Best Buy is taking a cool $75 off the price of the iPhone 5s with a 2 year contract, bringing the 16GB model down to $125. You can go into a real life Walmart and get the same phone for $189 – $75 Walmart credit, which is technically a slightly better deal, but this is online and a straight discount. All three carriers, and multiple colors and capacities eligible. [Best Buy]
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If you’ve been eagerly awaiting Apple’s Black Friday offers, then they’re finally here! You will, however, have to make do with gift cards. Here’s a rundown of what you can get your hands on.
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A lawsuit against Apple over iOS location tracking and infringed privacy has been dropped after two years, with the same judge that recently awarded the Cupertino firm $290m in damages from Samsung ruling that outraged iPhone users hadn’t demonstrated any legitimate violations. The case, filed back in 2011, saw four iOS users complain that their […]
Back in 2011 a team of British security researchers discovered that iOS on iPhone, iPad and iPod touch was building a record of the device’s location history, Wi-Fi network and cell tower location data to be precise, data which would allow the device to track itself faster than a GPS alone could. The data was also being copied over the computer if the device was connected to it. This obviously caused a lot of security concerns, though the late Steve Jobs denied at that time that Apple was not deliberately collecting location information, rather the company attributed the behaviour to a bug which was fixed through a firmware update. A class action lawsuit was eventually filed against Apple which has now been dismissed.
The plaintiffs argued that iOS had allegedly been designed to transmit iOS devices’ location to third-party app developers without the approval or consent of the users, and that this transmission of location data harmed the device’s performance by taking up storage space and reducing battery life. Plaintiffs also argued that location information would be collected anyway even if users turned off Location Services in the Settings app, Apple said this was due to a bug and fixed it through iOS 4.3.3. Judge Lucy Koh ruled that the plaintiffs “failed to show that there is a genuine issue of material fact” which is why the court has concluded that there is no standing to pursue the claims against Apple.
iPhone Location Tracking Lawsuit Has Been Dismissed original content from Ubergizmo. 
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Now that Kim Dotcom’s cloud storage service Mega is available to the public, it’s finally found time to launch the iOS app it’s been promising. The new app includes many of the same features as its Android counterpart, which has been available on Android for more than four months, including file previews and easy sharing. It currently lacks automatic camera syncing but that will come, along with iPad support, in a future update. What’s next for Mega? It’s on course to launch its Sync tool for Windows, Mac and Linux in the coming weeks, giving it time to concentrate on adding new security and messaging features to the cloud service in the new year.
Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile, Apple
Source: Mega (App Store)
It’s the time of year where we all give thanks, and among many other things, we here at Lifehacker are thankful for all the free apps out there that improve our lives (and the developers that make them!). Here are 50 of our favorites.
Remember all the fuss a couple years ago about Apple storing your location data from iPhone 4 handsets and the subsequent privacy lawsuits that resulted? Well, that’s all amounted to nothing for four of the plaintiffs, as their claims have just been dismissed in court by none other than Judge Lucy Koh. She said that those folks failed to show they had relied on any alleged Apple misrepresentations, and suffered no harm in any case. Shortly after the allegations were made in 2011, Apple countered that it was just using the data to improve connection times, and the only thing it did wrong was keep it for too long. As a result, it ended up patching the problem so that the offending file only stored your information for a week, instead of a year. Despite Koh’s ruling, Apple has paid out similar suits elsewhere, and still has up to 19 more to contend with stateside. Anyway, after what we’ve seen since then, the whole thing now seems downright quaint.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Apple
Source: Reuters
Over the past few months we have reported about several incidents in which people used counterfeit iPhone chargers only to get injured or worse, lose their lives. Counterfeit chargers are widespread particular in the South East Asia region, and the latest report of a similar incident comes in from Thailand. A 28 year old man in the Chanthaburi province of Thailand was found dead clutching an iPhone 4S which was plugged into a wall socket through an unofficial charger. The man’s chest and left hand reportedly had scorch marks, and so did the device itself.
The charger seen in the photo accompanying this incident’s report doesn’t look like an official iPhone charger, and while it is suspected that electrocution might be the cause of death, authorities aren’t ruling out any other factors until the autopsy report comes in. Previously several reports have come in from China of people being electrocuted because they used counterfeit chargers. This lead to Apple posting a warning on its Chinese website, telling users how they can spot an original charger from a fake one. It goes without saying that one must never take chances with counterfeit or fake chargers. The original one might cost a bit more, but when it comes to paying for it with your life, you’ll definitely be better off spending those few extra dollars. [Image via Neowin]
Counterfeit iPhone Charger Claims Another Life In Thailand original content from Ubergizmo. 
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iPhone docks come in all shapes and sizes, but we reckon the Robot Girl iPhone dock probably takes the cake. Basically the Robot Girl iPhone dock is a 46” tall robot that has been shaped and designed to look like a robotic woman, and there are gaps and openings all over her body where LED lights are emitted and even pulsated whenever music is played. The head of the Robot Girl will even bop slightly when music is played and given her overall stance, it almost looks like she could be a model walking down a very futuristic runway.
The good news is that if you love robots and wouldn’t mind getting your hands on the Robot Girl, its creator Mark Ricci has put it up on sale on eBay where the starting bid is set at a whopping $6,500. There is a Creative D80 Wireless Bluetooth speaker embedded in the robot, so not only is this a dock for your iPhone, but will also act as a speaker. It does not mention if it charges your iPhone at the same time or which generation iPhone it works with, but presumably with its Bluetooth connectivity, it should play nicely with most devices that support Bluetooth. It’s a little creepy but cool at the same time, but would you want to have this in your living room?
The Robot Girl iPhone Dock Is Creepy And Expensive original content from Ubergizmo. 
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