How The iPhone Changed The Smartphone Industry

Five years ago today, Apple’s first iPhone hit stores. Many in the tech world thought that it would be a flop. For one thing, it was ridiculously expensive. For another, it was something no one had ever really heard of before: a smartphone targeted primarily at consumers, rather than business people. Everybody knew that the smartphone market was a business market, especially Research In Motion, makers of the iconic BlackBerry.

Five years later, RIM is in its death throes and Apple’s fifth-generation iPhone, the iPhone 4S, is the most popular single gadget on the planet. In fact, in five years the iPhone has sold 250 million iPhone and raked in $150 billion in revenues. While Google’s Android platform has emerged as a strong competitor – and even taken a larger chunk of the market – the iPhone remains the single most popular smartphone in the world.

iQuick Tweet Lets You Tweet From Notification Center

When Apple took the lid off of iOS 6 at WWDC 2012 two weeks ago, they showed off several new and exciting features. When iOS 6 launches in the fall it will include a brand new Maps app with turn-by-turn navigation, major improvements to Siri, Facebook integration, and more. One of these new features is a pair of buttons in Notification Center that allow you to quickly post to Twitter or Facebook.

For the moment, though, those of us without access to the iOS 6 beta release are forced to admire these new goodies from afar. While some of them are available as Jailbreak tweaks, users who aren’t willing to jailbreak their phones are still out of luck. Fortunately, one app developer found a nice workaround that lets you get your hands on one of iOS 6′s new features right now.

iPhone 5 Rumor: New iPhone Facing Battery Problems?

Apple may be encountering supply issues with the battery for the new iPhone, according to recent reports. The new iPhone is expected to launch this fall with a larger display, metal rear panel, and several internal upgrades, including 4G LTE connectivity.

Now it looks like there may be problems with the device’s battery. Topeka Capital Markets analyst Brian White recently discovered an article in the Chinese news media. According to AppleInsider, he summarized the contents of the story in a note to investors. According to the report, only about 30% of the batteries that are rolling off of assembly lines are meeting Apple’s standards for the new iPhone’s battery. The manufacturer is reportedly working to get the issue sorted out quickly enough to keep iPhone’s production schedule on track.

Apple Wants To Make Autocorrect Less Comical

Most iPhone users have a bit of a love-hate relationship with autocorrect. Designed to make typing on Apple’s touchscreen keyboard easier by fixing your mistakes for you, autocorrect often has exactly the opposite problem. Misspell a simple word in just the right way and autocorrect may replace it with way out of left field. 

Case in point: the lead image, which is a screen capture of a conversation I had with my wife a couple years ago. To this day I have no idea what misspelling of “bedtimes” led autocorrect to turn it into “beatings.” To be fair, most of autocorrect’s screwups are a little less alarming. But some are even more perplexing – for example, I also can’t figure out why when I type “forthe” (accidentally omitting the space) autocorrect assume’s I must be trying to type “Goethe” instead of “for the.” Or why half the time it turns “so” into “do.” At any rate, autocorrect has been the source of many a laugh, the cause many a misunderstanding, and the but of many a joke. There are even whole websites devoted to it, the most popular of which being Damnyouautocorrect.com.