US District Judge Jeffrey White of the Northern District of California has upheld some claims made against Google in a privacy suit accusing the search engine of using apps installed on mobile phones to collect persoanl data. Allegedly, Google used data from Foursquare, Groupon, Angry Birds, and Pandora to farm location, device identification, and personal information without user's consent.
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16 minutes ago | Posted in: mobile phones
US Cellular could be preparing to update its Shared Data plans, according to an allegedly-leaked memo. Dated to be announced tomorrow, the carrier is planning to add more data to existing plans as well as adding another lower tier of service, and introducing a promotional single-line price plan that will be available for a number of weeks before other subscription changes.
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Apple is testing the idea of moving iTunes Radio into a dedicated app for iOS 8, sources say. At the moment, iTunes Radio is just another option in iOS 7's Music app. This may be hurting its adoption, since third-party rivals like Pandora and Spotify are separate apps and hence more visible. As a distinct entity, iTunes Radio would likely still come pre-installed with iOS 8.
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1 hour ago | Posted in: industry
In a series of statements commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Internet, inventor Tim Berners-Lee asked a pointed question. In a post on Google's official blog, Berners-Lee asked "Are we going to continue on the road and just allow the governments to do more and more and more control -- more and more surveillance?" In response, the computer scientist wants to build a "Magna Carta," codifying the rights of Internet users, and limiting the ability of governments to interfere with the execution of a global network.
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1 hour ago | Posted in iOS apps
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Day One is a journaling app that allows users to store ideas and sync them across all of their devices via iCloud or Dropbox. New to v1.13 is a Publish feature that can be used to share specific entires to share with family, friend, and the world. Publish creates an individual website for each entry the user chooses to publish, and provides a link for sharing the entry with anyone. Various other minor improvements are also included.
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Fantastical is a calendar utility that allows users to create events by explaining events in basic English. For example, a user can enter "Lunch with John at 123 Main Street on Tuesday," and the software will add all of the relevant information to a new event. New notification sounds for events and reminders are included in this update, along with support for opening links in 1Password and Mercury web browsers.
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Tweetbot is a Twitter client that includes multiple timelines, smart gestures, and support for a number of other social services such as Instapaper and CloudApp. Timeline position, direct message read statuses and mute filters are also synced automatically between the iPhone and iPad via iCloud. Version 3.3 introduces a new font option, Avenir, to the display settings, as well as options for large image thumbnails. Various bugs have also been fixed.
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Spotify is a music streaming service that provides users with access to more than 15 million tracks. Radio streaming is a free service offered to all US residents, while on-demand streaming can be unlocked by upgrading to Spotify Premium. A number of reported issues have been resolved with this update.
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Halftone allows users to turn their photos into vintage-style comics that can easily be shared with friends and family. New to v1.2 is the ability to add 3D perspectives to captions, balloons, and stamps. Custom stamps can also now be added to the app, and comics can be shared with others via SMS/MMS.
Apple has reduced the no-questions return window for iPhone buyers from 30 calendar days to 14, sources and new terms on Apple's US website reveal. The change is technically only due to take effect tomorrow, March 13th, but Apple's website has already made the new policy standard. As usual, returned phones must have been bought directly from Apple -- online or offline -- and include all their original box contents.
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2 hours ago | Posted in: Apple
Following preliminary approval last month, Apple has received final approval to build its upcoming Union Square store from the San Francisco Planning Commission and the city's Board of Supervisors. "We are thrilled that the city of San Francisco has given its final approval to begin work on our new store and public plaza, which will make a wonderful addition to Union Square and create hundreds of local jobs," says Apple spokeswoman Amy Bessette. "Our Stockton Street store has been incredibly popular, welcoming over 13 million customers since it opened nine years ago, and we look forward to making a new home on Union Square."
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Rdio will be changing the way it offers listeners music, by not using The Echo Nest in the future, the company has revealed. Following the purchase of the music intelligence company by Spotify, Rdio is keen to not help its chief competition by providing it with more data about its user's listening habits, instead relying on other methods to offer music discovery and curation.
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Ting has started to support the iPhone 5 over its Sprint-based network, as rumored last month. The MVNO (mobile virtual network operator) already provides support for compatible iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S handsets, with the iPhone 5 bringing it closer to current generation devices, but not by much. A blog post advises that, since the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c reached Sprint in late September last year, support for the devices is expected to occur at "about the same time this year."
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Days after the final judgements were rendered in the post-trial matters related to the first Apple-Samsung US patent trial from 2012, Samsung filed an appeal of the jury's decision. Now Apple has done the same, filing an appeal on selected decisions made during the trial -- including some of Judge Lucy Koh's orders (specifically her two decisions refusing to implement product bans on 23 violating Samsung devices) and the limited damages retrial.
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Audio-Visual products manufacturer Creative Technology, through their ZiiLabs (formerly 3D Labs) subsidiary, is suing Samsung and accusing the Galaxy maker of infringing on 10 patents used in graphics system-on-chip designs for mobile and desktop devices. Both Apple and Samsung are named in the suit, as Samsung provides or formerly provided some of its own SoC components to some of Apple's devices.
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13 hours ago | Posted in: gaming
On the eve of the highly-anticipated Titanfall first-person shooter release, Microsoft's Xbox Live service is experiencing issues with the login process for some users. According to Larry Hyrb, Microsoft's "Major Nelson," the problems are not directly related to Titanfall, but some other connectivity issue related to "core services." Other Microsoft services, including Titanfall matchmaking, were still working during the outage. After three hours of downtime, at 11:00 EST, the problem was reported as resolved by Microsoft, and preliminary testing by Electronista confirmed Microsoft's report.
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Weather prediction and reporting app AccuWeather has launched its new MinuteCast feature. Now available for its web version as well as its iOS 7-optimized app for iPhone and iPod touch, MinuteCast gives users a continually updated forecast, ideal for making decisions based on weather. MinuteCast predicts start and end times for precipitation on a by-the-minute basis for the next two hours, specific to a user's exact street address. Precipitation is tracked at approximately a half square mile, and refreshed every five minutes to provide users with the most relevant and accurate forecast available.
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A new report on Tuesday highlights a potential new approach for Apple in India -- a market where the smartphone giant has been struggling -- by combining its usual high-end approach in premium stores and resellers with a new "neighborhood shop" franchise of stores that would focus on selling "entry-level" devices -- the iPhone 4 (still available in India), the iPhone 4S, the iPad mini and the full-size iPad 2.
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17 hours ago | Posted in: software, Apple
One day after Apple released its latest update to iOS, the latest version is now running on more than six percent of active iOS devices in North America, an analysis from mobile ad aggregator Chitika finds. While iOS 7.1 also contained security fixes, its major focus was adding a few new or enhanced features and squashing bugs, whereas the rapid adoption of the previous update -- 7.0.6 -- was credited to a major security patch.
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Yesterday's iOS 7.1 update also made changes to the way iBeacons work, reports say. Previously, an iPhone could only pick up notifications from an iBeacon if it had a supporting app open or running in the background; now those messages will appear even if the app has been completely closed (assuming the user has granted permission for push notifications). Alerts are also said to be more responsive, for instance reacting instantly on leaving an iBeacon's broadcast area by ceasing any notifications.
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The BBC is rolling out a new version of its iPlayer today, available for use online, with consoles and connected TVs for UK citizens. The changes to iPlayer have been made in an attempt to move away from being a static service, and aims to offer a more interactive experience. When an episode of a series finishes playing, iPlayer now automatically lines up the next episode in sequence, while suggesting other content that may be relevant to the viewer.
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