iPhone 6

Selfy case kinda turns your iPhone into a GoPro

Where do I even begin talking about selfies? Everyone loves a good selfie. They are wildly popular across the world, even causing South Korea to ban "unregulated" selfie stick sales. Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, SnapChat, and other forms of popular social media channels are completely filled with selfies. What caused our self obsession will never be explained, but the selfie is here to stay.

The selfie stick was one of the first hardware selfie assistants. I saw them around touristy places when I traveled, but didn't think much of them about a year ago. Now, they are increasingly popular and being utilized in everyday places. Several iterations of selfie-inspired accessories cropped up and iLuv is capitalizing on the fad. Launching "selfy," iLuv guarantees you will always have a quick way to snap a selfie and includes a laundry list of add-ons to assist.

iPhone 6 Plus grabs 41 percent of US phablet sales

Kantar Worldpanel, a WPP-owned market researcher, yesterday revealed that the latest iPhones helped Apple gain share over Android around the world while the iPhone 5c outsold the iPhone 6 Plus in the U.S. during the last three months up to October 31.

Today, Kantar is back with some additional newsworthy data pertaining to “phablet” sales.

For those wondering, phablets are typically defined as smartphones with a screen size of 5.5 inches and larger. The 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus, Kantar said, captured as much as 41 percent of sales of phablets in the U.S. alone. As for the smaller 4.7-inch iPhone 6, it grabbed 33 percent market share to become the best-selling iOS device in the period.

Kantar: iPhone 6 helps Apple gain share over Android, iPhone 5c outselling iPhone 6 Plus in US

In the last three months up to October 31, Apple's misunderstood iPhone 5c outsold the iPhone 6 Plus in the United States.

Moreover, overall sales of both the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus handsets has bumped up Apple's market share against Android around the world, according to the latest smartphone survey by Kantar Worldpanel, the WPP-owned market researcher.

The research firm reported Wednesday that Apple is poised for a record quarter amid “a huge jump in sales share across almost all major markets” thanks to the new iPhones.

Chinese phone maker claims Apple’s iPhone 6 is a ripoff

Chinese phone maker Digione claims Apple's iPhone 6 infringes on a patent for its own smartphone under the 100+ brand, and plans to take Apple to court if things aren't resolved. In a letter sent to Apple in September, Digione says it wants to communicate further with Apple to prevent "potential legal risks for the sake of further understanding and communication."

T-Mobile’s Cyber Monday: $100 off 64GB iPhone 6, more iPhone discounts

T-Mobile, the nation's fourth-largest carrier, is taking a cool hundred bucks off the iPhone 6 model with sixty-four gigabytes of storage. That's basically giving you the 64GB iPhone 6 for the price of the 16GB version, a savings of $100 dollars.

The Deutsche Telekom-owned company normally sells the 64GB iPhone 6 model for the full price of $749 (or $99 down plus monthly installments).

And as part of its Cyber Monday deal, T-Mobile is also discounting other iPhone models, including the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c.

TaiG releases jailbreak for iOS 8.1.1

TaiG released a jailbreak for iOS 8.1.1 devices this morning, roughly two weeks after Apple closed the latest Pangu jailbreak by releasing iOS 8.1.1. For those unfamiliar with the TaiG team, they were behind the third-party Chinese app store-evad3rs controversy last fall.

It's surprising that the team chose to release at this time, given that the previous jailbreak has only be defunct for a few weeks, and Apple is in the middle of testing iOS 8.2. But long-time jailbreak community patriarch MuscleNerd speculates that it likely had something to do with money.

Apple posts new ‘Voice Text’ iPhone 6 ad

Apple tonight posted a new commercial to its YouTube channel showcasing the recently-launched iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. The ad is entitled ‘Voice Text’ and it highlights the new voice messaging feature found on iOS 8 and of course the new iPhones.

Coming just a few days after the last two spots, the ad once again stars Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake. In similar fashion to recent ads, the pair provide comedic voiceovers as they demonstrate the benefits of voice messaging.

Rumor: Apple switching to Samsung-made Apple Watch chips, iPhone 6 battery and flash storage

The latest scuttlebutt fresh out of Korea has it that Apple is considering switching to Samsung-made components for the new iPhones and Apple Watch, including iPhone 6 batteries manufactured by Samsung SDI and NAND flash manufactured by Samsung's component making arm.

The story matches up nicely with a BusinessKorea report earlier this month which claimed Apple was considering changing its flash storage provider due to alleged issues with some 128GB iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus units.

Apple airs new ‘Gamers’ and ‘Reservations’ iPhone 6 ads

Apple tonight posted two new TV commercials to its YouTube channel showcasing the recently-launched iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. The spots are entitled ‘Gamers’ and 'Reservations,' and the first demonstrates the gaming power of the new A8 processor, while the latter shows off the new Continuity feature in iOS 8.

Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon and recording artist Justin Timberlake return for both adverts, which are shot in a similar fashion to recent iPhone 6 ads. The camera zooms in on a pair of iPhone 6 and 6 Plus handsets, and the duo provide comedic voiceovers as they demonstrate various phone and iOS features.

Five reasons the iPhone 6’s ability to handle 4K video is a big deal

While some photography apps in the App Store — such as the $49.99 Vizzywig 8xHD — make shooting film-like 4K footage on an iPhone a reality by taking a series of individual eight-megapixel images in rapid succession, the general public and techies alike are totally unaware that the latest iPhones are actually capable of rendering 4K 3,840-by-2,160 pixel video.

And who could blame them? After all, Apple's been conspicuously mum about it. But as it turns out, the A8 chip ticking inside the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus provides enough oomph to seamlessly handle 4K content playback.

The surprising discovery was made public last week by Softorino (via TUAW), the developers of WALTR, a new Mac app which makes it easy to upload and convert any video or audio file to an iOS-friendly format for native playback on iPhones, iPads, iPods and Apple TVs.

While it makes little sense to render massive 4K videos on the 1,334-by-750 and 1,920-by-1,080 pixel resolution screens of the respective iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus smartphones due to inevitable downsampling, the very fact that the A8 processor can handle 4K content is important on many levels.

$99 iPhone 6 case with VR headset announced

Toronto-based Cordon Development Labs is making rounds Monday with the Pinć, a $99 iPhone case which doubles as a Minority Report style virtual headset with spatial interaction, multi-touch hand gestures via a pair of finger tacks and more, effectively expanding your device into an immersive computing experience.

Data from the wireless rings on each hand is combined with camera input from your iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus to track hand motion. Cordon Development Labs is working on a software development kit built on the Unity engine so third-party developers will be able to customize and create various types of experiences for the Pinć.

What's it like to interact with the Pinć? Check out promo vids included after the break.

New Microsoft ad says iPhone 6 Plus only makes Siri bigger, not smarter

Friday, Windows giant Microsoft published a new Apple-bashing ad on its YouTube channel.

The 30-second television commercial shows off the latest version of Cortana, Microsoft's Siri-like personal assistant, running on the Lumia 830 and interacting with a bunch of built-in applications.

Cortana amusingly brags to Siri about being able to perform functions Apple's personal assistant can't, like alert users to leave early for an appointment using traffic alerts, remind them of things based on who calls or texts and more.