iPhone News

Apple brings entry-level 21.5-inch iMac down to just $1,099

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 18, 2014

Apple's online store went down briefly this morning as the company has refreshed its iMac family of all-in-one desktops. The baseline model now starts at $1,099, a full $200 cheaper over the previous model.

Only the entry-level 21.5-inch iMac has been refreshed with what's apparently a significant specs downgrade.

The $1,099 configuration comes with a low-end 1.4GHz dual-core Intel i5 processor with three megabytes of L3 cache, a 5,400rpm 500GB hard disk drive, 8GB of RAM and integrated Intel HD Graphics 5000...

How to enable Yosemite’s somewhat functional dark mode

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 17, 2014

There were lots of oohs and aahs in response to Apple's software engineering chief Craig Federighi showing off a new dark UI mode in OS X Yosemite at WWDC two weeks ago. It basically alters the appearance of the menus, sliders, buttons, windows and other UI elements.

The gorgeously subdued look is inspired by the dark appearance of Apple's pro software such as Aperture and Final Cut Pro. In fact, I like it so much that I enthusiastically tweeted right after the keynote that I was very much looking forward to using it on a permanent basis come this Fall.

However, dark mode was notably absent from the first beta of OS X 10.10 and is nowhere to be found in the just-released Beta 2. For a good reason, too, as it's unfinished and very much work in progress so not really ready for prime time yet.

If you're a type of person who can't wait to see it in action, you can enable Yosemite's dark UI using just a simple Terminal command...

Garmin launches Víago app with turn-by-turn navigation, lane assist, offline maps and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 27, 2018

GPS navigation giant Garmin has released a new consumer navigation app in the App Store which seeks to offer a reasonable tradeoff between basic features and more advanced stuff found in significantly more expensive navigation software for the iPhone.

Featuring the latest maps from the Nokia's Here service (formerly Navteq) licensed worldwide and costing 99 cents ($1.99 after July 13), Viago allows you to search addresses and points of interests anywhere in the world, with turn-by-turn navigation available within your region.

Advanced features such as landmark-based directions and active lane guidance that simplifies junction navigation are paid upgrades just a tap away.

Jump past the fold for the full reveal...

Snapchat rolls out new Our Story feature

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated March 18, 2016

Facebook has just rolled out its would-be Snapchat killer, but Snapchat is unfazed. In fact, after introducing a photo sharing feature called My Story earlier in the year, today the startup rolled out a similarly conceived Our Story feature for groups of people.

In a nutshell, Our Story uses your location to allow fellow Snapchatters who are at the same event location to contribute snaps to the same Story.

Whereas Our Story is for communal snap at events, My Story is still available when you and only you want to add multiple images to a single album, without other people contributing to it...

Facebook launches Slingshot, its would-be Snapchat killer

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 12, 2018

The social networking giant Facebook could be poised to take a significant chunk of the ephemeral messaging market with the formal release of Slingshot, its new and long-rumored iPhone application that just surfaced on the App Store after briefly appearing yesterday.

The free download offers features you'd normally associate with Snapchat, which has popularized the trend of so-called disappear apps where message and media exchanges between participants get automatically deleted after a predetermined period of time...

Out now: iOS 8 Beta 2, Yosemite Developer Preview 2, new Xcode and Apple TV software

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated June 11, 2025

Two weeks after releasing the first beta of iOS 8, Apple today seeded it developers with the second beta of both iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite.

The Yosemite Developer Preview 2 (Build 14A261i) for Macs and a pre-release version of iOS 8 Beta 2 (build 12A4297e) for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices are available for download through Apple's Dev Center.

The betas are available standalone or as over-the-air downloads via the Software Update mechanism...

Rumors: power draw issues plaguing iWatch, sapphire screen exclusive to 5.5″ iPhone 6

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 30, 2017

It was just yesterday that analyst Matt Margolis speculated that Apple and its manufacturing partner GT Advanced - which operates a sophisticated sapphire plant in Arizona - can produce enough sapphire glass for both iPhone 6 models and now comes word that's not really the case.

Taiwan's Economic Daily News is out with a report claiming that only the larger 5.5-inch iPhone 6 model incorporates a sapphire-strengthened screen as Apple and GT continue to cope with yield issues and production limitations. As for Apple's rumored iWatch, the paper says current prototypes of the wearable device are plagued with energy consumption issues related to its OLED screen...

iPhone 6 manufacturing mockup shows off Space Grey finish

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated August 29, 2016

Earlier this morning, we showed you new photos of a meticulously designed iPad Air 2 dummy unit with Touch ID incorporated into its Home button.

And now, a fresh batch of purported iPhone 6 manufacturing mockups has surfaced, depicting what a Space Gray variant of Apple's upcoming bigger and thinner iPhone model could look like.

Credited to sources in Japan and Korea, the images show the purported mockup next to an iPhone 5s and HTC's One smartphone...

FiftyThree teases Surface Pressure coming to Pencil this Fall with iOS 8

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 17, 2014

Fans of the awesome Paper drawing app for the iPad by FiftyThree and owners of the startup's companion Pencil stylus will no doubt be looking forward to upgrading to iOS 8 in order to take advantage of a new Surface Pressure feature coming to Pencil and Paper this Fall.

Billed as an industry-first feature, Surface Pressure taps iOS 8's variable touch sizing and leverages Pencil’s uniquely-designed tip to vary the pressure, thickness and width of lines you create, mimicking the behavior of real-life artistic drawing tools such as dry pastel chalks and charcoals...

Sunrise Calendar introduces apps: Evernote, Tripit, Songkick, Asana and Github

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 27, 2018

The popular and elegant replacement for the stock iOS Calendar app, Sunrise Calendar by Sunrise Atelier, Inc., just recently has expanded its reach and is now available across iOS and Android mobile platforms and on the web, with a consistent feature set and unified design.

Now available free of charge in the App Store, the new version 2.4 brings support for select third-party applications. That's right, you can now connect apps like Songkick, Evernote, Tripit, Github and Asana directly in Sunrise and make your life a little easier...

Meticulously designed dummy shows what the next iPad Air with Touch ID might look like

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 17, 2014

It doesn't take a genius to figure out that the next wave of iOS devices will adopt Apple's Touch ID fingerprint sensor across the board. As I recently reported, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo is adamant that Touch ID will be deployed across new iPhones and iPads coming later this year.

That the iOS 8 SDK which Apple unveiled earlier this month has opened up the sophisticated fingerprint scanner to third-party developers won't hurt either. Based on the rumor-mill talk and supposed specifications, a Japanese website has posted images of a next-generation iPad Air dummy unit with Touch ID...

Nest Protect smoke alarm returns on store shelves, now just $99

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 17, 2014

Nest Labs, which Google is acquiring for $3.2 billion in cash, has resumed sales of its Nest Protect after recalling about 40,000 units in April over a safety bug with the smoke and carbon monoxide detector's Protect Wave feature potentially preventing the alarm from sounding.

The company has now disabled Protect Wave on existing devices via a software update while re-releasing a slightly tweaked device at a discounted price of $99 each, down from the previous price of $129...