Apple just released two firmware updates to address some rare battery issues with the Macbook Pro and Macbook Air lines Tuesday. The firmware can be downloaded directly from Apple’s support website.
The firmware for both models fixes some rare issues with the battery, one of which will shut your Macbook Air down after 1000 charges.
With iOS 7, Apple added official support for third-party game controllers. The new framework is part of the company’s MFi program, and we’ve already seen some Made-For-iPhone controllers in the wild. Logitech teased its own iPhone gamepad just last month along with ClamCase, and now Logitech’s upcoming controller has been leaked.
Back in the iOS 7 beta, we noticed a feature that would focus your iPhone camera when you held down the volume button in landscape mode.
When I went to do the same thing yesterday while taking pictures of my Macbook Air’s trackpad (don’t ask), and instead of a nicely auto-focused picture, I got a bunch of pictures of my (not-moving) trackpad, inadvertently activating what Apple calls “burst mode.”
Here’s how to use it to get action shots on your own iPhone or iPad running iOS 7.
This afternoon President Obama addressed the nation to talk about the recent government shutdown, as well as to promote the rollout of the new U.S. healthcare coverage website that just launched today.
During his remarks President Obama addressed criticisms that HealthCare.gov is full of bugs and loads too slowly. Obama deflected most of the blame toward the more than 1 million people that visited the site before 7AM and bogged down the servers. The President did admit there are a lot of bugs that need to be addressed, but then he used Americas Most Valuable Brand, as an example of why rollouts don’t always go to well by comparing the Healthcare.gov rollout to glitches in iOS 7:
The Bitizens are back, and this time, it’s all about trains! Who doesn’t like trains?
Fresh off their hit Snake re-imagining Nimble Quest, NimbleBit has turned in a lovely little game that looks and plays a lot like last year’s hit Pocket Planes, with retro pixel art style and transit-themed, schedule-based gameplay. There’s a lot to like in this new iteration, as well, including streamlined mechanics, refined strategies, and updated graphics.
Let’s take a look.
The iPhone 5c is supposed to be Apple’s breakthrough device for the Chinese market – though we’ve heard they’re crazy for gold – so to make the import process quicker and cheaper Apple plans to ship iPhones from supplier Foxconn’s factory directly to China.
I used to keep three keyboards around the place, just to use with my two iPads and my iMac. This was clearly absurd, and I have since settled on the still-excellent Logitech K811, a Bluetooth keyboard which can easily switch between three Bluetooth devices at the touch of a button.
The Kanex Multi-Sync Keyboard offers a similar feature set, but is more geared towards the desktop. It’s pretty good, but won’t replace my K811. Let’s see why.
Carl Icahn finally got his dinner date wish with Tim Cook last night, after the famous billionaire investor took to Twitter a few weeks ago to preach how Wall Street has seriously undervalued AAPL stock. Along with parading his optimism for Apple’s stock, Icahn purchased a major stake in AAPL stock and has been dying for Cupertino to issue more buybacks.
While the iPhone’s Retina display may no longer be king when it comes to pixel count, it’s one of the fastest smartphone displays on the market, easily outpacing all of its rivals.
According to a TouchMark test carried out by Agawi, the Retina display responds more than twice as fast as any of its rivals — including the Galaxy S4 and other high-end Android devices — even on the three-year-old iPhone 4.
Apple is expected to release another minor iOS 7 update next week to address more bugs and early teething problems. The Cupertino company released iOS 7.0.2 late last week to fix a lock screen security vulnerability, but that introduced new problems of its own that are likely to be addressed with iOS 7.0.3.
It seems a lot of users who upgraded to iOS 7 last month are having issues with iMessage. Apple’s Support Communities forums are full of complaints from disgruntled iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch users who cannot send or receive iMessages anymore, and you’ll find plenty of people voicing their frustrations on Twitter, too.
Initially it seemed Apple’s servers were the problem — as they often are when iMessage has problems — but that’s not the case. Instead, it appears to be a simple bug that can be easily rectified with a quick bit of tinkering. Here’s what you need to do.
Today’s the day you’ll probably have to start paying for iCloud storage, folks — if you’re a former MobileMe subscriber, anyway. After giving us 25GB of iCloud storage absolutely free for two years, Apple has now ended the offer and dropped all non-paying iCloud users down to the basic 5GB plan.
If you need more than that, you’ll have to sign up for a subscription from today.
Samsung’s Galaxy Gear has been on sale for a number of weeks now, but today the South Korean company lifted its embargo on reviews. If you’ve been trying to decide whether or not you should spend hundreds of dollars on one, then, now’s the time to find out.
To make things a little easier for you, we’ve put together a roundup of the biggest and best reviews so you don’t have to trawl through them yourself.
If there’s one thing PC users have the hardest time with when they use my Macbook Air, it’s the trackpad. What seems completely common and functional to me leaves them baffled and confused.
“How do I click the mouse?” they ask, tapping away in frustration, not knowing that all you need to do is press down a bit and, you know, actually click the thing.
If you’re one of those folks, or you just like to be able to tap the trackpad without actually pressing it down, here’s how to do so.
Clear for iPhone, the wonderful to-do app from Realmac Software, has now been optimized for Apple’s latest iOS 7 software. It features the latest Clear design — which was originally debuted in Clear+ last month — coupled with all of the functionality that makes Clear one of the finest to-do apps for iOS.
What’s more, Clear is now available on your iPad.
As I write this, I’m sitting in Stuttgart airport waiting to take a connecting flight to my new home in Leipzig, Germany. And what is my biggest fear in my new life? The unbearable winters? The fact that smoking is still allowed in bars and restaurants in 2013? Nope. The scariest thing is that I may not be able to use BitTorrent to download the latest TV shows, thanks to pesky German traits like upholding the law.
If only there was a German equivalent of the new BBC download-only iPlayer app.
There are two things I love about these Kransen headphones from UrbanEars. Actually, there are three: that woven cord looks great in red. The other two are cable-wrangling tricks that would be welcome on any pair of earbuds: not that Apple would ever make an accessory so useful.
Pixa is our favorite alternative to iPhoto for the Mac, and it just got a solid v1.1 update. In addition to lots of polish (some of which you will have already seen in the recent 1.0.x updates), Pixa now makes snapping images and searching hem a whole lot easier.
To paraphrase serial sheet-folder Jill Cooper, one of the biggest challenges you’re going to face in your life is to control your cables. And although there’s no Jill Cooper to teach you how fold your cables into a perfect bundle, there are now two new gadgets to make things a little easier. They’re called the Rolio and the CableDrop Mini, and they’re from BlueLounge.
Some lucky folks at Verizon were recently able to upgrade to a new phone without losing their unlimited data plan. Color us totally jealous.
This was the result of a glitch, said Verizon, and not a change in policy like some may have mistakenly hoped for.
Verizon told AllThingsD on Monday that it would, however, honor the unlimited plans of customers that were able to upgrade without the dreaded limited data plan of doom.
Over the last couple of years Samsung has earned itself a reputation for using Apple products as “inspiration” and then copying them in the most blatant ways possible.
The fury of Apple fans was ignited again last week as Samsung was caught shamelessly copying the Apple’s new golden iPhone creation – the golden iPhone 5s – when the South Korean smartphone maker announced it would be selling a gold variant of the Galaxy S4. Apple fans were quick to dismiss the smartphone as another copycat move,but Samsung took to its corporate blog to explain that it’s totally not copying the gold iPhone because they’ve made tons of gold phones in the past (kind of).
The new iPhones have arrived and there’s no time like the present to ensure that you protect your new device from wear and tear. Cult of Mac Deals has a great offer lined up for those who’ve picked up an iPhone 5S (or have an iPhone 5) so that they can protect from even the worst of scenarios.
Spigen has been developing some top-notch products (check out a review of one of its screen protectors here) and for a limited time we’ve got the latest offering from the company: The iPhone 5S Tough Armor Bundle – featuring the Tough Armor case & popular all glass screen protector (GLAS.t). And, we’ve got it for 50% off the regular price – just $36.99.
Remember Lodsys? The small LLC that basically invented the term ‘patent troll’ made news in 2011 when it started going after App Store developers for infringing on obscure, abstract patent filings. It sued small app developers for outrageous amounts because it claimed to own the definitive patents on in-app purchases and the general concept of an upgrade button.
The issue with Lodsys was that its sole business was buying up patents in bulk and using them to sue the pants off devs. Many devs don’t have the resources to finance a legal battle of that nature, so Lodsys would then settle with a lot of its victims outside of court. Apple went up to bat for its third-party devs in court a couple years ago, and today Apple’s motion to intervene was thrown out.
If you’ve been itching to get your hands on a 126GB iPad, Apple has started offering refurbished models at a discount in its online store. The fourth-gen iPad that was released back in January is available in a 128GB WiFi/Cellular configuration that normally prices at $799/$929 retail.
Now Apple is selling refurbished 128GB iPads at a 15% discount of $679 for WiFi-only and $689 for Cellular. That’s a great deal when you consider that refurbs are Apple-certified models that come with a 1-year warranty.
New iPads are supposed to arrive in October, so if you care about having the newest hardware, then it’s best to wait. Otherwise, take advantage of this discount Apple is offering.
Source: Apple Store
Today Dropbox released an update to its Mac app that adds the ability to automatically upload all screenshots you take. The feature is called Camera Uploads in Dropbox’s mobile apps, and now it’s finally coming to the desktop.
Not only can screenshots be automatically uploaded to your Dropbox, but a share link for each image is also pasted into your clipboard as screenshots are taken.
Another addition in today’s update is a new import tool that lets you transfer photos from your iPhoto library to Dropbox.
Source: Dropbox