News - page 1260

Anyone that has ever taken a look at Xiaomi’s suspiciously Apple-like designs won’t be surprised to hear them dismissed as ripoff artists. But a new court ruling suggests they might be patent infringers too.

Delhi High Court in India has banned Xiaomi from selling, assembling, importing and advertising its smartphones in the country, on the basis that the bestselling handsets infringe on certain patents held by another company.

Interestingly, that company isn’t Apple — but rather Ericsson, which claims that Xiaomi violated 8 of its patents, including those related to 3G, EDGE and other technologies.

In addition to Apple devices, noted security expert and The Mac Hacker’s Handbook co-author Charlie Miller has carried out some fascinating (and potentially terrifying) research into hacking vehicles.

Last year, alongside fellow hacker Chris Valasek, Miller demonstrated that it is possible to hijack the steering and brakes of a Ford Escape and Toyota Prius using only a laptop connected to the car.

Having done that, he has now moved onto exploring vulnerabilities in other vehicles — including his new 2014 Cherokee jeep. All that research comes at a high price, however, since Miller recently revealed on Twitter that he has managed to “brick” his vehicle, after hacking the head unit.

As he put it, “This is an expensive hobby.”

If you happen to be one of our few Chinese readers, good news! Apple has just announced that LTE-equipped versions of the iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 2 will be coming to China later this week!

Apple is said to have resolved yield issues with various Apple Watch components, and the device is set to go into mass production in January — one month earlier than many were expecting — according to a new report from Taiwan’s United Daily News.

The news story also claims that Apple has ordered 24 million Apple Watches for 2015, and that supplier Quanta is massively boosting its workforce to accommodate. Quanta has already increased its number of workers from 2,000 to 10,000 — and it will supposedly expand again to 20,000 employees at the height of first year Apple Watch production.

Back when it was released in 2007, the original iPhone 2G cost $599 with a two-year contract from AT&T. Seven years later, boxed first-gen iPhones are a little rare, but if you’ve got the dosh, you can still buy one on eBay.

But prepare to be shocked by the sticker price: An original iPhone in mint condition will cost you $12,500.

GlobalFoundries, a.k.a. the largest silicon foundry in the United States, is pushing to to become a mobile device chipmaker for Apple, according to a new report.

On the back of the enormous success of the iPhone 6, the battle to build Apple’s next generation 14-nanometer A9 chips has been raging as of late — with the three leaders being Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), Samsung and GlobalFoundries.

The chips in question are set to debut with Apple’s 2015 iOS devices, including the next generation iPhones and iPads.

Tortoises are born with houses on their backs. But what if their legs aren’t strong enough to move about with such a burden?

A veterinarian in Germany found a solution for one gimpy tortoise by raiding his son’s toy collection: Dr. Carsten Plischke used Lego bricks to make a kind of scooter for Blade, a shellback that has difficulties walking because of a growth disorder.

Oh good, more selfies.

Instagram has surpassed more than 300 million users, doubling its membership in just over a year.

The app, which has a stream of more than 70 million photos and videos per day, now has more users than Twitter (284 million), proving once again your friends would rather see a picture of your dinner than read about it in 140 characters or less.

“Over the past four years, what began as two friends and a dream has grown into a global community,” CEO Kevin Systrom said on the Instagram blog. “We’re thrilled to watch this community thrive and witness the amazing connections people make over shared passions and journeys.”

Soccer balls and catcher’s mitts become tasty slices of deli meats in Submarine Sandwich, the latest amazing video from stop-motion auteur PES.

The Oscar-nominated director says it takes up to 12 hours to produce three seconds of his short films, which are creative in the extreme. His latest two-minute masterpiece, which premiered Wednesday on YouTube, is sweet meat for your hungry eyes.

Warner Bros. released the first theatrical trailer for Mad Max: Fury Road today, and while Mel Gibson is nowhere to be seen, George Miller’s post- apocalyptic world has only gotten more insane now that Tom Hardy has stepped into the role of Max.

I never saw the first movie and have no clue what’s going on in the trailer, but that’s not stopping me for getting ridiculously amped for this quasi-sequel that takes place in a world that’s run out of water, so the only sensible thing to do is worship steering wheels and smash weaponized-hotrods to bits while speeding through fire tornados.

The special effects and cinematography look absolutely insane and the supporting cast make us believe that watching the world of fire and blood destroy itself might be come with decent acting mixed in.

Watch the world go mad in the trailer below:

Apple is still trying to get a license for Apple Pay in China, but its new friends at Alibaba are bringing Touch ID payments to the mainstream in China today, with an update to the popular Alipay app that gives iPhone owners the power to make purchases with a fingerprint.

Alipay, which boasts over 300 million users in China, is the e-payment branch of Alibaba which just had the biggest global IPO ever this year. Tim Cook and Alibaba CEO Jack Ma met this year to talk about an Alipay + Apple Pay partnership, and the addition of Touch ID support is a strong sign that Apple’s mobile payments solution could be added in the future.

Apple surprised us with the untested iOS 8.1.2 update yesterday, but this morning Cupertino is dropping something a bit more exciting with the second beta release of iOS 8.2 that brings WatchKit to the iPhone.

The iOS 8.2 beta is available now in the Dev Center along with an Xcode 6.2 beta. The release notes don’t mention any new features, but there are tons of bug fixes, plus some improvements made to WatchKit. We’ll let you know if we find anything new once we install it.

Developers can pick up the beta as an over-the-air update if you’re already on the iOS 8.2 beta 1, or you can get it from the direct download links below:

In a delightful little video from Microsoft founder Bill Gates, the tech billionaire and philanthropist talks about the favorite books he’s read this year. It’s an eclectic collection: Thomas Piketty’s volume on income inequality, Capital in the Twenty-First Century shares equal space with fiction novel The Rosie Effect as well as a book from the late 1970s, Business Adventures, by John Brooks. It’s a rare insight into the mind of one of our biggest business and cultural leaders of the last several decades.

Check out the video below for the whole list, and a charmingly presented stop-motion Lego film starring Bill Gates himself.

After unveiling a partnership with IBM back in July this year — designed to combine IBM’s enterprise data specialties with Apple’s iOS hardware and software — Apple today announced the first 10 of its iOS apps released as part of the agreement.

In a press release, Apple’s Phil Schiller describes it as a “big step for iPhone and iPad in the enterprise,” and notes how “Apple and IBM are bringing together the world’s best technology with the smartest data and analytics to help businesses redefine how work gets done.”

If you felt like you just had to install iOS 8.1.2 because of its devastating “missing ringtone” bug, good news: just 24 hours later, it’s already possible to jailbreak your device.

Last year, Apple celebrated the holidays with a fantastic app called 12 Days of Gifts. Like a digital advent calendar, the 12 Days of Gift apps handed out free music, TV shows, movies, books, and apps over the holiday period.

But this year, we haven’t seen the 12 Days of Gifts app, at least so far. Is Apple canceling it? What’s the hold up?

Yesterday, we were excited when a major update to the Apple TV introduced a major redesign of the set-top box’s official YouTube app. Today, though, we’re a little less enthused, because it turns out that along with getting a new look, it also got ads.

Snapchat users, rejoice! The wait is over: the popular video messaging app has finally been updated to support the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.

After years without updates, September 9th was a sad day for iPod fans: it marked the formal extinction of the iPod Classic, the last of Apple’s chunky, non-flash-based music players.

Three months after the last iPod Classic was sold through Apple.com, though? The iPod Classic is more in demand — and more expensive — than ever.

Remember being lost in the 8-bit world of Atari and Nintendo? When Adam Lister was a boy, he couldn’t spend enough time in his basement playing Pong, Space Invaders or Donkey Kong.

Games and graphics, of course, evolved, and the chiptune music of those game consoles went silent long ago. But the graphic language where characters are a rough collection of cubes and rectangles still speaks to Lister.

It is the lens through which he views art history and pop culture in a series of more than 250 watercolor paintings he created over a three-year period.

It was a rocky start for iOS 8, but adoption figures continue to creep upwards. As per the latest figures released by Apple, 63% of active iOS users are now running the latest version of the company’s mobile OS, while 33% are using iOS 7, and 4% are running earlier versions of the operating system.

Apple measured usage via visits to the App Store on Monday this week.

The increase is likely related to the continued high sales of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus — which are predicted to sell a massive 71.5 million units over the holidays. Most recently, Apple released iOS 8.1.2 to the public, helping to solve the mystery of disappearing ringtones on iOS devices.

Apple’s latest class-action lawsuit made the news primarily because it featured none other than Steve Jobs as a key witness, as he appeared courtesy of a video deposition taken shortly before his untimely death in 2011.

Immediately, news outlets jumped on the opportunity to publicly release the footage, with The Associated Press, Bloomberg, and CNN filing a motion to have the tape released.

“Steve Jobs is not your typical trial witness, and that’s what makes this a unique circumstance,” said a lawyer acting on behalf of the media companies, adding that, “We’re not asking for anything other than what the jury heard.”

However, it seems like cooler heads may prevail — and we won’t see the footage after all.

If Aaron Sorkin had his way, Tom Cruise would be Steve Jobs.

That’s one of the juicy details to have surfaced from leaked emails between Sorkin and Sony, the studio Sorkin had originally partnered with to make the film. The leaks also reveal the controversial casting decision that ultimately caused Sony to give up the film to Universal.

HBO is planning to launch a new standalone streaming service in 2015, and if you’re like me and can’t wait to watch the latest chapter in Khaleesi’s quest to become take back the iron throne, you’ll be happier than Hodor on Maiden’s Day to hear the a la carte service could land just in time for the Game of Thrones season 5 premiere.

The new HBO streaming service will offer viewers access to HBO’s entire catalog of shows, movies, documentaries and live programming without need a cable subscription, for the first time ever. There’s no word yet on pricing, but its expected to be a cord-cutter’s dream, giving Apple TV users more premium content to watch on demand.

Fortune reports development of the technology underpinning HBO’s streaming service has been rife with conflict. Rather than using in-house technology built by its new CTO, HBO struck a deal with MLB Advanced to use their white-label streaming technology. A special project codenamed “Maui” was recently killed off by HBO, after executives determined a third-party could help them offer a stand alone service faster.

Tim Cook met with Rev. Jesse Jackson on Monday in a private sit down that was described as ‘positive and productive’ by the civil rights leader.

Jackson is in the Bay Area this week to promote a workshop hosted by his Rainbow PUSH Coalition that is focused on closing the racial gap in the tech industry. USA Today reports that the Cook and Jackson talked for over an hour, and while Jackson wouldn’t mention what they talked about specifically, he said he came away impressed.