Hasta La Gadget!

The iPad offerings were all over the place, jumping from intensive weather details to a news-reading puppy to enough emoji to ensure that you never have to use words for feelings ever again. But then again, that’s what life is all about, after all—anthropomorphized dogs and avoiding face-to-face human interactions at all costs. Or something like that.

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Apple has never been entirely keen on the idea of people hacking in to their smartphones, and here in 2013 its becoming apparent that developers of games for iOS devices aren’t finding the situation to be entirely positive either. What this week has turned up is the creators of Dues Ex: The Fall have included a code which, if your iPhone is jailbroken, will result in your complete inability to fire guns. And that’s important.

When you’re playing a game like Dues Ex: The Fall, you’ll find it rather difficult to get anywhere without the firing of guns. This news comes from Kotaku where users have flocked to flip out over the situation due to their full purchase of the game and essentially complete inability to play it. This game was released this week for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

When one downloads The Fall for $6.99 USD on the Apple App Store, it will work completely fine if you’ve got a factory-fresh iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. If you’ve taken the time to jailbreak the device, on the other hand, you’ll be unable to play.

At the moment it’s not entirely clear why the developers behind the game do not warn users that they’re so very against the jailbreaking process that they’ll stop anyone who does it from playing their game. Jailbreaking is not illegal at the moment here in the USA, just warrantee-breaking. Game developers certainly – again, at the moment – appear to have the right to initiate a break like this, but we imagine the situation wont be around for long.

At least, not with no warning as we’re seeing here.

UPDATE: It would appear that Square Enix has been quick on the pistol with a response to this public relations mistake of a release. These words were provided by the developers to Penny Arcade Report:

“We have not been clear in our communication earlier this week when we launched Deus Ex: The Fall. We did not state clearly that the game would not support jailbroken devices and so we will be switching this off via an update, so that all the supported iOS devices will be able to play the game in the near future

We feel it is the right thing to do in this situation and apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. No customer should be out of pocket when we were not clear from the start, so we’ll get the game updated as soon as possible so that everyone who wants to play Deus Ex: The Fall can do so regardless of whether their device is jailbroken or not.

As soon as this update is live we will communicate this via the Eidos Montreal Community channels” – Square Enix

This sort of situation has appeared with several other games in the recent past, notably Game Dev Tycoon which, having expected their game to be pirated immediately after having been released to the wild, added a bit of a break inside it.

As players played, they found their (pirated) game to be giving them massive amounts of bad sales reports due to in-game pirating. Irony at its best.

Jailbreakers beware: games continue to cut service to hackers [UPDATE: Statement] is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Apple is investigating claims that tin used in its products comes from mines on Bangka Island in Indonesia. This comes after environmental watchdog Friends of the Earth (FoE) pressured the tech giant to identify the source of the metal used for soldering components in iDevices. While the island region is one of the largest suppliers of tin in the world, mining conditions are far from ideal. Landslides consistently claim the lives of workers, and mining itself has had an adverse effect on the local environment. The group successfully pressured Samsung to admit its involvement with the area’s tin supplies in April.

For its part, Apple commissioned a fact-finding visit to learn more and is helping to fund a new study on mining in the region so they “can better understand the situation.” Or maybe they could save some time and money by reading the one conducted by The Guardian and FoE from last November. You know, the one that found that unregulated tin mining leans heavily on child labor, destroys the environment and causes on average 100 – 150 miner fatalities every year. Cupertino has already vowed to not use conflict minerals and appointed a former EPA administrator to focus on its environmental efforts, so it at least looks ​responsible. Now to see if it can back up its actions.

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Apple

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Via: The Verge

Source: Friends of the Earth, Apple Supplier Responsibility

Apple‘s 2014 MacBook refresh will see the company switch to IGZO displays, it’s reported, reducing power consumption while simultaneously improving clarity. The switch, which isn’t expected to take place until the first half of next year, will see Apple raid the production lines of Sharp and LG Display, ETNews reports, with the iPad also potentially in line for the screen technology.

IGZO – or indium gallium zinc oxide – is used by Sharp and others to replace the more traditional amorphous silicon substrate found in TFT LCD panels. Since IGZO demonstrates more electron mobility, it can be more efficient, and the individual pixels can be smaller.

That allows for higher-resolution displays, but also permits a reduction in backlighting for the same degree of brightness as a regular LCD. Sharp has used the technology for a number of smartphones and tablets in the Japanese market, but we’re only just seeing IGZO make its way to the desktop in the shape of displays from Sharp itself and ASUS.

Those advantages have long been said to have caught Apple’s attention, and in fact the company is believed to have quietly invested in Sharp so as to get first refusal on the panels once they reach mass-production level.

According to the Korean reports, Sharp may end up supplying both MacBook and iPad scale IGZO panels to Apple, trimming the power consumption of the notebooks and tablets in the process. It’s also expected that LG Display will join the supply chain with IGZO, and said that the company is already upgrading its existing AMOLED and LCD lines to be compatible with IGZO manufacturing.

For Apple, the biggest benefit could be Retina display resolution but without the drain on battery life. The company has made a name for its hardware thanks to the pixel-dense displays, but balancing the power demands of such panels is an ongoing challenge.

2014 MacBook and iPad IGZO display switch tipped is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Apple has petitioned the International Trade Commission to overturn a fast-approaching US ban on the iPad 2 and iPhone 4, which would see imports of the firm’s older phones and tablets barred in under four weeks time. The ruling, granted to Samsung back in June but not enacted for 60 days, would “sweep away an entire segment of Apple’s product offerings” Apple argued in a motion filed on Monday with the ITC, not to mention potentially damaging the company’s carrier partners, it’s suggested.

As Apple sees it, although the impacted devices – the most recent of which include the second-gen iPad and the iPhone 4 – have all been superseded by newer phones and tablets, they still represent an entry-level option which could have introduced new customers to the brand. The iPad 2G 3G and iPhone 4 present “the opportunity to gain new smartphone and tablet customers who otherwise would have purchases these entry-level Apple devices” the company points out.

It’s not only Apple which is at risk, the company’s lawyers claim. Carriers – redacted in the published version of the motion, but presumably AT&T and T-Mobile – will also be at a disadvantage, especially against their CDMA rivals.

“The products subject to the Commission’s orders have been purchased by [REDACTED]. They remain very popular and are strong sellers for the GSM carriers” Apple writes. “As noted above, the GSM carriers will be placed at a competitive disadvantage against their CDMA competitors because the Orders will prevent them from offering these popular, entry-level devices.”

As Apple sees it, the 3G GMS patent at the center of Samsung’s successful import ban request is likely to be overturned. An import ban would be premature, then, the company says. “Under the unique circumstances presented in this case,” Apple writes, “a stay of the Orders is warranted to maintain the status quo until the Federal Circuit decides Apple’s appeal.”

Unlikely is that President Barack Obama will weigh in, and overrule the ITC ban, as is the only other way to avoid the embargo beyond the appeals process.

Unsurprisingly, Samsung has been keen to see the ban enacted. “We believe the ITC’s final determination has confirmed Apple’s history of free-riding on Samsung’s technological innovations” a company spokesperson said back when the ITC first reached its decision.

VIA GigaOm

iPhone and iPad ban must be overturned Apple argues is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.