Apple’s smartphone could’ve been available on five carriers this fall instead of just four, according to U.S. Cellular’s CEO Mary Dillon. Dillon revealed during the carrier’s earnings call that her company turned down the iPhone because Apple’s “terms were unacceptable from a risk and profitability standpoint.” Read more »
Kickstarter continues to impress as a go-to resource for accessories that tread somewhat off the beaten path. Two recent discoveries fit that description, and offer smart solutions for folks looking to shore up commonly cited iPad and MacBook Pro deficiencies, like keyboard complaints and heat management. Read more »
A move made recently by Samsung to counter Apple’s ongoing legal assault on its allegedly patent-infringing products could come back to bite the Korean electronics manufacturer. The European Commission is looking into whether or not Samsung’s claims might constitute an an abuse of FRAND patents. Read more »
Siri went down on Thursday for its first extended outage — around five hours, according to most counts. Five hours is hardly three days (like another noteworthy recent mobile service blackout), but the reaction of media and users show Apple’s personal assistant is making its presence felt. Read more »
Oink, Kevin Rose’s much-discussed app about rating not places, but things within places, is now in the App Store. It’s a little like Yelp, and a little like Foursquare, and a little like Foodspotting. But will this pig fly? I kicked the tires to find out. Read more »
Apple’s television plans are the subject of plenty of recent speculation, and are raising a lot of questions in consumer minds. From the questions I’ve heard about the rumored iTV, here’s a list of five things Apple needs to do to shake up the space. Read more »
Rumors are circulating that features from iOS, like iMessage and AirPlay Mirroring, are on their way to Mac computers via OS X. That’s great, but Apple should think about taking things one step further, and bring the core update philosophy behind iOS to its desktop predecessor. Read more »
On Wednesday, Yahoo released its Livestand app, which combines aspects of apps like Flipboard and Zite with the digital magazine rack concept of Apple’s Newsstand. I took the app through its paces to see how the hybrid approach holds up in the face of the competition. Read more »
Apple filed a complaint with the World Intellectual Property Organization on Thursday in order to get misleading porn domain redirects shut down. Among the list of seven domain names Apple is targeting is “iPhone4S.com,” which poses a potential image problem for Apple and its customers. Read more »
Apple will be rolling out overhauls across its product lines in 2012, according to a new report. The report mentions the iPad, iMac, iPhone and MacBook Air specifically, which means that we could see very different versions of all of Apple’s core products in 2012. Read more »
Apple said in a short statement Wednesday to AllThingsD that it has found iOS 5 bugs responsible for battery issues experienced by many iPhone 4S (and other device) owners, and will issue “a software update to address those [bugs] in a few weeks.” Read more »
SyFy shows, I love you so hard. Which is why I was thrilled to see the release of an official Farnsworth app tied to Warehouse 13. The app is actually made by the same special effects wizards that create some of the show’s prop-based magic. Read more »
Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs biography has clearly been successful, topping best-seller lists ahead of its release, but new numbers reveal the extent of that success. The 656-page book has sold around 379,000 copies in the U.S. during its first week, according to a Nielsen report. Read more »
Paying for something is still the one part of Apple’s retail experience that isn’t ideal. But Apple may be on the verge of taking payment concerns out of the Apple Store equation entirely, according to a new report. That change could be Apple’s next retail revolution. Read more »
Yet another analyst report has joined the chorus of those claiming Apple will see its majority market share for tablet devices slide to less than a majority by 2014-2015. It’s quickly becoming a theme, but one which I find hard to back up in reality. Read more »
Apple has introduced an update for the iOS version of GarageBand that makes it compatible with iPhones and iPod touches. The universal app is available as a free update for owners of the iPad version, or it’s $4.99 if you’re buying it for the first time. Read more »
Apple announced at its iPhone 4S event that iTunes Match would launch by “late October,” but that self-imposed deadline has come and gone, and consumers have yet to gain access to the service. The cloud music storage service has been available to developers since August. Read more »
PlugBug, the newest accessory from Twelve South, is a simple adapter that connects to your existing MacBook power adapter, adding a 10 W USB charger for charging your iOS devices. That means you can charge your devices faster, which will come in handy for travelers. Read more »
The Mac Pro has long remained a professional tool in an otherwise consumer-focused line of Apple computers. But would Apple really close the door on its most muscular and expandable Mac model, as recent reports suggest? I think so, and there are good reasons why. Read more »
The iPhone 4S global rollout continues, with 15 new markets getting the device Nov. 11, with pre-orders beginning Friday, Nov. 4. Hong Kong and South Korea lead the new pack, which will bring the total number of international markets where the 4S is available to 44. Read more »
Net Applications has released its mobile market share numbers for October, and they show Apple gaining a lot of ground. IOS grew 7 percentage points during October, from 54.65 percent to 61.64 percent. Android grew, too, overtaking Java ME for the second spot globally. Read more »
Hulu has signed a five-year licensing agreement with The CW, the company announced Friday. The deal will bring current season programming, including The Vampire Diaries, Gossip Girl and Supernatural, to both subscribers of Hulu Plus, and Hulu’s ad-supported web-based service. Read more »
The iPhone 4S may have its first significant early life issue, according to many users, and even possibly Apple itself. Many users are reporting seeing very poor battery life with iPhone 4S devices, and now Apple seems to be investigating the problem. Read more »
Smartrhas a considerable challenge ahead of it: It’s late to the iPad and entering an already crowded market of personalized news aggregation apps like Flipboard, Pulse and the CNN-backed Zite. But some serious dedication to social interaction could help it stand out. Read more »
If you take the time to look beyond the select outrageous quotes that have appeared in headlines everywhere for the past two weeks, you find a balanced telling of the life of a man who was far from balanced himself in Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs. Read more »
It was pretty clear that Samsung would eventually overtake Apple in terms of smartphone sales, and this past quarter, that happened. But Apple also slipped in the overall phone sales category, beat by a rival that could be more of a long-term threat: China’s ZTE. Read more »
Sony’s new Wi-Fi Reader is the only e-reader it introduced this year. It’s good that Sony is streamlining what was an unnecessarily complicated product line, but now that all the eggs are in one basket, how does the device stand up to the competition? Read more »
Digital comics are entering a bit of a boom era, according to recent data. Comics, the app by comiXology that acts as a one-stop digital storefront for many publishers, including DC and Marvel, has been the top grossing iPad app for six Wednesdays in a row. Read more »
The Apple television is the latest, hottest subject of the rumor mill that surrounds the company. On Thursday, a new report revealed many more tantalizing details about why Apple might be a creating a television and what will set it apart from the competition. Read more »
Apple has increased its R&D spending from $1.8 to $2.4 billion this year versus last, according to a filing Wednesday by Apple to the SEC. That’s a 33-percent increase, and makes the 2011 spend more than half that of the previous four years combined. Read more »
Apple is going on the offensive against online retailers who are ignoring the injunction against Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 sales in Australia, even as the South Korean electronics manufacturer has won the right to fast-track an appeal against the ban. Read more »
Adobe’s cross-platform photo management service, Carousel, is now available on iOS devices and the Mac. New apps for both platforms, released on Thursday, let you manage, sync, share and even edit your photo collection on all of your Apple devices. Read more »
PBS will air an hour-long documentary about Apple’s iconic co-founder called Steve Jobs — One Last Thing on Nov. 2. The documentary will feature interviews with colleagues, professional and personal associates, many of whom appear in the new Walter Isaacson biography of Jobs. Read more »
When Apple released its official Cards app, I was curious what the final product would look like, so I promptly designed a simple one and sent it to myself. The final product arrived Wednesday, so I wanted to share how the final product turned out. Read more »
iPhone rumors are an integral part of the hype engine surrounding new product launches, but Apple noted during its most recent conference call that they hurt device sales for the quarter. Now a new report says they may have slowed down app downloads, too. Read more »
People paid a lot of attention to two new features that arrived in the iPhone 4S: The much-improved camera and Siri, the new voice-powered digital assistant. But the 4S also snuck in another feature upgrade, one that’s a ticking time bomb of potential goodness: Bluetooth 4.0. Read more »
U.K. site MyVoucherCodes polled over 1,500 smartphone shoppers, and found that a third of those surveyed were “disappointed” with the 4S. Of those questioned, only 29 percent said they’d be interested in buying one. Might initial fervor mask a mostly underwhelmed buying public? Read more »
We reported earlier that Newsstand appears to be treating digital publishers well, and new info from Condé Nast just released backs that up. The publisher of Wired and other magazines has seen digital subscriptions rise 268 percent since Newsstand arrived with the iOS 5 update. Read more »
I’ve never been great at keeping tabs on scheduling. Siri has been a great help for setting appointments, but a new app called TouchBase aims to make staying in touch with those you’re meeting with, and keeping track of where you’re headed even easier still. Read more »
A new survey of business professionals out of the U.K. reveals that RIM’s recent network problems could work out very well for enterprise adoption of Apple’s iPhone. A survey revealed a lot of individuals interested in defection, and Apple’s platform as the life raft of choice. Read more »
