Apple

Apple loses senior Maps engineer Chris Blumenberg for Uber

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 27, 2016

Apple's senior engineering manager with the Maps team is leaving the company for Uber, the popular ride-sharing service founded in 2009.

Chris Blumenberg, who long worked on Maps for iOS and OS X and managed Apple's Maps Apps and Frameworks teams, will be taking a position at Uber, according to a report by The Information.

The departure comes as Apple appears to be ramping up hiring to overhaul the Maps backend.

More importantly, this development reaches us amid talk of internal politics, personal issues and managerial incompetencies allegedly causing significant Maps delays, as evidenced by the lack of major iOS 8 Maps announcements at WWDC...

Apple drops Google Maps for own maps in a new beta of the Find My iPhone web app

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 27, 2016

It would seem that Google gave way to Apple Maps on the web in a new Find My iPhone beta, which was released yesterday alongside iOS 8 Beta 3 and the third OS X Yosemite Developer Preview.

At the time of this writing, the change appeared to affect Apple's Find My iPhone beta on the web, which has switched from Google Maps tiles to an Apple Maps backend. For those wondering, the native iOS app stopped using Google Maps in 2012...

Apple’s former Retail chief Ron Johnson was not a good student at Stanford

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 8, 2014

Apple's original Senior Vice President of Retail quit his job at Apple last year for a CEO position with J.C.Penney, only to be fired rather infamously after revenues dropped sharply following his attempts to apply sprinkles of Apple magic and overhaul the retailer's shopping experience.

Johnson recently participated in View From the Top Talk at Stanford Graduate School of Business and shared a few anecdotes from his time at Apple while revealing that he "was not a good student" at Stanford.

I've embedded the video right after the break...

Leaked SIM card tray indicates iPhone 6 will be available in Space Grey, Silver and Gold

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated June 16, 2016

If a claimed iPhone 6 SIM card tray is anything to go by, Apple's upcoming handset(s) will be offered in Space Grey, Silver and Gold finishes, just like the current iPhone 5s lineup. Sources on Tuesday posted new images that seemingly depict claimed iPhone 6 SIM card trays in three color options as well as purported power and volume flex cables.

For what it's worth, the layout of the power/volume flex cables matches up nicely with previous reports and leaks suggesting the sleep/wake button will be relocated to the side in order to make it easier to wake a 4.7 and 5.5-inch handset from sleep with one hand...

Readdle updates Documents with background music, e-book reader, iPhone add-ons and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 26, 2018

Back in February, Ukrainian developer Readdle gave its Documents for iOS app a thorough makeover, adding features like a much polished iPad interface with iOS 7-friendly styling, in-app integration with other Readdle apps, a brand new file manager and much more.

Available today, the free Readdle Documents 5.1 download expands on the app's features set with further improvements.

If you import audio files into Documents, the app now lets you play music in the background so you can, say, read a PDF document as the music plays. Speaking of PDFs, the new Documents at last includes a full-featured e-book reader...

Apple reaches deal to build third solar farm in North Carolina

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 17, 2018

The Hickory Daily Record is reporting that Apple has recached a deal with the city council of Claremont, North Carolina to purchase land for a new solar panel farm. This will be the company's third solar farm in the Maiden area.

According to the report, Apple will be annexing 100-acres for the new array and will be making an initial investment of $55 million. The solar farm will generate 17.5 megawatts of power for its massive North Carolina data center...

Apple celebrates diversity and equality in new ‘Pride’ video

Cody Lee ∙ July 7, 2014

At the end of June, San Francisco held its 44th annual Pride parade where people from all around the world marched to show their support of the LGBT community. Several tech companies, including Apple, participated in the event.

CEO Tim Cook, Environment Director Lisa Jackson and thousands of other employees were in attendance, and Apple tonight posted a video of the parade. Dubbed 'Pride,' the clip celebrates the iPad-maker's commitment to equality...

iOS 8 beta 3 enables M7 support and caffeine-tracking in Health app

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 17, 2018

As we continue to sift through the beta 3 of iOS 8, we've come across another notable change in the firmware. In today's update, Apple adds both Caffeine-tracking and M7-supported step-counting to the already feature-packed Health app.

Developers with the latest iOS 8 beta installed on their iPhone 5s will notice that they can now input their daily Caffeine intake. They can also now track their steps without a third party app or accessory using the 5s' built-in M7 processor...

T-Mobile’s back-to-school due Wednesday with $100 rebate on combined iPhone/iPad purchase

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 27, 2016

After taking a heat over the accusations by the United States Federal Trade Commission that it placed unauthorized charges on phone bills for years, T-Mobile is back in the news with some positive headlines.

As noted by the TMoNews blog, the Deutsche Telekom-owned carrier will soon start treating its customers to a $100 rebate when buying an iPhone and iPad together, as part of its back-to-school promotion that launches on July 9...

Major Target promo offers gift cards with select iPad, iPhone and iPod touch purchases

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated July 24, 2017

American retailing company Target has launched a new sale offering free gift cards with the purchase of an iPad Air, iPad mini with Retina display, iPhone 5s, iPhone 5c and the iPod touch media player. If you're in the market for an iPad Air or iPad mini with Retina display, the retailer will treat you to a $100 gift card.

Furthermore, Apple's latest iPhones are on sale, too, and now come with a $20 gift card. As for the iPod touch, buying a 32-gigabyte version will net you a $30 gift card...

EasyJet deploys iBeacon support to select airports

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 7, 2014

iBeacon, an indoor micro-positioning service by Apple, is among the technologies in their ascendancy. Like Passsbook, iBeacons are being slowly but surely rolled out by the ever-growing number of retailers, merchants, theme parks, sporting venues, festivals and so forth.

A number of capable turnkey systems for easy iBeacon deployment exist today and the tiny transmitters are dirt cheap, removing an important barrier to iBeacon adoption.

You can now put European airline easyJet on your list of iBeacon-friendly businesses.

The British airline carrier based at London Luton Airport is operating domestic and international scheduled services on over 600 routes in 32 countries and now customers can download its freshly-updated iPhone app and opt in to receive in-app iBeacon notifications at select locations “to enhance the in airport experience”...

WSJ: iWatch due in Fall, Tim Cook actively looking to add fresh faces to Apple’s board

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated April 18, 2016

Tim Cook's recasting of Apple is in full bloom as the CEO pushes executives to be more collaborative while broadening the firm's legendary laser focus, as per a new report by The Wall Street Journal. The story also mentions that Cook is very much looking to add new directors to Apple's eight-person board.

That's hardly a surprise given that six board members are aged 63 or older. It's also worth mentioning that Cook has inherited the board from Apple's late co-founder Steve Jobs so these people may not be necessarily 100 percent loyal to Cook in the long run.

Moreover, people familiar with the Apple's plans told WSJ that the firm will introduce its rumored iWatch with "advanced sensors to track a user’s fitness and health" alongside new iPhones in the Fall, matching up with previous reports...