Foxconn has begun taking on new workers as it prepares to begin production of Apple’s next iPhone, according to two seperate reports from Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal.
The company has added to its numbers at an iPhone plant in Zhengzhou, eastern China, ending a freeze on recruitment that was implemented back in February. The new workers will reportedly assemble the upcoming “iPhone 5S,” as well as existing models that Apple has requested to boost capacity, a supply chain source said.
Five employees working at an official iPhone distributor in China have been arrested after exploiting Apple’s returns policy by exchanging fake iPhone parts for real ones. The group sent 121 fake iPhone 4S BAND parts to have them exchanged for real ones worth around CN¥400,000 ($64,117), which they then used to build and sell fake iPhones.
Steam! That’s what Steve Jobs would have had rocket from his ears when he heard about Facebook Home. We’ll explain why on our newest CultCast, but also covet aloud the one feature we hope Apple borrows for iOS. Plus, inside Leander Kahney’s Jony Ive book; Ron Johnson father of the Apple Store takes a boot to the rear; and we wrap with an all new Faves ‘N Raves, the segment where we pitch our favorite tech and apps then vote on which one’s best!
Stream or download new and past episodes of The CultCast on your Mac or iDevice by subscribing now on iTunes, or hit play below and let the good times roll.
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Apple is working on the use of flexible-glass touch displays. Which products will Apple use flexible displays in?
The answer is: all of them.
When people think about flexible displays, they think about small-screen gadgets like iWatches and curved-glass iPhones. What most don’t realize is that flexible displays can bring some amazing benefits to a device, even if the display itself isn’t curved.
And Apple has patents on all of it.
Here’s how Apple might deploy flexible displays to transform every product they make.
Your Mac is a machine that can do a whole lot for you – but even your Mac needs some fine-tuning every once in a while. What if you could not only have a means to maintain your Mac…but also enhance it?
Enter MacKeeper – an award-winning all-in-one system utility that includes 16 powerful maintenance features that fully optimize, protect, control, and clean your Mac. We’ve got it for you here at Cult of Mac Deals for a limited time at an amazing price – only $29. And for that price, you’ll receive the Standard version…which gives you MacKeeper coverage on 2 of your Macs.
Steve Wozniak is no stranger to gaming, having met Steve Jobs while working at Atari and even programmed his own version of the classic video game, Pong.
Did you know, though, that the Woz is a huge aficionado of the classic Gameboy game, Tetris. Well, he is… so much so that Nintendo Power magazine back in the 1980s refused to publish his scores anymore because he’d dominated the #1 spot for too long!
Apple could introduce a redesigned backlighting system to the fifth-generation iPad to help make the device thinner and lighter, according to NDP DisplaySearch. The Cupertino company will have to make significant changes if it is to bring the iPad mini’s sleek and slim form factor to its bigger brother, and this is one of the areas in which it could reduce bulk.
I recently switched to a MacBook Air for writing, and it is easily the best Mac I’ve owned in terms of speed and comfort. But, like the sports car your friends assume you’ll sell now that you have kids on the way, the Air is also lacking in space1.
Now, I’m using this 128GB (with 4GB RAM) 13-inch MacBook Air primarily for work, but that doesn’t mean I want to ditch my music, TV shows and photos altogether. Luckily, with modern Internet™ Technology™ I don’t have to. I can use cloud services and a little judicious tidying to make my New York walkup-sized MacBook Air feels like a mansion.
When Apple hired former Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch — yes, the same guy who watched and lamely whined while Apple basically killed Flash by declaring it a wholly unnecessary and archaic web technology that had no place in the mobile age of computing — there was a lot of head scratching. What would Kevin Lynch be doing at Apple?
Well, here’s one theory: he’s heading a team made up largely of former iPod employees, and he’s working on the iWatch.
Apple has agreed to pay $53 million to settle a class action lawsuit that accuses the Cupertino company of failing to honor warranties on iPhones and iPod touches. The settlement could see hundreds of thousands of Apple customers receiving a payout after being refused repairs or replacements on faulty devices still under warranty.
The U.K.’s Office of Fair Trading is investigating children’s games that charge in-app purchases for additional content and virtual items. The watchdog will look at games on mobile and on the web, and it’s calling for parents to report titles that “aggressively push” in-app purchases to children.
With so much interest in Apple’s unreleased iOS devices, the Cupertino has had a difficult time trying to prevent leaks of late. We saw numerous components for recent iPads, the iPhone 5, and the iPad mini ahead of their official unveilings, and now we’re beginning to see parts believed to be from Apple’s next generation of devices.
The vibration motor and switches pictured above are reportedly destined for Apple’s rumored low-cost iPhone, which could launch sometime this year.
When AppGratis was yanked from the App Store last week, it didn’t take a genius to work out why. The app violates an App Store guideline that was introduced last October banning iOS apps from promoting other iOS apps from different developers. It also used push notifications to deliver marketing messages by recommending apps with a once-daily notification, which is also not allowed.
What is confusing is why AppGratis was pulled — just days after its iPad app was approved — when there are plenty of similar services that remain in the App Store. But according to sources familiar with Apple’s plans, its ban was the first of many the Cupertino company is about to dish out.
We’ve all heard the rumors that Apple will move away from Samsung and find another fab to make all of their sexy, super-fast A-series processors, but today, The Korea Times is reporting it as a done deal, saying that Apple has shut Samsung out entirely from the design of their A7 processors. Who are they going with instead? The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, or TSMC for short.
Can this cockpit hold the vasty plains of Cupertino? The Lyon Opera is about to find out. Coming in 2014 to the famous French opera house is Steve Five, an operatic mash-up of Shakespeare’s 1599 play Henry V and, wait for it, Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs biography.
T-Mobile USA has announced a new iPhone trade-in program ahead of the carrier’s official iPhone launch on Friday. Customers who trade in their old iPhone 4 or 4S will see the $99 down payment for a 16GB iPhone 5 dropped to $0, plus they’ll receive up to $120 additional credit.
Rumor has it that Apple’s fifth-generation iPad — expected to launch later this year — will boast a new form factor much like the iPad mini’s, with thinner bezels down each side of its display. The first evidence we have to prove those claims has surfaced today in the form of a leaked front panel.
So many apps are designed first for the iPhone, and the iPad is more or less an afterthought. Not so with Status Board, a brand new app from Panic that is designed meticulously with the iPad’s larger display in mind.
If you know Panic’s pedigree (Coda, Transmit, etc.), then you know what kind of app to expect: something incredibly powerful, focused, and impeccably designed. Status Board is no exception. And although the app won’t appeal to most iPad users, it is perhaps Panic’s most consumer-friendly app to date.
AppGratis is a popular App Store app that’s used by more than 12 million iOS users. The company consists of 45 employees and recently raised $13.5 million in funding. AppGratis offers promotions and discounts for popular paid iOS apps in conjunction with third-party developers, and the company has continued to thrive over the last few years.
Everything was going great until Apple threw down the hammer over this past weekend. Without much warning, AppGratis was suddenly pulled from the App Store for violating some developer guidelines. Poof. Gone. Now it’s a matter of working with Apple to try and fix what caused the problem. The app’s removal came as a shock to AppGratis and has left the CEO wondering how the App Store review team “could have possibly changed their minds overnight.”
Topeka Capital analyst Brian White received some criticism last week when he revealed in a note to investors that he expects Apple’s much-anticipated television set to come with a “mini iTV” tablet and an “iRing.” But rather than going into hiding until the whole thing is forgotten about, White has revealed his predictions for the iPhone 5S.
The device will be available with “at least” two screen sizes, White claims, giving those who might switch to Android for a larger display a reason to stick with the iPhone.
Apple is now offering its latest 27-inch iMac refurbished with up to 15% off via the Apple Online Store. Prices start at $1,529 as opposed to the normal $1,800 for the entry-level machine, which offers a 2.9GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB of RAM, and a 1TB hard drive.
Apple’s fifth-generation iPad will enter production between July and August, according to supply chain sources in Taiwan. The device is expected to sport a thinner, lighter design much like that of the iPad mini, with smaller bezels around its display.
Ron Johnson, the man who helped create the Apple Store alongside Steve Jobs, has left his role as the CEO of JC Penney. Johnson resigned from Apple back in 2011 to accept the JC Penney position.
Morale at JC Penney has weakened since Johnson was put in charge 16 months ago. The company has been bleeding money, and Johnson’s retail strategies have not seen success. Johnson’s departure doesn’t come as much of a shock to those who have been following his failed attempts to revitalize the department store chain.
A few weeks ago I plugged in an old hard drive and saw some scanned photos from when I used to shoot film. In my memory these pictures were some of the best I had ever taken, and I naturally blamed my tools for the fact that I hadn’t snapped anything better with my various digital cameras in the years since.
But you know what happened? I saw these old pictures and realized that they just weren’t that good. The fact is, I snap better pictures every week using my iPhone. And I think I know why. It’s all Instagram’s fault.
Remember Lodsys, the patent troll that began suing a bunch of indie iOS developers back in 2011 over their use of in-app purchases? Well, it’s back to do more trolling. The company has targeted another ten mobile game makers in its latest complaints, which it has been quietly filing in an East Texas court throughout 2013.
The studios named include Gameloft, Walt Disney, BackFlip Studios, and Gamevil.