News - page 1293

It’s been a hard few days for iCloud. Now the App Store is suffering a serious outage that’s keeping apps from downloading and updating.

Apple hasn’t announced the iPhone 6 yet, but that isn’t stopping the world’s largest carrier from opening up preorders.

In Beijing, China Mobile has begun accepting preorders for the unreleased smartphone in both 4.7 and 5.5-inch sizes.

Like a favorite ’90s song, Cultured Code’s Things is a to-do app that many remember fondly, even though they can’t deny its outdatedness.

Once an app worthy of an Apple Design Award, Things has languished in its pre-iOS 7 state for far too long. The good news is that development of Things isn’t dead, as Cultured Code has shown with a preview of its awesome iOS 8 extension.

The iPhone 6 is gearing up to replace your wallet and as part of the initiative to get its upcoming mobile payments system off to a head start, Apple is reportedly in talks with Nordstrom regarding a potential payments partnership.

Nordstrom department stores could be one of Apple’s first merchant partners for the new payments platform it will reveal next week, reports BankInnovation, stating the luxury retailer is making upgrades to its mobile point-of-sale terminals as park of a deal with Apple.

Blame for the flood of celebrity nude photos that hit the Internet has been rotating from the pervy hackers that ripped the pics, to Apple, to the creator of iBrute, but while the FBI and Apple continue to investigate the source of the leak, there’s one tool that has gone unmentioned: the police forensic tool that made it all possible.

One of the key elements behind the iCloud nudes leak is a piece of software created by Elcomsoft that allows attackers to impersonate a target’s iPhone and download its entire iCloud backup, and you don’t even have to be a cop to get it.

UK-based rock band Radiohead just updated their Polyfauna app, originally released at the end of this past January, with all new audio and visual content.

The What’s New section of the iTunes description says, simply, “Entirely new.”

If you’re a fan of the ambient tech-inspired music of Radiohead’s seminal Kid A album, you’re going to love these new tracks. Here’s a video (below) to whet your appetite.

Today Apple released the seventh update to its developer build of OS X Yosemite. With the public release of Yosemite expected to arrive around October, Apple is polishing some of the finer details to get the OS ready for prime time.

Like always, we’ve collected today’s changes in Yosemite.

Reddit AMAs (Ask Me Anythings) are everywhere, attracting even the likes of President Obama (who answered his questions on a MacBook) to respond to questions fielded by users from around the globe.

Up until now there have been some pretty great apps for viewing Reddit AMAs, such as Interviewly, which takes AMA threads and polishes them to look more like a Sunday newspaper feature than an online forum. However, to date there has been no official AMA app available on iOS.

Trying to figure out what to watch on Netflix can take nearly as long as actually watching the show you finally pick, but a new update to Netflix could make your selection process a little quicker with recommendations from your friends.

Starting today, Netflix users on iOS, PS3, and Xbox will be able to suggest TV shows to friends directly from Netflix via a Facebook message.

Apple flat-out denies that an iCloud security breach led to the trove of celebrity nudes that leaked over Labor Day weekend. “None of the cases we have investigated has resulted from any breach in any of Apple’s systems including iCloud or Find my iPhone,” said the company in a statement.

Private photos of stars like Jennifer Lawrence were posted on the internet over the weekend, and initial reports pinned the hack on a flaw in iCloud’s login security.

Apple is expected to launch a tsunami of new products this fall, starting with next week’s official unveiling of the iPhone 6. With the rumor mill hitting all-time new heights of crazy, you’d think iPhone 6 sales would be off the charts when it hits stores September 19. But Piper Jaffray’s top Apple analyst, Gene Munster, is predicting that won’t be the case.

Munster hasn’t been one to shy away from bold Apple predictions (no matter how many times he’s wrong), but his latest note to investors claims iPhone 6 sales probably won’t be as nearly as huge as the iPhone 5s during launch weekend.

Here are Munster’s estimates:

Apple seeded the seventh beta of OS X Yosemite to developer this afternoon with build 6A280n. The release comes ahead of Yosemite’s wide release this fall, and while the seed note doesn’t mention any new features, it looks like Apple’s engineers have been busy squashing bugs.

While the number of leaks regarding the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 means a lot of people aren’t expecting to be surprised come September 9, the larger 5.5-inch phablet iPhone remains something of a machine of mystery.

A new component uncovered by French Apple website Nowhereelse.fr, however, purports to show a 2,915 mAh capacity battery from the lesser-seen 5.5-inch model iPhone 6.

Provided that the part is legitimate, it represents a considerable increase from the 1,570 mAh battery included in the current generation iPhone 5s.

Sonos’ incredible wireless speaker system is getting even easier to setup now that company has announced its $50 Bridge that was required to stream music to any Sonos speaker in your house, will now be completely optional.

A new firmware update for Sonos will make the Bridge – which had to be connected to a router via an ethernet cable to work – nearly obsolete today, allowing users to connect Sonos speakers directly over Wi-Fi rather than setting up a proprietary network.

Banksy, the U.K. street artist who doesn’t shy from making commentary on social and technology issues with his graffiti street art, published a new sketch with a terrifying reminder that your iPhone has basically become a parasitic extension.

In a separate piece of graffiti art posted on Twitter, Banksy had a subtle message against corporations like Apple, Nike, Coca-Cola, and others.

Take a look:

As the iPhone 6 and public launch of iOS 8 gets ever closer, a number of products offering full integration with Apple’s new HomeKit platform have started popping up on a regular basis.

The latest of these is Elgato’s new line of “Eve” connected home sensors, which debuted at the IFA 2014 trade show in Berlin, Germany. The range of Bluetooth accessories are able to monitor air quality, detect smoke, and track humidity, energy used, air pressure and water consumption — then feeding all of this data back to your iPhone or iPad.

The world may be buzzing to get a glimpse of Apple’s eagerly-anticipated iWatch, but according to sources from the “upstream supply chain” the company is unlikely to unveil its take on the smart watch Apple’s September 9 press conference.

The report, from Digitimes, also notes that despite various iWatch components already entering production, the wearable device itself is still in what is termed the engineering verification testing (EVT) stage.

With all the excited chatter about the iPhone 6 and the iWatch, the iPad is starting to look like a relic from the past — and the sales back this up.

Across the board, tablet sales have flatlined. On the back of another lower-than-expected tablet quarter, research firm IDC recently slashed its 2014 forecast for worldwide tablet shipments from 260.9 million units all the way back to 233.1 million. With Apple’s leading position in the market, even Tim Cook has had to admit that this has represents a bit of what he calls a “speed bump”.

The iPad took a crack at disrupting classrooms, cash registers, hospitals and airplane cockpits, but sales nonetheless slumped 10 percent from the same quarter last year. Simply put, Apple’s once white-hot tablet brand has cooled off. Relegated to a second-tier product, it just doesn’t seem as exciting any more.

“I own an iPhone, a Mac and an iPad, and out of these I use the iPad the least,” says Michael Grothaus, a former Apple employee, and the entrepreneur behind SITU, an iPad-enabled set of smart kitchen scales. “It occupies a bit of a no man’s land. As much as I love Apple products, recently I’ve been looking around at other tablets on the market to see what’s out there.”

Here’s what the top developers we talked to said might make the iPad a game changer again.

As Apple knows full well, it’s lonely at the top!

As if the constant shots from Samsung weren’t enough, Microsoft has just unleashed a new ad pitting its Cortana virtual assistant against Apple’s Siri. The ad, for those who can’t view it, begins with Siri ‘singing’ “I feel pretty, oh so pretty” into a mirror, only for the HTC One M8 with Windows to turn up, apparently dazzling the iPhone 5s with its superior size.

Apple has been awarded a new patent for adding moving radial menus to both Macs and iOS devices.

The use of radial menus would give Apple an alternative to the pull-down menus currently used in most applications — allowing context-specific menus and submenus to be created at optimal positions close to a user’s mouse cursor or, in the case of an iPhone or iPad, their finger.

Apple is “actively investigating” if and how iCloud is to blame for the hacking of numerous celebrity accounts.  Dozens of nude and scandalous photos were posted on the internet over the weekend featuring famous actresses like Jennifer Lawrence and Kirsten Dunst.

Though still unconfirmed at this point, many have speculated that the hack was a result of a flaw in iCloud’s security.

Apple’s 2014 iTunes Festival begins today with performances every day through the month of September. Like previous years, each performance will be streamed in HD for free through iTunes and the festival’s dedicated Apple TV channel.

To kick things off, electronic artist Deadmau5 is headlining tonight at The Roundhouse in London. Apple has revealed that Spanish singer and conductor Placido Domingo will close the festival on September 30th.

A slew of reports and leaked pictures have suggested that Apple could ship a new Lightning cable with reversible USB connector in the iPhone 6’s packaging. That’s not happening, according to venerable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

Kuo, who is rarely off the mark with his Apple predictions, has said that a new charging cable won’t debut this month due to “cost concerns” and “limited improvements to overall user experience.”

We’re fairly confident that Apple will show off the iPhone 6 at its September 9th media event next week, but when will the new hardware actually go on sale?

Signs are pointing to Friday, September 19th for the date that preorders begin—at least in the Netherlands. The Chinese media and Deutsche Telekom support representatives have already mentioned the 19th as new iPhone day too.

If you’re the type of person who enjoys/has a work-related need to track airplanes using their iPhone or iPad, you may want to download plane-tracking app Plane Finder, which has just received a brand new update — letting you watch previous flights, dating all the way back to April 2011.

The app lets you replay holiday flights, diversions, and major incidents, as well as easily seeing the effect of storms, ATC strikes, volcanic ash clouds, and more.