Apple Music's boss leaves in surprise move Apple confirmed Mr. Rogers is leaving the company, but isn't offering up any details, according to the Financial Times. Unnamed sources said that instead of moving to another company in the music industry, he left for a company in an unrelated market. The resignation came as a surprise…
Jeff Gamet
Jeff Gamet is the Mac Observer’s Managing Editor, and co-host of the Apple Context Machine podcast. He is the author of “The Designer’s Guide to Mac OS X” from Peachpit Press, and writes for several design-related publications. Jeff has presented at events such as Macworld Expo, the RSA Conference, and the Mac Computer Expo. In all his spare time, he also hosts TMO’s Daily Observations podcast, co-hosts The iOS Show podcast, and makes guest appearances on several other shows, too. Jeff dreams in HD.
Articles by Jeff Gamet
Amazon Hangs Up on Fire Phone
Amazon's Fire Phone lost its connection. Forever. Dozens of engineers have been laid off from Amazon's Lab126 center where the Fire Phone and other devices including the Kindle ebook reader were developed, according to the Wall Street Journal. Amazon jumped into the smartphone market in June 2014 with the Fire Phone. The phone shipped with…
Another Reason to Update to iOS 8.4.1: Ins0mnia
Stop procrastinating and install iOS 8.4.1. It has some seriously important security fixes. The Ins0mnia threat is pretty serious because it can run on iOS devices without crafty hacks. Bad guys simply needed to code otherwise legit apps to trick iPhones and iPads into thinking they're in debugging mode. That disables the auto shutdown for…
Swatch: We Stole 'One More Thing' from Columbo, not Apple
There's just one more thing, according to Columbo Apple co-founder Steve Jobs occasionally said “one more thing” before unveiling surprise product announcements at media events, and it turned into a catch phrase people expected to hear at every Apple event. Current CEO Tim Cook has used the line, too, when announcing new products. The Columbo…
Best Buy Shows Apple Watch Has Muggle Appeal
Best Buy's Apple Watch sales are a big success Best Buy's Apple Watch sales have been so robust that the company, which started selling the device in August, ramped up its plans from 300 stores over several months to more than a thousand in just two months. Company CEO Hubert Joly told analysts, “Demand for…
Swatch CEO: Apple Watch is a Toy
Swatch: We're betting on the smart-ish watch When asked about Apple's presence in the smartwatch market, Mr. Hayek said, “The Apple Watch is an interesting toy, but not a revolution.” He added that the need to charge some smartwatches daily, including Apple Watch, is a big problem. Mr. Hayek followed up by talking about the…
Spotify Just Learned the Hard Way About Customer Trust
Spotify took it on the chin for privacy changes it didn't explain ahead of time Here's what Spotify wants to get at on your smartphone: Information stored on your mobile device. That can include contacts, photos, and media files. Location and sensor information such as GPS, Bluetooth, motion tracking. That sounds pretty ominous, like Spotify…
Apple Calls Bulls#@t on MusicWatch's Apple Music Numbers
Apple Music is losing users, but maybe not as fast as MusicWatch says MusicWatch came up with its numbers through a survey of 5,000 consumers over the age of 13 in the United States. Along with the 48 percent who dropped Apple Music, the survey also showed that 11 percent of iOS users are trying…
How Big is a 12 Megapixel Photo?
Your next iPhone could have a 12 megapixel camera. Is that a big deal? What's a Megapixel? A megapixel is a million pixels, and each pixel makes up a single point in your photographs. That means an 8 megapixel camera, like the one used in the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus captures images with…
HTC Smartphone Exposes User Fingerprints to Hackers
HTC system flaw left user fingerprints open to hackers Researchers from FireEye Labs discovered the vulnerability (PDF) in HTC's One Max smartphone. “One example is HTC One Max—the fingerprint is saved as /data/dbgraw.bmp with 0666 permission (world-readable). Any unprivileged processes or apps can steal user's fingerprints by reading this file,” they said. They went on…
Verizon's New Phone Plans Prove Sometimes You Follow the Little Guy
Verizon ditches old-school contracts and subsidized iPhone deals The little guy in this case is T-Mobile, the third largest U.S. cell service provider well behind Verizon and AT&T. T-Mobile started shaking up the smartphone market by offering no contract deals for its customers, along with monthly payment plans for new phones instead of the traditional…
Think MacKeeper Screwed You? There's a Settlement for That
ZeoBIT agrees to $2M settlement in MacKeeper lawsuit MacKeeper is billed as a utility for keeping your Mac running in tip-top shape, although enough people felt ZeoBIT overstated the its claims enough to warrant a lawsuit. The company ultimately agreed to the $2 million settlement, but won't have to admit to any wrongdoing. A third…
iTunes: How to tell if Your Songs are Matched or Apple Music Downloads
Launch iTunes. Select the My Music tab or Playlists tab. Either will work. Click the View drop down menu. It's on the right side of the iTunes window just below the search field. It shows your current view type; in my case, that's Songs, but it can also show Albums, Artists, Composers, or Genres. Click…
iOS 9 Public Beta Shows AT&T is Finally Embracing Wi-Fi Calling
AT&T Wi-Fi calling support finally shows up in iOS 9 beta Wi-Fi calling is a feature that lets smartphone users send and receive calls over wireless networks instead of relying only on cell towers. The benefit is that you aren't limited to potentially weak cell signals, and calls that happen on Wi-Fi networks don't count…
How to Buy Stuff on Apple's Redesigned Website
Where did the Online Apple Store go? In a word, away. Apple created a unified website where researching and buying products doesn't require jumping between the main site and a subdomain where the shopping part actually happens. Assuming Apple did a good job with the redesign, looking for and buying new iPhones, Macs, and other…
How to Tell the Difference Between Apple Music and iTunes Match Songs
[Some image elements courtesy Shutterstock]
Thunderstrike 2 Could Attack Your Mac, but not Today
Thunderstrike could use Thunderbolt accessories to infect your Mac's firmware Where the original Thunderstrike proof of concept required physical access to victim's computers, Thunderstrike 2 can be distributed through maliciously crafted websites or phishing email scams. Both versions attach themselves to Thunderbolt accessories that use Option ROMS, like Apple's Thunderbolt to Ethernet adapter, and then…
Siri Wants to Transcribe Your Voicemails
iOS 10 may turn your voicemails into text Insider sources speaking with Business Insider said Apple is already testing iCould Voicemail internally, and if it works as the company hopes, will launch next year most likely as a part of iOS 10. Voicemail transcription isn't a new idea, and compared to Google, this is another…
Your Fitness Tracker May be Wrong, but that Doesn't Make it Bad
Nike FuelBand settlement value is in education, not money. In the Nike case, consumers complained about inaccurate fitness tracking data such as calorie counts were wrong, and that the FuelBand was marketed and sold as if the information it logged was correct. They sued Nike and Apple because both companies were marketing the device. Apple…
Senator Franken thinks Apple is a Streaming Music Bully
Sen. Franken thinks Apple has an unfair advantage in streaming music In his letter to the FTC, Senator Franken said, I am writing to encourage you to examine Apple's current dealing with app developers to determine whether the company is engaging in anticompetitive behavior in the music streaming market. As the digital music industry continues…
How to Stop Apple Music from Burning Through Your iPhone Data Plan
Here's how to stop Apple Music from using your iPhone's data plan for streaming music: Tap Settings Tap iTunes & App Store Turn off Use Cellular Data Use iTunes & App Store settings (left) to disable Apple Music cell streaming (right) That limits Apple Music to streaming over WiFi connections, which means you won't burn…
That's Embarrassing: Affair Site Ashley Madison Hit in Data Breach
User data from affair site Ashley Madison was stolen. So that's awkward. Ashley Madison is a website and service that connects people in relationships who want to have an affair. Avid Life Media (ALM), the parent company for Ashely Madison, Established Men, and Cougar Life, confirmed the data breach and said it is hard at…
Analysts: Nobody Knows How Many Apple Watches Apple Sold
Apple isn't saying how many Apple Watches have been sold At the high end, Jeffries analyst Sundeep Bajikar estimates Apple sold 5.7 million smart watches. At the low end sits Turley Muller from Financial Alchemist at 2.85 million units. Several analysts are clustered around 5 million, and another group has gravitated towards 3 million. The…
Internet TV gets a Tentative Thumbs Up in New Court Ruling
According to Judge Wu's ruling, FilmOn should be considered the same as traditional cable television for transmission even though all of its content is delivered through broadband Internet, reports Reuters. Broadcasters have aggressively resisted giving Internet-based companies licensing even before FilmOn's case landed in Federal court. Aereo was at the center of a high profile…