Hasta La Gadget!

It’s queue time all over again in 33 new countries across the planet including not least of all China and Taiwan, as the iPhone 5 launches officially. Lines have indeed been forming at locations throughout these many countries since early this morning or days ago (depending on where you’re standing) and online reservations have made the process much less hectic in many of the main outlet areas.

Both China Unicom and China Telecom have begun offering the iPhone 5 with options galore for sizes, black or white color combinations, and WCDMA or CDMA depending on the second word in the carrier’s name. You’re able to buy a subsidized iPhone 5 on many carriers throughout the planet today while contract-less machines begin at ¥5,288 (approximately $850 USD) in China. NOTE: See our full iPhone 5 review if you’re still on the fence for a purchase!

Meanwhile in Taiwan the unsubsidized iPhone 5 will cost you right around $750 USD (NT$21,900) and subsidized prices are available throughout the country on carriers such as Chunghwa Telecom. The photo you see of the lines in Taipei, Beijing, and more below come from Engadget China, Sina Tech, and Weibo.

If you’re in one of the following countries, let us know how your iPhone 5 experience is going! We’re also to be found at @SlashGear on Twitter if you’d like to contact us there – stay safe in the snow if you’re near it!

Albania, Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Ecuador, Grenada, Indonesia, Israel, Jamaica, Jordan, Kuwait, Macedonia, Malaysia, Moldova, Montenegro, Panama, Paraguay, Philippines, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Taiwan, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela.

Additional countries getting the iPhone 5 in stores on the 21st of December include: Barbados, Botswana, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Egypt, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritius, Morocco, Niger, Senegal, St. Kitts, St. Lucia, St.Vincent & the Grenadines, Tunisia, Uganda, and Vietnam.

iPhone 5 launch events in 33 countries today is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Yes, we know. People have been recording and remixing albums on iOS for ages. As the man who claims to have given Damon Albarn the idea to make an album on the iPad, I am intimately familiar with the concept. More »

It’s less than a couple of months away from CES 2013 now and brands large and small have already begun war on the media with releases – today’s big news from Soundfreaq contains one heck of a rundown of future sound products. This rundown includes the first lightning speaker docks for the iPhone 5 and iPad mini as well as a set of Dual System Streaming products for futuristic audio action.

This party begins with the Sound Platform 2, continues on with the Sound Rise Lightning, and rolls forward with Sound Step / Sound Step Recharge Lightning. If those names weren’t long enough to get you riled up about the Apple device friendly show about to be brought on by Soundfreaq, perhaps you’d better get a look at the first basic specifications:

Sound Platform 2 takes what the first iteration was and brings on more enhanced bass, high-volume quality, large speaker drivers, Tone Control galore, and UQ3 spacial enhancement. This all comes with dual USB charging ports for whatever you’ve got that’s chargeable via USB, a Universal Device Tray, and connectivity to basically any mobile device you’ve got on hand. You’ve also got a rechargeable battery pack and Bluetooth integration for wireless music action – all of this coming on February 17th, 2013 for $149.99.

Sound Step, Sound Step Recharge, and Sound Rise are all products that’ve been out in the past, but are now going to be offered up with the new Apple lightning connectors for futuristic iPhone 5 / iPad 4 / iPad mini connectivity. Sound Rise is at its heart an alarm clock disguised as an iPhone dock, here with Bluetooth wireless connectivity and USB charging as well. You can also connect with any smart device – Android, Windows Phone 8, BlackBerry included – with the USB charging port and 3.5mm headphone jack – make it yours!

Sound Step Recharge (and the non-recharge Sound Step) are massive beasts of audio magic in a compact size, here now with lightning dock integration. It’s got a rechargeable battery, works with iOS devices as well as every other kind of smart device with USB charging and headphone jack integration, and makes the sound jump with UQ3 spacial sound enhancement!

We’ll see more on final pricing and release dates for these updated units as well as the rest of the Soundfreaq line at CES 2013 – join us in January and stay tuned to SlashGear until them for every single early release, rumor, and hands-on experience!

Soundfreaq brings lightning to CES 2013 in massive audio preview is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Instagram knows it can’t stay still just because it’s under Facebook’s wing. Accordingly, a new iOS update has delivered a (quite frankly welcome) remake of the camera and editing interfaces. While snapping photos, there’s a more stylized interface with an optional grid to perfect that rule-of-thirds composition, if you like keeping shots neat and tidy. The app makes a greater effort to acknowledge past photos, too: everyone sees the most recent camera roll photo, while iPhone 5 owners’ extra screen real estate gives them a new camera roll image picker to sift through their archives. Android users don’t get the tweaked layout at this stage, but they do share the same obligatory new image filter, Willow. Check the source links for a fresh coat of paint on a day-to-day app.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Facebook

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Via: TechCrunch, Instagram Blog

Source: App Store, Google Play

For years now, Microsoft has been extending its more popular first-party applications to other platforms such as iOS and Android, but one first-party application that has alluded going cross-platform has been its Microsoft Office suite of applications. We’ve been hearing rumors of its existence and inevitable release for several months now, but a recent leaked document may have finally hit the nail on the head in regards to Microsoft Office making the jump to additional platforms.

According to Mac4ever, a number of references to Microsoft Office products have been making their way into Microsoft’s support site. “Office Mobile for iPhone,” “Excel for iPad” and “PowerPoint for iPad” can all be seen within support documents on Microsoft’s support site.

Was the inclusion of these possible applications made in error, or is Microsoft planning to finally release its Office to other platforms, specifically the iOS platform? We have reached out to Microsoft for comment and will certainly update this story as soon as we hear back from them. For now, keep hope alive that Microsoft will finally wise up and decide to release Microsoft Office onto additional mobile platforms.

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