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Some good iPhone 5C packaging/presentation mockups hit the web

Seth Weintraub Aug 14 2013 - 1:44 am PT

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We’re about three and a half weeks from Apple’s September 10th iPhone event and that means folks are mocking up what they think Apple will present. The most popular subject? The iPhone 5C, which we first mocked up in April. While we don’t necessarily believe some of these mockups below from Martin Hajek represent what Apple will release, they do present interesting fodder for discussion.

Definitely head over to Martinhajek.com for many more and full-sized galleries.

(updated to reflect rightful creator)

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Konami releases ‘Contra: Evolution’ for iPhone & iPad, a remixed version of the classic shooting game

May 31 2013 - 5:38 pm PT

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Update (6/26): A US-optimized version of Contra: Evolution has been re-released this morning on the App Store and is available for download now.  This re-issued version of Contra also includes new levels, an improved control system and in-game weapon shop.

Update (6/3):  We have been told that the release of ‘Contra Evolution’ on the US App Store was a mistake.  Konami is currently developing a US version of this game that will be released later this year.  Please stay tuned for more information as it becomes available.

Today Konami released a brand new iteration in the Contra series, although it should look pretty familiar.  Contra Evolution is basically a remix of the original Contra most gamers fell in love with a long time ago in a classic arcade.  At first glance, this title appears to include enough familiarity to embrace nostalgia, while mixing in some new features and characters to keep the gameplay fresh.

https://twitter.com/gmanagent32/status/340628590146252800

Gamers can choose to play as all the original characters plus two brand new female players.  Konami boasts that the updated HD graphics and weapon system “will provide a whole new experience in the world of Contra!”

If you’re feeling nostalgic for some traditional Run n’ Gun gameplay, it’s safe to say Contra Evolution won’t disappoint.  Available as an iPhone or iPad download for $.99 each.

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More purported iPhone 5S parts surface

9to5 Staff May 16 2013 - 7:52 am PT

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BGR claims to have gotten their hands on some iPhone 5S parts. At this stage they could be anything and the parts listed conveniently don’t detail any huge changes. The nano-SIM trays above are reportedly thinner and the different color shown could add weight to the multiple color options claims.

Other parts include the vibrating motor and Wifi chip assemblies that differ slightly from the iPhone 5 design.

These leaks are similar to a previous cache of random parts shown by Nowhereelse.fr. in March (below) and it is hard to know if they are valid parts.

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Apple’s product photographer interviewed

Seth Weintraub May 8 2013 - 1:14 pm PT

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We remember Peter Belanger from pioneering iPhone photography for magazine covers in 2010. Turns out he is now doing regular photoshoots for Apple and often uses a Canon 5D Mark III with a the 24-70mm lens. He gave the Verge some insight on what its like to use the bigger camera for the most demanding clients in the world.

Belanger is the man behind some of Apple’s most iconic product images, a San Francisco-based product photographer at the top of his field. Apple is but one of his clients — he’s done work for everyone from eBay and Nike to Pixar and Square — and we sat down with Peter to talk about his work, his background, and some very, very expensive gear.

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iPhone 5 coming soon to regional carrier Strata Networks covering Idaho, Utah and Colorado

Jordan Kahn Mar 6 2013 - 5:42 am PT

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It looks like another regional carrier is set to receive the iPhone 5. While it has yet to post pricing or exact availability dates, Utah-based Strata Networks recently started advertising that the device is “coming soon” to its network. In November, Strata officially rolled out its LTE network, the first in the Uintah Basin covering several counties in Utah, and the carrier also has local coverage in Idaho, Utah, and Colorado. A map of the carrier’s LTE coverage in Utah is below, while a full map of nationwide coverage can be found here.

Many other regional carriers have been known to offer the device at a discounted price compared to Apple and the major carriers with the iPhone 5 starting at $149 on a two-year contract through many. We’ll update when Strata confirms pricing and availability.

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Twitter puts TweetDeck’s mobile apps out to pasture

9to5 Staff Mar 4 2013 - 4:16 pm PT

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Twitter updated TweetDeck for Mac just last month with over 90 new fixes and features.

However, for those of you who use TweetDeck on iPhone, there is some bad news afoot:

To continue to offer a great product that addresses your unique needs, we’re going to focus our development efforts on our modern, web-based versions of TweetDeck. To that end, we are discontinuing support for our older apps: TweetDeck AIR, TweetDeck for Android and TweetDeck for iPhone. They will be removed from their respective app stores in early May and will stop functioning shortly thereafter. We’ll also discontinue support for our Facebook integration.

“Oh, and screw Facebook too.”

[tweet https://twitter.com/brucecaraway/status/308735851150573568]
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Alleged iPhone 5S assembly line shots show new internal layout, linear motor (Update: clone)

Jordan Kahn Feb 11 2013 - 6:31 am PT

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Update: These are likely an iPhone 5 clone (with better vibrating motor). Note the smaller 1150 mAh battery and the (d’oh) SD card slot.

The images above allegedly show a Foxconn assembly line in addition to some up close spy shots of what could be Apple’s next generation iPhone 5S. The images were originally posted by Chinese CNET/CBSi-owned tech site sjbbs.zol.com and later reposted by GizChina. We see a front panel largely resembling the currently shipping iPhone 5 in the images and some rather nice shots of the devices’ components, providing clues that this is indeed the next-gen iPhone and not the iPhone 5.

As noted by German language website PCgameshardware.de, the iPhone shown in the images above appears to have a vibrating motor that differs from the iPhone 5. Apple used a linear oscillating vibrator with the iPhone 4S, as pictured in this teardown image. iFixit noted the change was a “head-scratcher”:

Unlike the iPhone 4S, which used a linear-oscillating vibrator, Apple has gone back to a rotational motor with a counterweight.We praised Apple in the past for going with the quieter and less annoying linear oscillating vibrator, but now we’re scratching our heads as to why they went back.

While it wasn’t exactly clear as to why, Apple switched back to the sometimes louder, rotational motor that utilizes a counterweight for the iPhone 5. The alleged images of the iPhone 5S show that Apple appears to be going to a linear vibrating motor design (which also makes these spy shots a bit more believable than otherwise).

The post also provides a rare shot of workers relaxing on Foxconn’s assembly line:
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Mophie announces $79 ultra thin/light 1500mAh juice pack ‘Helium’ for iPhone 5

Jordan Kahn Feb 5 2013 - 9:24 am PT

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Mophie announced on Tuesday that its latest juice pack for iPhone 5, an ultra-thin, 1500mAh battery case that the company said is 13 percent thinner than its popular previous-generation juice packs. Mophie is making the $79.95 case available to loyal customers while supplies last on its website, and the battery case will give you around six extra hours of talk time, Internet use, and video playback, and up to 30 hours of audio playback. The darker Metallic color will ship by Feb. 14, and the lighter, silver color will go out sometime in March.

It’s a slightly smaller battery that comes with the 2000mAh juice pack plus that Mophie sells for iPhone 4S, but it’s slightly slimmer than both the “air” and “plus” models at 2.49 in x 5.49 in x 0.59 in.

Engineered with edge-to-edge protection and outfitted with 80% more battery life to keep your iPhone 5 safe and charged, the juice pack helium allows you to truly Do more™. Its elegant, thin design makes it the perfect accessory, easily fitting into any pocket or handbag. The enhanced forward-ported acoustics redirects the iPhone audio towards you, optimizing playback and maximizing your experience.

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Last day it is legal? Unlock your iPhone today

9to5 Staff Jan 25 2013 - 11:01 am PT

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Just a quick note: As we reported, carrier-unlocking your iPhone goes from questionably legal to questionably illegal tonight. So, if you are considering unlocking your iPhone for future use, you may want to take advantage of this last little window.

ChronicUnlocks.com has been a solid provider of iPhone unlocks for our readers and us for a while now if you are looking for a good place to unlock an iPhone. Chronic’s lawyers are working to see if there is a legal way to unlock phones after today, but it might make sense to do it now just in case it isn’t.

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iPhone 5 compared to upcoming BlackBerry Z10 smartphone on video

Jordan Kahn Jan 21 2013 - 9:25 am PT

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=UK0hWJEr874

German-language blog telekom-presse.at posted images and video of BlackBerry’s upcoming Z10 smartphone today said to be running a beta of BB 10. In the video (and images below), the site compared the new 4.2-inch BlackBerry to the slightly smaller and thinner iPhone 5. The Z10 is expected to officially launch at RIM’s upcoming BlackBerry event on Jan. 30 and is rumored to be priced under the iPhone 5’s $199 price tag.

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What happens when iPad mini’s thin bezel design is applied to the 10-inch iPad (mockups)

Jordan Kahn Jan 16 2013 - 6:05 am PT

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We’re no strangers to the work of Martin uit Utrecht. His Rhinoceros 3D renderings based on leaked iPhone 5 parts were good enough to fool many, and we’re almost equally impressed with his latest mock ups of a thinner bezel iPad 5. Design inspiration in this case is of course taken from the iPad mini, which already sports a similar thin bezel, and is what many expect Apple will go for in the next iteration of the full-sized iPad. Martin also noted that the design allowed him to shave 4mm in height, 17mm in width, and 2mm in thickness compared to the current iPad 4 dimensions:

According to sources the design of the new iPad will follow the design language of the iPad mini. This 3D model was based on the accurate model which I made of the iPad mini but keeping the same display size as the large iPad.

iPad 5 vs iPad 3/4 dimensions:
height: 4mm less
width: 17mm less
thickness: 2mm less

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Trade-in value on broken iPhone 4S as much as mint condition Galaxy S2

Jordan Kahn Jan 8 2013 - 11:26 am PT

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Here are some interesting charts from Gazelle at CES that compare trade-in values of the iPhone versus the competition. As you can see from the images above and below, the iPhone, like many Apple products, have tendency of retaining a higher trade-in value longer than other devices. In many situations, months after the release of a device, a broken iPhone 4S with a completely shattered display is worth more or about the same as a seemingly mint condition Galaxy S2 or Galaxy Nexus. A gallery of all the stats Gazelle had on display at CES is below:

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ThinShield, the world’s lightest and thinnest iPhone 5 case

Jordan Kahn Jan 8 2013 - 10:50 am PT

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Sanho, the company behind the HyperJuice external battery products for Mac that we’ve reviewed in the past, just unveiled its latest lineup of products at CES 2013. While introducing some minor updates to its HyperJuice 2 unit (it’s now 12W instead of 10W), as well as the second generation of its iUSBport product (now with two USB ports), I was surprisingly most impressed by its new eco-friendly polypropylene iPhone 5 case…

At just 0.3mm thin, ThinShield is the world’s lightest and thinnest case, according to Sanho, and will land in Q1 for just $20. Normally, I do not use a case on my iPhone 5 (I opt for a leather sleeve instead), mainly because of the extra bulk it adds to the device. Good news for those that come from the same line of thinking: the ThinShield is barely noticeable, especially when throwing black on black or white on white (depending on your iPhone color). Thanks to ThinShield, you’ll soon be able to get scratch and dirt protection while still being able to enjoy the design Apple intended. I’ll be first in line.

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iPhone 5 ship times begin to hit just 2-4 days

Jake Smith Dec 3 2012 - 4:49 am PT

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Since its Sept. 21 launch, the iPhone 5’s shipping time has steadily improved as the holiday season nears. This morning, Apple updated its Australia/New Zealand and some Asian online stores to show the iPhone is now available to ship within “2-4 days”— an improvement from the “1 week” notice that hit at the exact same time last Monday. Just like last week, we expect the ship time changes to roll globally within the next day or so.

As for in-store availability, analyst Gene Munster noted Nov. 21 that in-store stock for the iPhone 5 has improved. At the time, the iPhone 5 was available in 92 percent of Apple Stores for Sprint, 82 percent for AT&T, and 72 percent for Verizon.
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iPhone 5 touchscreen glitch could be a problem for game developers (Video)

Jordan Kahn Nov 9 2012 - 7:00 am PT

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=BnioM-nkhqc#!]

First noticed by game developer CMA Megacorp, the iPhone 5 appears to react differently than previous generations of the device when sliding a finger diagonally across the screen in quick succession. The average user might not notice the glitch, but the issue could be a problem for game developers that rely on quick diagonal scrolling and swiping motions. As highlighted by Recombu in the video above, “the problem is exacerbated by scrolling diagonally and as you can see only occurs on the iPhone 5.” In the video, we see the theory put to the test on two iPhone 4Ss and two iPhone 5s, one of each running iOS 6.0 and 6.0.1, indicating the issue might indeed be hardware related.

[tweet https://twitter.com/CMA_Megacorp/status/266870789599531008]