Apple Shares 2017 Holiday Gift Guide
Apple today updated its website to add a holiday gift guide, recommending Apple products for people to purchase for friends and family this holiday season. This year’s gift guide is bedecked with tiny people and Apple devices displaying holiday scenes.
The flagship iPhone X, priced at starting $999, is front and center the gift guide, with Apple also highlighting the Apple Watch Series 3 models, the iPad Pro, the MacBook Pro, and the 4K Apple TV.
Accessories for each product are listed below each item, with Apple recommending things like AirPods, iPhone X phone cases, Apple Watch bands, the Apple Pencil, Beats Studio3 headphones, and more.
Several third party accessories are also shared on the page, including Sphero’s R2-D2 robotic droid, a new DJI Mavic Pro in an exclusive Alpine White color, the Lifeprint Photo and Video Printer, Belkin’s Boost Up Wireless Charging Pad, and the CliqueFie Selfie Stick.
Even more accessories are highlighted in a separate “More Gifts” section, with Apple sharing suggestions on accessories at a range of price points and for several different ages.
Every year, Apple offers an extended return period during the holidays, and as of today, the new return period is in effect. Most products and accessories purchased between November 15 and December 25, 2017, will be eligible for return until January 8, 2018 in countries that include the United States, Australia, the UK, Canada, Germany, France, Sweden, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, and Japan. Apple also offers free two-day shipping on all purchases.
Apple will likely be offering a Black Friday sale on Friday, November 24, so if you’re planning to buy an Apple product from Apple, it could be worthwhile to wait. Last year, Apple offered customers free Apple Store gift cards worth up to $150 with the purchase of select products.
Tag: Apple gift guide
Discuss this article in our forums
Belkin Debuts 36W USB-C Car Charger That Offers Fast Charging for iPhone X, 8, and 8 Plus
Belkin today announced the launch of a new 36W USB-C car charger, which is able to provide fast charging capabilities for the iPhone X, the iPhone 8, and the iPhone 8 Plus. All three of those devices support a fast charging feature that allows them to be charged to 50 percent battery life in 30 minutes.
Priced at $29.99, Belkin’s new car charger accessory does not include a USB-C to Lightning cable, which is required to make it work. Apple sells USB-C to Lightning cables at prices starting at $25. If you don’t already own a USB-C to Lightning cable, it brings the total price of the Belkin Charger to $55.
In addition to being able to fast charge the iPhone, the 36W Car Charger can also be used to provide power to iPads and 12-inch MacBook models. It also works with MacBook Pro models, but those machines typically charge using 61W or 87W Power Adapters.
The USB-C Car Charger is available exclusively from Belkin.com and Apple.com, though it isn’t yet showing up on Apple’s site just yet as it’s newly released.
Tag: Belkin
Discuss this article in our forums
Apple Releases Safari Technology Preview 44 With Bug Fixes and Feature Improvements
Apple today released a new update for Safari Technology Preview, the experimental browser Apple first introduced more than a year ago in March of 2016. Apple designed the Safari Technology Preview to test features that may be introduced into future release versions of Safari.
Safari Technology Preview release 44 includes bug fixes and feature improvements for Image Bitmap, Web API, CSS, Rendering, web Inspector, Web Driver, Media, CSS Grid, Security, and Extensions. Today’s update also adds Conic Gradients and enables the Payment Request feature by default.
With Safari 11 now available in macOS High Sierra, Apple is providing two versions of Safari Technology Preview, one for macOS Sierra users and one for those using macOS High Sierra.
The Safari Technology Preview update is available through the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store to anyone who has downloaded the browser. Full release notes for the update are available on the Safari Technology Preview website.
Apple’s aim with Safari Technology Preview is to gather feedback from developers and users on its browser development process. Safari Technology Preview can run side-by-side with the existing Safari browser and while designed for developers, it does not require a developer account to download.
Tag: Safari Technology Preview
Discuss this article in our forums
How to watch and what to expect from The Game Awards on December 7
The Geoff Keighley-produced and hosted video game awards show, succinctly titled The Game Awards, has quickly become one of the most recognized and star-studded industry events in its short history. The fourth annual show is set for December 7 at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. Rest assured, though, you don’t have to be in attendance to get in on the action. Here’s how to watch and what to expect from The Game Awards.
How to watch
As we mentioned, The Game Awards have become incredibly popular in a short amount of time, and that’s represented by its streaming options. For the second straight year, Twitter will live-stream the show worldwide. The two-hour awards show kicks off at 5:30 p.m. PT. Alongside the stream, Twitter will have user polls, live comments, and continuous updates. To be a part of the conversation, Twitter will also give users who tweet using the hashtag #TheGameAwards a special event emoji.
Beyond Twitter, the show will also be hosted on other streaming services, including YouTube and Twitch.
What to expect
The Game Awards has 29 different award categories, each with five to six nominees for a grand total of 102 games and people up for awards. Naturally, many will care to see which game takes home “game of the year” honors. In what has easily been one of the best years for games in quite some time, this award is perhaps surprisingly easy to predict. Persona 5, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, and Horizon Zero Dawn have all proved to critical and commercial hits, but it’s hard to see any of those games besting The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild or Super Mario Odyssey.
You have the power to prove us wrong though, as you can vote for your favorites in each of the award categories via The Game Awards site, through Facebook messenger, and Twitter DMs.
Please, though, vote for Cuphead for “best art direction” and “best score/music.”
In addition to celebrating the best games of the year, also expect some new information for upcoming games. At the 2016 show, legendary game developer Hideo Kojima showed off a new trailer for his mysterious and fascinating upcoming title Death Stranding.
Editors’ Recommendations
- ‘The Lion and the Wolf’ shatters ‘Game of Thrones’ viewership record
- Just like death, we don’t know when IO Interactive’s new ‘Hitman’ is coming
- The 10 best Nintendo Switch games you can buy today
- HBO follows ‘Game of Thrones’ season 7 with new ‘Game Revealed’ series
- Here’s everything we know about ‘Middle-earth: Shadow of War’
The $180 Nokia Steel HR hybrid smartwatch is back, but numbers are limited
Remember Withings? The French health and fitness technology company was acquired by Nokia in 2016, and at the beginning of this year the decision was made to get rid of the Withings name in favor of a complete Nokia rebrand. The reason, Nokia said, is that its name is better known around the world. On the list of products it would rebrand was the Withings Steel HR hybrid smartwatch, but the device itself was held back from release after a number failed quality control checks.
Nokia has apparently cured the problems, and the Steel HR with Nokia branding is available for pre-order through Nokia’s own website. It costs $180, or 170 British pounds, but if you want one this year, we suggest you don’t think too long about buying one. Nokia warns the pre-order supplies are limited, without going into detail about how long they’re expected to last, or if any particular models are more plentiful than others.
The Steel HR is the more technically capable sister watch to the Nokia Steel, a rebranded version of the Withings Activité Steel. The primary difference is the inclusion of a heart rate monitor, and an accompanying digital display on the watch face. The heart rate tracker provides continuous monitoring while exercising, and at-a-glance data is shown on the small display. It also shows other fitness-related data, including calories burned and distance traveled, plus certain notifications sent from the Bluetooth-linked smartphone.
All these metrics were previously only visible in the Nokia Health Mate app, which has also been upgraded for use with the Steel HR watch, showing more comprehensive workout data based on your heart rate. In addition to fitness, the Steel HR will track your sleep if you wear it at night, and has a smart alarm to wake you up during a light sleep stage. The internal battery returns 25 days of use before needing a recharge, and the device has water resistance to 50 meters, making it suitable for swimming.
Nokia offers a choice of white and black body colors, and in either 36mm or 40mm watch sizes, plus you can choose between leather, silicone, or woven straps in several colors. If you pre-order now, and are lucky to get one of the first models, it should arrive in December.
Editors’ Recommendations
- Nokia Go review
- Sleek Nokia Steel activity-tracking smartwatch can now be yours for $70
- Everything you need to know about Nokia’s return to smartphones
- Nokia 6 vs. Moto G5 Plus
- Nokia 8 vs. iPhone 7: Can HMD’s Android flagship beat Apple’s aging iPhone?
Razer updates its killer BlackWidow keyboard with dust and splash resistance
Razer said on Tuesday, November 14 that it updated its BlackWidow Ultimate mechanical keyboard with resistance to water and dust. Slated to be available worldwide in the fourth quarter of 2017, the new model will join a long line of BlackWidow-branded mechanical keyboards released since 2010. Just in 2016 alone, Razer introduced five versions of its popular keyboard for gamers spanning from a BlackWidow Ultimate update to the BlackWidow X Chroma edition.
“We’ve never stopped making improvements to our gaming keyboards,” says Min-Liang Tan, Razer co-founder and CEO. “The Razer BlackWidow Ultimate is now more durable than ever and our first mechanical keyboard to incorporate water- and dust-resistant features.”
The version slated to arrive this quarter is IP54 rated. The “5” means the keyboard is protected against dust, which in turn indicates that it’s not completely sealed. Simply put, harmful dust particles won’t collect within the device to a point that normal operation is disrupted. Meanwhile, the “4” means the keyboard’s enclosure is protected against splashing water from any direction, but there’s no saving this keyboard if it’s thrown into the toilet or a pool.
Razer didn’t mention any other revisions outside the keyboard’s new IP54 certification. The BlackWidow Ultimate is based on the company’s proprietary mechanical “green” switches designed for gaming, promising up to 80 million key presses versus the 50 million presses seen with competing switches. They’re also designed to provide a tactile “clicky” feedback so you know your key command reached its destination. Each switch consists of a high-quality spring requiring 50G of force to actuate.
For this IP54-rated model, each key is lit with a green LED that is customizable through the company’s Synapse desktop software. Here users can set visual effects for the green backlighting including Wave, Ripple, Reactive, Starlight, and others. If you’re looking for RGB illumination, the BlackWidow X Chroma is Razer’s latest RGB-based keyboard effort, and will likely be followed by an updated IP54-based model sometime in 2018.
In addition to the visual effects, owners can use Razer’s software to record macros on the fly. By hitting the FN and F9 buttons together, you can immediately type the keys you want to record, and then press the FN and F9 buttons together again to stop. After that, press the desired key where the macro will be saved and accessed later.
Here are the full specifications of the BlackWidow Ultimate mechanical keyboard:
Switches:
Razer Green
Switch actuation force:
50g
Switch life:
80 million keystrokes
Backlighting:
Green LED
Ports:
1x Microphone jack
1x Headphone jack
1x USB pass-through
USB polling rate:
1,000Hz
Max simultaneous input support:
10 keys
Connection:
USB braided fiber cable
Dimensions:
7.98 (L) x 6.02 
x 2.36 (H) inches
Weight:
0.77 pounds
You can purchase the updated BlackWidow Ultimate mechanical keyboard now through Razer for $110. It will be made available worldwide within the fourth quarter of 2017.
Editors’ Recommendations
- X-Bows Mechanical Ergonomic Keyboard Prototype hands-on review
- Logitech G fools your boss by packing PC gaming hardware in office peripherals
- It’s no coincidence HP’s Omen X gaming laptop arrives after the eclipse
- The monstrous ROG G703 Asus laptop could easily chew through your PC games
- EVGA SC17 1080 review
Spend for both commodities and causes with social impact app Beam
Spending for a commodity doesn’t mean you can’t also spend for a cause. And now, it’s easier than ever to spend for both simultaneously thanks to social impact app Beam. On Wednesday, November 15, the app officially moved out of its beta phase and into the public domain, making its debut as the “first social impact app to turn everyday retail experiences into opportunities for social good.”
Beam seeks to empower users to donate not only their own money, but that of corporations as well. The app shows users partnered retailers in the area (like Dig Inn, Think Coffee, and Pinkberry in New York) supporting relevant causes from education to sustainability to public policy. Every time you visit one of these retailers, you can select an associated nonprofit, and have the company donate directly to that cause.
“We’re living in a very uncertain time, and there’s a huge demand, especially among young people, for more accessible ways to make a tangible difference, and create positive social change,” Beam co-founder Viveka Hulyalkar said. “By turning routine purchases into a free way for users to impact issues they care about, Beam makes every day more meaningful and rewards brands that give back.”
By leveraging Foursquare’s Pilgrim SDK, Beam sends its users push notifications whenever they pay a visit to a partner brand’s store. Once this notification is opened, users will see four retailer-supported nonprofits, and have the opportunity to select the one that most resonates with them. The partner brand will then make a small donation (somewhere between 5 and 25 cents) to the selected nonprofit. And of course, the more you visit a store, the more of an impact you’ll be able to make.
Supported charities currently include Days for Girls, Hudson Guild, Chef’s Collaborative, Family Farm Disaster Fund (supporting farmers displaced by Hurricane Harvey), and International Rescue Committee (providing resources for refugees), though this list is expected to grow (as are partner retailers). While Beam is only available for iOS for the time being, we imagine that you’ll soon be able to find the social impact app on Android as well. You can download Beam for free from the App Store today.
Editors’ Recommendations
- The best Apple Watch apps to download
- Earn rewards as you spend money with the new Drop app
- Apple iPhone X vs. Samsung Galaxy Note 8: The $1,000 question
- The 100 best iPhone apps (October 2017)
- Take to the virtual skies with these free flight simulators
Have you disabled Bixby on your Samsung phone?
Bixby’s been out for a few months at this point, and this is how some of our forum users choose to deal with Samsung’s virtual assistant.
If you’re the owner of a Galaxy S8/S8+ or Note 8, you’ve run into Bixby at least once or twice. Between the left-most home screen and dedicated hardware button, Samsung’s want for users to interact with its AI is quite apparent.
Bixby has proven itself to be surprisingly great for certain tasks, but to no one’s surprise, it still falls behind Google Assistant in other areas. Now that Bixby’s been out in the wild for a few months, we wanted to check back in with some of our forum users to see whether or not you’re still using Bixby.
Here’s what you had to say.
tuckertje01
11-13-2017 01:23 PM“
I have been using Bixby Remapper for a while now, and I love it. I have remapped the button to open gallery instead, but I’m still using Bixby voice commands occasionally.
I also use Button Mapper to have more uses for double click and long press volume up/down buttons. The reason why I chose these apps instead of others like BxActions is that the others require installing using a computer and…Reply
11-13-2017 03:20 PM“
Well, I actually never setup Bixby to begin with so it doesn’t even launch at all when I remap it with BxActions. I even have my Bixby home disabled as well.
Reply
11-13-2017 04:40 PM“
I did it.
It works reliably for me.
I use BK Disabler.
I mapped Google Maps to the button.Note that I also still have Bixby voice activated and use it for just a couple programmed Voice Commands. Not a big fan of Bixby but there are a couple things it can do that I want it for.
Reply
jeetu4444
11-13-2017 07:01 PM“
i used bixby button to activate Google assistant
Reply
With all that said, what about you – Are you still using Bixby on your phone?
Join the conversation in the forums!
Deal: HTC Bolt available for just $200 with coupon code (60% off)
HTC’s running a heavy discount on its Bolt handset from last year, and while the savings might be large, you may want to still hold back.
We’re currently in the best time of year for buying new tech thanks to the numerous savings and promotions that are being run in preparation for the holiday season, and one of the latest companies to follow suit with this is HTC. However, the savings being offered are on a phone you might have forgotten about.
The HTC Bolt was released just about a year ago, and it was one of the most peculiar phones of 2016. It featured a great, metal build, respectable cameras, and shipped with Android Nougat. On the other hand, it also came equipped with a heap of Sprint bloatware, lacked a headphone jack, and used a processor from 2015 (the Snapdragon 810 to be exact).
Of all the issues with the HTC Bolt, one of the biggest was with its price of $600. HTC has since lowered that to $500, but if you buy the phone right now and use the coupon code BOLT200 at checkout, you’ll be able to pick it up for just $200.
$200 is a lot more reasonable than $600 or $500, but even so, make sure to shop around a bit before hopping right on this deal. Devices like the Moto G5S Plus can be purchased for as little as $240 right now, and for $40 extra you’re getting a newer processor, dual-cameras, better chance of being updated to Oreo, and compatibility on all major carriers in the U.S.
With that said, if you’re an HTC fanatic and the Bolt sounds like the phone for you, you can check it out at the link below.
See at HTC
Amazon brings Alexa, and Echo speakers, to Canada
The Echo speakers, and Alexa, are coming to Canada at awesome introductory prices.
After what seems like years smuggling grey market Echoes north of the border and using them with U.S. Amazon accounts (what, I never did that!), Canadians can now safely, and properly, use Amazon’s Echo products with an Alexa assistant that’s optimized for our “w-eh” of talking. Sorry.
Starting December 5, but available for pre-order now, Canadians can order the second-generation Echo, Echo Dot, and Echo Plus. While the prices are slightly higher than their U.S. counterparts, due to exchange rates, introductory prices bring them down to a much more enticing level, and should help spur sales.
- Echo: $129.99 ($99.99 right now)
- Echo Plus: $199.99 ($169.99 right now)
- Echo Dot: $69.99 ($49.99 right now)
Canadian developers and media companies have already commmitted to adding Alexa Skills in the coming days, including CBC, TELUS, theScore, TD Bank and more. Existing smart home services like Logitech Harmony and Philips Hue should also work with the Canadian versions of the Echo out of the box.
Amazon also announced that its Prime Music service is now available in Canada. While it’s not the Music Unlimited offering that aims to rival Spotify and Google Play Music, it offers access to 1 million song at no additional cost as long as you’re a Prime member.
Amazon Echo and Echo Plus review (2017)
See at Amazon
AIVAnet 