News - page 1269

Preliminary findings by the European Commission have slammed Apple and Ireland for a so-called “sweetheart” tax deal which allowed Apple to avoid paying taxes by building up a massive offshore cash pile of $137.7bn in the country.

The deal dates back to 1991, and allowed Ireland to provide Apple with illegal state aid. Apple has had a base in the country since 1980.

In a statement, the European Commission said that “the Irish authorities confer an advantage on Apple,” and that this “advantage is obtained every year and ongoing.”

Despite complaints that the Apple Watch is just too big to appeal to women and thinner-wristed men, the Cupertino’s upcoming wearable isn’t actually that big. In fact, it’s about the same size as a Rolex.

Still not convinced that the Apple Watch will look good on your wrist? Why not print one out and see how you look wearing it?

The infamous iPhone 6 “bending video” may have reached close to 47 million hits on YouTube, but Apple has seemingly escaped Bendgate without any lasting damage — just as it has with every “gate” incident before it.

In a new blog post entitled “The Joy of Apple Slamming,” former Apple ad exec Ken Segall (the man who named the iMac) explains how Jobs created a company able to withstand the kind of damaging rumors that would permanently damage lesser rivals.

The secret? Get people to really, really love you.

Former Apple CEO John Sculley has launched a new lineup of budget smartphones in the Middle East — although he admits Steve Jobs would like not be enamoured with them.

“Steve being Steve would say, you can do alot better,” he told Gulf Business.

The range includes various animal-themed devices, including the Octopus S520, the Falcon S451, Hornbill S551, Wolverine S501, and Obi F240. They are being launched by India’s Obi Mobile, a budget smartphone brand, which John Sculley co-founded.

Here’s an important heads-up: If you keep documents in your iCloud Drive, don’t use iOS 8’s “Reset All Settings” option. It could delete files stored in the cloud.

Demand for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus thanks to Apple’s “unprecedented” orders that iPhone manufacturer Foxconn is scrabbling to fill orders.

According to a new report from Digitimes, the Taiwan-based company is on a major hiring spree to fill posts at its plants in Shenzhen and Zhengzhou, China. The only trouble is it’s having a bit of difficulty in doing so, since assembly line work is no longer as attractive as it was previously for Chinese workers.

One of iOS 8’s great new features is Quick Type, which scans your history for your most commonly used word combinations and suggests the word you’re most likely to use next, which can be selected with just a tap.

That said, Quick Type is hardly perfect… a fact made abaundantly clear by the latest xkcd comic, in which iOS 8 mangles famous quotes from Scarface, Wizard of Oz, Serenity, Goonies, Lord of the Rings and Goldfinger.

And you thought Damn You, Autocorrect was hilarious!

If you’ve ever visited the subway platforms in the Big Apple, you know they’re plastered with advertisements. That’s where a free new app called NO AD comes in.

The work of Re+Public, a team of devs who use technology to “alter the current expectations of urban media,” NO AD is an augmented-reality app that strips the New York City subway system of its ads — and replaces them with art.

Just point your iPhone camera at a billboard and, hey presto, you’ll see it vanish and a piece of street art will seamlessly appear where there was once corporate propaganda.

Pretty neat, huh?

iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus will officially be available to pre-order in China from Friday, October 10, ahead of their launch a week later, Apple has confirmed. The news comes just hours after the Cupertino company’s new smartphones finally received approval from China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Colette, an upscale fashion boutique, is proudly displaying the Apple Watch at its flagship store on Rue Saint-Honoré street in Paris. Apple is partnering with Colette to show off the company’s upcoming Watch for an exclusive “one-day only” event during Paris Fashion Week.

Photos posted on social media show the front window display taking shape with different Watch designs surrounded by colorful orbs.

China was left off the list of initial iPhone 6 launch partners, but according to a report from Reuters, the bending sensation that’s taken over the US and Europe is finally ready to hit mainland China.

Apple has cleared the final regulatory hurdle for its bigger than big device, and finally received a licence from China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus to be used on China’s wireless networks.

Apple Pay is scheduled to launch sometime in October, and today’s iOS 8.1 developer beta includes the feature’s settings, privacy statement, and a reference to Touch ID on the iPad.

Update: After nearly two hours of downtime, iCloud services have been restored.

If you’ve been having trouble accessing some of iCloud’s services this afternoon, you are not alone.

Apple’s System Status page is showing that some iCloud users are unable to access all of the service’s features and have been unable to do so for about an hour.

We’ve received reports from users across the U.S. that iCloud is unavailable to them, and many other Apple users in other countries are reporting the same issue. An official statement on what’s caused the outage has not been released by Apple, though some reports have theorized that the company’s iCloud facility in North Carolina is facing issues.

We’ve reach out to Apple for comment, but for now there is no ETA on when iCloud will be up and running again for all users.

Apple has seeded the first major update to iOS 8 to developers this afternoon with the release of iOS 8.1 beta 1, along side a new build of Xcode 6 .1 beta 3 and a pre-release version of Apple TV Software that includes support for Family Sharing and can be used to test AirPlay and HomeKit in iOS apps.

The release notes don’t mention any new features that may have been added to the software, but lists a number of bug fixes. We’ll let you know what type of new goodies we find once we get it install on our devices. The new beta can be download from the iOS Developer Center or via the direct download links below.

Here are the direct download links:

As promised, Apple has released an update for OS X Lion, Mountain Lion, and Mavericks that patches a security flaw exploited by a hack called Shellshock. While Shellshock only affects Mac users who manually set up advanced UNIX services, it’s still a serious enough flaw for Apple to address.

OS X bash Update 1.0 is available for download from Apple’s website now, and it should start appearing in the Mac App Store’s updates section any moment. All Mac users running a version of OS X prior to Yosemite are recommended to download the update.

Source: Apple

“Life is either an incredible adventure,” says the Aussie-tinged voice over for this new GoPro 4 trailer, “or it’s nothing at all.”

So when you’re next diving with orcas, racing extremely modified cars in Japan, or just chillin’ at the latest DJ-powered mega-concert, you can be sure to record yourself and all your hip and gorgeous young friends in stunning 4K resolution.

Of course, you probably don’t have a 4K television (who does?) to play it on, but the video below has some jaw-dropping images in it that you can see if you jack up your Macbook Pro’s Retina display to approximate 4K on a YouTube video.

School spirit is seemingly alive and well at Tim Cook’s alma mater of Auburn University, courtesy of a, err, T-shirt Gatling gun.

The video appeared on YouTube, via Wall Street Journal Apple reporter Daisuke Wakabayashi, and shows free t-shirts being fired into the crowd at a recent Auburn Tigers game.

Two things leap out from the video. The first one: we hope no-one was hurt by what looks to be a military barrage of clothing. Secondly: was the above video shot using the new dazzling 240fps slo-mo feature of the iPhone 6?

This new trailer has flying robots, stunningly massive spaceships, and baroque alien societies galore. It’s a heart-pounding glimpse into the new film, Jupiter Ascending, which comes out in February of 2015.

It’s also got some Channing Tatum with pointy ears (a sci-fi staple!) and Mila Kunis looking badass in pleather. Also, some delightful moments with Sean Bean, and he doesn’t even die in this trailer. The trailer is stunning, and you can see hints of The Matrix and Cloud Atlas all over this thing, which makes sense — it’s a Wachowski film, thorough and through.

Give this two minute eye-candy reveal a look.

Apple Pay, the new mobile payments system that unshackles iPhone users their wallets – will only be available in the U.S. when it launches next month, but Apple’s is already hiring a team to expand its mobile payments into Europe.

Mary Carol Harris has been poached away from Visa by Apple where she was the director of mobile at Visa Europe since 2008, and she’s also got some expertise with NFC too.

Apple is diving wrists first into the fashion industry next year with its first ever timepiece, and what better way for the Apple Watch strut its stuff for the public than at in front of the worlds most intolerable fashionistas at fashion week in Paris?

The first public showing of the Apple Watch might take place tomorrow, reports MacPlus, which spotted an announcement from the Parisian fashion boutique Colette (which sells a ton of fashionable watches), advertising a one day only experience in partnership with Apple.

Take a look at the subtle Apple Watch hint in the invite below:

The iMac is Apple’s only machine that hasn’t gone Retina, but a new report claims the wait is almost over for the desktop beast — Apple is “incredibly likely” to announce its new Retina iMac next month.

Microsoft has copied (or “been inspired by”) many, many Apple innovations over the years, and now it’s set to copy the location of its most famous Apple Store of all.

That’s right: the Windows maker is set to open up shop with a retail store just blocks from Apple’s iconic Fifth Avenue glass cube. The new “flagship” Microsoft Store will move into a location previously occupied by Fendi.

“This is a goal we’ve had since day one — we were only waiting for the right location,” Microsoft’s corporate vice president for retail stores said in a statement. “And now we have it.”

Apple insists “bendgate” isn’t an issue after receiving just 9 complaints about bent iPhones as of last week, and the vast majority seem to agree. But will the Cupertino company think differently when it discovers that people are walking into its retail stores and bending the iPhone 6 Plus units it has on display?

Regulators are set to break down the reason tax deals given to Apple in Ireland violate EU laws, according to people familiar with the matter.

The European Commission began formal investigations into the tax avoidance issue back in June, and plans to publish its findings as early as today — with the claim that tax deals between Apple and the Irish government could fall under the heading of illegal state aid.

While Apple has yet to make a comment on the matter, the Irish government has spoken up; describing its position as “confident” that the Apple deal represents “no breach of state-aid rules.” It claims that it has already submitted a formal response to the European Commission, in which it addresses in detail “the concerns and some misunderstandings.”

Woody Allen famously called pigeons flying rats. Photographer David Stephenson calls them thoroughbreds of the sky.

He also realizes the common perception of the pigeon skews more toward Allen’s view. But Stephenson has a growing body of work that could make people reconsider the much-maligned bird.

Stephenson, aka The Pigeon Photographer, runs a website and Instagram feed where his photos attempt to show the intelligence, strength and iridescent beauty of homing pigeons, which he raises in his backyard near Lexington, Kentucky.

“When we see them circling in the air, they move so fast our eye can’t comprehend the beautiful details, the way the feathers curve, the upstroke or downstroke of the wings,” Stephenson told Cult of Mac. “I just want people to appreciate them more. They are beautiful, insanely tough and intelligent.”