To celebrate Bastille Day, the start of 1789’s French Revolution, Apple has changed the homepage of its Apple France website to show a picture of the French Tricolor flag.
The twist? In a neat touch, Apple has tied the tribute into its acclaimed “Shot on iPhone” campaign by making the flag out of a variety of blue, white and red-filtered photographs taken by French iPhone owners.
July 14, 2008: Apple crows that its newly opened App Store hit a massive 10 million downloads in its first 72 hours.
“The App Store is a grand slam, with a staggering 10 million applications downloaded in just three days,” Steve Jobs said in a statement issued eight years ago today. “Developers have created some extraordinary applications, and the App Store can wirelessly deliver them to every iPhone and iPod touch user instantly.”
Unexpectedly massive smash hit Pokémon Go has made its European debut — arriving in Germany as part of a Europe-wide rollout, which suggests a wider expansion to other European countries over the coming days.
July 12, 2004: Apple boasts that the iTunes Music Store has sold its 100,000,000th song, and marks the occasion with a generous gift for the lucky downloader.
The song in question is Zero 7’s “Somersault (Dangermouse remix),” purchased by Kevin Britten from Hays, Kansas. The 20-year-old receives a personal phone call from Apple CEO Steve Jobs congratulating him. Britten also gets a 17-inch PowerBook, a 40GB iPod and a gift certificate for a massive 10,000 (!) iTunes songs.
Apple has donated $1 million to the efforts of the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation (CFPA), following China’s worst flood in years.
“Our thoughts are with all those devastated by the flooding along the Yangtze River,” Tim Cook wrote in a note on Chinese social networking site Weibo, which he first joined back in May 2015.
Having long defied the rest of the declining PC industry, Mac sales have finally begun to fall. A new report from Gartner claims Mac sales declined 4.9 percent in this year’s second quarter.
We’re less than two months away from the iPhone 7’s public unveiling, and yet another image has surfaced online that purports to showcase Apple’s next-gen smartphone in all its (relatively unchanged) glory.
Check it out below.
July 11, 2008: The iPhone 3G goes on sale, becoming the first Apple product in history to sell more than 1 million units in its first weekend.
Building on the original iPhone by adding GPS, 3G data and a higher-quality build, the iPhone 3G also coincided with the launch of iOS 2, which introduced push email, turn-by-turn navigation and, most importantly, the App Store.
From the augmented reality Pokémon game everyone’s talking about to a notable update to disappearing messaging app Snapchat, we’ve sifted through this week’s most exciting apps to bring you the ones you absolutely need to download now.
Check out our picks below. Trust us, this is the way you want to spend Sunday!
July 8, 1991: The first QuickTime beta arrives, making it possible for people to play movies on their Macs for the first time, with no extra hardware needed.
The innovative software showcased Apple’s commitment to pushing technological boundaries and set the stage for the seamless integration of video into everyday computing.
From being able to use Apple Pay for bank transfers to using it to pay for items on the web, Apple continues to show how serious it is about its mobile payments service.
Today, Apple Pay continued its expansion by arriving in Switzerland for the first time.
We’ve read about people selling their organs to get their hands on an iPhone, but I’ve never before heard of a couple willing to face-off with a live alligator for one.
That’s the somewhat bizarre situation a Florida couple found themselves in recently, however, when 24-year-old Anthony Larrimore dropped his iPhone while snapping pictures of an alligator in Fort Myers — only for the ‘gator to take a shine to the smartphone.
The only problem? The iPhone had pictures of Larrimore’s 10-month-old son on it.
July 7, 1997: Apple CEO Gil Amelio officially steps down from his role, turning the company over to the returning Steve Jobs, who immediately begins making his presence felt.
If you’re looking to pinpoint a turning point when Apple began the transition from the ailing company it was in the first half of the 1990s to the powerhouse it is today, this is it!
July 6, 2011: Amazon wins a landmark verdict against Apple over its proprietary use of the term “App Store” — opening up the possibility of other rival services calling their own app stores by the phrase Apple had helped popularize.
The case highlights just how central the concept of downloadable apps had become to the mobile experience, only three years after Apple launched its iOS App Store.
If you’ve been waiting to get your Ash Ketchum or, gasp, even Team Rocket on, you’ll be pleased to know that Pokémon GO, a.k.a. the first original Pokémon game for mobile, is rolling out around the world.
Unsurprisingly for a company with the kind of success Apple has experienced, it is quite adept at driving a hard bargain.
According to a new report, Apple has been trying to maintain its high gross margin at a time of slowing smartphone demand by asking its suppliers to work for less money. Major suppliers Largan Precision, Foxconn and Pegatron Technology have all been affected.
As part of Apple’s ongoing mission to be a “force for good” in the world, the company is encouraging iPhone users to register as organ donors, courtesy of an upcoming software update for its Health app.
In an effort to compete with Apple Music, Google is offering a special July 4 four-month free trial of Play Music for users who live in the United States. The offer is available only to U.S. customers who haven’t previously signed up to the service.
Somehow the weekend is already half-way gone, but to help you celebrate your remaining hours of freedom we’ve combed through the week’s best apps to help you sort the wheat from the chaff.
Whether it’s a fantastic LEGO Star Wars game or a fantastic calendar app, we’re confident we’ve got what you’re looking for.
Check out our list below.
From Taylor Swift to Drake, Apple’s pretty adamant on coming across as artist-friendly when it comes to Apple Music. But one artist who’s apparently less than impressed with Apple’s streaming music service is Bon Iver singer-songwriter Justin Vernon.
In a pair of tweets sent today, Vernon referred to Apple Music as “literally a horrid platform” and slammed Apple for its “commercialization.” Check out his comments below.
July 1, 1976: The Apple 1 goes on sale, becoming the first computer ever sold by the Apple Computer Company.
Arriving the same month Jimmy Carter was nominated for U.S. president, Family Feud debuted on TV, and the United States celebrated the 200th anniversary of its Declaration of Independence, the Apple 1 is only produced in small numbers, and sells for the unusual price of $666.66.
The iPhone’s 3.5mm headphone jack, rumored to be conspicuous in its absence from the upcoming iPhone 7, has lasted more than twice the length of a regular Apple port.
Having first appeared in an Apple product with 1984’s Macintosh, the headphone jack has been a staple of Apple devices for 32 years at this point. The average Apple I/O standard, on the other hand? According to a new report, that number averages out at only around 15 years. With the transition away from wired connections, many travelers are now looking for the best airplane Bluetooth adapter to keep using their favorite headphones seamlessly.
Given its position as the company’s earliest arch-nemesis, Apple’s partnership with IBM was massive news when it was announced a couple of years ago. But it wasn’t the first time the two companies had agreed to help one another.
On 30 June 1993, Apple and IBM shipped their first collaborative product: the catchily-named “SNA.ps 5250” emulation software package, which for the first time let Mac users run software available previously only for IBM PCs. It was the first step in allowing Macs and PCs to talk to each other in a way that didn’t trap their respective users in proprietary ecosystem hell.
The iPhone went on sale nine years ago today, and to mark the momentous occasion a Florida man is suing Apple for a whopping $10 billion and 1.5 percent of all future Apple earnings — because he claims to have come up with the idea for Apple’s breakthrough mobile device all way back in 1992.
The iPhone 7 may not be the major refresh that Apple’s full-number iPhone releases usually are, but it could feature an intriguing new addition in the form of a “Force Touch Home button,” according to analysts at Cowen and Company.