HomePods went on sale in Europe this week, and I ordered one. It arrived the very next day. I tried it out, and then sent it back to Apple the day after that. Why? Because it’s a half-finished product. Siri is just as glitchy and annoying on HomePod as elsewhere. It doesn’t work properly with a Mac. And it’s not even a very good speaker.
Everyone’s attention is on iOS 12, but Apple still has a team working on a “bug fix” update to iOS 11.4. Among the reasons for this is the complaints from numerous iPhone users that this version causes their camera to malfunction in various ways.
This is on top of the battery problems with iOS 11.4 that have been widely reported.
Apple CEO Tim Cook made a quick stop in Ireland this week where he promised the country he’s interested in it for more than its sweet tax rate.
The company’s relationship with Ireland has been rocky the last year. Apple scrapped plans to build a billion-dollar data center and lost its tax deal, but Cook says he’s still as committed to the country as ever.
Apple has ordered yet another series for its original video content programming. This time, the series in question is an English language adaptation of Calls, a highly experimental French short-form series that tells short stories through real-life audio sources and minimal visuals.
Apple will finally deliver its AirPower charger in September after solving “a series of technical hurdles,” according to a new report.
Overheating is one problem company engineers have had to contend with. Another is AirPower’s complex circuitry, which is necessary to allow compatible devices to be placed anywhere on the mat for charging.
Do you own or run a business? If you do, you’re going to want to learn how to make the most of Facebook Ads. After all, Facebook is the most powerful platform for getting your content, brand, or products seen.
Apple supplier TSMC will reportedly invest a massive $25 billion in 5 nanometer node technology in its quest to fabricate next-generation chips which could help power iOS devices.
No timeframe was announced for the investment. Since the company is supposedly currently fabricating 7nm chips for the 2018 iPhone, this will hopefully help TSMC hold onto its status as Apple’s A-series chipmaker for at least a while longer.
For its latest Apple Pay weekly promotion, Apple is giving customers 15 percent off purchases made in the Adidas iOS app — provided it’s bought using Apple’s mobile payment service, of course!
The promotion runs from today through June 28. The Adidas app can be downloaded, free of charge, from the App Store.
The government of southeastern Australian state, New South Wales, has said that it plans to carry out a comprehensive review of smartphone use in schools. This will look at the effects of smartphones on kids in school, both in and out classrooms.
Why is that significant? Because, building on the growing concern about smartphone addiction, it represents a developing trend focused on cracking down on the use of phones. And New South Wales isn’t the only place doing this.
If you aren’t already using Apple Pay, you should be. Not only does it make shopping easier, but it can also save you money on all kinds of purchases every week. And now, Apple Pay users are getting faster service on discounted food and drink at concerts and festivals.
Apple Pay “fast lanes” have started popping up at concessions stands, helping users avoid the lengthy lines.
Cupertino’s city government decided to ask voters next year whether it should charge businesses a tax on every worker. Apple is the city’s largest employer, so most of the cost would have fallen on the iPhone maker.
The original plan, while vague, was to use the additional revenue to create more affordable housing options and improve Cupertino’s transit system.
A pilot project allows people who run Facebook groups to charge subscription fees for the content they create. During the testing process, this is an option for a limited number of group admins.
The fees can range from $4.99 to $29.99 a month. Facebook isn’t taking a share of the revenue.
It’s hard to imagine Steve Jobs ever needing to pass out business cards. But even for titans of industry, business cards were standard issue and if you happened to have one from Jobs, its worth a few bucks.
A seller on eBay is hoping to get $9,000 for a couple of Jobs business cards and a few sheets of his Apple letterhead stationary.
Siri on HomePod is acceptable for quickly playing an album or a playlist, or even for adding a track to the existing up-next queue. But what if you want to switch the order of some songs in that queue, or delete tracks? Or maybe just use your iPhone to skip tracks, or control the volume of your HomePod without having to talk to the damn thing all the time?
Today we shall find out how.
A Malaysian man perished in a fire in his bedroom, but his family and his company say he was actually killed when the phone charging near his bed exploded.
“He had two phones, one Blackberry and a Huawei. We don’t know which one exploded,” said the brother-in-law of Nazrin Hassan, the CEO of a venture capital fund.
Instagram is ready to take on YouTube with a new app.
The photo-sharing social network revealed its new standalone app today called IGTV that’s dedicated to long-form video.
Apple is getting its own kids’ TV series with talking puppets.
The iPhone-maker and Sesame Workshop have reportedly inked a deal that will bring a slate of new kids’ programming to the company’s worldwide video project. But don’t expect to see Big Bird and the Sesame Street gang.
Surely you’ve said to yourself, “My Mac desktop is messy, but it could be messier.” No? Well, someone at Apple has, and built a tool into the macOS Mojave beta to disorganize everything on your desktop.
This easter egg is almost certainly a feature needed during testing, but it’s also a sign that the Apple developers are willing to have a bit of fun.
Fortnite gets new limited-time game modes every week, but for a while now, those game modes have been improved versions of modes we’ve already played. That could be about to change.
Files reveal two brand new game modes coming to Battle Royale. “Tactics Showdown” and “Ground Game” will completely change the way you play. It’s not all about building anymore!
Apple and now Google offer their very own News apps for iOS, but if you don’t like either, there’s now another option: Microsoft News.
Available today as a rebranded MSN app, the service provides users with curated news from more than 1,000 “premium publishers” and over 3,000 brands in major global markets.
Maybe it was the standing desks. Apple employees are voicing growing discontent for the workplace under boss Tim Cook, according to employee surveys ranking the top 100 CEOs.
Cook’s spot on Glassdoor’s annual list was 96, down from 53 a year ago in what was the biggest fall for a tech CEO on the list.
Twitter is a great way to stay up-to-date with the news. A well-curated Twitter feed can provide important updates on topics important to you. Sometimes, knowing what is most important can be a challenge as conversations, memes, and social commentary overwhelm actual news updates. With Nuzzel, you can view a summary of the news stories everyone is talking about. Best of all, it’s personalized to you.
One of the big features of Apple’s watchOS 5 is the Apple Watch’s Talkie-Talkie app feature, which makes it easier to communicate with your friends from the comfort of your wrist.
While the feature won’t officially launched until later this year, it is fully operational in Apple’s newly launched watchOS 5 beta. Want to see how it works? Check out the video below.
Apple’s leaders have a history of recruiting the folks they want by convincing them to think different with their career choices. Steve Jobs recruited former Apple CEO John Sculley by asking if he wanted to sell sugar water (a.k.a Pepsi) his whole life or come and change the world. Jobs later convinced Tim Cook to join Apple through his unorthodox approach to business.
Now, at Cannes Lions’ International Festival of Creativity in France, Apple’s retail boss Angela Ahrendts reveals how Cook convinced her to join Apple in 2013 — even though this meant turning her back on her previous job at Burberry.
Getting through a big project takes lots of planning, and improvising along the way. In our digital age, there’s no reason to be shuffling papers or scrawling notes on the wall. So if you’ve got a big task to plan, this app is a great place to start.