Hasta La Gadget!

There has already been a lot of speculation about China Mobile officially launching the new iPhones. The largest mobile carrier in the world, China Mobile, boasts more than 700 million subscribers but it has never officially offered the iPhone before. It is expected to carry both the iPhone 5s and the iPhone 5c, purported promotional posters hinting at this possibility have already been leaked. Today, alleged pictures of the iPhone 5s running on China Mobile’s network have surfaced online.

A few months back China Mobile said that it is keen on selling the iPhone, but it couldn’t do so yet as certain commercial and technical issues remained in the way. The carrier’s rivals have already been offering both new iPhones in China. This time around, Apple made the new iPhones available in China the day they were released in the U.S. and other select initial launch markets. It appears right now that it is no longer a matter of “if” the new iPhones will be launched on China Mobile, what matters now is “when” the new iPhones will be launched on this carrier. Apple has already received the required regulatory approval to put its smartphones on China Mobile’s network, whereas the carrier is expected to receive approval to light up its TD-LTE network for commercial use by mid-October, after which it is expected to formally and finally launch the iPhones. [Image via ctech]

Leaked Screenshots Allegedly Show iPhone 5s Running On China Mobile original content from Ubergizmo.

We reported last week that Apple might bring back the in-store pick up service for iPhone 5s this week. Indeed it has. Starting today, the personal pick up option is now available to customers who wish to purchase Apple’s latest smartphone. To use this service, customers must make the purchase through the App Store app for iOS devices or through the Apple online store. They’ll then be given the option to select an Apple Store closest to their location from where they can go and personally pick up their new iPhone. Its as simple as that.

When the iPhone 5s was first launched, the in-store pick up service was offered. Though Apple pulled a plug on it after merely one day. This lead many to believe that perhaps it had done that due to short supply of iPhone 5s, while some claimed that perhaps the service had gone live earlier than expected due to a glitch.Even though personal pick up is now being offered, inventory at Apple Retail Stores in the U.S. remains thin. The online store already lists an estimate ship date in October for the iPhone 5s. Searching for Apple Stores near you will further reveal if units are available there for pick up or not.

iPhone 5s In-Store Pick Up Service Is Back original content from Ubergizmo.

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

For the past few years, the media has met iPhone introductions with skepticism that precedes great sales success. This has become such a cliché that the superstitious might worry what would happen should new iPhones be introduced to universal praise. But there was no cause for worry as far as the iPhone 5c and 5s were concerned. In the weekend following their initial availability, Apple reported that it sold 9 million iPhones, which set a new record for the company.

A few of the reasons behind this success likely had less to do with the strength of the product per se. The new iPhones were launched in 11 countries as opposed to nine in the previous launch. The fast-growing market of China was one of those. It was also the first launch to include Japan’s NTT DoCoMo. And back in the U.S. this marked the first time that new iPhones had been launched on all four major US carriers — a significant shift from the product’s first years as an AT&T exclusive. In fact, T-Mobile, the newest carrier to participate in an iPhone debut, has been particularly aggressive about promoting its Jump service that encourages upgrades, and its competitors have introduced their own upgrade-facilitation programs that grease the upgrade wheels for Apple and others.

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A couple of days ago we saw MobileFun’s sticker kit that makes an iPhone 5 look like an iPhone 5S, sorta. It turns out they have a sillier stick-on conversion kit for the iPhone 5. The iFruit vinyl skin is based on Rockstar Games’ eponymous companion app for Grand Theft Auto V. I bet they find this sticker hilarious.

Because the phones are about the same size, the vinyl should fit the iPhone 5s as well. You can order the iFruit skin from MobileFun for $13 (USD). Man, mocking oneself is expensive. To complete the transformation, change your phone’s wallpaper to one of the iFruit app’s backgrounds. Se7ensins forum member Tag 7s extracted the images from the app itself.

[via Inventor Spot]

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