Let’s face it: If you have an iPhone 4, you need a battery case. Unless all you’re doing with your iPhone is using it as a $600 mirror.
Luckily there’s no shortage of choice — so we’ve assembled a collection of promising candidates and put them through their paces, the results of which we’ll be revealing in the next few days.
First up is the XtremeMac InCharge Mobile ($80), selected from XtremeMac’s deep line of charging solutions (all of which have been given the “InCharge” moniker).
The saga of the lost iPhone 5 prototype continues, with the SFPD beginning an internal investigation on the police’s involvement with Apple security in recovering the lost device.
While it was originally thought that Apple security impersonated the police in an attempt to recover the prototype, the SFPD then came out saying that officers did in fact assist Apple in the investigation.
In a support document for the iMac G5 that is still up on Apple’s website, Apple tech support advises Mac users on the proper way to pick up and carry a computer. Seriously.
Also note that this advice — pull cords out of electrical sockets, pick up with two hands — only applies to six specific models. If you’ve got a Mac Mini, 27-inch iMac or Mac Pro, and you’re in warranty, better get it on down to the Genius Bar for more technical help… but how?!?!?!?!
[via Gizmodo]
Over the past few months, not a day has gone by that our Twitter feed hasn’t been been bombarded by a consistent string of questions that millions of hungry Apple fans are just clamoring to have answered:
When will Apple announced the iPhone 5?
When will I be able to preorder the iPhone 5?
When is the iPhone 5 coming out?
We think we know. Here’s the complete release timeline of the iPhone 5 we think you can expect, starting from which day we think Apple will send out invitations and continuing to the iPhone 5’s October 7th release date.
That unassuming picture of sushi above? Very likely taken by an iPhone 5. Too bad the plate’s not shinier, or we might be able to Blade Runner ourselves an actual image of the phone.
A number of major carriers all over the globe have begun receiving a near-final build of Apple’s upcoming iOS 5 software for testing, according to one report. The software is said to be a newer than the beta recently seeded to developers, and includes a number of features that we’re still yet to see in previous betas, including that much-rumored speech-to-text technology.
Facebook issued an update to its iPhone application last night, and while it introduces a number of nice new features, it also removes all code related to the iPad version — meaning you can no longer install the official Facebook app for iPad before its release.
Social networking, schnetworking, right? Yeah, I know. I am so overshared I feel like a sexted pic at an 8th grade dance sometimes.
But I could still use good ideas about what apps or games are worth my time. Enter Kinetik: a free app whose goal is to help you share the apps you love for your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad and get suggestions from others about what is keeping them distracted during commute time or entertained during meetings.
An article on Macworld today sheds some light on the Towson Hack — a mysterious scam involving stolen iTunes store credit dating back to November of last year.
Macworld highlights a trafficked thread on the Apple support forums that tells story after story of stolen iTunes gift card credit, initially relating to a changed billing address to Towson, Maryland.
Did you see our post the other day about getting yourself a temporary Steve Jobs tattoo and decide to turn yourself into quivering flesh mosaic of intertwined Steve Jobs heads?
That’s nothing. Reader Dan Uricoli Jr. has lived and breathed Apple since he was 19. He was an Apple Corporate employee for three and a half years, and even now, as a professional musician fronting the band Stellar Revival, uses Apple products extensively in his art.
In fact, Dan is such an Apple die-hard that he permanently tattooed Steve Jobs’ iconic portrait on his right arm. Now that’s a card-carrying member of the Cult of Mac.
Apple has already overtaken Nokia as the smartphone leader when it comes to the number of units manufactured, but according to a forecast from DigiTimes, the Cupertino company could also overtake the once unbeatable Finnish phone vendor in shipments by the end of this year.
Apple has finally been granted certification to sell its 3G iPad 2 in mainland China, according to The Wall Street Journal. Up until now, the Cupertino company has only been able to offer its Wi-Fi only tablet, but it now has the ‘network access license’ needed to sell the 3G-capable device.
I’ve worked at a few desks that used Cisco VoIP phones (one in the Wired.com offices among them); but something like the new Invoxia NVX 610 iPhone-controlled conference phone may eventually turn conventional handsets — even VoIP ones — into relics.
Those of you wishing for an 8-megapixel camera in the upcoming iPhone 5 might just be in luck. According to a report from Taiwan Economic News, Apple has secured deals with two manufacturers who will supply 8-megapixel cameras for Apple’s fifth-generation iPhone.
We are receiving reports from readers that invitations to join Apple’s AppleSeed Software Customer Seeding Program are hitting people’s in boxes today. This comes as rumors are ramping up about the imminent release of iCloud, Mac OS X 10.7.2, iTunes 10.5, ATV updates and the iPhone 4S/5.
Despite no sign of an announcement from Apple for several weeks, T-Mobile has already begun accepting iPhone 5 reservations in Germany, according to a report from the German newspaper Focus. The carrier has been providing customers with ‘tickets’ that will allow them to redeem the device as soon as it’s available on a first-come-first-served basis.
In typical Apple fashion, the company is keeping the release date for iOS 5 and the accompanying iCloud service a big secret, but the launch of these products could be right around the corner. According to screenshots taken from its internal RetailMe application, Apple has now begun training retail store staff for the upcoming release of its new services.
Since the iPad first shipped in April of last year, the tablet has been slammed by critics as a content consumption device, a feature-limited Tablet PC and a pointless plaything for rich yuppies.
Apple itself positioned the iPad as a living room knee-top device, something for mindlessly flipping through apps or games while watching Comedy Central. Steve Jobs even introduced the iPad while sitting on a padded living room chair.
All this spin makes our friend, the iPad, come across like some kind of lazy slacker. In fact, the iPad has become a hard-working professional. But why?
There has been a plethora of reports about leaked next generation iPhone parts that are allegedly for either an iPhone 4S or 5 model. Now we are seeing an equal number of rumors about iPhone 4S/5 case designs. Most of these new case designs probably started after an alleged next generation iPhone design document leaked earlier this summer. Indications are that case vendors are taking this leak seriously and producing cases based on the information they have received.
MacRumors previously commissioned a set of renderings trying to decide what the next iPhone will look like. Later they analyzed the existing third-party cases to help decide what that device might look like. The results they were left with are a bit puzzling.
We told you yesterday that Apple had allegedly lost a next gen iPhone prototype in a San Franciscan tequila bar. Through a string of events, it was uncovered that Apple had purportedly tracked the prototype device to an apartment in Bernal Heights and sent a private security team on a recovery mission.
The San Francisco Police originally said that it had no knowledge of such an investigation, and it was believed that Apple’s security team could have posed as police for the purpose of searching the apartment of Sergio Calderón. Now, the SFPD is saying that officers did in fact help Apple in the attempt to recover the mysterious iPhone prototype.
Amazon’s rumored tablet is very real, according to MG Siegler of TechCrunch. The ‘Amazon Kindle’ tablet runs a fully-customized version of the Android OS that “you’ve never seen before.” The device will sell for half the price of the entry-level iPad, and it’s expected to ship in November.
This one’s nuts. Remember how there were no police reports about the missing iPhone 5 prototype, even though CNet reported that police offices had actually searched a man’s house looking for it? The guy whose home was searched in search of that lost iPhone 5 prototype says the officials weren’t actually police officers… they were Apple employees impersonating them.
The implication is that the officials, who appear to be members of Apple’s security team, were impersonating police, a crime punishable by up to a year in jail in California.
Earlier this week, CNet surprised everyone by reporting that Apple had lost yet another iPhone prototype at a San Francisco bar. We were so intrigued that we stopped by to talk to the manager but he didn’t know jack about it.
You know who else has never heard anything about a lost iPhone 5 prototype? The San Francisco Police. Which is weird, because according to CNet’s story, they were called out to investigate.
Back in October of last year, Steve Jobs wrote someone asking him why USB 3.0 wasn’t in Macs and said: “We don’t see USB 3 taking off at this time. No support from Intel, for example.”
It’s pretty clear that Steve Jobs was saying this in light of his work with the Thunderbolt standard, which leaves USB 3.0 in the dust. But now that Intel is planning on supporting USB 3.0 come 2012 as part of their Ivy Bridge CPU refresh, will USB 3.0 ports come to Macs to complement Thunderbolt?
They’re running through the entire playbook over at Pogoplug for a touchdown (yeah, guess I’m jonesing for the football season to start). Their latest move is the Pogoplug Mobile ($80), out today.