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’s anticipated iPhone 4 bumper is available for pre-order for $29.99. The black version will be out on launch but the others will make their way onto iPhone 4’s July 2.
Update: In case you were wondering, the orange, green, and white bumpers are now shipping July 16. Black is still coming June 24th. It seems that Apple prepared plenty of black bumpers to go with the black iPhone 4.
Blue bumper after the break.
Apple, this morning, confirms the rumors of the white iPhone 4 launch being delayed with this image on the pre-order page.
The time is almost here, folks. Apple has pulled down the Apple online store in preparation for pre-orders beginning tomorrow, June 15. Weird to note is the store is down internationally, not only in the five countries getting pre-orders tomorrow.
Update: Mac Life reports the store may go live at 1 AM Pacific/ 4 AM Eastern time. This does make sense given how early Apple went into update mode. For example when Apple put iPad up for pre-order in the U.S., the store went down around 3 AM and returned at 5:30 AM. In comparison, the store going down at 10 PM Pacific tonight and going live at 1 AM Pacific does make sense.
Updated 2X: AT&T has posted their pre-order site.
Additionally, AT&T notes that new iPhones “will be shipped to arrive as early as June 24, 2010 if submitted by 2 PM E.T., June 22, 2010.”
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Microsoft launched Project Natal as ‘Kinect’ today. You’ve probably seen it previewed a hundred times around the web.
OK, I’ll admit it, the technology looks pretty cool. I’ve been following Natal since it was previewed last year and thought that if they could get it to work, it’d be worth putting it in the family room. But does it actually work as good as it looks like it works?
Dunno. Bad signs: Microsoft just re-orged its entire entertainment division and kicked out two top execs J Allerd and Robbie Bach. That isn’t a good sign. You usually don’t fire people for doing a kick ass job.
Also, giving it the name of the Kin, which the market isn’t falling in love with…or even like with (despite the Microsoft marketing buzz) probably isn’t a good way to start it off.
Otherwise, I’m interested. Interestingly, you can pre-order the new XBOX 360 with Kinect on Amazon already!
Since many of you are planning to order your iPhone 4 tomorrow, we thought this would be a great post to help choose your Bumper color. Here’s what each color will look like on the black iPhone 4:
You can see the white version after the break — that most likely won’t matter for tomorrow though.
With the launch of Apple’s iPhone 4 and its gorgeous retina display, it’s a high probability that Apple will soon update their other iOS devices with better displays as well. Perhaps you don’t need 326 PPI on a device that is meant to sit on your lap? Nonsense!
We have some that evidence of an iPad with a retina display is in the works, and this evidence comes from Apple’s own Developer SDK documents.
Let’s begin with the iPhone so comparisons can easily be made. Apple would like all developers to amp up the resolution of their iPhone applications so they look even better on the retina display. These are universal applications as they run on older iPhone’s and iPhone 4’s in one binary with separate graphics.
When looking through the SDK it is easy to tell how Apple labels their own internal universal applications. A perfect example is the Home Screen application which Apple has dubbed the “Springboard” in its SDK files.
The image above shows the graphics used for the iOS 4 Folders system. On the left is the image used for iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS and on the right is folder of iOS 4 on iPhone 4. You can see the one for iPhone 4 is labeled with “@2X” at the end of the name, before the extension of “.png.” The 2X means the graphic is twice the resolution so it looks great on the twice-the-resolution retina display.
Above are two more examples of the same filing system used by Apple. You can see both images have the iPhone 4 Retina version on the right, and the standard version on the left. The first image shows the close box used for deleting an app from the home screen, and second is the standard info button used throughout Apple and third-party applications.
Now, it is clear that Apple uses the “@2X” filing system for universal applications for iPhone 3G and 3GS and iPhone 4. The evidence for iPad going retina is within this filing system.
On Apple’s online developer user-interface documents a section discusses iPad universal applications. This is a universal application for two versions of the iPad. The current version and an alluded to higher resolution version, an iPad with a retina display.
As you can see in the image above, Apple notes “MyIcon~ipad.png” for the standard iPad existing today, and a “higher-resolution variant “MyIcon@2X~ipad.” As you can most likely already tell, Apple here is likely referring to a higher-resolution iPad.
There are two sets of icons for the two types of displays of the iPhone, and now the same for two types of iPad Displays. We know that a higher-resolution variant of the iPad is now coming soon, and from this we have educated speculation that iPad will go retina. This is based on Apple’s past history of introducing a new feature and then spreading to their rest of the lineup. An example of this is the iSight camera first appearing on iMacs introduced on October 12, 2005, and now appearing across the Apple lineup including notebooks and now the iPhone 4.
Of course this can also be a typing error in Apple’s documents, but the likelihood is slim as Apple attempts to make sure everything they put out to the world is stated correctly. This is also within the iPad development context so it is unlikely they simply wrote iPad where they meant iPhone.
What do you think? Let us know in the comments.
Thanks Felipe!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ww9ErQI5d_w&w=640&h=385]
The folks at iLounge have done a great UI overview video of the black iPhone 4 covering FaceTime to iMovie. You’ll be sad to know that there isn’t sound for most of the video so be sure to pump up your iTunes. You can also take a look at 7 other fine hands-on videos of the white iPhone 4.
Developers, Developers, Developers: It’s time to submit your iOS 4 apps so they will be live when OS 4 is launched.
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Avatron, the makers of Air Sharing, have just released Air Display for the iPad. This allows the iPad to become a second monitor with full touch screen ability. A good use would to put some system monitors, your twitter feed, or iChat list on that. Watch the video for an in depth look on YouTube. You can get Air Display HERE for $9.99.
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Some lucky brits are finding their spanking new iPads home waiting for them early, like 3 days early. That’s an eternity for being an early delivered Apple product. Let us know in the comments if you also got lucky.
Update: Option to purchase iPhone 3G gone from U.S. Store.
BGR has it on good authority that Apple has stopped its shipments of iPhone 3G devices.
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We’ve shot a first look at the new Mobile Me Mail Beta client. For the most part, Apple didn’t add anything except a slick new UI. To get into the beta program go to your me.com mail account and click join beta in the bottom right corner. It will take a few days to get the ‘acceptance’ e-mail from Apple, but when you do you will scream like you got into Harvard. Let us know if you get rejected :), OK?
Boy Genius Report has published some new leaked images from an Apple iPhone field testing unit. This unit is said to be for testing the next iPhone (HD,4, 4G…) in the wild to make sure AT&T’s ‘wonderful‘ network can keep up with our video calls. Not much else is shown, and another screenshot from BGR is after the break.
For those international folks out there who haven’t yet placed your iPad orders, you won’t be getting yours until some time in June. Initial pre-orders arrive in less than a week in parts of Europe, Australia, and Canada (May 28). Until today, orders placed would have iPads arriving by June 7th. Now all Apple can tell you is that they’ll have new orders sometime in June. We’ve also been hearing several reports that pre-orders have began shipping to UK customers.
Twitter for iPhone has just hit world-wide. There’s a new spankin’ fresh icon to drool over and tons of new goodies packed inside. That’s right: They did’t just change the name.
This morning we reported that ABC has submitted an update for their popular iPad ABC player so it will stream shows over 3G. Tonight, Apple has approved their update which will surely make iPad 3G owners happy.
Release Notes:
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In a move we
Apple has updated the App Store on the iPad with a new section in Featured called ‘Release Date.’ This section shows all the iPad Apps in the order they were launched. This adds new organization to the App Store and makes it incredibly easy for iPad owners to browse for new Apps on the fly.
Apple is yet to add this feature to the App Store on the iPhone and iPod touch, but they may do so in the future. We are glad to see Apple is improving the App Store and hope they have more in store for the near-future.
Thanks Kaz!
Apple has confirmed their official retail stores will be closed for one hour tomorrow, from 4-5 PM, in order to prepare for the launch of the iPad 3G. Since the iPad with only WiFi had a major launch earlier this month, many thought Apple would not try to gather the crowds for the 3G version. Now it seems Apple is doing some preparation, and they are expecting some lines around the country. We are expecting to have our iPad 3G unboxing live tomorrow afternoon for those interested.
All Things Digital reports that Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, will appear on stage at this years D8 Conference. This conference is hosted by the Wall Street Journal’s All Things Digital and typically interviews well-known executives from major technology and media companies. Steve Jobs will be around a high profile crowd, including Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Microsoft’s very own great speaker, Steve Ballmer.
All Things D will surely be asking Steve about all things iPad, what’s next in the company, and maybe we’ll even speak about that 4th Gen iPhone. Below is a video of Steve at the 2007 D5.
For those wondering, Steve will be speaking June 1st.
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Update: People have started to receive their shipment notifications.
We’ve received word that iPad 3G’s are starting the shipment process. As Apple has promised, iPad Pre-Orders will arrive this Friday, April 30. Those who ordered after the deadline will have to wait until May 7. We haven’t heard about any iPad 3G’s shipping out the door as of yet, but being prepared for shipment is a start. We will be sure to update as soon as we hear anything new.
Photo: MR Forums
Infamous iPhone hacker, Geohot, has quietly let the public know the name of his future iPhone/iPad 4.0 jailbreak tool, Limera1n.
While, LimeRa1n has no set release date, you can still jailbreak your iPhone with BlackRa1n, PwnageTool, and RedSn0w. Redmond Pie reports that the domain records for both blackra1n and limera1n are similar and confirm geohot as their proud owner.
You won
Another Day, Another Jobs E-Mail. Today a reader e-mailed Jobs wondering if Best Buy retail stores will carry the iPad 3G on launch day (April 30). Jobs made his answer short and sweet as usual: “Yep.”
For those wondering, Steve Jobs is still in 2009 running OS X Leopard.
