Articles about Apple

Diversity has become something of a buzzword in tech, and it's one that companies are only too keen to bandy about at every opportunity. The likes of Apple, Google, Facebook, and Amazon are eager to demonstrate how diverse a workforce they have built up -- but the fact of the matter is that they have all failed abysmally.

This much we know. We've seen that Facebook's workface is far from diverse, Amazon is about as white and male as it gets, and that Apple wants people to believe it's doing everything it can to foster greater diversity. Its latest report shows that the number of female, black, and Hispanic employees has increased but Tim Cook wants to do more. But the big question is: does diversity matter?

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The main thrust of Samsung's Galaxy Unpacked event was to launch the Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 Edge+, but the company also provided some details about Samsung Pay. With so many similarly-specced smartphones vying for attention, each manufacturer needs to offer something slightly different, and Samsung is hoping that a new digital payment system will prove attractive to people.

Going head to head with Android Pay and Apple Pay is Samsung Pay. As well as offering compatibility with the newly announced Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 Edge+, Samsung's payment system is supported by many of its older handsets. It will launch in its home country of Korea on August 20, and will spread to the US at the end of September. So why pick this payment system over the alternatives?

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The loyalty of Android users to their mobile OS has increased slightly in comparison to the steadfastness of iOS devotees, according to a new piece of research.

The report from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP), which was spotted by CNET, took in the opinions of some 4,000 US consumers.

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Apple has launched a new version of Boot Camp that brings full Windows 10 support. The latest version of Microsoft's operating system cannot be installed on all Macs, but there is a fairly extensive list of models that can run Windows 10.

Boot Camp 6 is gradually rolling out, and brings support to Windows 10 for a number of Mac features including Thunderbolt. Apple explains that it is possible to upgrade an existing Windows 7, Windows 8, or Windows 8.1 to Windows 10, but also provides full instructions for how to start from scratch.

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Measured as sales through the U.S. consumer retail channel, Macs reached rather shocking milestone during first half 2015, according to data that NPD provided to me today. Yes, you can consider this a first, and from lower volume shipments. By operating system: OS X, 49.7 percent; Windows, 48.3 percent; Chrome OS, 1.9 percent. That compares to the same time period in 2014: OS X, 44.8 percent; Windows, 53.1 percent; Chrome OS, 2.1 percent. So there is no confusion, the data is for U.S. consumer laptops.

While data junkie journalists or analysts often focus on unit shipments, revenues, and subsequently profits, matter much more. Looked at another way, Mac laptop revenues rose by 10.9 percent during the first six months of 2015, year over year, while Windows PCs fell by 9 percent, and Chromebooks contracted by 9.5 percent.

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Charging your devices can be such a damn hassle. At the end of the day, you may need to charge your laptop, smartphone, tablet, smartwatch and lord knows what else. It can be a pain in the ass to find your chargers and run around your home looking for free outlets. If you are married or live with people, this becomes increasingly difficult and messy.

Today, Satechi announces a really cool power strip that can solve this dilemma. The unimaginatively named Aluminum Power Strip features four traditional AC outlets, but it has something extra that makes it infinitely better -- four USB ports!

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As someone who is always on the prowl for new podcast material to enjoy, I recently came across one which is hosted by a name familiar to many in the States. Joe Rogan -- currently best known for being lead color commentator on most large UFC PPV events -- doubles as someone who hosts an interesting podcast under the simple guise of "The Joe Rogan Experience."

Specifically, episode 680 of his podcast showed up on my phone today, and it featured a lengthy discussion with a Steve Hassan on the intriguing topic of cults. Hassan is a mental health counselor who has personal experience with cult entrapment, as he was once a member of the Moonies. He dove into a variety of areas surrounding cults and their characteristics with Joe, and if interested, I recommend listening to his appearance on JRE 680. The real reason I plugged Joe's show is because during the episode with Hassan, the relevant topic of Apple naturally arose at one point. The question at large was thrown out in the wild. Is Apple and its following a cult?

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Sometime within the next few weeks, Apple should announce successors to iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, and my review of the latter device is long overdue. Let's get to it finally and present the key finding first: If size matters, as in you want a phone with larger screen but that doesn't feel humongous, the 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus is a worthy choice. By measures that matter most—benefits from apps, calling, camera, data, performance, screen, and storage—the phablet is best of class.

As expressed in my iPhone 6 review, I regretted not buying the larger device after handing it. The Plus is big, but not overly large for my tastes. Hell, I bought Motorola-made and Google-branded Nexus 6 in January 2015 to replace iPhone 6; the screen is even bigger than Plus, at whopping 6 inches. I gained great value using either of the larger handsets, but gave up one for the other.

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Microsoft is taking steps to try to ensure that the apps that people want to see on Windows are actually available. We've already seen the company woo developers with tools such as Project Westminster to make it easier to create Universal Windows Apps, and Astoria to help convert Android apps for Windows.

Project Islandwood was the same idea, but for iOS apps -- the idea is that by making it easy to convert apps for Apple's platform into Windows apps, Microsoft can use developers to plug the 'app gap'. To spread the project's net further, it has now been released under the name Windows Bridge for iOS and -- more importantly -- it has been released to GitHub as an open source tool under the MIT license.

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One of the main benefits to owning a MacBook is the superb battery life. Apple's laptops can work for a great deal of time on battery power alone, thanks in no small part to the numerous improvements made to OS X in recent years. Take my 2013 13-inch MacBook Air for example: it gets well over six hours of battery life on Yosemite, despite being nearly two years old at this stage. I rarely have to worry about plugging it in.

In fact, it could last even longer. The trick is not to use Chrome, which, despite Google's recent efforts to lower its power consumption, continues to be the most power-hungry major browser on OS X, more so than Apple's Safari and Mozilla's Firefox.

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Apple has promised it will fix a major vulnerability which recently cropped up in its OS X Yosemite operating system.

The worrying zero-day vulnerability allows malware authors to modify a hidden configuration file to get root permissions on the victim machine, security firm Malwarebytes explained in a blog post, allowing for the installation of adware and other assorted malware nastiness.

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Apple Music's success will be determined by its number of subscribers, and, by that measure, the streaming service is heading in the right direction. Just over a month after the big launch, Apple Music has reached 11 million trial users.

Of the 11 million users who are trialling Apple Music, two million went with the family membership. It allows up to six users to share a subscription to the service, for $14.99 per month. A plain subscription costs $9.99 per month per user, which is not as attractive, cost-wise, in comparison.

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Apple is one of the most forward-thinking companies in the world. Its products are legendary, and the innovative iPhone revolutionized the smartphone market. Heck, iOS has impacted the entire computer industry arguably for the better.

Unfortunately, Google's Android has been a thorn in the company's side for years, stealing market share and allegedly angering the beloved Steve Jobs in the process. With that said, it is very curious to see Apple hiring Android software engineers. Yup, you are reading that correctly. Could Apple be planning to release apps for the Android platform?

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Forbes today unveiled its inaugural 100 Richest People in Tech list. Comprising 100 billionaires, the top of the chart is dominated by all of the names you would expect to see -- Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and Larry Page take the top five slots.

It's not just the names that are familiar. The US is the dominant country in the chart, with more than half of the list filled by American billionaires. The image of California as being the center of the world of technology is borne out by the fact that 49 of the top 100 hail from the western state. So, yes, Bill Gates tops the charts with $79.6 billion, but where are the other big names?

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The move to bigger iPhones is arguably the best decision that Apple has made in recent years. Consumer demand has been extremely strong from launch, proof being that Apple was able to match Samsung's shipments in Q4 2014 and post record sales quarter after quarter. The result? Record earnings.

The strong iPhone sales also translate into a strong market share. In Europe, Apple's handsets are gaining ground across all five-largest local markets, at the expense of either market leader Android or third-place rival Windows Phone, according to a new report from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech.

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