The life and times of Steve Jobs is a pretty interesting story for those who have yet to read the Walter Isaacson biography, and even though the only officially authorized book on the late Apple co-founder and former CEO has its fair share of critics, we're still very much enthused by the prospect of the upcoming Sony Pictures movie, based heavily upon the Isaacson biog. No less, of course, because scriptwriter Aaron Sorkin, of The Social Network fame, has a credible track record for turning tech stories into Hollywood blockbusters, and as the search for an actor to play Jobs continues, Christian Bale has emerged as a front-runner.
Apple-bashing from Samsung is nothing new, particularly given the ongoing court hearings between the two relating to supposed theft of patented technologies, but in a rare treat, the Korean outfit has taken a swipe at Apple, Microsoft and Amazon in one fell swoop with its latest Galaxy Pro Series Ad. The Galaxy Tab Pro and Galaxy Note Pro, which Samsung was heavily pushing at Mobile World last month, offer quite a few features built with the power user in mind, and with the advertising machine in full flow, the company has wasted no time in having a swipe at the Apple iPad, Amazon Kindle Fire and Microsoft Surface for their respective shortcomings.
With every new software update, particularly a semi-significant one like iOS 7.1, there's always a chance that the numerous changes implemented will leave a few lingering bugs, and with Apple having just released the first major bump to its mobile OS since September, it would appear that some users are encountering problems with the Personal Hotspot function.
Since the past few days, we've been hearing about Apple's supposed iOS 8 Healthbook app endeavors, and today, a new screenshot released into the wild via China's Twitter-like service Weibo offers what appears to be a legitimate glimpse of the app running on iOS 8.
It was back in 2011 that Apple first brought us the iPad 2, and after three years of loyal service, the device has finally been retired. Replacing it as understudy to the iPad Air will be the iPad 4 - arguably the righteous holder of this particular position - and with a Retina display, Lightning connector and a beefy A6X processor, it's a notable improvement on the iPad 2.
Amid a swirl of rumors over the past couple of days suggesting that Apple would be adding a cheaper, 8GB variant of the iPhone 5c to its smartphone roster, the company has now confirmed this to be the case, with the handset launching today in select markets.
A security researcher has discovered major a flaw in the iOS 7 security system, apparently brought about by a botched attempt by Apple to patch an issue specific to iOS 6. The kernel exploit, if anything, has only been aggravated by the Cupertino's intervention, and as such, Azimuth Security researcher Tarjei Mandt believes that iOS 7 is "much worse" than its predecessor with regards security.
Apple's iPhone 6 is highly expected to be an embodiment of the company's future direction, both in form and function. A number of early rumors have already alluded to the fact that the Cupertino company is intending to step away from the 4-inch form factor that has served the iPhone 5, 5s and 5c so well in favor of something a little larger. In addition to that change of physical size, one well-placed analyst is predicting that the iPhone 6 will introduce a number of new internal sensors that could open up the device to a whole host of new possibilities.
As well as offering some big improvements upon existing features, iOS 8 is expected to deliver some significant new implementations of its own, and with fitness and tracking-related devices and applications currently in vogue, it is thought that Apple will hop aboard the bandwagon with a new, native app called Healthbook. As the name implies, the app will be to fitness and wellbeing what Passbook is to vouchers and tickets, presenting the health-conscious with an all-in-one hub for tracking key aspects such as exercise, diet and activity. 9to5Mac first shed light on Healthbook a while back, and is now back with some more in-depth tidbits regarding the forthcoming app.
Love them or hate them, rumors will never cease. With the next big thing just around the corner and everyone doing their best to second guess what the big thing to come out of the likes of Apple and Samsung will be, speculation and conjecture will always be on the tip of the internet’s collective tongue. Unfortunately it doesn’t always get it right.
