Trying to compete against Apple’s iPad can be costly – especially if you are RIM and your PlayBook tablet went from design to discount bin in record time. Today the Waterloo, Ontario company announced it will take a $485 million charge for a growing number of PlayBooks it just can’t sell.
Syrian are no longer allowed to use Apple’s iPhone after authorities banned the popular device this week in a bid to stop activists from documenting government violence. Following the move, Steve Jobs’s biological father, John Jandali, announced his support for the Syrian people on YouTube.
Ever wondered how long you spend on your iPhone playing Angry Birds, or watching videos on YouTube? Well, if your device is jailbroken, there’s a handy new tweak called App Stat that will tell you exactly how much time you put into each app.
I think I mentioned in a previous post that I have a worrying addition to Call of Duty, and I love having the opportunity to get my fix on iOS when I’m away from home. I’m a huge fan of Call of Duty: Zombies, which has been available for the iPhone and the iPad for some time. But now it has a successor called Call of Duty: Black Ops Zombies… and it’s awesome.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrsoluSjuKc
Hey Geronimo, an indie-pop band from Australia, have brought a number of iOS games to life for their latest music video that sees titles like Plants vs. Zombies, Flight Control, Cut the Rope, and, of course, Angry Birds played in the real world.
The humorous clip perfectly suits the band’s famously kooky image, and I think you’ll love it if you’ve played any one of these releases before.
[via VG24/7]
Kim Kardashian and Justin Bieber can’t touch the iPhone’s popularity, at least if Yahoo’s top search term results for 2011 are to be believed. Apple’s coveted smartphone edged past celebrities and major news topics to become the most-searched term on the Yahoo search engine.
With the recent controversy surrounding Carrier IQ, U.S. Senator Al Franken has jumped back into the fight for privacy and sent an open letter yesterday to Carrier IQ asking the company to answer a number of questions concerning the company’s key-logger and data logging software. Senator Franken’s letter contains 11 pointed questions mostly asking why the company logs information, what type of information they’re tracking, who receives the information, and how is it used?
Carrier IQ’s software is currently running on millions of smartphones in the U.S. Apple released a statement on Thursday promising to eradicate all traces of Carrier IQ’s software with a new software update. Android manufacturer HTC released a statement today blaming carriers for the inclusion of CarrierIQ on their phones. Samsung also released a similar statement.
Carrier IQ’s not having a good day. The invasive keylogging software which comes installed on over 140 million Android, Nokia and Blackberry smartphones is embroiled in controversy, and it’s not just creepy… it’s probably illegal, and Senator Al Franken — who once grilled Apple over the so-called LocationGate — is now demanding answers.
Trapster is one of those apps that should be installed on every motorist’s iPhone. Not only does it alert you to speed traps, speed cameras, and road hazards, but with its latest update it finally knows where you’re going, and it’ll give you real time traffic overlays all the way there.
The Carrier IQ scandal has broken everywhere since we first reported it yesterday morning. The invasive rootkit is installed on over 140 million phones the world over, and logs everything you do with your device, from the numbers you dial to the smutty pictures you send to your girlfriend.
Yesterday, we reported the story as one proving Steve Jobs right about how Android tracks everything you do, but a day later, things seem a lot less black and white. Carrier IQ’s software comes pre-installed on other devices besides Android, like BlackBerrys and Nokias, and as even the name of the software suggests, seems to be something installed by carriers. And, as it turns out, some iPhones. Luckily, disabling it is the easiest thing in the world, and it logs none of your personal information, unlike the software’s more nefarious Android counterpart.
An Australian airline revealed in a press release last week that one of its cabin crew was forced to extinguish an iPhone 4 that very nearly burst into flames shortly after the plane touched down in Sydney. As it turns out, that certainly won’t be the last iPhone to self combust.
An iPhone 4 user in Brazil has experienced a similar scenario with his own handset. While charging just inches away from his face, the device began emitting plumes of smoke and caught fire.
There are many other development tools available besides the free copy of Xcode that comes with every Mac. LiveCode 5 (starts at $99; $49 for upgrades), a development tool running on Mac OS X and other operating systems from RunRev, gets it inspiration from the programming language HyperTalk. It is designed with an intuitive user interface to make application development easier using a language that uses an understandable English-like syntax. You can use it to create your own iOS apps.
In the latest report regarding Apple’s future adoption of LTE/4G for its mobile devices, Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo is allegedly set to release a 4G-equipped iPad in the summer of 2012. An LTE-equppied iPhone is then set to premiere in the fall of next year.
We’ve been hearing whispers about a 4G/LTE-flavored iPhone for quite some time, and Macotakara is relaying that Apple has been in talks with carriers about making 4G a reality for its next-generation devices.
Apple could offer three versions of its popular tablet in 2012 by repeating a tactic seen with the iPhone. The tech giant may introduce the iPad 3 with a high resolution screen, while also unveiling the iPad 2S for customers wanting more speed, and converting the iPad 2 into a lower-cost entry-level model.
We told you about iTether last night, a new app in the App Store that let anyone have unlimited tethering from their iPhone’s 3G connection for a one-time purchase of $15.
We were all amazed that iTether made it past Apple’s stringent App Store review process, and no one expected the app to remain available for very long. Apple has since pulled iTether from the App Store, and the developers behind the app have explained why.
It’s probably not very popular to say on a Mac blog, but Windows Phone 7 is actually pretty damn good. Not iOS good, of course, but it does a lot of cool, unique things, and unlike Android, doesn’t just rip off Apple’s ideas wholesale: its tiled Metro UI is very pretty, very informative, very smart and its own thing entirely.
Even so, if you’re on an iPhone, you aren’t likely to envy Windows Phone owners very much, but if you want to see how the other half lives — and find out for yourself that it’s not actually that bad — Microsoft has just posted a WP7 emulator in HTML5 on their official site.
The company making ‘Gorilla Glass,’ the tough material used by iPhones and iPads, today announced a 25 percent drop in sales due to lower demand for tablets. Corning cut its outlook after saying it will increase LCD glass production by just 5% to 10% instead of the expected 20% or more.
Our opinion of the government has never been lower, and every day there is ample proof why. Take the FAA, for example. Despite the absolute lack of evidence that your iPhone can knock a plane from the sky, passengers are still told to turn off their phones. The reason why such a Luddite-like rule exists without any proof? Because there’s no proof iPhones won’t hurt planes, either. Don’t get whiplash shaking your head in utter amazement.
Research in Motion — roundly clobbered in the smartphone and tablet market — is now trying to hang onto its core enterprise customers. It’s formula is to concede defeat by Apple and Android, then sell its rivals’ victory as a reason to stay with the Waterloo, Ont. company.
Last week, we published a video how-to that demonstrated a number of simple ways you can make Mac OS X look and act more like iOS. To be added to that list is an awesome new utility from Pilotmoon that makes the copy & paste function on your Mac look just like the copy & paste function on your iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.
Following the release of Apple’s iOS 5.1 beta yesterday, developers have been trawling through its code in an attempt to uncover references to upcoming products that Apple didn’t intend for you to see. We’ve already seen references to a next-generation Apple TV and a fourth iPad 2 — believed to be destined for Sprint — and now the iPhone 5 and iPad 3 product identifiers have been discovered.
If you have a teen, you know getting gift suggestions can vary somewhere between monosyllabic and “hand over the credit card”. So you don’t stroke out aimlessly wandering the malls, we offer as a public service this tip: get thee to an Apple Store. According to a new survey, Apple products are among teens’ top three most wanted gifts with almost 10 percent of teenagers.
Best Buy has launched a new ad that hopes to lure Apple fans into its stores this Christmas. In addition to Macs, iPads, iPhones, and iPods, the humorous “Everything Apple at Best Buy” ad also includes an appearance from old St. Nick himself.
While Apple’s iPhone is famous for packing a long list of fancy features, self combustion definitely should not be one of them. For one iPhone 4 user who recently took their device onboard an Australian airplane, however, that’s exactly what they got.
If you still have Apple products to purchase for loved ones this Christmas, then you’ll be pleased to know that you can now get free shipping on all items in the Apple online store. The company started the promotion today as part of its Christmas sales push, and it will run until December 22.