Custom 1.3GHz Retina MacBooks Begin Shipping Out to Customers Early [Mac Blog]

With most of the past few days covered in Apple Watch shipping news, the build-to-order version of the new 12-inch MacBook has flown slightly under the radar. But, this morning, Apple began updating customers who opted-in for the 1.3GHz model of the notebook with shipping dates almost two weeks earlier than initially expected.


First given a vague 3-4 week shipping estimate by Apple, the 1.3GHz MacBook has now received a delivery estimate as early as the middle of next week for some customers in the United States. The build-to-order option took slightly longer to ship than the basic 1.1GHz and 1.2GHz models due to its custom upgrade processor parts.

Those two regular models of the notebook began shipping out to customers soon after its April 10 launch alongside the Apple Watch. Although many expected the new MacBook to be sold in Apple retail locations, the company opted to keep the 12-inch Retina device mostly to its online storefront for the time being.

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Posted in 2015 at 11:59AM, April 23

Apple Continues to Tweak Emojis in Latest iOS 8.3 Beta [iOS Blog]

After introducing all new emoji with skin tone modifiers in iOS 8.3 beta 2, Apple continues to make minor tweaks to the emoji library in subsequent beta releases. The latest iOS 8.3 beta 4 released through Apple's public beta testing program on Tuesday now separates default emoji from modified ones when holding them down on the keyboard, and each emoji skin tone now has a matching hair color.







The emoji keyboard also shows the Recently Added view as default again, making it easier to select from the emojis that you use most often for messaging. iOS 8.3 beta 4 also gains iMessage filtering that separates messages sent from unknown senders, removes the beta label from iCloud Photo Library and includes a number of bug fixes outlined within the MacRumors discussion forums.



We've been tracking all of the iOS 8.3 changes in our iOS 8 Features Roundup.

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Posted in 2015 at 11:59AM, March 25

Nintendo Bringing Mario and Other Games to Smartphones and Tablets

Nintendo announced on Tuesday that it has partnered with Japanese mobile game maker DeNA to jointly develop games for smartphones, tablets and PCs, meaning that iconic franchises such as Mario, Pokemon and Zelda could soon be available on devices such as iPhone, iPad and Mac. Nintendo will purchase a 10% stake in DeNA for ¥22 billion ($182 million) as part of a cross-shareholding deal, according to The Wall Street Journal .



Nintendo consistently refused to license its intellectual property to other platforms, fearing that doing so may threaten its traditional, console-based business model. Nevertheless, as the mobile gaming industry has grown into an estimated $25 billion market, and competitors such as Sony begin making more games available on other consoles, it appears that Nintendo has caved into the pressure.

“The company seems to have totally changed its mind-set, after having resisted against mobile game development, publicly complained about the low quality of content in mobile and played down its role in the game world overall,” said Serkan Toto, a Tokyo-based game consultant. “This is about the most drastic, bold shift in strategy Nintendo could have undertaken.”

Nintendo and DeNA will team up to develop a “multi-device membership service for the global market," available next fall for PCs, smartphones, tablets and also Nintendo gaming consoles, according to the report. Nintendo President Satoru Iwata said at a news conference on Tuesday that he hopes the service will allow the company to reach hundreds of millions of new users.

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Posted in 2015 at 11:59AM, March 17