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Samsung Galaxy S4: Fast & Full Of Features, But Still Too Plasticky [Review Roundup]

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As you may have noticed already, the embargo on the new Samsung Galaxy S4 was lifted today, and reviewers from all corners of the web are weighing in on the latest Android flagship. Given that the handset succeeds one of the most successful Android phones of all time, many of you are likely to be itching to find out what it’s like.

We’ve put together a review roundup to give you a snapshot of what those early reviews are saying about the Galaxy S4, and to help you decide whether the handset will be worth your hard-earned cash when it goes on sale in the coming weeks.

What The WWDC 2013 Logo Hints About The Future Of Mac & iOS

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Screen Shot 2013-04-24 at 9.24.25 AM

This is the new logo for this year’s WWDC, which is scheduled to kick off on June 10th. WWDC logos tend to forecast in a round-about way what Apple thinks is the “kicker” of the conference: last year, it was the debut of the MacBook Pro with Retina Display.

So what does this WWDC 2013 logo mean? It features a bunch of rounded rectangles of varying colors, stacked a top each other, with a flat font reflecting WWDC into the year in Roman numerals. Here are our guesses:

Safely Uninstall Apps You’ve Purchased Via The Mac App Store [OS X Tips]

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Mac App Store Uninstall

Using the Mac App Store is helpful in many ways, what with the ability to re-download apps, pause them during download, and the like.

There’s even an easy way to delete apps you’ve purchased from the Mac App Store these days, aside from the tried and true “drag app icon to trash” method we’ve all grown to know and love since OS X debuted oh so many years ago.

Apple Announces WWDC 2013, Kicking Off On June 10

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WWDC-2013

Apple has this morning announced that its 2013 Worldwide Developer Conference will take place in San Francisco’s Moscone West from Monday, June 10 through Friday, June 14. The five-day event will provide developers with a first look at the future of iOS and OS X.

Tickets will go on sale tomorrow, April 25, at 10 a.m. PDT.

Sprint Reports Q1 2013 Results: 5 Million Smartphones Sold, $643 Million Loss

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Sprint has this morning reported its financial results for the first quarter of 2013, and they show yet another loss for America’s third-largest carrier. The company announced a $643 million net loss on $8.79 billion revenue, though it did manage to generate a positive operating revenue of $29 million.

Sprint sold 5 million smartphones during the period, 1.5 million of which were iPhones.

Tim Cook On New Products In The Fall, Larger iPhone, iMac Delays, And More

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Today Apple announced its financial earnings for the last fiscal quarter, reporting the first year-over-year loss in profit the company has seen in ten years. The tone of Apple’s call with investors was quite different than past quarters. Tim Cook and co. seemed very much on the defensive, as Wall Street has been hammering AAPL for the past several months.

There were still several interesting tidbits from the call that we’ve rounded up. Tim Cook spoke vaguely about exciting new products in the fall and throughout 2014. Comments were made about the possibility of a larger iPhone, iMac supply constraints, and, of course, plenty of numbers.

Tim Cook Gets A 94 Percent Employee Rating On Glassdoor

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They like him, they really like him.
They like him, they really, really like him.

Tim Cook is a well-liked CEO, at least according to employee ratings on Glassdoor, a website that allows employees of any company to post reviews, ratings, and other such metadata about the companies they work for.

The current rating of Apple CEO Tim Cook on the service is a high 94 percent, gathered from all the employees who have rated him on the service, a total of 724 as of this writing. While Glassdoor is an opt-in survey system, it is anonymous. If they hated the guy, they’d probably say so. Anonymity plus the internet is anything but overly polite.

Apple Releases Seed OS X 10.8.4, Build 12E36 To Developers

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10.8.4 Developer Seed build 12E36

Seems like Apple is ramping up the developer seeds for the beta of OS X 10.8.4, with yet another release today, this one of seed Build 12E36.

Similar to the last seed, the release notes mention that the focus areas for developers to look at are Wi-Fi, Graphics Drivers, and Safari. The notes also say there are no Known Issues at this time.

This is the 4th release this month for the beta of OS X 10.8.4, while 10.8.3 (itself going through 13 revisions over a five month period) was released to the public a few weeks back. The previous 10.8.4 seeds were sent to developers on April 1, April 9, and April 17 of this year.

Source: Apple Developer

Apple’s Q2 2013 Earnings At A Glance [Charts]

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bythenumbers

Apple has just announced the numbers for a quarter that most on Wall Street have declared to be doom. Apple has comfortably beat Street estimates, but still posted their first decline in year-over-year profit margins since 2008. What does it mean?

To help you make sense of Cupertino’s business this quarter, here’s a breakdown in easy-to-read chart form of everything from the growth of Apple’s revenues, profit and profit margins, to the rise and fall of Cupertino’s various product empires.

We even have a comparison of how Apple did this quarter compared to how Wall Street prediced Apple would do.

Tim Cook: Declining AAPL Price Over Past Few Quarters Has Been Very Frustrating

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Apple CEO Tim Cook showed his imprint on Apple during the company's financial call
Apple CEO Tim Cook showed his imprint on Apple during the company's financial call

Apple just released its Q2 2013 Financial results, and even though Apple beat its own estimates, Tim Cook started the Quarterly Financial Call on the defensive.

Cook started the call by explaining how exceptional Apple’s 2012 financial results were for Apple, so it’s hard for the company to improve sales this quarter. Then Cook commented on Apple’s struggling stock price by saying he’s “very frustrated” with the stock’s declining value the last few quarters, but they’re staying focused on the future.

Hoping to appease investors, Apple announced today that it will payback $100 billion to investors by 2015. Apple has yet to release a major product in 2013, but Cook reassured investors that Apple can’t wait to release new hardware and software this Fall and throughout 2014.

Apple Says It Will Return $100 Billion To Investors By The End Of 2015

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The Apple store in Boulder, Colorado.
The Apple store in Boulder, Colorado.

Along with posting its Q2 2013 Financial Results, Apple also announced today it will double the Capital Return Program that has been paying dividends back to investors since it began last year.

Apple says it will use a total of $100 billion of cash under the calendar program until the end of 2015. Along with increasing the stock buyback, Apple’s Board approved a 15% increase in the quarterly dividend to pay $3.05 per common share.

Here’s the full press release:

Apple Beats Revenue Estimates With Q2 2013 Results, Sinks Low On Profit

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Apple is ready to explode in China. Photo: Apple
Apple is ready to explode in China. Photo: Apple

Apple has released its financial results for the second fiscal quarter of 2013. The Cupertino company reported $43.6 billion in revenue and a net profit of $9.5 billion. That translates to earnings of $10.09 per diluted share.

Wall Street has been incredibly pessimistic towards Apple in recent months, but today’s results for revenue managed to surpass even the more bullish claims. Apple’s estimates for the next quarter are even more conservative with $33.5-$35.5 billion in revenue. The main problem with today’s results is that profit shrank compared to a year ago for the first time in ten years.

“Our teams are hard at work on some amazing new hardware, software, and services and we are very excited about the products in our pipeline,” according to Apple.

Press release with more sales figures and details below:

Google Outbids Apple To Buy Wavii, A Siri-Like Startup [Report]

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Google has allegedly purchased Wavii, a small natural language parsing startup, according to a report on TechCrunch. Wavii ended up going to Google for “more than $30 million” after a bidding war with Apple.

Wavii’s technology and talent will reportedly be integrated in Google Now and the Knowledge Graph, Google’s experimental division that is working on the future of search.

Google Fiber TV App Lands In The App Store

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iPad Fiber TV App

Google has released a standalone iPad app for its Google Fiber TV service in the App Store. If you haven’t heard of Google Fiber, don’t feel bad: it’s only available in Kansas City at the moment.

Besides lightning-fast, fiber-opic broadband, Google Fiber also offers TV like Comcast. Android devices have been able to control Fiber TV, and now the iPad can be used as a remote for controlling the big screen.

Use Zoom And Large Text Options To Help See Stuff On The Screen [iOS Tips]

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Zoom

Another accessibility option built right into iOS is Zoom. Like VoiceOver, it was originally created to help those with a visual impairment access their iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. Zoom is made for those who need things magnified on the screen, and it can be pretty darn helpful for those of us who may not have a specific visual disability. If your iPhone is zoomed in on lock screen and you’re unsure how to fix it, there are simple ways to adjust this setting.

Some apps zoom in within the app itself, like Maps, Safari, or Google Earth. That doesn’t help if you need the buttons and iOS controls magnified, or the text in apps like Mail, right?

Here’s how to set things up with Zoom.

We’re Live Blogging The Apple Q2 2013 Earnings Call At 5PM/2PM EDT/PDT [Update: Nope!]

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Update: Guys, sadly, we’re having server issues that makes this impossible. Stay tuned for the front page for updates on the call as it happens.

In just a few hours, Apple will be hosting its Q2 2013 financial earnings call, and it’s bound to be an interesting call. It’s no secret that Wall Street is expecting a bloodbath, and is calling for Tim Cook’s head amongst fears of stagnating iPhone growth, but can Apple outperform the Street’s expectations?

Check out our summary of what to expect if you want to know more about the expectations going into this thing. Starting at 5PM Eastern/2PM Pacific, we’re going to be live blogging the call, so make sure to check back at this space then. We’ll be covering quotes and questions from the call, as well as posting our own live commentary. Hit the jump for our live blog, and make feel free to listen along if you want.

Your iPhone Becomes A Waterproof Beach Camera In The Seidio Obex Case [Review]

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Obex is a like scuba suit for your iPhone.
Obex is a like scuba suit for your iPhone.

If extreme outdoorsman Bear Grylls has an iPhone 5, he no doubt needs to protect it from all sorts of dangers, like rain, dirt, mud, and when things get really tough, his own micturitions.

Obex Case by Seidio
Category: iPhone Cases
Works With: iPhone 5
Price: $90

That’s exactly the kind of over-the-top protection Seidio’s Obex case promises—total refuge from water, dust, sand, and grime. Add to that submersion protection in up to three feet of water and an anti-reflective glass camera cover that maintains image quality, and you’ve got the perfect case for taking iPhone photos on the beach.

This Is What Afghanistan’s Unofficial Apple Store Looks Like [Image]

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The Genius Bar is a little sparse, and the flooring never would have been approved by Steve Jobs, but if you find yourself in Kabul with a deep thirst for the latest Apple gadgetry, the unofficial Apple Store of Afghanistan is the place to go.

While Apple has been busy dominating the retail world with its highly profitably shops, poor Afghanistan has been left without an official Apple Store to call its own, so someone decided to open one up.

Atom Gives Your iPhone’s Lockscreen A Beautifully Subtle App Launcher [Jailbreak]

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I like to keep my iPhone’s lockscreen clean and free of distractions. Jailbreak tweaks that add weather, RSS, and more are useful for many, but the lockscreen can easily start to feel cluttered after awhile.

That’s why I’m excited to present “atom,” a new jailbreak tweak for the lockscreen that replaces the unlock slider with a beautifully subtle app launcher.