Innehållsförteckning för #166 från AppleMagazine

Robin Williams, a comic and sitcom star in the 1970s who became an Oscar-winning dramatic actor, died Monday at 63 in Marin County. The Marin County Sheriff’s Office said he appears to have committed suicide.. The news of the beloved actor’s death rocked the nation. Channels broke into their usual programming to make the announcement, and within minutes, Williams dominated online trending topics. Even President Obama noted his passing. Along with an Antoine de Saint-Exupéry poem, Williams’ daughter, Zelda, tweeted: “I love you. I miss you. I will try to keep looking up.” Williams, hailed as a comic genius, was a star of movies and television for more than three decades. He also suffered from substance abuse problems. The actor “has been battling severe depression of late,” his publicist Mara…

iPHONE 6, WATCH AND APPLE PAY ALL BREAK COVER Tuesday, September 9 2014, at 10am PDT. Finally, we had a date and date for what could surely simply be described as “the big one” - quite a term, given that the world had already seen quite a few “big ones” from this particular source. Those of us who are ‘in the know’ when it comes to all things tech - and that seems to be almost all of us, these days - have seen events like this before. We’ve read all of the chatter on the rumor blogs beforehand, contemplated what we might expect to see ourselves, talked about it with friends and all manner of other things. Yes, that’s right, we’re talking about the latest major Apple launch. And…

WHY IT REALLY DOES TRANSFORM MOBILE PAYMENTS We’re so used to hearing that the latest Apple product or service launch “transforms” its category, and we aren’t necessarily referring to the language used in the Cupertino firm’s own press releases - the wider media are more than good enough themselves at that particular hyperbole. It would be easy to think that Apple’s latest innovation - Apple Pay -surely can’t live up to the hype of doing the same for mobile payments. However, if you did, you’d be wrong. Sure, a lot of bold claims have been made for a solution that is supposed to make mobile payments easier and quicker than ever. Apple itself has described the service as “a new category of service that will transform mobile payments with an…

WHY THE APP STORE IS A KID’S PARADISE There was a time when you wouldn’t have even considered sharing your iOS device with your child. After all, it’s a big, bad world out there, and your iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch was, and remains, a definite portal to that world. Mind you, there’s no question that things have changed somewhat on that front in recent years. It’s now much more common to see a child clutching their own iPad or iPhone in public with their family, which might bring to mind your own days of pre-teen Gameboy ownership. In response, Apple has responded to expressions of concern from families with appropriate adjustments to the App Store, all designed to ensure that kids are exposed only to genuinely suitable content. Those…

WHY WE AREN’T ENTERING A NEW ERA OF APPLE MALWARE Over the last week or so, we’ve seen some curious headlines in the world of Apple: those talking in sensationalist tones about a possible new era of Apple malware and viruses. It’s all come about as a result of supposed threats to iOS and OS X called “WireLurker” and “Masque Attack”. Is there much reason for you to panic? As ever, the answer is “no”, but also as ever when it comes to all things Apple, it helps to know the exact reasons why. First of all, if you’re wondering how the Cupertino firm could have possibly lost its reputation of being almost completely imperious to the malware and viruses that have long plagued more ‘open’ platforms, don’t fret -…

THANKSGIVING AND BLACK FRIDAY FIGURES ONLY CONFIRM STATUS QUO We all expected the Thanksgiving and Black Friday period to be overwhelming in many ways, as customers both online and offline scrambled for the best deals. Some of us may have decided to brave the worst of the crowds besieging the physical stores, but for those of us who stuck to shopping online, one thing certainly didn’t change: the continued primacy of iOS, as mobile finally overtook desktops for Thanksgiving browsing. Yes, that’s right: according to IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark, mobile devices were the source of 52.1 per cent of traffic on Thanksgiving - a whopping 22 per cent higher than last year. When you consider that as recently as 2010, a mere 6.5 per cent of traffic was mobile traffic,…

HOST OF CELEBRITY NAMES JOIN IN WITH THE CAMPAIGN What do Phil Schiller, Tim Cook, Dr Dre, Mark Zuckerberg and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella have in common? The answer is that they’re all celebrities who have thrown themselves head-first into a seemingly unassuming ‘challenge’ that has turned into a true viral phenomenon in recent weeks: The ALS Association’s Ice Bucket Challenge. The premise is simple enough: you’re a prominent public figure who agrees to have a bucket of ice water poured over your head, having the event recorded so that it can be witnessed by YouTube viewers around the globe. In the process, you also nominate three of your friends to be subjected to the same treatment. But of course, as tends to be the way with these things, this…

OUR COMPLETE LOOK AT THE NEW HANDSETS Were you watching the Apple keynote on Tuesday, September 9 when the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus broke cover? If not, why weren’t you? After all, it was only one of the most significant events in Apple’s history, and certainly the most important major launch since the 2007 emergence of the original iteration of the iconic handset. It was all the more befitting, therefore, that the keynote took place at Cupertino’s Flint Center for the Performing Arts, where the late Steve Jobs took the wraps off the first Macintosh in January 1984. But of course, Jobs would have also appreciated as well as anyone that his company could never live in the past, and his baby - now passed into the hands…

WHAT MAKES THE NEW DEVICE’S SNAPPER A TRUE LEADER A great camera is not, of course, most people’s sole justification for purchasing a smartphone. It will almost certainly not be the only reason you are contemplating purchasing an iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus, if you have not done so already. After all, not only do you have that slickly redesigned outer casing to get you salivating, but the devices also come with a wealth of new and improved features. The A8 chip not only promises truly zippy speed, but delivers it, as we have revealed elsewhere in this publication. Then, there’s the new Apple Pay system for making convenient mobile payments, not to mention the endless new functionalities brought by iOS 8, including the new Health app, QuickType keyboard…

WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE LONGAWAITED CUPERTINO WEARABLE You knew full well that it wasn’t going to be ‘just’ a new iPhone, didn’t you? We’re talking about that keynote, which if you’re like so many Apple fans, you probably watched live, perhaps from the feed on Apple’s website. Sure, the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus formally broke cover first, and all very impressive they were, too. However... for once, the latest iteration of the Cupertino giant’s long-iconic handset actually wasn’t the big story. When current CEO Tim Cook finally uttered the words that Steve Jobs had long made his own at Apple keynotes, “One more thing...”, you knew that it wasn’t going to be confirmation of a minor iOS feature that followed. It was going to be something genuinely…

WHAT WE CAN EXPECT FROM WATCHKIT We were all excited about Apple’s long-awaited wearable, the simply-titled Watch, when it first broke cover in September. We weren’t even given a precise release date, still only knowing that it will become available to buy at some point early next year. What we do know, though, is that the Apple Watch is worth making a fuss about. Now, the device’s developers’ toolkit - WatchKit - has been launched. WatchKit is all that the already well-established iOS developer community needs in order to create apps for the upcoming wearable - that’s right, they can get to work before it even makes an appearance on store shelves. In announcing WatchKifs launch, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing, Philip Schiller, said that it was for…

‘EDM’ FINALLY BREAKING THROUGH IN THE UNITED STATES Are you partial to a bit of EDM? Let’s correct ourselves there: if you’re into EDM, or electronic dance music to give it its full moniker, then “a bit” of it probably isn’t good enough for you. For those in the United States who like to play as hard as they work, there’s often nothing quite as fabulous as EDM. I EDM is a term applied to a broad range of percussive electronic dance music genres, generally produced for nightclubs and other dance-based entertainment environments. Of course, electronic dance music in general is nothing new. Some might say that it was truly born when legendary disco producer Giorgio Moroder and vocalist Donna Summer decided that a dance song could make perfect commercial…

Last week, we begun to talk about the many ways in which technology has helped to make us happier. In the second part of our bumper article, we look at communication, sleeping, creativity and sharing... COMMUNICATION HAS ALSO CHANGED DRASTICALLY Also easily forgotten is just how profoundly even the now most everyday technology has changed the way we communicate with each other. Just a few decades ago, if you had a family member or relative at the opposite end of the country and wished to get in touch with them, you’d need to pick up the phone. Before phones existed, it was a case of sending a letter and waiting weeks for a reply. Of course, the emergence of mobile phones certainly made a big difference, but the Internet has…

GOOD SHOWING AGAINST BOTH RIVALS AND PREDECESSORS You’ve read the press release by now. You’ve also probably spent months poring over the online rumor pages. Now that they’ve finally officially broken cover and appeared in the shops, you might have even spent time playing around with them, contemplating whether now is the time to buy. Yes, we are of course - referring to the recently unveiled iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. Now, there are many things that will dictate whether you actually plump for that final purchase. It might be those stunning Retina HD displays that do it for you, or perhaps the convenient Apple Pay payments system. Alternatively, you might be in the market for a ‘phablet’ and reckon that the iPhone 6 Plus is exactly what you…

THE VERY FINEST MOVIES, APPS AND MUSIC If you’re in love enough with Apple to be reading this article at all, chances are that you also bring your iPhone or iPad with you wherever you go. The bus to work, the gym, maybe even the night club or bar... if there’s a place where one can physically take an iGadget, chances are that one of us has taken theirs there. So, why not use yours for in-flight entertainment as well? It makes sense on a number of levels. With in-flight Wi-Fi having become widespread in just the last few years, there’s increasingly little excuse to leave your smartphone, tablet or ‘phablet’ in your pocket or luggage. Instead, more and more of us are keeping ours close to hand to catch…

IT’S ALL ABOUT HOMEKIT It’s been a busy year for fans of all things Apple - that’s for sure. We’ve had the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iOS 8, OS X Yosemite, new iPads, iMacs and even the long-rumored Watch - or its unveiling, anyway. But do you know what else broke cover from the Cupertino stable this year? That’s right: HomeKit. What’s HomeKit, we hear you say? For those who managed to lose sight of it amid the excitement of the other hardware and software announcements that have besieged us this year, HomeKit is a set of tools that will enable the creation of sophisticated iOS apps capable of integrating with and controlling various leading connected home devices. What it isn’t - contrary to earlier reports - is a…