Buyer’s Guide: Discounts on Retina iMac, Older MacBooks, Apple Accessories, and More [Mac Blog]
We’re in between Memorial Day and Father’s Day, which means deals less than impressive this week. There are a few sales on iMacs and older MacBooks, so now may be a good time to buy one of those, but if you’re looking for a solid deal on a new iPad or MacBook, you may want to hold out until later this month as retailers will likely be offering Father’s Day discounts.
That said, we’ve gathered up the few deals that are available this week, and we’ve found some solid deals on several Apple accessories. As always, also we’ve rounded up a list of the best apps you can get on the cheap.
iPad Air 2
B&H Photo is offering a small discount on most of its iPad Air 2 models, dropping prices by $30 to $50. With the discount, the 16GB WiFi only iPad Air 2 is priced at $459 and the 64GB model is priced at $549.99. Prices vary somewhat by model, but there are slight discounts to be had.
MacMall is also offering some discounts on iPad Air 2 models, dropping the prices by $30 to $50. With the discount, the 16GB entry-level Wi-Fi only iPad Air 2 is priced at $454, while the Wi-Fi-only 64GB iPad Air 2 is available for $553.
iPad Air
Both Best Buy and B&H Photo have deep discounts on some remaining stock of now-discontinued higher-capacity iPad Air models, as listed below.
– iPad Air Wi-Fi Space Gray 128GB – $529
– iPad Air Cellular Silver 64GB (AT&T) – $499
– iPad Air Cellular Space Gray 64GB (AT&T) – $529
– iPad Air Cellular Silver 128GB (Verizon) – $549
– iPad Air Cellular Space Gray 128GB (Verizon) – $529
iPad mini 3
Amazon has a few iPad mini 3 models available at a low price. The 16GB Silver Wi-Fi only model is available for $328.97, while the 16GB Space Gray Wi-Fi only model is available for $336.
B&H Photo is offering some modest discounts on various iPad mini 3 models, dropping the price by up to $100. The 16GB WiFi + Cellular iPad mini 3 in gold is available for $479 and the 128GB version is available for $649. The 16GB Wi-Fi only version in Silver is available for $329 and the 64GB Wi-Fi model in Silver is available for $429.
Discounts for each model and and color vary, but most models are being offered at a lower price than you’ll find at the Apple Store, and buying from B&H, you won’t have to pay sales tax unless you’re in New York.
iPad mini 2
Best Buy, B&H Photo, and Amazon have remaining stock of now-discontinued higher-capacity iPad mini 2 models, which are a good deal if you’re looking for an iPad mini. Compared to the iPad mini 3, the iPad mini 2 only lacks Touch ID.
– iPad mini Cellular Silver 128GB (AT&T) – $449.99
– iPad mini Cellular Space Gray 128GB (AT&T) – $449.99
– iPad mini Cellular Silver 64GB (AT&T) – $329.99
– iPad mini Cellular Space Gray 64GB (AT&T) – $379.99
– iPad mini Cellular Silver 128GB (Verizon) – $495
– iPad mini Cellular Space Gray 128GB (Verizon) – $534.99
– iPad mini Cellular Space Gray 64GB (Verizon) – $419.99
iMac
– 2014 21.5-inch 1.4GHz/8GB/500GB (Best Buy) (Adorama) – $999, $150 off
– 2013 21.5-inch 2.7GHz/8GB/1TB (Best Buy) (B&H Photo) (Adorama) – $1,199.99, $100 off
– 2013 21.5-inch 2.9GHz/8GB/1TB (Best Buy) – $1,299, $200 off
– 2013 27-inch 3.2GHz/8GB/1TB (Best Buy) – $1499.99, $300 off
– 2013 27-inch 3.4GHz/8GB/1TB (Adorama) – $1,794.99, $204 off
– 2014 27-inch 3.5GHz/8GB/1TB Retina iMac (Best Buy) – $2,099.99, $200 off
– 2015 3.3GHz/8GB/1TB Retina iMac (Best Buy) – $1,799.99, $200 off
Mac mini
– 1.4GHz/4GB/500GB (Best Buy) – $449.99, $50 off
– 2.6GHz/8GB/1TB (Best Buy) – $629.99, $70 off
– 2.8GHz/8GB/1TB (Adorama) – $938, $60 off
MacBook Air
– 2015 11-inch 1.6GHz/4GB/128GB (Adorama) (B&H Photo) – $824.99, $75 off
– 2015 11-inch 1.6GHz/4GB/256GB (Best Buy) (Amazon) (B&H Photo) (Adorama) – $1044.99, $50 off
– 2015 13-inch 1.6GHz/4GB/128GB (Best Buy) (B&H Photo) (Adorama) – $949.99, $150 off
– 2015 13-inch 1.6GHz/4GB/256GB (Best Buy) (Adorama) (B&H PHoto) (MacMall) – $1,139, $60 off
– 2014 11-inch 1.4GHz/4GB/256GB (B&H Photo) – $799, $200 off
– 2014 13-inch 1.4GHz/4GB/128GB (Adorama) – $819, $180 off
– 2014 13-inch 1.4GHz/4GB/256GB (B&H Photo) – $899, $300 off
Retina MacBook Pro
– 2015 13-inch 2.7GHz/8GB/128GB (Best Buy) (Adorama) (B&H Photo) – $1,234.99, $64 off
– 2015 13-inch 2.7GHz/8GB/256GB (Best Buy) (B&H Photo) (MacMall) – $1,424.99, $74 off
– 2015 13-inch 2.9GHz/8GB/512GB (Adorama) (B&H Photo) – $1,699.99 $100 off
– 2015 15-inch 2.2GHz/16GB/256GB (Best Buy) (B&H Photo) (MacMall) – $1,899, $100 off
– 2015 15-inch 2.5GHz/16GB/512GB (Best Buy) (Amazon) (B&H Photo) (MacMall) – $2,374.99, $125 off
– 2014 13-inch 2.6GHz/8GB/128GB (B&H Photo) (Adorama) – $1,129, $170 off
– 2014 13-inch 2.6GHz/8GB/256GB (B&H Photo) – $1,229, $259 off
– 2014 13-inch 2.8GHz/8GB/512GB (B&H Photo) – $1,399 $400 off
– 2014 15-inch 2.2GHz/16GB/256GB (Adorama) (B&H Photo) – $1,749, $150 off
– 2014 15-inch 2.5GHz/16GB/512GB (B&H Photo) – $1,999, $500 off
Apps
There are quite a few apps that are on sale at discounted prices or available for free for a limited time. We’ll highlight a few here, but make sure to check out our sister site AppShopper for a complete list.
Warhammer Quest is available for free, down from $4.99. Card Crawl, a solitare-style Dungeon Crawler, is available for $0.99, down from $1.99. Puzzle game Cubic! is available for free, down from $0.99.
Photo editing app Enlight is available for $4.99, down from $5.99. Board game Talisman is available for $0.99, down from $6.99. Tower defense game Sentinel 4: Dark Star is available for free, down from $2.99.
Action RPG Slayin was named Apple’s App of the Week, so it will be free to download until next Thursday when a new app is picked.
Apple Accessories
Adorama is offering mail-in rebates on a wide variety of Apple products like Airport Extremes and AppleCare, dropping the price by up to $40. To claim the rebate, you need to purchase an eligible product and then fill out the rebate form. Some eligible products and their rebates:
– Apple TV, $15 off
– 85W MagSafe 2 Power Adapter, $20 off
– Airport Extreme, $20 off
– 2TB Time Capsule, $30 off
– 3TB Time Capsule, $40 off
The Beats Pill 2.0 Speaker is available for $40 off from Best Buy. Groupon has Apple 5W USB Power Adapters available for $9.99 for one or $17.99 for two.
CrossOver Mac software from Codeweavers is available for 40 percent off with the code REMEMBERED. JBL is offering up to 40 percent off plus free two day shipping on its products. eBay has $50 iTunes gift cards for $40 this week.
The Waloo Desktop Charging Cradle for Apple Watch is available for $14.99 from Groupon, down from $29.99. iHome’s Car Charger is available for $14.99 from Groupon, down from $29.99. The Touchfire multi-purpose iPad case is available for 20% off with coupon code DG2015.
urBeats in-ear headphones are available for $45 from DailySteals. DailySteals also has Apple Earpods for $10, down from $29. Target is offering 20 percent off the Fitbit Flex.
MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors.
BlackBerry Considering Releasing Android Smartphone [iOS Blog]
BlackBerry is considering releasing an Android-based smartphone for the first time in an attempt to regain market share and promote its cross-platform BES12 device management system, according to Reuters. The report claims the embattled Waterloo, Ontario-based smartphone maker will likely release an Android-based slider device with both a touchscreen and physical keyboard in the fall.
“BlackBerry Chief Executive John Chen is banking on the company’s new device management system, BES12, that allows corporate and government clients to not only manage BlackBerry devices on their internal networks, but also devices powered by Android, Apple’s iOS platform and Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system.”
BlackBerry, once a pioneer and market leader in the smartphone industry, has struggled to compete with the iPhone and several popular Android-based smartphones over the past eight years, and now has less than 1 percent market share among mobile operating systems. Comparatively, iOS and Android combined for 96.3% market share in the fourth quarter of 2014, while Windows Phone powered 3 percent of devices.
BlackBerry hopes to fill a niche in the smartphone market by releasing a device with both a large touchscreen and physical keyboard, aimed at customers that still prefer using the iconic BlackBerry keyboard but want access to the expansive Android app ecosystem. Nevertheless, the company ensures that the move to Android does not necessarily signal the end of the road for BlackBerry 10 devices.
“We don’t comment on rumors and speculation, but we remain committed to the BlackBerry 10 operating system, which provides security and productivity benefits that are unmatched,” a BlackBerry spokesperson told Reuters. BlackBerry 10 software was released in January 2013 and powers devices such as the BlackBerry Z10, BlackBerry Q10, BlackBerry Passport, BlackBerry Z30 and BlackBerry Q5.
Google Improving Chrome for OS X Performance to Better Rival Safari [Mac Blog]
Google senior software engineer Peter Kasting this week announced that his team has been working to address Chrome for OS X battery hog complaints by improving the performance of the browser on Mac, especially in areas where Safari appears to do better (via iPhoneHacks).
Chrome for OS X has received multiple under the hood improvements that should result in faster performance and longer battery life while browsing. The browser, for example, now requires significantly less CPU usage when loading the Google search results page and various other websites.
The other technical changes to Chrome for OS X are outlined as follows:
“The team has been working on addressing this; here are some cases that have recently been improved on trunk:
Before: Renderers for background tabs had the same priority as for foreground tabs.
Now: Renderers for background tabs get a lower priority, reducing idle wakeups on various perf test, in some cases by significant amounts (e.g. 50% on one test).Before: On a Google search results page, using Safari’s user agent to get the same content that Safari would, Chrome incurs ~390 wakes over 30s and 0.3% CPU usage vs. Safari’s 120 wakes over 30s and 0.1% CPU usage.
Now: 66% reduction in both timer firings and CPU use. Chrome is now incurring ~120 wakes over 30s and 0.1% CPU use, on par with Safari.Before: On capitalone.com, Chromium incurs ~1010 wakeups over 30s vs. Safari’s ~490 wakes.
Now: ~30% reduction in timer firings. Chrome is now incurring ~721 wakeups over 30s.Before: On amazon.com, Chromium incurs 768 wakups over 30s and consumes ~0.7% CPU vs. Safari’s 312 wakes over 30s and ~0.1% CPU.
Now: ~59% reduction in timer firings and ~70% reduction in CPU use. Chrome is now incurring ~316 wakeups over 30s, and 0.2% CPU use, on par with Safari at 312 wakes, and 0.1% CPU use.”
The changes should first appear in Chromium before going live on Chrome for OS X.
Use Skitch on iOS to annotate pages without leaving Safari
Skitch is one of the most popular productivity apps, both on mobile and the desktop, for a reason: it makes it easy to snap, mark up and share just about anything, like PDFs. If you’ve been using it on iOS, there’s now a reason to like the application even more. Thanks to a new version, released earlier today, you can use Skitch to annotate web pages within Safari, eliminating the need to manually capture a screenshot and then having to open up the app. To install you simply have to tap the Share button while in the browser and add Skitch as part of your actions, which will then let you see it next to Copy, Print and others. It’s basically an extension, so think of it as a way to save you a few taps whenever you’re trying to express something important — as shown by the example above.
Filed under: Cellphones, Misc, Software, Mobile, Apple
Source: App Store
Apple Shares Humorous ‘Backstage’ Video Shown During WWDC Opening
To kickoff its 2015 Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple shared a humorous “Backstage” video starring Saturday Night Live alum Bill Hader. Hader took on the role of David LeGary, WWDC’s director, prepping for the big show.
As of this afternoon, Apple’s uploaded the “Backstage” video to YouTube, giving those who missed the WWDC keynote live stream a chance to watch the opening act.
The video makes references to several apps like Angry Birds and Tinder, with several app mascots on hand. There’s a guy in a bird costume for Angry Birds, and a goat for Goat Simulator. Community’s Danny Pudi raps a silly song during the video, and it ends showing just a water bottle and a laptop after a power failure. “All right, we’ll work with it,” says Hader. “I’ll tell you what, whoever walks out there better have something incredible to say.”
Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference is wrapping up later this week. During the keynote event, the company debuted iOS 9, OS X 10.11, watchOS 2, and Apple Music.
Apple Music Pays Industry Standard Subscription Revenue Fees to Record Labels
Apple plans to charge between $9.99 and $14.99 per month for its upcoming on-demand Apple Music service, with 58 percent of its subscription revenues going to record labels. For every $9.99 Apple collects from subscribers in the United States, it will pay out $5.80 to labels. Additionally, Apple pays approximately 12 percent to publishers and/or songwriters, leaving the company with somewhere around 30 percent of the revenue from the Apple Music service.
The figures come from a leaked document shared by Digital Music News earlier this week. In its article, Digital Music News erroneously suggested Apple was paying less to music labels than other streaming music services like Spotify (after failing to take into account the publisher’s fee), but as it turns out, the 70 percent that Apple pays out to rights holders is on par with the industry standard.
In some circumstances, the fees provided to rights holders can vary, such as when student accounts are involved or when the Apple Music service is provided through a third-party service like Google Play or bundled into a carrier package. During Apple’s three-month free trial period that it provides to all subscribers, it is not required to pay any fees to rights holders.
Profit sharing and value concerns often cause a lot of tension between streaming music services, record labels, artists, and other rights holders. Many artists have complained about the low fees they receive from streaming music services, primarily those with free streaming tiers. Taylor Swift famously pulled all of her music from Spotify last year, claiming that by offering music for free, Spotify was undervaluing her work.
With Beats Music and Rhapsody you have to pay for a premium package in order to access my albums. And that places a perception of value on what I’ve created. On Spotify, they don’t have any settings, or any kind of qualifications for who gets what music. I think that people should feel that there is a value to what musicians have created, and that’s that.
Apple does not offer a free ad-supported tier for its on-demand streaming music service, choosing to supplement instead with an accompanying radio service. Apple has even allegedly urged record labels to cease offering deals to services that do offer free ad-supported listening tiers, like Spotify and YouTube.
Apple’s focus on paid-only music is unsurprising, given the current state of the streaming music industry. Spotify recently announced 75 million users and 20 million paid subscribers, but Spotify continues to operate at a loss. With more than 800 million iTunes accounts with credit cards attached at its disposal, Apple Music could quickly become one of the most profitable streaming services, as long as Apple can draw in customers.
Apple Music launches on June 30 as part of iOS 8.4.
How to View Photos on Apple Watch [iOS Blog]
The Apple Watch may have a small screen, but it’s still large enough to show off those pictures of your little one’s dance recital to the grandparents. As long as you’ve got an album synced from your iPhone, you can even view pictures while your smartphone is out of range.
To help you get the most out of your photo viewing experience, we’ve put together this tutorial to explain how to set up and customize the Photos app on Apple Watch
Create an Album in Photos on iPhone
The first step to getting the most important pictures on your Apple Watch is to create an album for it in your Photos app on iPhone.
- Open the Photos app on the iPhone and select “Albums.” Then tap the add icon (+) to create a new one.
- Name the new album. For simplicity, I named mine Apple Watch Photos.
- Select the photos you wish to add to the album and select done.
Apple to Renovate Iconic Fifth Avenue Store, Temporarily Relocate to FAO Schwarz Building
Apple’s iconic Fifth Avenue store in New York City will soon close for renovations and temporarily relocate to the soon-to-be-vacated FAO Schwarz toy store in the General Motors Building, according to the Associated Press. The report does not offer a timeline for the renovation plans.
Apple’s iconic Fifth Avenue store, left, and nearby FAO Schwarz store, far right (Flickr)
FAO Schwarz, the oldest toy store in the United States, is set to vacate its ground-level store in the General Motors Building in July 2015 due to the rising cost of rent. The storefront is located just steps away from the current Apple Store at 58th Street and Fifth Avenue, so the temporary move should be rather seamless.
Apple reportedly plans to renovate about 20 existing retail stores in the United States to accommodate for increased foot traffic, with many stores set to double in size. Apple’s flagship Regent Street store in United Kingdom is among the stores that will be renovated, while San Francisco’s Union Square store will be relocated.
Apple’s iconic Fifth Avenue retail store was last renovated in 2011 when larger, seamless panes of glass were installed. The renovation was completed in November 2011, with before and after pictures and a YouTube video providing a good look at the transition to a more seamless design.
Foxconn Exploring Locations for iPhone and iPad Manufacturing Facilities in India [iOS Blog]
Apple manufacturing partner Foxconn plans to travel to India and explore possible locations to reopen production facilities in the country, in a move that could bring iPhone assembly and potentially lower prices to the emerging market. Reuters reports that Foxconn could benefit from lower production costs in India as wages continue to increase in China, where the majority of its operations are currently based.
“Foxconn is sending a delegation of their officers to scout for locations in a month’s time,” Subhash Desai, Industries Minister of India’s western state Maharashtra, told Reuters. The report claims Foxconn plans to build 10-12 facilities in India, such as factories and data centers, by 2020, although the Taiwan-based company has not provided any further details about its plans.
The return of Foxconn would provide an economic boost for India, which continues to rival neighboring China in the technology sector. The manufacturing company was forced to close shop in India last year after losing client Nokia, but now eyes a return to the country with plans to manufacture iPhones, iPads and iPods.
“A return of Foxconn — which was forced to shut up shop in India last year after client Nokia closed — would be a major victory for India, which badly needs to turn its tech boom into a manufacturing and employment boost.
India, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has sought to reboot manufacturing, but the country is yet to rival China, particularly in technology where most factories will likely be assembly units to begin with.”
Foxconn assembles iPhones, iPads and a number of other products for Apple, one of its main clients, and also serves as a manufacturing partner with other consumer electronics makers such as Xiaomi, Acer and Sony. Its main competitors include Taiwanese Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and Quanta Computer.
Samsung (and Apple) are looking into dual-camera technology
While HTC has been tinkering with dual-camera setups for a couple of years now, with its One M7 and One M8 smartphones featuring Ultra-Pixel technology (before abandoning it for the One M9), it hasn’t really caught on. While it was praised for delivering good quality low-light images, HTC‘s take on the dual-camera was lacking when compared to its competitors singular sensors with a higher Mega-Pixel count. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a future for a dual-camera setup though, as there are reports that both Samsung and Apple are looking into the technology for use with future handsets. China’s Huawei is also getting in on dual-camera technology, with its Honor 6 Plus handset making use of the ‘bokeh‘ effect.
At present, flagship smartphones are using 16MP or 20MP sensors, with more and more features being crammed inside of them. But with the never-ending need to make the device thinner and lighter, the single camera setup might be pushing the limits in regards to the number of features that can be packed inside. It’s thought that with the might of both Samsung and Apple pushing development of the dual camera technology (separately, of course), that using a twin camera setup will be the way forward. One thing is for sure, if dual-cameras were to become the norm, component manufacturers would be pretty happy seeing their sales increase. Time will tell, I would be extremely surprised if we were to see the upcoming Note 5 sport a dual-camera setup, but who knows about the Galaxy S7 next year?
Source: ETNEWS
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