Posts Tagged ‘Apple’

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Apple apologizes for slowing iPhone, drops battery prices

Friday, December 29th, 2017

Apple has apologized to customers for how it rolled out an update that can slow down older iPhones. It is offering cheaper battery replacements to make up for it.

In a lengthy message posted on its site Thursday, the company gave an in-depth explanation for the controversial update. To make amends, Apple will temporarily drop the price of replacement batteries to $29 starting in late January. The price will go back up to the usual $79 in 2019.

Customers are upset with the company over a software update that deliberately slowed down older phones in some situations to extend battery life. Some thought it was a ploy to get people to upgrade to new devices. A number of people have filed lawsuits over the feature and are seeking class action status.

The feature will stay on phones, but Apple says an upcoming iOS update will ” give users more visibility into the health of their iPhone’s battery.” It did not say if it will give them the ability to turn the feature off or on. (more…)

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South Korean Schools To Be Digital By 2015

Tuesday, July 5th, 2011

Even in a country that has some of the fastest broadband services in the world and has established a global reputation for embracing technology, the national drive to replace all printed primary (elementary) education material with digital content is truly ambitious.

By 2015, the entire school-age curriculum will be delivered on an array of computers, smart phones and tablets, and the government is going to spend $2.4 billion buying them.

And given the choice of Apple’s iPad and the local Samsung tablets, it isn’t hard to see who is favorite to land the deal.

Some schools on the peninsula are already using textbooks displayed on notebook computers, but when it comes to choice of tablets, how likely is it that the government will choose the iPad or any other tablet other than those manufactured by South Korean electronics giant Samsung, such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab or some larger variant of it?

It is a fascinating experiment, and hugely audacious. But Korea regularly ranks highly in international education comparison. Just last month, Korea came top in an OECD survey testing how 15-year olds use computers and the Internet to learn. (more…)

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Verizon website downtime reminiscent of AT&T iPhone preorder troubles

Tuesday, January 11th, 2011

Strong interest in the newly announced Verizon iPhone appears to have caused intermittent outages on the Verizon website Tuesday, resembling AT&T’s iPhone 4 preorder woes from last year.

Scattered reports of downtime on the Verizon Wireless website seem to indicate that pent up demand for the Verizon iPhone has overwhelmed the carrier’s servers at times throughout the day.

According to one AppleInsider reader, attempts to access the upgrade section of Verizon’s website timed out or received the message: “Safari can’t open the page because the server unexpectedly dropped the connection. This sometimes occurs when the server is busy. Wait for a few minutes, and then try again.”

Several other readers have also reported being unable to access the Verizon website on Tuesday.

Verizon announced the much-rumored and long-awaited CDMA iPhone earlier Tuesday at a press event in New York City. (more…)

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Apple expected to hold event by Valentine’s Day to announce Verizon iPhone

Wednesday, December 29th, 2010

Apple is expected to hold an event “very soon,” perhaps by Valentine’s Day on Feb. 14, 2011, to unveil a new CDMA version of the iPhone compatible with U.S. carrier Verizon’s network.

In a report issued Wednesday evening by Bloomberg Businessweek, the alleged coming debut of the iPhone on Verizon is portrayed as an “enormous problem” for AT&T, the current exclusive carrier of the iPhone in the U.S. While AT&T has had sole access to the iPhone since 2007, problems with its network have caused bad press, including a recent reader poll from Consumer Reports ranking AT&T the worst carrier in America.

“Verizon enjoys a reputation for reliability,” author Peter Burrows wrote. “AT&T is notorious for dropping calls, especially in densely populated places like New York and San Francisco where iPhones are most common and cell towers get loaded.”

The report said that Apple would hold one of its own “splashy product introductions to announce a new version of the iPhone that work’s on Verizon’s network,” and said that event would “maybe” come by Valentine’s Day.

Some have speculated that Apple would instead allow Verizon to announce the product at the Consumer Electronics Show in early January, an uncharacteristic move for the typically controlling iPhone maker. But the report specifically stated that a CES unveiling is not in the plans.

“Apple’s introduction of an iPhone for use on Verizon’s network will come sometime after the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in early January, according to a person familiar with Apple’s plans who is not authorized to discuss them publicly,” Burrows wrote. (more…)

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Microsoft Co-Founder Paul Allen Re-Launches Suit at Google, Apple

Wednesday, December 29th, 2010

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen re-launched his patent lawsuit against Apple, Google and a host of other large tech companies.

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s firm Interval Licensing LLC has decided to re-launch a patent-infringement lawsuit against some of country’s biggest tech companies, including Apple and Google. That comes despite the original lawsuit’s dismissal earlier in December.

In the wake of that dismissal, Judge Marsha J. Pechman, of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington at Seattle, demanded that Allen’s legal counsel revise the lawsuit by Dec. 28. Specifically, Pechman asked for more detailed allegations; the new case (No. C10-1385 MJP) indeed seems to delve more deeply into the defendants’ supposed patent violations.

Allen’s original lawsuit, filed Aug. 27, claimed violations of patents developed by his Interval Research Corp., a technology incubator. In addition to Apple and Google, other companies in the crosshairs include AOL, eBay, Facebook, Yahoo, Office Depot, OfficeMax, YouTube and Staples. The four patents in question involve technologies related to e-commerce and online browsing, such as online user alerts and ways for drawing users’ attention to a nearby screen. Microsoft is not named in the lawsuit.

“Paul thinks this is important, not just to him but to the researchers at Interval who created this technology,” a spokesperson for Allen told The Wall Street Journal Aug. 27. “We recognize that innovation has a value, and patents are a way to reflect that.” (more…)

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Apple’s iPad 2 rumored to have USB port

Wednesday, December 29th, 2010

With the bulk of the holiday shopping buzz dying down, rumors of Apple’s new iPad 2 have sprung to life. The most recent rumor, courtesy of the Mobile Review blog editor-in-chief Eldar Murtazin, says the iPad 2 will include a USB port.

The tweet, discovered by AppleInsider, reads:

“Talked with colleague which working with some ODM vendors connected with Apple. He is research guy. According to his sources iPad2 will have usb port.”

AppleInsider reports that Murtazin is a trusted insider with good sources and the news of the integrated USB could be the result of a European device-maker pact that decided micro-USB ports should be standard device charging ports. Apple, of course, uses the 30-pin dock connector for its mobile devices, including the iPad.

Including an integrated USB port would also quickly make obsolete the USB adapter kit provided by Apple for the iPad. Currently, the USB adapter only supports importing photos from digital cameras, though some other peripheral devices have been said to work.

There is no word whether an integrated USB port would offer greater functionality. In the meantime, expect rumors to keep flowing from various sources as the new iPad gets closer to be announced and released.

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Microsoft Tablet Aimed at Fighting iPad Faces Long Odds

Monday, December 27th, 2010

Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer, said to unveil new software for tablets at the Consumer Electronics Show next week, will face skeptics who say his company won’t soon narrow Apple Inc.’s iPad lead.

“By the time Microsoft gets it figured out everybody will already own an iPad,” said Keith Goddard, CEO of Capital Advisors Inc. an investing firm in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that holds Apple shares. “That train has left the station.”

Microsoft will announce a full version of the Windows computer operating system that runs on ARM Holdings Plc technology at the show, which begins in Las Vegas on Jan. 6, two people familiar with Microsoft’s plans said last week.

Allying with ARM is Microsoft’s way of stepping up rivalry with Apple, which has garnered the largest share of the tablet market with its iPad, a touch-screen device introduced in April that handles video, music and computing tasks. The effort may falter unless Ballmer can match the features consumers have come to expect from the iPad, Goddard said.

The new Windows version would be tailored for battery- powered devices, such as tablets and wireless handsets, the people said. Chips based on ARM technology are made by Qualcomm Inc., Texas Instruments Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co.

Frank Shaw, a spokesman for Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft, declined to comment, pointing instead to remarks by Ballmer in July.

“We’re tuning Windows 7 to new slate hardware designs,” Ballmer told analysts then. He also said, Apple has “sold certainly more than I’d like them to sell.” (more…)

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The Top 40 iPhone Apps of 2010

Sunday, December 26th, 2010

The iTunes App Store is huge. More than 300,000 apps huge. I’ve watched this monster start from nothing and turn into a billion-dollar industry in only a few short years. We’ve been approaching this point for some time now, but it’s more apparent than ever that app exposure is of critical importance. A healthy majority of iOS app users discover new applications directly from their device as opposed to using iTunes. If you look specifically at the iPhone, the amount of real estate for discovery is only available to a very small percentage of the total apps.

There are currently 20 overall categories, with Games offering an additional 20 subcategories. Each subcategory is broken into three lists and displays a max of 100 apps on the iPhone. Throw in a small number from the Top 25 and Featured lists and you wind up with roughly 12,000 apps being shown at one time. This works out to only about 4% of all apps that receive visibility. One can browse beyond this number on iTunes, but that quickly becomes an overwhelming, laborious task.

The expectation is that the market will dictate an app’s worth, but it doesn’t always work out that way. If you look at the top lists, they are littered with clones, cheap knockoffs and impulse grabs. Ninety-nine cent buys are just too tempting. Without proper exposure (and potentially more appropriate pricing schemes), many truly great apps never see the light of day.

With that said, I’ve compiled what I believe to be the best apps that have come out this year. Some got well-deserved exposure, while others were lost in the shuffle. The difficult part of assembling a “best of” list is striking a balance between apps with mainstream appeal and those with real innovation. There are a number of factors that took place in the selection (such as the merits of an app itself, not just the usefulness of an established service it utilizes) and not every good app could make the cut. (more…)

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10 Things You Need To Know About The iPad Before You Buy

Friday, April 2nd, 2010

You’ve seen the television commercials and the product reviews.

But maybe, like many gadget lovers, you’re still debating whether you really need this new touch-screen computer from Apple.

To help you make sense of the hype, here are answers to 10 common questions about the iPad, Apple’s much-anticipated “slate” computer, which goes on sale Saturday.

Is there anything else you’d like to know? If so, please post in the comments section below and we’ll do our best to answer your questions.

1. How is the iPad different from a laptop?

The word “laptop” is getting somewhat brushed aside for a truckload of new, confusing categories.

The Apple iPad falls into the slate (some people say tablet) category of portable personal computers, because, unlike a laptop, it doesn’t have a hardware keyboard.

Another key difference: To type and to navigate through files and photos on the iPad, you touch its screen in the same way you operate an iPhone or iPod Touch. That’s possible on some laptop models, but not many. (more…)

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Microsoft to extend Silverlight for Mac?

Saturday, March 27th, 2010

HTML 5 in Internet Explorer may mean Microsoft is rejoined the league of civilized nations on browsers, but another Microsoft technology remains under lock and key more firmly than ever.

Microsoft’s Silverlight media player has, with version 4 due next month, gone from being closed source but able to work on other platforms – the Mac – to being increasingly tied to Windows.

An up-coming feature called COM Automation has been introduced that potential lets content in Silverlight and Silverlight applications work with documents in Microsoft’s Office stored on a PC. Also, COM Automation could access other system capabilities like a USB security card reader.

COM is a Microsoft architecture, not found on the Mac, so this means Silverlight is beginning to be built by Microsoft to give Windows a leg up over the competition. (more…)

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