It's understandable that consumers will always have mixed emotions about any company from which they’re buying products, and for the large part, big companies like Apple, Google and Samsung are always going to do something that draws a negative reaction from some. With that said, one thing that Apple in particular can't be accused of is resting on their laurels and remaining stagnant in the marketplace. Although the Cupertino company has recently announced and launched their revamped EarPods headphones alongside the iPhone 5, a new patent suggests that they are still working on further advances in that area.
The 5th-gen iPod touch complete with the iPhone5-esque 4-inch display may finally have been released, but if you're looking for an iOS experience for a dirt-cheap price, you may want to consider the slightly older - but no less exciting - iPod touch 4G. Right now at Apple, you can grab yourself an iPod touch 8GB refurbished for a mere $129, and with an A4 processor and Retina display, it's one of the best deals on the interwebs right now.
It's no real secret that Foxconn - primary manufacturer of most iOS devices for Apple - has struggled to come to terms with the new iPhone 5. Last month, we reported on the company's toil to get the handset assembled without damaging the scratch-prone aluminum backplate, and now the company's chairman has come out and admitted it hasn't managed to meet the huge demand of the iPhone 5's production.
Ever since Apple first brought the iPhone and iPod touch to market five years ago, we've seen a very quick shift in how we go about gaming on the move. Throughout the early 2000's, the battle between the likes of the Nintendo's DS and the PlayStation Portable (PSP) was as fierce as those devices which had preceded it, but the smartphone and tablet revolution has rendered such standalone gaming machines largely redundant. A GPU performance test carried out by AnandTech indicates just how much the face of the market has changed, with the portable gaming's most powerful offering - the PS Vita - now out-gunned by Apple's iPad 4 in terms of graphics power.
The iPad mini may only have been out for a short while, but Apple's hardware partners are already purportedly preparing for its predecessor, with a Retina display high on the agenda. The iPad mini has, on the whole, been well-received, but of the numerous gripes bloggers and consumers alike have had, the lack of an über-sharp display has consistently been one of the main issues.
The Apple vs. Samsung saga doesn't appear to be dying down any time soon, with both companies prepared, it would seem, to play the long game in a case which won't be going on trial until 2014. Apple has said it would like to see both the Galaxy Note 10.1 and Android 4.1 Jelly Bean added to the California lawsuit versus its bitter Korean rival, insisting both products infringe upon its own intellectual property.
It should be common news by now that Apple has taken the decision to have an executive shake-up in Cupertino, with a number of notable faces set to leave the company in 2013. One of the most well-known casualties of the internal restructure is Scott Forstall who has held the role of Senior Vice President of iOS over the last few years. Forstall has been in charge of developing and handling the direction of iOS and has reportedly been shown the door due to his inability to play nice with other executives, as well as the publicly perceived shortcomings in the new Apple mapping system and the Siri digital assistant.
Apple's recently released iPad mini is already reported to be a good seller for the company, with three million units of the iPad mini and iPad 4 claimed to have been shipped in just three days of sales. Despite so-called experts deriding the lack of a Retina display, we didn't really expect anything different, did we?
Apple has posted the iPad mini User Guide, and if you wish to download it, you can do so by following the link embedded at the end of this post. Whenever a new iOS device hits the market, the user guide always arrives fashionably late, and while the "Fingertips" leaflet provided with said iPhone, iPad or iPod touch gives users a general idea of how to get started with their shiny new device, the User Guide offers more in-depth coverage.
The iPad mini has had to deal with a fair amount of criticism since its launch, and similarly, there have been quite a few outcries regarding Apple's decision to throw out a new iPad just seven months after releasing its predecessor. The lingering wave of skepticism clearly doesn't seem to have affected sales adversely though, and Apple has just announced the sale of three million new iPad units, which is double previous weekend record of 1.5 million set by the launch of the iPad 3 in March.
