You probably haven’t heard of a German company called Loewe. The high-end TV maker hasn’t done so well at selling ultra-expensive HDTVs as of late, and its peripheral business isn’t doing so hot either.
It’s amazing to see how Apple can affect the stock value of another company. After a debunked report from last year claimed that Apple was planning to buy Loewe, yet another acquisition rumor has sent Loewe’s stock soaring to new heights. And just like the first time, the situation is all smoke and no fire.
Rdio — for my money, the best à la carte streaming music subscription service out there — just released a nice update to their iOS app, making it easier (and prettier) than ever to interact with your music.
Following the most recent Apple TV update that brought Bluetooth keyboard support, iTunes in the Cloud, and Up Next to the Apple TV, FireCore has released updates to their second-generation Apple TV jailbreaking software aTV Flash (black) and Seas0n Pass that allow you to get your jailbreak back on firmware 5.2.
Jefferies' Peter Misek, the face behind almost all of today's Apple rumors.
It’s been a crazy day of rumors. Rumors about iPhone 5 sales slipping, the iPhone 5S coming out this summer, an Apple TV event in March, an iTV launch in September, and something about the 4.8-inch iPhone 6 being “delayed” until 2014. Busy day… but all of that info came from one guy, Peter Misek. And that guy is basically the Digitimes of analysts when it comes to correctly predicting Apple’s next move.
As an analyst for Jefferies, Mr. Misek has a long and comical history of making some crazy claims about Apple’s future plans. Who can blame him? It’s his job to predict the future of Apple so investors can make decisions. The problem is a huge amount of his predictions were wrong, especially when it comes to the Apple HDTV, where Misek has (so far) been almost universally off-point.
Here’s a run-down of some of Misek’s “greatest” predictions.
Why wear a helmet and a camera when you go skateboarding/snowboarding/waterboarding/other? With the Video Head helmet you get both gadgets in one. Cheaper, safer and more -in-one-er.
Apple is no longer the exclusive rights holder to the iPhone trademark in Brazil when applied to handset devices. That means IGB Electronics S.A. and Apple can both sell “iPhones” in the county, even though IGB’s iPhone is, in fact, an Android phone.
Along with making ridiculous predictions like the impending arrival of an iTV, analysts have now taken to predicting when Apple will hold their next keynotes.
If you believe Peter Misek from Jefferies, then Apple is going to hold an Apple TV-related event in March, but there probably won’t be any new hardware on display, just software.
Sonos’ new PLAYBAR does two things: The first is to add a hefty, sound FX-pumping speaker bar to your underpowered HDTV. And the second is to provide a temporary respite for my otherwise vestigial CAPS LOCK key.
Even though Tim Cook and Apple say that the Apple TV is really just a hobby right now, people are scared of it. Intel’s launching a competing product later this year. Samsung’s rushing to get more content on their SmartTVs, and Microsoft and Sony are probably going to announce new consoles this year that will appeal to casual users.
Apple TV really doesn’t do a lot right now other than streaming movies and music to your TV, but it has the potential to become a killer product. Xbox’s founder, Nat Brown recognizes the power of Apple TV and says that if Apple wanted to, it could easily destroy the Xbox, Playstation, and Wii U.
Opera has announced that it will gradually phase out the use of Presto, its own rendering engine, in favor of WebKit this year. It will utilize Chromium, the open source project from Google, which powers the search giant’s speedy Chrome browser. Opera’s first Chromium-based smartphone browser will be previewed at Mobile World Congress later this month.
Realmac Software, the developers behind Clear for iPhone, have been listening to your feedback, and they’ve today release an update that makes the “Edge Swipe” gesture entirely optional. In addition to this, they’re made some iCloud tweaks that promise to “improve how Clear behaves when iCloud misbehaves.”
Tim Cook said that Apple couldn’t even make enough iPhone 5s to keep up with demand last year. Shoot, Apple sold 5 million iPhone 5 units in the first weekend, so we’re keen to believe Tim.
However, a report from Jefferies analyst Peter Misek this morning is claiming the iPhone 5 is loosing its juice, and sales are starting to drop a lot faster than anyone expected.
When it comes to smartphones, there are really only two companies that matter right now – Apple and Samsung. They’re both championing different mobile operating systems, but the two companies are absolutely dominating the worldwide smartphone market.
Earlier today, Gartner reported that Apple and Samsung now control 52 percent of the worldwide smartphone market, even though mobile phone sales declined 1.7 percent in 2012.
Vault’s Lexx case sadly has nothing to do with the ultra-cheesy (and fantastic) 1997-2002 sci-fi series of the same name. But it does come with its own flaws, just like the TV show.
I’ve been in love with the iPhone for the past five years. I got the original as soon as it went on sale in the U.K. in November 2007, and I’ve had every model Apple has released ever since. My job has given me the opportunity to play with plenty of other devices over the years — including those powered by Android, BlackBerry, and Windows Phone — but I’ve always remained loyal to the iPhone and iOS.
That was until a couple months ago, when my contract ended and it was time to decide which smartphone I wanted for the next two years. I already have the iPhone 5 — I bought it unlocked when it was launched back in September — and I wanted an Android device to replace the Samsung Galaxy Nexus I broke late last year. So I decided to pick up the new LG Nexus 4.
I was lucky; I didn’t have to wait six weeks for the device to arrive from Google Play. My carrier had plenty in stock, so a unit was delivered to my door the day after I ordered it. I was looking forward to testing it out, but I figured I’d play around with it for a little bit, then switch straight back to my iPhone 5 for everyday use. Like the Galaxy Nexus, I thought the Nexus 4 would be mostly used for work — testing apps and writing the odd tutorial for Cult of Android.
If you’re one of those people who still uses Pandora, you’re missing out on some really great music apps that have a deeper catalogs of music. Yes, Spotify and Rdio are pretty much the frontrunners in the streaming music scene, but Slacker Radio just got a brand new look that makes it worthy to be oogled at.
The biggest problems with Spotify and Rdio is that most people (like me) are lazy and don’t want to be forced to comb through 11 million songs to find an artist to listen to for the next 42 minutes. Slacker Radio wants to step in and take that pain away by offering 250 DJ curated stations so you can just kick back and enjoy the music without thinking about what to play next.
The Pokémon Company just released an official app for Android and iOS called Pokémon TV, which allows you to watch Pokémon episodes on your smartphone or tablet completely free of charge. Although this isn’t the Pokémon game you’ve been waiting for for years, it’s sure to please plenty of Pokémon fans.
Bem’s new Outlet has a new take on portable Bluetooth speakers. Instead of packing a rechargeable battery, it just comes with a pair of prongs on the back so you can stick it straight into a power outlet. This does of course mean that you’re out of luck if you want to run it anywhere that doesn’t have mains electricity, but if you never use your $200 Jambox away from your kitchen counter, then you could have bought two Outlets for the same price.
Apple has today announced that it has updated its 13- and 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro to add faster processors and lower prices. The 13-inch model now starts at $1,499 with 128GB of flash storage, rising to $1,699 for a new 2.6GHz processor and 256GB of flash.
The 15-inch model now offers a faster 2.4GHz quad-core processor as standard, while the top-of-the-line model gets a new 2.7GHz quad-core processor and 16GB of memory.
British carrier O2 has released a new app for Android and iOS called O2 Tracks, which allows users to listen to the U.K.’s official top 40 singles to their smartphone. It’s available to download now from the App Store and Google Play, and O2 customers can enjoy the service for just £1 ($1.56) per week.
I’ve always been a fan of Twittelator Neue, a clean Twitter client for iPhone that’s super fast and has a unique way of handling pictures in your timeline. However, I never agreed with its pricing policy. The app costs $4.99 upfront, but users had to pay an extra $1.99 per year on top of that for push notifications.
Fortunately, its creators have had a change of heart. With its latest update, Twittelator Neue provides push notifications for free.
We’ve said this before, and we’ll say it again — simply because we enjoy repeating things: STM makes a %@$# great bag. And they’ve just unveiled a revamp of their flagship bags in the form of a new family of gear they’re calling the Velocity Collection. Which is actually pretty damn apt for this line of fast, light, grab-and-go bags.
Ever since we reviewed this sweet menu bar internet radio app for the Mac, we’ve used it to tune into thousands upon thousands of stations just ripe for the listening. It was one of our 15 top apps of 2010, and one of the essential apps in the Freelance Mac App Bundle that came out back in June of 2011.
Now Radium is back with a new icon and a new version, ready to take on a whole new set of fans with its easy to use, small footprint, and just plain full-of-audio awesomeness that we’ve all come to expect from the Mac app. Plus? It’s half off right now in the App Store.
You know about Magnetyze, right? It’s a system that lets you charge an iPhone 4/S or Galaxy S3 without the need for a cord. Pop your iPhone into the provided case, then drop the case on the magnetic charging base and your iPhone will charge (and sync) — it works kind of like the MagSafe power adapter on a MacBook. It’s really cool on the S3, because the Magnetyze case replaces the S3’s original back, so there’s almost zero extra bulk. Neat.
