Free Republic

iPhone fans are not going to like hearing this, but Samsung's Galaxy Note7 (yes, there's no space) is the best smartphone money can buy right now. I don't make that statement lightly. I've been a devout iPhone user who has owned four iPhones as his main everyday-carry phone for the last six years. Against all odds, Samsung has made the most impressive smartphone ever created.

This morning I was texting a friend and I went to type "trump" and Siri did not offer to capitalize it for me. I find that interesting. It is funny to see what the liberals at apple find necessary to capitalize. I usually switch their suggestions off.

Jeannine Buck took this selfie, using her iPhone moments before she accidentally dropped it out the window.— image credit: Submitted Almost everyone knows that sinking feeling when their beloved smartphone slips from their grasp and falls victim to the laws of gravity. The seconds between falling, hitting the ground and picking the phone up again to assess the damage can seem like an eternity.For one Abbotsford woman, that ordeal took over three hours after she dropped her phone 2,500 feet from the small Cessna 1-40 feet she was riding in on Monday night.One minute Jeannine Buck was taking pictures of...

The latest Black Hat security conference is underway in Las Vegas. (AP)" LAS VEGAS -- Apple (AAPL) iPhones are drubbing their Android counterparts on the mobile security front, say Atredis Partners founders Shawn Moyer and Josh Thomas. But Apple's dominance isn't necessarily tied to a more potent security posture."Not that many (Android users) are on the newest release of the OS (operating system)," Thomas said. "It's like Windows 95 out in the wild. ... People are saying Apple is winning security. This is one reason why."The Cupertino, Calif.-based tech giant is better at pushing updates, Thomas and Moyer told a...

Riding on the strong sales of its Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge smartphones, Samsung Electronics on Thursday declared 8.14 trillion won ($7billion) year on-year operating profit - 18 per cent- in the second quarter results. .... Samsung’s second-quarter smartphone shipments are estimated at about 72 million units, almost doubling Apple’s iPhone shipments of 40.4 million units during the same period.

At an employee meeting in Cupertino today, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced that the company had recently sold the billionth iPhone. “iPhone has become one of the most important, world-changing and successful products in history. It’s become more than a constant companion. iPhone is truly an essential part of our daily life and enables much of what we do throughout the day,” said Cook. “Last week we passed another major milestone when we sold the billionth iPhone. We never set out to make the most, but we’ve always set out to make the best products that make a difference. Thank...

Marxists of the 21st century (not an oxymoron; they exist) have identified a new threat to the glorious proletariat revolution: PokemonGo. Of course, this is par for the course. The Soviet Union banned The Lord of the Rings. Leftist hero (and murderous thug) Che Guevara worked to suppress Jazz music in communist Cuba. The People's Republic of China censored Back to the Future because the regime thought that time travel undermined law and order. And on and on. Now Marxist sympathizers at the socialist magazine Jacobin think the new Pokemon-themed iPhone app—which is currently being enjoyed by millions of people...

I've been frustrated by biased news feeds that show up unsolicited on my iPhone when I access my search bar or sometimes when I wake the device up. I just looked and saw this: Does anyone know how to shut this off? What really ticks me off is that Apple is pushing this stuff out.

Seven months after 14 people died in the San Bernardino terror attack, the push by California Sen. Dianne Feinstein to give law enforcement access to encrypted cellphone data has fizzled. A draft bill by Feinstein and Sen. Richard Burr, R-North Carolina, was panned by technology companies and never introduced, while a new report from the House Homeland Security Committee declares that the proposal and others floated in Congress “provide little guarantee of successfully addressing the issue.” Susan Hennessey, a former National Security Agency lawyer and now a cybersecurity expert at the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington, said Feinstein’s proposal...

While the investing community this morning is focused squarely on the very disappointing iPhone 5 relaunch and the lack of a cemented China Mobile deal, which has resulted in a $20 billion loss in market cap in early trading for the second most widely held hedge fund stock, a thing that we find more curious in the aftermath of the latest revalations of an implicit, if not explicitly voluntary, joint venture between Apple and the US government and specifically its NSA uberspies, is just how much of Apple's product suite is derived thanks to developments by the US government....

Apple started selling the Apple iPhone nine years ago today. Here is what Apple's press release had to say: iPhone introduces an entirely new user interface based on a revolutionary multi-touch display and pioneering new software that allows users to control iPhone with just a tap, flick or pinch of their fingers. iPhone combines three products into one small and lightweight handheld device - a revolutionary mobile phone, a widescreen iPod, and the Internet in your pocket with best-ever applications on a mobile phone for email, web browsing and maps. iPhone ushers in an era of software power and sophistication...

If you’re wondering why Donald Trump is so popular… Republicans are sick of electing good conservatives, only to watch them cave to the bullying tactics of those so very tolerant and nice liberals. One by one, elected Republicans compromise away their principles to sit at the cool kid table. Paul Ryan used to be pretty cool. Speaker Paul Ryan is joining Apple’s Tim Cook for a fundraiser next week in California. A couple of days ago Cook said Apple will not be sending any money to the GOP convention because they do not agree with Donald Trump. I’m sure that...

1. Missing Dark Mode As with Android, for years a dark mode has been high on the list of iOS requests – and yet again Apple didn’t deliver it. 2. Goodbye Easy Access Widgets One of the larger changes made in iOS 10 is Apple’s decision to add widget support to its lockscreen and even some app icons for 3D Touch enabled devices (read: iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus). But what Apple didn’t touch on at the time was it has also removed them from the notification center. 3. Basic Keyboard Omissions Apple made some solid progress with the...

You didn't build that, someone else did. There aren’t’ too many devices that you can look at and instantly ‘get’ that they led to near-instantaneous changes in the way the world functions and behaves. Radios and TVs certainly did, as did the affordable automobile. We can toss in the microwave oven, the X-ray camera, and the personal computer as well. Most recently, the honor would have to go to the cell phone and, in particular, the iPhone. Apple’s baby is widely regarded as the most ubiquitous, and most forward-thinking, of the now borderline-essential cellular handsets. For better or worse, it’s...

Pelosi Claims Government Created the iPhone, Not Steve Jobs or Apple Aaron Kliegman BY: June 9, 2016 10:45 am House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) claimed Thursday that the federal government created the iPhone rather than the technology company Apple or its former chief executive officer, Steve Jobs. “Anybody here have a smartphone?” Pelosi asked an audience at a Democratic National Convention Platform hearing in Washington, D.C. Pelosi then held up an iPhone for everyone to see, telling those in the room, “In this smartphone, almost everything came from federal investments in research.” She then listed elements of the...

COURTS ACROSS THE COUNTRY are grappling with a key question for the information age: When law enforcement asks a company for cellphone records to track location data in an investigation, is that a search under the Fourth Amendment? By a 12-3 vote, appellate court judges in Richmond, Virginia on Monday ruled that it is not — and therefore does not require a warrant.The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld what is known as the third-party doctrine: a legal theory suggesting that consumers who knowingly and willingly surrender information to third parties therefore have “no reasonable expectation of privacy” in that information...

Apple will likely take three years between full-model changes of its iPhone devices, a year longer than the current cycle. In a typical two-year term, fall 2016 was supposed to see a major upgrade. But the changes on the model to be launched this autumn will be minor, such as improved camera quality... These include a KGI report last month stating that the design would be largely unchanged and that it would not have ‘many attractive selling points.’

Apple's Tim Cook saw an iPhone in 350-year-old paintingThe Apple chief executive joked saying he thought he knew when and where the iPhone was invented. Apparently the iPhone was invented nearly 350 years ago, according to Apple boss Tim Cook's interpretation of a painting. During a chat at the Start-up Fest event in Amsterdam on Tuesday, Cook spoke to former European Commissioner Neelie Kroes about topics ranging from health to the future of TV. But the pair shared an anecdote from the night before when Kroes took Cook to Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum. "Do you happen to know Tim, where and when...

Apple has quietly changed a policy that has resulted in iPhone and iPad owners having to more frequently enter passwords to unlock their devices.Users must now enter a passcode anytime the device’s Touch ID fingerprint sensor hasn’t been used in the past eight hours or when the device hasn’t been unlocked with a passcode in the last six days. In such cases, Touch ID is turned off until users enter passcodes.Apple-tracking site Macworld noted the little-noticed change and investigated the reason behind it. It found users who claimed that Apple’s passcode requests had become increasingly frequent.Apple has long required that...

The US-based company has sought approval from the government on setting up single-brand retail stores in the country. A government panel has recommended exempting Apple from mandatory local sourcing norms, a move which would pave the way for Apple to open single-brand retail stores in the country. The company had given a detailed presentation to the committee headed by Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) Secretary Ramesh Abhishek on April 19, on its products, technology, innovations and camera. "The committee has found that the company's products are cutting edge technology and state-of-the-art. It has recommended to exempt them from...