Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems ... and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
In a scary situation which took place on Wednesday, employees at a Californian Apple Store had to be evacuated and rushed to hospital when they became dizzy and nauseous after handling a package which was delivered to the store.
An old saying states that those who can, do; those who can’t, teach — and to this we should maybe add that those teachers who can’t afford the latest Apple products on their salary, steal.
That’s according to a new report stating that a former Caldwell School District teacher in Idaho has pleaded guilty to grand theft charges, after buying (and then failing to hand over) a plethora of Apple gadgets — including two iPod touches, three iPad 2s, a 27-inch iMac, and three iPad minis.
Forget 35mm, the iPhone is the future of filming. Photo: HypeBeast Photo: HypeBeast
It’s easy to think that Steve Jobs’ biggest contribution to movies was his work at Pixar. In fact, according to no less an authority than Walt Disney and Pixar chief creative officer John Lasseter, Jobs’ biggest lasting influence on cinema could turn out to be none other than the invention of the iPhone.
Speaking at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Tuesday, Lasseter said he can easily see a day when the big award-winning movies we watch are produced by filmmakers using only their iPhones and GoPro cameras.
Fassbender as Steve Jobs. Photo: Sean Nung/Instagram Photo: Sean Nung/raqu3l
It’s no secret that Michael Fassbender — the actor probably best-known for playing Magneto in X-Men: First Class and Days of Future Past — wasn’t writer Aaron Sorkin’s first choice for the role of Steve Jobs in the upcoming biopic.
But in a new interview, Fassbender says the screenwriter’s early lack of faith in him isn’t something he’s too bothered by, and puts it down to a difference of opinion.
"Don't buy from me, Argentina!" should be the message of iPhone smugglers. Photo: Evita, Buena Vista Pictures
An illegal shipment of gadgets worth almost $800,000, including 500 Apple products, has been seized by Argentine authorities.
The products were on their way to Argentina from the U.S., with the aim of avoiding the import restrictions the country puts on smartphones, tablets, and similar items. Inspectors discovered around 260 iPhones, 60 MacBooks, numerous iPads, and more as part of the raid.
Just hurl it into the air and start moving. Photo: Lily Camera/The Verge
Forget about your run-of-the-mill selfie stick, the future of mobile photography could very well be a new easy-to-use, self-flying camera drone — which users launch into the air like a frisbee and which will then follow them around capturing gorgeous HD video as it does so.
Called the Lily Camera, the rugged and waterproof camera drone boasts a 12MP 1080p camera, is small and light enough to fit in a regular backpack, and functions by way of both GPS and the latest computer vision algorithms.
Tim Cook is turning on the charm offensive. Photo: News.cn Photo: Tim Cook
Tim Cook’s visiting Beijing at the moment and, when he’s not posting from popular micro-blogging network Weibo, he’s meeting with some pretty high-powered people.
Among them is Chinese vice premier Liu Yandong, who Cook met with on Tuesday to discuss how Apple can do more to promote scientific and educational cooperation between China and the United States.
Three of Steve Jobs’ old business cards — each representing a different phase of his career — have sold at auction for a whopping $10,050.
Spanning the years 1984 to 1990, the cards name Jobs as president of NeXT and chairman of the board at Apple and Pixar, the three companies Jobs was deeply involved with during his career.
AOL just got bought by the king of mobile. Photo: Verizon Photo: Verizon
Mobile giant Verizon has announced that it will acquire the former media kingpin AOL in an all-cash deal worth $4.4 billion.
Although AOL is virtually an afterthought these days, Verizon has said that it will use the deal to help push its online video content, which it has made efforts to become a leader in.
Notably, the deal also makes Verizon the owner of The Huffington Post, Techcrunch, Engadget and others.
Some upset users say their new MacBooks come with dents. Photo: tizi
Some customers who have ordered Apple’s gorgeous new 12-inch Retina MacBook are in for an unpleasant surprise. After prizing the pristine white lid off the device’s box, they’re discovering that their new notebook is already damaged.
The complaint was noted by Apple accessory maker tizi, whose newly arrived MacBook came with two large dents on its underside. And the company thinks it’s discovered the cause.
The Apple Watch is already improving lives. Photo: CNN Money
For many years Apple has been a great company when it comes to pushing the accessibility of its products for disabled users — from features like VoiceOver, which allow for descriptions of apps to be read aloud for the blind, to FaceTime which represented a breakthrough in allowing deaf people to communicate with one another using a mobile device.
In a new video for CNN Money, the latest step of that evolution is shown as a deaf Apple Watch owner demonstrates how he can use the device to control his hearing aid.
Yep, the iPhone 6s is sounding better than ever. Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac Photo: Cult of Mac
The iPhone 6s and 6s Plus may just be the biggest incremental “s” upgrades Apple has ever done, according to a new report.
As per well-connected KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the iPhone 6s will feature twice the RAM of its predecessors, a significant processor upgrade, better camera, new color option, sapphire display, strengthened shell, improved Touch ID and Force Touch.
Just about the only thing that would stay the same, in fact, are the two size options!
Apple's 12.9-inch iPad Pro just keeps sounding better. Photo: CURVED
The 12.9-inch iPad Pro could boast enhanced touch sensitivity while also incurring fewer production costs for Apple, according to a new report coming from the supply chain — suggesting that Apple is rethinking the material used for its tablet touch panel.
What would Yeezus wear? Photo: Justjared Photo: Justjared
Given his unabashed love for “Jony Ives” (sic) and his status as the “next Steve Jobs,” it was only ever going to be a limited amount of time before Kanye West got his hands on a gold Apple Watch.
What may be slightly more of a surprise is that he didn’t just get the regular 18-karat Apple Watch Edition Apple has handed out to seemingly every celebrity who knocks on its doors, but rather the all-gold custom band unavailable to customers, which only Beyonce and Karl Lagerfeld have been spotted wearing so far.
Netflix is killing it right now, so I’d be inclined to believe founder and CEO Reed Hastings when he chips in with his thoughts on the future of TV.
And, wouldn’t you know it, when he gave a speech about that very subject last week in Berlin, what he described as television’s future sounded a whole lot like what Apple is reported to be unveiling this year.
Apple is spreading its green initiative to China. Photo: Apple
As part of new environmental initiatives, Apple is funding a five year project to manage 1 million acres of forests across China — and Tim Cook has set up an account on the popular Chinese microblogging service Weibo to announce it.
Steve Wozniak thinks the future is all about self-driving cars, but don’t expect him to be putting his money on the rumored Apple Car.
That’s because the Apple co-founder has signed a deal with Cadillac which will see him not only appear in marketing for the firm, but also offering his thoughts in a technical consulting role.
“I will be meeting with Cadillac, offering tech ideas on what belongs [in future vehicles] and what doesn’t,” Woz told a group of more than 200 people attending a recent presentation hosted by BBVA Compass Bank.
Woz and Jobs in their early days at Apple. Photo: Apple
Apple’s not exactly hurting for press coverage these days. There was a time, though, when the company was desperate for any bit of publicity it could drum up. That time was February 1977, when The Apple Computer Company spoke to Kilobaud magazine for a multi-page feature article.
I don’t know whether my favorite bit of the resulting article is the crowing about 10 Apple computers selling in three weeks (the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus sold 10 million in their opening weekend) or Steve Jobs not yet mastering the art of selling by admitting the machine “is not for everybody,” but it makes for fun reading nonetheless.
Goat Simulator is one of the weirdest games to hit iOS since forever, but makers Coffee Stain Studios have come up with a way to make their glitch-filled title even zanier — by incorporating brain-munching zombies.
Hurry up and take my money Apple! Photo: ComputerBild
Given the enormous success of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, Apple’s going to have to pull out all the stops if it hopes to boost sales further with its next major iPhone redesign. This iPhone 7 concept, created by designer extraordinaire Martin Hajek, certainly presents enough of a “wow” factor to do it!
ResearchKit is just as revolutionary as researchers hoped. Photo: Apple Photo: Apple
As the largest crowdsourced medical data-gathering app ever, ResearchKit is arguably one of the most important inventions of recent times. And according to LifeMap Solutions, the company behind inaugural ResearchKit app Asthma Health, it’s more than living up to its promise.
In an official ResearchKit blog post, a rep for the company describes how users are as engaged with Asthma Health — an app which monitors asthma symptoms across a variety of conditions — as they are with social networks and games!
Apple could be about to hand over a whole lot of cash. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Claiming that Apple is infringing on several of its patents, Ericsson has ramped up its legal efforts against the company by expanding lawsuits to cover Germany, Britain and the Netherlands.
“Apple continues to profit from Ericsson’s technology without having a valid license in place,” said Kasim Alfalahi, chief intellectual property officer at Ericsson, adding that he is confident the courts will resolve the matter fairly.
Jeff Williams is the man described by Fortune as "Tim Cook's Tim Cook." Photo: Apple/Cult of Mac Photo: Apple/Cult of Mac
Apple’s operations whiz Jeff Williams will be a speaker at the second Code Conference, held May 26 to 28.
The conference represents a rare opportunity to hear from the man who oversaw the development of the Apple Watch, as well as helping Apple progress from shipping 10 million iPhones in 2008 to more than 74 million in the last three months of 2014 alone.
You know what's cool? A new kind of social network. Photo: Columbia Pictures
Apple could introduce its own iOS-exclusive social network, according to a patent application published today.
Described broadly as “Lifestyle-Based Social Groups,” the application may be used to set up real-world childcare groups, lift-sharing, dining clubs etc., by automatically determining your interests and then pointing you toward similar people.
Spotify is upset that Apple rinses subscription services for money. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Spotify’s not happy about the way that Apple charges a 30 percent fee toward sales thorough its App Store, including subscription services.
The tax structure means that in order for Spotify to make $9.99 per month for its premium service it has had to raise the app subscription price to $12.99 — which prices it out of the market compared to the lower-cost Apple-owned Beats Music service, set to launch this summer.