iphone

Why Apple and Google should be scared of Amazon

Mobile is the future, and nobody wants to be left behind, because losing would mean certain death.

The iPhone accounts for a whopping $150 billion of Apple's revenues over the last five years. Google spent $12.5 billion in order to acquire Motorola. Microsoft and Nokia have finally built a flagship Windows phone (though they seriously need to fire whoever named it).

Amazon is the company everyone should be watching in this space, though. The online retailer first struck gold with the Kindle e-reader in 2007. A few years later, Amazon decided that Apple and Google needed some competition … Read more

Apple could drop iPhone 3GS next week, says report

The introduction of the iPhone 5 is expected to shake up the overall iPhone lineup.

Apple will hold a launch event on Wednesday, September 12, at which it will probably unveil the next-generation iPhone. Several reports say that the iPhone 5 will go on sale the following Friday, September 21.

The new model means that Apple could curtail the aging iPhone 3GS, leaving the 8GB version of the iPhone 4 as the entry-level edition, says the Telegraph. If so, that model iPhone 4 would probably be offered for free by Apple and other vendors when paired with the usual $30-per-month … Read more

Giftly rewraps gift cards in iPhone app

Each year, 80 percent of Americans use gift cards, with 3 billion given in 2011. Now Giftly aims to take gift cards mobile by encouraging people to give gifts and experiences through an iOS app.

The app, launched yesterday, allows individuals to give their friends and family virtual gift cards, known as "Giftlys," via their iPhone or iPod Touch.

Giftlys come with a note to the recipient telling them what the gift-giver would like them to get, and where they would like them to get it -- for example, a night at the movies or dinner at a … Read more

Report: Chinese students forced to 'intern' at iPhone factory

Students from a university in Huai'an, Jiangsu Province, allegedly have been forced to do assembly work at a Foxconn plant under the guise of internships, according to the Shanghai Daily.

The newspaper reports that 200 students were driven to a factory run by Foxconn after the company experienced a labor shortage ahead of Apple's anticipated new iPhone, which is likely to be revealed at a September 12 press event.

Citing a student from the Huai'an Institute of Technology under the online alias MengniuIQ84, the publication writes that after working on production lines, each student was paid 1,… Read more

Sharp mortgages iPhone screen factory, Japanese plants and offices

Electronics maker Sharp has mortgaged almost all of its domestic offices and factories in order to stay in business.

The properties were offered as collateral for up to 150 billion yen ($1.92 billion) of credit from Mizuho Financial Group and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, according to Reuters.

Company spokeswoman Miyuki Nakayama told Reuters the offering includes "almost all the business sites owned by Sharp in Japan."

Sharp operates 11 factories in Japan that make products including display screens, TVs and solar panels. The Kameyama plant in western Japan manufactures screens for Apple and is thought to have … Read more

Apple's Sept. 12 iPhone 5 event: What to expect

The wait is almost over.

Apple has officially announced a September 12 press event in San Francisco, confirming months of rumors. And the invitation (reproduced above) leaves little doubt that the event will be the rollout of the iPhone 5 (or whatever name Apple chooses for its sixth-generation iPhone).

Rarely has a product ever been so analyzed, so rumored, and so leaked as Apple's next-gen phone. Not a day, or even an hour, goes by without a new picture of the rumored case, screen, connector jack, even headphones. Has all the excitement already been spilled, or is there something … Read more

Apple user data uncovered by hackers

Tuesday's tech news roundup is cracking the code:

Members of the hacker activist movement AntiSec claim they accessed an FBI agent's laptop and found the unique device identification numbers for 12 million Apple iOS devices. The group posted one million of these ID numbers online. Hackers criticized the data that these UUID numbers can reveal about a user, and called into question what the data could be used for.

These UUIDs are not the same as Apple ID email and passwords used to log into iTunes accounts. Rather, these are unique serial numbers for every Apple device, and … Read more

iPhone 5 on shopping list of majority of iPhone 4 owners

The next iPhone device, which many are calling the iPhone 5, is being eyed by a hefty number of iPhone 4 owners.

A full 74 percent of iPhone 4 owners will upgrade to the next iPhone, according to survey results out today from deal site TechBargains.

The iPhone 5 is also on the shopping list of 71 percent of iPhone 3GS owners, 64 percent of iPhone 4S owners, 38 percent of Blackberry owners, and 22 percent of Android owners, all of whom plan to switch from their current handsets. The poll further discovered that 32 percent of people who don'… Read more

Upset! iPhone 4S surrenders U.S. crown to Galaxy S3

Samsung Electronics' Galaxy S3 surpassed the iPhone 4S as the top-selling U.S. smartphone in August, the first time that Apple's flagship phone has relinquished its position atop the smartphone food chain.

That's according to Canaccord Genuity analyst T. Michael Walkley, who checks in with retailers to see how each phone is doing.

The iPhone 4S, which initially launched with AT&T, Verizon Wireless, and Sprint Nextel, and then expanded to a number of other carriers, has held the top spot as the single best-selling phone ever since it launched in October. To have held on to … Read more