iPhone 5

New app uses iPhone’s vibrate motor to take hands-free 360-degree video

Up until now, if you wanted to shoot 360-degree video with your iPhone, you'd either need a snap-on accessory, like the GoPano, or a pair of steady hands and some patience. But a clever new app is looking to change that.

Introducing Cycloramic, an iPhone app that uses the handset's built-in vibrate motor to spin it around in a circle, allowing you to capture 360-degree video, completely hands free. Hard to believe? Check out the video demo...

iPhone 5 lands quietly in Africa, Southeast Asia

As people around the world were preparing for Christmas last week, Apple was getting ready for its last iPhone 5 rollout of 2012. And on December 21st, three months after its debut, the handset launched in its 101st country.

You can now buy Apple's latest smartphone in Barbados, Cameroon, Egypt, Uganda and several other new markets. But you wouldn't know it by looking at the interwebs, as this was one of the quietest iPhone 5 launches yet...

Apple gets coal in stocking as holiday online satisfaction drops

Apple, usually the benchmark for customer satisfaction, fell from its lofty perch during the all-important Thanksgiving and Christmas shopping period. After quickly jettisoning its senior vice-president of retail and suffering questions surrounding supplies of new products, the company "stumbled", falling to a four-year low, according to a customer satisfaction analytics firm Thursday. The iPhone maker fell 3 points to 80 out of 100, dropping it from the overall top five online holiday retailers and behind #1 Amazon.com, which was rated 88 out of 100 by Forsee...

New iPhone gamepad flaunts Bluetooth 4.0 and solar power

The iPhone gamepad space is starting to get a little crowded these days, mostly thanks to Kickstarter. It seems like every week now we see a new controller pop up on the crowd-funded site promising to be better than the last.

But so far, none of them have managed to go mainstream — outside of maybe the iCade line — meaning it's still anyone's game. And this week, Justice Frangipane and crew decided to throw their hats into the proverbial ring...

Apple is doomed: iPhone’s US share hits record 53%, Android down to 42%

If you skimmed recent headlines, you could think Google's Android was clearly in charge of the smartphone arms race. Yet, there are these pesky indicators that Apple's impending collapse ranks right up there with the Mayan Calendar crazy talk.

However, a new report by a smartphone tracking firm shows Apple has more than half of the US market.

In other words, one out of each two smartphones sold in the country is the iPhone. According to Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, Apple now has captured a cool 53 percent of the market for smartphones in the United States, an increase from 37 percent in 2011. Meanwhile, Android fell to 42 percent, down from 53 percent a year ago. Along with grabbing ten percent from Android, Apple also apparently gained six percent of the market from RIM...

Chitika: recent iOS 6 adoption spike due to China iPhone 5 launch

Earlier this week, a report surfaced from MoPub, a mobile ad serving platform, suggesting that the recent release of Google Maps caused a 30% spike in iOS 6 user adoption. And of course, it made sense that some folks were holding out on updating until they were sure they'd have a proper Maps app.

But what didn't make sense was how far off MoPub's findings were from Chitika's. You see Chitika, another large ad network, also looked at iOS 6 user adoption after the Google Maps release, and it only saw a 0.2% bump. So why the huge discrepancy? It likely has to do with the firms' coverage areas...

Siri’s reliance on Google cut in half since iOS 6

Siri, what happened to Google? The voice-activated personal assistant (which debuted alongside the iPhone 4S last October) and the Internet giant aren't as close as before. Apple's digital secretary is fast becoming a stranger to Google as one Apple watcher says Siri's reliance on Google has been cut in half since iOS 6.

While 60 percent of Siri queries sent iPhone owners using iOS 5 to Google data, iOS 6 reduced the percentage to 30 percent. Apparently, Google Maps took the heaviest hit as Apple Maps became the destination for 24 percent of Siri's answers, up from zero percent in iOS 5. Siri - now competing with Google's own voice assistant - is also a wee bit more accurate...

Analyst: iPhone 5 order cut no cause for alarm

Quit your worrying. In short, that's what one analyst Wednesday is telling nervous observers concerned over a report that Apple reduced orders for the iPhone 5 during the March quarter.

Instead, the reduction in orders could signal a more efficient supply stream and greater profit for investors.

As we reported earlier this week, Citi's Glen Yeung kicked off the hand-wringing by downgrading Apple stock to 'Neutral' from 'Buy', citing increased competition and the lower iPhone 5 orders. Other Wall Street analysts piled on, cutting their price targets for shares of the iPhone maker. Now J P Morgan analyst Mark Moskowitz is the latest to say the reduced orders may not mean lower demand for the new Apple handset...

Pegatron grabs the majority of iPad orders for the next three years

Always keen on never putting all its eggs in one basket, Apple has been trying to mitigate risk by sourcing components from multiple suppliers. The same goes for product assembly. Though the firm traditionally outsources manufacturing to Foxconn, the world's largest product assembler, Taipei, Taiwan-based Pegatron Technology has been rising increasingly as Apple's other manufacturing partner. According to a report from an Asian trade publication, Pegatron will now get to build the majority of iPad orders for the next three years...

Apple fixes iPad mini, iPhone 5 Wi-Fi bug with iOS 6.0.2 software update

Apple has just released an incremental iOS 6.0.2 update fixing issues with wireless network connections on the iPad mini and iPhone 5. According to Apple, the software “fixes a bug that could impact Wi-Fi”. Previous reports have suggested that these devices suffer from a carrier-agnostic Wi-Fi issue that could result in unwarranted cellular data usage while on a Wi-Fi network. Unfortunately, Apple does not name the exact Wi-Fi bug that has been fixed with this update...

Even with strong iPhone 5 debut in China, analysts downgrade AAPL, sending shares below $500

Is the glass half-full, or half-empty? Apparently, when it comes to Apple's stock, financial analysts in Europe and Asia are born pessimists. After Citigroup Sunday downgraded the iPhone maker's stock from Buy to Neutral, shares fell below $497 in pre-market trading Monday. This after closing Friday at nearly $510. Analysts appear to have discounted the equally-positive news this morning that Apple's two million iPhone 5 in three days in China broke a record...

Fry’s undercuts everyone with a $126 iPhone 5

Fry's, an American big-box store and electronics retailer, has beaten Walmart with a nice holiday discount on the iPhone 5. The entry-level iPhone 5 with sixteen gigabytes of storage and a two-year contract will set you back $126. That's a buck less than Walmart and the lowest price we could find for Apple's latest handset. If you're in the market for a new iPhone, this could be the best deal yet to get your hands on the super fast, thin and light iPhone 5, arguably the best phone in the world...