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Luke Dormehl - page 283

Thieving educator takes phrase ‘an Apple for teacher’ too far

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If only this story was quite so innocent. Photo: Pioneer Institute
If only this story was quite so innocent. Photo: Pioneer Institute

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.

That’s an A for effort, but a D- for execution.

Walt Disney chief thinks the future of movies is… the iPhone?

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More than a trillion photos were captured in 2015.
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.

Michael Fassbender responds to doubts that he can play Steve Jobs

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Fassbender as Steve Jobs.
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.

Argentine authorities catch massive illegal shipment of Apple devices

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"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.

This sleek camera drone captures selfies from the skies

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lily_drone_GIF.0
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.

Check out a video demonstration below:

U.S.-China relations in good hands as Tim Cook meets with China’s vice premier

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China
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.

Steve Jobs’ business cards sell for $10,000

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Photo:
Three slices of tech history. Photo: Marin School

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.

So who bought them? Read on to find out.

Verizon snaps up AOL for a cool $4.4 billion

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AOL just got bought by the king of mobile.
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.

Customers complain their new MacBooks come pre-dented

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Some users are complaining their new MacBooks come pre-dented. Photo:
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 the lives of deaf users

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The Apple Watch is already improving lives. Photo: CNN Money
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.

iPhone 6s could be Apple’s biggest ‘incremental’ upgrade of all time

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Apple is hoping for big things from its next-gen iPhone.
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!

I ain’t saying he’s a gold-digger, but Kanye already has an Apple Watch Edition

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Kanye
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 CEO’s vision for the future of TV sounds just like Apple’s

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Netflix's CEO knows his stuff.
Netflix's CEO knows his stuff.

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.

Never mind the Apple Car, Woz is backing Cadillac

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tesla

Photo: Steve

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.

Read the first ever article written about Apple

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Wozniak: Steve Jobs was driven by a desire to be important
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.

iPhone 7 concept features a home button built into the screen

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Photo:
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!

Check out more of Hajek’s pictures below.

ResearchKit as popular as social media, says medical dev

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ResearchKit is just as revolutionary as researchers hoped.
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!

Ericsson takes lawsuit against Apple to Europe, wants up to $725 million per year

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Apple raked in the cash last quarter.
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.

Apple operations guru Jeff Williams to speak at Code Conference

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The man described by Fortune as
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.

Face-Cook, Ive-Space, or Schi-tter? Apple patent hints at new social network

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You know what's cool? A new kind of social network. Photo: Columbia Pictures
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 thinks App Store charges are squashing the competition

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Apple raked in the cash last quarter.
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.