Beats by Dre partners with the NBA

Beats by Dr. Dre just announced a multi-year marketing and merchandising partnership with the NBA, which will make it the official headphone, wireless speaker, and audio partner of the NBA, as well as sister associations WNBA, NBA G League, and USA Basketball as of October 2018.

Luke Woods, Beats by Dr. Dre president, said:

“The NBA and its players have long been significant drivers of global culture. Basketball, music, and style speak as one voice: Julius Erving became a style icon, Allen Iverson cemented hip hop’s place on and off the court and LeBron James is breaking new music every day… the list goes on and on. This partnership with the NBA is the perfect alignment for Beats. It feels like coming home.”

Aw, everyone likes going home!

In addition to developing NBA-themed headphones for fans, Beats also plans to provide headphones to players and advertise during major events like the NBA All-Star, NBA Draft, international games, WNBA games, and more.

Will Samsung bring out a foldable phone?

Yes! Probably.

Samsung Mobile CEO DJ Koh recently told CNBC that the company was still running on time to reveal its first foldable smartphone later in 2018. The device sounds like it’s probably going to be unveiled at this year’s Samsung Developer Conference, set to be held in November in San Francisco.

Samsung first announced its plans for a Galaxy Note smartphone with a bendable display in September 2017, BUT Samsung has already announced this year’s Galaxy Note 9, so it seems likely that this new bendable phone will come with it’s own unique model name and branding.

There’s still no details about how exactly the folding screen will work, but many believe there will be no hinge, and instead the screen itself will bend.

It also seems like their trying their hardest to make the device not just a novelty, but rather a device that gives users more functionality. According to Koh;

“So every device, every feature, every innovation should have a meaningful message to our end customer. So when the end customer uses it, (they think) ‘wow, this is the reason Samsung made it’.”

There have been many, many rumors that Samsung is in the lead of the foldable display with competitor Apple, however there has been no concrete evidence or comment by Apple that this is the case, only a few patents with technology that might serve such a device.

So, what do you think? Foldable phones… next big thing? Or not so much?

FYI ,You can lock certain notes on your iPhone

If you have some super top secret data that you want to keep from prying eyes, we got you! Or, more specifically, Apple got you.

Its not super commonly known, but the Notes app will let you lock any note with a single password. If you have an iPhone, iPad, or Mac with Touch ID, you can use your fingerprint to open your locked notes. With an iPhone X, you can use Face ID.

But take note: You can’t lock notes if you’re signed in to iCloud with a Managed Apple ID.

So how do we perform this magic?

 
Update your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to the latest version of iOS, and your Mac to the latest version of macOS.
Turn on Notes syncing in your iCloud Settings or System Preferences, or make sure that you use notes stored locally on your device.

Create a password, BUT! If you forget your password, Apple can’t help you reset it so be careful out there!

If you access your iCloud notes on more than one Apple device, you’ll use the same notes password to lock and unlock all of them.

Go to the ‘Notes ‘section in Settings, Tap Password. Enter a password, then give yourself a password hint .Tap Done.

Da Daa!

After you lock a note, it’s automatically protected with your password on all of your devices. If you want to use Touch ID or Face ID to unlock notes, you must enter your password and then turn on Touch ID or Face ID on the device you’re using.

Now, to lock specific notes, Open the note that you want to lock. Tap the Share icon, and choose Lock Note.

To view any locked notes, tap View Note. Enter your password, use Touch ID, or use Face ID.

Easy Peasy.

Apple maybe, accidentally, leaked photos of new products?

Oops. Apple has apparently accidentally leaked images of the new 2018 iPhones that will be announced during its just announced September 12 special media event. These images were then shared by 9to5Mac, giving perhaps the first official look at Apple’s upcoming iPhones and Apple Watch series 4 models.

The images seem to confirm the existence of two OLED iPhone models, both of which feature an edge-to-edge display with slim bezels and no Home button, available in gold as well as silver and space grey.

Allegedly, both the 5.8 and 6.5-inch OLED iPhones will be called the “iPhone XS.”

The new Apple Watch models, also leaked,  feature smaller bezels for more visible screen space, which allows for new complications arranged in a round configuration, on a new watch face.

There’s a new hole below the Digital Crown, which might be another microphone, and the Digital Crown has a red outline rather than a full red dot.

Apple will unveil the Apple Watch Series 4 models alongside new 2018 iPhones on September 12, at a 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time event that’s set to be held at the Steve Jobs Theater on the Apple Park campus.

You can watch it live on Apple’s website or through Apple TV. In the mean time, hop on over to 9to5 to check out their pics.

Apple welcomes Media to it’s September 12th Special Event

Apple has sent out invites for its annual special media event. The event will be held on Wednesday, September 12 at 10:00 a.m. at the Steve Jobs Theater on the Apple Park Campus in Cupertino, California.

The tagline is “Gather Round.”

What can we expect?

Apple is said to be introducing three new iPhone models this year: a second-gen 5.8-inch OLED device, a larger-screened 6.5-inch OLED device, and a lower-cost 6.1-inch smartphone with an LCD display.

Rumor has it they will all feature A12 processors, faster LTE, edge-to-edge displays, and Face ID integration. We can likely expect the phones to be tiered between $700 and $1000.

We can also expect to see the new Apple Watch Series 4, with a larger display likely implemented through a reduction in bezel size. Longer battery life and improved health monitoring capabilities have also been features circling the rumor mill.

We may see new iPad Pro models and new Macs in the near future, but probably not at this particular event.

New AirPods with “Hey Siri” support and the AirPower charging mat, may also be seen on the 12th.

You can watch the keynote on the Apple website and on Apple TV.

So wait – is there one more thing? We’ll just have to watch to find out!

New iPhone X and iPhone X Plus might Support Apple Pencil

According to Taiwanese publication Economic Daily News, the upcoming 2nd Gen iPhone X, and a purported 6.5-inch model ‘iPhone X Plus’, will apparently both come with Apple Pencil Compatibility.

The Apple Pencil will only work with the OLED models, not the lower cost LCD model. The Pencil, released in November 2015, currently works  all iPad Pro models and the 6th Gen iPad, which is generally targeted at educational use.

If the reports are true, we’re hoping that they will be releasing a smaller Apple Pencil for use with the mobile devices, as the current rendition would be rather large.

We’ll likely see at the September Apple ‘big reveal’ event. Would you like to see a mobile version of the Apple Pencil?

Verizon-ers, want some free Apple Music?

You can have some free Apple Music!

It was announced last week that new and existing customers with a Verizon Unlimited plan, can, as of today, sign up for free 6 month long Apple Music subscriptions.

If this is you, all you need to do is go to the Apple Music section on the Verizon website sign up. You’ll need to log in with a Verizon subscriber account after which you’ll receive a text message with a link that needs to be opened on your mobile device.

For iPhone and Android users that already have the app installed, it will open it up with subscription options. If the app isn’t already installed, the App Store or Google Play store will open with instructions to download the app.

This offer is available to all Unlimited subscribers, including Verizon Plan Unlimited, Go Unlimited, Beyond Unlimited, and Above Unlimited.

If you already subscribe to Apple Music but want it for free instead, you’ll need to cancel your exisitng Apple Music subscirption in order to activate the offer.

EXCEPT – This does not work for the family plan. You’ll need to cancel the family plan, and then each individual will need to activate the free offer separately.

And – you can cancel at any time.

Happy Free Music Thursday, Unlimited Verizon-ers!

The original iMac might make you feel old

Recognize these beasts?

If you do, this miiight make you feel old. Old and impressed though!

Today, TWENTY years ago, the first iMac was officially released. The ever-so-joyfully colored iMac G3.

The iMac has continued to exist in better and better (and greyer) forms over those twenty and has not only become waaaay more compact and sleek, but has also become waaaay more powerful.

Like you, right?

The computer was designed by Apple design chief Jony Ive, and was introduced by Steve Jobs in May 1998 as such:

“This is iMac. The whole thing is translucent. You can see into it. It’s so cool,” said Jobs when introducing the iMac G3.

It sold originally for $1299, and came equipped with a 233 – 700MHz PowerPC 750 G3 processor, 4GB of storage, a 15-inch CRT, a CD-ROM drive, and an ATI graphics card, all of which made the iMac a best seller. In fact, released just a year after Jobs returned to Apple, the iMac was thought to be behind 1999’s first quarter profits tripling.

Today, the iMac is available in 21.5 and 27-inch size options, with 4K and 5K Retina displays, Kaby Lake chips, AMD graphics, and super fast SSDs.
There is also an iMac Pro, for Apple’s more professional users with a Space Gray body, Xeon processors with up to 18 cores, Radeon Pro Vega graphics, and up to 4TB of SSD storage.

Happy Birthday, iMac. Although we may miss your large colorful body in our lives,  We appreciate you even more for what you’ve become.

New MacBook Air expected?

There will reportedly be a new entry-level laptop in the Fall. Predictions have gone back and forth as to if it will be a new MacBook Air or a new MacBook, and today Taiwanese research firm TrendForce predicted that it would be a new MacBook Air that would be released by Apple in either September or October.

The device, either MacBook or Macbook Air, is rumored to have a 13-inch retina display and have a starting price of $999 or less in the United States.

If it were to be a MacBook Air, that would be pretty great, as the current MacBook Air hasn’t seen any major updates in over three years.

With a super large new release line up for the Fall – three new iPhones, Apple Watch Series 4, updated iMac and Mac Mini models, some are saying that this will lead Apple to have two events, the first major (read:iPhone) event in September, and a secondary event in October.  The last time we had two Apple events in the fall was in 2016.

Siri could offer multiuser support

Apple has a newly granted patent for “User profiling for voice input processing,” which may be used for Siri. Siri can currently distinguish an iPhone owner’s voice from other people, but it can’t provide customized responses for different users.

The patent (broadly, if used) could allow a device to identify different users, through a variety of means,  including username and password, recognizing specific commands, or biometric voice print. The Siri could refer to a specific user’s content preferences, requests, and phrasings to make Siri more accurate.

Oh hiiiii Siri!