The launch of BlackBerry Messenger on platforms other than the company's smartphones has hit a roadblock, after both the Android and iOS versions of the app were pulled from the relevant app stores. A leaked version of its Android app apparently caused more than 1.1 million users to try out the service within eight hours, before the app was even released....
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Apple's iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c launch weekend sales hit 9 million units, killing concerns that numbers would fall flat. The company's previous opening weekend iPhone sales figures came last year when the iPhone 5 hit 5 million.

The Mac Observer Spin:
The anti-Apple crowd says Apple has lost its ability to innovate and that interest in the iPhone is waning. First 64-bit smartphone, fingerprint scanner technology, built-in motion and fitness coprocessor, and record breaking opening weekend sales. It looks like "failure to innovate," and "no interest" don't mean what these people think it means.

The hard-to-find iPhone 5s now has immediate availability in the online Apple Store if you opt for in-store pickup.

We mentioned last week that Apple is said to be adding a store pickup availability check to its Apple Store app. This hasn’t yet made it into the App Store, but you can use the website to check availability – see the screenshot below the fold … 

To check availability for in-store pickup, spec-up your phone first, then click the Check Availability link beneath the green...

Apple has just announced first-weekend sales figures for the iPhone 5s and 5c. Sales for both phones total 9 million. In comparison, the iPhone 5 shipments topped 5 million in the same period. These numbers come in at the higher end of analyst estimates, with many predicting bearish sales similar to the iPhone 5 launch last year. As expected, Apple did not reveal the breakdown of sales between the different iPhone models.

Alongside phone sales, the company’s press release also highlights iOS 7′s successful launch....

Apple has quietly launched a new category in the App Store: Kids. First announced at WWDC, the newly launched category features apps curated by Apple's editorial staff, appealing to children of certain age ranges including sections for: "Best for Ages 5 & Under", "Best for Ages 6-8", and "Best for Ages 9-11."

Besides sub-categorizing apps by age range, the Kids section also features game specifically aimed at children aged infant to 11, brands (like Disney) with apps that appeal to children, and kid-specific collections like "Create &Play," "Shapes & Colors," "First Words & Numbers," and more.

Apple launches "Kids" category on App Store originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 23 Sep 2013 07:30:00 EST. Please...

The New York Police Department is taking the unusual step of asking people to upgrade their devices to iOS 7. NYPD officers have been spotted handing out fliers to people on the streets, telling users to download iOS 7 onto their iPhones and iPads, due to the introduction of Apple's new "Activation Lock" security feature....
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Electronista recently had the opportunity to spend some pre-release hands-on time with the forthcoming Sony HAP-S1 High Resolution Music Player first announced at IFA Berlin a couple of weeks ago. The new player gives music lovers the chance to really enjoy high quality digital recordings including in the popular FLAC format and Apple Lossless Audio Codec (ALAC) through a 2-channel Class AB amplifier rated at 40 Watts RMS per channel. We also had the chance to test the system out on the similarly just announced Sony MDR-10R High Resolution headphones with both making a formidable combination f...
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Data from Localytics shows that the iPhone 5s appears to be outselling the iPhone 5c by a factor of 3.4. The data is based on examining web analytics from 20M unique iPhone connections to mobile and web apps between launch and 8pm last night.

In less than 3 days, the iPhone 5s and 5c combined now represent about 1.36% of the total numbers of all iPhones activated in the U.S. market across the top 4 carriers AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint and T-Mobile. From the data we are seeing, 1.05% of all iPhones in the United States are now iPhone 5s and just 0.31% are iPhone 5c.

This pattern is unlikely to be maintained in the longer-term: as the higher-end device, the 5s was...

The Moto X has the upper hand on the new iPhones when it comes to durability, at least according to testing by gadget insurer SquareTrade.

Its testing showed both new iPhones underperforming the iPhone 5 model they replace.

“When it comes to breakability, Apple takes a step back with its latest offerings,” SquareTrade said in a report being released on Monday. “The iPhone 5S fared worse than its predecessor, the iPhone 5, in our slide test and the iPhone 5C suffered from increased smash-ability in our drop test as well as reduced grip-ability.”

The Moto X outpaced both new iPhones, while Apple’s new phones finished ahead of the Galaxy S4 which fared worst in the four-way comparison.

“We were expecting that at least one of the new iPhone models would up its game but surprisingly, it was the Moto X that proved most forgiving of accidents...

During tonight’s Emmy Awards, Apple has aired a new iPhone 5c ad. The new TV commercial is identical in style of the ad that Tim Cook played during the September 10th media event, but it is shorter in length and has a few new scenes. A few versions of the ad are below.

In the past couple of weeks, Apple aired two other ads for the iPhone 5c, but the company is yet to promote the iPhone 5s on TV.

Also today, Apple uploaded the full footage of the September 10th iPhone event to YouTube. The embed for that is below:

Thanks, @iPadMatt! ...

A group in German claims to have successfully worked around Apple's new Touch ID biometric system, albeit using an extremely elaborate system to do so, involving a high-resolution lifted fingerprint and creating a "fake finger" that mimics a real one that has the lifted fingerprint printed onto latex milk or wood glue and then applied -- and of course physical access to the iPhone that utilizes that particular fingerprint. A different hacker group is offering a reward for such a solution, including cash, Bitcoins, liquor and books as a reward....
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All-new dial-in experience! See below -- do not call into Talkshoe, we won't be there. Be sure to set up Fuze Meeting before the show if you want to join in live.

It's Sunday, and it's time for the TUAW talkcast! If only we had anything to talk about this week... nah, just kidding. It's an iPhone launch to remember, and an iOS 7 introduction to boot. We've seen a frantic few days, with long lines and frazzled activations, not to mention an Apple TV update that had to be rolled back suddenly.

Equally concerning, the German hacker group Chaos Computer Club claimed on Sunday that they were able to spoof a fingerprint to...

A hacker group in Germany claims to have defeated Apple's new Touch ID biometric security system by using a modified fingerprint lifting and "fake finger" creation technique.
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Following in the footsteps of most of the world, shipping times for orders placed this weekend for the iPhone 5s have fallen to October. Unlike the rest of the world, where ship times for the 5s began at 7-10 days, it was only 1-3 days in the US. However, those ship times slipped to 7-10 days as Friday's launches got underway, and now Apple's online store simply says "October" for any iPhone 5s orders placed this weekend.

Interest for the iPhone 5s has been incredibly strong since the phone went on sale. Part of that is because it's Apple's latest iPhone, but another reason could be because supplies are extremely limited, reportedly due to manufacturing bottlenecks. The iPhone 5c, which has been well received by critics and fans, still ships within 24 hours for orders placed in the US.

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hypnosec writes with word that the Chaos Computer Club claims to have "managed to break Apple's TouchID using everyday material and methods available on the web. Explaining their method on their website, the CCC hackers have claimed that all they did was photograph a fingerprint from a glass surface, ramped up the resolution of the photographed fingerprint, inverted and printed it using thick toner settings, smeared pink latex milk or white woodglue onto the pattern, lifted the latex sheet, moistened it a little and then placed it on the iPhone 5S' fingerprint sensor to unlock the phone."

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Apple on Saturday withdrew the latest software update for its Apple TV following reports that it rendered some devices on which it was installed unusable.

Evidently Apple TV 6.0, which debuted on Friday bringing a number of new features to the set-top box, has caused some trouble for a small number of users, deleting content and in some cases bricking the devices.

While the issue isn’t widespread, it has affected enough users that Apple yanked the update while it corrects it. An Apple customer support representative said the company is working on a...

John and Dave are back at it, this time with not only answers to your questions, but a quick primer on iOS 7 for those of you that have updated or are just about to do so. Topics this week include managing your sharing settings so you know what data others can see, shutting down a pesky computer, trusting your iTunes purchase history, and answering a few questions about restoring from backups (always an important topic!). Download and enjoy!

Samsung sent out a film crew to film the excitement and anticipation of the crowds waiting for their new iPhones. The most telling part of the article was this quote:

“Other companies release new phones, but there’s not as much passion and heat [from buyers],” a Korea-based producer from Samsung Broadcasting Center/Cheil Worldwide, who asked not to be named, told CNET at the iPhone launch. “It’s only Apple. Why? We’re curious.”

Ask us, we’ll tell you.

∞ Read this on The Loop

This article has some excellent suggestions for steps you can take to improve your battery life under iOS 7. I’ve played around with these for a few days and can tell you that these have made a huge difference in my battery usage. The two changes I think made the most difference (your mileage may vary) for me were setting my brightness to 50% (still plenty bright) and reducing the motion of the user interface. With the latter, I do lose the parallax effect, which I do miss, so I’m going to turn that setting off so I get parallax back, see how that affects my battery life. Note that this is the same setting that addressed Shawn’s motion effects post from yesterday.

∞ Read this on The Loop

There’s a new rule in hockey that mandates a two minute penalty if a player takes off his own helmet prior to engaging in a fight. And then this happened.

Two players, Krys Barch and Brett Gallant, were about to get into a bit of a scrape-up, when they very purposely took each others helmets off. Really happened. I love hockey.

∞ Read this on The Loop

iOS7: It’s the LAW™

The New York City Police Department is apparently handing out the above fliers at subway exits encouraging people to upgrade to iOS 7 for its improved security featuring ‘Activation Lock’. According to another Twitter follower, they are also (comically) handing out the flyers at Apple Stores where people are walking out with new iPhone 5S/5Cs with iOS 7 installed.

Four uniformed NYPD officers were at my subway stop tonight asking me to upgrade to iOS 7. Not a joke! http://t.co/...

BlackBerry Messenger for iOS is now available to download. The BBM app from the troubled smartphone manufacturer, heading to Android in the near future, has appeared in a few regional versions of the App Store in Asia and New Zealand according to The Next Web, with other regions expected to go live soon after midnight in each area....
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While Touch ID is designed to scan the fingerprints of your fingers (and thumbprints of your thumbs), some users of the iPhone 5s have discovered some other body parts that are supported by Touch ID. For instance, the video above shows a user registering their nipple for Touch ID. More videos and body parts below:

Another iPhone 5s user shows the functionality working with a toe in the video above.

Our friend @chronic notes that Touch ID can even work with a user’s nose, and a video that we found on YouTube (shown above) demonstrates this.

Finally, for those curious, even the paws of a cat can be programmed for Touch...

I managed to pick up an iPhone 5s yesterday and have been trying out its new features and enhancements. Here’s my review of the device after using it for 24 hours…

Design: As the name implies, the iPhone 5s is based directly on the design of the iPhone 5. It has the same shiny edges, metal back with glass top and bottom caps, and front that is dominated by the display. The only tell-tale signs that the 5s is not a 5 are the slightly tweaked Home button design, larger rear camera flash, and if you opt for one of the two new color options.

I chose the Space Gray version. Yes, I did not have much of a choice given the...

The New York Police Department has more of a relationship with Apple’s iPhone than merely performing crowd control at and around Apple stores on iPhone launch days like yesterday.

A new iPhone model also means a probable uptick in attempts to steal them. And since Friday’s launch of the iPhone 5s and 5c also happens to coincide with the launch of Apple’s iOS 7, which has some new security measures intended to deter theft, New York’s finest and other police agencies around the U.S. are making an effort to get people to download it.

The new feature is called Activation Lock (read the official information from Apple here) and basically what it does is force anyone who has the phone — including anyone who has stolen it — to enter an Apple ID and password before they can...

Apple CEO Tim Cook joined Twitter and sent out his first tweet on Friday, September 20th. That was enough to start the Twitter ball rolling, and he already has more than 187,000 followers.

Those parallax and motion effects in iOS 7 are great, but they have already taken their toll on some folks who suffer from motion sickness. In addition, those effects take a little bit of processor power to generate, so your battery life can also suffer. This short video tip shows how to reduce those motion effects to save your stomach and your battery.

iOS 7 video tip: How to reduce motion effects originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 21 Sep 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | ...

Forbes reported late Friday that a new bug has been discovered in devices running iOS 7. This time, the bug lets a person with physical access to a phone to place any kind of call from the “Emergency Call” screen—even to international numbers and premium numbers (like adult chat lines and tech support numbers).

To produce the bug, simply type any number into the Emergency Call screen, then rapidly tap the Call button until the phone brings up an empty screen with an Apple logo. At that point, the phone is making the call to the number requested.

Just one day after the release of iOS 7 this week, a first bug was discovered...

This morning, Bloomberg Businessweek has published the entirety of its interview with Apple CEO Tim Cook. Earlier this week, the magazine gave us a look at its conversation with Cook, Jony Ive, and Craig Federighi, though today’s article is a much more extensive look at the thoughts from Cook.

Notably, Cook discusses the new fingerprint scanner Touch ID system in the iPhone 5s. Cook seems to enjoy that users can unlock their iPhone with the touch of a fingerprint, but he seems to imply that purchases with Touch ID are the bigger picture. He notes that Touch ID can now be used to download items from Apple’s online...

Perfect Shot by TapMedia is a new iOS 7 app that is designed to make it very easy to take the perfect pictures of their friends and family. While holding either an iPhone, iPod Touch or...

This noble falcon yearns to become a hunter of drones. ahisgett

Andrew Cunningham brought us all the iOS 7 news you could want this week, from a gallery of comparison images in Death to textures: iOS 6 and iOS 7 compared in pictures, to an analysis of the new operating system on old hardware in New lease on life or death sentence? iOS 7 on the iPhone 4, to the actual review of iOS 7 itself, iOS 7, thoroughly reviewed. It was on this last article that many Ars readers left their first impressions of the new operating system. (And some just commented on the...

Click to view slideshow.

BlackBerry just announced another disaster quarter and is currently valued at under the value of its assets, yet despite public pleading, no one wants to buy them. They also just laid off 4,500 of their remaining employees and left the consumer market.

But we’re not here to talk about the horrific financials of an imploding company. We’re here to bring the news that Blackberry released BBM (a very capable IM client) for iOS and Android today. It is currently available in Eastern hemisphere countries and is making its way around the globe.

In 2008, this would have been bigger news. Now, you can use it to ask your remaining...

It turns out you can reduce the motion effects in iOS 7 by going to Settings > General > Accessibility > Reduce Motion.

Quartz:

…if you’ve downloaded Apple’s iOS 7 you could be using Multi-path TCP already.

Multi-path TCP allows your phone to send data by whatever way it’s connected to the internet, whether that’s Wi-Fi, 3G or ethernet. This is the first time that this new means of connecting to the internet has appeared in a commercial product.

∞ Read this on The Loop

Yeahhhh, it's a good thing that those USB mice operate at a low voltage and current, since Gorky the cat has apparently decided that the "tail" of this mouse was good enough to eat. Gorky's human Jeffrey H. let us know that this was the first time that he had caught a mouse...

We'd love to see photos of your favorite feline soaking up the warmth of an Apple product, chasing a Magic Mouse, or just being a general nuisance while you're attempting to work on your Mac, iPad, or iPhone. Please let us know via our feedback page and please remember that your cat photo has to have some sort of connection to Apple or its products. For security reasons we can't accept inbound attachments, so you should host the photo (Dropbox, Flickr, iPhoto Journals, etc.) and send us the link.

Many thanks to Jeffrey H. for sharing this photo with us.

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Thoughtful responses, nice long interview.

∞ Read this on The Loop

I think we’d all feel sort of like this…

What makes people give up a few hours of their time—or even an entire night—to stand outside of a store waiting for the doors to open so that they can buy a phone? As Apple has proven time and again, they’re not waiting for just any phone. And if the crowds gathered outside of Apple Stores on Friday are any indication, the iPhone 5s looks likely to stir just as much passion as its predecessors.

To gauge just how much passion, though, we went down to the Apple Store on Stockton Street in San Francisco and spent some time talking to just a few of the hundreds of people waiting in line. We wanted to find out what made them wait around for their chance to be among the first to get their hands on an iPhone 5s. And we also wanted to see if anyone had any love to give the overlooked iPhone 5c.

Elsewhere on the site, you’ll find our...

If you've got time management issues and don't care for the built in iOS calendar then that a look at the three apps Vern Seward points out in this week's Free on iTunes. Cal, Calendar by Readdle, and Vintage Time.

As has happened with previous iOS releases, real-world user testing has uncovered a few bugs that slipped through the months-long beta process. Yesterday marked the discovery of the first serious bug, a method of bypassing iOS 7's lock screen security -- however, the flaw was complicated to achieve, easily avoided by simply disabling Command Center's optional ability to appear on the lockscreen prior to user passcode entry. The new issue takes advantage of a glitch in the emergency call feature to allow users to make regular phone calls, bypassing the passcode lock....
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From 9to5Toys.com:

A large majority of the deals we cover each day come from a variety of ‘Daily Deal’ websites or are so popular that they don’t even last 24 hours. We know you can’t be at your computer every second, so we’re going to round up the best deals each day to make sure you have a fair shot at the deals you want. Be sure to follow 9to5Toys.com so you never miss a deal... Twitter, RSS Feed, Facebook, Google+.

Today’s featured deals...

Today was an exciting day at the Apple Store in Pasadena, California as the launch of the new iPhone 5s and 5c turned ugly. The L.A. Times is reporting that at least 200 people were waiting in front of the store this morning for a chance to buy one of the new phones when several fights broke out.

Two people, ages 23 and 43, were arrested for fighting in line outside of the store before it even opened. Then around 9 a.m. another fight started, this time involving a contender for worst person in the world. A man hired several van loads of homeless people from a downtown Los Angeles homeless mission with the promise of paying them $40 if they'd wait overnight in line.

When the man left the store with several iPhones this morning, the people he hired...

With iOS 7 officially out of the bag, there are no shortage of tips coming in highlighting many of the new tweaks users can expect to see in Apple's new mobile OS.

One particularly welcome addition to iOS 7 is the ability to view timestamps for individual text messages. To do so, simply swipe to the left while in a conversation view and timestamps appear on the right-hand side of the screen.

As an example, here's what a typical iMessage conversation might look like.

With a quick swipe to the left, I can now see at which time each individual message was sent. This is a great new feature seeing as how previous versions of iOS would often group together messages, sent many minutes apart, under the same timestamp.

Note that this feature works for iMessages and texts sent via SMS as well.

As a comical aside as we head into the weekend, does anyone recognize the 'Venus de milo gummy bear' reference from above?...

An annual gathering of technologists passionate about creating great things.

I’ll be speaking at this conference next week in Chicago. Join me and a lot of other great speakers—tickets are on sale until midnight tonight Pacific time.

∞ Read this on The Loop

Much as it would probably like to, Apple hasn’t yet been able to shift the manufacturing of the A7 processor that powers its new iPhone 5s away from Samsung. The research firm Chipworks confirmed Friday that the chip is indeed being fabricated by Apple’s nemesis. Evidently nothing much came of that rumored deal with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, so Apple must continue to rely on Samsung for important components like these despite the nasty rivalry between the two companies.

Like the rest of the world, we got our hands on the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c on Friday. But before we sit down with the phones for a long weekend of rigorous testing, we’ve got some first impressions to share.

In the video player above, you’ll see Jason Snell’s first looks at both iPhones. (Just click on the video icons on the left to select which video to play.) But he also wrote down some initial thoughts on both the iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s. In addition, Serenity Caldwell walks you through the process of getting started with your new iPhone.

There’s also...

Zach Epstein at BGR gives us a good, yet short summary of a rather lengthy (13 pages) review of the iPhone 5s posted on Anandtech by Anand Lal Shimpi. In his article, iPhone 5s slaughters its quad-core rivals in performance tests despite having "just" a dual-core CPU and 1 GB of RAM. Zach notes that this is the "most thorough [technical] review" to date. Shimpi's article quickly grew to 40 pages with the addition of user comments.

Falling into the speeds and feeds trap when discussing mobile devices can be tricky, especially when the specs that smartphone vendors share most frequently only paint a small piece of the picture. It's easy to look at things like CPU cores and clockspeeds and make assumptions, but dozens of factors contribute to a smartphone's performance. --Zach Epstein

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