Watch Apple’s cool new environment video: it’s all about iMessage

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 22, 2016

Apple yesterday published a cool new video on its YouTube channel that does a very good job explaining to the general public, in layman's terms, its renewable energy strides.

The 45-second clip is all about iMessage, Apple's own messaging service that's built right into the stock Messages application on iOS and OS X.

With an average of tens of billions of iMessages hitting Apple's data centers on any given day, the Cupertino firm wanted to make it clear that the impact on our environment is negligible because Apple's servers run on 100 percent renewable energy.

Read More

Upgrading your MacBook Air/Pro storage capacity with the OWC Aura Pro SSD

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated June 1, 2016

Other World Computing unveiled their Aura Pro PCI-e drop-in SSD upgrade kits last month for 2013 and later MacBook Pro with Retina display and MacBook Air model notebooks.

OWC's Aura Pro SSD storage upgrades start at $399.00 (introductory price) for a 480GB module and and go up in price from there.

Sure to be a popular seller for those that want to upgrade the on-board storage in their expensive Macs without buying an all-new Mac, we've decided to try it out and share with you exactly what we think about it.

Read More

iBooks Store and iTunes Movies shut down in China by state agency

Cody Lee ∙ April 21, 2016

Apple's iBooks Store and iTunes Movies have been shut down in China by a state agency, reports The New York Times. The outlet says the Chinese State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television was behind last week's mysterious outage.

The shutdown occurred just six months after the two services were made available in the country. An Apple spokesperson said in a statement that the company "hopes to make books and movies available again to our customers in China as soon as possible."

Read More

FBI paid more than $1.3 million for San Bernardino iPhone hack

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

FBI Director James Comey said on Thursday that the agency paid more to break into the San Bernardino shooter's iPhone than he'll make in the remaining 7+ years of his tenure. Reuters crunched the numbers, and that suggests that the FBI paid more than $1.3 million for the hack.

That seems like a lot of money for a tool that doesn't work on the iPhone 5s or newer, but  speaking at the Aspen Security Forum in London today, the Director said that he believes it was worth it. And of course the FBI will be able to use the tool in other case involving older iPhones.

Read More

Second betas of iOS 9.3.2 and OS X 10.11.5 now available to public testers

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

Apple today seeded the second betas of upcoming iOS and OS X updates to public testers. Folks in the Beta Software Program can now install iOS 9.3.2 via OTA on their iOS devices, and OS X 10.11.5 via the App Store Software Update mechanism.

These are the same betas that Apple pushed out to developers yesterday, along with updates for watchOS and tvOS. They arrive about a month after the public releases of iOS 9.3 and OS X 10.11.4, which brought about several user-facing changes.

Read More

Apple Store app gains 3D Touch support, now available in more countries

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

Apple on Thursday pushed out an update for its Apple Store iOS client, bringing the app to version 3.7. The update brings about new 3D Touch features on compatible devices, and makes the app available in new countries.

As for 3D Touch support, iPhone 6s users have long been able to utilize Quick Actions on the app icon, but now the Apple Store app supports Peek and Pop. So force-pressing on a link within the app now opens up previews.

Read More

Apple seeds tvOS 9.2.1 beta 2 to developers

Cody Lee ∙ April 21, 2016

Apple on Thursday released the second beta for tvOS 9.2.1 to developers. To update, you’ll have to connect your Apple TV 4 to a computer via a USB-C cable, and install the software through iTunes or Apple Configurator.

Todays release comes a month after Apple pushed out tvOS 9.2 to the public. That was a significant update, bringing about new user-facing features such as support for Home screen app folders and Bluetooth keyboards.

Read More

Insiders blame iCloud technical issues on ‘open conflict’ between Siri and cloud teams at Apple

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 21, 2016

A report Thursday published by the former Wall Street Journal reporter Jessica Lessin's outlet, The Information, paints a gloomy picture for Apple's efforts to move its cloud services 100 percent in-house. That process has been slowed by “political infighting” as the company's iCloud and Siri engineering teams are now “in open conflict”.

The infighting is so bad, according to sources with direct knowledge of the situation, that at least one key employee has already departed, “with more expected soon,” reads the full report behind a paywall.

Read More

Qualcomm is “assuming” that Apple will give LTE modem orders for iPhone 7 to rival Intel

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 21, 2016

Shares of Qualcomm have dropped two percent after CEO Steve Mollenkopf told analysts on an earnings call Wednesday that it may lose some of its “biggest customers” as they are going with a “second source,” Bloomberg reported.

The fabless chip maker's been Apple's exclusive supplier of LTE modems for over three years now.

That's about to change soon: Mollenkopf is now “assuming” that a major customer will give orders to a rival, indicating a potential loss of business for the company. Analysts said they think the customer is Apple and the rival is Intel.

Read More