Tim Cook takes a stroll down the Foxconn production line, smartphones and feature phones meet halfway, and Spotify keeps pumping those tunes for free. The remainders for Thursday, March 29, 2012 are music to your ears.
Apple CEO visits Foxconn’s iPhone plant in China (Reuters)
What a coinkydink: Apple CEO Tim Cook visits a Foxconn factory not 24 hours before the Fair Labor Association releases its first report on worker conditions. Frankly, I’m just concerned: If Cook’s untucked shirt signaled the company unraveling, what the heck does it mean when he’s wearing a yellow jumpsuit?
Smartphones Account for Half of all Mobile Phones, Dominate New Phone Purchases in the US (Nielsen)
Did you know Americans love them some smartphones? It’s true! According to Nielsen’s latest survey numbers, more than half of U.S. subscribers now own smartphones. And while iOS’s 32 percent share of the smartphone market trails Android’s 48 percent, the iPhone’s showing gains at the expense of BlackBerry and others in the last three months, racking up 43 percent of sales. Must be all those Apple fanatics.
iPhone 4 Settlement (Apple’s iPhone 4 Settlement Website)
Not everybody is happy with their iPhone, though. If you were one of those customers who ran into antenna issues with your iPhone 4, but didn’t take advantage of Apple’s free case program, you can now take home $15 in cash as a result of a class action settlement. That’s like 15 iPhone apps right there!
Spotify Keeps the Free Music Party Going in the U.S. (AllThingsD)
Spotify has once again extended its free music streaming program, meaning that users who haven’t signed up for one of the service’s subscription programs won’t yet have to worry about running up against a 10-hour-a-month cap. In Europe, Spotify’s even removed the restriction on hearing a single song five times per month—which, honestly, is a limit that anyone who listens to the radio here in the U.S. would probably call a feature.
Product News:
iPhoto 9.2.3 – The latest update to Apple’s consumer-level photo program improves overall stability and fixes a crashing bug afflicting multi-user systems. Free.