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Review: BatteryBox – a good charging solution for your MacBook?

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

I’ve been using Gbatteries’ BatteryBox ($219 on Amazon) portable MacBook-enabled battery charger for several months, and now I’d like to share my thoughts on the device.

The BatteryBox is a dense, yet small compact box that’s almost exactly as wide as of pack of playing cards, and about as tall as two and a half packs of playing cards.

Needless to say it’s a very small device, but it’s also extremely dense and a little awkward to travel with. It’s essentially like carrying around a power brick from your favorite game console in the mid-90’s.

The BatteryBox is dense because it packs in a whopping 60 Wh rechargeable li-ion battery. That’s a lot of juice, and as such, it can power a MacBook Air for 13 hours straight. As a user of a MacBook Pro, the amount of time I get from the BatteryBox is obviously reduced, but I still came away fairly impressed with the results.

The BatteryBox can also charge other items, like iPhone and iPads, via a standard USB connection. In fact, it can fully recharge an iPhone up to 11 times, which makes it great for traveling where you power outlet access may be limited.

But what makes the BatteryBox stand out is the fact that it can connect directly to a MacBook’s charging port via a specially designed connector. Since Apple owns the patents to MagSafe connectors, Gbatteries had to come up with a different method for connecting to the MacBook. The BatteryBox is the result of its efforts, and it works well from my experience.

If you’re a MacBook user who’s often on the go, should you consider supplementing your MacBook’s battery with a BatteryBox? Find out inside…

Apple Pay adds support for 18 new banks and credit unions

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

Apple on Tuesday added 18 new banks and credit unions to the growing list of Apple Pay-supporting issuers in the United States. With these additions, Apple Pay is now supported by more than 400 financial institutions nationwide.

Launched in October of last year, Apple Pay is a mobile payment service that allows users to pay for goods and services using iPhone or Apple Watch. It's accepted at hundreds of thousands of retailers and restaurants around the country.

Hacker adds custom watch face to the Apple Watch

Jeff Benjamin ∙ August 18, 2015

Hamza Sood, a well-known member of the jailbreak community who likes to dabble in code, just tweeted a video of an Apple Watch running a custom watch face. The video, which is 23 seconds long, shows a custom watch face with running on a stainless steel Apple Watch with Milanese loop. Check out the full video and tell us what you think.

The Spigen Nightstand S350 is my favorite Apple Watch charging dock

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated January 2, 2018

The Spigen Nightstand S350 is a new charging dock for Apple Watch that minimalists like me will surely appreciate. Its very small footprint and simple design make it the perfect nightstand accessory to charge your Apple Watch at night, while preventing to clutter the precious space of your bedside table.

Square Cash app updated to allow you to send money via Apple Watch

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 18, 2018

Square updated its Square Cash mobile app today, bringing the iOS client to version 2.8. The release brings about full support for the Apple Watch, allowing users to send money to your friends, family or anyone nearby with just a few simple taps.

For those unfamiliar with Square Cash, it's pitched as one of the easiest ways to send and receive money. It's free for consumers and setup only takes a minute to link up a credit or debit card. Plus, all transactions are protected by 128-bit encryption.

Study suggests that one in ten iOS users listens to Apple Music

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

Roughly one in ten iOS users is listening to Apple Music, according to a new research study conducted by MusicWatch. The company, which provides consumer research for the music industry, collected data from the surveys of 5,000 U.S. consumers, aged 13 and older.

According to the research, a little over three quarters (77%) of iOS users in the United States are aware of Apple Music. Only 11%, however, of the group surveyed said they are actually using the service, and 48% of those who have tried it out said they are no longer using it.

OS X El Capitan beta 5 now available to public beta testers

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 18, 2015

Precisely two weeks following the release of OS X El Capitan public beta 4 and about three weeks after it seeded OS X El Capitan beta 5 to its registered developers, Apple today rolled out a fifth beta of the forthcoming Mac operating system update to public beta testers.

People who are on the beta program can download the new release through the Updates tab on the Mac App Store.

Likely fake (or are they?) rose gold iPhone 6s photos are making the rounds

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 18, 2015

KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who is arguably the most reliable Apple analyst on the planet, predicted back in June that Apple's forthcoming 'iPhone 6s' and 'iPhone 6s Plus' refresh would introduce a new color option: rose gold.

No, not the full 18-karat rose gold body like the Apple Watch but rather a coat of paint, but still... A batch of images surfaced Tuesday on Chinese social media are now making the rounds, allegedly depicting an iPhone 6s in rose gold (or pink, depending on your sense of color).

Have a look and tell us what you think in the comments.

SwiftKey rolls out rich Emoji Insights in new update

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated March 19, 2019

Right on cue, makers of the popular SwiftKey software keyboard for iPhones, iPads and iPods today rolled out a new feature designed to provide a valuable insight into which emoji symbols you use the most as your unique writing style and the emoji you use more than other people.

The app will even tell you which US state most reflects your emoji use. Called Emoji Insights, the new typing statistics shows you detailed highlights of your emoji use.

Google rolls out Hangouts web app with chatting, free voice and video calling and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 18, 2015

Just like the recently introduced standalone Facebook Messenger web app, Google's Hangouts service now runs in a browser. Taking advantage of modern web technologies, the Hangouts desktop web app can now live inside Google's Chrome, Apple's Safari, Mozilla's Firefox and other modern browsers, no app install required whatsoever.

Try it out at hangouts.google.com and let us know what you think in the comments.

Popular Paper drawing app is ‘coming soon’ to iPhone, FiftyThree announces

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 18, 2015

FiftyThree, makers of the popular iPad drawing app Paper which supports a range of styli, on Tuesday teased a forthcoming Paper refresh that will bring full iPhone compatibility.

Paper for iPhone is “coming soon,” wrote developers on a newly published webpage where you can register your interest and sign up to be notified when the app hits the App Store.

Or, just follow iDownloadBlog as we'll be making sure to keep you in the loop.

Apple is still signing iOS 8.4…install it now or forever hold your peace

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

Apple is still signing iOS 8.4. That's not an anomaly, as Apple usually waits a while before it slams the door for good on older firmware. It's now been nearly a week since the exploit-killing iOS 8.4.1 was released, so time is definitely not on the side of those wishing to downgrade (or upgrade) to iOS 8.4 and enjoy a crisp new jailbreak.

We've emphasized this several times already, but now it's really serious and now it's really crunch time.

What should you do?