The next iPhone’s Force Touch reportedly trumps that on the Watch

Many expect the upcoming iPhone to include a pressure-sensitive screen, but just what will it entail? Will it be an upsized version of what you saw on the Apple Watch? Not by a long shot, if you ask 9to5Mac. Its sources claim that the future handset is using a next-generation version of Force Touch that recognizes three dimensions of input, not just the existing two. Reportedly nicknamed 3D Touch Display, it’ll respond to multiple levels of pressure (a deeper press will trigger different functions, for instance) and allow app makers a whole new level of functionality. Just what Apple will do with this rumored feature is still up in the air, but you’ll only have to wait a few days to get the full scoop.

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Cellphones, Mobile, Apple

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Source:
9to5Mac

Tags: 3dtouchdisplay, apple, forcetouch, iphone, iphone6s, iphone6splus, mobilepostcross, pressure, pressuresensitive, smartphone

Apple Decorating Bill Graham Civic Auditorium Ahead of Next Week’s Event

Ahead of next week’s big iPhone-centric event, Apple has begun decorating the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco where the event will take place. As shared by several Twitter and Instagram users, signs with the Apple logo are beginning to go up, and several Apple-branded flags are flying.

A white Apple logo with rainbow-colored accents against a blue background is shown on one wall of the auditorium, shared by CBS/CNET photographer James Martin. The same design was seen on the invitations for the event and was created to mimic Siri’s look on the Apple Watch and iOS 9.

Security is heavy around the auditorium, with security guards and police officers guarding signage that’s being put up, according to someone on site who spoke to MacRumors and provided pictures. Some of the security guards are now wearing outfits with Apple logos on them.

The colorful Apple logos are accompanied several flags surrounding the auditorium, featuring a white Apple logo on a dark blue background. Swarms of workers are all over the perimeter of the auditorium, running cables up walls into the interior and building out the infrastructure needed for the event.

Along with the flags, Apple has decorated light posts in the area with matching Siri-style banners in a dark blue shade. The decorations for the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium are already beginning to outshine decorations and signage used at past events, and Apple is likely to continue adding more over the course of the weekend.

Apple’s upcoming Wednesday, September 9 event is expected to be huge. The auditorium where it’s being held seats 7,000, and the company may be using some of the available space to demo products that will be released. The event will see the debut of an unprecedented number of devices, including the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, the new Apple TV, the iPad mini 4, and the iPad Pro.

Apple is also expected to introduce additional Apple Watch Sport materials, perhaps in gold, and new Sport bands. An iPad keyboard may also make an appearance at the event, and we’ll also get release details for iOS 9 and watchOS 2.

MacRumors will provide live coverage of Apple’s event, through a live blog on MacRumors.com and on our MacRumorsLive Twitter account.

(Thanks, John!)

A survey of Apple’s input innovations

With Force Touch rumored to arrive on the new iPhones next week, let’s take a look back at some of Apple’s other notable input methods. Cupertino has always offered a unique spin on the norm, whether it’s a mouse with no buttons, multi-touch gestures or a trackpad for your desktop. The pressure-sensitive Force Touch tech that debuted earlier this year on the Apple Watch and new MacBook is just the latest in a line of input innovations from Apple, a collection that’s sure to grow in the months to come. Slideshow-317324

[Lead image credit: Janitors/Flickr]

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Cellphones, Desktops, Laptops, Peripherals, Apple

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Tags: apple, forcetouch, gestures, input, magicmouse, magictrackpad, mightymouse, multitouch, touchid

MacRumors Giveaway: Win a Nomad Pod or Nomad Stand for Apple Watch

For this week’s giveaway, we’ve teamed up with Nomad to give five MacRumors readers a chance to win either a Nomad Pod or a Nomad Stand for the Apple Watch.

The Nomad Pod is a compact Apple Watch stand and charger that includes an 1800 mAh battery for charging your Apple Watch even when away from home. The two-piece Pod includes a handy hidden cord wrap and a brushed aluminum cover held in place by magnets. It ships with a keychain-sized Nomad Micro-USB cable to keep it charged, and a rubber backing on the bottom keeps it secure on any surface.

The palm-sized Nomad Pod works with all open-band Apple Watches and it is available in Space Gray or Silver for $59.95.

Nomad’s Stand for Apple Watch is a precision machined aluminum charging stand that has a svelte curved design. Also available in either Space Gray or Silver, the Nomad Stand is an ultra simple stand with a clever non-visible side channel for hiding the Apple Watch cable.

It includes a non-slip rubber foot at the bottom to prevent it from moving around on a desk or a nightstand, and its design lets it work with all of Apple’s watch bands, from the Sport Band to the Link Bracelet. It retails for $69.95.

Five MacRumors readers will be able to win either a Nomad Stand or a Nomad Pod, with each winner being able to pick the product of their choice. To enter to win, use the Rafflecopter widget below and enter your email address. Your email address will not be given to any will be used solely for contact and shipping purposes.

You can earn additional entries by subscribing to our weekly newsletter, subscribing to our YouTube channel, following us on Twitter, or visiting the MacRumors Facebook page. Due to the complexities of international laws regarding giveaways, only U.S. residents who are 18 years of age or older are eligible to enter.

a Rafflecopter giveawayhttp://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.jsThe contest will run from today (September 4) at 11:00 a.m. Pacific time through 11:00 a.m. Pacific time on September 11. The winners will be chosen randomly on September 11 and will be contacted by email. The winners have 48 hours to respond and provide a shipping address. The prizes will be shipped to the winners for free.

Real-Time Motion Capture Firm Faceshift May Have Been Acquired by Apple

Based on a few whispers and some research, MacRumors believes that Swiss real-time motion capture firm Faceshift may have been acquired by Apple in recent weeks. Faceshift has been working with game and animation studios, as well as smaller companies, on technology to quickly and accurately capture facial expressions using 3D sensors, including releasing Faceshift Studio software with plugins for animation software like Maya and Unity. More recently, the company has been working toward consumer-facing software such as a Skype plugin that would support real-time avatars for video chat.

Faceshift was launched in 2011 out of the Computer Graphics and Geometry Laboratory at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne and has shown off some impressive demos of its technology in a number of settings. In mid-2013, the company brought on industry veteran Doug Griffin, formerly of Industrial Light & Magic and Electronic Arts, to head up a San Francisco office.

Faceshift has clearly been acquired by another company in recent weeks, as noted in a Swiss company registry filing from August 19 showing the three original corporate directors having stepped down as of August 14 and being replaced by Baker & McKenzie mergers and acquisitions attorney Martin Frey. Frey does not appear to have any direct links with Apple, but Apple has frequently used Baker & McKenzie’s services in a number of countries around the world, including management of some of Apple’s Swiss trademarks.
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Buyer’s Guide: Discounts on iPad Mini 3, iPad Air 2, MacBook Air, and More

With Labor Day fast approaching, retailers are offering great discounts on a wide range of Apple products, from the iPad mini 3 and iPad Air 2 to the MacBook Air and Retina MacBook Pro.

If you’ve been waiting for a sale to pick up a laptop or a tablet, now is the time to buy. Many products are at the lowest prices we’ve seen, or close to it. We’ve also rounded up some deals on accessories and we’ve highlighted a list of popular apps and games that are on sale this week.

Just a reminder: Apple’s Back to School promotion is still going on both in stores and online, with Apple offering a free pair of Beats Solo2 headphones with the purchase of an eligible Mac. Eligible Macs include the iMac, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, MacBook, and Mac Pro.

iPad Air 2

Best Buy is discounting its entire iPad Air 2 lineup this week by up to $100, so now is a great time to purchase one of Apple’s larger iPads. The iPad Air 2 is not going to be upgraded next week, making it safe to purchase now.

The biggest discounts are on the higher-capacity models, with the 128GB Cellular iPad Air 2 discounted by $100, dropping the price to $729.99. That price is available on the Gold, Silver, and Space Gray models.
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New Steve Jobs doc examines the myth of the man who made Apple

Director Alex Gibney wraps up his latest documentary, Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine, with an apt encapsulation of the Apple co-founder’s conflicting persona: “He had the focus of a monk, without the empathy.” Jobs, who passed away in 2011 of pancreatic cancer, was the genius who transformed Apple into a pioneer of the PC era; and was then kicked out of his own company before returning to revolutionize the way we listen to music and use phones. But he was also a man who, in the pursuit of fortune, infamously ran away from his responsibility as a father, and is generally known for being a tyrant. So how do you reconcile these two extremes?

Gibney’s doc (available today on iTunes and other streaming services) doesn’t settle on an answer, but throughout its two-hour runtime, he explores what made Jobs tick, and what made millions of consumers admire him. And while The Man in the Machine covers plenty of familiar territory — how many times do we need to see the Apple origin story, really? — Gibney still manages to give us fresh insight into Jobs through newly unearthed footage and interviews.

Gibney says he was driven to make the film after seeing the widespread outpouring of grief for Jobs following his death at age 56. Though Gibney himself was an Apple customer who fully bought into the lifestyle espoused by Jobs, he was still baffled by the reverence for Jobs’ passing — normally something we see in connection with the deaths of notable artists and musicians. For as brilliant as he was, Jobs was still just a businessman, after all.

The Man in the Machine begins by painting Jobs as a young man quick to see the commercial potential of the technology sector. Jobs’ earliest foray into business was selling Blue Boxes — devices used to trick older phone lines into giving free calls — which were elegantly designed by Apple’s other famous co-founder, Steve Wozniak. While this venture was short-lived (mostly because it was very illegal), it stands as evidence of a rebellious Jobs — one who didn’t mind skirting the rules even at a young age.
A story recounted by Wozniak also gives us another look at that brazen business attitude:

For one of their first projects together, Jobs and Wozniak developed the game Breakout for Atari. Wozniak was paid $350 for the game, out of the initial $750 Atari initially offered. But what he didn’t realize was that Jobs was also paid a $5,000 bonus due to the efficiency of Wozniak’s design. Jobs didn’t tell Wozniak about that extra money (he also went on to take most of the credit for Breakout). In a clip played during the film, you can see the anguish and disappointment in Wozniak’s eyes as he recounts the tale of deception. Wozniak, for the record, said he would have given Jobs the money if asked, but it was the fact that Jobs lied to him that hurt the most.

The Man in the Machine’s most affecting and illuminating moment occurs during an interview with Bob Belleville, a former Apple engineer from the original Mac team. He describes a fairly demanding work environment, where everyone slaved around the clock to get the Mac up and running. That job eventually cost Belleville his marriage and his relationship with his children. But he also had a special connection with Jobs — they traveled to Japan together several times and worked closely for years. Belleville’s dueling mixture of love and underlying contempt for his former boss are plainly visible when, in tears, he reads a eulogy he wrote for Jobs on camera. There’s been plenty written about Jobs’ death, but Belleville’s tribute is by far the single most emotional response to his passing I’ve seen yet.

Perhaps the greatest paradox of Jobs was his devotion to Zen Buddhism, which conflicted with his increasingly massive ego and ruthless business tactics. The film features footage of Jobs’ Zen teacher, Kobun Otogawa, who noted that Jobs desperately wanted to become a Buddhist monk at several points in his life. Otogawa instead encouraged Jobs to bring Zen ideals into his work. At one point, Otogawa recounts a night where an anguished Jobs came to him soaking wet from the rain, looking for guidance. They go for a walk and end up sitting in a bar, where Jobs shows him a component from an early Mac, which he described as a form of enlightenment.

“His job was to make products,” Gibney said during a Q&A. “Fuck everything else.”

What really separates The Man in the Machine from most other Jobs biographies is its layered approach to the film’s subject. “It’s not about facts, it’s about texture,” Gibney said. As someone who’s directed and produced plenty of acclaimed documentaries in his time, including the war docs No End in Sight and Taxi to the Dark Side, Gibney disagrees with critics who say his films should just be a list of facts. For example, the film shows Jobs arguing with SEC investigators over a stock-backdating scandal in previously unseen deposition footage. On paper, Jobs’ responses might seem tame, but actually seeing his expressions and flippant attitude tells an entirely different story.

Like any effective religious figurehead, Jobs managed to tap into consumers’ capacity for brand devotion.

And, if you were wondering whether Gibney drew any parallels between the cult of Apple and Scientology, the subject of his last film, Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief, the answer is a definitive yes: “There is this feeling … there is a passion for this person and the products that any criticism can’t be tolerated,” Gibney said. “Can’t we discuss how pitifully paid the people are in China [who build Apple products]?”

Like any effective religious figurehead, Jobs managed to tap into consumers’ capacity for brand devotion, an element that gave Apple products a bit of an extra allure. The Mac wasn’t just a computer; the iPod wasn’t just a music player; the iPhone wasn’t just another smartphone — they existed to make your life more complete.

In the end, the same could be said for Jobs: He became a mythical product of his own invention. He wasn’t just a man and he wasn’t just a savvy tech innovator. He was a god — cold, distant and forever adored.

[Photo credits: Magnolia Pictures]

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Apple

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Tags: AlexGibney, apple, Documentaries, SteveJobs, TheManinTheMachine

‘Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine’ Documentary Debuts Today in Theaters and on VOD

The new documentary Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine today sees its wide release into theaters and onto video on demand platforms. The film first debuted at SXSW in March and met a bit of controversy thanks to its depiction of Jobs as a merciless force, with less time spent on his greater contributions to Apple and his impact on the world. Subsequently, Apple senior executive Eddie Cue called the film “an inaccurate and mean-spirited view of my friend” and “not a reflection of the Steve I knew.”

Now that the film has seen a slightly wider release in critic screenings before its launch today, a few more opinions have been gathered on the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes. The film currently sits at a 75% with 30 fresh and 10 rotten reviews, with an overall consensus calling the film “absorbing” but lacking any deep understanding of Jobs himself. The movie’s theatrical run is pretty limited to start, with it only hitting 65 screens in 50 markets, according to Deadline. The usual cities of New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco will more heavily serve viewing of the documentary.

Fortunately, Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine is seeing a simultaneous theatrical and VOD release. Users can watch the movie at home on services like iTunes, VUDU, Xbox Video, and The PlayStation Store. Its price varies drastically between each service, with the cheapest HD rental coming from iTunes for $4.99 and the highest option coming from VUDU for an $8.99 HDX version of the film.