Buster Hein - page 161

Microsoft’s $400 million plan to flood the NFL with Surface tablets hasn’t caught on too well this season. The hardware fumbled out the gate during preseason and even coaches and players have admitted the tablets are too complex to figure out, so in its latest ad for the Surface Pro 3, Microsoft has taken a page out of Beats’ marketing playbook.

The ad feels more like an commercial for NFL Stars than a tablet promotion and it’s got all the elements that have made Beats’ cinematic ads great: Pre-game preparations, close ups of super-star athletes, touchdowns, and some heavy rock music.

Beats launched a similar ad for its Studio Wireless headphones, only instead of starring super-star cornerback Richard Sherman from the Seattle Seahawks, Microsoft’s ad features super-star quarterback Russell Wilson from the Seattle Seahawks.

Watch Microsoft’s NFL ad below and see how it compares:

iPhone 6 unboxing videos are a dime a dozen nowadays, expect when they come from the wildly wacky Blue Man Group.

The popular performing group released their own quirky take on the iPhone 6 unboxing video and it’s unlike any unboxing video we’ve ever seen. Rather than using traditional unboxing tools like fingers and or a knife, the blue dudes employ some saws, electric drills, and plenty of feathers.

Watch it below:

Apple just rolled out its first update for iOS 8 with a bunch of bug fixes to resolve problems with third-party keyboards, HealthKit, and other features, but what Apple failed mention is that the update also knocks out your cellular connectivity and breaks Touch ID.

If you haven’t updated already, WAIT! It seems that the bugs might be just affecting users of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus but we’ve reached out to Apple for confirmation.

In the meantime, if you’ve already upgraded to iOS 8.0.1 and want your cellular service back, here’s how to manually restore your device to iOS 8.0.

“Will it bend?” has become the hottest question in tech this week as some iPhone 6 owners have discovered that the laws of physics still apply to the aluminum frame of the new Apple phones … even when neglected in a back pocket.

We pointed out yesterday that any smartphone made of metal will bend when subjected to pressure, but the Internet has jumped on the BendGate controversy like a joyful Steve Wozniak pounding through the polo fields on his mighty Segway.

#BendGate, #BentGate and #BendGhazi started trending on Twitter within the last 24 hours, and while Apple’s PR machine remains silent, the Internet has given its hilarious opinion on the controversy.

Here are some of the funniest BendGate reactions:

Many Apple fans were hoping the company’s first timepiece would ship to stores in time for the holidays, but with the release slated for ‘early 2015’, a new report claims you’ll be lucky if you even get to Digital Touch your lover on Valentines Day.

The Information reports that even Apple employees and partners were expecting to see the Apple Watch in 2014, but complications with the project have pushed its release to mid-February at the earliest.

Nearly half of iPhone and iPad users have already upgraded to iOS 8 in the first week, but if you’re looking for stability, you might want to stay for a few weeks more.

Crash analytics data from Crittercism found that iOS 8’s crash rate is 78 percent higher than that seen on iOS 7, with an average crash rate of 3.56% across all devices.

Apple has made big improvements to the iPhone camera with each successive release, and while the iPhone 6 didn’t get a huge new sensor, the redesigned 8MP sensor is better than any camera Apple’s ever made.

To see just how well the iPhone 6 stacks up against every other iPhone camera Apple’s released, Lisa Bettany took the same shots with the original iPhone, 3G, 3Gs, 4, 4s, 5, 5c, 5s and iPhone 6 and found that along with the faster shooting and focus, images taken with the iPhone have greater detail and are significantly better in low-light.

Here’s a comparison of back-lit photos:

Ron Johnson revolutionized the retail shopping world when he left Target in 2000 to join Apple and design the entire Apple Store shopping experience with Steve Jobs.

Now, coming off a 17-month stint as the CEO of JC Penney, Ron is ready to reinvent shopping all over again, by getting rid of stores completely.

Apple isn’t shutting down Beats Music service, the stream music service it bought in May, but the company isn’t planning to keep the brand name around much longer, reports Recode’s John Paczkowski who says Apple’s rebranding of the streaming music service could come as early as next year.

Apple Pay is threatening to put mobile payments companies like Square and PayPal out of business when it launches next month, but according to Square co-founder Jack Dorsey, Apple Pay isn’t actually a threat to his company.

Dorsey revealed yesterday that Square is hoping to use Apple Pay to its advantage by building a new register for sellers that accepts Apple Pay and pretty much every other form of payment you can slide across a counter.

Bend-Gate is slowly taking over the Internet this morning as Apple fans discover the startling fact that when pressure is applied to an iPhone 6 or 6 Plus frame, it bends – just like every other smartphone ever made of metal.

The bending problem has been reported by a number of iPhone 6 owners who pocketed their big iPhone 6 only to retrieve it later with a significant curve in the frame. Some sites are deeming the new iPhones “more fragile than expected,” but the truth is we’ve seen this problem almost every year.

In fact, last year ran we an article titled “iPhone 5s Bending in People’s Pockets.” Any phone made of metal is still subject to the laws of physics, but to reiterate that this isn’t exactly a problem exclusive to the iPhone 6, here’s a look at other Android and Apple phones that have bending problems.

Apple consolidated the lineup of CarPlay partners on its website Tuesday morning and left off mention of 2014 availability, leading some Apple fans to conclude that launch of the iOS-in-your-car functionality would be delayed. However, Cult of Mac has learned that there was no hidden reason behind the site change this morning, and that CarPlay is still on track.

Sources at Apple told us speculation that “Apple is no longer promising CarPlay support from any auto manufacturer this year as it has done since its debut in March” is far off and inaccurate. CarPlay has been supported since iOS 7.1 and many manufacturers are still on track to roll out CarPlay integration this year.

In fact, you can already spot CarPlay in the wild.

Apple’s first timepiece isn’t expected to hit stores until early 2015, but if you live in certain parts of Silicon Valley, you just might see Apple Watch dangling on a few lucky wrists.

Reports of Apple Watch sightings have started to hit Twitter with Apple engineer’s seen rocking the sport edition while waiting to be whisked to the mothership on a bus.

Apple’s $3 billion acquisition of Beats Electronic was supposedly anchored by the killer music service Tim Cook has touted in recent interviews, but according to a report from TechCrunch, Apple’s brand new music streaming service is already scheduled to be shutdown.

The Ukrainie-based indie band Brunettes Shoot Blondes have created a clever music video that uses iPhones, iPads, MacBooks, and even an iPod nano to tell a fascinating animated love story.

The video for the band’s single, ‘Knock Knock’, uses 14 different Apple screens in the delightfully elaborate dance of iDevices that probably took a million takes to pull off successfully. The entire video is playing on the screens in real-time and required pinpoint accuracy to pull off. It’s kind of like a lo-fi version of OK Go’s Rube Goldberg machine videos, only all Apple.

Watch it below:

The display rating experts at DisplayMate got intimately acquainted with Apple’s bigger than big display over the weekend, and after thorough testing, the LCD experts pronounced Apple’s 5.5-inch display the best performing LCD display they’ve ever tested on a smartphone.

The iPhone 6 did pretty well too in their iPhone 6 Display Technology Shootout report released this morning.
Here’s the rave review they gave the iPhone 6 Plus display:

The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus are the thinnest iPhones Apple’s ever made, but all that design perfection is slightly tainted by the protruding camera that makes it annoying to use the smartphone on a flat surface.

Slapping on a case fixes the problem, but for those wanting to revel in the beauty of a nude iPhone 6, the PeripateticPandas have come up with an ingenious – though somewhat impractical – solution: Introduce your shiny new 6 to a grinding machine.

Checkout the horrific how-to video below:

You could read about the evolution of the iPhone in one of our features, looks at a spec chart, or learn about it an infographic, But none of those is nearly as fun as seeing the original iPhone morph into the iPhone 6 in one GIF.

The folks at GadgetLove have made another great evolution GIF that shows the subtle design changes Apple’s made to the iPhone over the last seven years, with shrinking bezels, thinner form factors, moving buttons and more.

Before you toss away your worthless iPhone 5s, take 3 seconds to appreciate the road to the iPhone 6, and try not to get hypnotized by Jony Ive’s changes.

Source: GadgetLove

The crazy iPhone 6 launch lines around the world are finally shortening up as the first wave of customers take their shiny new devices home. We’re back at the Cult of Mac Headquarters getting intimate with our big and bigger iPhones, but we were curious which iPhone 6 model you bought.

Many of us here went with the 6 Plus – because bigger is definitely better – but a few staffers are loving their smaller iPhone 6 screens. Vote in the poll above and then tell us why you made your choice in the comments.

Joan Rivers was officially declared dead nearly two weeks ago, but the late comedian isn’t quite ready to stop promoting products in the land of the living.

Rivers’ Facebook and Instagram accounts joined the iPhone 6 upgrade madness this morning by posting a picture of her “badass” iPhone 4 that’s supposedly getting “replaced by an iPhone 6 (not the fat one).” #iPhone6 #YAY!

The post was taken down within minutes, but not before TMZ grabbed a shot of it. Joan died a few days before the iPhone 6 was revealed on September 9th, so unless Steve Jobs’ also has a Apple Store in heaven, I imagine some social media intern will be looking for a new job to go with their iPhone 6.

Apple fans across the U.S. are eagerly awaiting their chance to caress the biggest iPhone screens ever made, but America’s #1 fanboy and late-night show host Stephen Colbert got his iPhone 6 delivery a little early.

Colbert immediately dismissed his iPhone 5s as “worse than useless” after pulling out the iPhone 6, but Steve’s unit came pre-loaded with a little extra suprise: nude photos of U2 frontman Bono.

Watch the funny segment below:

U2 has not had a good week. What was supposed to be the most epic album release of all-time spun into a bloody hatefest as Apple decided to add Songs of Innocence to every iTunes user’s purchased items lists.

The company eventually rolled out a tool to remove the album from iTunes accounts forever, to silence the people that didn’t like having U2’s $100 million album shoved down their throats. For those that want to take things a step further though, Conan O’Brien has invented an Apple product that can remove U2’s tunes from your mind forever, called eRase U2.

Check it out:

We saw a kid in Australia perform the first unofficial drop test earlier today, but for those wanting to see the limits of iPhone 6 truly tested, the first scientific tests are in.

Blogger Dave Rahimi — who was the first person in the world to buy the iPhone 6 — performed a slightly more precise drop test on both the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, and if you were hoping the new ion-reinforced screen would save you from a shattered display, he’s got some bad news.

Not to spoil the surprise, but the larger iPhone 6 Plus cracked its big beautiful screen when dropped on its side the first time. Rahimi had just purchased it, after flying from California to Australia to pick it up. Ouch!

Here is Dave’s hard-hitting drop test:

The Apple repair gurus at iFixit have been meticulously tearing down the iPhone 6 Plus over the last few hours and have discovered new details about Apple’s first phablet.

The teardown revealed that the iPhone 6 Plus battery has nearly double the capacity of the iPhone 5s with 2915 mAh of energy, which is slightly larger than the 2800 mAh battery on the Galaxy S5. They’ve confirmed that Apple’s new A8 processor only comes with 1GB of RAM on both the 6 and 6 Plus, and have also dissected the 6 Plus camera module to reveal its new optical image stabilization technology.

Here’s what else they found:

iPhone 6 lines have gotten absolutely nuts in the build up for tomorrow launch, but people in Australia are already heading home with the very first iPhone 6 units, but the first person to buy one in Perth almost had to go back in for another.

Moments after a young boy named Jack Cooksey left the Perth Apple Store with one of the first iPhone 6 unit’s ever sold in the world, he was swarmed by local news aiming to get the first look of the bigger than big display in his hands. Struggling to release his prize from its pristine white tomb, Jack’s excitement shook the box open as cameras watched the iPhone 6 slip out and slam onto the concrete.

Here’s the full clip from Perth News Today: