In the competition between iOS and Android, Google’s Android operating system has been growing in the U.S. much faster than iOS until now. For the first time, Android actually lost some of its U.S. marketshare in 2013 while iOS gained a few points.
comScore just released its report on the U.S. smartphone market and had some very encouraging news for Apple. While most other manufacturers are slumping, Apple is increasing its lead on Samsung, HTC, Motorola and LG in the U.S.
Everyone’s favorite recalcitrant Scottish blogger, programmer and whisky drinker Matt “Legend” Gemmel has made available these fantastic iPhone 5 wallpapers, ready for your retro-tendo reminiscences.
Matt made the set of five tall-papers (what I somewhat annoyingly just decided to call the iPhone 5’s tall wallpapers) to commemorate his new-found love of Nintendo gaming on the Mac.
Unlike some bozos we could mention, KGI Securities Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo gets it right more often than not. He got the iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, Retina MacBook Pro, MacBook Air and new iPod touch right.
Now he’s making another prediction: that Apple will unveil a new iPhone 5S with a better camera and color-shifting flash, as well as iOS 7, at WWDC in June for a July release. Also? A colorful iPhone 5 will become Apple’s new $99 iPhone.
PowerSkin has today announced its new silicone battery case for the iPhone 5, which features a 1,500mAh battery that promises to provide you with up to 8 hours of additional usage on Wi-Fi, up to 6.5 hours of additional talk-time, and up to 182 hours of standby time. It’s priced at $80 and it’s available to order now from the PowerSkin website.
Amen! A charging case designed for the iPhone 5. Mophie’s new Juice Pack Helium ($79) is one of the first of its kind that work with longer iDevice, so if you find your i5’s often running in the red battery zone by noon each day, read on for the full review. This sleek and slim charging case might just be exactly what you need.
BARCELONA, MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS — As I was walking around the show floor at MWC today, I noticed a number of smartphones that looked very familiar — yet they were being paraded by Chinese companies I’d never heard of. I saw what looked like a large iPhone 5, an entire range of Samsung Galaxy devices, and a number of high-end HTC handsets.
Except they weren’t really Apple, Samsung, or HTC devices at all; they were actually cheap clones that were trying their best to look like the real thing. They even had fake accessories that were identical to the originals.
BARCELONA, MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS – Pssst… don’t tell anyone, but I just saw Mophie’s new Juicepack Air for the iPhone 5. After months of abusive complaints in forum and comment threads the world over, the Air is now finally… almost… available for the slim new iPhone.
PopCap’s beloved Plants vs. Zombies has today been made available for free in the App Store. The reduction applies to both the iPhone and iPad titles, which were previously priced at $2.99 and $6.99 respectively. If you don’t already have it, it’s well worth adding to your collection.
With analysts openly chattering about how Cupertino needs to take a few lessons from Samsung on how to innovate in the smartphone market, a reality check: during the last quarter of 2012, the iPhone 5 was the best selling smartphone in the world. And the second best-selling smartphone? The iPhone 4S, edging the Galaxy S3 out by over 2 million units.
Foxconn has reportedly placed a recruitment freeze across most of its factories in China as the company slows production of the iPhone 5, the Financial Times reports. This is believed to be the first such freeze since 2009, and it’s seen as an emphasis of the “weakening demand” for some Apple products. But does the freeze really have anything to do with Apple’s devices?
HTC’s much-leaked flagship phone, the HTC One, has just become official in New York and London, but you’ve got to be wondering how the new 4.7-inch Android superphone stacks up against the competition. Wonder no more, we’ve got a spec-by-spec breakdown on how it does compared to the BlackBerry Z10, iPhone 5, Nokia Lumia 920, Samsung Galaxy SIII and Motorola Droid Razr Maxx HD, and the answer to that question is: damn well, all specs considered.
Infinity Blade, the spectacular sword slinger from Epic Games studio ChAIR Entertainment, has gone free for the first time since making its App Store debut back in December 2010. The title, which is available for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, has been chosen by Apple as its free App of the Week.
Tim Cook said that Apple couldn’t even make enough iPhone 5s to keep up with demand last year. Shoot, Apple sold 5 million iPhone 5 units in the first weekend, so we’re keen to believe Tim.
However, a report from Jefferies analyst Peter Misek this morning is claiming the iPhone 5 is loosing its juice, and sales are starting to drop a lot faster than anyone expected.
I’ve been in love with the iPhone for the past five years. I got the original as soon as it went on sale in the U.K. in November 2007, and I’ve had every model Apple has released ever since. My job has given me the opportunity to play with plenty of other devices over the years — including those powered by Android, BlackBerry, and Windows Phone — but I’ve always remained loyal to the iPhone and iOS.
That was until a couple months ago, when my contract ended and it was time to decide which smartphone I wanted for the next two years. I already have the iPhone 5 — I bought it unlocked when it was launched back in September — and I wanted an Android device to replace the Samsung Galaxy Nexus I broke late last year. So I decided to pick up the new LG Nexus 4.
I was lucky; I didn’t have to wait six weeks for the device to arrive from Google Play. My carrier had plenty in stock, so a unit was delivered to my door the day after I ordered it. I was looking forward to testing it out, but I figured I’d play around with it for a little bit, then switch straight back to my iPhone 5 for everyday use. Like the Galaxy Nexus, I thought the Nexus 4 would be mostly used for work — testing apps and writing the odd tutorial for Cult of Android.
But boy, how wrong was I.
I have a love-hate relationship with Spigen’s line-up of Glas.T screen protectors.
On the one hand, they just feel great. If there’s any truth to the notion that screen protectors are to smartphones what prophylactics are to sex, the Glas.t feels like wearing nothing at all. The extra millimeters of glass help protect your screen from scratches, but still feel like you and your iPhone are going bareback.
The problem? Glas.t screen protectors are made of glass, and so they crack, they chip, and they break. The glass is tempered (hence the ‘t’) so they never downright shatter, but they do tend to break in other ways fairly easily. If you’re invested in keeping your screen protector pristine as well as your iPhone display, replacing Glas.t’s can become expensive quick.
Now, here comes the Glas.TR, Spigen’s new and improved glass screen protector for the iPhone 5. The ‘R’ at the end stands for “Rounded,” and it stands for rounded corners, which Spigen says makes the new Glas protector much more resilient than they were before. But what’s the truth?
iOS 6.1 has already been out for a few weeks, but we’re now seeing reports that it’s causing problems for a lot of upgraders.
Multiple users have taken to Apple’s iPhone support forums to report that their battery life has dropped significantly since the iOS 6.1 upgrade. Others have claimed that iOS 6.1 has given them a slew of problems when trying to connect to 3G networks, and Apple has yet to respond.
Even though we have yet to see some truly credible evidence to support the countless claims that Apple will release a cheaper iPhone sometime in 2013, that’s not stopping another analyst from jumping on the cheap-iPhone train.
Analyst Brian White, at Topeka Capital, released a report this morning claiming that his research supports the claim that Apple will sell a cheaper version of the iPhone in order to attract new growth opportunities in China and elsewhere around the world.
How happy are you with your smartphone? According to a survey of 92,825 smartphone user in the United States, the Motorola Atrix HD delivers the most satisfaction with an impressive 8.57 out of ten. Another Motorola device, the Droid RAZR M, is ranked second with 8.5 out of ten, while the iPhone 5 is ranked fifth with just 8.23 out of ten.
Springtomize 2 from Filippo Bigarella is one of the easiest and most effective ways to customize your iOS device after jailbreaking; it’s so good that we recently chose it as one of the best tweaks to install after jailbreaking with evasi0n. And now its even better, thanks to its latest update — which introduces support for the iPhone 5’s larger display, and fixes a whole host of bugs.
The iPhone 5 has been jailbroken, and that means that it’s time to install the coolest tweaks and apps from Cydia, the jailbreak alternative to the App Store.
Wondering about what you should install? Here’s a roundup of the very best jailbreak tweaks available for the iPhone 5:
The Australian Department of Treasury has made a move a lot of large organizations have been making in recent years — and that’s giving up their BlackBerry smartphones for an iPhone. Over the next six weeks, it will ditch its existing fleet of devices and replace them with a different kind of fruit, the iPhone 5.
EE has today announced plans to rollout its 4G LTE network to another 27 towns in the United Kingdom by June 2013, expanding its 4G coverage to 55% of the U.K. population. The carrier is currently the only network to offer a 4G service in the U.K., but its latest announcements comes as rivals begin making preparations for their own 4G services.
The iPhone 5’s been on sale for almost five months now, but there are still plenty of apps that have yet been updated to take advantage of its larger 4-inch display. They don’t get blown up automatically, either, so they sit in the middle of the screen and look silly.
As is often the case, a tweak is now available for jailbroken iPhones that solves that. Developed by Ryan Petrich, the creator of many popular jailbreak tweaks, FullForce automatically takes apps designed for the iPhone 4/4S and makes them longer for the iPhone 5.
BlackBerry — previously Research in Motion — launched the new BlackBerry Z10 last week, the first smartphone to run the company’s new BlackBerry 10 operating system. Originally set to launch in late 2012, the Z10 has been a long time coming for BlackBerry fans, and it’s a hugely important milestone for the Canadian company.
Many see this as BlackBerry’s last hope of survival in today’s cutthroat smartphone market. It’s been rapidly losing market share to Android and iOS devices over the past five years, and it hasn’t evolved quick enough to put up any sort of a fight. But it’s better later than never.
BlackBerry 10’s here now, and with the help of the Z10 — and later the Q10 — it’s going to be trying to persuade you to give up your iPhone or Android-powered smartphone in favor of a brand new platform. But is it good enough?
I’m a long-time iOS user who recently made the switch to Android, and I’ve been really curious to see if the Z10 is any good. I’ve been using the device almost exclusively since its release; here’s Cult Of Android’s review.
That’s right — instead of a case that turns your iPhone into a wallet, Wally, the latest Kickstarter project from Distil Union, sort of does the opposite. It’s a slip of leather that attaches to the back of an iPhone 4 or 5 via something called “micro-suction,” and creates a cavity with just about enough space for three of your most-used cards.
