Love it for its easy point of entry, addictive gameplay, and constant stream of in-app purchase upgrades or hate it for… well, exactly the same reasons, there’s no denying Fortnite is pretty darn big right now.
How big? Big enough that, after just three months on iOS, it has already taken in $100 million in worldwide player spending on Apple’s mobile platform alone. No matter how you slice it, that’s very impressive.
How much influence does Apple have when it comes to which technologies get popular? Apparently enough that even those technologies Apple doesn’t use get a boost of credibility, courtesy of their association with the Cupertino tech giant.
At least, that’s our take-home message from a new report suggesting that a number of manufacturers are ramping up their development of in-display fingerprint sensors, the technology that Apple considered before settling on Face ID facial recognition instead for the iPhone X.
It shouldn’t shock anyone to hear that new Apple Watch models are coming soon. But a bit of confirmation is nice. That confirmation is buried in iOS 12 beta 2, released today.
There are four additional Watches in the offing. Their internal identifiers seem to indicate that Apple isn’t shaking up its wearable offerings this year.
T-Mobile and Sprint promised the FCC today that their proposed merger will lower costs for consumers and create more jobs. They also launched a website laying out the advantages of the New T-Mobile to the general public, including millions of iPhone users.
Combining the third and fourth largest U.S. carriers is a controversial idea. Megamergers typically lead to higher costs for consumers and significant layoffs, not the opposite. It’s up to the two companies to convince the FCC that things will be different this time.
Podcasters using the popular iOS app Anchor can now manage their shows and audio clips from a larger screen with a new Anchor app for iPad.
The iPad app features new editing tools that make trimming audio or creating a recording with multiple segments easy with the touch of a finger. The app also has split screen support, which allows users to see a web browser or Notes app on one side while building a show on the other.
Apple dropped a big batch of new beta software on developers this morning, including new builds for macOS Mojave, tvOS 12 and watchOS 12.
The new betas come just two weeks after Apple unveiled its new software at WWDC 2018, bringing a bunch of changes to the Mac, Apple TV and Apple Watch.
Apple’s ARKit technology is poised to change the way we interact with everything, including business cards.
iOS & ARKit developer Oscar Falmer previewed his newest AR business card concept on Twitter and it looks freaking rad. Using ARKit 2.0 with image tracking, Falmer’s concept pulls up all of the person’s contact info, website, social media accounts and more for you to interact with digitally.
Check it out:
You know when somebody wants to meet up with you, and you end up spending so much time going back and forth trying to agree a time and date that you end up hating that person, and cancel the meeting? Maybe you just lost a multi-million dollar contract for your company, and it’s all the fault of scheduling annoyances1.
WhenWorks fixes that by letting folks book time with you online, using a form that is connected to the calendar on your iPhone.
Apple gave developers a hot new beta for iOS 12 this morning, adding a host of improvements to its huge update for iPhones and iPads that is coming out this fall.
iOS 12 beta 2 comes just two weeks after Apple revealed the update at WWDC 2018. The update contains a number of UI tweaks, new apps and performance improvements that are supposed to make the iPhone and iPad more stable than ever.
Apple’s CEO has joined the chorus opposed to the Trump administration’s policy of separating the children of illegal immigrants from their parents at the U.S. border. He called the practice “inhumane.”
Tim Cook appears to have President Donald Trump’s ear. The two have met face-to-face, and Trump promised Cook there’d be no tariffs on iPhones assembled in China, even though trade barriers are going up on billions of dollars of Chinese products.
There are plenty of reasons why you should avoid using Facebook Messenger. Here’s one more: Facebook is putting autoplaying video ads in your private conversations.
Why aren’t you switching already?
Rappelling thieves in Georgia gained a “Mission Impossible-style” entrance to a Best Buy store and made off with more than $100,000 in Apple products.
The burglars stole thousands of dollars worth of iPhones, iPads, MacBook computers, and various other items rappelled through a hole in the ceiling of the store in the city of Dunwoody, according to police.
Apple has more to lose than just about anyone from a U.S. trade war with China.
The country — which Tim Cook has made clear is Apple’s future biggest market — currently represents nearly 20 percent of Apple’s revenues. Last year, it shipped more than 41 million iPhones into China, as well as having 40 stores in the country, and a reliance on Asian manufacturers. In other words, the escalating trade war is pretty darn worrying!
PUBG Mobile just got a huge update on mobile as it steps up its fight back against Fortnite.
Its new Royale Pass, just like Fortnite’s Battle Pass, gives PUBG Mobile players the ability to unlock rewards as they level up. Daily and weekly challenges will be available to help you progress faster. The update also brings a new first-person mode and lots more.
Chances are, your inbox is a mess. No matter how finely you tune your spam filters, the junk mail and obsolete conversations add up. So we can all use some help giving our inboxes a cleaning.
Apple is expecting its 6.5-inch iPhone XI Plus to be its most popular new handset of 2018, a new report claims.
The Korean language article claims that Apple is forecasting 45 million iPhone XI Plus shipments for later this year, around 25 million for the 5.8-inch iPhone XI, and 30 million for the 6.1-inch LCD iPhone 9. The iPhone XI Plus is set to be easily Apple’s largest iPhone of all time — and close to twice the size of the original first-gen iPhone.
Love it or hate it, the iPhone X’s notch is a necessity for now. Or is it?
Some smartphone manufacturers are already using new design methods to deliver truly edge-to-edge displays. Chinese manufacturer Oppo today revealed its new Find X, which shows Apple how it could eliminate the notch in style.
A device that you carry around with you, day in and day out, for several years is going to prompt some kind of emotional attachment. Every scratch triggers a certain memory, every dent takes you back to a certain time and place. Add in the fact that you upload your most cherished media to it, and it becomes kind of like a diary, charting your development over time.
When said gadget dies it can therefore be a pretty sombre occasion. That was certainly the case for one Reddit user, who recently posted a memorial to their dearly departed 160GB iPod. Only for something totally unexpected to happen.
Tim Cook is in County Cork, Ireland today, opening the new expansion of Apple’s Hollyhill site — creating many jobs in the process.
Apple is Cork’s largest private employer, having had a presence in the area for decades. It is home to Apple’s only wholly owned manufacturing facility in the world, building “made-to-order” iMacs for customers in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
Apple Pay has today arrived in Poland with support from eight local banks.
Apple is expected to add Poland’s largest bank, PKO BP, and others to its roster in September.
An Australian court levied a A$9M ($6.7M) fine against Apple for refusing to fix iPhones and iPads because they’d had third-party repairs. That’s against the law in that country.
The refusals happened in the midst of the “Error 53” mess, in which iPhone units became permanently disabled after having their Home button replaced by non-Apple repair techs.
The release of Apple’s next smartphones is apparently close enough that the Asian supply chain has detailed specifications on the design. These have been used to create 3D mockups.
A video comparing these to current iPhone models reveals new details about Apple’s plans.
Square provides cash registers for small businesses. For years, these were built around iPads, but the company now makes Square Register, its own Android-based point-of-sale terminal.
It hasn’t dropped the iPad version, but recommends its own system for businesses that take in over $125,000 per year.
Apple CEO Tim Cook has been hard at work trying to make peace before the brewing trade war with the U.S. and China blows up.
In a new profile by the New York Times, details have emerged of how Tim Cook has been talking to both Trump’s administration and leadership in China to ensure Apple’s stability in both countries.
Apple CEO Tim Cook has been touring the Netherlands the last few days where he has been visiting with local developers and chatting it up with one of the best iPhone photographers in the game.
Annet de Graaf (Instagram: @snapthecity) sat down with Cook in Amsterdam to talk about the city along with historian Koen Kleijn. It’s unclear what Cook’s agenda is for the trip, but he’s been hitting Twitter hard the last few days saying he loves, “the rich history and creative energy of this city.”