Apple's iPhone 6 has already sold tens of millions of units across the globe, and with some 20 million Chinese consumers having also secured themselves a unit in the run-up to the launch in China later on this week, we're still not able to put a ballpark figure next to the device's success. But given the popularity, Apple is regularly faced with imitations, and now Lenovo, which is currently in the process of purchasing Motorola from Google, has come through with a mid-range handset that appears an almost carbon copy of the mobile industry's current must-have.
Apple has pulled off a magical logistics and marketing stunt with the launch of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, as sales record hit an all time high on the launch date, with over 10 million units in its first weekend of release. Then we have China, which has already reported over 20 million pre-orders for the October 17th release, and that's just stats from the supporting carriers and an online Chinese Web store. Apple has announced that it will be releasing the new iPhone in 36 countries, including China and India on October 17th, along with Monaco as well. For more, read on after the jump!
Boost Mobile - Sprint's prepaid subsidiary - has announced the availability of the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus from October 17th, at discount of $100, making it the first prepaid carrier to offer these devices. It is interesting to see that the devices will be made available a day right after the Apple event in Cupertino on the 16th. Earlier when the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c were launched, the carrier slashed off $100 of the original retail price, just like it has done so for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.
Apple makes a decent effort to improve the performance of the iPhone's camera with each new release, and the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus have been the subject of much acclaim thanks to their rear-facing shooters. But while the new Focus Pixel technology and other trimmings undoubtedly equate to a better overall experience, how does it fare against a 'proper' DSLR?
Apple's decision to allow third-party keyboards into iOS with its latest release took many by surprise, mainly because after all these years it was generally accepted that Apple simply didn't want to give third parties access to everything its users typed, but that also meant that users of iPhones and iPads were going to miss out on some of the excellent keyboards and keyboard features that have been available to users of other platform devices for years.
Samsung is having something of a bad time right now. Having already announced three consecutive quarterly drop in profits, the South Korean firm has announced that it expects a decline in profit of almost 60% for the third quarter of 2014 after having already warned that the second half of the year would 'remain a challenge.'
Google is constantly improving its famed Gmail client, and with the new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus having recently been rolled out by Apple, the Gmail for iOS app has been given its customary update for optimization with the new display sizes. In true geek style, the release is numbered 3.1415926, or Pi, and we've got the rest of the details as well as the download link right here.
On its website, Apple waxes poetic about the improvements in LTE speed offered by the iPhone 6. The fact that it, as Apple states, "has more LTE bands than any other smartphone" and "supports more advanced wireless technologies to boost performance" should, in theory, mean that it's considerably quicker in terms of speed than the preceding iPhone 5s. Taglines and promises are one thing, and as we've learned only too many times, real-world performance can often be another, and so to dispel any lingering notion of doubt, you can see the iPhone 6 in a side-by-side speed test with last year's flagship iPhone 5s below.
T-Mobile's outspoken CEO John Legere found himself on-stage at the GeekWire 2014 summit and once an interviewer made the mistake of asking whether his iPhone 6 Plus was bent, things got interesting. Waving his phone around in the air and with what can only be described as indignation in his heart, Legere set about putting the world to rights on the subject of Bendgate, calling the entire controversy nothing short of "bulls***."
Nothing captures the imagination more than a good leak of a prototype Apple device, except perhaps that device finding its way into the public domain. It has happened a handful of times in the past, most notably when an iPhone 4 turned up in a bar before it was announced. One thing you don't do when you get your hands on something like that is to try and sell it in a public forum, because that inevitably attracts the wrong kind of attention.