Cult of Mac may have previously reported that Apple manufacturer Foxconn was scaling back on iPhone 5c production — instead focusing its attention on the 5s — but it seems that there is at least one place where the iPhone 5c is finding its audience: and that place is India.
Although actual sales figures aren’t on offer — meaning that this relies on anecdotal evidence — resellers have reported far higher demand for the 5c than the new model Samsung smartphone.
Yesterday we told you that iPhone 5s finally had the supply it needed to match demand as we draw near to the holidays. Today we tell you why.
Having had limited availability in its first weeks, it seems that Foxconn has ramped up production of the iPhone 5s by running its factories around the clock — as well as adding more workers to its production lines.
San Francisco resident and Uber user James Alva has taken to social media to complain that not only did the car and driver he ordered using the app not match the description he was given — but also that the driver became both physically and verbally abusive.
Alva summoned an UberX ride (an app which connects passengers to third-party drivers) using his iPhone after leaving a bar in the early hours of Sunday. At this point the notification on his phone told him that the driver sent would arrive in a silver Toyota Prius.
A short time later, Alva reports that a blue Prius showing a different license plate turned up — along with what he thought to be a different driver.
To mark the release of Fred Vogelstein’s new book “Dogfight: How Apple and Google Went To War And Started A Revolution”, Cult of Mac chatted to the author to gets his thoughts on the iOS vs. Android smartphone wars, writing a book without Apple’s approval, and why both sides could stand to learn a thing or two from their rival.
If Cult of Mac ever created an award for “Most Prolific i-Gadget Maker,” there’s little doubt it would eventually end up in a cabinet at iHome’s headquarters (or possibly more accurately in a cabinet at their parent company, SDI technologies, which also owns New Balance and Timex).
Of the four new gadgets iHome has just revealed, the two we’re highlighting are a set of Bluetooth headphones endowed with the unimaginative moniker of iB85 Bluetooth Wireless Foldable Headphones and the somewhat more interestingly named iB12 Sport Earbuds with LED Safety Flasher — though the latter’s name is perhaps only more interesting simply because it combines the words “Safety Flasher” and “Earbuds.”
Ah, the open road. Nothing like some great tunes, an agreeable companion and endless blacktop to relieve the stress after — or enjoy a little peace before — that remote Thanksgiving gathering (note that I said a companion, as in singular; if you’ve got kids, I’m guessing you’ll probably want to fly).
Before you head out, you might want to do a little planning with something like Roadtrippers, a helpful site and accompanying iOS app that can show you hip, hidden or just plain weird points of interest along your planned route.
Bike2Power has just added an iPhone 5s version to their line of ruggedized, weather-sealed BikeConsole Smart Mounts for bicycles. The lineup already has a version for the 5 and 5c, but the new 5s model allows access to the Touch ID fingerprint sensor.
Microsoft loves to make ads for the Surface that pit it against the iPad. Two new ads for the Surface 2 are perfect examples of how Microsoft can’t effectively market the Surface on its own merits, but must instead compare it to things the iPad can’t do. It’s an incredibly predictable, miserable marketing tactic that Microsoft just can’t seem to let go.
In its two latest ads, Microsoft tries to convince us that the Surface 2 is better because it supports hand gestures and multiple user accounts.
The latest Steve Jobs movie starring Ashton Kutcher that everyone loves to hate is now available in the iTunes Store. You can purchase the movie for $20 in HD or $15 in SD, or rent it for $5 in HD or $3 in SD.
The digital release is accompanying the Blu-ray for $18 and DVD for $23 with deleted scenes and behind-the-scenes commentary. So the digital HD movie costs more than the Blue-ray and less than the regular DVD, which doesn’t make sense at all.
Jobs originally received pretty polarizing reviews, but the public ended up receiving the film pretty poorly—it tanked at the box office. It currently has a 26% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Source: iTunes Store
Apple has tweaked the App Store’s search engine to help users find the right apps even when they’re misspelled, according to a TechCrunch report. This means that developers with apps that either have tricky spellings or spacings should see a boost in traffic. Previously, misspelled searches were hardly ever leading to users discovering the right apps.
As the holidays draw near, supplies of the iPhone 5s are finally starting to meet demand. When the smartphone first launched in September, it was nearly impossible to find any model in Apple stores and third-party retailers. As the weeks progressed, more and more models starting becoming available, while gold remained the most allusive.
Apple stores in the U.S. now have 90% of iPhone 5s models in stock, according to research from Piper Jaffray analyst and iTV rumormonger Gene Munster.
Time Planner — Productivity — Free
When you need to track stuff you need to do, it’s essential to have an app that can handle tasks and to-do items as well as a robust calendaring system. Time Planner does just that, and does it very well. It also adds a colorful palette, a nicely organized way of creating tasks and reminders, and a list of categories that really helps you focus in on what each task is about.
Choose to add a task to Home, Work, Rest, Lifestyle, and other categories to color the tasks with a visual cue. When you start looking at your schedule for the day, you’ll have a colorful reminder of the things you’ll need to focus on, perhaps noticing that you spend too much time at work, and not enough on restful activities.
You can have Time Planner remind you of stuff you need to do by day, time, or location, which is pretty much what all to-do apps should have these days.
Apple clearly has designs for Siri that go far beyond the intelligent assistant's current implementation. Siri forms a key component of CarPlay right now, but it could certainly go further. Apple also has a number of interesting concepts, such as a patent designed to let you ask "Siri, where's my car?" when you're lost in a parking lot — at which point, your dedicated AI helper will guide you back to your car. Helpful, no?
Today Honda announced that it is offering Siri Eyes Free integration with certain 2013-2014 Honda Accord and 2013 Acura vehicles. Honda said that it would be implementing Eyes Free as a dealer installed accessory back in January, and now customers can visit a dealership and have the technology installed.
With the new iOS 7, you’re able to search your iPhone from any icon-bearing home screen. Simply drag downward on the iPhone screen on any page, and you’ll see the Search field. Type in whatever you’re searching for–Contacts, Apps, Music, Messages–and your iPhone will display all of those things in a nice list for you. All you need to do from there is tap the result you want to check out, and iOS 7 will take you to that specific bit of data.
However, maybe you don’t want to search everything on your iOS device. Maybe you don’t keep Music on there, or you don’t want to see a list of Podcasts or Mail when you search your iPad for a specific app.
Lucky you; it’s pretty easy to customize. It might even help you save a bit of battery, too.
Activision announced its new app, released Tuesday to the App Store: Skylanders Collection Vault. With it, collectors of the video game/collectible toy game series can track and manage their collection on the go, or at least on the couch with their iPad in hand.
If you download the app, you’ll be able to share and compare your collection with family and friends for free, and even sign up for a holiday wish list sweepstakes. Even more essentially, you’ll be able to read up on each of the Skylander characters, along with their powers and backstory, browsing your own wish list, images, videos, and unlocking special content.
Rockstar Games announced this morning that Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas will be making its way to iOS device next month after originally being released for the PS2 back in 2004.
Not only is Rockstar porting the game to iOS, but the company says it’s also adding support for Made for iOS controllers on iOS 7, along with the addition of brand new touch controls and contextual control options that only display as you need them.
America’s favorite shopping day is almost here and what better way to prepare your customers for the slaughters of Black Friday than a juicy new app update? Target has released a free update for its iPhone app that finally brings an iOS 7-friendly UI to the retailer’s app.
Included among the new features is an improved Shopping List that allows users to build lists faster with typeahead results and shows which items on your list are on sale. The new What’s In Store feature shows shoppers which products are trending along with popular Cartwheel offers and recipes. Target has also improved its Find feature with more accurate maps, but unless you live in one of the beta areas you’ll have to wait before your local store map is available.
Here are the full release notes:
BBM Channels, the latest addition to BlackBerry’s popular messaging platform, which made its public debut earlier today after more than six months in beta, is coming to Android and iOS “in the coming months.”
Mavericks has revamped Apples support for external displays, making everything a lot easier when using a second or third monitor.
In previous versions of OS X, the dock was only accessible on your main display, however, and it seems the same way in Mavericks.
Until you realize, though, that there is a new, simple way to get the Dock on an external monitor.
Few companies are better at keeping their games updated than Rovio, who’ve released more updates for its Angry Birds games than one can count. Add another grain of sand to the beaches of infinity, then, because the bird-vs.-pig physics strategy game has just gotten a new update, adding 30 levels to the core game as well as giving the bomb bird a new electric power.
One of our favorite toys here at Cult of Mac is the the Lytro, a bizarre and radically cool digital camera that allows you to refocus your images after you snap them. The Lytro is fairly big — it’s about the size of a small flashlight — and the pictures it outputs are pathetically low-resolution by modern smartphone standards, but the promise is obvious: with the Lytro, you might never take a bad photo again.
The Lytro’s so incredible that before he died Steve Jobs reportedly wanted to put its light field technology into the iPhone. Today, Apple has patented a method of doing just that.
The Rumor: Angela Ahrendts is only three weeks into her reign at Apple but rumors claim she's already outlined a plan that will completely revamp the end-to-end Apple Store experience.
The Verdict: The shift from computers to wearables is the perfect time for the ex-Burberry CEO to shake things up at Apple's glass and aluminum shrines, I just hope she gets rid of the annoying musical chairs-style support at the Genius Bar while she's at it.
Who sells the most iPhones of them all? It’s not a carrier or a third party: it’s Apple itself. In fact, the Cupertino company sells 25% of all American iPhone sales, combined. Even more staggering, though, is that Apple sells one in ten smartphones, too.
Back in 2010, Apple was seemingly randomly sued by an eccentric 70-year-old crank who claimed to have “come up with the idea” of the smartphone. That lawsuit has now come to trial, and the crank has lost, but what’s confusing is how torn the jury seems to have been by the decision, even going so far as to call the alleged smartphone creator a “little guy” crushed by big business.
It’s Magic 8-Ball time here, as analysts continue to round-out 2013 by making predictions about what we can expect over the next year.
This time it’s analyst Canalys, which is forecasting that tablets will out-ship almost all other PC form factors combined in 2014 — representing around 50 percent of the total client PC market.
Nuance Communications — best known as the software makers of Siri — saw a slump in profits below its forecast 2014 projections, thanks to a shift to a subscription-based business model.
The move, which brings in less money upfront and instead is spread over a longer period, ensures more predictable recurring revenue — but also means a short-term hit in profit margins.