One thing youll see at wwdc is row upon row of apple mac’s perched on peoples laps whilst they make their way through the blogging mayhem that is WWDC.  What if you could have a setup that weighs less than the MacBook Air?

Continue reading → First Look: iPad Keyboard Review – Brydge Keyboards

Edifier Extreme Connect is a fully portable speaker that features Bluetooth connectivity so you can play music from your phone, tablet or computer. The two front-facing speaker drivers give incredible sound. Wirelessly play your music both at home and on the go with this brilliant Extreme Connect speaker from
Edifier.

Continue reading → First Look: Edifier Extreme Connect, Portable Bluetooth Speaker

Yet another class action law suite is being pushed on Apple. This time it’s an issue with text messages and imessages for people moving from iPhones to other phones

Continue reading → Apple Sued Over Text Message / iMessage Switching Issue

Apple seems to be heading yet another Class action suite with regards to iOS 7 crippling older iOS devices such as the iPhone 4 and 4s.

It what’s going to be another unpleasant class action lawsuit plaintiffs, in the case say Apples 7 month old mobile operating system had Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity issues that basically rendered their phones useless according the suit.

Filing once plaintive and class members downloaded iOS app and on their iPhones they were unable to connect to Wi-Fi or Bluetooth because of the upgrade issues.  Members of the class action claim they could no longer access often free Wi-Fi and thus use data unnecessarily and/or incur data charges for all data used on their iPhone 4’s.  In addition plaintiffs and class members could no longer backup their device using iCloud wirelessly, download iOS, patches or the newest versions of iOS.  

Do they have the right to sue, sure but did they try hitting a Genius Bar?

The case was filed in California so one assumes there was an Apple store relatively close to at least one of the plaintiffs, or did they try backing up the iTunes via a USB then resetting the factory settings and copying the info back onto the phone, or are they tired of playing the lottery and thought they were try playing a different form of lottery instead?

According to the peace, plaintiff’s argue that Apple misrepresented iOS 7’s capabilities and misled customers into installing an update that left them with a device that no longer performed as advertised.

Yes it’s all part of Apple’s cunning plan to be sued yet again my more people.  Plaintiffs in the case are seeking $5 million in damages begging the question what Wi-Fi only communication where they expecting that they messed.

On a side note it wasn’t that long ago that Microsoft said their handsets would retain the ability to receive future upgrades but then swiftly dropped that idea.  Granted it’s a pain when stuff doesn’t work but if it’s causing bills and data usage wouldn’t the speed be a giveaway.  and it’s not like you don’t get a USB cable to get you out of this sort of situation.

 

The Big Apple V Samsung V Apple trial ended on today but the biggest news was actually the smallest news in the amounts of payouts given to each side.

Last time these 2 heads collided in the  San Jose Court, Apple was awarded an amount in the neighborhood of $1 billion and this time around they were after a mighty $2.2 billion so they got roughly 95% less than that.  The good news from Apple’s point of view it won against Samsung for the most part.

Also getting a payout from Samsung to the tune of $119.6 million is always a good thing, even if it is was off what was originally wanted.

The bad news is Apple has to pay $158,400, also known as lunch money where a company like Apple is concerned,for violating one of Samsung’s patents.  But it doesn’t end there.

On Friday Apple’s lawyers found that no award had been granted for a Samsung device found by the jury to a been in violation of Apple’s intellectual property.  It was after 6 PM on the West Coast so the Jury said they would rather head back to court on Monday to figure out how much was owed.

That settles that but as we all know it won’t actually settle anything..

Both sides will likely ask Judge Lucy Koh to set aside latest verdict and failing that will appeal the jury’s verdict.

No offense the jury though Apple issued a posttrial statement on Friday saying

we are grateful to the jury and the court for their service today’s ruling reinforces what courts around the world of already found that Samsung willfully stole our ideas and copied our products.  We are fighting to defend the hard work that goes into beloved products like the iPhone which our employees devote their lives to designing and delivering for our customers.

 

 

Alas my creatve labs speakers have finally given up the ghost so the timing of Edifier sending their Luna Eclipse, 2.0 Bluetooth speakers couldn’t be better

Continue reading → First Look: Edifier Luna Eclipse, 2.0 Bluetooth speaker system

Leave it to the Apple community to find what could probably be classed as the best usage for iBeacon so far. So you have probably heard stories about iBeacon being used in baseball stadiums to help fill seats closer to the action. Now iBeacon can help you on the ultimate pub crawl.

New York, the city that never sleeps, is having its very first iBeacon powered pub crawl. Behind this masterstroke of an idea is the digital media design and development company Aurnhammer. In a twist to drinking beaconcrawl.com is attempting to gamify the pub crawl experience because sometimes drinking with friends in one of the greatest cities on the planet just isn’t enough.

If you don’t know what a pub crawl is or if you’ve never been to the UK shame on you (and hope youre old enough). The basic idea is going from bar to bar and then you end up crawling home, or to the next bar. Now the old fashioned crawl gets a tech twist to the pub crawl tradition relying on an App Store application and wireless location-based iBeacon information to help parcitipants along the way, revealing secret locations and special drinks.

All this is happening in New York City. That’s the city where the police said crime would’ve gone down last year had it not been for people stealing iPhones. Raises an interesting point here. Nighttime, drinking, people wandering about with iPhones a little worse for wear.

The offical Breacon Crawl app is expected to hit the App Store this Friday, 2nd May with the first Beacon Crawl scheduled for Tuesday, May 20th