iOS Devices

Apple has just announced that preorders for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus have topped all previously set records, achieving 4 million sales in the first twenty-four hours. In the press release, Cook said he is thrilled that customers love them “as much as we do”.

Apple® today announced a record number of first day pre-orders of iPhone® 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, the biggest advancements in iPhone history, with over four million in the first 24 hours. Demand for the new iPhones exceeds the initial pre-order supply and while a significant amount will be delivered to customers beginning on Friday and throughout September, many iPhone pre-orders are scheduled to be delivered in October.

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The first half of the Tim Cook interview with Charlie Rose is now available to watch — in full — on the CharlieRose.com website. Cook discusses the thinking behind the Watch, purchasing Beats, partnering with IBM, how he and Steve Jobs discussed Cook becoming CEO and much more. Bitesize highlights were posted a few days ago. The video is embedded below, although may not be available to view in all countries.

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Pre-order sales for Apple’s newly announced iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus kicked off last night at 3:01 AM EST with the larger 5.5-inch model quickly seeing ship dates slip, but some customers were unable to complete the pre-order process on Apple’s online store due to issues reaching carrier systems.

Rather than receiving a purchase confirmation, these customers were issued reservation numbers for the iPhone model attempting to be pre-ordered with the promise that the order can be finalized with carrier systems were able to be accessed again. As of this morning, Apple has begun notifying these customers that the transaction for their desired pre-order device is ready to be completed as carrier systems have stabilized.
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In a statement to Re/code, Apple has announced that iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus have set new records for overnight preorders.

An Apple representative said that the overnight sales of the new iPhones set a record, though Apple did not say how many have been sold.

“Response to iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus has been incredible with a record number of preorders overnight,” Apple told Re/code.

Earlier today, AT&T announced that it saw the best iPhone demand in two years. The phones have received immense interest today, despite Apple Online Store issues. T-Mobile’s systems have been crunched due to the demand, meaning sales representatives have had to resort to pen and paper to reserve iPhones for customers.

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As Apple’s SVP of Marketing Phil Schiller introduced WiFi Calling support coming with the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, and other iPhones with iOS 8 on supported networks earlier this week, it was noted that only T-Mobile and EE will provide support for the new feature at launch. WiFi Calling will allow users to take advantage of home or office WiFi connections, for instance, to improve call quality in otherwise potentially low network zones. Telecommunications site LightReading reports, however, that AT&T plans to add WiFi Calling support for its subscribers beginning next year.

Speaking Friday at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia Conference, he said the carrier would use WiFi calling in 2015, but only as a complement to voice-over-LTE and 3G voice. […]

“We’re very focused on making sure it’s a great experience for customers, but we see it as a complement, not a replacement,” he said. “We feel good about a great nationwide network with unlimited talk and text.”

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Apple is set to bring Apple Pay, its mobile wallet service, to China using a partnership with China UnionPay. @KhaosT on Twitter found references to the credit card type in iOS 8 code and now MarketWatch is corroborating with sources that a deal is in the works.

Apple announced Apple Pay as a US only service, coming to iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus in October with a software update. A deal with UnionPay would obviously mean Apple wants to bring the feature to Chinese iOS customers soon.

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Update 2: AT&T says demand is higher than iPhone launches from the last two years (via Recode): “Demand for the new iPhones is higher than that seen in either of the past two years, AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel told Re/code.”

Update: All models of the 5.5 inch iPhone 6 Plus are now quoting 3-4 weeks shipping. Apple is still stocking most models of the iPhone 6, however.

The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus launch has not been smooth, to say the least. Many people are still unable to access the Apple Online Store to purchase Apple’s newest devices. Despite availability issues, many models are already selling out. Carrier websites are the first to be affected, naturally, as they always get less supply than Apple itself.

Both AT&T and Verizon are quoting three week shipping delays for the Plus, meaning customers buying now won’t get their phones until around the 7th of October. At the time of writing, the iPhone 6 is still available. At Apple’s own store, it seems like the 64 GB iPhone 6 Plus and the 128 GB iPhone 6 Plus is now also unavailable. However, the exact nature of supply is unclear due to the ongoing website issues.

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As expected, the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus are both now available for pre-order on Apple’s online store and carrier websites, at least for some users. As the stores start to catch up to the load, more and more and customers should be able to get in their orders. Initial buyers seem to have the most luck on carrier websites as well as the Apple Store App. The store is almost an hour late in opening.

You can get the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 starting at $199 for the 16 GB model. Unlike previous years, there is no 32 GB option, which was replaced by a larger 64 GB model at $299 and a new 128 GB version for $399.

The iPhone 6 Plus sports the same internals as the smaller model accompanied by a 5.5-inch display and a camera with optical image stabilization. You can get the larger version of the phone in 16 GB for $299, 64 GB for $399, or 128 GB for $499 with a 2 year plan.

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It’s iPhone buying season again and this year we’re faced with a very tough decision. Apple recently unveiled the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus at its press event on Sept. 9, 2014 and as many rumors indicated, we now have a 4.7-inch model and a 5.5-inch model. Normally our choice would be narrowed down between color and capacity, but this year it’s much more than that…

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Pre-orders for the iPhone 6 will start at 12:01 a.m. PDT and will be available to purchase in Apple Stores on Sept. 19th, 2014, but what isn’t widely known is that it looks like Apple is kicking off Personal Pickup availability starting with preorders as well. This means that you’ll be able to preorder an iPhone 6 and select a store in your area and pick it up on launch day….

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Big-name analysts seemed satisfied with what they saw and heard during Apple’s launch of the iPhone 6, Apple Watch and Apple Pay, reports Forbes. Summarising investor notes from a dozen major companies, Chuck Jones found the general feeling was that Apple had delivered what was expected.

The overall average of AAPL stock price targets was $109, against the current price of just over $100. Analysts pointed to a range of factors in forming their views, among them … 
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For most people, the decision of which wallpaper to choose for your iPhone is just a matter of going through your photo library to find the right picture. For Espen Haagensen, however, the process just became a whole lot easier. Starting September 17th, a photo of the Milky Way he captured while in Norway will become the default wallpaper in iOS 8, software that will be downloaded hundreds of millions of times by users all around the world.

Two days later, on September 19th, countless iPhone 6 and 6 Plus units will begin shipping out to customers, all preloaded with the same shot. I talked to Espen about the photo’s origins and how it feels to be so prominently featured by Apple.

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Samsung was already taking shots at the iPhone 6 this morning with some new ads, but the Android handset maker has gone even further by releasing a set of new videos on YouTube today mocking everything from the iPhone 6 livestream problems to the device’s hardware (via Engadget). The ads are part of the “Note the Difference” campaign, and these specific videos belong to a playlist called “It Doesn’t Take a Genius.”

The ads feature two guys in blue shirts—the titular Apple Store “Geniuses”—discussing the upcoming device’s features (and lack of a stylus) and the companion Apple Watch. Each ends with a promotion for Samsung’s Galaxy Note 4 smartphone. You can check out all six ads in the playlist below:

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Apple announced the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus yesterday with pre-orders for the new phones on the four major carriers kicking off on September 12th and both new iPhones launching on September 19th. Apple, however, does not directly share availability for its new iPhones on regional carriers.

We’ve reached out to the more than two dozen regional and prepaid carriers that supported the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c, though, and put together a comprehensive list of when each carrier plans to release the new iPhone 6 models. US Cellular and C Spire, the fifth and sixth largest wireless carriers in the United States after the big four national carriers, have both announced plans to carry the new iPhone 6 models on launch day next Friday, and more than a half dozen regional carriers have already announced availability starting September 26th.
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Re/code is reporting that Apple is currently seeing about a day’s worth of battery life. The company was notably sheepish to mention anything specific, but internally Re/code says Apple’s current marketing strategy is that users charge it over night to get full use during daylight hours.

Interestingly, the report notes that Apple is unhappy with current performance and the situation is very much still in flux. Apparently, Apple is doing many different things to improve battery longevity, by the time the device launches in ‘early 2015’.

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When Apple quietly created a new MFi spec for headphones, allowing them to connect via the Lightning port rather than the headphone jack to deliver higher-quality audio, everyone expected Apple-owned Beats to be first to take advantage of it. But instead Philips has, ah, beaten them to it … 
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Jonathan Zdziarski, who flared up the initial round of iOS surveillance claims a couple of months ago, is now reporting that some of these flaws have been rectified with iOS 8. Apple said that these services were used for debugging purposes, and had no connection to government agencies. It then proceeded to detail these processes in a support note.

Zdziarski’s post explains that many issues have been addressed, particularly with File Relay. Before, this service blindly sent data from the device to an external source, without authentication. In iOS 8, he says that the service has been disabled. It seems that data is no longer available either through physical connection or wirelessly. Zdziarski notes law enforcement will not be able to use current tools to access any of this previously-exposed information.

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