Following the initial wave of major Apple Watch reviews which hit the web earlier this morning, we're now being treated to first unboxing videos, starting with one posted by French website Metronews which depicts unboxing of the 42mm stainless steel Apple Watch model with Milanese Loop. We also have another one from Japan, with more to come throughout the day.
Apple is set to start taking pre-orders for its Watch this Friday ahead of the big April 24 reveal and first reviews of the wearable device are now available from big media and Apple's favorite bloggers.
The vast majority of reviewers praise the device's functionality, design and advanced software features.
However, the consensus out there seems to be that the Watch is not essential to one's life. This is actually a far better outcome compared to early reviews of the iPhone and iPad which blasted these devices as unnecessary, limited and unappealing.
Here are some choice quotes from Watch reviews.
Get your Macs ready for a major software refresh as Apple gears up to release the OS X Yosemite 10.10.3 software update with the long-awaited Photos for Mac app and other improvements.
Associated Press, which ran a review of Photos for Mac earlier this morning and first reported that the software update is due today, praised the software's professional-level and advanced fine-tuning tools such as granular color correction.
“Apple’s new Photos app for Mac computers, available Wednesday as a free software update, makes it easy to organize and edit your pictures,” the news organization wrote.
Photos appeared on Instagram Tuesday afternoon, offering what could be the first look at the packaging of the Apple Watch. Instagram user Jeremy Gan uploaded the images, first spotted by MacRumors, to the social network showing off the Watch's box.
Alongside Tuesday's launch of HBO's new standalone streaming service, HBO Now, Fast Company published a wide-ranging interview with the network's chief executive Richard Plepler. The piece offers a behind-the-scenes look at how Now came about, and more interesting to us, how Apple got involved.
As Plepler tells it, HBO had been working on a streaming service for a few years, with plans to launch in 2016. But due to increasing competition from Netflix, and a looming takeover bid from media mogul Rubert Murdoch, they decided to speed up the timetable. So he gave his old friend Jimmy Iovine a call.
French website Nowehereelse has posted alleged photos of the unannounced "iPad mini 4" chassis, packing a design that brings it closer to the iPad Air 2, after the iPad mini's humble refresh in the fall of 2014.
As previously announced at Apple's March 9 media event, HBO's online-only subscription services has just launched on Apple's $69 set-top box, the iPhone, iPad and on the web ahead of the series premiere of its hit show Game of Thrones on April 12.
The video subscription service will be available exclusively on the Apple TV and the iOS platform for a limited time. A free 30-day trial is available if you sign up in April, after which watching HBO NOW will set you back $14.99 each month.
When pre-orders for the Apple Watch kick off this Friday, April 10, making reservations for in-store pickup will be limited to one per customer through Apple's Reserve and Pickup service, MacRumors has learned from sources.
Would-be buyers in the United States, the United Kingdom and possibly in other launch countries will be required to present a valid government-issued photo ID upon pickup at the Apple Store where they placed their Apple Watch reservation, the publication reported Tuesday.
In an interesting break from the publicity Apple normally gets for free whenever customers line up outside its stores to be the first to get their hands on latest new gizmos, the company is now instructing its retail employees to suggest customers buy the Apple Watch and the new twelve-inch MacBook through the Online Apple Store.
According to an internal memo Apple's retail chief Angela Ahrendts sent to Apple Store employees entitled 'Get in line online', obtained by Business Insider, Apple suggests that “the days of waiting in line and crossing fingers for a product are over”.
While we're sure you Star Wars fans have every copy in your man cave, you'll soon be able to add the George Lucas-made films to your iTunes.
The makers of Star Wars announced on Monday the entire, six movie collection is coming to iTunes on Friday, April 10. The App Store on Twitter promoted the link, containing the ability to purchase each movie separately or as a collection when the content goes live in a few days.
Apple has quietly acquired Ottocat, reports TechCrunch, a little-known startup with some interesting search tech. The deal went down a few years ago—sometime in 2013—but its impact is still being felt today. The site believes the company's tech is behind the App Store's fairly new 'Explore' section.
There's little evidence of the acquisition, except for a patent granted to Apple that lists Ottocat co-founder Edwin Cooper as an inventor. The patent is titled "System and Method for Divisive Textual Clustering by Label Selection Using Variant-Weighted TFIDF," and clearly incorporates Ottocat's tech.
Tim Cook sent out a memo to all Apple employees today, pumping them up for their retail Apple Watch kickoff on Friday. While the device will not officially available until the 24th of this month, customers will be able to submit pre-orders and try on the wearable beginning on the 10th.
In the memo, obtained by 9to5Mac's Mark Gurman, Cook tells employees that tens of millions of people have watched their Apple Watch keynotes and developers have submitted over 1000 new apps and updates with support for the device. He also announces special employee pricing.