Articles about Apple

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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FBI director James Comey made the news last month when he admitted that he tapes over his laptop's webcam to avoid being spied upon. Mark Zuckerberg does it too. As Comey puts it, blocking the webcam is a "sensible" thing to do -- and if you too care about your privacy you should follow suit. But, there is a problem.

When you remove the tape to chat with someone you are left vulnerable. And, as a security researcher will demonstrate today at the VB2016 conference, a hacker could use that opportunity to record Mac users' activities "in an essentially undetectable manner".

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Yahoo has been having something of a rough time of late, and things are not getting any easier. It has emerged that the company created a custom tool to search customers' emails for specific terms as directed by the NSA and FBI.

Reuters shares the story of two former Yahoo employees who say the company complied with a government directive to search through all incoming emails. In response to the revelations, Apple, Google and Microsoft have all denied engaging in similar activity.

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It may have been one of the worst kept secrets in tech launches, but today Google officially took the wraps off its Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones. In terms of hardware it could be argued that there is nothing too spectacular here, but even if you ignore the (still very impressive) hardware side of things there are two features that directly take on Apple: Google Assistant to compete with Siri, and unlimited full-resolution photo backup.

Unlike Google's previous Nexus range, the Pixel handsets carry no other branding -- these are the first phones designed and built inside and out by Google and Google alone. We already knew just about everything about the two handsets -- which neatly compete with the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, but now everything, and more, has been confirmed.

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Apple is doing something out of the ordinary. Shortly after launching macOS Sierra, it started to automatically download the latest version of the operating system onto Mac devices. This is great if you want to upgrade to macOS Sierra now, but annoying if you planned to wait a bit longer to make sure all the major kinks are ironed out, or want to forgo the upgrade altogether.

Fortunately, it is very easy to close the door shut on any attempts to push the large setup file onto your device. All that you need to do to prevent macOS Sierra from automatically downloading on your Mac is to disable automatic updates.

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"Third time's the charm", VirnetX is probably now thinking, as a US court has, for the third time, ruled that Apple has infringed the company’s patents. A federal judge in Tyler, Texas ruled on Sunday that Apple must pay $302.4 million (£235.10m) for infringing VirnetX’s patents in services like FaceTime and iMessage.

Back in 2010, VirnetX was awarded $368.2 (£286.25m), but the ruling was partially overturned because it wasn’t exactly clear how the jury calculated the damages. The second time, earlier this year, the court ruled Apple should pay, setting the figure at $625.6 million (£486.37), but that ruling too was voided because the "repeated references to the earlier case could have confused jurors and were unfair to Apple".

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It's something that has faint echoes of Microsoft's approach to pushing Windows 10 on to users. This week Apple is making macOS Sierra available to users as an automatic download -- interestingly, users who receive the automatic download treatment are being selected randomly.

Apple confirmed the nature of the roll out to The Loop, which also reports that the download will only start for people who have automatic updates switched on, and if they have sufficient storage space available. Unlike Microsoft, Apple is taking a rather less aggressive approach when it comes to suggesting users might like to upgrade to the latest version of the operating system.

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