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.
Icahn: I had a ‘good conversation’ with Tim Cook; we both believe Apple is undervalued.
Previously, Icahn urged Cook for a $150 billion buyback and Apple Senior VP Eddy Cue oddly Tweeted “carl ichan” a few days ago before deleting the Tweet.
Popular Twitter client Tweetbot 3 has received an expected 3.1 update with many enhancements. In our review of the application, we noted that it has a great new interface over Tweetbot 2, but it lacked a couple of features from the older version: the ability to adjust the text size independently of iOS’s new system-wide text size setting, lists in the central timeline view, and a right swipe gesture. All three of those features have returned in Tweetbot 3.1, and the new right-swipe gesture can be set to quickly reply to, favorite, or retweet a Tweet…
For the past few months, I’ve been testing Underwater Audio’s waterproofing service for Apple’s iPod shuffle. As the name implies, Underwater Audio is a company that created a technique to waterproof the iPod shuffle without changing the design, form-factor, size, overall weight and thinness of the wearable, lowest-cost iPod…
Apple has released a Mail Update for Mavericks that is designed to resolve many of the bugs that users of the OS X Mavericks Mail application have experienced since launch.
Mail Update for Mavericks includes improvements to general stability and compatibility with Gmail, including the following:
- Fixes an issue that prevents deleting, moving, and archiving messages for users with custom Gmail settings
- Addresses an issue that may cause unread counts to be inaccurate
- Includes additional fixes that improve the compatibility and stability of Mail
The update was released to Apple employees last week, and subsequently to registered Mac Developers earlier this week. The update is in the form of a patch to the Mail update already in Mavericks.
Instructions on installing the update, below:
With the new 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro launch last month, many users have noticed and complained about issues relating to the computer’s keyboard and trackpad becoming unresponsive.
In line with Apple’s promise, a fix has been delivered:
This update is recommended for MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, late 2013) models. This update addresses an issue where the built-in keyboard and Multi-Touch trackpad may become unresponsive.
The solution comes in the form of the MacBook Pro Retina EFI Update 1.3, and this update is available via Software Update in the Mac App Store. Apple has also released an update for the 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro to fix issues relating to NVIDIA Graphics chips:
Yesterday, some noise emerged that some Apple Stores are closing early under “special hours” on the weekend and days between November 17th and 19th. Several reports seem to be blowing this out of proportion and speculating that this indicates an imminent Apple product launch (like the Retina iPad mini or redesigned Mac Pro). Besides the fact that Apple would never launch a product on a Sunday night, these days are when Apple will be holding its quarterly, typically-boring store meetings for its retail employees. Nothing “mysterious” here…
Nov 17 update:
Some employees have had their meetings, and this is what they shared:
https://twitter.com/markgurman/status/402138499727380480
Following the significant revamp of Google’s iOS Search app earlier this week, the search company updated its Google Drive application for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch with several new features.
What’s New in Version 2.1.0
– Multiple Account Support. You can now switch between personal, work, or any other Google account
– Single Sign In: Sign in once to Google Drive and you’ll automatically be signed in to apps like YouTube, Google Maps, Chrome, and G+
– Print your files now with Google Cloud Print or AirPrint
– iOS 7 Support
Notably, users can now have multiple accounts on Drive for iOS and the app supports single-sign-on across Google apps on iOS. Also new is increased compatibility for iOS 7 and printing either via AirPrint or Google Cloud Print.
Last week, we reported that Apple had provided its employees with an update to the Mavericks Mail app that solves several issues relating to Gmail account compatibility. While this has seemed to stay under the radar, Apple has also provided the update to registered Mac Developers. Apple says that the update became available on October 31st, but we have not heard any sightings of this update until now. The update should be available for all users in the coming weeks. Thanks, Hunter!
iPhone 5s Teardown via <a href="http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iPhone+5s+Teardown/17383">iFixit</a>
Apple is gearing up to soon begin hardware repairs for the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c in its chain of retail stores, according to sources with knowledge of the upcoming initiative. These sources say that Apple Stores will be able to replace several parts of the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c on-site, meaning that Apple will no-longer need to fully replace iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c units with damage or other problems…
Apple has seeded two software upgrades for OS X Mavericks internally, according to a source with knowledge of the upcoming updates. This person says that the updates are labeled as OS X 10.9.1 and OS X 10.9.2. The first update is expected to be released later this month, and it will serve as an update to squash bugs that accompanied the OS X 10.9.0 release of Mavericks last month. Many users have complained about issues relating to the Mail and iBooks applications, and Apple is preparing to release individual bug-fix updates for those apps in the coming days…
Last month, Apple introduced new iWork suites for both OS X and iOS. The new applications feature entirely new designs and are built-up a new 64-bit architecture for increased speed. However, as we previously noted, many long-time iWork users have found that the new versions lack several features that have existed in previous releases. Today, Apple has responded to these complaints and has said that it will be restoring several of the missing features over the course of the next 6 months.
The new iWork applications—Pages, Numbers, and Keynote—were released for Mac on October 22nd. These applications were rewritten from the ground up to be fully 64-bit and to support a unified file format between OS X and iOS 7 versions, as well as iWork for iCloud beta.
These apps feature an all-new design with an intelligent format panel and many new features such as easy ways to share documents, Apple-designed styles for objects, interactive charts, new templates, and new animations in Keynote.
In rewriting these applications, some features from iWork ’09 were not available for the initial release. We plan to reintroduce some of these features in the next few releases and will continue to add brand new features on an ongoing basis.
These features will return in software updates. Here are the features that are coming back:
Today, Apple has updated iTunes to version 11.1.3. The new update includes multiple bug fixes surrounding performance for large libraries, the equalizer, and various other bugs. The update is available in the Mac App Store Software Update section. Apple is also reading updates to Mavericks Mail, Safari, Remote Desktop, and iBooks.
In light of the recent reporting in regards to the NSA and governments across the world and their connection to the data that technology companies hold on their customers, Apple has published a lengthy document detailing its customer privacy policies.
We believe that our customers have a right to understand how their personal information is handled, and we consider it our responsibility to provide them with the best privacy protections available. Apple has prepared this report on the requests we receive from governments seeking information about individual users or devices in the interest of transparency for our customers around the world. This report provides statistics on requests related to customer accounts as well as those related to specific devices. We have reported all the information we are legally allowed to share, and Apple will continue to advocate for greater transparency about the requests we receive.
Additionally, the company has published charts that detail how many customer data requests it has received Between the beginning of January and end of June this year from governments.
Breakdown of important details:
Announced last month, the new Nike+ FuelBand SE has gone on sale through Apple’s Online Store. The new fitness-tracking gadget was scheduled to go on sale on November 6th, and it is still listed as being solely available for pre-order direct from Nike’s website. Tipsters also say that the new FuelBand is available to purchase from several of Apple’s physical retail stores.
The new FuelBand comes in four black-based tones (pink, black, red, and green) and in three sizes (small, medium/large, and extra large). The design is mostly similar to that of the preceding FuelBand model, but the battery life is improved due to the incorporation of Bluetooth 4.0 technology. Since the gadget is Bluetooth 4.0 based, you will need an iPhone 4s or later or a 5th-generation iPod touch to power it.
Much like the new Nike+ Move application for the iPhone 5s, the FuelBand uses various sensors to calculate a proprietary Nike “Fuel Points” score to track your fitness and movement. The new FuelBand includes a major leap in software on the device and for iOS, allowing users to compare their fitness scores to those of their friends.
https://twitter.com/pschiller/status/397757106117283841
Introduced by Apple at the September 10 iPhone 5s event, Nike has launched its Nike+ Move application for the iPhone 5s. The app was originally scheduled to arrive on November 6th alongside the new FuelBand SE hardware, but it appears that Nike unleashed the program a bit early.
The application requires an iPhone 5s as it is completely based off of the new iPhone’s M7 motion co-processor chipset. The M7 chip, which Apple plans to integrate with its own mapping software next year, works with the iPhone’s motion sensors (like the compass and accelerometer) to provide by reliable data while simultaneously improving the phone battery’s overall efficiency.
The State of Arizona today announced that Apple is planning to build a new manufacturing facility in the city of Mesa, Arizona. The facility will create 700 jobs for manufacturing, and an additional 1,300 jobs for the construction and management of the new facility, In total, Apple will be bringing at least 2,000 new jobs to the United States thanks to this new facility.
In addition to the manufacturing facility, Apple will be constructing a new solar power grid in the city to power the manufacturing operations, according to Arizona’s announcement:
In addition to the incoming OS X Mavericks Mail Update that we reported on previously, sources say that Apple is readying a slew of performance and bug fix updates for several other OS X Mavericks applications. According to the updates seeded today to Apple employees, Apple is preparing updates for iBooks, Safari, and the Remote Desktop Client apps:
In a rare move, Apple CEO Tim Cook has written an opinion article in the Wall Street Journal. Tim Cook discusses his feelings about race, gender, nationality, and sexual orientation equality in the context of life inside of and outside of Apple. Cook says that Apple fosters an environment where every single person is safe and welcomed. He goes on to share details about this and Apple’s policies:
Henri Lamiraux, Apple’s top Vice President of Engineering for the iOS iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch operating system has left the company, according to a source and corroborated by his LinkedIn profile.
Lamiraux confirmed his departure to me via email. He says that he retired from Apple a “couple of weeks” ago, following the release of iOS 7.0.3. Lamiraux decided a “little while ago” that iOS 7 would be his last release…
Update: In a back and forth with a reporter over Twitter last night (below), Legere confirmed what many of us had found out through the website and online: You need to be a T-Mobile customer to get the 200mb of free data.
Back on the announcement date of the new iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina display, many potential iPad with Cellular users were excited to see that “un-carrier” T-Mobile USA would be offering 200MB of data per month at no charge.
However, several readers and tipsters today noted that when trying to purchase a T-Mobile-optimized iPad Air, the carrier would actually charge $10 per month for that 200MB of data. The exception was apparently for subscribers to voice smartphone plans on T-Mobile; these customers would be credited back the $10 of data each month.
Now, T-Mobile CEO John Legere has responded to this mixup by noting that there are “no strings attached.” He calls the charges an “executional mistake” and notes that the situation will be corrected…
Today, the popular Flipboard news reading app for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch has been updated with improvements to performance and the interface. Flipboard says that the new version is faster on all devices, and the app has also seen some interface enhancements to better fit-in with the iOS 7 interface aesthetic. The app previously gained compatibility with iOS 7’s Parallax motion sensing feature. The ability to change text size, more section tiles, bug fixes, and on-screen alerts for new items in feeds have also been added.
As we’ve been covering, Jony Ive and Marc Newson have teamed with Sotheby’s to host an auction for Bono’s Product(RED) Charity. The auction, which takes place on November 23rd, is highlighted by several items hand picked by the two world-famous designers. The auction includes one-of-a-kind items such as gold-plated Apple EarPods, an aluminum unibody Leica camera, and a red next-generation Mac Pro.
In addition to the images and online catalog of the products, we thought it would be interested to provide a look at Sotheby’s hardcover version of the catalog. As you can see in the images above, the book has an intriguing front and back cover design that showcase cartoon-like representations of both Ive and Newson. Inside, the catalog provides an in-depth look at the items on auction.
You can see our full gallery of images of the catalog below, courtesy of 9to5 reader Chris:
Since the launch of OS X Mavericks last week, many users have been reporting widespread, various, consistent issues within Apple’s bundled Mail application.
Many of the issues have mainly affected users of Google’s Gmail email service, and some of the issues have to do with receiving messages, sorting messages into folders, and deleting messages.
Apple is aware of the issue and is testing a fix for the problem…
Alongside the launch of the iPad Air tomorrow, Best Buy is holding some special price promotions for some MacBook and older iPad models. The company says that it will provide $100 discounts on all MacBook Air models on Friday and Saturday. The offer will be available both via the company’s online store and in its chain of physical retail stores. If you don’t absolutely need one of these devices this week it is best to hold tight and watch 9to5Toys (on Twitter too!) as we expect even heavier discounts throughout the holiday season.
The company will also offer a discount on the non-Retina 13-inch MacBook Pro. Currently, the Best Buy Online Store offers the $1499 configuration with 8GB of RAM and a 750GB hard drive for $1349, but the company will take off an extra $150 ($1249) for Friday and Saturday. Like with the MacBook Air deal, this offer is applicable both in-store and online. Keep in mind, that for $50 more, you can get a thinner, lighter Retina 13-inch MacBook Pro, but that will come with substantially less storage and half the RAM.
In addition to the price cuts on Macs, buyers of the fourth-generation iPad with Retina display at Best Buy stores will get a $25 gift card. With the iPad Air coming in at $499, this older iPad model will cost $449 before the gift card. Also, the wireless Jawbone Jambox speaker system will be cut from $149 to $199. The speaker deal will run from Friday until Saturday this weekend, and the iPad 4 deal is already live.