The Apple online store went down for just over four hours earlier today, and it came back with Apple’s new Father’s Day promotion and a few noticeable design changes.
The Cupertino company is again heavily promoting the iPad and the iPad mini, but the iPhone 5 also gets a lot of room on the store’s homepage.
Wallets: I hate them, but having loose coins in your pocket which fall out every time you sit down is worse. Especially in a country where the coins are actually worth something. Right now I have a typically over-engineered German wallet which will probably last me forever, but I like the look of SF Bags’ new Finn. It’s flat, it holds cash and cars and – if you pick the bigger model – it also has space for your iPhone.
I just got back from a week-long vacation. We were staying in Tel Aviv, Israel, which meant lots of walking and cycling (I took my Brompton), plus day trips. Which in turn meant traveling light.
The iPad is perfect traveling companion, and the iPad mini is even better. But if you want to take lots of photos with an actual camera, or – worse still – a camera that shoots huge RAW images, you need to plan ahead. And as I didn’t want to take a Mac with me, I needed a few tricks to help out.
This post isn’t about how I managed my photos on the trip (although I will mention that side of things a little in terms of the hardware I used). It’s about the gadgets and apps that help you work around the limitations of the iPad when you’re relying on it away from home.
If you jailbreak your iOS devices, there usually comes a point where you get stuck on an older firmware because the latest one hasn’t yet been hacked by the jailbreak community. When this time comes, it’s almost impossible to restore your device and start with a clean OS without losing your jailbreak.
But not anymore. A new app called Semi-Restore provides you with a clean install of your current firmware without updating your device and killing your jailbreak.
Earlier this month, a hacked carrier update for the T-Mobile iPhone 5 that brought increased data speeds was released by Joe Brown and Sky Zangas, two developers behind iTweakiOS. Now the duo have released a similar hack for AT&T devices, only this time, it’s not just for the iPhone.
The hacked carrier update also supports the iPad and promises to improve data performance on both LTE and HSPA+.
Although Apple doesn’t like to talk too much about it, they admit right on their official website that all of the glass used in their iPhone and iPad displays are made by Corning, makers of Gorilla Glass.
Corning’s always looking to make their glass stronger, thinner and more useful to Apple, though, which is why they’ve just announced Corning Lotus XT Glass, which looks to be a prime contender for use in the upcoming iPhone 5S, iPad 5 and iPad mini 2.
The video above, frankly, is pretty boring. Here’s what you need to know: Lotus XT Glass is a new type of glass from Corning that is specifically designed for use in high-performance displays, like Retina displays. Its primary characteristics are that they allow more light through, so Lotus XT Glass reduces power draw (light goes through easier, so a backlight needs to do less to compensate) and increase color vibrancy. In addition, Lotus XT Glass is easier for manufacturers to work with, reducing manufacturing costs and increasing yields.
The winner of Apple’s $10,000 App Store gift card has revealed how he saved up apps to download to his iPhone in an a bit to become the 50 billionth downloader. Brandon Ashmore, 21, from Mentor, Ohio, held his downloads until Wednesday night to try to give himself a better chance of winning the contest.
He still thought it was a joke when Apple called to tell him he had won, though.
Virgin Mobile has slashed 15% off both the 8GB iPhone 4 and the 16GB iPhone 4S on one of its prepaid Beyond Talk Unlimited data plans. The deal will get you a new iPhone — without a contract commitment — for less than $300.
For the past six year that I’ve owned an iPhone, not once have I thought about buying a dock. What’s the point? You’ve got your cable right there anyway, and unless it adds some great functionality to the iPhone, I’ve never seen much point in them. But the Projectone from Karas Kustoms has changed my opinion on the usefulness of iPhone docks.
Projectone by Karas Kustoms Category: iPhone Dock Works With: iPhone 5 Price: $45
The Projectone is a machined aluminum dock for your iPhone 5 that passively amplifies sound like a megaphone. Its simplistic style and industrial stylings make it one of the best-looking iPhone docks we’ve seen in a while, but is it actually worth its $45 price tag?
With the exception of the possibility of new color offerings, we all know that the iPhone 5S will likely look pretty much identical to the iPhone 5… but that doesn’t mean things aren’t changing significantly on the inside. And BGR thinks they have proof.