Items tagged with appl
iOS 7 is looking to bring a host of design changes to Apple's iPhone operating system, but it will evidently be bringing one other important change: a patch. Currently, a security flaw exists whereby hackers can engage with an iPad or iPhone by connecting a spoofed "fake charging station." The exploit was discussed at the Black Hat hacking conference in Las Vegas this week, and Apple has said that the issue has already been patched up in the latest beta of iOS 7. Of course, the final version that's released to the public will include the patch, too. Apple has thanked the researchers for bringing the issue to their attention in a bid to solve an issue before ill-willed individuals grabbed hold...
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Last week, Apple's Developer Portal went offline unexpectedly, and it remained that way for a week. That's a long time for any one Apple product to be offline, particularly one so closely linked to its iOS ecosystem. The company later confirmed that it had been breached, and that it was working on an internal overhaul before opening it all back up again. Now, it appears that the internal tinkering has been finalized, as the Developer Center is back online and open for business. Devs are reporting that the Center looks the same as it did before, with no major consumer-facing modifications. However, Apple has likely overhauled the guts of the thing in order to hopefully prevent yet another security...
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When it comes to Apple products, discounts are few and far between. The company just doesn't offer up coupons and price slashings on any sort of regular basis, and in fact, most of the retailers certified to sell genuine Apple products don't offer any discounts, either. Walmart has typically shaved a few dollars from iPod and iPhone products, but not much else. Unless, of course, a new product is en route. There has been no formal indication from Apple that a next-generation iPhone is on the way, but Walmart has just taken the axe to the MSRP on its iPhone 4S and iPhone 5 handsets. The iPhone 5 can now be found in Walmart retail stores for just $129 with a new 2-year contract on Sprint, Verizon...
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Don't look now, but there will soon be yet another place to get your iPhone fix: Virgin Mobile. As Apple's phone has grown in importance, its availability has spread as well. The initial version was only available on AT&T, and now, hundreds of carriers offer it. On the prepaid side, the roll-out has been a bit slower, but now Virgin is matching the likes of Cricket by offering the iPhone 5 on June 28th. The phone will be available on the carrier's Beyond Talk plans, with unlimited 3G/4G LTE data and messaging starting at $35 per month. Customers can also receive a $5 per-month plan discount when they register and sign up for automatic monthly payments ["Auto Pay"] with a credit card, debit...
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When the original iPad Mini was unveiled, the entire tech industry understood one thing: there would eventually be another edition with a Retina display. Given that Apple has shown to be quite fond of pixels on displays, it's really just a matter of time before the iPad Mini joins the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch in Retina-land. According to fresh rumors, that time may be coming soon, and the displays could be provided by a bitter rival. Samsung Display is rumored to be readying a 7.9" display with a native 2048x1536 resolution, not to mention a 9.7" panel with an even slimmer bezel for a redesigned full-size iPad. Presently, we're hearing that Q3 is the quarter to watch for a refreshed iPad range,...
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We haven't played with this yet but it looks pretty promising. Those of you that struggle with Apple's rather restrictive practices when it comes to taking your music that is on your iPod to another machine, might want to check out the freeware package, SharePod. An intuitive utility for the iPod, iTouch and iPhone, SharePod gives you a myriad of file management capabilities that enable you to backup, share and change the presentation of your media. In other words, where there's a will, there's a way... SharePod's "Copy to PC" interface, courtesy: SharePod And from SharePod's creators SharePod is easy to use and works! Here’s some of the main features: Add & remove...
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Since launching the MobileMe syncing service in July, Apple has been working on various fixes. Earlier this week, Apple revealed that 27 changes were made late last month. MobileMe is a hosted service, so you don’t have to do anything to get the updates—Apple made all of the changes on the servers. All components of the service were affected by the update, with MobileMe Mail receiving the most updates. Keyboard shortcuts that didn’t behave as expected were fixed, along with a bug that didn’t remove messages from the Drafts folder once they were sent. MobileMe Mail users should also see improved performance when first logging in to MobileMe Mail and also when Junk Mail Filtering is enabled. The...
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Although an application store on a mobile phone isn’t exactly new, the idea of having this functionality on a BlackBerry is. At the BlackBerry Developer Conference, RIM announced a new online application storefront and a new on-device application center for BlackBerry smartphones. RIM plans to launch the application storefront in March 2009. Developers can start submitting applications and content for inclusion in the storefront starting in December. This storefront will allow developers to set their own prices for applications and retain 80% of the revenue generated from sales of their applications. PayPal will provide payment services within the application storefront. Under the plan, organizations...
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A company on the brink? That's what Apple was before it made its dramatic comeback. Now, in the latest Gartner report, on Q3 PC shipments (note, these are preliminary numbers), Apple's market share in the U.S. has grown to 9.5%, up from 7.7% last year, a growth of 29.4%. Nearly double-digits.IDC's numbers were similar to Garter's, pegging Apple's U.S. share at 9.1%, up from 7.3%, a growth of 32.0% year-over-year. But (there's always a but), both Gartner and IDC noticed that a major part of the global overall upswing (15%) in PC sales was a burgeoning netbook component. Gartner said:"The mini-notebook segment experienced strong growth in the global PC, led by robust growth...
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We wrote earlier about HP's announcement about NVIDIA GPU failures in 38 of its slimline desktop PCs. While that's bad enough, The Inquirer says it has memos from allegedly from an internal knowledge base at Apple which states that all of NVIDIA's parts based on its G92 architecture sent to Apple have had to undergo the same change in bump material required to fix the issues in the heat-related failures we've been talking about since earlier this year.It should be noted that taking the source into account, a big fat "rumor," or perhaps "unsubstantiated" should be placed right here.However, they're not always off the mark. And, after all, if HP is seeing issues, why not another PC...
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Steve Jobs unveiled a slew of new Apple notebooks only a few moments ago... So without further ado, here are the juicy tidbits: Apple is using a new manufacturing technique that actually carves the MacBook's frame from a single slab of Aluminum. What starts out as a 2.5-pound metal slab becomes a "unibody" notebook frame that weighs less than 0.25 pounds. The carved-off pieces of aluminum are captured and recycled. This new manufacturing process enables Apple to build stronger, lighter, and thinner notebooks. MacBook Pro (Credit: Apple) Apple has also traded in the MacBook line's Intel-based chipset/GPU for ones from Nvidia. (Let's hope that the dreaded Nvidia mobile graphics chip defect doesn't...
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The bruhaha over defective Nvidia mobile graphics chips keeps rolling along, even months after the initial headlines have faded. Despite Nvidia's promises to Apple that its Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT-based MacBook Pros had dodged the bullet and were immune from the defect, Apple now counters that it wasn't, in fact, so lucky: "In July 2008, NVIDIA publicly acknowledged a higher than normal failure rate for some of their graphics processors due to a packaging defect. At that same time, NVIDIA assured Apple that Mac computers with these graphics processors were not affected. However, after an Apple-led investigation, Apple has determined that some MacBook Pro computers with the NVIDIA GeForce 8600M...
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Can you spell "SEC investigation?" There is definitely going to be one after this. A post at CNN's new social news site, iReport, resulted in Apple stock plummeting this morning, when it was rumored that Steve Jobs had suffered a heart attack. iReport allows users to post unvetted stories, which then --- after vetting, may be posted to the iReport page on CNN.com. This story obviously didn't make it there, and has since been taken down.Interestingly, this user has never submitted a story previously. And the time of the story posting, 6 AM PDT, was obviously very suspicious. The story read:Steve Jobs was rushed to the ER just a few hours ago after suffering...
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Tuesdays are typically the day the Apple reserves to make big announcements, and today was such a day for Apple. Steve Jobs took to the stage Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco to announce a number of new iPod-related products and new iTunes features. Apple billed the press event as "Let's Rock." Here's what's new: iTunes will start offering some TV shows in HD format for $2.99 (SD shows stay at $1.99).NBC is coming back to iTunes. Which means shows such as The Office, 30 Rock, and Battlestar Galactica will be available for download from iTunes once again. And they will be available in HD.iTunes 8 was also just officially announced. It adds a new feature called "Genius," which automatically...
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Who decides which apps go up --- and stay up --- on the App Store? After all, something pretty useful like NetShare gets dropped from the App Store a couple of times (all right, all right, I know AT&T wouldn't like it), while something totally frivolous like this app gets posted?The app was named "I am Rich." The name is appropriate, because basically all it did was put the image below (sort of a faux diamond) on your iPhone screen (minus the text, of course). I say "was" because someone came to their senses and removed it.However, obviously, someone who would waste, er, spend his money on this app is rich enough to not care. Hence the name of the app. And yes, this was officially the most...
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Apple seems unable to make up its mind over NetShare, the iPhone tethering application which first appeared, disappeared, reappeared, and has now vanished again from their App Store.In what could only be termed as bizarre, Nullriver's NetShare application has been removed once from the iPhone App Store, only to reappear and then disappear again. Apple has not released a statement as to why it's been pulled, but one can only speculate that it in some way violates the SDK or perhaps Apple has put the app back into review.The NetShare app allowed iPhone owners to tether the iPhone to a laptop. In basic terms, you can surf the web with your laptop using the iPhone's internet connection. The app would...
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Apple sent an e-mail out to its MobileMe service members today, apologizing for the hiccups in getting the $99 per month MobileMe service up and running, announcing that the service was now finally fully operational, and even offering a conciliatory, free 30-day extension to all current MobileMe subscriptions. Apple's e-mail (click the image to read the e-mail) MobileMe is an updated version of Apple's .Mac ("Dot Mac") subscription-based online service, which has been around since 2002 (or even as far back as 2000 if you count its original iteration as Apple's free, Mac-only, online service called iTools). The new MobileMe service rolled out at the same time as the release of the iPhone...
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No, not the core, or the stem, but the shaft. It's an unsubstantiated rumor, but one that actually might make sense. Though perhaps not in the way the original posted thought.News around the web is that Apple is planning to reduce its iPhone shipments to Rogers, Canada's lone GSM/EDGE/HSDPA provider. The rationale is that Apple is punishing Rogers for its expensive pricing and three year commitment requirement.Rogers only has a few days left to make adjustments to its pricing. Major Canadian media outlets (2) are encouraging Canadians to boycott the iPhone until Rogers comes out with competitive plans. Internet petitions are all over the place. About half of Digg's Apple stories of...
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Samsung has started spreading the word to its customers that NAND flash memory chips are going to be harder to come by for a little while as Samsung diverts much of its available supply to Apple. When Apple places an order for 50 million 8Gb NAND chips, it shouldn't be a surprise that Apple gets to cut the line and is offered a spot at the front of the queue. NAND flash memory chips are used in USB flash drives, MP3 players, cell phones, and other small-form-factor consumer electronics devices. What does Apple need with 50 million NAND chips? Two words: iPhone 3G. Apple is gearing up to distribute the new iPhone 3G starting next week in no less than 70 countries--and at a significantly reduced...
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Everyone's fascinated with the Apple iPhone. Apple's announced their new, third generation (3G) model is coming out on July 11, and all the news outlets have been pawing over the details of the handset and the plan. The iPhone has the potential to be one of those concepts that becomes the name people use to refer to all items of its type, like Kleenex or Frigidaire or Xerox once did. Not many people are that interested in the Samsung/Sprint version of the small slab smartphone with a touchscreen and not a lot of buttons. Maybe they should be. It's better than an iPhone in a lot of ways.• It's smaller, fitting more comfortably in a pocket.• It records video. The iPhone only does stills.•...
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Back in 2006, Hewlett-Packard bought Voodoo, makers of exotic gaming rigs. That had people scratching their heads about what HP was going to make under their newly acquired nameplate. Apparently it wasn't just exotic gaming desktops they were after; it's the straightforward exotic lappie market they wanted as well. HP rolled out a bunch of new models today, but perhaps none so interesting as their ultra-mobile Voodoo Envy 133 notebook. It's thinner overall than a MacBook Air, and mighty powerful. Oh yes -- bring money. Measuring just over half an inch thin and weighing less than 3.4 pounds, the Voodoo Envy 133 is a showcase of ultra-mobility and thermal engineering in a tiny, sophisticated chassis....
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It was obvious something was "up" when the Apple Store went down. Besides that, of course, Steve Jobs was making a keynote address at WWDC. So what happened?Apple® today introduced the new iPhone™ 3G, combining all the revolutionary features of iPhone with 3G networking that is twice as fast* as the first generation iPhone, built-in GPS for expanded location based mobile services, and iPhone 2.0 software which includes support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and runs the hundreds of third party applications already built with the recently released iPhone SDK. In the US the new iPhone 3G is priced at a stunning $199 for the 8GB model, and just $299 for the 16GB model.** iPhone...
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