Apple Gets iSued over iCloud

By: Kareem 

Last week a company by the name of…you guessed it, iCloud filed a lawsuit last week against Apple for copyright infringement.

It would seem that Apple is pretty bad at doing their homework, the company that’s suing them, iCloud has been around for 6 years and apparently Apple had no clue they existed yet went through the trouble of purchasing a U.S Trademark registration for the name iCloud from a Swedish consulting company. Kind of an odd thing.

I would think that if Apple new the U.S iCloud existed they would have purchased the rights to the name from them, and although I do think it’s entirely possible they missed it in researching the name, that’s a little hard to believe since they bought it off the Swedes. I think the more likely possibility is that iCloud Communications (the company suing them) does not own the copyright to the name iCloud but rather that they own the name iCloud Communications and are trying to gain some publicity and maybe a little settlement money from Apple by doing this.

I would like to assume that Apple, being as well off as they are, has good enough lawyers to where they’re on top of it. However they do have a history of acting before thinking. As a matter of fact when the iPhone first came out Apple was sued by Cisco because of the latter’s claim to the name for one of their VoIP devices. That ended with Apple settling, however the details of the settlement were never disclosed.

So I guess it’s not entirely wrong to assume that Apple is getting ahead of itself in the name game again, no one will really know for sure until either Apple starts talking (which they won’t) or the case goes to court and we get to feast on all the juicy details of who owns what.

Related Stuffs:

Source: Venture Beat

Video: Apple Introduces iCloud…Fina-****ing-ly!

By: Kareem 

Apple announced yesterday during their WWDC that they will be introducing cloud storage to the new version of iOS.  Along with I guess some other features, but finally no more f’ing rumors about iCloud thank Jobs!

There were some other interesting announcements at WWDC, such as a new notification system and the Lion OS release. But the real news is iTunes is going to the cloud. What that means for users is that you’ll be able to view and download all your purchases form any iOS web connected device for free. So if you’ve downloaded tons of apps and music on your iPad and didn’t want to go through all the effort of synching it with your computer, so you could then sync that to your other iOS devices. This is great news. All you have to do now is go to whatever device you want to download your stuffs to and launch the iTunes App or Music store. You should see a button called purchased. Hit that and you'll be able to see everything you’ve downloaded in those stores. Pick what you want, tap the little cloud and your done.

So that’s about that, there really is much to it. You can check out the video below to see the release:

 

Related Stuffs:

Source: Information Week

Apple Admits To MacDefender Virus Attack

By: Kareem Ali 

Over the past several weeks Mac users have been falling victim to a virus/phishing scam that pretends to be ant-virus software but really just steals users credit card info. Apple first refused to admit the problem, however they’ve finally come around promising to send out an update so users can get rid of the malware.

The software in question is known as MacDefender, MacProtector, and MacSecurity. What it does is open a pop-up in your browser that warns you that your computer is currently infected with craploads of viruses and offers to sell you the software to remove them. Of course the software isn’t real and all your doing is giving away your credit card and personal information to some cybercriminal somewhere.

Although this is a common scam, according to the numbers somewhere between 60,000 and 120,000 Mac users fell for it. I think that number is probably insanely inflated, no one really knows the numbers yet. I would like to assume that many people aren’t foolish enough to fall for this, that’s pretty naïve.

Apple’s first response to the news was straight denial, they refused to admit there was a problem at all. According to an interview with ZDNet one AppleCare employee stated that they were not allowed to help users who had been infected with the malware, despite it being a quick two-minute fix. Apparently Apple’s logic for this is that they can’t help every Mac owner with virus removal and that it’s up to the individual to get their own anti-virus software. Makes me kind of wonder…haven’t Mac fanboys been saying for years that Mac’s can’t get viruses? Of course Apple never said their computers can’t get viruses, just that they were more safe than a PC, provided you had a firewall and some decent anti-virus software.

Apple finally admitted there was a problem and released a support page yesterday to help users remove the malware themselves and say they will be releasing an update that will hunt down and kill all known variations of the virus.

So what happened? How come this virus got through where others failed? I think these are common questions and deserve an answerin’

First off, Anyone who tells you that a Mac can’t get a virus is a moron and you should probably just slap them in the face for trying to talk about things they don’t understand. I’m not going into detail about how an OS works and how software has to be packaged differently depending on the underlying file system, that would be boring. I’ll try as simple as I can to explain why Mac and Linux PC’s don’t get hit with as many viruses as Windows PC’s.

Basically, it’s because there are more Windows users than there are Mac or Linux users. If you want to write a virus that’s going to hit as many people as possible, you package it as an .exe (Windows executable). Not a .dmg, .gz, or .tar.

Although there have been a few Mac and Linux viruses, most just float away in the wind without doing much damage because they don’t hit enough people. What this new virus shows is that Apple has hit a point with Mac where it’s popular enough to attract the attention of cybercriminals. Not only that but the fact that a lot of Mac users are not used to dealing with viruses means that they get a better hit rate (more people falling for the scam) than they normally do with Windows users, who are for the most part, used to dealing with firewalls and anti-virus since Windows has always been a big target for Virus writers.

Another problem is in the way Apple dealt with this. Knowing that the problem existed and taking weeks to fix it is inexcusable. The worst part is it was all done to protect their public image. Apple didn’t want people thinking that they were vulnerable and so they hid the truth, they risked peoples credit card and personal information in order to protect their own stock and that is just sad. I don’t care if they’re fixing the problem now, the fact of the matter is they should have made stopping this their number one priority as soon as they knew. They could’ve posted the instructions on how to remove the malware weeks ago and simply chose not to. Shame on Apple.

Related Stuffs:

• Source: ZDNet
• Apple: Support Page

Chinese Customers Get Violent Over Apple Products

 

People in China got violent over the iPad 2 release in Beijing over the weekend. Fights broke out, people were bloodied and glass was smashed.

By: kareem@techsual.com

What happened at the iPad 2  launch?

At the iPad 2 release, group believed to be a scalpers was caught trying to cut ahead in line. They were confronted by one of the Apple store security guards who told them they could wait in line and buy theirs the same time as everyone else. Apparently the would-be scalpers didn’t dig that idea and started a fight with security. An employee from the Apple store then came out with  a metal club (I guess to help the poor overwhelmed security guy out) and smacked up 2 young men and 2 middle aged women. According to the reports Apple then shut down the store, which somehow led to one of the stores glass windows being shattered when the crowds got mad they wouldn’t be able to get their hands on the ’magical’ device that day.

The store remained shut down all Saturday and re-opened on Sunday with no issues to report.

Related Stuffs:

• Article: People Get Bloodied At Beijing iPad 2 Release
• Source: CNN

Quick Hit: People Get Bloodied At Apple iPad 2 Beijing Release

By: Syeed@techsual.com

According to a report on MyChinaViews.com, violence broke out during the second day of Apple’s iPad 2 launch in Beijing, resulting in some people getting a little bloody, pics below.

Most of the details are unknown. Apparently a fight broke out between the Beijing Apple store employees and some scalpers. According to MyChinaViews a non-Chinese employee came out of the store with a metal club and hit four people, two young men and two middle aged women, and started up the crowd, which proceeded to smash one of the store’s glass doors.

MyChinaViews.com provided some pictures, you can see the rest on their website.

Related Stuffs:

• Source: MyChinaViews.com
• From: PCWorld

Quick Hit: Apple Updates iOS, Fixes Tracking ‘Bug’

Apple rolled out an update today to iOS that addresses some of the current outrage people have been feeling about the fact that their phones and tablets trace their location, despite this being pretty well known long long before iOS or Android even existed.

So the patch released today will cut the iPhone and iPad’s tracking database to the last 7 days, rather than the years worth of data it was holding before. In case your wondering why it’s still holding any information, it’s because it needs it so applications can have quicker access to your location for certain features, also to help prevent dropped calls and other failing signal issues.

The patch calms some nerves I’m sure but nonetheless people either have to start reading about these things and why they’re done, accept it an move on with their lives or just ignore it altogether because once again, your phone’s been tracking you since before the days of iPhone and will continue to, mostly because it has to, that’s just the way mobile technology works my friend.

Related Stuffs:

• Source: Mercury News
• Article: Apple Denies It's Tracking Data
• Article: Stop Being So Paranoid About Your Phone Collecting Data

Quick Hit: Apple, Google And Other Big Tech Companies Being Sued For Not Paying Up

By: Kareem@techsual.com

 

A press release was umm released yesterday by the law firm LIef, Cabrasser, Heimann & Bernstein (there’s always got to be a Bernstein eh?), that basically says Apple, Google, Lucasfilm and a bunch more big tech companies weren’t paying their employees properly and worked together to keep employee wages low across all the suspected companies.

The whole shebang was file by Siddarth Hariharan, a former software engineer for Lucasfilm. He says; 

"My colleagues at Lucasfilm and I applied our skills, knowledge, and creativity to make the company an industry leader. It's disappointing that, while we were working hard to make terrific products that resulted in enormous profits for Lucasfilm, senior executives of the company cut deals with other premiere high tech companies to eliminate competition and cap pay for skilled employees."

So apparently the companies had a ‘gentlemen's agreement’ that they would not ‘poach’ each others employees, they did however say employees were free to apply at any company they wanted. What this effectively did was make sure that if a high value employee who was working ant say, Pixar, wanted to go and work at Lucasfilm the heads of Lucasfilm would deny his application because it could be seen as ‘poaching’ or they might give him the interview to save face, but he would have no chance at getting the job.

There’s tons more to the case, and it will probably be a long long drawn out battle.

Related stuffs:

 

 

 

Apple Denies It’s Tracking And Collecting Data

By: kareem@techsual.com

Apple finally responded to the concerns people were having about the recent fears they’ve been tracking you and collecting your data, leaving it in an unsafe, unencrypted database that can be found on whatever iDevice and the machine it’s been synched to and accessed with the right software.

Apple explained it pretty well, although it took them a while to come up with something magical enough people would believe it, or they just wanted to put something concise together so people could get a full understanding of what's going on, rather than do what Google did and just fess up to the paranoia induced rumors of what might be going on by saying they collect the data but you can always turn it off because they make you aware of what’s going on.  I don’t think anyone really believes that.

Aware of what’s going on? I don’t know how many people out there are fully aware of how their cell phone send and receive calls let alone how data transfer and location based services work. But whatever that just kind of irked me, I like and use Android but I’ll be damned if I’m ‘aware’ of all the information it collects.

I’ve found out some pretty crazy things about how investigators can track you though your phone and other devices. They’ve been doing it long before people had any clue what OS their phone was running let alone that every picture they took was digitally time and location stamped, so that was traceable, slightly encrypted (the software to get around this is easy to find) and on your device and whatever computer you put the pictures on. Not to mention uploading to online services…yeesh and NOW people are paranoid.

At any rate. Apple said that it is not tracking your iPhone, your phone is tracking all the towers it comes across and storing the triangulated data so that apps you use and the phones OS can quickly access. It makes sense seeing as it’s much faster for an app to pull data from a database then making it search every time in GPS, which could really slow down your Facebook and Foursquare check-ins.

Apple has also stated that they are going to release a software update within a few weeks that will make the database smaller and  give users the option to wipe their location history as well as opt out of it all together, which in turn will make people wonder why it’s taking so long for places to load when they use anything that made use of that data, such as GPS. Thankfully for iPhone and iPad users the next version of iOS will encrypt the data, because apparently that’s impossible to do on the current one with an update, otherwise they’d be doing it right?

If you think that this is new, or it will stop with any kind of updates. You should probably wathc this:

 

Source: Wall Street Journal

White iPhone 4 In Stores Next Week

By: Kareem Ali 

According to all the top sources Apple’s Infamous white iPhone 4 will be shitting stores as early as next week.

The white iPhone 4 was supposed to ship alongside the original, like the current iPad 2. Users were expecting to have two choices at launch, but due to a manufacturing error the phone never shipped.

The rumors suggest that U.S retail stores started receiving the promotional information for the white iPhone 4 last night. The rumors also say that retailers will have to hold out on putting the phone on display until there is an official announcement on the 27th, and 9 to 5 Mac got their hands on a screenshot of  Best Buy’s inventory system which shows the white iPhone 4 stock date.

According to Apple Insider, Apple normally experiences a drop in sales around this time of year and releasing a white iPhone might serve as a boom to sales until the iPhone 5 comes out later this year.

Source: Apple Insider

Is Android Nokia’s Biggest Threat

Although the iPhone is currently raking in the profits for Apple, the numbers don’t seem to mean much to Nokia’s CEO who told the Financial Times he sees Android as the biggest threat to his companies future.

Android is on tons of phones and has enjoyed tons of success. There is no question Google will keep supporting it and it will only get better with time. Apple makes one phone, but it sells and people who want it will do with nothing less. Some say Android is fragmented, it’s too differentiated and there are too many updates. A lot of the apps that run on Android 2.2 wont work right in 2.1. Plus With the number of Android phones available you can buy a phone without really noticing what version it’s running and end up with a dated device that won’t do what you expect, it’s kind of a mess. But Google is working it out. Apple dosen’t have that problem, they make one phone one mobile OS and update both yearly.  Both OS’ are great, I use Android but I respect iOS. Which one is better? That’s a matter of choice. Why is Stephen Elop, Nokia’s CEO worried Android might be the next king of mobile OS'? Here’s what I think.

I think the thing you have to take into consideration here is that Nokia makes phones, they still make Symbian, but since their deal with Microsoft, they won’t be doing that anymore soon, so the only thing they’ll be left with is designing and manufacturing phones. Where they used to be a software/hardware developer like Apple, their now just making hardware like HTC and Samsung. So I can see the shift in focus, he told the Financial Times that Nokia has been very clear that their number one “competitive consideration” is Android. They not only have to compete with Apple but all the other companies designing phones and tablets using Android not to mention other OS’ like WebOS. So Nokia has some catching up to do if they want to bring WP7 up to speed.

So once Google works out the kinks and starts releasing yearly updates rather than chaotically whenever they have something new to show off, Android is going to be a force to be reckoned with, not only on phones but on tablets as well, which Nokia is going to have to start thinking about sooner or later in my opinion.

• By: kareem@techsual.com
• Source: Financial Times

Stop Being So Paranoid About You Phone Collecting Location Data

I know I put my paranoia hat on when the news started reporting about Apple collecting your location data for ‘unknown’ reasons, but now it’s time to put my common sense hat on and tell you all to relax a little bit.

I was entirely joking about the whole paranoia of how iOS’ data collection can help law enforcement track you using computer forensics. Not joking in the sense that it can’t happen but rather because I thought it was common knowledge location data was being collected, stored on devices and used in computer forensics since the days of the first smart phone. How else would they know where to route an incoming call? They have to know where your phone is or at least have a general idea to connect you to anything, that’s just the way technology works. Even thought this data has been hidden behind data center firewalls, there’s always that cache that has to sit in your memory. At least until the phone isn’t receiving power, and I don’t mean turned off.  I’ll explain later.

A good investigator will find you regardless of whether or not you use a cell phone. There are so many other, easier ways to find out where someone has been, for example ask their friends, or their parents, or just follow them on Facebook or twitter. That’s just the tip of the iceberg I’ve seen what talented investigators are capable of and trust me, they don’t need to track you by your phone. It sure makes life easy though.

All smartphones not just Apple’s collect location data for the aforementioned sending and receiving information as well as for applications. The data they store is not very specific despite what people may say, GPS location data can be pinpoint accurate, but the way that Apple and Google do it is known as cell phone tower triangulation, which dosen’t give an exact location but rather a general area. Data can be sent to that area, picked up by a base station and then sent to your cell phone’s specific frequency or it’s SID. The only thing logged in the memory is the location of the tower you were near when the data was sent.

The reasons people are reporting the data to be so accurate is due to the fact a lot of people either have GPS enabled by default, or they’re using apps like Foursquare and Facebook check –in and giving the cache their exact location.

So why dosen’t turning off your phone stop the stream of data? Without going into too much detail, basically when you turn off your phone the battery keeps a leak charge running through the phones memory that keeps it updated. It only takes about 0.6-3 watts to keep your phone sending that data. The only solution is to take the battery out of your phone altogether, or just not use one if your going to be that paranoid about people finding out where you are or have been.

• By: kareem@techsual.com
• How Cell Phones Work

iOS Data ‘Glitch’ Was Already Known And Being Used By Law Enforcement

Turns out I wasn’t being so paranoid in saying that the iOS 4 data ‘glitch’ might have been Apple’s way of helping law enforcement circumvent the subpoena's that are normally necessary when investigating someone's data.

According to a young man by the name of Alex Levinson who works with computer forensics, the story that broke yesterday about Apple tracking users location data, wasn’t news to people working in the his field. He posted on his blog 3 major issues with the new ‘discovery’.

Levinson’s first beef is with people thinking that Apple is collecting the data, he wants to emphasize that Apple does not ‘harvest’ the data from your device, he says the data is collected by iOS mostly for applications running on the phone that need it for such things. You can see how this makes sense, especially if you’ve used Foursquare or Geo-tagged a Tweet.

His second beef is  that the data is neither new, nor hidden. He states that before the iOS 4 was storing the information on consolidated.db., previous versions of the operating system held the data on a file called h-cells.plist.

Third, Levinson is angry that know one in the major media noticed that this ‘discovery’ was published by him and Sean Morrissey months ago in a book they wrote called iOS Forensic Analysis. Not only that but the company that he works for Katana Forensics, has had a program that does the same thing Warden’s does and then some which is currently being used by law-enforcement in computer forensics investigations. Which leads me….

Back to my paranoid cap, if this has been known for some time and been around since before iOS 4 that proves it’s not a ‘glitch’ as some have rumored, but rather it’s intentional data collection done for a purpose. Although Levinson gives a good reason for the data being collected (for use by applications) it still dosen’t make much sense to me that the data is being collected for extended periods of time. I know some apps need to know your current location. but I don’t know of any app that needs to know where you were 6-12 months ago, I do know a lot of police and other law enforcement that would love to know that in order to build a case, and it would be pretty helpful to them to not have to pay for it or go through those annoying subpoenas.

Just thought I’d feed the paranoia wheel a little. As a side note I found a little interesting bit of information in my research, T-Mobile is the on U.S cell phone service provider that dosen’t keep a detailed user data base persistently. It’s not that they don’t want to, they just cant do it for technical reasons.

Until Apple makes it easy to take out their battery, I’m going to have suspicions.

• By: kareem@techsual.com
• Source: Business Week
• Blog: Alex Levinson
• Original Post: Apple is Collecting Your iPhone

Apple Is Tracking Your iPhone

Alasdair Allan and Pete Warden  announced at the Where 2.0 conference today that they’ve discovered Apple’s iPhone and 3G iPad are recording the details your position regularly and dumping the file into an unencrypted folder on your device and whatever machine you sync it to.
The software is hidden inside the phone and up until now has remained pretty much a secret to everyone except Apple’s programmers.  The two said that they found the software after looking for a way to visualize contact data in a different way, apparently they couldn’t get access to users contact data which they needed in order to create the software they were envisioning. That led to Allan going into his Mac’s backups to find the information they needed which in turn led to him finding a SQLite file that had latitude, longitude, timestamp and cell id information.
Allen and Warden expected to see maybe a couple of days worth of information he could combine with voicemails or other simple things to show something interesting on a map.  What they got was a all their location information since they upgraded to iOs 4. What that means is that Apple has been tracking all iOs 4 users data since it released about a year ago, across all your devices since the software tracks you on an account level.
According to the two there is no immediate cause for any concern since the data is stored on your device and the machine you sync it to.  Since the data is unencrypted that leaves it open to any software that knows where to look and can read an SQLite database. So maybe a little concern wouldn’t hurt. The pair do recommend that you should encrypt your backups since that is where the data is being stored.
This is kind of a strange  thing for Apple to do, most phone service providers store the same information, but they store it on servers behind massive security that law enforcement needs a subpoena to access. Storing the information in the manner Apple has chosen means that not only law enforcement, but anyone with access to your device can access without the need for any court orders. That means criminals who steal your devices, girlfriends, ex –wives… you get the idea.
I’m going to put my conspiracy hat on for a sec and say maybe Apple is in cahoots with law enforcement to some degree. That might be why their devices don’t allow you to remove the battery without tools and a little effort, and why their tracking users all over the place in a scarily precise manner. Why would they hide this from users if there wasn’t some shyster reason for doing it? Why wouldn’t they just allow people access to it without having to go digging through their file system? and why isn’t this data being encrypted from access to software from the get? Kind of weird if you ask me.
Anyway check the source link for a video of Allen and Warden discussing the software they created and links to download it yourself.

UPDATE: Apple Insider posted an article that explains the tracking might be due to a bug. You can read it here.

• By: kareem@techsual.com
• Source: O’REILLY radar

Samsung Fights Back Against Apple

 

After getting slapped with a lawsuit by Apple recently, Samsung decided they weren’t going to take this lying down and plan to not only defend themselves but also counter-sue Apple for violating their company’s wireless technology patents.

An unidentified Samsung official made a statement to Yonhap news agency saying “Apple is one of our key buyers of semiconductors and display panels. However, we have no choice but respond strongly this time”

Apple was Samsung’s biggest client in 2010 and accounted for 4 percent of the Taiwanese company’s income that year.

If the statement from the unamend source is right then Samsung might have some claim to the patents Apple is suing them for, that would be pretty interesting.

Source: Yahoo News

iOS Has Double the Reach of Android in U.S

According to the market analysis company comSource, the recent data collected from their MobileLens service puts iOS pretty far ahead of Android, at least in total U.S install base.

comSource’s team found that iOS has a combined install base of 37.9 million users and they broke that down further revealing that the iPhone was barely ahead of the iPod touch and both those devices nearly double the iPad install base in the U.S. Their press release also states that the combined 37.9 million iOS install base is 56 percent greater than the 23.8 million combined Android base.

The press release also made statements about how the comSource’s data showed that reach of Apple’s products extends well beyond the reach of ‘fanboys.’  Here’s a paragraph from their press release:

“The research also suggests that iPad ownership extends well beyond Apple’s most fervent consumers. Although a perception may exist that iPad owners tend to be those with a very strong affinity for Apple products, an analysis of the mobile devices of iPad owners indicates that may not be the case. While Apple is indeed the most heavily represented OEM among iPad owners, its OEM share (27.3 percent) is only slightly higher than its share among all smartphone subscribers (25.2 percent). RIM accounts for the second highest percentage of iPad owners at 17.5 percent, but this number is well below its overall smartphone market share of 28.9 percent. Meanwhile, Samsung, LG and Nokia are all significantly overrepresented among iPad owners as compared to their respective shares of the smartphone market. In addition, 14.2 percent of iPad users had Android phones.”

comSource also broke down the ages of iPad users and found that 25-34 year olds owned the most iPad’s followed by 35-44 year olds. The smallest group of iPad owners comes in aged 13-17 with 7.6%.

• Written by: Syeed@techsual.com
• Source: PCmag
• Press Release: comSource

Apple Sues Samsung, Claims They Copied the iPad

 

Apple filed a lawsuit that basically says Samsung ripped off the iPhone and iPad designs and used them in their galaxy phones and tablets.

According to Apple spokesman Steve Dowling; “It’s no coincidence that Samsung’s latest products look a lot like the iPhone and iPad, from the shape of the hardware to the user interface and even the packaging. This kind of blatant copying is wrong, and we need to protect Apple’s intellectual property when companies steal our ideas.”

Apparently Apple owns the right to seven patents that are related to the way tablets react to certain gestures, like pinch to zoom, selecting and scrolling. As well as three patents on design including the flat black face the company uses on their devices.

Apple is also going after Samsung for copying their packaging and some of their icons.

I personally think that Apple is going a little nuts here, it seems like they’re scared of the recent rise of Android and they’re trying to take a if you cant beat ‘em sue ‘em approach through the hardware companies, since each puts it’s own spin on Google’s open source OS.

I understand and agree with protecting your intellectual property to some degree, if someone steals code you were expecting to make money on and then goes on and profits off it on their own, costing you money and putting you out of business that deserves a lawsuit in my opinion. Apple should be confident enough in their products to not have to go this route, there’s always going to be similarities in the way people interact with hardware and people will always copy the best. To me it seems like at worst Samsung is copying the ‘style’ and not outright stealing anything from Apple. I don’t think the similarities between and iPad 2 and a Galaxy tab are going to deter anyone from buying either, no one is going to look at the Galaxy tab and think ‘Gee I want this, it’s just like an iPad’ unless they’ve never used an iPad. Likewise I don’t think anyone looking for a small 7’ tab is going to want the 10.5’ iPad 2.

Lawsuits like this hurt competition, if Apple is such an amazing company (which in some ways they are) then they shouldn’t fear copycats. Apple should know that what they have waiting in the wings will blow all the competition out of the water, common sense would tell you that if you are the company everyone is copying than you have a huge advantage. You will always be the first to market which is the biggest advantage you could possibly ask for.

Even if Samsung is copying the iPad and iPhone in it’s Galaxy devices they’re still way underpowered comparatively, Samsung even had to tell a few little ‘white lies’ in order to drum up interest in their Galaxy Tablet.

Besides going after Samsung, Apple is also trying to go after HTC as well, for pretty much the same thing.

• By: syeed@techsual.com
• Source: Bloomberg

iPad 2 Officially Hits Toys R Us

Apple’s insanely popular iPad 2 started selling at Toys R Us over this past weekend. Quite a while before the rumored release next month.
Toys R Us is putting the iPad 2 in 30 states and only in select stores. Along with the iPad 2 Toys R Us will also be selling cases and accessories for the tab.
Some people are concerned that Apple putting the iPad 2 in a toy store might ‘cheapen’ it’s reputation. I think it’s a good move on Apple’s part. I don’t see any devaluation in the iPad’s reputation by it being in a toy store, it’s not like they made a cheaper kid friendly version to sell to Toys R Us, and if this gets better technology into the hand of children I’m all for it.
I think children should be exposed to technology at a younger age. I very much believe that the future of education lies in social networking and gaming.
Toys R Us will be selling the iPad 2 through it’s online store as well as the few stores it’s available in. But there will still be a wait as demand is crakhead high right now for Apple’s ‘magical’ tablet.

• By: syeed@techsual.com
• Source: Mac Observer

Apple Releases iOS 4.3.2

Apple just released it’s newest version of iOS, 4.3.2 today. The update brings fixes to some connectivity issues international Verizon iPad 2 users have been having with their 3G connections,as well as some Face-Time bugs.

The new release supports the iPad, iPad 2, the third and fourth generation iPad touches and of course, the GSM iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS.

To update your device just connect it to whatever computer you have running iTunes and click check for updates.

• Source: Technology Pirates
• By: kareem@techsual.com

White iPhone Coming Soon

According to a Bloomberg Hon Hai, the Hong Kong based company that supplies Apple with it’s iPhones has recently started to put the infamous white iPhone into production.

After a 10 month delay the new model iPhone should be available by the end of April on AT&T and Verizon’s networks. The phone was first announced last year when then Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced the iPhone 4 but was never released due to an apparent flaw in production that left prevented it from being up to Apple’s strict hardware standards.

The rumor seems pretty legit, after the disappointment from customers who couldn’t get one at launch, Apple did promise to get the white iPhone out as soon as possible and just last month Phil Schiller, senior vice president of marketing at Apple indicated via Twitter that the phone would be ready by spring.

The white model of the iPhone 4 still made it into some consumers hands via parts sellers who sold DYI kits for people technically inclined enough to give it a shot. Steve Wozniack even pulled one out during his appearance at the engadget show, stating he bought the parts from some kid online and put it together himself.

Check it out for yourself:

 

• Source: Bloomberg
• Author: syeed@techsual.com

Apple CEO Steve Jobs Agrees to Give His Side to Authors Book on His Life Story

The book is going go be titled “iSteve: The Book of Jobs” and will be written by author Walter Issacson. This is the first official biography of Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs, the Issacson spent the past 2 years interviewing everyone related to Jobs including his family, friends, co-workers and rivals.

The book is set to release next year and should be a very interesting read, Steve Jobs has led a pretty wild life, from helping create the one of the biggest computer companies in the world to founding one of the biggest animations companies in the world. Although there have been a few books about Jobs before, I don’t think there’s been one so thoroughly researched and defiantly none with input from the man himself so this should be a good read.

Source: Mobiledia