Concept: Apple’s rumored health/fitness band

There has been absolutely no shortage of downright silly iWatch concepts, with a few notable exceptions of compelling renderings doing their best to depict what an iWatch might - but probably never will - look like. The vast majority of the renderings are probably way off mark in their depictions of an Apple-branded wearable device.

But as Tim Cook has reportedly given the nod to Apple engineers to focus on health and fitness functions, it's becoming clear we could see a fitness band from Apple rather than an iWatch. This newest batch of renderings comes from the creative team of the British technology magazine called T3, which posted a nicely done smart bracelet concept dubbed the iBand...

Realmac adds iPad support to Clear for iPhone, migrates Clear+ users to Clear for free

Realmac Software has finally added native iPad support to its popular Clear to-do application for the iPhone and iPod touch. They're also moving customers from Clear+ back to Clear for free.

These changes are in response to user confusion amid complaints from people who were uncertain which version to buy, with some even mistakenly buying the iPhone edition when they really wanted the universal version that natively supports all form-factor iDevices.

Clear for iPhone with the newly added iPad support is now available in the App Store for $4.99. Clear+ remains a separate $4.99 download, though it's going to be offered free of charge for a limited time to allow Clear+ owners to migrate to Clear without being forced to buy the app twice...

Rumor: iPhone 6’s A8 chip won’t integrate LTE

Starting with the iPhone 5, Apple has switched to using a single-chip LTE module which, by the way, costs $10 more than the cellular module in the iPhone 4s.

There has been talk lately of Apple possibly adopting a tightly integrated solution that would combine both LTE modem and a main processor on a single A8 chip, akin to many Android devices.

According to a new report by Fudzilla, this won't happen in the next iPhone generation as Apple is once again looking to turn to its longtime supplier Qualcomm for dedicated LTE chips...

iOS 7.1 said to be launching ‘around March 15’ with improved device management

Apple has seeded 5 developer betas of iOS 7.1, and it's expected to push it to the public within the next month. It'll be the largest update to the mobile operating system since iOS 7 landed last fall, and will feature a number of improvements.

Now just what those will be, we don't know yet. We've seen minor performance and UI tweaks in the betas, but not much in the way of new features. A new report, however, says 7.1 could bring about new mobile device management tools...

Let’s Talk iOS 016: Joining the Pebble party

Episode 16: Cody buys a Pebble Smartwatch, new rumblings about Apple's upcoming iPad plans, how to play old-school NES games via mobile Safari, our thoughts on Microsoft Office for iPad, and we discuss some of the new apps we downloaded in the last week.

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Apple posts update for iTunes Connect web portal

Apple has posted an update for its iTunes Connect portal this evening. Developers use this portal to track and manager their App Store apps, and tonight's update has brought about a new Sales and Trends sections that allows them to better parse sales data.

The move should appease developers, who have long-complained that the iTunes Connect portal lacked useful reporting tools. In fact, many developers have forgone using iTunes Connect entirely for app figures, opting for other analytics services like App Annie...

How to get a semi-working Photo Booth port on the iPhone

Photo Booth—it's one of the iPad only apps that sort of gets lost in the shuffle when talking about stock apps. It's an app that people play with when they first get their iPad's only to never really touch it again. Despite that, there always seems to be a concerted effort amongst members of the jailbreak community to port Photo Booth to the iPhone.

Two years ago, Photo Booth was ported to the iPhone 4S with much fan fare. Today, it's been ported to iPhone's running iOS 7. The good news is that it more or less works like you'd expect. The bad news is that, at least in its current form, it's a buggy mess devoid of many of the effects found on the iPad version. Have a look at our video walkthrough past the break to see what I mean.

New ‘AirPlay Recorder’ Mac app lets you save songs from iTunes Radio

DoubleTwist, the maker of the popular doubleTwist Media Player and AirSync, the app that lets you wirelessly sync your iTunes data, has released a new app for the Mac today. It's called AirPlay Recorder, and it's designed to record audio using AirPlay.

The app first appeared on Android back in January, and it essentially tricks iTunes into thinking it is an AirPlay device so that it will start streaming music. From there it records audio—including that from Apple's recently launched iTunes Radio service...

Philips taking on Apple’s iBeacon tech with smart lights

Philips has officially joined the onslaught of competitors looking to go head-to-head with Apple's iBeacon geolocation technology. At a retailer in northern Germany, the company is testing out a lighting unit which includes a built-in beacon that can relay information to smartphones.

It works a lot like many of the iBeacon solutions we've seen thus far. When shoppers enter a store, opening a companion app on their smartphone reveals a map and their location, and from there, they can search for various product, get directions to them, and receive other information...

Apple seeds OS X 10.9.2 build 13C62 to developers

Apple has seeded the seventh OS X 10.9.2 beta to registered Mac developers this afternoon. The last few betas have each come about a week apart, but this one comes less than a week after beta 6.

The new build is available to all registered Mac developers through the Software Update tab in the Mac App Store, or as a full download via the Mac section of Apple’s online developer portal…

Huawei video teases new devices by slamming iPhone and Siri

Chinese handset vendor Huawei's video is teasing new smartphones, tablets and phablets coming. The clip has an iPhone owner conversing with Siri, Apple's digital personal assistant.

The narrator asks Siri about new things coming to Mobile World Congress this year, which runs February 24-27 in Barcelona, Spain. To this, Siri responds in a rather robotic, slow-talking voice that there will be “a new tablet with a beautiful slim design” with a “huge battery” that "gives you days of use," likely referring to new Huawei devices.

She also says: “One more thing: this device can even support the next generation LTE network.” Not sure about the 'even'. It's 2014 and LTE compatibility is hardly worth getting excited about in your talking points.

The video closes with the narrator asking, “Wow! What are they Fruit or Some Song?” Siri replies: “No. They are Huawei. It looks like Huawei is ready to amaze the world again”. I've included the video right after the break so give it a watch and meet us in comments...

BlackBerry diehards pan T-Mobile over iPhone offer

After T-Mobile CEO John Legere recently advised BlackBerry fans to switch to Apple's iPhone 5s, all hell broke loose as diehard fans deemed the offer insulting and took to social media to express their distaste for T-Mobile's sleezy direct marketing tactics.

The carrier invited customers via email to switch to an iPhone 5s for $0 down as a “great offer for BlackBerry customers” because the Apple handset has the right tools "to do more".

Judging by the amount and the intensity of backlash, it wasn't T-Mobile's finest moment: after all, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the struggling Canadian smartphone maker owns one of the most loyal and ardent following out there, the types of people who are especially sensitive to anything related to Apple...