Apple

Review: ‘Quarter’ portable battery has MagSafe port

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated April 18, 2016

China-based Beaver Electronics Co. recently unveiled a reasonably priced portable juice pack with buttonless design that after 15 minute of fast-charging holds enough juice to fully recharge an iPhone 5s. In fact, the Quarter recharges any mobile device via USB.

Surprisingly, through its built-in MagSafe 2 port the Quarter charging its 5,000mAh internal battery via the MacBook's MagSafe wall charger takes under an hour. The company kindly provided me a review unit that I tested out over the past week, here're my impressions.

How to delete all your emails at once on iPhone or iPad

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 23, 2025

Learn how to quickly delete all emails at once from the Apple Mail app on iPhone and iPad and reach inbox zero in no time.

Apple adding ‘Shopping’ category to iOS App Store

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 6, 2015

Two days after it's updated the tvOS App Store on the new Apple TV with a Categories section, Apple is now rolling out a brand new section in the App Store for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad apps: Shopping.

TechCrunch is reporting today that in addition to listing apps with built-in support for its mobile payments service, Apple Pay, the Shopping section will include other shopping-themed apps with emphasis on product reviews, price comparisons, auctions and more.

Hack makes new Apple TV run native tvOS browser

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 6, 2015

A new hack by Dutch developer jvanakker makes the fourth-generation Apple TV run a native tvOS web browser despite the fact that Apple's operating system powering the set-top box lacks web browsing functionality.

The most interesting thing about this hack is its use of Apple's private API based on the UIWebView class, which the company typically provides to iPhone and iPad developers as an officially sanctioned solution for embedding web views inside apps.

Alien: Isolation – The Collection swarms its way into Mac App Store

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 6, 2015

In addition to releasing Tomb Raider: Anniversary in the Mac App Store this morning, Mac gaming specialist Feral Interactive also unleashed another premium title in the store, Alien: Isolation - The Collection, a survival horror game set fifteen years after Alien.

This gigantic 20.89-gigabyte download packs in all previously released downloadable content, including two stand-alone missions set aboard the Nostromo and five mission packs adding new maps, playable characters and challenges to the Survivor and Salvage modes.

iOS 9.2 to bring Arabic support for Siri

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated August 4, 2016

According to a new report by 9to5Mac, Apple’s upcoming iOS 9.2 software update will enable support for Arabic in Siri.

With last year’s iOS 8 update, Apple has paved the way for Siri in Arabic with Arabic support for iOS’s Dictation and QuickType keyboard features.

The full support for Arabic will allow local users not only to converse with Siri in Arabic but search for local places and businesses and more.

Instagram testing interactive shopping ads with Force Touch, In-App Purchases and Apple Pay

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 6, 2015

The leading photo sharing service Instagram, owned by Facebook, is testing various new ad formats—among them interactive ads with In-App Purchases and built-in support for Force Touch and Apple Pay.

As reported last evening by Digiday, citing an ad agency source familiar with the test, the company is hoping that new ad formats will help drive sales by selling items right from the Instagram feed, without the need to click off the app.

Tomb Raider: Anniversary hits Mac App Store

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 28, 2019

Tomb Raider: Anniversary, the grand reimagining of the original 1996 Tomb Raider video game for the new audience, is now available on the Mac as a $9.99 download in the Mac App Store. Created by Feral Interactive and Square Enix, the game retraces Lara Croft's original adventure in pursuit of the legendary Scion artifact.

Tomb Raider: Anniversary is powered by an enhanced graphics engine, dubbed Tomb Raider: Legend, with enhanced physics and animations delivering a fluid experience and bringing life to the game's massive environments on your Mac.

How to sort iOS notifications

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated April 14, 2017

iOS has always grouped alerts in the Notification Center in the order they were received. If you're overwhelmed with numerous notifications from apps and services on a daily basis, this can quickly clutter your view and push important notifications out of the view.

It is possible to change grouping of push alerts to have them compartmentalized according to their respective originating app and listed in the order you define.

In this tutorial, we'll detail how you can select, manage and adjust app grouping within the Notification Center on your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad.

Apple adds digital license plate engineer to Project Titan team

Cody Lee ∙ Updated January 28, 2016

Apple recently added digital license plate expert Rónán Ó Braonáin to its growing Project Titan team, reports Electrek.co. The site points to Braonáin's LinkedIn profile, which notes that he served as Director of Engineering at Reviver before becoming a "Secret Agent" working on special projects at Apple.

Before working at Reviver, a company that makes digital license plates, Braonáin wrote fleet management software to read data from electric vehicles for Vision Fleet. And prior to that, he worked at German auto manufacturer BMW as a software engineer on the team responsible for its connected car apps.

Review: take a Quick Look inside OS X installer packages with Suspicious Package for Mac

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 16, 2018

I download apps for my Mac from the Mac App Store whenever possible. Going through the Mac App Store gives me a piece of mind knowing Apple screens all submissions and keeps harmful software at bay.

But every once in a while, an app comes along and gets distributed outside the Mac App Store's safe haven. True, one can verify signing information for non-Mac App Store apps in Terminal, but it isn't for the faint-hearted.

That's precisely the kind of problem that a nifty little Mac app, called Suspicious Package, solves in one fell swoop.

Created by a company called Mothers Ruin Software, the free of charge app is actually a plug-in for the Mac's Quick Look feature, allowing you to easily and quickly inspect contents of a .PKG installer file after you've downloaded it but before it's launched.

Apple posts OS X 10.11.2 beta 2 to public beta testers

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 5, 2015

Less than 48 hours after seeding its developers with the second OS X 10.11.2 El Capitan beta, Apple today made OS X 10.11.2 beta 2 available to public beta testers.

People who are running a previous El Capitan beta on their Mac can apply the update through the Mac App Store's Purchased tab, or download the standalone installer through Apple's portal for developers. You must be a member of the Apple Beta Software Program to use this pre-release software.