Element Case is a company known for making cases from premium materials, often with a premium price tag. We went hands-on with the company's Solace case for the iPhone 6 Plus in our latest video review, which is part of Element Case's LUXE Collection.
Priced at $99, the Solace is a three-piece case that consists of a polycarbonate body with a foam insert to protect the iPhone, an aluminum top and bottom, and aluminum buttons. It comes in several colors, including gold, white, black, and turquoise.
We thought the Solace offered good protection, but it adds a decent amount of bulk to the iPhone and it's pretty pricy for what you're getting comparative to other cases. We also weren't a fan of the mismatched colors on the gold option or the slight rattling sound the aluminum buttons make.
Both the Solace case for iPhone 6 and and the case for the iPhone 6 Plus are available from the ElementCase website for $99.
Note: MacRumors received no compensation for this video review.
Apple today seeded the fourth beta of iOS 8.3 to developers, nearly two weeks after seeding the third iOS 8.3 beta and more than a month and a half after releasing the first iOS 8.3 beta. Today's beta is also available for public beta testers.
The beta, build 12F61, is available as an over-the-air download and through the iOS Developer Center. Apple has also released Xcode 6.3 beta 4.
Previous iOS 8.3 betas have included features like a new emoji picker and all new diversified emoji and skin tone modifiers, new country flag emoji and updated emoji icons to represent the iPhone, iMac, and Apple Watch.
Along with those emoji changes, iOS 8.3 brings wireless CarPlay connectivity, support for Google 2-step verification, Apple Pay for the China UnionPay network, several new Siri languages, filters for Messages, a UI change for the space bar in Safari, and more. We've been tracking all the iOS 8.3 changes in our iOS 8 Features Roundup.
What's new in iOS 8.3 beta 4:
iCloud Photo Library - iCloud Photo Library's beta label has been removed again. It has been removed and re-added in past iOS 8.3 betas, so it is not clear whether the service will be out of beta when iOS 8.3 launches.
Messages filtering - An earlier beta introduced filtering in Messages, allowing users to separate messages received from friends and those received from strangers into two categories. In beta 4, the category for iMessages sent from those who are not in a user's contact list has been renamed to "Unknown Sender."
Following its March 9 media event where it introduced "Force Touch" trackpad technology for the new 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro and upcoming 12-inch MacBook, Apple opened up the feature to third-party developers by delivering developer APIs starting with the third beta of OS X 10.10.3. The APIs will allow developers to support the ability of Force Touch trackpads to sense multiple levels of pressure and perform different actions depending on how hard the trackpad is being pressed.
Apple has already taken steps to build Force Touch support into its own apps, as outlined in a support document. At the simplest level, the new Force Touch trackpads support a new "Force click" functionality, which allows a user to click on an item and then press a bit harder to activate a secondary function such as pulling up Dictionary or Wikipedia entires on selected text in Mail or Safari, a map preview when selecting an address, or Quick Look previews of files when selecting icons.
Beyond the single-level Force click, the new Force Touch trackpad also supports more advanced features through sensing multiple levels of pressure, allowing users to accelerate zooming in and out of maps or vary the speed of fast forward and rewind in QuickTime and iMovie. iMovie also supports "bumpy pixels" in which the trackpad gives subtle vibrational feedback during the editing process to let the user know when the end of a dragged clip has been reached or when cropped clips are in proper alignment.
While Force Touch is currently limited to the new 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro, the feature looks set to expand throughout Apple's product lineups, with the company's other notebooks gaining the technology as update cycles allow and the Apple Watch supporting it as a key interface mechanism at launch. Apple is also rumored to be bringing Force Touch to the iPhone later this year.
On the Mac side, Ten One Design today announced an update to Inklet, its popular third-party drawing software, that will bring "enhanced pressure control" to MacBooks with the new Force Touch trackpad. The company believes it is the first Mac developer to launch support for Force Touch.
Through Inklet's software, users have been able to draw and edit images within applications like Pixelmator and Photoshop for a while, by determining "stylus pressure" to differentiate between when to use thin and thick lines. Ten One Design notes that the introduction of the Force Touch trackpad makes its app not only more precise in designating pressure sensitivities, but more reliable as well.
We think Inklet is the first 3rd party application to support the Apple’s new Force Touch trackpads. This means you’ll have amazing pressure control on newer machines, and in a pinch you can even use your finger.
Having a trackpad capable of measuring force is a big deal. Even though Inklet has always been capable of determining stylus pressure, this update makes measuring pressure simpler and more reliable. Kudos to the team at Apple who designed this precise and useful instrument.
Beyond Force Touch support, Inklet's update also bring "improved pressure response" to MacBooks with the traditional multi-touch trackpad, along with the usual minor bug fixes. The company says Inklet will prompt users to update the app "sometime within the next three days", although users wanting to check out the new features sooner can hasten the process with the "Check for Updates" prompt in the Inklet menu.
Those yet to download the software can do so for $24.95 for the base app, or $34.90 for the app bundled with the company's Pogo stylus, from Inklet's official website.
Apple added three new TV channels to the Apple TV set-top box on Tuesday in the United States: TED, Tastemade and Young Hollywood. The three new channels bring non-profit TED Talks and a wide selection of premium food, travel and celebrity programming to the Apple TV and should be available beginning today. The new channels arrive just over three months after the additions of UFC, The Scene, Fusion and Daily Motion.
TED Talks given by the non-profit organization are hosted by guest speakers that cover a wide range of influential topics, including science, religion, technology, education and more. Meanwhile, Tastemade provides hundreds of episodes of premium food and travel programming, and Young Hollywood delivers the latest celebrity-related programming including entertainment news and exclusive interviews.
Tastemade channel on Apple TV features food and travel programming
Apple is expected to announce its next-generation Apple TV alongside a full-fledged streaming TV service at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference in June. The new A8-based set-top box will reportedly feature both an App Store and Siri, in addition to a redesigned remote control and significantly higher internal storage than the current 8GB model. Notably absent from today's update is upcoming on-demand service HBO Now, set to debut in April for $14.99 per month.
Young Hollywood channel on Apple TV features celebrity-related programming
Apple's much-rumored streaming TV service would consist of a lightweight package of about 25 channels for between $30 to $40 per month, anchored by networks such as ABC, CBS and Fox. The service will be available on several devices, including the iPhone, iPad and Apple TV, with other potential channels in the lineup including Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, TLC, MTV, Comedy Central, FX and Nickelodeon.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office today released a patent application filed by Apple back in January of 2013, describing a method by which an iPhone or iPad can provide specifically detailed GPS path information to another device after given proper authorization (via AppleInsider).
In the vein of Find My Friends, which allows rudimentary static location-based tracking services and slightly more in-depth parental controls, today's patent application would add another level of detail to the service. The patent suggests providing location- and path-based information accumulated by one device in the visual form of a digital route on a second device following the first.
Because the device receiving the information would be constantly updated with the first device's movements, it would allow users to follow someone in real time. The patent even mentions the receiving device could generate "spoken word directions", so if a user is driving a car, they wouldn't have to constantly be staring at the phone's screen.
A device in motion can record data about the path it travels and send the path data to another device. A user of the second device can then use the data to see where the first user traveled and/or travel the same path as did the first user.
For example, while the first user is driving a car, she could be running a maps application on the first device, and share the path she is travelling with the user of the second device while the second user is also driving a car. The second device could then display the path in an instance of the maps application running on the second device, or the second device could display directions the second user could use to follow the first user, or the second device could generate spoken word directions the second user could use to follow the first user, all in real time.
The patent mentions that while the program would be able to run on "a mobile communications network (e.g., 3G, LTE, WiMAX, etc.), a wireless LAN (e.g., 802.11), or another kind of wireless network", sometimes an intermediary, like iCloud, may be used as well. There's even a mode that could ignore the path sharing altogether, allowing the first device to share directions to a specific location with the second device, automatically generating a route that may be quicker than following the first device's path.
Also of note is a "mirroring mode" that shows "exactly the same view" on the second device as the user on the first device is seeing and interacting with, aiming to further assist the second device's understanding of the route.
As AppleInsider notes, the patent credits Eran Sandel, Elad Harush, and Roman Guy as its inventors. As with all other patents, today's "Sharing location information among devices" application is less of a confirmation of upcoming software by Apple and more of an intriguing look at ways the company may be looking to expand its little-used map-based features in the future.
Italian regulators have completed an investigation into allegations that Apple failed to pay €879 million ($964 million) in corporate taxes, according to Reuters. The report states that, under Italian law, prosecutors can now ask a judge to bring the case to trial. Apple claims that it has paid all necessary taxes in countries that it operates and is confident that the process will be resolved.
Apple's flagship Via Roma retail store in Torino, Italy
The investigations accuse Apple of booking profits generated in Italy through an Irish subsidiary in an effort to lower its taxable income base and save nearly €900 million from 2008 through 2013. Apple argues that it's "one of the largest tax payers in the world and paid every euro of tax it owed wherever it did business," and believes that the allegations against its employees are without merit.
It said the Italian tax authorities had audited Apple’s Italian operations in 2007, 2008 and 2009 and confirmed it was in full compliance with the OECD documentation and transparency requirements.
"These new allegations against our employees are completely without merit and we’re confident this process will reach the same conclusion," it said.
Apple is one of several multinational tech companies, including Amazon and Google, that have faced corporate tax investigations in the United States and Europe. The U.S. Senate accused Apple of avoiding billions in income taxes in May 2013, while the European Union accused the company of receiving illegal state aid from Ireland after completing a formal investigation into its questionable tax practices in the country last year.
Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.
It's March 24 in Australia and New Zealand, which means Netflix is now live in the country as promised. New Netflix subscribers in Australia and New Zealand will be able to access Netflix content on their Apple TVs, through the Netflix channel that is now available.
Netflix plans in Australia are priced at A$8.99 for single-stream access to standard definition content, A$11.99 for two-stream high-definition access, and A$14.99 for four-stream Ultra HD access. All new Netflix subscribers in the two countries can sign up for a one-month free trial.
At the current time, it appears that content available to Netflix subscribers in Australia and New Zealand is somewhat more limited than content available in the United States. Movies like The Wolf of Wall Street, Silver Linings Playbook, World War Z, and The Croods are available on Netflix in the U.S., but are not available in Australia and New Zealand.
According to The Sydney Morning Herald Australian Netflix has several thousand fewer titles than the U.S. version of the service, but it has 693 shows that are not available in the U.S. or Canada.
Netflix has said that content available in Australia will improve in the near future as it continues to add additional shows and movies.
The most recent iOS 8.3 beta was seeded to developers on March 12, but even though its been in the hands of testers for over a week, people are still discovering hidden features. Over the weekend, two new iOS 8.3 features were found, including an update to Siri and an update to app purchase settings.
With the iOS 8.3 beta 3 installed, users can now ask Siri to make phone calls using the iPhone's speaker. If you ask Siri to "Call [name] on speaker," the call will be made via speakerphone, enhancing Siri's hands-free capabilities. If you make the same request in iOS 8.2, Siri ignores the "on speaker" part and places the call as normal.
The new feature makes it possible to activate Siri while plugged in by saying "Hey Siri" and make a phone call, all without needing to touch the phone or put on a headset for hands-free operation.
In the Settings menu of an iOS device running iOS 8.3 beta 3, there's a new option under iTunes & App Store labeled "Password Settings." In this section, there is an option to change the password settings for purchases and in-app purchases, choosing options to either "Always Require" a password when making a purchase, or to "Require After 15 Minutes."
"Always Require" and "Require After 15 Minutes" are not new settings -- the options have previously been located within the Restrictions section of the Settings app -- but a user is required to select one in order to access a new password toggle setting, which lets users toggle the password requirement for free apps on and off. When toggled on, downloads labeled as "GET" in the App Store will not require a password.
Apple's new Password Settings are not functional right now, returning a "Cannot connect to iTunes Store" message when tapped, but it's likely they will be made available in a later beta ahead of the update's public release. The Password Settings menu can also be found under General --> Restrictions.
In addition to the newly discovered features listed above, iOS 8.3 adds quite a bit of new functionality to Apple's mobile operating system. Earlier betas have introduced a wireless CarPlay feature and several emoji changes, like a new emoji picker, diversified emoji with skin tone modifiers, new flags, and new icons for the watch, phone, and computer emoji, which now resemble an Apple Watch, an iPhone, and an iMac. Most notably, keyboard spacing has been changed to prevent users from hitting the period key when they meant to hit the space key when searching in Safari.
There's also support for Google two-factor authentication when adding Google accounts on iOS, Apple Pay support for China UnionPay, new Siri languages, filtering options for Messages, and more. We've been keeping a complete list of iOS 8.3 changes in our iOS 8 Features Roundup.
Apple today updated a section of its Apple Pay website aimed at businesses with a new link that allows them to order Apple Pay decals for retail stores. The new decals accompany a set of Apple Pay graphics for merchants that were added to the site a few weeks back.
Clicking the link to order decals takes merchants to a new Apple Pay Supplies website where they can sign up to receive an Apple Pay kit that contains window and register decals. In the kit, there are glass decals in two sizes, register decals in two sizes, and an application tool. Businesses can order up to five kits using the online tool, but larger decal orders require placing a phone call to Apple.
Kits are available at no cost after a company, name, email address, and shipping address are entered.
Apple is encouraging businesses of all sizes to adopt Apple Pay with its new logo kits, and it has a dedicated page for merchants who are interested in accepting the payment method. Apple Pay adoption by retailers has continued at a rapid pace, and in March, several new Apple Pay partners emerged, including GameStop, Marriott International, Jamba Juice, JetBlue, Office Max, Regal Cinemas, Walt Disney World, and more.
During Apple's March 9 event, Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed that there are now more than 700,000 locations where Apple Pay is accepted, including vending machines. Later this year, Square will introduce a new Square reader with NFC connectivity that will expand Apple Pay availability to thousands of small business owners that use the iPhone-based payment system.
Pioneer on Monday announced that its second-generation aftermarket systems with support for CarPlay and Android Auto are now available at select retailers in the United States. The company's refreshed lineup of Networked Entertainment eXperience (NEX) in-dash multimedia receivers, which debuted at CES 2015 in Las Vegas, are the first to offer customers the flexibility of choosing between CarPlay and Android Auto.
The 2015 NEX lineup includes the AVIC-8100NEX, AVIC-7100NEX and AVH-4100NEX systems with CarPlay and Android Auto support, while the AVIC-6100NEX and AVIC-5100NEX are compatible with CarPlay only. The in-dash receivers also feature advanced Bluetooth capabilities, an AppRadio mode, MirrorLink compatibility, iDatalink Maestro support, the ability to stream Pandora and SiriusXM, and FLAC file playback.
Pioneer and Alpine Electronics are the official providers of aftermarket in-dash CarPlay systems. The second-generation NEX aftermarket systems are available at authorized Pioneer resellers across the United States, ranging in price between $700 to $1,400 depending on the model. CarPlay brings Maps, Phone, Messages, Music and more to your dashboard when paired with an iPhone 5, iPhone 5c, iPhone 5s, iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus.
Many of us keep backups of our data on hard drives, using Apple's Time Machine, but how many of us keep multiple copies? And copies that are protected from not only disk failures, but also natural disaster? Estimates suggest 30 percent of people have never backed up their data, and the number of people who keep multiple backups is even lower.
With World Backup Day coming up, we teamed up with ioSafe and Synology to explore the consumer-oriented backup options they offer and to demonstrate the importance of keeping several copies of your data by simulating the effects of a house fire on the hardware.
If you're not familiar with ioSafe and Synology, ioSafe is best known for its disaster proof solutions, producing a range of hard drives that can withstand fire and water damage. Synology is known for its line of DiskStation NAS devices and for its DiskStation Manager software, which can be used for hassle-free backups, personal cloud storage, and more.
We traveled to Seattle to meet up with ioSafe and Synology to test out a Synology BeyondCloud NAS paired with an ioSafe Solo G3, a multi-backup solution that protects data from all kinds of damage, from hard drive failures to a house fire. We checked out some of the things you can do with the setup and then we set it all on fire.
If you want to jump right to the good stuff, aka the fire, watch the video below. We filmed everything so you could see how the ioSafe G3 held up and watch the data recovery process. After watching the video, you can read on for more details on how the Synology BeyondCloud and ioSafe G3 work together and what you can do with them.
Apple today seeded the fifth beta of OS X Yosemite to developers, almost a month after seeding the first OS X 10.10.3 beta and just a week after releasing the fourth beta to developers.
The new beta, build 14D113c, is available for registered developers through the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store and through the Mac Dev Center. Yosemite Recovery Update 3.0 is also available.
With today's update, Apple has continued polishing the Photos for OS X app, and there are just two remaining known issues with the software, including an issue with favorites and a problem with missing thumbnails when restoring an Aperture-upgraded Photos library with Time Machine.
Earlier betas of OS X 10.10.3 have brought several new features to Yosemite, including the new Photos for OS X app. Designed to integrate with iCloud Photo Library, Photos for OS X is a replacement for both iPhoto and Aperture and is on track to see an early 2015 public launch. Reviews have suggested that while Photos is a suitable replacement for iPhoto, with more advanced tools and performance optimizations, it may leave professional users disappointed.
Along with the new Photos for OS X app, the first two OS X 10.10.3 betas introduced a redesigned emoji picker that consolidates emoji into a single page with clear labels, new diversified emoji and emoji skin tone modifiers, new flag emoji and updated emoji for the iPhone, iMac, and Apple Watch, and support for Google 2-step verification when setting up accounts in System Preferences.
A new report out of Taiwanese publication Economic Daily News [Google Translate] claims that Apple has cut the expected production and shipping targets of the Apple Watch by half due to manufacturing challenges leading up to the launch of the device. (via GforGames).
The company initially planned to manufacture between 2.5 and 3 million units of the wearable per month, following its launch on April 24. A claim by Economic Daily News now states Apple has lowered expectations to produce 1.25-1.5 million Apple Watches every month.
The website cites sources within Apple's supply chain, pointing towards production snafus on the manufacturing of the Apple Watch's AMOLED display as the main culprit behind the tempered production expectations. Although it has yet to be confirmed by Apple itself, Economic Daily News claims the introduction of a new type of display used in Apple's manufacturing processes - unlike the traditional LCD screens of iPhones - has resulted in a slower production rate on the Apple Watch leading up to the device's launch.
One of the reasons for this change in plans apparently lies in manufacturing issues with the display (which is being produced by LG), leading to 30-40% yield capacity. Plastic OLED panels use PET (polyethylene terephthalate) instead of a glass substrate, thus giving them flexibility and lightweight. The only problem however, is that manufacturing plastic OLEDs requires a different method of creating a vacuum between the OLED panel and the plastic substrate, other than the traditional water jet vacuum pumps. And because PETs are very sensitive to humidity it looks like manufacturing the Watch’s display is a more complicated process than initially expected.
The source also points to slow production lines thanks to manufacturer Quanta, who has more experience in laptop manufacturing than in smaller devices like the Watch. According to Economic Daily News, Apple is already looking at expanding manufacturing options by involving Foxconn in the wearable's production process in the future.
Similar production-related stories have circulated before the launch of other Apple-related products in the past. Due to the high volume of such reports leading up to a device's launch, and no official word from Apple, today's report out of Economic Daily News remains sketchy at best.
Launched as an Indiegogo project in the middle of last year, the TrackR Bravo is a follow up product to the StickR TrackR, a small coin-sized Bluetooth-enabled device designed to attach to valuable items so they can be located using the TrackR app.
As of today, the TrackR Bravo, which is smaller and lighter than the company's previous-generation products, has begun shipping out to customers. Like the original TrackR products, the TrackR Bravo attaches to items and gives out alerts via an iPhone app when an item is misplaced, preventing keys, cameras, and other small objects from being lost.
Ahead of the product's launch, TrackR sent MacRumors a TrackR Bravo to review, so read on to see how it works and what we thought of it.
Design
The TrackR Bravo is slightly larger than a quarter, and approximately as large as two quarters stacked on top of each other. It is circular in shape, with a small loop at the top that allows it to be attached to a keyring for fastening to keys, pet collars, and more.
It has a colorful anodized aluminum housing, and it's small enough to fit comfortably in a purse, wallet, or camera bag.
How it Works
The TrackR Bravo has built-in Bluetooth 4.0, with a 100 foot range. It works in conjunction with the TrackR app, which can be downloaded for free from the App Store.
After registering for a TrackR account within the app, the TrackR Bravo can be activated by choosing "Add a New Device" and pressing the Bluetooth activation button on the TrackR. The app supports 10 different TrackR Bravo devices, so multiple items can be tracked at the same time.
A new Apple wireless keyboard featuring backlight keys and a power button has been spotted on the Apple Online Store in Czech Republic and Hungary, with an identical Arabic version appearing on the U.S. storefront. The graphic render shows controls for adjusting the brightness of the backlight added to the F5 and F6 keys, as found on current MacBook models, while the eject key for CDs has been replaced with a power button.
Apple has not updated the product description for its wireless keyboard to match the new visualization, so it remains to be seen if this was simply a mistake or if the company will quietly refresh the keyboard in the near future. The old Apple Wireless Keyboard with no backlight keys and an eject key is still shown on the Apple Online Store in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries.
The addition of a power button on the keyboard is interesting, given that Macs currently do not detect wireless keyboards until after booting. It could be speculated that the power button is for turning on or off the wireless keyboard itself, but additional photos reveal that the keyboard still has a power button on the side in its traditional spot. As such, the exact functionality of the key remains unknown.
Update Mar 24: Apple has removed images of the new Apple Wireless Keyboard with backlight keys and a power button on the Apple Online Store in Czech Republic and Hungary. Graphic renders of the current Apple Wireless Keyboard with no backlight controls and an eject key are now showing again.
Fitbit today announced a two-pronged update to its popular line of fitness trackers, adding support for in-depth bike-tracking on the Fitbit Surge and allowing users to easily switch between multiple Fitbit models with "Multi-Tracker Support."
The company says the added support will grant customers more ease-of-use in switching amongst Fitbit devices throughout the day, or week, allowing them to choose "the right tracker for any occasion." The update lets any one user pair up to six Fitbit trackers - the maximum amount of Fitbit variants on the market - to their Fitbit account.
After the initial pairing stage, Fitbit will automatically notice when a user switches trackers without needing to enter the Fitbit app. The company notes that as a user transitions amongst trackers throughout the day, for example wearing a "Fitbit One to work, Fitbit Surge for a run, or Tory Burch for Fitbit for a night on the town," the Fitbit app never pauses or hiccups in curating the usual array of steps and calories burnt as a single statistic across every device.
Also announced today is an update specifically to Fitbit Surge, using GPS and "other advanced sensors" to provide a comprehensive overview of various bike riding statistics, including: distance, duration, average speed, heart rate, and calories burned. Already the beefiest Fitbit, with a 7-day battery life and on-board GPS tracking sensors, the company hopes to broaden its fitness-friendly device with the new cycling-specific features.
“Our users are passionate about fitness and have consistently requested a way to track their outdoor cycling activity. We are delivering this feature on Fitbit Surge for active consumers looking to track and better understand performance during rides, in addition to their other workouts,” said Tim Roberts, VP of Interactive, Fitbit. “Our goal is to provide users with the tools it takes to track their exercise and reward them for doing the activities they love to do most – like biking and running.”
Fitbit noted that while the Multi-Tracker Support is slated to hit later this week, the bike-tracking features won't roll out in North America until sometime in April, "with global availability coming soon." The nebulous April launch window for the cycling-focused update sees the company beefing up the features of the Fitbit Surge, the tracker most in direct competition with the Apple Watch, which at $249 is still $100 cheaper than the 38mm Apple Watch Sport.
Apple continues to offer praise for Becoming Steve Jobs, the unauthorized biography of the late Apple co-founder set to be released on Tuesday. A spokesperson for Apple told The New York Times that the upcoming book is "better than anything else we've seen," and several executives at the company agreed to be interviewed for the title because they "felt a responsibility to say more" about the Steve that they knew and worked with.
“After a long period of reflection following Steve’s death, we felt a sense of responsibility to say more about the Steve we knew,” Steve Dowling, an Apple spokesman, said. “We decided to participate in Brent and Rick’s book because of Brent’s long relationship with Steve, which gave him a unique perspective on Steve’s life. The book captures Steve better than anything else we’ve seen, and we are happy we decided to participate.”
Apple senior executive Eddy Cue tweeted last week that Becoming Steve Jobs is "well done and first to get it right" in regards to reflecting on Jobs, after he called the film Steve Jobs: Man in the Machine "an inaccurate and mean-spirited view of my friend." Apple CEO Tim Cook also dismissed Walter Isaacson's official biography of Jobs as a “tremendous disservice” to the Steve that he knew, adding that “the person I read about there is somebody I would never have wanted to work with over all this time.”
Best portrayal is about to be released - Becoming Steve Jobs (book). Well done and first to get it right.
— Eddy Cue (@cue) March 16, 2015
While it appears that Apple is now set on changing the narrative surrounding Jobs posthumously, the company initially showed no interest in participating in Becoming Steve Jobs, co-written by authors Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli, executive editor of Fast Company. Apple refused to provide the tech journalists with interviews in 2012, but changed its mind 18 months later, according to The New York Times.
“I think our patience and quiet perseverance was what eventually won them over,” said Mr. Schlender, who covered Mr. Jobs for almost 25 years. He said he wanted to write the book because he felt there was a side of Mr. Jobs’s personality that had never been captured by journalists. While the authors fact-checked portions of the book with Apple and other sources and showed the finished volume to the company, Apple wasn’t allowed to have “any editorial input whatsoever,” Mr. Tetzeli said.
Elle is the first magazine to feature the Apple Watch in Australia with a fashion shoot starring the publication's in-house fashion editor Sara Smith. The multi-page style guide in the latest April issue offers women tips on how to make the Apple Watch work with different wardrobes depending on the time and place, such as during the weekend, at a cocktail party or in the workplace.
Apple continues to carefully curate the Apple Watch's image and exercise control over the way it's portrayed in magazines, positioning the wrist-worn device as a fashion item first and a technology device second. Apple wants the Apple Watch to be seen as trendy and sporty, perhaps in an attempt to avoid the device being viewed as overly technical and unfashionable as some people have opined about other wearables.
"For a cocktail party: Wear with a tuxedo suit and sexy heels (think Le Smoking Saint Laurent style with Alexander Wang black heels), or if you have the legs for it, a killer cocktail dress. Mix statement jewels with your watch. Try a fabulous cocktail ring and Cartier’s Love Bracelet would look great sitting side by side with your Apple Watch. It will be the perfect conversation starter at a party."
Apple Watch has been featured in several fashion and fitness magazines worldwide in recent months, including Self, Vogue, Style, East Touch, YOHO and Fitness Magazine. The wrist-worn device will be available April 24, with pre-orders starting April 10 in the United States, Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan and United Kingdom. Apple Watch starts at $349 for the Sport model, while the 18-karat gold edition will retail for upwards of $10,000.
Apple today seeded the fifth beta of OS X Yosemite to developers, almost a month after seeding the first 
A new report out of Taiwanese publication 
Apple continues to offer praise for 
