Mark is an award-winning journalist who worked at 9to5Mac for over six years. He covers Apple and other topics related to the consumer technology industry.
Mark is regarded as one of the go-to reporters for all Apple-related matters, one of Wired‘s top 16 people to follow in technology, and one of TIME Magazine‘s top 25 bloggers of 2013. Mark has also been profiled by CNN Fortune multiple times, NPR, the Los Angeles Times, LA Weekly, the Huffington Post, Business Insider, Columbia Journalism Review, Marketplace, Haaretz, and USA Today. Mark was also recently named to the 2015 Forbes 30 under 30 List.
In 2012, Mark published the first photos of the iPhone 5, broke the news about Apple’s switch to an in-house Maps application, revealed the first 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro, forecasted that Apple would update the iPad’s software with Siri support, and accurately revealed the iPad mini’s higher-than expected price point.
In 2013, Mark published the first photos of the original iPad Air, provided the first details about Jony Ive’s end-to-end iPhone and iPad software update called iOS 7, provided information about OS X Mavericks, and detailed Apple’s early work on the Apple Watch.
In 2014, Mark revealed Apple’s work on a new Health application for iOS 8 and the Apple Watch, Ive’s redesign of OS X called Yosemite, and details about the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.
Mark started out 2015 with a significant scoop detailing Apple’s yet-to-be-released 12-inch MacBook with a Retina display, thinner design, and more advanced trackpad and keyboard. He has continued the year by reporting on several details about iOS 9, including the new Proactive Assistant, redesigned Siri, upgraded Maps with transit functionality, new system font, split-screen iPad apps, Swift 2.0, as well as predicting a performance focus for both that software upgrade and OS X El Capitan. Mark finished the year by reporting the majority of the details about the new Apple TV, iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, Apple Watch updates, the iPad Pro, the iPad mini 4, and iMacs.
Mark started out 2016 with exclusive reports on Apple’s work on a pair of completely wireless Beats headphones for the iPhone 7, details on the iPhone SE, iPad Pro 9.7-inch, Apple Watch updates, Apple’s March product event, new Apple retail initiatives, and Tim Cook’s Town Hall meeting with Apple employees.
Mark has also written long-form features on “Apple Anonymous,” a group of retail employees who discuss work over Twitter and the fascination of watches by Apple executives. Most significantly, in fall 2014, Mark published an extensive profile of Apple’s PR and Communications department that was compiled over two months into nine chapters. Mark also provides analysis on relevant technology industry topics, such as Apple’s recent executive shakeup. Mark kicked off his writing career at the end of 2009, and he had his first significant break in 2011 with a story detailing Siri and the iPhone 4S.
You can follow him on Twitter.
Game Center compatibility indicators made their way to the desktop version of the iTunes App Store just the other day, and Apple’s bringing this new feature to the mobile App Store in iOS 4.2. The feature is currently available on beta 2 of iPad 4.2.
iPhone/iPod touch version after the break:
Tim Gideon over at PC Mag has done a great video walkthrough and review of the new Apple TV. Check it out:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WCqDZxZ8MA&w=640&h=385]
They also posted a great Apple TV unboxing slideshow, check it out. And a great full written review!
The new Apple TV runs a ‘Front Row’ like software called ‘Lowtide.’ This software has multi-device support and this means it can technically work on any iOS device. Developer, Dustin Howett got it running on his iPod touch, which he doesn’t recommend others to try.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTJ5yG2LyX8&w=640&h=385]
via TUAW
We already told you that Office for Mac would be launching October 26th, a few weeks ago, and today Microsoft has made it official. Here’s a behind the scenes look at Office 2011 from our friends, Kurt Schmucker and Han-Yi Shaw:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEYt9m1IUoc&w=640&h=385]
Oh! It’s already on Amazon for order.
Expand
Expanding
Close
Now that the new Apple TV is finally shipping/arriving to customers homes and Apple stores across the nation, Apple has uploaded the new manuals to their support website.
You can grab the fun setup guide here and the boring product information guide here.
For those who are still hoping for another Safari alternative on iOS, this one’s a heart breaker. Mozilla today announced in a blog post that they have no plans to bring a Firefox browsing experience to iOS.
We are working to bring as much of your Firefox experience as possible to Firefox Home. People have asked about adding more browser-like features to Firefox Home, but there are technical and logistical restrictions that make it difficult, if not impossible, to build the full Firefox browser for the iPhone. We are focused on building Firefox Home as a rich, cloud-based application and making it a valuable product that people will continue to love and use.
Mozilla currently offers their ‘Firefox Home’ application for iPhone which wirelessly transfers users bookmarks, history, and all sorts of things to their iPhone. Firefox said back in 2008 that they wouldn’t be making an iOS version of Firefox due to Apple’s app review process, for those keeping track.
Image Credit: TiPb
Developers and jailbreakers alike are already pouring through the secrets within the new Apple TV firmware.
FaceTime coming to Apple TV?
We think this may be some left over code from iOS 4.1 for the iPhone/new iPod touch. We never know though… New iSight for TV’s?!
DVD Support?
We’re seeing some Bluetooth code as well. Oh, and here are the Flickr accounts Apple uses in their promotional kit:
Millennial Media has released their August 2010 ad impressions report and the results are quite phenomenal for iOS. iOS led the pack with 48% of total advertisement impressions in August. This 48% includes all iOS devices, not just the iPhone, such as the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
Android comes in number two with 26% of ad impressions just 7% of Research in Motion’s (BlackBerry etc.) 19%. Getting into actual phones (not including non-phone communicators such as iPad, iPod touch, PSP, Kindle etc.) Apple still leads August impressions with 28.32%.
Expand
Expanding
Close
If you still had any doubt that the new Apple TV runs iOS, this will surely make you a believer. Apple has already placed iOS 4.1 for the 2nd-gen Apple TV on their servers and yeah… get downloading! (This won’t actually do any good for you until you need to restore or something like that)
Thanks, Ryan!
Giz has put together a pretty good chart which outlines the iPad’s competition. We still aren’t certain on the pricing for the BB PlayBook (Business = Play?!), HP Slate, or the Galaxy Tab but there are many other factors to look at. The chart says it all, folks:
…unless you consider which devices are actually shipping (iPad). The PlayBook likely won’t ship until iPad 2 rears its head.
Expand
Expanding
Close
OK, the Apple TV is shipping. Some people are getting them tomorrow, some people are getting them October 1st, and some will be lost in the mail like my iPhone 4. And some dude got his already.
According to TUAW, iOS 4.1 has a little bug which wakes up those New Zealand folks an hour early each morning via clock.app. The cause of the bug is related to daylight savings time in the Southern Hemisphere and other than that this is goes into the meh category (OK it’s not meh).
This past week, many sites reported that Apple would be delaying the new Apple TV that was originally set for a September release. These reports of delays were based off an email Apple sent to customers that signed up for expedited shipping. If you recall, the same email was sent to iPad purchasers prior to its launch. Did Apple delay the iPad’s April 3rd launch date? No.
So we’re going to debunk those Apple TV delay rumors right now by showing you that Apple is already preparing Apple TV orders for shipment. In case you are not familiar, when your Apple.com order turns from the “not yet shipped” to the “prepared for shipment” marker it means that your items are packed up and waiting for Fedex, for example, to pick it up. Based on this, they will probably start shipping later today or tomorrow. Thank you, Bjørn!
This morning we reported on a couple new patents which revealed some realistic new features that may someday arrive for the iPad. On one of the patent images we posted (pictured below) there is a circle-shaped hole on the top of the iPad. This hole is identical to the one seen on the current iPod touch with a front-facing camera and this led to several comments, tweets, and email calling us out for not mentioning the “camera”.
We personally did notice this “camera hole” but didn’t give it a mention as it’s most likely the iPad’s ambient light sensor. If you recall, there was some controversy after the iPad’s announcement when people believed that the iPad Steve Job’s showed off at the keynote had an unmentioned camera, when iPad replacement parts emerged with MacBook-like camera holes, and when we revealed some camera evidence in the iPad SDK (here and here).
In the end, the camera evidence most likely was some left over code when Apple was simultaneously developing the iPhone 4 and iPad, and those “camera holes” turned out to be spots for the ambient light sensor. Because of these we held back on saying that hole is a camera. On the other hand, Apple does not normally include that ambient light sensor hole on their patents as shown here, and here.
So in the end it is really a tossup. That hole could be an upcoming front-facing camera for the iPad or could simply be that ambient light sensor. We think it’s the sensor but let us know what you think in the comments.
Last night Apple updated iTunes to version 10.0.1 and perhaps the most important new feature is Ping Sidebar. Besides the new Ping features Apple fixes tons of bugs and added a neat little time saver to the App Store. For those who are interested in finding out if the app they want to download is compatible with Game Center, they traditionally would need to scan the app description or take a look at the featured Game Center section.
Now, Apple has added Game Center compatibility indicators to Game Center apps. If you want to find out if the app you’re looking to buy works with Game Center simply take a look at the upper-right-hand-corner of the iTunes page and if you see the pictured logo (above) you’re good to go. As far as we can see, this feature is not yet available on the mobile version of the App Store. Thanks, Benjamin!
Update: Reader, Justin, has let us know that this is not iTunes 10.0.1 specific. This is a new feature though so the story still stands.
Patently Apple does what they do and this morning they uncovered some patents that provide a peak into the future of the iPad. Although a re-design is not pictured, some neat features that seem reasonable for inclusion in an iPad refresh were revealed. The first is a second 30-pin dock connector port on the left side of the iPad for landscape/horizontal docking.
This patent will make docking the iPad extremely easy to dock and use with a bluetooth keyboard. On the other hand, how will holding the iPad on the left side feel with a port cutout? Patently Apple marks a port next to the 30-pin connector as a possible mini-HDMI or USB port but in reality that’s actually the sim-card slot/tray from the current iPad 3G.
Another patent is for something called a “Smart Bezel.” The patent does not describe this feature at all but by looking at the photographs it appears to be a touch-based quick access key. A part of the bezel will be touch sensitive and you can assign that spot a particular action. That’s just speculation but it may make sense.
Update: Since you all thought we missed the “camera”….
Check out a photo after the break:
Apple has just dropped its first update to iTunes 10 with iTunes 10.0.1 and it brings Ping Sidebar to life along with some critical bug fixes.
We just installed the update and Ping Sidebar is essentially a glance at your Ping friends and artists activity right in any of your current iTunes windows. Whether that be your albums or playlists, you can now always take a peak at the recent activity you *surely* care about. Here’s a screenshot:
On July 16th Apple held a press conference regarding the iPhone 4 antenna non-issue to announce free Bumper cases for all. After the announcement, Apple pulled the Bumpers from sale on Apple.com and as of today they’re still unavailable for purchase. Although this is true for Apple’s online and retail stores in the United States among other countries, the Chinese iPhone 4 launch tells a different story.
According to a photo taken at the iPhone 4 launch event today at Apple’s official Beijing retail location, Apple is selling their black Bumper case. The case is currently offered free to iPhone 4 buyers (via the free case program) until September 30th and it makes sense that Apple would begin re-selling them for profit after that date. It appears that Apple has jumped the gun on that and is already selling them in China. This is only confirmed in China by the picture (Originally posted to M.I.C. Gadget‘s Flickr) so we’ll presumably have to wait until after the 30th to see if the United States follows the trend. Oh, what about the other colors!?
DU, one of the largest cell phone carriers in the Middle East, today confirmed (via Saudi Mac) that parts of the Middle East (Specifically the UAE) won’t be seeing FaceTime functionality on their iPhone 4s. DU also states that the situation is out of their control meaning this is either a government restriction or something to do with Apple. The announcement came via their official twitter page along with some other notes on their iPhone 4 launch plans.
Since no FaceTime for many Middle Eastern customers is a huge drawback the carrier notes that new iPhone 4 contracts will come with one year of free data and data plans will cap at 10 GB versus AT&T’s 2 GB.
Target this morning made the rumors that they will be selling the iPad, legit. According to the Associated Press Target announced they will begin selling Apple’s iPad on October 3rd via their retail locations.
Something to note is that Target will only be selling four iPad models starting at $499. This means they’ll be selling all three WiFi variants and only one 3G model. We still don’t know which 3G model that is though. Target currently sells all of Apple’s new iPods. Target will also be offering 5% off discounts on iPads for Target card holders starting October 17th.
Apple’s new 27 inch LED Cinema Displays are already available at some Apple retail store locations across the United States and those who ordered them online are already receiving them in the mail. Today, we go hands-on with Apple’s latest display thanks to some very high-resolution pictures by awesome 9to5mac reader and photographer, Andrew Ng.
Many more pictures after the break:
South Park is known to mock and parody a range of topics and their latest promotional commercial does just that… to Apple. They took Apple’s new iPad is magical, delicious, musical etc. TV ad, kept the same music, but changed the scenes.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_11vl5WS_E&w=640&h=385]
Do let us know if you find a better quality version. Thanks, Connor! Apple’s original is after the break for comparison:
This morning we told you about the China iPhone grey market where iPhone 4s would be purchased in New York and shipped back to China only to get sold at higher prices. Well, according to Cult of Mac the same is happening in Britain. People are lining up early in the morning to purchase unlocked iPhone 4s to only sell them back to the place they were made, China.
To express how long these lines are, the picture above is not from launch day but from a couple days ago. Also, what about all the time and energy these line waiters are spending? The shipping costs? They must be spending a ton to get these things back to the place they were born.
As noted by Fortune, J.D Power and Associates has ranked the iPhone as the phone with the highest customer satisfaction rate. The iPhone 4 got a score of 800 or out of 1000 beating number 2, LG with their score of 731.
Oh, Apparently the iPhone’s battery life is the worst…compared to… say, the HTC EVO?
