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Digital music download’s not dead: Beyoncé proves it

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

Beyoncé’s fifth self-named album was released as an iTunes-exclusive with absolutely no hype five days ago. Billboard said the album had sold 80,000 copies in just three hours on its first day of iTunes release. Three days in, the digital download pulled 828,773 downloads, Apple confirmed.

It's become the fastest selling album ever on iTunes, broke the US first-week album sales record and went straight to number one in 104 countries. Today, Apple and Columbia have confirmed that the album has passed one million iTunes downloads.

This could easily be a watershed moment for the slowing sales of digital music downloads, if you ask me. If anything, Beyoncé’s proves that album sales are not dead yet even though digital music sales were down four percent through Thanksgiving...

Researchers have found a way to discreetly activate Mac iSight cameras

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 18, 2016

Hackers have long had the ability to infiltrate a person's personal computer, and enable their webcam without their knowledge. We've been hearing horror stories about this for years, where users were covertly spied on through their PC's camera.

But Mac owners have always been led to believe that this can't happen with the iSight camera, because it's designed to always illuminate the adjacent green light every time it's active. Researchers have found a way, though, to get around this behavior...

Infuse gains more video formats for free users, variable speed scrubbing and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 23, 2018

FireCore's versatile iPhone and iPad media player, Infuse, recently received a massive version 2.0 update sporting iOS 7-friendly interface while going free for everyone, with a couple advanced features locked behind a Pro in-app purchase. In today's free update, Infuse 2.1 unlocks more video formats for free users while adding variable speed scrubbing option, support for an additional subtitle format, better translations and the usual assortment of bug fixes and performance improvements...

500px app updated with full iOS 7 support, new login screen and more

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 14, 2018

Good news for 500px users this afternoon. The popular photo sharing site has updated its iOS client with a handful of design and performance improvements, including some new iOS 7 UI tweaks and a new animated login screen.

The 500px app has been iOS 7-friendly since October, but today's update brings about full support for the new OS with things like beautiful blurred backgrounds, flattened icons, and more. The full 2.4 change log is up after the fold...

T-Mobile CEO teases ‘Uncarrier 4’ event, promises to eliminate a customer pain point

Cody Lee ∙ December 18, 2013

Get ready US carriers and subscribers, it looks like T-Mobile is about to introduce another game-changer. The company's outspoken CEO John Legere tweeted out this morning that it's time for them to 'eliminate another customer paint point.'

He followed the comment by teasing 'Uncarrier4,' which is believed to be an upcoming media event T-Mobile is planning to make some sort of announcement. In the past, the carrier has held 'Uncarrier' events to unveil things like its Jump plan...

Apple agrees to change Australian warranty policies after run-in with watchdog

Cody Lee ∙ December 18, 2013

Apple has come under fire again for its overseas warranty practices this week. The company is being forced to change its return and repair policies to fit under Australian consumer law after it was found to be lying to consumers about their entitled coverage.

Under ACL, warranties are expected to be kept in effect "for the amount of time that it is reasonable to expect, given the cost and quality of an item." So essentially, there's no set expiration date to them. But apparently, Apple has been telling folks differently...

Google pulls Glass iOS app because it ‘spilled the beans’ too soon

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 18, 2013

Google's official $1,500 Glass eyewear companion app for the iPhone, MyGlass, has been removed from the App Store shortly after it was released. But hold your horses, this particular app removal has nothing to do with Apple - the Internet giant itself asked the iPhone maker to pull the software because it got posted prematurely to begin with.

The app has “spilled the beans” too soon, Google said, confirming that the MyGlass app will re-surface on the App Store later this week.

Google has also released XE12, the latest Google Glass OS update that adds new apps from The Wall Street Journal and Weather Alerts, including the Upload to YouTube and Hangouts features...

Pebble Appstore is slated to launch early 2014

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 12, 2018

The Pebble smartwatch project has certainly hit the ground running since receiving funding via the crowd funding platform Kickstarter.

The regularly updated software has been improving the smartwatch's functionality as the company looks to secure its position before heavy-weights like Apple enter the category with their own products.

Aiming to secure its footing in the still nascent but fast-growing wearable technology industry, Pebble on Wednesday announced that an official Pebble appstore is coming early next year to give customers the official venue to download and install third-party smartwatch apps to their Pebble.

The store will launch with watchfaces and six app categories for Daily, Remotes, Sports & Fitness, Notifications, Tools & Utilities and Games. Like Apple, Pebble will feature a selection of the best/new apps on a per-category basis...

AAPL takes heat on missing China Mobile deal, talks still underway

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

The Wall Street Journal earlier this month asserted that China Mobile and Apple had finally cut a lucrative distribution agreement that would put the iconic smartphone on the world's largest mobile network with more than 759 million subscribers, or more than twice the U.S. population.

China Mobile Shanghai’s website has even offered iPhone 5s/5c pre-orders as the giant wireless operator is gearing up to launch its new 4G TD-LTE mobile network in the 1.33 billion people country, Apple's second-largest market by revenue.

But alas, the deal hasn't materialized although the WSJ story suggested that Apple and China Mobile would announce the iPhone agreement "around December 18".

With no deal in sight, shares of Apple dropped nearly two percent in early trading Wednesday, with the carrier confirming to Reuters that it's still in talks with Apple. And so the cat-and-mouse game continues...

The Walking Dead: The Game – Season 2 is now available on iOS and Mac

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 18, 2013

The Walking Dead: The Game – Season 2, the official sequel to 2012′s Game of the Year, has arrived and is now available your iPhone, iPod touch and iPad devices, as well as game consoles and old-school desktops running Microsoft Windows or OS X operating systems.

Based on Robert Kirkman's award-winning comic books, the game puts you in the shoes of Clementine, a young girl orphaned by the undead apocalypse.

It includes a host of new survivors and locations, with the decisions you made in Season One and in 400 Days affecting your story in Season Two...

AT&T’s LTE available in ten new markets

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 18, 2013

The second-largest United States wireless carrier, AT&T, which claims the title of the nation's fastest fourth-generation LTE network, today flipped the switch on LTE in more places. As of today, AT&T's LTE signal should start appearing on 4G-enabled devices for customers in Twin Falls, Burley, Kauai, Appleton, Oshkosh, Fond du Lac, Poplar Bluff, Durango and more.

Last month, AT&T lit up LTE in fourteen new markets in its bid to catch up to rival Verizon in terms of nationwide LTE coverage...

TSMC to account for bulk of 14nm Apple A9 chips in 2015, industry sources claim

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 18, 2013

After reporting that Apple supplier Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) will share next year's production of A8 chips with Samsung, the sometimes-reliable Taiwanese publication, DigiTimes, today said that the world's largest independent semiconductor foundry will account for more than half of total A9 chip output in 2015, with only one-third of chip manufacture to be handled by Samsung.

The South Korea-based Samsung up until this year used to exclusively produce Apple designed mobile processors for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad devices, but Apple's been looking to distance itself from the company in order to prevent Samsung engineers from getting an early glimpse into its upcoming chip tech...