As we close out one week and kick off another, let’s take a moment to look back at the attention-grabbing headlines from the past seven days (February 17 – 23). Some of the news you may recall, some may be new to you, but all of the topics below are worthy of a mention.
Rumor: Apple not bundling LTE into its A8 chipset
Apple is not looking to build LTE into its upcoming A8 chipset, industry sources told Fudzilla. Instead of an SoC with LTE, Apple will rely on Qualcomm to provide a dedicated LTE chipset for its next generation iPhone. The A8 is rumored to be the ARM-based successor to the company’s current A7, which powers the iPad Air, iPhone 5s and iPad mini with Retina display.
Apple adds new mountaineering story to its ‘Your Verse’ website
The iPad is helping explorers Adrian Ballinger and Emily Harrington reach new heights as they climb some of the toughest terrain in the world with their Alpenglow Expeditions group. Their travels with an iPad are documented in the latest addition to Apple’s “Your Verse” advertising campaign.
iPhone 5s prices around the world: Most expensive in Brazil; Cheapest in the US
After finally snapping up the rights to use the iPhone name in Brazil a few months ago, Apple made further strides in conquering one of the world’s fastest evolving smartphone markets by opening its first official retail store in the country on Sunday.
Apple has just announced that it will be holding the iTunes Festival event in the US for the first time at South by SouthWest (SXSW).
Apple has been holding iTunes Festivals in London since 2007, where over 400 artists have performed and attracted more than 430,000 people.
Apple CEO Tim Cook has said that the company will enter new product categories this year, and the most likely product segment the company could enter is the smartwatch. A rumor from China Times claims that the iWatch, Apple’s much-rumored smartwatch, will feature a curved, flexible AMOLED display.
Facebook buying WhatsApp messaging service for $16 billion
Facebook is buying WhatsApp messaging service for $16 billion, according to a Form 8K filed with the SEC and subsequent announcements by both Facebook and WhatsApp. Facebook will pay $4 billion in cash and $12 billion in Facebook stock for the messaging company. An additional $3 billion in restricted stock units will be granted to WhatsApp’s founders and employees. These shares will vest over four years after the close of the deal.
Tesla CEO confirms talks with Apple, acquisition now ‘very unlikely’
Speaking to Bloomberg Television in a video interview, Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed that he met with Apple and “had conversations” last year, but would not discuss any details about the meeting.
App Store scammer makes $10,000 a day from a $10 game template
All healed of the “Flappy Bird” addiction which supposedly prompted its creator to remove the free-to-play game from both the App Store and Google Play? Hopefully, you didn’t seek comfort in the arms of a similar title, “Red Bouncing Ball Spikes”, or I have some bad news.
iOS doesn’t let you use alternate keyboards, but developers like Fleksy and SwiftKey are getting around this restriction by writing their own custom keyboards and bundling them as apps. Fleksy today opened up its powerful predictive keyboard SDK to all iOS developers, who can now freely include the keyboard in their own apps.
Apple releases iOS 7.0.6 for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch [Updated]
Apple has just released iOS 7.0.6 (Build number: 11B651). The update is available for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.
According to the release note the update includes a fix for SSL connection verification.
Apple buys Burstly, company that owns iOS app beta testing service TestFlight
Apple has acquired Burstly, the company that owns popular iOS app beta testing platform TestFlight. The service lets developers distribute their apps to beta testers, track usage, and see crash logs, all remotely.
Apple patents headphones with biometric sensors to record your temperature, heart rate
Since last year or so, rumors about Apple entering the health and fitness gadgets market have greatly intensified. But Apple has been looking at this space since more than six years, as evident by this 2007 Apple patent filing about headphones equipped with biometric sensors.
