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iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus launch drives record accessory sales

Sébastien Page ∙ October 10, 2014

Records keep piling for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, which according to research firm NPD, were responsible for driving accessory sales in the US to new highs, reaching a quarter of a billion dollars in the two weeks that followed the launch of the devices:

U.S. mobile phone accessory sales reached record levels following the launch of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. Accessory sales for the two weeks after the launch were 43 percent higher than the two weeks prior, reaching $249 million, according to The NPD Group Weekly Tracking Service.

For more details, read the full press release here.

Swarm now lets you check in from your Lock screen with iOS 8 Notification Center widget

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 10, 2014

Swarm, a dedicated check-in app by Foursquare, has received a tremendously useful update Friday which makes it dead simple to check in to your favorite locations right from your Lock screen without even opening the app, thanks to a brand new Notification Center widget available on iOS 8 devices.

The Swarm widget in the 1.3 update also gives you an at-a-glance view of a few of your friends who are especially close, helping you get a sense of who’s around.

Apple said to remove Bose products from store shelves next week

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 10, 2014

Apple is reportedly on the verge of removing audio products and accessories by the audio equipment specialist Bose from both its store shelves in addition to the demo units as early as next week, MacRumors learned Friday from a source privy to the matter.

Although the report comes short on specifics, the decision may have something to do with Bose's patent infringement lawsuit against Beats. As you know, Apple purchased Beats Electronics and Beats Music for $3 billion earlier this year.

The development seemingly coincides with a new agreement Bose signed with the National Football League banning its players from wearing Beats headphones while on television.

Cinamatic gains iPhone 6 support, iOS 8 manual camera controls and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 10, 2014

Cinamatic, a nicely done and versatile video capture and editing app that Apple named its Free App of the Week back in July, on Friday received an update bringing the full range of manual camera controls available to third-party iPhone photography apps in iOS 8.

In addition to native support for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus display sizes, the new version soups up your device by enabling manual adjustment of the focus, exposure, white balance, shutter speed and ISO, while you're shooting video.

And if you own an iPhone 5s, 6 or 6 Plus, you'll enjoy Time-lapse capture at three, six and nine frames per second speeds and silky smooth slow-motion video at 120 and 240 frames per second. Jump past the break for additional enhancements.

Readability updated with iPhone 6 support and iOS 8 extension

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 30, 2018

Good news, Readability fans! Your favorite read-later service on Thursday received a refresh enabling native display support for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus so you can see more article contents with less scrolling.

This is a big deal for mobile apps that focus on content consumption: as you know, iOS 8 blows up non-optimized apps to fill the new screen sizes, resulting in fuzzy appearance and enlarged content as opposed to seeing more of it.

The app, available free of charge, has also been optimized for iOS 8 with the Share sheet extension and other features outlined below.

GT Advanced requests permission to shut down sapphire plant

Cody Lee ∙ October 10, 2014

Apple partner GT Advanced has asked the court's permission to "wind down" operations at its manufacturing plant, reports Recode. The news comes less than a year after GT announced its high-profile deal to make sapphire for Apple, and just a few days after it filed for bankruptcy.

On Monday, the company shocked investors by announcing that it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. It's believed that GT spent most of its cash trying to produce sapphire display covers in time for the iPhone 6, but fell short of expectations and lost out on the order.

Jony Ive talks Apple design process, copycats and more in new interview

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 18, 2018

Jony Ive, Apple's senior vice president of design, gave an onstage interview last night at Vanity Fair's New Establishment Summit in San Francisco. The executive was among several Silicon Valley elite to participate in the conference, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo, and Astro Teller from Google X.

Although Ive has participated in several interviews over the years, his appearance on stage is a rare one—rumor has it that he doesn't like speaking in front of large crowds. The discussion covered a number of interesting topics, including how Apple goes about designing its new products, life lessons from Steve Jobs, and more.

‘Jellies!’ goes free as Apple’s App of the Week

Cody Lee ∙ October 9, 2014

Apple this afternoon named popular color-matching puzzler 'Jellies!' its App of the Week for this week. This means that from now through next Thursday, you'll be able to pick up the title for free in the App Store—a $1 discount from its normal price tag.

In Jellies!, you join Bob the Fisherman as he makes his way through the ocean on a [fairly odd] mission to find his fingers that the wicked Jellies have apparently bitten off. Your goal in each level is to help him catch as many Jellies as possible in 60 seconds.

New report suggests Apple-GT Advanced deal fell apart over iPhone 6 displays

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 18, 2018

The deal between Apple and GT Advanced, which involved the former giving the latter a near-$600 million loan, fell apart over iPhone 6 displays, reports The Wall Street Journal. The outlet says Apple expected GT to produce sapphire for the displays of its new handsets, but it either wasn't tough enough or the yield was too low.

GT Advanced made the surprise announcement on Monday that it would be filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and it had its first hearing this afternoon. We expected the proceeding to offer a better explanation of what happened, but GT was granted a secrecy motion that closed the hearing and sealed all documents.

Apple seeds third OS X Yosemite GM candidate to developers

Cody Lee ∙ October 9, 2014

Apple has this afternoon seeded the third Golden Master candidate of OS X Yosemite. The update can be downloaded either through the Updates tab in the Mac App Store, or through Apple’s Mac Dev Center by registered developers.

This marks the eleventh beta of Yosemite as Apple prepares to officially release the software to the public later this month. Introduced in June, OS X Yosemite brings about new UI design and several other improvements for Macs.

San Francisco 49ers quarterback fined $10,000 for wearing Beats headphones at press conference

Sébastien Page ∙ October 9, 2014

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick has been fined $10,000 by the NFL for attending a press conference while sporting Beats headphones on Sunday, reports ESPN. The NFL, which entered an exclusive agreement with Bose last week, is contractually obligated to ban its players from wearing non-Bose headphones while on TV.

Kaepernick, who among many other NFL players has an endorsement deal with Beats, attended the press conference while wearing a pair of pink Beats headphones, likely in support of this month's breast cancer awareness.

Apple says U2 ‘Songs of Innocence’ album has been downloaded 26 million times

Cody Lee ∙ October 9, 2014

The controversial U2 album 'Songs of Innocence' has been downloaded nearly 30 million times since Apple announced it would be available to iTunes users for free last month. In a statement to Billboard on Thursday, senior VP Eddy Cue said that the album had racked up 26 million 'complete downloads' since its September 9 debut.

Cue adds that over 81 million Apple customers have experienced Songs of Innocence within the last month—a number that includes Beats Music, iTunes, and iTunes Radio streams. "To help put this into perspective," Cue says, "prior to this, a total of 14 million customers had purchased music from U2 since iTunes opened in 2003."