The online Apple Store is back up and, as many suspected, there’s a new low-end 21.5-inch iMac for sale.
Featuring a 1.4Ghz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor, 8 GB memory, a 500GB hard drive, and integrated Intel HD Graphics 5000, the iMac is available for shipping within 24 hours at $1,099. The specs were leaked earlier today when French Apple website Macplus posted the below image of a box for the new iMac.
One week ago, the Taiwanese actor and racing car driver Jimmy Lin posted pictures of what looked to be a legit 4.7-inch iPhone 6. Today, he’s followed up by sharing a picture on his Weibo account depicting Lin sitting next to what appears to be the 5.5-inch iPhone 6.
While this could possibly be a dummy unit, Lin has a history of teasing images of future iPhone models — starting with last year’s image of him with an iPhone 5c. A recent report seemed to confirm that last week’s 4.7-inch iPhone 6 was, in fact, a beta unit that had been sent out for testing purposes.
eBay has expanded its Sell For Me service — in which valets will sell your stuff on eBay in exchange for a 30% commission — with the launch of a great new app called eBay Valet.
The process of using the app is very straightforward. Simply snap a picture of the item you want to sell, then enter (or speak) a description of it. Within 30 minutes, your “valet” will then respond with a valuation range. If you have a box to hand, eBay will then send you a shipping label. If not, the company will mail you out a free, prepaid box instead.
You’re then able to log onto eBay.com to watch the sale take place under your valet’s account. Once this process is finished, you get to keep 70% of the profits — which are deposited to your PayPal account.
From telling Tim Cook not to be dumb, to proclaiming himself the next Steve Jobs, Kanye West can always be trusted to chime in with a nuanced take on Apple business. Now the newly-married creative genius has offered his two cents on the reason behind Apple’s still-unexplained $3 billion acquisition of Beats Music.
Speaking at the Cannes Lions festival, West says that last year’s collaboration between Jay Z and Samsung — in which 1 million Galaxy owners were able to pick up free copies of the rapper’s Magna Carta Holy Grail album — pushed Apple to acqui-hire Beats cofounders Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre. Claiming that Apple has lost touch with its culture since Jobs’ death in 2011, West thinks that the Beats deal allowed Apple to buy back some of the cultural relevance it has lost.
And lo did news of the yonder Age of Empires game for iOS continue to flow!
Known as Age of Empires: World Domination, this is the forthcoming expansion of the award-winning (and much loved) Age of Empires series, which allows players to create an empire by pitting civilizations against one another. Developed by KLabGames, we’re promised a game that maintains the focus on strategy and tactics but is designed specifically for the touch gestures of an iOS device.
While Amazon’s locked in an ongoing dispute with publishing house Hachette — which has resulted in the publisher’s books being pulled from Amazon’s shelves — Apple’s more than happy to take advantage of the situation.
Apple’s iTunes store is currently promoting a sale on digital versions of popular Hachette titles, which includes upcoming books from the likes of James Patterson and J.K. Rowling.
A simple glance at the stunning games perched atop the App Store game lists reveals we are experiencing a golden age for mobile gaming.
From the surreal, mind-bending Monument Valley to the Pixar movie brought to life that is Leo’s Fortune, 2014 has seen some of the most startlingly original gaming experiences in years arrive on iOS.
“I do feel like we are in a boom period,” says John Comes, design director at Uber Entertainment, the company behind games like the newly released Toy Rush.
Although Apple has been a hub of gaming going back to the glory days of the Apple II, today’s crop of hot titles are reshaping the landscape like never before. The present explosion of innovative iOS games results from several fortuitous factors coming together. Here’s why there’s never been a better time to be a gamer.
Apple has multiple new stores planned to open over the second half of 2014 and first quarter of 2015. Among these is one planned for Marlborough, Mass, as revealed through job postings listed by Apple over the past 10 days.
Up until now, however, the store’s future location hasn’t been known. Fortunately a tipster has pointed out the exact location where the retail outlet — Apple’s 11th in the state — will be set to open.
If you’re anything like me it can be difficult to stay on top of all of your different social media accounts, which is why Buffer is so useful as a tool — since it allows you to share to Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and App.net all from inside one place. In addition it lets you control the scheduling of these posts, while getting analytics for each social update you share, whether this means clicks, retweets, likes, shares, mentions, and so on.
Buffer received its last refresh just one month ago — adding support for two-factor authentication and improved accessibility — but its latest update is well worth a look, adding “feeds” and “groups” features, along with improved navigation.
Apple has settled out of court in the latest eBooks price fixing suit brought against the company. It was set to go before a jury next month, with potential damages being as much as $840 million.
The terms of the settlement haven’t yet been revealed, and the opposing side now has one month to request formal acceptable of their agreement by the court.
Handoff was one of the most exciting iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite features announced at WWDC, giving you the ability to begin a task (say, an email) on one platform and seamlessly transfer it to another.
It’s a great illustration of Apple’s ecosystem at work — but will it work on your Mac?
Could the iPhone 6 boast a Quad HD display, packing a 2560 x 1440 resolution in line with the 5.5-inch LG G3?
That’s the word on the street according to a source citing “Apple employees” from Hong Kong, although it is not clear which iPhone 6 model is being referred to. If this is the case, it would give the give the iPhone 6 by far the most stunningly beautiful screen of any Apple smartphone ever.
With the announcement of its Health app (and associated API) for iOS 8, Apple is making no secret of its plans to enter the health and fitness-tracking market. Capitalizing on this hype, WebMD has just updated its flagship iOS app to target health and fitness enthusiasts in a new program called Healthy Target.
A brand new section of the popular healthcare app, Healthy Target helps you to keep in top form, and on top of your various health-related goals, by setting specific targets and then tracking your progress as you work toward them. To do this, the app lets users connect their favorite activity tracker, wireless scale, or glucometer to automatically track sleep, weight, and blood sugar levels.
Having recently clarified its position on virtual currencies in the App Store (hint: Apple doesn’t hate them as much as you thought it did!), we’re starting to see certain iOS apps which deal in Bitcoin being approved for availability in the App Store again.
One of the first is CoinPocket, an app which allows users to send and receive Bitcoin, as well as collect private keys into a single spot and encrypt them. It’s very similar to Blockchain and Coinbase: two Bitcoin wallet apps which were previously given the boot by Apple.
The New York Times featured a fascinating profile of Tim Cook on Sunday, describing his leadership style at Apple — including his role in product development, his efforts to grow the Apple brand, and his “quiet” approach to design. The profile also features a couple of neat insights that may have bearing on Apple’s eagerly-awaited iWatch development.
We’ve heard plenty of reports about Apple’s 5.5-inch “phablet” iPhone 6, but most of the leaked pictures so far have claimed to depict its smaller sibling, the 4.7-inch iPhone 6, instead.
That’s changed with some new model photos showing mockups of both sizes of the forthcoming iPhone 6, including both the back and front of the two next generation iPhone models, sitting side by side.
Hotel booking giant Priceline.com will acquire OpenTable, the online reservation service for restaurants that provides Siri’s table-booking functionality.
Priceline is set to pay a massive $2.6 billion as part of the all-cash deal, which breaks down as $103 per share — or 46 percent above the publicly traded OpenTable’s closing price Thursday.
If you use Twitter a lot on your iPhone, you’ve probably heard of the Tweetbot app, a popular iOS Twitter client that was recently redesigned from the ground up for iOS 7.
Now in its third incarnation, Tweetbot 3 has just received a big update, adding a fistful of handy new features — including support for posting and viewing multiple images (although Tweetbot’s creators point out that these won’t show up on streaming timelines until Twitter adds support).
The app update also means that image detail views show the corresponding tweet when relevant, while Instagram videos are marked with a new “play” icon to make the user interface clearer.
Apple has launched an exchange program in 36 countries for certain models of its 5W European USB power adapter, saying that there is a risk that they might overheat and pose a safety risk.
Identified as Model A1300, the affected adapters originally came packaged with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, and iPhone 4s models which shipped between October 2009 and September 2012. Apple is letting owners of these chargers replace them with new adapters in participating Apple Authorized Service Providers. Replacements will be made so long as the corresponding iPhone serial number is verified.
Pikichat could be the next Snapchat. The idea behind the new photo app is ingeniously straightforward: Simply take a picture and then share it among a group of family members or friends. Like Snapchat, the picture will only stay up for a limited amount of time, but unlike Snapchat it will remain there until it is replaced by a new image.
Every time a person sends a new photo, it replaces the existing one. Group conversations take the form of the most recent photo added, with everyone possessing the ability to draw on the photo or add comments.
SVP of Retail Angela Ahrendts made her first official public appearance as an Apple executive at the Friday opening of Apple’s tony new store in Tokyo, Japan.
Ahrendts posed for photos with fans who had turned up to see the opening of the upscale Omotesando Apple Store. Other Apple execs at the event included Retail Real Estate and Development Vice President Bob Bridger, Worldwide Apple Retail International sales VP Steve Cano and Online Stores VPs Jennifer Bailey and Bob Kupbens.
“Meanwhile, back in the dungeons beneath Cult of Mac headquarters, an Apple-loving blogger tested out a new app…”
If you’re a fan of comic books (and, let’s face it, who isn’t?) the idea of transforming your personal photo gallery into a comic strip, complete with captions and onomatopoeic sound effects, is pretty tantalizing.
That’s the concept behind Juicy Bits’ comic-style photo-editing app Halftone 2, which has just received an exciting update, adding support for video that lets you turn your comic into a full-motion slideshow, complete with customized camera movement, sound effects, and music score.
Yahoo’s iOS Flickr client got a revamp this morning, adding several handy features — including new options related to sharing, tagging, and describing your photo albums.
Users now have the ability to share their albums via Tumblr, Facebook and Twitter, in addition to Mail and SMS. The update also provides users with the chance to add and edit both tags and descriptions of their photos from inside the app.
Rovio has officially launched its latest Angry Birds game, Angry Birds Epic, for iOS devices worldwide.
Unlike previous Angry Birds sequels which have flapped their wings since the original game flew into the App Store back in 2009, Angry Birds Epic takes the form of a fantasy RPG starring both the Angry Birds and the Bad Piggies. The game soft-launched in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand back in March, but today marks the first time gamers from across the globe can get their hands on it, too.
NBA superstar (and Samsung shill) LeBron James reportedly made some serious bank as a result of Apple’s $3bn Beats acquisition in May — ranking as the largest equity cash payout for a professional athlete in history.
Citing sources close to the issue, ESPN claims that James struck a deal to promote Beats headphones back in 2008, in exchange for a minority interest in the then-new company. Although it’s not known exactly how many shares he owned (Beats has always framed it as a “business relationship” without giving further details), it was enough to earn him a whopping $30 million in both cash and stock when the Beats deal was finally done.