Hasta La Gadget!

Welcome to our coverage of all the best Black Friday deals. Deals are continuing to pour in, and this post will be constantly updated right up to the point when our Cyber Monday guide goes live. These deals are all subject to change and subject to price-matches (especially online price matches), and we can tell you that there are lots of deals still embargoed or not yet announced.

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It goes without saying that Apple has a strong hold over the U.S. smartphone market. Back in 2007 the company released its first smartphone and since then it has been strong in the global smartphone market, while enjoying a strong footing on its home turf. According to a survey conducted by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, Apple’s brick and mortar retail stores now account for 11 percent of all retail cellphone sales in the U.S. Its an impressive feat no doubt, given that Apple only sells the iPhone through its retail stores, it doesn’t sell any other brand’s smartphones.

The figure includes both smartphones and feature phones. On the other hand, Best Buy accounts for 13 percent of all retail cellphone sales in the U.S. One should keep in mind though that this retailer sells devices from a wide variety of manufacturers, including Apple. Retailers such as Target, Walmart and Costco collectively account for 12 percent of all sales in the U.S, almost equal to what Apple and Best Buy individually account for. As far as iPhone sales are concerned, Apple only accounts for a quarter of iPhone sales, the rest are through carries such as AT&T and Verizon which generate 21 percent and 18 percent of the sales respectively. Sprint, Amazon and other retailers generate five percent each whereas Best Buy generates around 13 percent of the total iPhone sales in the U.S.

Apple’s Brick And Mortar Stores Account For 11% Of All U.S. Cellphone Sales original content from Ubergizmo.

For those who don’t backup their phone regularly and save important things, such as photos, contacts, and sensitive information to somewhere like a cloud server, then losing your phone or tablet really must suck, but would the sting of having your iPhone stolen from you be lessened if the thief gave you back your contacts, but not the phone? We’re not sure how we would feel, but in China, a victim by the name of Zou Bin had his iPhone stolen from him when he split a cab with the robber. Once he discovered his phone had been stolen, he texted the robber (presumably with another phone) to ask for it back, and unsurprisingly that did not happen. What actually happened was that a few days later, a package arrived for him and in it contained his SIM card, along with an 11-page document which was basically his entire contact list written out by the robber completely by hand! Definitely not what he was expecting, but then again we suppose it wasn’t a complete loss, right?

iPhone Robber Is Considerate Enough To Return Handwritten List Of Contacts To Victim original content from Ubergizmo.

Arguably the most notable characteristic of the iPhone 5s is the TouchID fingerprint sensor, which lets you unlock your phone and authorize app purchases simply by resting a pre-authenticated fingertip on the home button. It turns out, however, that Apple might’ve had plans for the technology that go far beyond just that. According to a patent application filed with the World International Property Organization, the Cupertino company may use TouchID’s sensor technology to transform the Home button into a trackpad, similar to the ones on BlackBerry’s older line of Curve handhelds. Indeed, the patent filing describes how users could navigate the phone by “revolving” or “twisting” their fingerprint on the button’s sensor. Additionally, the sensor could measure the length of time and amount of pressure that is placed on it, which might lead to more interesting use-cases in apps or games.

What’s even more intriguing, however, is that the document goes on to describe how the entire display can be used to read your fingerprints. This sounds like a crazy idea at first, but if implemented, the phone would then know exactly which finger of which hand is on the screen. This could lead to certain actions mapped to specific digits — perhaps a long-press of your index finger could launch Maps, while a pinch of your pinky and thumb could open up Messages, for example. A few diagrams from the patent application show how screen-wide fingerprint recognition could be used for playing a piano or touch-typing on the virtual keyboard. If you’re concerned that this could lead to serious battery drain, the patent even addresses that, stating that the phone would be smart enough to recognize when it’s in moments of fingerprint recognition (i.e. “enhanced sensitivity”) or when it’s normal everyday use, otherwise known as “reduced sensitivity.”

Further, it seems that enhanced sensitivity could just be restricted to small screen areas so that only certain apps — like banking or email perhaps — would be cloaked in that extra layer of protection. Of course, just because such functionality is filed away in a patent application doesn’t mean we’ll see this in real life. However, taken with the promise of Apple’s recent acquisition, we’ll admit we’re very interested to see how the iPhone 6 will turn out. Those interested in patent minutiae can go ahead and peruse the rather lengthy 612-page document in the link below.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Apple

Comments

Via: Unwired View

Source: WIPO

It is absolutely your worst nightmare when your phone gets stolen. Think of all the private and personal data that our phones contain, from pictures and videos to financial information and even passwords. Even if you don’t have all that on your phone, you are quite likely to have contacts, which are obviously important too. Losing contacts might be an even bigger nightmare for some, those who don’t have them backed up in the cloud or on their computer at home. Thieves usually don’t show any mercy when it comes to your data, but an iPhone thief in China was considerate enough to pen down the victim’s over 1,000 strong contact list and send it over.

Chinese state media reports that the victim, Zou Bin, was deprived of his phone when he shared a taxi in Hunan. Zou said he was bothered more about the contacts on his phone when it was stolen, so he simply texted his own number saying that “I know you are the man who sat beside me. I can assure you that I will find you,” urging the thief to check his contact list so that “you will know what trade I am in.” He concluded the text with an advice for the thief, send the phone back “if you are sensible.” Zou then received a parcel containing his SIM card and a handwritten list of contacts, still no iPhone though, the thief appears to be taking his chances.

iPhone Thief In China Sends Handwritten List Of Over 1,000 Contacts To Victim original content from Ubergizmo.