Apple’s fourth fiscal quarter earnings conference call is scheduled to start after the market closes this afternoon, Tuesday, October 25th. The Mac Observer will be here to bring you the latest news, announcements, and analysis from the event.
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Apple Fixes Two-Factor Authentication Setup Bug
HomeKit in iOS 10 requires Two-Factor authentication if you plan to remotely control or monitor your smarthome devices. That isn’t a big deal, unless you’re one of the unlucky few who were blocked from switchting to Apple’s more secure password authentication system. The good news is that Apple finally fixed the issue, so HomeKit can be more that your in-home personal assistant again.
MGG 628: Cool Stuff Found and The DNS Achilles Heel
Cool Stuff Found includes how to keep Safari from opening iTunes automatically, a new USB circuit tester, bluetooth stereo speaker, a better way to backup your iPhone and more. Then it’s on to your questions, including a segment on managing your iPhone from the new Console app in macOS Sierra. Plus, your two favorite geeks talk through this week’s DNS outage and how they got around it. Download today and enjoy!
Apple Pay Used to Buy $1M Aston Martin DB5 Luxury Car
Turns out you can buy more than groceries and iPhone accessories with Apple Pay—like a crazy expensive car, for example. British car auctioneer Coys of Kensington just sold a 1964 Aston Martin DB5 for £825,000, which is a little over US$1 million. That’s the single largest Apple Pay transaction to date.
Apple and IBM Partnership: Macs, iOS and Watson Are The Glue
IBM and Apple have been partnering with each other for some time now. The action continues with Macs finding great favor within IBM. Also, education initiatives continue. Finally, IBM’s Watson has to be giving Apple some big ideas. This has the signs of becoming one of the most productive partnerships ever, amongst former rivals, in the tech industry.
TMO's HealthKit, Health, and Activity FAQ
Apple wants to be the hub for your health and fitness world, so HealthKit was introduced with iOS 8. That grew into a whole ecosystem that can be kind of confusing until you understand what’s going on with the different apps Apple gave us. Read on to get the lowdown on HealthKit, Health, and Activity.
USB Kill: The $55 Gadget That Will Fry Most Devices
There’s a device out there called USB Kill 2.0 that can fry an electronic device with a USB port. While it looks like an every day USB flash drive, rather than memory, these devices have capacitors that can store up juice being transmitted over the USB bus and then discharge at once. The result is a high-voltage attack on your PC, Mac, smartphone, or other device that can fry the electronics.
MGG 626: Lightning Struck my Switches
Quick Tips start this episode, including topics like macOS Sierra’s picture-in-picture videos, auto-logout, Sierra upgrade hints, macerror, cleaning up your Keychain, printing to PDF on any iOS 10 device, Apple Watch battery life and more. Then it’s on to questions about macOS Sierra’s network login changes, running a mixed macOS and OS X household and, finally, a discussion about lightning strikes and how to recover. Enjoy!
iPhone 7 Review: My First Five Days
John Martellaro has had his drop-dead gorgeous black, 128 GB iPhone 7 for five days now. He takes a look at Apple’s official list of features, then delves into his initial reactions and technical observations about this remarkable iPhone. It’s hardly a yawner of an update.
Apple Ships macOS Sierra
Apple released macOS Sierra on Tuesday. The successor to OS X El Capitan, Sierra brings Universal Clipboard, iCloud Desktop and Documents, Auto Unlock and Apple Pay to the Mac. It also features Siri integration, as well as other improvements. The update is free.
Apple Releases iTunes 12.5.1 with New Look & macOS Sierra Support
On September 13th, Apple released iTunes 12.5.1. It works in El Capitan but has some new features that make it macOS Sierra ready and provide support for iOS 10. Most notable is a fresher, cleaner look which addresses some of the early criticism regarding the complexity and busy look of iTunes 12.
Hands-On with iPhone 7 Home Button: Disappointing Haptic Feedback, Increased Functionality
Apple had two major changes in iPhone 7 beyond incremental improvements. The first is the much-talked about lack of an auxiliary port for headphones, but the other will effect the way we do things far longer than the transition to Lightning audio. That’s moving from a physical Home Button to a touch-sensitive, stationary Home Button. Here’s what Bryan Chaffin thought about it during his hands-on session at Apple’s media event.
macOS Sierra Coming September 20
Apple’s big focus today is the iPhone 7 and Apple Watch Series 2, but that doesn’t mean the Mac didn’t get any love—or more precisely, macOS Sierra. Apple quietly updated the Sierra website on Wednesday to say the replacement for Mac OS X El Capitan will ship on September 20th.
iPhone 7 Coming Sept 16 with New Processors, Amazing Cameras
Apple unveiled the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus during its “See you on the 7th” media event Wednesday morning. The new models replace the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus as Apple’s top of the line iPhones with faster processors and improved cameras.
TMO "See you on the 7th" Live Coverage
Apple’s “See you on the 7th” event is set to start at 10AM pacific time today, and The Mac Observer will be on location at the Bill Graham Civic Center in San Francisco to cover the day’s big announcements. CEO Tim Cook and other company executives are expected to take the stage to show off the successor to the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, and possibly the Apple Watch 2.
Apple Store Offline Ahead of iPhone 7 Launch Event
Apple’s online store went offline Wednesday morning ahead of the company’s “See you on the 7th” special media event. The Apple Store app now says “We’ve got something special in store for you,” which most likely is the iPhone 7.
MGG 621: Tips, Tricks and Troubleshooting Outside The Box
Tips, and lots of them, start today’s show. Audiobooks, Finder tweaks, securing your Mac and more! Then it’s time to talk about how your accounts can disappear and reappear, why your printer driver might want to listen to the network, how to view 35mm slides on your Mac and how your iPad keypad might change names! All this and much more on today’s Mac Geek Gab.
Apple Media Event Officially Set for Sept 7
Apple has been expected to host a special media event on Wednesday, September 7th, and now it’s confirmed because invitations are arriving in the media’s in boxes. The company isn’t saying what it’ll announce, but the smart money is on new iPhones.
A Clever Microsoft Ad Gets to the Heart of Apple's Fuzzy iPad Message
The early iPads were a sensation. It seemed that Steve Jobs had brought forth the successor to the Mac. However, things have not gone as planned with the iPad, and Apple is scrambling to construct a clearer branding and imperative for the iPad. Even Microsoft senses the difficulty and has poked fun at Apple’s newfound toaster-fridge mentality.
Video Shows Apple's Lightning Earbuds in Action
A video shows what appears to be Apple’s Lightning connector earbuds is making the rounds, and if it’s legit it looks like we won’t be able to charge our iPhones while using them. Apple still hasn’t confirmed that this fall’s iPhone will ditch the familiar 3.5mm headphone jack in favor of audio over Lightning, but as we get closer to the release it’s seeming more and more likely.
Edit Playlist Columns in iTunes 12.4 and Later
Every update to iTunes seems to refine a useful feature out of the interface, and as I created a new playlist in iTunes this morning I found yet another. All new Playlists are stuck in “Playlist” view, which has a limited selection of columns and no obvious way to customize them. No worries, you can still customize them, you just have to change your View first. We’ll show you how.
MGG 616: DHS, DHL, DFS It’s All The Same
It’s tips, tips and more tips. And also your questions. iOS Mail power searches, unleashing the power of Image Capture, a free photo-management tool that uses folders, removing and detecting malware, and demystifying 5GHz wireless channels are just some of the topics covered in today’s show!
Apple Tops 1 Billion iPhones Sold
Apple has a thing for its billion milestones, and this time it’s for the iPhone. CEO Tim Cook says the company recently sold its billionth iPhone—a number the company hit just days before its third fiscal quarter earnings report.
AAPL Q3 Earnings Report Set for Tuesday Afternoon
Apple’s 2016 third fiscal quarter earnings report is scheduled to start this afternoon after the market closes. This quarter will include iPhone SE sales, and analysts will be watching closely to see if the company’s smartphone numbers show a year-over-year decline for a second quarter. The Mac Observer will be here to bring you the latest news and analysis from the event, so be sure to follow along with us this afternoon.