News

Apple extends limited time USB-C accessory price cuts through end of March 2017

Apple told The Loop's Jim Dalrymple that it is extending USB-C accessory price cuts from end of the year to March 31, 2017.

Responding to a flurry of complaints targeting the new MacBook Pro, the company originally said a month and a half ago that it would temporarily cut the prices on USB -C adapters and peripherals it sells in its stores through the end of the year.

Tim Cook: we have great desktops in our roadmap

Apple has "great desktops" in its roadmap, CEO Tim Cook said in a recent posting to an employee message board. TechCrunch has the transcript, where Cook fields a question regarding whether or not Mac desktops are still strategic for Apple.

The comments come after the company's MacBook Pro event this October, where iMacs and Minis were noticeably absent. It's been over 430 days since Apple updated the former, and nearly 800 days for the latter. The Mac Pro is 3+ years old.

Tim Cook explains why he met with President-elect Donald Trump

In a recent Q&A on Apple's internal info web service, Tim Cook explained to employees why he met with President-elect Donald Trump last week. Cook was one of many executives that participated in a high-profile roundtable with Trump to discuss a variety of tech-related issues.

The meeting inspired a lot of negative reactions from folks in and around Silicon Valley, who felt like it was hypocritical of the tech leaders to meet with Trump, given their public condemnations of his comments and actions. But Cook explains that open communication is important.

Deliveries for Mac gains full Sierra compatibility, Touch Bar shortcuts & other new features

After refreshing Deliveries for iOS with full iOS 10 and watchOS 3 support and other nice-to-haves four days ago, Deliveries for Mac was updated on the Mac App Store with full support for macOS Sierra, Touch Bar shortcuts on the new MacBook Pro and more.

Touch Bar shortcuts can be customized for features like shipping company suggestions when you add a delivery, auto-complete for email addresses, a 1Password button when it's appropriate and more.

Group video chat in Facebook Messenger rolling out globally starting today

After enabling group audio calling on Messenger with support for up to 50 participants back in April 2016, Facebook today launched group video chatting on its popular messaging service. The ability to video chat in groups is the most requested Messenger feature ever, according to product manager Stephane Taine. The feature is rolling out today on iOS/Android and the desktop version of Messenger.

In its appeal to EU tax ruling, Apple calls itself a “convenient target”

Later this week, Apple and the government of Ireland will appeal against the European Union's $14.5 billion tax ruling targeting Apple's sweetheart tax deal with Dublin that the EU deemed “illegal state aid.” According to Reuters today, the Cupertino firm will object to the fact that EU regulators ignored established tax experts and common corporate law.

Apple's legal strategy involves painting itself as a victim of its own success. EU deliberately singled out Apple due to its success and picked a method to maximize the penalty, said Apple's top lawyer Bruce Sewell.

Apple poached race car engineer from Porsche

Earlier this year, Apple poached Alexander Hitzinger, the former technical director of Porsche's race car program who helped the car maker return to the Le Mans endurance race, a company source told Reuters last Friday. The move was first reported by Germany's Manager Magazin.

Volkswagen-owned Porsche officially confirmed Hitzinger had left the luxury carmaker in the spring, but didn't share any further information.

Blackberry opens brand new autonomous driving research center in Ottawa, Canada

Following its decision to exit the smartphone hardware business and focus on software, Blackberry today opened a new research and development center in Ottawa, Canada. The facility is dedicated to the development of autonomous driving software. According to Reuters, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attended the launch.

The facility is being run by Blackberry subsidiary QNX, which makes advanced driver assistance and autonomous vehicle technology used by car makers worldwide.

Tips for saving cellular data while playing Super Mario Run

Super Mario Run is one of the biggest hit games to launch on the App Store this year, and although it’s getting a lot of attention from both Nintendo and Super Mario fans, it also comes with a big caveat: it requires an active internet connection.

For anyone who plays the game at home on Wi-Fi, this isn’t a big deal. Unfortunately, if you’re relying on a cellular data network to play, then you might end up using more data than you’ve bargained for.

Prometheus: upcoming tool may allow unsigned iOS upgrades and downgrades

iOS hacker tihmstar has announced the upcoming release of his tool Prometheus. And no, it doesn't steal fire from the gods for you to foster the burgeoning potential of your race. Instead, he claims it will be the first tool capable of upgrading and downgrading 64-bit iOS devices to unsigned firmwares. If successful, this would be welcome news for the jailbreak community, allowing movement between firmwares for which you have saved your blobs, even after Apple's signing windows have closed.

Twitter transitioning Vine into pared-down camera app

Twitter on Friday announced that it would not be shutting down its popular video social media service, but will instead transition it into a 'Vine Camera' app. The new app will be a very pared-down version of the current client, and will be available in January.

With Vine Camera, you'll still be able to record looping 6-second videos, but your only other options will be to share it to Twitter or save it to your phone. The goal here is to allow folks to continue to create Vines, but to move the social media aspect to Twitter.