Free Republic

A Langley family is blaming tech giant Apple for a fire that destroyed their home. Cathy and Ian Finley say the fire was sparked by an iPhone 6 that was charging on a chair in their living room. “I came home and put my phone on charge in our house, went off to feed the goats and 20 minutes later I came back and there was smoke billowing from the roof of our house,” Cathy said. After a year of negotiating with their insurer, the Finleys have been awarded a $600,000 payout, which is going towards the construction of a...

Apple is facing a probe from the DOJ into its throttling of older iPhones, according to a Bloomberg report. The inquiry is reportedly in "early stages," Bloomberg said. Apple will release a software update this spring that gives users more control and visibility into their iPhone's battery life and performance. The United States Department of Justice is requesting documents from Apple related to the company's decision to slow down older iPhones, according to a Bloomberg report Tuesday. Bloomberg said any possible investigation is still in "early stages." Apple was criticized in January when users discovered that iPhone 6, iPhone 6s...

Apple has admitted that some iPhone 6S devices can suddenly shut down for no apparent reason. The tech giant is offering owners of the problematic smartphones free replacement batteries. "A very small number" of iPhone 6S devices manufactured between September and October 2015 are affected, Apple (AAPL, Tech30) said in a statement Monday. It didn't provide details on the battery fault that is causing the phones to unexpectedly go dark.

Apple has determined that some iPhone 6 Plus devices may exhibit display flickering or Multi-Touch issues after being dropped multiple times on a hard surface and then incurring further stress on the device. If your iPhone 6 Plus is exhibiting the symptoms noted above, is in working order, and the screen is not cracked or broken, Apple will repair your device for a service price of $149. Apple will contact customers who may have paid for a service repair related to this issue either through Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider to arrange reimbursement. If you have not been contacted...

An increasing number of iPhone users are reporting an issue with iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus phones freezing up and becoming unresponsive to touch. The issue even has a deadly sounding name: "Touch disease." There are a lot of iPhones out there, so a problem that affects a fraction of a percent of devices could potentially impact thousands of users. But there's some evidence that this particular issue is fairly widespread. Apple has never officially acknowledged the problem, but independent iPhone repair vendors and Apple Store technicians have said that it is easily one of the most common issues...

I have an IPhone 6 and sometimes when I put it in my pocket it gets kinda warm, is this normal?

In other news - HATS are secretly BOWLS An iPhone user after having demonstrated the handset's secret lighter function We here at the Reg, as all our readers know, subscribe completely to the idea that people need a continual stream of iPhone related news-style content. We were especially impressed by the idea that the new iPhone 6S and 6S Plus might be "secretly waterproof". Some curmudgeons might suggest that this is merely a standard feature found on all phones which are not sold as being waterproof: that is, some waterproofing is done in order to reduce the rate at which...

Apple released iPhone 6 with new, powerful encryption setting that should make it much harder for law enforcement and surveillance groups like the FBI and the NSA from accessing users’ emails, photos and contacts. After Edward Snowden revelations last year, privacy-minded users may be happy about the new feature, but law enforcement is decidedly not. At a news conference Thursday, FBI Director James Comey criticized Apple’s encryption, which scrambles information on the new iPhone 6 using a code that could take “more than five-and-a-half years to try all combinations of a six-character alphanumeric passcode with lowercase letters and numbers,” Comey...

SEOUL, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Apple Inc is chipping away at Samsung Electronics Co Ltd's dominant position in its home turf of South Korea - thanks to its new iPhone 6 series. Apple captured a record 33 percent market share in South Korea in November, the highest ever for a foreign brand, according to a monthly report released by Hong Kong-based market research company Counterpoint on Wednesday. In contrast, Samsung's share slipped to 46 percent after hovering around 60 percent for five months. Apple's gains in South Korea are telling, as November was the first full month that the...

Speed kills, and the iPhone goes from 0 to a good picture faster than anything else I was at Intel’s CES booth, composing a photo with my Android smartphone, when a pair of anonymous hands thrust a shining iPhone 6 Plus into my line of vision. A nonchalant tap of the camera shutter button later, the hands were pulling back, having captured a stupendously clear and sharp picture on the first attempt. By the time I’d completed my routine of setting proper focus and steadying myself, the dude who’d beaten me to a better shot with none of the effort...

During the last 12 days of Q3 2014, Apple "experienced a huge jump in sales share across almost all major markets thanks to the launch of the iPhone 6," reported Dominic Sunnebo of Kantar Worldpanel, enabling iOS to reach or exceed 40 percent market share in Australia, U.S., UK and Japan. Twelve days of iPhone 6 sales dramatically shifted quarterly market share in Europe Kantar's estimates of Apple's market share for the quarter increased by 40 percent (5.9 percentage points) over the year ago quarter across the five largest markets in Europe (Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Spain), while Android's...

The Cost Of 'Putinphones' Is Skyrocketing After Tim Cook Announced He's Gay Sarah Kaufman, Vocativ Nov. 12, 2014, 12:26 PM Do you have $3,600 to spend and want to be the coolest kid around? Then snatch yourself up a limited-edition “Putinphone.” Available in your choice of titanium or gold, this conversation-starting version of the popular iPhone 6 comes complete with detailed engravings of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s handsome, powerful face. The Italian boutique brand Caviar released a stunning collection of Putinphones out of the iPhone 5 in June, each one a reasonable $4,350. Naturally, all 144 of the treasurable items...

Fresh from the online uproar over whether the shiny new iPhone 6 bends when carried around in pockets, Apple has been hit by a new complaint - that the handset traps users' hair or beards when they make calls. It is difficult to gauge whether there is any real issue, but Twitter users have made #hairgate a rising social media trend, leading major news outlets to pounce on the story. RELATED STORIES Companies poke fun at iPhone 6 over #bendgate Apple's most compelling new iPhones After a week with the iPhone 6 Plus, I can't love it Moving stuff from...

We stress test Apple's new phones, plus comparable models from Samsung, LG, and HTCCell phones Two days ago, the Internet erupted with photos of bent iPhone 6s, and a very-viral video of a guy creasing an iPhone 6 Plus with his bare hands. It seemed like a serious concern, yet everything about the uproar was highly unscientific. We don’t like unscientific, so we promised then that we would use our lab equipment to find out just how delicate the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus really are. We also promised to run the same tests on comparable smart phones. We’ve done...

iOS 8 upgrade problems have reared their ugly heads, bang on cue. Early-adopting iMagicMirror owners are finding their devices suffering some seriously poisoned Apple. Here we go again. Every major iOS update causes suspicious slowdowns in older iPhone and iPad types. It's as if Apple wants you to upgrade to the latest shiny. As if. In IT Blogwatch, bloggers set aside their cynicism. Your humble blogwatcher curated these bloggy bits for your entertainment. Gregg Keizer takes a beautiful new Queen: The initial uptake for Apple's iOS 8 has been less than half of...iOS 7. … In the 24 hours since...

Load up iOS 8 and you might not notice the difference straight away, but there are plenty of little tweaks and changes behind the scenes. Here are 25 different things you can do on your device that you couldn't do yesterday.

Apple's new phone is bigger, faster, and promises more than ever before. Apple has officially announced its latest iPhone model, the iPhone 6. The iPhone 6 will be available in two different sizes, both bigger than Apple's earlier iPhones. Apple has been behind the curve of large-screened smartphones for a long itme, but it's catching up in a big way with the iPhone 6. The smaller of the two new iPhone 6 models has a 4.7-inch display, which is still notably bigger than 4-inch screen on the iPhone 5 and 5S that preceded it. It has a new design that...

Apple unveiled the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, an update of its flagship smartphone with larger screens. “Today we are launching the biggest advancement in the history of the iPhone,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said at the start of the company’s press event in Cupertino, Calif., where Apple is headquartered. The iPhone 6 will feature a larger 4.7 inch retina HD screen, while the 5.5 inch iPhone 6 Plus model also will be offered. The full 1080p HD screen features no borders with glass that covers the entire surface and curves around the edges of the thinner device. A...