(via ctechcn.com)

While we take this particular image with a very large grain of salt, CtechCN.com has posted what it claims to be an iPad 5 featuring Touch ID, the fingerprint recognition system Apple introduced last month with the iPhone 5s. The site previously posted leaked iPhone 5c internals ahead of its debut, but otherwise has little track record to judge, and this particular photo offers little evidence of authenticity.

The photo is also sketchy in that the metal ring on the Home button seems to be larger and more noticeable than on the iPhone. It’s unclear if Apple’s Home button design would need to differ on the iPad from the iPhone if Touch ID were to be integrated. Here’s the photo with some enhanced lighting:

...

After a search that lasted nearly a year, Apple has finally chosen a new executive to head up its signature Apple Stores: Angela Ahrendts will be joining Apple in 2014 as the senior vice president of Retail and Online Stores (the part about the online Apple store is new to the position). Ahrendts is currently the CEO of Burberry, an upscale clothing and fashion brand based in England.

The first Apple Store opened its doors in May of 2001, and under the leadership of former Target executive Ron Johnson the franchise slowly grew into the lucrative chain it is today. After Johnson's departure from Apple in 2011, Apple hired former Dixons Retail CEO John Browett as SVP of retail, but he left the company just seven months later because he wasn't...

Last night, Apple announced that it had finally found a new Head of Retail: Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts. Ahrendts has been CEO of the fashion retailer for several years, leading the company through substantial growth in international markets. With that global growth experience and focus on high-end products, she seems like a natural fit to succeed in a role that has been so controversial over the past couple of years.

And Apple CEO Tim Cook seems to agree. The Apple chief executive took the time to keep his employees in the loop regarding the hiring process. Cook sent a company-wide memo this morning that discusses how he found Ahrendts and how she will fit into...

The upcoming MacBook Pro and Mac Pro rumors are coming in thanks to the French.

Per French web site MacG.co, Alleged availability dates for some of Apple’s anticipated upcoming products were reported on Tuesday, pegging new MacBook Pros to launch in just over a week, with the revamped Mac Pro desktop apparently set to debut in mid November.

The site has stated that the new 13- and 15-inch MacBook Pros will be available for sale either Oct. 24 or 25. It’s expected that Apple’s new professional-grade notebooks will feature Intel’s latest-generation Haswell processors, which offer...

Apple announced that Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts will be the company’s new head of retail, joining Apple in the newly created position of Senior Vice President of Retail and Online Stores. As the title suggests, Ahrendts will both oversee Apple retail and online stores, taking her position in the…

GM has announced that six more of its 2014 Chevrolet models will have Siri Eyes Free compatibility via its MyLink infotainment system. The company was the first company to offer Siri Eyes Free, initially on its Sonic and Spark models.

• Camaro
• Cruze
• Equinox
• Malibu
• SS
• Volt

With Siri Eyes Free, drivers can make calls, hear & dictate text messages, check & add calendar appointments and of course play music, all via voice.  A button on the steering wheel is used to activate the service.

“The response to Siri Eyes Free...

Power pack!

This week's roundup of new iOS-related gear offers new ways to power up your iPhone, and even new ways to power up multiple iOS devices at the same time. Power to the people, uh-huh!

Anker

The name of the $12 Anker USB 24W Dual Port Car Charger gives you all the relevant information: Just plug it into your car’s accessory outlet, and you can charge up to two USB-enabled mobile devices at the same time. Apple-device cables are not provided; you’ll have to use the Lightning or 30-pin USB cables that came with your gear.

iHome

The $99 iHome Pro Swivel Notebook is a binder-style keyboard case. The swiveling keyboard is detachable, allowing you to use your iPad either as a laptop or a tablet, and is held in place with high-quality magnets.

Justand

The $...

Release dates have been leaked for the products Apple is expected to announce on October 22nd, says French site MacG. An updated MacBook Pro is slated to launch on the 24th or 25th, followed by the fifth-generation iPad and second-gen iPad mini on the 30th or the 31st. The overhauled Mac Pro is only forecast for November 15th....
   ...

Professional photographer Austin Mann took an iPhone 5s and iPhone 5 to Patagonia and put both phones through their paces. A good number of side by side shots really tell the story.

The 5S dynamic range… that is, the ability to pull detail out of the shadows & highlights in editing, is remarkably better. I’m constantly sculpting images to bring out the details I want to see… that means bringing up shadows, recovering detail in skies, sharpening where needed and more.

If the camera part of your phone is important to you, read the review, look closely at the pictures. This is a realistic review.

∞ Read this on The Loop

Apple finally has a new executive to run its retail division now that it has hired Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts to fill the job. Her title will be senior vice president of retail and online stores, and she'll start her new job in spring of 2014 after Burberry finds a new CEO for its company.

The Mac Observer Spin:
Angela Ahrendts has an impressive track record as a strong leader in the fashion world and as an executive that knows how to work with the Asian retail world. That could turn into a powerhouse mix for Apple worldwide.

Alleged availability dates for some of Apple's anticipated upcoming products were reported on Tuesday, pegging new MacBook Pros to launch in just over a week, with the revamped Mac Pro desktop apparently set to debut in mid November.
  ...

For a company that prides itself on creating intuitive applications, Apple stumbled when it created iCloud. As a Dropbox user, I found little in iCloud that I needed. In fact, finding iCloud on a Mac can be adventurous, although it has a nasty habit of showing up as a default save location when I want to save a file from an app to my hard drive. Cloud Mate aims to take some of the mystery out of iCloud. It gathers up everything in your iCloud and displays it in a single Finder-like window.

Connection to the phone will be via Bluetooth, initiated via the steering wheel voice activation button.

To help further minimize distraction, Siri takes hands-free functionality even further with an Eyes Free mode which enables drivers to interact with their iPhones using nothing more than their voice while keeping the device’s screen from lighting up.

Bypassing the screen entirely. Interesting.

∞ Read this on The Loop

Tim Cook announced that Angela Ahrendts, CEO of Burberry, will be joining Apple in a newly created position, as a senior vice president and member of the executive team.

Ahrendts will have oversight of the strategic direction, expansion and operation of both Apple retail and online stores, which have redefined the shopping experience for hundreds of millions of customers around the world. Apple retail stores set the standard for customer service with innovative features like the Genius Bar®, Personal Setup and One to One personal training to help customers get the most out of their Apple products.

Ahrendts will start in the Spring. Let’s hope she can bring some stability to the position. Ron Johnson really built the retail foundation at Apple, leaving in 2011 for an ill-fated run at JC Penney. John Browett replaced Johnson, but was at Apple less than...

Fantastic tip.

∞ Read this on The Loop

Apple has filled its need for an executive to oversee its stores, and in a big way: The company has hired Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts to the newly created position of senior vice president of retail and online stores.

It’s the latest move in the fallout from the 2011 departure of former Apple retail chief Ron Johnson, who built Apple’s strong retail presence with Steve Jobs but left to become CEO at retailer JCPenney. Johnson was fired by JCPenney’s board in 2013; Apple hired John Browett (previously CEO of tech retailer Dixons and supermarket chain Tesco) as a replacement in 2012, but that hire fizzled and Browett was...

Apple has announced the hiring of Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts as its new Senior Vice President of Retail and Online stores. The position was specially created for Ahrendts, who will report directly to CEO Tim Cook when she takes up her post in the spring of 2014. Ahrendts will remain at Burberry for the time being while that company undertakes a search for a replacement....
  ...

Apple said late Monday that it has hired Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts to serve as head of its retail efforts.

Ahrendts

Ahrendts, who will join in the spring, will server as Senior VP and report to CEO Tim Cook. She was among a list of people seen as top candidates for the position.

“I am profoundly honored to join Apple in this newly created position next year, and very much look forward to working with the global teams to further enrich the consumer experience on and offline,” Ahrendts said in a statement. “I have always admired the innovation and impact Apple products and services have on people’s lives and hope in some small way I can help contribute to the company’s continued success and leadership in...

BluFit, the smart water bottle that can track its user's water consumption, is available for pre-order pledging on Indiegogo. The glass bottle encased in a silicone sleeve notifies users to drink more water, based on a calibration of personal data such as weight, age, activity level, and more. The bottle transmits data by way of its Bluetooth LE chip to the BlueFit app, such as when and how much water was consumed....
  ...

Detective work and anecdotal evidence by users in an Apple Support Communities thread about problems with discrete graphics cards in some MacBook Pros has narrowed down a range of possible flawed cards (or flawed switching software controlling the cards' use) in machines from early 2011 that use Apple's automatic switching between an integrated graphics chipset and a built-in discrete AMD card. Owners with the AMD Radeon 6750M GPU seem to be the most affected, but other Radeon cards are involved as well....
 ...

Industry analysis firm Flurry has disclosed a fascinating little morsel of information: in South Korea, the home of Samsung, Apple's iOS devices account for one out of seven -- 14 percent -- of all mobile devices used in the country.

Why is that number so surprising? South Korean manufacturers have long had an advantage in their home country, and even now Samsung tops the market with 60 percent of all smartphones and tablets sold in the country. Two other Android device manufacturers based in South Korea -- LG and Pantech -- account for another 25 percent of the market. Apple comes in at 14 percent, while all other Android manufacturers account for just a tiny 1 percent sliver of the market.

Flurry's data show some other interesting facts. The company found that phablets -- larger than a smartphone, but smaller than most tablets -- were...

If you love technology but you’re tired of browsing through hundreds of RSS feeds each morning, check out Techi.com.

It’s a technology blog that features only the top tech stories from around the web each day and is updated 24/7. You get a short summary of each story if you don’t want to read the whole thing and you also get access to exclusive articles.

Check it out and subscribe to their daily newsletter.

∞ Read this on The Loop

If you're a developer who enjoys spending time coding more than working on design, you may want to check out a new iOS 7 icon glyph set called Essence. The icon set includes 300 icons covering all categories including productivity, lifestyle, weather and food. In addition to the 300 standard icons, Essence also includes a set of matching filled "selected" versions of the icons.

Essence is normally US$29.99, but can be purchased now for only $19.99. If you buy the set now, you'll also get additional icons as they are added in the upcoming months. Developers will be happy to hear that Essence is attribution-free for an unlimited number of projects.

Icons & Coffee's Essence: A set of 600 iOS 7-friendly icons originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 14 Oct...

Maintenance release adds 10.9 Mavericks compatibility and moves alerts to Notification Center. ($34.95 new, free update, 20.8 MB)

Read the full article at TidBITS, the oldest continuously published technology publication on the Internet. To get a full-text RSS feed, help support our work and become a TidBITS member! Members also enjoy an ad-free version of our Web site, email delivery of individual articles, the ability to make long comments with live links, and discounts on Take Control orders and other Apple-related products.

Adds compatibility with 10.9 Mavericks, revamps the saving pipeline, and moves to 64-bit. ($32 new, free update, 14.2 MB)

Read the full article at TidBITS, the oldest continuously published technology publication on the Internet. To get a full-text RSS feed, help support our work and become a TidBITS member! Members also enjoy an ad-free version of our Web site, email delivery of individual articles, the ability to make long comments with live links, and discounts on Take Control orders and other Apple-related products.

Did you know that dictionaries are built into iOS? They are literally a tap away, and can define almost any word that you need to know the meaning of. In today's iOS 7 video tip, we'll not only talk about how to use dictionaries, but also how to add and manage dictionaries.

As with all of our other video tips, this one can be viewed in full screen for extra detail.

iOS 7 video tip: Using and managing dictionaries originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 14 Oct 2013 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | ...

Selling Steam gamers -- who are used to playing their games with a keyboard and mouse -- on a handheld controller is no easy task. Valve knows this, and since the original announcement of the company's new Steam Controller, there have been plenty of questions as to how precise it actually is. To help calm some of the ruckus, Valve has produced a video showing the controller being used with many popular games.

The video does a respectable job of selling the concept of using the controller with previously released titles, and the narrator is quick to note that the games shown have not been modified to work specifically with the new accessory. The Steam Controller appears to work just fine for strategy and simulation titles, but the footage shown of first-person gameplay in...

Sonos on Monday announced the Play:1, a new addition to its wireless audio gear selection to be marketed as an entry-level compact portable speaker.
  ...

Apple's iPad line is strong, but a pane of glass and a thin aluminum shell can only be so durable. One accident, and a $329 or more investment is destined for the repair shop. A pocket industry of protective cases ranging from just scratch resistance to total impact protection has sprung up around the near-ubiquitous tablet, with the LifeProo ......
   ...

Three of the real people portrayed in the Jobs movie – Daniel Kottke, Andy Hertzfeld and Steve Wozniak – weigh in on the movie and tell John Vink of "John Wants Answers," what the movie got right and got wrong. The video is just over two hours long. One interesting example happens in the first few minutes of the discussion when Woz and Kottke reveal that Steve Jobs not only negotiated with the Dean of Reed College to stay there without being a student, but he asked for – and got! – his tuition money back. A few weeks later he then asked the Dean if he could stay in some of the unused dorms.  It's a fascinating discussion.

Owners of early-2011 15-inch and 17-inch MacBook Pros are reporting issues with the discrete AMD graphics processors in their notebooks, which in some cases results in the failure of the component, leaving an expensive logic board replacement as the only remedy.
  ...

We're almost at the day where you won't have to carry cash or a card to pay for goods and services. Surely you've used Square at a farmer's market, coffee shop, or bookstore, but the payment market is expanding to card-free areas of commerce. PayPal has announced a partnership with Revel Systems, a business that provides point-of-sale platforms that use an iPad to process payments.

While PayPal is currently pushing its own device, the Beacon, the company seems to understand its competitors have a bit of a head start. To close that gap PayPal has worked with point-of-sale services from Booker to Leaf to build its reach. Revel is just the latest such expansion. Revel Systems are used in stores for major retailers such as Dairy Queen, Popeye's, and Goodwill, and provide PayPal a massive potential new...

One of the great, and yet little known, features in mobile Safari is that it allows you to search a webpage for a specific word. This feature is a lifesaver if you happen to come across a lengthy article, for example, and want to quickly skip ahead to a particular segment of the document.

Here's how it all works.

Let's say I hop on over to ESPN.com to check out the latest sports news. Here I see ESPN's splash page talking about the Red Sox playoff win.

But let's say I need my football fix and want to quickly jump to any articles discussing Peyton Manning without having to scroll through the site's entire front page.

So, to find any references to "Manning," I simply double tap the URL bar in mobile Safari, which brings me to this page.

Next, I start typing my search query, in this case "Manning," into the Safari search bar. All I see next are listings of Google Search suggestions.

But wait! There's more here than meets the eye.

...

Earlier this year, SuperTooth -- a company located in France that specializes in making Bluetooth car kits and speakers -- released the Disco Twin Bluetooth speaker system. While many companies offer single Bluetooth speakers these days, it is a only in a pair of Bluetooth speakers that users get true stereo sound in a portable package. Electronista has a set of these awesome speakers to give away to our readers....
  ...

Together the iPhone and the iPad currently represent about 14 percent of South Korean mobile devices, according to new tracking data from Flurry. In all, there are about 33 million smartphones and tablets in use in the country. Most of these are made by local firms; Samsung has a 60 percent share, while LG is in second at 15 percent. Pantech -- a marginal device maker in the US -- controls a 10 percent share in its home country. The remaining 1 percent in Korea is split between all other Android device makers....
 ...

It's always busy in the App Store with a never-ending flood of new apps landing on iOS and OS X. Take a few minutes and check out our list of stand-out titles from the past few weeks! If that's not enough, you can also follow our ongoing coverage of new apps as they are released.

New iOS Apps

• Pickle - Smart Clipper (WEB IMAGE, GIF & SCREENSHOT) for iPad [iPad; Category: Productivity; $0.99] Pickle is the easiest way to clip Images & GIFs from websites.

• Cavorite 3 [iOS Universal; Category: Games; $1.99] Cavorite 3 continues the original and genre-crossing adventure game series, appealing to fans of puzzlers and platformers alike.

• ...

Rockpack is a social video-curation app that allows you to create and share a bucket list of your favorite online videos. The lists are called "packs" and are shared with your friends and the larger Rockpack community. It's a visually striking app that makes excellent use of video thumbnails and profile images.

The app encourages you to create your own curated "packs" of videos and add them to categories so the world can see them. You can view and follow lists created by other people, which is a great way to find quality online content without spending hours watching terrible, time-wasting clips. A pack friending feature makes it easy to find other people who share your taste in videos whether it be adventure sporting, DIY, cooking or more.

The biggest drawback to Rockpack is the registration requirement, which is a turnoff to people who just want to try out the app. I understand that you need an account to save and share videos,...

It ended up taking almost no time at all for a prepaid wireless carrier to announce that it will begin selling the iPhone 5s and 5c, with Virgin Mobile jumping on the new phones at the beginning of October. Now competitor Cricket Wireless has announced that both of the newest iPhones will be available on the prepaid network starting October 25.

Cricket hasn't announced what pricing will be like for the phones. At the present time, they sell the 16 GB iPhone 5 for US$600, the 16 GB iPhone 4S for $500, and the 8 GB iPhone 4 for $400. The company uses an installment plan to sell the phones, with an iPhone 5 going for $25 down and 23 payments of $25 -- similar plans with smaller down and monthly payments are available for the other phones.

The Cricket network currently serves 6.2 million customers in the US, offering 4G LTE connectivity in some metropolitan...

In 2004 SuperTooth came up with the first Bluetooth speakerphone that could be clipped onto a sun visor in a car. This was revolutionary at the time, and helped to propel the company down a path of creating new devices for the quickly growing Bluetooth market. Today it makes a variety of Bluetooth car kits, speakers and headsets. Earlier this year the SuperTooth Disco Twin was released, which is a ......
  ...

Samsung has a decided home-field advantage in South Korea, but a new study looking at market share in that country shows that Apple's iOS accounts for roughly one out of every seven mobile devices even in its rival's backyard.
  ...

It’s hard to keep track of new releases from all your favorite artists. Especially if you are a music geek like us.

Hence, we three guys bootstrapped Roadee Music, the iOS Release Notifier. It’s dead simple: Follow an artist, see their discography and get push-notified as soon as they release new music. That’s it. No login, no bullshit, just $1.99. You will never miss a release from an artist you love again.

A number of Hong Kong case manufacturers recently showed cases for the second-generation iPad mini that could allude to a size slightly larger than the first iPad mini. The cases seem to fit a device with a thickness of 7.5 mm, as compared to the current iPad mini’s 7.2 mm,…

Over its lifetime, Apple has introduced hundreds of products that have displayed revolutions and evolutions in design from the 70s to the modern technology era. The company has had more than its fair share of extremely successful products and some other devices that the company might want everyone to forget (remember the Bluetooth headset that came out with the original iPhone?). For the first time ever, photographs of over 500 devices have been taken and brought together into one beautiful book: “Iconic: A Photographic Tribute to Apple Innovation”.

The book starts out with two beautiful forewards by Steve Wozniak and The Loop’s Jim Dalrymple. Right away, you are immersed into large high-quality images taken by the author himself, Jonathan Zufi.

Here’s an interview with Zufi, describing his massive undertaking to take...

Apple has officially launched its iPhone trade-in program in the UK. Officially called the Reuse and Recycling Program, the initiative allows users to receive in-store credit for their current mobile phone to use towards the purchase of a new iPhone. The iPhone trade-in program has been live in the US for some time, but its UK launch marks new territory.

To be sure, you're still better of selling your old iPhone yourself -- via services like eBay or Gumtree -- as Apple doesn't give you as much money for your device as you could otherwise get. For example, an unlocked black, 32 GB iPhone 5 in perfect condition only nets you £230 from Apple, while you could easily get over £400 for such a device on Gumtree.

Still, the program will benefit those who want a simple and fast way to get credit for their old phones when buying a new iPhone.

...

Apple’s latest iPhones are headed to Cricket. The prepaid carrier, which is about to be purchased by AT&T as part of its acquisition of Leap Wireless, will begin offering the iPhone 5s and 5c to its customers on Oct. 25. No word yet on Cricket’s pricing for the devices, though prepaid customers typically pay full fare.

Over the past few days I've had the pleasure to play with and listen to the latest offering from Sonos, the PLAY:1, and I'm amazed. They've either discovered magic or decided to lower their margins because, at US$199, the PLAY:1 now opens the door for many more prospective Sonos customers than before without sacrificing any quality at all. Yes, compared to the now middle(-sized) Sonos child (the PLAY:3) the PLAY:1 sounds different, but to my ears neither better nor worse. The new PLAY:1 has a bit more midrange than the PLAY:3 but that's just fine. The size and the price of this make it either a perfect entry point for someone into the Sonos world, or a perfect add-on for the kitchen or bedroom where you're wishing you had a Sonos unit. Buy two and you're in stereo mode. Or add 'em to your Playbar for true rear-channel surround sound. We went into a longer discussion about it during today's Mac Geek Gab #470 if you want to hear more (along with the story of how I set them up)....

The next-generation iPad mini will be a fraction of a millimeter thicker and feature a larger battery to offset the power requirements of its rumored Retina display, according to accessory manufacturers at a major Hong Kong electronics trade show.
  ...

Space Gray iPad mini 2 casing (via Sonny Dickson)

One of the most exciting new features of the upcoming iPad mini successor is perhaps the long-rumored Retina display. Apple has been developing a Retina-version (Apple’s term for the crisper display found on iPhones, the larger iPads, and some MacBook Pros), but the company has been reluctant to ship it due to cost, hardware size, and battery-life concerns. Though for October 22nd, it sounds like Apple has an iPad mini with Retina display ready to go.

But, it could potentially have a very minor trade-off: some extra thickness and width that will likely not be noticeable to the...