The long wait for Apple’s new BeatsX wireless earbuds is finally over and based on our first impressions, it was totally worth it.
We got our hands on a pair of the precious new BeatsX buds today and are mighty impressed by the big sound Apple managed to pack in such a small package. Like the AirPods, the BeatsX earbuds pack a custom W1 Bluetooth chip to pump out better performance and connectivity. Unboxing the tethered buds has been love at first sight.
Let’s dive in!
Apple is encouraged with its growth in China even if it registered a double-digit decline in revenue there.
Apple CEO Tim Cook and CFO Luca Maestri used other numbers to paint a rosy picture of the complicated China market when they met with investors during a first quarter earnings conference call Tuesday.
I have a co-worker who bought a pair of Apple’s shiny white AirPods, turned a black Sharpie marker on them and has been cleaning ink out of his ears ever since.
A company called BlackPods, which says it has a proprietary coating system for Apple’s wireless earbuds, just announced its service this week in an email blast to tech journalists — though too late for my colleague, who now reports model paint worked no better than the Sharpie.
A Russian man claims his iPhone 7 Plus he dropped in a frozen river while ice fishing was still working after it was retrieved 13 hours later.
Now if there are two kinds of stories that deserve skepticism, it would be news out of Russia or a story from a fishing trip. But a convincing looking video of the alleged recovery was posted on Instagram a few days ago. It shows a diver emerging from an ice fishing hole holding a lit-up iPhone.
Apple co-founder Steve Jobs’ uncompromising demands and brutal assessments of products in development paint a picture of a CEO who cared little about his colleagues’ feelings.
That’s because he was obsessed with yours.
A report published this week points to this and shows what is arguably the most brilliant and enduring part of his legacy.
Apple is today commemorating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day with a famous quote on the front page of its website that promotes equality.
Paying homage to the legendary civil rights leader is a tradition for Apple, which has become increasingly focused on supporting equal rights and fighting discrimination in recent years.
The iPhone and Instagram get credit for being the first shoot-and-share social network, but even Steve Jobs would say that’s wrong. The Polaroid camera introduced a social component to taking pictures in the late 1940s, the first instant photography with three steps — shoot, shake and share.
Polaroid brought disruptive innovation to the market and also became a casualty of it when it failed to change course in time to be part of the digital photography revolution.
But a new version of Polaroid is thriving and even stirring up some buzz this week at CES in Las Vegas with new products covering iPhone photography, consumer 3D printing, camera drones and fun cameras that produce an on-the-spot print.
Apple’s EarPods have always been a go-to favorite for me. They’re included with every iPhone, always sound good enough for what I need, and I’ve always found them comfortable. Even going back to the good old iPod days, I’ve always kept a pair close to hand.
But now Apple’s moving on into the “wireless future” with its new AirPods. These completely wireless earphones let you listen to music and podcasts, make phone calls and talk to Siri. But just how do they measure up?
When Nintendo announced they’d be working with Apple to launch Super Mario Run on iPhone, the partnership made a lot of sense. After all, both companies share a similar arc in the history of their respective industries, each defining the early decades of the home gaming and computing industries, respectively. But perhaps the most relevant similarity is in the two companies’ focus on design.
People griped when Apple launched the iPhone 7 without an earphone jack and asked the world to get excited about AirPods, the company’s cordless earphones designed for the brave new “wireless future.”
Apparently, cutting the cord hasn’t been so easy for Apple, either.
The AirPods, skewered on social media within seconds of being introduced at Apple’s product launch in September, remain in a holding pattern because of audio glitches — and could miss the crucial 2016 holiday shopping season entirely.
If you like watching a kid opening a gift at Christmastime, you might delight in watching a video posted by iPhone photographer Cielo de la Paz that shows her opening an unexpected gift from Apple.
For the second straight year, the self-taught photographer had one of her pictures selected for Apple’s “Shot on iPhone” marketing campaign. In addition to compensation for use of the photos for the campaign, Apple surprises the photographers with a coffee table book displaying photos selected for the Apple World Gallery.
The National Hockey League may soon introduce a new set of pads for the hands.
iPads.
Apple and the NHL are reportedly close to a deal that could put iPads into the hands of coaches on team benches and for fan engagement around arenas.
Apple and Hollywood are reportedly in talks to provide home-video rentals of movies as little as two weeks after theatrical release.
Studio heads from Warner Bros., Universal Pictures and 21st Century Fox have indicated recently they are looking for deals. Two unidentified sources close to the talks told Bloomberg News the studios are considering partnering with Apple and iTunes.
Apple will pay the state of California $450,000 to settle claims that it improperly handled industrial waste at facilities the company ran in Silicon Valley.
Apple said the violations relate to reporting and tracking mistakes, claiming that health and safety standards at its waste facilities exceed the state’s requirements.
The U.S. Supreme Court dealt a major blow to Apple Tuesday when it sided with Samsung in a smartphone patent battle that had the South Korean company staring at hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties.
In a unanimous ruling, the Court ruled a patent violator does not have to turn over all its profits from sales if the stolen design involved certain components and the not the entire device.
A day after a gloomy third-quarter sales report about the Apple Watch, CEO Tim Cook says the device is already having a record holiday as one of the season’s most popular gifts.
He shoppers bought a record number of Apple Watches during the first week of holiday shopping, and the wearable is on pace to have its best quarter ever to close out 2016.
Fitness band maker Fitbit is said to be in the process of acquiring Pebble, the company that kickstarted the smartwatch generation. Sources say the acquisition will cost between $35 million and $40 million, and will include the entire Pebble portfolio — including its intellectual property.
Apple sure seems to be doing routers right. At least according to the more than 3,000 customers polled in J.D. Power’s 2016 Wireless Router Satisfaction Report.
Apple came out as the top-rated router manufacturer in Overall Satisfaction, which would be great news for the AirPort team — if Apple hadn’t just disbanded it.
In the last decade or so, lots of companies have gotten design religion. Design has been brought in-house, where it can shape products from the very get-go. There’s an obvious source for this idea — Apple.
This week on the Kahney’s Korner podcast, I talked to Oliver Seil, senior design director of Belkin International’s Innovation Design Group. We discussed Belkin’s products and design process; the surprising complexity of USB cables (and why they cost so much); and why Apple has had such an enormous influence on design and manufacturing.
You can listen to the podcast or read a full transcript of the interview below. (Or dive into the show notes.)
Looking to save yourself some cash on Apple’s new MacBook Pro? You could be in luck. The company is teasing a one-day shopping event for Black Friday that could bring tasty discounts on its latest products.
For many ugly years, manufacturers considered industrial design an afterthought. They would outsource the task to a contractor or neglect it altogether, in an effort to get products out quickly and cheaply.
The result: hideous-looking products that didn’t work well or proved difficult to use.
Nowadays, companies like Apple are changing the game when it comes to incorporating industrial design and user experience into product engineering.
On this episode of Kahney’s Korner, I talk with Oliver Seil, senior design director with Belkin International’s Innovation and Design Group. Seil is Belkin’s Jony Ive, the top designer who overseas the company’s diverse array of products.
Belkin specializes in mobile accessories, from power packs and iPhone cases to WeMo home automation products
The indie rock band Airplane Mode does indeed get its name from the feature on an iPhone that shuts off wireless transmission.
The name and the resumes of three of the band’s musicians — well-established iOS designers — have led more than a few people to assume they have found a source of cute parody music about Apple culture.
In fact, you won’t find any iPhones, iMacs or odes to Steve Jobs in the lyrics of the tight, hard-charging synth-driven music. However, the band’s roots in Apple culture permeate everything else, from its use of technology and understanding of social engagement to its start-up energy.
And there is one other way: Airplane Mode is making money.
Sometimes a peach is just a peach. But when it comes to emoji, it’s also a tush.
Yet, much to the chagrin of those who like to use emoji for more than visual grocery lists, Apple’s first 10.2 developer beta replaced the peach emoji with something that looks less like a posterior, and more like a piece of fruit or something.
If Apple has made photography for the masses easy, then Macphun wants to knock down remaining barriers that might keep some from using software to bring creative style to those photos.
It’s latest Mac-based photo editing software, Luminar, is its first all-in-one app that will include a variety of features to help photographers of all levels make corrections and bring creative finishing to their images.
Look alive, everyone! November is finally here, and that means Black Friday is on the way. However, you won’t have to wait until the 26th to start saving. Now that Apple has unleashed its new tech lineup, prices are falling for iMacs, and refurbished Apple products are making a comeback. Logitech is even getting a headstart on Black Friday sales with an $80 discount on their premier gaming headphones.