The Samsung Galaxy S5 and Apple's iPhone 5s may be of slightly different generations, but thanks to the bitter rivalry between the two companies that make them, are constantly compared with one another. The Galaxy S vs. iPhone war has been waged time and again over the past few years, and an interesting new video offers a series of reasons as to why the iPhone 5s is better than the Galaxy S5.
Now that we're officially less than a week away from WWDC, all the attention has rightly turned towards what Apple will announce at the event. With the Beats acquisition finally announced recently, that also means that it's one less rumor to go around, leaving WWDC to get all the attention.
With Apple having spent $3 billion to officially take Beats Electronics under its wing, the Cupertino company has wasted no time in moving its new subsidiary onwards and upwards. The Beats Music app, which offers streaming music to customers in a similar business model to Spotify et al, was immediately updated on iOS following yesterday's press release, and now, some new headphones have become available to pre-order. The $199.95 'Solo2' headphones, an upgrade on the Solo HDs, sport a more sizeable, tweaked design, and also promise to deliver improved sound quality.
Following on from a report yesterday by a supply chain-connected analyst, who noted that Apple's iWatch would include a round watch face and begin production in a couple of months' time, another blog has noted that a further supplier has sent the device's wireless charging coils off for certification, and is currently awaiting approval.
Apple officially just acquired Beats Electronics for the tidy sum of $3 billion, and although the iPod maker's CEO had a few thoughts to add in the official press statement, a subsequent interview has shed even more light on just why Apple put down such a sizeable wad of cash to purchase the iconic audio brand.
We told you yesterday on the news that some iPhone users in the United States and Australia had reported that their iPhones were being held ransom by someone going by the name of Oleg Pliss, and that the situation was somewhat unclear. With users having their devices locked remotely via Apple's Find my iPhone feature, initial thoughts were that iCloud had potentially had a breach in security with accounts being compromised as a result.
Today is fairly busy as far as Apple software is concerned, and off the back of the iTunes 11.2.2 release to the general public on Windows and Mac, the Cupertino giant has just seeded OS X 10.9.4 Mavericks to developers. At this point in time, we don't know precisely what is packed into the latest beta, but with the recently-released OS X Mavericks 10.9.3 having proved problematic for some users - particularly those running the all-new Mac Pro - here's to hoping that Apple has worked on refining the overall experience.
In terms of pricing, Apple's product line-up is inaccessible to many, and in particular, students. Beset by fees and general student debt, the purchase of a product like the iPad Air or iPad mini with Retina display is largely out of the question, and as such, Apple frequently offers discounts to those studying in university or college. Apparently, those two aforementioned slates are now subject to the Cupertino's special education pricing structure, with prices starting at $469 for the iPad Air and $379 for the Retina iPad mini.
If you ever needed proof that a smartphone doesn't need to be hacked in order for it to cause chaos, then this is probably it. After reports of iPhones being held to ransom started popping up across Australia and being posted to the Apple support forums, people started asking questions. Now it seems this problem has reached the shores of the United States, and the number of reported cases of iPhones being held to ransom is continuing to increase. So what's actually happening?
It's almost that time of year again. The time of year where everyone sits down and feverishly flick between all the live blogs to try and get the lowdown on what is going on at WWDC. With this year's event kicking off on June 2nd, all eyes are now on the Moscone Center venue where Apple holds its yearly developer conference.

