iPhone

[UPDATE: Apple has responded to the news: “The question before the Supreme Court was how to calculate the amount Samsung should pay for their copying. Our case has always been about Samsung’s blatant copying of our ideas, and that was never in dispute. We will continue to protect the years of hard work that has made iPhone the world’s most innovative and beloved product. We remain optimistic that the lower courts will again send a powerful signal that stealing isn’t right.”]

The Supreme Court has ruled in favor of Samsung over Apple in the latest chapter of the years-long dispute over iPhone design patents. The decision isn’t totally surprising given some tell-tale signs ahead of today’s announcement, but it does mean that the case will once again continue in a lower court where a new sum for damages owed will be decided.

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According to their online store, some of Apple’s newest products including the MacBook Pro with Touch Bar and certain models of the iPhone 7 Plus may not arrive — or will cut it close to arriving — in time for Christmas…
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A worker on Foxconn’s iPhone production line (not involved in the theft)

A former senior manager at Foxconn has been charged with stealing and selling 5,700 iPhones for a total of around $1.5M, reports AsiaOne.

The Taiwanese manager, identified by his family name Tsai, worked in the testing department and instructed eight employees at Foxconn’s factory in the southern mainland Chinese city of Shenzhen to smuggle out about thousands of iPhone5 and iPhone5s, prosecutors said. 

While you have to wonder what kind of security would allow thefts on such a massive scale to go initially undetected, the piece does contain one clue …

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A large-scale test of 400 fake Apple chargers bought online from eight different countries – including the USA – found that a staggering 99% failed safety tests.

The BBC reports that the tests were commissioned by UK consumer protection body Chartered Trading Standards Institute, which found that of the 400 chargers purchased online, just three had sufficient insulation to protect against electric shocks in the most basic safety test performed. The CTSI urged consumers to buy only from reputable suppliers …

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Strategy Analytics is today out with a new report dissecting the profits of the mobile industry during the third quarter of 2016. The report estimates that the mobile industry took in operating profits $9.4 billion during the quarter, with Apple capturing a “record” 91 percent share of those profits…

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Apple has a special message for the world going into the holiday season: “Open your heart to everyone.” That’s the tagline at the end of its new holiday commercial called “Frankie’s Holiday” which sees an iPhone-toting Frankenstein feeling a bit left out.

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Apple today has launched a new repair program for iPhone 6 Plus users affected by the widely reported on “Touch Disease” hardware flaw. This flaw centers around an iPhone’s display becoming unresponsive and displaying a thin gray flickering line along the top.

As part of the new repair program, Apple will repair affected devices for a flat service price of $149.

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While there had been speculation that Apple might pick up sales from Samsung after its disastrous Note 7 launch, with KGI estimating that Apple could pick up an additional 5-7M orders, this doesn’t appear to be the case. The latest numbers from Gartner suggest that it is Chinese brands that saw the benefit.

The September 2 recall of the Note 7 saw Samsung’s Q3 market share fall year-on-year from 23.6% to 19.2%, its worst performance ever, creating an opportunity for other brands to pick up the slack – but the iPhone didn’t manage to do so …

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Update: Apple has not yet commented on the specific claims made, but tells us:

We offer call history syncing as a convenience to our customers so that they can return calls from any of their devices. Apple is deeply committed to safeguarding our customers’ data. That’s why we give our customers the ability to keep their data private. Device data is encrypted with a user’s passcode, and access to iCloud data including backups requires the user’s Apple ID and password. Apple recommends all customers select strong passwords and use two-factor authentication.

Elcomsoft – the Russian company which sells iPhone cracking tools to governments and corporations – says that iPhones send near real-time call logs to Apple servers even when iCloud backup is switched off, and that these logs are stored for up to four months.

Elcomsoft CEO Vladimir Katalov told Forbes that it also isn’t just traditional phone calls that are logged, and that iOS 10 has expanded the scope of the logging …

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Tim Cook has long expressed his interest in augmented reality, often touting the technology’s capabilities and even suggesting it has more real-world potential than virtual reality. Now, a report from Business Insider offers up some details as to how Apple plans to integrate augmented reality into the iPhone…

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A new report from research firm Consumer Intelligence Research Partners today details Apple’s iPhone 7 and 7 Plus launch, showing some numbers that support the company’s continued claims of increasing Android switchers and more.

It also shows that the iPhone 7 adoption managed to outpace that of the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus during its first month of sales, although falling short of the iPhone 6/6 Plus launch:

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Up until now, Apple has never sold refurbished iPhones on its online store. You could get a refurbished Mac, iPad, or even a niche device like an AirPort Extreme, but never an iPhone. Apple typically used its refurbished iPhone inventory as repair/replacements for or offloaded them to 3rd party resellers. That has seemingly changed today, as Apple is offering the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus in its refurb store.
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In the list of moments you’re never going to live down, literally laughing at Apple’s launch of the iPhone has to be right there at the very top. Nine years on, former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has told Bloomberg that Apple made it work thanks to a smarter business model.

“I wish I’d thought about the model of subsidizing phones through the operators,” he said. “You know, people like to point to this quote where I said iPhones will never sell, because the price at $600 or $700 was too high. And there was business model innovation by Apple to get it essentially built into the monthly cell phone bill.”

Microsoft was very late to move into the hardware business, despite creating a number of prototypes over the years – including something remarkably similar to Apple’s new Touch Bar, created back in 2009 …

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Apple just reported its latest earnings yesterday evening, and now Strategy Analytics is out with its latest report concerning the smartphone industry. The latest data shows the entire smartphone industry saw shipments rise 6 percent year over year to hit 375 million worldwide during Q3 2016.

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It’s no secret that Apple has ambitious plans for iPhone and Apple Watch in the health industry, but it’s not the only company looking for ways to integrate smartphones in the medical field. Recently, a research team from Washington State University, under the leadership of assistant professor Lei Li, developed a portable laboratory that’s powered by a smartphone and capable of detecting cancer nearly instantly…

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Apple has released the fourth iOS 10.1 beta which includes the Portrait camera for iPhone 7 Plus that applies a DSLR-like blur effect over photos using the dual lens system. iOS 10.1 beta 4 is available to registered developers. The fourth beta is also available to public beta testers on iOS 10.1 today.

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Apple has confirmed iPhone 7 launch dates for more countries today on its website including Egypt on October 20, Korea and Colombia on October 21, and a handful more planned for a week later on October 28.

Korea and Colombia will also get access to the new Apple Watch Series 2 on the 21st.

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Welcome to the first edition of Friday 5. This is a feature post that I plan on airing regularly to briefly highlight five apps each week. These don’t necessarily have to be new apps or popular apps, but are releases that contain at least one notable feature that I’d like to highlight.

In this week’s edition, you’ll find a video editing app that’s great for voiceovers, a filmmaking app that’s exceptional at focusing, and a Reddit app that features handy 3D Touch quick action shortcuts to your favorite subreddits.
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I don’t know when it happened, but I recently became obsessed with accessorizing natural elements with the electronics I use in my day to day life. The idea of mixing something new and then something in its natural state just feels very compelling. My eye was eventually drawn to MIKOL’s marble iPhone cases, and I decided to take a look and see if this really was a line I could continue down. Can a sophisticated take on a natural material really give the iPhone a more appealing aesthetic? More than that, is this niche desire worth it?

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Nomad is the maker of clever tech accessories for travelers like the Key and Carabiner charging cables, and the recent partnership with Chicago’s Horween Leather Company has disguised battery packs inside good-looking wallets. Nomad’s effort with Horween extends to their new iPhone 7 leather cases and Apple Watch leather bands which we’ve been testing. Read on for our hands-on experience…

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Bloomberg reports that Apple this week won an appeal in its long-running case against Samsung over its slide-to-unlock patent.

The decision reinstates an original $119.6 million verdict owed to Apple that a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled was wrongly thrown out in a previous decision back in February.

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