The end of August is here, but before you go sauntering off on an extended three-day Labor Day vacation, it's time to soak in a handful of stories to round out the month. Next week this particular writer will be shifting this recap into an early edition spot but fear not: MacLife.com will continue offering the same great PM recap you're now reading, along with a bit more afternoon news as icing on the cake. So without further ado, here's what's happening for Friday, August 31, 2012...
It seems like a foregone conclusion that Apple will include 4G LTE data connectivity in the next iPhone, and a report from AllThingsD is painting such a possibility in a pretty negative light for carrier AT&T. Ma Bell is still struggling to expand its LTE network against rival Verizon Wireless, and the next iPhone could see a number of customers fleeing AT&T for Big Red as a result. “As of the end of 2Q12, Verizon’s LTE network covered 230 million POPs, more than all the other carriers in the U.S. combined,” Jefferies & Co. analyst Thomas Seitz wrote in a note to investors this week. “We believe this network advantage could lead to a share shift towards Verizon, primarily at AT&T’s expense.” Well, either that or AT&T forcing users into Mobile Share plans just to get FaceTime over cellular...
The makers of Appoday, the free app deal of the day app, have announced Atari's Greatest Hits as the company's free app for today, offering the complete 99-game pack for nary a dime from the App Store. The deal is good through Saturday night, September 1 in your local timezone, and we can't think of a better way than to spend Labor Day weekend poking away at all those groovy old arcade and Atari 2600 games. Game on!
Electronics trade-in service NextWorth has announced an extension of the company's price lock guarantee for iPhone trade-ins today. All online quotes for any iPhone received after August 20 are now guaranteed through at least October 1, matching the date initially set by competitor Gazelle.com. “We are seeing an unprecedented amount of trade-ins, and we want to make sure our customers are getting the best prices,” said Jeff Trachsel, CMO of NextWorth. “The best time to trade-in is now, so extending the lock-in period helps consumers get the best value for their old iPhones and not be without a device before the new iPhone is available.” NextWorth offers PayPal, cash or gift cards as options for payment of your iPhone trade-in, and has partnered with more than 1,450 Target retail locations nationwide to make trading in your old device as immediate as it gets.
It's been a week since Samsung handed its rear end handed to it by a jury, and CNNMoney is reporting the Apple victory pretty much blindsided the Korean manufacturer. The Korea Times claims Samsung executives were "still reeling in shock" over last weekend, with one senior exec calling the defeat "absolutely the worst scenario for us." The news was apparently so bad that executives waited four days before breaking the news to the company's CEO, instead holing up in emergency meetings to determine how best to proceed. Um, maybe not copy a competitor's wildly popular product would be a good start, guys…?
Changes with Twitter's developer API may temporarily mean the end of Tapbots' alpha for new Tweetbot for Mac users, but for those who kept the alpha version installed, the company has released beta version 0.8.0 today. The update primarily brings plenty of bug fixes along with better keyboard support and multi-column swiping. It's important to note that if you've already deleted the Tweetbot for Mac alpha, you're out of luck for now -- users cannot add a new account or even launch the app when no accounts have been created due to the Twitter API fiasco. Those folks will have to sit it out and wait for Tweetbot for Mac to hit the Mac App Store instead...
Follow this article’s author, J.R. Bookwalter on Twitter
brandonwalkermedia
September 01, 2012 at 8:24am
The Verge comes up with some of the funniest statements ever! i have for developer purposes 3 iPhones, and this week I've been in DC. Here is my results:
Sprint: Had a slow connection most of the day, voice calls were really poor (although i was feed up with the quality i never used it after the first day)
Verizon: Fast connection but Connections kept dropping frequently (never got more then 74MB without dropping), Voice was good but i had 1 dropped call.
AT&T: Was able to download 1GB* files off the network at a nice 4G (3.5G) speed, Voice was a little bit on the fluctuating side but...
1.AT&T
2.Sprint
3.VerizonBottom Line: Im a big data user Verizon is very unreliable for my business, AT&T has speed and reliability!
*Yes i do pay for more then 20GB a month (on the business iPhone)
