Apple finally gets tax concessions in India after starting local iPhone production
Apple is reported to have finally succeeded in getting one of the tax concessions it had sought in return for assembling iPhones in India. The company had long been seeking a range of incentives in return for setting up an iPhone plant in the country.
Apple had originally wanted the concessions before beginning production, but decided to go ahead with or without them. Local production of the iPhone SE started earlier this month …
Apple & Samsung lose smartphone market share as Chinese brands continue to grow
The latest Gartner data (below) shows that both Apple and Samsung lost market share in the first quarter of the year as Chinese brands continued to increase their sales.
iPhone sales actually grew very marginally year-on-year, but the market as a whole grew 9% in the same period, resulting in the decrease in market share. Apple saw its global share fall from 14.8% to 13.7%, but market leader Samsung was hit harder …
Facebook’s Safety Check automatically activated by Manchester attack; Tim Cook tweets sadness
Facebook’s Safety Check feature has been activated for the suicide bombing in Manchester in which 22 people lost their lives. Children were among the fatalities.
HomeKit light bulbs to start from $12 as Ikea announces smart lighting compatibility
The ability to use Siri and a single app to control your smart home technology makes HomeKit compatibility almost a must these days, but so far that has not come cheap – as both Zac and myself discovered. Smart bulbs from the market leader Philips start at $25 per bulb for white and $50 for color, a price that soon adds up if you’re looking to fit out your entire home.
But all that is set to change in the summer as Ikea has announced that its smart lighting system will be HomeKit-compatible as of the summer. Ikea’s smart bulbs start at just $11.99 …
Apple settles patent dispute with Nokia, Withings products returning to Apple Store
Apple and Nokia today announced that they have agreed a settlement to a patent lawsuit that began in December. The companies said they have moved from adversaries to business partners, settling all litigation.
Nokia will provide network infrastructure services to Apple, Apple will stock Nokia’s Withings products once again in Apple Stores and pay ongoing license fees to use Nokia’s intellectual property.
Despite more powerful competition, iPhone SE tops new customer satisfaction survey
While not Apple’s latest and greatest, the iPhone SE has topped the most recent American Customer Satisfaction Index data for May 2017. The data shows a customer satisfaction rating for the iPhone SE of 87 out of 100, putting it 1 point ahead of the iPhone 7 Plus and Galaxy S6 Edge+…
Instagram rolling out new ‘archive’ option for temporarily hiding posts
Instagram has started rolling out a new feature called “archive” that offers users an alternative when deciding whether or not to delete a post. Users delete their posts for a variety of reasons, such as if they don’t receive enough likes in a certain amount of time, and Instagram views this new archive capability as an alternative to that…
Analyst: iPhone 8 to start at $870, max out at $1,070 for 256GB model
While a number of things remain uncertain about the upcoming iPhone 8, one of the biggest is price. Analysts, however, continue make their best guesses and today UBS analyst Steven Milunovich is out with his predictions. Milunovich claims that the iPhone 8 will start at $870 and max out around $1,070…
Hands-on: Ugreen Portable Magnetic Charging Stand for Apple Watch [Video]
The Portable Magnetic Charging Stand for Apple Watch is lengthy in name, but simple in purpose and execution. Ugreen’s latest Apple Watch accessory is a portable stand that can be adjusted to rest at a 45-degree angle to easily accommodate an Apple Watch with a closed-loop band installed.
Featuring an integrated magnetic inductive charging disk and built-in 4-foot USB cable, Ugreen’s $55 charger is ready to go out of the box, as long as you have access to a USB port that delivers the necessary power. more…
Scrolling in Safari will be updated to make it faster; more consistent with the rest of iOS [Video]
A noteworthy change is headed to a mobile Safari browser near you. The inertia scrolling properties currently used within mobile Safari will be updated to be faster and more consistent with other apps, including Apple-made apps, in iOS.
Currently Safari features slower inertia scrolling properties, something that the browser has featured since its inception back in 2007. Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages Project (AMP), which seeks to speed up web page access times by providing a stripped down version of HTML, features different scroll inertia due to inconsistencies in the way Safari is currently designed.
In a future Safari update, its scrolling behavior will be changed to be more in line with scrolling performance throughout the rest of iOS, effectively reducing the rate of scroll deceleration. more…