Japan Apple Stores Kick Off ‘Lucky Bag’ Sales with MacBook Air, iPads, iPod Touch Featured
Apple’s retail locations in Japan have begun sales of the “Fukubukuro”, also known as a “lucky bag”, which offer an assortment of products at a steep discount. Japanese blog Mac Otakara (Google Translate) was present at the Apple Store in Nagoya to discover the exact content of the various bags among customers, with some shoppers receiving big-ticket items like iPads and MacBooks.
MacBook Air Lucky Bag (Source: App Bank, Google Translate)
This year’s lucky bags sell for 36,000 yen ($300) and come in four different configurations, with common items including an Apple TV, a 4000 mAh Mophie Powerstation external battery pack, an Incase Icon backpack, an iTunes gift card, and Beats by Dre Powerbeats2 wireless earbuds. For the most valuable Fukubukuro bag, Apple included an 11-inch MacBook Air with a Power Support Air Jacket and a Twelve South PlugBug dual charger along with the common items.
iPad Air 2 Lucky Bag (Source: Mac Otakara)
Other variants of the bag offer a fifth-generation 16GB iPod touch, a 16GB iPad mini 3 or a 16GB iPad Air 2 alongside the common items. The iPad lucky bags also feature Logitech’s UE Boom portable speaker.
iPod touch Lucky Bag (Source: App Bank, Google Translate)
Apple’s grab bags are sold as is, and returns are not allowed unless a product is defective. The promotion is limited to Apple Stores in Japan, although they are usually met with long lines of shoppers hoping to purchase their own lucky bag.
Twitter has a new way to keep you up to date while you’re AFK
It isn’t quite a “filtered feed” (yet), but it’s looking like Twitter’s rolling out a new feature to keep you up to speed when you aren’t constantly refreshing your timeline. It’s dubbed “while you were away,” and, as TechCrunch points out, it appears to be rolling out to a large chunk of the microblogging service’s users. What it does is compiles top tweets since you last logged in (likely based on amount of favorites and retweets, although the methodology isn’t quite clear), and places them at the top of your timeline on mobile. Along with those daily email summaries, it seems like another way to keep people in the loop if they aren’t the most hardcore users. And possibly to the dismay of them, it makes the service a bit more like Facebook’s non-chronological news feed. We’d love to hope this recap function won’t pull in sponsored tweets from a certain bikini model shilling a mobile game, but that likely won’t be the case.
Filed under: Cellphones, Internet, Software, Mobile
Source: TechCrunch
OnePlus One now has an official alpha Lollipop ROM ready for flashing
OnePlus One owners who live on the edge can get an official alpha release of the smartphone’s Android 5.0 Lollipop ROM to install on their smartphone, provided they’re willing to put up with a few bugs.
Seapilot app navigates its way from iOS to Windows Phone
Seapilot, a well regarded marine navigation app that was first released for iOS, has recently been released in the Windows Phone Store, offering a ton of features for anyone who wants to sail the seven seas.
Windows Central’s top 5 videos in 2014
Happy New Year! It’s time to start writing that number 5 instead of 4 when filling out paperwork. But before we move on, let’s take a look at Windows Central’s five most viewed videos from 2014. And if you haven’t done it yet, make sure to subscribe to our Youtube channel. You get notified whenever a new video gets published and we occasionally put stuff in there that doesn’t show up here on the site.
Your kids can drive this electric, Android-equipped ‘sports car’
Don’t look now, but your kids may end up owning a better car than you do. Henes recently unveiled the Broon F8 series, a child-sized electric “supercar” that has features you probably wish you had in your own ride. Never mind the independent suspension, differential steering and adjustable driving modes — this vehicle has its own 7-inch Android tablet that serves as both the dashboard and infotainment control deck (yes, there’s a sound system). Junior doesn’t even have to drive at all, since there’s a Bluetooth-based remote control that lets you take the virtual wheel in a pinch.
The Broon F8 will cost much more than your old Power Wheels kit, but it’s relatively reasonable for something with so many creature comforts. You’re looking at between $895 to $1,000 depending on the drivetrain. The real gotchas, as Wired notes, are the size and availability. The car is meant for kids five and under (even an eight year old can find it a tight fit), and it’s still in the prototype stage. It’ll be a while before your little tykes are impressing their kindergarten friends.
Filed under: Transportation
Source: Broon Cars
Editor’s Choice: Jonathan’s Xbox One Game of the Year for 2014
This year has been a huge year for the Xbox One, and as we showed you guys last week with our most anticipated games article; we can’t wait to see what 2015 has in store. However, it is now time for me to reflect on the past and choose my favorite game of the year. Just a heads up, this is my personal opinion and you guys are encouraged to share your favorites in the comments below.
Apple Japan’s annual ‘Lucky Bag’ contents revealed
Today, Apple Store customers in Japan rang in the New Year by purchasing “Lucky Bags” from retail locations, the contents of which have finally been detailed. The bags, which go for roughly $320, contained a large swath of items ranging from an 11″ MacBook Air for the extremely lucky to a 16GB iPod Touch for the slightly less fortunate.
There were a total of 3 possible bundles, all contained in a special edition Incase Icon Slim backpack. All 3 bundles contained at least a Mophie Juice Pack Powerstation, Powerbeats2 wireless headphones, and an Apple TV. The bags were then differentiated by the additional items listed below.
On the top end, customers were able to score a 128GB 11″ MacBook Air, an Air Jacket case, and a Twelve South PlugBug.
The middle of the pack featured either a 16GB iPad Air 2 or a 16GB iPad mini 3, along with an Ultimate Ears Boom Bluetooth speaker.
Finally, rounding out the pack were bags containing a 16GB fifth-generation iPod Touch and an iTunes gift card.
No matter how you slice it, the bags were well worth the money, with even the lowest offering fetching items worth more than the total cost.
Source: 9to5Mac
Chick-Fil-A admits possible credit card breach
Chick-Fil-A is spending the beginning of 2015 not just serving chicken to hungry partygoers on their way home, but also dealing with a possible credit/debit card breach. The fast food chain has just issued an official statement admitting that it has “recently received reports of potential unusual activity involving payment cards used at a few of [its] restaurants.” It says the company has been notified on December 19th of suspicious payment activities on cards used on some of their outlets, so it has begun investigating what happened with help from authorities and IT firms. This aligns with what security journalist Brian Krebs wrote in mid-December: according to the piece, the company has been receiving rather inconsistent reports of suspicious activities from banks since November.
It also revealed that a few days before Christmas, a major credit card company alerted banks about a breach that started in December 2013 and lasted until September 2014, although it didn’t name the retailer. One of those banks told Krebs that the warning message included a list of 9,000 credit cards, with only Chick-Fil-A as the common point of purchase. “It’s crazy,” his source said, “because 9,000 customer cards is more than the total number of cards we had impacted in the Target breach.”
While Chick-Fil-A has admitted that it could have been hacked, its statement still lacks pertinent details, citing the need for further investigation. Krebs believes only some outlets were affected, though, most likely via third-party point-of-sale systems, similar to what happened to Home Depot. The company hasn’t determined yet whether customers’ info were actually stolen, so it’s probably wise to monitor your accounts if you’ve eaten at Chick-Fil-A since late 2013.
[Image credit: AFP/Getty Images]
Filed under: Misc
Via: Electronista, Krebs on Security
Source: Chick-Fil-A
Google Play Music knows when you’ve made bad choices
We’re not sure exactly what Alex did on New Year’s Eve, but we’re pretty sure Google Play Music didn’t approve.
AIVAnet 