Luke Dormehl - page 344

In news that will come as a shock to absolutely no one, it seems that Corning Glass (makers of Gorilla Glass) aren’t big fans of Sapphire glass.

Asked by Morgan Stanley analyst James Fawcett his thoughts about “one large handset and device maker” planning to use Sapphire in its products, Tony Tripeny, a senior vice president at Corning Glass, responded that:

Watching so much True Detective — among other shows — that you need an iOS app to track what it is that you’ve already seen?

To help with this very quandary, and generally to help you sift through the television trash pile for the hidden gems, TV-tracking app Trak TV Show has just received a major update — adding universal support for optimizing the app for iPad and iPad mini, in addition to iPhone and iPod touch.

Flappy Bird may be gone from the App Store, but that’s not to say it’s been forgotten.

French urban artist Invader — whose work appropriates the pixelated look of 8-bit video games — just unveiled a giant piece of street art in Paris depicting the iconic pipe-dodging avian itself.

For readers in France, the piece can be checked out at 81 Rue De La Boetie.

Are people not buying the iPhone 5c because its colorful exterior selling point is rendered useless by the fact that most people keep their iPhones in cases?

That’s one of two theories put forward by Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, who is the latest person to suggest that the iPhone 5c isn’t doing too well in the marketplace.

According to 1,003 consumers polled last week by Munster, just 6% of smartphone buyers plan to pick up an iPhone 5c — down from 9% in December.

Developers Tabasco Interactive have released the trailer to their new game Star Horizon.

A gorgeous on-rails shooter, with a $3.99 asking price and no IAP, Tabasco has submitted the game to Apple, and is hoping to launch it on March 20.

You play as John, a disenfranchised human pilot whose ship is controlled by Ellie, an Artificial Intelligence which is programmed to help pilots stay mentally strong throughout combat and and which cannot kill human beings. After being placed into hibernation for 1,000 years John must discover what has happened to the galaxy and try his best to save it.

Intel has reportedly acquired wristwatch health tracking company Basis Science for between $100 – $150 million.

Basis — which was allegedly shopping itself around to potential buyers including Apple, Google, and Microsoft —  currently occupies around 7% of the market with its Basis Health Tracker Watch, versus competitor Jawbone’s 21%.

One month after being launched, Paper – stories from Facebook has received its first significant update.

The addition allows users to share articles via Facebook Messages, text message, or email, as well as create stories in languages that use multi-stage input, including Chinese, Japanese and Korean.

There’s also the possibility of turning off sound effects to “enjoy the silence,” alongside a variety of other improvements designed to make Paper more reliable.

Arguably the App Store needs another ninja game like it needs another Flappy Bird clone. So what does the boldly-titled Epic Ninja Game offer that you don’t get from, say, Clumsy Ninja or Ninja Chaos?

Samsung may have flashed a bit of cash to get Oscars host Ellen DeGeneres to appear on-stage with a Galaxy Note, but it seems that DeGeneres ditched the device backstage, as she was spotted tweeting out selfies using an iPhone.

@parislemon she’s using an iPhone backstage. pic.twitter.com/eRZlAVwq3S

— Sammy (@sbanawan) March 3, 2014

Yukari Kane’s new book about Apple post-Steve Jobs, Haunted Empire, is still a few weeks away, but it’s already beginning to pick up press coverage.

A recent video interview with Kane for the Wall Street Journal sheds a bit of light on her research methods as she describes her efforts to find out more about Tim Cook.

Referring to Apple’s CEO as “still an enigma to me,” Kane describes visiting Cook’s hometown and speaking with friends and former teachers to try and find out more about Apple’s soft-spoken CEO.

Yesterday marked Dr. Seuss’s birthday and — in honor of him and Read Across America Day — developers Oceanhouse Media have launched a massive sale on more than 60 of its Dr. Seuss apps.

As expected, Apple today announced that it is finally ready to launch its “iOS in the Car” iPhone integration setup for car infotainment systems.

Called CarPlay, Apple claims that it is “designed from the ground up to provide drivers with an incredible experience using their iPhone in the car.”

CarPlay is built primarily around Siri interactions, with voice commands and prompts giving users an “eyes-free” means of responding to incoming calls, dictating text messages, and accessing their music library. Apple’s Maps service is also an integral part of the system.

Tim Cook lashed out at shortsighted, bottom line-driven investors during Friday’s annual shareholders meeting — telling them to “get out of [Apple] stock.”

The exchange concerned the conservative think tank National Center for Public Policy Research, which was pushing Apple to disclose the cost of its sustainability programs, and the impact this had on the company’s earning power.

Cook was asked about Apple’s plans to have 100 percent of its power come from green sources — and whether this was the case only because of government subsidies on green energy.

Asked to commit point-blank to only pursuing moves immediately profitable to Apple, Cook responded with anger — noting that Apple does many things because they are right and just, and not simply about making a return on investment (ROI).

Steve Jobs famously argued that if five million people used the Mac, cutting its boot time down by 10 seconds would save the equivalent of at least 100 lifetimes per year.

Taken on an individual basis, it’s difficult to know how many minutes of your life will be saved by using the KoolPuck Wireless Charger — but it’s almost certainly less than an hour over the lifespan of your typical iPhone.

That doesn’t really matter, though. In an age of convenience, the idea that you can charge your iPhone by simply placing it down on a massively wireless charger is a tempting one. Straightforward, attractive, and tiny, FoneSalesman’s iQi solution seems to tick all the boxes.

So how does it measure up?

Apple has won the dismissal of a 1.57 billion-euro ($2.2 billion) German lawsuit, relating to an IPCom patent it was supposedly infringing upon.

While no oral explanation has been given for the verdict, the court in Mannheim, Germany decided that Apple didn’t infringe on the property of IPCom, and also dismissed a similar case against mobile manufacturer HTC.

Think Apple’s “Misunderstood” Christmas ad would have been improved with the addition of a random piano drop, ghost bride, or chainsaw-wielding madman?

If so, you can re-create the commercial your way using Picadelic’s FxGuru: Movie FX Director app. Previously an Android exclusive, the app lets you incorporate a variety of Hollywood-style horror, sci-fi and action movie effects to any iPhone video — with virtual guidelines showing you how to incorporate effects seamlessly, while 24 different “Cinematic” filters allow you enhance the atmosphere of any scene.

Skateboarding legend Tony Hawk has revealed that he’s working on a new skateboarding game for mobile devices.

Hawk made references to the game in two recent interviews: one with Larry King and the other with Bloomberg.

MOGA’s Ace Power, the world’s first iOS 7 compatible game controller, was only released in November, but the company is already teasing its follow-up.

The first released image clearly shows a Bluetooth button, suggesting that the new gamepad may be a wireless device — unlike its MOGA Ace Power predecessor which requires a Lightning connection.

This also might mean that it will work on all iOS 7 devices including the iPad, in contrast to the Ace Power which only supported the iPhone 5 and later, as well as fifth-generation iPods.

This image showing aspiring Silicon Valley legends sure looks… familiar.

Don’t worry, though: this isn’t the cover of a strikingly original new Samsung biography, but rather a teaser poster for Mike Judge’s upcoming HBO comedy series, Silicon Valley.

Borrowing its iconic pose from the 2006 Albert Watson portrait of Steve Jobs commissioned by Fortune magazine and used for the cover of Walter Isaacson’s 2011 biography, the poster references Jobs as the ultimate example of the startup-founder-made-good.

Apple has updated its Developer website to advise designers on how best to create iOS 7 optimized apps.

iOS 7 brought radical changes to Apple’s mobile OS when it was released in September 2013. In December, Apple announced that all new apps submitted to the App Store must be optimized for iOS 7 by February 1 — and this new tutorial helps explain just how this should be done.

Although some of the content has previously been available to access at Apple’s Developer website, a number of new documents address iOS 7 specifically. Some require users to be registered iOS developers, while others are available for public access.

Legal practice management software company Clio has just released the latest results of a survey it calls “Apple In Law Offices,” detailing the use of Apple devices in law firms across North America.

The 2013 survey marked a considerable increase in Apple adoption — with a 10% leap in both office Mac OS usage (from 56% in 2012 to 66% last year), and iPad usage (from 57% to 67%), while iPhone usage spiked 12% to 74% (while Android and Blackberry both saw decreases in law firm usage compared to global adoption rates).

The new light-based physics puzzle game from developers Playmous sure looks interesting!

Called God of Light, the game features 3 different game worlds, and 75 dozens of mind-expanding, puzzle-filled levels. Your mission is to join game mascot, Shiny, to save the universe from impending darkness — which means seeking out game objects that reflect, split, combine, paint, bend and teleport rays of light energy to activate the mythical “Sources of Life.”

If that sounds all a bit confusing, the above video may help shed some light (pun intended!) on what we’re talking about.

Nearly one third of all games released in the App Store in a 24-hour period are Flappy Bird clones.

That’s according to the Guardian newspaper’s Stuart Dredge, who used an RSS feed of the Appshopper site to get his hands on a list of every game released in the 24-hour period, ending 5am on February 27.

Of the 293 new iOS games, he discovered that 95 (just over 32%) were clones of the recently deceased Flappy Bird.

Apple may have only released iOS 7.0.6 one week ago, but it’s already showing impressive adoption rates.

According to a study by Chitika Insights, just 48 hours after the update went live, 13.3% of all iOS traffic was driven by the latest update.