Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has written an open letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) concerning the subject of Net Neutrality.
In it, Wozniak runs down his history with telecom and details the various headaches he’s dealt with as a result of monopoly companies and government policies. With several examples, Woz points out how innovation and experimentation will be stifled if new rules concerning net neutrality are passed into law.
Okay, so a teaser trailer for a trailer is kind of the Hollywood version of Tim Cook assuring us that there are exciting products in the works, without giving any details, but this is pretty cool nonetheless.
If you’re a fan of the Marvel movies (and what comic geek isn’t?) you’re probably pretty excited about Guardians of the Galaxy — and the sneak preview below certainly doesn’t do anything to change that.
Apple might not feel the pressure to rush when it comes to releasing new product lines like the iWatch, but it sure can rush when it needs to.
Yesterday we reported on a glitch that saw people’s /Users and /Users/Shared folders disappearing if they had updated to iTunes 11.2 and had Find My Mac enabled. While we offered a couple of workarounds to the problem, Apple sprung into action to create a more permanent solution, which takes the form of iTunes version 11.2.1.
The update will ensure that your folder returns, and stay there even after you reboot. Recommended for all Macs, you’ll find it on the Mac App Store or under Software Update in your Apple Menu.
Definitely beats Terminal commands and an AppleScript hack!
Source: Apple
If you’re an iOS gamer, chances are you’re fed up of games loaded to the gunwales with in-app purchases. The so-called “freemium” trend for games is annoying for two main reasons: One, in many cases it makes games virtually unplayable if you won’t shell out the extra cash for IAPs. Two, it’s misleading because the games aren’t really “free” at all, any more than you could say that it’s free to go to the theater, but you have to pay cash if you want to actually watch a movie.
It’s this second point that antitrust authorities in Italy are taken issue with, under the heading of unfair commercial practices. They’re investigating Apple, Google and Amazon, alongside French game developer Gameloft, for allegedly misleading customers by advertising mobile game apps as free, when they actually require purchases in order to be played beyond a certain point.
Which ones made the grade? Check put the gallery above to find out.
The majority of people who upgraded to OS X 10.9.3 yesterday noticed what seemed to be a strange glitch, in the form of their /Users and /Users/Shared folders disappearing. In fact, the fault doesn’t have to do with 10.9.3 at all, but rather occurs if you’ve updated to iTunes 11.2 and also have Find My Mac enabled.
Fortunately, there’s a workaround.
Someone in global ad agency Oglivy & Mather is clearly thinking different (read: not really thinking at all) because they’ve featured Steve Jobs as one of the historical figures in a bizarre, and bafflingly offensive, ad campaign for Indian mattress company Kurl-On.
The theme of the ads is the idea of bouncing back (because, you know, mattresses have bounce in them) with famous people shown recovering from low points in their life to “bounce back” to greater levels of success. Jobs’ own advert shows him being booted out of Apple in 1985, only to return to glory as the creator of the iPad.
Apple manufacturing partner Foxconn has shut down its operations in Vietnam for three days as a result of anti-China protests over oil drilling.
China recently began drilling for oil near to the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea. The problem? While the islands are controlled by the People’s Republic of China, they’re claimed by both Vietnam and Taiwan. The disputed ownership has prompted protesters in Vietnam to ransack factories near to Ho Chi Minh City.
With summer coming up, it’s the perfect time to start planning your vacation. As a result it’s also the perfect time to download Kayak Pro, the smart hotel, flight, and car search and booking app.
This iOS app makes everything from booking flights to accommodation a straightforward, hassle-free task, with hundreds of available options and a ton of smart in-app features. These include a fight tracker to check that your flight is on time, price alerts regarding cheap destination tickets, and even maps to help you find your way around airport terminals.
Bullish billionaire activist-investor Carl Icahn recently ramped up his stake in Apple to the tune of 2.8 million shares — bringing his total stake in the company to a little over $4.4 billion.
Icahn’s position was revealed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Thursday, showing how Icahn now owns more than 7.5 million AAPL shares. The buy took place during the March period, which preceded Apple’s announcement of the 7-to-1 stock split and share repurchase program.
iOS devices have made tools like video editing more accessible for the general public, but they’re increasingly being used by the pros too.
Car maker Bentley’s latest ad, called “Intelligent Details,” was shot and edited using only an iPhone 5s (for filming), iPad Air (for stitching it all together) and handheld of accessories — including iPhones lenses and mounts.
The use of the iMovie iOS software meant that filmmakers were able to carry out the majority of the editing work from the back seat of their car.
Sometimes, not very often, old technology beats the heck out of new technology.
Okay, so it’s not an entirely fair test to base technological superiority on who comes out intact in a confrontation between a present generation iMac and a WWII anti-tank rifle, but it sure makes for a fun video.
Just yesterday I had the experience of sending a text message to the wrong person. Okay, luckily it wasn’t a compromising message in any sense, but it goes to show what happens when you’re carrying out too many text conversations at the same time.
Clearly someone at Apple has had a similar experience, because a patent published Thursday reveals how future iOS devices might incorporate background images of the people you’re messaging, to ensure you don’t send out misdirected messages.
A lot of people I know used to use Birdbrain as their iOS Twitter client back in the day, but in recent times it’s fallen by the wayside due to a lack of updates.
Well, it’s back — and it’s just received a major revamp, adding support and optimization for iOS 7, brand new graphs showing Twitter statistics, and more.
They’re big, they’re unwieldy, and they represent one-third of all handsets presently available worldwide.
According to new research undertaken by Canalys, around 34% of smartphones shipped worldwide have screens measuring upwards of five inches diagnoally. The rise in popularity of the so-called “phablet” (describing a smartphone with a screen between 5.0 and 6.9 inches) bodes very well for Apple, ahead of its eagerly anticipated 5.5-inch iPhone 6, which we fully expect to see arrive this September.
Apple’s much-discussed acquisition of Beats Electronics might not be finalised until next week, according to “people familiar with the transaction.”
If you’re looking for the next super-addictive iOS hit, you may have found it in JoyJoy, which arrives in the App Store tomorrow, priced $1.99.
The game, which comes from developers RadanGames, was actually released on Xbox Live Indie Games a few years ago, but this mobile version has been totally revamped. It’s an above-view arcade shooter in which you see off wave after wave of assailants using a wide range of weaponry.
Is it wrong that — regardless of how many times I get burned on either Michael Bay Transformers movies, or video game movie adaptations — I’m still excited at the prospect of a new Transformers game?
DeNA and Hasbro has just announced the official tie-in game for the upcoming Transformers sequel, Age of Extinction. As with the movie, the mobile game will be landing on iOS devices (as well as Android and Windows Phone) this summer.
The iPhone has hit a new all-time high when it comes to market share in Japan: representing a massive 36.6% of all Japanese smartphones in the first quarter of 2014.
This increase, which is up from last year’s 25.5%, was driven by Apple’s deal with NTT DoCoMo, a.k.a. Japan’s largest carrier. Apple launched the iPhone 5s and 5c with NTT DoCoMo back in September, and sales have been rocketing upwards ever since. Sales have proven so good, in fact, that Apple recently moved Doug Beck, chief of sales for Japan and Korea, over to handle the North American beat — where it is hoped he can apply some of the same sales mojo to increasing U.S. market share.
There’s a reason the majority of apps in the App Store look like they fit together, and that reason is Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines, a document that ensures all developers incorporate Apple-approved elements into everything they do on the iOS platform.
To make these guidelines transparent and readable, Apple has released an iPad-friendly version of its latest iOS Human Interface Guidelines reference material. Available to the public as a free download through the iBookstore, the guide covers everything from general design practices to rules about content, and features the usual iBooks flourishes such as page numbers, resizable fonts and annotation support. It also incorporates embedded videos to illustrate certain topics.
A new survey, reportedly taken from a sample of 50,000 smartphone users around the world, reveals the reasons consumers made the phone purchasing decisions they did.
According to IDC’s findings, battery life is the number one most important factor when it comes to choosing a smartphone — coming above ease of use, screen size, camera resolution, and touch screen. When asked, almost half of all iPhone owners quizzed named battery life as the main reason for their selecting the device.
As if the reported $3.2 billion Beats deal isn’t enough evidence, Apple seems to be quite big on this “music” thing.
According to new reports, Apple will introduce high definition audio playback in iOS 8, alongside new versions of its In-Ear Headphones. The iOS rumor corresponds with earlier reports that Apple will announce high-fidelity iTunes music downloads at this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). As it currently stands, iOS 7’s standard Music app can’t play high quality 24-bit audio files which contain a sampling frequency beyond 48 kHz.
Apple might be among the companies which settled the Silicon Valley anti-poaching dispute out of court last month, but one plaintiff isn’t happy — calling the $324 million settlement “grossly inadequate.”
The trial was supposed to begin at the end of May, which would have potentially led to months of revelations about Apple’s anti-poaching practices. Ultimately the four tech companies involved, including Apple and Google, settled for $324 million: a figure substantially lower than the $3 billion in damages requested by the suit, or the $9 billion which could have been awarded if the defendants were found to be guilty in court.
Microsoft Office for iPad only landed six weeks ago, but Microsoft claims it’s already been downloaded a whopping 27 million times.
The figure was thrown out by Julia White, the general manager of Microsoft’s Office division, who mentioned it during a keynote speech on Monday at Microsoft’s TechEd customer conference in Houston.
The iWatch may be set to mark Apple’s debut into health and fitness tracking, but one company is taking the concept of wearables a step further.
The forthcoming $199 OMsignal shirt promises to be the gym wear of the future — featuring a ton of health sensors sewn into its fabric, which constantly monitor the condition of the wearer. Sensors are capable of tracking heart rate, breathing rate, breathing volume, movement (including steps and cadence), movement intensity, heart rate variability, and calories burned.
“The data is sent via Bluetooth to a specially developed iPhone app, which lets you see all of it in real time,” says Dr. Jesse Slade Shantz, the firm’s Chief Medical Officer. “Your iPhone beams the data up to the cloud, and algorithms we’ve developed then push back various metrics — showing you information about your breathing during workouts, and information like that.”
Bouncing, huffing and puffing through a beautifully-rendered cartoon world, avoiding jagged rolling wheels and collecting coins, Leo’s Fortune may just be the year’s most lovable iPhone game. But which games did its creators fall in love with?
Following our exclusive look inside behind the scenes of Apple’s iPhone “game of the month,” we asked Leo’s Fortune designer Anders Hejdenberg to name his current top five iOS games. He said he’s most impressed by titles that pair intriguing artwork with novel gameplay mechanics.
The highly imaginative Monument Valley, for instance, won him over quickly. “It didn’t take long to finish,” says Hejdenberg of his experience playing the game, “but during that time I experienced quite a few moments where I thought to myself, ‘Wow, this is really cool!’ That rarely happens when I play games, so it was definitely worth the price of admission.”
Here are the other iOS games currently taking his breath away. (You’ll find download links available below the gallery.)