Apple’s influence on the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Awakens extends far beyond Kylo Ren’s ugly crossguard lightsaber.
The Force Awakens costume designer Michael Kaplan has designed costumes on movies like Blade Runner and Fight Club, but when it came time to redesign the new stormtrooper armor for director J.J. Abrams, Kaplan said he looked to Apple as his biggest inspiration on how to perfect the stormtrooper’s white, plastic-y armor.
Apple’s engineers might be busy building the smart car of the future, but Automatic’s new second-generation dongle can already turn your dumb hunk of junk into an intelligent auto with tons of apps.
Carl Icahn’s big bet on Apple is paying off huge.
During an interview today defending his belief that Apple will make a 65-inch UltraHD TV, the billionaire revealed his investment in Apple starting in 2013 has been one of the greatest trades of all time, netting about $3.4 billion.
Icahn owns more than 52 million shares and stands to make even more if Apple shares reach his current estimated value of $240 (shares closed today at 129.989). Watch what Icahn had to say about his mega-investment below:
Apple’s first efforts to do major business in Arizona crashed and burned with the spectacular failure of GT Advanced Technologies’ sapphire plant, but the company’s second effort is going much better than expected.
More than 500 jobs are being added to Apple’s command center in Mesa that will require a small contingent of top Apple executives from Silicon Valley to move to Arizona to oversee operations, while other positions will be filled by local hires.
The Apple Watch on your wrist is a miniature computer. As such, it might get wonky from time to time. It might freeze, apps might not load all the way or it might just get slow — especially if you haven’t downloaded today’s Apple Watch software upgrade, which brings various performance enhancements and bug fixes.
When your watch is getting wonky, it’s good to know how to force a restart, powering your Apple Watch down and back up again to reset its internal workings. Here’s how.
Rumors surrounding Apple’s plans for TV have been picking up considerably as its Worldwide Developers Conference draws near in June.
But the idea of a standalone Apple TV set (not the little hockey puck that exists already) eventually becoming a reality is starting to look pretty bleak. Not everyone has given up hope, though. As the biggest proponent of the Apple HDTV rumor throws in the towel, one of the world’s most powerful investors remains convinced that it will happen.
It’s springtime in Chicago, and one sure sign is the bizarre lines of helmeted tourists teetering on Segways on the biking paths along Lake Shore Drive. When I am stopped at a light and see a group of Segwayers crossing the road, I always think to myself “Those things never really caught on.”
A Dutch company has created a mode of transportation that borrows the technology of Segway and the cool of the skateboard culture.
The Oxboard houses gyroscopes that help a rider maintain equilibrium as they subtly shift their body to guide the two-wheel electric scooter. Gone are the handlebars and the cost. While a new second-generation Segway runs between $6,000 and $8,000, the Oxboard costs around 900 U.S. dollars.
Before creating the home automation company Nest, Tony Fadell cut his teeth at Apple by creating revolutionary products like the iPod. You’d think being one of the key guys behind Apple’s resurgence in the early aughts means you get hooked up with Apple products for life, but according to Fadell, he had to pre-order the Apple Watch like the rest of us peasants. And he’s still waiting for it to arrive.
Luca Redwood, the main powerhouse indie developer behind EightyEight Games, has taken the last three years of his life to make a sequel to critical darling match-three game, 10000000.
Sadly, it’s not named 10000001, but rather You Must Build a Boat. In it, you actually do need to build a large, ark-like boat with all sorts of rooms and defenses and such, and you outfit your boat by running dungeons and matching items to kill baddies and get past obstacles in them.
Sound weird? It is, but it’s also going to be stupidly addictive. If it’s half as engaging as 10000000, you’ll be playing this on your Mac, iOS device, or Linux box long into the wee hours of the morning.
Check it out.
Apple Watch has barely been available to the public for a month now but Apple is already sending out its first software update this morning that includes new emojis as well as fixes for Siri, measuring stand activity, and third party apps.
Samsung Flow, the South Korean company’s answer to Handoff, is now available in beta following its official unveiling at the Samsung Developer Conference last November. If you have a modern Galaxy device, you should be able to try it out, but don’t expect it to be exactly like Apple’s offering.
TomTom, the Dutch navigation systems company that powers Apple Maps, announced today that it has renewed its contract with Apple to provide digital mapping data for iOS.
Your devices shouldn’t have to take turns charging. Get Kinkoo’s six-port charger for just $35 at Cult of Mac Deals.
We are in the middle of the cap-and-gown selfie season, when dorky high school and college graduates hold up the line to snap a quick picture with the person handing them the diploma. The relatively new custom drags out an already long and boring commencement ceremony. It’s harmless otherwise.
But a university in Malaysia didn’t see it that way when it suspended one snap-happy graduate for two years with one official saying, “Let them call me cruel, but I’d rather let a child die than lose our customs.”
According to a report in TODAY, an English-language newspaper in Singapore, Muhammed Hasrul Haris Mohd Radzi apologized and said he was just excited when he took the picture of himself with the school’s chancellor during a recent commencement ceremony at Universiti Teknologi Mara Lendu in Malacca.
Here’s one for the “better late than never” category: Almost three years after releasing the Lightning connector for the iPhone 5, Apple has unveiled its brand new official Lightning connector dock for use with the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 5s, iPhone 5c, iPhone 5, and fifth-generation iPod touch.
Apple launched a number of new Macs through the Apple Online Store today, including a 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro with Force Touch and a more-affordable 5K iMac. They all boast faster Intel Core i5 and Core i7 processors, as expected, and they’re shipping in just one business day.
Mike Judge’s great HBO comedy Silicon Valley has featured some fantastic references to Apple in the past — including a tongue-in-cheek dismissal of Steve Jobs as someone who “didn’t even code” and two not-so-obvious Apple logos that pop up during the show’s opening.
The most recent episode, entitled “Homicide,” contained one more namecheck of everyone’s favorite Cupertino company, but it’s unlikely to be a reference that got Tim Cook guffawing in front of his TV at home — since it skewered one of the most notorious Apple products of all time.
Apple has put its name to a letter which will be sent today, appealing to the White House to protect individual privacy rights in the face of suggestions that law enforcement should be able to access encrypted smartphone data via a backdoor.
“Strong encryption is the cornerstone of the modern information economy’s security,” argues the letter, which is signed by more than 140 tech companies, technologists, and civil society groups.
There have been plenty of rumors about the refreshed Apple TV set to arrive at WWDC, but two of the biggest concern the fact that it will feature a revolutionary gesture-based user interface and a new focus on gaming.
Possibly tying into that is a newly-published patent from Apple, which describes a pattern projector which would use laser beams to map the 3D space between the device and a user — thereby allowing a person to carry out motions as a way of interacting with specific apps.
And, yes, that includes games.
The Apple-watching world lost its shiz yesterday when Obama made his first tweet from his brand-new presidential Twitter account using an iPhone. But don’t get too excited, because the White House has revealed that the phone in question isn’t Obama’s regular handset after all.
Which prompts the question, “Who did it belong to?” Maybe Apple should commission JFK director Oliver Stone to shoot an advert/paranoid conspiracy thriller on the subject of the Obama iPhone.
Tech-wizard scientists have discovered a crack in the Safari web browser’s armor that will let evildoers trick it into showing false information in its address bar.
The exploit could lead to users giving up sensitive information when they think they’re just trying to buy some pants or something.
The Apple Watch has a bunch of faces to show you the current time, but here’s a simple tip if you want to combine the classic look of an analog face with the speed-to-read convenience of digital.
As it turns out, not only is Apple not pursuing an entry into the UltraHD TV market, but it stopped development on the project last year.
That’s not to say that it won’t ever grace your living room (even more than it already is), but maybe don’t chuck out your old TV just yet.
The iPhone is a distracting gadget. There’s texting, Facebook and a dozen-odd games I keep on the thing. I’m constantly being notified that there is something new to look at, a new Instagram post, a new Twitter reply, a new email.
Sometimes I just want to get away from it all, but I keep my iPhone with me all the time because, essentially, it makes sure I’m able to make a phone call in an emergency.
Now there’s a new Kickstarter project that aims to let you leave your iPhone at home but still remain connected with the one essential function: phone calls. The Light Phone is “a credit card-sized cell phone designed to be used as little as possible. The Light Phone is your phone away from phone.”
That sounds pretty neat, actually. Too bad I hate making phone calls.
Ever since the release of the iPhone 4s Apple has launched its annual smartphone updates in September, but according to supply chain sources, the production of iPhone 6s components is going so well, Apple might be able to launch the device sooner than expected.