You might say the week is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workweek, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Weekly Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past seven days — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
This article was written on August 31, 2007 by CyberNet.
According to a Reuters article published yesterday, Microsoft may be interested in purchasing BlackBerry maker RIM. While we know that Microsoft has an interest in the mobile market because of Windows Mobile, many people, including myself, never expected they’d immerse themselves this much into the Smartphone industry. While this rumor is purely speculative at this point, RIM shares actually went up as the rumor spread.
One analyst says that “the software giant might be interested in RIM in response to Google’s recent announcement that it is interested in making its own mobile phone operating system, which would compete with Windows Mobile.” While one of their primary reasons behind acquiring RIM may in fact be Google’s announcement, I could also see this as their response to Apple’s iPhone.
Should this rumor turn out to be true and Microsoft really ends up acquiring RIM, I’d hope that they’d be smart enough to keep Windows Mobile off of it, at least initially. BlackBerry users are pretty loyal and are used to their Smartphones as-is. If Microsoft went and abruptly placed Windows Mobile on the devices, I think we’d see a lot of BlackBerry users jump ship. It’ll definitely be interesting to see what, if anything, comes from this rumor.
Copyright © 2013 CyberNetNews.com
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.
Filed under: Cellphones
The first iPhone was released back in 2007. Both Apple and the iPhone have come a long way since then. The smartphone made a dent in the global market and wiped out players that didn’t see it coming. Since then, Apple has continued to release new iPhone models each year. Just earlier this month it swayed from tradition and launch not one but two different models together. As of now, there are a total of 8 iPhone models, and all of them have been lined up against each other in a test of speed.
This is definitely an interesting video. It shows how far one of the world’s favorite smartphone has come ever since it was first released in 2007. There’s a significant difference in the loading time between older generations and the newer ones. The iPhone 5 and iPhone 5s are almost neck and neck while the iPhone 5c trails just a little bit behind. At first the iPhones are shut down and its interesting to see that the iPhone 3GS is the first one to shut down. All iPhones are then rebooted and we can see how load times have improved over the years. Check out the video posted above to see how each model performs.
All 8 iPhone Models Put Through A Test Of Speed original content from Ubergizmo. 
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Apple has launched a new section on iTunes called “Employees on iTunes”. All the media in that section was created by, or at least influenced by, Apple employees. And it’s all free. And you can’t have any–unless you work at Apple. Apple news source 9to5Mac revealed recently that Eddie Cue, Apple’s Senior Vice President of […]
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]
Apple’s iOS 7 has been a lightning rod of controversy over the last week. The operating system has been called the very best mobile software Apple has ever released by the company’s hardcore fans, while those who aren’t so quick to sing its praises say that it has much room for improvement. Of course, that […]
On September 12, Microsoft kicked off an iPad trade-in promotion, allowing Apple customers to swap their tablet for a gift card worth a minimum of $200. Fast-forward two weeks, and Microsoft is now offering the same promotion to iPhone owners, offering a minimum of $200 for those with devices that meet the gently-used trade-in requirement. […]
This week in our time capsule round-up we have a 9/11 memorial time capsule in Pennsylvania, the not-at-all symbolic burial of a BlackBerry tablet in California, and letters from Canadian kids addressed to people of the future—including one that wonders what version of iPhone they’ll have a hundred years hence.
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This week a hoax was dropped by the likes of some as-yet-unknown graphic designer who had a hankering for some iOS 7 trickery. The first joke in this series consisted of a series of images that suggested an upgrade to iOS 7 would include full waterproofing of whatever device you bumped to the new operating […]
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