Topic - MacRumors: Mac News and Rumors - Front Page

TechCrunch is reporting that Amazon has acquired Evi, a natural language search platform that is similar to Apple's Siri, for $26 million. The Evi app was originally posted on the App Store but Apple had threatened to remove because of similarities to Siri, but later said it would "work with" the company to reduce similarities. Evi remains available on the App Store. TechCrunch understands from sources that the company has been sold to Amazon for $26 million. However, calls to Amazon PR, back...

Facebook is bringing the new Chat Heads feature from Facebook Home to its iOS app, reports All Things D. The update to the iOS Facebook app should go live later today. It was previously reported that Facebook was in negotiations with Apple to bring 'Home' to iOS, but Facebook can bring some of the new features straight to its app, without extensive support from Apple. The Verge got a hands-on preview of the new app: Within the Facebook app, you can pop-out Chat Heads for your conversations, b...

In line with its launch previously announced launch plans, T-Mobile USA today officially launched the iPhone, offering the iPhone 5 nationwide and the iPhone 4S and 4 in markets where the devices are supported on its network. The T-Mobile iPhone is also available through Apple's online store at full price with interest-free financing offered through Barclaycard. TechCrunch notes that some T-Mobile retail stores are seeing small lines this morning as customers seek to purchase the device using...

Earlier this week, a number of Apple-focused bloggers claimed iOS 7 was running behind schedule and that it would bring a significant user interface refresh. Designer F. Bianco has posted a set of images to Flickr with some interesting thoughts on what useful changes Apple could make to iOS 7 to improve the user experience. Apple's user interfaces will likely face new scrutiny now that Facebook has laid out a new vision for how phone users interact with their devices with Facebook Home. One o...

As happens every year on April 1, today is April Fools' Day, and readers should be wary of hoaxes and claims at both news and rumor sites. Today also represents Apple's 37th anniversary, with their partnership having officially been founded on this day in 1976 by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. As has become tradition, a number of today's pranks have focused on Apple, and here are a few of the more interesting ones to surface so far today. RunKeeper for iPad For those users not content with the...

Shanghai Daily reports that Apple is facing a lawsuit in China over Siri, with a company there claiming that Siri infringes upon its patent rights.The Shanghai No.1 Intermediate People's Court will hold a pre-hearing at 2pm today to let Apple and Shanghai Zhi Zhen Internet Technology Co Ltd exchange evidence. [...] "Siri is very similar to Xiaoi, a chat robot system we have been developing since 2003," said Mei Li, a spokeswoman of Shanghai Zhi Zhen which filed the lawsuit. Mei said her compa...

Following yesterday's news that Adobe Chief Technology Officer Kevin Lynch will be leaving to join Apple as vice president of Technologies, reporting to Bob Mansfield, there has been a considerable amount of discussion about the move. In particular, observers have pointed to the role Lynch played in backing Flash in the face of Apple's insistence that it was a technology with too many problems and which needed to be left behind. Daring Fireball's John Gruber has been particularly vocal about ...

Law360 reports (via 9to5Mac) that a Retina MacBook Pro owner has launched a would-be class action lawsuit against Apple, alleging that the widely reported ghosting issues are the result of defective LG screens and that Apple has been "tricking" customers into buying these by not distinguishing them from models sold with Samsung screens. Ghost images of previous content have been widely demonstrated on some Retina MacBook Pros, as in the above video. A support thread on apple.com on the issue ...

Google Now, an Android-only app that aims to provide users with "the right information, at just the right time", is coming to iOS, if a leaked video is to be believed. Google reportedly posted this promotional video to YouTube accidentally. It was quickly removed, but not before an Engadget tipster snatched a copy of it. The video has since been pulled from YouTube and appears to feature the same voice actress as the original Now announcement (which you'll also find after the break for compar...

Apple tonight posted two new television spots for the iPhone on its YouTube page. The ads, entitled 'Brilliant' and 'Discover', highlight some of the more than 700,000 apps available on the App Store, using a variety of words to describe them. Previous ads in the series include 'Alive', 'Together', and 'Hollywood', all for the iPad. Apps shown in the ads include Gojee, Cards, Mike V: Skateboard Party, Starbucks, iBooks, MyScript Calculator, Philips Hue, GarageBand, The Elements for iPhone 4, ...

An app that hides the standard apps on the iPhone like Stocks or Newsstand has evaded Apple's App Store approval process. 'HiddenApps', a free download on the App Store, lets users hide Apple's stock applications, disable iAds, and access the hidden Field Test mode, according to iDownloadBlog. It is likely that the app will be removed from the App Store very quickly, as other apps that have broken App Store rules have disappeared quite quickly in the past. HiddenApps is available for all non-...

Earlier this week, Geek.com highlighted a growing a number of complaints from owners of Apple's 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro regarding overactive fans. The issue has been noted in our forums and is the subject of a lengthy thread in Apple's discussion forums. From one report:My first instance of runaway fans was under the lightest of conditions, having only one browser open only a few tabs and a cool computer. The fact it was cold is what is so alarming. Out of nowhere the fans spun up to a roa...

In a media event today, Facebook announced significant changes to the way its signature News Feed is displayed to users on desktop, smartphones and tablets. The company has increased the size of shared images and video content, while also introducing several different sub feeds to allow readers to focus on certain content like photos, music, or pages you like. In addition, the newsfeed will have the same look and feel where its accessed, whether across the desktop, smartphone or tablet. Today...

Ferrari and Apple are in talks to expand their partnership on in-car entertainment, reports Bloomberg. Ferrari Chairman Luca Cordero Di Montezemolo said the company would be "more precise" over the next few months, though its unclear what exactly Di Montezemolo meant. Ferrari's new 963 horsepower 'LaFerrari' hybrid hypercar was introduced this week at the Geneva Motor Show, and Ferrari also announced that its four-seater FF coupe will now incorporate a pair of iPad minis into the seats for us...

During the introduction of the first iPhone, in a moment that got one of the biggest laughs of his career, Steve Jobs made a prank phone call. In front of thousands of Apple fans at the Macworld Expo in 2007, Jobs called a local Starbucks outlet and ordered 4,000 lattes -- to go. He quickly hung up, telling the barista who answered "No, just kidding. Wrong number. Goodbye!" Fast Company found the barista and interviewed her about her moment of fame -- only she didn't realize who she was talki...

The incredibly popular multiplayer game League of Legends has arrived on the Mac. Existing players can download the game directly, while new users will need to create an account. The free-to-play League of Legends was originally released in 2009 for the PC. Inspired by the Warcraft III map Defense of the Ancients, players compete in 5v5 (or 3v3) battles controlling a single character. Each week there's a rotation of available characters to play as, and the game is monetized by allowing player...

GigaOM reports that Major League Baseball is expanding support for Apple's Passbook app, announcing that the digital tickets will be accepted at 13 stadiums this season, up from just four last season. MLB was one of Apple's launch partners for Passbook in September, with mobile tickets accepted by the New York Mets, San Francisco Giants and Kansas City Royals. They are being joined this season by the Minnesota Twins, Baltimore Orioles, Milwaukee Brewers, Oakland A’s, Pittsburgh Pirates, Detro...

Ken Segall, the creative director behind the Think Different campaign and author of Insanely Simple, a book about his experiences of that time, has suggested Apple is losing its way in its current advertising approaches, with Samsung taking full advantage. In a blog entry on his website, Observatory, Segall argues that Apple has stuck to its product-based ads while Samsung has been investing big-time in people-based ads and creating greater buzz than Apple. Samsung has made remarkable inroads...

Thalmic Labs has announced a $149 armband called MYO that detects motion and muscle movements to allow control of a Mac, PC, or other device using gestures (via The Next Web). The demo video shows someone scrolling by waving two fingers in the air (mimicking the standard OS X trackpad gesture), snapping fingers to start iTunes playing, rotating a fist to increase the volume, holding up a hand in a 'stop' motion to pause a video, gesturing backwards to rewind a video and snapping fingers to pl...

The Verge's Joshua Topolsky has written a lengthy piece about his experiences using Google Glass, the company's new on-face computer. Google Glass is a tiny computer that mounts to an eyeglass frame and has a small display that is visible only to the user. The wearable device has a built-in camera that sees what the wearer sees, GPS, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth connections. The glasses can handle many of the same tasks as smartphones, including giving driving directions, sending text messages, showi...

Google today announced the Chromebook Pixel, a new Chrome OS-based notebook that Google is aiming directly at Apple's MacBook Air. On the hardware front, Google has built in a high-resolution touchscreen display, as well as 32 or 64GB SSD storage, a backlit keyboard, and a dual core 1.8GHz Intel i5 processor. The unit includes a 12.85" screen with a 2560 x 1700, 239 ppi display -- the same range as Apple's 13" MacBook Pro with Retina, which has a 227 ppi screen -- as well as two USB 2.0 ports...

Apple tonight posted two new television spots for the iPad and the iPad mini on its YouTube page. The two ads, titled 'Alive' and 'Together', highlight some of the 300,000 apps made specifically for the iPad, using a variety of words to describe them. Apps shown in the ads include AmpliTube, GarageBand, TED, iMovie, iBooks, Toca Hair Salon, Vimeo, and FaceTime. Apple has launched a companion billboard campaign, as well. Recent Mac and iOS Blog Stories • Minimalistic Gesture-Controlled Weather...

Yesterday, Jailbreak Nation highlighted a bug with iOS 6.1 that allows users to bypass a passcode lock on an iPhone to access the phone function and contacts on the device. While the bug allows only limited access to the device and can require several attempts to achieve the correct timing to exploit, it is gaining significant attention today.1. Lock device 2. Slide to unlock 3. Tap emergency call 4. Hold sleep button until the power down prompt shows. Click cancel, you will notice the status...

Epic Games' Infinity Blade: Dungeons was first announced in March of 2012, as a demo game on the third generation iPad. The game was designed by Epic but handed over to Impossible Studios, a new division housing ex-employees of Big Huge Games. Hints of trouble first appeared in October of last year, when the game was delayed until 2013. As of today, Infinity Blade: Dungeons has been put on hold indefinitely, as Epic Games has decided to shut down Impossible Studios. Epic Games founder Tim Swe...

At one point in internet history, desktop instant messaging was likely the fastest growing segment of communication technologies. In 2002, even Apple introduced its own messaging client called iChat that was bundled with OS X. That growth, however, stalled significantly with the adoption of services such as SMS and devices such as the iPhone took hold over the past 5 to 10 years. Apple's own iChat has since evolved into Messages -- primarily, a mobile messaging service. Today, a startup compa...

Ashton Kutcher and Josh Gad kicked off the Macworld/iWorld conference in San Francisco this morning, talking about their new feature film 'Jobs' that premiered at Sundance. Kutcher plays the iconic Jobs, while Gad takes on the role of Steve Wozniak. The Next Web wrote up much of the conversation, including this part about how Steve Jobs affected Kutcher: “Steve believed it was possible to do something impossible,” says Kutcher, alluding to the third thing that he took away from the film. He m...

Water-resistant nanocoating has been around for some time now, but Santa Ana-based company Liquipel has debuted a more effective version, Liquipel 2.0, which it says is up to 100 times more effective than the watersafe nanocoating it first introduced at CES 2012. Liquipel's product is designed to protect electronic devices from water damage, adding a vapor-applied water resistant coating that does not compromise the performance of the device. According to Liquipel's Managing Director Sam Wink...

The Consumer Electronics Show can get a bad rap from bloggers and journalists who have become jaded by seeing the same products over and over. So, it can be particularly satisfying to see new classes of products that haven't quite hit the mainstream, even if there may be some practical limitations to their ultimate success. Two of those type of products that I saw at this year's CES include Lenovo's 27" table-top tablet and Nectar Power's fuel cell charger. Lenovo 27" Table PC It seems absurd...

One of the technologies that we've been looking forward to becoming more prevalent in iOS accessories is the incorporation of low-power Bluetooth 4.0, now known as Bluetooth Smart. The technology allows for low-power long term connectivity between your iOS devices and your accessories. Kickstarter-backed e-paper Pebble watch was one example that generated an enormous amount of interest with over $10 million in pre-sales. ConnecteDevice today announced the worldwide launch of their COOKOO watc...

CES 2013 promises to be very television-centric this year, with Samsung teasing a mystery TV product after reports that Intel will be be launching a set top box and cable TV service at the trade show. The strong TV-focus of CES 2013 comes amidst persistent rumors that Apple is testing the waters with its own full-sized television. Samsung recently released a new pre-CES teaser video and image of an HDTV. On the company's blog, there is a picture of a portrait-shaped TV that is taller than it ...

In the latest installment of its "iEconomy" series, The New York Times takes a look at the advances made by Apple and Foxconn to improve working conditions at the Chinese factories churning out Apple products since a major push began earlier this year. The report details many changes such as wage increases and shorter working hour limits that have previously been disclosed, but also takes a peek behind the scenes to offer a glimpse of how executives at both companies have reacted to the situa...

Back in June, we noted that BlueStacks had introduced an alpha version of its Android app player software for Mac. The app, which is also available for Windows, allows users to run Android apps on their desktop machines. With the alpha launch, however, BlueStacks supported only about 15 Android titles on the Mac. As noted by VentureBeat, BlueStacks today announced that its Mac app has moved into beta, opening up access to all 750,000+ Android apps.Bluestacks’ virtualizes Android to run the pl...

Apple has spent little focus updating its iOS app switcher since it was introduced with iOS 4, so designer @Sentry_NC decided to try his hand at a new concept for app switching. In October, he created a mockup on The Verge forums of an iOS app switcher that takes advantage of the iPhone 5's elongated screen, providing easy access to settings and additional app management tools. Though it was originally designed as just a concept, the Auxo iOS app switcher has now become a reality as a jailbre...

Apple has released a new television ad showcasing the iPad and the iPad mini with a young girl singing Bing Crosby's "I'll Be Home for Christmas" to her grandfather over FaceTime. I'll be home for Christmas. You can count on me. I'll be home for Christmas, if only in my dreams.Last year, Apple released a holiday ad featuring Santa talking to the then-new Siri to get directions and weather. Recent Mac and iOS Blog Stories • Apple Reverses Course on 30-Pin and Lightning Connector Guidelines • N...

Apple, Microsoft and Google are all potential buyers for home automation firm R2 Studios, part of the id8 Group founded by Blake Krikorian, according to the Wall Street Journal. He was the founder of Sling Media, makers of the SlingBox that was later sold to EchoStar/Dish Network. R2 Studios sole public product is an Android client for Crestron whole-home control systems. Crestron released its own clients for the iPhone and iPad several years ago. R2 Studios, which is developing home-media an...

YouTube has launched a new app called Capture to make it easier for users to shoot and share video. The app is one of many competing for the unofficial title of 'Instagram-for-videos'. The app is set up for quick and easy recording, basic editing with color correction, stabilization, trimming, and music tracks, as well as the ability to share videos on YouTube, Google+, Facebook and Twitter. Once opening Capture, users can shoot new video or use existing footage from their camera roll; from t...

Earlier this week, we noted that this weekend's group of Apple retail store grand openings would be headlined by the company's Causeway Bay flagship location in Hong Kong. The store features three levels, with a 30-foot tall glass curtain wall making a significant impact on the shopping center. With the store set to open to the public tomorrow, Apple has been putting the finishing touches on it and has unveiled the store for passersby to see. ifoAppleStore's Gary Allen pointed to an image pos...

Casio has officially announced the Bluetooth G-Shock, a $180 Bluetooth v4-enabled smart watch. Though the watch will ostensibly be competing with the Pebble e-paper wristwatch, the G-Shock is in a bit of a different category. It's a much more traditional watch, looking nearly identical to other G-Shock watches, water resistant to 200m, and with significantly fewer features resulting from its Bluetooth v4 connectivity than the Pebble. When paired with an iPhone, the Casio smart watch can autom...

With Apple's new iMac going on sale today, the first reviews of the new machine are starting to arrive. The reviews come alongside some early teardown photos and benchmarks offering an early glimpse at Apple's redesigned flagship desktop. CNET has a thorough review of the 27-inch model, which won't be shipping to customers for several more weeks, noting that while the design is the major change to the machine, iterative improvements on already impressive performance-related specs keep the iMa...

The new iMac is going on sale around the world on Friday, November 30th. In Australia, Ben Pasternak was able to walk into his local Apple Store and buy one and has posted the first unboxing video of the new machine: Meanwhile, Japanese site Kodawarisan has posted teardown photos showing the innards of the thin new machine. The new iMac tapers to a 5mm thin edge along the sides, requiring the use of a special welding technique to achieve the design. The 21.5" iMac will go on sale today in the...

While the first official third-party accessories supporting Apple's new Lightning standard have just started hitting the market, MacRumors has also been following the efforts of unauthorized accessory manufacturers such as iPhone5mod who have been cracking the standard to produce their own chips and connectors. iPhone5mod has already released a series of cables, docks, and adapters based on the Lightning standard as they continue refining their processes, and the company today announced its t...

Macotakara notes that Adobe's promotional materials for its upcoming Create Now Live event on December 11 appear to show a 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro running Photoshop CS6 in high-resolution Retina mode. Adobe announced in late August that it would be bringing Retina display support to Photoshop CS6 "this Fall", with the company's other applications also receiving updates "over the next few months". Several of those updates have already appeared, but Photoshop will be the most popular of the ...

Belkin and iPadMiniMod have each released iPad mini cases with integrated keyboards, adding to the collection of accessories for the new tablet. Belkin's $80 case connects to the iPad via Bluetooth and features a removable keyboard with shortcut keys to play or pause music, as well as change tracks. iPad Mini Mod's $40 aluminum case also connects via Bluetooth and uses Smart Cover magnets to turn the iPad on when the case is opened. It comes in both black and silver to match the iPad mini. Re...