iOS

Apple has acquired WiFiSlam, a company that makes an app that lets smartphones locate themselves indoors using ambient Wi-Fi signals that already exist in buildings.

The deal was reported by The Wall Street Journal's Digits blog, which said Apple confirmed the acquisition but had no further comment other than to say that Apple "buys smaller technology companies from time to time." Digits said Apple paid $20 million for WiFiSlam.

The WiFiSlam page on AngelList describes the company's product like so:

Allow your smartphone to pinpoint its location (and the location of your friends) in real-time to … Read more

Alongside its decree to have developers phase out a retired device-tracking technology in their apps, Apple yesterday also set down a rule that requires developers to support its latest devices.

In a notice on its developer site, Apple set a May 1 deadline that will require all new apps and app updates to support the Retina Display and taller, 4-inch display found on the iPhone 5 and latest iPod Touch.

These devices have only been out since September and October, though developers could continue to submit apps designed only for the older, 3.5-inch displays.

The move is the latest … Read more

Dropbox's Mailbox app for iOS has just picked up its 1 millionth user.

The free app hit the iTunes store on February 7, where iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch users can download it. But access to the actual service has been doled out on a first-come, first-served basis via a reservation system.

As of yesterday, 1 million of those reservations have been filled, according to a blog from the Mailbox team. But there are still a fair number of people in line.

Filling out a reservation today, I learned that around 445,500 users are ahead of me. The … Read more

Apple is planning a "low-end iPhone" that will lack some of the extras found in the company's iPhone 5, one analyst claims.

In a note to investors today, Amit Daryanani of RBC Capital Markets said that Apple plans to launch "multiple new phones" between June and July this year. According to AppleInsider, which obtained a copy of his investors note, Daryanani said in addition to a flagship handset that Apple will call the iPhone 5S, the company will deliver a lower-end device featuring "plastic casing and no Retina display."

"With a lower … Read more

Photo enthusiasts already pleased with the iPhone's generally superior camera can be forgiven for getting excited about the possibility of shooting photos in the higher-end raw file format.

Cypress Innovations on Wednesday released a new app called Digital Negative that might raise that very hope by offering a way to take photos that are stored in Adobe Systems' DNG format for raw photos. Alas, although the app does store uncompressed image data, it doesn't actually store the raw data taken straight from the sensor.

The Digital Negative app collects the uncompressed red, green, and blue color information for … Read more

Secrecy at Apple is alive and well, though there's less of it going on between its hardware and software groups, a new report says.

Citing unnamed sources, The Wall Street Journal says Apple's industrial design team now lets the company's software teams in on plans for future devices earlier than ever before, a process that was once made more secret with the use of "stealth software developers."

The change come some four months after a change within Apple's top ranks that more closely tied Apple's hardware and software teams. Jonathan Ive, who was … Read more

Apple today added an extra layer of security to its Apple ID system that can harden the password people use to log in to various Apple services.

Users with an Apple ID can now sign up for two-step verification of their password, a system that sends a four-digit passcode by text message to a user's phone, and must be used on top of a regular password. In practice, this could keep an account from being compromised by an attacker, unless that person had access to the mobile device too.

The move comes a little less than a year after … Read more

iPhone owners who drop their phones could avoid serious damage if an Apple patent filing ever results in real technology.

Published today by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, an Apple patent application dubbed "Protective Mechanism for an Electronic Device" describes a couple of methods to help a dropped iPhone or other electronic device better survive its fall.

In one method, on-board sensors would detect how far and how fast the phone is falling and reorient its position. As such, the phone would actually be rotated mid-flight to land on a more durable spot, such as its … Read more

The much-rumored iPhone 5S will come with a higher-end processor and a higher-megapixel camera, say the folks at DigiTimes.

Citing its usual supply chain sources, DigiTimes said that the next iPhone is likely to be a "slightly enhanced" version of its predecessor. Components for this year's iPhone are expected to begin shipping in May with an eye toward the release of the phone said to be sometime in the third quarter.

The iPhone 5 hit the market in September of 2012, so Apple may stick with the same schedule for the 5S. However, some reports have suggested that the phone will reach consumers in June or July.… Read more