These iPhone 5c Price Cuts Are Coming Dangerously Close to a Trend

Several weekend price promotions for Apple’s iPhone 5c are raising eyebrows given the newness of the mid-range phone and the fact that Apple products so rarely see discounts.

RadioShack’s iPhone 5c promotion

The promotions started with an offer from Best Buy giving customers a $50 gift card with the purchase of one of Apple’s colorful new models. Then Walmart said it would
“roll back” prices on the 5c for a limited time, followed by a $50 gift card offer from RadioShack. The moves are particularly noteworthy given the relative consistency of pricing on Apple products, which tend to sell for their full price until at least the month or two before a new product is expected.

But ascertaining the reasons behind cell phone price moves can be trickier than it appears. When a new tech product hits the market, a quick price cut is often a sign of weak demand. However, when it comes to cell phones, such pricing moves aren’t always an indication of slow sales.

Promotions on phones, even relatively new ones, are not uncommon as retailers such as Best Buy and Amazon trade some of their profit margins in exchange for a higher share of sales for a hot new product. Retailers also can get incentives for signing up new customers–money which can also be used to fund various promotions. Best Buy, for example, is also running a special right now giving $50 off various Samsung Galaxy phones, including some models of the Galaxy S4.

Apple declined to comment specifically on iPhone 5c sales. The company reported better-than-expected first weekend sales of 9 million units for the iPhone 5c and 5s. It also said to expect overall company revenue at the high end of its previous guidance, though it didn’t break down initial iPhone sales by model.

Meanwhile, a report last week from Cannacord Genuity found that the iPhone 5c is among the top three models, along with the Galaxy S4 and iPhone 5s at each of the four major carriers.

One thing to pay attention to is whether any of the promotions are extended. Best Buy’s, for example, is slated to end Monday. It would be even more noteworthy if the carriers were to themselves offer any promotions, and certainly if Apple itself made a pricing move.

For all the talk about Apple creating “low cost” iPhone, the standard iPhone 5c price of $99 for the 16GB version with a new contract is exactly where one would have expected Apple to price the year-old iPhone 5 had it kept that model around instead of creating the 5c. One question is whether Apple designed the product to be priced lower, if necessary, to gain market share or boost its attractiveness in emerging markets.

By: Unknown On 2:53 PM

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How I share my iPhone’s Internet connection (without paying Verizon extra)

Why pay Verizon for tethering when you can set up a Socks proxy? 

by Jon Brodkin

Patrick Haney

Last year, the Federal Communications Commission told Verizon Wireless that it had to stop blocking applications that let cellular customers use their phones as mobile hotspots. Verizon could still require extra payments for tethering from customers with grandfathered unlimited data plans, but the FCC said that consumers with capped plans should be able to use their limited data however they like.

I did a little fist pump when I heard the news. I've had an unlimited data plan for years but knew I might give that up to get my next phone at the subsidized rate and save $450. The time finally came when Apple unveiled the iPhone 5S, which has now replaced my trusty old iPhone 4, which itself replaced my first smartphone, a Motorola Droid.

Although I had to give up my grandfathered unlimited data in order to get a subsidized iPhone 5S, I didn't have to give up my grandfathered pricing. I'm still paying $75 a month (plus $5 or so in taxes and surcharges) for 450 voice minutes, 250 texts, and 2GB of data. Interestingly, I was only able to keep this more favorable pricing by purchasing my phone through Apple's online store. Attempting to upgrade my phone on Verizon's website would have forced me to pay at least $100 a month.

Now that my data plan limits me to 2GB per month, though, I get to tether without paying Verizon extra, right? Not quite. Verizon doesn't actually have to enable tethering to comply with the FCC order, which stems from Verizon purchasing spectrum licenses that forbid application blocking. Instead, Verizon just can't object to third-party tethering applications.

Still, I called Verizon to see if the company would add tethering to my plan without an extra fee. To my total non-surprise, that didn't work because I don't pay for one of Verizon's "Share Everything" plans. The iPhone has a native tethering tool, but it's not visible to the user unless the carrier enables it. Enabling tethering would add at least $20 to my bill each month, which I hoped to avoid. So what were my options?

Not as easy as you might think

Option number one: tethering apps. If I were still using Android, I could tether with something like PdaNet. And even if specific apps aren't available on the Google Play store, Android lets users sideload applications without rooting or jailbreaking.

That's not the case with iOS, of course, and Apple has steadfastly refused to accept tethering apps into its official store. The easiest way for me to tether would be to jailbreak my phone, which I had done with my iPhone 4 before giving up the jailbreak in order to get a newer version of iOS. Waiting for reliable jailbreaks of each new version of iOS can certainly be a pain, but jailbroken phones can use apps like TetherMe without paying an extra fee each month.

The second option was to find an app with hidden tethering capabilities. Occasionally, an app developer creates what looks like a very basic piece of software—a drawing application or a calendar tool—but which actually allows users to share their phone's Internet connection with other devices. Once Apple discovers the app's true functionality, it gets kicked off the App Store. That happened a few months ago with "iRinger," a calendar application that becomes a tethering app when you create an event titled Tethering123:

I bought iRinger for $2 sometime before Apple threw it down the memory hole. Now, I never would have dreamed of using the app's hidden tethering capability while I was still on an unlimited data plan, because that would have violated Verizon's tethering policy.

Wink wink.

20th Century Fox

But now that I have a limited data plan, I can use whatever tethering application I want. I couldn't download iRinger to my new phone from the iOS App Store, but I was able to transfer it from my computer because I had backed up all my applications locally through iTunes.

Using iRinger is not nearly as convenient as the iPhone's built-in tethering system. Instead of creating a Wi-Fi hotspot that any device can connect to, iRinger lets you share your Internet connection through an ad hoc network—provided you're able to follow the 15-step list of instructions.

First, you have to set up an ad hoc network on your Windows or Mac computer. You need to change the IP address and subnet mask on both the computer and phone.

After that's done and your phone can join the network, iRinger creates a Socks proxy or HTTP proxy that will let your computer surf the Web using the phone's cellular data. It works very well.

Sharing the connection with an iPad is much trickier—it even requires you to change your iPhone's language from English to French, and I never quite got it working. But all I really need is occasional tethering to my laptop when I'm without Wi-Fi and need to get some work done.

Unfortunately, iRinger won't help future tethering users unless they happened to purchase it during the short time that it was on the App Store. The only advice I can give is to do an occasional Web search for apps with hidden tethering capabilities. If history is any guide, one is bound to pop up sooner or later, but you need to be quick. (A third-party service also promises tethering for $30 a year without a jailbreak by using an HTML5 browser-based client instead of an app, but I haven't tested it.)

Of course, I'd like a better tethering system myself, and I'll keep my eye out for new applications and iOS 7 jailbreaks. For now, though, I'm in good shape and Verizon can't object to my method of tethering.

But this little exercise does illustrate the absurdities wireless customers often face just because they're trying to use the data they pay for each month. The next time I'm in an airport and can't get a good Wi-Fi connection, I will whip out my phone, get myself online, and realize for the millionth time how amazing technology is—even if my wireless carrier makes it harder to use or more expensive than it should be.

By: Unknown On 10:58 AM

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Leaking iPhone Research to Big Clients Costs Citigroup $30 Million

Citigroup has been slapped with a $30 million fine for slipping unpublished research on Apple to a handful of institutional clients ahead of other investors.

According to a consent order from the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Citigroup analyst Kevin Chang emailed research describing significant iPhone production cuts to SAC, T. Rowe Price, Citadel and GLG Partners ahead of official publication.

Three of the four (SAC Capital, T. Rowe Price and Citadel) acted on that information, selling off shares between the time they received it and the time Citigroup released it to the broader market. And by doing so, they saved themselves quite a bit of money; Apple’s share price fell 5.2 percent on December 14, the day Chang’s research was published.

“It seems that the concept that investors are to be presented with a level playing field when it comes to the product of research analysts is a lesson that must be learned over and over again,” Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin said in a statement. “But it’s important that it should be taught as often as necessary.”

An unfortunate stumble for Citigroup, which last year paid a $2 million fine to settle a complaint that one of its analysts improperly disclosed confidential information ahead of Facebook’s IPO. The company, which has since sacked Chang, said it’s pleased to have the matter resolved.

Courtesy: allthingsd

By: Unknown On 12:15 AM

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iPhone 5S users reporting problems with the phone’s motion sensors

The gyroscope, accelerometer, and other sensors appear to be miscalibrated. 
by Andrew Cunningham

Following numerous complaints about the issue on Apple's support forums, Gizmodo looked into reports that the motion sensors on the new iPhone 5S are not calibrated properly. By comparing the iPhone 5S to an iPhone 5 and also to several real-world tools that the phone replicates with motion sensors (including an actual compass and a spirit level), Gizmodo found that the gyroscope, compass, and accelerometer in two separate iPhone 5Ses do indeed appear to be off by a small but consistently measurable amount.

We confirmed Gizmodo's findings when we compared our own iPhone 5S to an iPhone 5 and an iPhone 4S, all running iOS 7.0.2—as you can see by the picture above, the iPhone 4S and iPhone 5 resting on our desk recognize that they're resting on a flat surface while the iPhone 5S does not. We re-calibrated the Compass app several times and consistently got the same results. The severity of the problem appears to vary from phone to phone—some posters in a MacRumors forum thread on the topic claim that their phones are off by four or six degrees (instead of two, as with our iPhone 5S and with Gizmodo's), while others report that they no longer had the issue after getting a replacement phone from Apple. The relatively wide range of inaccuracies being reported and the fact that the iPhone 5 and 4S aren't affected point to this being a hardware issue and not a software issue, though without a statement for Apple it's difficult to say for sure.

The iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, and iPhone 5S resting on the same flat surface. One of these things is not like the others.

Andrew Cunningham

Beyond the inaccuracies in the compass app, the actual real-world impact of this issue is small. While Gizmodo's videos do show that the sensors can cause problems for games if you have the phone resting flat on a table, most people are going to subconsciously adjust the phone to compensate for the slight inaccuracies. In other games, the problems aren't large enough to register—the line in Ridiculous Fishing didn't drift in either direction if our 5S was standing upright on a flat surface. We've contacted Apple for comment on the issue and will update this post if we receive a response. In the meantime, try not to use your iPhone 5S to hang any curtains or anything.

Courtesy: arstechnica

By: Unknown On 9:28 PM

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iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c now work on O2's 4G network

The iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c are now working on O2’s 4G network the company has confirmed.

When the phones launched last month, they did not have the required information to be used on the network’s new 4G network.

At the time of launch, O2 said that an update would be required before Apple’s latest smartphones would be usable.

“iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C are both 4G-ready devices that will be enabled to run on our 4G network within the coming weeks – this will happen when new settings are ready to be sent by Apple and we will inform customers when they are available,” the company said in its pricing plans.

The latest update to iOS7 contains the information required to be able to use the new phones on O2’s 4G network.

However, users will still be required to update carrier settings through either iTunes or Wi-Fi on the phone itself.

READ MORE: 7 reasons Microsoft should buy BlackBerry

O2 has provided detailed instructions on its website.

The network operator has also said that it will credit £5 off the net bill for 4G customers that were waiting to use their iPhone 5s or iPhone 5c on the service.

Courtesy: T3

By: Unknown On 9:57 AM

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VIDEO: New iPhone creates a gold rush for re-sellers

Contributor Jennifer Jolly looks at the hot market for the new gold iPhone on eBay and elsewhere.

Courtesy: USAtoday

By: Unknown On 6:17 PM

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How to boost iPhone's battery life on iOS 7

With the introduction of iOS 7, Apple added a ton of new and exciting features to your iPhone. However, in order to show off all of these new features, Apple has decided to turn them on: all of them. There's an opt-out method (of sorts) when it comes to their use, but depending on the age of the device, this can decrease both performance and battery life. The problem most users are encountering is that they don't know how to selectively opt-out of the features they do not use.

The following will outline how you can fine tune your iOS 7 experience, taking advantage of the features you like and turning off the features you don't. In the end, you may find that you won't need to charge your iPhone quite as often.

Dim the brightness setting: If you think that iOS 7's new display is a whole lot brighter than that of iOS 6, you may what to check your brightness setting. The brightness setting may have changed with a recent update. You can access your brightness setting by swiping up from anywhere with Control Center. More so than any other setting, modifying the brightness of the screen will have the biggest impact to battery life.

Conserving cellular usage: Using airplane mode can be a real power saver when you are in indoors or in bad coverage areas. This can prevent the iPhone from searching for a signal and trying to stay connected. Another good idea is to use Wi-Fi in areas that offer such access to the internet. Accessing the internet using a Wi-Fi network uses less of the battery than accessing the internet over a cellular network. You can even turn on Wi-Fi when using airplane mode.

Within the Cellular section of the Settings app you can also select exactly which apps can access the internet using cellular data. If you are interested in preserving as much battery life as possible, say for an important phone call, you may also want to disable both LTE and Cellular data all together.

Some hidden cellular data features: There are also three somewhat hidden cellular data switches in iOS 7. The first one is in Safari. It will sync items in your reading list from all of your devices connected via iCloud. The second is located in iTunes & App Store settings; it enables music downloads, iTunes Match and iTunes Radio usage over cellular networks. The third hidden cellular data setting is in iCloud's Documents and Data section. It enables syncing of data for apps that use iCloud storage. Here you can also individually pick which apps can sync data with iCloud. Provided you don't feel that each of these settings will affect how you use your iPhone, you may save some power by shutting them off.

Selectively use Bluetooth and Wi-Fi: If you never connect to a Bluetooth device, then there is no reason to have it turned on. If you find that you use it with a headset, external speaker, or car, turn it on only when using those external devices. Like the brightness setting and airplane mode, this too is easily accessible by swiping up to reveal the Control Center. When you are in locations that you know does not have Wi-Fi service, you may think that there is no reason to have your device continue to look for a Wi-Fi hotspot's services. However, depending on how often you are using your device's location services, turning off Wi-Fi can actually have the opposite effect and decrease battery life by forcing your apps and system services to use a GPS signal to find your location.

Turn off AirDrop: AirDrop is a feature where you can quickly share files, photos, map points and links with other nearby iOS devices. It has existed on OS X since Lion. Leaving it turned on will have your device look for nearby devices ever time you access the share option in your apps. Accessible on the Control Center, turning off AirDrop when you are not using it is probably best.

Finding the right location services: Apple uses assisted GPS technology, which will attempt to find your location using the least amount of power possible. Even so, being selective as to which app uses location services can help conserve power as well. To control how location information is used, go to the Privacy section of the Settings app and select Location Services. You can of course turn quickly off all Location Services if you are in a hurry to conserve battery life, but that will also disable the Find my iPhone security feature. It may be better to spend some time and decide which apps and system services you want to use your location information.

Halt background apps from refreshing: New to iOS 7 is the enhanced ability that allows apps to refresh their data in the background, sometimes referred to as multitasking. You can decide which if any apps on your device can take full advantage of this feature. Located under the General section of the Settings app, you can either switch off all of the Background App Refresh services, or you can optionally select which individual apps can refresh their data.

Limit notification wakeups: Notifications wake up your device and allow apps to take action based on some external event. Having every app on your device respond to notifications can have your app powering on the lock screen to display the notification all day long. It is therefore a good idea is to be selective as to exactly which apps can be displayed on the lock screen from within the Privacy section of the Settings app. Easily accessible via the Control Center, Do Not Disturb is another great way to quickly turn off your least important notifications.

Disable spotlight search: Spotlight Search will keep an updated index of all of the information you have collected on your iPhone. Maintaining this index can conserve power. Located under the General section of the Settings app, you can turn Spotlight Search off completely by not checking any of the data types listed. You can also choose exactly which types of information you do want to search for, and adjust the order that the results are displayed.

Push rather than fetch email: The way in which you receive your email can cut down on your battery life as well. Given the fact that GMail has dropped support for pushing your mail message, switching to a fetch based service may be the cause of your battery drain. Fetching email ever five or fifteen minutes can really run your battery down in no time; manually fetch your email instead.

Don't auto download: Auto downloading content to your iPhone can be a convenience, but it also can consume battery life. You may have purchased a song on your Mac, or an app on your iPad, but that does not always mean that you wanted it on your iPhone as well. The Automatic Downloads setting is located in the iTunes & App Store section of the Settings app.

Stop using Parallax and Dynamic Backgrounds: One of the new cool features is all of the advanced motion and three-dimensional effects that have been implemented in iOS 7. Hidden under Accessibility in the General section of the Settings app, the Reduce Motion switch will decrease the amount of motion one sees on the screen. While motion backgrounds are cool looking they really do not add to the overall functionality of the device. Go back to your standard flat wallpaper in an effort to conserve battery life.

Delete some of your apps: Sure, apps are cheap and fun to try out, but having too many of them around may be part of your battery problem. With each app you install comes the opportunity for that app to use background refresh, location and notification services. Pick your favorite most useful apps and configure them to use the services that are right for you, and delete the rest.

Stop running certain apps: Finding out which apps may be using the most battery life can be tricky. While an app is listed in the running list (double tap the Home button to see the list), it can still respond to notification events and wake up in the background. Selectively shutting down certain apps by flicking them off the list is also a good way to try and find out which of your apps is consuming the most battery life.

Don't wait to auto lock: Try and get in the habit of locking your device after each time you finish looking at it. Even if you are just checking the time of day, leaving the screen on for five or even three minutes at a time can add up. Adjusting the auto lock to more quickly turn off the screen can help preserve battery life.

Leaving every service up and running for all apps all of the time will certainly run your battery down. While it may sound like the best way to conserve battery life on your iPhone is to not use your iPhone, a little fine tuning and conservation can go a long way to get your battery life back up to where you like it.

This story was originally published on GigaOM.
Courtesy: USAtoday

By: Unknown On 8:35 AM

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Kantar: With Android Inching Up In Smartphone Sales, Get Set For An iPhone ‘Spike’

With Apple in the middle of its first month of sales of two new iPhone models, the latest figures out from Kantar Worldpanel, a market research division of WPP, indicates that going into September, sales of Android smartphones are the strongest they have ever been. In the last 12 weeks ending August 31, smartphones running on Google’s mobile OS accounted for over 70% of all sales across the five biggest markets in Europe (UK, Germany, France, Spain and Italy), with corresponding rises in all other major markets surveyed, including the U.S., compared to last month.

However, a look at the bigger picture highlights another trend, and an opportunity for the likes of Apple, Nokia and Android OEMs who are not called Samsung. In key leading markets surveyed — U.S., UK and Australia — the share of sales to Android are down over a year ago (respectively now at 55.1%, 56.3% and 62.1%). And specifically, the analysts note that Samsung has seen a “dip” in sales for a couple of reasons: market saturation in mature markets; and competition from others at the lower end.

After years of increasing market share, Android has now reached a point where significant growth in developed markets is becoming harder to find,” writes Dominic Sunnebo, director of research at the group. “Android’s growth has been spearheaded by Samsung, but the manufacturer is now seeing its share of sales across the major European economies dip year on year as a sustained comeback from Sony, Nokia and LG begins to broaden the competitive landscape.”

Important to note that right now Android and Samsung are at a high-enough marketshare that even dips in specific markets are not doing much to tip the balance overall. In Spain, for example, over 90% of smartphones sold in the last 12 weeks were Android handsets. In China the figure is over 72%.

We have reached out to Kantar analysts to see if they can give us data on Samsung’s current share of sales, and whether they can provide any early indications on what kind of an impact the new iPhone models are having on the market. (We’ll update when / if we get more data.)

TARGETING BARGAIN HUNTERS

People have remarked a lot about how the new 5c version of the iPhone is not the budget device everyone had been expecting from Apple (although it is priced at a discount to the premium 5s model). So, notwithstanding the fact that the iPhone 4S is now seeing bargain (and often free) bundling with mobile contracts, this will leave the field open to other players who are targeting the “budget” smartphone market — that is, users in both developed and emerging markets that are more price-conscious.

So far, Nokia’s aim of developing handsets to meet that latter demand has been paying increasing, if not huge, dividends, Kantar notes. It says that Windows Phone sales, as led by Nokia, are now in double digit percentages in the UK and France, at 12% and 10.8% respectively, with its share of sales in Europe’s five biggest markets at 9.2%. But other important markets like the U.S. (3% of sales) and China (2.1%) remain huge challenges for both Microsoft and Nokia on the mobile front. All things relative, it is still overall doing better than BlackBerry, which is now down to 0% of all sales in China, 1.8% in China, and nothing over 4.2% in any other market.

Judging by the numbers, it looks like Nokia’s and Microsoft’s best bet would be to keep going for bargain hunters or those who are less inclined to buy premium-priced handsets, which interestingly tap into two quite different demographics. “Windows Phone’s latest wave of growth is being driven by Nokia’s expansion into the low and mid range market with the Lumia 520 and 620 handsets,” writes Sunnebo. “These models are hitting the sweet spot with 16 to 24 year-olds and 35 to 49 year-olds, two key groups that look for a balance of price and functionality in their smartphone.”

APPLE’S OPPORTUNITY

While Kantar doesn’t give any indicators on early iPhone sales, we already know from Apple that sales of the two new models topped 9 million for the opening weekend, compared to 5 million for the iPhone 5 release last year. They haven’t released any numbers yet, but Kantar’s analysts hint that this is a good indication of more sustained strong sales figures for Apple. “This is set to spike in the coming months with the release of the iPhone 5s and 5c,” Sunnebo writes.

For the three months that ended August 31, Apple accounted for nearly 40% of sales in the U.S., up nearly six percentage points over a year ago but down by over three percentage points on last month’s figures (perhaps because of anticipation over the new models). At the time, the new phones could see Apple pulling ahead of Android for the first time in a while. In Japan, Apple’s iOS was nearly level with Android going into September, at 48.6% versus 47.4%, but the phones are now going to be sold for the first time by the country’s largest carrier, NTT DoCoMo, and that “makes it likely that Apple will pull ahead of Android in this key market.”

Courtesy: techcrunch

By: Unknown On 5:48 AM

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Blockbuster iPhone Sales and Flipboard’s New Round

Another busy week in the digital world has passed, complete with our full coverage.

Here’s a download of the top news this week, in case you missed it:

1. Despite concerns from analysts and pundits, Apple managed to sell a whopping nine million new iPhones over the first weekend of release. Those numbers, however, weren’t broken out in terms of how many were 5s devices versus 5c — perhaps we’ll hear more on the quarterly earnings call.
2. The NYPD would really love it if all Apple mobile device users — especially those buying new iPhones — would download iOS 7. The new software comes with added security features, which could help deter theft.
3. Flipboard, the social magazine startup, raised a hefty $50 million in a round led by Rizvi Traverse Management and Goldman Sachs. The company seems to be growing steadily, too; at last count, CEO Mike McCue said Flipboard has more than 85 million users.
4. It was round two for Microsoft’s Surface tablets, as the company released the next generation of its mobile computing devices. You need to read Peter Kafka’s hilarious account of the launch.
5. IHS tore apart the guts of the latest iPhone releases to figure out how much it costs Apple to build them. The result? Around $200 a pop — not entirely different than the last generation.
6. Google CEO Larry Page has a dream. Somehow, some way, every Google logo will be personalized, localized and changed, depending on the person viewing it. Dream big, Larry.
7. Ailing phone maker BlackBerry received a buyout offer from one of its largest investors, Fairfax Financial Holdings. What does FFH Chairman Prem Watsa see in the Canadian company?
8. How does Google come up with so many “moon shots?” According to Xoogler Marissa Mayer, it’s because of Larry Page’s superpower: His ability to continually ask “why not?”
9. Our own Arik Hesseldahl sat down with Michael Dell shortly before Dell’s speech at Oracle’s OpenWorld conference in San Francisco. They talked turkey, especially drilling down on Dell’s decision to go private.
10. As Steve Ballmer’s tenure as Microsoft CEO comes to an end, is Ford’s Alan Mulally the next in line for the throne?

Courtesy:  AllThingsD’s

By: Unknown On 3:07 AM

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Video: Every iPhone Ever Gets Speed Tested Side-By-Side

Sure, each new iPhone is faster than the last.. on paper. But how do these speed increases actually translate into day-to-day use? It’s one of life’s oldest questions; one that scholars and scientists have spent billions trying to answer, to no avail.

Fine. Maybe not. But it is something that’s cool to see put to the test in a two minute video on a beautiful Sunday afternoon.

Managing to pull together each of the eight generations of iPhones released since 2007 and a bunch of extra hands to keep everything in sync, the guys over at the EverythingApplePro YouTube channel have put together a side-by-side speed test showing how quickly each model handles a basic action — from booting up, to loading a website.

Lessons learned:

• Unlocking an entire row of iPhones with one long swipe looks kind of awesome.
• The speed jump from the 3G/3GS to the 4 seems huge. It’s especially obvious during the browsing tests. This is likely as much due to software changes in Safari on the newer OS (with the 3GS losing support for upgrades after iOS 6.1.3, and the 3 losing support way back at 4.2.1).
• iOS 7 takes a surprisingly long time to shut down.
• If you’re running iOS 7 on an iPhone 4, you’re not crazy: it really does take forever to boot up.
• After the 4S, the speed differences for basic day-to-day activities (like loading a page) start to get pretty slim with each next generation. Once you’re on the 5 and later, the difference is hardly noticeable. The differences are obviously going to be more visible for the more intensive things (like 3D gaming), but for general day-to-day stuff like browsing, there’s not really room to make huge strides.

Courtesy: techcrunch

By: Unknown On 1:50 PM

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A Few Tricks All The New iOS 7 Users Should Know

by Greg Kumparak

At long last, iOS 7 has arrived. That is, it arrived for everyone who didn’t say “Developer? Oh, yeah, I’m totally a developer. Cough” and wiggle into the Beta months ago.

iOS 7 is a strange new land, especially on day one. Out with the gradients, in with the trippy fluorescents. Your favorite app? It probably looks completely different now.

It can be confusing, but we’re here to help. iOS 7 has all sorts of nifty little tricks tucked away in places that are in no way immediately obvious, especially if you haven’t followed Tim Cook’s every word along the way.

If you’ve been using iOS 7 for a while, you might know some of these. Hell, you might know most of these. But we tried to cover the bases to make sure that most people learn a thing or two. (Know all of these? You’re way cool, high five. Share another trick down in the comments!)

Swipe Down For Search:

Gone are the days of having to swipe or tap your way to iOS’ dedicated search page. You can now access Spotlight search from anywhere on the homescreen. Just swipe down in the middle of the screen.

You can use Spotlight to quickly search across your device’s apps, emails, and contacts — but curiously, it seems that Apple has removed Spotlight’s ability to search the web. I’m pretty sure I never actually used that, but this is the Internet so I’m supposed to complain now that it’s gone.

Swipe Up For Toggles:

Toggles! At last!

Fixing what is perhaps one of iOS’ most glaring, long-lasting omissions, iOS 7 puts one-click access to things like Airplane mode and Wi-Fi/Bluetooth toggles just one swipe away, instead of hiding them in settings.

To get to the new Control Panel, just swipe up from the bottom of the screen anywhere you might be. You’ll get buttons for Airplane mode, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Do Not Disturb, Orientation lock, and sliders for brightness and media control. Oh, and there’s a flashlight in there. So if you were thinking about building a dedicated flashlight app, now is probably not a good time.

(Pro tip: The control panel is available from the lockscreen. Also: if the control panel is sliding out and interrupting your Candy Crushin’ time, you can block it from sliding out while in an app in your settings.)

Reveal iMessage and SMS Timestamps:

iOS has always been kind of weird about telling you when a message was sent or received. It’ll tell you when some messages came through — but only if it’s the first one that’s come through in a while in a given thread. If you sent a bunch of messages around 12:45, for example, you’d normally only get that first 12:45 timestamp.

With iOS 7, you can reveal the timestamp for each and every message. Just grab one of the speech bubbles in a thread and swipe to the left. Tada! Timestamps! Never argue about exactlywhen a message was sent again! (Because, yeah, I’ve had those arguments. Seriously. Sigh.)

Built-In Level:

Building a house boat? Hanging a picture? Just want to show off one of the stranger new tricks that your iPhone has picked up?

iOS 7 has a built-in bubble level, of all things. I thought it was a pretty strange addition at first… but then I found myself using it one day. Then again the next.

To get to the level, open the compass app. Though not immediately obvious, there’s a second page to the app; swipe to the left, and you’ll be at Apple’s level.

(Pro tip: Double-tapping the screen resets the level to consider whatever angle the phone is currently at to be 0°. That design choice, expressed through a series of colored flashes, isn’t super intuitive.)

Swipe To Close Safari Tabs:

Safari has a new, scrolling 3D tab interface that allows for just about as many tabs as you want.

Alas, these tabs also have new, tiny “X” buttons that make closing them quickly a bit of a pain.

Forget the X button — it’s for chumps. Swipe the tabs away to the left, instead. It’s a whole lot faster, and requires less precision when you’re trying to dump a bunch of tabs on the go.

Call/SMS/Facetime Blocking:

“Surely, there’s got to be a way to block phone numbers,” said every iPhone user ever.

Really, just type “How to b” into Google and let it autocomplete. First result? “How to block a number.” Second result? “How to block a number on iPhone.” Third result? “How to be happy.” This feature is in greater demand than happiness! Happiness!

Yet, until now, there hasn’t really been an easy way.

With iOS 7, it’s finally a pretty straightforward process to block people from calling, messaging, or FaceTime-ing (FaceTiming? Facing? Agh.) you. You can find the block list at either Settings > Phone > Blocked; Settings > Messages > Blocked; or Settings > FaceTime > Blocked. Note, however, that the block list is universal — block them in the phone settings, and they’re blocked on FaceTime, too.

App-By-App Cell Data Usage/Blockage:

Want to see which app is using up all of your cell plan’s precious megabytes? Want to keep Pandora from streaming unless it’s on Wi-Fi?

Pop into Settings > Cellular and scroll down to the bottom. You can see which apps have used the most cell data and block any app from using cell data at all. (Note: An app needs to have used cell data at least once for it to show up in the list.)

How To Close Apps:

We’ve had a bunch of requests for this one since this post first went up, so here you go.

Apple changed the App Switching/App Closing mechanism up a bit with iOS 7. It used to be that to close an app, you’d double tap the home button, wait for the app drawer to slide out, then press and hold on an icon until the little “X” appeared.

With iOS 7, the whole thing looks and works a bit more like webOS of yesteryear. Double tap the home button to bring up the fullscreen app switcher, which provides a screenshot of each running application in a sideways-scrolling carousel. To close an application, simply swipe the app’s screenshot up and off the screen.

(Note: You really shouldn’t need to close apps all that often. Unless the app has crashed and refuses to fix itself or it’s doing something that is eating your battery, iOS 7 is designed so that most apps use little to no resources when in the background.)

Bonus Tricks:

• Folders can now be paged, allowing them to hold a huge number of apps.
• Safari still has private-browsing mode, it’s just in the app itself now instead of hidden away in settings. Find the switch in Safari’s tabs screen.
• Airdrop, Apple’s much touted system for wirelessly transferring files to other nearby iPhones, only works with the iPhone 5 and later. (I’ve spotted many a 4S user wasting time trying to figure out how the heck to turn it on, when the option simply isn’t there for them. Don’t worry, I wasted a good 10 minutes myself.)
• Miss the “List” view in the calendar app? It’s still there, just not immediately obvious. Tap the search icon to bring up a scrollable list.
• If you’re into using default ringtones, give Apple’s list another look. They’ve added a bunch of new trancy ringtones and chiptuney text alerts.
• Siri has picked up a bunch of new tricks. You can toggle settings (“Turn On Do Not Disturb”), ask for recent tweets (“What is TechCrunch saying?”), show you pictures (“Show me pictures of cats”) pulled from Bing, provide Wikipedia info inline (“Tell me about TechCrunch”), post to Facebook, play back voicemail, list recently missed calls, and find restaurants on Yelp and make OpenTable reservations.
• iOS 7 keeps tabs on where you hang out most, allowing it to cache relevant nearby data. It’s neat, if a bit spooky. Once you’ve used iOS 7 for a while, go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services > System Services to view a list of your frequent haunts. You can also turn this feature off at the same location.

Know any other tricks that we should list? (“LOL SWITCH TO ANDROID” doesn’t count.) Drop a comment and we’ll add the best.

Courtesy: TechCrunch

By: Unknown On 12:11 PM

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