April 2011
85 posts
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Square to add encryption to mobile card reader,...
It’s only been a couple days since we first heard about Visa’s involvement with Square, but the credit card giant is already making its mark on the mobile payment startup. At the Visa Global Security Summit on Wednesday, Square Security Lead Sam Quigley revealed that the company will distribute an encrypted card reader this summer, which will work exclusively with its mobile payment...
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HBO Go hits iOS and Android, free for subscribers
Don’t ditch that premium cable subscription just yet. The long-anticipated HBO Go app just hit the iOS App Store and Android Market, bringing original HBO series and a variety of blockbuster films to your mobile device.
You’ll need an HBO subscription with your cable provider to get past the login screen, but unlocking all that the service has to offer using our Verizon...
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NPD credits Verizon iPhone with stemming the...
As much as we were hoping to get some definitive statements from AT&T and Verizon’s Q1 2011 financials about the Verizon iPhone’s impact on the smartphone market, none were really forthcoming.
It’s left to analyst outfits like the NPD, therefore, to try and parse the data for us and read between the official lines. The latest numbers from the NPD Group’s...
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Intel touts 50Gbps interconnect by 2015, will make...
Woah there, Mr. Speedy. We’ve barely caught up with the 10Gbps Thunderbolt interconnect, debuted in the new Macbook Pro, and now Intel’s hyperactive researchers are already chattering away about something five times faster.
They’re promising a new interconnect, ready in four years, that will combine silicon and optical components (a technology called silicon photonics) to...
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White iPhone 4 thickness creates issue for case...
By now you’ve probably seen the latest spectacle to consume the white iPhone 4: it’s thicker than the black model. The image above illustrates the point using a piece of lead from a mechanical pencil.
So what, you say, in righteous indignation to a device that shipped ten months late. Well, the size difference creates a potential consumer issue since cases (at least the good ones)...
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Pioneer AppRadio brings apps, iPhone connectivity...
If Pioneer’s AppRadio (SPH-DA01) ever sees the light of day, it’ll join a long list of integrated and aftermarket products trying to play off of the iPhone’s success. According to CrunchGear (and its anonymous tipster), the FCC-leaked device boasts a 6.1-inch touchscreen and built-in apps, along with a USB port for accessing content (and presumably, the data connection) on your...
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NFL Mobile apps bring the draft to you live...
The first round of the 2011 NFL Draft kicks off around 8 p.m. at Radio City Music Hall but if you’re not one of the players collecting racks on racks of cash (assuming there is a 2011 season of course) you can still get live updates via the NFL’s apps for iOS and Android devices. The NFL GameCenter apps that have been kicking around for iPhone/iPod touch and Android phones have...
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Apple's cloud streaming service to be called...
Okay, so if you had to guess a name for an Apple service that exists in the cloud it’s pretty safe to say you’d pick “iCloud,” right? Good, now that we’re past the obvious, there are some slightly more compelling indicators out there that this may indeed be what Apple is going to call its (presumably) soon-to-launch music streaming service. We received anonymous...
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Square gets financial backing from Visa, asks to...
Everything’s coming up Jack Dorsey these days. Last week Apple started stocking Square’s iPhone credit card readers in its 235 US retail locations, and now, according to Reuters, Visa has put its plastic where its mouth is. The credit card giant has invested in the personal payments startup, scoring itself a spot on Square’s advisory board in the process. No word on how much...
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iPad 2 extends its global reign of terror to...
Sure, you still may not be able to easily find an iPad 2 here in the US, but you can now sleep soundly knowing that the Japanese pen pal you had in elementary school could be rocking one by the end of the week. Amidst all the hub-bub about location tracking and pasty iPhones, Apple let slip that the WiFi iPad 2 will be available in Japan on April 28th, just as promised, coming to Hong Kong,...
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Apple confirms it's working on a traffic service,...
It wasn’t the main thrust of its “Q&A on Location Data” this morning, but Apple did also make a bit of news while it tried to ease those privacy concerns about how it’s handling your data. The company says it “is now collecting anonymous traffic data to build a crowd-sourced traffic database,” and that it’s hoping to provide iPhone users...
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Apple officially answers questions on location...
1. Why is Apple tracking the location of my iPhone? Apple is not tracking the location of your iPhone. Apple has never done so and has no plans to ever do so. The big hubbub that arose last week around location tracking within the iPhone has now received its due response from Apple itself. Firstly, the Cupertino company claims it does not, and has no plans to, track users’ iPhones. What...
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White iPhone 4 releases tomorrow, finally (update:...
The rare albino iPhone 4 has been spotted numerous times in the wild, skulking through the trees in the magical United Kingdom, cavorting across the mysterious lands of Vietnam, and most recently standing in formation in Belgium. Now it’s coming somewhere rather less exotic: the Apple Store. Apple has finally announced it will release the white iPhone 4 tomorrow around the...
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Apple gets its white iPhone 4 ducks in a row ahead...
Look, we all kinda, sorta know that Apple will finally admit it’s springtime tomorrow and let the white iPhone 4 fly the nest. But in order to sell white iPhone 4s, you’ve got to ship them first, and one small Belgian retailer has just received its first batch of the mythical pale device and lined them up for some loving photography. Not only that, but they’re even offering to...
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YouTube ready to start renting video on-demand...
According to entertainment website The Wrap, Google’s YouTube has finally locked up all the studio deals to get itself fully into the online movie rental game. The report indicates it could launch as soon as this week with movies from majors including Sony, Warner and Universal, as well as smaller entities like Lionsgate, Kino Lorber and other independents.
This doesn’t appear to be...
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Leica i9 concept pairs $1,000 camera with $200...
When you think of manufacturers that create products to go hand-in-hand with the Apple iPhone, Leica probably wouldn’t come to mind. The seemingly brilliant minds at Black Design Associates hope to change that, however.
The Leica i9 concept pairs an iPhone 4 with a fixed-lens rangefinder camera, and the result is nothing short of extraordinary. Slipping your iPhone 4 —...
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White iPhone 4 coming to Best Buy on Wednesday?
That, friends, is an inventory listing from Best Buy indicating the mythical white iPhone 4 will finally be in stock and for sale this Wednesday, April 27th (just in time to be overshadowed by rumors of the iPhone 5). Of course, we’ve seen it pop up in inventory systems before, including Best Buy’s, only to be let down when the alleged street date came and went without so much...
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iMac rumor mill suggests new models could be...
This one is obviously still very much in rumor territory, but a couple of separate reports have cropped up today that suggest Apple could be set to debut some updated iMacs as soon as next week. That includes a report from 9 to 5 Mac that iMac orders are being delayed until May 2nd, despite the fact that they’re still listed as shipping within 24 hours on Apple’s website, and a...
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Yahoo buys TV companion app developer IntoNow and...
Earlier this year IntoNow launched its iPhone app that could identify what TV show you were watching by the audio Shazam-style and then share it with others over Facebook or Twitter, pull in additional information, or add the DVD to your Netflix queue. Now, Yahoo has purchased the company and according to the press release (after the break) wants to integrate its SoundPrint tech with its...
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Editorial: Hey Apple, why does it take an hour to...
This one’s been a long time comin’, but the iTunes forced backup / syncing issue is no less real today than it was a decade ago when iTunes began to play a larger-than-life role in the operation of Apple’s iDevices. As it stands, it’s effectively impossible to use an iPhone, iPad or iPod without also using iTunes, and while Apple’s done an exemplary job...
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Apple signs Warner Music to its cloud-based music...
Need another sign that iTunes will soon be floating your library up to the cloud? Look no further than confirmation of Apple signing Warner Music, a deal that should see the label’s music available in its upcoming streaming iTunes service. This is in addition to last week’s confirmation that two major labels signed on, though its unclear whether Warner is part of the pair or...
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Visualized: a Foxconn worker walks into an Apple...
… and thinks, “I should ask for another raise.”
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Could the iPhone 5 look like a beveled iPod touch?
See that up there? That could be your next iPhone — or it could be a tear-shaped dream. It’s a mock-up of what is said to be the iPhone 5, according to anonymous sources quoted by Joshua Topolsky.
A continuation of the concepts laid out in our post-CES look at what’s next for Apple, the design here is said to be thin, metal-backed, tapered, and...
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DirecTV's iPad, iPhone, Android apps will (NOT)...
Just like the web versions of HBO Go and Max Go are accessible both through their own sites and various provider portals, DirecTV has announced it will include access to them in its own apps on iPad, iPhone and “select Android devices” at the same time native Go apps launch.
There’s no word on what restrictions may be placed on Android, if it’s just Froyo or higher...
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Exclusive: White iPhone 4 lands at Vodafone UK
Well, would you have a gander at that? That, friends, is Apple’s long-awaited, hardly-forgotten white iPhone 4, and so far as we can tell, this is actually the real deal. We’ve seen retailers making space for the elusive handset over the past few months, and earlier today, we heard that Vodafone UK’s inventory systems were showing the white iPhone 4 as shipping in.
Now,...
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Logitech's Squeezebox Controller app makes the...
After launching the Squeezebox Controller app on Android last month, what could Logitech do next other than release a version for your iPod Touch, iPhone or iPad. The features and interface appear to be identical, letting users control any or all Squeezeboxes on the WiFi network complete with metadata and album art. iOS equipped owners of the ‘boxes can get their AirPlay-free distributed...
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Husqvarna lawnmower remote for iOS: a lot less fun...
Sure, we’ve been living in a series of safe houses and seedy motels since 1968, but that doesn’t mean thatyou can’t have nice things. A two-car garage, white picket fence, and a healthy lawn: that’s the American Dream, right there. But with all that middle class comfort comes responsibility — and how are you going to find the time to keep the...
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Samsung strikes back at Apple with ten patent...
This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone: in the latest chapter of the Apple-Samsung dispute over their smartphones’ resemblance, the latter company has just retaliated by filing lawsuits against Apple in three countries. Sammy’s load of ammo includes five patent infringements in South Korea, two in Japan, and three in Germany, though we’ve yet to hear more details about...
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Apple Stores stocking Square credit card readers
Jack Dorsey’s über-popular credit card readers got a big thumbs-up from Cupertino this week. Square’s devices are hitting Apple’s 235 US retail locations and Apple.com for $9.95 a pop — plus the 2.75 percent that the startup takes off the backend each time you use the reader — or you can always just sign up for a free one over on Square’s site. The...
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Reuters: Apple set to launch cloud-based music...
It’s the rumor that wouldn’t die, and Reuters is now reporting that Apple is finally set to launch a cloud-based music service — presumably putting its massive North Carolina data center to some real work at long last. Details are still fairly light beyond that, but Reuters says that Apple’s service will actually launch ahead of Google’s similar...
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Verizon CFO suggests next iPhone will be a 'global...
We’re guessing it wasn’t on the company’s agenda for its earnings call earlier today, but Verizon CFO Fran Shammo let slip one other interesting iPhone tidbit in addition to its news of 2.2 million iPhone 4 activations. Here’s what he said:
The fluctuation, I believe, will come when a new device from Apple is launched, whenever that may be, and that we will be, on...
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The iPhone tracking fiasco and what you can do...
By now you’ve no doubt heard about a certain iOS database file called consolidated.db. It made quite a splash yesterday when a pair of researchers, Alasdair Allan and Pete Warden, from O’Reilly Media announced the “iPhone tracking software” the duo had “discovered hidden on the phones.” Here’s the problem: they didn’t discover it, at least...
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iHub gets shut down by the iPolice
What happens when you decide to sell a device that brazenly features an apple logo you’re not allowed to use? Well, not much actually, the robocops don’t come busting through your door or anything, but evidently the Cupertino lawyers are on top of their game (they’ve certainly had enough practice lately) and have shot out a kindly note to the M.I.C. Store guys to ask...
ECOtality announces Blink Mobile, EV charging app
It’s fast becoming apparent that no electric vehicle is complete without an accompanying smartphone app to help you find places to charge it, and it looks like ECOtality isn’t about to let that trend pass it by. It’s just announced its new Blink Mobile app for iOS, Android and BlackBerry devices, which will let folks locate Blink charging stations,...
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Apple beats estimates with Q2 earnings: $24.67...
Apple just announced its earnings for the second quarter of the year, and it’s once again beat estimates, with it reporting earnings of $6.40 a share, a total of $24.67 billion in revenue, and a net profit of $5.99 billion. As for the sales breakdown everyone’s waiting for, Apple says it sold a whopping 18.6 million iPhones in the quarter (up 113 percent over the previous...
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Apple sues Samsung: here's the deal
So we all know that Apple’s suing Samsung alleging myriad IP infringements, but you may not know what all the fuss is about. On one hand, the lawsuit is surprising because Apple gets much of the goodies it needs to build its iconic iPhones, iPads, and Macs from Sammy, and common sense dictates that you don’t bite the hand that feeds you. On the other hand, however, folks in...
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Researchers find evidence that iOS 4 records all...
If you didn’t already think your smartphone knows too much about you, here’s a handy reminder. A duo of UK researchers have uncovered a potentially worrying (and oddly enough, undocumented) feature in iOS 4:
itasks your iPhone to record your location constantly, then timestamps that data and records it for posterity. The trouble with this unsolicited location tracking is...
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Apple awarded design patent for iPhone 4
Apple could probably plaster most of its Cupertino campus with patents and patent applications if it wanted to, but we’re guessing there’s few that make it more happy than a design patent for a flagship device — like the iPhone 4. That’s now been granted a year after the company filed the application, which details the “ornamental design for an electronic...
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iPhone nano may not exist, but this KIRF does
While the folks “familiar with the matter” continue to debate over whether or not we’ll actually see a real life iPhone nano at some point in our lifetime, the crafty KIRFers in China have taken matters into their own — apparently undersized — hands. Yes people, what you see above is a Shanzhai-crafted shrunken iPhone 4 running an iOS rip-off based...
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Next-generation iPhone coming in September?
Ok,so you won’t be getting an iPhone refresh this summer. But according to a trio of sources speaking toReuters, the next-generation iPhone should be shipping in September — as we’ve heard before — with production starting in July. One source said that the iPhone will feature a faster processor, naturally, and look largely similar to the iPhone 4. If true then...
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WatchSo, you waited in line for an iPad 2, snatched up an iPhone 4, and even bought one of those unofficial white conversion kits. You work all day on a MacBook Air with a Steve Jobs figurine sitting next to it on your desk — you’re exactly the person that the $9.99 iHub was created for. It’s not an official Apple product but, as far as knockoffs go, this is one of the more accurate...
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White iPhone 4 used to demo new multitasking,...
We’ve just laid eyes on a video from the prolific leaksters over at Tinhte, who claim they not only have a white iPhone 4 from Apple, but it’s one with a “test version” of iOS that nobody else has yet seen. It’s difficult to ascertain how legitimate this software is — it could just be a neatly done jailbreak mod — but that site has a track...
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Sonos adds AirPlay support as Android Controller...
For months we’ve been wondering aloud how Sonos would respond to Apple’s September AirPlay announcement. After all, Apple’s promise to “stream music throughout your entire house” steps all over Sonos’ reason to exist. Would Sonos start building its systems with BridgeCo chips? As it turns out: no. Instead, Sonos is opting for a rather ingenious...
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Apple spent nearly $5.7b on Samsung parts in 2010,...
Want some numerical context to last night’s revelation that Apple is suing Samsung Electronics for copying the iPhone and iPad? How does $5.7 billion sound? That’s how much Apple spent on buying up parts from Samsung last year, according to the AFP, which cites the Cupertino company as Samsung’s second-biggest client after Sony. Given the breadth of Samsung’s...
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redsn0w untethered jailbreak updated for iOS...
Good news for all iOS jailbreakers: turns out the latest 4.3.2 update is still vulnerable to the same untethered hacking method used by redsn0w for 4.3.1, so Dev-Team’s @i0n1c simply had to port his code over to the new kernel to keep the jailbreak alive. As before, the almighty iPad 2 is still not supported here, and ultrasn0w unlockers are reminded to...
