When you’re dealing with a genre as tired as the endless runner (no pun intended), it can be difficult to do something new. That’s not the case with Fotonica, an upcoming iOS title.
By switching the genre to a first-person perspective (you even see your arms pumping back and forth at the edges of the screen) and adopting sparse vector art, the dynamic game looks like the kind of title we might have dreamed of owning back in the 1980s.
Microsoft is going through some major turbulence. Today it has announced major layoffs, beginning with 13,000 positions to go immediately, with a total of 18,000 expecting to find themselves out of a job sometime during 2014.
The vast majority of these sackings involve the company’s Nokia division. Microsoft acquired Nokia’s Devices and Services unit back in September 2013 for $7.2 billion. Along with taking ownership of the Finnish firm’s entire smartphone lineup — giving it complete control over both hardware and software– the acquisition saw 25,000 Nokia employees join the Microsoft ranks.
The current Microsoft layoffs means that up to half of the Nokia people will probably leave the company, although it will also likely signal the end for some previous Microsoft employees to allow for incoming Nokia talent.
There’s a line in 1990’s The Godfather: Part III when Al Pacino’s Michael describes his inability to extract his family from a life of crime, saying: “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.”
Much the same could be said for Apple’s relationship with long-time chip supplier and bitter rival, Samsung. Having previously heard that Apple was handing the majority of the iPhone 6 chip orders to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC), a new report suggests that TMSMC is now likely to lose future orders (most likely for the next-next generation iPhone 6s) back to Samsung.
KGI Securities analyst Michael Liu claims that TSMC will be supplanted by Samsung in the production of 14-nanometre A-series smartphone chips for Apple and Qualcomm, beginning in the second half of 2015.
It feels weird to suggest that George Lucas, the guy to whom we should be eternally grateful for bringing us Star Wars in the first place, doesn’t "get" his creation. Looking at Star Wars Episodes I-III, however, it would be difficult to argue that he’s totally in sync with what people love about the original trilogy. With all its mentions of trade embargoes and tax deductibles, the pre-credits crawl for Episode I reads more like Lucas filing his 1040 form than the setup for an exciting movie. Things only got worse from there.
That’s not to suggest there weren’t Star Wars moments in the prequels, but they were few and far between. Episode VII director J.J. Abrams, on the other hand, was 11 when the first Star Wars came out: the perfect age to be well and truly hooked. That fanboyishness comes across in everything we’ve seen of the movie so far.
Picture: Geeknutz
As the devices we likely use the most on any given day, it makes sense that our smartphones should be as personalized as possible: not necessarily in terms of the New York Knicks or Hello Kitty case we keep them in, but in terms of how much they understand us and can anticipate our behavior.
A new patent application published Thursday shows how Apple is experimenting with future iPhones and other mobile devices which can comb through the usage patterns on particular device and determine whether it is being used by its rightful owner.
For many users, the iPhone has long since been their default go-to camera, and that’s unlikely to change with the upcoming iPhone 6.
As many smartphone camera aficionados will know, Apple has been using Sony’s Exmor sensors for its cameras as far back as the iPhone 4s. Both the 4s and 5 used an Exmor IMX145 unit, while the 5s updated to a newer model.
According to a new report, the iPhone 6 is set to upgrade yet again: adopting the Sony Exmor IMX220, which boasts 13 MP and a 1/2.3″ sensor, and is capable of recording 1080p videos (3840 x 1080 resolution sampling.)
New leaked photos reportedly showing the battery from the long-awaited 4.7-inch iPhone 6 have emerged online, apparently depicting devices with a capacity of 1,810 mAh. Provided that these turn out to be genuine, this would represent a slight improvement versus the 1,560 mAh battery seen in the current generation iPhone 5s.
Just because people are expecting Apple to revolutionize wearables with its long-awaited iWatch, doesn’t mean that there aren’t already some interesting developments going on in the wearable tech field.
I’m a massive fan of Jawbone, which has just updated its UP by Jawbone iOS app with a new fitness-oriented update — designed to focus on food-related goals, such as weight and calorie intake.
So long as we live in a world where WhatsApp can be bought for $19 billion and even an ultra-simple novelty app like Yo manages to scrape together $1 million in venture funding, people are going to go right on creating messaging apps.
One of the latest is La-La Messenger, which promises users the possibility of conducting entire conversations out of song snippets. A greeting, for instance, might be “Hello” by Lionel Richie, while “the world is a dark place if this is the future of communication” could be Sean Paul’s “Gimme the Light.”
Smartphone user habits may change depending on where you are in the world, but one thing remains largely the same: the iPhone (and Apple brand) is a status symbol.
With that in mind, Apple is tapping FPT Corp., Vietnam’s biggest listed information and communication technology company, to help grow its market share across Vietnam and Southeast Asia.
As with China, developing markets such as Vietnam represent important potential hotbeds for Apple to target, and establishing a presence early is of the utmost importance. According to Lam Nguyen, Ho Chi Minh City-based country director at International Data Corp, Vietnamese smartphone sales will increase by around 56 percent to 12 million units in 2014 alone — and Apple should be in a position to get a large chunk of those sales.
Photos have surfaced on French Apple website Nowhereelse.fr that purport to show the Touch ID sensor for Apple’s next-generation iPhone 6.
While at first glance, the images look identical to the sensor embedded within the iPhone 5s — Apple’s first smartphone to feature the Touch ID technology — upon closer inspection some tiny differences in design can be spotted. These predominantly relate to the edges of the sensor where the tiny screws will attach it to the device’s metal housing.
The two sensors can be seen next to one another in the image below:
From personal computers and smartphones, to tablets and wearables, half the fun of following Apple is trying to figure out where it's going to go next.
Looking back through the Cult of Mac archives, a lot of the rumors we've brought to light over the years did hint at innovations that eventually found their ways into the sweaty hands of excited customers. But every once in a while a rumor comes along that's so ridiculous it can't possibly be true. And more often than not, that's exactly the case.
Check out our gallery for our picks of top Apple rumors that turned out to be totally wide of the mark.
Earlier today we reported on how Apple’s new iTunes Pass feature hints at Apple’s interest in mobile payments. However, Apple’s not the only company interested in this area.
Last night, PayPal updated its iOS client with one important new feature, allowing it to support loyalty cards. That means that PayPal’s app can become your one-stop-shop for payments and checkins for some of your favorite stores, including Starbucks, CVS, and others.
Apple has launched a new service called iTunes Pass in several countries, including Japan, Brazil and China.
The service lets customers buy iTunes Store credit from brick-and-mortar Apple retail stores — only using Passbook, rather than the physical gift cards most commonly used. The service appears to work by letting users add a new iTunes Pass inside the Passbook app, which they can then present at their local Apple Store. The user then states how much money they would like to turn into iTunes Store credit, and this is instantly transferred to their account.
iOS 8 is just around the corner and, if the iOS 7 figures are any indicator, it’s likely to find near-total adoption.
Apple just released the latest figures for its current-generation operating system, saying iOS 7 is running on a massive 90 percent of devices. iOS 6, meanwhile, stands at just 9 percent, while earlier versions of iOS represent a minuscule 2 percent combined. iOS 7 was launched 10 months ago in September 2013, making it the fastest-adopted mobile OS in history.
The German champions may only get one World Cup trophy, but thanks to Beats Electronics, the team members will each get a complimentary pair of 24-karat gold Beats Pro headphones.
Having previously become the hit advertiser of the World Cup with its “Game Before the Game” ad (despite being banned from press events), Beats’ follow-up is a great marketing stunt. It also adds supermodel Naomi Campbell, who was photographed with the gold-dipped headphones and a similarly shiny soccer ball, to the list of high-end celebrities associated with Beats.
Apple appears in more movies each year than Samuel L. Jackson.
The latest flick to feature the company’s products is the new comedy, Sex Tape, in which Cameron Diaz and Jason Segal record an “adult home movie” on their iPad, only to accidentally upload it to the iCloud, so that all their friends and family get to see it. (Yep, it’s basically the American Pie joke, only stretched to fill an entire movie.)
While Apple’s inclusion in the film means that Cupertino is presumably happy with the script (the trailer even features an added reference to Siri), when GQ magazine contacted AppleCare to find out whether the described scenario could actually happen it was told that it is pretty much flat-out science-fiction.
There may not be any official announcement of Apple’s iWatch entry into the wearable tech market just yet, but that’s not stopping analysts from predicting big things for it.
The latest is Morgan Stanley’s Katy Huberty, who suggests that the iWatch could achieve sales in the region of 30-60 million units in its first year on the market, thanks to the “halo effect” of brand loyalty to Apple that will drive sales of the as-yet-unannounced product.
When you’re a company the size of Apple (whose co-founder Steve Jobs famously made comments about how it’s not the job of users to know what they want) you’d be forgiven for thinking they don’t listen to the little guy.
Over the weekend, a story popped up on Reddit, however, revealing how one user supposedly convinced Tim Cook to change Apple’s on-hold music — telling him that it sounded distorted and therefore surprisingly un-Apple-like in its lack of quality. Cook apparently listened and – hey presto! – people dialling into Apple now get better-sounding hold music while they wait.
The full post can be read below:
A new report in Pediatrics claims that an iPad was the cause of a recent itchy body rash in an 11-year-old boy recently treated at a San Diego hospital.
The reason? Like many personal electronic devices — including laptops and cellphones — iPads may contain nickel, one of the most common allergy-inducing metals.
While nickel rashes aren’t life-threatening, they can be very uncomfortable and may require treatment using steroids and antibiotics if skin eruptions become infected. Dr. Sharon Jacob, a dermatologist at Rady Children’s Hospital, who co-authored the report, said doctors traced the boy’s long-running skin to an iPad his family purchased in 2010.
Apple already has a whole lot of component makers on its books, but according to Digitimes it’s just added one more.
Digitimes is claiming that Apple recently inked a deal with flexible copper clad-laminate maker Asia Electronic Materials (AEM) to provide coverlay orders for next-generation iPhones.
Apple’s iBeacon technology has potentially massive implications across a range of areas — many of them having been demonstrated over the past year.
Up until now, however, Apple has handled only the software side of the equation with the aid of the microlocation technology found in iOS. That may be set to change with new first-party iBeacon hardware, for which FCC filings have just been uncovered by electronics company Securifi.
Registered as the “Apple iBeacon” and with a model number of A1573, the document describes how the technology was tested in collaboration with the Chinese company Audix Technology, between April 30 and May 13 this year. The beacon in question (at least in the case of the model tested) is USB-powered, has a diameter of 5.46″, and a working frequency of up to 2.4GHz, which is standard for Bluetooth.
Last week there was a big furore when it turned out that a Reuters report about the National Federation of the Blind taking issue with the accessibility of Apple’s apps was based on inaccurate reporting.
Given how seriously Apple takes the issue of accessibility (as seen by Tim Cook’s comments at Auburn University last year, and his angry retort to investors worried about ROI earlier this year) it didn’t take long for Cupertino to spring into action: pointing out just how seriously they take the concept that their products should be used and enjoyed by everyone, including those with disabilities.
Now Mark A. Riccobono, President of the National Federation of the Blind, has chimed into the debate himself, with a lengthy blog post praising Apple’s work on accessibility, but also pointing out what can be done to improve this even more in future — by having Apple work with app developers to make the 1 million+ apps in the App Store more accessible to all users.
When Yo, an app which lets you send out one word messages (hint: they all read “yo!”), hit the App Store and raised $1 million in the process, it seemed that messaging apps had reached their minimalist bottom.
Not so, according to the makers of TAP: a new check-in app looking to snatch Yo’s status as the world’s fastest messaging app. TAP lets you broadcast your location to friends by simply tapping twice on your phone, without even having to unlock it. The location update lasts just ten minutes before disappearing — making this something along the lines of the “Snapchat for Location.”
Steve Jobs may have been part of some of the biggest tech revolutions of the past forty years, but he was also part of an illegal attempt to suppress employee wages by way of a massive no-poaching agreement with other tech giants.
Another of the companies accused of similar actions by former employees was Pixar, the company Jobs purchased a majority interest in after being booted out of Apple in the mid-80s. In 2011, Pixar’s John Lasseter described Jobs as “forever…part of Pixar’s DNA.”
As it happens, that may not be entirely for the best.