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Cook to employees: take a Thanksgiving week off, you deserve it

Christian Zibreg ∙ September 30, 2013

"I realize many of you worked tirelessly to bring us this far. I know it required great personal sacrifice," wrote Apple's boss Tim Cook in an email to the company's employees before making a surprise announcement.

"In recognition of your incredible efforts and achievements, I’m happy to announce that we’re extending the Thanksgiving holiday this year," reads the memo.

Although the extended Thanksgiving holiday won't apply to Apple's retail and support army "so we can continue to serve our customers," the rest of Apple will shut down with pay on November 25, 26, and 27, Cook wrote. I've included the full contents of Cook's email to employees right below...

New M7 details reveal outstanding power efficiency

Christian Zibreg ∙ September 30, 2013

Apple has made quite a noise about its brand new chip, the M7 motion coprocessor designed to offload taking sensor measurements from the iPhone 5s's main A7 processor. Because the M7 requires at least one-sixth of the power versus the 64-bit A7 chip, it can log data from the accelerometer, gyroscope and compass sensors independently of the A7 package, thus allowing for substantial power savings.

The details of how this data is captured and what power savings developers can count on were kept to Apple's chest until the Argus app made headlines as the first fitness software optimized for the M7 silicon. Here are a few previously unknown details about Apple's motion coprocessor hardware...

New iPhones (again) available with in-store pickup

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated December 6, 2013

Exactly a week ago, Apple extended its Personal Pickup service to the new iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c, allowing customers to order their handset online for same-day delivery to one of Apple's retail outlets in the United States. Then the following day it pulled the in-store pickup for both new iPhones without an explanation, with anonymous sources telling one publication the company will reinstate the option today. Sure enough, both new handsets are now available with in-store pickup option...

Rdio promises to bring back Recommendations

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 13, 2018

As of recently, Rdio has been making a number of moves in a bid to fight off the Apple iTunes Radio threat. Just a few days ahead of Apple's September 10 iTunes Radio launch, Rdio unveiled a new ad-supported music service in partnership with radio operator Cumulus.

And back in August, the popular service gained such abilities as station tuning, improved search, Pandora-style personalized Stations and more.

Rdio's latest effort to re-introduce some of the original magic involves bringing back Recommendations, a feature popularized by the inaugural 1.0 version of Rdio...

TSMC could account for bulk of A8 production

Christian Zibreg ∙ September 30, 2013

The sometimes-reliable Taiwanese publication, DigiTimes, has been saying for years that Apple was shifting its chip manufacture away from Samsung and towards its rival, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC).

In its new report Monday, the trade publication now claims that TSMC will be responsible for the bulk of orders for Apple's next-generation processor, the A8 chip, with Samsung taking care of about one-third of orders...

Umano app reads you the news so you don’t have to

Lory Gil ∙ Updated January 23, 2018

Apps that read you the news are all the rage right now. Well, at least a few of them are raging hard in the App Store. Just a few days ago, we reviewed Uttr, which reads you the headlines of your favorite RSS feeds.

Umano is another news related app that reads to you. This one features real-life narrators. Sorry Siri, there’s a new voice in town…

Apple surpasses Coca-Cola to become world’s most valuable brand

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 14, 2018

Apple has overtaken Coca-Cola as the new most valuable brand in the world, according to a new report from brand consulting firm Interbrand. The move puts an end to the beverage company's 13-year reign as #1.

The firm calculates that the Apple brand is worth in upwards of $100 billion. And it says that its 'ethos' played a big factor in why the iPad-maker was able to beat out other tech companies like Google and Samsung...

New GBA emulator found in the App Store, get it while you can

Cody Lee ∙ Updated January 23, 2018

At any given time, there are dozens (if not hundreds) of apps floating around the App Store with built-in ROM emulators. These apps are disguised as calculators and sketch pads, but feature the hidden ability to play old-school games.

And everyone once in a while we find out the name of one of these apps, and how to activate its secret feature, before Apple has the chance to pull it. And that just so happens to be the case with this newly-posted app called Earthquake 7...

Some Verizon customers reportedly able to upgrade without losing unlimited data

Cody Lee ∙ September 29, 2013

Last summer, Verizon put an end to grandfathered unlimited data plans by forcing customers to move to one of their new Share Everything plans when they upgraded their smartphone at the subsidized price.

But within the last few days, several VZW customers have reported that they were able to upgrade to one of the new iPhone models either online or at a third-party retailer without losing their unlimited data...

Staples now carrying the iPad in the US

Cody Lee ∙ Updated March 15, 2018

As expected, Staples has begun offering the iPad in its United States stores this weekend. You can now purchase Apple's popular tablet from both the retailer's online store and select brick-and-mortar locations.

Now for most people, this doesn't hold much significance—it's not like it's hard to find an iPad these days. But for Apple, this means that its tablet is now available to Staples' collection of corporate accounts...

Wallpapers of the week: mixture flat and texture

Jim Gresham ∙ Updated April 14, 2018

Now that iOS 7 is released and we are all running our newest devices, the design is starting to settle with users, but, as always, one of the only ways to modify the look of iOS is changing the wallpaper. Many users jailbreak their devices simply to change the look and appeal. However, until there is an iOS 7 jailbreak, we will be stuck using wallpapers as our only source of personalization.

With help from the Wallpapers of the Week section, we hope to curate a place on iDB where users can find top tier designs with which to change their interface. Thanks to the layered design work, changing the wallpaper in iOS 7 does drastically change the color scheme, in comparison to iOS 6. The translucency allows the wallpaper to be visible through different app interfaces, thus creating a new experience...

Speed test comparison: iPhone 5S vs 5C vs 5 vs 4S vs 4 vs 3Gs vs 3G vs 2G

Sébastien Page ∙ September 29, 2013

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eSrdgTHhK0

This video compares the speed of every iPhone when performing common tasks such as powering off, booting up, and accessing websites via Mobile Safari. If you thought the iPhone 5S was going to be the fastest at everything, then you're up for a surprise.

Of course, this is not a life changing revelation, but it's still interesting to see how all these iPhones perform next to each other.