Tag: iphone

Kids say Apple watch uncool

Posted on March 13, 2015 by - News

uncool-yellowbutton_web-600While the Tame Apple Press and older people think that Apple’s new watch is a good idea, the kids of today think it is as uncool as your dad dancing at the school disco.

Marketing research company Fizziology analyzed nearly a million tweets around Apple’s big iWatch announcement, and it turns out that millennials aren’t as excited about the Apple Watch as many people may have thought.

According to the research, those over 35 years old were twice as likely to discuss the Watch than those under 35. In addition, the research showed that one in six tweets about the Apple Watch were negative.

This seems to indicate that Apple, rather than attracting the hipsters, is getting their parents with its iWatch. This will be the kiss of death for Apple’s normal target market. In fact analysts believe that sales of the iPhone stalled when kids realised they were popular with their parents.

The Tame Apple press attempted to reassure their readers that interest in the Apple Watch will pick up.

“Just because people aren’t talking positively about the new product doesn’t mean it won’t sell well: The iPad received extremely negative response after the announcement, and look at their sales now,”” sniffed Neowin. Given that sales of the tablet are falling fast, we are not sure what Neowin’s point was here.

Apple’s iWatch disappoints

Posted on March 10, 2015 by - News, Opinions

tim-cook-glareOne thing that is weird about the Tame Apple Press is that if Apple makes a big cock up it really has nothing to say.

If Apple’s iWatch was even a little bit interesting, the press would have been over the top in its enthusiasm. There would have been a ton of coverage and lots of snaps of  the grimly smiling Tim Cook looking like an evil magician on his way to a baby boiling conference.

Sure there was the usual staged Nuremberg rally, where Apple staffers, fanboys and the Tame Apple Press cheered the arrival of the iPhone with the usual standing ovulation. But they would have done that anyway.

What was interesting was how muted the rest of the press coverage was. Warning signs tipped up when the Italian television news, which only reports bollocks like this,  gave the iWatch a token 30 seconds. Most of that 30 seconds was a free advert for the iPhone and hardly mentioned the watch at all. By contrast the iPhone 6 got 15 minutes when it launched and Prime Minister of Italy Matteo Renzi smuggly umming and erring his way through a 20 minute speech was covered verbatim.

A search through the wires this morning showed the usual suspects giving an uncharacteristically muted coverage. The News Republic did not even mention the watch, and instead talked about Cook’s tweet about not sleeping before the launch.

So why the disappointed response? Apple’s iWatch has arrived nearly two years behind its rivals and it basically has nothing to offer for its huge price tag $350 price tag.

Apple to enter this limited market had to really wow people with new functionality and it simply didn’t. Jobs’ Mob’s first real “innovation” since the death of Steve was an overpriced copy of what was already on the market.

What could have improved the watch’s chances was a killer app involving health care readings, but beyond a basic heart rate meter Apple could not get it to go.

Another thing which could have made it more interesting was it being independent from its iPhone.
However the watch needs the phone to function, meaning that if you are Christy Turlington Burns and you take the thing on your run you have to lug your heavy iphone with you. If you are carrying the phablet version of the phone that is really heavy. It might make you a better runner to carry all that weight, but since most iPhone users are carrying a few extra pounds anyway it is probably not a good idea.

So if you want the watch for sport, the iWatch does some of what you want, less efficiently, for three times the price of a sports product.

If you want the watch to complement your iPhone then it fails there too. Why do you need something on your wrist that your iPhone already has in your pocket?

All this does not mean the iWatch will fail. In fact it is a screaming indictment of modern civilisation that the iWatch will probably sell in reasonable numbers. Apple might be able to save the product in version two by getting the health functionality going. But they are empty sales. They are people buying something they don’t need, because it has an Apple logo. You can only get away with that so often.

But this is not the sort of product that even the Tame Apple Press wants to peddle. Instead they are wandering away whistling, not daring to point out this Emperor has no clothes on in case Apple blacklists them.

But smarter minds, who are worried that Apple has run out of ideas, are selling their shares. A mate of mine who has had them since the iPhone, dumped the lot when he heard that Apple had removed a ton of health functionality from the product. He reasons that ultimately Apple will fail because it has become too big and run out of ideas. The iWatch proves it.

Church forced to buy thousands of dollars worth of iPhones

Posted on March 5, 2015 by - News

apple-disney-dreams-snow-white-Favim.com-142405A US church is scratching its head after it was charged for thousands dollars of iPhones , that it never bought.

It seems that God works in mysterious ways and is dropping the hint that the old religion is past, and Christians everywhere should be worshipping shiny consumer toys with an Apple on them.

A mysterious person used the Fountain of Life’s name to buy more than a thousand dollars worth of iPhones.

A man first tried to buy iPhones in the church’s name at Verizon, but was sent forth into outer darkness by the Apple staff who suspected he was not telling the truth. However when the man came back Apple staff realised he was a true believer and the buy  went through.

The Fountain of Life’s pastor, Preson Pitchford ,was shocked that someone would use the church’s good name to get the tools of a rival consumer based religion like that.

Wells was in her office at the church on the day of reckoning when she received the bill from AT&T.

The bill charged the church for 17 iPhones, all bought on separate days with different phone numbers.

“That just amazes me that somebody could get away with it not just once, not just twice, but multiple times,” Pitchford said. “We don’t use iPhones here at the church. We don’t even use AT&T.”

The suspect used the church’s address and a fake federal tax ID number. Police are still working to figure out if the phones were bought from a store or online.

Pitchford fears it could happen to another church.

“This guy is polished,” Pitchford said. “He’s done it before, and he will do it again.”

AT&T told church members they won’t have to pay the money, that it will be taken care of by the company’s fraud department.

Apple plans six monthly iPhones

Posted on December 1, 2014 by - News

two-applesBad news for Apple fanboys who have to take out a mortgage every time Jobs’ Mob releases a new phone – the fruity cargo cult might release a new one every six months.

The dark satanic rumour mill has manufactured a hell on earth rumour which suggests that Apple’s policy of releasing only one phone a year will be scrapped.

Apple is looking at a condensed six month release timetable going forward in order to not only keep up with the more frequent releases from Samsung but also to provide a boost to iPhone sales when the iWatch launches in the spring.

Jobs’ Mob has offered an S-model every other year because most carriers have only allowed their customers to upgrade every eighteen to twenty-four months. That is set to change as Verizon NEXT and AT&T EDGE allow more frequent smartphone upgrades than the traditional every other year eligibility, making that traditional timetable obsolete.

Apple has also heavily invested in the idea of making a major design change every other year.

This means that the iPhone 7 and iPhone 6S both arriving in autumn, with the 7 being the more expensive flagship model and the 6S being the mid-range model from day one.

Apple is hesitant about launching the iWatch in the spring of 2015 without a new iPhone to go along with it, as it could give hesitant consumers an excuse to wait on buying both until the fall.

This means that the iPhone 6S a release date in the spring with the Watch, and then launching the iPhone 7 in Sept 2015. Another plan being looked at is the iPhone 6S arriving in the spring and sticking around for a full year, with the iPhone 7 being released in the spring of 2016.

However, this could all backfire. Apple fans loyally buy their toys once every year, and this could be shaken if they have to do this once every six months. Lately changes to the iPhone have been cosmetic and this is likely to get worse if there is a six-month release cycle. Soon Apple fanboys will wake up to the fact that they are buying the same phone with changes which are just not worthwhile bankrupting themselves thinking different every six months.

 

 

Apple asks Samsung for help to fix iPhone 6

Posted on November 28, 2014 by - News

ByRWIdiIUAAWry9Apple is turning to smartphone archrival Samsung in order to fix an  iBug with its new iPhone 6 phablet.

The super expensive machines keep crashing which is something that Apple does not like talking about much.

According to Business Korea Jobs’ Mob is going to buy more components from Samsung for its iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, along with Apple Watch parts.

In return Samsung is going to help Apple fix a bug in the NAND flash in the higher storage 64GB which is triple-level cell flash and the SK Hynix, Toshiba and SanDisk TLC NAND the 128 GB models.

Samsung will supply fresh modules which avoid the performance issues that some users have encountered.

This isn’t the only bug Apple has had with its phablet, either. Some users have reported problems with the camera, namely the optical image stabilisation (OIS) going awry and causing blurry shots.  Apple’s answer seems to be to return to its old business partner and get some decent gear under the bonnet.

 

Apple made into security lemon curd

Posted on November 14, 2014 by - News

LemoncurdAlthough the Tame Apple Press makes much of the security features of the iPhone, it is still the easiest phone to hack.

The Mobile Pwn2Own competition that took place alongside the PacSec Applied Security Conference in Tokyo on November 12-13 has a long tradition of knocking over the latest smartphones and always finds Apple smartphones the easiest.

If you believe the Tame Apple Press, the iPhone  with its sandbox technology was supposed to be super-secure. However it turns out that the iPhone continues to be a doddle. In fact, it has become traditional for the first day of the competition for Apple to be shown up.

In this case, members of the South Korean team lokihardt@ASRT “pwned” the device by using a combination of two vulnerabilities. They attacked the iPhone 5s via the Safari Web browser and achieved a full sandbox escape.

The competition, organised by HP’s Zero Day Initiative (ZDI) and sponsored by BlackBerry and the Google Android Security team, targeted the Amazon Fire Phone, iPhone 5s, iPad Mini, BlackBerry Z30, Google Nexus 5 and Nexus 7, Nokia Lumia 1520, and Samsung Galaxy S5.

Later in the day, Team MBSD from Japan hacked Samsung’s Galaxy S5 by using a near-field communications (NFC) attack that triggered a deserialisation problem in certain code specific to Samsung. Jon Butler of South Africa’s MWR InfoSecurity also managed to break the Galaxy S5 via NFC.

Adam Laurie from Aperture Labs hacked an LG Nexus 5 using NFC.  This was an interesting hack because it used a two-bug exploit targeting NFC capabilities on the LG Nexus 5 (a Google-supported device) to force BlueTooth pairing between phones.  This was a plot point on the telly show ‘Person of Interest’.

Kyle Riley, Bernard Wagner, and Tyrone Erasmus of MWR InfoSecurity used a combination of three vulnerabilities to break the Web browser on the Amazon Fire Phone.

Microsoft’s Nokia Lumia 1520 came out of the competition quite well with contestants only managing partial hacks. Nico Joly, managed to exfiltrate the cookie database, but the sandbox prevented him from taking complete control of the system.

Jüri Aedla of Estonia used a Wi-Fi attack against a Nexus 5, but failed to elevate his privileges, HP said.

 

Apple apologist hack hit by instant karma

Posted on October 24, 2014 by - News

burke

Samuel Burke

Just when you thought that Apple’s super bendy, overpriced, low spec iPhone 6 could not be a bigger lemon, it turns out that using its Pay function will cost you an arm and a leg.

It seems that not just the design geniuses at Apple need firing for the iPhone 6, but the programmers should also get a written warning and a lecture from HR.

Jobs’ Mob’ much over praised Apple Pay double charges users for no apparent reason. Multiple users have reported being charged twice for a single purchase when using the new NFC-based mobile payments system, which just went live on October 20.

Fortunately, at least one person who suffered from having their bank accounts emptied by their shiny toys were the same people who had been praising it to the skies when the iPhone 6 was launched.

The Tame Apple Press’s appropriately named CNN Tech reporter Samuel Burke  who rushed to Apple’s defence during bendgate by insisting that the iPhone 6 did  not bend found himself dealing with some instant karma for telling people about how brilliant the product was.

Burke moaned he was billed twice for every Apple Pay purchase he made with his Bank of America card via Apple Pay. Multiple Twitter users reported the same problem, and most complaints are coming from those Bank of America cards.

The Bank of America claims that the problem is with Apple Pay and not the bank, according to Burke’s report, and said in a statement that all duplicate charges will be reimbursed.

Apple of course trotted out its usual line that only a small number of users were affected and insisted it was a Bank of America problem.

Tesla car is a big computer

Posted on October 15, 2014 by - News

Tesla Model SThe people at market research company IHS are known for taking apart PCs, iPhones and iPads to find out what the bill of materials (BOM) is.

Now IHS has gone that little bit further and taken a Tesla Model S apart.  We guess a Tesla Model S would make a reasonable meal for Monsieur Mangetout but it doesn’t appear he was called in to have a snack.

IHS suggests that the Model S is more of a computer than a car.  Andrew Rassweiler, director for materials at IHS, said: “It’s like looking at the components from the latest mobile device from an Apple iPad or Samsung Galaxy. When it comes to the user facing segment of the Model S’s electronics, the company has radically departed from business as usual in the automotive market.”

He said the cost structure of the electronics, the use of large displays, mobile microchips suggess the Model S is more like a smartphone than a traditional car.

Components include a 17-inch display, an Nvidia Tegra 3 1.4GHz quad core microprocessor and a OM twice the cost of the highest end “infotainment” unit.

Rassweiller said that the display is 10 inches larger than most car head units, with a resolution of 1,920 by 1,200.

IHS said it hasn’t finished taking the car apart yet, so perhaps Monsieur Mangtout – who once ate a plane – has a treat in store.

Chinese snoop on iPhone protesters

Posted on October 2, 2014 by - News

apple fanboysThe Chinese government appears to be cracking down on Hong Kong protesters who use an iPhone or iPad.

Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered a computer virus that spies on Apple Inc’s iOS operating system for the iPhone and iPad, and they believe it is targeting pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong.

Dubbed Xsser, the software can steal text messages, photos, call logs, passwords and other data from Apple gear.

Researchers with Lacoon Mobile Security uncovered the spyware while investigating similar malware for Google Android operating system last week that also targeted Hong Kong protesters.

Lacoon Chief Executive Michael Shaulov said that Xsser is the most sophisticated malware used to date in any known cyberattack on iOS users.

It is not clear what the Chinese government hopes to learn from an Apple fanboy’s account, there is just so much you can learn from a complete Coldplay collection and an undeletable U2 album.

It is unclear how iOS devices get infected with Xsser, which is not disguised as an app particularly as Apple claims that its software is super secure.

The code used to control that server is written in Chinese. The high quality of the campaign and the fact it is being used to target protesters suggests that it is coming from a sophisticated attacker in China.

“It is the first time in history that you actually see an operationalized iOS Trojan that is attributed to some kind of Chinese entity,” Shaulov said.

Lacoon said on its blog that it is possible the attackers might have deployed the Trojan in other places, in addition to spying on pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong.

“It can cross borders easily, and is possibly being operated by a Chinese-speaking entity to spy on individuals, foreign companies, or even entire governments,” they said in their bog.

 

“iPhone clone” faces cloning problems

Posted on September 29, 2014 by - News

OrphanBlacChinese phone maker Xiaomi, which faces continual attacks from the Tame Apple Press for daring to make a phone similar to Apple’s, is facing a cloning problem of its own.

Chief Communications Officer Li Lei at Xiaomi said that it was wrong that Xiaomi was an iPhone clone and the outfit created a masterpiece from scratch.

Where Xiaomi is similar to Apple is that it has a strategy of selling single models in large quantities.

“That is why Xiaomi products give such impression,” added Li. “We release very few models a year. As everyone knows iPhone 4 and 5, everyone knows Xiaomi 3 and 4.”

Li said that Xiaomi’s strong points were that its products reflect Chinese users’ unique characteristics or experiences. That is the same to other Xiaomi electronic products, including mobile phones.

Ironically Xiaomi’s biggest problem is knock offs. It has launched its products in the Philippines, India, Indonesia, Hong Kong and Taiwan. It plans to advance into 10 more countries within this year.

“The biggest problem of a fake is that it cannot guarantee the quality and also taints reputation of Xiaomi. Consumers may complain ‘How come a Xiaomi product is in poor quality,’ and give poor evaluation on Xiaomi products,” Lei said.

Of course, the Tame Apple Press thinks that is just one giant karma boomerang which they are praying is returning to bite Xiaomi.

Apple not worried about being Shellshocked

Posted on September 29, 2014 by - News

tim-cook-securityWhen the Shellshock security hole was revealed, Apple users were warned that it would affect all users of the Mac operating system.

Given that Apple can send out updates, and the Shellshock vulnerability is comparatively simple to fix, one would expect Jobs’ Mob to send out an update smartly.

Apple has made a statement that it was “working to quickly provide a fix” to the vulnerability. However, a company spokesperson said that most Mac OS X users have nothing to fear as Apple gear was invulnerable to any attack.

“OS X, systems are safe by default and not exposed to remote exploits of bash unless users configure advanced UNIX services. We are working to quickly provide a software update for our advanced UNIX users.”

Chet Ramey, the maintainer of bash, said in a post to Twitter that he had notified Apple of the vulnerability several times before it was made public, “and sent a patch they can apply” and “several messages”,

However Jobs’ Mob has not already packaged that fix for release and has largely ignored the problem.  The problem is that Apple refuses to trust anyone and is insisting that its own developers make modifications to the bash code.

 

Psychic forces bent my iPhone

Posted on September 29, 2014 by - News

uri-geller-2Apple’s super-bendy iPhone might not be a product of poor structural design at all, but problems might be down to psychic forces, according to top spoon bender Uri Geller.

Geller who is an expert in bending metal objects with his mind says Apple’s bending iPhone 6 woes could be explained by “mental forces”.

Geller said there were two possible reasons for the phenomenon. Either the device is extremely thin so that it bends when even a weak force is implied on it.

However, Geller discounts this because he finds it hard to believe that a company of Apple’s stature hadn’t conducted tests on the thing before putting it into the shops. Otherwise Apple would just be a shonky company selling expensive gear crippled by the stupid ideas of an out of control, over powerful design team.

Instead, Geller’s theory is that the energy and excitement of the millions of consumers stirred up their mental forces causing the iPhone to bend.

He has offered to work for Apple to explain to the world that the phenomenon is not at all the company’s fault.

Geller has some experience in this apparently. Once he bent his Blackberry with the power of his mind.

We do not think Apple will take him up on it. It insists that only nine customers have complained that their phones went floppy after they stuck it in their pants.

Apple’s iPhone6 will be tricky to fix

Posted on September 19, 2014 by - News

maxresdefaultGadget repair firm iFixit has voided the warranty on an iPhone 6 to see what was under the bonnet and found that it would be a major headache to repair.

Apparently to get inside you have to extract two proprietary Pentalobe screws, and then lever the entire front display assembly away from the rest of the body with a suction cup, being careful not to rip the TouchID sensor wire clean off. Apple clearly does not want anyone looking inside or fixing it themselves.

The battery is bigger than previous iPhones — it has a 2915mAh battery, which is nearly double the 1560mAh cell in the iPhone 5S. However, it smaller than most Phablets, which means that it lacks the juice of its rivals. The Galaxy Note 3 has a 3200mAh up its sleeve.

The iPhone 6 also has a disappointing 1GB of RAM. Most high-end Android phones have 2-3GB.

iFixit technicians also discovered a Murata (6981.T) wifi module, a Broadcom touchscreen controller, and chips from Skyworks, Avago and TriQuint.

The phones are Apple’s first to include NFC radio chips used for the new Apple Pay mobile payment platform. The NFC chip in the iPhone 6 Plus comes from NXP Semiconductors (NXPI.O).

NXP also supplies a motion co-processor, key to making the iPhone’s sensors work without draining its battery.

As in other iPhones, Apple has designed its own main processor with technology licensed from ARMand in this device it is the A8 chip.

The iPhone 6 Plus opened by iFixit also included a NAND flash memory chip, used for storing music and photos, made by SK Hynix.  Apple in the past has depended on multiple companies to supply its memory chips.

 

Apple is in the Last Chance saloon

Posted on September 9, 2014 by - News, Opinions

last-chance Today Apple will get a chance to spin its way out of trouble with one of its product presentations.

While its allies in the journalism world have been doing their best to sacrifice their credibility by peddling rumours about what Apple is going to show off, it is almost certainly going to be the long delayed Smartwatch and another iPhone.

But Apple has not had a new product for four years and many believe it needs to come up with something new or lose its reputation as an innovator to some of its rivals.

And this is where it has a problem. It only has a smartwatch and a phablet, both of which have been done to death by rivals.

No doubt presenting these shiny toys will get Apple CEO Tim Cook a standing ovation, but getting one of those at an Apple rally is like getting one at a Tory Party conference.

Apple will also get fanboys queuing for their new iPhone and some, no doubt will want one of these watches.

But the question many should be asking is “is any of this new, or innovative and will it keep Apple relevant?”

The creation of the mobile phone actually killed off the wristwatch and many people would require training to put one back on. So far smartwatches have found their place amongst those who want to measure their heart rates while doing exercise. This is not a big target market, and there is some competition out there for Apple.

Apple got away with its launches into the smartphone and the tablet market because what it presented was largely new.  Smartphones had been around, but they were ugly, clunkly and very expensive. Apple pushed its tablets to consumers, something that Microsoft had ruled out and had some success.

But the field has changed. Apple is competing on all fronts with rivals who have cheaper and in some cases better products.

The Phablet is a case in point. Apple fanboys mocked phablet owns for holding large phones to their ears, and yet the phone’s usability in comparison to smaller phones became clear fast.

Apple had to eat humble pie and admit that it had it wrong when it came to phablet size, in the same way that it had to admit that it was wrong about people wanting smaller tablets.

In all these things Apple has been playing catch-up and is not doing that well.

Analysts appear optimistic that Apple will pull another rabbit out of a hat. Michael Yoshikami, CEO of Destination Wealth Management told Reuters that Apple’s pipeline is finally going to satisfy those who have wondered if the company has any new products.

But even if Cook wows them with products at today’s rally, it is a long way before products will hit the market. Word on the street is that the Smartwatch is still not ready and unlikely to go on sale until sometime in 2015. Apple may not even reveal its price on today.

Apple was planning to show off its iCloud based products, such as Mobile Wallet. Apple has reportedly struck deals with Visa, MasterCard and American Express. It has also come up with its “HealthKit” data service earlier this year made it clear that it sees its products helping consumers manage personal health information. By incorporating the HealthKit service into the iPhone 6, and by packing its smartwatch with sensors capable of monitoring physical movements and heart rates, Apple could lay the groundwork for a broader push into mobile healthcare.

The problem for Apple is the recent iCloud security scandal which saw countless starlets have their naked pictures put online. Apple made matters worse by pretending it was not a security fault with the iCloud, when it clearly was.

The last thing you need a couple of weeks before you release a clutch of iCloud products is for people to question if it is safe sticking their data on Apple’s systems.

All up, we think that Apple will have a hard time convincing sane people that it has a special plan to pull itself away from mediocrity. The Tame Apple Press will try to convince you otherwise, but we suspect that cooler heads will be wondering how Apple could have sunk so low.

Apple rumoured to unveil smartwatch

Posted on September 8, 2014 by - News

Apple's CEO Tim Cook - shot from WikimediaA number of fashion journalists has been invited to Apple’s big launch in San Francisco tomorrow and that’s led to speculation that it will, after all, show off a smartwatch.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that fashion editors and bloggers “in unprecedented numbers” have been invited to the jamboree.

Apple is currently suffering from a perception that it has not really shown off anything new since the introduction of its iPad some years back.  Its share price on Wall Street has suffered too.

But even if Apple’s CEO Tim Cook (pictured) does show off a smartwatch, Taiwanese suppliers reported just last week that several components were still in early testing stage and that it is unlikely that an Apple smartwatch will be available to buy until 2015.

Apple also joins a slew of other vendors hoping that smartwatches will really light up peoples’ lives.

The launch tomorrow, could be rather banal, with Apple just introducing another iPhone to its range.