PhoneSuit’s Elite battery case crushed the field during a week-long test of battery cases for the iPhone 4 two years ago, thanks to its unmatched sleekness and, at the time, relatively large battery.
The company has finally released an iPhone 5/s version of the case, with a revised form factor but the same 2100 mAh capacity.
While other cases may have caught up in the power-per-millimeters of thickness ratio, the Elite still has a trick up its sleeve: Unlike, say, Mophie’s cases, the Elite doesn’t require the use of a headphone adapter.
Another reason to believe that the release of OS X Mavericks is just around the corner: Apple has started asking third-party developers to submit apps optimized for the new OS in the Mac App Store.
Apple wants devs to make sure their apps take advantage of the “great new features in OS X Mavericks when the world’s most advanced desktop operating system becomes available to millions of customers later this fall.” Such features include Timer Coalescing and App Nap.
The October 22nd media event is when Apple will likely announce the release date of Mavericks. Major updates to OS X are typically released a day after an Apple earnings call, and there just so happens to be one on October 28th.
Today OtterBox unveiled its new Preserver series of cases for the iPhone 5, 5c, and 5s. The waterproof design is fully submergible up to 6.6 feet, and Touch ID is supported for the iPhone 5s.
Tim Cook revealed in an internal email to employees today that he’s had his sights set on Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts for quite sometime, and while Ahrendts’ work at Burberry is what won her the spot, new details about Ahrendts suggest that her affinity for watches has been an added bonus for Apple as it prepares to launch the iWatch.
According to former WSJ reporter Jessica Lessin, people who know Ahrendts say she is a “watch lady” and took a particular interest in the watch retailing space of Burberry’s stores:
Today T-Mobile announced that it is shuttering grandfathered plans to focus solely on its newer Simple Choice plans. The ‘UnCarrier’ sent out a letter to customers today, and discounts are being offered on newer plan rates for legacy customers who still need to switch over.
Today Nike unveiled its new FuelBand SE, the biggest upgrade to its fitness tracker ever. Cosmetically, the FuelBand SE sports new color accents and a rubberized, waterproof surface. But the real improvements have been made on the inside, like the addition of Bluetooth 4.0 for easy pairing with the FuelBand app and smarter motion sensors.
Apple believes it’s the highest taxpayer in the U.S, but the company has still been subjected to intense scrutiny because the majority of its cash isn’t located stateside, but in offshore subsidiaries scattered around the globe.
In a U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee this summer, Apple was accused of using Irish tax loopholes to avoid paying on about $44 billion in foreign profits. By basing ghost subsidiaries in Ireland, Apple has been able to not pay a considerable amount of taxes to any country. Now the Irish government is considering changing its tax code to prevent such behavior from happening in the future.
An Apple I computer from the original batch of 50 that Jobs and Woz sold to the Byte Shop in 1976 will be put on the auctioning block in Germany next month. Early estimates claim that the computer could fetch between $300,000 – $500,000 thanks to the original packaging and working condition of the unit.
Like millions of Apple fanboys across the globe, late-night show host Conan O’Brien could not wait to update his phone to iOS 7 last month, however the results were pretty horrific, and one viewer knows exactly what caused Coco’s hellish experience – the Ginja Ninja tried to install the new OS on his unsupported iPhone 3GS.
Conan fan 4893McLovin noticed Conan’s error on the show and has now been anointed as the first viewer to have successfully challenged Conan on the Fan Correction segment of the show. Not one to be shown up, Coco crafted his own response to the error by showing a hidden segment of Eddie Cue’s presentation at the iOS 7 keynote that revealed the existence of the mystical iPhone 3GCOB.
Steve Jobs’ ex-girlfriend, Chrisann Brennan, who dated the Apple co-founder for five years in the early days of Apple, is coming out with her own book, called The Bite In The Apple, where she describes all the glorious details that went into her and Jobs’ ill-fated relationship that ended after Brennan became pregnant with Steve’s first child, Lisa.
While the book focuses on more than just sex, the NY Post has published an excerpt that dives into Steve and Chris’ nights of lovemaking that were so epic Steve had to give her a call 15 years later to say thank you.
LitBound has made the jump from Android, and is now available on iOS. If you’re a fan of books, or just a library geek at heart, this game offers you hours of trivia fun, testing your knowledge of best sellers, great works of literature, children’s books, and genre fiction like science fiction, fantasy, and graphic novels. Oh, yes, and movies.
It’s official. Apple just send out press invites for an event on October 22nd where the company is expected to reveal its new lineup of iPads. The invite features the top of the Apple logo with the tagline, “we still have a lot to cover,” perhaps hinting that we’ll see a lot more than just iPads.
The keynote is set to kickoff at 10AM PT. Expect the unveiling of the fifth-gen iPad with faster internals (including the 64-bit A7 chip from the 5s) and a slimmer design. The second-gen iPad mini is also rumored to come with faster specs and a more lightweight exterior, and depending on who you ask, it will also have a Retina display. If the mini does go Retina, expect supplies to be incredibly constrained throughout the holidays.
Apple announced today that Burberry’s CEO, Angela Ahrendts will be filling the company’s vacancy as Senior VP of Retail and online stores, and while the move came as a surprise to many, Tim Cook says he had been eyeing the Burberry CEO for sometime now.
In an internal email sent to employees this morning, Cook says that he’s wanted to steal Ahrendts away from Burberry from the first time they met in January of this year. Cook describes Angela as “wicked smart” while also being an extraordinary leader with a proven track record. Ahrendts is set to join Apple in spring 2014 as she transitions over from Burberry.
Sparrow was once my favorite third-party email clients for Mac and iOS, but after its creators were bought by Google last year, the likelihood of improvements and new features seemed to go out of the window. And indeed, the app has been all but ignored since the acquisition — until it got a surprise update today.
We’re still waiting for Apple to send out invitations to a press event on October 22, where we expect the Cupertino company to announce new iPads and possibly new MacBook Pros. According to a new rumor that has surfaced today, the new devices will go on sale before the end of the month, while the new Mac Pro will make its debut in mid-November.
After a meeting that stretched over four-and-a-half hours, the Cupertino City Council gave Apple’s new campus the green light.
Two years have passed since Steve Jobs pitched the futuristic new headquarters to the town where he met Steve Wozniak as a high school student. Designed by Sir Norman Foster, at 176-acre Apple Campus 2 will be one of the largest building complexes in the world.
Dozens of locals came to testify that, in effect, this is a modern company town — the sentiment from former Apple employees, enthusiastic local business owners (“Apple engineers need our coffee!”), retired teachers and even environmental groups was overwhelmingly positive — concerns over what happens when you land such a huge project in one’s backyard were numerous.
Naysayers (one of them called himself the “loneliest man in the room”) complained about the inevitable traffic brought by 16,000 Apple employees (a number expected to blossom to 24,000) who will be driving to and from work when the massive project is completed. Other concerns were voiced about the security measures that keep the campus closed to the public and shut off a stretch of Calabazas Creek to hikers.
The 60-foot-high “fruit loop” will change the profile of the town of about 60,000, that’s for sure. Here’s hoping it’s for the better. More on the meeting and its impromptu tribute to Steve Jobs here.
Stay tuned, after this unanimous vote the council has one more procedural vote before Apple can break ground.
iOS 7 had been available to the public for just 27 days as of Monday, October 14 — and it had already been installed on 71% of all iPhones, iPads, and iPod touches. That’s according to the latest report from Mixpanel which suggests iOS 7 could be the fastest-spreading iOS update to date.
Touch ID has received all kinds of praise since it made its debut on the iPhone 5s last month, so naturally, the question everyone’s asking is whether the new fingerprint-scanning technology will make its way to other iOS devices.
We’ve already seen evidence that suggests it will come to the second-generation iPad mini, and the blurry picture above seems to prove that Touch ID is also coming to the fifth-generation iPad, alongside its all-new design.
Although his products now touch every aspect of our modern lives, we all tend to be agnostics when it comes to Jony Ive. Even as he appears on video during Apple’s developers’ conference to speak with soft-spoken intensity about the design of the latest iPhone or iPad, his personality seems inherently unknowable. Yet it is possible to know Jony Ive. He’s at least one person’s friend.
Granted, that friend, Marc Newson, is a design legend in his own right. For over 15 years, he and Ive have laughed together, talked about cars together (a mutual love), and vacationed together. During that time, they have shared countless conversations about the purity of form, material, and process that drives them both. About designs they like, and designs they don’t like.
So when you look at the (RED) Desk, which will be auctioned off on November 2nd by Sotheby’s to raise money for the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, it’s important to see something more than just a collaboration between two of the most influential designers on Earth. It is also the physical embodiment of a friendship.
You may have heard of Valve’s new Steam Controller, an integral part of their living room push that makes PC games past, present and future playable on the big screen. The Steam Controller looks pretty crazy, with two trackpad-like controls instead of thumbsticks, and a touchscreen instead of face buttons, but how will it play? Pretty well, from the looks of things.
No matter what you think of Apple’s new iPhone 5c case — and, just for the record, I think it’s an eyesore — I think we can all at least agree that it ooks an awful lot like Mattel’s famous game, Connect Four. If only it actually worked that way…
Well, now it does, thanks to a clever app called Flipcase.
Want to use popular iOS app Snapchat as a way to communicate covertly within your criminal empire? In a new blog post, Snapchat Director of Operations Micah Schaffer explains how Snapchat handles requests from law enforcement agencies for Snaps. And there’s good news and bad news.
Twitter has today introduced the ability for users to receive direct messages from people they choose not to follow. Until now, users had to be following each other to communicate privately, but the new option lets you receive DMs from anyone who follows you.
Apple has today announced that Angela Ahrendts, CEO of Burberry, will be joining the Cupertino company to take up a newly-created position as senior vice president of retail and online stores. Ahrendts will report directly to CEO Tim Cook and will oversee the strategic direction, expansion, and operation of Apple’s retail business.
The second-gen iPad mini is widely expected to get a Retina display, although the rumor mill has been going back and forth on the notion for several months. But as the release date for the tablet draws nearer, the consensus seems to be that Retina is a go.
Apple is known for aggressively slimming down its products with each new iteration, but to accommodate a Retina display, it’s very possible that the second-gen iPad mini could actually get a little thicker.