Buster Hein - page 153

Smartphones have been linked to rising crime in New York and San Francisco thanks to their allure among thieves, and according to the FCC it’s getting even worse, with a new study finding 10% of all robberies now involve the theft of a smartphone.

For iPhone owners there is some good news though. The FCC says theft of iOS devices has been on the decline ever since Apple added Activation Lock in iOS 7. Thieves in San Francisco are reportedly passing up on the iPhone now that users have a kill switch, leading to a 38% decline in iPhone robberies.

iPhone thefts in New York City were also down 19% in the first five months of 2014, and in London they’ve dropped 24%. Android owners aren’t as lucky though.

Apple has been fighting an iPod-related class-action lawsuit for nearly a decade now, but just as the trial is heating up in Oakland, the New York Times reports that the lawyers suing Apple have suddenly found themselves down to just one plaintiff.

The $350 million case accuses Apple of stifling competition on iTunes from competing music services by deleting songs off users’ iPods from September 2006 to March 2009. But lawyers in the case have withdrawn one of the named plaintiffs today, after they discovered her iPod wasn’t purchased during the time period in question.

Eddy Cue and Phil Schiller have both testified this week at the trial regarding Apple’s use of DRM.  Evidence from Steve Jobs is also expected to be presented, however, there might not even be a case by the time they get to it.

Have you been noticing some weird problems with your Instagram feed today, like pictures not showing up? You’re not alone, says Instagram, which notified users this morning that it is experiencing some issues, but a fix is in the works.

Instagram users have reportedly been experiencing issues where their main photo feed isn’t updating with new pictures, even though Instagram users they’re following are still able to upload and share new pictures.

Apple announced today that in support of Computer Science Education Week, anyone can come to an Apple Store on December 11th for a free-introductory course on how to become the next great iOS developer.

The free coding workshops are part of Code.org’s Hour of Code initiative, that seeks to make coding a little less intimidating by educating people of all ages on the basics of computer programming, because like Steve Jobs once said, every American should learn how to code.

Apple Computers was recently named the 10th most disruptive idea of the last 85 years  by Businessweek. To celebrate the historic impact of the Apple I and Apple II computer had on the digital revolution, the magazine interviewed Steve Wozniak to talk about the early days of Apple.

Wozniak talked about working with Steve Jobs in high school and how the two founded the company with Ron Wayne, but Woz says that while he realized the world was on the verge of a huge computer revolution, it took Jobs a little longer to see the impact computers would have on the average Joe.

Tim Cook and U2 just got roasted for forcing music onto customers’ iPhones, but from 2007 to 2009, Steve Jobs’ Apple was allegedly playing a different tune, and deleted music off of iPods that was purchased on rival music services.

That wouldn’t have been so bad if it were just your embarrassing Nickelband albums, but attorneys for consumers at the ongoing antitrust lawsuit, say iTunes deleted all rival files without ever giving users a warning that they were about to lose their tunes.

GQ Magazine has named Apple exec and Beats cofounder, Jimmy Iovine, as one its Men of the Year. To go with the annual honors, the music legend sat down for an interview to discuss how he went from sweeping floors in a New York recording studio at 19, to creating the iconic Beats brand at 55.

Apple acquired Iovine’s company for a record $3 billion earlier this year, but according to Jimmy, it took him about two years to convince Apple that they needed him to plug the musical hole Steve Jobs left when he died in 2011.

The iPhone 6 Plus has only been on the market for a few months, but according to a report from Kantar, Apple’s bigger than big device captured 41% of U.S. phablet sales in the quarter ending with October 2014.

What’s even more impressive is that Apple managed to take a huge chunk of the market with only one full month of sales in the quarter. Kantar reports that among smartphones with a 5.5-inch screen or larger, Apple is absolutely dominating the trendy new category that now represents ten percent of all smartphone sales.

Disneyland is the happiest place on earth, but in 2014 it was also the most Instagrammed spot in the universe.

Instagram revealed its list of the top 10 geotagged locations in 2014 with Cult of Mac this morning, and the Mouse is the King this year, after the Siam Paragon shopping mall in Bangkok took the top spot in 2013.

New York City managed to land three locations in the top 10, while Moscow had two iconic areas on Instagram’s list. Take a look at the full list below and see if there’s a spot that you snapped this year:

Tim Cook made a visit to Washington D.C. this week to discuss the U.S. technology policy with one of the most tech-focused Senators on Capitol Hill.

The Apple CEO met with Senator Orrin Hatch from Utah on Tuesday, reports The Hill, after Cook paid a visit to the nearby Georgetown Apple Store the previous day for Worlds AIDS day. Senator Hatch’s Innovation Agenda for the 114th Congress was the focus of the conversation, as Hatch currently serves as the chairman of the Senate Republican High-Tech Task Force.

Apple is no stranger to filing lawsuits against iPhone cloners, but in a twisted turn of events, an Chinese Android manufacturer with a handset that looks suspiciously similar to the iPhone 6 is claiming that Apple ripped off its designs.

Little known Chinese smartphone maker DigiOne published a letter today that the company’s lawyers sent to Apple in September. The letter contests that “the design of Apple’s mobile device with the brand name “iPhone 6”, may infringe on one of Baili’s Chinese patents” filed in January of 2014.

Digione’s cheap handset, which is being sold by subsidiary brand 100+, was granted the patent in July. The patent in question does look similar to an iPhone, in that it features a device that is thin and rectangular shaped, with a flat back, rounded edges, and glass screen.

Check out their weird ad for the V6 see for yourself:

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is about to become a reality TV star. If you’re curious to see what watching The Woz might be like when it airs, Starwood Hotels just shot a quick video of Woz demonstrating their SPG app to magically unlock his hotel room at the W in Hollywood.

The SPG app seeks makes hotel keys obsolete by giving visitors a Bluetooth key upon checkin within the app, allowing  you to skip the front desk altogether and unlock your room with the iPhone 6’s new NFC chip. The new SPG keyless entry system has only been around for a month, but Woz says its so easy to use, you don’t even need someone to teach you what to do.

Watch Woz demo the keyless entry app in the video below:

Microsoft released its list of the top Bing searches of 2014 this week, and among tech companies, Apple appears to be this year’s big winner, again.

The iPhone 6 and iPad both ranked among the top 5 tech search words of 2014, according to BingTrends. Other top searches included Fitbit and the Xbox One, but the iPhone 6’s biggest competitor – the Samsung Galaxy S5 – didn’t even place in the top 10.

Here are the complete rankings:

Banks and credit card companies have been making a big push to get customer to use Apple Pay, but perhaps no one is trying harder than Wells Fargo.

So far the bank has been doing everything from emailing customers to use Apple Pay, and even paying people just to try it out. In it’s newest effort to get card holders to activate Apple Pay, Wells Fargo has released a new ad showing how wicked fast it is to pay with your iPhone 6, rather than a credit card. So fast in fact, it might actually ruin your surprise birthday party.

Check out the funny ad below:

Apple’s negotiator-in-chief, Eddy Cue is out to clear the air surrounding the price-fixing conspiracy Apple was found guilty of by U.S. federal court in 2013, before the case hits an appeals court later this month.

In a rare interview, Cue sat down with Fortune to talk about the ebook controversythat has embroiled Apple and the six top book publishers ever since the iPad launched with the iBookstore in 2011.

Apple was found guilty of conspiring to raise ebook prices in 2011, after the launch of the iBookstore saw price of ebook new releases spike 17% overnight. Apple has maintained its innocence through the entire ordeal, and though the company has been criticized for its litigious nature, Cue says the company has to “fight for the truth,” no matter what.

It’s been over two and a half years since Apple TV was updated, and while Apple’s been happy resting on its laurels, its biggest competitors are passing it by.

Google’s Chromecast is now more popular than Apple TV, reports Parks Associates, which says streaming media players become more popular than ever in the first three quarters of 2014, as 10 percent of U.S. households bought at least one new streaming device.

HP just announced its newest business laptops today – the HP EliteBook Folio 1020 – and even though the company is touting them as the thinnest and lightest ‘business-class’ notebooks ever made, they certainly look a hell of lot like the MacBook Air.

This isn’t the first time HP’s design team ripped off Apple’s work, but the copycats have fine-tuned the design of their previous MacBook Air rip-off, the 1040, by removing the unsightly ventilation fan on the side, so it looks even more Apple-esque.

Here’s another look:

We’re months away from being able to shackle our wrists to the Apple Watch, but the UI designers at Impekable have been busy dreaming up new app experiences that will delight wearers once the timepiece is finally available.

“Our concept was to re-envision how Apple Watch could enhance the Starbucks customer experience by providing an even better way to order rather than standing in a long line,” Impekable’s founder Pek Pongpaet told Cult of Mac. “Wouldn’t it be cool if I could just go grab a table, order one of my usual drinks, pay for it using Apple Pay or my Starbucks card and get notified when my drink is ready – all from my phone without leaving the comfort of my seat?”

Check out the slick concept below:

Steve Wozniak has played a lot of roles over the last three decades – engineer, Apple co-founder, Segway polo champion, and university professor – but Steve is about to jump into an all new realm: Realty TV show host.

The Apple co-founder is reportedly tag-teaming with Mythbusters’ co-host Kari Byron for a new reality TV show about all-things tech called The Woz.

No one has had a chance to try the Apple Watch on for size yet, but according to a report from UBS, that’s not stopping Apple fanboys from planning to scoop up the Apple timepiece once its available, and all those eager buyers could lead to a staggering 24 million sales in the first year.

According to a recent survey of iPhone owners, at least one in ten users say they’re ‘very likely’ to buy the Apple Watch once it hits stores, and while that figure doesn’t sound like a lot, the investment firm estimates it could lead to $3.4 billion in gross profit in the first few months alone.

Apple shares took an inexplicable beating from investors on Monday morning, leading to the stock’s single biggest fall since January 28th, 2014. And no one really know why.

An unusual spike in trading volume this morning sent the price of AAPL shares falling as much as 6.4 percent to $111.27 in early trading this morning, leading to a loss of more than $40 billion in market value in just a few minutes.

Microsoft is digging its roots deeper into iOS and Android this week with the announcement that it has acquired the popular cross-platform email app Acompli.

News of the Acompli acquisition was posted today on Microsoft’s company blog, with VP of Office, Rajesh Jha, saying the company plans to integrate the app into the Outlook redesign his team is currently working on.

Still waiting for a good excuse to upgrade to the iPhone 6? If you didn’t take advantage of any of the Black Friday deals, T-Mobile announced this morning that it’ll give you a 64GB iPhone 6 for the price of the 16GB version.

The Cyber Monday deal only last for the next 24 hours, but will save you $100 on the price of the 64GB iPhone 6 which normally sells for $749.99 unlocked on T-Mobile.

Similar deals are also available for the 64GB iPhone 5s, which is now on sale for the price of a 32GB unit. You can also pick up a 32GB iPhone 5c for the price of an 8GB iPhone 5c, saving you $50 on each. The deal is web-only, so you can’t go into a T-Mobile store to pick one up, but you can still use the carrier’s $350 termination fee bonus to switch carriers.

Source: T-Mobile

Uber has been sideswiped by a ridiculous number of controversies lately, but things are about to get even worse for the ride-sharing service. A security researcher just reverse-engineered the code of Uber’s Android app and made a startling discovery: It’s “literally malware.”

Digging into the app’s code, GironSec discovered the Uber app “calls home” and sends data back to Uber. This isn’t typical app data, though. Uber has access to users’ entire SMSLog even though the app never requests permission. It also accesses call history, Wi-Fi connections used, GPS locations and every type of device ID possible.