iOS

Apple’s Campus 2 project continues to make strides with the latest drone video (below) showing the majority of the foundation completed on the massive structure, which Apple CEO Tim Cook has called the ‘Greenest in the World’.  You can see the front 2/3rds of the structure is now cemented in with the rear third still dirt and subterranean walls also built along the sides.

The controversial structure which will house 12,000 staff in 2.8M square feet on 176 acres and is estimated to be completed in 2016. Interestingly, even though Apple is covering the construction site with a high green wall, it is updating the 3D flyover of the location in Apple Maps somewhat frequently. The latest looks like it was taken earlier this summer.

You can follow the progress in our Campus 2 story line here.

Thanks Tony!
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Apple has announced that iAd is now available in nine additional countries: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, and Sweden. This means iAd is now available in a total of twenty-five countries spanning North America, Europe and Asia.

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While most of my content goes straight to the cloud these days and is usually easily accessible to move around, download or stream from any of my devices, I still found myself getting a lot of use out of Hyper’s new iStick. It’s one of the first made-for-iPhone USB flash drives that also includes an integrated Lightning connector to easily transfer content to and from the device to others. Hyper’s companion app is what makes the experience more than just storage, however…
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Re/code reports that Apple will hold its October event, featuring iPads, on October 16th. According to John Paczkowski, the event will feature updates to Apple’s iPad line, OSX 10.10 Yosemite as well as the new Retina iMacs that we reported on earlier this week. Mac mini updates would be nice too.

The event will also feature Yosemite, assumedly the OS will be released soon after the event, if Apple follows historic patterns.

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Starting about half an hour ago, the App Store is currently experiencing errors where apps do not finish downloading (or updating). Some users are reporting obtuse error messages, like the one above, whereas others are simply left with paused downloads on their iOS and Mac devices.

Availability likely varies by App Store region, but Twitter reports of App Store issues started around 6.30 Pacific Time. The problems are sporadic and do not necessarily arise on every device, but have been seen to occur across operating system versions: it is not limited to iOS 8 and Yosemite (which is still in beta).

Apple is yet to update its system service status page to acknowledge any issues.

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What can I say about the iPhone 6 that you don’t know or haven’t already assumed? Not much, actually. It’s running iOS 8, has a great camera, thinner design, and a handful of features that make it different from last year’s iPhone.

This year, Apple has bumped up the display size and released two models. We have the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 and 5.5-Inch iPhone 6 Plus, but if you were paying attention to the rumor mill leading up to the launch, these two models probably weren’t a surprise. That being said, there are still some points I’d like to make about both devices, but instead of creating two reviews, I think it’s safe to combine them so that you can find out which one is right for you…

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Yesterday, Chinese iPhone 6 reservations were stated as 2 million in six hours, a rather stunning statistic. Today, an update from the Chinese media press Tencent now says that reservations have topped 4 million. If all these reservations convert into orders, China alone may beat out the iPhone 6’s launch numbers, which — at the time — were considered to be impressive.

What’s more interesting is that Tencent claims it has exact order numbers from one of the main companies offering reservations. This gives some insight into how sales will be split between the 4.7 inch iPhone 6 and the 5.5 inch iPhone 6 Plus.

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A new report by Digitimes says that, contrary to public opinion, the iPhone 6 Plus is receiving more orders after beating initial demand expectations. The report says 60% of iPhone production is iPhone 6 Plus units, which may be interpreted as the iPhone 6 Plus being the more popular model. It also says that Foxconn is responsible for iPhone 6 Plus supply, whereas Pegatron is taking up iPhone 6 output.

However, Digitimes doesn’t have the best track record and this information sort of defies other evidence. Firstly, it is important to note that production does not correlate proportionally to demand. It was well publicised that the iPhone 6 Plus was supply-constrained in the runup to release. The burst of iPhone 6 Plus production now may simply be restoring the balance, clearing the backlog of orders.

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Chinese site Feng is reporting that Taiwanese media is saying that Apple wants to launch the smartwatch sometime in February. Most recently, The Information said Apple would be “lucky” to release the Apple Watch by Valentine’s Day. Officially, Apple has only quoted ‘early 2015’ as a launch window for the Apple Watch.

According to the report, Apple is supply constrained by the sapphire output of GTAT, which will mean the Apple Watch will hit in limited quantities. However, it is important to note that the low-end Apple Watch, the Apple Watch Sport, does not use sapphire at all, which will make that model easier to source. The higher end versions, Apple Watch and Apple Watch Edition are the SKU’s that will be impacted by sapphire shortages.

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Although benchmarks have already shown that the iPhone 6 has raw performance gains over the current competition, this video by PhoneBuff highlights what this advantage means in a real word test of loading a variety of apps and switching between them. Due to the differences between Android and iOS, the tester uses equivalent apps as closely as possible.

In total, the iPhone took 1 minute 55 seconds to load and multitask between the 30 apps tested, whereas the M8 was about 10 seconds slower. The Galaxy S5 lagged significantly, taking over a minute longer than the iPhone to complete the test at 2 minutes 58 seconds.

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[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrhCz6PnT78]

You might have thought the whole iPhone 6 Bendgate controversy had been put to bed following extensive testing and responses from Apple, but Samsung wants you to know that, unlike the new iPhones, its new Galaxy Note 4 won’t bend in your back pocket:
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At a press conference, ZDNet says that Samsung president of the company’s semiconductor arm is looking forward to reversing its profit forecasts when it starts producing chips for Apple using its next-generation technology.

Kim Ki-nam, president of the Korean electronic giant’s semiconductor business and head of System LSI business, told reporters at Samsung’s headquarters in Seoul that once the company begins to supply Apple with chips using its latest technology, profits “will improve positively”.

Samsung is expected to start producing application processors (APs) for clients such as Apple, Qualcomm, and AMD, using its 14-nanometre process around the end of the year.

Effectively, Samsung has all but confirmed that it is signed up to manufacture Apple’s next-generation SoC for iPhones and iPads, likely named ‘A9’, probably using a 14 nanometer process. The current A8 chip is produced using 20 nanometer fabrication, with most orders being taken by TSMC.

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In a ‘ground-breaking’ deal, not only does Verizon renew its agreement with Viacom to show their TV content (including Comedy Central, MTV and Nickelodeon) nationally, these channels will also be offered in FiOS’s mobile app for iOS. Early next year, you will be able to watch all of these channels from your iOS device from anywhere — you aren’t restricted to being on the same network as your cable box.

Under the current agreement, you can watch Viacom channels within the house with a Verizon subscription. Shortly, you will be able to go anywhere with your iOS devices and watch the same content, live or on-demand. Look for the shows on your iOS devices in early 2015!

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The CarPlay situation has been murky. Since being announced in the spring, most manufacturers have been quiet on when CarPlay equipment will actually be available to purchase. Pioneer is the first company to deliver on its promise, adding CarPlay as an update to its aftermarket dashboard panels (unless you count Ferrari’s integration into its high-end Ferrari California T).

Existing Pioneer device owners may not need to purchase any extras, as the CarPlay update is free for supported devices. Aforementioned units include the AVIC-8000NEX, AVIC-7000NEX, AVIC-6000NEX, AVIC-5000NEX and the AVH-4000NEX with prices ranging from $700 to $1400.

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When iOS 8.0 launched, it shipped without support for SMS Forwarding, one of the many “Continuity” features that were demonstrated to work between iOS devices and Macs running OS X Yosemite. The reason for this was fairly simple: there was no need to include the feature if Yosemite was not yet available to the public.

Earlier this week Apple delivered the first beta version of iOS 8.1 to developers. Aside from a few design tweaks, not a whole lot of changes were visible, though there were references and initial support for Apple Pay, indicating that this would be the update to enable that feature. Now it seems the update will also activate the SMS Forwarding function.

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Logitech today announced its latest case/Bluetooth keyboard combo with the new Type+ for iPad Air. Like many of its past products that we’ve reviewed, Logitech’s new keyboard puts a Bluetooth keyboard inside of a light protective case that provides protection on both sides of an iPad. It also said it’s made some big improvements to the keyboard over previous generations:
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The iPhone 5c is often criticised in light of its beefy powerful cousins, acting as a bit of a laughing stock for the technology industry. However, it is often reported as one of the top phones by sales volume in many countries (usually beating out Samsung’s offerings).

In fact, for August the iPhone 5c was the best selling smartphone in the UK, even outselling the iPhone 5s, according to Kantar World Panel.

The iPhone 5c was the best selling phone in Britain in August with 8.9% share, outselling the flagship iPhone 5s with 7.6% and the Samsung Galaxy S5 with 6.0%.

Normally, Apple phone sales drop in the runup to the next-generation devices, as customers hold off on iPhone purchases until the new versions are announced. However, Kantar says that the success of the iPhone 5c meant that Apple’s decline was much lower than in previous years.

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Apple has announced it is holding its earnings call for company results in fiscal Q4 (covering July, August and September) on October 20th. Following tradition, Apple will announce earnings in a press release about half an hour before the earnings call at 2PM PST. Apple’s earnings for fiscal Q4 will include the first wave of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus sales, as it went on sale towards the end of the period. However, Apple is unlikely to breakdown the split between new and old iPhone sales, as it only reports total sales numbers for Mac, iPhone and iPad.

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