Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems ... and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
A New York street artist claims Apple stole his trademark slogan for its latest ad campaign. The line “You’re more powerful than you think” is used in conjunction with shots of people using their iPhone in various different lines of work.
46-year-old James De La Vega says that he’s been using the trademarked line for almost a decade as part of his “Become Your Dream” series. The line has been used in various murals and designs, and was even (by permission) incorporated into a graffiti motif used for a recent line of handbags and accessories.
Think Apple is free from Samsung after defeating it yet again in court for flat out copying the iPhone infringing on several Apple patents? Think again!
In fact, when it comes to the iPad Apple is more reliant on Samsung than ever, according to a new report which suggests that the South Korean tech giant became the largest supplier of iPad displays in the first quarter of 2014.
If you’ve read Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs biography, you possibly know the name Ronald Wayne. That’s the investor who dropped out of Apple 12 days into its existence as a company — losing around $35 billion after selling his shares for just $800.
In the wake of a reported deal with Beats, we have a repeat of that story — courtesy of the one key party that won’t see a scratch from the rumored $3.2 billion acquisition.
Although Iovine and Dre get all the credit for Beats, it was Monster CEOs Noel and Kevin Lee who designed and developed the world’s very first pair of Beats headphones, and did the engineering and technology distribution for the company’s first five years.
If you’re even slightly pop culture savvy, chances are that you’re a fan of The Walking Dead. If that’s the case, you’ll be happy to known that the latest episode of Telltale Games’ superb The Walking Dead adventure game series is set to appear on Mac and iOS this week.
New images, reportedly showing the new 4.7-inch iPhone, have hit the Web, offering more details about the smaller of Apple’s next generation smartphones.
The images are renders and supposedly hail from parts unknown key Apple supplier Foxconn. They depict a longer, wider 4.7-inch handset with dimensions of 138 by 67 mm. As with recent reports, the pics suggest that the iPhone 6 will feature smoothly rounded corners and a relocated power button. They also makes us think that the iPhone 6 will feature an all-aluminum rear shell.
Both Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre will take senior positions at Apple as part of the Beats Electronics deal, according to people close to the matter.
While neither would move to Cupertino, they would reportedly commute to Silicon Valley (or wherever is needed) from Los Angeles. Although it’s currently unknown what role Iovine and Dre would fulfill at Apple, it is thought that Iovine might become a “special adviser” to Tim Cook on creative projects. Dre was recently seen celebrating becoming “the first billionaire in hip-hop.”
So who are these two possible new members of the Apple brain trust, and what would they bring to the table?
If you’re counting down the seconds until you can lovingly hold the iPhone 6 in your sweaty palms, you may have less time to wait than you thought, according to sources within Apple’s supply chain.
As per Taiwanese media reports, Apple might be set to drop the first incarnation of its next generation iPhone in August instead of the expected September.
If true, this would likely be 4.7 inch version of the iPhone 6, while the reported 5.5 inch model would follow in September.
More details are trickling out about Gameloft’s eagerly awaited first-person-shooter Modern Combat 5: Blackout, which is set to arrive on mobile later this year.
The first big reveal concerns a new unified progression system, which will aim to bring together the single-player campaign and online multiplayer modes by letting experience earned in either contribute toward your character’s overall level. This will also hold true for the game’s weapon mastery system also, meaning that whether you unlock a new weapon in campaign or multiplayer you’ll be able to use it in both.
Jimmy Iovine was good friends with Steve Jobs. But would Jobs have hired him?
Beats Electronics boss and music industry veteran Jimmy Iovine is in talks to join Apple as a “special adviser” to Tim Cook on creative matters, according to sources.
Along with his role as co-creator of Beats with business partner Dr. Dre, Iovine is also chairman of Universal Music Group’s Interscope, Geffen and A&M labels, which is home to artists including Lady Gaga and Eminem.
Protecting user privacy and sensitive information might drive Snapchat’s disappearing messages, but the Federal Trade Commission is keeping its eye on the company just in case!
The FTC has announced that it is settling with Snapchat after an investigation into the company’s privacy practices. The reason? The number of work arounds that allow photos and videos sent via Snapchat to be covertly captured.
“If a company markets privacy and security as key selling points in pitching its service to consumers, it is critical that it keep those promises,” FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez says. “Any company that makes misrepresentations to consumers about its privacy and security practices risks FTC action.”
Oh, you wacky Samsung-ites — will you never learn?
Samsung was somehow recently granted a design trademark for a “display screen with icon” and, wouldn’t you know it, it looks almost exactly like the icon Apple currently uses for Siri.
For many users, the quality and accessibility of the iPhone camera means that it is the only camera we need on a regular basis. It may be about to get a whole lot better, too, according to a patent application published by Apple on Thursday — describing a new “super-resolution” mode.
What makes the patent interesting (apart from that it promises higher quality images) is that it suggests that picture resolution could be ramped up without needing more megapixels.
Adobe has launched an intriguing new iPad app called Adobe Voice. Designed to help users “create stunning animated videos in minutes,” the app lets you record an audio message, and then quickly and easily turn it into a slick animation. All you have to do is match your words with a library of 25,000 images, and then Adobe Voice does the rest by adding in transition animations and a backing track.
Ever since the Edward Snowden revelations, the question of how companies like Apple respond to law enforcement and government requests for user information has taken on a new level of importance.
In a new document added to its website, called Legal Process Guidelines U.S. Law Enforcement, Apple provides an overview of how it deals with such requests in North America.
After the retirement of Katie Cotton, the PR who helped craft Apple’s air of mystique, Apple has announced another departure: that of Zane Rowe, who served as the head of North America sales.
The reason for the departure isn’t yet known, but it comes weeks after former Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts took over as the new head of retail and online stores. Rowe joined Apple in 2012 from United Continental, where he had been the chief financial officer.
He will be replaced by Doug Beck, who has been key in growing oversees sales in Japan and Korea.
Do you work in tech? Then why are you wasting your time on a blog rather than doing what you should be doing: coming up with “fresh” new ways to parody Apple.
To prove it is one of the boys, San Francisco ride-sharing service Lyft just dropped its latest commercial, featuring a “me too” impression of Jony Ive.
When the iPhone 5s was announced as featuring Touch ID, you could have been forgiven for assuming that the iPad Air and iPad mini would naturally follow suit. Like original thinking from Samsung, however, it never quite materialized — and to this date Apple’s flagship iPhone is the only Apple device to incorporate the technology.
That may be set to change with the arrival of the next generation iPad Air and iPad mini, though.
Apple is doing all it can to grow in India. Illustration: Cult of Mac
Less than four months after relaunching the iPhone 4 in India, Apple has decided to ditch the strategy and take the phone off the market again.
The January move had made the iPhone 4 one of the cheapest unsubsidized iPhones in the world, with the aim of growing market share by appealing to a percentage of the population who would not usually be able to afford iPhones.
If you’re a fan of strategy simulation games, you’ll probably already know the Anno series, which arrived on PC back in the heady days of 1998 and has continued as a successful franchise since then.
Developers Ubisoft recently announced that they will be bringing an original entry to the series to iPad, later this year. Called Anno: Build an Empire, you’ll begin by colonizing an uninhabited island, which you then harvest for resources, eventually building your way up to fully-fledged civilization — with various colonized islands under your control, which you can trade between.
It definitely gave Apple the warm fuzzies: they chose the game, which looks like a mashup between a Pixar movie and a classic platformer from the Super Mario World era, as their first“game of the month” for iPhone.
Still reeling from the breakout success of the $4.99 game, designer Anders Hejdenberg spoke about the origins of Leo’s Fortune, why passion projects are best, how market research ruins creativity, and the reason the best teams are small ones. He also gave us exclusive access to pictures showing the game’s journey from page to iOS screen.
Want to find out more? In true platformer style, there’s more after the jump…
Pegatron has reportedly received orders from Apple to start production on the iPhone 6. According to Taiwan’s Industrial and Commercial Times, the supplier will be producing around 15% of Apple’s upcoming 4.7-inch handsets, ahead of their launch in September.
As good as the experience of shopping in a physical Apple Store undoubtedly is, Apple’s also making major leaps in its online sales business.
According to new data released by e-commerce research firm Internet Retailer, Apple had a great 2013: not only overtaking Staples to become the No. 2 online retailer, but actually growing faster than Amazon.
The Feeling Skin smartcase glows to show how your friends are feeling.
Like the world’s largest therapy session, social media is all about sharing our emotions. The team behind new Kickstarter project The Feeling Skin are hoping to build on that idea by combining a new social network based on emotion with a funky smartphone case, designed to help you stay in touch with friends.
The app lets you record short Vine-style videos, to which you can add either a “Mood Up” or a “Mood Down” emotion. A Mood Up, for instance, might be arriving at the airport for your holiday, while a Mood Down could be trudging to work in the rain on a Monday morning.
These videos can then be posted to the app’s network, along with Twitter and Facebook, for your friends to see.
What makes The Feeling Skin a bit different is its accompanying case designed for the iPhone 5/5s — which works with the app and glows different colors depending on your friends’ mood, thanks to a built-in LED. In addition you can ask your friends how they’re doing throughout the day by touching a “pulse” button on the back of the case.
Coding for the Mac App Store could be your ticket to professional bliss.
The iOS App Store gold rush might be played out for all but the luckiest developers, but there’s another part of the Apple empire where coders can find breakout success: the Mac App Store.
“Compared to iOS, it’s definitely easier to have a hit in the Mac App Store,” says Andreas Hegenberg, the creator of successful gesture-based Mac app BetterTouchTool. “I think it’s still pretty easy to develop a Mac App Store app that can feed you very well. But it all depends on how you define a ‘big hit.'”
While games rule the increasingly cluttered roost in the iOS store — with many unimaginative developers looking to get rich quick with yet another Flappy Bird clone — the Mac App Store is home to more pedestrian offerings like accounting software and productivity tools.
The Mac App Store might not mint a new millionaire each day, but the developers we spoke with said writing this type of bread-and-butter software can provide a reliable source of income. Here’s why.
