Hasta La Gadget!

After receiving a class-action lawsuit over denying warranties to owners based on faulty liquid detection sensors, Apple has agreed to pay $53 million to settle the suit with affected customers. The lawsuit came after the Cupertino-based company denied warranty claims from iPhone owners because the company detected water damage. However, the liquid sensors were actually faulty.

Those involved in the lawsuit are eligible to receive up to $300 in damages from Apple, depending on which iPhone model you own. A San Francisco court discovered that Apple’s liquid submersion indicators in iPhone and iPod models could be triggered randomly by moisture from normal use, like on a humid day for instance. This ended up wrongly voiding the warranty on thousands of iOS devices.

While Apple has denied the allegations and said that the indicators were reliable, it seems they’ve went ahead and settled anyway to avoid getting involved deeper into the court case. Besides, $53 million is essentially pocket change to Apple. However, this isn’t their first class-action suit, their most recent one dealing with “antennagate,” where iPhone owners affected could get a free bumper case.

Customers whose warranty claims for their iPhones were denied (based on Apple’s liquid damage policy) before December 31, 2009 (before June 2010 for iPod Touches) are eligible for settlement rewards. This means that those with an iPhone 4 or newer are not involved, and it only pertains to 1st-gen iPhone, iPhone 3G, and iPhone 3GS owners who were denied warranty claims because of water damage.

SOURCE: Bloomberg

Apple settles class-action lawsuit over faulty liquid sensors is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

This week the folks at the app called gMusic have pushed through an update to include Google Play Music All Access for iOS users – iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch included. This update is one that allows the app to stream music using the app’s ability to access all features included in the Android Google Music app, here “unofficially” on Apple’s devices. Google Play Music All Access is a service that was introduced earlier this month at Google’s yearly developers conference Google I/O 2013, working with a monthly subscriber fee for streaming “radio” access to the full Google Music library.

Here at SlashGear, members of the staff (including yours truly) have been using gMusic since late 2011 when we reviewed the XtremeMac Tango TRX – that’s an Apple iPod dock-toting wireless speaker that’s still kicking out the beats today. There the user interface for gMusic wasn’t exactly as user friendly as it is today. Today, the developer team behind the app have kicked things up a notch – just that .

ABOVE: gMusic from 2011. BELOW: gMusic today, spring of 2013.

This week’s update to version 6.0 of gMusic reveals – for those of you who haven’t used the app in a while – a user interface that’s far more friendly and ready to be a real replacement for the built-in music player for iOS. The icons within the app have been smoothed out, the lines are clean, and the overall aesthetic is up to par with the content.

ABOVE: gMusic on the iPad. BELOW: more gMusic on the iPad – YT Cracker up for play.

Now the only thing you’ll be wishing for is an update to Google’s new user interface. At Google I/O, the developer team behind Google Music updated the UI for the Android app, making it gesture friendly and clean at a level equalling that of the Google Play store – also updated this month.

That’s what happens when you’re working as a 3rd party system trying to keep up with the original: they’re always one step ahead!

That said, there’s no official alternative to gMusic on iOS, and from what we’ve seen, there’s not been a whole heck of a lot of good competition for it either. You’ll be tossing down $1.99 USD to grab this app if you’re picking it up from iTunes in the USA, and the team at Interactive Innovative Solutions LLC have made it worth the bucks.

Google Play Music All Access hits the iPhone through gMusic is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Thanks to the pathetic speakers on iOS devices, we’ve seen many types of passive speakers come about. A sub-type of these passive speakers are ones that repurpose other items. We’ve seen one made from an old gramophone horn, a trumpet and even a piece of bamboo. WAAM Industries’ Shellphone speaker is a modified seashell.

I really want to hear the sound that’s been amplified through a Shellphone.

Does it also sound like it’s coming from far away? Does it sound like the ocean? Is it as soothing and calming as the sound that you hear when you put a shell up to your ear, the air caressing its cool and smooth walls? Most importantly, does $75 (USD) sound like a fair price to you? Because that’s how much WAAM Industries is asking for one.

[via Geekologie]

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