Google has updated its free Hangouts iOS app with a major feature: free voice calling anywhere in the U.S. and Canada. The app now integrates Google Voice to make calls over cellular or WiFi.
And now you know. That’s right, it is being reported that Apple employees internally nicknamed the gold iPhone 5s “The Kardashian Phone” during production.
New York Times reporter Nick Bilton first tweeted the revelation, saying he heard it from a source at Apple. TechCrunch then followed up with its own sources and added, “apparently this was not a serious ‘code name’ or anything, just an internal joke.”
U.S. Cellular, one of the last carriers in the country to get the iPhone 5s and 5c, has announced that it will start offering Apple’s latest handsets on November 8th. After Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile, U.S. Cellular is the fifth largest carrier in the country with 4.6 million customers.
Many of the regional carriers started offering the new iPhones on October 1st, and Cricket is slated to sell on October 25th. U.S. Cellular hasn’t released pricing information yet, but expect the devices to sell for the normal retail value. Many resellers and third-party stores have already started offering discounts on the 5s of up to 50%.
Source: U.S. Cellular
Apple’s next big media event is taking place this coming Tuesday, October 22nd at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco. Banners for the event have started going up today, and they match the colorful invites Apple sent out to the press earlier this week.
Updated with new photos below:
Yesterday we reported that the Cupertino City Council unanimously approved Apple’s plan to build its new ‘spaceship’ headquarters, officially called “Campus 2.” Tim Cook tweeted his enthusiasm after the approval was granted, calling the future campus “our home for innovation and creativity for decades to come.”
Today a video of the city council’s press conference was released with speeches from Cupertino’s mayor and Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer. “This is a very special moment for us at Apple,” said Oppenheimer. “We have put a tremendous amount of love and energy into this campus and we can’t wait to get started building it.”
Construction on the 2.8 million square-foot headquarters and 100-acre plot of land is scheduled to begin this year. The final set of permits Apple needs will be reviewed on November 19th.
Today AT&T announced its plans to entice tablet customers with new data plan options. The most attractive plan for users will probably be a $5 day pass that offers 250MB for light web usage. A new $25 plan will come with 1GB of data that can be used at any time over the span of three months.
Today Facebook released a small update to its iOS app that brings some notable features, namely the ability to edit posts and comments.
Here’s the full change log:
You may have heard that there’s a big update in the works for Tweetbot, one of the most popular third-party Twitter apps out there. Version 3.0 for iOS 7 has been kept under wraps for the past several months, and today the app is one step closer to your iOS device.
Tapbots, the small app company that makes Tweetbot, announced today that it has submitted Tweetbot for iOS 7 to the App Store.
Until two days ago, Apple had been without a head of retail for nearly a year. As part of the upper-management reshuffling Tim Cook oversaw last October, John Browett was let go after filling the role for only six months. Apple executives reportedly clashed with Browett, who previously had been the CEO of British retailer Dixons, and he didn’t seem to leave Apple on the best of terms.
After a year of searching, Apple has finally found a Senior Vice President of Retail and Online Stores: Angela Ahrendts, the former CEO of Burberry in Britain. She’s coming to Apple at a very crucial time in the company’s development post-Steve Jobs, and although she’s worked in fashion most of her life, she looks like the perfect fit.
Here are 10 things to know about Angela Ahrendts:
Square has unveiled a new product called Square Cash that lets you send anyone money from your bank account through email. You compose a new email to the person you want to pay, cc [email protected], put the amount in the subject, and send. No hidden fees or strings attached.
Another reason to believe that the release of OS X Mavericks is just around the corner: Apple has started asking third-party developers to submit apps optimized for the new OS in the Mac App Store.
Apple wants devs to make sure their apps take advantage of the “great new features in OS X Mavericks when the world’s most advanced desktop operating system becomes available to millions of customers later this fall.” Such features include Timer Coalescing and App Nap.
The October 22nd media event is when Apple will likely announce the release date of Mavericks. Major updates to OS X are typically released a day after an Apple earnings call, and there just so happens to be one on October 28th.
Source: Apple
Today OtterBox unveiled its new Preserver series of cases for the iPhone 5, 5c, and 5s. The waterproof design is fully submergible up to 6.6 feet, and Touch ID is supported for the iPhone 5s.
Today T-Mobile announced that it is shuttering grandfathered plans to focus solely on its newer Simple Choice plans. The ‘UnCarrier’ sent out a letter to customers today, and discounts are being offered on newer plan rates for legacy customers who still need to switch over.
Today Nike unveiled its new FuelBand SE, the biggest upgrade to its fitness tracker ever. Cosmetically, the FuelBand SE sports new color accents and a rubberized, waterproof surface. But the real improvements have been made on the inside, like the addition of Bluetooth 4.0 for easy pairing with the FuelBand app and smarter motion sensors.
Apple believes it’s the highest taxpayer in the U.S, but the company has still been subjected to intense scrutiny because the majority of its cash isn’t located stateside, but in offshore subsidiaries scattered around the globe.
In a U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee this summer, Apple was accused of using Irish tax loopholes to avoid paying on about $44 billion in foreign profits. By basing ghost subsidiaries in Ireland, Apple has been able to not pay a considerable amount of taxes to any country. Now the Irish government is considering changing its tax code to prevent such behavior from happening in the future.
The second-gen iPad mini is widely expected to get a Retina display, although the rumor mill has been going back and forth on the notion for several months. But as the release date for the tablet draws nearer, the consensus seems to be that Retina is a go.
Apple is known for aggressively slimming down its products with each new iteration, but to accommodate a Retina display, it’s very possible that the second-gen iPad mini could actually get a little thicker.
Instagram recently received a minor update with bug fixes, and you may not have noticed that a small setting is no longer present in the iPhone app. You used to be able to disable autoplay for videos, but now the only video options are for sound and preloading over Wi-Fi-only.
The change may not seem that significant at first, but when you consider that Instagram is about to introduce video ads, it makes more sense.
Instagram told Engadget that “it disabled the option due to “confusion” from users regarding what clips will play with sound,” but it just so happens that the decision is also a nice bonus for potential advertisers. Who wants to sell video ads to people when they could just disable them with a quick toggle?
Source: Engadget
Today AT&T announced that it will be completely doing away with traditional data plans for new customers on October 25th. The carrier has been transitioning to its pooled, “Mobile Share” plan options since it introduced them last summer.
New and existing customers have still been able to choose from a Mobile Share plan or a traditional data package, but that luxury will be gone for new customers in two weeks.
Apple’s new, multi-billion dollar campus has been in the works since Steve Jobs proposed the project to the city of Cupertino back in the summer of 2011. Construction on the 175-acre site, dubbed “Apple Campus 2.0,” is projected to begin by 2015-2016. The plan for the project will get the final vote of approval from the Cupertino City Council on October 15th.
We’ve seen mockups of what the UFO-like campus will look like already, but now Apple’s incredibly detailed model replica of the campus has been published online.
Today Contrast (formerly called App Cubby and maker of Perfect Weather) released Launch Center Pro 2.0 for iPhone with a new interface and app icon for iOS 7. If you aren’t familiar with Launch Center Pro, here’s the basic rundown: it’s a tool for quickly launching common actions in one place.
Ok, still confused? I’ll let Contrast explain it better:
Today Apple released EFI firmware update 2.7 for the 2013 MacBook Air that addresses an issue with installing Windows in Boot Camp. The update is recommended for all MacBook Airs released after Apple’s hardware refresh over the summer at WWDC. Grab it now in the Mac App Store.
This update addresses an issue which may cause a black screen to appear when installing Windows 7 or Windows 8 using Boot Camp Assistant if both an external optical drive and USB thumb drive are connected to the system. This update also ensures that the system will boot by default into OS X after installation of Windows 8.
Source: Apple
Still haven’t been able to get your hands on the iPhone 5s model you want? If you didn’t wait in line on launch day or order online already, chances are you’re going to have trouble finding any 5s for awhile, much less your desired color and capacity.
The same guy who created this handy website for checking 5s stock at nearby Apple Stores has a new service that will email you an alert the moment the iPhone 5s you want is available at your local Apple Store. Eureka!
A couple days ago we showed you a custom Leica camera designed by none other than Jony Ive. The camera will be auctioned to raise money for Bono’s Product (Red), a campaign Apple has partnered with for years to fight the spreading of H.I.V. in Africa (if you’ve ever bought a red iPod, you’ve helped contribute).
Ive and legendary designer Marc Newson have created their own designs of over 40 products for the auction, including a Steinway grand piano. The two men also designed a desk from scratch that looks like an extension of the iMac.
Ive and Newson recently sat down with Vanity Fair for an extensive interview about designing for the Product (Red) charity auction, and as you can imagine, it’s a great read.
The iMessage dot indicator lets you know when the person on the other is ignoring typing you, which can be a wonderful thing. It can also be one of the most annoying things in the world when you see someone start to type and then stop, or supposedly “type” for a long time.
Here’s a mischievous little prank you can play on unsuspecting iMessage users. Go to the website below and save the GIF to your Camera Roll. Just send it to random people and watch frustration ensue. Rinse, then repeat. You’re welcome.
Source: Infinite Text-In-Progress
The year is 2013 and we have all kinds of way to share content between mobile devices, but there still isn’t an easy, frictionless way to send money to someone wirelessly in a secure manner.
Then there’s AirDrop, Apple’s new sharing platform in iOS 7 and OS X Mavericks that’s as easy as dragging and dropping. What if something like that existed for transferring cash between different bank accounts? Simple has the answer with a new feature called MoneyDrop.