Following the many reports detailing those extremely accurate iPhone 6 clones from China that run a highly customized Android version that makes them look like genuine iOS devices, TechRadar has obtained images that reportedly show the iPhone 6 in its retail packaging. However real the images may appear to be, and it looks like they have not been doctored, chances are they’re not showing the real deal just yet.
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It looks like Samsung won’t be the only smartphone maker trying to get the jump on Apple next month. According to The Verge, Microsoft has begun sending out preliminary invites to the press that seem to indicate the rumored Lumia 730 will be making an appearance at IFA 2014 in Germany at the beginning of September. Dubbed the “selfie phone” by leakers, the Lumia 730 is rumored to have a 5-megapixel front-facing camera — an especially attractive feature for younger smartphone shoppers.
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Despite the criticism and jokes it’s had to face, Apple Maps may be a hit product, U.K.’s main carrier Everything Everywhere (EE) has revealed in a recent press release detailing how its 4G LTE network is being used.
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Over the past week couple of weeks, we’ve been pleasantly surprised by everything we’ve learned about EA Access, a new Xbox One gaming subscription service that will give you the ability to play games like Madden NFL 15, Battlefield 4 and FIFA 14 even if you’ve never bought the games themselves for just $5 per month or $30 for a full year subscription. And on Monday EA announced that you can subscribe to EA Access starting today and get an unlimited fix of top-level EA games for as long as you subscribe.
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Gaming addiction can be just as dangerous as any other type of addiction — and not only to the addicted, but to their loved ones as well. We saw one couple go so far as to sell their children to buy in-app purchases and now another couple has gone off the deep end as well. According to a press release from the Orange Country District Attorney, Lester Louis Huffmire and his wife Petra Huffmire were convicted after police discovered they had been keeping the two children they were responsible for locked in a mobile home without appropriate provisions for three years while they played World of Warcraft. The description of the trailer sounds like something out of a horror movie.
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New Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure isn’t in an enviable position — his mobile data network is consistently ranked at the bottom of network speed studies and his carrier as a whole has been shedding subscribers like crazy for years. Added to all this, he’ll have to face the constant taunts from T-Mobile CEO John Legere, who has ruthlessly trolled Sprint by bashing its “Framily” program and urging its customers to “Sprint like hell” away from the carrier. If Claure’s reign as Sprint’s CEO is truly to be a success, then he won’t only help Sprint improve its network and add subscribers again but he’ll also get Legere to shut his trap and get the rest of the mobile industry to take Sprint seriously again.
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Samsung will unveil its next-gen flagship smartphone on September 3rd at IFA 2014, and start selling it in stores almost immediately thereafter to fight against the upcoming phablet version of the iPhone 6. With a few weeks to go until Samsung announces the handset, various Galaxy Note 4 images have already been leaked, showing what the Galaxy Note 4 may look like. On top of that, Phone Arena has also scored a picture from an anonymous tipster that reportedly reveals the retail box of the handset.
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Congratulations, Facebook: You may have found a way to annoy your user base even more than Google did with Google+. Facebook’s decision to strip the chat functionality from its mothership mobile app and instead force users to use the separate Facebook Messenger app to chat with friends has predictably led to a big backlash as iPhone owners have been bombing Facebook Messenger with one-star reviews in the App Store for the past several days.
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Microsoft’s handset strategy is looking more convoluted with each passing day. A few weeks ago, Microsoft killed the Asha range of Nokia phones, which was largely viewed as an admission that it cannot compete with Android vendors such as Xiaomi and Micromax in the $60 to $90 price range. Asha models employed a Nokia-created operating system called Series 40, which gave these feature phones certain smart elements such as a reasonably sophisticated email system and support for downloading simple games and such.
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It’s not uncommon to hear criticism of Apple’s App Store even from fans of the company, as many have said in the past that the store makes it much harder than it should be to find relevant high-quality apps from smaller publishers. Cult of Mac points us to a new post from Jean-Louis Gassée, who worked at Apple throughout the 1980s and who has some intriguing new ideas for improving the App Store, which he refers to as an “impenetrable jungle.”
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