Woman photographs herself unlocking stolen iPhone

A woman unwittingly took a photograph of herself as she tried to unlock an iPhone that had been stolen from a nightclub.

The iPhone was stolen from the Coalition nightclub in Brighton, East Sussex, earlier this month.

But the owner had installed an app that takes a picture of anyone trying to unlock it and then sends the information back to them via email.

When the woman tried to unlock the iPhone her picture was taken and sent to the owner. It was then passed on to Sussex Police. It is thought the app used is iGotYa, which is activated when an incorrect passcode is entered into the keypad.

Pc Gavin Crute from Sussex Police said the app photographs anyone trying to unlock it, maps their location and sends the information back to the owner. “We know where and when the photo was taken and it appears to be in a vehicle with quite a large sunroof.”

“We don’t know that the woman is the person who stole the camera, but she obviously has had some connection with it in the meantime and I’d like to speak to her about it.”

Friday, December 14, 2012 | 0 comments | Read More

Apple unveils iPhone 5: Thinner, lighter, 16:9 4-inch display, LTE, and available Sept 21

Apple CEO Tim Cook and vice president Phil Schiller have unveiled the iPhone 5. In most major markets, the phone will be preorderable on September 14 and will begin shipping on September 21. In December, the iPhone 5 will be made available in 100 countries on 240 carriers. The iPhone 5 will cost the same as the iPhone 4S (starting at $199 in the US with a two-year contract).

The iPhone 5 looks exactly as the leaks suggested — longer and narrower than the iPhone 4 — but we now know that the iPhone 5 is also considerably thinner (7.6mm, the thinnest smartphone in the world, apparently) and much lighter (112g, 20% lighter than the iPhone 4S).

The iPhone 5 has a 4-inch 1136×640 (326 PPI) Retina display — so yes, Apple has finally moved from the 4:3 aspect ratio to 16:9. As far as we can tell, this new space will simply be used for another row of icons on the home screen — and other important apps, iPhoto, iMovie, Keynote, etc. have all been updated to use the additional real estate. In the case of apps that haven’t been updated, the new iPhone will simply display the app at standard resolution (960×640) with black bars above and below (yes, I can hardly believe it, but there you go).

The new 16:9 display also ups color saturation by 44%, bringing its color gamut to full sRGB — “the most accurate display in the industry,” according to Apple. The touchscreen assembly is apparently built into the display, making it more accurate — but we don’t have any more details on that yet.

The Apple A6 SoC

Powering the iPhone 5 is the new Apple A6 SoC, which is apparently twice as fast as the A5, both in terms of graphics and computation. Apple wheeled out some EA executive to tell us that the A6 is capable of “full console quality” graphics, but we remain dubious. Battery life is apparently slightly improved from the iPhone 4S, too.

We don’t have any more details to share at this point, but given the doubling in speed the A6 is probably a dual-core Cortex-A15 design — similar to Samsung’s Exynos 5.

LTE support, no NFC

Beyond the new chassis, the other “big” feature is the addition of a cellular radio capable of HSPA+, DC-HSDPDA, and LTE. Details weren’t given, but we believe this modem is the Qualcomm MDM9615, a single-chip 28nm solution. A large number of supported carriers were listed, including AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon in the US, and a bunch of European and Asian providers. We will have much more details on the iPhone 5′s radio capabilities later.

Perhaps surprisingly, there is no NFC support on the iPhone 5 — indicating Apple still doesn’t believe that NFC is ready for prime time.

iSight camera

The iPhone 5 features an 8-megapixel shooter, with a backside illuminated CMOS sensor, f/2.4 aperture, and other fancy tricks to improve image quality and low-light performance. The new A6 SoC also has some new hardware in it that will improve image quality. Apparently the iPhone 5 is 40% faster at capturing an image (presumably we’re talking about processing time here, rather than shutter speed or something else). There isn’t any optical image stabilization like the Lumia 920, though!

Apple did show some amazing sample images during the presentation, but we’ll have to get our hands on some real sample images before we can decide if Apple or Nokia will be this generation’s camera king.

Rounding out the camera, there’s a few other neat features (face detection, panorama mode), and the front-facing camera can now do FaceTime calls over cellular networks (unless AT&T stops you, of course).

Die, 30-pin connector, die

With the iPhone 5, Apple is debuting a new 8-pin connector called Lightning (to go withThunderbolt, get it?). Other than being a lot smaller, the most exciting aspect of Lightning is that it’s reversible; you can shove it in whichever way you want. There is of course an adapter ($29!) if you need to connect your new iPhone to some old hardware (such as, you know, your car).

Rather than being related to Thunderbolt, though, Lightning is probably based on USB 3.0. Again, we don’t have any specifics to share (seems to be a recurring theme, for some reason).

Thursday, September 13, 2012 | 0 comments | Read More

Reports: iPhone 5 to be unveiled Sept. 12

Gadget fans waiting anxiously for the next iPhone to be released may be reaching the home stretch.

 Apple, which has made no official announcement, is planning a September 12 event at which the next generation of the iconic smartphone will presumably be announced, according to multiple reports.

 iMore, an Apple-oriented blog, was the first to report that "sources who have proven accurate in the past" said the phone will be introduced at an event that day and released nine days later.

 Observers are calling it the iPhone 5, although no name has been announced.

 Others, including The Wall Street Journal's All Things D blog, followed with similar reports. Quoting anonymous sources at Apple, All Things D said an event is planned for the week of September 9.

 The 12th would be a Wednesday, which follows with previous Apple events.

 2007: First iPhone announcement A September release would be slightly ahead of Apple's established one-iPhone-per-year pace. But the iPhone 4S took longer than usual, its October unveiling coming about 16 months after the iPhone 4.

 A fall iPhone release has been considered a foregone conclusion by most observers for months. Speculation has focused on a handful of expected new features, including a slightly larger screen, a smaller dock connector and NFC technology that would make it easier for shoppers to make payments through their phones.

 iMore also says that the mythical "iPad Mini" will be unveiled at the event. Speculation has increasingly ramped up that Apple, faced by competition from Amazon's Kindle Fire and Google's Nexus 7 tablets, is making a smaller version of the iPad.

 The move would fly in the face of statements made by the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who favored full-size tablets.

 But Apple faces unprecedented competition in the space and may argue that screen technology that would have made a smaller iPad impractical before is now available.

 On the smartphone front, Apple also faces a landscape that's arguably more challenging than it's seen in a while.

 The iPhone is still the most popular handset in the field, but the total number of phones running Google's Android operating system has been greater for some time.

 And while competitors in the past have arguably spent the time between iPhone releases trying to catch up, many reviewers feel that several models among the current crop of Android phones have surpassed the 4S in terms of features and performance.

 Notably, the Samsung Galaxy S III has topped 10 million in sales in two months -- a number it took the Galaxy S II five months to hit.

 Reviewers have praised its bigger screen, sleek design and a set of new features. The iPhone 4S was, in some senses, a glorified update of the iPhone 4, with its advances coming in new software features and improved camera and display.

 It outsold its predecessor, although with anticipation high for the looming iPhone 5, sales have begun to flag. According to its recent earnings report, Apple shipped 26 million iPhones from April to June, which was less than the 28 million to 29 million that Wall Street analysts had predicted.

 It was a steep drop from the 35.1 million that the company sold in the previous quarter.

Friday, August 03, 2012 | 0 comments | Read More