US government bans Samsung’s Note 7 from all domestic flights

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and The Department of Transportation (DoT) have banned Samsung's recalled Note 7 smartphones from all domestic airline flights in the United States beginning Saturday, officials announced in an emergency order.

A few days ago, Samsung permanently stopped production of the troubled smartphone following incidents in which replacement devices it deemed safe exhibited the same fire-prone defect, even when powered down.

Early App Store Search Ads adopters seeing $0.40 CPA and 49.4 percent conversion

Announced in June of this year, first ads started cropping up in search results on the App Store beginning October 5. Aside from a few launch hiccups, App Store search advertisements seem to be performing pretty well in their early days.

A new study by mobile data intelligence firm Mobile Action—based on a random and anonymous sampling of 77 Search Ads campaigns—has determined that the average Conversion Rate (CR) is 49.4 percent while Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) sits around $0.40.

Search Ads, the survey concludes, is “the biggest opportunity in app marketing right now.”

Tim Cook meets Nintendo’s games designer Shigeru Miyamoto during Japan visit

Apple's boss Tim Cook met Nintendo’s legendary games designer Shigeru Miyamoto during a recent whirlwind tour of Japan.

As part of his itinerary, he also met with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and confirmed an upcoming technology center in Yokohama.

During the trip, Cook tweeted out a "good morning” message in Japanese and posted two images, one with Miyamoto and the other acknowledging that he had used Apple Pay to ride Japan's famous Yamanote transit line.

Instagram now has an app for Windows 10 tablets, but still not for the iPad

Popular photo-sharing service Instagram yesterday catered to the 'Other' category of mobile users by releasing an app for Windows 10 tablets. So what the heck is going on here? Last time I checked, Apple was still king of the hill in terms of tablet shipments and iOS (26 percent) was second only to Android (65 percent) in terms of tablet operating system share, while Windows tablets captured the remaining nine percent share.

Apple Stores begin removing security tethers from display iPhones

Apple continues perfecting retail experience for its customers as CNET reports today that some Apple Stores have begun to remove or have already removed security tethers from iPhone display models. Last year, Apple relegated iPods to side shelves and removed iPad smart signage.

According to CNET, Apple's flagship London Regent Street store re-opening this Saturday will feature Apple's next-generation store design and no iPhone security tethers.

Apple Watch Series 2 Nike+ edition is coming October 28

A special edition of the Apple Watch Series 2 that Apple has created in partnership with Nike, will be going on sale two weeks from today, on Friday, October 28, according to an updated Apple Watch Nike+ webpage first spotted by French blog WatchGeneration. It's what I wanted to hear as I'm in the market for the Nike+ edition of the new watch.

Apple has said that the $369 Apple Watch Series 2 Nike+ will have the same design, price and hardware features as the regular edition of the smartwatch, with the exception of special fluoroelastomer bands (available in a choice of four colors) that have perforations to reduce weight and improve ventilation.

GPS not working on your iPhone? Try this

Your iPhone’s GPS capabilities can be really useful, whether you’re using them to navigate to a special event, play Pokémon GO, or even to just grant your favorite apps your current location so they can do what they were made to do.

Of course, like all things, GPS can sometimes be flaky and it doesn’t always want to work right, causing headaches for you. Fortunately, there is something you can do about it. There are a number of troubleshooting steps you can take that might help your GPS work properly.

Tim Cook: augmented reality is ‘profound,’ will take time to get right

Apple CEO Tim Cook once again sings the praises of augmented reality in a new interview with BuzzFeed News. Cook tells the outlet that his team is "high on AR in the long run" and he believes the technology can be "huge."

His latest comments echo those from previous interviews, including one from August with The Washington Post. He said at that time that Apple is very bullish on AR and is doing a lot of things with the tech behind the curtain.

SIM-free iPhone 7 now available in Apple’s online store

Heads up to those of you who have been waiting for SIM-free iPhone 7 and 7 Plus models to come available. You can now buy the unlocked handsets on Apple's website, starting at $650 and $770, respectively.

While you could previously buy the iPhone 7 at full retail, it had to be tied to a carrier. These new models, as the name suggests, come without a SIM card, meaning they can be active with any carrier at a later time.

How to move your Health data from one iPhone to another

When developer Dan Loewenherz got his new iPhone 7 last month, he looked for a way to migrate his old iPhone's Health data into his new one. He eventually stumbled on a post I wrote about how to export and import your Health data last year, but he was surprised the process wasn't easier. So he decided to develop his own app. Enters Health Data Importer.