Apple Watches Shipping to Customers Confirmed to Have Covered Diagnostic Port [iOS Blog]
Early Apple Watch models were found to have a hidden diagnostic port used to allow Apple engineers to diagnose problems with the devices, but reports at the time were unsure if the feature would be included in models shipping out to consumers. Apple Watches have now arrived in Australia, giving us our first opportunity to further investigate the diagnostic port.
MacRumors reader MrLaforge has received his Space Gray Apple Watch Sport and has taken high-quality pictures of the casing, giving us a look at what appears to be the diagnostic port hidden underneath a cover. The port’s cover looks a lot like the SIM card slot on an iPhone 6, and it appears that it might open in a similar way, giving Apple employees a way to run diagnostics on the Apple Watch when it’s brought in for service.
The same covered diagnostic port was also present in Apple Watches provided to media sites for Apple Watch reviews earlier this month. At Apple Stores, devices on display have the same ports, but they remain uncovered, presumably to make it easier for employees to continually monitor and adjust settings on the devices.
A report from TechCrunch has speculated that this diagnostic port could also potentially be used for smart band accessories in the future, but it is unclear if that is something that Apple is planning on introducing.
Customers Lining Up At Boutiques Carrying Apple Watch Ahead of Launch
The Apple Watch isn’t going to be available for sale tomorrow in Apple’s retail stores, but there are a select handful of high-end fashion boutiques around the world that will be offering various Apple Watch models for sale.
One of the stores, Maxfield, is located in Los Angeles, and people are already lining up outside the store in the hopes of getting an Apple Watch on launch day. Maxfield is the only store in the United States that have the Apple Watch in stock on April 24.
Line at Maxfield LA, image via Alidir8
Other stores that will have Apple Watch stock tomorrow include Dover Street Market in Tokyo and London, Colette in Paris, The Corner in Berlin, and 10 Corso Como in Milan. It is not known how much stock each of these stores has available, but according to Dover Street Market’s CEO, the Tokyo location will have 350 watches available for purchase, while Dover Street Market in London will have 570. Neither store is expected to have the Apple Watch Edition, but beyond that models in stock are unknown.
Though Apple’s retail stores are not offering the Apple Watch for sale, there appears to be some confusion among customers. At Apple Stores in Australia, there were customers lining up outside of stores in the hopes of getting an Apple Watch.
According to Apple retail chief Angela Ahrendts, Apple Watch orders may not be available in stores for a month or longer as the company works to get all pre-orders delivered. Apple is getting orders out rapidly, however, and many customers who had 4 to 6 week shipping dates will be getting their devices tomorrow.
Marvel and Telltale team up for a brand-new game
Telltale, the studio behind Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead adventure games, has partnered with Marvel for a game series due out in 2017. Telltale announced the collaboration in a brief blog post, and details from an event in San Francisco note that it’s a PC and console game (via GameSpot). Other than that, we have the above image and our imaginations.
.@Marvel & @TelltaleGames teaming up for 2017! http://t.co/YW1Q1gT3Uo pic.twitter.com/IXQURK9onF
– Telltale Games (@telltalegames) April 23, 2015
Source: Telltale Games
Watch eSports on ESPN2 for the first time ever this weekend
The final round of the collegiate championship for Heroes of the Storm — Blizzard’s answer to hugely popular MOBA games League of Legends and Dota 2 — will be broadcast live on ESPN2 on Sunday at 6:30PM PT. That’s prime time, baby. This marks the first time that ESPN will air an eSports match on live TV; it hosted the League of Legends finals last year online only, and that stream brought in more viewers than the NBA Finals or the deciding game in the World Series. Also last year, ESPN2 aired a documentary about Dota 2 and ESPN3 hosted an online stream of that game’s championships. Professional gaming is a booming business, with the top title, League of Legends, bringing in an estimated $1 billion in 2014 alone.
It’s smart for ESPN to test the waters with the “Heroes of the Dorm” tournament, ahead of this year’s Dota 2 and League of Legends championships. If it does well, maybe this experiment will convince ESPN president John Skipper that eSports are, in fact, viable for his channel. In September, Skipper had the following to say about eSports: “It’s not a sport, it’s a competition. Chess is a competition. Checkers is a competition. Mostly I’m interested in doing real sports.” Fast forward to this week: The Heroes of the Storm collegiate championships kick off, online-only via ESPN3, at 2:30PM PT on Sunday, and then transition to ESPN2 for the final round at 6:30PM PT.
Via: VentureBeat
Source: Heroes of the Dorm
Android customization – install Android apps remotely using ADB from your PC
As we finish up our look at ADB in our Android customization series, we want to end with an easy to follow guide on installing apps from your PC. Our previous pieces covered file transfers, screen recording and battery life management.
There is little doubt that one of the best and easiest ways to install apps on your Android devices is through the Google Play Store on your PC. Simply hit the Install or Purchase button and the next time you pick up your phone or tablet, like magic, the app is downloading and installing itself on your device. But what do you do if you download an app to your PC directly from a different source?
Developers are accustomed to having .apk files on their PC, these are the rough equivalent to the .exe files you may be accustomed to on your Windows PC. It is possible for you to get your hands on these .apk files, just check out the latest mobile Humble Bundle for a start.
If you take the time to transfer these .apk files to your Android device, simply ‘double click’ them in your favorite file explorer to install. However, if you do not wish to transfer them, we finally get to the point of today’s post, you can use ADB to install the apps straight from your PC.
Before we get started
To follow along today, you will need a few simple things, first, you will need to have a PC and appropriate USB cable to connect to your Android device. You’ll need to have the Android SDK and ADB up and running, which we’ve talked about before.
Finally, you will need an Android app, in .apk format, saved on your PC. As mentioned, alternative app stores like Humble Bundle are an excellent place to get safe .apk files. Please do be careful where you get your app from, installing from unknown sources bypasses the Google Play Store’s malicious content checks.
Install Android apps on your device from your PC
As mentioned above, get your Android device connected to your PC, fire up ADB and enter adb devices to make sure everything is initialized. Make sure you also have an Android app saved to your PC, of course.
In your ADB command/Terminal window, enter the following command replacing the file locations and app name for your .apk file.
adb install C:UsersJonathanDesktopRavenswordShadowlands-android-1.5-1379707667.apk
Or, perhaps rename your .apk to something a little easier to type out. That, and if you place the file in the same folder as your adb.exe, you can really clean up the entry, does adb install ravensword.apk look a little easier to you?
Depending on the size of your .apk file, things may look like they’ve frozen up for a short while, you can see that my 500MB file took almost two minutes to get through.
You will also notice that your Android device will not go through the normal notifications of an app install or update. Just hang on for your PC to report success, then go ahead and enjoy your newly installed application.
What’s next
You’ve been warned: Please do keep in mind that by installing .apk files from other sources, you are at the mercy of the developer and any persons providing you the Android app. I won’t bore you with a full blown disclaimer, but do keep your wits about you when searching for Android app files, and no, we will not assume any responsibility for any problems you may encounter by installing a bad app.
All the doom and gloom out of the way, there are tons of great apps that do not live in the Google Play Store. If you’ve been following along our own Gary Sims, you may even have your very own Android app in development.
As this is our last time planning to look at ADB, please be certain to check out Google’s full list of options and available functions in this powerful developer’s tool for Android.
Next week
As with most all of the ADB functionality we covered in our Android customization series, we assume that most of you will not need to use this developer tool in place of the more standard options out there. But when you do need this tool, at least you know what to do. Next week we will change gears entirely, we would like to take a look at security. Not just device security, we want to specifically look at how to enable two-factor authentication on your Google Account, using your Android device, of course.
What is your favorite (legal) place to get great (safe) Android .apk files?
Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 gets updated to Android Lollipop 5.0.2
When it comes to updating to new versions of Android, Samsung generally isn’t the quickest OEM on the block. Thankfully, this situation has changed some with Lollipop, at least as far as many of their flagship handsets are concerned. Unfortunately, tablets have been a completely different matter, with Samsung being much slower to push out Lollipop, and has only recently started introducing 5.1 to its tablet range. With that in mind, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 (Wi-Fi) is the latest tablet to get Google’s sweet treat, moving from KitKat over to Android 5.0.2.
As with other Samsung devices, the aesthetics here don’t change that much since TouchWiz hides the majority of the Material Design improvements that Lollipop brings. Of course, that doesn’t mean there aren’t any visible changes.
.rvs_wrapper
width: 335px;
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float: left;
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float: right;
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width: 100%;
.rvs_wrapper.align_center
text-align: center;
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float: none;
display: inline-block;
vertical-align: top;
.rvs_wrapper.cbc-latest-videos:not(.align_none) ul li:nth-child(2n+1)
clear: both;
.rvs_title
font-weight: 600 !important;
margin: 0 !important;
.rvs_wrapper.align_right .rvs_title
padding-left: 20px;
.rvs_title a
font-family: ‘Roboto Condensed’;
color: #3a3a3a;
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padding-top: 10px;
.rvs_wrapper.align_left.cbc-latest-videos ul li,
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padding: 0 15px 0 0;
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padding: 0 0 0 15px;
float: right;
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padding: 0 7px;
.rvs_wrapper.cbc-latest-videos ul li > a
font-weight: 400;
.rvs_wrapper.cbc-latest-videos ul li > a .yt-thumbnail
margin-bottom: 0;
@media only screen and (max-width : 480px)
.rvs_wrapper
width: 100%;
text-align: center;
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padding: 0 7px;
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vertical-align: top;
You’ll still find a new multitasking menu, improved notifications, and a variety of speed and performance improvements when compared to KitKat. On the downside, Lollipop also brings its share of new bugs, many of which are only now being addressed with Android 5.1.
While the OTA is starting to rollout now to select regions, it could still be days, weeks, or even longer before it rolls out to everyone. For those that don’t want to wait any longer than they have to, you can also try looking for the update through Samsung Kies.
Anyone manage to get the update yet? If so, did everything go smoothly during and after the update? Let us know in the comments.
Google releases two Project Fi videos to help you check your data usage, manage calls and texts
We’re sure you’ve heard the news by now – Google has launched it’s very own wireless service, Project Fi. Constantly alternating between Sprint and T-Mobile’s networks and Wi-Fi hotspots around the nation, Project Fi aims to give you a viable option if you’re not too keen on signing up with one of the Big Four. While the new wireless service offers a few great features, it can be a little difficult to understand exactly how data plans, talking and texting works on the provider. So to help customers make sense of it all, Google has released two new video guides that should provide some useful information.
The first of which is a guide to checking your data usage. The interesting thing about Project Fi is that you won’t get charged for data you don’t use, unlike most other carriers in the U.S. You pay for a certain amount of mobile data at the beginning of the month, and get reimbursed for the data you didn’t use at the end of the month. So to help folks choose the right data budget on the new service provider, they released this video:
Project Fi: Guide to Checking Data Usage
Another neat feature Project Fi brings to the table is the ability to call and text your friends and family through Hangouts without the need to have your Nexus 6 in-hand. To do so, simply install Hangouts on your Nexus 6, sign in with your Google account attached to the Project Fi network, and make sure you’re signed in to Hangouts on any other device from which you’d like to make calls and send texts. This can get a little confusing for users, which is why Google put out this video:
Project Fi: Guide to Talk & Text Across Devices
More information will likely surface over the next few weeks regarding Project Fi, so we’ll be sure to let you know when we learn more. But for now be sure to head over to our announcement post to get the basics on Google’s new wireless service.
First Apple Watch Deliveries Begin in Australia
It’s now April 24 in Australia, and Australian customers who pre-ordered Apple Watches are beginning to receive their watch deliveries, according to numerous posts on Instagram, Twitter, and various Internet forums, including the MacRumors forums. Unboxing videos and early first impressions should begin trickling out soon.
Image via melfirbank
Customers in other first wave launch countries will begin receiving their shipments as soon as local delivery companies open for the day. After Australia, orders in Hong Kong, China, and Japan will go out, followed by France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Apple Watch orders in the United States will start arriving at approximately 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time.
Apple Watch orders began shipping out earlier this week. Initial shipments seemed to be limited to customers who pre-ordered early, but later in the week, customers who originally had 4 to 6 week shipping estimates were surprised with early shipping times. Apple has said that many customers can expect to see their Apple Watches arrive earlier than expected, but an April 24 delivery date remains in question for some orders, as there are customers who pre-ordered early and have not yet received shipping information.
Apple will not be carrying the Apple Watch in its retail stores tomorrow as orders have been limited to online only, but several high-end fashion boutiques around the world have a limited amount of stock for purchase. These stores are located in Tokyo, London, Paris, Berlin, and Milan.
Developers Who Won Apple Watch Purchase Lottery Receiving Emails With Order Instructions [iOS Blog]
Earlier this week, Apple began sending out emails to iOS developers, offering them a chance to purchase a 42mm Apple Watch Sport with a Blue Sport Band guaranteed to ship by April 28, 2015. Apple had a limited number of devices to provide to developers, and used a lottery system to determine who would get the chance to purchase one of the available watches.
Developers who registered for a chance to buy one of the watches with a guaranteed delivery date and won the lottery have just begun receiving emails with purchase instructions. Apple is asking winners to complete a purchase by 5:00 p.m. local time on April 27 to take advantage of the shipping date.
It’s not known why Apple only offered 42mm Apple Watch Sport models with Blue Sport bands, but it can be assumed that the combination may have been one that the company had an ample supply of. Apple is providing developers with watches in an effort to give them devices to test Apple Watch apps on.
A guaranteed April 28 ship date means developers who purchase one of the available devices will receive an Apple Watch just a few days after customers who pre-ordered receive theirs.
Hulu’s Turner deal gives it Adventure Time, Venture Bros. and more
Hulu is about to be your go-to destination to catch up on the adventures of the Venture Bros. and Aqua Teen Hunger Force. The streaming service announced a deal with Turner Broadcasting that adds Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, TBS and TNT titles to its library on May 1. The animation-heavy agreement brings Adventure Time, Dexter’s Laboratory, Robot Chicken, Black Jesus, NTSF:SD:SUV and other shows from Cartoon Network. TNT dramas The Last Ship and Murder in the First will eventually be followed by additional shows from TNT and TBS. Kid-friendly Cartoon Network shows will be available ad-free in the Hulu Kids section. The service recently secured ratings juggernaut CSI and animated series South Park to help it compete against Netflix and Amazon Instant Video.
Source: Hulu
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