iOS Devices

Spigen’s first round of affordable new iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus cases were ready to order even before Apple’s September 9 special event. Now that the iPhones are about to hit stores, Spigen has a new collection of slim protective cases ready, and you’re going to love them.

The lineup starts with a minimalist sub-$10 case that can magnetically attach to your car’s dashboard. Next, for under $15, you can get a shock-absorbing clear case that shows your new iPhone’s “S” badge or rose gold color. Or if you want to add wireless charging and a drop-proof case to your iPhone for under $30, you can. Below, you’ll see how Spigen has covered all of those bases, and more…

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The iPhone 6s and 6s Plus are launching in just four days time and right on schedule the embargo on reviews have been lifted. Apple is touting the new phones as major updates over the 6 and 6 Plus, with 12-megapixel camera and 4K video recording, ‘3D Touch’ pressure-sensitive display to enable quick actions across the OS, Live Photos and more. We’ve already seen an early hands on with the iPhone 6s thanks to an early delivery but now the official tech reviews are live.

So what’s the verdict? We’ve rounded up the highlights below from those lucky enough to get the phones early …

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While the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus aren’t supposed to start arriving to pre-order customers until this Friday, at least one lucky AT&T customer got a surprise today. A Twitter user by the name of @MoonshineDesign based in San Diego today received her iPhone 6s in the new Rose Gold color variant. According to her tweets, she ordered the device through AT&T.

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Ahead of the official launch on Friday, Apple has now sold out out of all iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus on Apple.com in the US and worldwide, twelve launch countries in total. The earliest delivery quote you can now get for a new iPhone is September 29th. The iPhone 6S Plus has been sold out for about a week now and now the 6s has followed suit, four days ahead of release.

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How does the upgraded camera on the iPhone 6s Plus perform under real-world conditions? Today we get our best look yet thanks to a photo gallery of a recent MLB game shot by photographer Brad Mangin for Sports Illustrated.
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Apple’s new iPad mini 4 was slightly overshadowed by its new plus-size iPad Pro during the unveiling earlier this month, but today DisplayMate gives us its usual in-depth analysis of the device’s new display for those considering making the purchase.

While the standout feature of the new iPad mini 4 was upgraded processing power to match the iPad Air 2, the display, as noted by DisplayMate, in many ways beats out the iPad Air 2 and makes for one of Apple’s best tablet displays yet.
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Today we’re taking the first really deep look at Apple’s fourth-generation Apple TV, which will hit stores next month. In our exclusive video, we explore the upgraded hardware, the Siri Remote, and dig down into tvOS, the new UI that brings the entire experience to life.

Are there surprises? Oh yes. The new Apple TV actually supports Bluetooth headphones and Bluetooth speakers, a special Night Mode, and radically improved accessibility options inspired by iOS. You can learn about all of the great new features below…

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Apple has confirmed launch details for the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus — unsurprisingly the new phones go on sale Friday at 8 AM. Apple says that customer response to the iPhone 6s has been “incredibly positive” although the company is yet to release concrete preorder figures.

Apple also announced that iOS 9 has the fastest rate of adoption of any previous iOS release, with  50% of devices already using iOS 9, which was released last Wednesday.

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In Belgium, Apple has opened its first ‘next-gen’ redesigned Apple Store in Brussels. The store features huge glass panes that curve around the exterior. The store has also reduced its reliance on backlit screen panels. Instead, Apple is relying on a single huge screen that covers one wall which will serve many purposes, including retail training and product marketing.

Inside, Apple has installed two rows of plant pots with real trees growing inside the store. Even more incredibly, the product tables (made of fine redwood) are actually motion sensitive with power outlets revolving into view when it detects people are nearby. Reader Franklin Schrans has sent in a video showing the cool moving tables in action …

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Update, Sept. 19: Vogue originally posted the wrong photos. They’ve now been updated with the correct images shot on iPhone 6s Plus.

Apple’s new iPhone 6s and 6s Plus won’t officially arrive for customers until September 25th, but Apple is giving the upgraded camera on the devices a real world test drive at New York Fashion Week. It appears Apple handed over a few of the unreleased phones to Vogue and they enlisted photographer Kevin Lu to shoot the show entirely with the new iPhone.
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Along with the new features, iOS 9 promised an improvement to the ‘foundation’ of iOS with performance boosts and battery usage improvements across the system. However, as always seems to happen with new versions of iOS, not all users are satisfied. There have been many reports that iOS 9 is causing lagginess, especially on older hardware such as the iPhone 5. Some phones are getting stuck on the ‘slide to upgrade’ screen and users are frozen out of their devices completely.

Seeing as iOS 9 supports all the same devices as iOS 8, it’s quite important that the OS runs well on all iPhones and iPads, not just the recent Apple devices with the faster A7 or A8 processors.

How has the iOS 9 affected your iPhone? Is it slower than before the update … or maybe it’s actually faster? Let us know with the following poll …

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The Guardian is reporting that Apple legal representatives met with California’s department of motor vehicles to discuss regulations about self-driving cars. On record, the DMV told The Guardian that “the Apple meeting was to review DMV’s autonomous vehicle regulations”. This news follows reports that Apple is searching for a private road-testing site for its ‘Apple Car’ electric vehicle project.

More interestingly, The Guardian claims to have obtained documents that suggest the Apple Car is close to leaving the lab as the project deemed ‘Project Titan’ has now an official Engineering Program Manager. When a project gets an EPM, it typically means a product is entering the next stage of development and finishing testing stages.

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At its event earlier this month, Apple took the wraps off of a refreshed iPad mini 4 that is nearly identical to the iPad Air 2, but obviously in a smaller form factor. This evening, the crew at iFixit has shared its detailed teardown images of the iPad mini 4 and as expected, they show what is essentially a scaled down iPad Air 2.

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iOS 9 has now been out for 24 hours now and the first usage data is in. According to analytics from Mixpanel, iOS 9 has crossed the 12% adoption mark of all iOS devices one day after launch. Although 12% is a good figure, it is actually down a bit from last year’s rate of adoption of iOS 8, which managed 16% device penetration during the same period. This is despite iOS 9 actually being easier to update due to lower storage space requirements, but it’s possible that early server hiccups led some users to delay updating. Mixpanel says iOS 9 and iOS 8 are currently reporting similar upgrade paths:

iOS 9 has received 12% adoption in the last 24 hours and is being adopted similar to iOS 8 last year. However, one issue for it being substantially slow compared to iOS 7 is that servers are having trouble keeping up right now as people update.

iOS 7 continues to dwarf both iOS 8 and iOS 9 in terms of initial adoption, reaching over 20% penetration in its first day of availability. Data from 9to5Mac’s audience is more impressive with over 50% of readers already on iOS 9.0. Obviously, our data has a tendency to be heavily biased upwards because of our audience demographics.

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Having previously challenged Apple’s iPads and Apple TVs with rivals called Fire and Fire TV, Amazon today debuted a series of new Fire tablets and Fire TV media streamers at remarkably aggressive price points. Led by the new $49.99 7″ Fire tablet, the Fire tablets aim to dramatically undercut iPads on price, while the $99.99 4K Fire TV and its siblings were designed to leapfrog new and old Apple TVs with specific features…
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Update: Now at over 30,000 1-star reviews:

Yo Tim, what's the customer sat on the Move to iOS app http://t.co/aFeOtup4f1 pic.twitter.com/ebytmXG1nt

— Benjamin Mayo (@bzamayo) September 27, 2015

Apple launched its ‘Move to iOS’ Android app yesterday as part of the iOS 9 launch, which streamlines the process of migrating data and apps from an Android phone to an iPhone. Just hours after launch however, Android users are not taking well to Apple’s first Android app (if you discount Beats Music, which existed before Apple acquired them). The app has accrued over 2700 1-star ratings in the few hours it has been available, with a less-than-spectacular 1.9 star average rating.

Very few of the commenters seemed to have actually used the app to migrate data to an iPhone and are instead using the reviews section to vent their frustration at Apple in general. The reviews are dominated by Android users complaining about iPhone battery life, overpriced Apple Watches, ‘iSheep’ and more …

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