Apple

New iOS 6 3D Maps ported to iPhone 4

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 15, 2012

With its in-house mapping solution in iOS 6, Apple basically pulled a Siri in that folks in Cupertino have limited this headline feature to the iPhone 4S and iPad 2 or later (full iOS 6 device compatibility list is here). Now, I realize graphics-intensive 3D Flyovers require A5-enabled devices. But turn-by-turn? Seriously, Apple?

Worry not, those crazy Russian hackers have cracked the code to run the new iOS 6 Maps on the iPhone 4, complete with 3D Flyovers and turn-by-turn navigation - without even using Cydia...

Qualcomm, Broadcom and other suppliers reportedly readying chips for iPhone 5

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 15, 2012

With Apple's next-generation iPhone a no show at San Francisco's WWDC conference, a new report from Apple's supply chain in Asia has emerged, claiming that silicon providers left and right are lining up to supply the California-based company with various chips for the next iPhone...

Apple researching a device with swappable camera lenses

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 9, 2018

It's always interesting to see the different patent applications that Apple submits to the USPTO. Even though most of them rarely make it into consumer products, they give us a glimpse inside Apple's top secret R&D labs.

The latest one to surface in the United States Patent and Trademark Office database covers a device with a removable back panel, which could bring about swappable camera lenses and other attachements...

New app promises to increase your iPhone battery life

Cody Lee ∙ June 15, 2012

If you told me that you had an app that would improve the battery life of my iPhone, or other device, I'd probably laugh. How could third-party software, especially in Apple's walled garden, substantially affect battery life?

Well Carat, a new application by AMP Lab, is promising to do just that...

HTC vows to fill its patent vault to aid its battle with Apple

Oliver Haslam ∙ June 14, 2012

Once was a time when companies would do battle at the tills, but those days are now long gone. Nowadays however, it seems battles in the courtroom are much more commonplace than good old product lines butting heads, fighting it out for the customer's hard earned money.

HTC, in the middle of a legal spat with iPhone maker Apple, is about to take to the patent office in order to gain the upper hand over the company that is also going after the likes of Samsung.

The news that HTC will be fleshing out its patent portfolio comes after chairwoman Cher Wang vowed that the company would file more patents for its technology in order to protect itself from Apple's own legal shenanigans...

T-Mobile lighting up more iPhone-friendly HSPA+ sites in June and July

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 25, 2016

Still wondering about those unlocked iPhones that clocked much faster data speeds on T-Mobile's network at WWDC's Moscone West building in San Francisco? Well, Deutsche Telekom-owned carrier, the nation's fourth-largest, today shared some interesting updates concerning "4G" rollout, which includes the iPhone-friendly 1900MHz band on its HSPA+ network...

Apple looking to take Find My Friends to the next level with iOS 6

Cody Lee ∙ June 14, 2012

Apple debuted Find My Friends last fall during their iPhone 4S event. Similar to Google's Latitude service, Find My Friends uses GPS and Wi-Fi triangulation to track the locations of its members.

While the platform certainly has potential, it's failed to garner much user-traction thus far. But it appears that Apple is looking to change that in iOS 6, with a new geofencing notification system...

iPad web traffic drops a little, Nook overtakes Kindle Fire

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 14, 2012

An interesting change in tablet web traffic in June, as observed by ad network Chitika which sampled hundreds of millions of ad impressions across mobile apps that incorporate its solution. While they're by no means an accurate representative of the market, the numbers still outline market trend changes.

Apple's iPad dropped a bit in June, but the biggest change comes in Barnes & Noble's Nook passing Amazon's Kindle Fire. Of all non-iPad tablets, Samsung's Galaxy Tab remains the most widely-used device...

Woz: “A lot of people say Siri. I say poo-poo”

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 14, 2012

The other Steve never shied away from criticizing the company he co-founded with Steve Jobs in his parents' garage back in 1976. The Times Union chatted briefly with everyone's favorite geek during his visit to a New York farm of rescued horses and of course the inevitable question of Siri criticism came up. Here's what came out of him...

Schiller on app discovery, Passbook not being a direct payment product

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 21, 2018

Phil Schiller, senior vice president of all marketing at Apple, talked to The Wall Street Journal yesterday about the app ecosystem, how the upcoming iOS 6 mobile operating system helps third-party developers get better exposure for their software and why Apple's brand new app called Passbook is not meant to become a full-blown mobile payment solution...

Siri in iOS 6 Beta spotted performing location searches abroad

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 14, 2012

Although this has been announced in the WWDC keynote, we are beginning to receive reports that Siri in iOS 6 Beta is now able to find places internationally, at least in certain countries and with limited precision. By the way, jailbreakers can get this functionality by way of an AssistantExtensions plugin called International Locations...

In iPhone deal, Baidu to share search revenue with Apple

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated May 16, 2016

In what could only be called a major agreement, the dominant Chinese search engine Baidu will share its search revenue with Apple for making it the default choice for Chinese iPhone users, it's been confirmed.

Though Baidu also shares revenue with Google on Android handsets that use its search engine, strong sales of Apple's devices in the 1.33 billion people market are bound to maximize opportunities for both companies...