Apple

Apple vs the FBI: a recap of this week’s events

Cody Lee ∙ Updated May 1, 2018
FBI and Apple logos

When a federal judge in California ordered Apple to aid the FBI in an investigation earlier this week, she sparked what many believe is the most important privacy debate in recent memory. The FBI wants access to the passcode-locked iPhone of one of the shooters involved in last year's San Bernardino massacre, and it wants Apple to help it break in.

At a high level, this seems pretty simple: the FBI has bad guy's phone; it wants to use it to try and stop other bad guys; it needs Apple's help to do that. But you don't have to zoom in very far to see that it's much more complex. Apple refused to help the FBI, saying that the request "undermines the very freedoms and liberty our government is meant to protect."

That was on Wednesday. Here is everything that has happened since.

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Sort through your photos like that with 3D Touch

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated June 4, 2019

We have covered dozens of the best 3D Touch uses in Apple's most important apps, like Messages, Safari, Mail, Camera, Maps and a few others. Today, we explore how 3D Touch on the iPhone elevates your experience in Photos, one of my favorite stock apps.

With 3D Touch, you can animate a Live Photo and make your wallpaper come alive with a deep press, peek at your photos and videos within the stock Photos app, go to your best photos and see what you were snapping up this time last year, right from the Home screen, and much more. 

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Liven up your tweets and direct messages on Twitter with animated GIFs

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 19, 2016

The next time you tweet out an update or message someone on Twitter, try adding a little flair to your tweets or direct messages in the form of animated GIFs.

Earlier in the week, the micro-blogging startup announced it's integrating a dedicated GIF search button in its mobile apps and on twitter.com to help you add that viral kitten GIF to your posts without leaving the compose window.

Twitter's partnered with Giphy and Riffsy to help you find the right GIF animation to express your mood. You can search GIFs by keyword, or browse categories of different reactions like Happy Dance, Mic Drop, YOLO and more.

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Facebook rolls out Live Video functionality globally

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 19, 2016

Facebook is making good on its promise to roll out its Periscope-like Live Video feature to user around the world. As noted by Engadget, the social networking firm has now confirmed it's begun rolling out the feature globally. The company started testing Live Video with a small percentage of U.S. celebrities, verified profiles and other users last December.

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Apple will repair 2011-2013 MacBook Pros with video issues until December 31, 2016

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 19, 2016

Apple has extended a repair program to fix MacBook Pro notebooks that are plagued with video issue until December 31, 2016, reveals an updated support document on the company's website. The MacBook Pro Repair Extension Program for Video Issues, as it's officially referred to as, was originally scheduled to expire on February 27, 2016.

A small percentage of 15 and 17-inch MacBook Pro models sold between February 2011 and February 2013 may display distorted or scrambled video on the computer screen, show no video on the inbuilt screen or external display or the machine may restart unexpectedly.

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iPad Air 3 and iPhone 5se will run A9X and A9 chips

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 19, 2016

A third-generation iPad Air will run an 'A9X' processor and an 'iPhone 5se' will be outfitted with Apple's 'A9' chip, according to Bloomberg Bussinessweek's profile of Johny Srouji, Senior Vice President of Hardware Technologies.

“In March, Apple intends to announce an updated iPad and smaller-screen iPhone featuring the latest A9x and A9 chips, according to a person familiar with the plans, who wasn’t authorized to comment publicly,” reads a passage from the Bloomberg article.

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Proof-of-concept app attempts to simulate Mac’s Finder on Apple Watch

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 19, 2016

Billy Ellis, a 15-year-old developer, has created a fun Apple Watch app that simulates OS X Yosemite's Finder on your wrist. The proof-of-concept software serves to demonstrate what can be achieved on the Apple Watch with a little bit of imagination and some superb coding skills. “Haven't had the time to make everything fully functional just yet,” said Ellis. “Hopefully I'll add some more to it later this week.”

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Apple Pay launch in China hits a snag over sign-up issues

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 19, 2016

The official launch of Apple Pay in China didn't go as smoothly as hoped as a lot of users faced problems trying to link their credit cards to their accounts. According to local reports collected by Mashable, Apple may have underestimated the demand from China as its servers struggled to keep up with a huge rush of people trying to sign up for the service.

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How to enable ‘Show me the best tweets first’ on Twitter

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 13, 2018

Twitter recently unveiled a new feature that lets you elect to have the service surface new and interesting content at the top of your timeline since your last visit.

Called “Show me the best tweets first,” it's a staggered release so not everyone may have it at the same time although the majority of Twitter's user base should now see this option in their settings.

This post will take you through the steps you need to take in order to enable this feature in Twitter's mobile apps and in the desktop interface, so that you never miss important updates from people you follow.

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Bloomberg profiles Apple’s silicon chief, gives a peek at secret chip-testing lab in Cupertino

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 18, 2016

Bloomberg Businessweek has published an interesting profile of Johny Srouji, Apple's silicon chief (official title: Senior Vice President of Hardware Technologies), who joined the company back in 2008 to lead development of the A4, the first Apple-designed system-on-a-chip that made its debut in the iPhone 4 and the original iPad.

Apple is now widely praised by critics and fans alike for taking its chip destiny in its own hands. The article tells an in-depth story of how then CEO Steve Jobs had the foresight and courage to take Apple on a risky path to make it a fabless silicon designer.

Apple-designed mobile chips went on to differentiate iPhones and iPads on the  hardware level from competing devices using off-the-shelf parts. The story also gives us our very first peek at chip-durability testing at an unmarked Apple lab in Cupertino.

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