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Rumor: Facebook to release video-enabled Messenger app for iPhone, iPad

A "reliable source" has informed 9to5Mac that Facebook is currently developing its Facebook Messenger app for Apple's iPad.

According to screenshots provided by 9to5Mac, the iPad version of the Messenger app looks fairly similar to Facebook's current standalone app for iPhone. The app includes one-to-one chats, group chats, and supports push notifications.

Facebook's Messenger app also allows users to see their friends' locations on a map.

Though no timeline for release was mentioned by the source, it did also suggest that Facebook would be adding video chat support through Skype for at least the iPhone … Read more

Study: Apple's UDID restrictions cost developers 24% revenue

Privacy concerns have been at the top of many tech industry reports lately. Between Apple's Flashback Trojan issues, Google's faux pas with Safari privacy settings, and a myriad of other privacy-related stories, consumers, lawmakers, and the media have been pressing for greater privacy restrictions.

Partly in response to a Congressional inquiry, Apple has begun restricting access to consumers' UDID numbers, a unique identifier that individually accounts for all iOS devices Apple sells.

Ad servers, like MoPub, have been using UDIDs to serve particular ads to targeting demographics for years. Now that Apple has begun rejecting apps that continue … Read more

Sharp begins production of world's first IGZO LCD panels

By using IGZO oxide semiconductors, Sharp will be able to produce LCD screens that require lower energy consumption through smaller, thin-film transistors and increased pixel transparency.

The technology lends itself well to mobile devices that require low-power components. With a new breed of ultrabooks promised by Intel and updates to Apple's mobile lineup, it seems highly likely that Sharp will work its way in as a primary supplier of display panels.… Read more

Intel is wrong about ultrabooks being better than iPads

If this sounds familiar, one only needs to go back to the Netbook craze that was sweeping the "Apple is doomed"-style headlines just a few years ago. Those tiny little notebook computers, according to every other expert, were going to displace Apple's growing notebook share and squash any idea of a touch-screen tablet.

Fast-forward to the present and the iPad is the best-selling consumer electronics product of all-time, the iPhone is dominating the profit share of the smartphone industry, and Macs have seen constant growth every year as the PC market continues to slip.

Those facts … Read more

Apple increases developer iAd revenue to 70 percent

Though it's certainly too soon to call iAd a failure, Apple has not been happy with the adoption rate of its advertising platform it has seen thus far. In February, Apple reduced the minimum buy-in for campaigns to $100,000 (down from $1 million at the iAd launch in 2010). It was also rumored at that time that the iAd revenue share percent would jump to 70 percent for developers.

Now, according to a report by AppleInsider, that jump in developer revenue has become a reality.

According to an announcement on Apple's developer center:

We have made the … Read more

Apple, publishers to settle e-books price-fixing suit: Report

Suspected of collusion with intent to drive up e-book prices, Apple and some of its major publication partners are now negotiating to settle a suit brought by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Negotiations continue, but sources close to the talks tell Reuters that Apple and its partners are looking to avoid a long litigation process by bending on some of the wording used in contracts with publishers and retailers.

The "most favored nation" clause, as it has come to be known, states that the price of an electronic book published using Apple's iBookstore cannot be higher … Read more

Apple exploring haptic touch technology for future iPhones, iPads

Many of the last remaining BlackBerry holdouts continue to clamor about the advantages of a physical keyboard, citing the difficulty of using a touch-screen device if its user cannot see the display. According to one of Apple's latest patent applications, that argument may soon become moot.

The "Touch-based User Interface with Haptic Feedback" patent application, discovered by AppleInsider, highlights the use of actuators and sensors on an iPad's or iPhone's display that would allow a user to effectively feel buttons and other controls.

Apple's take on haptic technology places piezoelectric actuators under the display, … Read more

iOS 5.1 code hints new iPhone could have 4G LTE

Apple's new iPad has been receiving much high praise for its Retina Display, the showcase feature during its unveiling earlier this month, but the inclusion of a 4G LTE-capable option has prompted quite a few discussions over whether Apple's new iPhone will be 4G-ready.

According to Krishna Sagar, a tipster writing to iDownload Blog, Apple is definitely working on a 4G LTE iPhone, and iOS 5.1 has the code to prove it.

Using iFile on a jailbroken iPhone 4 (running iOS 5.1, of course) Sagar was able to find code strings indicating 4G connectivity actions during … Read more

Apple nabs 1M iPhoto for iOS users in 10 days

iPhoto for iPhone and iPad has eclipsed the 1-million-user mark just a little over a week after Apple released the app alongside the new iPad, longtime Apple writer Jim Dalrymple (The Loop) reports.

What's impressive is that the number is for unique users, not total downloads. That means Apple has received $4.99 more than a million times from consumers eager to get their hands on what is now one of the most powerful photo-editing apps for iOS.… Read more