Apple

Nomad’s Wallet puts a full charge for your iPhone 6s in your wallet

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 3, 2015

Nomad today launched an interesting lifestyle accessory for your iPhone, dubbed the Wallet. It's literally a premium bifold leather wallet with an integrated 3.5-inch Lightning cable and a built-in 2,400mAh battery, enough to provide a full charge for your Lightning-based iPhone and then some more.

The wallet holds six credit or gift cards, cash, is made from Saffiano leather and is just 0.75 inch thick when closed. If you're a fan of real wallets, not those iPhone cases that double as wallets, you can pre-order Nomad's Wallet for $79.

Activision Blizzard is buying Candy Crush Saga maker King Digital for $5.9 billion

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 3, 2015

Renowned games publisher Activision Blizzard is purchasing King Digital, the maker of the popular Candy Crush Saga videogame series, in a transaction valued at a whooping $5.9 billion, the two companies announced Tuesday.

Activision, best-known for the World of Warcraft, Diablo and Call of Duty videogame series, said ABS Partners, a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, will acquire all of the outstanding shares of King for $18 in cash per share, for a total equity value of $5.9 billion.

Apple, Amazon, Google, PayPal and Intuit form coalition to promote financial technology

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated May 20, 2016

Silicon Valley giants Apple, Amazon, Google, PayPal and Intuit have formed a coalition to promote the benefits of financial technologies in order to help the U.S. government better understand these technologies and ensure greater innovation in financial services, Re/code reported Tuesday.

The initiative is called the Financial Innovation Now and aimed at accelerating the pace of change in financial services, according to the official website.

How to set up carrier billing as payment method for App Store, iTunes Store and iBooks Store

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 2, 2015

In October 2015, Apple began rolling out support for carrier billing on iTunes in select markets, starting with Germany. This feature joins the existing payment methods accepted on the App Store, iTunes Store and iBooks Store and permits customers to have apps and media bought through these content stores charged to their monthly mobile phone bill or deducted from their prepaid amount.

If your carrier supports it, you too can opt-in to pay for your iTunes Store, App Store, and iBooks Store purchases—and your Apple Music membership—through mobile phone billing.

In this tutorial, we're going to cover setting up mobile phone billing as your payment method in the iTunes Store, App Store or iBooks Store.

tvOS App Store is conveniently flagging gamepad-enabled apps

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 2, 2015

Unlike the regular App Store for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad application, a brand new tvOS App Store for Apple's latest fourth-generation Apple TV makes it easy to distinguish at-a-glance between games that offer support for 'Made for iOS' (MFi) gamepads and game controllers and those that don't.

As first observed by AppleInsider over the weekend, not only does the device's App Store storefront app clearly states whether or not a game supports dedicated MFi game controllers, but compatible controllers can be used to navigate across the entirety of tvOS.

Here are top free and paid Apple TV apps and games

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 16, 2018

Although Apple's charts inside the App Store for the new Apple TV are currently empty, developer Steve Troughton-Smith was able to sniff out which apps and games users have been downloading the most since the device's debut last week.

As you could imagine, games absolutely dominate the charts, yet another indication that the new set-top box is popular as a casual gaming device. Here's your list of top paid, free and grossing apps and games for the Apple TV 4, accompanied by a few interesting observations regarding app pricing and frame rates in popular games.

T-Mobile’s new 4G LTE CellSpot launches Wednesday, free for Simple Choice customers

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated September 6, 2017

Wireless carrier T-Mobile today introduced a new home device designed to provide a strong, reliable wireless 4G LTE signal for customers with or without an indoor cellular signal.

Dubbed the LTE CellSpot, the device requires availability of T-Mobile's wireless spectrum, but can also work in certain areas without cellular signal.

The CellSpot is launching Wednesday, November 4, and will be provided at no charge to T-Mobile's Simple Choice postpaid customers for as long as they’re with T-Mobile.

Secret Apple app lets you map out building interiors using your iPhone

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 4, 2018

Apple has a secret app in the App Store which allows some iPhone users to map the interior of a building using their handset. First discovered yesterday by developer Steve Troughton-Smith, an app called Indoor Survey has been available on the App Store since last week.

The software is currently hidden in the App Store and is not operational, suggesting that the official launch is around the corner.

Basically a funnel for Apple's MapsConnect website, the app appears to act as a crowdsourced Ground Truth service aimed at improving the accuracy of Apple Maps data when it comes to indoor maps.

WhatsApp rolls out responding to messages and calls directly from notifications to everyone

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 2, 2015

After testing out with a subset of its user base a new ability to quickly respond to incoming messages directly from the notification banner, Facebook-owned WhatsApp today began rolling out this feature to its massive 900+ million monthly active users. In addition, this edition of WhatsApp for iPhone also makes it easy to reply to incoming WhatsApp VoIP calls with a message, right from the call notification. Both features require Apple's latest mobile operating system.

Procreate gains support for iPad Pro, Apple Pencil features and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 2, 2015

Procreate by Savage Interactive, the popular sketching and painting app, was refreshed today in the App Store with more than a dozen new features, among them specific ones aimed at the iPad Pro and Apple Pencil which are scheduled to launch later this month.

Procreate 3, a free update for existing owners, now allows for up to 16K canvases on the iPad Pro, with its 128 brushes taking full advantage of pressure sensitivity, tilt detection and palm rejection provided by the Apple Pencil. All told, this edition of Procreate packs in over a hundred new features and refinements.

How to check the Wi-Fi signal strength on Apple TV

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated September 4, 2023

Wondering why your video pauses abruptly or streams in low quality? It's most likely because of a poor Wi-Fi connection, and you can be sure of it by seeing the signal strength of the connected Wi-Fi network on your Apple TV.

How to adjust the sensitivity of your Apple TV Remote

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated September 15, 2023

In this tutorial, we'll show you how to customize the Apple TV Siri Remote to your liking by adjusting the sensitivity of its Touch Surface or turning it off altogether.