If you need more proof the Apple Watch is launching in March as recently reported, here it is.
Mark Gurman of 9to5Mac just discovered that installing a fourth beta of the upcoming iOS 8.2, which was seeded to Apple's developers earlier today, enables Bluetooth connectivity with the upcoming wrist-worn device.
In addition, iOS 8.2 Beta 4 (build 12D5461b) makes it clear that the Cupertino firm is working on a dedicated app for setting up the Apple Watch and controlling it.
Just as our own analytics showed a very clear spike of traffic emanating from devices running Apple's unreleased iOS 8.1.3, now word comes that several publications are starting to see versions of iOS 9 showing up on web analytics for their sites.
Assuming version numbers have not been spoofed, this would indicate Apple may have begun testing first prototype builds of iOS 9, ahead of a developer preview expected at its annual developers conference in the summer.
Apple blogger and Instapaper founder Marco Arment caused an earthquake in the Apple community when he released a blistering article on the current state of Apple's hardware earlier this week. It's not often you see Apple bloggers being critical of the company they're usually so quick to praise.
"We don't need major OS releases every year," Arment wrote. "We don't need each OS release to have a huge list of new features. We need our computers, phones, and tablets to work well first so we can enjoy new features released at a healthy, gradual, sustainable pace."
So that left two questions: Is Arment correct in his theory? What do you want from Apple in 2015?
Even though this particular data point is a few days old now, I think it's highly relevant in light of Apple's glowing App Store stats revealed yesterday.
According to developer Ustwo Games, its award-winning and incredibly successful Monument Valley, an atmospheric puzzle game in which you manipulate impossible architecture inspired by the works of M.C. Escher, has seen a significant chunk of its potential revenue lost to piracy because only 40 percent of the $3.99 game installs on the iPhone and iPad were paid for.
The vast chunk of the remaining sixty percent iOS installs were illegitimate, or to put it bluntly — pirated. On Android, the paid install base is a paltry five percent (you read that right), as a huge hunk of the remaining 95 percent of users opted to steal Monument Vally on Android rather than pay four bucks to enjoy it.
Is the 60 percent piracy rate on iOS a worrying number for Monument Valley developers and a bad sign for Apple's mobile platform? Read on for the full reveal.
Breaking the long-held tradition of restricting iOS beta releases to developers and select Cupertino campus employees, Apple has plans to expand pre-release mobile software testing to select retail employees, according to a report today by Mark Gurman. The program is set to commence soon with a beta version of iOS and comes nearly half a year after Apple's introduction of public betas for OS X Yosemite, its desktop operating system.
Apple kicked off its 2015 annual "Lucky Bag" promotion in Japan on Thursday, giving customers big discounts on Apple products and accessories. A "Lucky Bag" is a Japanese New Year tradition, also known as a Fukubukuro, that offers a bag for a set price filled with unknown random items, sold for a discount.
Just like last year, Apple's iPhone and iPad again dominated online shopping traffic and online mobile sales during Christmas Day, according to an IBM survey first shared by VentureBeat.
Based on data from IBM's real-time Digital Analytics Benchmark, which tracked approximately 800 retail websites in the United States, iOS devices were responsible for an average of $97.28 per order spent online versus $67.40 for Android users, a difference of 44.3 percent.
In other words, a commanding 57.1 percent of online shopping via mobile during Christmas Day was carried out using an iPhone or iPad, an increase of 8.3 percent versus the previous year.
The Japan arm of Apple announced on Friday that it's once again bringing back its "Lucky Bags" promotion on January 2nd, 2015. A "Lucky Bag" is a Japanese New Year tradition, and also known as a Fukubukuro.
Moscow-based Elcomsoft, which produces a mobile forensic tool used by law enforcement around the world to gain access to a suspect's iOS devices, has updated its Phone Breaker application which now makes it easier to bypass Apple's two-step verification for Apple ID accounts in order to access underlying iCloud data, Engadget reported Thursday.
Not only does this include iWork documents stored in iCloud, but also data in third-party apps such as WhatsApp communications, 1Password password databases — even user dictionaries that may contain secret words and phrases — provided a user has enabled the app in question to sync data with iCloud.
Although hackers still need both your Apple ID username/password and a two-factor code sent to your trusted device (or a digital token stolen from your computer), once they do gain access to your account Phone Breaker can then create a digital token granting them permanent access to iCloud data, no two-step verification code needed — until you change your Apple ID password, that is.
Following their major enterprise mobility partnership which was announced this summer, Apple and IBM this morning launched the first batch of MobileFirst apps for enterprise iOS users. The new suite of business-focused apps are available exclusively for the iPhone and iPad starting today and include apps for insurance, retail, telecom, government, travel, transportation, banking and more.
Apple has released iOS 8.1.2 this afternoon with a handful of bug fixes and other improvements. Specifically, the release notes say the update addresses an issue where ringtones purchased through the iTunes Store may have disappeared from users' devices.
You can access the new firmware over the air via Settings > General > Software Update, or via iTunes by connecting your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch to a computer. But as usual, we recommend that users who are jailbroken, or plan to jailbreak, avoid the update for now.
There most certainly is no shortage of downloadable iOS 8 keyboards in the App Store, so much so that the proliferation of soft-keyboards makes it virtually impossible for us to cover each and every one that hits the Apple platform.
On the other hand, themable keyboards like CoolKey, a keyboard for the colorful, are few and far between.
Customization matters to an awful lot of people and there's admittedly a void here than needs filling. That's where Themeboard jumps in.
Created by Germany-based Taphive, the brains behind such apps as TodoMovies that we reviewed back in March, this app is an advanced iPhone and iPad keyboard with a built-in repository of wonderfully designed themes by some of the best designers around.
Theme board sports a unique Emoji/Kaomoji bar and has plenty of features that users have come to expect from Apple's default keyboard like auto-correction, Caps lock, slide-shift to capitalize, quick delete with three speeds, text predictions, custom shortcuts and more.
Read on for the full review of this feature-packed keyboard.