Factory-Sealed iPhone 5 Units Arrive with Scuffs and Dings

Some factory sealed iPhone 5 units are making their way to customers with scratches and other types of marks that could indicate improper manipulation of the handset during manufacturing. After reports broke out that Apple’s new iPhone was prone to rapid wear and tear, some actual iPhone 5 owners reported that their units arrived already damaged. The images on the side are just a couple of “scuffgate” examples from iPhone 5 buyers who claimed to have discovered these scuffs and dings prior to using their new Apple smartphones. Some say it could be a flaw in the manufacturing process. Another theory is that the Foxconn workers assembling these units could have manipulated the aluminum casings in an improper manner. While all smartphones are bound to exhibit signs of damage...

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Apple iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy SIII Drop Test

Android Authority got their hands on the device they love to hate - the Apple iPhone 5 - and carried out a series of drop tests from different heights. They did the same with the Samsung Galaxy S III to see which one fares better. The video embedded above shows three individual, real-life drop tests conducted on the latest iPhone, and Samsung flagship smartphones, the Galaxy S III. The iPhone 5 withstood all drops exhibiting only minor scuffs and scratches, whereas the S III saw its display completely shattered. On the last drop test (head hight), the S III even lost the rear shell that covers the battery and other electronics. A sad sight, to say the least. The news should be welcomed by the Apple fanbase, especially after two generations of all-glass iPhones that could...

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First iPhone 5 Jailbreak Confirmed

iOS hacker Grant Paul, also known as @chpwn in Twitter circles, has released images of the first jailbroken iPhone 5, complete with a couple of screenshots showing Cydia (the jailbreak alternative to Apple’s App Store) running on the device. Greeting his 80K+ followers with an intriguing tweet on September 21, chpwn said, “Some people wanted the bottom row of text from Cydia, or a photo of the device itself.” Embedded in the tweet was the image you see above - the first jailbroken iPhone 5 (that the world knows of). Chpwn then followed up with a couple of screenshots showing Cydia running on the device. Obviously, chpwn's achievement got the iOS fanbase excited and they now want a release date for the jailbreak. As usual,...

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BlackBerry Outage, 6 Percent of Users Affected by EMEA Outage

September 21, 2012, Research In Motion's BlackBerry Service suffered a major outage in Europe, Middle East and Africa, and the Canadian company has offered an official statement on the matter. The issues affected some of the company's users for several hours, yet it seems that the problem was not widespread. In fact, RIM says that only around 6 percent of the company's customers were impacted, and that no data loss was observed. “I want to apologize to those BlackBerry customers in Europe and Africa who experienced an impact in their quality of service earlier this morning,” RIM CEO Thorsten Heins stated in an open letter to users. “The BlackBerry service is now fully restored and I can report that no data or messages...

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ASUS PadFone 2 Specs Leak

Computer maker ASUS is reportedly gearing up for the release of a successor for its PadFone smartphone-tablet hybrid device. Dubbed PadFone 2, the handset is expected to become official as soon as next month, as ASUS has already sent out invites to a press event supposedly marking the device's official debut. In fact, two such events were announced, both set for the same day, October 16th, though in different locations, one in Milan, Italy, and another in Taipei, Taiwan. As one might expect, ASUS is tight-lipped on this one, yet info on what the smartphone might have to offer to its users has already emerged online. Rumor has it that ASUS has decided to go for a larger touchscreen display with the new model, bumping it...

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HP ENVY Phoenix H9 Desktop Computer

Now the company is offering you a powerful and cool-looking system to go with it. The official branding of the new model is HP ENVY Phoenix H9 desktop computer system and buyers will only have Intel CPUs to choose from. On the 3D graphics side, there will be a choice between Nvidia and AMD video adapters and the cooling system can also optionally be a liquid-based solution. The company emphasizes on the looks of the case and claims that it looks “armor plated.” The system comes complete with cool, red internal lighting and buyers will be glad to know that an SSD option is also available for a snappy experience. Availability is slated for late October as the company will offer the new HP ENVY Phoenix H9 desktop computer...

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Nvidia Working on Project Boulder

We knew that Nvidia is working on project Denver for quite some time now. Denver is supposed to be a GPU that also has an ARM CPU fused on the same die, thus making the final chip able to run an operating system directly on the GPU with no need for an AMD or Intel processor. The first implementation of the Denver project will be next year’s Maxwell. Many say that Maxwell is a 2014 GPU, but we know that ARM is especially built to be easily fused with various architectures. As such, we believe that at least the prototypes will come out during 2013. The Denver architecture is a 64-bit design that’s based on the ARMv8 set. It seems that Nvidia is not going directly for ARM CPU + Nvidia GPU integrated solution. On its...

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Samsung Preparing Tizen-Based Galaxy S III Version

South Korean mobile phone maker Samsung is quite happy with the success its Galaxy S III smartphone has had on the market, but it seems that it is looking for more. The company appears to be getting ready for the launch of a Tizen-based flavor of the Galaxy S III, at least this is what a listing on the WiFi Alliance’s website suggests. The Alliance has just approved a Samsung GT-I9300_TIZEN handset, which could be nothing different than a Galaxy S III flavor, as the model number suggests. Samsung has been long testing the mobile OS on its flagship Android smartphone, and it wouldn’t come too much as a surprise if it actually had plans to release a Tizen-based model of the device on the market. Dual-band Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi...

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Nokia Maps Are Better Than Rivals’ Solutions, Nokia Says

Windows Phone 8, Microsoft’s next-generation mobile operating system, will arrive on the market with Nokia’s Maps service included in the equation, a feature that should make a lot of users happy. Offering wide coverage around the world, the mapping service has been widely recognized to be one of the best there is. According to Nokia, however, users could easily find out that the service is, in fact, better than competitors’ offerings. For that, the company makes a comparison between Nokia Maps in Windows Phone 8, Google Maps on Android, and Apple’s Maps on iPhone 5. The company notes that it has a long history of offering mapping services, and that it truly understands what users need for such an application in terms...

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Cube “Retina” U9GT5 9.7” Android 4.1 Tablet, World’s First 9.7” Jelly bean Tablet with Retina Display

In a very surprising move, a Chinese tablet maker has decided to fit an impressive IPS screen on an Android 4.1 Jelly Bean tablet. The new device features a rather decent Rockchip RK3066 dual-core processor and 1 GB of RAM memory. We’re very glad to see that high resolution displays are becoming more and more popular especially on the tablet market as these devices are the ones that will benefit the most. Apple’s new iPad was the first tablet to feature a display with a 2048 by 1536 pixel resolution and the Cupertino giant has baptized the feature as “Retina” and the moniker stuck. Therefore, we’re now seeing Chinese tablet maker Cube advertising a “Retina” on its new U9GT5 9.7” Android 4.1 tablet. The Cube U9GT5 also...

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