Apple

Google getting rid of Motorola’s set-top box biz to focus on phones and Apple

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 10, 2012

It is no secret that no one has cracked the code to the perfect TV yet. As multiple vendors fight for the living room with no clear leader in sight, the search monster's Google TV platform is floundering and Apple's $99 Apple TV hockey puck is still deemed a hobby business, despite sales in the first six months of 2012 doubling to 2.7 million units, almost equalling the 2.8 million Apple TVs moved in the entire 2011.

And as the prospect of an Apple-branded standalone HD TV set continues to occupy the brightest minds in the industry and Hollywood, rival Google is looking to sell off the cable box division of Motorola and has already received a few offers last week. But why is Google willing to drop Motorola's set-top box business in the first place?

Samsung teases ‘something new’ for CES 2013

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 10, 2012

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

Samsung, the world's largest maker of both cellphones and smartphones by volume, is gearing up for CES 2013, which runs January 8-11 in Las Vegas. A successor to the Galaxy S III is expected to debut at the show and the South Korean firm has put together a nice teaser suggesting "something new is coming". There are some indications that Apple may be looking to unveil a seventh-generation iPhone during the first quarter of next year, but no credible evidence of a manufacturing ramp up has surfaced yet...

Garage sale: ailing Panasonic, Sharp, Sony sell off $3B worth of property

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 10, 2012

You can put Panasonic, Sony and Sharp on your list of once mighty Japanese consumer electronics giant that are now forced to sell off billion dollars' worth of property in an embarrassing move deemed absolutely unavoidable if these dinosaurs want to survive winter. Panasonic, the maker of the Viera brand of TVs, was previously reported as wanting to exit the television business to focus on churning out displays for portable electronics, especially Apple’s iPad.

These days, the company is working to raise $1.34 billion from offloading property and shares in other Japanese companies by end of March 2013, Reuters reported Monday. We're talking land holdings, plants and even a 24-storey staff dorm in central Tokyo which has more than 47,300 square meters and houses about two thousand workers. Sony and Sharp, once the biggest names in electronics, are planning to follow suit...

Australian police issue warning regarding Apple Maps

Cody Lee ∙ Updated August 24, 2016

Apple's Maps application has had nothing but problems since it was released to the public back in September. Users have complained that the company's in-house replacement for Google Maps has inaccurate location data and other bugs.

But if you thought Maps was bad before, wait until you hear this. Police in Victoria, Australia issued a warning this weekend regarding the mapping software after several travelers became lost and stranded due to receiving poor directions...

Apple’s ‘Made in USA’ Mac could be the next-gen Mac Pro

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated April 18, 2016

The industry was taken aback a little when Tim Cook on Friday told NBC’s Brian Williams in his first TV interview since becoming the CEO that Apple plans to bring some of the manufacturing jobs back home from China. He even went on to confirm that the company pledged to spend a hundred million bucks to make it happen, but stopped short of specifying which Macs would be assembled in the United States.

By all accounts, Apple's flagship desktop machine aimed at pros - the Mac Pro - is at the center of the company's renewed interest to bring some Mac production back to the country. First and foremost, the Mac Pro is way overdue for a hardware upgrade, having been last refreshed 427 days ago, or nearly a year and half ago...

T-Mobile bets the iPhone will curb subscriber churn

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated November 28, 2016

As you know, T-Mobile USA, the nation's fourth-largest carrier, will finally land Apple's iPhone next year. The Deutsche Telekom-owned telco is making no excuse for its failure to land the sough-after device earlier and, unsurprisingly, is looking to tap the popularity of the Apple smartphone to win back some of its subscribers lost to rivals AT&T, Verizon Wireless and Sprint.

T-Mobile USA CEO John Legere told reporters on Friday that his company, which has 33 million customers in the United States, is hoping to steal would-be subscribers who are eyeing an iPhone on a rival network. Even more so, the German company acknowledges that having the iPhone is key to returning to growth in subscriptions by the end of 2013...

Square’s Wallet app gains gift cards with Passbook integration

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 19, 2018

Twitter founder Jack Dorsey's another startup, Square, has made a name for itself with a compelling and competitive mobile payment service which, in my mind, is more straightforward and powerful than Google's Wallet. The company is selling its iPhone payment dongle via the online Apple Store, having released an accompanying Wallet app on iOS and Android on November 8. It supports, among other things, receiving electronic receipts and paying with your own name.

Now, the Wallet app has been recently updated with micro-payments at Starbucks locations and now Square has added a timely new functionality, the ability to send personalized gifts that can be used at about 250,000 businesses supporting Square Wallet as a payment option.

This new feature also taps Apple's Passbook service in iOS 6 so any gift card created with the Wallet app gets automatically imported into Passbook and synced across devices via iCloud. This let you redeem a Square gift card at any of the supported points of purchase via Passbook. How's that for a hands-free checkout?

T-Mobile to eliminate handset subsidies ahead of iPhone launch

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 11, 2018

On Thursday, Deutsche Telekom announced that T-Mobile USA had entered into an agreement with Apple to bring products to market next year. CEO John Legere confirmed the news while speaking at a conference this week, saying that T-Mobile will indeed be carrying the iPhone in 2013, and it will be offering it in a "different" way...

Apple and Google team up for $500 million bid on Kodak patents

Cody Lee ∙ December 7, 2012

Back in August, a report popped up claiming that Apple and Google had teamed up to put a bid in for Kodak's patents. The company, once a staple in the photography industry, declared bankruptcy this year and is selling off its IP to help pay its debts.

Well the story resurfaced tonight, with a follow-up report from Bloomberg confirming that Google and Apple are indeed working together to buy Kodak's IP. The two are said to be offering more than $500 million to buy 1,100 of Kodak's imaging patents...

iPhone 5 now ‘in stock’ in many countries

Cody Lee ∙ December 7, 2012

Over the past few weeks, we've watched as iPhone 5 supply slowly leveled out with consumer demand. Shortly after launch, availability of the handset slipped to 3-4 weeks, and it has since improved to two weeks, one week, 2-4 days.

Then today, shoppers noticed that shipping estimates for the smartphone on Apple's web store have completely disappeared, meaning that it's in stock and available for immediate shipping for the first time since September...

Bird’s-eye view of Oregon’s upcoming iCloud

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated July 12, 2017

After taking up to the skies early-August to grab high-quality aerial photos of Apple’s 100-acre solar farm and a mysterious tactical data center - both located in Maiden, North Carolina - Wired now has dispatched its "iSpy Plane" in order to take a closer look at Apple's enormous data center site in the middle of Oregonian high desert. The facility is located right in the neighborhood of another insanely massive data center run by the social networking giant Facebook.

In fact, Facebook already operates twin data centers in the area whereas Apple less than two months ago started construction on the first of two 338,000 square-foot buildings planned for the site. Though construction just got started, a mysterious "tactical data center" is already up and running...

Apple slips to sixth place in China smartphone market

Ed Sutherland ∙ December 7, 2012

Apple's standing in the growing China smartphone market has taken another hit, slipping to #6 during the third quarter, research firm IDC announced Thursday. The drop comes as the iPhone maker faces concerns its iPhone could lose ground to other smartphone makers, such as Samsung and Nokia, whose handsets cover a wider range of price points. Apple share of smartphones shipped to China fell below ten percent during the quarter, a drop which coincides with Chinese smartphone shipments topping 60 million handsets, a new high...