part that may or may not be related to Apple's rumored less-pricey iPhone, a reliable Japanese blog has posts an interesting image of a ribbon cable with a dual-head vibration motor, obtained by repair shop iLab Factory. While the flex cable looks like it connects to the iPhone's standard volume rocker and mute switch, it's the rotation motor which raises hope that this particular part could belong to the budget iPhone...

iHelicopters unveils do-it-yourself Mini Brick Cars

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 25, 2016

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Y6XDAfLN8I

In an interesting extension of its lineup of RC-controlled iOS toys, iHelicopters today launched Mini Brick Cars, an interesting do-it-yourself project that should appeal to your kids. As the name suggest, a Mini Brick Car is actually a package containing a bunch of mini bricks which allow you to create any type of vehicle that can be controlled via your iPhone, iPod or iPad using a dedicated controller app. The kit costs $59.95, including free shipping to any destination in the world...

Major Real Racing 3 update is out: cloud saves, new Chevy cars, 100+ events

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 11, 2013

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwJzQ8Z6ghY

As promised, super publisher Electronic Arts and developer Firemonkeys just rolled out a major update to the awesome free-to-play Real Racing 3, bringing out over a hundred new events and two Chevy vehicles. The one feature I've been waiting for is an improved game saving capability: in Real Racing 3 version 1.1, your progress is now saved and synced across all your devices via the cloud.

This finally lets me to kill a few minutes on my iPhone while standing in the line at a bank and then continue playing right where I left off on my iPad. More tidbits and some nice screenies right below the fold...

How Samsung changed the game on Apple by focusing on advertising and distribution

Ed Sutherland ∙ April 11, 2013

Diagnosing Apple's Wall Street woes has become a bit of a cottage industry, prompting some to crown the consumer tech giant a has-been, while other observers point to a resurgent future. Earlier this month, a Forbes business contributor took a shot, claiming South Korea's Samsung has overtaken Apple using the iPhone maker's own weapon: promotion.

After knocking out music giant Sony with the iPod, using the iPhone to drive BlackBerry to the fringes and destroying the PC market with the iPad, Apple is "milking" its hard-won gains. Meanwhile, Samsung has plowed revenue back into promotion, outspending Apple by more than four-to-one. Ad attack coupled with Samsung's much wider footprint helped the Galaxy maker to change the game on Apple...

Hero devices help LG join Apple and Samsung at the top of the smartphone food chain

Ed Sutherland ∙ April 11, 2013

LG is now the No. 3 smartphone maker, for the first time, as sales of its higher-end handsets lift it above HTC and other brands scrambling for the scraps left by Apple and Android. Although Samsung and Apple combined for 71.4 percent of the market, sales by the South Korean LG rose to 3.2 percent as HTC fell to fourth place on word of disappointing profits, according to research firm Strategy Analytics...

T-Mobile preps massive iPhone ad blitz, sales and availability tidbits surface

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 12, 2018

A well-informed publication has published some interesting details regarding T-Mobile's upcoming iPhone launch due on Friday, April 12. The Deutsche Telekom-owned carrier is said to be pulling out all the stops with a massively aggressive advertising blitz as plugged-in sources claim that T-Mobile made a major ad buy between 8:35 and 8:40 local time tomorrow evening.

And internal documents suggest that the carrier is dispersing at least 240,000 iPhone 5 units to company owned-retail stores for Friday morning. The carrier also confirmed the HTC One will be “coming soon” for $99 down payment and confirmed May 1 availability of the Galaxy S4 on May 1, but Apple watchers will no doubt be focused on first-day iPhone sales...

Tim Cook’s right-hand man reportedly in China dealing with PR crisis

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 14, 2018

Apple's Executive Profile page lists Jeff Williams as the Senior Vice President of Operations. But according to people inside the company, he's much more important than that. Some folks even refer to him as "Cook's right-hand man."

So it should come as no surprise that, according to a new report, Williams is in Beijing this week dealing with Apple's major PR fallout in China, after taking severe criticism in recent weeks over its warranty practices in the country...

Apple looking for an engineer to help investigate flexible display tech

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 11, 2018

According to a job listing posted on its website April 1, Apple is looking for a Senior Optical Engineer to lead the investigation on emerging display technologies, including high efficiency LCD panels and flexible displays.

The latter seems to confirm speculation that Apple is interested in incorporating flexible display tech into future iOS devices—something that's been hinted at in patent filings, and brought up in recent iWatch rumors...

Apple licenses $10 million worth of patents filed by Palm and others

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 11, 2018

This is kind of interesting. Access, a Japan-based software company, published a release on its website this morning noting that it had entered a licensing agreement with Apple for a number of its patents. The firm's portfolio is quite large, featuring IP from Bell, Palm and others.

The particular patents that Apple is said to have acquired the rights to came from PalmSource, the company behind Palm's original mobile operating system. In 2003, it spun off of Palm as an independent company, and in 2005, Access acquired it and its intelectual property...

Nearly half of U.S. teens own an iPhone, 62% are planning to buy one

Ed Sutherland ∙ April 10, 2013

Although it sometimes seems like every teen has an iPhone, we are not quite there, according to new research. Some 48 percent of teens say they own the Apple smartphone with 62 percent expecting to buy an iPhone as their next handset.

The 48 percent of teen-owned iPhones is up from 40 percent registered during fall 2012, according to Piper Jaffray's 25th bi-annual teen survey. Meanwhile, just over 20 percent of teens surveyed said they either own or plan to purchase a smartphone powered by Google's Android mobile operating software...

Mr. Runner 2: The Masks confirmed for April 24

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 10, 2013

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnfyM6xs7sg

Mr. Runner, in case you aren't aware of it, is Zing Games' endless runner with an interesting side-scrolling twist and nice retro-like graphics. People downloaded it over five million times so it has some respectable following out there. Two and a half years later, Zing is set to release a sequel, titled Mr. Runner 2: The Masks.

Exploiting the side-scrolling mechanics further, Mr. Runner 2 adds a bunch of colorful backgrounds that should shine on Retina screens (art direction indeed looks stunning), 32 level across four dream-like worlds worlds with different themes and challenges, plus the new cartoony characters.

I'll be on the lookout for this one when it hits the App Store on April 24, that's for sure. By the way, there's more to this trailer than meets the eye. Read on for the full disclosure...