Guide to Mac, iPod, iPad and iPhone news and reviews
Apple has just released OS X Yosemite GM candidate to developers. The Golden master candidate comes just two weeks after releasing OS X Yosemite Developer Preview 8.
Apple unveiled OS X Yosemite at WWDC 2014 Keynote. It includes new features and improvements such as improved Notification Center, new iCloud Drive integration, Mail Drop and lots more.
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Apple has announced it is holding its earnings call for company results in fiscal Q4 (covering July, August and September) on October 20th. Following tradition, Apple will announce earnings in a press release about half an hour before the earnings call at 2PM PST. Apple’s earnings for fiscal Q4 will include the first wave of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus […]
The good folks at Pebble today are kicking things up a notch with a new software update that allows for full activity tracking and sleep monitoring for all Pebble watches. No longer will you need your Pebble on one wrist and a fitness band on the other — Pebble now does it all. Today, Pebble is announcing new health and fitness apps from Misfit, Jawbone, and Swim.com that allow you to take advantage of the new integrated features.
With these new apps, you’ll no longer need to use a fitness band in conjunction with your Pebble. Your Pebble does all of the activity tacking and can even work on its own without your phone. You can simply view your stats, or sync the data to the cloud when your Pebble is paired with your smartphone.
The updated Misfit app will now monitor your activity and sleep around the clock, the new Up watch face from Jawbone will show off your stats in style, and the new app from Swim.com allows you to measure paces, distance, times, strokes, and more.
In addition, Pebble and Pebble Steel prices are dropping $50. Pebble is now just $99 / €129 / £99 and Pebble Steel is $199 / €229 / £179. If you haven’t been able to justify picking up a Pebble or Pebble Steel before, now you can. You’ll also be able to do so in even more retail stores including Sam’s Club and Fry’s Electronics, and soon Sprint stores across the US. In the UK, Pebble devices will soon be heading to Dixons, O2, and Amazon.co.uk.
The latest software update is rolling out now, so be sure to check often and get to updating! The Pebble app is available free for iOS.
When we launched Pebble two and a half years ago, our mission was simple: build the most enjoyable, customizable, and versatile smartwatch on the market at an accessible price. The market has exploded since then, but our mission remains the same.
Last January at CES 2014, we unveiled Pebble Steel to critical acclaim. It was a resounding success and the catalyst for tremendous growth. Since then, we’ve opened the Pebble appstore, which boasts over 4,000 apps that have been downloaded five million times. Our open platform counts over 18,000 developers, from passionate hackers to partners like Mercedes-Benz, Pandora, the Weather Channel, and ESPN.
Today, we’re announcing a new area of growth for our ecosystem — health and fitness — and releasing a software update that enables non-stop activity tracking and sleep monitoring (thanks to Pebble’s class-leading multi-day battery life). This update lets Pebble users display their favorite watchface while tracking their activity in the background (full release notes below). At Pebble, we believe that providing consumers with a world-class experience means working with market-leading app partners. As such, we’re introducing new health and fitness apps from Misfit, Jawbone, and Swim.com that take full advantage of this new functionality.
The Misfit app for Pebble has been updated to enable continuous, round-the-clock activity tracking and sleep monitoring. Jawbone is launching its own activity tracking watchface for Pebble called UP which shows daily and weekly activity progress and automatically syncs with its new UP app for iOS (and coming to Android soon). Swim.com is the first watch app that allows users to measure distance, pace, times, strokes, and efficiency while swimming with their Pebble and automatically sync this data with their phone and the cloud when returning to the locker room (this is where Pebble’s 5 ATM water-resistance comes in handy).
Growth also means that we’re expanding Pebble’s retail presence in a significant way and making our watches even more accessible. Pebble is now available at Sam’s Club, Fry’s Electronics, and coming soon to Sprint stores across the US—joining Best Buy, Target, AT&T stores, and Amazon.com. Our watches will be rolling out in the UK at Dixons retail, O2, and Amazon.co.uk starting in October. We’re also entering new markets tomorrow in Benelux (MediaMarkt, Coolblue.nl, Wehkamp.nl, Bol.com), and Scandinavia (MediaMarkt, Teknikmagasinet, coolstuff.se/no/dk, Verkkokauppa.com, and more).
Right from the start, Pebble’s mission has been to make technology more accessible. Our growth lets us to take another step in that direction. To celebrate our success and spread the love, we’re making Pebble irresistible. Pebble is now $99 / €129 / £99 and Pebble Steel is now $199 / €229 / £179 everywhere. You’re very welcome.
Pebble Firmware 2.6 Release Notes
To update to the latest firmware:
Apple recently announced that it would make a patch to combat the dreaded “Shellshock” vulnerability when it announced that the “vast majority” of Mac users are safe, and it just arrived. It’s just for Mavericks, though. If you’re using Yosesmite, you …
Apple is supposedly working on a 12.9-inch iPad model. Rumors have been bubbling up recently that the larger sized tablet will be ready sometime in early 2015, will sport the, slightly better, A8X processor chip, and might even come with 2GB of RAM. Today’s rumor is that Samsung will be on deck to supply the […]
If you’re a MacBook user with a desktop set-up, Belkin’s new Thunderbolt 2 Express Dock HD might be just the salvation you’ve been looking for. Instead of sitting down and hooking up your MagSafe power adapter, an HDMI or Mini DisplayPort to your monitor, 3.5mm cable to your speakers, and filling up your two USB ports with more gadgets, you can scale back to just power and a single Thunderbolt cable. This isn’t Belkin’s first Thunderbolt dock, but it’s their first with blazing-fast Thunderbolt 2 built-in.
Here’s everything that the Belking Thunderbolt 2 Express Dock HD offers:
- Two Thunderbolt 2 Ports
- One HDMI Port
- Three USB 3.0 Ports + charging support
- One Audio Out Port
- One Audio Out Port with mic support
- One Gigabit Ethernet Port
- One AC/DC Power Input
And because it’s even-speedier Thunderbolt 2, the dock is capable of support an attached 4K display, and can daisy-chain four more Thunderbolt devices past that. Additionally, you can still hook up another display to that HDMI port.
So you can hook up two monitors, speakers, headphones, hard line internet, and multiple USB devices — all with one cable. Though that comes at a price — $299.99. You can buy the Belkin Thunderbolt 2 Express Dock HD now direct from Belkin, with availability from third-party retailers expected later in October.
Thunderbolt is awesome, wouldn’t you say?
Source: Belkin
Not everyone who waited in long lines outside Apple stores earlier this month was buying a new iPhone for themselves. Many of those buyers were plunking down cash and then hopping flights to China to resell the new devices. But after the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus were finally cleared for sale in China a month after launching, it looks the party’s over for black market sellers—though the launch will likely send Apple’s revenue soaring.
It’s tough to tell how many of the 10 million-plus iPhones Apple sold in three days were churned for a profit in China, but buyers were willing to pay $1,300 or much, much more for the device rather than go without. Now that China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has approved both iPhones, which go on sale Oct. 17, Chinese buyers who waited will pay significantly less—the iPhone 6 starts at 5288 yuan, or $860.57. Both phones will be available on all three of China’s major carriers after a deal Apple inked this year with China Mobile. Apple will start taking preorders Friday, Oct. 10.
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The Apple Watch is still months away but information is continuing to trickle out about its capabilities and technical components which point towards continued innovation and high quality design. The display design uses a plastic AMOLED design that is lighter, thinner, higher quality, but cost several times more than the standard glass LED displays. Analysis […]
Here’s a little iOS 8 tip for quickly searching sites you’ve already visited in Safari: while in the address bar, start typing the first four or five letters of a website, add a space, and then type in a search term. You’ll find that the first result in the suggestion list (below the URL […]
PDF Expert 5 is another of the notable iPad apps that has got an impressive update for iOS 8. In the app’s latest update to Version 5.2, it has added a Zoom Writing feature especially for the iPad that’s described like so: This is a great tool to write with precision. Essentially, it adds the […]
Our Tuesday Morning Report has some good news for Americans in big cities still in search of an iPhone 6: Apple has officially announced a release in China, which should help alleviate the number of devices being purchased here and sent to the mainland for resale at a hefty profit. There’s also news about the next three iOS 8 updates, and Parisians get the first public look at the forthcoming Apple Watch — so don’t waste a moment, dive right in!
It should be easier to buy an iPhone 6 next month, now that Apple announced Tuesday that the latest and greatest models will go on sale in China beginning Friday, October 17. At the US launch earlier this month, scores of people hired by Chinese gray marketers lined up to be the first to buy the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, only to wind up handing them off to be shipped back to China for sale at a steep profit — a practice that should be curtailed now that Apple is officially launching the handsets in that country.
Available from all three major carriers across mainland China (China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom), the new iPhone 6 models can be preordered starting Friday, October 10, with reservations for in-store pickup beginning the following week. Chinese iPhone 6 models include support for TD-LTE and FDD-LTE and start at a suggested retail price of 5,288 (RMB).
9to5Mac reported Monday that Apple engineers are already hard at work on the next three versions of iOS 8, with analytics logs revealing that the trio of updates appear to be in development simultaneously, something of a change of pace for Cupertino. The first such update is iOS 8.1, which arrived as a developer beta yesterday, while iOS 8.2 and iOS 8.3 appear timed for release sometime next year.
The report suggests Apple may attempt to unshackle major OS releases from new hardware launches, a practice that could have curtailed recent snafus such as the buggy iOS 8.0.1 update and the delay of HealthKit-compatible apps. The change in development could also be tied to new hardware: iOS 8.1 is widely expected to launch next month alongside the Apple Pay feature currently locked up inside new iPhone 6 models, and the Apple Watch has already been announced for early 2015.
In a separate report late Monday, 9to5Mac also confirmed the presence of an Apple Pay settings page hidden inside the new iOS 8.1 developer beta, but a tipster also claimed there’s a reference to Touch ID on the iPad as well: “Pay with iPad using Touch ID. With Apple Pay, you no longer need to type card numbers and shipping information.” That line of code apparently refers to making purchases online, however — there’s no indication Apple plans to include an NFC chip inside the next generation of iPads.
MacRumors reported Tuesday that the as-yet-unreleased Apple Watch is making its pubic debut today at a special event held during the Paris Fashion Show. The “one-day-only experience” at fashion boutique Colette features both 38mm and 42mm versions of the smartwatch from all three collections, although customers can only look at the devices for now. Starting at $349, Apple Watch is expected to be released in early 2015, although recent rumors claim Cupertino will be “lucky” to launch the device in time for Valentine’s Day on February 14.
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Community-powered navigation app Waze got a major update on Monday, which introduces a new feature for sharing info about destinations. Dubbed Places, drivers can share information about local businesses and residences with other Waze users, providing tips and photos of places they’ve visited.
With Places, users share photos and tips about locations with other drivers.
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As he concluded the inaugural iPad event back in January 2010, Steve Jobs summed up Apple’s mission in a single slide. Two street signs were labeled Technology and Liberal Arts, and he explained that Apple operates at the intersection. With Apple Watch, Apple seems to have added a new cross-street: fashion.
Where good looks have always been somewhat secondary to Apple devices usability, the company’s first wearable is all about style, so much so that for its first public appearance Apple chose one of the hippest boutiques in Paris during Fashion Week, not the Apple Store at Carrousel du Louvre.
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While the notoriously cost-conscious PC market hasn’t embraced Thunderbolt technology yet, you can’t buy a brand-new Mac from Apple without it having at least one Thunderbolt port. Thunderbolt’s versatility means that Apple can keep its computers slim and the ports to a minimum—with the right cables or adapters, a Thunderbolt port can connect devices that use FireWire 800, HDMI, Mini DisplayPort, and Ethernet.
The problem arises when you need all those connections at the same time. A versatile dock like Belkin’s just-announced Thunderbolt 2 Express Dock HD, while seemingly pricey at $300, could mean the difference between getting along with a MacBook Air (two USB ports and one Thunderbolt) or an iMac (four USB and two Thunderbolt), and having to step up to a Mac Pro, which has plenty of ports (four USB, six Thunderbolt 2) but also starts at $2999.
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Hot off the heels of the iOS 8.0.2 update, Apple has released the first developer beta of iOS 8.1. The beta build is number 12B401 and presumably focuses on bug fixes and feature improvements to the mobile operating system. iOS 8.1 beta 1 software is l…
We’ve heard a lot about the new iPhones and the upcoming iWatch over the last couple of weeks, but today it’s time for the iMac to shine. Specifically, blogger Jack March reported this morning that Apple plans to release a 27-inch Retina iMac with a resolution of 5120 x 2880, and it’s possible that we’ll see it as early as a media event next month.
The report appears to have some weight; other sources such as 9to5Mac and Re/code have heard similar things from their little birds in the Apple tree.
“A source familiar with Apple’s plans tells me that Apple is indeed planning to launch a Retina iMac at their next press event, however the 27″ Model will be the only model that gets this feature,” said March in his report. “The source says the new 27″ iMac will use a 5120 x 2880 panel as leaked in the OSX Yosemite code a few months ago. This resolution is double the current resolution of the 27″ iMac which is 2560 × 1440.”
The design of the unit is said to remain the same, although the new models will likely feature AMD graphics, marking a shift away from the Nvidia graphics cards found in current iMac models. The rig will also be powered by Intel’s Haswell processors once again; the new Broadwell processors probably won’t be ready until the next refresh or beyond.
And that, indeed, is one of the reason why the 21.5 inch display reportedly won’t feature a Retina screen. According to the report, Apple likely wants to wait until the new processors become available.
We’ll probably see the new iMac at Apple’s anticipated media event next month, when the company will probably reveal the units alongside alongside new iPads with Touch ID.
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