Articles about Apple

I am not an Apple fanboy, but I have defended the company's decisions and philosophy more times than I can remember. And for good reason. But, looking at the new MacBook Pro line, I am finding it hard to see where that "touch of genius" is. What exactly makes its latest laptops anything more than glorified MacBooks?

Apple has never been afraid to take risks and innovate. But with the new MacBook Pros it has failed to improve upon their "Pro" status. It wrongfully applied the same approach it has used over and over again in the consumer space without considering that prosumers, the folks who MacBook Pros used to be designed for, have a different set of needs than the average Joe who buys a MacBook Air to go on Facebook at Starbucks. As a result, the new MacBook Pros, while different than before, are not evolved enough for this day and age. The so-called "touch of genius" tagline is proof that Apple has lost touch with the real world.

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Today was Apple's big October event, and I came away impressed. The new MacBook Pro is both drop-dead gorgeous and super-powerful. The Touch Bar is revolutionary, bringing touch functionality to an operating system that isn't designed for a touch screen.

Unfortunately, the prices for the New MacBook Pro models are quite high, starting at $1,800 for one with the Touch Bar (a neutered non-Touch Bar model can be had for $1,500). If you are going to invest in such a pricey laptop, you will probably want it to double as a desktop too. Luckily, LG has two new Thunderbolt 3 monitors (one is 27-inch 5K, the other is 21.5-inch 4K) that will make it so. Dubbed "UltraFine", they double as single-cable docking stations. In other words, when paired with the MacBook Pro (or non-Pro MacBook), you will have a very rewarding macOS experience.

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The Mac laptop line, following today's new announcements, looks lots less like Apple and more like Compaq—where Tim Cook worked much earlier in his career, incidentally, long before the original IBM PC clone-maker's demise. Confusing. Complicated. These are apt descriptions that might just send the ghost of Steve Jobs skyward on either—take your pick—Halloween or Day of the Dead.

Among Apple cofounder's first tasks when returning to the chief executive's chair in 1997: Simplifying product families. Jobs cut the deadweight, surprising many people by killing off Newton, for example. Complex product lines define Apple under successor Cook, by contrast.

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We were expecting Apple to release a new app for Apple TV at its "Hello Again" event, and that was the first thing that the tech giant showed off.

Called simply TV, the new app lets you discover and watch TV shows and movies from multiple apps on Apple TV, iPhone and iPad. There’s also a new Siri feature for Apple TV that lets viewers quickly tune in to live news and sporting events.

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In just a few hours, Apple will be taking the wraps off its latest MacBook Pro. We’ve already seen a leaked photo of the new device, with OLED Magic Toolbar, but Apple will have more to show us than just that. Rumors suggest the tech giant will be updating the MacBook Air and iMac too, debuting an external 5K display, and announcing an Apple TV app called "The Watch List" that will recommend shows users may like.

The event is scheduled to start at 10am PDT/1pm EDT/6pm BST, and as always it will be streamed live so you can tune in at home or (maybe) work.

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When Apple removed the 3.5mm headphone jack from the iPhone 7, some people were upset. Me? I was happy. Look, that analog audio jack was very outdated, and it was time to kill it. Digital audio is superior, and the Lightning port is a great alternative.

The other reason I didn't mind the death of the headphone jack was AirPods -- Apple's revolutionary wireless headphones. Even though I own an iPhone 6S Plus with 3.5mm jack, I was saving up money to buy my own AirPods this month. Like a punch in the gut, however, today, Apple breaks the hearts of many -- AirPods have officially been delayed. In other words, the much-anticipated product will not go on sale in October as previously promised.

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The release of macOS 10.12.1 was a fairly unremarkable affair... apart from one thing. In addition to the expected fixes and changes, hidden in the code are images relating to Apple Pay that appear to show off the new MacBook Pro -- the updated model that's not due to be announced until the upcoming event on 27 October.

The images are very revealing too, showing off a few surprises that Apple would probably have liked to have kept secret until the big day. Gone are the function keys at the top of the keyboard, replaced instead by a touch sensitive OLED panel presumed to be called the Magic Toolbar. There's also -- it appears -- built in support for Touch ID, and a few other changes.

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Two days before Apple's next media event, where long-overdue new laptops presumably arrive, the Cupertino, Calif.-based tech giant released fiscal fourth quarter and full-year 2016 results. You could feel the anticipation after the Bell closed on Wall Street today—and, honestly, it had been palpable for weeks. Shares closed $118.25, up .51 percent.

The drama is a TV thriller: Release of iPhone 7 and 7 Plus set against a backdrop of saturated global smartphone sales; launch of Apple Watch Series 2 into an already declining market for smart timepieces; analyst data showing calendar third quarter to again be bad for PC shipments—with even Macs losing momentum. So everyone wants to know: What was the quarter's financial crop?

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Nike has long been a major player in all things sports. Its footwear and other apparel can often be found on the world's most popular athletes. True, the company pays those folks big bucks to wear the gear, but that does not detract from the fact that it is also quality stuff. Trust me, a comfortable pair of Nike sneakers is well worth the premium.

Nike and Apple have long been in business together -- even before the iPhone -- with Nike+iPod. The collaboration between these two strong brands makes a lot of sense. This Friday, the Apple Watch Nike+ will finally be available to consumers. Since Apple's wearable is so focused on fitness, this is likely the most cohesive and focused collaboration between the two companies.

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Next week, on October 27, Apple will hold a press event called "Hello Again". While the company has not officially announced the products to be unveiled, rumors suggest we will see new Mac computers. Apple has long neglected its desktops and laptops (it still sells a MacBook from 2012), and consumers have been eagerly anticipating refreshed machines with better specifications. It is quite likely that the wants of these folks will be met next week.

Unfortunately for some, Mac computers (and many Windows machines too) no longer have number pads (aka keypads). For those that work in the financial sector, or simply learned to type using a keyboard with a number pad, this can be problematic. Fortunately, there are many third-party options on the market. Today, Satechi releases the all-new Slim Aluminum Wireless Keypad and it looks like a winner. If you are planning to buy one of the rumored new Mac computers, this could be a godsend. Not only does it come in colors to match Apple devices, but it is slimmer than Satechi's prior offering.

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Depending on which iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus version you buy, you may experience slower storage and cellular speeds compared to other models in the lineup -- and, at least when it comes to the wireless performance, there may be nothing that you can do about it.

A report on the storage performance of the base iPhone 7 Plus, which features 32GB of storage, reveals that it is a couple of times slower at the same task than a 128GB iPhone 7, in both synthetic and real-life benchmarks.

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I sold my sister's T-Mobile HTC M9 earlier today. Nan lives in Vermont, where Verizon delivers consistently better coverage and where the market for a used smartphone is much smaller than here in San Diego. The buyer had previously owned the Samsung Galaxy Note 7, which she really enjoyed. While waiting until late November or early December for her matte black iPhone 7 Plus order, the woman has a Samsung Galaxy J7 loaner and hates it. She is familiar with the M9 because her mom owns one.

This lady is the fifth person I've met in just a few days who had bought Note 7. They're everywhere—and a sorry lot of disappointment, too. Every one switched to an iPhone. What? Has no one read reviews claiming Google's Pixel handsets are the Android iPhones everyone waited for?

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With the launch of the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus Apple not only removed the headphone jack, the company also replaced the mechanical home button with a static one. What was not revealed, however, is that iOS 10 also has a secret software Home button.

The feature is a safeguard built in should anything go wrong with your physical home button. Should this happen, the button problem will be detected and iOS 10 will offer up a temporary on-screen Home button to tide you over until you can get to the Genius Bar.

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Nearly a month after releasing the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, Apple is giving consumers the option of purchasing the unlocked versions of its latest flagships in US. The "SIM-free" models are available in all the color and storage configurations as their carrier counterparts, with prices starting at the same $649 for the iPhone 7 and $769 for the iPhone 7 Plus.

The unlocked iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus models carry the designation A1778 and A1784, and support the same LTE bands as the AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon versions. But what are the differences?

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Call me a cheapskate, but I’ve always been a bit stingy when it comes to spending on technology. Maybe it’s all those years spent testing and reviewing hardware for myriad trade publications (and the parade of free "extended loaners" I received). Or maybe it’s my insider knowledge of tech trends that makes me hesitant to pay top dollar for something I know will be obsolete inside of a year. But regardless of the motivation, I’ve steadfastly resisted the "urge to splurge" on high-profile technology products.

Case in point: Apple. When the original iPhone came out, I dismissed it as a toy and stuck with my feature phone. And when the iPad debuted, I ignored the tablet sector entirely for nearly two years before investing in what I thought was a technically superior (and by that time, heavily discounted) Blackberry Playbook.

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