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iFixit does its ritual teardown of the gold iPhone 5s

So here they go. We got a whiff of a teardown earlier today from an Australian company but iFixit generally digs down a little deeper, has some great pictures, and damn, they got a GOLD iPhone 5s. What’s so good about the gold? Well besides the fact that it is the bling-iest phone in existence, it is also very, very rare.

This one was built in July.

Parts:

  • Apple A7 APL0698 SoC – the markings F8164A1PD indicate the RAM is likely 1GB
  • Qualcomm MDM9615M LTE Modem
  • Qualcomm WTR1605LLTE/HSPA+/CDMA2K/TDSCDMA/EDGE/GPS transceiver.
  • Murata 339S0205 Wi-Fi module (based on the Broadcom BCM4334,
  • SK Hynix H2JTDG8UD3MBR 128 Gb (16 GB) NAND Flash
  • Qualcomm PM8018 RF power management IC
  • TriQuint TQM6M6224
  • Apple 338S1216
  • Broadcom BCM5976 touchscreen controller

Nothing too terribly surprising here. The Battery is labelled “Apple Japan” for the first time. Also the a7 was fabbed in July and they couldn’t find the M7 (so small or part of the SoC A7?).

  • Texas Instruments 37C64G1
  • Skyworks 77810
  • Skyworks 77355
  • Avago A790720
  • Avago A7900
  • Apple 338S120L

Update: iFixit has since given the teardown treatment to a blue iPhone 5c. Not surprisingly, the device is largely the same as the iPhone 5 on the inside, but it did find a slightly larger 3.8 V—5.73 Wh—1510 mAh battery compared to the 3.8 V—5.45 Wh—1440 mAh battery in the iPhone 5. iFixit also notes that “The battery has lost the 5’s convenient pull tab, and gained more resilient adhesive—it now requires heat and prying to remove.”

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Even cats can unlock the iPhone 5s with the TouchID sensor [video]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OFW6Va1m5k]

Amusing little tidbit from TechCrunch:

I tested a colleague’s hypothesis that you could register the identifying skin segments of your favorite furry friends for Touch ID, too.

The cat’s paw worked, and while it encountered more frequent failures than did a fingerprint, it was able to unlock the phone again repeatedly when positioned correctly on the sensor. Note that no other paw pads would unlock the device, and that cats essentially have unique “fingerprints” just like people, so this doesn’t make the Touch ID sensor any less secure.

I wonder if a rabbit’s foot would work?


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$50 MacUpdate Bundle: Snapheal Pro, Civ V Gold, PDF Pen 6, TechTool Pro 7, ScreenFlow, more

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From 9to5Toys.com:

For the rest of September, MacUpdate has a solid $49.99 9 app bundle on its hands. All of the bundled titles represent the newest releases and will be compatible with the upcoming OS X 10.9 Mavericks release.  ($50 too much? ‘Name your own price’ for this bundle). The $49.99 bundle includes:

1. ScreenFlow 4 – $99.99 – The best way to record screencasts on a Mac.
2. TechTool Pro 7 – $99.99 – The latest version of the powerful system utility.
3. Civilization V: Gold Edition – $49.99 – Best-selling strategy game, packed with extra content
4. PDFpen 6 – $59.95 – The all-purpose, easy-to-use PDF editor.
5. Snapheal Pro – $39.99 – The easiest way to remove objects and enhance your photos.
6. DeltaWalker – $39.95 – Compare and merge files and folders.
7. Vitamin-R 2 – $29.99 – Boost your productivity by enhancing your on-task focus.
8. Choco 2 – $29.99 – Design gorgeous photo collages with ease.
9. Aurora 5 – $14.95 – The most versatile alarm clock for your Mac.

In addition, bundle buyers can save more with these optional upgrades:
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iTunes goes back to school with $6.99 albums from Robin Thicke, Pink, Justin Timberlake, more

From 9to5Toys.com:

.

Nothing gets kids pumped for school like some pop music. Good news parents and teens! iTunes is having a Back to School sale on just that kind of music and  is sending an email around with some pretty good deals ($6.99/each):

[Via iMore]

Want a better selection? $7.99 gets you the following music

(click to enlarge)

Want some good, free music? Remember Apple is offering 6 free tracks from the iTunes Music Festival that is currently going on in London.

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John Mayer’s new ‘Paradise Valley’ album now available to stream on iTunes

John Mayer is allowing fans to stream his new CD, “Paradise Valley”, on iTunes a week before its scheduled release. This is Mayer’s sixth studio album and features guest appearances by Katy Perry and Frank Ocean. Those who opt to preorder the album will instantly receive a download of the cut ‘Wildfire’ followed by the entire album on August 20th.

John Mayer has strong connections with Apple. He helped Steve Jobs introduce GarageBand 1.0 back in 2007 and even received one of the very first MacBook Airs back in 2008.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MRDDJjTwTw&w=420&h=315]

Just don’t go downloading it for free, OK?

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: 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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Housecleaning: We’ve moved to WordPress comments

Just a quick note that we’ve moved our comment system to WordPress. You can log in with your WordPress, Twitter or Facebook accounts and you will need manual approval by mods the first time you comment (so prepare to wait a few minutes/hours). Previous stories will continue to contain  previous comment archives.

Why didn’t we go to Disqus or Livefyre? If it was only comments, we probably would have. But we’re building something kind of cool behind the scenes with WordPress and this is just the start.

As always, we read and appreciate your feedback and look forward to hearing your thoughts.

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

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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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WWDC 2013 developer session videos unofficially now available on YouTube

Usually only available to registered devs through Apple’s website as part of its $99/year developer program, videos of Apple’s developer sessions from WWDC 2013 have now made it ‘unofficially’ to YouTube. The sessions were first noticed by Safari and WebKit developer Timothy Hatcher (via MacStories), but it’s unlikely Apple is behind the account because of the NDA nature of the content.

Get an in-depth look at what’s next in iOS and OS X, and learn how to take your apps to the next level. With over 100 sessions, extensive hands–on labs, and engaging events, you’ll connect with Apple engineers and fellow developers for an incredible week of inspiration.

Update: As expected, Apple confirmed to iMore’s Rene Ritchie that it did not upload the WWDC videos to YouTube and that the unofficial WWDCVideos channel is in violation of NDA:

https://twitter.com/reneritchie/status/356799928556720128

https://twitter.com/reckless/status/356815286881615872

(Thanks Robert!)

Apple continues website redesign, flattens support pages

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As noted by several 9to5 readers, Apple has just recently updated its Support pages through Apple.com to better reflect the redesign the rest of the site has been receiving in recent months.  Today’s update provides a new design for the majority of support pages available through Apple.com/support, including: Videos, Manuals, Tech Specs, and Downloads.

Apple used to present these pages using a design that was a few generations behind the rest of the site and displayed links in a search result style list. Today’s update brings a flat grid style layout that allows users to select or search for a product in order to find related manuals, videos, tech specs, etc, but also displays search results by product in the grid layout.

Apple.com’s search result pages also get a cleaner look today to match the recent Apple online store design (pictured below).
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68% off Sony storage at Amazon: 32GB SD card: $17, 1TB USB3 portable HD: $70, more

From 9to5Toys.com:

Click 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.

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

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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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Tweak enables free iOS hotspot tethering on T-Mobile without jailbreak

A new tweak available without a jailbreak claims to enable free hotspot tethering on devices running iOS 6 and 7 for at least T-Mobile in the US. It comes to us from iTweakiOS, the same people providing hacked carrier profiles enabling features such as wideband audio and faster data speeds for various US carriers. In theory the hack could work for other GSM carriers, but there is still some work to be done to get it up and running on AT&T. On it’s website the guys explained exactly how the tweak works:

Many of you may remember a story I put out awhile back talking about how CommCenter blocks edited carrier.plist files and I may have found a work aroun to get things like personal hotspot enabled. Well, I’ve found the solution, but first, let’s talk about why CommCenter blocks plist editing. This happens because of the very thing we’re doing right now, which i suspect will likely be patched quickly by iOS 7 GM release time. People were enabling tethering by modifying the original carrier.plist files and this stopped entirely when Apple implemented signatures into the carrier.plist files and creating what we all know as CommCenter which is the process that checks these signatures. So, the challenge was finding a way to enable hotspot without CommCenter checks and verifications. After months of research and digging, I’ve finally found a genuine workaround to enable this great feature and its quite simple, really.

Step-by-step instructions are available through the iTweakiOS website now, but the process is a little more in-depth than some of the other hacks released through the website in the past. The post warns that the tweak has only been tested on T-Mobile and that AT&T users “will need to tinker around and test a bit to get it operational.” If you’re up for a bit of .plist editing and likely some trial and error if you’re on AT&T, you can find the full instructions here.

iOS 7 includes the ability to control your iPhone or iPad using head movements [video]

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Discovered by an anonymous tipster, iOS 7’s “Accessibility” section now includes a feature that allows you to control your iPhone or iPad with left or right head movements. We’ve tested this ourselves and found it to be quite accurate, but it’s quite tedious to control your device this way since it cycles through all of the options on the screen and you move your head when it is bordering around the option you want.
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Want to try iOS 7 without bricking your phone? (Update: pulled)

If you want to try out iOS 7 for yourself without the risk of bricking your phone or dealing with constant restarts, Recumbo is housing an interactive demo on the website. Besides the transitions between screens, it may feel like you’re staring at a bunch of screenshots, but it does a great job at demonstrating the newly designed iOS. If you’re using Firefox or Chrome, you can also use your webcam to take pictures in the Photos app. Be sure to check out Notification Center and Control Center while you’re at it.

Update: Not so fast! It looks like Apple asked Recumbo to remove the demo.

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

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

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Sitting in the dark after a power outage? Siri has you covered …

Another of those small details in iOS 7 has emerged: you can use Siri to change settings in Control Center. Given their new-found accessibility, that may not be as great a benefit as it was when settings were harder to access, but if you find yourself in the dark, this one might come in quite handy.

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Getting TextExpander, BetterTouchTool and Parallels to behave with Mavericks

Since the new OS X Mavericks is just a few days old, bugs and incompatible applications are to be expected until developers have time to run through the new APIs and patch up their apps. In the meantime, some non-functioning apps can be fixed with simple work-arounds or downloads.

Over the next couple of months, expect a few sites to pop up with app compatibility charts for the new OS. If you’ve found an application that doesn’t work without an available fix, feel free to leave a comment below with the information.

TextExpander & BetterTouchTool

My dependence on TextExpander is insane. I have even set up my email signature through TextExpander (so I can choose when it displays with just a couple of key strokes). Finding out that TextExpander is thrown off by Mavericks was a bit disappointing, but iDownloadBlog posted the details on how to make it work. In short, the application tells you to go through “Universal Access” in System Preferences, but you actually need to go inside “Security & Privacy”.

This work-around also works for BetterTouchTool, the app I use for simple Window Snapping and creating additional multi-touch gestures for the Magic Trackpad / Mouse. Check out iDownloadBlog’s step-by-step instructions.

Parallels

Parallels, my favorite operating system virtualization software, isn’t able to open any virtual machines when you first try opening up the application on Mavericks.

However, Parallels provides a simple workaround on their Knowledge Base until they can update the app in the near future. The company has provided a “startPD” script that gets the application and all associated virtual machines up and running again. Update: Parallels has been updated to work with Mavericks.

We’ll keep our eyes peeled for any other workarounds and update this post as they become available.

How to: Create a bootable OS X Mavericks USB Flash Drive from original App Store package

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On Monday Apple finally unveiled to the world the next iteration of OS X, Mavericks.  A developer preview of the new operating system is available now as a Mac App Store download for registered developers.  Delivering Mavericks via a download is super conveient and easy for everyday users but can be unhelpful in several troubleshooting or advanced OS modification situations.  The only way to obtain a bootable OS X Mavericks USB flash drive is to create your own:
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Subtle features & details in iOS 7 and Mavericks

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The WWDC keynote may have dragged on for two hours, but there were many features and subtle details that weren’t mentioned by any of the Apple executives. We’ll be updating this post with all of the small features and details that have been discovered. If you find something that’s not on this list, feel free to ping @9to5mac or @swb1192, or leave a comment after the break.

Mavericks

– In Notification Center, the Facebook and Twitter share buttons now have a new roommate – Messages. Clicking on the Messages button brings up a Share sheet-style interface where you can type in the recipient’s name and message then shoot them a message without actually having to open the Messages app.

– LinkedIn integration has been added, but all of the Chinese websites (including mail.qq.com and 126.com) have been dropped from the English version of Mavericks.

– Text shortcuts have been added to the Mac, just like iOS. The default text shortcut is “omw” which is automatically replaced with “On my way!” These also seem to sync over iCloud (thanks, @Dexwell_)

– Along with the new offline & live feedback dictation, you can now edit text while  dictating.

– Do Not Disturb has been added to the Notifications preferences pane.
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New Maps icon centers around new spaceship campus location

While some have noted that the new Maps icon doesn’t suggest you drive off a bridge like the old iOS 6 icon, we noticed something else. The blue line follows along the perimeter of the new Spaceship Campus that’s planned for 2016. It’s definitely a subtle detail, but it’s neat to see Apple embracing their new location in Cupertino and preparing their mapping application’s icon to reflect the new home.

OS X Mavericks allows for offline dictation and live feedback [Video]

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Digging through the System Preferences on the new OS X Mavericks, we’ve found a couple of Dictation features that are bound to make many users happy. With the check of a box and a 785 MB download, “Enhanced Dictation” makes it possible to speak your words without requiring an Internet connection. In addition, you can get live feedback. With live feedback, you can see what Dictation is interpreting before you press the enter key.

It doesn’t seem that the feature works in this beta… yet. Since it’s already built into the OS, they may set up the downloads before the next beta hits.

New Update: Enhanced Dictation can now be downloaded and installed. Of note, live feedback works even when you’re offline and seems to be working perfectly. The screen recording below was taken with the new Enhanced Dictation (Dictation didn’t like when I said “yet”).

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3DQCtbuGP0]

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