The security of Apple's iCloud servers has had some considerable focus of late after a host of celebrities had their accounts raided and personal, intimate photos of them distributed online. After initially appearing to have been hacked, iCloud suffered quite the bloody nose over the incident.
We're now less than five days from the grand unveiling of Apple's major new releases, including the company's inaugural smartwatch. Although we've a pile of info regarding the also-impending iPhone 6, the mere fact that the iWatch hasn't apparently gone into production as yet means that details have been incredibly scarce. Still, with announcement day now imminent, tidbits of info appear to be slipping through the next, and while Ming-Chi Kuo revealed earlier today that the device may include 8GB of storage and 512MB RAM, another reliable source has dropped some information pertaining to the device's other major features.
iOS 8 will add quite a bit to the repertoires of Apple's array of devices, but with the prospect of the company's first smartwatch also on the table, things are shaping up very interestingly. We're already aware of the significant emphasis on health and home automation thanks to the respective introductions of HealthKit and HomeKit back at WWDC, but with NFC finally becoming one of the Cupertino company's 'things', there's been rife speculation that mobile payments will be an integral part of the revitalized iOS experience.
Next week, Apple will take to the stage at the Flint Center for Performing Arts in Cupertino where it is likely to announce the iPhone 6, iWatch, and according to a well-respected analyst, the second-generation iPad Air. The iPhone keynote is regularly beamed live across the world through a variety of different mediums, and with less than five days to go now until the curtains are pulled up, Apple has announced the official live streaming options for those wishing to tune in to the action.
Despite various services out there that have become all the rage for video conferencing and VoIP calling, Skype remains the medium of choice for a large majority of users. And it makes sense, too; in my personal experience, short of FaceTime, nothing gives as good an experience as Skype. Today, the company has released an update for its iOS app that enables users to host group audio calls for free, right from their iPhones.
KGI's Ming-Chi Kuo is one of a cluster of analysts frequently in the midst of Apple's big product launches, and with the Cupertino company having already sent out invitations for a special keynote next week on Tuesday, he has once again delivered some interesting info regarding the day's events. As well as suggesting that both configurations of the iPhone 6 will offer a 128GB model, he has also indicated that the second-gen iPad Air will be announced on September 9th, which hints that an iPad mini refresh - if any - will be as part of a quieter roll-out.
Every year, extreme Apple enthusiasts (I think they're known as fanboys) queue up outside the company's retail outlets across the world to be among the first to get hold of the next iPhone. Even though we're still one week away from the announcement of the iPhone 6 - perhaps two or three weeks from the actual retail date - certain folks are already setting up camp at the flagship 5th Avenue store.
This week's headlines have been dominated by yet another incident regarding the compromising of mobile devices, with several celebrities and news outlets having outlined Apple's iCloud as the wrongdoer in this particular sequence of events. But while, after an internal investigation, the Cupertino company has since stepped out and inferred that private photos wouldn't have leaked out if two-step verification were present, one reporter has done a little digging of his own, and found that in certain pockets of the Web, folks are using law enforcement tools to snatch iCloud backups of unwitting victims.
Although today's multitude of announcements at IFA have provided quite the distraction, there's always time to check out the latest apps gone free for iOS. We're back once again with a stack of five in total, and below, you can catch the details.
Mobile payments became all the more rage when NFC was first introduced with Android devices, since the technology offered possibilities for users to fully leverage not just Google Wallet, but mobile payments in general. A lot of consumer brands were quick to jump onto the bandwagon, but a lot of them held back as well, particularly in the U.S. One factor behind this could be the fact that the U.S. market is dominated by the iPhone, and the Cupertino tech giant has so far held back from adapting the NFC technology. That all is expected to change with the iPhone 6, which, in all likelihood, will feature an NFC chip manufactured by XNP. Now, McDonald’s joins the foray of companies that are implementing mobile payments across its outlets, indicated by an internal memo released today.
















