Apple

Apple to kick off annual ‘Lucky Bag’ one-day sale in Japan on January 2

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 24, 2016

Apple has confirmed that its retail stores in Japan will be kicking off the holiday 'Lucky Bag' promotion next Thursday, January 2, 2014. The country's annual sales event is something of a local tradition and Apple has made sure to delight its loyal fans with mystery bags filled with randomly picked products.

These bags are discounted so the customer typically ends up paying less than the total combined value of the included goods. The trick is that shoppers can't really tell what's inside a bag until they have bought it...

Taiwan’s Fair Trade Commission fines Apple $700k over iPhone pricing

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 14, 2018

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Apple has been fined 20 million New Taiwan dollars, or roughly $670,000 USD, by Taiwan's Fair Trade Commission for interfering with mobile service providers and handset distributors' pricing.

The Commission found Apple guilty of violating article 18 of the country's Fair Trade Act after discovering emails from the Cupertino company to Taiwan's three main service providers, telling them how much their iPhones should sell for...

Apple kicks off its ’12 Days of Gifts’ event with Justin Timberlake EP

Cody Lee ∙ Updated March 19, 2018

Christmas may be over now, but that doesn't mean you have to be done getting presents. Apple has kicked off its '12 Days of Gifts' event this morning with a free gift for its faithful users, and will continue to give one each day for the next week and a half.

Today's gift is the iTunes Festival EP from music superstar Justin Timberlake. The album contains 4 live performances from Apple's annual music festival this year, and is free for all users in qualifying areas who have downloaded the 12 Days of Gifts app...

A look back at some of Apple’s old Christmas commercials

Cody Lee ∙ December 24, 2013

Apple's been causing a lot of commotion lately with its latest iPhone 5s commercial 'Misunderstood.' The ad, for those who haven't seen it, depicts a teenager with his head buried in his smartphone while the family participates in holiday activities, and has a delightful twist.

But Apple hasn't always been so sentimental around the holidays. In fact, it's been making Christmas-themed spots for over two decades now, and many of them tended to err on the side of humor. Don't believe me? Check out some of these Apple ads from the last 20 years...

How to access Apple’s secret internal SpringBoard settings menu on iOS 7

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 14, 2018

As predicted, the flood of new tweaks has started to pour in. The latest tweak, one called HiddenSettings7, allows users to access Apple's hidden internal SpringBoard settings menu. This menu, which contains a plethora of settings to garner fine grained control over the look and feel of your device's SpringBoard, is accessible via a shortcut found in Control Center.

We've taken the liberty to film a high level overview of HiddenSettings7 for you to enjoy. Have a look inside to see where to get the tweak and how to access a wealth of new settings.

Reviews agree: the new Mac Pro is a dream desktop with some serious oomph for pros

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated September 17, 2017

Apple's radical new Mac Pro went on sale last week and despite critics slamming it for Apple's high asking price (although it isn’t more than you’d pay for a similarly configured Windows PC), shipping estimates for the re-engineered pro desktop slipped to February 2014 just hours after release, indicating pent-up demand among creative professionals.

Though baseline configurations of the Texas-built machine started shipping to first customers yesterday, those who purchased built-to-order machines will have to wait a month or so. Meanwhile, first Mac Pro reviews have hit the web and the verdict is unanimous: this is every video editor/creative pro's dream machine...

Tim Cook said to be working on $4 billion iPad deal with Turkish president

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 14, 2018

Tim Cook is reportedly scheduled to travel to Turkey next year for the opening of Apple's first retail store in the country. The store is located in the city of Istanbul, in the Zorlu Center, and is expected to open on February 4, 2014.

But according to a new report, that won't be Cook's only order of business for the visit. The CEO is also believed to be meeting with President Abdullah Gül to discuss a potential education iPad deal worth between $3 and $4 billion...

Apple researching hover touch sensing and embedded heart rate monitoring

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated August 4, 2016

A pair of patent applications filed with the United States Patent & Trademark Office earlier in the week have hinted that Apple's iPhone could gain a new sensor letting the smartphone detect your cardiac signal when it's picked up. The invention would permit your iPhone to identify you by your heartbeat.

Furthermore, the company appears to be researching hover sensing technology like that found on Samsung's Galaxy S4, which is capable of detecting touch events even when a user's finger is not really in contact with the touchscreen...

Free OpenEmu 1.0 console emulator is now available to download for Mac

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 24, 2013

Those of you old enough to remember the golden age of 8 and 16-bit console gaming are in for a real Christmas treat as the OpenEmu console emulator is now available to download for the Mac. After an extensive period of beta testing, OpenEmu 1.0 finally launched yesterday.

This open source project makes possible game emulation on OS X for a variety of high-profile legendary consoles, including Sega's Genesis, Nintendo's Game Boy, GameBoy Color, Game Boy Advance and Entertainment System (the popular NES), as well as other third-party consoles such as the Game Gear, NeoGeo Pocket and more...

Apple’s ‘Rockstar Consortium’ considering Nortel patent sale

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 14, 2018

In 2011, Apple teamed up with a number of tech companies including Microsoft and BlackBerry to form what many called the 'Rockstar consortium' to purchase a collection of over 4,000 patents from Nortel, a communications company that went bankrupt in 2009.

Bloomberg is now reporting that the consortium is currently holding discussion regarding a potential sale of a portion of the patents—which it paid in upwards of $4.5 billion for—after several attempts to land large licensing deals from other companies have failed...

Apple posts slides, videos from iOS 7 Tech Talk tour

Cody Lee ∙ December 23, 2013

Every year, Apple hosts a series of Tech Talk developer sessions around the globe. They're very similar to the sessions held at Apple's annual World Wide Developer Conference in June, but obviously on a much broader scale.

This year's iOS 7 Tech Talks ran from October through December, in various cities like London, New York and Shanghai. And for those that couldn't make it in person, Apple's just posted slides and videos from the sessions online...

New report suggests iOS 7.1 may not be released until March

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 14, 2018

Following the release of iOS 7.1 beta 2 to developers last week, BGR is reporting that Apple has seeded a new build of the software update to carrier partners. It's unclear when Apple will push the new beta to devs, but the site says a public release is still months away.

Citing a 'trusted source,' BGR's Jonathan Geller reports that Apple plans to rollout iOS 7.1 in March of next year. That means we're still a roughly 3 months out, and that the update would've been in testing for more than 4 months—a fairly long time for a '.1' release...