MacNN Mobile : Latest Headlines

Saturday, January 28

RIM: only 20% use modern BlackBerrys, LTE PlayBook in spring (2 comments)

RIM's new leader Thorsten Heins in further interviews has outlined how he plans to take on competition in the short term. He revealed to Reuters that just 20 percent of BlackBerry owners are using a modern version of the OS, in some cases using BlackBerry 5 or even older. Much of the company's focus would be on getting them to upgrade to new phones, including special carrier deals that cou...

Hands on: Schneider iPro 2x lens for the iPhone 4

Schneider Optics was one of many companies at the Macworld iWorld expo showing off its latest accessories. Electronista stopped by the lens maker's booth to check out their latest addition to the iPro interchangeable lens system for the iPhone 4 and 4S. A 2X telephoto lens now complements the company's wide angle and fisheye lenses....

Friday, January 27

Macworld: iPhone cases that open a beer

The Macworld iWorld expo always hosts a number of unique products, and this year was no exception. MacNN was surprised to find no less than three iPhone cases that double as bottle openers. We checked out the Opena case, along with two 'Intoxicase' models offered by Spicebox....

NYT reposts Foxconn story in China, to different reaction (4 comments)

An AppleInsider report by Daniel Dilger provides some illuminating insight on the recent New York Times article criticizing Apple and Foxconn and the labor practices they and the rest of the electronics industry pursue to keep innovation high and prices low. The newspaper recently reprinted its report in China, soliciting comments for use in the US. What it got -- and subsequently buried -- ...

Hands on: LandingZone dock for MacBook Air

Several successful Kickstarter projects are currently on hand at the Macworld iWorld expo for potential customers to try out, including LandingZone's docking station for the MacBook Air. Electronista initially wrote about the device before it had gathered enough funding to pass through the Kickstarter program, so we were excited to get a chance to see it in person...

Feral ports Tropico 3: Gold Edition to Mac

For those who have always yearned to "get in touch with their inner dictator," Feral Interactive has ported over the third instalment in the Tropico city-simulator game series, Tropico 3: Gold Edition for the Mac. Originally developed by PopTop Games, the series is now handled by Haemimont Games and Kalypso Media for Windows and Xbox. The third entry is a "re-imagining" on a grander scale of...

Hands on: Pocket Informant 2 for iPad

Of the numerous app developers that brought their latest offerings to the Macworld iWorld expo, WebIS' updated Pocket Informant utilities captured the attention of many attendees. MacNN checked out Pocket Informant 2 for the iPad, along with the company's cloud services that will eventually enhance the iOS apps....

Israel plans fiber-based national broadband network (2 comments)

Israel has followed Australian footsteps in planning its own national broadband network. The country's Israel Electric Corporation plans a purely fiber-based network that will supply many of the country's homes with at least 100Mbps speeds. They picked fiber with the intention to scale and could theoretically hit 1Gbps in time....

Aspyr puts four Mac App Store game titles on sale

Mac game maker Aspyr has selected four titles from its catalog for a special month-end sale. From now through the end of January, Prey, Tomb Raider II, Duke Nukem Forever and Neverwinter Nights 2 for Mac will be on sale for $5, up to 75 percent off their normal price. The sale prices are already available for the Mac App Store versions, which require Intel Macs running OS X 10.6.6 or higher....

Macworld iWorld expo: in pictures

IDG World Expo rebranded the Macworld expo using the 'iWorld' label for 2012, an appropriate change as the event continues to evolve. MacNN attended the event to check out the latest products in the Mac and iOS ecosystems, and to see how the event organizers and exhibitors have adapted to Apple's absence....

iPad marks 2nd birthday with new rivals, quiet naysayers (3 comments)

Friday signaled the second anniversary of the iPad's introduction and what has since been interpreted as the start of a shift in the entire computing space. Apple's tablet was unveiled this day in 2010 at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco by its late co-creator, Steve Jobs. It would only go on sale April 2, but it proved to be polarizing from ...

Jobs caught Google recruiting Apple engineer, letter alleges

An unredacted letter from Steve Jobs to Google head Eric Schmidt in March of 2007 reveals that Google was attempting to recruit an Apple engineer, which resulted in swift repercussions after Schmidt was notified. The letter is part of a court case that alleges that informal "no poaching" agreements between Apple, Google and five other tech companies amounted to a conspiracy to limit opportun...

Hands on: Western Digital My Book Thunderbolt Duo drives

Just weeks after announcing its first Thunderbolt hard drives, Western Digital appropriately brought the offerings to show off at the Macworld iWorld expo in San Francisco. Electronista took a close look at several of the company's My Book Thunderbolt Duo drives, which were daisy chained to a Thunderbolt display....

USPTO invalidates key Rambus patent, may lower tech costs (3 comments)

Rambus' litigation campaign suffered a possibly fatal setback Friday after the USPTO pushed word that it had invalidated the final patent out of three the company has been using to sue a large part of the technology industry. Having quietly made the decision on Tuesday, the patent office's appeals board left Rambus without any of the patents it has been using to sue NVIDIA, Hynix, HP, and o...

Apple refurbs: 11.6-inch MacBook Air only $699

Today at Apple's online store save on refurbished items like the 11.6-inch MacBook Air which offers a 1.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB of RAM and 64GB flash storage, now only $699 after a $200 price cut. Or save $300 on the 11.6-inch MacBook Air with a 1.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB of RAM and 128GB flash storage, now $799....

Forum roundup: good reason to buy Apple TV

Today in the MacNN forums Grizzled Veteran sdilley14 asks other members for good reasons to purchase an Apple TV since they already have a PS3 and a XBox 360. One Posting Junkie has had a "troubling amount of pageouts in Snow Leopard" and has turned to the forums for some guidance....

French regulator to look into Free's cheap phone service (1 comment)

ARCEP, the French telecom regulator, has said it is going to inspect low-cost wireless provider Iliad's backbone network to make sure it is compliant with its bandwidth licensing requirements. The action takes place after Iliad's competitors raised complaints about Iliad's network performance and customer service. Iliad, which operates its wireless service under the Free name brand, denied ...

Amazon Kindle Fire cuts Galaxy Tab Android use share in half (2 comments)

Amazon's Kindle Fire is squeezing out other Android tablets for actual use online. New Flurry data shows that the Kindle Fire virtually cut the Samsung Galaxy Tab line's usage share in half, from 63 percent in November to 36 percent in January. Other devices saw a similar squeeze, which mostly came from the Kindle Fire's rampant sales rather than a drop in Android use....

RIM CEO: we're looking into BBM on other platforms

RIM's new CEO Thorsten Heins has continued his interviewing with hints the company might not be as closed to the possibility of BlackBerry Messenger on other mobile platforms as once thought. He told CrackBerry that he was still committed to the core BlackBerry platform and there weren't immediate plans, but that the company "should never rule this [possibility] out." The company did have ...

T-Mobile to give extra help to unlocked iPhones (1 comment)

A leaked memo shared online by TmoNews reveals T-Mobile will change its attitude toward its subscribers who use unlocked iPhones on their network. When the iPhone owners call in, T-Mobile staffers are being instructed to handle common procedures. These include information about features and specifications and other basic device questions....

Briefly: Instant PDF 10 launched, reVOLT c2 now shipping

Enfocus has released Instant PDF 10, an update to its PDF creation tool. Version 10 includes one of the most frequently requested features, annotated error reporting, as well as support for OS X Lion and Adobe CS 5.5. In addition, the update uses Enfocus PitStop Library 10, which provides users with the same level of error identification and correction as the highest-end Enfocus application...

OWC Mercury Aura Pro Express ups MacBook Air to 480GB drive (1 comment)

Other World Computing has answered one of the more common calls among MacBook Air owners and has put out a 480GB version of its Mercury Aura Pro Express. The new solid-state drive doubles the storage of its SATA3-based, 6Gbps model line. As with other SSDs, more capacity doesn't mean a sacrifice in speed, and it can deliver as much as 500MB per second in peak transfer speeds....

Rubinstein: I was out of HP regardless of TouchPad results (5 comments)

HP's newly departed Jon Rubinstein has explained his reasons for going in an interview Friday. He clarified to The Verge that he had planned to leave not long after HP bought Palm and agreed to stay one to two years, both to help transition webOS to HP and out of affinity with Personal Systems Group head Todd Bradley. Whether or not the TouchPad succeeded was incidental, as Rubinstein had...

Jobs kept letter from Bill Gates by bedside, report reveals (4 comments)

Former Microsoft head Bill Gates wrote Apple CEO Steve Jobs a letter shortly before the latter's death, according to a report from UK newspaper The Telegraph. "I told Steve about how he should feel great about what he had done and the company he had built. I wrote about his kids, whom I had got to know," says Gates....

Former Apple exec Jon Rubinstein leaves HP (2 comments)

HP has confirmed that former Palm CEO and one-time Apple executive Jon Rubinstein was leaving the company. Representative Mylene Mangalindan explained to AllThingsD that Rubinstein had "fulfilled his commitment" to stay for one to two years after HP's acquisition of Palm. He wasn't leaving for another company and isn't believed to have some other specific goal....

Apple leads 2011 Japanese tablet share by dominant margin (1 comment)

The iPad was the overwhelming leader in the Japanese tablet market during 2011, data from tracking firm BCN indicates. Apple held a 63.6 percent share of the Japanese market, easily eclipsing its closest rivals. Acer ranked second with just 9.8 percent, for instance, while Samsung came in third at 5.3 percent. Apple claimed second place in terms of tablet accessories with 13.3 percent; t...

Apple, Google denied dismissal of anti-poaching lawsuit

Northern California district court judge Lucy Koh ruled late Thursday that multiple technologies can't dismiss a lawsuit over anti-poaching deals. Adobe, Apple, Google, Intel, Intuit, Lucasfilm, and Pixar will have to face the allegations that they unfairly hurt compensation and job chances by making informal pacts to avoid recruiting each other's staff. Judge Koh's view echoed those of t...

ABI: Android has lost market share for first time (5 comments)

Apple's record iPhone sales have led to Android shrinking for the first time in its over three-year history, ABI Research estimated Friday. Operating on the belief that next-closest Samsung shipped 33 million smartphones, it had Android's collective share drop from 52.5 percent in the summer to 47 percent this fall. Apart from the iPhone 4S' launch effect, Android had 'sagging midsection' ...

Apple acknolwedges AppleCare dispute on Italian web store (2 comments)

Apple has posted a link on its Italian web store, acknowledging its legal dispute with the local government over AppleCare warranties. The link -- simply titled "Communication to protect consumers" -- takes visitors to a PDF file, detailing the government's decision, which resulted in a €900,000 fine. Apple normally only provides a one-year AppleCare warranty for free, but Italian law gra...

DealNN roundup: 2.2GHz MacBook Pro, now $1749

Today's deals from DealNN include price breaks on MacBook Pros, HDTVs, and more. Macmall.com this week is featuring the 15.4-inch, 2.2GHz MacBook Pro, complete with quad-core Intel Core i7 processor, 4GB of RAM, 750GB hard drive, and Mac OS X Lion operating system. Currently featured at DealNN, this MacBook Pro has now dropped to $1,749.99 and offers savings of up to $449....

Microsoft said testing Kinect built into notebooks (4 comments)

Microsoft is not only planning to release Kinect for Windows but is aiming to make motion control a built-in feature for PCs, according to fresh leaks. Those at The Daily claim to have used two prototype Windows 8 notebooks where the Kinect sensor system replaces the normal webcam. A Microsoft insider claimed that the ASUS-branded systems are testbeds with the hint they may become real pro...

Cook: Apple 'attacking' human rights problems in factories (4 comments)

Apple CEO Tim Cook has sent out a long letter to workers in an attempt to respond to complaints about poor conditions at supplier factories, according to 9to5Mac. "As a company and as individuals, we are defined by our values," the letter begins. "Unfortunately some people are questioning Apple’s values today, and I’d like to address this with you directly. We care about every worker in our...

Data confirms Apple again tops in smartphones, 8.3% overall (2 comments)

Separate IHS iSuppli and Strategy Analytics studies Friday have backed Apple's rapid return to the top of the smartphone space in the fall. Determining that Samsung had shipped 36 million smartphones, slightly higher than Samsung's preliminary estimates, IHS iSuppli put Apple's 37 million iPhones just on top. Although Samsung nearly quadrupled the amount of smartphones it shipped and move...

Samsung loses second patent claim against Apple in Germany (2 comments)

Samsung has suffered its second patent loss against Apple in as many weeks. The company has said that a German court has ruled that its second of three patent claims related to 3G/UMTS has been rejected. The latest blow in its bitter ongoing legal battle with Apple comes after the same court ruled that the first of the three patents that it is asserting against Apple was also rejected. The ...

Google updates Google Music Manager, allows re-downloads (1 comment)

Google has made a change in its Google Music service for US-based Android users that allows them to not just stream but actually download their songs onto their Android devices or computers, according to a company blog post. The service, which launched just days after Apple launched its iTunes Match, also strengthened its ties to Google's social service Google+ by allowing users to share Yo...

New RIM chief tries rival devices, vows 'a lot' of change (8 comments)

New info trickling out from a CrackBerry interview with new RIM CEO Thorsten Heins may assuage some early fears that he was locked into his predecessors' management style. The new executive made a point not just to use Android, iOS, and other platforms himself but a "whole team" that both looks at the competition and sees what doesn't work. Even his children are involved, he said....

Hands on: Garmin StreetPilot onDemand with Foursquare

Although Garmin would seem to fit in better at CES rather than the Macworld iWorld expo, the navigation company brought its latest iOS apps to San Francisco this week to show off the latest features. MacNN played around with the updated version of StreetPilot onDemand, which now enables users to take advantage of social networking features....

ExtremeZ-IP updated, boosts Lion and AFP support

Taking note of a recent Forrester Research report that enterprises will spend 45 percent more on Macs and 68 percent more on iPads in the corporate sector compared to 2011, GroupLogic has updated its flagship ExtremeZ-IP program that allows for easy integration of Macs into existing Windows-based server environments. The new version adds full support for Lion and the Apple Filing Protocol (A...

Thursday, January 26

Windows 8 to step back on customization in Apple-like choice (8 comments)

A seemingly minor decision for Windows 8 in the post-developer preview versions has shown an about-face by Microsoft in its approach to design. During new demos on Thursday to TechRadar, Windows 8 communications lead Chris Flores explained that users wouldn't be allowed to change the background of the main Metro screen to their own photo. Scaling was an issue, but Microsoft had also decide...

Id Software updates Rage HD to version 2, refines controls

Id Software's non-franchise game for iOS devices, Rage HD, has now been updated to version 2.0. The game, which puts players in the middle of a "reality TV" show called Mutant Bash, is a first-person rail shooter that now includes in-app purchasing of additional episodes, higher-resolution player and weapon graphics, better video out support for VGA, component cables and HDMI under iOS 5, an...

Hands on: AudioEngine D1, D2 digital-to-analog converters (1 comment)

Audioengine has continued to build quality audio accessories paired with affordable price tags. Electronista listened to the company's latest digital-to-analog converters (DACs) this week at the Macworld iWorld expo in San Francisco. The devices aim to provide a quality interface between a computer and an audio system, rather than relying in the computer's DAC....

RealMac, Milen, Impending team up on new to-do app Clear (1 comment)

UK-based RealMac Software, known for titles like Rapidweaver and Little Snapper, will be releasing a new to-do app in the next few weeks called Clear. The app is a collaboration with MacHeist organizer Phill Ryu, engineer Milen Dzhumerov and artist David Lanham, and puts an iPhone-centric, gesture-oriented but minimalist spin on the idea of a to-do list, focusing on visual design rather than...

Hands on: Bang & Olufsen B&O Play Beolit 12 portable speaker (2 comments)

Bang & Olufsen brought several of its latest products to the Macworld iWorld expo in San Francisco, including the Beolit 12 portable speaker that fits into the company's B&O Play brand. MacNN took the opportunity to listen to the new speaker, which is a premium model among iOS accessories but a budget model when compared to the rest of Bang & Olufsen's products....

Apple extends charitable matching to part-time workers

Apple retail workers' advocacy group AAPLRetailUnion has tweeted that the company's charitable gift-matching program, begun by CEO Tim Cook in September, has now been extended to part-time employees in the US (and will go worldwide soon). The program matches donations to 501c(3) charities by US workers up to $10,000 per year. In the short time the program has been active, Apple and its empl...

Samsung: mobile half of profit, tablet demand up in March (3 comments)

Samsung has detailed its full results following a brief preview earlier in the month. The Korean electronics giant mustered the equivalent of $42 billion in revenue, but owed much of this and its profit to a 30 percent increase in its cellphone business. Almost half of its working profit, $2.3 billion out of $4.7 billion, came from its mobile group; profit as a whole was up 17 percent....

First full white space wireless goes live in North Carolina (2 comments)

The first official, non-trial instance of white space wireless has gone live in the US on Thursday. The Wilmington, North Carolina access point is so far intended just for linking outdoor monitoring cameras and systems. It can still provide unlicensed, open wireless access at ranges as far as 328 feet, or well beyond the range of Wi-Fi....

Garmin debuts new iOS apps at MacWorld, adds social function

New social media functions, new apps and new features for its iOS apps mark navigation software and hardware maker Garmin's presence at MacWorld/iWorld, currently going on in San Francisco. Among the other features, updates will let users "check in" using social services via their navigation apps, integrate their exercise with Garmin tools, go on a digital treasure hunt, plan private-plane f...

Distimo: App spotlights help Android more, sales help iOS

Distimo has taken a fresh look at mobile app promos that has shown a sharp contrast in their effects on Android and iOS apps. Being featured in the official store has the most impact on Android, the research found. An Android developer typically jumps 42 spots in the popular rankings in the first three days after it's highlighted in Android Market, where iOS App Store titles jump a relativ...

Briefly: Gekko to launch next week, Shaderlight 2.1 update

iPhonso has announced that its mobile financial tool, Gekko, will be launched in the App Store on January 31. The universal app is fully customizable and allows users to follow financial news from their favorite websites. Gekko also includes a smart caching system and built-in ad blocking to help improve page load times, as well as raw financial data for every stock. Other features include ...

Google Earth 6.2 goes seamless, gets Google+ sharing

Google has released its latest version Google Earth. The 6.2 update improves the presentation of satellite imagery so high altitude views appears almost seamless and less of a patchwork. Google has also added a new search interface and an easier way to share imagery using Google+....

More Headlines>>

Mobile Switch

Articles in New Window

Always View Full Article

Save this shortcut to your mobile device : tap + and then 'Add to Home Screen'

(-) Choose font size (+)