Apple’s pride is still likely stinging just a bit from the Great Map Debacle Of 2012, but nevertheless, a new version of Google Maps is now available as an app for iPhone users on iOS 6. Google announced yesterday that the revised map had finally been approved by Apple and will now be listed in the company’s app store. [More]
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Aussie Police Warn Against Using Apple Maps Lest You End Up Lost In The Wilderness
By 12.10.12
Apple hit a few bumps in the road a few months ago with its map application on the newest iteration of iOS, enough so that it suggested iPhone 5 owners use competing apps while the company worked out the kinks. Australian police are totally on board with people not using iOS maps either, after several people followed the app’s instructions and reportedly had to be rescued from the wilderness as a result. [More]
Apple Moves Some Mac Manufacturing To Job-Hungry Nation Of United States
By 12.6.12
Looking for a new place to assemble their signature iMac desktops, Apple has turned to a country where desperate masses of unemployed workers rush to compete for just about any job: the United States. CEO Tim Cook confirmed that the “assembled in USA” tags on some iMacs are real, and more manufacturing will shift stateside in 2013. [More]
Apple Takes Back Wi-Fi-Sabotaging MacBook, Replaces It With Shiny New One
By 11.29.12
Micahel’s new Macbook had a very unusual flaw. Whenever it was connected to his home network, it would take out his modem. Unfortunately, it didn’t take the whole Apple Store’s network down, so he wasn’t able to replicate the problem for the Geniuses. After five trips and a variety of repairs, Apple finally gave up…and gave him a brand new MacBook. [More]
Oprah Wholeheartedly Endorses The Surface Tablet In A Tweet Sent From Her iPad
By 11.20.12
Of all the people we never thought we’d have to say this to: Oprah Winfrey, celebrity endorsements? You’re doing it wrong. The one and only O just looooves showering her fans with expensive, exciting gifts during her “Favorite Things” special once a year. This year she was super fired up about the new MS Surface. Earlier this week she gushed about the Windows tablet, but just so happened to send that admiring tweet from her iPad. D’oh. [More]
Apple Tells Me I Should Be Happy To Have A Patched-Together FrankenMacBook
By 11.14.12
The MacBook Pro can be a pricey computer, costing more than $3,000. Maybe you get what you pay for, maybe you don’t, but that price tag is why customers have come to expect world-class customer service verging on groveling when they take it to their friendly neighborhood Genius Bar for repairs. Kristina’s 8-month-old computer has needed to go back to the store for service three times now, including what she calls a “major meltdown” and the loss of all data on the hard drive. [More]
If You Buy An iPad In A Gas Station Don’t Be Surprised If It Turns Out To Be A Picture Frame
By 11.12.12
Here at Consumerist we like to keep our readers in the loop about schemes, cheats and tricks we hear about so you don’t end up as a victim. Unfortunately for a few wannabe iPad owners, they apparently hadn’t heard the story of the woman who bought one of the tablets at a gas station only to find out she’d really purchased a mirror. A couple unsuspecting consumers in Miami were looking for cheap electronics, but they ended up with picture frames after dealing with strangers at a gas station. [More]
AT&T Decides To Open Up FaceTime Over Cellular To More iPhone Users
By 11.9.12
Facing criticism — and consumer complaints to the FCC — over its decision to limit the non-WiFi use of Apple’s FaceTime video chat app to customers who have shared data plans, AT&T announced yesterday that it will allow folks with the iPhone 5 (but without unlimited data plans) to use the app over its network. [More]
iPhone 5 Supplier Blames Design For Manufacturing Delays
By 11.7.12
Since the first iPhone became a coveted, line-up-to-get-one device, Apple has been accused of deliberately creating shortages in order to fuel reports of retail sell-outs and clamoring customers. But the company that actually manufactures the iPhone 5 says that in this case, the device’s design is what is keeping it from some consumers. [More]
This Guy Drop-Tests iPad Mini & Google Nexus 7 So You Don’t Have To
By 11.2.12
If you’re in the market for a tablet this holiday season, especially one for one of your butterfingered kids or your accident-prone parents, you’ll probably want to know how well Apple’s new iPad Mini and the Google Nexus 7 survive when dropped on the ground. [More]
UK Court Tells Apple It Isn’t Being Blatant Enough With Its Samsung Apology, Orders It To Try Again
By 11.1.12
A court of appeal in the UK is issuing a bit of a verbal smackdown to Apple, chiding it for not putting its all into the statement it was ordered to post acknowledging that Samsung hadn’t infringed on its copyrighted designs. A judge reprimanded the company and told it to put a new statement that complies with the ruling in a prominent spot on its homepage and not hidden away in a link that leads elsewhere on the site. [More]
Apple & Amazon Top This Year’s Brand Loyalty Survey, Blackberry Hangs On In Last Place
By 10.26.12
If there’s anything we want from our products and the brands that provide them, it’s love, true love. Well, maybe not quite that level, but according to the most recent Brand Keys Loyalty Leaders List, we consumers are craving an emotional connection to brands. And when they fill that special place in our hearts, they earn our loyalty. [More]
The Good, The Bad & The Complicated Of Employee Discounts
By 10.26.12
Between the hours, the pay and the occasional scowling customer, working retail isn’t always the fun times it’s made out to be in film comedy. But at least there’s the employee discount, right? [More]
Apple Announces iMac Hard Drive Replacement Program, Runs Out Of Hard Drive
By 10.25.12
Apple has recalled Carla’s iMac. Specifically, the hard drive, which was made by Seagate, and has has a record of failing more than a hard drive should. Customers were told to bring their computers in so that Apple could swap the hard drive for a nice new one. Carla made her appointment as instructed, but when she got to the store, learned that the replacement hard drives were out of stock and they’d have to hold on to her computer for a week while waiting for them to restock. [More]
How Is The iPad Mini Different From Its Big Brother?
By 10.23.12
The late Steve Jobs himself wasn’t known to be a big fan of a smaller tablet, so now that it’s come to reality, all eyes are on Apple’s iPad Mini. As another one of the company’s not-so-well-kept secrets made its debut today, we turn to the fun task of finally learning the much-conjectured specifications of the iPad Mini, and what makes it an attractive choice for people used to the larger regular iPad. [More]
AT&T Customer Complains To FCC About Being Unable To Use FaceTime Over 3G/4G
By 10.18.12
AT&T customers who want to use the iPhone’s FaceTime video chat over a cellular connection need to switch over to one of the Death Star’s shared data plans. Unfortunately, since AT&T is the company that convinced the Supreme Court that forced arbitration clauses are an acceptable way to avoid class-action lawsuits, angry customers with unlimited data plans can’t get together to sue the company. But what they can do is file a complaint with the FCC. [More]
Judge To Apple: Again, Samsung Didn’t Copy The iPad Because The Galaxy Tablet Isn’t Cool
By 10.18.12
Apple just can’t accept that its products are too cool to have been copied by Samsung, but yet another judge shut down the company’s complaints about its rival’s tablet computers. An appeals court in London affirmed an earlier ruling that had cleared Samsung of cribbing from Apple’s designs, a ruling which may finally end the legal battles between the two companies. [More]
Verizon’s iPhone 5 Math: Using The Same Amount Of Data Faster Counts As More Data
By 10.17.12
We keep hearing about a wi-fi bug that leads to iPhone 5 owners racking up huge data bills when they thought they weren’t on the mobile data network. When Matt contacted Verizon about it, the ever-helpful customer service representative told him that it was just because the iPhone 5 is a 4G LTE device. This is probably the cause of many data complaints that new smartphone users have, but isn’t the case for Matt. He says that he hasn’t changed his browsing habits: using the same amount of data in a shorter amount of time doesn’t mean that he uses more data. At least, not according to the math that everyone except Verizon uses. [More]
