Luke Dormehl - page 326

Although BlackBerry hasn’t been a serious competitor to the iPhone in years, the UK phone trade-in website “Cash for phones comparison” has published some pretty damning statistics, showing just how massive the gulf is between the two “competitors.”

Only 8 percent of customers who traded in an old BlackBerry phone claimed any kind of loyalty to the brand, while an overwhelming majority of 66 percent decided to switch to an iPhone. However, it seems that these people weren’t looking so much to get a new iPhone as they were to get any iPhone — since 42.1 percent of respondees decided to ditch their trustworthy BlackBerry for an iPhone 4: a phone which was introduced all the way back in 2010.

Apple will kick-off mass production of its eagerly anticipated 12-inch MacBook Air in Q3 this year, according to a new report from DigiTimes.

The report notes that Quanta Computer is set to manufacture the laptops, and suggests that they will feature minor under-the-hood changes although will retain the look of the current generation 11-inch and 13-inch MacBook Air models.

There have been a few jailbreaks for iOS 7.1.1, but until now no one other than their creators have been able to use them.

Dubbed “Pangu,” a new untethered iOS 7.1.1 jailbreak has been released by Chinese developers, said to be working on the latest iOS 7.1.1 firmware and supporting all the latest Apple devices, including the iPhone 5 and iPad Air. The people behind it apparently took training from noted jailbreaker i0n1c, and are likely using one of the techniques shown off by i0n1c using an iPhone 5c.

Are you running short of inspiration when it comes to new music to listen to? Whyd may be able to help.

The popular music bookmarking tool has just made the leap from desktop to mobile, with the launch of its official iOS app. Giving you the key to a community of music curators interested in sharing and discovering the best music around, Whyd lets users collect the songs they like from virtually any music service (YouTube, Soundcloud, Vimeo, and Deezer, to name a few), organize it into playlists, and then connect with thousands of other music lovers with similar (and complementary) tastes.

We’re less than three months away from the iPhone 6, and with more rumors and leaks heaping up about Apple’s next generation iPhone on a daily basis, a consensus view has emerged about what it is that we’re expecting.

With that in mind, Reddit user A_Hard_Goodbye recently put up a new gallery of iPhone 6 mockups on Imgur — giving us one of the best looks at the forthcoming iPhone 6 that we’ve yet laid our eyes on, including silver and space gray colors. Hitting all the expected design checkpoints (curved edges, larger screen, repositioned on/off switch) it definitely makes us more excited than ever about Apple’s biggest iPhone refresh in years.

Not only are we likely to get Touch ID sensors included in all new iPhones and iPads this year — they will also be higher quality, too.

A new report suggests that 2014’s refresh of Touch ID focuses on internal modifications that will make Apple’s fingerprint scanning hardware much more durable.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company is supposedly expanding its 8-inch chip plant in order in order to produce Touch ID sensors for the iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3.

Amazon Instant Video — the official iOS app of the e-commerce giant’s Prime video streaming service — has just added a great new update.

The app will now attempt to lure you in by letting users stream the first episode of selected TV shows for free, with added ad breaks before and during playback.

In addition to this, the app features new video playback controls, including one-touch play/pause and 10-second skip forward/backward buttons, alongside a handy “Next Episode” button to make your binge watching sessions even easier and more tempting. It also promises faster playback start time after hitting play.

Got your own pick?

Agree or disagree with us on any of our picks? If there’s a concept, product, or feature you’d like to see Apple take another crack at, let us know in the comments below.

I’m a sucker for old school platformers in the vein of Jordan Mechner’s Prince of Persia, and upcoming iOS game Escape from the Pyramid certainly fulfills those criteria.

Set across 45 levels — representing three worlds in all — the game borrows from ancient Egyptian art to create something that definitely looks like it could stand out in a year already full of interesting-looking iOS titles.

Apple sure is looking friendlier these days.

This year’s Worldwide Developers Conference was geekier, more welcoming and less locked-down than any in recent history. Apple also bid farewell to Katie Cotton — the much-feared queen of PR, whose frosty relations with journalists made her only slightly less terrifying than an angry Steve Jobs — with a call for a “friendlier, more approachable” public relations face to warm up the company’s relationship with the press.

“For the past few years it’s felt like Apple’s only goal was to put us in our place,” Panic’s Cabel Sasser recently tweeted. “Now it feels like they might want to be friends.”

These recent moves represent a major change in the way Apple does business, even as the company sits atop a $150 billion war chest amassed thanks to innovative products, ruthless leadership and heavy-handed policies that fostered a culture of secrecy and utter domination. But in a world where it’s drummed into our heads that nice guys finish last, does Apple’s approach risk killing the company with kindness?

CEO Tim Cook certainly doesn’t seem to think so.

A new exhibit showcasing hundreds of original Apple patents has opened in Denver.

Entitled “Patents and Trademarks of Steve Jobs: Art and Technology that Changed the World,” the display offers a rare opportunity to look over some of the most influential and important patents in recent tech history — ranging from the original Macintosh through the iPhone.

Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet says that the exhibit, “provides a unique glimpse into one of our country’s most iconic innovators, highlighting Jobs’ wide-ranging portfolio and lasting influence on modern technology.”

Foxconn and Pegatron — the two leading manufacturers set to produce the iPhone 6 — have been on a massive hiring spree as of late.

According to Taiwan’s Economic Daily News, Foxconn will recruit in excess of 100,000 new workers in mainland China to help assemble Apple’s much-anticipated next generation iPhone. It had previously been reported that the company was opening up new factory space to carry out the work.

Rival Taiwanese assembler Pegatron will also be upping the workforce in one of its factories by 30 percent in order to meet the demand the influx of new work will place on it.

If you’re a New York-based coder or wannabe coder looking to learn Apple’s new programming language Swift, you may want to check out an upcoming evening tech workshop organized by software development firm TurnToTech.

With the next session taking place Monday at their 5th Avenue offices, the number of spaces available has just been upped to allow more people to attend.

Yesterday we wrote about Yo, the messaging app which has become inexplicably popular over the past month, and has netted $1.2 million in venture funding.

Less than 24 hours later it seems that Yo has hacked by a Georgia Tech student, together with two of his room mates. The hack allows for them to access any Yo user’s phone number, spoof Yo messages from any user, spam users with multiple messages, and even send push notifications featuring any text they want. Another hack appears to let hackers Rickroll users with the infamous Rick Astley song.

While some reports are claiming that Apple is still finalizing the specifications for its first generation iWatch ahead of the supposed October launch, another set of reports — supposedly backed up by insider sources — put forward another theory.

And it makes a lot of sense.

I’m a massive fan of SNK’s King of Fighters franchise, to the point that I own a 4 CD compilation of the series’ soundtracks over the course of its lifetime. Which is why I’m incredibly happy to hear that SNK Playmore is working on a rhythm game based on the King of Fighters fighting game franchise “packed with legendary SNK tracks!”

We’ve written a lot about how there’s no shortage of great games in the App Store, and just to gobble up even more of your time this summer, Electronic Arts has just staged a massive sale on some of its most popular titles — discounting them by as much as 90 percent in some cases.

Some of the company’s hottest games are included, so this is a great opportunity if you’re looking to pick up some worthwhile bargains.

Here’s the complete list of titles on sale for just $0.99!

U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh may reject a plea put forward by Apple, Google, and two other companies following a lawsuit which accused Apple of participating in anti-poaching practices.

As previously reported, Apple, Adobe, Google, Intel, Intuit, Lucasfilm, and Pixar all stood accused by former employees, although Intuit, Lucasfilm, and Pixar quickly agreed to settle — paying a collective $20 million.

The remaining companies — Apple, Google, Intel, and Adobe — faced a possible damages payout of $3 billion, although this could potentially rise to as much as $9 billion under antitrust laws. After an appeal refusal, the companies ended up settling for the comparatively small tiny of $324.5 million.

Understandably, not everyone was pleased with the result: with plaintiff Michael Devine calling the sum “grossly inadequate,” and demanding that it be rejected. Now it seems that he could get his wish.

Apple is set to unleash multiple versions of its long-awaited iWatch this fall, according to a new report from the the Wall Street Journal.

Coming in multiple screen sizes, and boasting more than 10 sensors to track health and fitness data, Apple seems set to go way beyond the current smartphone accessory functionality seen in present generation smartwatches.

Based on the massive number of hires they’ve made in the field as of late, it’s no mystery that Apple is interested in biometrics and biosensors. However three new patent applications published Thursday shed a bit more light on what Apple has up its sleeve, and make us feel even more excited about the possibility of an iWatch (and future iPhones) later this year.

Who’s the baddest of the bad?

Got your own favorite underappreciated supervillain? Let us know in the comments below.

You know those ideas that are so simple you feel like you really could have come up with them yourself? Yo is one of those apps.

Launched on April Fools’ Day, it has recently become inexplicably popular — with 2 million messages sent over just the past month. If you haven’t used it, the idea behind it is simple: like Snapchat, you establish a username inside the app and can then send push notifications to friends reading “Yo” and featuring audio of a voice saying the same thing. Oh, and did I mention that it’s creator has just raised $1.2 million in funding?

Cult animated faves the Powerpuff Girls are back in a new iOS game, published by Cartoon Network in association with JoyJoy and Fluid SE developers RadianGames.

Called Powerpuff Girls: Defenders of Townsville, the game sees the Powerpuff Girls blasted with evil simian nemesis Mojo Jojo’s Disremember Gun, which leads to them forgetting how to use their superpowers. In a Metroidvania/Castleroid-style adventure shooter, you start out playing as Buttercup, before rescuing Blossom and Bubbles. Once the heroic trio is united, you get to use each of their superpowers to battle Mojo Jojo’s evil robots, and unlock and discover new areas.

There are plenty of stories about iPhone thefts causing spikes in crime statistics, but according to New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman Apple’s introduction of an iPhone kill switch may be starting to turn around.

Measuring crime after the iPhone’s Activation Lock was first introduced in iOS 7, police in  San Francisco, London, and New York claim that San Francisco robberies fell by 38 percent, London robberies by 24 percent, and New York robberies by 19 percent — while grand larcenies in NYC including the iPhone dropped 29 percent in the first five months of 2014, compared to the same time period last year.