The original iPhone first went on sale eight years ago today, on June 29, 2007 — a simpler time when Pixar released the movie Ratatouille, the NFL shut down its European league, Rihanna’s “Umbrella” topped the music charts, and Apple stock sold for a measly $17.43.
If only we knew then what we know today!
Back in 2008, when Apple was selling roughly a tenth of the number of iPhones it sells today, the company produced a limited number of giant-sized display iPhones with built-in 30-inch Cinema Displays to show off its new line of smartphones.
Most of them were destroyed after the promotion was finished, but thanks to the wonderful world of the Internet, we can see that at least one made it out alive — and has now been converted by Reddit user 92JMFL into possibly the world’s sweetest Mac display.
Check out more photos below.
Samsung is reportedly making a bid to steal away Toshiba’s job of producing the flash memory chips for the iPhone 6s — something which would help out the South Korean tech giant at a time when its own mobile business is struggling.
The news follows not long after reports that the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus is looking to add faster TLC-based NAND flash storage for the next-gen handsets, possibly en route to ditching the largely-useless 16GB entry level storage option in current iPhones.
Apple was out in force yesterday as Tim Cook and 8,000 Apple employees participated in Sunday’s 43rd Annual Gay Pride Parade in San Francisco, following last week’s historic Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage across the U.S.
Apple employees carried LGBT rainbow flags as they took to the streets — considerably outnumbering the hundreds of employees from other tech companies such as Google, Facebook, Uber, and others.
Apple Music is set to launch at 11am ET/8am PT tomorrow alongside the release of iOS 8.4 One hour later at 12pm ET/9am PT, the inaugural Beats 1 radio broadcast will take place presented by DJ Zane Lowe.
While we previously knew that Apple’s new streaming music service would by launching June 30, it was left to Ian Rogers, Apple’s senior director of Apple Music to announce an exact time, which he did over the weekend.
Hot of the heels of Apple’s “Shot on iPhone” ad campaign winning top prize at the Outdoor Lions competition at Cannes, the company has unveiled two new videos showing off the kind of beautiful footage it’s possible to capture on an iPhone.
Check them out below.
The second-generation FLIR One thermal camera is now available for iOS devices. Unlike the first-gen FLIR one which came as an iPhone 5/5s case, this standalone accessory attaches to your iPhone or iPad via a Lightning connector — and offers you 4x better resolution in the process.
People working on the Apple Watch supply chain are said to be expecting a “possible surge in orders” for the second half of 2015, as Apple’s debut wearable device continues to gain momentum in the marketplace.
According to a new report, this growth is linked to the fact that Apple Watch yield rates have significantly improved since manufacturing began, meaning that Apple is finally able to get hold of units of the device in the kind of quantities it would hope for.
One is a cult-like organization which bilks its (often celebrity) followers out of huge amounts of money, while intimidating people who dare to speak out against its dangers. The other is Scientology.
Or at least that’s the parallel drawn by Oscar-winning documentary director Alex Gibney, who claimed to see similarities between Apple and the L. Ron Hubbard-founded religion during a recent screening of his Steve Jobs documentary Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine.
Apple has been secretly experimenting with dual-camera iPhone lenses for three years, according to Altek’s Xiaru Wen, the CEO of the company responsible for building similar camera modules for HTC and Huawei.
The report claims that Apple has been held up by two challenges until now: technical problems resulting in blurred images, and an inability to find a manufacturer able to build enough of the components in the allotted time.
But things may be about to change.
DJ Zane Lowe is clearly intent on getting Beats 1 kicked off with a bang, since he has posted an image to Instagram revealing that hip-hop artist Eminem will be his first guest interview when Apple Music launches next week.
Lowe joined Apple from BBC Radio 1 earlier this year, where he had previously interviewed top-tier music names including Eminem, Kanye West, Jay Z, Rick Rubin, and Chris Martin.
Numerous T-Mobile iPhone users are complaining that their handsets are reportedly suffering bizarre outages, causing them to reboot at half-hourly intervals.
On social media, users are describing how their Uncarrier iPhones crash every 20 to 30 minutes while they are using certain apps, leading to a Microsoft-style “blue screen of death” and then a reboot.
More and more evidence is racking up that Apple will introduce its Force Touch technology — previously seen in the Apple Watch and recent MacBook models — as a chief feature for the upcoming iPhone 6s.
According to a new report citing industry sources, Apple has upped its orders for the flexible printed circuit boards necessary for incorporating Force Touch into its next-gen iPhones — with its main FPCB suppliers being Zhen Ding Technology and Flexium Interconnect.
Having agreed to pay out royalties to music artists during the initial three-month trial period of Apple Music, Apple will reportedly pay rights holders 0.2 cents per stream, according to a new report.
This rate is similar to that paid by other streaming companies, such as Spotify, for their free tier. Apple is also said to be still negotiating a smaller free for songwriting rights which be paid to publishers.
Recent reports claim that Apple is looking to eliminate the need for a physical “home” button on future iPhones by integrating Touch ID fingerprint sensors into the main display. Now we have the patent application to prove it!
Published Thursday, Cult of Mac got its hands on a patent application entitled “Fingerprint Biometric Sensor Including Drive Signal Level Updating,” which reveals how Apple has been exploring processing circuitry capable of acquiring fingerprint data by using special “sensing pixels” within screens.
If you’re a fan of iOS gaming you’ve probably visited (or should visit) TouchArcade, which just so happens to be the largest and oldest iOS gaming website on the Internet.
Featuring news, reviews, guides, interviews, and one of the best iOS gaming forums you’ll find anywhere, TouchArcade is a great resource for anyone who feels like we’re currently in the middle of something of a golden age for mobile gaming.
But the site needs your help.
The Taylor Swift/Apple Music controversy has reignited discussion about what exactly the trend toward music streaming is going to do to artists.
If you’re concerned that your favorite singer isn’t getting enough dough, you may be interested to check out Eternify, a brand new website which lets users play any song they want from Spotify’s catalog in loops lasting 30 seconds — gradually racking up pay-per-stream royalties for the artist or band in question.
“Music streaming’s virtually worthless for artists,” the website reads. “But we can change that.”
Apple’s crowdsourced “Shot on iPhone” ad campaign’s not just a hit with customers — it’s raking in plaudits from the pros as well.
The iPhone campaign and its accompanying “World Gallery” picked up the top prize at the Outdoor Lions competition at Cannes, with jury president Juan Carlos Ortiz describing it as “not just a great idea, [but] a game-changer.”
We couldn’t agree more.
If you’ve been waiting for Apple to make an iPhone with a flexible OLED display, you may be getting your wish — although not for at least a few more years. According to a new report coming out of South Korea, Apple is “very likely” to release its first iPhone with a flexible OLED display in 2018, and the company’s display suppliers are currently “working on it.”
Does this mean we’re about seeing bendgate part two?
If you think a new iPhone costs a pretty penny where you live, spare a moment of thought for the poor folks of Venezuela — a.k.a. the most expensive iPhone market in the world.
Due to a combination of limited supply and crazy inflation, iPhones in the country cost 300,000 bolivars, or around $47,678.
Yes, you read that correctly!
As a key driver in Bluetooth-related innovation, Apple has today been announced as a new promoter member of the Bluetooth SIG (Special Interest Group.)
Giving Apple voting rights on Bluetooth SIG corporate matters, as well as a continual seat on the SIG Board of Directors, Apple joins current promoter members Ericsson, Intel, Lenovo, Microsoft, Nokia, and Toshiba.
It’s about time, too!
From the suggestion that the Earth is actually hollow to accusations that Jay Z and Beyonce are the world’s most famous Illuminati members, the Internet is nothing if not great for spreading crazy conspiracy theories.
In the wake of the recent Apple/Taylor Swift confrontation over Apple Music, there’s another one to add to the list: That the whole thing was staged to promote Apple’s new streaming music service.
And based on the number of times it’s already being mentioned, a surprising number of people believe it.
Hong Kong import and export lawmaker Wong Ting-kwong has embarrassed himself after being snapped viewing sexy pics on his iPhone during an important parliamentary debate. Because, you know, helping decide the entire future of Hong Kong isn’t exciting enough!
Crazily enough, Wong is far from the first high-profile politician to be caught using his Apple product inappropriately.
I’m a sucker when it comes to upgrading to the latest iPhone, but like a lot of people I’ve stopped to think about how bizarre it is that new iPhones go from coveted items we’ll queue up for hours to get our hands on, to scratched, slightly-battered handsets we’ll sell or pass on to friends — all within the course of just one year.
Filmmaker Paul Trillo has taken this idea and used it to put together a pretty nifty short film showing off the life, death and reincarnation of one such device — all shot from the point-of-view of the iPhone itself.
Check it out below:
In a Chinese-language interview, Tim Cook has revealed how Apple considers Chinese consumer tastes into account when designing any new products.
Given that Cook has previously talked about how China will soon overtake the U.S. as Apple’s biggest market this is unlikely to surprise many readers, but it’s another reminder of just how important the Chinese market is for Apple.
