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.
Apple has begun charging buyers of the new AppleTV. That means they are due to start shipping any moment for arrival before September 30th at 11:59 PM. (Jobs said they’ll ship in September)
Let us know in the comments if yours ships, gets prepared to ship etc.
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Forbes reports that Facebook founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, is now worth $6.9 Billion topping Steve Jobs’ 2010 networth of $6.1 Billion. Interestingly enough, Jobs’ $6.1 Billion is one billion more than he had in 2009, meaning he netted a billion bucks in one year. Not bad for the guy who made the Mac, iPod, iPhone and iPad.
At least you can trust Jobs with your personal info, kinda.
To gauge the author’s knowledge, check out this statement: “It’s speculated that the Facebook phone with run on Google’s Android operating system, currently offered by Verizon (Apple has a deal with rival AT&T).” – Clearly someone familiar with the mobile landscape in the US.
Apple hit its all time high today in the stock market topping at $283.78. That’s $7.86 up from yesterday and up $103.08 from last year. Watch yo back Exxon!
You knew Rock Your iPhone was officially acquired by Cydia just over a week ago and today it’s officially done. Over. When you head to Rock.app on your jailbroken iPhone it will tell you to hit up Cydia for your themes and all.
via IDB
If Apple’s iPhone 4 promotional pages for some Middle Eastern countries are any indication, it doesn’t look like the FaceTime part of the iPhone package. For many of these countries, the image on the left turned into a Retina Display promotion while they were FaceTime images before like on the U.S. site.
We’ve confirmed the loss of FaceTime promotional images for Jordan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia but check out the full list yourself by navigating this page. This could either be a simple image swap, but TUAW speculates that (via SaudiMac) the lack of FaceTime may be due to some “cultural sensitives” in the Middle East. Or it could just be that the woman in the ad doesn’t have her modest covering on.
We’ll be sure to update when we learn more.
Google has updated their Earth app for iOS this morning to support the iPhone 4 and iPod touch 4th generation Retina Display. The update also brings the fancy ocean layer to Google Earth as well as some underwater bathymetry and ocean surface support.
The app is free and works natively on all three iOS devices.
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Today we reported that Apple has officially announced a September 25th launch date for the iPhone 4 in China. Now, 9to5mac has learned that Apple has some more international iPhone 4 launches up it its sleeve. We’ve heard that the iPhone 4 should be launching in both Israel and Malaysia next weekend and presumably a few other countries. Exact info on the Israeli side of things is scarce but we’ve managed to get some more precise info out of Malaysia.
The iPhone 4 and the 8 GB iPhone 3GS are said to be launching in Malaysia this upcoming Thursday, September 23rd on both Maxis and DiGi as the carriers. That’s what we know for now and we’ll be sure to update when we learn more.
Update: We’ve just gotten some new info… Israel will be getting the iPhone 4 on September 24th on Orange, The Philippines will get the iPhone 4 on September 26th for Globe Telecoms, and Turkey will be getting the iPhone 4 on Turkcell & Vodafone Turkey on September 24th. Lots of additional info coming in via comments, below…
This one’s crazy! ABC has teamed up with Nielson to create an iPad app that eavesdrops on your TV. The iPad’s microphone is used to pick up what you’re watching and the app will present interactive content to go along for the show. The first show that gets TV-wiretapping is My Generation and Nielson claims their uber-cool technology is built so it won’t pickup your personal convos; yeah right.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZY6oJR38OoI&w=640&h=385]
via Engadget
Apple has just announced that the iPhone 4 will officially launch in China next Saturday, September 25th. Both official Apple retail stores and China Unicom stores will open their doors for iPhone 4 customers at 8 AM. Pricing for the iPhone is CNY4,999 ($743) and CNY5,999 ($892) for the 16 GB and 32 GB models (without a contract) respectively.
CUPERTINO, California—September 19, 2010—Apple® today announced that iPhone® 4 will be available to customers in China beginning Saturday, September 25 at 8:00 a.m. at Apple Retail Stores including the new Apple Store® Hong Kong Plaza in Shanghai and the new Apple Store Xidan Joy City in Beijing opening on the same day. iPhone 4 will also be available on Saturday at China Unicom retail stores for qualified buyers with a new two year contract.
Apple also announced that a new Beijing retail location will be opening on September 25th. iPhone 4’s will be on sale at this new store for those wondering. China readers: Be sure to send in your line waiting experiences, photos, and video to tips@9to5mac.com
Update: Here’s an unboxing of the official Chinese iPhone 4. WiFi, FaceTime, and iOS 4.1 included.
Full press release is after the break.
Fortune reports on a blog post by Adobe’s John Nack which appears to show that Flash is faster and much more efficient than HTML on mobile phones. These statements are conclusions based on a benchmark test by web developer, Chris Black. He tested HTML 5 running the same animation on an iPod touch 4 (same for iPhone 4), and a Nexus One, but also ran it in pure Flash on the Nexus one.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFFax1oYyBE&w=480&h=385]
The HTML 5 animation ran at 24 frames per second on the iPhone 4 and at 40 fps on the Nexus One. The same animation running on Flash on an Nexus One ran at an unprecedented 57 frames per second. This is more than double the frame rate of Apple’s offering and is still 17 frames faster than the HTML 5 version on the same Nexus One. The post also claims the Flash version used half the battery but it is not clear as to what the battery life of flash is being compared to. We presume it is being compared to the HTML 5 running Nexus One.
Update: The original Author chimes in in the comments:
Hey everyone, thought I might chime in as the author of the blog post being criticized. The code was engineered to be as equal as possible between the two demos. Full source has been provided to show this. The code posted by wolever is not scalable but raises some interesting points. The physical dimensions of the canvas being rendered does matter. Scaling the demo down to 300x300px yields 40fps on the iPod Touch. I’ll be doing an updated blog post on this tomorrow showing results at different sizes. I’m not sure why anybody thinks canvas is limited to 24fps. My post tomorrow that wrong. And no, I don’t work for Adobe. I complain about Adobe almost as much as Apple and I much prefer running my own company at the moment. You might find this post a bit more interesting,http://www.blackcj.com/blog/2010/09/19/css3-excels-on-ios-but-lacks-on-android/
Apple has just a dropped an update for their Apple Store app to the App Store. The Apple Store app allows customers to access the Apple Online Store from their iPhone and iPod touch and purchase any product.
The update brings Retina Display support for the iPhone 4 and iPod touch 4th generation as well as iOS 4 quick-app-switching. The update also promises the usual bug fixes and improvements… and where the heck’ is the iPad support? — I guess Apple figured people will just use the full site on the iPad.
Sean Kovac’s “GV Mobile +” – arguably the best non-official Google Voice app – has just hit the App Store. For the first week it’s on sale for $2.99 but there will be one free night. Kovacs will announce when that night occurs and we’ll be sure to post on that when the time comes.
It’s about to hit so Go! Go! Go!
This morning we reported on an interview between the WSJ and Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn where Dunn supposedly said Apple’s iPad is “Cannibalizing” notebook sales by 50%. Now, Best Buy has just released an official statement calling out the WSJ for exaggerating Dunn’s statements.
Statement:
“The reports of the demise of these devices are grossly exaggerated,” Dunn said. “While they were fueled in part by a comment in the Wall Street Journal that was attributed to me, they are not an accurate depiction of what we’re currently seeing. In fact, we see some shifts in consumption patterns, with tablet sales being an incremental opportunity. And as we said during our recent earnings call, we believe computers will remain a very popular gift this holiday because of the very distinct and desirable benefits they offer consumers. That’s why we intend to carry a broad selection of computing products and accessories to address the demand we anticipate this season.”
It looks like the CEO’s statements were misquoted and Best Buy simply believes tablets are “incremental opportunities” and notebooks will continually to be popular products.
An unofficial yet fully functional Google Voice app called “GV Connect” has just hit the App Store. This isn’t Sean Kovac’s GV Mobile + but it allows for GV calling, texting, voicemails, and more. via Mobile Crunch.
It’s available on the App Store for $2.99 right now! Update: It looks like Sean Kovac’s GV Mobile+ is in review… we should know it’s fate shortly.
According to Network World (via AppAdvice) Apple issued a cease and desist letter to Newsday regarding their iPad app commercial. The commercial essentially showed how the iPad can’t completely replace newspapers as the screen will shatter when your hit flies with it. Long story short, Apple doesn’t want their iPad’s glass getting shattered as a newspaper app commercial.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MMgu-_–gk&w=640&h=385]
It looks like Apple’s got another exploit on their hands and that’s the ability for users to install cracked apps on non-jailbroken devices. Supposedly an app called “IPA God” will be released in the near future that takes advantage of iOS 4.1 and 4.2 (beta currently) devices to allow cracked app installations.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmTGx98BxTI&w=640&h=385]
The video above shows it in action and we strongly OPPOSE this and DO NOT support the cracking of App Store applications. We truly hope Apple figures out the exploit in time and addresses the issue with a software fix very soon.
iLounge has come across the new iPod nano’s diagnostic mode dubbed “iTerm.” This mode essentially lets Apple test the living daylights out of your new (iWatch) touch screen nano. iTerm takes you back to the ’80’s with a black and greened color display and lets you test your touch screen, radio, headset jack, USB connectivity, and pretty much everything else.
To get the show rolling your iPod nano follow iLounge’s instructions:
Due to changes in its buttons relative to the prior Click Wheel iPod nanos, the new iPod nano’s hidden modes are activated with a slightly different button combination: first, the nano needs to be reset by holding down the sleep and volume down buttons until the Apple logo appears. Holding down both volume buttons during the reset enables Disk Mode, while holding down all three buttons will start up the iPod nano in Diagnostic Mode, briefly flashing the message “iTerm: iPod Display Console” on screen.
Here are some new features in iOS 4.2 for iPhone that we came across:
Assign text message tone to individual contacts:
Much more after the break:
We tested Netflix on our iPad and it works with Apple’s AirPlay service. We connected some speakers to an Airport Express and the audio from the Netflix film wirelessly streamed and played perfectly with absolutely no hiccups. When the new Apple TV launches, you’ll be able to wirelessly stream both the video and audio to your television set; that’s right, I said television.
We’ve got another screenshot after the break.
If you’re wondering why Warner Brothers didn’t join up with Apple for the 99 cent iTunes TV show rentals, WB Chief Executive, Barry Meyer’s got an answer for you. According to the AP, the major film and TV studio chose not to participate in Apple’s TV show rental service as they felt the price “was too low and would have hurt sales of full seasons.” Meyer also stated that he prefers his company’s current $2.99 TV show purchasing model through iTunes. This way they make more profit and the user gets to keep the show.
Apple launched their new TV show rental service at their September 1st event alongside a slew of new iPods, a new version of iOS, and of course the all new Apple TV. Apple’s current participants in the show renting service are News Corp. (FOX), ABC (Disney, etc.) and BBC America.
Aidacase’s iPad case seems like a dream. It’s a full on folio-style iPad case that flips open to reveal an external full-sized physical keyboard. This keyboard connects to the iPad via bluetooth, charges through USB and delivers a whopping 45 hours of battery life. That’s 4.5 times longer than your average daily iPad battery life. As a case, the “keycase” functions like a champ. Simply lock it into place using the magnetic latch and you’re good to go.
The keyboard is made from silicon so its durable and includes the USB charging cable. To remove the hassle, the keyboard works seamlessly with iOS to reconnect instantly whenever you want to type. The case ships in 1-2 business days and is available for $30 off at Amazon for just $99.
Last week when you went to customize a Mac Pro on Apple’s online store, the section about adding a monitor discussed the 24 inch LED Display:
Now, Apple’s Mac Pro customization page talks about the 27 inch LED display that is launching sometime this month. This sudden change on the store leads us to believe the 27 inch display’s launch in imminent:
Tomorrow, Tuesday, may even be the day as that is the day Apple typically releases new products.
We reported that Sean Kovacs, the developer of GV Mobile, may have gotten the heads up that his app would be re-approved to the App Store. Well today, it looks like he submitted it.
Update:
We’ve gotten some more information about GV Mobile:
-New app name is “GV Mobile +”
–This is the new app icon
-The app will support the retina display
-The app will do iOS 4 quick-app-switching/multitasking
-There may be some sort of push notification feature in this release or in a future update.
-It will be free for the first 12 hours then will go to $2.99
We’ll be following this story closely and update when news comes about. Update: Some screenies, below.
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We’ve been getting tips that Target would be selling iPads really soon (including building a special display) and now Engadget’s got a pic that may or may not prove that.
