Articles about Apple

As much as I tried not to spill anything on my beloved MacBook Air, last month I knocked over a cup of coffee, getting almost all of it over the keyboard. I feared this would happen, but I did not think it would happen to me. I'm super careful with any coffee, soda or water that I bring to my desk. But, the thing I dreaded the most happened.

There was coffee all over the keyboard, touchpad and the left side of my Mac. It is not a pretty sight, unless you are dying to get a new laptop -- which, really, wasn't the case. Knowing that liquid damage can be the end of it, I quickly powered it off, turned it upside down, and the coffee started to drain from it. With a bit of luck, I knew that I could fix it. And I did. Here is how I did it and what I learned from it.

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A jury in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California has ruled against Apple in a lawsuit about wireless patent infringement. Core Wireless was awarded $7.3 million in damages after Apple was found to have violated two patents owned by the company.

Apple was found to have infringed upon Core Wireless' patents in iPhones and iPads, taking advantage of technology that "provide innovations that improve battery life and signal quality in mobile phones". The company is expected to appeal against the ruling, but this is not the only case it has lost.

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In the three years of using my MacBook Air, I have never had any major problems with it. It was totally reliable, even after I accidentally spilled coffee on it. However, updates in the macOS Sierra 10.12 and macOS High Sierra 10.13 families ruined its streak, leaving me with a blank screen that only displayed the cursor.

I initially blamed the update for this, but after I saw no similar reports from other users I started doing some digging. As it turns out, this problem predates Sierra and High Sierra by a couple of years. Apple has not addressed it yet, but, don't panic: it is pretty easy to fix it yourself.

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Water smacked the windshield -- a torrent of heavy droplets -- as my wife struggled to feed money into the tollbooth machine. Pelting rain is uncommon during November in San Diego, but we had purpose for driving 36 km through the downpour to Chula Vista and the Otay Ranch Apple Store, where I had never been before. The shop was the only one around that had the 15.4-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar in stock.

Eleven days earlier, Nov. 15, 2016, I received the 13.3-inch model that was ordered on October 27th. While first impressions were wow, the laptop felt slow compared to my previous MBP, and the battery drained in about half the time as specs stated. I worried that Apple produced a defective unit. No store in the area had the smaller laptop in stock, should I want to take advantage of the 14-day return policy. Deadline approached, so I considered as alternative my first 15-incher in more than a decade, tempted in part by quad-core processor and discreet graphics.

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Christmas is a time that sees many people getting new phones -- and for Google this is the perfect opportunity to try to steal a few iPhone users. But the problem with switching from one mobile platform to another is making sure data migrates across. Thanks to Google Drive, this is now easier than ever.

Google has had a guide to switching from iOS to Android on the Android website for some time, but it has now been updated to reflect important changes that have been made to the iOS version of Google Drive.

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A day after introducing iOS 10.2, Apple releases macOS Sierra 10.12.2. The update promises to resolve the graphics problems affecting the 2016 MacBook Pro line, adds some improvements, and fixes lots of bugs.

Another highlight of macOS Sierra 10.12.2 is that it now supports new installations of Windows 7 and Windows 8 in Boot Camp. The previous version limited users to Windows 10, but the older versions of Windows are still very popular -- and in high demand, apparently with Mac users.

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Apple's Airpods are undoubtedly very cool technology. Whether they look fashionable is up for debate, however. While I think they make the user look futuristic and cool, others think they look nerdy -- like someone snipped the wires off a traditional pair of Apple EarPods.

If you did want to buy the AirPods, it has been a very bumpy road. After Apple announced them, they were delayed for mysterious reasons. Today, however, the iPhone-maker makes them available online for ordering. Unfortunately, if you have not already placed an order, they are essentially sold out. While you can still order them, the shipping date is currently four weeks from now -- well after Christmas. If you need them sooner, there is still hope, however. Here is how to get them as early as next week!

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Microsoft likes to compare its Surface range with the MacBook Pro at any given opportunity, even though the two products are very different.

November, according to Microsoft, was the best month ever for consumer Surface sales, and the software giant is gleefully claiming that disappointment with the new MacBook Pro is part of the reason behind the surge. But is it? Really?

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I laughed so hard and so often at IDC's smartphone forecast, my response took nine days to write -- okay, to even start it. The future isn't my chuckable -- that data looks reasonably believable enough -- but the past. Because 2016 was supposed to be the year that Microsoft's mobile OS rose from the ashes of Symbian to surpass iOS and to challenge Android.

In 2011, IDC forecast that Windows Phone global smartphone OS market share would top 20 percent in 2015. The analyst firm reiterated the platform's No. 2 status for 2016 in 2012 as well. Not that I ever believed the ridiculous forecasts, writing: "If Windows Phone is No. 2 by 2015, I'll kiss Steve Ballmer's feet" and "If Windows Phone is No. 2 by 2016, I'll clean Steve Ballmer's toilet". The CEO's later retirement let me lose from those obligations had I been wrong. I was confident in my analysis being truer.

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Over the years, some people have accused Samsung of copying Apple with its designs. While that criticism was certainly more valid early on, the Galaxy-maker has carved out its own design style in recent years -- silencing some pundits. Its smartphones are wildly popular, and for good reason -- they often have great build quality and are chock-full of many outstanding features. They are not mere clones or imitations.

One of Samsung's most popular smartphones is the wonderful Galaxy S7 edge. While you would never mistake it for an iPhone, today, the Galaxy-maker does seem to copy Apple just a little bit -- even if it is unintentional. How? By introducing a new color called 'Pearl Black' which is very reminiscent of the iPhone 7's 'Jet Black' option. While there may not be any proof, do you think there is any copying going on?

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We all make mistakes. The challenge is recognizing and correcting them quickly enough. So comes admission: I bought Apple AirPort Time Capsule to replace Google OnHub—what a bad decision.

My tale starts with a chance sighting on Kinja Deals for the 2TB Apple WiFi router on sale at Amazon for $199; one-hundred bucks off. I ordered on Nov. 16, 2016, and the device arrived two days later. At the time, I had 45Mbps AT&T Internet (which has changed since). Placed in the same location where OnHub had been, about 3 meters away from my desk in the same room as the router, throughput consistently came in at 15Mbps, occasionally a little more, as measured by Fast.com or SpeedTest.Net. By contrast, Google's router wirelessly pumped 40Mbps or more. Ah, yeah.

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Here's the deal. Apple doesn't want to publish smartwatch sales data in its quarterly financial reports. So, to tell us where Apple Watch stands in relation to the competition in the wearables market, analysts come up with estimates, which may or may not be close to the truth. IDC did the same thing this week, claiming that Apple Watch sales nosedived in Q3 2016.

Apple typically does not comment on such claims, as it prefers to keep quiet and not add any fuel to the fire. It's a strategy that works, because, first of all, the Apple Watch was never in any real kind of trouble to begin with. So far, it's been considered the market leader in its segment. But now that IDC announces a major decline, Tim Cook decides it is time to tell us that Apple Watch is actually "doing great".

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The MacBook Pro (2016) is quite possibly the most beautiful laptop ever created -- it is a work of art. It has a revolutionary new keyboard and a monstrous touch-pad. So it is perfect, right? Well, not for everyone. You see, it only has USB Type-C/Thunderbolt 3 ports, meaning you may need dongles to get work done. Need to connect an SD card? Dongle. HDMI cable? Dongle. USB Type-A? Dongle.

Obviously, everyone will be searching for one ultimate dongle that can do it all. There are many such adapters on the market, but many fall short of perfection. Over on Kickstarter, however, there is a new such product called "HyperDrive" that aims to be the only dongle you will ever need.

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The announcement that Netflix now allows viewers to download videos for offline viewing caused understandable excitement among subscribers. Of course, the key concern -- particularly with mobile devices -- is storage space. But thanks to a tweaked codec, Netflix has your back.

If you were worried that you might not be able to fit many episodes of your favorite shows on your phone or tablet, fear not. For Android users, Netflix opted to use the super-efficient VP9 codec, but as this isn’t supported by Apple, it had to think outside the box a little and ended up plumping for a custom H.264/AVC High codec for iOS users. The space savings are impressive.

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We've known (or at least believed) for some time that Apple has been working on some form of automated vehicle, but the company has remained tight-lipped about what it is up to. Now, however, a letter to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) gives the strongest official hint that Apple is working on something.

The letter -- written by Apple's Director of Product Integrity, Steve Kenner, back in November -- has just come to light, in it Apple praises NHTSA's policies on automated vehicles, and stresses the importance of machine learning, data sharing, and user privacy in ensuring the development and safety of such technologies.

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