Luke Dormehl - page 286

Unlike the sapphire crystal used in the Apple Watch and Apple Watch Edition, the low-end Apple Watch Sport uses a scratch-resistant fortified ion-X glass display to protect your next must-have Apple device from the wear-and-tear of its daily grind. But how does it hold up?

Thanks to Lewis Hilsenteger of Unbox Therapy we apparently have our answer. Using ion-X glass covers provided by Apple leaker extraordinaire Sonny Dickson, Hilsenteger runs the glass covers through a gauntlet of keys, knives, steel wool, and different types of sandpaper.

You can check out his video below.

If you’re looking for a picture to illustrate the difference between water-resistant (like the Apple Watch) and waterproof (like no Apple product yet), this one will do perfectly!

The traumatizing photo was posted on Twitter by jilted lover @foolishnessfly2, who decided to get revenge against an ex who had cheated on her by dumping his entire Apple collection in a bathtub full of water.

Needless to say, this is one breakup he’s going to remember. Hope he’s got AppleCare+!

Australian indie developer Belle Gibson — known for her iOS app The Whole Pantry — has publicly admitted that she made up a story about suffering from terminal brain cancer to boost profits.

“No. None of it’s true,” she told The Australian Women’s Weekly magazine when asked if she had ever had cancer. “I am still jumping between what I think I know and what is reality. I have lived it and I’m not really there yet.”

The 26-year-old entrepreneur based her business around telling others how she had overcome cancer through “healthy living” and without the use of conventional medicine. Apple was seemingly so taken with the story that it flew her to Cupertino to work on delivering one of the first wave of Apple Watch apps — although this has since been pulled.

A significant security flaw affecting OS X Yosemite hasn’t been fixed as previously thought, according to a former NSA staffer.

The flaw, known as Rootpipe, is said to have existed since 2011, and could allow an attacker to gain full control of another user’s Mac without requiring authentication.

In what may be one of the most useful Apple Watch apps yet, Microsoft has added the ability for Apple Watch owners to control presentations using their brand new wearable devices.

The update to the existing PowerPoint for iPhone app allows users to switch between slides or check, with the quickest of glances, just how much time has elapsed during a talk, or the total number of slides you have left to show.

I envy the first person in each office who gets to show this off in a board meeting!

Metallica lead guitarist and songwriter Kirk Hammett has lost his super-valuable iPhone. No, it’s not one of those gold-plated ones favored by celebrities like Justin Bieber — it’s the iPhone on which he’d stored 250 riffs for the band’s next album.

In terms of money lost, this has to make you feel better about that time you dropped your iPhone in the bath, right?

Apple is reportedly keeping its options open when it comes to selecting manufacturing partners for the iPhone 6 and Apple Watch by broadening the number of companies it contracts work out to.

In other words, those supply-and-demand issues that have hit Apple in recent years shortly after new product releases could soon be a thing of the past.

New photos of cases reportedly designed for an upcoming 12.9-inch iPad Pro may reveal interesting tidbits about Apple’s long-rumored giant tablet.

Check out the possible details, based on photos from renowned Apple leaker Sonny Dickson, below.

After Steve Jobs, the original Mac, and the iPhone, launch day queues have to be one of the most recognisably Apple phenomenons of them all: something which speaks not only to the crazy number of sales Apple makes, but also to the devotion of its fanbase.

Recently it looked as if Angela Ahrendts was trying to permanently change-up Apple culture — sending an email to Apple Store employees which proclaimed, “The days of waiting in line and crossing fingers for a product are over for our customers.”

Fortunately, to paraphrase Mark Twain, it seems fears that Apple would do away with the excitement of launch day lines have been greatly exaggerated.

We’re living in a golden age for comic book movies, but even with that being the case, it can be kind of rare for a film to arrive in multiplexes, faithfully guided there by its original creator.

Having the original creator also show up as a writer or even director can work wonders, however, as this sextet of comic book cinematic gems prove.

If you missed out on placing a preorder for an Apple Watch because you thought you’d be able to wait until April 24 and then buy one from your local Apple Store, prepare to be disappointed.

That’s because — according to a new memo sent to Apple Store employees by retail chief Angela Ahrendts — no Apple Watches at all will be available to buy as walk-in purchases until June at the earliest: five weeks after Apple’s wearable devices begin shipping.

Apple is reportedly testing two different designs for incorporating Apple Watch-style Force Touch technology into its next iPhone, according to a new report citing the Taiwanese supply chain.

With around five months until the next iPhone is unveiled, Apple is apparently experimenting with different placements for the Force Touch sensor — either locating it between the handset’s outermost protective screen cover and the in-cell touch panel, or else underneath the touch panel backlighting layer.

A chess Grandmaster could be slapped with a 15-year ban after being caught using an iPod touch to cheat.

Georgian champion Gaioz Nigalidze’s strategy involved rushing to the toilet between moves to consult his iOS device, which was reportedly hidden in a cubicle, behind the toilet pan and covered with paper. On it he had stored a chess app which was set up to follow his moves.

Cheating? There’s an app for that.

If you think an Apple Watch Edition is rare, you should try getting your hands on an Apple-1 computer.

Only 63 are known to exist, but you can nab one now — provided you cough up the necessary cash. A working Apple-1, owned by its original purchaser and his family for more than 36 years, has appeared on eBay and is currently carrying a bid of $20,600.

Apple’s new MacBook may be one “for the future” but it’s already had a teardown from our friends over at iFixit, filling you in on all the ways the next-gen notebook differs from its predecessor.

That includes Apple’s butterfly mechanism keys, its Force Touch trackpad, form-fitting layered battery, and, of course, the thinnest, most energy-efficient Retina display ever seen on a Mac.

It’s not just ports the new notebook is missing, however. It’s also one of Apple’s least-repairable notebooks to date!

Anyone who dreams of Apple giving a “This is Sparta!”-style thrust-kick to rival Samsung, forever booting it out of Cupertino’s production process, is going to be sorely disappointed.

If anything, Apple’s leaning more heavily than ever on its longtime frenemy, with new reports claiming Samsung created a standalone team of around 200 employees dedicated exclusively to building new screens for iPads, MacBooks and possibly future Apple Watches.

Tim Cook has been staunchly outspoken in his belief that it’s only a matter of time before China overtakes the U.S. as Apple’s biggest customer.

According to a new report from app analytics company App Annie, that benchmark has now been passed when it comes to app downloads — with China leading the way in the first quarter of 2015.

But which country is winning in the all-important revenue generating category?

Apple’s Russian version of Siri launched earlier this month, and while the presence of the virtual assistant in Russia is certainly welcome, its early bigoted views were not.

According to one YouTube user, Siri not only refused to answer questions about gay bars but went a step further, providing downright homophobic responses. In the video, Siri supposedly claims to be embarrassed by the topic, suggesting that gay marriage is a bit of a downer.

The iPhone is more advanced than it’s ever been, but there’s one thing Apple’s smartphone can do no better than the Nokia 3310 I had when I was a teenager: stop you getting calls at inappropriate times.

That may be about to change, however, as a newly-published patent describes an Instant Message-type system whereby future iPhones could automatically broadcast their user’s status — essentially advising others on whether it’s a good time to ring or not.

Looking for more evidence that China is set to take over from the U.S. as Apple’s biggest market?

According to a report from the Chinese-language news outlet Tencent, Foxconn is currently buying 50,000-60,000 second-hand iPhones per day through worldwide channels, and then selling these on to the Chinese market.

Roughly 80 percent of the iPhones are said to sell through stores in Hong Kong.

Tim Cook has described making Apple Pay available in China “top of the list” in terms of his priorities. Sadly, it seems he’s going to have to wait a bit longer until that dream becomes a reality.

That’s because, despite beginning conversations with China’s eight major banks last year, Apple’s discussions have apparently not gone well — as Chinese banks have been reticent about letting the Cupertino company eat into their existing profits.

IBM has announced a new alliance with Apple (among other companies) to utilize its acclaimed Watson artificial intelligence system to provide personalized insights regarding health data.

For those who don’t remember, Watson was the IBM A.I. which famously defeated two former winners on the gameshow Jeopardy! in 2011 to receive the first place prize of $1 million.

By linking up with Watson, Apple not only solidifies its existing relationship with IBM, but also gains a very powerful ally in its quest to revolutionize the way we think about mobile health with the Apple Watch and iOS 8 Health app.

Up until now, the majority of iPhones have been built in China, but long-time Apple manufacturer Foxconn could be setting its sights on a new developing market: India.

According to the Economic Times, the Foxconn Technology Group is set to pour money into three new facilities in India — based in the country’s Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, and Andhra Pradesh provinces — with a view to building iPhones for its biggest client.

If researchers at Slice Intelligence are to be believed, the Apple Watch scored big when it became available for preorders last week.

How big? Try 957,000 people preordering in the U.S. on Friday alone — with the more-affordable Apple Watch Sport model racking up the biggest number of sales.

Check out more of the breakdown figures and interesting sales stats below.

With reports that it can break elements of Touch ID, there are plenty of reasons to consider not upgrading to iOS 8.3, the latest version of Apple’s mobile OS.

But here’s a very good reason to: according to security researchers, the update fixes a vulnerability which has the potential to render your iPhone almost useless.