News

Apple posts new Shot on iPhone video for Olympics with words from poet Maya Angelou

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 4, 2016

Apple just published a brand new video on its YouTube channel this morning, the latest one in its successful 'Shot on iPhone' advertising campaign. Titled “The Human Family” and narrated with words of wisdom by Maya Angelou, who was an American poet, memoirist and civil rights activist, the sixty-second clip talks about the value of family while showing a series of photographs and videos featuring friends and family that were taken by iPhone users from around the world.

Apple’s case against Samsung gets support from Dieter Rams, Calvin Klein & other designers

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated September 4, 2016

Apple's mega-lawsuit against Samsung is now in the hands of the United States Supreme Court, which should start hearing Samsung’s appeal over Apple’s design patent case in October. Ahead of court proceedings, Apple today filed an amicus brief containing support from 111 famed designers.

Some of them include well-known names like Jony Ive's friend Dieter Rams, fashion designer Calvin Klein and iSpaceship building designers over at Lord Norman Foster.

Supposedly fully functional iPhone 7 caught on video, its display turned on

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 4, 2016

We've seen our fair share of iPhone 7 mockups and dummy cases, but these are all based on rumors. Not once in the past did we see images or videos showing a prototype, if not a fully assembled iPhone 7. Well, that may have changed today as French blog NowhereElse.fr re-published photos from a Weibo account of what site owner Steve Hemmerstoffer described as a possibly functional iPhone 7. The images depict a device with Apple-like fit and finish, the display turned on and showing what's unmistakably the iOS interface.

UPDATE: The claimed device has been caught on video, too.

Google’s iOS keyboard gains dark theme, GIF suggestions & expanded language support

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 4, 2016

Following its debut on the App Store nearly three months ago, Google's gesture-driven predictive keyboard for the iPhone and iPad—called Gboard—today received its first feature-focused update. Gboard 1.1 for iOS, a free download, includes a darker keyboard theme, smart GIF suggestions and increased global availability with language support for English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil and Portugal) and Spanish (Spain).

Telegram for iOS gains personal storage, group previews and trending/archived stickers

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 3, 2016

Telegram, a secure instant messaging service that supports rich media attachments and optional end-to-end encryption, today refreshed its mobile app on the App Store with a few new features. Telegram for iOS, now bumped to version 3.11, offers some interesting new sticker packs and lets you archive those you no longer use.

You can now preview groups before joining them and store your messages and media in the new storage chat.

Telegram is available free on the App Store and Mac App Store.

Dropbox Paper enters public beta, iPhone and iPad app now available

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 3, 2016

As of today, Dropbox Paper, a collaborative document editor akin to Google Docs and Apple's iWork for iCloud suite (only better!) is in public beta after spending about a year in private beta, the cloud storage startup announced.

In addition, the mobile Paper app for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch launched today, too, so you can immediately download it at no charge from the App Store.

Apple issues new diversity report: 54% of its US new hires are now minorities

Cody Lee ∙ Updated May 1, 2018

Apple on Wednesday issued an updated diversity report, showing progress in its efforts to beef up the hiring of women and minorities. The iPhone-maker is one of many Silicon Valley firms that has been criticized for having a mostly white, male workforce—particularly at the executive level.

According to the latest numbers, 56% of its US employees are white and 69% of its global staffers are male, but there has been a boost in new-hires. Apple says 54% of the US new hires added within the last year are minorities, meaning their new hires are more diverse than current workers.

Snapchat rolls out city-specific stickers that mock local trends and highlight landmarks

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 3, 2016

Snapchat for iPhone, an ephemeral image messaging app, yesterday announced a new feature called Geostickers. Basically special stickers available in some of the biggest cities around the world, they can be applied to images and moved around before sending them. You can also stick these city-specific stickers on your Snaps.

Geostickers are available now in Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, Washington DC, Honolulu, London, Sydney, São Paulo, Paris and Riyadh.

Astropad graphics tablet app for iPhone and iPad is now a lot faster and uses less battery

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 3, 2016

Astropad is a very cool app from former Apple engineers designed to let you draw into Mac apps by connecting your iPad or iPhone to the computer via USB or Wi-Fi. You can then draw into most Mac apps directly on your iOS device's screen, using your finger as a replacement for a professional graphics tablet. In fact, it's too good that people are replacing their Wacom tablets with Astropad and an iPad.

I've been using Astropad quite extensively and it works like magic, really.

There's very little discernible lag, courtesy of the proprietary Liquid engine providing nearly three times more fluid responsiveness than Apple’s AirPlay. That's why I'm happy to report that in its most recent version 2.0 update, Astropad is now even faster and more fluid than before and a lot less taxing on the battery.

New iPhone 7 mockup shows blue finish, Smart Connector and other features

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 3, 2016

An earlier report from Japanese blog Macotakara alleged that the next iPhone might bring out a new deep blue color option, later described as being closer to a “dark Space Black,” similar to that used for the Space Black stainless stell Apple Watch.

Be that as it may, a new video from Lewis Hilsenteger of Unbox Therapy shows off an iPhone 7 mockup with kind of blue-ish, purple-ish tone to it. It’s “a very unusual color for Apple and it doesn’t exist anywhere else in the product line,” says Hilsenteger.

New rumor reaffirms iPhone 7 Plus will have 3GB of RAM

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 3, 2016

An Apple-designed A10 chip that will power the next iPhone should be outfitted with 3GB of RAM on the 5.5-inch iPhone 7 Plus model, according to previous analyst reports from TrendForce, Deutsche Bank and KGI Securities. DigiTimes has now corroborated these rumors, noting that the mobile DRAM capacity of the next-generation iPhone is “expected to increase to 3GB from 2GB previously”.

Apple TV gains French Molotov.tv video streaming service

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 9, 2017

Molotov.tv, France's premium video streaming service that offers access to nearly all of French television networks in one place, has launched exclusively on the Apple TV, as first reported by local blog iPhone Addict. The service was previously available via the desktop, through the web and on mobile devices.

Molotov.tv provides 37 premium channels, including those from Canal+ like D8, D17 and Cine+, plus 100 hours of on-demand streaming in exchange for a flat monthly fee of €9.99, or about $11.16. The free service includes 35 free channels and ten hours of on-demand content.