As reported on Engadget. BY MARIELLA MOON Apple’s donning the Santa suit again this year to dole out digital freebies, and for the first time, iOS users in the US make it to the “nice” list. Today, the company has launched the annual 12 Days of Gifts for 2013, offering one complimentary song, app, book or movie every day between December 26th and January 6th. In previous years, US iOS users could only look on as folks from…
As reported on Wired. BY CADE METZ The Mac Mini. Image: Tiziano Caviglia/Flickr If you walk into one of the massive data centers that underpin Facebook’s ever-expanding online empire, you’ll find tens of thousands of computer servers. Many of them are designed by Facebook, and most run Linux, the open source operating system that drives so much of the modern web. But those aren’t the only machines you’ll find. You’ll also find Mac Minis. Lots and lots of…
As reported on The Verge. By Sean Hollister Barack Obama was a BlackBerry addict even before he became President of the United States, but these days he may not have a choice. “I’m not allowed for security reasons to have an iPhone,” he quipped today, in a speech promoting Obamacare to a youth audience attending a summit at The White House. OBAMA’S BLACKBERRY IS “NO FUN” The restriction is not much of a surprise, considering how…
As reported on Engadget. BY MARIELLA MOON The smartbulb throne isn’t exactly the most exciting one to occupy, but Philips Huehas its fair share of challengers, such as the freshly released Bluetooth-controlled Lumen. Similar to Hue, you can tweak not only the bulb’s color, but also its intensity. In addition, several modes come baked into the light source, including one that programs the Lumen to flash whenever a call comes in, and another that syncs its effects…
As reported on Engadget. BY NICOLE LEE A little over two years since Steve Jobs presented his case for it and after theoccasional setback, the Cupertino City Council has finally given Apple full approval to go ahead with its futuristic campus. In exchange, Apple has agreed to fork over more money to the city in the form of a reduced sales tax rebate — going forward, Cupertino will only give back 35 percent sales tax instead of the 50 percent it…
As reported in the TechCrunch. by MG Siegler Pop quiz, hot shot. You walk into an Apple Store to buy the new iPad. But there are two new iPads. The iPad Air and the new iPad mini. You can only buy one. What do you do? What — do — you — do? The new retina iPad mini is great. It’s everything you loved about the first iPad mini, but upgraded in the two most important ways:…
As reported on Engadget. By Matt Brian In a world of super-fast OS X and Windows machines, it’s easy to forget that early desktop computers were a lot more basic. That was the case for the Apple II, Cupertino’s first mass-market computer that utilized a cassette tape for data storage and just 4K of memory. Now, more than 35 years after its release, the Computer History Museum is making the original DOS source code for the iconic computer…
As reported on TechCrunch. by Jordan Crook The most realistic and detailed images yet of Apple’s new spaceship headquarters have just been published in an awesome piece on Wired. The latest images of the 2.8 million square-foot campus show an expansive cafeteria, an underground parking garage, and a subterranean auditorium where forthcoming Apple products will be unveiled to the media. The office will sit on a 176-acre plot of land, most of which will be dedicated to…
As reported on Engadget. By Mariella Moon Sure the iPad Air is thin, light and has amazing battery life, but the arrival of its smaller cousin is about to make your choice more difficult. Apple’s upgraded 8-inch slate, the Retina iPad mini, is now available, popping up in Apple’s online stores around the globe. According to an internal Apple document posted by MacRumors, while some countries are getting both WiFi and cellular models, mainland China will have to make do…
As reported on TechCrunch. by Sarah Perez Can your mobile phone become a replacement for manually typing in a password? That’s the promise of a new application called Knock, launching today, which uses an iPhone paired with a Mac desktop or laptop computer to log you in to your locked machine. The system takes advantage of the newer low-energy Bluetooth technology to enable the connection between the two devices, allowing you to just knock (you know,knock, like…