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12 'Linkbait' stories October 2012 - August 2014
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Is this iPhone case company worth $2.5B? Goldman Sachs thinks so.

Avatar for Mike Beasley Aug 26 2014 - 5:50 pm PT
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screen-shot-2013-05-31-at-12-54-31-pm

From Reuters:

Otter Products LLC, the privately held company that makes the OtterBox protective cases for mobile phones, is exploring a sale that could value the company at more than $2.5 billion, including debt, according to people familiar with the matter.

Otter Products, founded in 1998 by entrepreneur Curt Richardson and owned by him and his family, has hired investment bank Goldman Sachs Group Inc to manage the sale process, the people said this week.

Some private equity firms have expressed interest in the company, the people added, cautioning that no deal is certain.

Looks like smartphone case maker Otterbox may be looking to cash in on its success to the tune of $2.5 billion. That would be quite the sale, if anyone were to take them up on it. Otterbox itself acquired fellow case maker Lifeproof last year.

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….and here are your plastic iPhone volume controls in Green, Red, Blue and Yellow

Avatar for 9to5 Staff Jul 11 2013 - 3:35 am PT
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plastic-iPhone-volume-buttons

All of these could be knockoffs of course as we’ve said countless times since news of the plastic iPhone is months old and Chinese companies are already confirmed to be building Android knockoffs. BenjaminTech via Gene

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More iPhone plastic shells in Yellow, Green, Gray, Blue and Red

Avatar for Seth Weintraub Jul 10 2013 - 4:45 am PT
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iPhone-plastic-shells-colors.

Personally, I like these better. In fact, since we released our mockups 4 months ago, it has created a lot of time for knockoff makers to manufacture their own, in no way guaranteeing these or any of the others below are from Apple.   via @sonnydickson

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Want to try iOS 7 without bricking your phone? (Update: pulled)

Avatar for Scott Buscemi Jun 18 2013 - 12:04 pm PT
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Screen Shot 2013-06-18 at 11.56.12 AM

If you want to try out iOS 7 for yourself without the risk of bricking your phone or dealing with constant restarts, Recumbo is housing an interactive demo on the website. Besides the transitions between screens, it may feel like you’re staring at a bunch of screenshots, but it does a great job at demonstrating the newly designed iOS. If you’re using Firefox or Chrome, you can also use your webcam to take pictures in the Photos app. Be sure to check out Notification Center and Control Center while you’re at it.

Update: Not so fast! It looks like Apple asked Recumbo to remove the demo.

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Kevin Rose gives his familiar WWDC predictions [Video]

Avatar for 9to5 Staff Jun 6 2013 - 8:28 am PT
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The Digg founder and current Google Ventures partner has a storied history with Apple rumors. For instance, he predicted the Retina iPad but was just over a year early on that. In that post we noted that Rose’s predictions were a bit shaky:

Rose has been very hit-and-miss over the years in terms of his Apple predictions. Prior to the launch of the first iPhone he incorrectly predicted the device having a physical keyboard and most recently, Rose claimed the new Apple TV would be called the “iTV” and would include an App Store as well as ad supported TV stations. On the other hand, Rose was correct about the Apple TV’s September launch date, iPad remote feature, and $99 price point and was also correct about the fourth-generation iPod nano’s features and even posted a photo of it. Rose was also correct about copy/paste in iOS 3.0 as well as new iTunes features.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1Nq6_ayB1tc&start=3613]

In this case, Kevin Rose’s source seems to be a big 9to5mac reader. MacBook Airs? Sure, sure. Big changes in iOS 7? Yeah, yeah and yeah. We’ll have the definitive WWDC 2013 roundup later today.

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Plastic iPhone back plate spotted in China or just iPhone 5 in a case?

Avatar for Seth Weintraub Jun 3 2013 - 5:20 am PT
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plastic-iPhone-case-lightning

Numerous global sites are running images this morning with what the posters claim are plastic backings of upcoming ‘value’ iPhones. Because of the lack of any evidence that these are real we’re running these only for discussion. As Mark said last night, these could be anything.

https://twitter.com/markgurman/status/341290891761303554

The above image appears to have a Lightning cable inserted but no markings on the back while the below image seems to show another look at the back.

plastic iPhone

Nowhereelse.fr applied filters to the top image and from that it appears that the plastic iPhone shell is just a case…

Screen Shot 2013-06-03 at 9.27.01 AM

In other unlikely iPhone 5S news, Apple.hdblog.it thinks it has found a bunch of the iPhone 5S parts we’ve been seeing for the past few months:

iphone-5S-parts-leak

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Apple trolls us with ‘iWatch’ tease in latest iPhone music ad

Avatar for Michael Steeber May 24 2013 - 9:38 am PT
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Watch

Here’s an amusing little image for your Friday: the screenshot above is a clip from Apple’s newest “Music Every Day” ad, which was posted on their YouTube channel last night.

If you pay attention at around 0:30 in the commercial, you’ll see what would almost appear to be someone wearing a large, wrist-device while listening to music on their iPhone.

While obviously Apple wouldn’t leak a real product through their advertisements, we can’t help but think that this is perhaps a subtle troll on Apple’s part.

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Apple CEO Tim Cook in high school: Most studious, plaid pants, War Eagle (Gallery)

Avatar for 9to5 Staff Mar 30 2013 - 2:46 am PT
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Some fine images from CEO Tim Cook’s high school days [1975-6] via Redditor whitbaker

Tim Cook attended the same high school as my mother, and she spoke highly of him. These are pictures from the 1975 and 1976 yearbooks from Robertsdale High School in Robertsdale, AL. She passed away in February 2011, but was following his success in Apple, and was quite proud (she was two years older). She served as editor of the yearbook her senior year, and he was part of the yearbook staff. Also, while in high school, he worked for my grandfather’s independent pharmacy in town. He passed it down to my mother, and I am currently working there now. I hope you guys enjoy these old pictures, I thought it was cool to see someone so successful back in the day! Auburn fans, notice the “War Eagle” on the last page!

[re: Your/You’re] Haha yes, he sure did! He was a tenth grader at the time, so I guess we can let him slide. And yes, we are from a small town in south Alabama, and he is our claim to fame, I guess. His parents still do business at our drug store, and my uncle actually saw him in Starbucks during the holidays and introduced himself. I was jealous! :)

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iPad mini mockups go close range

Avatar for 9to5 Staff Oct 8 2012 - 9:52 am PT
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Here are some more iPad mini mockups: this time, we are getting a very close look at these models supposedly based on the real deal. The recently decommissioned Apple YouTube app shows us we are still looking at the same mockups we have seen before—just much closer. Sonny Dickson also posted alleged leaked photos of the iPad Mini. Check it out below:

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Analyst predicts iPad mini to outshine iPad 3, declines to give specifics

Avatar for Élyse Betters Oct 8 2012 - 9:00 am PT
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AllThingsD is out with a fresh report this morning about the iPad mini supposedly “outshining” the new iPad.

AllThingsD’s John Paczkowski summarized Tokepa analyst Brian White’s thoughts, citing “chatter from Apple’s overseas supply chain,” and he said the Cupertino, Calif.-based company is not “cutting corners” despite trying to keep the iPad mini’s price on-par with Google’s Nexus 7 and Amazon’s Kindle Fire. White mentioned the iPad mini possibly being even “slicker than the new iPad.”

According to the report:

Not much to go on, I realize. But White’s supply chain sources have been solid in the past, and here at AllThingsD we too have been hearing promising things about the iPad mini’s design, which sources say demands a lot of the companies manufacturing it. This is something White has been hearing, as well, and he thinks it could make the device hard to come by initially. “The new ‘iPad Mini’ is more challenging to produce than prior iPad iterations,” he says. “We believe supply will initially be constrained.”

It is interesting that White has travelled around talking to Asian suppliers and can claim the iPad mini will upstage the original iPad, but he cannot offer one specific detail on how this will happen. Perhaps he is held to secrecy on these topics.


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