1 hour ago | Posted in: iPhone, Apple
In a move likely designed to compete with T-Mobile's recent discounting of iPhone down payments, US retail giant Walmart will cut its up-front price for the 16GB models of the iPhone 5s and 5c by $72 when purchased with a two-year contract from either AT&T or Verizon. The promotion, which begins Friday December 13, coincides with the launch of Walmart's contract-free iPhone sales with service through Straight Talk or NET10 Wireless.
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A pair of ex-Pixar employees have formed 180g -- a software development company that has released E-book publishing tool Vellum. The new OS X software package allows authors and small publishers to easily create, modify, and publish beautiful eBooks for the three major platforms: iBooks, Kindle, and Nook.
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3 hours ago | Posted in: iPad
Apple's good fortune in Japan continue apace, with the company's iPad offerings making up six out of the top 10 bestselling tablets in that country. This according to BCN, which measures electronics sales in Japan and found that Apple tablets were overall the most popular. Topping BCN's list was the iPad Air, followed by the iPad mini.
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4 hours ago | Posted in: iPhone, Apple
Even before an expected debut on the world's largest cellular provider, China Mobile, is announced, Apple's new iPhone models have led to a surprising surge in Chinese sales, vaulting the company from sixth place in marketshare to third place since it debuted its latest models. The popularity of the iPhone 5s and 5c have been such that the company tripled its marketshare in a single month, according to a report from market researchers Counterpoint.
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5 hours ago | Posted in: gadgets
Foxconn – also known as Hon Hai, assembler of Apple's iPhones and iPads – is looking to capitalize on the anticipated boom in wearable tech by starting an investment fund to finance nascent companies working in the segment. Sources familiar with the project told Bloomberg this week that Syntrend Creative Park Co., a Foxconn unit, will administer the NT$200 million ($6.8 million) fund aimed at giving the firm a hand in the development of wearable devices in the vein of Samsung's Galaxy Gear smartwatch, the Google Glass eyewear computer, and the suspected Apple iWatch. The move is the latest by Foxconn to diversify its operations to handle more things than the construction of iOS devices for its most lucrative partner.
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6 hours ago | Posted in: Apple
Tony Fadell, one of the creators of the iPod and the founder of Nest, appears to have been the individual who purchased special edition gold Apple EarPods and a red Mac Pro at an auction at Sotheby's. This according to photographer Kevin Abosch, who tweeted images of Fadell with the auctioned items on Wednesday. All told, the two one-of-a-kind Apple products are believed to have cost Fadell around $1.4 million.
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Promise Technology today announced the availability of Pegasus2, the only RAID 5 storage solution in the market so far designed to work with Thunderbolt 2 enabled systems such as the all-new Mac Pro. The enclosure, designed for photographers, video professionals, and other users needing extremely high data transfer rates. The Thunderbolt 2 enclosure delivers 20Gbps of bandwidth, allowing for simultaneous transfer and display of high-bandwidth 3D and 4K video files.
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RealNetworks' RealPlayer Cloud, a dual-purpose video player and cloud service, has announced its new partnership with Google's Chromecast. Consumers can now watch their personal video collection on their TV, by accessing content the RealPlayer Cloud app, to the TV, via the Chromecast dongle.
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8 hours ago | Posted in: software
Google has formally introduced Chrome Apps for OS X, enabling the web-coded apps to "behave and feel" like native software on Macs. Titles can be placed on the Dock or searched for by name in Spotlight, opening in separate Chrome windows that omit the search bar, tabs and other browser-specific features.
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8 hours ago | Posted in: security
The National Security Agency (NSA) may have been using cookies from web advertisements in order to track individuals, according to a report. A PREF cookie, a unique identifier typically used in Google's advertising system, has apparently been used by the NSA alongside location data, in order to locate individuals of interest to the agency.
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9 hours ago | Posted in: industry
Japan has reportedly taken the lead position in mobile app revenue for both iOS and Android platforms, according to data collected by analyst firm App Annie. The US previously held the top spot, however Japan's four-fold jump in revenue from mobile game sales has helped the country maintain a stronger growth rate over the past year.
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Spotify has rolled out its free music streaming service to tablets and smartphones, just as speculated by reports last week, along with a number of other announcements. While the tablet version of the app will have a similar service to that of the free desktop version, smartphone users will be forced to use a new free "Shuffle" mode instead.
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Felix has released its latest phone cases for the iPhone 5 and 5s today: the HandHold, and the CrossWay. Both designed to be minimalist, the cases protect the phone as well as store thin items such as credit cards, a license, or cash.
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11 hours ago | Posted in apps
PopChar X allows users to add special characters without the need to remember a keystroke combination. In v6.4 the character table should now display paster, and the built-in installer now reliably cleans up temporary files after automatic updates. Background activity has also been reduced by reloading the available fonts only when absolutely necessary.
Acorn is an image editing utility that offers layer support, built-in effects, vector shapes and text, and more. Version 2.2.2 fixes a problem where PDF files were not opening correctly. In addition, issues where the New View windows were showing the image in the wrong colorspace, or not properly updating when moving a bitmap layer have also been fixed.
Arq is a backup utility that will make incremental backups to an online storage account. The software keeps hourly backups for the past 24 hours, daily backups for the past month, and weekly backups for everything older than a month. The latest release has added a backup set UUID to Glacier vault names to make restricting access via IAM easier.
VLC Media Player includes support for a wide range of audio and video file formats, including DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. Several audio output bugs have been fixed in this release, align with issues related to video filters, decoders, and the Qt interface. UI resetting has also been improved, and a new language option has a been added to the interface.
NoteList is an app that allows users to manage and organize all of their notes and memos. Notes can be labeled with customizable colored tags that allow users to keep entries grouped and organized. Version 3.2 solves a problem with the startup document, improves various functions, and fixes various minor bugs.
11 hours ago | Posted in: Apple
The Apple TV set-top device got a wave of new content on Wednesday, with Bloomberg TV making its debut on the Apple streaming device, alongside a number of other new channels. As well as the new Bloomberg app, Apple TV owners will now have access to Crackle, Watch ABC, and KORTV. The apps should be available now via a background update.
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Rovio has released the latest addition to its Angry Birds series of Apps on iOS with Angry Birds Go! The new entry in the popular franchise is a Mario Kart-like downhill racer with the eponymous fowls facing off against each other, as well as their ever-present porcine nemeses. The entry also brings into play a number of physical toys that open up new items in the game's virtual world.
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12 hours ago | Posted in: Apple
Chinese supplier Pegatron is facing renewed criticism following a spate of employee deaths associated with its iPhone 5c production factory. In a particularly disturbing example, 15-year-old Shi Zhaokun succumbed to pneumonia after working nearly 280 hours in his first month at the plant, in apparent violation of local labor regulations and Apple's supplier code of conduct, according to a New York Times report.
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