Apple

Five setup tips for Apple's new MacBook Air

For the past couple of months, prospective MacBook buyers, especially those looking for a slim MacBook Air, have been holding off on purchases, waiting to see what Apple had in store for its annual WWDC keynote.

While the new 11-inch and 13-inch Airs look and feel a lot like the previous couple of generations, the internal components have been upgraded with new, and incredibly energy efficient, CPUs, leading to battery life scores in excess of Apple's estimated 12 hours for the 13-inch version.

You can bet that plenty of new MacBooks were ordered in the days immediately following the … Read more

Preview iOS 7 using nothing more than your browser

With the curtains pulled back on the new-look iOS 7, it's only natural for users to want to get a better idea of what the changes actually mean to their daily use. People don't like change -- big or small -- especially when it comes to the tech that's used on a daily basis.

Should you not be a developer and have access to early beta builds of iOS 7, or don't want to deal with all of the bugs and issues that come from dealing with the early test builds, you can click your way … Read more

The iPhone 5S rumor roundup

Editors' note: This blog was originally published on December 6, 2012. We'll continuously update this piece up until the device's official launch; let us know if we missed any rumors ourselves.

iPhone rumors are like flies at a summer picnic: they're nearly unstoppable. Collected in one batch are all the iPhone 5S/6 rumors CNET has reported so far, with some commentary on where these rumors came from.

We always have long wish lists for newer features and further redesigns, but the bottom line is this: nobody knows exactly what we'll get until Tim Cook reveals … Read more

How to recover your iTunes account ID

If you have regularly used iTunes to purchase music and movies, then you may have a significant collection of titles that are tied to your specific iTunes account. However, if you have used more than one iTunes account, then you may run into trouble if you cannot remember the account ID you used to purchase the items.

At the very least, if the songs are DRM-protected and you have not authorized your system to play them, then iTunes will present you with a notice to log in to your account before it will play them.

While Apple offers a quick … Read more

Never miss the free App of the Week from the App Store again

Last summer I covered an easy-to-create recipe on IFTTT that would send an e-mail or alert of your choosing once the App Store Twitter account posted a tweet announcing the latest freebie. Since that time there have been some changes to Twitter 's API policy, and IFTTT (name based on "If this, then that") has had to change how it uses Twitter within its service.

As such, the recipe demonstrated in my post last June no longer works. While browsing through public IFTTT Recipes today I found a solution that uses posts on the App Store's official … Read more

Add particular Preference Panes to your Mac's Dock

Getting to a particular Preference Pane on a Mac is a two-step process. You must first open up System Preferences (via the Dock or Spotlight) before opening one of the preferences contained within. With free Mac app Preferences Quick Launch, you can shorten this process to one simple step. It lets you drag individual Preference Panes to your Dock or Launchpad, where you can access each directly.

After downloading Preference Quick Launch, unzipping it, and moving it to your Applications folder, open it to reveal 27 applications, each of which opens a Preference Pane. You can drag any of these … Read more

AT&T reportedly begins wide cellular support for FaceTime

AT&T appears to have quietly begun rolling out nationwide support for Apple's FaceTime videoconferencing app for iPhone on its cellular network.

While AT&T has made no official announcement about beginning a nationwide rollout, the move would be a major step toward fulfilling a promise it made in May that its LTE customers would be able to use video chat apps from Apple, Samsung, and BlackBerry over the AT&T network by mid-June.

Customers of the wireless service in New York, Maryland, Georgia, Louisiana, California, and Hawaii tell AppleInsider that they have verified activation of … Read more

Apple's Eddy Cue: Steve Jobs was confused in his e-mails

NEW YORK -- An e-mail from late Apple CEO Steve Jobs about e-book deal terms is no smoking gun, just a confused draft of a message, said a high-level Apple executive Monday during the e-books antitrust trial.

Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of software and services, testified that he never received an email from Jobs that said publishers would have to change their e-book sales terms with Amazon in order to reach an agreement with Apple. Cue said he didn't receive any of the four other drafts of the message, either.

Furthermore, Cue said there's no … Read more

Apple trims 'industrial' from Jony Ive's title

Apple Senior Vice President Jonathan Ive began last week with a new title, the company's Web site shows.

Instead of being listed as the company's SVP of "Industrial Design," Ive's updated title is now simply "Design."

The change, which was spotted on Apple's site by 9to5Mac late Monday, appears to have taken effect last week. Apple introduced Ive with the new title in its video for iOS 7, which was released shortly after last Monday's WWDC keynote (pictured above).

Last October, Apple put Ive in charge of the "leadership and … Read more

Apple holds a quarter of e-book market, Eddy Cue says

NEW YORK -- Apple sells about a quarter of all e-books in the market, a high-level executive at the electronics giant said Monday.

Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of software and services, estimated that Apple holds a 25 percent share of the market, about on par with Barnes & Noble. He noted the two companies often flip the ranking, with Barnes & Noble sometimes having a higher share than Apple.

"I believe it's close," Cue said in his testimony Monday during Apple's e-book pricing trial. "At different times, we go back and forth.&… Read more