LAS VEGAS – I just finished my annual slog through the world’s largest ever exhibition of iPhone cases – a.k.a. The iLounge at CES. While most of this years’ offerings are focused on providing extra battery power, PureGear has a lineup of cases that turn your iPhone into a retro physical game, no app required.
LAS VEGAS – Dropping your iPhone in a pool of water can be a traumatic experience. Especially if you don’t have AppleCare+. Sure, there are a bunch of home remedy methods you can try to dry it out, but I’ve never had any success shoving my soaked iPhone in a bag of rice. Enter Bheestie, a small plastic bag that claims to remove water from you gadgets faster than any home remedy.
LAS VEGAS – It seems like every company is busting out a tiny sensor that keeps track of your steps and other fitness goals here at CES, but if you’re slouching over a computer for 8 hours a day, correcting your posture can go a long way toward improving your fitness. Lumo is putting a different spin on the pedometer by focusing not just on how much you’re moving, but on whether you’re keeping your head up and shoulders straight too.
LAS VEGAS – Remembering passwords seems to have become one of great challenge in computing for simpletons like me. Solutions like 1Password and iCloud Keychain have tried to solve humans’ forgetfulness, but EyeLock revealed a new product today that not only stores all your passwords, it keeps them locked away with your own personal iris scanner.
LAS VEGAS, CES 2014 – We’ve been hearing for months that Apple may or may not launch a larger screen iPad in 2014, but this afternoon Samsung tried to get a jump on the competition with its new lineup of PRO Galaxy and Note tablets for the common working man, and in typical Samsung fashion, they’re busting out a couple of screen sizes, including a 12.2inch monster.
Guzzling up websites on your iPhone is now quicker than ever thanks to 4G LTE. It also means that your monthly data allotment can disappear in a poof if you go on a YouTube binge, but at CES this morning AT&T announced it has a plan to help customers consume even more data by allowing advertisers to foot the bill on their content.
The New Year is finally upon us, and while your resolutions to eat less and run more are admirable, they’re certainly not a lot of fun. So to kick off the year we’ve teamed up with Aio Wireless to hook up one lucky reader with a brand new blue cyan iPhone 5c.
Entering the contest is certainly easier than your newfound commitment to stop munching your fingernails and to make the prize even better, Aio is tossing in a free month of unlimited talk, text, and data on its contract-free 4G LTE network.
Here’s how to win the iPhone 5c:
LAS VEGAS, CES 2014 – For those with cardiovascular issues, keeping tabs on your blood pressure and heart-rate means spending extra time and money going to the doctor’s office for frequent check-ups. To cut down on the trips to the doctor, Qardio is releasing the QardioArm – a wearable blood pressure band that is completely integrated with iOS.
LAS VEGAS, CES 2014 – Chatting on Facetime with friends is great. That is until your double-comes barreling over the screen. We’ve seen people go to some pretty extreme lengths to overcome the unflattering Facetime camera angles, but Brookstone is introducing a new product at CES that finally gives users a Facetime facelift without the need for cosmetic surgery.
iTOi Booth is a case/console that goes over your iPad and uses a patented optical lens system perscription to adjust the camera angle of your iPad so your eyes are level with the screen when Facetiming. The result is direct eye contact with the other person on the screen and a more natural appearance, but will anyone want to lockup their iPad in a gigantic console just to look prettier on Facetime?
Here’s video of iToi Booth in action:
This is Cult of Mac’s exclusive column written by an actual Apple Store Genius who answers all your questions about working at an Apple Store. Our genius must remain anonymous, but other than “Who are you, anyway?” ask anything you want about what goes on behind that slick store facade.
This week our Genius answers why the iPhone screen can be repaired in stores while the iPad has to be shipped away from special care. We also discuss whether working at the Apple Store can be turned into a solid career, plus the top 5 most annoying things customers do at the Apple Store.
Got a question you want the inside scoop on? Send us your questions and the answers will be published first in Cult of Mac’s Magazine on Newsstand. Send your questions to newsATcultofmac.com with “genius” in the subject line.
Q: What you are never allowed to say to customers?
Employees are taught not to use certain words that might tarnish the image of the brand. We are constantly in a struggle to portray Apple as positively as possible so that our customers return to buy from us again.
Here’s an idea of some of guidance I received when going through training.
Q: Is there a central management tool I can use to manage multiple Apple TVs on the same network?
Unfortunately, there’s not right now, but I wouldn’t rule it out in the future. The Apple TV was called a “hobby” for years until 12 months or so ago when Captain Cook said TV is an area of intense interest. Apple hasn’t made any big changes to the Apple TV for years now. I suspect Apple will release some big new features for Apple TV in 2014, but I don’t have any insider knowledge about it.
Q: Why does Apple not want customers to jailbreak iPhones? Have often do people bring in jailbroken iPhones for support?
Modifications made to iOS can cause security vulnerabilities, instability, shortened battery life, and other issues. The iPhone is different than many other devices in that it has a closed file system which means you can’t browse the files on your iPhone like you would on a Mac. It is set up this way to be more secure from malware and to prevent viruses or bugs.
Jailbreaking the iPhone opens up this file system in a way allowing apps to be installed outside of the app store and allowing changes to the functionality of the iPhone software. While this can mean opening your iPhone up to a whole new set of features, it can also mean losing the protection of Apple’s walled garden.
Jailbroken devices aren’t too common in the Apple Store as most people have learned to restore devices to Apple’s software before service. Every once in a while I find an iPhone running the forbidden software. Usually it means just restoring the iPhones software back to the most current update. Occasionally, we deny service if issues arise from the unauthorized modification.
Rather than slogging through a lake of reviews to find something you’re just going to put down after 30 minutes, Cult of Mac has once again waded through the iTunes store to compile a list of the best new movies, albums and books to come out this week.
Enjoy!
2013 was an enormous year for Apple. Yes, there were hyped keynotes galore, fabulous new products, record breaking sales, and much, much more. But 2013 was about more than just hardware for Apple Inc. During Tim Cook’s second full-year reigning over Apple we saw the CEO really settle into his role helming the largest tech company in the world while Jony Ive’s influence grew to greater heights than in the Jobs-era as he spread his design tentacles from hardware to software.
Jony and Tim weren’t the only stars of 2013 though. There was the up-and-coming VP of software engineering Craig Federighi and Craig Federighi’s Hair, while Apple’s hiring of Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts received heaps of praise from both the financial, tech, and fashion markets. Oh and don’t forget about goons like David Einhorn, Carl Icahn and even cranky old John McCain getting their jabs in at Apple throughout the year.
Here’s Cult of Mac’s look back on Apple in the year 2013:
Rather than slogging through a lake of year-end lists to find something you’re just going to put down after 30 minutes, Cult of Mac has once again waded through iTunes to compile a list of the best new movies, albums and books to come out in 2013.
Enjoy!
Pretty much everyone picked Kayne West’s Yeezus as the album of the year, and while I really enjoyed the different direction and sounds Ye slayed us with, I was more impressed with J. Cole’s sophomore album Born Sinner.
In year filled with pop megastars and divine rap albums, good, solid rock was hard to find but the Arctic Monkeys’ latest album AM provided just the right amount of distortion, power and melody with Do I Wanna Know earning more repeats listens on my Rdio list than almost any other song this year.
How many times did you listen to Random Access Memories this year? 13? 50? 112? It doesn’t matter, because every single spin of this record was a delight as Daft Punk wooed us with their beats for the best album of summer.
iTunes
This darling sister trio from Los Angeles created their addictive sound with a combination of R&B, pop, classic rock and more, to create one of the most impressive debut albums of the year. Everything about HAIM is a labor of love. Danielle, Este and Alana won’t do anything if they don’t feel totally comfortable with presenting it, Valley girl tics, snorting laughter and all.
Even the best of artists are supposed to fizzle out after their fourth or fifth album, but Tegan and Sara’s seventh effort Hearthtrob was one of their best albums in nearly 10 years. The sisters busted out new songs about regret, failed romance, solitude and self-loathing for their most adult-themed album yet that still managed to feel amazing.
If Kanye’s not making the list, we have to give a spot to one of his most visible proteges – Pusha T. After having his first solo album pushed back for years, Push’s My Name Is My Name served up some of the MC’s finest lyrical flows and combined them with more minimalist production to deliver one of the most compelling rap albums of the year.
Vampire Weekend rose to prominence on a tsunami of hype in 2008 with their fun guitar licks and tales of college romance, but Ezra Koenig and his band have matured into some of the best songwriters of our time with their phenomenal album “Modern Vampires of the City” that spins a chorus of new songs about love and loss while still being one of the funnest bands to listen to.
I’m almost ashamed to admit how much I listened to The Bones of What You Believe this year. Mostly because it’s like totally a hipster album, but also because I think I’ve been hypnotized by The Scottish trio’s explosive pulsating songs that are layered into some sort of neon electric masterpiece.
by Mark Fainaru-Wada and Steve Fainaru
Maybe I just watch too much SportsCenter, but I don’t recall any sports book making as much noise this year as League of Denial which sent shockwaves through the NFL with its painful stories of NFL players who have suffered football-related concussions and the repercussions of the sport.
The Goldfinch starts off with a bang – literally – as a 13-year-old New Yorker named Theo and his mother are rocked by an explosion at a New York museum. Theo survives the blast, but his mother doesn’t, leading to 800-pages detailing the aftermath of his experience over the course of a decade and a half.
The book moves us through the life of Theo as an adult, as he drifts between the drawing rooms of the rich and the dusty labyrinth of antiques in his shop. He is alienated and at the center of a narrowing, ever more dangerous circle as the novel unfolds with a healthy serving of suspense.
Rather than focusing on the culture gap between Bengali immigrants and their Americanized offspring, Jhumpa Lahiri’s work for her second novel takes a turn by exploring a family that is bound together by painful tragedy and bad choices more than by love. Reactions from critics have been mixed despite Lowland’s nomination for the National Book Award, but the Lahiri’s characters are just vivid and lonely as some of her best short stories, making Lowland a must-read for 2013.
Our Newsstand editor recommended David McRaney’s second book to me earlier this year and proved to be one of the funnest and most insightful reads of 2013 thanks to McRaney’s wonderfully smart and entertaining commentary on scientific studies related to self delusion. You Are Now Less Dumb is grounded in the idea that we all believe ourselves to be objective observers of reality–except we’re not. But that’s okay, because our delusions keep us sane.
by Scott Anderson
It seems like not a week goes by without some news reports of violence in the Middle East, but if you want to dig into the history of the region that shaped the problems, dive into Lawrence in Arabia, a group biography that weaves the stories of legendary British officer T.E. Lawrence, who played a key role in the Arab revolt against the Ottoman Turks during World War I; German Curt Prufer, who conspired with the Ottomans; Zionist agronomist Aaron Aaronsohn, and American oil company representative William Yale.
by Hilton Als
White Girls, Hilton Als’s first book since The Women fourteen years ago, finds one of The New Yorker’s boldest cultural critics deftly weaving together his brilliant analyses of literature, art, and music with fearless insights on race, gender, and history. The result is an extraordinary, complex portrait of “white girls,” as Als dubs them—an expansive but precise category that encompasses figures as diverse as Truman Capote and Louise Brooks, Malcolm X and Flannery O’Connor. It’s the best book you probably never heard of this year.
by John Brockman
Fans of You Are Now Less Dumb will probably also enjoy John Brockman’s compilation of explanations on everyday occurrences. In This Explains Everything, Brockman asked experts in numerous fields and disciplines to come up with their favorite explanations for everyday occurrences. Why do we recognize patterns? Is there such a thing as positive stress? Are we genetically programmed to be in conflict with each other? Only instead of having to spend years reading research paper for the answer you’re presented with elegant answers to 150 questions for the world’s scientific minds.
by George Saunders
While Jhumpa Lahiri decided to make another go at writing novels, George Saunders went with what he does best with his fourth collection of rambunctious and original short stories. Tenth of December shows why Saunders is one of the most inventive writers of his generation. The honest, accessible collection has earned nods as a National Book Award finalist and showcases the manic energy of Saunders that few writers possess.
by James McBride
John Brown’s disastrous raid on Harpers Ferry has already been retold by countless Civil War buffs, but you’ve never heard a retelling of the events leading up to it in as an imaginative a way as James McBride’s The Good Lord Bird.
The Spectacular Now was one of the most surprising movies I saw in 2013 even though the plot sounds like its just another teen-angst-drama movie. The film focus on tale of Sutter Keely as he finishes off his senior year of high school and falls in love for a good girl despite his reputation as a wise-ass troublemaker. The movie starts off as a unlikely romance tale but then unfolds into a charming, insightful look at youth with snapshots of the confusion and passion as Keely deals with family drama, friends moving on, in this wonderful coming of age movie based on the book by Tim Tharp.
Watching Matthew McConaughey morph from everyone’s favorite shirtless surfer bro to a serious character driven actor over the last two to three years has been quite amazing, but no film showcases McConaughey’s talent more than Dallas Buyers Club.
Steve Carell usually plays the exact same lovable goof in every movie, which is one of the reasons why The Way Way Back is so good as we get to see him take on the role of a sleazy, condescending boyfriend in this endearing coming-of-age tale about shy 14 year-old boy named Duncan who has trouble fitting in.
I only just got around to watching Fruitvale Station last night, but holy crap is this movie a stab in the gut. It quickly jumped into my top 10 list thanks to the performance of Michael B. Jordan in the role of Oscar Grant III, a 22-year-old Bay Area resident, who crosses paths with friends, enemies, family, and strangers on the last day of 2008.
Technically, Django Unchained came out at the tail end of last year, but I don’t care. Cristoph Waltz’s performance is so perfectly hilarious he won a Golden Globe for his portrayal of Dr. King Schultz and Jamie Lee Fox is both hilarious and brutal, but the real kicker is watching the greatest movie star of our generation fill the shoes of the abhorrent slave trader Calvin Candies.
Have I mentioned how bad ass Matthew McConaughey is as an actor now? If a movie about a drug dealing cowboy with AIDS isn’t your thing, check out McConaughey’s other incredible film Mud, about two young boys who encounter a fugitive and form a pact to help him evade the bounty hunters on his trail and to reunite him with his true love.
Formula One has never ever peaked my interest during my past 28 years of existence until Thor himself got behind the wheel. Rush is a re-creation of the merciless 1970s rivalry between Formula One rivals James Hunt and Niki Lauda. Hemsworth fans will undoubtedly fall in love with his portrayal of Hunt, but the most intriguing character in the movie is actually the calculated, obsessive little rat, Niki Lauda.
2013 was packed with big budget action movies featuring huge stars and even bigger comic book characters, but my favorite action movie of the year was Pacific Rim. The film doesn’t have much to offer in regards to amazing acting performances – although Idris Elba and Charlie Day give memorable efforts – but it does boast a shit ton of incredible fight scenes between the colossal Yager machines and nasty Kaiju monsters. It’s absolutely ridiculous but you won’t be able to take your eyes away from the visual spectacle of robots and godzilla-like monsters destroying the largest cities in the world without breaking a sweat.
The world was supposed to end in 2012 but instead we were served two great apocalyptic comedies this year with This Is The End and Simon Pegg’s The World’s End. Both films feature a great cast of supporting actors crawling through the end of humankind while all-too-ready to dispense some of the best cracks of the year, but I have to give the nod to The World’s End as the funniest movie of the year thanks to the creative ways morphs from a character character analysis of guys who peaked in high school and are broken people in adulthood, before robots aliens suddenely attack and all hell breaks loose.
Don Jon
Joseph Gordon-Levitt has risen up as one the hottest young actors around thanks to a string of lead roles in indie film over the past few years, but in 2013 JGL decided to get behind the camera in his first directing role for the hit film Don Jon which he also wrote.
Yes, there’s pulchritude aplenty throughout the film, but rather than throwing sex on the big screen for the sake of sex, Jon and Barbara struggles against a media culture full of false fantasies provides a compelling and honest reflection we all can relate to.
This is Cult of Mac’s exclusive column written by an actual Apple retail store genius who answers all your questions about what it’s like to work at an Apple Store. Our genius must remain anonymous, but other than “Who are you, anyway?” ask anything you want about what goes on behind that slick store facade.
As the year is winding to a close, we revisit the five most top questions you guys asked the genius this year, including tips on escalating to a manager, secrets of the Apple Store, coming clean when your MacBook is waterlogged and more..
If you’ve got a question you want an inside scoop on, send us your questions and the answers will be published first in Cult of Mac’s Magazine on Newsstand. Send your questions to newsATcultofmac.com with “genius” in the subject line.
Q. What’s the most polite way to escalate an issue to a manager?
First, make sure you follow your technician’s protocols. When working on an issue, we have a set of troubleshooting guidelines that we have to follow to try to isolate your issue. We must get that done first before we can get a manager involved, so give us time to get all of the housekeeping issues squared away first. After those are out of the way, you’ll be given a couple of options to fix your issue and at that point you could ask for a manager.
If you’re not satisfied with the options presented by the Apple Specialist or Genius helping you, the best way to ask for a manager is to be straight up. Say, “I don’t think this is right and I’d like to talk to a manager.” Being nice really does go a long way in the Apple Store.
If you throw a temper tantrum, we’re still going to help you, but we’ll basically just do everything down to the letter of the law to resolve your issue and get you out of our hair. However, if you’re polite and friendly, managers will be more willing to go above and beyond the basics to repair that connection you have with the Apple brand.
Keep in mind that requesting a manager isn’t a silver bullet for killing any Apple issue you have. Even when a manager does finally come around, a lot of times they’ll just reaffirm that the Genius is following Apple policy, reiterate your options and go help another customer.
Q. What are some hidden “features” of the Apple Store that most customers don’t know about/notice?
Apple Stores are designed to be more and more efficient every day. Next time you visit a store, take a look around to see some of the hidden features that help the wood-and-steel adorned stores sell as many iDevices as possible. It’s easy to spot our portable Point of Sale (POS) systems which consist of an encased iPod with dedicated apps that allow us to scan products and swipe cards.
What you might not see is the cash drawers at the end of the display tables. With one click these drawers pop open wirelessly for cash transactions. Our special iPods, called EasyPays, can also print receipts to the hidden printers underneath the product tables.
The tote bags that are given to carry out purchases can also be found here. The tables also house security alarms that are triggered if a device is removed from the table. Inside, there’s also a network and power hubs for the display products. You can usually find a couple of card terminals around the store that are used in case of EasyPay issues.
If you’re at the Genius Bar, in the training or setup area and need a quick charge, check under the tables – or bar depending on the store – to find hidden power outlets and ethernet ports for wired network connections, cables not included.
Q. Have you ever worked drunk?
The job can be pretty stressful sometimes. Occasionally, I’ll have a drink before work or on a lunch break. It’s not a bad way to relax and most of the managers at the store don’t care unless you’re always coming in sloppy drunk.
There are always a few situations throughout the day where it’d be great to take a short drink break after helping out a particularly horrible customer, but I don’t make it a habit. Fixing people’s iPhones really isn’t any easier after a few drinks so there are few benefits to being hammered on the job. As for what happens after work, it isn’t uncommon for employees and managers to meet up and toss back a few.
Q. My 30-day-old MacBook Pro had a little accident involving water on the ride home. The screen isn’t working, but it will output video to an external monitor. What’s my best bet when approaching the Genius Bar – pretending I don’t know what happened, or fessing up?
Honesty is the best policy right? The Apple Geniuses are going to find out one way or another that your MacBook is water damaged. It’s better for them to find out from you right away, so fess up to it, but ask them what the best options are.
Ask them what was damaged and what repairs can be done. Sometimes – especially in your case where you purchased it very recently – they may be able to talk to a manager to help you out, so it’s good start off on the right foot.
The Genius Bar is there to fix your computer, but it’s really about fixing your relationship with Apple. Because the company wants to represent itself well and get great customer satisfaction scores, a manager might give you a break and only make you pay a partial amount of the repair, or even hook you up with a free repair.
Q. Am I really getting a NEW iPhone when I pay $49 for Apple to replace a broken iPhone covered by AppleCare+?
My line is that, yes, it is a new iPhone, but Apple terms and conditions state that “Apple may use parts or products that are new or equivalent to new in reliability and performance,” meaning the iPhone you’re getting is really “reconditioned,” not straight from the factory like it is when you buy a brand new iPhone.
We’re told to say that they aren’t “refurbished” because they’ve been totally gutted down to the frame. Apple’s stance is that they really are brand new devices, in the sense that they get a new enclosure, display, and innards, but there are a lot of parts that have been recycled from old iPhones, like the metal frame and some other parts.
We know they’re just rebuilding them. I’ve seen some that had a screw missing, others with a bad display, but it’s only been a small percentage. I’ve seen reconditioned iPhones that lasted twice as long as a new iPhone, so they’re not necessarily worse.
New Years resolutions are just around the corner and if running if your go-to method for shedding the holiday pounds, Nike+ just added a coaching feature to its running app that promises to whip you into shape.
The free app allows users to create running goals like taking on your first 5k, 10k, half-marathon, or marathon, and then lays out a running regiment for you up until the big day of the race. Nike+ Coach trains users by mixing in various distances and running paces throughout you jog and can setup running reminds for you to help get you off the couch.
Here’s what’s new:
This is Cult of Mac’s exclusive column written by an actual Apple Store Genius who answers all your questions about working at an Apple Store. Our genius must remain anonymous, but other than “Who are you, anyway?” ask anything you want about what goes on behind that slick store facade.
This week our Genius answers why the iPhone screen can be repaired in stores while the iPad has to be shipped away from special care. We also discuss whether working at the Apple Store can be turned into a solid career, plus the top 5 most annoying things customers do at the Apple Store.
Got a question you want the inside scoop on? Send us your questions and the answers will be published first in Cult of Mac’s Magazine on Newsstand. Send your questions to newsATcultofmac.com with “genius” in the subject line.
Q: Why can the Apple Store fix my broken iPhone screen in under 30minutes, but when I broke my iPad screen they had to swap it with an entirely new device, rather than just swapping the glass?
Apple really hasn’t made the iPad has repairable as the iPhone quite yet, even for Geniuses. Because of the design of the iPad display, when certain components break we have no choice but to swap your iPad for a new one and send the broken unit to be refurbished.
Right now it’s impossible to pop-off the iPads’ display and replace it with a new one due to all the glue Apple uses to keep it secure in the frame. With the iPhone, we can turn out the screws at the bottom and access a number of different components that can be replaced, like the vibration motor, speakers, camera, receiver and more.
The iPad is designed to be as thin as possible and I guess that meant Jony felt sacrifices to repairability outweigh the benefit of thinner and lighter iPad. Apple hasn’t developed a system yet for us to reattach iPad displays and looking at how thin everything is becoming, I’m not hopeful that will change soon.
Q: How long have you been working at the Apple Store? Are there any opportunities to make a career out of it and would you recommend it?
I have been working at the Apple Store just short of two years now. I started in a part-time position at the Genius Bar as a Family Room Specialist, a sort of lower-level genius that handles the mobile support queues and a few other tasks like training sessions. I applied to work full-time after I had learned the ropes and shortly after I was promoted to Genius. Despite the seemingly high turnaround, the fight for the better paying positions, like genius, can be pretty tough. There is a lot of competition. Most of the management positions require management experience, especially in retail, but on some occasions the experienced and qualified geniuses gets promoted to a management position.
For me, working at Apple has helped me develop and grow each day. It is a happy place to work, most of the time. Difficult customers and crazy workloads can sometimes make it hard to keep positive but it’s these people that succeed best at the Apple Store. In the end, It’s just a job for me. One that looks good on the resume. If you can get one of the higher paying roles and stay positive in the craziness that is the Apple Store you can definitely make a career out of it.
Q: What are your top five customer pet peeves?
Apple’s new tear-jerking Christmas commercial Misunderstood has quickly been lauded as one of the company’s best iPhone commercials in years. The syrupy-sweet ad pays homage to the holiday season with a medley of cliché family Christmas scenes while a sullen teenage boy sits in the background nose deep into his iPhone, only to find that the sad teen was really filming a beautiful family movie the entire time.
The ad is heartwarming, maybe even horrible, but also completely unrealistic as the teen shot vertical videos that magically switched to portrait orientation.
Business Insider and others have already pointed out the huge flaw in Apple’s commercial, but Youtuber Andy Nyugen has taken it a step further by making a parody of what Apple’s commercial would look like if it were real-life.
Take a look:
Google Glass isn’t expected to hit the market until sometime next year , but if you just can’t wait another minute to feel the tingle of the futuristic spectacles on your face you can at least set a placeholder in your heart and on your iPhone with the companion app that just hit iTunes.
MyGlass, the official Google Glass companion app for iPhone, was just released on the App Store today for free. The app delivers better compatibility between iOS and Glass by letting users configure and manage Glass devices from the app.
Unless you already won a pair of Google Glass there’s not much to see, but the app does finally give iOS users the ability to screencast what you see on Glass to your iPhone – something Android users have enjoyed for a while now – as well as option to add Glassware and contacts.
Here are the release notes:
As part of the ongoing legal saga with Apple, Samsung’s lawyers have filed a request with Judge Lucy Koh requesting a retrial of November’s case, which Samsung says Apple only won because it totally race baited the jury to get sympathy.
Two juries have already slammed Samsung with astronomical fines during its patent trials with Apple in the U.S., but the South Korean handset maker says it’s not ready to stop the fight yet and is asking for Judge Koh to award them with a judgment as matter of law in its favor, or a massive adjustment of the damages Apple was rewarded.
Here’s Samsungs’ explanation why the court should let them off the hook for the $379 million in fees Apple was just awarded :
Apple has released its first major update for OS X Mavericks today with OS X Update 10.9.1 that promises to fix many of the Mail issues users have experienced since upgrading to the new OS.
After spending over a month in beta the new update fixes issues with Gmail in OS X Mail if you’re using custom settings. Smart Mailboxes and search are also more reliable in the update and it fixes issues with contact groups not working properly along with improvements to Shared Links in Safari.
The free update is now available for Mac users in the Mac App Store or by check for software updates from your Apple menu.
Apple fanboys dream of getting inside the locked gates of heaven Apple HQ in Cupertino but if you’d rather not brave blitzing past the security guards to see all the toys inside Jony’s design studio, you can now get a complete Minecraft tour of Apple’s cubed campus from your computer.
Over the last two years Michael Steeber has meticulously recreated every detail of Apple’s headquarters this mind blowing Minecraft map. Not only did The Steeb nail the entryway and the major buildings, but you also get a look at the avenues, cafes, basketball & volleyball courts, atrium, parking lots, even the BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse across the street.
Take a full tour of the campus in the video below:
LEGOs have been morphing Apple products into dinosaurs and miniature cities for as long as I can remember, but rarely are the Apple/LEGO mashups as useful as the twist a pair of advertising professionals from Norway put on this Macintosh Classic.
Jason Kinsella and Charlotte Bakken decided to combine their love of Apple and LEGOs to create a touch screen Macintosh Classic. The duo from Oslo started by recreating a scale model of the 1984 Apple machine but had to make a few adjustments to the design to fit the iPad, resulting in a fun looking dock you can to sit back and watch a movie from.
Checkout the entire transformation in the time lapse video below:
Beyonce surprised us last Friday by exclusively releasing her fifth album, BEYONCÉ, on iTunes without even a whisper of a warning that it was coming out. The sneak attack was aimed at stopping pirates from siphoning off Queen B’s honey and it looks like it was a wild success.
Apple announced today that BEYONCÉ has become the fast selling album ever on iTunes with an ungodly 828,773 albums sold on the first three days alone. Who says you can’t sell a million records in a week anymore?
Apple seeded the second beta of iOS 7.1 to developers nearly a month after 7.1 beta 1 was released. Once again, Apple’s beta doesn’t contain any major new features but there are a couple useful tweaks that you’ll enjoy hidden among all the bug fixes, performance improvements and speedier animations.
Here are the five biggest changes Apple made to iOS 7.1 today:
Apple has just seeded the second beta for iOS 7.1 after it released the 7.1 beta 1 nearly a month ago. Registered developers can grab the update by logging into the Developer Center.
Apple TV is also getting a new beta build for developers today as Apple has made the Apple TV Software beta 2 available to devs today, alongside the newly released Xcode 5.1 Developer Preview 2.
We’re still waiting for more info on the new goodies, but we’ll update you on new features once we’ve got them installed.
In the meantime, here are the direct download links: