Category: News

Apple Pay is threatening to put mobile payments companies like Square and PayPal out of business when it launches next month, but according to Square co-founder Jack Dorsey, Apple Pay isn’t actually a threat to his company. Dorsey revealed yesterday…

Back in June I wrote about the Rachio Iro Smart Sprinkler Controller, a US$249/$299 (depending on number of zones) intelligent sprinkler controller with an accompanying app that allows amazing control over your yard irrigation. Iro adjusts to weather…

Bend-Gate is slowly taking over the Internet this morning as Apple fans discover the startling fact that when pressure is applied to an iPhone 6 or 6 Plus frame, it bends – just like every other smartphone ever made of…

If you’ve ever been included in a group text messaging thread that you had no intention on being a part of, you know how annoying it can be to have your iPhone (or iPad) chime repeatedly as new messages come in to the conversation you aren’t following. The longstanding strategy has been to just mute … Read More

Apple has started to run new TV advertisements for the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. The commercials feature the voices of late night TV personality Jimmy Fallon and popstar Justin Timberlake, who lightheartedly discuss a feature of the new phones. If you haven’t seen them air on TV yet, videos of the advertisements … Read More

The critics love the iPhone 6, but nature seems to be quite satisfied with the previous generation of Apple’s smartphone. As you can see in the video below, the iPhone is quite the popular venue for this crowd of leopard frogs who just can’t believe…

We first saw Orbotix’s Ollie ($100) by Sphero at CES 2014 and were immediately impressed. Unlike Sphero (review) and Sphero 2.0 (review), Ollie isn’t a robotic ball — it’s a quick little app-controlled robot with two wheels. Although it’s not waterproof like the prior Sphero balls, Ollie can reportedly move at speeds up to 14 mph, and Orbotix claims it can run for one hour of play on a full three-hour USB charge. The customizable Ollie connects…

Apple might be planning to unveil both its revamped music subscription service and its new branding alongside the upcoming 2015 Grammy Awards, reports Re/code, citing some “industry scuttlebutt.”When will Apple show off the new version of its subscript…

Apple appears to be quietly pulling back on its promise of 2014 availability for CarPlay technology, with an update to its CarPlay page now removing any indications of 2014 availability for specific models. Apple originally announced earlier this year that CarPlay would be “available in select cars shipping in 2014”, and several other manufacturers including Audi, Hyundai, and Volvo had originally indicated that they would be delivering…

Several MacRumors readers have reported cases of iPhone 6 Plus units actually bending while being carried in pockets, merely days after the device launched. One user reported discovering that his new iPhone 6 Plus had bent slightly after only about 18 hours of sitting in a front suit pocket. While the problem of iPhones bending slightly isn’t new, the much larger but thinner profile of the iPhone 6 Plus increases the likelihood of this occurring,…

Apple has added the FXNOW channel to Apple TV. It was reported in July that FXNOW would be arriving on Apple’s set-top box in the next 12 months — that time has already come. FXNOW is the on-demand service for FX, FXX, and FXM, and as such, the channel features a number of FX shows, and a surprising amount of popular movies, as well. Authentication of a cable subscription is required to access the content….

Apple today added the FXNOW channel to the Apple TV, providing users with content from the FXNOW network. Previously rumored in July, the new FXNOW channel is the on-demand portion of the FX, FXX, and FXM television channels, all of which are owned by the Fox Entertainment Group.

Rumors suggested the FXNOW Apple TV channel would include content from The Simpsons, branded Simpsons World, which includes all 552 episodes of The Simpsons. Early reports on the channel suggested users would be able to create playlists of episodes and share favorite scenes. Currently, however, the channel offers a variety of content from FX, including episodes of The Strain and Sons of Anarchy.

Like many cable-based channels on the Apple TV, much of the FXNOW content require cable authentication. Supported cable providers for the FXNOW channel include AT&T, Cablevision, Comcast, Cox, and Time-Warner.

Apple consolidated the lineup of CarPlay partners on its website Tuesday morning and left off mention of 2014 availability, leading some Apple fans to conclude that launch of the iOS-in-your-car functionality would be delayed. However, Cult of Mac has learned…

Having access to the internet is just about as necessary to us these days as eating and breathing fresh air. When we are away from home, we rely on our mobile data plans and, for our mobile computers, wi-fi to…

As it routinely does for new devices, IHS iSuppli has taken apart the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus in an effort to estimate Apple’s costs for the components included in the new devices, sharing the results with Re/code. According to IHS iSuppli’s teardowns, parts and labor costs for the iPhone 6 are estimated to begin at $200 for the 16 GB iPhone 6 model, giving Apple a roughly 69 percent gross profit margin on the devices.

That number of course does not take into account an array of other costs, from research and development to software to marketing and distribution, but it does offer an interesting glimpse at what goes into an iPhone.

The margins are in line with more recent iPhone models but higher than the earliest ones. The gross margin on the iPhone 5, released in 2012, and the iPhone 5s, released last year, were about 69 percent, teardown studies at the time of their release showed. On the lower-priced iPhone 5c, also released in 2012, the gross margin was closer to 68 percent. By comparison, the gross margin on the very first iPhone, released in 2007, was closer to 55 percent.

Apple does earn slightly higher margins on higher-capacity iPhone 6 models, as the 128 GB of storage is estimated to cost $47 more than the base 16 GB storage while the device retails for $200 more.

The iPhone 6 Plus is also a higher-margin item for Apple, with IHS iSuppli estimating the device costs just $16 more to produce than the corresponding iPhone 6 models, with roughly half of that difference coming from the display and the remainder presumably related to the rear camera module with optical image stabilization, a larger battery, and other minor differences.

Another interesting observation from IHS iSuppli is that Samsung does indeed remain involved in production of the main A-series processor for the iPhone. Early teardowns had shown the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus using A8 chips manufactured by TSMC for the first time, but IHS iSuppli says TSMC is providing 60 percent of A8 chips while Samsung is handling the remaining 40 percent.

Earlier this month, it was reported that Apple was preparing to seed carrier partners with iOS 8.0.1 even before the media event officially announcing launch dates for iOS 8 and the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. Details on the update were unknown at the time, b…