Sick of getting spam in your iCloud email? You’re not the only one. Apple’s sick of it too, and they’re making a hiring push to get spam and abuse under control in the iCloud.
You know the little Location Services triangle in the top right of your iPhone’s status bar well. It floats there faithfully every day, representing modern technology’s obsession with location data. Knowing where you are and what you do on a daily basis is incredibly valuable to advertisers and merchants looking to sell the next “x because you where at x.” Knowing your location also makes apps and iOS smarter, which ultimately makes the experience of using your iPhone more seamless.
If you’ve had Location Services turned on, then you’ve already been giving Apple permission to silently track your every move. A new setting in iOS 7 called “Frequent Locations” makes how and to what level you are tracked more transparent, right down to the minute you left your house yesterday.
By now we know exactly what the iPhone 5C is going to look like thanks to more component leaks than you probably care to look at. But the latest gallery is the only one you should care about, because these high-resolution pictures show off the iPhone 5C’s plastic rear panel better than ever before.
We’re living in a post-PC age. You know it. I know it. Steve Jobs knew it when he coined the phrase three years ago at the original iPad launch event, and of course, it was the iPad that was in many ways the final nail in the coffin of decades of PC market growth.
Apple’s still the number one PC maker by unit sales, but even the growth of the Mac has been shrinking, while other PC Makers numbers are in freefall. Analysis firm Canalys, which does a lot of business analyzing PC sales, made a bizarre decision a while back to inflate their numbers by including tablets as PCs.
Even by that measure, though, Apple’s still the number one “PC” maker. But because Apple hasn’t released an iPad or iPad mini so far this year, they find that the “PC” Market was flat in Q2 2013.
iOS 7 beta 4 was just released last week, but that hasn’t kept Apple from pumping out another beta to developers faster than you can say “Oppenheimer.” Beta 5 was released today, and like always, there are some subtle and not-so-subtle changes worth noting.
Here are eight changes in iOS 7 beta 5:
Jobs, the upcoming Steve Jobs biopic starring Ashton Kutcher and Josh Gad, gets its second official teaser trailer today, ahead of the much-anticipated cinema debut August 16. It’s entitled “American Legend,” and you can check it out below.
We’ve already seen a whole bunch of iPhone 5S components over the past few months—they’ve even been shown off in hands-on videos—but these high quality images show the changes Apple has made to its Retina display when compared to the iPhone 5 model.
Apple has uploaded a new iPhone 5 ad today to its YouTube channel that showcases FaceTime video calling. Entitled “FaceTime Every Day,” the one-minute clip continues the “Every Day” series which began earlier this year, promoting features that are more popular on the iPhone than on any other smartphone.
The number one rule when it comes to stealing an iPhone is to turn off Find My iPhone and restore iOS to factory settings. Every good thief knows this, but there are so many clueless ones who don’t; the latest of whom is a charming douchebag from Dubai named Hafid.
Hafid likes to cruise around various locales of the UAE and pose the shit out of them. What he doesn’t know is all his profound selfies and other photos on his stolen iPhone are being uploaded to the original owner’s Dropbox account. And she’s posting them all on Tumblr:
Apple has sent out an email to registered developers to outline its restoration plans for a number of services that are still down following its Developer Center outage. Those include Xcode automatic configuration and access to license agreements, program enrollments, and renewals—all of which are to be reinstated this week.
Those with older iPhones and iPods are now being contacted regarding a possible payout over faulty liquid damage indicators that caused some customers to lose out on free AppleCare repairs. Apple agreed to pay $53 million in a class action lawsuit earlier this year, and those who may be eligible for damages should be receiving an email soon.
The Obama administration has vetoed a product ban on older Apple devices that was proposed by the U.S. International Trade Commission in June. Apple was found guilty of infringing a Samsung wireless patent, and the ITC declared a sales ban on iOS devices older than the iPhone 4S and third-gen iPad.
Trade Representative Michael Froman issued the veto for the executive branch today, marking the first time a presidential administration has vetoed a product ban by the ITC since 1987.
It feels like Apple is falling way behind. But I don’t think that’s true.
I believe Apple puts enormous brain power and good judgement into envisioning the Next Big Thing. It takes them a long time to get it to market. But once it’s there, they iterate to perfect the original vision.
In the year or two after Apple launches an iPhone or an iPad, everybody falsely believes Apple can do nothing wrong.
But then, as we get further away from the last launch and closer to the next one, everybody falsely believes Apple can do nothing right.
Completely separate and unrelated to false perceptions about Apple, Google lately has been on fire. And lately they’ve been kicking butt not only in their traditional role of algorithm-based Internet services, but also in Apple’s sandboxes—namely design and hardware.
Apple has never been the kind of company that copies out of a lack of vision. Nor have they avoided copying.
What’s great about Apple is that they develop an ultra-clear vision about how to maximize the user experience, then they make that experience happen regardless of whether the solutions have to be invented, copied or—most commonly—Apple’s own unique spin on something invented elsewhere.
There are many ways in which Apple should not copy Google. But there are six ways Apple should copy Google and, in doing so, make Apple a better company with better products.
We’re getting to the stage in the Apple rumor mill when next-gen parts start leaking left and right out of the supply chain overseas. Multiple parts for the iPhone 5S, low-cost iPhone 5C, and upcoming iPads have already surfaced. Now alleged parts for the upcoming iPhone 5C and iPad 5 have been partially assembled and shown off on video.
While the authenticity of these kinds of leaks should always be questioned, today’s leaks are corroborated by previously reported parts for Apple’s unreleased products.
Earlier today, the U.S. Department of Justice proposed serious remedies for Apple to abide by now that the company has been found guilty of conspiring to fix e-book prices. When the ruling was issued last month that Apple was guilty, the outcome of the suit was unknown. How would the government punish Apple (for something that Apple has always adamantly denied)? Now we know.
Not only does the DoJ want Apple to stop selling e-books through the iBookstore entirely, but allow rivals like Amazon and Barnes & Noble to sell e-books in their iOS apps. In a scathing response to the DoJ’s proposal, Apple has called the proposed remedies “draconian” and “punitive.”
The ongoing iBooks antitrust case between Apple and the United States Department of Justice took a very interesting twist this morning when the DoJ and 33 state Attorneys General laid out plans to remedy Apple’s wrongdoings and restore competition to the market.
The DoJ wants Apple to terminate all of its deals with book publishers, and refrain from entering into any new ones for at least five years. It also wants the company to start selling e-books from rivals like Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
Apple has begun giving away free content today via the App Store app for iPhone. Its first giveaway is for Color Zen, “a new and addictive kind of puzzle game” for iOS which is available free for a limited time “exclusively for Apple Store app users.”
Two years ago, Apple overtook Exxon as the world’s most valuable company. It was a heck of a feat for a Silicon Valley company: for the first time, the world seemed to value silicon computer chips more than the bubbling, black goo of long dead dinosaurs. The future seemed rosy, and in the following months, Apple’s share price eventually rose to over $700 a share… before cratering thanks to bizarre Wall Street pessimism.
Somehow, though, even though analysts are bleaker about Apple’s futures than they have ever been, Cupertino has once more managed to claw the title of world’s most valuable company from Exxon. How?
A rear panel believed to be for the upcoming second-generation iPad mini appears to have been leaked from Apple’s supply chain. The panel is largely the same as the existing one — suggesting the new model will look identical to the original — but it has a new Apple logo on its back.
Apple has bought a company which specializes in low-energy chips that are ideally suited for devices like fitness trackers. The rumor mill is saying that Apple is working on an iWatch to release by the end of 2014, and this small acquisition is likely another way to bring in more expertise for the project.
It’s not uncommon that we see accessories for new Apple devices before they’ve even been announced — we covered the first cases for the iPhone 5C earlier this week. But they usually come from no-name manufacturers in China who are scrambling to get their products out there before anyone else, even if it means building them from rumored specifications.
It is uncommon that we see premature releases from big brands, however. But Spigen SGP has already made its first iPhone 5C cases and screen protectors available to order on Amazon.
The fifth-generation iPad is expected to adopt a whole new form factor, much like that of the iPad mini’s, only bigger. And proof of that comes with this leaked rear panel that has surfaced in China. Although the new model will have the same 9.7-inch Retina display as the existing iPad, this panel proves it will be significantly thinner, and narrower, with thinner bezels down the sides of its display.
Last month, security researchers figured out there was a Trojan horse built into an iOS device: the charger. If a hacker wanted to, they could use a modified charger (which costs less than $45) that would install malware onto any device running iOS.
True, the hack required physical proximity — not to mention specialized hardware — to work. But it was a universal hack that worked on any device, and it could make a victim out of anyone doing something as simple as asking to borrow someone’s iPhone charger at the local Starbucks.
A bad hack indeed. But Apple’s on the case.
Will it or won’t it have a Retina display?
That’s the big question everyone is asking about the second-generation iPad mini, and we’ve been seeing conflicting reports about it for several months. But according to sources “familiar with the matter,” who have been speaking to The Wall Street Journal, it’s “likely” the answer to that question is yes.
Scarcely a day goes by that Martin Hajek does not open up AutoCAD and feverishly model something he thinks Apple might be working on, and today, it’s the colorful box of Apple’s so-called “budget” iPhone, the equally so-called iPhone 5C.
Pretty snazzy, although I’m not sure I think much of the Lomo filter! These are renders, Martin, not 1970s-era porn movies.
Source: Flickr