Buster Hein - page 170

Tim Cook told investors he’s happy with Apple’s trade-in program and other used iPhone sales, and it turns out so is eBay.

In the last 12 months nearly $2 billion worth of Apple devices, ranging from iPhones, iPads, and old Macs, have been sold on eBay’s store, according to data obtained by Computer World, and just like Apple’s own sales, the iPhone brought in most of a money on eBay too.

Late night show host and habitual Apple-prankster, Jimmy Kimmel, toasted Apple’s successful earnings report last night with a hilarious iWatch prank that shows just how deliciously potent the Apple Kool-Aid really is.

After tossing in a few jabs at the iPhone 6’s bloating screen size, Kimmel took to the streets to see if Apple fans love for the brand would magically turn a cheap calculator watch into the Apple iTime smartwatch.

If you thought people wouldn’t be fooled by a $20 Casio watch with an Apple sticker on the back, especially after Kimmel has already pulled this prank like 37 times, you’re wrong.

OS X 10.10 Yosemite is gorgeous. It’s the biggest visual overhaul to come to OS X since Aqua, which has caused a rush of Apple fanboys – including our own Leander Kahney –  to jump the gun and install the buttery smooth interface on every Mac in sight.

Playing around with Apple’s newest software is a true tech delight, but it can also come with some horrific consequences if you install it as your main OS, as most apps still aren’t optimized for the update. However, unlike iOS 8 there’s a safe way to install it without ruining your Mac until the final version is ready.

Here’s how to install the Yosemite beta in the most responsible way possible:

Nearly two months after Apple announced it would release a public beta of OS X Yosemite, participants are finally getting their download notifications, allowing non-developers to access the new Mac operating system for the first time ever.

The initial public beta is the exact same build that’s currently being tested by registered developers, but Apple is giving 1 million people access to OS X Yosemite on a first-to-sign-up basis.

Instagram has accidentally leaked that it’s planning to launch a thunder strike against Snapchat with a new “one tap photo messaging” app of its own called Bolt.

A banner announcing the new messaging app was accidentally posted for some users on Android to see last night, but was taken down about 15 minutes after it appeared. The Free link button on the banner directed users to the Google Play Store, but the page was not available.

Rumors that Apple might bring fun faces to the iWatch thanks to a partnership with Swatch have already been shot down, after the Swiss watchmaker denied a report claiming it and other watchmakers were helping Apple create a diverse lineup of smartwatches.

A report from Venture beat on Wednesday claimed Swatch, Timex and possibly others, were secretly helping Apple make a whole set of iWatches for all tastes geek to chic, but it appears that Apple is definitely making the iWatch all on its own.

Merek Davis is not a coder. The developer never even made an app before 2013. Yet on his first iOS at-bat, he hit an App Store grand slam with Mextures, his photo-editing app that quickly became one of the top photo apps of the year.

Mextures is like Photoshop for your iPhone, only easier to use. The app’s editing tools and formulas let you tweak and re-tweak pics, adding light leaks, textures and color gradients that can turn even your crappiest pics into something majestic.

It’s a bona fide hit, with some of the most-followed names on Instagram using Davis’ creation. But it almost never happened.

We’ve been waiting all year for Apple to finally reveal its long-rumored wearable creation, but if the big iWatch event ever does happen this year, we might be getting a lot more smartwatches than expected.

Swatch and other watch makers will supposedly team up with Apple to bring a variety of stylish iWatches to consumers, according to a rumor from VentureBeat, that claims Cupertino wants to partner with companies in the watch business to expand the smart watches’ appeal.

Eddy Cue thinks 2014 will be the best product pipeline Apple’s had in 25 years, and according to the company’s latest filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Cupertino is certainly pouring enough money into R&D to back him up.

Apple increased spending in research and development 36 percent year-over-year in Q3, with an extra $425 million being funneled into R&D in the last quarter alone.

The most important camera upgrade on the iPhone 6 won’t be on in the back, it’ll be the front-facing selfie-cam, and Sony says it’s ready to spend $345 million to make sure it has enough image sensors for future iPhones, iPads, and other tablets and smartphones.

Sony, Apple’s image sensor supplier for the iPhone and iPad, announced today that it is increasing its production capabilities of image sensors for smartphones and tablets by completing work on a factory it purchased from Renesas Electronics in northwestern Japan.

A group of former retail and corporate Apple employees are suing the iPhone-maker for alleged violations of the California Labor Code, claiming Apple never granted timely meal or rest breaks, and failed to promptly send out final paychecks as well.

The case was just bumped up to class-action status yesterday, opening it up to a trial by jury as the case expands to include over 20,000 current and former Apple employees in the state who could be affected by the ruling.

Tim Cook and newly-apointed CFO Luca Maestri are getting ready for Apple’s Q3 2014 earnings call with investors. The call will reveal just how much cash the company raked in over the past three months and what they should expect later this year. We’ll be right here, liveblogging the whole thing.

Apple hasn’t released a new product this quarter, but investors on Wall Street are still bullish about the future of AAPL, sending the company’s stock price surging 26% since its last earnings report.

Whether Apple was able to beat expectations of $38.4 billion in revenue without an explosion of new sales will finally be known today at 2 p.m. Pacific, and we’ll be ready to dish out all the news and juicy tidbits Tim and the team tell investors.

So keep this page open for the full scoop on how ridiculously profitable Apple was last quarter, as well as what’s to come its “most exciting product pipeline in 25 years.”

Facing the end of his long, dominant NBA career, Kobe Bryant is branching out into the business world with Kobe Inc., and while he’s picked the brains of people like Oprah, Hillary Swank and Arianna Huffington, it was a meeting with Jony Ive at Apple Campus earlier this summer that caught the web’s attention.

What could one of the greatest basketball players of all-time learn from the world’s most famous designer? According to an interview with Bloomberg, the Black Mamba simply wanted to know how Ive approaches design and how he manages to see the world differently than everyone that makes hardware.

An NBA superstar reaching out to the world’s tech designer for help sounds like an odd fit, but Bryant says building an iPhone isn’t too different from developing a world-class basketball game because like building products, you approach both sequentially, piece by piece, to make it unstoppable.

Here’s the full interview:

iOS 8 just got a little bit closer to completion for its launch this fall with the release of iOS 8 beta 4 this morning. Apple didn’t add any major new changes (unless you’re a hardcore lover of Control Center), but the new beta is full of tiny little tweaks that will make your iPhone feel like new when iOS 8 drops in September.

We’re still combing through all the new features Apple just added to iOS 8 beta 4, but there are already some big additions like the new Tips app, an improved Control Center, new Handoff settings and little tweaks galore.

Here are all the little features Apple added to iOS 8 beta 4:

Apple seeded the 4th beta for OS X 10.10 Yosemite to developers this morning with preview build 14A298i.

The Yosemite beta program still hasn’t been opened to the public, but anyone with a developer account can pick up the OS X Yosemite beta 4 download from the Mac Dev Center. The update can also be scooped up from the Mac App Store by clicking Software Update under your Apple menu.

The newest beta version of iOS 8 has been seeded to developers by Apple this morning, two weeks after the release of iOS 8 beta 3.

iOS 8 beta 4 can be downloaded via an over the air update. Developers can pick also it up from the iOS Dev Center or from the direct download links posted below. We’re still downloading the update on our devices and will let you know what we new goodies we find. In the meantime, get to downloading:

Google Search for iOS has got a new Easter that allows Android-hatin’ fanboys – or anyone else who just likes destroying things – to tear apart the GOOG’s childish logo, one letter at a time.

To find the Google Search easter egg just open the app to the main search screen and you’ll be able to drag, flick and drop letters from the Google logo anywhere on the screen. Titling right and left makes the letters float or fall based on your tilt, and if you want to restore order, each letter can be put back in its proper place.

If your app still has the Nelson Mandela logo you’ll have to wait for an update, but in the meantime, checkout the easter egg in action in the quick video below:

Microsoft’s hopes of slowly taking over the U.S. tablet market just took another hit as Lenovo, the world’s largest PC maker, has decided there’s pretty much no demand for any Windows tablets under 10-inches.

Lenovo told PC World that they’re seeing stronger interest in larger screen sizes in North America, so they’re going to stop selling all of their small Windows Tablets in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, and push the ThinkPad 10.

Apple is continuing its push to diversify its leadership with the announcement this afternoon that Susan Wagner, a wall street insider who co-found one the world’s top investment firms, has been added to the company’s board of directors, taking the spot of the board’s longest serving member.

Bill Campbell has been on Apple’s board for 17 years but has decided to retire, making room for Wagner to take her seat on Tim Cook’s board. Wagner comes to the board after co-founding BlackRock in 1988 and leading it to become one of the world’s most successful asset-management companies. She’ll continue to serve on BlackRock’s board, as well as boards for Swiss Re, Wellesley College, and Hackley School.

In an press release announcing the changes, Tim Cook had high praises for Wagner, as well as the man she’s replacing:

Lightning ports haven’t even been around for two years now, but I think it might be time for Apple to consider replacing it with the MacBook’s most underrated feature: Magsafe power connectors.

Cabin is a new a Kickstarter projected aimed at bringing the MacBook’s awesome MagSafe power connector to the iPhone 5 and 5s, with a battery case that’s so sleek and unapologetically aluminum, you’d think it came straight from Jony Ive’s prototype design lab.

Facebook’s ‘make a bunch of apps and see which ones stick’ strategy for mobile has unleashed a new app for the iPhone this morning, and it’s supposed to make interacting with famous people on Mark Zuckerburg’s social network easier than ever, but you’re probably not cool enough to use it.

Apple’s new mothership isn’t expected to touchdown in Cupertino until 2016, but construction on the new campus is starting to hit a rapid pace, as new areal photos reveal the exterior walls are nearing completion as well as the construction of underground tunnels.