News

It seems like every new Apple release comes with a new complaint: Antennagate, battery drain, over-heating, and so on... Fortunately for Apple fans, most of these bugs or defects are either fixed or eventually will just go away. However, Apple's iPhone 5 / iOS 6 headaches seem to be growing consistently, with no simple fixes in sight.

The biggest question is whether or not Apple will be able to meet the consumers' product demands this holiday season. According to Asian supply chain sources, iPad mini production is behind schedule, and now iPhone 5 production lines have been frozen by Foxconn after an employee strike.

China Labor Watch (via Engadget) reports that workers at Foxconn's Zhengzhou factory are striking over tougher demands from Apple. Three to four thousand workers stopped working to protest Apple's new iPhone 5 standards, which strictly requires less than a 0.02mm appearance defect on all phones. The new standards were implemented after scratched iPhone complaints started piling up.

Shipments of nanoSIM cards have begun rolling out to T-Mobile stores this weekend. The nanoSIMs can be used with unlocked iPhones to access T-Mobile's HSPA+ network. T-Mobile has been working hard to convince iPhone users to switch carriers by promising bigger savings and unlimited data plans.

T-Mobile also began offering free iPhone support to its customers in June, and announced it was building a iPhone-compatible 4G network in May. Unlike the other big U.S. carriers (AT&T, Verizon and Sprint) T-Mobile does not officially carry the iPhone, however, it is estimated over one million T-Mobile subscribers use the Apple phone on T-Mobile's network.

Move over Furby! Rovio Entertainment is preparing to announce what will surely be one of the hottest selling holiday toys this year. Rovio and Lucasfilm will unveil an Angry Birds / Star Wars toy line at 10:00AM ET in Times Square, New York City. An image of a Star Wars themed Angry Birds Jenga Death Star was leaked this weekend. Various sources have also reported that a Star Wars themed Angry Birds game for iOS and Android devices is in development.

Little is known about the game, but we do know the red bird will be Luke Skywalker. I assume the Angry Birds will be battling pigs dressed as Stormtroopers on planets like Tatooine and Hoth. Rovio will also be making the big announcement at the Toys R Us Times Square location, making me wonder if the toy lineup will be a Jeffrey the Giraffe exclusive?

The Angry Birds franchise is going to a galaxy far, far away. Rovio Entertainment hinted about the next Angry Birds tie-in on their official Tumblr page on Friday.

Welcome to the Angry Birds Tumblr page. Over the next few weeks we’ll have behind-the-scenes content, animations, comics, and much, much more. But what will this all be about exactly?! Here’s a clue…

Rovio will unveil the upcoming Star Wars crossover on October 8 at the Toys R Us Times Square location in New York City. It's unclear if Rovio is releasing an entire new Star Wars themed game or something else altogether.

Much like Apple's iOS 6 Maps app, the mobile payments Passbook app is a work in progress. iOS users will eventually be able to keep thousands of store coupons, boarding passes and store cards in one place. For example, Starbucks Card owners can now pay for food and beverages through the Passbook app.

Users can add their add their Starbucks Card to Passbook by accessing the “My Card” tab in the Starbucks application. The Starbucks app version 2.4 also allows users to check their balances, reload their cards, track their "My Starbucks Rewards" status and send eGifts to a friends.