Apple

Sega’s Football Manager Handheld 2015 hits iOS

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 30, 2018

Japanese games maker Sega on Thursday rolled out Football Manager Handheld 2015 to the App Store. Featuring improved look and feel, a brand new match engine, a Scouting Agency feature and new world rankings with dynamic league reputation, the latest installment in the award-winning Football Manager series lets smartphone and tablet gamers live out the dream of managing their favorite real-life club.

And with enhancements such as richer club stats and a Manager Achievements page to get a run-down on all trophies, awards and achievements won, Football Manager Handheld 2015 should be an insta-buy for anyone in the market for a football manager.

The iPhone and iPad download will set you back ten bucks a pop. Additional features such as challenges and an in-game editor are available through In-App Purchases.

Foxconn building $2.9 billion plant to churn out displays exclusively for Apple

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 20, 2014

Foxconn, the world's top contract manufacturer and Apple's favorite gadget assembly shop, is planning on burning NT$80 billion, or approximately $2.6 billion, on a brand new manufacturing facility in Taiwan that will produce displays exclusively for Apple, Bloomberg reported Thursday morning.

The plant will employ more than two-thousand workers and is being built after “an urgent request for exclusive capacity” from Apple, indicating that the iPhone maker is anticipating growing demand for its devices in the coming years.

Carousel by Dropbox gains native iPad UI, sharing to Instagram and WhatsApp and web app

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 29, 2018

Released in April of 2014, Carousel is a great app to enjoy all your photos stored in Dropbox, but I've always resented that it didn't have a native interface on the iPad. The Dropbox-owned software has received a refresh Thursday, at last adding the native interface on Apple's tablets.

In addition, Carousel now lets you share images from your Dropbox to Facebook-owner Instagram mobile photography service and WhatsApp mobile messaging platform. And as a nice bonus, the team has thrown in a compelling Carousel web app.

Carousel is available free in the App Store.

America First Credit Union’s Visa cards now accepted in Apple Pay

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 9, 2017

America First Credit Union said in a media release Thursday that cardholders can now use its America First Visa credit and debit cards with Apple Pay. In addition, as explained in a FAQ outlining the service, customers can also use their Visa Business credit and debit cards with Apple's mobile payment service.

Apple Pay is accepted at more than 220,000 retailers and does not require any special merchant equipment aside from a standard NFC-enabled terminal.

Download Things for iPhone and iPad, Apple’s latest Free App of the Week

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 12, 2018

Things for the iPhone and iPad, the popular task management application by Cultured Code, is now available at no cost in the App Store until next Thursday, courtesy of Apple's ongoing Free App of the Week promotion.

You're looking at a cool combined savings of $30 on both the iPhone and iPad edition of Things which normally sell for $9.99 and $19.99, respectively.

Things for Mac has received a nice discount to celebrate the promotion and can be now downloaded for $34.99 in the Mac App Store, 30 percent off its full price of $49.99.

Download Things for iPhone and iPad at no cost until next Thursday, November 28.

iPhone 6 Plus downsampling artifacts explained

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 4, 2017

With the iPhone 6 Plus, Apple took the unusual route of rendering apps at 3× scale into a backing store of 1,242-by-2,208 “logical” pixels which the GPU then scales down to the device's native full HD screen resolution of 1,920-by-1,080 pixels.

This is different from every other iOS device to date and required to simplify app development as developers must simply create two times crisper graphics assets for standard Retina screens and three times denser images to account for the new “Retina HD” screens of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.

On the downside, the system down samples everything by approximately 13 percent to the native resolution so some unwanted artifacts do appear which degrade image quality slightly in certain situations.

iPhone cover glass maker Corning unveils two times tougher Gorilla Glass 4

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 28, 2019

Corning, a company that supplies Apple and many other device vendors with its chemically strengthened glass, on Thursday announced the fourth-generation Gorilla Glass which it says has been designed to be up to two times tougher against drops on rough surfaces than “any competitive cover glass design now in the market.”

The announcement comes at an interesting time for Apple in light of its failed experiment with sapphire maker GT Advanced Technology which led to GT's unexpected bankruptcy and an unused $1 billion manufacturing facility in Mesa, Arizona.

Although the California firm planned on protecting the 4.7 and 5.5-inch screens on the latest iPhone 6 devices with ultra-thin sheets of sapphire, the plan was scrapped following GT's failed attempts to ramp up production and meet Apple's exacting standards in terms of volume and yields.

Apple adds new data providers to enhance Maps business listings

Cody Lee ∙ Updated October 3, 2016

Apple has added 10 new companies to the list of data providers for its Maps app, according to Apple Maps Marketing. In a post, first spotted by 9to5Mac, the site says it was given the information by the Cupertino company itself in response to an inquiry.

The inquiry was in regards to submitting one of its clients with a few hundred locations to Apple Maps Connect. Apple replied, saying it's currently only accepting submissions from businesses with 1,000+ locations, but it could reach out to several firms.

New ‘Sync Solver’ app sends Fitbit data to Apple’s Health app

Cody Lee ∙ November 19, 2014

In October, Fitbit announced that it had no plans of integrating its activity trackers or software with Apple's Health app. This means that if you have a Fitbit Flex or other device, the data it gathers will not be shared with Health, crippling its attempt to be your fitness data dashboard.

But a new app launched this week in the App Store that aims to change this. It's called Sync Solver, and it allows Fitbit wearers to track all of the important data collected by their wearables within the Health app, without ever having to use the standalone, dedicated Fitbit application.

Walmart Black Friday sales begin early with discounts on iPhone 6, iPad Air 2

Cody Lee ∙ November 19, 2014

Walmart on Wednesday announced that it is launching a number of its Black Friday sales a week early. In a press release, the company said that its 'Pre-Black Friday Event' will kick off at 8 a.m. on November 21, and give customers an early taste of its Black Friday prices.

A number of items are being discounted in the sale, including iPhones and iPads. Walmart will be offering 16GB iPhone 6 models for $179 (with two-year service agreement), along with a free $75 gift card, and 16GB Wi-Fi iPad Air 2 models for $489 with a $100 gift card.

Tapping iOS 8 Extensions to offload Apple Watch app processing to iPhone is a smart move

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 19, 2014

In conceiving a feasible solution to running third-party apps in the extremely constrained power environment of the Apple Watch, Apple has come up with a rather peculiar yet familiar idea.

Initially, any third-party app processing will be offloaded to an iPhone in your pocket until the Cupertino firm begins accepting fully native Watch apps late next year.

Such an approach leaves only the app's storyboards and user interface resources running directly on the Watch, with everything else happening on an iPhone.

The only exception that proves the rule are Apple's stock apps which get executed on the Watch itself. In addition to acting as a viewport for third-party apps running on na iPhone, the Watch also manages Notifications and Glances and performs other lightweight housekeeping operations that don't tax the battery much.

To accomplish this feat, Apple is leveraging App Extensions in iOS 8 to run third-party Watch apps in a split mode.

Apple partners with Rubicon Project to help sell, automate its iAd inventory

Jake Smith ∙ Updated April 18, 2018

Rubicon Project, a company that focuses on automating the buying and selling of advertising, has announced a partnership with Apple to help the Cupertino-based company move its iAd inventory. Apple hasn't officially commented on the matter, however speaking for the company Rubicon Project says "it had been selected by Apple to help power iAd’s adoption of automated advertising for Apple iAd’s 250,000+ mobile developers."