Fujifilm has announced two new cameras today. One is the hot-looking X-E2, which adds phases-detection AF, split-image manual focus and some hardware tweaks to the X-E2. Way more interesting though is the new XQ1, which puts Fujifilm’s amazing X-Trans sensor into a tiny compact camera.
Apple has recalled 64GB and 128GB flash storage drives that were used in the previous generation MacBook Air. The systems were sold during June 2012 and June 2013, and those affected qualify for a free flash storage drive replacement at their local Apple retail store, or authorized service provider.
A year and a half ago, Bob Shor’s diabetic dad asked him if he had seen his dad take his insulin. Bob’s answer, “No, I didn’t see you take your meds” was interpreted by his father as “No, you haven’t taken them.” His dad overdosed that day, which Bob says was the reason he and his brother Rotem created MediSafe, a collaborative app that helps keep track of long-term medication.
The app will remind users when it’s time to take meds, and display dosage and an image of what the meds actually look like. There’s even a refill reminder and personalized information and details about taking the drug and effects. But the big feature is the app’s collaborative nature.
Cell phone numbers are a direct path that often lead straight to us, regardless of where we are or what we’re doing. And once we’ve given someone our number, they have it for good. And if things go south, the only option is to change your number, right?
Pretty much — but that’s easy to do if you used a new app called RingMeMaybe to give them a temporary number in the first place.
Apple just released a new firmware update for mid-2012 MacBook Air owners. The release notes say that Apple recently discovered that a small percentage of flash storage drives in these models may have an issue that could cause data loss.
The update, available here, tests your drive and should, if there’s a problem, install new firmware to prevent the issue from happening to you.
If your drive can’t be updated, Apple will replace it free of charge. That’s big news.
Yesterday we reported that the Cupertino City Council unanimously approved Apple’s plan to build its new ‘spaceship’ headquarters, officially called “Campus 2.” Tim Cook tweeted his enthusiasm after the approval was granted, calling the future campus “our home for innovation and creativity for decades to come.”
Today a video of the city council’s press conference was released with speeches from Cupertino’s mayor and Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer. “This is a very special moment for us at Apple,” said Oppenheimer. “We have put a tremendous amount of love and energy into this campus and we can’t wait to get started building it.”
Construction on the 2.8 million square-foot headquarters and 100-acre plot of land is scheduled to begin this year. The final set of permits Apple needs will be reviewed on November 19th.
I remember when my mother used to drive around with a relatively new invention back in my childhood: a notepad that was use a suction cup mechanism to stick to the windshield of the car. She was a realtor, so she liked to have something easily accessible so she could make notes without having to fumble for a piece of paper and pen (which was also attached to the mechanism).
While this device wouldn’t have been practical for me (I’m left-handed), I’ve found in recent years that I am using my iPhone in my car for things like its GPS capabilities, to stream Rdio through my car stereo, and have my task manager at the ready for when I’m running errands. That’s why the GripGo Universal Car Mount is really appealing to me – and Cult of Mac Deals is currently offering it for just $13.99.
Today AT&T announced its plans to entice tablet customers with new data plan options. The most attractive plan for users will probably be a $5 day pass that offers 250MB for light web usage. A new $25 plan will come with 1GB of data that can be used at any time over the span of three months.
Today Facebook released a small update to its iOS app that brings some notable features, namely the ability to edit posts and comments.
Here’s the full change log:
The only reason I picked up Disco Bees to play today was the name. I’m really rather tired of the match-three dynamic, but I figured cute bees and disco music was a good combo to try, regardless.
What I found was a compelling match-three game that does indeed have the same mechanics as many other free-to-play matching games, like Candy Crush or Dragon Academy. In addition, however, it’s got amazingly adorable dancing bees and a killer soundtrack that does fantastic justice to the disco genre without using licensed music.
Did I mention cute dancing bees? You really need more? Fine.
You may have heard that there’s a big update in the works for Tweetbot, one of the most popular third-party Twitter apps out there. Version 3.0 for iOS 7 has been kept under wraps for the past several months, and today the app is one step closer to your iOS device.
Tapbots, the small app company that makes Tweetbot, announced today that it has submitted Tweetbot for iOS 7 to the App Store.
Apple has gone and topped the J.D. Power rankings for smartphone satisfaction. Again.
This marks the tenth straight time Apple has dominated the likes of Nokia, Samsung, HTC, and Motorola in the bi-annual poll, and with the iPhone 5s shattering sales records on opening weekend, the streak looks like it might continue for some time.
This year’s survey included a breakdown of smartphone satisfaction by carrier for the first time ever and revealed Verizon customers are slightly happier with the iPhone than those on AT&T, with scores of 861 and 856 respectively.
Here’s the full breakdown:
eBay announced this morning that they’ve managed to hire away Apple’s E-Commerce Exec, RJ Pittman, to fill a new role as Chief Product Officer.
Pittman joined Apple back in 2010 after working in the product management group at Google. During his three years working at Apple, Pittman was in charge of the e-commerce platform for the Apple Online Store, along with the design and product management solutions.
In an interview with AllThingsD, Pittman said the Online Apple Store is cool and all, but eBay’s sells way more stuff:
Wondering what Spacetime Games is up to these days? After a successful launch of free-to-play Battle Dragons this past August, the team has turned its attention to a new combat strategy game with the same branding: Battle Command!
In this new game, you’ll take command of a small group of soldiers and try and shape them into a crack team of military force. You’ll collect resources, construct bases, recruit troops, form alliances, and fight on the battlefield (obviously). Battle Command! will have a bunch of single player missions to help hone your skills, and then some serious global multiplayer, something Spacetime has been getting right for years.
I have a bit of a soft spot for Loop Attachment’s Mummy cases; I’ve reviewed them for iPhone 4 and iPhone 4s, iPhone 5, and the iPad mini — and I’ve loved them all. But the collection wasn’t complete without the Mummy case for the full-size iPad, which went on sale back in August.
Like its siblings, the new case is made from a soft coated silicone that is designed to protect your iPad from any dings, drops, scuffs, or scratches that it might encounter while you’re using it. But it’s not just a plain old silicone case — the Mummy is different.
The thing that sets it apart from the cheap silicone cases you’ll find on eBay for a few dollars is that it has a special coating that not only makes it super soft and smooth, but also prevents it from collecting dirt and grime. It also has a unique design that shows off the Apple logo on the back of your device.
Furthermore, the Mummy is compatible with your Apple Smart Cover, which isn’t a common trait with third-party cases. So not only does it protect the back of your device, but with the help of your Smart Cover, it protects its Retina display, too.
The Mummy for iPad is priced at $40, and it’s available in black, blue, graphite, red, white, and my favorite, teal.
iOS 7 brings a ton of visual and interface changes to our favorite smart phone, not all of them easily intuited from general use.
One of these is the new fullscreen mobile Safari. The web browser’s address bar and toolbar (at the bottom) disappears when you’re browsing, and you might have figured out how to bring it back by accident, but not in a systematic way.
Nothing sucks the joy out of using a smartphone than not really being sure how to do something, so here are three ways to re-appear that sucker on your iPhone.
After selling a record-breaking number of iPhones during the recent launch weekend, Apple is now ready to pummel magazines with it’s trademark brand of clever yet simple ads extolling the iPhone’s virtues.
The first print ad for the iPhone 5s hit newsstands today in The New Yorker with a full-ad on the back page touting Touch ID. The ad features a huge closeup of the still-oh-so-hard-to-find Gold iPhone 5s, with the tagline “Your finger is the password at the bottom.
Here’s a closer look:
While you may see the same adverts inside the Facebook app no matter which smartphone you use, those ads are 1,790% more profitable on the iPhone than they are on Android-powered smartphones. That’s according to an analysis of over 200 billion Facebook ads from Nanigans, one of the biggest customers of Facebook ads.
This is Cult of Mac’s exclusive column written by an actual Apple retail store genius. Our genius must remain anonymous, but other than “Who are you, anyway?” ask anything you want about what goes on behind that slick store facade.
Answers will be published first in Cult of Mac’s Magazine on Newsstand. Send your questions to newsATcultofmac.com with “genius” in the subject line.
This week we cover which Apple products are too old to get fixed by the Genius, how to skirt around the need of a credit card to buy OS X updates and whether Geniuses ever imbibe on the job.
What are the oldest Macs you guys get for repairs?
It’s pretty rare for someone to bring in an old Macintosh Classic and expect us to fix it. Apple has an official cutoff and the oldest Macs we perform hardware repairs for in the store are around five years old. Once its been five years since a product has been discontinued, Apple slaps a on it and no longer offers service for it.
To check if a product you have is vintage or obsolete, check Apple’s guidelines here to see if it’s still serviceable before coming to the store. If your Mac is running OS X then we can still provide software support. That’s good news for those of you still running Cheetah out there!
How do I update my system to the newest versions of OS X without a credit card to download it?
Apple doesn’t sell physical copies of OS X at Apple Store any more, but there are still ways around that if you just want to pay cash. You can always purchase an iTunes or App Store gift card at the Apple Store or many other retailers with cash. Once purchased, redeem the gift card on your account in the iTunes or App Store app. You can then purchase your OS X upgrade or and any apps with the credit added to your account. Make sure to update your payment information for card type to “none” by signing into your account in the iTunes Store or App Store.
Have you ever worked drunk?
The job can be pretty stressful sometimes. Occasionally, I’ll have a drink before work or on a lunch break. It’s not a bad way to relax and most of the managers at the store don’t care unless you’re always coming in sloppy drunk.
There are always a few situations throughout the day where it’d be great to take a short drink break after helping out a particularly horrible customer, but I don’t make it a habit. Fixing people’s iPhones really isn’t any easier after a few drinks so there are few benefits to being hammered on the job. As for what happens after work, it isn’t uncommon for employees and managers to meet up and toss back a few.
Could you be persuaded to give up your iPhone and switch to Android if you were given a really simple tool to transfer all of your important data? Motorola is certainly hoping so with its new web-based migration tool that takes all of your contacts and calendar events from iCloud and puts them on a Moto X.
Until two days ago, Apple had been without a head of retail for nearly a year. As part of the upper-management reshuffling Tim Cook oversaw last October, John Browett was let go after filling the role for only six months. Apple executives reportedly clashed with Browett, who previously had been the CEO of British retailer Dixons, and he didn’t seem to leave Apple on the best of terms.
After a year of searching, Apple has finally found a Senior Vice President of Retail and Online Stores: Angela Ahrendts, the former CEO of Burberry in Britain. She’s coming to Apple at a very crucial time in the company’s development post-Steve Jobs, and although she’s worked in fashion most of her life, she looks like the perfect fit.
Here are 10 things to know about Angela Ahrendts:
Twitter hopes to compete with instant messaging services like WhatsApp and Line with a new app that’s dedicated to direct messaging, AllThingsD reports. The company hopes the move will bring “the long-buried feature to the forefront” and place a new emphasis on its private messaging capabilities.
Apple has quietly bumped up its iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c prices in France less than four weeks after they first went on sale. Customers will now have to pay $10 more for the 16GB devices, and $12 more for the 32GB and 64GB devices.
When an app gets stuck on my Mac, I typically force quit it by hitting Command-Option-Escape, and then clicking on the app that’s frozen, then hitting the OK button. Then, I hit the “are you sure” dialog button that invariably pops up. It’s a several step process, but I figured that was the price for having multi-tasking that no longer takes down my whole machine.
Turns out, there’s a quicker way to do that right from the Apple Menu. Here’s how.
One of the few issues facing owners of the new iPhone 5s is the compass and built-in level: they are woefully off, leading to drifting issues in games that require the accelerometer for steering. How could Apple mess up something so fundamental? According to a new teardown, it looks like the culprit is a new chip supplier.