iphone

Finding flaws in the iPhone 5

Monday's CNET Update is a bit scratchy:

Apple sold more than 5 million iPhone 5 units as of the first weekend. That's a million more than the launch of the iPhone 4S. But looks like Apple could have sold many more if there was enough supply. Several retail stores in major cities had only 8 or 10, according to reports, and didn't get enough to fulfill preorders.

When you have millions of people around the world racing to be the first to have one, there are high standards. So there's been quite a bit of press … Read more

How to add almost any gift card to Passbook

Do a quick search on Twitter and you'll find many iOS users sending request after request (or in some cases, demand after demand) to retailers, airlines, and merchants for Passbook integration. Passbook is clearly one feature iOS users are eager to use, but the delay in adoption is driving them mad.

Enter Gyft.

Gyft is a gift card app for iOS that allows you to store gift card information in a single, easy-to-access place. Sound familiar?

As TechCrunch pointed out this morning, Gyft received a big update last night, bringing with it the ability to add any gift card … Read more

Capture your thoughts and impressions with Drafts for iPhone

Drafts, by Agile Tortoise, aims to be the tool for capturing your moments of inspiration, all within a clean, intuitive user interface. Its long list of sharing options places Draft ahead of other note-taking apps. It also includes easy syncing options for Evernote, Dropbox, and Simperium, although it lacks the most convenient iCloud synchronization.

The app opens with a blank screen ready to save your ideas on the go. We liked the simplicity of the design: it divides the screen in two and provides just the tools necessary to concentrate on drafting your ideas. It's easy to access the … Read more

Data speeds: iPhone 5 vs. Samsung Galaxy S3 vs. iPhone 4S

Though its thinner profile and longer screen are two of the iPhone 5's top draws, I'm more interested in what's inside Apple's newest handset. Yes, after a long wait, the iPhone 5 finally adds support for 4G LTE data networks. Of course, I have to point out that a galaxy of Android phones (get it!) have long offered the feature, but that doesn't mean I'm not grateful that at long last the iPhone has caught up.

Editors' note: This article was originally posted September 22, 2012. We will continue to update it as we … Read more

Top 5 features missing from iPhone 5

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The iPhone 5 has arrived, and it's pretty great. But I can't shake this nagging feeling that Apple could have done more.

A week ago, CNET's David Carnoy penned a great roundup of the most-wanted features that didn't make it into the iPhone 5. It seemed like easy pickings for a Top 5 video, so I imposed a ranking, stood in front of a camera, and created the video you see before you (click here if you don't see a video at the top of this … Read more

Local search field test: Apple Maps vs. Google Maps

Yesterday we performed a field test of the turn-by-turn directions on both the iOS 6 Apple Maps app on the iPad and Google Maps on a Samsung Galaxy Tab. Both fared pretty well with getting us to our destinations, but Google Maps came out on top. As we pointed out yesterday, a number of people have been complaining about the Apple Maps app, from inaccuracies to poor directions.

Today, in part two of our testing, we did a number of searches for landmarks and other destinations to see how each app performed. After only a couple of tests, it was … Read more

Why Apple made the right decision with iOS 6 Maps

Imagine you are Apple CEO Tim Cook. You control the single most profitable phone on the market, the iPhone. You have full control over your mobile OS -- iOS -- and the applications that run on it.

Except that's not actually true. You don't have full control over your mobile OS, because two of your default applications rely heavily on technology and data provided to you by Google, your greatest enemy. I am talking, of course, about YouTube and Google Maps, which have been part of iOS since the very first iPhone.

Removing YouTube is simple enough. Google wanted full control of the YouTube app, … Read more

Life in the iPhone 5 line: Fashion as a must-have 'feature'

I may write a CNET column called called "Common Sense Tech," but I can't say that I or any of those who were in line with me today for iPhone 5 are showing much common sense. But the iPhone, perhaps more than any other device, illustrates how important a feature that fashion can be, in addition to function, when it comes to tech purchases.

Don't get me wrong. The iPhone 5 is an excellent phone, as our CNET iPhone 5 review covers. As usual, I'm not trying to spark some type … Read more

Restrict iMessage alerts to your contacts only

When I first wrote about iMessage last year with the release of iOS 5, I made a huge mistake. I had gone through and edited all of the screenshots, but forgot to blur out an e-mail address linked to my iMessage account. Readers noticed this, of course, and began sending me iMessages almost immediately.

I heard from a lot of nice readers, and I also had the occasional person who would send me multiple messages at all hours of the night. It took me a few weeks to figure out how these people knew how to contact me, but even … Read more

How to set multiple e-mail signatures on iOS 6

Multiple e-mail signatures, a feature that should have been in iOS from day one, has finally been added to the operating system with the iOS 6 update.

Before iOS 6, users would have to set one generic signature and then add any extra information as they were sending the e-mail. Not anymore.

To set up your e-mail signatures, launch the Settings app and then select Mail, Contacts, Calendars. Scroll down until you find the Signature option and tap on it. You'll be presented with the option to set one e-mail address for all accounts, or to set a signature … Read more