Christmas

Check out Apple II made out of gingerbread

I got for Christmas everything I wanted, but seeing this makes me wonder… One very creative dad who’s obviously handy in the kitchen has built an Apple II out of gingerbread for his Apple-loving son and posted the images of it on Imgur for the whole world to see. Batter yet, the Apple II modeled in gingerbread comes complete with an edible chocolate keyboard, motherboard and floppy disk.

Here comes Apple’s holiday ad

Apple just aired a brand new holiday-themed television commercial through its channel on YouTube. Titled “Frankie’s Holiday,” the cinematic video runs two minutes long and depicts an unexpected holiday visitor who finally receives the “warm welcome he’s always yearned for.” The unexpected visitor is Frankenstein himself, who happens to be an iPhone 7 user.

The Christmas-themed upbeat commercial conveniently closes with a positive message which invites users to open their hearts to everyone.

iDB Holiday Gift Guide: Cody’s picks

One of my favorite things about the holidays is gift-hunting. Whether I’m looking for something to add to my own wish list, or shopping for others, I love trying to track down the perfect present. So as you can imagine, I enjoy taking part in iDB’s annual Holiday Gift Guide.

My picks this year consist of both fun and practical gift ideas, that have proven to be well-made and well-reviewed. As you might have guessed, many of the suggestions are tech-related, but I did make sure to include a few non-tech ideas for those that prefer non-gadget gifts.

iOS again beats out Android in Christmas Day mobile shopping

Just like last year, Apple’s iPhone and iPad again dominated online shopping traffic and online mobile sales during Christmas Day, according to an IBM survey first shared by VentureBeat.

Based on data from IBM’s real-time Digital Analytics Benchmark, which tracked approximately 800 retail websites in the United States, iOS devices were responsible for an average of $97.28 per order spent online versus $67.40 for Android users, a difference of 44.3 percent.

In other words, a commanding 57.1 percent of online shopping via mobile during Christmas Day was carried out using an iPhone or iPad, an increase of 8.3 percent versus the previous year.

The year in review: a look back at some of our best stories of 2013

December is always a good time to look back at what you’ve accomplished during the year that just went by. If you set some goals for yourself at the beginning of the year, now is the right time to see if you reached these goals. Who knows, maybe you’ve even exceeded them.

For us at iDB, the end of the year is the perfect time to see what some of our most popular articles were. Most of the best performing posts on iDB won’t really come as a surprise to you, but I’m sure you’ll find some unexpected content as well.

As 2013 is slowly opening the door for 2014, we go over some of this content that has been making iDB one of the most visited Apple-focused sites around. Further than that, we also reflect on why these specific articles have been so popular, what it means for iDB, and what lessons we draw from that.

I hope you will enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it…

Apple airs new holiday-themed iPhone 5s TV ad

Apple has tonight begun airing its first new commercial in nearly a month. As you’d imagine in mid-December, the spot carries a holiday theme and focuses on the new iPhone 5s handset and its AirPlay feature.

The ad shows a teenage boy capturing his family participating in various holiday activities like decorating the Christmas tree and playing in the snow on his iPhone 5s, and then playing it for them on their TV set…

Angry Birds: 30M downloads on Christmas week

So much about Angry Birds running its course. Finnish developer Rovio announced today that its Angry Birds series, which just turned three, has been downloaded thirty million times during the Christmas week, raking in over eight million downloads on the Christmas Day alone. The 99-cent holiday sale of Rovio’s iPad games might have helped with that. It was an Angry New Year for Rovio indeed and the company produced a charming infographic that highlights other interesting holiday sales stats…

YouTube, Google Maps top list of most downloaded apps on Christmas Day

Given the fact that millions of iPhones, iPads and iPod touches were given as gifts this year, and that a number of apps and games were on sale, it’s no surprise that there was a huge spike in app downloads on Tuesday.

In fact, app analytics firm Distimo found that daily downloads in the App Store increased by 87% on Christmas Day compared to the December 2012 average. So what was everyone downloading? Read on to find out…