Innerexile’s iPhone 6 case can heal from light scratches

We’ve seen LG flaunting the self-healing coating on its rather peculiar G Flex, but wouldn’t it be nice to have this on other phones? Well, Innerexile’s Hydra plastic case for the iPhone 6 offers a similar feature. We say “similar,” because the hard yet resilient Hydra is apparently able to recover from a heavier bronze brush scratch test — 1kg instead of the G Flex’s 750g — as well as strong bending in the lab. I received a couple of samples to play with and while I don’t have the same testing equipment, I can still attest to the cases’ impressive build quality, glossy finish and flexural strength — as shown in my hands-on video after the break. But as with the G Flex, the Hydra’s patented self-healing coating is meant for light scratches only.

In my test, I used a steel wool to gently scratch one of the Hydra cases and let it rest for a while to see how well it recovers. Alas, my room was likely cooler than the lab-tested temperature (25 degrees Celsius or 77 degrees Fahrenheit), so I eventually took the liberty to speed things up by placing my warm hand on the affected area for about half a minute, and voila! The light scratches disappeared (and the same trick can be applied to the G Flex). Nothing can be done about the deeper scratches, but at least you’re less likely to get the annoying light scratches that would cloud up the transparent case.

The Hydra will be available from September 19th at select lifestyle stores (Turk and Taylor, Aggregate Supply, Stich and AC Gears) in three transparent colors (clear, black or pink) for $25, which isn’t too bad given its build quality and relatively unique properties. The iPhone 6 Plus version will follow in early October and it’ll likely cost a tad more.

Filed under: Peripherals, Mobile, Apple

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Source: Innerexile

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Buyer’s Guide: Deals on 2014 Retina MacBook Pro, Bolt Battery Charger, Dragon Dictate 4, and More [Mac Blog]

This week’s Buyer’s Guide has deals on the 2013/2014 Retina MacBook Pro, the 2013 MacBook Air, the Mac Pro, and several Apple accessories.

The deals on Macs aren’t as significant as they have been in past weeks, and with Apple’s back to school program over, prospective buyers may have to do some shopping around to get a good discount. Best Buy, however, is continuing to offer EDU customers $100 off all MacBooks and the iMac plus $50 off the iPad Air or iPad mini with Retina display.

Retina MacBook Pro

There are a few deals 2014 Retina MacBook Pro this week, including the 13-inch 2.6Ghz/8GB/256GB model, which available for $1,379 from Adorama and B&H Photo. The high-end 2.6Ghz/8GB/512GB 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro is on sale for $1,699.99 from Best Buy, Amazon, Adorama, B&H, and MacMall, a savings of $100.

There are also some deals on remaining 2013 Retina MacBook Pros. The 2.6Ghz/8GB/512GB 13-inch model is available for $1,549 from Adorama and B&H Photo. The 2.0Ghz/8GB/256GB 15-inch model is available for $1,599 Amazon, Adorama, and B&H Photo. The 2.0Ghz/16GB/512GB 15-inch model is available for $2,199 from Amazon, Adorama, and B&H Photo.

The non-Retina 13-inch MacBook Pro is also on sale for $999 from Best Buy, Adorama, and B&H Photo.

Mac Pro

Stock configurations of Apple’s Mac Pro desktop computer are available at slightly discounted prices from several retailers this week. The 6-core 3.5Ghz/16GB/256GB machine can be purchased for $3,739.99 from Best Buy, Adorama, and B&H Photo, while the 4-core 3.7Ghz/12GB/256GB machine for $2,839.99 from Best Buy, Adorama, and B&H Photo.

B&H and Adorama, as always, are a good choice for buyers who live outside of New York and New Jersey, as the sites only charge sales tax in those states.

MacBook Air

B&H Photo is continuing to offer rock bottom prices on remaining inventory of the 2013 MacBook Air. The 1.3Ghz/4GB/128GB 11-inch MacBook Air is available for $779, while the 1.3Ghz/4GB/256GB 11-inch MacBook Air is available for $889 and the 1.3Ghz/4GB/256GB 13-inch MacBook Air is available for $999.

Apple Accessories

Fluxmob, which makes the small Bolt battery backup and wall charger accessories, is having a site-wide sale offering 20 percent off of products until 9/30 with the coupon code FALL20.

The Speck CandyShell case for the iPhone 5/5s is available from Groupon for $17.99, down from $34.95. Groupon is also offering the Mophie Juice Pack Helium Rechargeable 1,500 mAh battery case for the iPhone 5/5s for $49.99, a discount of $30.

The Apple Leather Smart Case for the iPad Air is available for $30 from DailySteals, a discount of $49. The LifeProof nüüd iPad Case for iPad 2/3/4 is on sale for $59 from Living Social. MegaMacs is offering Microsoft Office 2011 Home & Business Edition for Mac (product key, no discs) for $114, a savings of $60.

TextExpander 4 for Mac is available for $16.99 from StackSocial, a discount of $18 off of the regular $34.99 price. StackSocial is also offering Dragon Dictate Mac 4 for $99, a savings of $50.

MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors.

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U2 Manager Discusses $100M ‘Songs of Innocence’ Marketing Deal and Future Plans With Apple

As part of its iPhone 6 and Apple Watch announcement, Apple featured U2’s latest “Songs of Innocence” album, making it the company’s biggest album release ever by providing the title to 500 million iTunes customers for free. The album and its lead single “The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone)” are the cornerstone of an upcoming marketing campaign by Apple that is worth an estimated $100 million, although the deal has received some criticism from users who do not wish to have the album added to their iTunes accounts and in some cases automatically downloaded to their devices.

But the deal is a significant one by any measure, and Billboard Magazine sat down with U2’s new manager Guy Oseary to talk about the deal and the band’s future plans with the Cupertino company.

In the Billboard interview, Oseary shot down criticism that the deal was disruptive to the music industry and detrimental to other artists, arguing that the release is a “big concept” and should serve to inspire other musicians to innovate in their own way.

Well first of all, when music becomes a piece of the conversation at an Apple event, that’s always a good thing. Two is, the power of music and the fact that it can actually be shared with 7 percent of the planet in one push of a button. That’s a pretty big concept. Any sort of innovation may inspire other people to do things that are innovative. We may see someone sitting with another manager, or another band going, “Hey, what can we do that’s interesting maybe with our lyrics or our videos or something interactive with the ticketing to our shows?”

Oseary also confirmed that the Apple-U2 deal is a “long-term relationship”, with the parties working together to promote innovation in music.

We’re working on other things as well with Apple that have to do with how music is heard and innovation, with [iTunes VP of content] Robert Kondrk leading that charge. There’s a lot of things still to come that are really interesting. The band really wants people to engage with albums, they want them to support the art form of artwork and lyrics and video content and just get into their music in a much different way than an MP3 file.

Focusing on the deal itself, Oseary stopped short of confirming that Jimmy Iovine played a role in negotiating the deal, saying only that the Beats co-founder and now Apple employee has long been “a source of support and guidance” for the band. Given Apple’s long-standing interest in music and its dominant position that has been threatened in recent years by subscription services, Iovine has been viewed as a key reason for the Apple-Beats deal for his extensive relationships within the music industry.

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‘Incredible’ Response to iPhone 6 and 6 Plus as Apple Sets Overnight Pre-Order Sales Record

Despite some significant hurdles that saw the U.S. Apple Online store remaining down until almost 3 AM Pacific Time and issues with ordering in the Apple Store app, it appears that Apple has set a new record for iPhone orders with last night’s iPhone 6 and 6 Plus pre-orders.

An Apple representative who spoke to Re/code mentioned that a new record had been set, but did not comment on the number of devices that were sold.

An Apple representative said that the overnight sales of the new iPhones set a record, though Apple did not say how many have been sold.

“Response to iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus has been incredible with a record number of preorders overnight,” Apple told Re/code.

Apple’s statement follows a similar comment from AT&T executive Ralph de la Vega, who said “It’s amazing to see the volume” in reference to iPhone 6 and 6 Plus orders. De la Vega went on to say that demand for the phones is “better” than last year and the year prior.

At the beginning of the pre-order period last night, users were having trouble getting devices ordered due to continual errors in the Apple Store app and issues with carrier websites. Apple’s own online store didn’t come up until after 2:45 AM Pacific Time, nearly three hours after pre-orders were available in the Apple Store.

Apple’s iPhone 6 Plus was in short supply and shipping estimates slipped to 7 to 10 days for all models before the online store was even up, shortly after slipping further to 3 to 4 weeks. The company does, however, appear to have ample supply of the iPhone 6 as many models continue to be available for delivery on 9/19.

Prospective buyers iPhone 6 Plus buyers who missed preorders can still potentially pick up a device on September 19 by waiting in line at an Apple Store.

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Walmart and Best Buy Opt Out of ‘Apple Pay’ as Apple Leverages Required Point-of-Sale Upgrades

At its “Apple Pay” introduction earlier this week, Apple outlined a host of partners for the mobile payments initiative, ranging from credit card companies to the banks that issue the cards to retailers representing over 220,000 retail locations in the United States. Questions have remained, however, about how willing other retailers will be to sign on to the program and how quickly those that do will be able to get up and running.

In the wake of Apple’s announcement, several major retailers such as Walmart and Best Buy were in fact quick to state that they do not plan to support Apple Pay, as noted by The Wall Street Journal

Best Buy and Wal-Mart are instead backing a retailer-owned mobile technology group called Merchant Customer Exchange, which also counts Target Corp. among its members.

MCX’s payment service requires only a software download and can be used on existing iPhones and Android devices, whereas Apple’s is only for the latest generation handset.

For those retailers considering joining Apple Pay, however, it appears that Apple has timed its rollout perfectly. As highlighted by Pando Daily, Apple is taking advantage of regulatory changes that essentially require merchants to deploy new payment hardware in their retail stores over the coming year. This mass upgrade by over nine million merchants is the result of an updated credit card liability policy adopted by major credit card companies.

As of October 2015, any merchants that do not support EMV credit cards – smart cards with integrated circuits that enable point of sale authentication and help prevent fraud – will be liable for the fraudulent use of counterfeit, lost, and stolen cards. […]

These EMV cards and the resulting transactions are far more difficult to counterfeit than what Americans consider “standard” credit cards. While EMV is the norm around the world, only about 14 percent of US merchants support this technology today and very few consumers own credit cards incorporating these chips.

As a result of this change in credit card liability, merchants are upgrading their payment processing hardware to support EMV credit cards and other payment technology. With Apple now on board with NFC, a greater number of merchants who are in the middle of this decision-making process may choose NFC-capable POS hardware so they can process payments via Apple Pay.

Apple’s new Apple Pay service takes advantage of the Touch ID fingerprint sensor, stored credit cards, and a secure NFC connection to authorize payments at retailers’ physical stores and in compatible apps. Both the iPhone 6 handset lineup and the Apple Watch will support the wireless payment method.

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Apple’s iPhone 6 Plus Pre-Order Shipping Estimates Slip to 3-4 Weeks

Approximately four hours after Apple began taking pre-orders for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, Apple Store shipping estimates for new orders of the 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus have now slipped beyond their original September 19 delivery date in the United States.

The larger 5.5-inch model now shows an estimated ship time of 3-4 weeks, pushing online availability of the handset into October. Customers still may be able to secure select configurations for launch day in-store pickup, but availability varies based on geographic location.

Those who attempted to pre-order the iPhone 6 at Apple’s after 12:01 AM PST experienced a number of problems, including frequent crashes and errors with Apple’s own Apple Store app on both the iPhone and iPad. Apple’s own online store also did not go up until more than an hour after the target Midnight start time.

Customers may still be to purchase launch-day iPhone 6 Plus units by going to an Apple Retail Store on September 19. The phone will also be available through carrier stores and select third-party retail outlets, although supplies at those locations are usually more limited than at Apple’s own stores.

Last year it took around four hours for pre-orders of the iPhone 5s to sell out, as all gold iPhone 5s models saw their shipping estimates slip to October. In 2012, it took all of one hour for pre-orders of the iPhone 5 to sell out.

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Report Claims Apple Launching New 27-Inch 5K Display Later This Year [Mac Blog]

Apple may launch a new ultra-high definition 27-inch monitor later this year, according to LCD market research firm WitsView (via Digitimes). The firm claims that the display will boast a 5120 x 2880 resolution, which would be significantly higher than the 2560 x 1440 resolution found on the current Apple Thunderbolt Display

However, it is unknown as to how exactly Apple would power such a high resolution display with the current DisplayPort 1.2 standard used in Thunderbolt 2. A number of Apple’s computers including the Mac Pro (late 2013), 27-inch iMac (late 2013), and Retina MacBook Pro (late 2013 and mid 2014) are able to power 4K displays with one Thunderbolt port, but can only do so at designated refresh rates.

It is more likely that Apple would release a new monitor with a “Cinema 4K” resolution of 4096 x 2160, which is the maximum supported resolution by the DisplayPort 1.2 standard. Such a monitor would also be able to take advantage of the 20 Gbps data transfer rate of Thunderbolt 2 to stabilize performance at a high resolution.

An 27-inch 5K ultra high-definition monitor from Apple would also come after Dell’s 5K display, which was announced last month and boast a 5120 x 2880 resolution at 218 pixels per inch. It is also unknown as to what technology Dell with use to power the monitor, although AnandTech speculates that the company may use Multi-Stream Transport (MST) to stitch together two 2560 x 2880 panels in order to provide 5120 pixels horizontally.

Apple’s Thunderbolt Display debuted nearly three years ago, although it is hard to predict when the company will unveil a new monitor based the erratic upgrade cycle of past displays. In addition to a higher-resolution screen, a new Apple display would also likely feature an iMac-like design and USB 3.0.

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