Articles about Apple

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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It is a couple of weeks since Apple announced a battery replacement program for iPhone 6s handsets suffering with random shutdown issue. At the time, the company gave nothing away about what the root cause of the problem was, but now it has opened up.

In a posting on its Chinese website, Apple confirms that the shutdown problems were indeed related to a battery problem. Specifically, the company explains that it was "a battery component that was exposed to controlled ambient air longer than it should have been".

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When the time comes to buy a charger for your Apple device, you better make sure that what you are getting is the real deal. Why? A new report from UK's Chartered Trading Standards Institute says that the vast majority of counterfeit chargers for Apple products are not safe to use.

CTSI purchased 400 fake chargers from suppliers across the globe and discovered that 397 of them -- or 99.25 percent -- fail to meet what it considers a "basic safety test". In other words, if you use one to top the battery on your iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, MacBook or other Apple product you risk damaging the device -- or worse.

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The winter holidays are fast approaching and, just like other workers, many folks in the tech industry are looking forward to their vacation days. But, before employees can celebrate and unwind, companies have to adjust their schedule accordingly and prepare their customers for the limited (or lack of) office hours.

Apple announces its schedule today, advising developers to submit their updates and new apps for approval in time, to avoid any delays and inconveniences.

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Recently a lot of people have been complaining about spam calendar invitations in iOS, and it’s something I’ve experienced too -- particularly on Black Friday. "$19.99 Ray-ban&Oakley Black Friday In-Store & Online" said one unwelcome invitation.

While you can easily decline these invites, that’s not the greatest idea because -- just like responding to a spam email -- it has the side effect of telling a spammer that your account is active. Thankfully, there is an easy way to stop them.

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Google and photography seem to go hand in hand. The company's new Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones take very high-quality pictures, while its Photos app for Android and iOS is a brilliant way to both store and categorize images in the cloud.

Today, Google takes its passion for photography to another level with an all-new app for macOS. Dubbed 'Featured Photos Screensaver' it creates a screensaver using images that are sourced from user photos which were uploaded to Google+. Don't worry about privacy, folks -- these are images that users have agreed to share. Google+ photographers can choose to opt-out if they prefer.

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If you've updated your iPhone to iOS 10.1.1, you may have started to feel that your battery is not lasting as long as it used to. You are not alone; you could be experiencing what has been named the 30 percent bug.

Many users are complaining that their iPhones will suddenly drop from 30 percent battery charge to 1 percent, and then shutdown. The problem does not seem to affect one particular generation of iPhone, suggesting that the issue lies with iOS itself, but at the moment Apple does not have a fix available.

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