apple_syringes

iPhone Upgrade Program screws Apple junkies

You may have heard that Apple had a little get together today. There were lots of big launches -- the iPhone 6S, the iPhone 6S Plus, and the iPad Pro. Those waiting for an iPhone fix were given quite a lot to get excited about, but like your friendly local drug dealer, Apple has a 'sweetener' to help ensure its customers just keep on coming back for more: the iPhone Upgrade Program which lets you upgrade to a new iPhone every year as long as you keep paying each month.

On the face of it, it might seem like a good deal -- particularly as the price includes Apple Care -- but is that really the case? What Apple's actually doing is feeding the habit of iPhone junkies, keeping their addiction going a little bit longer, and a little bit longer, and a little bit longer. In reality, Apple would like you to perma-rent your iPhone and keep paying through the nose for it. Ideally forever. And the sad thing? People will be quite happy to bend over and take it.

By Sofia Elizabella Wyciślik-Wilson -
iPad Pro

iPad Pro is DOA in the Enterprise

Even before Apple officially unveiled its new “professional” grade tablet, the seeds of its demise were being sown. The culprit? None other than arch-rival Microsoft which, by partnering with Hewlett Packard and Dell to distribute and support its Surface Pro line of products, essentially locking-down the enterprise tablet market once and for all.

Some were confused by the recent announcement that these two PC industry stalwarts would agree to resell Microsoft hardware, at least in the enterprise. After all, both HP and Dell produce products designed to compete with Microsoft’s Surface lineup. By adding the Surface Pro 3 (and eventually, Surface Pro 4) to their catalogs, they seemingly risk cannibalizing their own device sales.

By Randall C. Kennedy -
Apple Watch 3

Apple Watch gets watchOS 2 with support for native apps; new bands and cases

At a media event today, Apple announces an update to the Watch. The Cupertino-based company announces watchOS 2 with support for native apps, and on the hardware side, the new gold and rose gold aluminum Apple Watch Sport models. Available as a free upgrade, watchOS 2 will become available on September 16.

At the event, where the company also unveiled the iPhone 6s, the iPhone 6s Plus, the iPad mini 4, the iPad Pro, some much-anticipated features for the Apple Watch were announced. Among many new features, the company said that watchOS 2 is bringing support for native apps -- finally you can run an app on the Watch, instead of mirroring it to your timepiece, as well new watch faces. The company said that it would make apps faster and more fluid.

By Max Nottingham -
iOS 9 edited

iOS 9 gets an official release date

The next version of Apple’s mobile operating system was announced three months ago, and developers and brave beta testers have been able to try it for a while. What we didn’t know -- until today -- was when the latest iteration would be available to the world at large.

If you’ve been waiting for iOS 9 the great news is you don’t have too much longer to go. The updated Apple OS will be available to iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users from September 16.

By Wayne Williams -
IMG_20150909_152733

Behold, the new Apple TV

Streaming media is not the future -- it is the present. Services like Hulu, Netflix and Spotify are all the rage with millennials and beyond. While some television sets have integrated access to streaming, most do not. Instead, consumers must buy a media box, such as Roku, Amazon Fire, or Apple TV.

Apple's offering has always been attractive, but the company has not updated it in a number of years. Today this changes, as Apple unveils a refreshed Apple TV running the newly-named "tvOS" operating system, which is based on iOS. This may be the most exciting thing to happen to television since we found out who shot Mr. Burns on The Simpsons.

By Brian Fagioli -
iPhone 6s and 6s plus edited

Apple takes the wraps off iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus

We have come to expect new iPhones to be introduced in September, and today Apple does not disappoint as it takes the wraps off the new iPhone 6s and its bigger brother, iPhone 6s Plus. Typical of "s" models, both smartphones retain the design first seen in the previous generation while improving upon their predecessors in a couple of key areas.

With the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, Apple has focused its attention on build quality, cameras, display, and performance. Both flagships, of course, ship with a new version of iOS, which will be generally available later this month, on September 16.

By Mihăiță Bamburic -
ipad mini 4 edited

Oh yes, there's a new iPad mini too

The big iPad news coming out of Apple today was undoubtedly the new super-sized iPad Pro, but it wasn’t the only iPad mentioned. While there’s no sign of a successor to last year’s iPad Air 2 (rumors say that’s not expected until next year) Apple did mention -- in passing -- a new iPad mini 4.

This is the first update of the smallest iPad in nearly two years, and it’s been worth the wait.

By Wayne Williams -
iPad Pro in use

The rumors were true -- Apple iPad Pro is real and priced from $799

There have been rumors of a super-sized iPad for ages now, but at today’s Apple event Tim Cook finally took the wraps off the iPad Pro -- the most advanced (and largest) iPad ever.

It's a sizable tablet -- 12.9 inches on the diagonal. Cleverly the width of the iPad Pro is exactly the same as the height of the iPad Air, which will allow you to run iPad apps with space to spare. Handy since iOS 9 allows for multi-tasking.

By Wayne Williams -
apple_logo_glass_building

Live Blog: Apple's 'Hey, Siri' iPhone 6s, iOS 9, Apple TV and iPad Pro launch

Apple knows how to put on a show, and today is no different. Even those with little more than a passing interest in the company are (come on, admit it!) eager to see exactly what will be unveiled. For the most part we know what to expect. There's the iPhone 6s, iOS 9 and Apple TV which are all but guaranted to make an apperance, and there have been suggestions about the long-rumored iPad Pro. Whatever the event holds, there is sure to be at least one surprise, and there's not long to wait to find out more.

There's a live stream if you fancy watching the event live, but if you're not able to for any reason we've got you covered with this live blog. Thing kicks off at 10am PDT/6pm BST -- just keep hitting refresh for the latest updates!

By Sofia Elizabella Wyciślik-Wilson -
android_button_sale

Google slashes the minimum price for Android apps in India

Google has cut the minimum price for which apps can be sold by a fifth. The price cut currently only affects India, and sees the cost plummet from 50 Rs (around $0.75) to just 10 Rs (around $0.15). It is a decision that has clearly been taken to both entice new customers to Android, as well as discouraging existing users from switching allegiances to Apple -- particularly with the launch of the iPhone 6s.

The lower price point was made available to developers at the end of July, but now Google is starting to promote apps and let users know that there are now many apps available for the reduced price. As well as applying to apps and games in Google Play, the 10 Rs minimum now also applies to in-app purchases.

By Sofia Elizabella Wyciślik-Wilson -
Globe hard drive

Spanning expands its Salesforce backup capability

Backup specialist Spanning will be using next week's Dreamforce '15 event to showcase the latest developments in its Saleforce backup solution.

Spanning Backup for Salesforce will now offer a European data center giving companies a choice of backup destination and aiding compliance with policies that specify data must be stored within the EU.

By Ian Barker -
hey_siri_apple

How to watch Apple's iPhone 6s launch live on any device including Windows, Linux and Android

In just a few hours Apple will be taking the wraps off its latest smartphones, iOS 9, and possibly a new game-centric Apple TV. The event is scheduled to start at 10am PDT/6pm BST, and as always it will be streamed live so you can tune in at home or (maybe) work.

Apple likes to preach to the faithful, so there are the usual restrictions in place. Live streaming the event requires Safari 6.0.5 or later on OS X v10.8.5 or later; Safari on iOS 7.0 or later. Streaming via Apple TV requires second- or third-generation Apple TV with software 6.2 or later. This year, there’s another way to watch as well -- using Microsoft Edge on Windows 10.

By Wayne Williams -
Shock surprise

Samsung paves the way for mobile devices with 6GB of RAM

The amount of RAM that manufacturers pack into our mobile devices will only increase as time goes by. It seems like only yesterday that 2 GB was reserved for premium handsets, but now you can find much cheaper mid-rangers featuring that much memory.

However, the latest crop of Android flagship phablets now ship with 4 GB of RAM. Samsung's Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 edge Plus are prime examples, and so is the more expensive OnePlus 2 model. And you can expect next year's batch of standard-sized flagships to follow suit, if not exceed them. But, pretty soon, that too will no longer be enough. Thanks to Samsung, in the near future our high-end mobile devices will have 6 GB of RAM.

By Mihăiță Bamburic -
Ransomware

Corporate virtual drives targeted by ransomware attacks

Recent discoveries like Adult Player have brought ransomware back into the news, but it's not just individuals that are being targeted.

Data recovery specialist Kroll Ontrack says it's seeing a rise in ransomware attacks aimed at corporate virtual drives. Recently Bitcoin payment was demanded in exchange for stolen data with the threat of the user's information being auctioned off.

By Ian Barker -
CLCL-200-175

Take full control of the Windows clipboard with CLCL

If you’ve been using PCs for longer than 5 minutes then you’ve almost certainly run into the limitations of the Windows clipboard, and tried a few clipboard managers to keep a complete history of your copy-and-pasting.

Testing out yet another example in CLCL probably isn’t high on your list of priorities, then. But wait -- it’s way more interesting than you might expect.

By Mike Williams -
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