Visual designer Adrienne Alpern from San Diego, California is one of the first customers to receive the brand new iPhone 6s, nearly five whole days before the latest smartphone launches in the U.S. and eleven other countries.
Adrienne shared photos of the new iPhone 6s on her Twitter account on Monday afternoon, noting that her pre-order from AT&T arrived much earlier than expected. The all-new iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus officially launch September 25.
Apple each year requests that couriers like UPS and FedEx hold new iPhone deliveries until the same day the smartphones become available in stores, but a few lucky customers often receive their devices ahead of time due to logistical error.
Adrienne also shared Geekbench 3 screenshots that show the iPhone 6s has a single-core score of 2292 and a multi-core score of 4293. The iPhone 6s is also benchmarked against several other iPhone and iPad models.
Apple began shipping iPhone 6s and 6s Plus pre-orders on Saturday and now FlightAware, a site that offers live flight tracking, has once again begun offering a tool that allows users to track the flights carrying their iPhones after they receive their tracking number. FlightAware also offered the tool last year.
FlightAware says that users who have their UPS tracking number can use their tool to match their "departure scan" with one of the departure times listed in their tool to determine which flight their iPhone is on. The tool will be updated as FlightAware learns more about Apple's shipping strategy for the new phones.
Currently, many flights are on their way to Louisville, Kentucky's Worldport, which is UPS' worldwide air hub. Additional flights are on the way to Ontario, California.
Those who have not received their UPS tracking numbers can track their packages by reference on UPS' website. To do so, users have to fill out the "track by reference" form and input the phone number listed on their Apple account, the zip code its shipping to and country. This tactic may only work with pre-orders made through Apple.
The first iPhone 6s and 6s Plus shipments are expected to arrive Friday, September 25. However, sometimes lucky customers receive their phones early due to shipping errors. Apple has ended launch-day pre-orders and in-store reservations for the two new phones and will not offer walk-in sales for them at Apple Stores in Delaware, Hawaii, Alaska, New Hampshire, Oregon, China, Hong Kong and Japan.
MacRumors readers may also want to join in on the dedicated pre-order threads on the forums, where users are sharing tracking information and socializing while waiting for their new iPhones.
As the Apple Music Festival continues at London's Roundhouse performing arts and concert venue, Apple environmental head Lisa P. Jackson announced that the company has given the historical venue an "environmental makeover".
We’re making major upgrades to the lighting, plumbing, and HVAC systems; installing recycling and composting bins; arranging to turn used fryer oil into biofuel; buying renewable energy credits to cover the Roundhouse's September electricity use; and offering reusable water bottles instead of plastic ones.
Apple says they expect the changes to reduce Roundhouse's annual emissions by 60 tons, save 60,000 gallons of water a year and divert more than 1,600 kilograms of waste from landfills. Apple has continually noted that one of its goals is to "leave the world better than they found it", which Jackson echoes in her tweet highlighting the renovation. The company has also continually highlighted its own environmental responsibility with annual reports.
The Apple Music Festival continues until September 28, with performances from The Weeknd, One Direction, Pharrell and Florence + The Machine still to come.
While Apple has ended launch-day pre-orders and in-store reservations for the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, the company is suggesting that those customers still intent on purchasing one on launch day visit an Apple retail store Friday for a chance at scoring some of the remaining launch-day stock at those locations. But for customers in four U.S. states, China, Japan, and Hong Kong, these walk-in sales are not an option, notes The Oregonian.
The disclosure was made in a footnote on Apple's press release this morning making a final announcement about Friday's launch plans and reporting record adoption of iOS 9: "iPhone is available by reservation only in China, Hong Kong, Japan and US stores in tax-free states."
The four U.S. states with Apple retail stores that are affected by this policy include Oregon, Delaware, New Hampshire, and Alaska. Montana is the fifth U.S. state without a statewide sales tax, but Apple does not have any retail stores located in the state.
The reason behind the ban on walk-in sales in these states is likely their attractiveness to scalpers.
Because Apple limits the number of unlocked phones, the brokers – sometimes called "sharks" – recruit homeless people and the elderly to wait in line and buy phones on their behalf. The phenomenon lasted for months outside Apple's downtown Portland Apple Store after last year's September launch of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.
While sharks patrol Apple stores all over the country, they are especially visible in Portland. That may be because Oregon doesn't have a sales tax, so sharks operating here can add several percentage points to their profits by getting their phones.
Hong Kong has long been a popular location for iPhone scalpers to operate as they attempt to move gray-market phones into China, but with China having taken on increased importance for Apple and in fact being included in the first wave of iPhone 6s launches, both countries are likely in Apple's crosshairs this time around as it hopes to limit those snapping up limited supplies of the new devices to resell for significant profits.
Apple today seeded the first beta of OS X 10.11.1 El Capitan to public beta testers, just days after first releasing the beta to developers and roughly a week and a half before OS X El Capitan will be released to the public on September 30.
The new beta is available through the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store.
The first beta of OS X 10.11.1 introduced support for Unicode 8 and new emoji like taco, burrito, cheese wedge, hot dog, middle finger, and unicorn head. The emoji are also included in iOS 9.1, which is also in testing.
Beyond new emoji, there have been no other outward-facing changes discovered, suggesting OS X 10.11.1 is a minor update that will bring bug fixes and performance enhancements. According to Apple's release notes, the beta offers stability, compatibility, and security improvements.
One frequent complaint of smartphone users is the limited amount of battery life our tech devices have. With the constant trend toward making devices thinner and lighter, battery life is a key tradeoff to be considered, and some users find their devices not lasting as long as they'd prefer.
For those pushing their devices to the limit, Apple has added a new feature to iOS 9 that is designed to help you conserve those last few drops of juice when you wont be able to charge your iPhone anytime soon. The new feature is known as Low Power Mode, and it can increase your battery life up to three hours but at the expense of some functions of your device. It is only available on iPhone devices running iOS 9.
Enabling Low Power Mode only takes a few steps.
Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
Select Battery from the menu list.
Toggle Low Power Mode to the On position.
The battery icon will turn yellow to indicate that you are using Low Power Mode.
Low Power Mode reduces your iPhone's performance and cuts out some background activities. For example, mail must be fetched manually, background app refresh is disabled, and motion and brightness are reduced.
Benchmarks have shown the iPhone's CPU performance with Low Power Mode on is significantly reduced in an effort to save on power consumption, so while simple tasks may continue to work just fine on an iPhone in Low Power Mode, more demanding ones may become sluggish.
You don't have to keep Low Power Mode on all of the time; you can manually shut it off whenever you want. However, the general impression of users has been that the real-world slowdown is not so severe that you can't continue to use your iPhone.
With iOS 9, you will receive a prompt when your iOS device goes below 20 percent of its battery power left. The popup will allow you to quickly toggle Low Power Mode on so you can still use your device for only the most necessary of functions until you are able to recharge it.
This feature might be familiar to Apple Watch owners, as Power Reserve is a somewhat similar feature designed to allow the wrist-worn device to continue functioning as a basic watch as the battery drains toward zero by cutting off all other functions of the device.
Apple is speeding up development on its electric car project, reports The Wall Street Journal, giving it a "committed project" label and targeting 2019 as a prospective shipping date. To facilitate a faster launch, Apple will be greatly expanding the number of people working on the car.
The go-ahead came after the company spent more than a year investigating the feasibility of an Apple-branded car, including meetings with two groups of government officials in California. Leaders of the project, code-named Titan , have been given permission to triple the 600-person team, the people familiar with the matter said.
Apple has already been aggressively hiring for its car project, poaching employees from companies like Ford, General Motors, Tesla, Volkswagen, and more. Many of its recent hires have expertise in connected and autonomous vehicle systems.
The BMW i3, which Apple reportedly considered using as a base for the Apple Car
Though there have been indications suggesting Apple is exploring autonomous vehicles as part of its car project, The Wall Street Journal's sources say the first car Apple releases will not be driverless, with that functionality perhaps coming at a later date.
There have been also other signs pointing towards expanded work on the car project. In May, Apple began looking into secure facilities in the Bay Area where a prototype could be tested, reportedly meeting up with officials at GoMentum Station, a secure test facility for connected and autonomous vehicles. Apple also met with DMV officials in August to discuss California's autonomous vehicle regulations.
It remains unclear if Apple will develop its "Apple Car" from the ground up or if it will team up with an existing auto manufacturer. Rumors have suggested Apple has held discussions with BMW over a potential partnership that would see the BMW i3 used as the basis for the Apple Car, but those talks have reportedly not progressed into a deal.
The Wall Street Journal warns that Apple's 2019 target date might not be the date in which Apple will actually ship the car, instead suggesting it could point towards the date that engineers confirm the main features of the product. It's also possible that given the scope of the project there could be delays, with "people familiar with the project" expressing skepticism that 2019 is a reasonable target date.
In an interview with Stephen Colbert last week, Tim Cook was asked about the car project, but he unsurprisingly avoided the question with a vague statement. "We look at a number of things along the way, and we decide to really put our energies on a few of those," he said.
With four days to go until the launch of the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, Apple is no longer offering launch-day delivery of any iPhone 6s or 6s Plus models ordered online and is no longer allowing customers to make reservations for in-store purchases, including through Apple's new iPhone Upgrade Program, on Friday.
While shipping estimates for iPhones 6s Plus models in particular quickly slipped to 2-3 weeks or longer following the start of pre-orders on September 12, many iPhone 6s models remained available for launch day delivery until today.
Customers looking to place online pre-orders for iPhone 6s models that had until recently remained available for launch day are now being quoted 1-2 week shipping with delivery in the range of September 29 through October 6 or later.
Apple's in-store reservation system has been shut down entirely for the remainder of this week and will reopen at 8:00 AM on Saturday, September 26 to allow customers to reserve from each store's daily shipments of iPhones. Apple does still invite customers without reservations on Friday to attempt to purchase an iPhone, but unreserved supplies will likely be tight and lines long.
There have been rumors Apple has a dedicated HomeKit app in the works that would give users a central location to control all of their HomeKit devices, but thus far, the Cupertino company has kept quiet on whether such an app exists. More evidence pointing towards the existence of a possible HomeKit app surfaced today, however, in the form of a trademark application filed through a known shell company, iGuide Media.
As noted by French site Consomac [Google Translate], iGuide Media filed a priority trademark for an icon that appears to correspond to a HomeKit "Home" app on March 12, 2015 in Jamaica, and has now filed again in the United States on September 14. The trademark applies to a long list of electronics and home products, including thermostats, smoke detectors, window shades, garage door openers, and more.
The icon is depicted in the trademark application as an H with a roof on it to form a house, with the icon placed on an orange background. It is similar in color to the HomeKit icons on Apple's own website, but the design is decidedly different.
Apple's release plans for a HomeKit app are unclear. It is not known if the company intends to launch a HomeKit app for public use in the future, or if the icon in today's trademark filing corresponds to a dedicated app. It could also be an icon simply intended to represent HomeKit going forward, in developer documentation and on product packaging.
Apple today released watchOS 2 to the public, making the first major update to the watchOS software available to all Apple Watch owners. The update requires iOS 9 and can be downloaded over-the-air through the Apple Watch app on the iPhone by going to General --> Software Update.
watchOS 2 was originally scheduled to launch on Wednesday, September 16 alongside iOS 9, but Apple delayed the launch in order to address a major bug that was found shortly before the software was set to debut.
As the first significant update to watchOS, watchOS 2 introduces a lot of new features to the Apple Watch, mainly through new developer tools. watchOS 2 brings native apps that run on the watch itself instead of the iPhone, and it lets developers access several sensors and hardware features including the Taptic Engine, heart rate monitor, microphone, and accelerometer.
The new time-lapse watch faces in watchOS 2
Along with these features for developers, which will lead to more complex and full-featured third-party apps that run much more smoothly, watchOS 2 also includes new watch faces (photo album and time-lapse), third-party Complications, a tweak that makes the screen stay on for up to 70 seconds when activated, and Activation Lock.
There's also a new Time Travel feature for viewing past and upcoming events in a watch face Complication, and a Nightstand mode that's activated when the watch is charging, displaying the time.
Nightstand mode
More details on what's new in watchOS 2 can be found in our dedicated watchOS 2 roundup, which includes all of the features the update brings, big and small. Discussion on new features in watchOS 2 is also taking place in our dedicated Apple Watch forum, and we encourage all of our readers to join in with new discoveries and questions about the update.
Apple's iPhone 6s Plus includes a 2750 mAh battery, according to images shared by Taiwanese site AppleClub [Google Translate]. That means the battery in the iPhone 6s Plus is smaller than the 2915 mAh battery found in the existing iPhone 6 Plus.
We've already learned the iPhone 6s has a smaller 1715 mAh battery because it was spotted in a video Apple created to highlight 3D Touch, but there's been no visual confirmation on the iPhone 6s Plus battery until now.
Ahead of the debut of the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, rumors suggested both devices would have smaller batteries, which turned out to be accurate. It appears Apple may have adopted smaller batteries in the new iPhones in order to make room for new internal parts like a dedicated Taptic Engine that enables haptic feedback whenever 3D Touch is used.
Though the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus have smaller batteries, overall battery life has not been impacted due to optimizations in the A9 processor in the devices and software improvements. Both devices continue to offer the same battery life as the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus.
Apple's iPhone 6s and 6s Plus will launch this Friday, September 25. Pre-order customers will begin receiving their devices at that time, and Apple retail stores in first wave launch countries will begin selling the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus at that time.
Apple's Retina MacBook uses a brand new USB-C connector for power, which means that it's able to be charged by external USB battery packs much like an iPhone or an iPad. But because of its higher 29 watt power requirements, there aren't any current battery packs that pump out enough power to charge the MacBook at full speed. Instead, most USB battery packs used with the MacBook today just keep the battery steady, without adding additional power. That's set to change, however, as companies are starting to debut accessories and battery packs that will let the Retina MacBook charge at its full 29 watt rate.
As of today, Hyper, known for its line of external battery packs designed for Apple's notebooks, is launching a Indiegogo project for the HyperJuice Magic Box. Available in two varieties, the Magic Box is an adapter that allows the 12-inch Retina MacBook to be charged at a full 29W speed using HyperJuice battery packs, or up to 12W using regular USB battery packs.
The 29W Magic Box adapter cable, which converts the DC output of a HyperJuice battery pack to a USB-C connection, uses a smart IC to enable "fast and safe" 29W charging, refilling the MacBook's battery just as its 29W Power Adapter would. The 12W Magic Box is a USB to USB-C adapter that will let any existing USB battery pack work with the new MacBook, but it won't be as powerful as a HyperJuice battery pack paired with the 29W adapter.
If you need faster charging at the same 29W speed as the original Apple USB-C Power Adapter, use Magic Box 29W adapter together with HyperJuice batteries. Only HyperJuice can safely and efficiently provide up to 29W (or even 100W) power via USB-C. This is something that regular USB battery packs cannot do.
The 29W Magic Box will be available for $35 while the 12W version is available for $25. Both can be ordered through Hyper's Indiegogo page, which also includes other purchasing options for Magic Box and external battery back combos at discounted prices, plus options that will make HyperJuice battery packs compatible with both MagSafe-based Macs and the Retina MacBook.
Hyper's existing HyperJuice battery packs can also be ordered from the Hyper website, with prices that range from $169.95 to $449.95. Ranging from 16,000 mAh to 61,000 mAh, the HyperJuice external batteries can add anywhere from 14 to 53 additional hours of battery life to a MacBook.
In the near future, there will also be other USB-C external battery pack options for the MacBook. At the end of this month, Maximas will introduce a crowdfunding campaign for the XTRON, a 13,400 mAh power bank (for 8 hours of extra battery life) designed specifically for USB-C devices like the MacBook.
The XTRON external battery pack, coming soon from Maximas
It includes 4.2A USB charging ports that are compatible with both USB-C and USB-A so it can be used to charge multiple types of devices simultaneously, and though it's 13,400 mAh, it's able to fit in the palm of a hand. It will be available for $69 when the Indiegogo project launches.
Another company previously announced a similar product, the Reach Go battery pack. The Reach Go's original specs claim to have 15,000 mAh, offer two standard USB ports, and a single USB-C port, and cost $99. This battery has also not yet shipped, but the website claims an October, 2015 arrival.
Universal just released the second official trailer for the new Steve Jobs movie last week, and over the weekend it began debuting the newest TV spot for the film. The new 30-second ad features some of the same glimpses of Michael Fassbender and Kate Winslet as Steve Jobs and Joanna Hoffman, but it's the first to showcase a sampling of lines from the reviews of some critics who have already seen the film. Also worth mentioning, one of the most interesting aspects of the new spot is the Mac's startup chime that's used to overlay and punctuate the short commercial.
The commercial cites reviews from places like Indiewire and The Playlist, which called the new movie "must-see one-of-a-kind cinema" and "a rush of blood to the head," respectively. Although a handful of critics have been able to see the film thanks to its premiere at Telluride, more and more will be adding their opinions in the coming weeks as the movie makes its Centerpiece debut at the New York Film Festival, and opens wider throughout October.
Overall, the first impressions of the movie have been largely positive, with praise landing on Fassbender's portrayal of the former Apple CEO, leading to some early Oscar buzz for the movie. Still just under a month from its theatrical debut on October 9, the movie currently sits at a 90% on Rotten Tomatoes with nine positive reviews to one negative.
Check out the rest of the TV spots released by Universal in the playlist above.
DisplayMate has tested the iPad mini 4 display and found that its colors and color accuracy are on par with the iPad Air 2, iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, with an improved 101% color gamut. All previous iPad mini models had 62% color gamut with poorer color saturation, according to the company's analysis.
iPad mini 4 also has a record-low 2% screen reflectance, compared to 6.5% reflectance for the iPad mini 3 and and 9% reflectance for the original iPad mini. This gives the iPad mini 4 a contrasting rating in high ambient light of 225, which in layman's terms means the tablet has improved readability in real-world viewing conditions.
DisplayMate Technologies President Ray Soneira:
But in terms of real-world viewing conditions, the record low 2.0% screen Reflectance actually makes a bigger visual difference for the image colors and image contrast that you actually see because ambient light washes out and degrades the displayed images and reduces screen readability - so [the iPad mini 4's] record low Reflectance actually makes a bigger difference!
DisplayMate says the iPad mini 4 has between 2.5x and 3.5x higher contrast in ambient light than the iPad mini 3 and most other tablets, which mainly fall in the range of 5.0% to 6.5% screen reflectance. iPad Air 2 was the previous record holder with 2.5% screen reflectance, but the iPad mini 4 was 36% better per this test.
DisplayMate will provide in-depth analysis of the iPad mini 4 display when the iPad Pro launches in November.
Apple has announced that iOS 9 is the fastest adopted software update ever, with more than 50% of active devices running the latest version as measured by the App Store on September 19.
“Customer response to the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus has been incredibly positive, we can't wait to get our most advanced iPhones ever into customers’ hands starting this Friday,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “iOS 9 is also off to an amazing start, on pace to be downloaded by more users than any other software release in Apple’s history.”
Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller says that iOS 9 is on pace to be downloaded by more users than any other iOS version ever released. He also said that response to the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus has been "incredibly positive," but no specific sales figures were disclosed.
iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus launch on September 25 in the U.S., Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Singapore and the U.K. Last week, Apple said pre-orders for the new iPhones are "on pace to beat" last year's record-breaking 10 million iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus launch weekend.
The next MacBook Pro is not expected until 2016 with the release of the Skylake processors. $1,699 represents the largest discount on the current generation 15" MacBook Pro that we've seen, and expires at the end of Monday, September 21st.
Samsung is planning to follow in Apple's footsteps by launching its own Galaxy smartphone leasing program in the U.S. over the coming months, according to Forbes.
The South Korean electronics giant is planning to launch a program for leasing its Galaxy phones in the U.S. market, similar to the one Apple announced just weeks ago, according to an industry executive with knowledge of Samsung’s plans. Samsung may be launching this leasing program in the next several months, although that timeline may accelerate, the executive said.
The report does not offer any other details about Samsung's plans for the rumored smartphone leasing program, but the move would make sense as the wireless industry moves away from subsidized pricing and two-year contracts in favor of monthly installment plans and financing programs for payments.
Apple introduced the iPhone Upgrade Program alongside the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus earlier this month, enabling customers to upgrade to a new iPhone every year with AppleCare+ warranty coverage included. Eligible customers who sign up for the program will have the full cost of their new iPhone broken down into 24 equal payments of around $30 to $45 per month depending on the model, plus a premium for AppleCare+.
After the first 12 monthly payments, the customer gains the option to trade in their iPhone for a new one and enter into a new 24 month installment plan to pay it off. The final cost of an entry-level 16GB iPhone 6s with AppleCare+ purchased through the iPhone Upgrade Program is $777.84, which is ultimately the same price as purchasing a 16GB iPhone 6s ($649) and AppleCare+ ($129) outright -- but with less due upfront.
AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile also offer their own carrier financing plans for iPhones and Galaxy smartphones, each breaking down the full price of the device into equal monthly payments.
Apple debuted a brand new Apple Music ad during the Emmys tonight. The ad features actresses Taraji P. Henson and Kerry Washington hanging out and enjoying Apple Music with singer Mary J. Blige. The ad has a focus on Apple Music's playlists.
The ad, which was directed by Selma director Ava Duvernay, features Washington, Blige and Henson hanging out at a home and remembering mixtapes before Blige interrupts them to tell them about Apple Music playlists, which she compares to mixtapes.
Washington goes a step further and says that Apple's curated playlists are like having a boyfriend creating you a mixtape. The rest of the ad features the three having fun listening to the curated playlists before revealing the $9.99 monthly subscription cost to sign up for Apple Music.
In early August, Apple launched a worldwide advertising campaign featuring billboards and posters. Shortly after that, they debuted three artist-focused ads highlighting the Apple Music's ability to introduce people to new artists and music. Additionally, Apple released a two-part ad featuring The Weeknd during the MTV VMAs.
There have been rumors Apple has a dedicated 
Apple has 
Samsung is planning to follow in Apple's footsteps by launching its own Galaxy smartphone leasing program in the U.S. over the coming months, according to 
