Jordan manages the internal Partner Program for sponsorships and partnerships across the 9to5 network’s media brands including 9to5Mac, 9to5Google, 9to5Toys, Electrek.co, SpaceExplored and DroneDJ.com.
Jordan also writes about all things Apple as a Senior Editor of 9to5Mac. He covers Google for 9to5Google.com, the best gadgets and deals on 9to5Toys.com, and EV and solar news on Electrek.co. He also co-authors 9to5Mac’s Logic Pros series and makes music sometimes.
Contact Jordan with partnership inquiries and long-winded complaints:
Like it did last year, Apple’s participation in this year’s Worlds AIDS Day will include changing the iconic glowing white Apple logo that hangs outside its retail stores to red in order to raise awareness for the fight against AIDS. The new red Apple signage is already up at Apple’s Australian stores (pictured above) as we roll into Dec. 1 local time.
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A new app called FingerKey allows Mac users to unlock their computer using Apple’s Touch ID fingerprint sensor on the iPhone 5s, 6, or 6 Plus.
That means you’ll be able to login to your Mac using your iPhone’s fingerprint sensor rather than typing in a password each time. The app takes advantage of Apple opening up the Touch ID sensor to third-party apps for logins after previously being reserved for unlocking the device itself and authenticating App Store and iTunes purchases.
The FingerKey app includes the ability to unlock multiple computers from a distance, 256-bit AES encryption, and a Notification Center Today widget for quick access.
The developer says that support for logging into Windows and Linux computers is coming soon as is a Pattern Unlock feature for logging in via touchscreen gestures.
We recently wrote about a similar app, which also used a Bluetooth connection, that allowed users to unlock their Mac using by knocking on their iPhone’s screen.
FingerKey is available on the App Store for $1.99 and the developer shared the video below of the app in action:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVS1f9iYqHs]
Japanese magazine Mac Fan has published what it claims are drawings for the much rumored upcoming 12-inch iPad (via Macotakara).
The report in Mac Fan, which refers to the 12-inch iPad as the iPad Air Plus, claims that the new iPad will include a 12.2-inch display, new A9 processor, four speakers to offer stereo sound in any orientation, and arrive sometime between April and June of next year.
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TechCrunch points to a newly published patent filed by Nintendo that shows the company is interested in bringing Game Boy titles to mobile devices through emulation technology. Many emulators exist online to mimic old consoles and allow gamers to play back catalogs of games converted to ROM files on Macs and PCs, and Nintendo could possibly do the same to officially bring titles to mobile devices without much heavy lifting in terms of rewriting the games:
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[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd2CxwPP6ks]
Oddworld Stranger’s Wrath first debuted on the original Xbox in 2005 to praise from critics and today the game has officially arrived for iOS devices with some new additions and enhancements specifically for the smaller screens.
Developed by Oddworld Inhabitants, Stranger’s Wrath is the latest installment in the franchise despite being first released on the original Xbox almost 10 years ago. The title foregoes the side scrolling puzzler gameplay that made the original Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee and follow up games in the series popular when released on PlayStation in the late 90’s. Instead, Stranger’s Wrath is half first-person shooter, half third-person platformer with lots of the usual Oddworld exploration and theatrical soundtrack.
The developers say the new iOS release includes “exciting new controls that make the most of the mobile format and improved visuals throughout.” The game also includes support for Made-for-iPhone game controllers and supports English, German, Russian, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Finish, Swedish, and Polish languages.
Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath is available on the App Store now for $5.99.
Developer Adam Bell has published a preview of his latest project that attempts to allow CarPlay, Apple’s iOS feature usually reserved for in-car entertainment systems, to run directly on iOS devices.
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Many Black Friday deals are officially going live today with others likely arriving tonight and through the weekend into Cyber Monday. We’re tracking deals for all platforms and gadgets over on 9to5Toys, but below we’ve rounded up only the best accessories for iOS devices and Mac seeing big discounts this weekend.
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Hyper, the brand behind a number of popular Mac and iOS products we’ve reviewed in the past, is today offering its best deals ever for Black Friday. The sale includes big deals on external battery packs and other iOS accessories including the world’s only external MacBook battery.
Some of the notables: A $10 3600 mAh battery pack (Reg. $49), a $20 7200mAh battery pack (Reg. $70), and up to $50 off the company’s external battery for MacBooks. Head below for the full list of deals.
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Update Dec. 9: Now at 63%
Update Dec. 24: 1% increase to 64% since two weeks ago
Apple today updated its App Store Distribution data for developers to announce that iOS 8 is now installed on 60% of devices as of earlier this week. The data is collected from App Store visits on November 24 and is up from the 55% of devices iOS 8 was on when Apple last checked in early this month.
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Apple has updated its support document detailing 4K displays with Mac support to add LG’s recently announced 31-inch 4K monitor (31MU97).
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Following an announcement last month that the latest entry in the popular Civilization strategy game series would hit Mac sometime this holiday season, today Civilization: Beyond Earth has officially arrived for Mac users. The game, developed by Firaxis and brought to Mac users by Aspyr, first hit PC on October 24th.
Beyond Earth offers a fresh take on the traditional strategy gameplay of previous entries with a new sci-fi theme that lets users explore deep space and other futuristic settings.
As part of an expedition sent to find a home beyond Earth, you will write the next chapter for humanity as you lead your people into a new frontier and create a new civilization in space. Explore and colonize an alien planet, research new technologies, amass mighty armies, build incredible Wonders and shape the face of your new world. As you embark on your journey you must make critical decisions. From your choice of sponsor and the make-up of your colony, to the ultimate path you choose for your civilization, every decision opens up new possibilities.
The Mac version arrives today with all of the features included in the PC counterpart including cross platform multiplayer and save syncing between all platforms.
The game is available today through all of the usual suspects including Steam, the Mac App Store, and developer Aspyr’s own GameAgent store. It cost $49.99, but the $41 preorder deal is still live through Cyber Monday.
Features:
- Seed the Adventure: Establish your cultural identity by choosing one of eight different expedition sponsors, each with its own leader and unique gameplay benefits. Assemble your spacecraft, cargo & colonists through a series of choices that directly seed the starting conditions when arriving at the new planet.
- Colonize an Alien World: Explore the dangers and benefits of a new planet filled with dangerous terrain, mystical resources, and hostile life forms unlike those of Earth. Build outposts, unearth ancient alien relics, tame new forms of life, develop flourishing cities and establish trade routes to create prosperity for your people.
- Technology Web: To reflect progress forward into an uncertain future, technology advancement occurs through a series of nonlinear choices that affect the development of mankind. The technology web is organized around three broad themes, each with a distinct victory condition.
- Orbital Layer: Build and deploy advanced military, economic and scientific satellites that provide strategic offensive, defensive and support capabilities from orbit.
- Unit Customization: Unlock different upgrades through the tech web and customize your units to reflect your play style.
- Multiplayer: Up to 8 players can compete for dominance of a new alien world.
Gameplay trailer below:
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfQyG885arY]
iTunes Radio, Apple’s ad-supported Internet radio service, is today available with “limited interruptions” courtesy of Verizon. That means that you won’t be seeing the normal ads you’re used to on the service and instead just a message from Verizon that states, “Enjoy with limited interruptions courtesy of Verizon.” The company is also handing out $5 iTunes store credits through a banner ad on iTunes Radio (pictured above).
It’s not just for Verizon customers, however, as the offer comes today only as part of Verizon’s “Connection Day” promotion offering free digital content and services to all users, not just Verizon customers.
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Lenovo is behind this ad that doubles as hidden camera prank video in which the company attempts to scare mall…
Following an announcement earlier this month that Microsoft was adding Dropbox integration for syncing and sharing to the Office for iOS apps, Dropbox announced today that the feature is now available in its latest app updates for iOS and Android.
The integration essentially allows users to tap into Dropbox storage directly from within the Office mobile apps, but it will also include the ability to send links to files from Office using Dropbox, open documents from Dropbox in Office, and more. Dropbox has instructions on how to use the new integration with Microsoft’s Office apps on its website.
To get started, make sure your Dropbox app is up to date on your iPhone, iPad, or Android phone, then open any Office doc, spreadsheet, or presentation in your Dropbox. Tap the new Edit icon (shown above) to start editing in the latest Office apps. When you’re done, your changes will be saved back to Dropbox automatically.
You can get the new features through the latest Dropbox app for iOS starting today and the latest versions of Microsoft’s Word, Excel, and PowerPoint Office apps. The integration is also expected to arrive for web users early next year.
The latest stats from Swirl Networks, the company behind a number of beacon deployments at high-profile retailers, shows that shoppers in the US are embracing Bluetooth beacons and along with it Apple’s iBeacon framework for app developers sending location sensitive notifications to users. More specifically, data collected from the company’s beacon deployments in recent months shows that beacons are influencing the way we shop with more than half engaging with the feature and many redeeming beacon offers when making purchases.
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UI concept for VR iPhone case Pinć from Cordon Labs
Apple is hinting at its interest in developing apps for virtual reality experiences and hiring engineers to assist in the efforts. The evidence comes from a new job listing that Apple posted over the weekend seeking app engineers experienced with 3D graphics, virtual reality, and augmented reality.
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Apple today has shared an updated official aerial shot of construction progress on its Campus 2 facility set to be complete by the end of 2016. The new shot, posted to the City of Cupertino’s website, provides a different angle and wider view of the surrounding campus compared to the last aerial photo from earlier this month.
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Apple has been rolling out support for its new Apple Pay payments service to more and more banks in recent weeks. The latest addition was America First Credit Union making an announcement late last week, but Apple has since updated its support document over the weekend to also announce support for Commerce Bank.
Commerce Bank, which serves Missouri, Kansas, Illinois, Oklahoma, Colorado and a few other locations, hasn’t yet made an official announcement, but it’s now listed as supporting personal credit cards on Apple’s support site for Apple Pay. Apple notes that currently Commerce Bank is only supporting MasterCard for the service despite the bank also offering cards from one of Apple’s other Apple Pay partners, Visa.
Commerce Bank joins America First Credit Union, American Express, Bank of America, Barclaycard, Capital One, Citi, Commerce Bank, J.P. Morgan, M&T Bank, Merrill Lynch, Navy Federal Credit Union, PNC, Regions Bank, SunTrust, U.S. Bank, U.S. Trust, USAA, and Wells Fargo.
Apple Pay has also added a number of supported retailers and apps in recent weeks with the latest additions including Sephora, tickets.com, Disney Store app, and others.
We have a running list of banks that plan to support Apple Pay in the coming weeks and months here. We also have a running list of the latest stores and apps that accept Apple Pay here.
According to the latest data from Fiksu, the launch of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus alongside iOS 8 accounted for a massive increase and an all-time high for app downloads. Specifically, the report points to a 42 percent increase from the previous month among the top 200 free iOS apps tracked by the company. Around 7.8 million downloads for the top 200 free apps accounted for a 42 percent increase over September and a 39 percent increase year-over-year.
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Last week I met up with the people behind Pinć (Pinch), an under development VR headset that utilizes Minority Report-style user interfaces opposed to the mostly gaming experiences we’ve seen thus far from the competition. There are also a few other big differentiators for Pinc: it doubles as an iPhone case, uses hand gestures tracked by the iPhone’s camera for input, and includes a full SDK for developers built on Unity.
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Apple is steadily rolling out more support for banking and card issuer partners since first launching its new Apple Pay payments service last month. The other part of the equation is retailers and app developers supporting the service and this week saw the rollout of additional support including announcements from Sephora, venues that utilize tickets.com, and the Disney Store iOS app. In addition, Square is today confirming that its previously announced under development bitcoin and NFC capable register will arrive with Apple Pay support sometime in 2015.
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AirParrot, the app that lets you send your desktop display to an Apple TV-connected TV, is today releasing version 2 with Chromecast support and number of other new features. Sure, you can mirror your Mac’s display to an Apple TV using Apple’s built-in AirPlay feature, but AirParrot provides features beyond what Apple offers and also support for screen mirroring from Chromebooks and Windows. Today’s release makes it the first to enable full screen mirroring support to Chromecast with audio support and more.
Dropbox is sending out an email to let users know that crashes related to Yosemite have been resolved in the latest OS X 10.10.1 release that landed earlier this week.
“We’re reaching out to let you know about an issue in Apple’s new OS X Yosemite that causes problems with Dropbox. You can resolve this issue by installing the latest Software for OS X Yosemite…
OS X Yosemite 10.10.1 arrived earlier this week for users bringing with it a number of bug fixes and Wi-Fi improvements. The problem for Dropbox, according to the company, is caused by a Yosemite bug related to how applications, not just Dropbox, use Yosemite’s official Finder integration. The bug can lead to crashing for Dropbox and other apps when using open, save, or save-as functions. Dropbox notes that “if the program crashes because of this interaction, unsaved changes may be lost.”
Fortunately, users can easily remedy the issue by updating to the latest OS X 10.10.1 release through Software Update in the Mac App Store.
In related news: earlier today Apple released its first seed of OS X Yosemite 10.10.2 beta to AppleSeed users and developers ahead of a public release.
The full email sent out by Dropbox to users today is below:
First launched on iPhone earlier this year, Dropbox announced today that it’s launching its Carousel photo and video gallery app for iPad users. The company is also bringing the experience to the web at carousel.dropbox.com.
Part of making the best home for your photos is giving you a fast, simple, beautiful way to engage with your pictures, however and wherever you want. Today, we’re excited to announce big steps towards that goal: Carousel for web, iPad, and Android tablet.
In addition, the iOS apps add the ability to share to Instagram and WhatsApp with today’s update.
The Carousel app offers easy sharing of one or multiple photos to contacts or email addresses and allows users to get around many of the upload limitations usually associated with sharing photos. With everything backed up in full resolution directly to Dropbox, the app is essentially a standalone experience for managing to photos and videos stored in Dropbox.
A look at the Carousel UI for web is below:
The Carousel for iPad app is available on the App Store now for free.
What’s New in Version 1.7
We’ve updated Carousel with one of your most requested features: support for iPad! Now, view your photos and continue conversations on a bigger screen.
Plus, we’ve added support for posting to Instagram and WhatsApp!
