Apple

iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3 now available to purchase from T-Mobile

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated May 10, 2017

Keeping true to its promise, T-Mobile, the nation's fourth-largest carrier, on Wednesday announced that customers can now buy Apple's iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3 in participating T-Mobile stores and online. The new tablets are available in Wi-Fi-only and cellular flavors and in all three colors.

The top-of-the-line iPad Air 2 model with 128 gigabytes of storage is not yet available, leaving early adopters to choose between 16GB and 64GB iPad Air 2 models. The iPad mini 3 is available in 16/64/128GB storage flavors.

Apple Pay rival MCX already hacked, but insists it’s OK to keep your sensitive data in the cloud

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 27, 2016

The whole CVS/Rite Aid/Apple Pay controversy is about to get uglier as MCX, the consortium of retailers who back the competing CurrentC mobile payment system, on Wednesday responded to accusations that it was purposefully blocking Apple Pay, Google Wallet and other NFC-based payment solutions and requiring participating retailers to use CurrentC exclusively.

Apple Pay has been praised for being secure and protecting your privacy by not sharing customer or transaction data with merchants. According to MCX, it does not store sensitive customer information in the mobile app. Instead, users’ payment data is stored “in our secure cloud-hosted network”.

Maybe I'm reading their blog post wrong, but if customer data and especially payment information is stored in the cloud, then it's not secure and this is precisely why Apple Pay is, in my personal opinion, better.

WhatsApp delays voice calling into early-2015

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated May 16, 2016

Five days after Facebook announced its $16 billion acquisition of WhatsApp in February of this year, the world's most popular messaging platform announced plans to enable voice calling in the first half of this year.

The summer came and went and here we are well into the third quarter of 2014 and now WhatsApp is saying that the planned release has been pushed back.

Citing a series of technical challenges, WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum said during his presentation at the Code/Mobile conference this week that the VoIP calling service will make its debut in WhatsApp mobile apps in the first quarter of 2015.

Google offering first minute free on international Hangouts calls

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 29, 2014

Yesterday, the Internet giant Google announced a newsworthy promotion giving its users the first minute free when placing outgoing calls through Hangouts to phone numbers in more than two dozen countries.

“The first 60 seconds is on us,” the company said in a post over at Google+. “What you say is up to you”. You can place Hangouts using Gmail and Google+ on desktop, using the Hangouts extension for Chrome, or via Google's mobile Hangouts app for iOS and Android.

eBay taking 20% off iTunes Gift Cards

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 29, 2014

If you've been on the lookout for the latest deals on iTunes Gift Cards, head over to PayPal’s Digital Gifts eBay store as it's currently offering 20 percent off iTunes Gift Cards in several denominations. The $25, $50 and $100 cards are now available with a twenty percent discount so you'll end up paying $20, $40 and $80, respectively.

That's a nice 20 percent saving right off the bat on anything you purchase on Apple's content stores. iTunes Gift Cards can be used to buy Mac and iOS apps, electronic books, movies, TV shows, music and other digital items carried on Apple's content stores.

You can also apply your iTunes credit toward the purchase of iCloud storage upgrades and use it to buy stuff in apps via In-App Purchases.

Taco Bell’s new iOS app makes fast food… faster

Jake Smith ∙ Updated April 18, 2018

Many social media users were intrigued when Taco Bell's social media accounts went dark on Tuesday, fearing the worst. Luckily, it was just Taco Bell announcing a major overhaul to its iOS app that allows customers to order and pay for food on their smartphones before even setting foot in the fast food chain.

iOS 8 reaches half of all active iOS devices

Jake Smith ∙ Updated April 18, 2018

Apple's iOS 8 has been rolled out 52 percent of all active iOS devices, indicating a slower rollout than versions of Apple's mobile software in the past. Apple updated its Developer Center with the data on Tuesday, indicating that some of iOS 8's early flaws may have slowed down its rollout over the last five and a half weeks.

Apple brings iAd platform to 70 more countries, now reaching 95 total

Jake Smith ∙ Updated April 17, 2018

Apple has expanded its iAd platform to 75 additional countries, bringing the total reach to 95 countries around the world, the company announced on its Developer Center on Tuesday. This is Apple's largest rollout of the network, and drastically increases its reach to iPhone and iPad users worldwide.

Apps like Pocket is why Handoff is my top new feature in iOS 8 and Yosemite

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 28, 2014

Pocket, a read-later service, with a recent Mac app update has completed its support for Apple's refreshed mobile and desktop operating systems.

According to developers last week, Pocket for Mac now includes Handoff and can send stuff to other apps that use the Mac's new multi-purpose Share menu. It's Pocket's largest Mac update in over a year.

The iOS edition of Pocket has had Handoff support in place for weeks. And with Handoff now live in the Mac edition of Pocket, I'm not sure how I've managed to do without such a useful feature. I'm a huge, huge Pocket fan and use it every day to bookmark and save dozens of articles that I find during the day for later reading.

With Handoff implemented in both Pocket editions, I now am able to seamlessly continue reading an article right where I left off on any of my Apple devices (Bluetooth must be enabled).

It's awesome and I couldn't imagine my daily computing without Handoff. It's the one feature I use the most, all the time. As I constantly move between my mobile and desktop devices, Handoff removes the friction completely without the mental burden of having to remember where I left off.

Handoff is tremendously convenient. It's fun, easy to use, a time-saver and bridges the gap between desktop and mobile like no other technology before it. And it's only getting started.

Pocket for Mac is available free of charge in the Mac App Store.

Apple’s Greg Joswiak apologizes for iOS 8.0.1 bug, blames it on distribution

Cody Lee ∙ Updated May 16, 2016

Continuing with their high profile interviews, Recode's Ina Fried and Walt Mossberg brought Apple's VP of iPhone marketing Greg Joswiak up on stage today at their Code/Mobile event. The trio discussed a number of topics, including Apple Pay, Apple Watch and Apple's recent software woes.

Given the nature of the questions, and Apple's devotion to PR control, a lot of Joswiak's answers sound very similar to things we've heard Tim Cook say recently. However, Fried and Mossberg do manage to pry some original, interesting tidbits from the executive during the course of their talk.

FTC drags AT&T to court over ‘deceptive and unfair’ throttling of unlimited data users

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 28, 2014

It's sad that we've grown accustomed to greedy carriers and their unlimited data deals. Not only does unlimited service typically come with lots of strings attached, carriers have dumb excuses ready once folks realize their data speeds are being throttled.

Having decided not to let it slide, the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is now taking AT&T to court over what it called “deceptive and unfair data throttling” policy.

As announced on Twitter and via a media release, the FTC's federal court complaint alleges that the Dallas, Texas headquartered firm in some cases reduced data speeds for unlimited customers by up to 90 percent while failing to explain in clear and concise manner why and when throttling would take place.

“AT&T promised its customers 'unlimited' data,” reads the complaint, “and in many instances, it has failed to deliver on that promise”.

“The issue here is simple: 'unlimited' means unlimited,” said FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez. AT&T's other sin: the company avoided mentioning throttling to customers who were about to renew their unlimited contracts.

Time Warner Cable’s new app lets you use their home phone service on iPhone at no additional cost

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 30, 2018

Your Home Phone service from Time Warner Cable is no longer limited by physical location as the nation's second largest cable company behind Comcast revealed a new iPhone application Tuesday.

Dubbed Phone 2 Go and available as a free download from the App Store, the software allows existing TWC Home Phone subscribers to use text, voice and video calling for no additional fees.

In addition, you can decide whether you'd like to use your Home Phone service to receive voice and video calls and text messages on your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad anywhere there's Wi-Fi or cellular coverage, including overseas.