Apple

Simple math: why I never buy AppleCare

Sébastien Page ∙ June 1, 2016

I broke the screen of my Apple Watch yesterday. Or maybe more accurately, my two-year-old son grabbed my Apple Watch as I was taking a shower, slipped and fell with the watch hitting our bathroom tile floor face down. It happened all before my eyes, although I didn't know he was holding the watch in his hand. The strange sound I heard when he fell alerted me something wasn't right though. My wife confirmed seconds later that the watch was what I had heard and that the screen was shattered.

Surprisingly, I didn't even yell at my son, or lose my cool, but as I was finishing up showering, I started pondering my options. Because I don't buy AppleCare for any Apple products I purchase, I knew this was most likely going to cost me a pretty penny. Boy was I right!

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Updated Thunderbolt Display rumored to include 5K resolution and integrated GPU

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 1, 2016

Stock of Apple's 27-inch Thunderbolt Display has been dwindling ahead of the WWDC keynote, leading us to suspect that the product is about to be upgraded soon. The display, which was first introduced more than four years ago, should see its resolution bumped to match the 27-inch iMac with 5K Retina display. The hardware refresh might integrate an external graphics card, reports 9to5Mac.

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Apple sends invites for June 13 WWDC keynote

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 1, 2016

Apple on Wednesday sent out press invitations for a keynote at its Worldwide Developers Conference, as first reported by Tech Insider. The keynote presentation is scheduled for the first day of WWDC 2016, Monday, June 13, at 10am.

The annual event is where Apple previews its platform advances so we fully expect them to show the world what they have in store for iOS 10 and OS X 10.12, in addition to tvOS and watchOS 3 updates.

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Tumblr for iPhone becomes a meme generator with a new GIF captioning feature

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 1, 2016

Tumblr for iPhone was updated this morning on the App Store with a much appreciated GIF-captioning feature which helps turn the popular micro-blogging software into an instant meme generator.

In addition to the ability to post regular GIF images and animated GIFs, now both static and animated GIFs can include funny captions with support for up to three built-in fonts and custom colors.

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Apple edges out Samsung in American Customer Satisfaction Index

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 16, 2018

Apple has managed to edge out Samsung in this year's American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), the nation's cross-industry measure of customer satisfaction. The Cupertino firm has beaten the Galaxy maker by just one percentage point when it comes to smartphone customer satisfaction.

The report, which released Wednesday, reveals that in 2016 Apple scored 81 out of 100 while Samsung stayed where it was the year before at 80.

A year before, both firms scored 80 out of 100 for customer satisfaction.

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Analyst: iPhone 8 will rock Galaxy Edge-like wraparound AMOLED screen

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 1, 2016

IHS Technologies analyst Kevin Wang writes on Chinese social network Weibo that the iPhone 8, which we believe will release in the fall of 2017, will come outfitted with a dual-curved display similar to that found on Samsung's flagship Galaxy S7 edge, for a virtually bezel-less appearance. He also said just yesterday the next iPhone would replace the entry-level 16GB tier with a more capacious 32GB SKU.

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Facebook Messenger said to be rolling out opt-in encryption in the coming months

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 1, 2016

After WhatsApp and Viber both introduced end-to-end encryption last month, Facebook Messenger will become the next major messaging app to roll out this essential security feature, reports The Guardian.

Although end-to-end encryption on Messenger will be framed as an optional feature that users will need to manually enable, it will ensure that the contents of communications are hidden from eavesdroppers and that the identities of the participants are concealed.

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Both iPhone 7 models to include 256GB version, replacing 64GB with 128GB SKU?

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 1, 2016

Leaked components and sketchy rumors have led us to take for granted the theory that only the flagship, pricier iPhone 7 Plus model will exclusively include a new capacious 256-gigabyte model.

That assumption is now being challenged by researchers at TrendForce.

The research firm reported on Wednesday that the rumored 256GB SKU will actually extend to both iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus models, possibly even replacing the most popular 64GB storage model.

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Google’s Home gadget is based on Chromecast hardware, doesn’t run Android

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 1, 2016

Home, the search giant's always-listening Amazon Echo rival that was announced at Google I/O 2016, is basically a “dressed up” version of the company's $35 Chromecast HDMI dongle, claims a paywall'd article published by The Information.

It's a bit odd that Google's upcoming device doesn't run Android—it's powered by the same Linux-based OS used on the Chromecast—though Google has reportedly discussed using Android for the next version of Home.

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Photos of alleged MacBook Pro seemingly confirm OLED touchpad rumors

Cody Lee ∙ May 31, 2016

New images surfaced on Tuesday of what is said to be a chassis for Apple's upcoming MacBook Pro. Cult of Mac says they were sent the photos by "an anonymous source who claims to work for one of Apple’s manufacturing partners in China," but that of course cannot be confirmed.

The so-called spy shots are interesting because there's a noticeable gap in the laptop chassis, just above the keyboard. The oddity lines up with a recent investor note from prominent Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, which called for this year's MacBook Pro to feature an OLED touchpad.

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