The game Flappy Birds skyrocketed into the charts of app stores both on iOS and Android, and somehow created a fuzz for users everywhere. The game required you to simply tap on the screen to make the bird fly through obstacles but it is somehow met with frustration since most users can barely even get a score of one. The gameplay made it a trending topic on Twitter for days, along with everyone sharing their own scores and achievements.

Even with the game pulling in about $50,000 on ad revenues per day, its maker, Dong Nguyen has had enough of it. Mentioning that "he can't take [the game's popularity] it anymore," he pulled out the game from the Apple App Store and on Google Play, so if you haven't downloaded it, you're out of luck.

Now, one user on eBay has decided to sell a used iPhone 5S with the game pre-installed. The catch? He is selling it for $99,900 USD (367,000 AED). At the time of writing, the phone now has 74 bids and a quick look at the seller's profile shows he has gotten positive feedbacks previously.

eBay tells us though that it may not ship in the United Arab Emirates, in case you are interested.

 

Whereas it's traveled 11.6 billion miles to interstellar space, Voyager 1's software isn't as high-tech as you may believe. In detail, it has less than 40 KB of recollection. To put that in viewpoint, your 16 GB iPhone 5 has about 240,000 times the recollection of a Voyager spacecraft.

NASA developed Voyager in the 1970s in a pre-computer era when scientists had to rely solely on pencil, paper, chalkboards and their own mathematical abilities. While that appears unimaginable in a time when we contain decades' worth of computational power in our pouches, Voyager 1 is one of NASA's most thriving missions, and project researcher Edward Stone states he wouldn't have changed a thing.

"It's astonishing it's continued as long as it has," pebble notifies Mashable. "I don't know how we could have done things much better than they were finished. I mean things do wear out, and we've had to swap to some of our backup schemes, but luckily we have backup schemes. That was part of the wonderful conceive of Voyager."

That thriving conceive is due, in part, to Jupiter. The team took a nine-month detour to ascertain each circuit and part to ensure it could withstand the strong emission it would face in the planet's demanding natural environment.

"That was sort of our life test," Stone says. "Having survived Jupiter, in a certain sense, meant we had designed a spacecraft with a very robust answer to natural, slow degradation."

Thirty six years after launch, NASA has turned off some of Voyager 1's functions — some due to degradation, other ones easily because they're unusable in its present natural natural natural environment. For demonstration, the group turned off Voyager 1's camera — which broke the famous fair blue dot image — because it's too dark to arrest a photo in interstellar space.

Researchers still obtain faint (but exciting) facts and figures from Voyager 1 as it journeys through an unexplored district of space. The spacecraft communicates back to soil utilising a 22.4-Watt transmitter — the matching of a frig lightweight bulb. When those signals come to soil — which takes about 17 hours traveling at the pace of lightweightweight — they are about 0.2 billion-billionth of a Watt.

Although, when it comes to battery life, Voyager 1 has a leg up on the iPhone (and just about any other consumer electrical devices, for that matter). The spacecraft has a plutonium power provide that brags an 88-year half life, meaning we'll stay in feel for years.

"It's a very simple, long-lived source of power, but finally it will run out," pebble states. Unfortunately, Voyager 1 won't have a charger to plug in to when that time rolls around — between 2020 and 2025.

Apple Inc. has started an iPhone trade-in program in its stores, letting owners sell older handsets back to the company in exchange for credit toward a new model. 

Apple’s U.S. retail outlets are now accepting devices, said Amy Bessette, a spokeswoman for Apple. The initiative is starting just before the next iPhone’s debut on Sept. 10.

While Gazelle Inc. and wireless carriers such as Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc. already buy used handsets, this is the first program run by the iPhone maker at its stores. By buying old phones, they’re aiming to spur new device sales by helping cover the cost of buying the latest smartphone. Apple is teaming up with Brightstar Corp., a mobile-phone distributor, to run the operation, people with knowledge of the plans said in June.

“IPhones hold great value so Apple Retail Stores are launching a new program to assist customers who wish to bring in their previous-generation iPhone for reuse or recycling,” Bessette said. “In addition to helping support the environment, customers will be able to receive a credit for their returned phone that they can use toward the purchase of a new iPhone.”

The money paid back depends on the condition of the phone. An iPhone 5 with 64 gigabytes of memory can fetch $350 through Gazelle’s website, while an iPhone 3GS may receive only $10. The most that any iPhone will sell for at an Apple Store is $280. Previously Apple accepted trade-ins online via mail.

Without a subsidy from a carrier, an iPhone 5 costs $649 to $849 depending on the amount of memory, compared with $199 to $399 with a wireless contract.

iPhones collected through these programs are often refurbished and used as replacements for ones that break, or resold in emerging markets.

Apple sold 31.2 million units of the iPhone in the latest quarter, compared with 26 million a year earlier. Apple shares have declined 31 percent from a record in September, weighed down by investor concerns that the company’s era of rapid growth, fueled by the 2007 debut of the iPhone, may be over.

Created by Arthur Reis, a budding designer who aspires to join the ranks of Jony Ive and Shin Nishibori someday, 3D renderings of the iPhone 6 imagine a handset that looks largely identical to iPhone 5 (think: anodised aluminium casing with chamfered edges), but an impressive 20 per cent slimmer at just 6.1mm thick.

The handset also features a 12-megapixel camera with an ‘iSight Pro’ sensor boasting an f/1.8 aperture and a ‘Magic TrackPad’ that replaces the physical home button with a touch-sensitive equivalent.

As far as we’re concerned, this is one of the best iPhone concepts we’ve seen, principally because it doesn’t go crazy on novel or unrealistic features as most concepts do.

Apple is always trying to make its handsets slimmer, so a more slender iPhone is within the realms of possibility. And with Samsung upping the ante with a 13-megapixel camera on the freshly launched Galaxy S4, we can certainly expect the iPhone 6 to match its competition in the imaging stakes.

The iPhone 6 is hotly tipped to land this summer, possibly sometime in July. Although there’s still a chance that Apple might stick to an autumn release cycle for new iPhone launches.

What do you think of Reis’s iPhone 6 concept? Let us know in the comments section below.[via]

While the purported iPhone 5C, Apple's low-cost iPhone, has made several online appearances, including in some really high resolution pictures and videos that surfaced on the Internet, a website now claims to have published the official press shots of the phone.

Romania based publication, Mobilissimo.ro, claims that a Romanian retailer sent a couple of press shots of the iPhone 5C to the website.

The press photo features the White coloured variant of the iPhone 5C running iOS 7.The front panel is also in White unlike some previous leaks, while the back of the phone features the same plastic polycarbonate body panel that appeared in recent leaks, in glossy White, complete with a round camera lens and LED flash, Apple logo and iPhone branding.

The left-hand side of the phone features the same pill shaped volume rocker and mute keys that had appeared online, in a recent leak. These are also White in colour.

In addition to the press pictures, the site has also posted images of what the Romania-based dealer claims as iPhone 5C dummies placed in shop shelves till the actual phone arrives. The dummy features a White plastic power button. At the bottom of the dummy phone, there's a small hole for the second microphone, next to the 3.5mm headset jack port, two screw holes with the Lightning connector port at the centre, and four holes for the speaker towards bottom right. This is in line with the pictures that appeared recently on Sonny Dickson's website.

It's interesting to note that the low-cost iPhone has leaked several times but the pictures were of pre-production units and did not feature cut outs for the power and volume rocker keys.

Other alleged pictures of the iPhone 5C have revealed a plastic polycarbonate body back panel in White, Blue, Red, Yellow and Green colours. However, we've not heard much about the specifications of the phone till now.

Apple is expected to unveil the iPhone 5C along with the iPhone 5S, the next generation iPhone, on September 10 at an event in San Francisco. It's worth pointing out that Apple has not sent any invitations or announced an event officia. [via]

 

Apple’s iPhone5S and its cheaper version in plastic 5C are expected to be unveiled on September 10 but it might not see great levels of excitement and big crowds.

MSN Money said that the reason was a cold response can be attributed to the fact that the new iPhone is no longer a ‘cultural phenomenon’ as rivals like Samsung are making smartphones that are just as good, News.com.au reports.

iPhone 5S is expected to be of the same size as iPhone 5, which means it will still be smaller than the Samsung Galaxy S3 and S4.

MSN said that the new device may have a fingerprint reader and have ‘tweaks’ rather than real advancements and the biggest thing it will lack is major innovation, something for which the software giant was well known for during the Steve Jobs days, the report added.[via]

 IPhone Fingerprint Reader Talk Boosting Biometric Stocks. As the technology world buzzes with speculation that the next iPhone will have a fingerprint reader, makers of biometric security devices are bracing for a race among smartphone makers to adopt the technology.

Apple Inc. (AAPL) will unveil a new iPhone next month, according to a person familiar with the plans. ABI Research and KGI Securities Co. are among the industry watchers that say the device will include a fingerprint reader, a prediction bolstered by Apple’s $350 million purchase of fingerprint- sensor maker AuthenTec Inc. last year. 

“Apple is giving a strong indication that market leaders see biometrics as part of their roadmap,” said Thomas Marschall, chief executive officer of Precise Biometrics AB (PREC), a maker of authentication equipment such as fingerprint sensors in Lund, Sweden. “All competitors are looking for alternatives to match Apple -- it’s the kickoff of a rally in the industry.” 

Mobile-device makers are turning to biometrics to make smartphones more secure and quicker for making payments and accessing files, music and video through so-called cloud services. An Apple embrace of fingerprint sensors could give the technology a lift, much like the boost touch screens got after the iPhone’s introduction in 2007. Device makers started paying attention to biometrics, which can replace passwords and signatures, after the AuthenTec acquisition, Marschall said.

Shares of Precise Biometrics have almost doubled since Apple’s AuthenTec deal, on expectation than its technology will see more demand. The stock added 12 percent in Stockholm today for its biggest gain in almost a month. Fingerprint Cards AB (FINGB), another Swedish maker of biometric security solutions, has risen more than tenfold in the same period and surged 14 percent today. 

A fingerprint sensor would provide iPhone users a simpler way to access files via the Internet and make mobile purchases, strengthening Apple in its battle with devices using Google Inc.’s Android operating system, according to Kuo Mingchi, a KGI analyst in Taipei who covers Apple suppliers. An iPhone with the technology would provide “fresh momentum” for fingerprint-sensor suppliers, the analyst said in an Aug. 12 note. Apple declined to comment. 

Mobile payments are set to soar as more people transfer money and shop on their smartphones. Total transactions will rise to $721 billion by 2017 from $235 billion this year, according to researcher Gartner Inc. Smartphones are the biggest and fastest-growing part of the mobile-phone market.

Suppliers of secure identification cards with embedded chips are already benefiting from growing adoption of biometric authentication. Companies such as Gemalto NV (GTO), Morpho, and Oberthur Technologies have developed fingerprint, retina-scanning and facial recognition technologies for customers such as governments and banks. Now, they say, ID cards and passports with programmable chips that contain biometric information will increasingly be used for transactions such as paying subway fares or online shopping. 

“We used to make ID cards and passports,” said Morpho’s founder Bernard Didier, who is also a senior special adviser to the company’s parent, Paris-based aerospace, defense and security group Safran SA. (SAF) “Today we’re asking: Why not use your ID for transport, social security or even payments?” 

Morpho, which issues driver’s licenses for 42 U.S. states and counts governments from Albania to Chile among its clients, has helped customers catch criminals using tattoo recognition and move travelers through airports more quickly thanks to gates equipped with facial-recognition.

“Electronic passports are only the tip of the iceberg,” Olivier Piou, CEO of Gemalto, said in a June interview. “Any chip in an ID card comes loaded with secure software containing some credentials and some empty spots. We can fill those later with all sorts of new applications.” 

One Gemalto client, Oman, has loaded parking and speeding tickets as well as tax stamps onto its ID card. Gemalto has forecast sales at its security business, including identification, will grow 10 percent or more this year from 384 million euros ($511 million) in 2012, thanks to issuing secure documents and helping manage the relevant data with software. 

Shares of Amsterdam-based Gemalto have jumped 41 percent in the past year and advanced 5.2 percent today to the highest level since at least 2004. Morpho’s parent Safran has gained more than 50 percent and added 0.7 percent today. 

Still, even as some laptops and computer keyboards come with fingerprint sensors, biometric identification hasn’t found widespread consumer popularity. Apple, with its record of setting trends in technology, may change that, said Johan Carlstroem, CEO of Fingerprint Cards in Gothenburg, Sweden. 

“The use of biometrics in consumer electronics isn’t new,” he said. But if “Apple gets its fingerprint solution to work seamlessly and delivers a great user experience, it will mean a paradigm shift and a milestone for biometrics.” [via]

In an evident attempt to retain its market-dominating position in the fiercely competitive smartphone and tablet arena, tech giant Apple is reportedly preparing for a busy close to the ongoing year, with the launch of new iPhone and iPad models.

According to unidentified sources aware of the proceedings at Apple, a new iPhone model - and probably even a budget iPhone aimed at smartphone users in developing countries - will be unveiled by the company at a September 10 event.

Along with hinting at the possible introduction of a new iPhone model at the September event, two sources have also revealed that Apple will also launch new iPad models in the coming months. These models will include an iPad with a sleeker body design, as well as an iPad Mini with a high-resolution screen.

The speculated update of the iPhone and iPad models by Apple will give the company the ability to unveil a refreshed lineup of its best-selling products to consumers, ahead of the holiday shopping season this year.

Noting that the reported releases of new iPhone and iPad models come at a critical time for Apple, whose stock has plunged by one-third from a record high last September, analyst Brian Marshall - from the ISI Group in San Francisco - hinted at the dearth of new products from the company; and said: "To drive growth, you need to have that next iPhone and iPad refreshed."(via)