It's been a long week here at iDB, what with Apple's big Mac event and all. So we're ready to kick back and relax this weekend with some new apps and games. The latest edition of our Apps of the Week roundup includes an app that enables Siri to read you tweets, and an image editor that adds clowns to your photos. And as always, we've selected a few new games for you to check out!
Apple is offering a new promotional tool geared towards app developers, now allowing the distribution of promo codes for early access to in-app purchases by means of iTunes Connect.
As we were watching a live-stream of yesterday's “Hello again” Mac event, our own Sébastien told the rest of the team via Slack that, in his mind, the 1Password + Touch ID + MacBook Pro combination would make a lot of sense. And indeed it would.
Less than 24 hours later, 1Password developer AgileBits has officially confirmed in a blog post that they're hard at work implementing support for Touch ID via the new MacBook Pro's Touch Bar to let users protect the app with their fingerprint.
Nilay Patel, Editor-in-chief of The Verge, has confirmed with Apple that the company has officially exited the standalone display business, dashing any hope that we might see a standalone Apple-branded 5K Thunderbolt Display. If you own a Thunderbolt Display, don't hope for a Retina-enabled upgrade.
Responding to Jason Snell's notes on the new MacBook Pro over at Six Colors, Patel wrote on Twitter that “Apple told me it's out of standalone display biz.”
I've had a blast configuring the new MacBook Pro in Apple's online store and a lack of 32GB RAM upgrade option immediately jumped out at me. Thirteen-inch Pros include 8GB RAM while the faster and pricier fifteen-inch machines double that to to sixteen gigabytes.
According to Apple, the new MacBook Pro cannot be configured with 32 gigabytes of RAM because doubling the memory would have a negative impact on battery life.
If early impressions are an indication, the Touch Bar on the new MacBook Pro is definitely not a gimmick. The time-saving feature lets you accomplish common tasks faster without needing to memorize a bunch of app-specific keyboard shortcuts.
Instead or remembering a shortcut or wasting time finding it in the menus, you just touch one of the system-wide or app-specific icons that are displayed on the Touch Bar.
For the hardware geeks among us, the more interesting aspect of the Touch Bar is the Apple-designed silicon behind it, dubbed the T1. As developer Steven Troughton-Smith has discovered, the Touch Bar is actually a mini Apple Watch.
The Apple Watch Nike+ is available as of yesterday and our resident video editor Andrew O'Hara just published a video showing off its design and features. As we mentioned many times before, the Apple Watch Nike+ is literally the Apple Watch Series 2 with some exclusive features.
Now, exclusivity comes in the form of unique Nike-inspired bands and Nike-themed watch faces and complications that are not available on regular Series 2 devices. Here's our hands-on with the watch faces and complications that Nike and Apple jointly designed for the Apple Watch Nike+ edition.
The Nike+ edition of the Apple Watch Series 2 went on sale yesterday and we have managed to put our hands on one. The Apple Watch Nike+ includes all of the hardware features of the Apple Watch Series 2 like a lot brighter screen, a faster CPU/GPU, built-in GPS and better waterproofing with swim tracking.
What you won't get with the regular Apple Watch Series 2 devices that the Nike+ edition provides are perks like exclusive bands, watch faces and complications, plus the preloaded Nike+ Run Club app and more.
Apple yesterday unveiled the new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, a completely redesigned, thinner machine that shifts away from traditional computer ports in place of Thunderbolt 3 and replaces the function key row of the keyboard with a new versatile Touch Bar that dynamically changes based on the app you're in.
So that might raise the question: what happens when you boot into Windows on your MacBook Pro with Bootcamp?
Going into Apple’s “Hello Again” keynote on Thursday, speculation was rife with regard to how many new machines and product lines Apple would lift the veil on. The MacBook Pro seemed the safest bet, rightly so as it would turn out, but talk of a MacBook Air refresh or MacBook larger than 12-inch persisted until the very moment Tim Cook took the stage.
Fast forward the 80-minute short event and some of the MacBook Air hopeful watching, especially those on older machines clamouring for an overdue upgrade, will have found themselves slumped down in frustration on their sofa. Phil Schiller had just performed the precarious (and telling) balancing act of dismantling the MacBook Air’s right to exist live on stage, but bizarrely enough not without praising its virtues at the same time and throwing a lifeline to its large user base.
Irrespective of the kind words spoken and regardless of the promise to keep around the model Apple once used to proudly parade with the aid of an envelope, what really mattered was what Schiller didn’t directly say: the future of the MacBook Air looks bleak. Could there be a reason to buy one now anyway?
The Walking Dead has made its much anticipated return last Sunday. Without spoiling the smashing opening episode too much, it is safe to say that some new or undecided viewers are likely to have been reeled back into Robert Kirman’s post apocalyptic world. Heading into its seventh year on AMC, The Walking Dead’s footprint has grown exponentially and also left its mark on Apple’s iTunes and App Store.
Assuming you too are back on board for Season 7, there are easily a dozen Walker-friendly apps on the App Store to help rekindle your passion for the Drama. But in a sea of official, unofficial, paid and free apps, where to start? We have taken the time to work over all of them and highlight the top 5 apps you may want to try to get hyped up for the new season.
Web browsers are invaluable tools, but to get to one on your iPhone or iPad, you first need to unlock your device.
That is, unless you’re using the new LockBrowser jailbreak tweak, which puts a full-blown web browser right on your Lock screen.