Juice Up is a super-smart concept design with one big flaw: it relies on the kindness of strangers to actually work. Still, with a little modification it could be just about the best bumper you could buy.
Since Apple launched the iPhone in 2007, smartphones have really taken off , and more than 1 billion people worldwide now own one. Last year alone, smartphones generated $293.9 billion in sales, but the cost of the average smartphone has begun falling.
More than half of cellphone owners in the U.S. and other developed markets already own a smartphone, and those in emerging markets such as China and India aren’t able to pay for high-end devices like the iPhone. As a result, cheaper options are becoming increasingly popular.
Apple is prototyping larger versions of the iPad and iPhone, according to The Wall Street Journal’s supply chain sources overseas. Details are scare, but the report states that Apple is considering a 13-inch display for the iPad, which would be quite the increase from the current 9.7-inch display.
Remember those cool, ultra-light wooden iPhone 5 cases from Kubxlab? Now they’re available with the skins of exotic animals replacing the slivers of rare-tree flesh on the back panel. They’re called “Exotics” and “Elegance.” Let’s see if they live up to that.
Government officials have hired security experts from the Northern California Regional Intelligence Center to crack Apple’s new security methods in iOS 7. In a preemptive attempt to curb an influx in smartphone theft, San Francisco’s District Attorney and New York’s Attorney General are putting Apple to the test. Samsung’s Galaxy S4 will also be examined.
That didn’t take long. Following AT&T and T-Mobile’s lead, Verizon has announced a plan for early upgraders that theoretically allows users on their Share Anything plans to update their phones every six months.
As a response to T-Mobile’s new Jump plan that allows customers to upgrade their smartphone once a year for free, AT&T announced Next two days ago, which offers similar perks as Jump but at a much higher cost.
T-Mobile’s CEO, John Legere has already launched an AT&T Next bashing campaign to go along with the anti-AT&T rant filled keynote he delivered on July 10th. According to an email exchange with CNET, Legere views AT&T Next as just “a poor copycat” of Jump that’s designed to ripoff consumers more than ever:
Some cases bring battery backup with them, others are waterproof. One or two allow you to charge your iPhone with energy from the sun.
The Snow Lizard SLXtreme iPhone 4 case does all three, and now it’s coming to the iPhone 5 and iPad.
While the style of iOS has been described as flatter, that’s typically more true of the icon design and some of the panel and font combinations than the entire operating system.
In fact, there’s a subtle parallax effect that can be seen pretty easily behind the home page icons. I use the space and stars wallpaper, and when I tilt or twist my iPhone 5 running iOS 7, I can definitely see things almost move, or change perspective.
It’s a slick visual feature, but if it drives you nuts, or you feel icky with it in the background there, here’s how to disable it.
There have been some rumors of both an iPhone 5S and an iPhone 6 coming out this summer, and while I don’t hold out too much hope of that happening–it’s too far out of Apple’s established iPhone release rhythm–this iPhone 6 concept mockup is interesting, to say the least.
The folks at Designed by M, the makers of the AL13 case we reviewed back in May, decided to put together this rather unique take on a possible iPhone 6 design, with the cut-off corners of a piece of paper straight out of Battlestar Galactica.
Why? We’re not sure, but a blog post on the Designed by M website tells a bit more.