In an attempt to go head-to-head with the likes of iMessage and BBM in emerging markets, social network Facebook has just announced that it will be allowing users of its Messenger app to send messages at free or heavily discounted data rates.
BARCELONA, MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS – The iPad mini weighs just 308 grams. The NEC Medias Tab weighs even less: 249 grams (forgive me for not converting to ounces, but this is 2013).
And yet despite this relatively big difference, the Tab doesn’t really feel much lighter.
BARCELONA, MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS – Good news for iPod touch-owning photography fans. Well, apart from the great camera Apple finally put in your 5G device. Now you can also get in on the add-on lens action iPhoneographers have been enjoying for so long. Behold: the Olloclip for the iPod Touch.
BARCELONA, MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS -Mobile World Congress 2013 is now underway here in Barcelona, and there’s one device we couldn’t wait to get our hands on: the Galaxy Note 8.0 — Samsung’s answer to the iPad mini. In addition to its 8-inch display, the device boasts a 1.6GHz quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM, and of course, the Note’s trademark S Pen.
But can it give the iPad mini a run for its money?
As the company is known to do during high profile TV events, Apple aired a new ad during tonight’s Academy Awards. The ad was appropriately themed for filmmakers. Various iPad apps were shown off with the taglines “lights,” “camera,” and “action.”
This ad is very similar to the two iPad TV spots Apple aired last week, “Alive” and “Together.”
Source: YouTube
BARCELONA, MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS – Pssst… don’t tell anyone, but I just saw Mophie’s new Juicepack Air for the iPhone 5. After months of abusive complaints in forum and comment threads the world over, the Air is now finally… almost… available for the slim new iPhone.
BARCELONA, MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS – Zagg, who you surely know better for its excellent iPad keyboards, also makes a speaker. Or two speakers, to be precise. This is the Zagg Origin, and it consists of a pocket-sized Bluetooth speaker which docks into a desktop mothership.
BARCELONA, MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS – There mightn’t be anything more telling of the iPhone’s world takeover than this shot of the new Aving mobile video setup.
Anyone who has visited any tech trade-show will have seen the Korean guys in Aving vests hefting huge, shoulder-mounted video rigs and shooting anything and everything (this year at CES Aving put out 1,000 videos).
Now, those rigs have been replaced by the iPhone setup you see above.
Apple accessory manufacturer MiniSuit thinks they know what the iPad 5 is going to look like. After getting the specifications of the new iPad’s design from what it believes to be a reliable source, the manufacturer has already created a case for the unannounced product.
This afternoon MiniSuit sent out images of their iPad 5 case to show the differences between the size of the iPad 5 and iPad 4. According to their case models, the design of the iPad 5 will be more akin to the iPad mini, with a narrower bezel and slimmer profile.
Google announced its first computer yesterday, the ChromeBook Pixel. Yes, they’ve had ChromeBooks for a few years now, but this is the first computer product that was made solely by Google.
Over the past few years we’ve seen service and software oriented companies like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon venture into hardware development. It’s left many people scratching their heads, as we wonder why these companies want to shift their focus to hardware when they’ve dominated by just offering great services? Asymco’s Horace Dediu is pretty sure he knows the answer, and it all comes down to money.
Facebook has pushed out a pretty big update to its iOS app that brings a notable new feature: free voice calling for users in the U.S. and Canada. The same feature was brought to the Facebook Messenger app last month.
Other additions to the app include redesigned buttons for liking, commenting, and sharing posts in the News Feed.
A New York judge has ruled in favor of David Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital and blocked an AAPL shareholder vote that would limit Apple’s ability to give preferred stock options to investors. The ruling comes after Greenlight held a meeting yesterday with shareholders to explain the ideas behind its “iPrefs” stock proposal.
Apple shareholders were scheduled to vote on limiting preferred stock next Wednesday, but a preliminary injunction has been granted that stops the vote from taking place.
The iPad mini would be perfect, if only it had a Retina display. Many have assumed that Apple will bump up the specs on the iPad mini display this year, but other than a rear shell, we haven’t seen any solid hardware leaks yet.
According to a new report though, Apple is definitely going to add a Retina display to the iPad mini this year. In fact, they’ve ordered the initial units, and mass production of the mini Retina displays has already begun in full force.
There’s few better ways to extend the capabilities of your Apple TV 2 than installing XBMC on it, but after the latest Apple TV 5.2 software (iOS 6.1) dropped, there was just no way to do it. Thankfully, XMBC has been updated, and will now stably supercharge your second-gen Apple TV just as well as it did before.
To do the install, it’s as simple as following the instructions over on the XBMC wiki. It’s pretty easy, although it does require some command line delving and a reboot. Power through all of that, though, and you’ll have an incredible, open-source media center running on your Apple TV 2 that can play pretty much anything. Nifty.
Source: XBMC
Why should you buy an iPhone 5 over a Samsung Galaxy S III? Well, besides the fact that the S III is for jerkfaces, the iPhone 5 is nearly 300% more reliable and less likely to break than your average Samsung phone. Ouch!
Google’s crazy new Project Glasses look awesome. So far only a few people have actually got to try them out, but the reviews have been very positive, even if it does look weird to have a computer on your face.
While Google hasn’t announced an official release date for Google Glass, they’re already let a number of developers preorder a unit for $1500. A new report says that the Glasses will actually be released in 2013 though, and they’re going to work with the iPhone.
Apple devices are a popular target for the thieves of New York, so much so that the NYPD now has a team of cops dedicated to recovering stolen iPhones and iPads, according to the New York Post. Every time an Apple device is stolen, detectives work with the Cupertino company to identify their location and then recover them.
We’re huge fans of the new SurfacePad case from TwelveSouth. It’s just like a Smart Cover, with just one drawback: it doesn’t turn your iPhone on and off automatically when you open it or close it.
We hated that, so we figured out a way to turn the SurfacePad, or any other wallet-style iPhone case, into a working Smart Cover just like the iPad has. The hack doesn’t take much work, and you’ll save yourself from having to unlock your iPhone every time you just want to check something really quick.
Here’s how to do it:
On Sunday, Cult of Mac and Cult of Android will be kicking off our Mobile World Congress 2013 coverage.
The Android side of the Mobile World Congress will be — as ever — an orgy of new handsets and tablets of every conceivable screen size. Apple stuff will be limited to accessories and apps, and Killian Bell will be covering that for us over at Cult of Android.
But what is there to get excited about for Apple fans? I’ll be looking for Mac and iPhone-related news, and I wonder what the hell there’s going to be this year.
Since nobody wants to know what I think is coming next week in the world of iPad cases, lets take a look instead at how the rest of the mobile world could (or might not) predict the features of future iDevices.
Cult of Android will soon be on its way to Barcelona for this year’s Mobile World Congress — which kicks off Sunday, February 24 — where we’re expecting a whole host of announcements regarding new smartphones, tablets, apps, and accessories. More than 65,000 people will attend the event, and they’re all there for one thing: to see what’s on the horizon in the world of mobile for 2013.
We’re expecting new devices from Samsung, LG, ZTE, Huawei, Nokia, Asus, and more — and you can follow all of our coverage from here. In the meantime, here’s what you can look forward to.
Throughout the Samsung vs. Apple patent trial, Judge Lucy Koh has been a stern and sardonic overseer that has more often than not resembled a fight between children than an actual lawsuit. Now Koh is speaking up again, telling Samsung and Apple that, once again, they are wasting everyone’s time throwing a million and one allegations at one another, and that they need to “focus and streamline” their cases against one another.
When you buy your iPhone 5, you have tons of options to choose from. Yes, there are different storage sizes, but you also have the two color options, and then have to get the right iPhone for your carrier. In the U.S. that means you have 18 different models to chose from if you don’t have a carrier preference.
If Apple could just manufacture one iPhone that works on all the LTE carriers, then they’d be able to simplify their supply chain considerably. Luckily, Qualcomm announced a new wireless chip that might make that possible.
The latest commercial for the Optimus G Pro starts as a homage to Apple’s iPhone 5 ad, “Cheese!”, which famously advertised iOS 6’s Panorama functionality.
Man, though, does LG one-up Apple in this advertisement, not only showing how the Optimus G Pro can create a 180 degree panorama of a scene… you can actually use the camera to stitch together a full 360 panorama as well, which LG calls a VR Panorama.
In addition to forecasting that Apple would double existing investor dividends to 6% by borrowing low-interest cash domestically. Morgan Stanley’s Katy Huberty walked away from her recent meeting with another conviction: that a cheaper ‘iPhone mini’ aimed at emerging markets was extremely likely
With AAPL stock in decline, investors are rioting to get a piece of Apple’s $137.1 billion cash horde. Greenlight Capital’s David Einhorn, of course, has been making waves with his lawsuit against Apple and his proposal that Apple issue an ‘iPref’ preferred dividend to investors; now, Morgan Stanley Katy Huberty has come out of a meeting with Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer, apparently convinced that Apple will more than double its existing dividend to investors to 6%.