iOS

Apple may finally step its toes into the digital wallet world over the next year or two, forecasts Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster.

The analyst believes a payment option for iOS users may launch with the iPhone 6 in the first half of 2014. Apple will use a technology other than or in addition to near-field communications (NFC), but its system will work with existing mobile payment solutions.

The company already has one major asset ripe for a digital wallet system -- its users.

Apple holds the key to around 500 million iTunes users and their linked credit cards, which … Read more

Apple's iTunes Store in China has kicked out an iOS app that offered electronic versions of books banned by the Chinese government.

Hao Peiqiang, the developer of the bookstore app, yesterday posted a letter that he received from Apple informing him that the app would be removed, because "it includes content that is illegal in China."

Apple's letter explained that while the app is no longer available in China, it can still be downloaded from the iTunes store in other countries.

Apple's form e-mail didn't specify which content was illegal. Known as "Jingdian … Read more

Apple may be eyeing its own "Street View" type navigation system and one that offers a key benefit over Google's version.

Published today by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Apple's "3D Position Tracking for Panoramic Imagery Navigation" patent filing describes a navigation technology that looks and works like Street View. The system would display a panoramic image of a certain location on your mobile device, allowing you to virtually move around the area.

Google's Street View forces you to swipe your finger or tap on a direction icon to journey along … Read more

Microsoft released an update of its SkyDrive for iOS app today, indicating that Apple is no longer blocking the app's updates from the App Store.

Until today, Microsoft hadn't updated its cloud storage service app since June 1. This was reportedly due to a dispute between Microsoft and Apple over fees. The app's 3.0 version includes support for iPhone 5 and the iPad Mini, and the ability to download full resolution photos to an iPhone or iPad.

In December, a report surfaced that Microsoft allegedly didn't want to pay Apple a 30 percent fee for … Read more

SANTA CRUZ MOUNTAINS, Calif. -- In the common retelling of Apple's history, it was Steve Jobs' and Steve Wozniak's second computer, the Apple II, that launched their fledgling company toward stratospheric growth and financial success. The machine's triumph as a single platform for business software, games, artistic tools -- and more -- set the stage for the later debut of the first Mac, and later OS X and iDevices.

What many forget -- or may not even know -- is that when the Apple II was introduced at the inaugural West Coast Computer Faire in April, 1977, it suffered from what, in retrospect, was a glaring shortcoming: It had no disk drive. … Read more

As Apple continues to work on kinks and bugs in iOS 6, rumors are already flying about a possible iOS 7. The latest chatter suggests that Apple is running behind schedule in its development of iOS 7 but that the software will have a whole new display.

According to Daring Fireball's John Gruber, development for the possible operating system is so delayed that Apple has pulled engineers from the Mac OS X 10.9 team to work on it. This rumor suggests that Apple may be readying the operating system for its Worldwide Developer Conference, which is in the … Read more

Unlocked iPhone 5 owners on T-Mobile's network might be able to update their devices to LTE a bit earlier than expected. According to TmoNews, the carrier is said to be sending out an update on April 5 that will enable LTE, Visual Voicemail, and more.

"The T-Mobile Carrier Update is a minor iOS software update that enables official iPhone support by T-Mobile," a notice sent to TmoNews says. "When installed, the software update enables a handful of capabilities like Visual Voicemail, MMS Settings, and Network/Device optimizations that customers do not have access to today. On … Read more

If you've always wished you could watch 3D content on your mobile device, you're in luck. A team of Singapore-based researchers has developed a special film that turns the screens of mobile devices into 3D-capable displays.

The EyeFly 3D film, which looks just like a typical screen protector, actually consists of 500,000 miniaturized lens-like structures that measure about one-thousandth the width of a human hair. When applied to a mobile device, the filter works with dedicated iOS and Android apps to render stereoscopic 3D content for playback. Nanovue, a startup set up to bring the EyeFly 3D to market, is working on apps to convert existing 2D content to stereoscopic 3D.

There's one tradeoff: In our tests, the film made the iPhone 5's Retina Display look like it had a lowered resolution, as text and icons appeared to have jagged edges. Screen brightness remained the same. … Read more

Waiting on hold may not be so dull if a newly patented Apple technology ever ends up a reality.

Granted to Apple today by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, a patent called "Communications system that provides user-selectable data when user is on-hold" envisions a system for showing useful and interesting information to mobile phone callers waiting on hold.

The information being displayed would be adaptive and contextual, according to the patent, meaning it would vary depending on the caller, the caller's location, the date and time, and other items. As one example, the caller might … Read more