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Apple offering rare iTunes movie collection sale (starting $10): Die Hard, LOTR, Godfather, Matrix, X-Men, Harry Potter, more

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From 9to5Toys.com: iTumes-movie-sale Apple is offering a rare sale on iTunes movie bundles yielding the lowest prices we’ve seen on digital downloads of 25 popular movie collections. Save even more by snagging a 20% off $60 iTunes gift card at ebay: $48. Bundles are available in SD/HD and start at $9.99 making a lot of these “buy one get two free” pricing (US Only). (Update: We’re hearing Apple is changing prices on many of these) Here’s the full list via:

SERIES MOVIES PRICE NOTES
Arthur 2 $9.99 Yes, you’re stuck with Russell Brand
Hangover 2 $9.99 Does not include 3
Mean Girls/Clueless 2 $9.99  
Sherlock Holmes 2 $9.99  
Titans 2 $9.99 No Denzel in these
Charlie’s Angels 2 $12.99  
Night at the Museum 2 $12.99  
Scarface/Casino 2 $12.99  
Taken 2 $12.99  
Alvin & The Chipmunks 3 $17.99  
Austin Powers 3 $17.99  
Blade 3 $17.99  
A Cinderella Story 3 $17.99  
Ice Age 3 $17.99  
Lord of the Rings 3 $17.99 Not extended editions
The Matrix 3 $17.99  
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3 $17.99 The ones from the ’90s
Back to the Future 3 $19.99  
The Godfather 3 $19.99* Coppola restoration
Jurassic Park 3 $19.99  
Lethal Weapon 4 $19.99  
Spider-Man 3 $19.99  
X-Men 4 $24.99 Trilogy + Wolverine Origins
Bourne Collection 4 $29.99  
Underworld 4 $29.99  
Die Hard 5 $39.99  
Star Trek 10 $49.99 Includes I to X
Harry Potter 8 $59.99  



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Ending! Parallels 8 Bundle: $50, includes Snagit, Typinator, WinZip Mac, xPlan, Boom, Leap, more

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Screen Shot 2013-07-10 at 9.17.31 AM

Ending this weekend from 9to5Toys.com, comes one of our favorite Mac app bundles. For $30 less than the price of the Parallels 8 (Give Windows 8.1 a free spin?) headliner app alone , you get another 9 other solid applications valued at $482 for $49.99. These are available for immediate download without shipping or tax charges worldwide.

Details and video below or on Specials.9to5Toys.com


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68% off Sony storage at Amazon: 32GB SD card: $17, 1TB USB3 portable HD: $70, more

From 9to5Toys.com:

Screen Shot 2013-07-12 at 11.41.47 AMClick to enlarge

Amazon’s Gold Box today is up to 68% off Sony storage products. Standouts include:

  • 1TB USB3-powered portable Hard Drive: $69.99 shipped
  • 1.5TB USB3-powered portable Hard Drive: $99.99 shipped
  • 64GB SDHC 40MB/S SD Card :$37.99
  • 32GB SDHC 40MB/S SD Card :$17.49
  • 16GB SDHC 40MB/S SD Card :$9.99
  • Speedy 40MB/s MicroSD cards: 32GB: $21.99, 16GB: $11.99
  • More as pictured above.
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….and here are your plastic iPhone volume controls in Green, Red, Blue and Yellow

plastic-iPhone-volume-buttons

All of these could be knockoffs of course as we’ve said countless times since news of the plastic iPhone is months old and Chinese companies are already confirmed to be building Android knockoffsBenjaminTech via Gene

If This Then That (IFTTT) launches iOS app for automating service directives

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If This Then That (IFTTT) today launched an iPhone app version of its popular service for automating simple actions/services. The video above is a nice tutorial/overview of the service if you aren’t familiar. Channels are the services (like Facebook, Gmail, Twitter, as well as devices like Philips Hue, Belkin WeMo, and UP by Jawbone) and Recipes are the directives in IFTTT lingo.

Download the app and unlock three new Channels for iPhone: Contacts, Photos, and Reminders (with more to come). Create and use Recipes around the things you do on the go: snapping screenshots, adding new contacts, completing reminders, and organizing your photo albums.

Screen Shot 2013-07-11 at 11.54.56 AM

The IFTTT team notes that they are adding new features all the time.


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Parallels 8 Bundle: $50, includes Snagit, Typinator, WinZip Mac, xPlan, Boom, Leap, more

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Screen Shot 2013-07-10 at 9.17.31 AM

From 9to5Toys.com, comes one of our favorite Mac app bundles. For $30 less than the price of the Parallels 8 headliner app (Give Windows 8.1 a free spin?), you get another 9 solid applications valued at $482 for $49.99. These are available for immediate download without shipping or tax charges worldwide.

Details and video below or on Specials.9to5Toys.com


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Free on App Store: Infinity Blade II, Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery EP, Where’s My Water?, Badland, Tiny Wings, Traktor DJ, Day One, Over, Barefoot World Atlas, more

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5-years-app-store

Update: Apple is now officially advertising its app promo celebrating the App Store’s 5th birthday with a link on the Apple.com homepage and a new section in iTunes. You can access the new section featuring 5 apps and 5 games free for a limited time from iTunes on your Mac or the App Store on your iOS device.

As noted on 9to5Toys and the Verge, a group of premium games have free at the iOS App Store this morning.

So far, games such as Infinity Blade IISuperbrothers: Sword and Sworcery EPWhere’s My Water?Badland and Tiny Wings are all on offer for nothing, alongside apps such as [Map My Ride], Traktor DJ (normally $20), Day OneOver, and Barefoot World Atlas.

Speculation is that the huge sale is to celebrate the 5th birthday of the App Store. Or part of the “Only on the App Store” Promotion above. Or a glitch. Or…just go download them!

Find any other gems? Share in the comments…
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Plastic iPhone case put together in high quality video/gallery

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Screen Shot 2013-07-06 at 8.28.30 AMClick for higher quality images

We’ve been looking at plastic renderings of the highly anticipated plastic “budget” iPhone for almost 6 months now. Analysts, leakers, and reports from all over have pinpointed a plastic shell in a variety of colors. We even commissioned a ten-color rendering way back in April (above). Now Techdy shows us what it would look like if one of those shells was put on a screen and given a high quality video/image treatment.

As can be seen from the images above, all the rumors about the low-cost plastic iPhone seem to be true. The budget iPhone will be made substantially from plastic (we can feel it’s actually polycarbonate material). It will have a 4” screen, like the iPhone 5, and interestingly, the budget iPhone actually has a shape that’s similar to Apple’s original iPod. When we hold the budget iPhone in our hands, the plastic chassis does not feel cheap at all. Unlike the plastic build quality of the Samsung Galaxy phones, the plastic material used on the budget iPhone feels more sturdy.

And guess what, we were able to fit the display assembly into the new budget iPhone’s rear shell. The display assembly just seemed to fit perfectly inside of the rear shell.

Another video courtesy of @MTPFlyers:

And a third video from @DetroitBORG:

Thanks Cyril! More high quality images below:


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New Apple Store at QuakerBridge Mall near Princeton, NJ opening Saturday (Updated)

9to5Mac reader @TylerBiedka over the weekend visited the upcoming site of a new Apple Store at the QuakerBridge Mall just a few miles south of Princeton, NJ.

It has been speculation that Apple will be opening a new store in the newly upgraded QuakerBridge Mall, just 5 miles south of Princeton University sometime this fall.
It seems as though they might be ahead of schedule. I was there just last night, and the traditional black barrier was up with the logo and website. Although today was a different story. The black barrier was gone, the steel frame is exposed, and just the glass is covered in black wrap. (Please see attached images).
In addition, as I walked up to the store, my iPhone 5 picked up on the Apple Store wifi. It seems as though the store will be open early to mid july. (Please see attached wifi screenshot).

The new store site hasn’t exactly been a secret but with a working Wifi and the telltale black signage, it would appear that the Autumn opening speculation might be a bit conservative.

Update: (June 25th) The Store page has gone live indicating that it will open on Saturday morning.

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Blind Chinese dissident at NYU given iOS devices loaded with tracking software and spyware

Chen-Guangcheng-ipad
not an iPad

Reuters has an interesting story on Chinese dissident/activist Chen Guangcheng who currently is at NYU on a Fellowship. Apparently he was given an iPhone and an iPad with tracking and spying software aboard.

The devices were screened by NYU technicians within a few days and were found to have been loaded with hidden spying software, said Cohen, who arranged the fellowship for Chen at NYU Law School, helping defuse a diplomatic crisis between the United States and China after Chen took refuge in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing.

“These people supposedly were out to help him and they give him a kind of Trojan horse that would have enabled them to monitor his communications secretly,” said Cohen.

The iPad was eventually cleaned up and returned to Chen at his request, the second source said.

NYU is pointing the finger at Heidi Cai, the wife of activist Bob Fu who gave Chen the iOS devices (along with other electronics).

Among the first visitors in May 2012 to the New York apartment Chen had moved into with his family after a dramatic escape from house arrest in China was Heidi Cai, the wife of activist Bob Fu. She brought an iPad and iPhone as gifts.

In examining the iPad and the iPhone, [NYU] found software that allowed a third party to secretly connect to an inbuilt global positioning system, essentially turning a device into a tracking device, said the second source. The technicians also found hidden, password-protected software that backed up the contents to a remote server, the source added.

“It’s perfectly consistent with their desire to manipulate and control the situation and know whatever confidential advice he is getting,” [NYU’s] Cohen said.

Bob Fu is of course denying the accusations, saying that it is some sort of “007 thing”.

Asked about the gadgets, Fu told Reuters that his wife had given two Apple devices to Chen shortly after the dissident had settled in New York. Fu runs a Christian group called ChinaAid that supports underground churches in China and victims of forced abortions.

“This is the first time I’ve heard of spyware,” said Fu, who was in southeast Asia when his wife delivered the devices. He called the allegations “ridiculous” and “like a 007 thing.”

“We knew that the first thing after they arrived, they’d want to call their family members, so we wanted to provide communication devices, iPhone and iPad,” Fu said by telephone from Texas.

Chen is accusing NYU of forcing him out of his fellowship due to pressure from the Chinese government which is also allowing NYU to build a campus in Shanghai. So really, everyone is a suspect.
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5,100 3rd party ATG MacBook batteries recalled from Best Buy

ATG Battery Black_LargeThe AP has the story: Best Buy is recalling 5,100 replacement batteries for the MacBook Pro due to a fire risk.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said Wednesday that there have been 13 reports that the battery caught fire. One consumer suffered a serious burn on the leg.

Best Buy Co. is voluntarily recalling both black and white ATG lithium-ion replacement batteries for the notebook computers. The batteries were sold online or shipped to customers through its Geek Squad services from September of 2008 through June of 2012 for about $50.

Best Buy said it is contacting customers to ask them to return the batteries for replacement or for a Best Buy gift card. Company spokesman Jeff Shelman noted that Best Buy is only one of many retailers that may have sold the batteries.

ATG Battery White_LargeThe model number “MC-MBOOK13B” is on the label of the black battery and “MC-BOOK13W” is on the label of the white battery. The ATG logo is on both.

Best Buy’s official statement switches the “U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission” with “reports from consumers”:

After receiving reports from customers of these lithium ion batteries overheating when charging, we believe the right thing to do is to contact our customers and ask them to return the product for replacement or for a Best Buy gift card. While we are only one of many companies that may have sold these batteries, we feel they are a potential fire and burn hazard and want to keep our customers safe.

 

Recall Details

Units

About 5,100

Description

This recall involves both black and white ATG lithium-ion replacement batteries for MacBook Pro notebook computers. Model number “MC-MBOOK13B” is on the label of the black battery and model number “MC-BOOK13W” is on the label of the white battery. The ATG logo is on both batteries.

Incidents/Injuries

The firm has received 13 reports that the battery caught fire, including one report of a serious burn to a consumer’s leg.

Remedy

Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled battery, remove it from the computer and contact Best Buy for a replacement Apple brand battery or a $50 Best Buy gift card as a full refund. Best Buy is contacting its customers directly.

Sold at

Bestbuy.com and Partstore.com, or shipped to customers through the Geek Squad Protection fulfillment at Best Buy from September 2008 through June 2012 for about $50.

Importer

BTI Corp., of Las Vegas

Solid Mac Bundle including Corel Painter, iTunes TuneUp, DiskDrill, Mac Scan, NetSpot Pro, more: $30

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From 9to5Toys.com:

StackSocial has a pretty impressive bundle hitting this evening for just $29.99. In it you get 9 solid apps including:
Painter Lite: Ease Into the World of Digital Art
TuneUp: Organize Your iTunes Music Collection in Just a Few Clicks
Disk Drill Pro: Protect and Recover Data Like a Pro
MoneyWiz: Personal Finance For Your Mac
Voila: The Best All-in-One Mac Screencapture Tool
DVDRemaster 8: The Ultimate DVD Re-Encoding Solution
DesktopShelves: Fight Clutter on Your Desktop by Organizing Files on Shelves
MacScan: MacScan is the premier Macintosh security program
NetSpot Pro: The Only App for Wireless Site Survey, Wi-Fi Analysis, & Troubleshooting on Mac OS X

Screen Shot 2013-06-17 at 11.38.01 PM

StackSocial also has Dragon Dictate for half off at $99 for both PC and Mac.

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Here’s what iOS 7 looks like on iPad and iPad mini [Official]

iOS-7-ipad-mini

No surprises or shockers here but we had missed this image which was hiding on the bottom of the Apple iOS 7 page but was spotted by iGen.

We’d heard even before the keynote that Apple was behind in releasing iOS 7 for iPad and as such initial iOS 7 betas are only for iPhones and iPod touches.

Notably, you may notice the red icon, which isn’t present on the iPhone or iPod touch, presumably for Photo Booth.

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Even the head of Android is excited to try out iOS 7

Sundar Pinchai, the relatively new head of Android since Andy Rubin’s departure, doesn’t mince words when it comes to his interest in iOS7. The more pessimistic among us would say that he wants to copy all of the new features but he’s probably just curious like everyone else. 
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AT&T slips in some bad news ahead of WWDC: Upgrade eligibility moved from 20 to 24 months

Not a bad PR move on AT&T’s part: While everyone is getting hyped for WWDC, Ma Bell throws the same curve ball that Verizon threw at us in April. You must now wait the full 24 months to be eligible for phone upgrades rather than getting in at 20 months as you could have previously.

Today, we’re announcing a 24-month upgrade policy across all of AT&T’s wireless products and services.  This aligns device upgrade eligibility with our standard two-year wireless agreement and it applies to any customer whose agreement expires in March 2014 or later.

The move shouldn’t be a huge deal for iPhone customers who are used to two year cycles who can plan ahead to 2014.

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Kevin Rose gives his familiar WWDC predictions [Video]

The Digg founder and current Google Ventures partner has a storied history with Apple rumors. For instance, he predicted the Retina iPad but was just over a year early on that. In that post we noted that Rose’s predictions were a bit shaky:

Rose has been very hit-and-miss over the years in terms of his Apple predictions. Prior to the launch of the first iPhone he incorrectly predicted the device having a physical keyboard and most recently, Rose claimed the new Apple TV would be called the “iTV” and would include an App Store as well as ad supported TV stations. On the other hand, Rose was correct about the Apple TV’s September launch date, iPad remote feature, and $99 price point and was also correct about the fourth-generation iPod nano’s features and even posted a photo of it. Rose was also correct about copy/paste in iOS 3.0 as well as new iTunes features.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1Nq6_ayB1tc&start=3613]

In this case, Kevin Rose’s source seems to be a big 9to5mac reader. MacBook Airs? Sure, sure. Big changes in iOS 7? Yeah, yeah and yeah. We’ll have the definitive WWDC 2013 roundup later today.