Apple Wants iPhone 5 Domain Name, iphone5.com, Asks UN Agency to Shut It Down

Apple Wants iPhone 5 Domain Name, iphone5.com/, Asks UN Agency to Shut It Down
08/05/2012 by Sam Laird on Mashable

Will the next generation iPhone be officially known as the iPhone 5? That’s what a recent complaint Apple filed with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) hints at.

WIPO is a United Nations agency that protects intellectual property including instances of alleged cybersquatting. Apple’s claim, first reported by Fusible, concerns the iphone5.com domain.

The iphone5.com domain name was registered in Feb. 2008 through a registrar based in Australia. The site currently hosts smartphone advertisements and iPhone-related message boards.

One thread, started Sunday afternoon, urges iphone5.com visitors to help prevent an Apple takeover. A user called Morphius writes:

Yes, You as the community can play a huge part in all this. we as members here before the 4s was even released at iphone5.com should stand our ground against Apple. We have every right to be a fan of the iPhone and to talk and discuss about it. THEY WIILL NOT SHUT US DOWN!!!!!

Call Corporate Of Apple and tell them to stop there persuit!! Blow up there phones, Spam there emails, call there Administration! Do something to get our point across.[sic]

Another thread contains a poll asking whether Apple should take be able to take control of the domain. At time of writing, 23 votes split 60-40 in Apple’s favor.

Speculation about what Apple’s next iPhone will look like and feature has been rampant in recent weeks. Many bloggers and Apple fans have simply taken to calling it the iPhone 5, although no official name has been announced.

Whether iPhone 5 will end up being the device’s official title or not, Apple’s play for the domain name makes sense given the level of buzz online. Rumors indicate the new version will feature a larger screen and be made of a futuristic material known as LiquidMetal.

Apple is not new to jumping on what it sees as infringing web domains. In late 2011, the company won claims to iphone4s.com, as well as several other iPhone-related properties.

Earlier last year, the company won rights to the domain iPods.com.

Do you think iphone5.com should be handed over to Apple or left with those who registered it in 2008? Let us know in the comments.




Source: Mashable

Apple stock price surpasses $500 for first time

Apple stock price surpasses $500 for first time

Shares in technology giant Apple have crossed $500 (£317) a share for the first time.

Iphone 4s Images

It caps a remarkable turnaround for the iPhone maker, whose shares were once worth as little as $3.19 in 1997, when it faced the possibility of bankruptcy.

Apple is now worth $460bn.

Apple Inc.

LAST UPDATED AT 13 FEB 2012, 21:01 GMT

price	change	%
502.60	+ +9.18	+ +1.86

The company's revival under Steve Jobs, who died last year, came about first in computers and then the iPod music player, which was followed by the iPhone and iPad.

Last month, Apple reported record-breaking net profits for the last three months of 2011, up 118% to $13.06bn from the same period a year earlier.

The profits were the fourth-biggest in US corporate history.

Mr Jobs co-founded Apple in Silicon Valley in the 1980s, but was fired towards the end of the decade.

He was asked to rejoin in 1997 and changed the company's product lines, culminating in the success of the iPhone and its tablet spin-off, the iPad.

Apple is in an escalating patent war with rivals Google and handset-makers such as Samsung and HTC over their operating systems.

It recently filed a motion in US court that would ban Samsung's Galaxy Nexus, which uses Google's Android.

Apple is poised to announce the third generation of its iPad next month, reports suggest.

Meanwhile, the working conditions in factories that produce Apple products are to be inspected, the computing giant announced.

The Fair Labor Association will audit several suppliers, including Foxconn in China, at Apple's request.

Apple chief executive Tim Cook said: "Workers everywhere have the right to a safe and fair work environment."

Source: BBC

Apple among most searched in Google Zeitgeist 2011

December 15, 2011 

Google's Zeitgeist crunched billions of searches in 2011 to find the most popular and fastest-rising search terms. The result of the 11th annual survey is the online equivalent of climbing into a time machine.

Web celeb Rebecca Black was the fastest-rising query with singer Adele, reality star Ryan Dunn and Casey Anthony following quickly behind. Google+ nabbed the No. 2 spot.

But even as Hurricane Irene struck the U.S. and earthquakes shook Christchurch, New Zealand, and Japan, nothing took a bite out of Google's Zeitgeist like Apple (as GigaOm pointed out).

Three Apple queries appear in the list of the top 10 fastest-rising searches, including Apple's iPhone 5 (which still has yet to make an appearance), the iPad 2 (which did make an appearance and is burning up holiday sales) and the man who helped make it all possible: Steve Jobs, who peaked as a search term in October when he died.

Apple makes other appearances as well. The briskly selling iPhone 4S, for instance, is second-fastest in the consumer electronics category (the iPad2 and the iPad3 also ranked). But it was bested by Amazon's Kindle Fire.

Sure to get a big bump in Google searches today: Google Zeitgeist.

The 5 biggest gripes so far about the iPhone 4S

Iphone 4s Images

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• The iPhone 4S has been massively popular, but there have been some complaints
• Some Sprint customers have griped about slow data speeds
• Tests show that the 4S battery life, in some instances, is weaker than the iPhone 4's
• "Voice assistant" Siri can't give directions or find locations outside the United States

(CNN) -- Nobody's perfect. And despite generally strong reviews and record early sales, the iPhone 4S is no exception.

Apple's new phone went on sale Friday in the U.S. and six other countries, and maybe no rollout this massive (Apple reported selling 4 million of the new phones over the weekend) could be expected to be without problems.

So far, there's been no 4S equivalent to the iPhone 4's "Antennagate." But as folks put their new gadget through its paces, some early complaints have appeared on online message boards.

Taking iPhone's Siri for a spin

Some of these may be early-run blips (that's how we're going to categorize the problems that some customers had activating their phones over the weekend). Whether they become enduring causes of headaches remains to be seen. (Apple did not immediately respond to our request for comment.)

But here are five of the most frequent complaints we've heard about the iPhone 4S:

1. Slow service on Sprint

The big news on the carrier front for the iPhone 4S was that Sprint would be added as an approved mobile carrier, joining AT&T and Verizon.

But some Sprint customers didn't get off to a very good start. Many users were reporting slow data speed for the first couple of days.

A thread on the Sprint community forum has 23 pages of people talking about slow data speed.

"Sprint, we need some answer. Are you guys doing iPhone specific throttling?" one person posted. "You will lose your customer if the customer finding their iPhone unusable ... "

This isn't the first time Sprint's speed has come into question. InPCMag's June survey of the fastest mobile networks, Sprint trailed Verizon and AT&T in most regions of the country.

A Sprint news release said Friday was the biggest sales day of a mobile device in its history, surpassing expectations.

"As always, Sprint is carefully monitoring the performance of the 3G network," Sprint spokesman Scott Sloat said in a written statement to CNN. "We are looking into a small number of reports of slow data speeds when using the iPhone 4S, however there are also reports showing that Sprint's network is the fastest, such as the Gizmodo report that came out earlier today."

2. Weak battery

At the October 4 presentation unveiling the iPhone 4S, Phil Schiller , Apple vice president for product management, praised its "fantastic battery life" that would allow people to talk for eight hours before needing to charge the device again.

But that's not the experience everyone is reporting.

Apple review site iLounge published a review of the phone, including battery-life comparisons.

"After three days of non-stop testing, we had a clear answer: The iPhone 4S is generally more power hungry than the iPhone 4, and Apple has only made the slightest capacity improvement to the iPhone 4S's battery," the review reads. "Moreover, whereas Apple underpromised with the iPhone 4's battery estimates, it comes closer to overpromising with the iPhone 4S."

The review says that using Wi-Fi consistently and using the phone mainly for calls and Web browsing wears the battery out at roughly the same speed as the iPhone 4, while playing videos and music or using a 3G connection will drain it faster.

3. Siri outside the United States

Demand for the iPhone 4S was clearly global. But one of its biggest selling-points, the built-in voice assistant Siri, only works fully stateside.

While many of its built-in features work anywhere, location based actions don't. So, using Siri to, say, find a local business or get driving directions, doesn't work elsewhere.

Even queries asking for the time of day weren't working in Canada, according to some reports.

Compounding that problem (for some folks both inside and outside the U.S.) is the fact that Siri has trouble understanding heavy accents.

It currently works with English, French and German (with more languages coming). But non-native English speakers have reported lots of trouble.

We can only imagine how Siri's doing in Scotland.

4. Camera problems

Another big selling point for the 4S is its 8-megapixel camera, which is a pretty significant jump from the 5 megapixels on the iPhone 4 and 3 megapixels on the iPhone 3GS.

Reviews of the images the phone renders have been overwhelmingly positive, with users reporting a major difference in clarity.

But the same "shutter speed" issues users have complained about on previous iPhones appear to be back again.

In a forum discussion on Apple's site, some reported that when they'd take a photo, the camera got stuck with the shutter closed or moved really slowly. Others said the camera wasn't working at all, although it looks like they were largely able to fix that by turning the phone off and restarting.

5. Screen appearance

At least it looks like there's an easy answer for this one.

Some buyers are reporting a yellowish tint or spots on the screen of their phones, making the resolution fuzzier than older phones.

This is an issue that previous iPhones had as well. While Apple has never officially explained it (presumably because it hasn't impacted enough people), technicians have reportedly said it's residue from the manufacturing process.

The tint tends to fade after a couple of days.