News - page 1824

Sprint took a huge hit when it brought on the iPhone. While Apple’s smartphone has undoubtedly been a godsend for the smaller carrier, Sprint signed on to pay over $15 billion in iPhone subsidies over the next four years. Sprint Nextel CEO Dan Hesse even took a $3.25 million pay cut to appease shareholders after his company agreed to the pricey iPhone deal with Apple. You’d think that Hesse would be a little peeved.

He’s not. On the contrary, Hesse reiterated today that he believes Sprint’s iPhone customers will become its most profitable subscribers. The only catch is that Sprint won’t make money on the iPhone until at least 2015.

Apple today issued an update to its third OS X Mountain Lion developer preview. The update (Build 12A206j) can be downloaded now by registered Mac developers.

The second update to the latest Mountain Lion developer preview doesn’t seem to contain anything substantial, but Apple is obviously gearing up for the public release of its next-gen desktop OS this summer.

Bad news for grandfathered unlimited data subscriber on Verizon: the nation’s largest carrier will kill unlimited data once and for all when subscribers switch over to 4G LTE data plans.

Starting in mid-summer, when you buy a LTE handset and switch over to 4G data, Verizon will make you buy one of its new data share plans. Switching plans will end your grandfathered unlimited plan.

Apple’s upcoming lineup of MacBook Pros are expected to feature a slimmer design, Intel Ivy Bridge architecture and jaw-dropping ‘Retina’ displays. Like the last two iPhones and newest iPad, Apple’s new MacBook Pro and iMac models are supposed to flaunt a screen like you’ve never seen on a computer before. And if iOS device marketing is any indication, such a display will likely be the flagship feature in new Macs. Apple is expected to unveil the new MacBook Pros at WWDC next month, according to multiple reports.

If the next MacBook Pro and iMac really do come outfitted with gorgeous Retina displays, then the new screens will cost Apple more to make.

Update: We incorrectly posted that Cisco charges its users to participate in its BYOD program. While the company’s report does list an average $600 expense for employees making use of BYOD, that expense refers to the purchase of a smartphone or other device and not an additional fee to use the device in the workplace. Clarifications from Cisco’s Ross Camp are included at the end of this post.

Cisco released a new report on BYOD programs at U.S. companies. The survey provides insights into the prevalence of BYOD, how companies manage BYOD programs, and some of the costs associated with BYOD approaches. While those stats are useful and important, the biggest and most surprising revelation in the report came from Cisco itself.

In planning and implementing its BYOD program, Cisco opted to charge users a fee (on average of $600) for the privilege of using their own devices at work.

Back in March a man sued Apple for conveying a “misleading and deceptive message” about Siri, the flagship feature of the iPhone 4S. He said that Apple’s marketing made Siri seem more magical then it actually was, and he wanted Apple to pay unspecified damages. A string of similar lawsuits also occurred, with someone claiming they couldn’t replicate the ‘Rock God’ Siri commercial in real life and another complaining about Siri not properly giving directions.

Apple has responded to the plaintiffs with a simple message: Siri is still in beta, and if you don’t like your iPhone you can always return it.

The iPhone’s app switcher is where you go to quickly navigate between apps in iOS. Apple has added more features to the little switcher tray over time, like handy music controls. Double tapping the Home button on your iPhone reveals one row of recently opened apps to choose from, and you can swipe from right to left to see more icons. Without getting into the debate about whether the app switcher is a true multitasking environment or not, it’s safe to say that it does its job. But could the experience be improved?

When Brent Caswell detailed his rethinking of the iPhone’s app switcher a few days ago, he had no clue the concept would come to life. Thanks to the ingenuity of the jailbreak community, a new Cydia tweak implements Caswell’s ideas to extend the functionality of the app switcher.

Believe it or not, some people still carry around laptops. Sure, those laptops are ultra-thin MacBook Airs, but they’re laptops nonetheless, used in ignorance of the real future of portable work — the iPad paired up with a Bluetooth keyboard.

Still, we don’t judge you luddites out there. And to prove it, we bring you this sleek little sleeve made just for your MacBook Air. It’s called the City Slicker, and it comes from SF Bags in San Francisco.

There’s nothing that really needs changing about Apple’s patented “Slide to Unlock” functionality, but ever since Apple introduced the Smart Cover for the iPad 2, there’s been a conceptual disconnect between how you unlock an iPhone — by sliding — and how you unlock an iPad — by unfolding an origami-like cover off of the display.

It’s not really anything Apple needs to fix, but short of releasing a tiny little iPhone-sized smart cover, I think this “Fold To Unlock” design created by Anton Kudin is just an excellent conceptual bridge between the lockscreen and the smart cover.

Check out the concept in its full, high-res glory below.

It’s one thing to listen to the number of iPhones sold during an Apple financials call and be impressed by the sheer volume and popularity of the iPhone. It’s also easy to miss the overall impact of those incredibly high numbers without some context.

Gartner’s latest mobile device data, however, offers an excellent point of context – just under 8% of all mobile phones sold worldwide last quarter were iPhones.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoB2BvA0nZ0

The Parrot DIA (pronounced like the Spanish for “day”) is a weird little gadget that also manages to be very cool indeed. Its main purpose is as a digital photo frame, but even there it fails to be dull — the screen is actually transparent, so it displays your photos like old-school film slides.

One of the standout features of Apple’s iWork suite is how easy it is to make really standout documents and presentations. Compared to the basic and often drab files that Word, Excel, and PowerPoint produce, iWork-created files look bright, polished, and offer a sense of personality and style. While Office for Mac comes with a set of templates and design functions, they seem bland next to iWork and they aren’t anywhere near as easy to use.

Only Microsoft has the ability to make its tools less clunky and more intuitive, but other companies can spice things up with additional themes and templates. This week Theme Inn took up that challenge and succeeded rather spectacularly.

Almost every tech publication there is has been claiming that the next iPhone will have a 4-inch screen, culminating with the Wall Street Journal‘s report today basically confirming it, but there’s still a lot of debate over how Apple will make the screen larger without bringing on a lot of extra bulk to the device. Should they make it taller? Wider? What about making room for LTE?

Here are 12 cool iPhone 5 concepts that envision what Apple’s next iPhone might look like. If you want to know what we think, though, check out this opinion piece we wrote for Wired on why we think the 4inch iPhone makes a lot of sense.

Flipboard for iOS has received another major update this morning, introducing a number of new features like SoundCloud and Readability integration, a new category dedicated to audio feeds, Accessibility options for the visually impaired, and lots more.

Nielsen, global leader in measurement and information, takes a look back at the State Of Appnation and how much has changed over the past year. Since Nielsen’s 2011 summary, the number of U.S. smartphone users has increased by 12.4%, with one in two mobile subscribers now owning a smartphone. With the rise in smartphone users, comes a rise in the number of apps being downloaded, as well as the amount of time users spend engaged with them.

While there’s plenty of debate surrounding the next-generation iPhone’s specifics, there’s one thing we do know for sure, and that is that the new device will make its debut at some point during 2012. In preparation for that, Apple has cut existing iPhone orders by around 25%.

Are BYOD programs really all that common? According to a new report from staffing and recruiting firm Robert Half, the answer is that they aren’t. In fact, according to the report many CIOs and IT departments don’t allow employees to use personal devices. That runs contrary to a lot of other data that shows the iPhone, iPad, and other personal technologies are increasingly finding their ways into the office.

The immediate judgement might be to throw out this report or others because of the disconnect between them. That wouldn’t be a wise course of action, however. In fact, putting this report and another recent study that we covered last week side by side indicates that many CIOs may be dangerously unaware of what’s going on in their companies.

Up until Mountain Lion, OS X’s “Cat” codenames kept on evolving from Cheetah to Puma to Jaguar to Panther to Tiger to Leopard. Once Lion hit, it seemed Apple had peaked, with no bigger lions to choose from, but then Cupertino surprised everyone with Mountain Lion.

Where to next, then? As the brilliant webcomic XKCD makes clear, there’s not a lot of good cat names yet, once you count out code names that have already been tech products, like Lynx or Ocelot. OS X Housecat? Please.

I’ll take OS X Saber-Toothed Jungle Cat though. Yes please.

Source: XKCD
Via: Gizmodo]

When snapping digital photos with our cameras and phones, it’s easy to forget what’s actually happening inside to get the light from your subject into the camera, and then up on its way to Instagram. So, if you ever wondered how a CCD sensor actually works, and how light is turned into electricity and shifted off the sensor, watch this great video by Engineer Guy Bill Hammack.

China Mobile, the world’s largest carrier with over 655 million subscribers, is in talks with Apple to bring the iPhone to its homegrown 3G (TD-SCDMA) network. The carrier’s chairman, Xi Guohua, confirmed the discussions during a shareholders meeting earlier this week.

Becoming an astronaut is every boy’s dream. Who doesn’t want to walk on the moon? Unfortunately that dream fades away for the vast majority of us when we grow up and realize NASA doesn’t employ overweight college dropouts. That’s when we take up blogging.

But thanks to an upcoming iOS app, we can all pop on a white suit and moon boots and dance with the satellites.

With so many contrasting rumors in recent weeks, it has been hard to predict whether or not Apple will increase the size of the display for its sixth-generation iPhone. But according to sources for The Wall Street Journal, the Cupertino company is preparing to break away from its existing 3.5-inch panels in favor of a display measuring “at least 4 inches diagonally.”

Try to not fall out of your chair or trip face-first into the pavement, because we have some breaking news for you: men love Zooey Deschanel. We’re not quite sure why, but it probably has something to do with her drop-dead gorgeousness and delightful quirkiness. Her hair is also very nice.

Apple knows that Zooey Deschanel is wonderful too, and you can see Zooey on TV talking to Siri in the newest ad for the iPhone 4S. Her spot with Apple runs alongside a similar iPhone ad starring the one and only Samuel L. Jackson.

According to new research, Apple’s latest ads are being received very well. Specifically, men between the age of 18-34 seem to really be showing interest in the Zooey ad. We wonder why.

In December of 2011 the International Trade Commission (ITC) ruled in favor of Apple for placing a ban on the U.S. import of multiple HTC smartphones. It was the first major exclusion ban of its kind, and it all hinged on one Apple patent.

The HTC import ban went into effect on April 19, 2012, and the delay was meant to give HTC time to re-engineer around the infringing issues. HTC said it was going to have everything cleared and ready to go in time, but U.S. Customs has now halted the One X and Evo 4G LTE from crossing the border.

Apple CEO Tim Cook met with U.S. Speaker of the House John Boehner at the U.S. Capitol today. The details of the meeting remain unknown, but Cook was likely sweet talking Boehner to pass the the tax holiday Apple wants so it can bring back billions in offshore cash at a low tax rate.