News - page 2073

Working conditions at the Foxconn factory in Shenzhen, China, have long been the center of attention. 1 million Chinese workers build electronics for Apple, HP, Nokia, Palm and Sony at the plant, some are reportedly as young as 12; having to endure long, repetitive work under notoriously harsh conditions. At last count, at least 14 Foxconn workers have committed suicide in the last 16 months.

The plant is now ordering its employees to sign an ‘anti-suicide pledge’, according to the U.K.’s Daily Mail. Under the pledge, employees must not attempt to kill themselves, and if they do, their families can only seek the minimum in damages.

Have a new white iPhone 4? Looking for a case to go along with it? The SwitchEasy TRIM ($19.95, Big Shoulder Devices) in white just might be the one that you’re looking for. It’s made of “super tough Scratch Resistant Hydro Polymer materialfused with highly durable polycarbonate” to give your iPhone 4 some great protection as well as making it look pretty slick. It’s available in several different colors, and is all around a nice value. Check out my full review below.

Contrary to reports of growing friction between Apple and publishers over iPad subscriptions, the Telegraph said working with Apple was just peachy.

Telegraph Media Group digital editor Edward Roussel told the Financial Times that Apple has been “cooperative and helpful” during the development of the newspaper’s latest iPad app which launched today.

Roussel says his company has no gripes with forking over a percentage of profits to Apple because the app store is such a “user-friendly” way to pay – and similar to the costs of distributing a print product.

Subscribers who want to read daily will fork over £9.99 a month (nearly US$15); single editions of the digital paper can be bought for £1.19. The app is free to download.

“The bottom line is we don’t have a gripe with Apple on the subscription model that they have,” Roussel says. “We found they were prepared to enter into a dialogue with us.”

Via FT

Adult chat service iP4Play has been using FaceTime, Apple’s live video chat service, for one-on-one video sex chats since August 2010.

Following the adult industry’s long tradition of calendar girls and monthly playmates, they’ve named the first Miss FaceTime, Charlotte Stokely. To celebrate the crowning of the petite Utah-born blonde, iP4Play is giving away an iPad 2 to a randomly selected customer May 5.

CultofMac.com talked exclusively to this former “PC girl” about her Apple gear and why FaceTime is “incredibly arousing.”

More than 8 out of 10 U.S. tablet users own the iPad. That’s the word from a new survey of the domestic tablet market and the device’s impact on PCs, e-readers and game consoles. The news reminds us of Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty’s remark that the iPad could have “iPod-like market share.”

“Despite the addition to the market of new tablet computers like the Samsung Galaxy and the Motorola Xoom, in the United States, Apple’s iPad is still dominating the conversation — and the market,” research firm Nielsen announced Thursday. The Android-based tablets have single-digit market share.

Morgan Stanley’s chief Apple analyst Katheryn Huberty recently visited Oz (also known as Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple) and came away with “increasing confidence” in the iPad-maker’s continued ability to amaze Wall Street. After a general conversation with finance head Peter Oppenheimer, Apple Store chief Ron Johnson, and Internet guru Eddy Cue, Huberty believes more than ever in a bullish future.

Apple iPads sales could grow 74 percent over the next two years, describing an “iPod-like market share in tablets.” Likewise, iPhone sales may grow 55 percent in what she sees as a “natural expansion” of distribution. As for Apple Stores, which celebrate their 10th anniversary on May 19, the company will build up to 50 new locations, expanding current stores to handle more product set-up services, Huberty reported.

Popular jailbreak tool PdaNet has just been updated to introduce a nice new feature that hides iPhone tethering usage from its carrier. The update comes as AT&T begins a crackdown on customers who illegally use their device’s data connection without paying for a tethering plan.

To identify illegal tethering, AT&T looks at the type of packets hitting its network; any packet that doesn’t come from an iPhone is checked and warnings are then sent to the offenders informing them they must cease their wrongdoing or be billed for their use.

PdaNet’s new feature works by masking those packets and making the carrier believe they’re coming from an iPhone, and that all of their subscribers are being good boys and girls.

A shameless clone of the popular Canabalt running game for iOS has passed Apple’s approval process and is now available in the App Store. Free Running uses the Canabalt source code and makes no effort to be different or hide its imitation.

Canabalt’s source code was released by its developer last year so that other developers code use its game engine to create their own games. It was released under an MIT open source license, and its developer makes it clear that other developers cannot “distribute or redistribute [the] game code, art or sounds.”

PLD Soft have done exactly that with Free Running; taking the code, repackaging it with little to no changes, and submitting it to the App Store under a new name. Unfortunately for the great Canabalt, Apple approved it, leading to questions about its App Store approval process.

The growing number of mobile devices – such as the iPad, the iPhone 4 and iPod touch – powered by ARM processors now have a bit more recognition. Well-known analyst firm IDC decided it will count ARM processors alongside the Intel chips found in PCs. The move is a recognition of the growing number of tablets being purchased and just the latest sign analysts are warming to lumping together tablet and PC sales.

“For the first time, IDC is forecasting PC microprocessor units by processor architecture, including those based on x86 (Intel and Advanced Micro Devices) and those based on ARM,” the firm announced in a research note. By 2015, more than 13 percent of PC processors will be based on ARM designs, according to IDC.

Apple released iOS 4.3.3 on Tuesday to address the infamous location tracking issues with the iPhone. To our surprise, however, the update to does prevent the latest untethered jailbreak solution, leaving 4.3.3 still vulnerable to the hack.

Dev-Team member C0mex posted a message on Twitter yesterday that confirmed the exploit was still successful. While we don’t recommend you try jailbreaking the latest iOS release with Redsn0w or PwnageTool, it’s only a matter of time before both tools are updated.

In its fight against the jailbreak community, Apple usually fixes the vulnerabilities that make the latest jailbreaks possible, forcing hackers to find another exploit. The fact that it hasn’t with the latest iOS release is evidence that Apple rushed to get the 4.3.3 software out and quickly quash the location tracking bugs, putting an end to the whole ‘Locationgate’ saga.

We’ll keep you updated on the iOS 4.3.3 jailbreak as it progresses.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCP4dgqinYo

Spider Jack is a puzzle game from Chillingo that just hit the App Store, and I’m betting it will be the next iPhone game craze. It bears an uncanny resemblance to Cut the Rope and offers a similar style of play mechanic, but instead features an adorable green arachnid called Jack, whose mission is to return to his web to get his fill of flies.

It features 75 levels skilfully designed levels that promise to test your reflexes and foresight. Using pieces of web (not rope) you must carefully avoid the electrical beams and guide Jack safely home to his web. Use hairdryers to you advantage and try to collect as many stars as you can along the way.

Each level features multiple solutions, and the impressive visuals have been hand-drawn and optimized for the iPhone 4’s Retina display. Realistic physics attempt to give you a taste of “what real web-slinging is like,” and offer a puzzler that’s suitable for players of all ages and abilities.

Spider Jack’s similarities to Cut the Rope means many will already be familiar with its gameplay style, and to those who have beaten every level of Cut the Rope and are begging for something similar, Spider Jack has you covered. I’m sure it will follow in the footsteps of its inspiration and be the App Store’s next big success.

Give it a try and let us know what you think!

That e-reader you have today may soon be morphing into a full-fledged tablet device. Bookseller Barnes & Noble has become the second e-reader maker reportedly planning to launch an iPad rival. The company plans to announce May 24 “a new eReader device,” B&N included in Form 8-K filed Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The news, first reported by Reuters, follows a software update to the Android-powered Nook Color, providing users with tablet-like features such as games, web browsing and email. Internet retailer Amazon may also join the tablet fray, lowering the price of its Kindle e-reader to $114 while also talking to iOS developers about porting applications to the device.

Due to a deficiency of wrist-flipping motor skills that all too often see me smashing myself in the face with a plastic pie tin instead of gracefully floating it to my girlfriend down the beach, I much prefer my frisbees to be the tall-tale-spinning, alien-smashing Twilight Zone type than the throwing kind… but for Whammo’s officially sanctioned iOS app, Frisbee Forever I’ll make an exception.

With over 100 levels and 100 frisbees to collect, Frisbee Forever might be one of the biggest free games on the iOS Store, and the early reviews are surprisingly good. You can download it here for free for any iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad capable of running iOS 4.0.

Contradicting reports that the white iPhone 4 was delayed by almost a year because of problems with light leaking onto the camera sensor, Apple’s Phil Schillar commented during the handset’s eventual release that the delay was necessary to give the handset some much needed “extra UV protection.”

Once he said that, everyone guessed the real issue: yellowing over time, a la some of the earlier and uglier white MacBooks. Now here’s the proof. Nick Bilton over at the New York Times managed to get an original white iPhone 4 from a guy who knew a guy at the factory that made it. Paying $1000 bucks for his prize, he went about comparing models.

The results? The obvious ones, sure, especially regarding the camera and the proximity sensor, but while the new iPhone is pristine white, the year-old one is already looking like it was pulled out of someone’s ashtray. It’s already dirty and yellow.

If Apple’s releasing the white iPhone at this point, they’re doubtlessly reasonably certain that the new model isn’t going to be subject to the same problems. Still, as Wired’s own dirty and yellowing blogger Charlie Sorrel notes, how did this happen in the first place? It’s not like Apple’s never made a white gadget before.

Apple’s new family of iMac all-in-ones released earlier this week boast an Intel BD82Z68 platform controller hub that isn’t scheduled for release until May 11th. The Z68 chip, designed for Sandy Bridge 1155, was first discovered by TonyMacx86 and later confirmed in an iFixit teardown.

The Z68 allows for solid-state drive data caching when a system is equipped with a combination of storage drives. So users could install a small, relatively cheap SSD along with their traditional hard disk drive and have the SSD serve as a cache – dramatically increasing access speeds to their files and applications. The new iMacs can be ordered with both an SSD and a traditional hard disk drive installed, and the Z68 can allow users to see this combination as just one drive on their Mac.

Sources in Apple’s supply chain have revealed to an analyst with Sterne Agee that the company is planning to refresh the rest of its Mac lineup “in upcoming months.” Shaw Wu issued a note to investors yesterday that claimed all Mac products yet to be refreshed this year are “due for refreshes” soon. That includes Apple’s MacBook, MacBook Air, Mac Pro, and Mac Mini computers.

The last update to Apple’s MacBook – the company’s entry-level notebook – came in May 2010. Wu believes an update to this line is especially important as the MacBook currently counts for one-third of Apple’s notebook business, which itself equals 73% of all Mac sales.

The MacBook Air was only refreshed last October, but recent speculation claims Apple will soon swap the notebook’s ageing Core 2 Duo processor for the new Sandy Bridge chip.

The Mac Mini was last updated in June 2010 and the Mac Pro a month later in July. Wu believes the upcoming updates to Apple’s Mac computers will counterbalance “a very minor cannibalistic impact” the iPad 2 could potentially have on the Mac business. The touchscreen tablet has reportedly effected sales of most computers – especially netbooks – in some way since it hit the market.

The MacBook Pro lineup was updated back in February to introduce Intel’s newest Sandy Bridge processors, and the company’s Thunderbolt technology. The iMac family then followed with an update earlier this week to add the same features.

[via AppleInsider]

Apple is reportedly working closely with Verizon Wireless to introduce over-the-air software updates to the iPhone with its iOS 5 firmware. Starting this fall, iPhone users will be able to update their iOS software wirelessly, without having to plug the device into iTunes, or involve a computer altogether. It’s a luxury Google Android and Palm webOS users have been enjoying for some time, and Apple’s finally bringing it to iOS.

Multiple sources for 9to5Mac have revealed the feature will debut with iOS 5 and will support subsequent iOS releases. Apparently, Apple already has the technology, but doesn’t want to release it to the masses all at once. It will therefore be available only to Verizon customers initially.

Multiple sources who seem to know a thing or two about Apple’s third-generation iPad are claiming that the device will boast a 3D display. One “Hollywood insider” talking to RCR Wireless says the device is already in the advanced planning stages, and “the fact that the iPad 3 is 3D is a dead cert.”

She went on to say that the big film studios were currently running around like blue arsed flies trying to gear up to release plenty of 3D content in time for Apple’s next launch.

RCR reveals the story has also been backed up by a source at Foxconn – the factory that manufactures Apple’s devices – who have “spilled the 3D iPad beans” to several of their closest industry sources.

Just seven days after Steve Jobs promised to fix the location tracking bugs in iOS, an update is available now for download through iTunes.

A free download, iOS 4.3.3 fixes three bugs related to location tracking:

• The cache of location data is limited to just one week.
• The data is no longer backed up to your computer.
• The cache is deleted when Location Services are disabled in iOS’s Settings app.

The data isn’t encrypted, but Apple says that will be fixed in the next major update, likely iOS 5, which is expected at WWDC in early June.

The 4.3.3 update applies to the iPhone (4 and 3GS, but not the iPhone 3G); iPad (1 and 2); and iPod touch (3rd and 4th gen, but not 1st or 2nd gen).

There’s a separate 4.2.8 update for the Verizon iPhone 4 (the CDMA phone is still on a different fork of iOS).

Update or no, Apple is still expected to testify at a May 10 Congressional hearing about mobile tracking.

Wouldn’t it be great to get paid to play with your beloved iPhone? Thanks to a new startup Gigwalk, that dream is now a reality. The Silicon Valley startup launched their program today and are accepting applications for new Gigwalkers in cities across America.

Using Gigwalk’s iPhone app, Gigwalkers sign up to complete a list of task in their local area using their iPhone in exchange for a small cash sum (gigs pay between $3 – $50). Once a task is completed, Gigwalkers are paid via a PayPal account that is linked to their Gigwalk account, making everything incredibly simple and efficient. While these small gigs won’t replace your full-time job, you can earn a tidy sum on the side. Gigwalk reported that their highest paid Gigwalker earned $2,173 completing 277 gigs over the 6-month private-beta period.

The idea behind the new service is that every smartphone is a node in a vast network. By tapping into that huge network companies can accomplish huge data tasks that require small amounts of information from a large number of locations in a highly efficient manner.

Here’s the new 2011 Thunderbolt iMac playing HD movies on three screens simultaneously — without a hiccup.

It’s a 27-inch model with an Intel Core i5 chip and AMD’s Radeon HD 6970 graphics card (1GB of GDDR5 memory).

The two 21-inch Dell monitors either side are connected via the iMac’s pair of Thunderbolt/Mini DisplayPort jacks on the back (with a pair of pricey $30 Mini-DisplayPort-to-DVI adapters).

The main 27-inch display’s resolution is 2,560-by-1,440; while the external monitors are at 1,920 by 1,080 (true 1080p HD).

Pretty impressive.

Crescent Moon Games are currently enjoying App Store success following its release of Gears, a physics-based ball roller that has rocketed to the top of the App Store’s paid charts, and featured as one of our must-have games last week. The team is already working on its next iOS release which looks like it could be just as successful – a dual-stick shooter called Deadlock which boasts co-operative and competitive online multiplayer with support for up to 8 people.

Deadlock will initially offer 5 levels and 3 game types, including deathmatch, team deathmatch, and capture & hold. It uses Game Centre integration to connect players to online games, and features a 30-level ranking system that allows players to progress as they play.

There are 30 weapons to choose from, including assault rifles, sub-machine guns, pistols, and grenades; and a load-out system that allows users to upgrade their weapons with a range of attachments to provide things like improved aiming and additional damage – all of which are unlocked as you progress.

In a daring move that might result in a legal tussle and a cat-and-mouse game between Apple and Europe’s largest and most popular music streaming service, Spotify is adding iPod Sync Support to its music service… and you don’t need to go through iTunes to do it.

Compatible with the iPod Classic, iPod Nano, iPod Shuffle, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPod, the new download service will allow users to sync MP3 content from Spotify Playlists to any iPod without using iTunes,

It’s an interesting move that brings Spotify’s library to dumb iPods, but will Apple kick? My guess is yes, but legally: I don’t see Apple updating the iPod Classic’s software just to deal with Spotify.

That said, it’s pretty clear this is a proactive move on Spotify’s part to shore up their defenses for an iTunes onslaught. When Apple announces its new iCloud service, Spotify and Apple are going to start trading blows head-to-head.

An interesting option within the System Preferences of the new lineup of iMacs launched yesterday has led to speculation that Apple could be working on a new wireless keyboard with backlit keys. Backlit keyboards are currently a luxury only those with MacBook Pros can enjoy.

Within the keyboard menu of System Preferences, users have the option to “Illuminate keyboard in low light conditions.” Without an Apple wireless keyboard equipped with backlighting, this preference obviously has no use whatsoever. Which leads us to believe that, unless Apple made a rare mistake with some code, they’re currently working on a nice new keyboard in the Cupertino camp.

Using a MacBook Pro with a backlit keyboard in low light conditions really is incredibly useful, and I’d be first in line for a backlit keyboard for my desk.

[via 9to5 Mac]

If it sometimes feels as if everyone and her grandmother are hawking a tablet device, you aren’t too far off. By the second-half of 2011 there is a “high risk of facing excess tablet PC inventory,” one industry publication writes Wednesday. The report claims “demand scale” is only for 20 million units.

Analysts already predict Apple will sell anywhere between 18 million and 48 million iPads this year, with 23 million units in 2012. The overall tablet market could reach 55.7 million units in 2011.