Mike Beasley

Tweetbot, the incredibly popular iPhone Twitter client, has just been updated with support for the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus displays. The update includes interactive notification banners that allow you to quickly favorite, retweet, or reply to tweets as they come in.

The new version also includes the ability to login to an account using the new 1Password extension introduced in the newest update to that app. Other third-party extensions will also be supported through native iOS 8 share sheets. Other miscellaneous bug fixes are included to round out the update.

You can grab Tweetbot 3.5 for iPhone on the App Store for $4.99. It’s free for existing users. The full change log is below.

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In August we got a glimpse of the upcoming Pokemon trading card game for iPad in what would be the first official Pokemon game for Apple’s platform. Tonight the app became available on the App Store.

The game features both a single-player mode in which you play against a computer as well as an online version that allows you to challenge other players as well as a full deck management system.

You can grab Pokemon TCG for free on any iPad that has a Retina display (non-Retina models aren’t supported). The App Store description is below:

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Apple has announced that for the month of October it will be accepting donations through the iTunes Store on behalf of City of Hope in support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. City of Hope is a research facility that focuses on prevention and treatment of not only cancer, but many serious diseases such as lymphoma.

The Cupertino company has previously collected donations on behalf of organizations such as the Red Cross following catastrophic events such as typhoons and hurricanes. This is the first time Apple has collected donations for City of Hope or Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

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On Tuesday Apple provided developers and beta testers with the GM build of OS X Yosemite, which will likely be the version that ships to consumers later in October (although since this is only a “GM candidate” we may see another build sometime before then). Earlier we noted that this build includes updated videos to demonstrate the trackpad gestures in System Preferences that showed off new iWork icons.

As it turns out, those demo videos also give us a quick look at what will almost certainly be the next major version of Apple’s iWork suite. Above you can see an unreleased version of Pages that features a redesigned toolbar and other tweaks. Another of the videos has our first look at the updated Keynote app:

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In line with previous claims, Bloomberg is now reporting that Apple is planning to introduce a gold model to its iPad lineup with the release of the next-generation iPad Air. Interestingly, the report is specific to note that the full-size model will get the color while the mini line goes without mention.

Per the report:

New versions of the company’s 9.7-inch iPads, anticipated to be unveiled this month, will include gold as a choice of color for the rear metal cover, adding to the silver and gray available for the lighter iPad Air, the people said, asking not to be identified ahead of an announcement. That brings the color palette into line with the iPhone 5s, which come with silver or gold backs for models with a white faceplate, and space gray for those with a black front.

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[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-waTi8BPdk]

Apple re-uploaded its Apple Watch introduction video to YouTube today with a few small changes to the design of the device. It seems the company’s initial renders of the watch were not as accurate as they could have been, as the new version—which also appears on Apple.com now—sports a noticeably smaller screen…
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Basis, a company backed by Intel, has announced a new smart watch compatible with iOS devices that places a focus on health and fitness applications. The device is capable of keeping track of several health-related data points, such as steps, calories, heart rate, prespiration, the temperature of your skin, and in-depth information about your sleep habits.

The Peak doesn’t yet support basic smart watch features like email and text notifications, but Basis says those functions will come in a future software update.

The company says that the device will be available by the holidays, meaning it will beat Apple’s own market entry to shelves. Pricing? $199 in either black or white finishes, which means it comes in under the Apple wearable. You can see photos and the full press release for the Peak below:

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Earlier this month it was discovered that the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus would be delayed in China due to regulatory hold ups when Chinese authorities decided that they were not pleased with the current state of security on iOS. According to Bloomberg, Apple has cleared the last hurdle and received the licenses necessary to run the device on Chinese cellular networks.

Apple reportedly agreed to make undisclosed changes to the privacy settings on the device to appease the regulators. Yesterday we reported that Apple was apparently preparing for a Chinese launch on October 10th, but that date has not yet been confirmed. Update: Apple has announced through a press release that the phones will be available for sale in China on October 17th with pre-orders starting on the 10th.

Apple also released a beta version of iOS 8.1 today, which may or may not include the updated privacy settings necessary to get approval from the Chinese government.

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Several users on Instagram and Twitter have captured photos of the Apple Watch on display at French retailer Colette just ahead of Paris fashion week, where members of Apple’s design team have been spotted in the past few days. The Colette store, located at 213 rue Saint-Honoré in the 1st Arrondissement of Paris was hidden for most of the day according to an Instagram user who lives across the street.  Colette is a French “brick-and-click” clothing and accessory retailer. The three floor 8,000 square feet (740 m2) concept store contains an exhibition space, bookshop, and a “water bar” serving more than 100 brands of bottled water.

Earlier today the retailer teased a “one day only experience” in collaboration with Apple.

It seems likely that the watch will get its first public preview tomorrow during the event, though whether people will actually be allowed to go hands-on with the device is unknown. The opportunity seems unlikely given that at its official unveiling just a few weeks ago, members of the press were only allowed to see hardware displaying screenshots of static interfaces, not working models.

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Earlier this year, Steven Lamar, one of the men behind the Beats line of headphones, brought a claim against Apple for cutting him out of the $3 billion deal to buy out the headphones maker. How the Hollywood Reporter says that Beats (and thus Apple) is suing Lamar for claiming that he co-founded the company.

The company says that by marketing his new line of headphones by promoting himself as a “co-founder” of Beats, Lamar is falsely using the Apple subsidiary’s name for false marketing. Furthermore, the company is claiming that various news reports referring to Lamar as a co-founder are misleading. Apple’s lawyers are demanding that Lamar issue a statement clarifying his role at Beats and refrain from saying he co-founded the electronics manufacturer.

The full legal filing can be read below.

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Apple is having a bad month. Sure, the company launched two new iPhones, introduced the world to their first wearable device, and debuted a brand-new NFC payment system, but for everything that went right something somewhere also seems to have gone horribly wrong.

It started with a heavily-promoted live stream that failed within minutes, then moved to a massive, probably overblown “scandal” over bent iPhones. There was also the sudden discovery of a critical flaw that prevented a key iOS 8 feature from being available at launch paired with the subsequent botched update that was supposed to fix the problem but instead left owners of the latest iPhones potentially stranded without cell service for well over 24 hours.

And that’s not even counting the highly-publicized scandal in which a number of celebrity iCloud accounts were allegedly compromised due to Apple’s insufficient security measures on certain functions. Oh, and let’s not forget about that U2 album nobody wanted but everybody got anyway.

The last thing Apple really needs is one more big problem mucking up its image this month. Unfortunately, that seems to be exactly what the folks at Cupertino are getting today, as a newly-discovered bug in the iOS “reset settings” function runs the risk of permanently deleting all of the iWork documents stored in your iCloud account.

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Apple has just released iOS 8.1 beta 1 on its developer center. The update has a build number of 12B401. As we reportedly earlier, the company is also working on iOS 8.2 and 8.3 for release in the future. The release is available for all iOS 8-compatible devices, including the Apple TV.

We’ll keep this article updated with any new changes discovered in the beta.

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Apple has just released a new download for users on OS X Mavericks to address the recently-discovered “Shellshock” bug. Apple previously noted that that only a few Macs were actually impacted by the bug and that most users were protected by default. The company promised to release an update shortly to address those who had manually configured their computers in a way that left them exposed.

For users on older versions of OS X, the Mavericks fix will not work. To secure those systems, there are separate downloads for Lion and Mountain Lion. The patch will likely be available through the built-in OS X Software Update mechanism soon. There is currently no patch for machines running the public or developer builds of OS X Yosemite.

An iOS 8 app that allowed users to create custom shortcuts and access them from a Notification Center widget has been removed from the App Store by Apple for what it calls “misuse of widgets,” the developers said in a notice posted on the app’s website.

The app, called Launcher, worked by letting users enter a URL or select an application to be launched when a shortcut was tapped. The shortcuts would then be displayed in Notification Center, allowing quick access to a variety of tasks such as starting a phone or FaceTime call, creating a new text message, email, or iMessage, opening an application, or more.

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Today AT&T launched a new limited-time offer to new and existing subscribers featuring double data on Mobile Share Value plans 15 GB and up. The offer is good through October 31st, at which point the data buckets will revert to their regular sizes. Subscribers who sign up for the a new line on these plans before October 31st will be able to keep their double data for as long as they want it, even after the offer has expired.

At the new prices, a 30 GB shared data bucket will cost $130 per month, where the same amount of data would normally run for $225, coming out to a total savings of $95 per moth. While the usual offers only go up to 50 GB, there are now three larger buckets at 60, 80, or 100 GB, with most costing only a fraction of the price of the regular $50.

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Consumer Reports released a new video today taking on claims of overly-flexible iPhones that have appeared online recently. Apple noted that only a handful of complaints have come in and gave journalists a look at its testing procedures. Regardless of Cupertino’s claims, Consumer Reports kept its promise to conduct testing that was a bit more scientific in nature than previous YouTube videos.

To address these claims, several different phones were tested under up to 150 pounds of pressure to see when each model would stop “snapping back” to its original shape. The devices tested were the iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6, iPhone 5, HTC One M8, Samsung Galaxy Note 3, and LG G3.

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A few days ago Apple published a new privacy page on its website that detailed the various measures it has put in place to protect Mac and iOS users’ personal data. One of those features, which is new in iOS 8, is the automatic randomization of MAC addresses when the device is searching for a Wi-Fi network. This makes it much more difficult to track a device by seeing which Wi-Fi networks have spotted its unique identifier.

A new two-part study by AirTight Networks into how well this security feature works has turned up some interesting results, including several conditions that will stop the phone from randomizing a MAC address. Part one of the study breaks down what exactly needs to happen in order to start this function…

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