Since I’m so excited, we’re going to front load this review: if you don’t want to sign a contract to have an iPhone, Straight Talk is the best prepaid carrier you can possibly choose in the United States. And even if you have no problem with signing a two year contract with one of the big three, you should seriously consider Straight Talk: you get the same quality of coverage and network speeds as if you signed up with AT&T for hundreds of dollars less.
Got that? Now let me elaborate.
This image claiming that Microsoft ripped off its new logo from Apple is pretty funny, but is its creator, Andrew Brett Watson, really being fair? Check it out in full below:
Last week I was in the tobacconist buying some Cuban cigars, and the girl in front of me was tattooed with an Apple logo. I got a crappy picture, but I snapped it out of horror rather than admiration.
Still, a tat is one thing. An Asymco T-Shirt, featuring a graph of, say, Apple’s increasing stock price, is another. These things are so dorky that they come out the other side being awesome.
Samsung may have been treated unfairly when the trial’s magistrate Judge refused to admit new evidence into the case late in the game despite the fact it had allowed Apple to order an earlier sanction against it, a prominent law blog is reporting.
A post in Groklaw.net says Samsung may build a case around the issue of unfairness in an attempt to throw out the verdict if the jury goes against it.
It’s been a rocking year for Tim Cook, his first as Apple’s CEO. Not only did he not fuck up; Apple shipped a bunch of hit products and became the biggest company ever.
He also defused a big crisis in Apple’s Chinese supply chain and has made Apple a little more open and relaxed (just a teeny bit).
Hit the jump for a great timeline of what Apple’s been up to under Tim Cook’s tenure. (Really, it’s a fascinating timeline and was a ton of work.)
According to the Wall Street Journal, a Seoul court ruled that Apple has infringed on two of Samsung’s patents. In addition, Apple must stop selling the infringing products in South Korea. Apple isn’t the only one at fault here, as the court also ruled that Samsung had infringed upon Apple’s “bounceback” patent. According to the WSJ’s Evan Ramstad:
Looks like a split decision overall in South Korea court, but Samsung faring better than Apple with judges.
In addition, Reuters reports that Apple has been given a small fine of roughly $35,400.
For months rumors have been saying that Apple is getting ready to launch two major, new products this fall: the iPhone 5 and iPad mini. Both of these names are placeholders for what will be the sixth-generation iPhone and a 7-inch version of the current iPad. Everyone pretty much agrees that the new iPhone will be announced on September 12th, but opinions are split on the possibility of Apple also announcing the iPad mini during the same event. While it’s nearly 100% confirmed that a unibody iPhone 5 will be announced on the 12th and then ship on the 21st, specific dates have not surfaced for the elusive iPad mini—we haven’t even seen so much as an incriminating part leak.
While some think that Apple will announce both the new iPhone and iPad mini at its September event, it actually makes more sense for Apple to hold two separate media events this fall for each product. Here’s why.
We’re a little bit skeptical that jOBS — the upcoming biopic of Steve Jobs’s life from 1971 to 2000 starring That 70s Show doofus Ashton Kutcher — will be any good, but you’ve got to admit, Kutcher surprisingly looks the part. Check out these new photos of him in his buttoned-down, vest-wearing phase in the late 90s. More pictures below.
September is going to be a big month for Apple fans, with more confirmation today revealing that an official media event is scheduled to take place Wednesday, September 12th. Apple is expected to announce the next iPhone at the event and then make the smartphone available the following Friday, September 21st.
While a new iPhone is on the cards, there seems to be slightly less assurance that we’ll see the rumored 7-inch iPad mini. There has also been some whispers that Apple will also announce an updated version of the current third-gen iPad in September, which seems even more far-fechted.
Details may be up for debate, but Apple is definitely up to something in the iPad space. A new report today reveals that Apple has instructed authorized resellers to triple display space for the iPad on the store floor. The alleged deadline for this new requirement? September 12th.
Apparently Marissa Mayer wants everyone at Yahoo to use an iPhone and she may be willing to spend some of Yahoo’s cash to buy everyone in the company an iPhone if that’s what it takes. The move would be unusual on a couple of different fronts and it would buck some of the trends popular in the Internet and technology industries as well as in mainstream business. The biggest question isn’t what this means for Yahoo – it’s what will consumers and the industry think about her an Yahoo if she does
It’s hard to believe, given how many Apple Stores are constantly opening their doors, but Apple’s only got official retail presence in 13 countries. That’s nothing: a mere 6% of the world. Chances are, then, that unless you live in America or Western Europe, you don’t have easy access to an Apple Store.
Luckily, that’s a problem Apple’s looking to change, one country at a time. Next country on the list set to be transformed by the Apple retail experience? Good old Mother Russia.
The jury will hear instructions to find a verdict for multiple counts of patent infringement claims in today’s court session of the Apple-Samsung trial. After terms are set, lawyers from each side will gather their final arguments and present them to the jury with the hope of resolving the first skirmish in a series of big legal battles between them.
Only this skirmish is more significant that most. It could end up inflicting very serious financial blows if either one receives a large reward figure or patent nullification. According to financial analysts who testified at the trial last week, a full finding against could cost Samsung upwards of $2.5B and Apple more than $500M. These figures are based on combinations of profit-loss estimates of products sold. The jury can consider and amend these figures as needed. The jury may, for example, choose to give Apple a reward based on the average high-end price point of iPhone applications, at $1.49 an app, as opposed to the median app price of $.99.
But that’s just one possibility. Apple could suffer blows to its lucrative and proprietary touch-screen and mobile technology that has helped push the company towards its current status as the most valuable company in the world.
You didn’t think Samsung was going to idly sit by and watch as Apple took home the award for crappiest commercials of 2012, did you? After Apple released its Genius commercials, which were anything but, Samsung went straight to the drawing board, which coincidentally happens to be the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1.
Yesterday a nasty iPhone SMS spoofing hack was detailed by iOS hacker pod2g. Someone with malicious intent could theoretically change the reply-to number in a SMS message without your knowledge. For instance, you could receive a SMS from a number pretending to be your bank. If you replied with a password or other sensitive data, your security would be compromised. The hack also allows for someone to send a completely spoofed message from a random number.
This bug has been on the iPhone for years and is still present in the iOS 6 beta. Apple today released an official statement addressing the issue.
Still having trouble deciding which way the wind will blow at the end of the patent trial currently being waged between Apple and Samsung? Apparently, you’re not alone,
The Joy Of Tech geniuses, Nitrozac and Shaggy, are at it again in this hilariously designed flow chart to help you make the call about who copied who in the Apple vs Samsung case. It’s fairly obvious that the comic creators are biased, but c’mon – aren’t we all, a little bit?
As we’re an Apple-facing website, we thought it our duty to bring you this, our favorite comic breakdown of the now famous patent case.
Today, Bloomberg reports that Google’s Motorola Mobility unit has filed a new case against Apple with the International Trade Commission (ITC). In the claim, Google asserts that seven of Motorola’s patents have been infringed by the Cupertino-based company.
The patents Google is claiming in the case include location-based reminders, email notification, and video players, oddly enough. The suit itself seeks a ban on US imports of devices like the iPhone and iPad as well as Mac computers, all of which are manufactured out of the US, in China.
When Apple makes a major investment in a community, it can be a contentious thing, sometimes leading to a lot of environmental controversy. For Apple’s latest data center in Crook County, Oregon, though, Apple is doing something for the local community that would seemingly be pretty hard to criticize: tapping an ancient, recently discovered underground stream to give the city clean water.
Yesterday The Wall Street Journal shed some light on Apple’s future plans for the TV, noting that the company was in talks with cable providers to offer live broadcasts through an Apple set-top box. The report also alluded to the possibility of an Apple-branded HDTV.
Tonight The Journal published a follow-up report that adds more details to yesterday’s story, including the not-so-surprising revelation that Apple wants to greatly simplify the overall TV viewing experience.
Once again, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh has lost her patience with the lawyers at the Apple vs. Samsung trial. As noted in our ongoing Apple vs. Samsung liveblog, a frustrated Judge Koh asked Apple’s attorneys if they were “smoking crack” after trying to book too many few witnesses for their last few hours of making their case.
Walk into your local AT&T, Verizon or Sprint store and ask to look at the latest and greatest smartphone. A store employee will show you the Samsung Galaxy lll and other Android phones from the likes of HTC and Motorola. You may be shown a Windows Phone like the Nokia Lumia 900. At Verizon, you’re definitely going to be shown about the Motorola DROID RAZR 4G.
You won’t get pitched the iPhone as easily. In fact, many walk into a store with the plan of buying an iPhone and come out with the latest Android phone in hand.
Why? Employees and customers we’ve spoken to agree that sales reps from all three big carriers discriminate against the iPhone on the store floor, but it’s not a conspiracy: profit margins and device-specific incentives pressure employees to intentionally steer customers away.
Could Apple be working on their own answer to Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator: a sophisticated program for professionals doing photo manipulation and digital illustrating? If a new patent is anything to go by, yes, and it won’t just be a major innovation on the Mac… it will work on the iPad as well.
The Enough Project released a report today that ranks the top technology companies on how well each one is doing in wiping out the use of “conflict minerals” like tantalum, tin, and tungsten in their products. Apple, HP, Intel, Motorola are at the top of the list, while Nintendo is at the bottom, along with HTC, Sharp, Nikon, and Canon.
The minerals in question, mined in areas of armed conflict and human rights abuses, are used in many technology products around the globe, and The Enough Project – a non-profit arm of the Center for American Progress – tracks these in its effort to combat crimes against humanity.
At the end of a long trial day, US District Court Judge Lucy Koh, who’s been the presiding justice over the course of both pre-trial and actual trial, urged that Apple and Samsung speak together to try and resolve their differences out of court before the jury comes back to deliberate on the evidence that has been presented by both sides this week and last.
“It’s time for peace,” Koh said, adding, “I see risks here for both sides.”
In a move that makes the Square/Starbucks partnership announced last week look like small potatoes, a group of national and international retailers announced plans to develop their own mobile payment network complete with mobile apps and digital wallet functionality. The move seems almost certain to shake up the nascent mobile payments market where a wide range of companies and organizations have been trying to figure out the secret sauce that will turn mobile payments into a mainstream retail system for the past couple of years.
The Merchant Customer Exchange or MCX, as the new company is known, plans to deliver a solution that offers convenience in both making purchases and in receiving customizable offers from retailers. Development of a mobile app and payment network are underway, but MCX has yet to announce any details about either the app or its network.
An interesting crop circle was reported at Cheesefoot Head, near Winchester in Hampshire, southern England, last week. An infinite loop, the formation has no beginning nor end. It has been likened to the Tibetan Buddha, symbolizing peace and motion simultaneously. It also reminds us of the command key symbol, an emblem of Mac keyboards over the last thirty years.