Apple

Samsung’s celebrity-studded Galaxy S7 ad is smart and subtle with anti-Apple digs

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 29, 2016

Samsung's Galaxy advertising campaigns typically are not the subtlest of digs at Apple, but the new star-studded commercial for the latest Galaxy S7 smartphones is different.

Featuring actors William Macy and Wesley Snipes, hip-hop artist Lil Wayne and other celebrities, the commercial focuses on the features that differentiate the Galaxy S7 from the iPhone 6s.

The highlighted features that the ad poses as the Galaxy S7's competitive advantage over Apple's smartphone include waterproofing, two times better lowlight performance, a longer-lasting battery, support for Samsung's virtual reality headset, Samsung's mobile payment system that works anywhere credit cards are accepted, the phone's expandable memory and more.

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WhatsApp now lets you share media from other apps like Dropbox and Google Drive

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 29, 2016

The popular mobile messaging service WhatsApp today received a pretty cool update in the App Store which adds the ability to share photos or videos from other apps installed on your iPhone via a new option exposed after tapping the Photo/Video Library button.

In addition, WhatsApp has gained a pair of new shortcuts in the 3D Touch menu on the Home screen and now supports solid colors as chat backgrounds.

Oh, and you can now zoom in on videos while they're playing.

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New Microsoft ads for Windows 10 focus on things Macs can’t do

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 29, 2016

Microsoft this weekend published four new commercials for its Windows 10 operating system that showcase things “Macs can't do”. The ads feature Kristie and Jess, AKA The Bug Chicks, the two women who are apparently trying to change the way kids think about bugs.

The two characters, one of whom is a Mac fan jealous of Windows 10 features, explore competitive advantages of Microsoft's operating system like the built-in Cortana personal assistant, support for inking and drawing on notebooks with built-in touchscreens, the ability to log in to Windows 10 with one's face and more.

As each Windows 10 feature is highlighted, the other woman responds with a variation of the “I don’t have a touchscreen on my Mac, I’m jealous of that” theme.

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iOS 10 concept imagines a customizable Control Center with 3D Touch support, dark mode and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated September 7, 2016

How will Apple improve upon Control Center in the next major iteration of iOS? Sam Beckett has attempted to imagine tight 3D Touch integration for Control Center in iOS 10, and his concept video does a very fine job at that. It shows off some ideas that Apple could take advantage of in order to allow for greater customization of hardware toggles and app shortcuts in Control Center.

A user could press on toggles to enter the edit mode to rearrange the icons, turn off the toggles they use rarely, add new switches for things such as Low Power Mode and Cellular Data and so forth. In addition, Control Center could benefit from 3D Touch by allowing users to quickly access additional options from the contextual menu for a specific toggle.

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The best 3D Touch gestures in Music app

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 2, 2017

The stock Music app in iOS 10 supports 3D Touch Peek and Pop gestures within the app and various Quick Actions on the Home screen.

With 3D Touch, the Music app speeds up common user actions, from tuning in to Beats 1 radio to running a search on your music, previewing the contents of albums and playlists, adding For You playlists (for those who are subscribed to Apple Music) and more.

With 3D Touch, owners of the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus will have an easier time navigating the Music app's somewhat overwhelming interface while discovering they can accomplish more with fewer taps.

In this tutorial, you'll learn how to use 3D Touch in the Music app like a pro.

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Apple to hold iPhone SE media event during the week of March 21?

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 27, 2016

Kara Swisher of Re/code shot down the March 18 date for an Apple media event which was originally reported by Mark Gurman of 9to5Mac. According to Swisher, Apple's next product event is going to be held during the week of March 21, not on March 15.

Gurman originally claimed the event would be held on March 15, a Tuesday, ahead of the iPhone SE and iPad Air 3 launch on Friday, March 18.

“Or to put it another way, it’s not going to be on March 15, the time frame that other outlets previously reported,” she wrote, citing several sources familiar with the plans.

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Recent OS X security update has disabled Ethernet port on some iMacs and MacBook Pros

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 17, 2024

In squashing software bugs, you inevitably introduce new ones—that's a fact of life. According to a thread on Reddit, Apple's recent OS X security update has inadvertently disabled the Ethernet port for some owners of Apple's all-in-one desktop and the MacBook Pro notebook.

Making matter worse is the fact that Apple pushed this security update via the silent updating mechanism, according to a poster on Reddit who probably enabled the option in System Preferences → App Store that prompts OS X to automatically install system data files and security updates.

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Leaked iPhone SE screen assembly lacks 3D Touch

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 27, 2016

Just as so-called 'iPhone SE' is about to enter mass production, we have become exposed to its very first claimed component leak. Saturday, the reliable French blog NowhereElse.fr posted a purported image of the iPhone SE's screen assembly which supports the thesis that 3D Touch will remain exclusive to the iPhone 6s as a differentiating feature.

3D Touch on the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus uses an additional layer with 96 pressure-sensing sensors and is found between the display itself and the backlight module. No such layer could be identified in the leaked image.

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KGI: iPhone SE will have 12MP iSight camera, iPhone 5s to go half price

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 27, 2016

Apple's upcoming four-inch 'iPhone SE' will cost between $300 and $400 in the United States, it will have a twelve-megapixel camera on the back rather than an eight-megapixel shooter, as previously rumored, and is entering mass production soon. Moreover, the existing iPhone 5s is slated to be discounted by fifty percent.

That's the gist of a note KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo sent to clients, a copy of which was obtained by AppleInsider.

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Apple’s $120 million patent victory against Samsung overturned

Cody Lee ∙ February 26, 2016

An appeals court on Friday ruled that Samsung won’t have to pay Apple $119.6 million for infringing its patents, reports Bloomberg. The court found two of Apple's patents, including one for its slide-to-unlock feature, to be invalid and a third wasn’t infringed.

Today's ruling overturns a verdict reached by a California jury in May 2014, which found Samsung devices to infringe on Apple's patents. It also upholds a decision to make Apple pay Samsung $158,400 in damages for infringing on its video compression patent.

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