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Apple not going to unveil Retina MacBook Air this Thursday, reliable report claims

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated May 10, 2017

Monday, Re/code's well-informed John Paczkowski poured cold water on rumors calling for a Retina MacBook Air introduction at Apple's upcoming media event this Thursday. The Cupertino company is not going to unveil a new MacBook Air model with a twelve-inch Retina display at the event, Paczkowski has learned from plugged-in sources.

“Sources familiar with Apple’s plans tell me that the company’s latest reimagining of the ultralight laptop won’t be shown off at its Thursday event,” he said. As Paczkowski previously reported, the forthcoming press conference — which Apple teased under the 'It's been way too long' tagline — should be about new iPads, OS X Yosemite and “a new hi-res iMac”.

Jonathan Mann’s new song has lyrics written by an iPhone, using iOS 8’s autocomplete feature

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 27, 2016

Jonathan Mann, a musician, songwriter and unabashed Apple fan, has been churning out one song a day for nearly six years straight.

You may remember his iPhone Antenna song, posted to YouTube on the eve of the Antennagate presser.

Apple actually used it to open the event and Steve Jobs even danced to it. The song-a-day man also created a Siri duet not long after the iPhone 4s was released and another one to wish Siri a happy birthday.

He's back today with an entirely different experiment that somehow manages to sound catchy and listenable, which is remarkable given the meaningless lyrics were actually written by an iPhone using iOS 8's autocomplete function.

Poll: how often do you use Reachability?

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 13, 2018

So I've finally managed to snag an iPhone 6 Plus this past weekend and boy does that 5.5-inch form factor take some getting used to.

Just ahead of the official announcement I, along with many other bloggers, was wondering whether a bigger iPhone might force Apple to rather unceremoniously abandon its unwavering principle of one-handed use.

Fortunately, Apple's smart engineers soothed our collective fears by creating a smart software feature dubbed Reachability, which lets you double tap the Touch ID button to slide the top half of the screen to the bottom half so you can reach touch targets in iOS positioned at the top, like Safari's address bar.

I've been loving Reachability a lot and using it on a daily basis. How about you?

Apple announces iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus expansion in 36 more countries

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 13, 2014

Apple announced in a media release Monday that its iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus handsets are coming to an additional 36 countries and territories across Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and Africa by the end of October.

Both new handsets will be available in a total of 69 countries and territories by the end of the month as Apple reiterated it's self-imposed goal to deliver the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus in more than 115 countries by the end of the year, calling it “our fastest iPhone rollout ever”.

iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus pre-orders reportedly top 20 million in China

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 13, 2014

During a three-day period since the start of pre-orders for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus on October 10, Chinese carriers and e-commerce site Jingdong Mall (JD.com) have collected a combined total of an estimated 20 million units, according to a Tencent report [Google Translate] Monday relayed by Digitimes.

The country's three leading wireless operators — China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom — have collected about ten million pre-orders while Jingdong Mall processed about 9.5 million pre-orders, of which 4.66 million are for the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 model and 4.82 million are for the bigger 5.5-inch handset.

Impulse lets you control the music playing on your iPhone while it is locked

Alihassan Mahdi ∙ October 13, 2014

Impulse is a brand new jailbreak tweak dedicated to music lovers as it brings a new functionality many have been waiting for. Developed by Noeliel, Impulse allows users to control a currently playing song even when the device is locked. Yes, with Impulse, you no longer need to unlock your device just to control a song that is playing. Simply perform a gesture on the screen to perform a desired action.

Bring your iOS 7 keyboard to life with ColorfulKBD Pro

Alihassan Mahdi ∙ October 13, 2014

iOS 8 is no short of third-party keyboards and we've already reviewed the noteworthy ones that bring many new features and provide more customization options. If you ever wanted to gain more control over how the keyboard looks in iOS 7, you should probably check out a new jailbreak tweak known as ColofulKBD Pro by ipon3g.

As its name implies, the tweak allows you to colorize the stock keyboard and bring a new look to it. By now, you must be thinking how this tweak is different from the remaining ones on Cydia that also allow you to customize the color of the iOS 7 keyboard.

Apple retail employees begin training on Apple Pay as launch nears

Timothy Reavis ∙ Updated April 18, 2018

As Apple readies the launch of Apple Pay for later this month, it has initiated a mandatory, one hour training program for its retail employees and is coordinating with third-party retailers to ensure that stores will be able to complete transactions via Apple Pay starting on launch day.

Per a recent leak, screenshots indicate that Apple Pay establishment will be an option when setting up the rest of the device, and credit card details can be entered manually or scanned in with the device's camera. A new report by 9to5mac suggests that settings can be adjusted and additional credit cards can be added through an upcoming "Passbook & Apple Pay" tab in iOS's Settings app.

Whimsical colors for iPhone and iPad

Jim Gresham ∙ Updated April 18, 2018

As with any new iPhone launch involving a screen size change, new wallpapers are somewhat hard to find. In our effort to support your wallpaper creativity, the Wallpapers of the Week section is a promise to keep you looking fresh on a daily basis.

As there is no iOS 8 jailbreak in sight, changing your wallpaper is one of the ways to graphically change your device. I am anxiously awaiting the opportunity to more impressively change my UI, but in the meantime, the wallpaper rotation is as good as it gets.

The best apps for writing

Lory Gil ∙ Updated October 12, 2018

National Novel Writing Month (Nanowrimo) takes place every November. The goal is to write a 50,000-word novel between Nov. 1 and 30. That means, participants need to average about 1,667 words per day for 30 days straight. I tried it once. I made it to about 7,000 words and gave up. It’s harder than it sounds.

If you are preparing for this year’s Nanowrimo contest, or you are simply looking for some good apps to help increase your writing productivity, we’ve got a list of what we think are the best apps for writers. Check them out and let us know which one you think is the best.

Inferno 2 review: dual-stick arcade action at its finest

Lory Gil ∙ October 12, 2014

Creating a well made, action-packed twin-stick shooter game for iOS is not an easy task. It seems like most touchscreen dual-stick controllers are so bad that they basically ruin the gaming experience. The developers of Inferno 2 have mastered the dual-stick controller and managed to make a fun game at the same time. We’ve got a full review of Inferno 2 for you today.

Prompt 2 review: the best SSH client for iOS

Oliver Haslam ∙ Updated April 18, 2018

The iPad can't be used for real work, can it?

Even after all this time, there is still some debate about whether the iPad can be used as a real computer. I'd argue that even the iPhone can prevent me from having to pick up one of my Macs, especially now we have the larger screens courtesy of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.

To me though, it's not so much about the hardware, but rather the software that runs on it that will decide whether any iOS device is up to the task. The App Store is littered with word processors of all kinds, apps for shoving numbers into spreadsheets and even plenty of software that will help you give a presentation on a projector. That's all well and good, but for me real work starts with a command line and an FTP server. Thankfully, Panic has my back on both counts.

Both Transmit and Prompt have been born out of the hard work that goes on inside Panic, and the latter has received a hefty update very recently indeed. So hefty in fact that this new 2.0 version is a whole new app that requires purchasing all over again and at $9.99, it's not the cheapest app on the App Store.

But it is one of the best.