Apple

6,152 'Apple News' stories November 2008 - April 2013

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Apple News and Brief History

Before you can properly understand Apple News, it’s important to know its history. Apple was founded by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in 1976. In 1977, Apple’s sales were growing with the success of its early computers. Within a few years, Jobs and Wozniak hired designers and a production line crew. Apple went public in 1980 and was an instant success. Over the next few years, Apple shipped new computers featuring new graphical user interfaces, such as the original Macintosh in 1984. As the market for personal computers expanded through the 1990s, Apple lost market share to the cheaper Microsoft Windows on PC clones. Eventually, Wozniak and Jobs both left Apple. Jobs would go on to found NeXT and would return to Apple when NeXT was acquired in the late 90s. Apple then began a journey to the great second act in the history of the business world.

Since the release of the iPod in 2001, Apple has become a major player once again in the technology industry. After releasing the iPhone in 2007, the iPad in 2010, and the Apple Watch in 2015, Apple is now one of the largest companies in the world. Apple’s worldwide annual revenue totaled $274.5 billion for its 2020 fiscal year.

Today, Apple operates retail stores all across the world, has a growing services division, and an ever-expanding hardware lineup. The technology industry follows Apple news to see where the company is headed in the future.

Keep reading for the latest Apple news

iPhone 4 owners begin receiving their $15 ‘Antennagate’ settlement checks from Apple

Apr 22 2013 - 7:40 pm PT

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Payday has come for some of the first responders to the iPhone 4 class action lawsuit. Last February a settlement was reached that granted iPhone 4 owners who had not previously received a free bumper for their “defective” iPhones a $15 payout. Several of our readers are now reporting that they received their settlement checks today. The first checks were issued on April 17 2013 and are void after July 16th. Unfortunately the deadline for submitting a claim has passed so if you missed out the first time around it seems you are out of luck.

In case you forgot, the settlement found:

Apple was “misrepresenting and concealing material information in the marketing, advertising, sale, and servicing of its iPhone 4–particularly as it relates to the quality of the mobile phone antenna and reception and related software.”

Apple paid out a total of $53 million in the settlement, which was lawyers took a hefty $16M chunk.

My iPhone 4 settlement check is here! Buying a boat and sailing the world. Thanks, lawyers! #retired pic.twitter.com/4vrjxfLcgq

— Brad Kelly (@bradkellyfilms) April 22, 2013

Twitterrific 5.2.1 adds notification badges and more

Mike Beasley Apr 22 2013 - 12:57 pm PT

Twitterrific 5 has recieved another big update today, which introduces several new features, improvements, and fixes. The most prominent new feature is the fact that you can now enable app badges for push notifications, but other new additions include support for Twitter’s trending topics and the Favstar service. There are also a bunch of little improvements and bug fixes throughout the app, further polishing the recently-redesigned app.

The update is available now in the App Store. The change log is below, and you can find our full review of Twitterrific 5 here.

NEW FEATURES

• App badges for push notifications (enable in iOS Settings > Notification Center)
– Notification count for replies, mentions & DM’s
– Using app badges also clears messages from Notification Center
• Favstar support (enable in Settings > Other Services)
– View a user’s Favstar page from their profile or via long tap on their avatar
– View Favstar info on a tweet via more actions menu (…)
• Twitter trends (open Sidebar > Search > Tweets tab to view)

IMPROVEMENTS

• Faster tweet loading time
• Search interface remembers last selected tab
• Support for Twitter stock symbols ($AAPL, etc)
• New tweet count stays on screen until the timeline is scrolled
• Home timeline auto-refreshes when posting a new tweet or DM
• Automatic theme changing now based on dawn/dusk at your location
• Compose gesture: one-finger swipe left/right to adjust cursor
• VoiceOver now speaks hint text at the bottom of settings panel
• VoiceOver now speaks muffled tweet descriptions
• Holding timeline position improved when using VoiceOver
• Photo viewer can be dismissed using VoiceOver’s two-finger Z gesture

BUG FIXES

• Muffled hash tags are now case insensitive
• Buttons in settings are now easier to tap
• Corrected display bugs during pull-to-refresh
• Fixed a bug that prevented Readability from turning off
• Tweets at the top of the timeline are easier to swipe
• User links in emailed tweets now properly point to the user’s profile
• Fixed various bugs that caused the timeline to jump to top unexpectedly
• Compose displays correctly when using foreign language keyboards on iPad
• Additional fixes & improvements

Cricket lowers iPhone plan rates, rolls out family bundles

Zac Hall Apr 22 2013 - 9:05 am PT

Though T-Mobile probably has more name recognition than no-contract carrier Cricket, the latter carrier is speaking up about its competitive iPhone plans.

Cricket is making its iPhone plans more affordable starting today, lowing its unlimited calling, messaging, and 1 GB data plan to $50, which has been standard for other devices. Customers can opt for 2.5 GB or 5 GB of data at $60 and $70, respectively.

Customers with two smartphones on a family plan can save $10 for each line at $40 per line for the standard plan.

It appears that Cricket isn’t going to sit back and watch T-Mobile and Virgin run away with pre-paid iPhone sales.

Apple updates homepage in China to recognize earthquake, offers donations and support

Mark Gurman Apr 21 2013 - 10:26 pm PT

Apple has updated its official China website homepage to offer its respect and sympathy following the disastrous earthquake that has affected the country over the past few days.

The acknowledgement present on Apple’s site reads as follows:

Our deepest condolences to those who were taken away by the Sichuan Yaan earthquake, and respect to all the rescuers. May those who have passed away rest in peace, and may the survivors stay strong.

The company has also offered a statement that pledges cash donations and new Apple devices to help schools that have been affected:

In this difficult time our hearts are with the Sichuan earthquake victims. In addition to cash donations to help the victims ride out the storm, we will also commit to donating brand new Apple equipment to some of the schools in the affected region, and the local Apple staff will be on standby to provide support.

Apple has reportedly pledged 50 million Yuan in total. (Thanks to Richard Lai from Engadget for the translations.)

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Review + Giveaway: Abstergo jailbreak tweak finally fixes iOS notifications

Mike Beasley Apr 21 2013 - 10:00 am PT

When Apple introduced Notification Center in iOS 5, they changed the way most people manage notification on their iOS devices. For the most part, they were right. Unfortunately, Notification Center introduced its own deficiencies and now people are looking for changes once again.

Today, change has finally come in the form of a jailbreak tweak called Abstergo, and we’ve got five free copies for our readers. Keep reading for a full breakdown of the tweak and more information about how you can win a copy.

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Tips: Use little-known gestures to arrange photos and shapes in iOS Pages

Benjamin Mayo Apr 20 2013 - 4:26 pm PT

Although the touch-centric UI makes getting to grips with Pages for iOS straightforward, the interface does not appear well-suited to precise positioning of objects, which is necessary in more complicated documents. Luckily, Apple’s iWork suite extends the default iOS set of gestures to provide options for finer-grained control. Learning these more-obscure techniques makes doing ‘real work’ with Pages for iOS an enjoyable experience, rather than an annoyance.

Nudging objects

The natural way to position an object with an iPhone or iPad is to drag it, but this method is not really suitable when doing pixel-accurate alignments. With Pages for Mac, you can achieve one-pixel ‘nudges’ with the arrow keys. To do a nudge on a keyboard-less iOS device, you have to use a special two-finger gesture. Start by placing one finger on the photo you want to nudge to select it. Then, swipe in any direction outside of the photo’s bounds with another finger, to move the object in the respective direction. Add on another ‘swiping finger’ to shift by 10 pixels, rather than single pixels, at a time.

Locked movement

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Watch our LIVE 9to5Mac Happy Hour April 19, 2013

9to5 Staff Apr 19 2013 - 2:11 pm PT

Subscribe now on iTunes!

Vu news app for iPhone has unique interface, recommends content

Mark Gurman Apr 18 2013 - 2:52 pm PT

We’ve been testing a new, free iPhone news app called Vu that presents content based on what you have previously read/viewed within the app via an easy to use, fast interface. The app recently gained article saving and improved article sharing features, and we think it is worth taking a look at. Like other news apps, you can sync content between your iPhone, iPad, and your computer. You can access content you have saved for later via a web browser on non-iPhone devices.

NBA Game Time app for iPhone and iPad updated for the Playoffs

Mark Gurman Apr 18 2013 - 12:29 pm PT

The NBA has updated its iPad and iPhone/iPod touch applications in time for the NBA Playoffs. The Playoffs begin this Sunday, so the app updates feature a live updating Playoffs bracket and new content.

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Google Babel to have iOS client at launch

9to5 Staff Apr 18 2013 - 11:21 am PT

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Google’s new Babel messaging platform is not only taking on a Hipchat-like Group messaging featureset, it also appears it will hit the iOS App Store at launch (which is looking like sooner rather than later for all of the code leaks). More at 9to5Google

Facebook launches SDK 3.5, Share Dialog, over 80% of top iOS apps/games include Facebook integration

Zac Hall Apr 18 2013 - 9:05 am PT

via redmondpie.com

Facebook announced updates regarding mobile today at its Mobile Developer Conference in New York City continuing its effort to transition to a mobile-first platform.

Changes include an improved experience with Facebook Login, easier implementation of Open Graph on mobile, a new Object API and Object Browser, a native Share Dialog and Facebook SDK 3.5 for iOS.

The new Share Dialog allows users in non-Facebook apps to share directly to Facebook without leaving the app.

Facebook says its permissions dialog is 20% faster now.

The social network is encouraging mobile developers to integrate Facebook into their apps as it announced that 81% of the top grossing 100 iOS apps already integrate with Facebook.

(Source: Facebook)

Twitter #music for iPhone, iPod touch is now playing

Zac Hall Apr 18 2013 - 8:25 am PT

Twitter launched its new music discovery app Twitter #music for iPhone today.

Twitter #music takes a step toward filling the void created when everyone migrated from MySpace, which was one of the most effective music discovery tools for me until it was largely vacated.

Twitter promises to “change the way people find music, based on Twitter,” per the social network’s blog, which I believe will be widely appreciated.

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Jonathan Ive gets tribute in Time 100 from Bono

Seth Weintraub Apr 18 2013 - 8:14 am PT

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Nice words in the Time 100 for Apple SVP of Industrial Design Sir Jony from U2 frontman Bono:

Jony Ive is himself classic Apple. Brushed steel, polished glass hardware, complicated software honed to simplicity. His genius is not just his ability to see what others cannot but also how he applies it. To watch him with his workmates in the holy of holies, Apple’s design lab, or on a night out is to observe a very rare esprit de corps. They love their boss, and he loves them. What the competitors don’t seem to understand is you cannot get people this smart to work this hard just for money. Jony is Obi-Wan. His team are Jedi whose nobility depends on the pursuit of greatness over profit, believing the latter will always follow the former, stubbornly passing up near-term good opportunities to pursue great ones in the distance. Jony’s values happen to add value — emotional and financial. It takes a unique alchemy of form and function for millions of people to feel so passionately about the robot in their pocket.

Many more in the Time100 including Samsung’s CEO Oh-Hyun Kwon, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and AAPL stock manipulator David Einhorn.

55 percent of Verizon’s first-quarter smartphone sales (4M of 7.2M total) were iPhones

Ben Lovejoy Apr 18 2013 - 7:30 am PT

Engadget notes Verizon revealed that 4m of the 7.2m smartphones activated by the company in the first quarter this year were iPhones, half of them iPhone 5s, the other half split between older models. The numbers were revealed by CFO Fran Shammo in a conference call.

The 55% is down a slight percentage from Q1 2013 where close to two thirds of Verizon smartphone sales (6.2M out of 9.8M) were iPhones. Shammo also noted that just half of the iPhones activated on Verizon’s network were iPhone 5 or LTE iPhones which seems like a surprisingly low number.

The number is up 25% over the year ago (Q1-2012) quarter which saw 3.2 million iPhones activated out of a total 6.3. The iPhone mix is also up from just over 50% to 55% of total Verizon smartphone sales (likely helped by the addition of the free iPhone 4).

AAPL share price is again down on the number trading at near $395.

Budget iPhone rear shell leaked?

Ben Lovejoy Apr 18 2013 - 6:50 am PT

Could this be the rear case of the long-rumored low-cost iPhone? Tactus (via Macrumors) thinks so.

While Tactus doesn’t have a notable track-record in such leaks, the design does appear reasonably consistent with the majority of rumors so far. It’s a plastic shell, similar dimensions to the iPhone 4 but a little thicker as you’d expect with a polycarbonate casing.

Tactus also claims to have some details of the phone’s spec:

I’ve also heard on the grapevine that the alleged budget iPhone will have an A5 processor like the iPad Mini with a 32nm diecast. It’s also rumoured it will have a 3.5 inch retina screen, much like the 4S, but not as big as the iPhone 5 … I’ve also discovered the factory producing this secretive project have confirmed the device will be available in Black, White, Blue, Red and Yellow

Tactus got a picture of an iPhone back shell, and then decided to make up a load of other random facts. Hey ho, still better than DigiTimes.

— Benjamin Mayo (@bzamayo) April 18, 2013

Real or not real? Let us know your view

Nexus 10 is no iPad-killer, says strategy analyst

Ben Lovejoy Apr 18 2013 - 6:02 am PT

Strategy analyst Benedict Evans (via Daring Fireball) has done some admittedly rough-and-ready number-crunching on Nexus sales based on Google development data to come up with a figure of just 680,000 Nexus 10 tablets in use.

Given that Apple sold 36.9m iPads sold in the second half of 2012 alone, we’re guessing they’re not too concerned about the competition. Even the Microsoft Surface tablet is believed to have beaten the Nexus 10 numbers, with a rumored 1.5m sales.

MacBook bottom case replacement program extended to four years

Ben Lovejoy Apr 18 2013 - 5:28 am PT

If the rubber surface of your MacBook has separated from the bottom case, and you bought it between Oct 2009 and April 2011, you’re in luck: Apple has just extended warranty coverage of this specific issue to four years. Apple originally launched the replacement program in May 2011. Full details on the Apple support site (via MacRumors.)

Yahoo plans to launch iPad email app, new iOS weather app tomorrow (Update: Live)

Mark Gurman Apr 17 2013 - 6:14 pm PT

Update: Yahoo! Weather is now available in the App Store. Yahoo! Mail for iPad is also available in the App Store.

Check out our new Yahoo! Weather app featuring Flickr photos, now available for iOS! http://t.co/p0o9vPAUqd

— marissamayer (@marissamayer) April 18, 2013

Yahoo plans to release an in-house weather app for iOS and an iPad version of its Yahoo Mail app as soon as tomorrow, according to a person familiar with the apps.

The iPad version of Yahoo Mail is optimized for the iPad’s larger screen, and it is already available for the iPhone and iPod touch. Late last year, Yahoo released a redesigned version of its iPhone application that focused on speed and intuitiveness.

Yahoo’s new weather app is notable as the company already is in a partnership with Apple to provide the data for the Weather app pre-installed on all iPhone and iPod touch models…

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Apple seeds OS X 10.8.4 build 12E33a to developers

Mark Gurman Apr 17 2013 - 2:35 pm PT

Following the most recent build just over a week ago, Apple has seeded another build of the upcoming OS X 10.8.4 to registered developers.

The new build comes in at build number 12E33a, and Apple asks developers to, again, focus on Safari, WiFi, and Graphics Drivers.

We previously reported that OS X 10.8.4 has hooks to support faster, 802.11ac WiFi connectivity.

Thanks, D!

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iPhone, iPad leads in business, profitability, Android leads in smartphone marketshare

Zac Hall Apr 17 2013 - 10:40 am PT

via techin5.com

Henry McCracken over at Time has done us all a favor by collecting various data sets that illustrate the state of iOS versus Android.

The data ranges from device marketshare to revenue from app downloads, which presents some stark differences between the two platforms.

We unpack the results below.

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Amazon reportedly acquires Evi, the Siri-like iPhone/Android voice assistant app

Mark Gurman Apr 17 2013 - 10:03 am PT

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMBD4dymDRg?rel=0]

According to TechCrunch, Amazon has acquired Evi, a Siri-like voice assistant application currently available for both iOS and Android. While the application remains available on both platforms, the report seems to have significant evidence to back up its acquisition claims:

At UK Companies House all the Evi Technologies Ltd directors have been replaced by Amazon’s UK legal representative, and this is confirmed by the Octopus Ventures annual report. The annual reports of all Octopus Ventuers’ funds all refer to the disposing of their shares in Evi Technologies.

Companies House records show all directors at Evi have beed replaced and loans paid off, while a small loss of £19,000 was recognised.

The new Company Secretary for Evi Technologies is also Amazon’s: Mitre Secretaries Ltd are the corporate secretary for Amazon.co.uk (and Amazon’s London software development company).

As seen in the video above, Consumer reports created a video showing the differences between Apple’s Siri and Evi. In early 2012, Apple threatened to remove Evi from the App Store because of similarities to Siri, but the application seems to have stayed inside of the App Store’s bounds since then.

Cross posted on 9to5Google.com

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Funny or Die’s ‘iSteve’ film with Justin Long now available to watch online

Mark Gurman Apr 16 2013 - 7:39 pm PT

Following weeks of teases, Funny or Die has published its satirical film about Steve Jobs, iSteve, on its website for streaming. The nearly 80-minute long film stars Justin Long of the Mac vs. PC ads. Notably, the project is the longest video that Funny or Die has ever created. The trailer is embedded above, and you can watch the full movie here.

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Richard Williamson, former Apple executive who led Maps team, Loren Brichter join Facebook

Mark Gurman Apr 16 2013 - 3:29 pm PT

According to Bloomberg‘s Adam Satariano, Richard Williamson has joined Facebook. We’ve independently heard the same. Williamson is a former iOS executive from Apple who was reportedly terminated over Apple Maps. Williamson ran Apple’s iOS 6 Maps team and also worked on Siri features.

Williamson joined Facebook in the past couple of weeks to be a manager within its expanding mobile-software group, said two of the people, who declined to be identified because the information isn’t public.

Facebook’s hire of Williamson is notable as the social network reportedly has hired several former Apple engineers to work on various projects, including the Facebook Home software and various other mobile applications. Williamson’s hire marks one of the more high-profile hires of former Apple employees.

Following up on this morning’s news that Loren Brichter is working with Facebook some capacity, Bloomberg also notes that the company has actually hired the Letterpress developer and former Apple employee as a consultant.

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Here’s how to enable Chat Heads and Stickers in the new Facebook app right now

Mark Gurman Apr 16 2013 - 3:08 pm PT

When Facebook released their brand-new iOS application today, some were disappointed to find that the highlight features of Chat Heads (from Facebook Home) and Stickers were not present. Facebook says that the two features, like many other of Facebook’s recently released products, will be released via a staggered rollout.

For those who truly want to enable Chat Heads and Stickers before Facebook wants it on your iOS device, iMore‘s Nick Arnott has put together a thorough tutorial on how to enable the features. Follow the steps, grab an app called PhoneView (no jailbreak required), and a Plist editor (like the one included in Xcode), and you should be good to go. We’ve tested the Chat Heads trick, and it works well.

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