News - page 1263

Naturally, you hope your new iPhone will stay in mint condition until you’re ready to upgrade or resell. But the fact is, if you cringe at the possibility of a $200 repair bill for a broken screen, it’s time to think about getting an extended warranty.

You’ve got several options: AppleCare+ is available for purchase with new hardware, and mobile carriers and third-party warranty providers sell plans with different perks. You should also check out your personal insurance provider if you’ve got one. Some homeowner’s and renter’s policies offer protection plans for personal belongings, and you might already be covered. The deductibles tend to be steep, but it’s still worth giving your insurer a call to know your options.

Deciding on a warranty can be tricky, so we’ve done the hard work for you.

Who will play Steve Jobs in Sony’s upcoming biopic? That’s been the million dollar question ever since Aaron Sorkin finished the script.

Christian Bale was originally rumored alongside director David Fincher, but talks with both men fell apart. The latest name in the hat was Leonardo DiCaprio, but now he has reportedly backed out to take a break from acting in the near future.

Sony and Slumdog Millionare director Danny Boyle are still eying Bale as a potential candidate alongside some new names like Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.

If Apple’s 18-karat gold ‘Apple Watch Edition’ doesn’t look fancy enough for you, have no fear. Swiss watch designers and jewelers are already planning to bling out Apple’s unreleased timepiece with precious metals and fancy gems. And of course, the modifications will be ridiculously expensive.

Marc Newson is staying quiet on what he’s working on part-time with Jony Ive at Apple, but the famed designer is still promoting the work he’s doing outside of Apple, like the new beer machine he made for Heineken that looks just like a Mac Pro with a spout on top.

The Sub, a 41-centimeter tall machine shaped like a black metal beer cask -or a Mac Pro – can be filled with pressurized modules called Torps, that hold two liters of beer, and can be ordered to contain your favorite Heineken brand of brew. Newson says he’s a consistent beer drinker, but designed the new machine to be about more than just beer.

Apple killed the Camera Roll to the horror of many iPhotogs with the  release of iOS 8.1, but the first iOS 8.1 beta shows the company has had a change of heart is open to bringing it back, but not for everyone.

iOS 8.1 beta 1 allows users to resurrect the classic Camera Roll album after it was replaced by the Recently Added photo, but you actually have to turn off Apple’s new iCloud Photo Library service to activate it.

If you want to get Camera Roll back and don’t mind sticking with physical storage, here’s how to turn it on:

Today Twitter updated its painfully neglected Mac app with more features for sharing photos. The app’s first update in months brings the ability to share photos over DM and add/view up to four photos in a single tweet. Bug and performance fixes have also been included.

Apple announced its adding some extra benefits for all employees this year, and while everyone isn’t getting a free Apple Watch, the company has decided to lengthen parental leave, reimburse your college education, and match how much time you spend doing charitable work. Plus some stock perks for your family incase you die.

In a memo shared with Fortune, Apple’s head of HR, Denise Young Smith, said the wage range of new benefits were created to address all four generations in its workforce.

Apple has looked within its own ranks to find who will lead its “friendlier” PR approach, at least for now. Despite looking at outside candidates like former White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, the company has settled on one of its own veterans as interim PR boss.

The Apple Watch is on track for a February release, according to supply chain sources in China. A February launch echoes an earlier report from The Information, which said Apple will be “lucky” to ship by Valentine’s Day.

While mass manufacturing of the Apple Watch hasn’t begun yet, there are already concerns that sapphire production won’t be able to meet initial demand. The constraints will likely result in making more expensive Apple Watch models harder to come by.

Careful now – Pixar’s upcoming film, Inside Out, takes place within the emotional centers of a pre-pubescent girl. There’s some crazy characters in there — including Joy, Sadness, Anger and Fear — and they’re all just so happy to meet you.

In this brand new, super-short trailer, we get a tiny peek at what’s in store from us from Pete Doctor, the director of both Monsters, Inc. and Up.

Check it out below.

Tim Cook may have laughed at Topeka Capital Markets analyst Brian White’s “iRing” prediction, but someone at Microsoft was clearly scratching their chin, intrigued at the idea.

That’s based on a recently published patent application from Microsoft showing how the company has investigated a finger ring as a possible future wearable device. Microsoft’s impressive-sounding wireless ring could be used as an input device either to control a cursor on a mobile device such as a tablet, smartphone, or even a head-up display like Google Glass.

Forget those ridiculous rumors that the huge quantities of smuggled handsets had all but killed iPhone 6 interest in China! According to new reports coming out of China, both retailers and carriers have taken in a massive 2 million reservations just six hours after putting the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus on earlier-than-expected pre-order.

It was previously announced that customers would be able to place orders for the iPhone on Friday, October 10, with the devices finally going on sale one week later on October 17.

However, that edict appears to have been ignored, since all three major Chinese carriers — including China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom — are already taking orders.

Things go from bad to worse for Angry Birds developer Rovio. Having seen its CEO step down in August, now the Finnish studio has announced that job cuts are on the cards — to the tune of up to 130 people.

In a blog post, outgoing head honcho Mikael Hed claimed that these cuts were part of an effort to simplify the company after a period of ambitious growth that is considered no longer sustainable.

Pioneer Electronics has released a firmware update making Apple’s CarPlay technology live on five 2014 NEX in-dash multimedia receivers. In doing so it becomes the first company to officially support CarPlay’s vehicle integration feature — and means you won’t need a new Ferrari or Benz to use iOS in your vehicle.

Users with an iPhone 5, 5s, 5c, 6 or 6 Plus can utilize Siri to both makes and receive calls, compose and read text messages, access Apple Maps, and listen to music libraries, podcasts, and iTunes Radio.

As the makers of some of the most attractive (and high-end) smartphones around, Apple devices are ripe for theft. With that in mind, the good folks at Cupertino have just added a new iCloud tool which lets users work out whether the used iPhone they’re about to lay down their hard-earned money for has been locked by its real owner.

All you need to do it is to visit this link and enter the device’s IMEI or serial number, at which point you’ll be informed of the device’s Activation Lock feature — thereby saving you from buying a device that’s already been locked.

Apple’s marketing machine has tried to straighten out the Bendghazi controversy that invaded the web last week, but someone might want to alert their billboard company in Berlin that the iPhone 6’s bendiness isn’t supposed to be a selling point.

iPhone 6 ads have started going up on billboards across the globe, but the monstrous ad (shown above) in Germany was so huge, they couldn’t fit the bigger than big display on the structure without bending it just a little bit – right near its supposed weak spot.

Another Apple reseller in the Netherlands had some similar woes with its iPhone 6 ads. Check out their hilarious poster below:

A U.S. judge has ruled in Apple’s favor in litigation filed against the company by Canadian patent licensing company WiLan, reports Reuters, after the judge issued a public statement on the case Wednesday afternoon.

Apple was being sued for supposedly violating two LTE patents held by WiLan, but a summary judgement from Judge Dana Sabraw ruled that the patents were invalid and note infringed.

Working at Apple isn’t a cake walk. Any former or current employee will tell you that point blank.

On a recent episode of the Debug podcast, ex-Apple managers Don Melton and Nitin Ganatra discuss the ridiculous hours senior-level employees are required to keep. Emails from executives in the middle of the night are commonplace, even on the weekends.

Apple’s new design guru Marc Newson has barely been at Apple for nearly a month now, but that’s not going to stop him from also working on his own designs – like a fabulous new way to pour yourself a draft beer at home.

Marc unveiled his revolutionary new beer machine today in partnership with Heineken, but in an interview with Deezer, the famed designer also talked publicly for the first time about his new role at Apple, stating the position will only be part-time and he’ll still be based out of the U.K.

What Marc’s actually doing at Apple though is still a mystery. Apple’s PR handler wouldn’t let him comment on whether he had a hand in the Apple Watch’s design, and speculation on what he’s working on with Jony was quickly shot down. Whatever Apple does throw at him though, Marc said he can handle it, because “there isn’t really a big difference between designing a watch or a car or even a machine that pours beer.”

Check out the full interview transcript below:

Apple’s first major iOS 8 seeded to developers this week contained clues that Apple Pay is nearly ready for launch, and according to a report from Bank Innovation, we won’t have to wait much longer to replace our wallets with the new mobile payments solution.

The finishing touches are still being made to the security features in Apple Pay, but the report claims that the official release is tentatively scheduled for the third monday of October.

As thousands of protesters flood the streets of Hong Kong demanding a democratic election, the Chinese government is reportedly using sophisticated malware to spy on not only Android devices, but iOS devices as well.

But don’t worry about China peeking at your Snapchats. There has yet to be a widespread instance of iOS malware in the wild, and this particularly “advanced” trojan still requires a tremendous amount of complicit behavior on the victim’s part.

Tweetbot, one of the most popular third-party Twitter clients out there, has been updated with full support for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.

Today’s version 3.5 update also includes iOS 8-specific features like interactive notifications. Share Sheet integration now means you can send links to the app from anywhere in iOS 8.

Sure the new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus have an amazing camera with all sorts of improvements to make stunning use of in the pursuit of the perfect high-definition time-lapse or slow motion video.

But the video (below) is so stunning, so amazingly beautiful – there’s no way you’re going to be able to pull this off on your iPhone 6, no matter how amazing Apple’s latest gadget is.

Popcorn Time is finally out for iOS, giving iPad and iPhone users direct access to “The Netflix of Pirated Movies” service for the first time ever. There’s just one catch: it requires a jailbreak.

Over 50% of iPhone and iPad users have already upgraded to iOS 8 and a jailbreak isn’t coming out anyday soon, but if you want to stream movies to your iOS device you’re still in luck.  A competing service called MovieBox does pretty much the exact same thing as Popcorn Time, and you can get it on your iPhone 6 and 6 Plus 8 without needing to jailbreaking.

Here’s how to install it: