Macgasm

A new poll conducted by GoodMobilePhones.co.uk recently revealed that 22 percent of UK iPhone owners later “regretted” their purchase. The survey asked 1,694 Britons over 18 whether they were satisfied with Apple’s iPhone and roughly a quarter admitted that they had some regrets.

Of that 22 percent group, the top five reasons for feeling regret were:

1. Jealous of rival smartphones (43 percent)
2. Battery life (25 percent)
3. Lack of ‘buttons’ (13 percent)
4. Difficulty using emails (8 percent)
5. Unhappy with functionality (5 percent)

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Have you wondered how big Apple, the company, really is? I, too, have pondered the question from time to time. In fact, I did some research in the past, but didn’t get far. However, Visual.ly, a data visualization agency curated information until they had enough data to make a lovely infographic that points out some interesting facts. For example, did you know that Apple, Inc. is bigger than the entire U.S. pharmaceutical market? Not to mention the global sports market? Makes you wonder, what’s bigger than Apple?

Check out the infographic

It has begun! Apple has just seeded iOS 5.1 to developers. In addition, they have released Xcode 4.3 beta to developers, which is required for testing purposes. Apparently, this update is packed full of crucial stuff.

When talking about the iOS jailbreak scene, there is really only one team worth mentioning: The Chronic Dev Team. These are the folks behind GreenPois0n which shattered all the expectations that a 4.2.1 jailbreak was not even possible. Today, the team announces a new program that will allow anyone to forward their crash reports to Chronic, bypassing Apple altogether.

C-Dev Reporter simply bundles up and sends your crash reports to the Chronic Dev Team’s servers in a secure manner. Once there, they are gone through with what we can only imagine is a really elite fine tooth comb. The data harvested could possibly lead to the next exploit, which could end up as an untethered jailbreak for iOS5.

Aside from capturing these precious reports, the program prevents iTunes from sending copies to Apple, thus preventing patches to be worked up before the holes are even found.

P0sixninja, one of Chronic Dev Team’s most active members, posted the following on the team’s blog:

While still currently in beta, it’s been stated that within the next 24 hours we should see the GM release as well as a Windows equivalent.

Source: Redmond Pie

Highs of ten degrees today, showery rain forecast – the United Kingdom is hardly known for its tropical paradise credentials. The country’s definition of summer is a soggy barbeque on a damp beach, wrapped up in woolly jumpers and protected by a windbreaker. The sun is certainly an elusive figure.

Us Brits obsess about it. The weather’s the go-to topic when we meet someone new – “nice day we’re having today,” “unseasonably warm, no?” The moment the sun shows itself there’s cause for national celebration. The newspapers report on it, people start walking around half naked and the rest get enough of a taste to fly off to warmer climates for an extended session of heat.

With that context, it shouldn’t surprise you that a UK iOS developer is behind the aptly named Sunshine – Here comes the Sun!, a game all about the rejuvenating rays of Apollo.

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Ho ho ho! Apple is getting in the Christmas spirit by offering free shipping for all orders from the online Apple Store in the US until December 22nd. Sadly, things can’t be that simple across the globe. For example, Australia only gets free gift wrapping. Canada and the UK only get free shipping for today. However, lucky New Zealanders get free shipping until December 25th.

Amazon’s dominant position for online retail through aggressive pricing and Amazon Prime seems to be making other online storefronts (even factory-to-consumer situations like Apple) scramble to stay relevant. The question, “Why wouldn’t I just buy this from Amazon?” is on many, many minds this time of year, and that means deals-a-plenty for us.

Mind you, Apple offers free shipping on larger orders year round here in the United States (your milage may vary in your country of choice). This change only affects orders under $50 USD. Cables and accessories definitely fall in this window, so you might want to order that HDMI iPad adapter you’ve been eying.

Are you getting anything neat from the Apple store to celebrate the holidays? We’d like to know what neat presents you’re buying the Apple-fan in your life this year, so hit us up on Twitter: @macgasm.

What’s a flight attendant to do when an iPhone decides to ignore the no smoking signs and spark one mid-flight? On a flight from Lismore to Sydney, Australia, an iPhone spontaneously self-combusted, and began exhaling its dense smoke into the crowd. Get this, the phone even had a nice red ember, err, glow going on according to eye-witness accounts.

A press release from Regional Express indicates:

Luckily the almost-fire started once the plan had landed. Listen, iPhones need their nicotine fix too, even after their short flights. Let’s not judge, okay?

If you’ve read the Steve Jobs biography recently, you’re already aware of the Apple Founder story. Three signatures appeared on a contact that established Apple Computer Company: Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne. It was signed on April 1, 1976, and Apple Computers was officially a company with three co-founders. That contract is now going to auction at Sotheby’s and could fetch as much as $150,000.

From Bloomberg:

Sotheby’s expects that the contract will grab between $100,000 and $150,000 dollars. Something tells us that Jobs and Co. would never have predicted that the paper they signed would eventually fetch that kind of money.

Anyway, we won’t spoil any more of the founder story, just in case you haven’t read the book yet. But, this is the perfect opportunity to recommend picking up the book and giving it a read. It’s pretty great.