Posts

Netflix Hiking Subscription Fees in the U.S by 12-18 Percent, Its Highest Ever

Image
Netflix today announced that it is going to raise its subscription fees in the U.S. by 13 percent to 18 percent. Netflix had last hiked its subscription fees in 2017 but that was only for its HD and 4K Premium plans.  This time around, the price increase will affect all 58 million Netflix subscribers in the U.S. The cheapest Netflix ‘Basic’ plan which currently costs $8/month will increase to $9/month after the hike. The company’s most popular plan, HD Standard, will cost $13 instead of $11 that it currently costs. The 4K Premium plan will see its monthly fees jump from $14 to $16. This is the biggest price hike from Netflix since it came into existence 12 years ago. The new subscription rates will be applicable effective immediately for new subscribers and roll out to existing subscribers over the next three months. Apart from the U.S., 40 other Latin American countries where Netflix charges its customers in US currency will also be affected by this change. Key Netflix markets like M
Post a Comment
Read more

Verizon May be Adding a Full Apple Music Subscription at no Additional Cost to Some Unlimited Plans

Image
Verizon may not have as many bundled perks as some of the other carriers out there, but it does, at the very least, offer up a six month free trial period of Apple Music . So that’s something. But it looks like the partnership between Verizon and Apple is going to get a bit better for customers, based on unofficial information shared on Tuesday by 9to5Mac . According to the publication, Verizon is going to announce in the next couple of days that customers subscribing to the Beyond Unlimited and Above Unlimited plans can get a full Apple Music subscription at no additional cost. It will simply be bundled with the plan, and the plan is going to remain the same price. However, customers of the Go Unlimited plan will still only have the six month trial period for Apple Music, after which they will be billed the standard $9.99 per month fo an individual plan. This offer will be available for new customers, as well as existing customers. The report also indicates that subscribers who are st
Post a Comment
Read more

German Court Dismisses Qualcomm’s Second Patent Lawsuit Against Apple

Image
A regional German court in the city of Mannheim has dismissed a patent lawsuit filed by Qualcomm against Apple. The court claimed the suit was groundless and that Apple did not violate any of Qualcomm’s patents by “the installation of its chips in Apple’s smartphones.” Qualcomm says that it disagrees with the decision of the Mannheim’s court and that it will appeal against the decision. “Apple has a history of infringing our patents,” said Don Rosenberg, Qualcomm’s executive vice president and general counsel. “While we disagree with the Mannheim court’s decision and will appeal, we will continue to enforce our (intellectual property) rights against Apple worldwide.” Qualcomm had previously been handed over a win in a separate patent case against Apple by the Munich court. The preliminary junction from the court forced Apple to stop the import and sales of the iPhone 7 , iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 8, and iPhone 8 Plus in Germany across its 15 retail outlets. These models, however, continue
Post a Comment
Read more

YouTube for iOS Gets New Swipe Gesture to Switch between Videos

Image
The latest update to the YouTube iOS app adds a new gesture to the video player to quickly switch between videos. Next time you are watching a video on your iPhone, you can swipe left to go to the next suggested video, while swiping right will take you back to your previously watched video. The gestures will work in both portrait and landscape mode. There’s also a sneak peek feature in which you can partially swipe to the left/right to get a sneak peek of the next/previous video. The current video you were watching will continue playing as well. There’s a new way to navigate between YouTube videos on iOS – you can now swipe to the next or previous video. To use this feature on your iOS device (6S and higher), just make sure you’re using the most recent version of the YouTube app. Rolling out this week on the YouTube iOS app (for 6S phones & above)! From your video player: 👈Swipe left for the next video 👉Swipe right for your previously watched video If you prefer, you can still ta
Post a Comment
Read more

Apple Replaced 11 Million iPhone Batteries in 2018, Up 11x From 2017

Image
Apple’s CEO Tim Cook revealed to Apple employees during his all-hands meeting that the company replaced 11 million iPhone batteries in 2018. Usually, Apple replaces around 1-2 million iPhone batteries every year. The jump in iPhone battery replacement can be attributed to Apple’s discounted battery replacement program which ran for almost the entirety of 2018. As a part of the program, Apple offered existing iPhone owners to get the battery on their device replaced by paying just $29. This helped in restoring the device back to its original performance which coupled with the improved performance by iOS 12 meant that most users preferred to go this route instead of upgrading to a new iPhone. During Apple’s all-hands meeting January 3, Tim Cook said Apple replaced 11 million batteries under the $29 replacement program, and they’d have only anticipated about 1-2 million battery replacements normally. Apple started running a discounted $29 battery replacement program from early 2018 due t
Post a Comment
Read more

Chinese Security Researcher Shows off an iOS 12.1.2 Exploit Raising Hopes of an iOS 12 Jailbreak

Image
Min Zheng, a security engineer at Alibaba, has shown off an iOS 12.1.2 exploit over on Twitter. As proof, he has posted some command line screenshots of root access on iOS 12.1.2 on an iPhone 6s . It is unlikely that we will see Zheng release the exploit to the public for the development of a possible iOS 12 jailbreak tool. He will probably end up talking about this exploit in a security conference down the line but that’s about it. We have seen in the past that many Chinese security researchers manage to find an exploit in iOS 11 – iOS 12 but they never got around to releasing it to the public and a similar story will play out here as well. (Mach) Port-oriented Programming Attack Proof 2: Getting task_for_pid_0 & root on iOS 12.1.2 (iPhone 6s) @bxl1989 pic.twitter.com/v7cAJdP9FC — Min(Spark) Zheng (@SparkZheng) January 11, 2019 It does seem unlikely that we will see an iOS 12 jailbreak tool being released anytime soon. Tihmstar has teased the release of “something cool” but tha
Post a Comment
Read more

Apple May Launch a 7th-Generation iPod touch; 2019 iPhones Rumored to Adopt USB-C

Image
Apple may be ready to make some big changes in 2019, including a revitalization of an aging brand, and the adoption of a oft-requested port. According to a report on Monday from Mac Otakara , based on information gathered by the publication from unnamed sources, Apple “might” be on the way to launch a brand new, seventh-generation iPod touch. For those keeping track, the last time Apple updated the iPod touch lineup was in the middle of 2015, so it has been several years now. Unfortunately, while the report indicates the company may be working in this direction, there is no word on when Apple might actually launch the device — if it exists at all. Apple discontinued the iPod shuffle back in 2017, which has left the iPod lineup up in the air as the public has waited to see what might happen to it. Apple hasn’t seemed to keen on the idea of refreshing the lineup recently, aside from storage capacity changes in 2017 to the iPod touch lineup. If that’s not enough for you, then the report a
Post a Comment
Read more