When we told you about Apple's rumored reversible USB Lightning cable, plenty of people were rather excited at the idea. With good reason too, because we've all had that brain-melting moment when we have tried to plug a USB cable in only for it to inevitably be the wrong way around. It's a fact of life that nobody can plug a USB cable in the right way first time, and we've known it take three goes before people have managed it - and there are only two orientations to choose from!
JoinedJanuary 21, 2011
Articles20,133
Oliver Haslam has written about technology for over a decade. His work has been published in print at Macworld and online pretty much everywhere else. If it plugs in or has a battery, it's fair game.
When you carry something around that's likely to spontaneously combust then you usually get a little hazard pay, but it's becoming increasingly possible that many of us are doing it without even realizing it, after yet another iPhone was found alight, apparently of its own volition.
Those of us carrying iPhones and iPads around are sometimes all too quick to point the finger at those with Android devices while waxing lyrical about how their phones and tablets are so susceptible to malware. That's probably the truth if everything is left as nature intended, but if you start to jailbreak that aforementioned iPhone or iPad, then all bets are off.
You'd have to have been living in a cave earlier this year to miss the whole Flappy Bird saga. Becoming hugely popular on the App Store and Play Store almost overnight, Flappy Bird raked in huge sums of money for its creator Dong Nguyen on an apparently daily basis. Unfortunately that wasn't enough to keep him happy though, and his newfound fame - or should that be infamy - caused him to pull the game and almost disappear.
If what they say about imitation and flattery is true, then the folks at Apple must be pretty darn flattered right now after Xiaomi showed off the new version of their particular flavor of Android - MIUI 6.
Apple seems determined to celebrate the buyout of the Beats Electronics and Beats Music brands and had already dedicated a page of its online store to the Beats by Dr. Dre hardware before today slashing the prices of most of those products by 10%.
It may not make it any money, but Apple will still no doubt be pleased to hear that it has won a Creative Arts Emmy award for Outstanding Commercial with its 'Misunderstood' TV ad that touted the iPhone 5s.
Newly leaked photos appear to give credence to the suggestion that Apple is set to revise its Lightning cable, at least the USB end of it.
Those loudspeakers on that smartphone you carry around just aren't very good at all. Yes, they'll do the job when you need to speak to someone hands-free, but when it comes to listening to music or a podcast, they just don't cut the mustard. Unfortunately, buying a speaker can be an expensive business, and while we've shown you how to create an extremely inexpensive alternative before, that option was missing a special ingredient that makes this new method particularly awesome: toilet paper.
Apple's unannounced but widely tipped 5.5-inch iPhone 6 may be about to come with a large 2915mAh battery if a newly leaked photo is any indication.
















