iPhone

7,260 'iPhone' stories November 2008 - September 2014

Introduced in 2007 by Steve Jobs, iPhone is Apple's flagship iOS device and easily its most popular product around the world. The iPhone runs iOS and includes a large collection of mobile apps through the App Store.

Introduced in 2007 by Steve Jobs, iPhone is Apple’s flagship iOS device and easily its most popular product around the world. Software wise, it runs iOS and includes a large collection of mobile apps through the App Store.

Current Lineup for 2019:
Discontinued Models:
Read below for all of our coverage

Since its introduction, Apple has released at least one new phone every single year. In recent years, that has typically been in the fall. iPhones are sold through multiple retail channels including Apple Stores, cellular stores, Best Buy, and other major electronic retailers. iPhones can be bought with a single up front payment, financed through the iPhone Upgrade Program, or financed through a cellular carrier.

Apple’s smartphone has become much more than just a phone since its debut. The iPhone can act as your primary camera, music player, GPS device, email client, mobile banking system, messaging device, movie player, and much more.

Current Lineup for 2019:

Discontinued Models:

6 Plus
6
5c
5s
5
4s
4
3GS
3G
2G

Read below for all of our coverage

Apple’s employee reservation system seemingly excludes iPhone 6 Plus, lends weight to short supply rumors

Ben Lovejoy Sep 15 2014 - 5:43 am PT

5 Comments

Apple has advised store staff that those working overnight or morning shifts on Friday will be able to reserve an iPhone 6, but not a 6 Plus, if a tweeted photo is genuine (and we have evidence it is). This would lend further weight to longstanding rumors and overwhelming evidence that the 5.5-inch model would be in short supply …
Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple announces record 4 million preorders for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus in first 24 hours

Benjamin Mayo Sep 15 2014 - 5:38 am PT

73 Comments

Apple has just announced that preorders for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus have topped all previously set records, achieving 4 million sales in the first twenty-four hours. In the press release, Cook said he is thrilled that customers love them “as much as we do”.

Apple® today announced a record number of first day pre-orders of iPhone® 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, the biggest advancements in iPhone history, with over four million in the first 24 hours. Demand for the new iPhones exceeds the initial pre-order supply and while a significant amount will be delivered to customers beginning on Friday and throughout September, many iPhone pre-orders are scheduled to be delivered in October.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple Pay may mean the end of physical bank cards within 2-3 years, argues Moven CEO

Ben Lovejoy Sep 15 2014 - 4:48 am PT

44 Comments

While we’d all expected plastic bank cards to be replaced by apps eventually, the CEO of mobile banking startup Moven is suggesting that Apple’s backing could mean the end of physical bank cards within 2-3 years.

The additional sweetners here are three fold. Firstly, tokenization will avoid much of the type of breaches we’ve seen at Target and Home Depot because the token is only a one-time use thing. Secondly, the move to tokens and the combination of biometrics, etc allow for the emergence of a ‘cardholder present’ approach to interchange rates that will potentially give mobile payments a competitive merchant rate. Lastly, the US might effectively jump straight from magstripe to mobile, especially if issuers can figure out how to reduce the cost of card replacement by moving straight to mobile SE and tokens …

Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple says iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus set overnight preorder sales record

Benjamin Mayo Sep 12 2014 - 9:42 am PT

48 Comments

In a statement to Re/code, Apple has announced that iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus have set new records for overnight preorders.

An Apple representative said that the overnight sales of the new iPhones set a record, though Apple did not say how many have been sold.

“Response to iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus has been incredible with a record number of preorders overnight,” Apple told Re/code.

Earlier today, AT&T announced that it saw the best iPhone demand in two years. The phones have received immense interest today, despite Apple Online Store issues. T-Mobile’s systems have been crunched due to the demand, meaning sales representatives have had to resort to pen and paper to reserve iPhones for customers.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Wondering what it cost Apple to give away that U2 album to every customer?

Ben Lovejoy Sep 12 2014 - 6:57 am PT

32 Comments

If you were wondering how much it cost Apple to give away a copy of U2’s Songs of Innocence album to every customer, the answer, according the the New York Times, is more than $100M.

To release U2’s album free, Apple paid the band and Universal an unspecified fee as a blanket royalty and committed to a marketing campaign for the band worth up to $100 million, according to several people briefed on the deal. That marketing will include a global television campaign, the first piece of which was a commercial that was shown during the event.

Yep, that album that ended up on many people’s iPhones uninvited cost Apple whatever the royalty fee is for half a billion downloads plus a further $100M spend on marketing it. Nice. Perhaps the band will be donating a portion of it to Project RED?

Bono and Cook joked around about the cost during the keynote, with Bono telling Cook “you would have to pay for it, because we’re not going in for the free music around here.”

Why Apple timed things perfectly with the launch of Apple Pay

Ben Lovejoy Sep 12 2014 - 5:53 am PT

32 Comments

After years of annual rumors that each successive iPhone would feature NFC, there was understandable skepticism when the rumor rolled around again this year for the iPhone 6. It was looking like Apple might have put all its short-range communication eggs in one basket with Bluetooth LE.

Instead, of course, the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus got NFC as the mechanism for Apple’s contactless payment service, Apple Pay. Pando suggests that the company’s timing may not be entire coincidental.

While U.S. banks have so far ignored the more secure chip-and-pin cards used in Europe, sticking doggedly to magnetic strips and signatures, all that will be changing next year. As of October 2015, banks are switching to chip-based cards – and that means merchants will need to upgrade their payment terminals.

You can still get chip-reading terminals without NFC, but it’s likely that the vast majority of stores will opt to go contactless at the same time. Which means that instead of the 220,000 places you can use contactless payment today, there will be much closer to nine million outlets by this time next year – and you’ll be able to pay with your iPhone 6 at any of them.

U.S. card issuers are already pushing Apple Pay, MasterCard running a full-page ad in today’s New York Times (via Business Insider).

Apple Pay headed to China with UnionPay partnership, references found in iOS code

Benjamin Mayo Sep 12 2014 - 5:50 am PT

1 Comment

Apple is set to bring Apple Pay, its mobile wallet service, to China using a partnership with China UnionPay. @KhaosT on Twitter found references to the credit card type in iOS 8 code and now MarketWatch is corroborating with sources that a deal is in the works.

Apple announced Apple Pay as a US only service, coming to iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus in October with a software update. A deal with UnionPay would obviously mean Apple wants to bring the feature to Chinese iOS customers soon.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple to offer in-store pickup option for iPhone 6 preorders

Dom Esposito Sep 11 2014 - 12:39 pm PT

68 Comments

Pre-orders for the iPhone 6 will start at 12:01 a.m. PDT and will be available to purchase in Apple Stores on Sept. 19th, 2014, but what isn’t widely known is that it looks like Apple is kicking off Personal Pickup availability starting with preorders as well. This means that you’ll be able to preorder an iPhone 6 and select a store in your area and pick it up on launch day….

Expand
Expanding
Close

Most analysts satisfied with Apple’s announcements, think AAPL stock will climb

Ben Lovejoy Sep 11 2014 - 7:16 am PT

8 Comments

Big-name analysts seemed satisfied with what they saw and heard during Apple’s launch of the iPhone 6, Apple Watch and Apple Pay, reports Forbes. Summarising investor notes from a dozen major companies, Chuck Jones found the general feeling was that Apple had delivered what was expected.

The overall average of AAPL stock price targets was $109, against the current price of just over $100. Analysts pointed to a range of factors in forming their views, among them …
Expand
Expanding
Close

Sketchy supply-chain report says production gearing-up for 80M iPhone 6 sales this year

Ben Lovejoy Sep 11 2014 - 6:25 am PT

2 Comments

DigiTimes is citing supply-chain sources as stating that Apple is gearing-up its iPhone 6 production plans for an anticipated 80 million sales by year-end. If achieved, it would represent 33 percent year-on-year growth.

Makers in the iPhone supply chain are preparing parts and components for production of up to 80 million units of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus before year-end 2014, according to sources at Taiwan-based iPhone supply chain.

As ever with DigiTimes, the number should be taken with a large dose of salt: while manufacturers will be aware of their own order-books from Apple, and thus have some degree of insight into the company’s expectations for early sales, it’s a stretch to extrapolate from that to sales targets up to the end of the year.

We won’t have too long to wait for a good indication of how well the new models are selling. They go on sale on Friday 19th, and Apple is expected to issue its usual announcement of opening weekend sales on Monday 22nd September. Last year, Apple announced a record 9M iPhone sales in the first three days.

This year’s opening weekend numbers may take a hit, however, with the New York Times reporting that regulatory problems may mean the new models won’t go on sale in China – a massive market – on 19th September.

Via Business Insider

Tesla iOS & Android app updated ahead of car’s 6.0 firmware

Ben Lovejoy Sep 11 2014 - 5:08 am PT

4 Comments

Good news and bad news for Tesla Model S owners: the iOS and Android apps have been updated to allow you to start the car without a key – but the matching firmware update needed by the car hasn’t yet arrived.

Version 2 of the iOS app also provides support for the new calendar function, where the car can pull in data from your iPhone calendar and offer to navigate you to the location – as well as providing several new alerts …
Expand
Expanding
Close

Poll: Was a square format the right choice for the Apple Watch, or would round have been better?

Ben Lovejoy Sep 11 2014 - 4:30 am PT

109 Comments

The fact that Apple was working on a smartwatch may have been one of the worst-kept secrets in the world, but the company did at least manage to keep us guessing about the form it would take – right down to whether the form factor would be square or circular.

Was a square format the right choice? To help us form a view, UX/UI designer Alcion has put together a series of renders showing what the Apple Watch would look like with a round face …
Expand
Expanding
Close

Viber joins the video call party with latest version of iOS & Android apps

Ben Lovejoy Sep 11 2014 - 3:56 am PT

2 Comments

FaceTime and Skype have long been popular ways to make free video calls to your friends and family from your iPhone and iPad, but Viber has now joined the party. While video calling has been available on the desktop version of Viber for some time, the mobile app had previously been limited to voice, text and photo messages.

With Viber, everyone in the world can connect. Freely. More than 400 million Viber users text, call, and send photo and video messages worldwide over WiFi or 3G – for free […]

Make video calls from your phone to other Viber contacts on mobile or Desktop. You can also transfer video calls between mobile and Desktop!

The USP of Viber is that no username is needed – only your mobile number. When a contact joins Viber, the service spots that their number is in your contacts app and sends you an alert to let you know.

Viber is a free download from iTunes. Voice and video calls between Viber users are free (bar any data charges on LTE/3G). The company makes its money by selling stickers and offering low-cost outgoing calls worldwide.

Google announces new ‘iOS Sync’ features for Google Apps users

Chance Miller Sep 10 2014 - 2:43 pm PT

4 Comments

Google has announced a new tool for its iOS Google Apps users this evening that makes it easier to manage accounts and settings. Called iOS Sync, the feature will be integrated directly in to the company’s iOS Gmail and Drive apps and offer a variety of new management tools.

Expand
Expanding
Close

T-Mobile unveils expanded WiFi calling capabilities, Personal CellSpot router, partnership with Gogo for in-flight texts

Chance Miller Sep 10 2014 - 1:54 pm PT

8 Comments

During its Uncarrier 7.0 event this afternoon, T-Mobile revealed a handful of new announcements as part of its ongoing quest to lead the mobile industry. Firstly, CEO John Legere announced that every phone it sells from here on out will be capable of WiFi calling and texting. The company says that anyone who does not currently have a phone capable of WiFi calling can upgrade to a supported phone with the carrier’s Jump program. As the name implies, WiFi calling and texting allows you to make calls and send texts over your WiFi network, as opposed to over the cellular connection.

Expand
Expanding
Close

IDG shutters Macworld Magazine, much of the editorial staff let go

Seth Weintraub Sep 10 2014 - 10:49 am PT

28 Comments

[tweet https://twitter.com/pinatubo2000/status/509752111790579712]

[tweet https://twitter.com/jsnell/status/509749300683735041]

International Data Group (IDG) is shutting down Macworld Magazine, the long time Apple periodical according to tweets by staff and conversations I’ve had with personnel. Dan Miller, Editor, Macworld tweeted the following:

The Macworld.com website will remain open [although as a shell of its former self -ed] with a reduced staff according to Miller, who himself is leaving in a month.

As a former contributor and fan of Macworld.com it is sad to see the publication go. Ironically, the transition from print to digital hastened by Apple’s own iPad and other online tools made the publication one of the last remaining Apple publications in print.

There’s no word yet on the fate of the annual trade show of the same name that has also taken a hit since Apple stopped attending. We’ll update as we hear more.

Update: Dan Miller wrote in to clarify that he never implied that the magazine “would be a shell of its former self” (even though most of the names and faces that were the backbone of the magazine have been let go).
Expand
Expanding
Close

First headphones to use Lightning port announced – and they’re not from Beats

Ben Lovejoy Sep 10 2014 - 6:19 am PT

14 Comments

When Apple quietly created a new MFi spec for headphones, allowing them to connect via the Lightning port rather than the headphone jack to deliver higher-quality audio, everyone expected Apple-owned Beats to be first to take advantage of it. But instead Philips has, ah, beaten them to it …
Expand
Expanding
Close

Security researcher says many of his iOS ‘backdoor’ vulnerabilities are fixed in iOS 8 GM, but not all

Benjamin Mayo Sep 10 2014 - 5:45 am PT

3 Comments

Jonathan Zdziarski, who flared up the initial round of iOS surveillance claims a couple of months ago, is now reporting that some of these flaws have been rectified with iOS 8. Apple said that these services were used for debugging purposes, and had no connection to government agencies. It then proceeded to detail these processes in a support note.

Zdziarski’s post explains that many issues have been addressed, particularly with File Relay. Before, this service blindly sent data from the device to an external source, without authentication. In iOS 8, he says that the service has been disabled. It seems that data is no longer available either through physical connection or wirelessly. Zdziarski notes law enforcement will not be able to use current tools to access any of this previously-exposed information.

Expand
Expanding
Close

We’re not the only ones used to calling it the iWatch – even Tim Cook slips up

Ben Lovejoy Sep 10 2014 - 5:35 am PT

30 Comments

I tweeted earlier that it’s going to take a while to get used to referring to the Apple Watch instead of iWatch, and it seems I’m in good company. As The Verge noted, even Tim Cook said iWatch during his ABC News interview when talking about US jobs created by the company.

Developers writing applications for iPhone and iPad and Mac and now, of course, as of today, the iWatch

The question is, was the slip-up because Cook spends too much time reading tech sites, or was it that Apple originally intended to release it as the iWatch, having a change of mind some way down the line?

you think 'iTouch' is bad?

'iWatch' will be with us forever :/

— Seth Weintraub (@llsethj) September 9, 2014

iWatch was (and I think still is) the obvious name for the product. Apple Watch feels awkward in comparison. As Mike Beasley observed, Apple Phone or Apple Tablet doesn’t have the same ring as iPhone and iPad, so why not iWatch? It surely can’t just be that Apple was miffed that the tech press has been using the term so long it felt it had to prove us wrong?

Its the most personal device we've ever created. But to throw you for a loop we're not using i-Prefix.<fingertouch> pic.twitter.com/fYngSAcIeq

— Seth Weintraub (@llsethj) September 10, 2014

Discover cards joining Amex, Mastercard and Visa in Apple Pay contactless payments

Ben Lovejoy Sep 10 2014 - 5:02 am PT

4 Comments

Discover has tweeted that its cards will be joining Amex, Mastercard and Visa in the Apple Pay service, allowing electronic versions of its cards to be stored in Passbook for contactless payment using the iPhone 6 and Apple Watch.

[tweet https://twitter.com/discover/status/509405306531876865]

Expand
Expanding
Close

Gold is best – the combined jewelry box & charger you get with the Apple Watch Edition

Ben Lovejoy Sep 10 2014 - 4:22 am PT

52 Comments

We don’t yet know the price of the 18-karat gold Apple Watch Edition, but it doesn’t require psychic powers to know that it isn’t going to be cheap. KGH analyst Ming-Chi Kuo’s prediction of the most expensive model costing “several thousand dollars” is probably exaggerated, but may not be quite as far-fetched as it seemed.

David Pogue shared one of the things Apple didn’t mention on stage but did reveal during press demonstrations afterwards …
Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple demonstrates just how quick & easy Apple Pay is to use [Video]

Ben Lovejoy Sep 10 2014 - 3:55 am PT

32 Comments

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4I9MbIrlEUw]

After launching its new mobile wallet service Apple Pay during yesterday’s keynote, the company gave demos afterwards, TechCrunch sharing a video.

The card you have registered with your Apple ID becomes your default card, but you can add others by using the camera on the iPhone 6 to identify it. The iPhone requests permission from your bank, and the card is then added to Passbook …
Expand
Expanding
Close

Sprint debuts new ‘iPhone for Life’ plan with unlimited data and iPhone upgrades every two years

Mike Beasley Sep 9 2014 - 6:10 pm PT

14 Comments

Sprint has debuted a new iPhone-exclusive plan that allows users to “rent” an iPhone for two years, then upgrade to the newest model for $70 a month (via Bloomberg). The plan allows users to get the latest Apple smartphone for no money down and no tax, then pay $50 a month for unlimited data, texting, and calling, plus $20 each month for the phone, for a total of $70 monthly.

After two years, users will be able to switch to the newest iPhone model. However, because the phone is only being “rented” from the carrier, it must be returned in at the time of upgrade, where customers on a typical two-year contract would be allowed to keep the device after they paid it off.

Expand
Expanding
Close