Apple

Apple unveils hardbound photo book chronicling 20 years of product designs

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated June 30, 2017

Apple today announced a hardbound photo book which tells the story of award-winning design at the company. Aptly titled “Designed by Apple in California,” the book is dedicated to the memory of Steve Jobs and covers 20 years of Apple’s design as expressed through hundreds of photographs of past and current product designs, from the 1998 iMac to the 2015 Apple Pencil. The photo book, which also documents the materials and techniques used by Jony Ive's design team, will be available beginning tomorrow for $199 or $299 from Apple.com and Apple retail stores.

Try out the new Touch Bar on any Mac with Touché

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated December 27, 2023

The Touch Bar is an exciting new feature that comes with the higher end MacBook Pro Apple unveiled last month, but you don't have to buy a new MacBook Pro to experiment with the Touch Bar resources that come baked into macOS on every Mac.

Last week we showed you a way to simulate the Touch Bar experience with a third-party app that utilizes the resources already in macOS, and now, another app called Touché is bringing a cleaner implementation of the Touch Bar simulator to all Macs.

Apple working on digital glasses for possible release in 2018

Cody Lee ∙ November 14, 2016

Apple is considering expanding into the digital glasses space, reports Bloomberg. Citing people familiar with the matter, the outlet says it's still the exploration phase, but if the project is given the green light, the glasses could launch as early as 2018.

The glasses would connect wirelessly to iPhones, and project images and other information into the wearer's field of vision. Sources say it's possible that they could utilize augmented reality, and it seems likely given Apple's public interest in the tech.

Reviewers weigh in on the new MacBook Pro…

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 14, 2016

As first customers begin to receive the new MacBook Pro, reviews of the long-expected hardware refresh to Apple's Pro notebook family hit the web this morning. Depending on the reviewer, the Touch Bar feature is either a gimmick or a productivity-boosting addition.

As for performance, the reviews are mixed: some people are saying that a lot faster SSD and RAM make the machine super snappy and others note Intel's Skylake chips barely push performance forward versus 2013 or later MacBook Pros.

Nonprofits in U.S. now able to accept donations using Apple Pay

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 14, 2016

Apple announced that nonprofit organizations in the United States are now able to accept donations using Apple Pay. In the past, Apple accepted various charity donations via iTunes billing. With support for Apple Pay, donors now have one more option when sending money to various charities. Apple says a total of 19 U.S. nonprofits will start accepting Apple Pay donations starting this morning.

Some of them include household names such as American Red Cross, (RED), Save the Children, UNICEF and World Wildlife Fund. Other nonprofits will be implementing Apple Pay support over the coming months.

Apple seeds third beta of iOS 10.2, macOS Sierra 10.12.2, and tvOS 10.1 to developers

Cody Lee ∙ November 14, 2016

Apple on Monday seeded the third beta of iOS 10.2 to developers. Folks enrolled in Apple’s developer program can install the update via the over-the-air mechanism in the Settings app, or from the dev center.

Today's release comes just one week after beta 2, which added Apple's new TV app. In fact, iOS 10.2 features a lot of new stuff including emoji, wallpapers, settings, and improvements related to Emergency SOS.

KGI (again) predicts iPhone demand has peaked for the year due to lackluster improvements

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 14, 2016

Shortly following the iPhone 7 launch in September 2016, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicted fewer iPhone 7 sales than the iPhone 6s garnered in 2015. In a new note issued to clients today, a copy of which was obtained by MacRumors, the analyst reiterated his belief that iPhone demand has peaked for the year due to a lack of significant improvements.

He is now forecasting a drop in unit shipments in November and December from five to fifteen percent based on supply checks and greater iPhone 7 stock availability.

Apple spent years testing if touchscreens made sense on the Mac

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 14, 2016

As first reviews of the new MacBook Pro hit the web this morning, Apple's marketing boss Phil Schiller took to Backchannel to dispel some of the myths saying his company has been stubbornly dismissive of the idea of a touchscreen Mac for no apparent reason. Schiller reveals that Apple has actually spent years testing if touchscreens made sense on the Mac before realizing that touching things on a 27-inch screen quickly becomes “absurd”.

New Apple ad highlights Beats Solo3 Wireless 40-hour battery & on-ear controls

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 14, 2016

During the official iPhone 7 unveiling last month, Apple announced one brand new and two improved Beats by Dr. Dre headphones, all of which utilize the new Apple W1 wireless chip: Powerbeats3 Wireless, Solo3 Wireless and the upcoming BeatsX earphones. A new ad Apple posted Monday, featuring Karlie Kloss, Young M.A., Brunas Schmitz and Justine Skye, highlights some of the Solo3 Wireless features enabled by the W1 chip, like touch controls and a longer lasting 40-hour battery.

Some Chinese users are giving their old iPhones a makeover to look like iPhone 7

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 14, 2016

Reuters is reporting that some users in China are giving their older iPhones a makeover to look like the latest iPhone 7 rather than buying brand new devices. Folks who don't have the money to upgrade to the latest and greatest iPhone have resorted to replacing their iPhone 6/6s back casing with a fake iPhone 7 shell complete with false dual-cameras and even dust plugs to hide the removed headphone jack.

“The makeover quirk mirrors a broader view among some Chinese users that the iPhone 7 doesn't have enough new features to convince them to trade up,” writes Reuters.

Microsoft is bringing integrated developer environment Visual Studio to the Mac

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 14, 2016

Visual Studio, an integrated development environment from Microsoft, is coming to the Mac. That's according to Redmond's prematurely published and now-deleted press release that TechCrunch spotted Monday. Microsoft's Xcode of sorts, Visual Studio is used to develop native Windows apps, as well as websites, web apps and Azure-driven cloud services.

Visual Studio for Mac should be formally announced at the Connect() conference later this week. Microsoft previously brought its cross-platform code editor, Visual Studio Code, to macOS.

Amazon Music Unlimited expands to UK, Germany and Austria

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 14, 2016

After making its U.S. debut last month, Amazon's $9.99 per month music-streaming service is set to expand to the United Kingdom, Germany and Austria beginning Monday, announced the online retail giant. The service was live in the United Kingdom at post time, with roll-outs in Germany and Austria following later today.

Earlier this morning, rival Google released revamped Play Music apps with machine learning-driven recommendations based on user location, activity and time of day.