Mitchel Broussard

Today marks the official transfer of Apple's Chinese iCloud services from a hosting location in the United States to servers owned and operated by state-run Chinese company Guizhou-Cloud Big Data (GCBD) (via CNN). With the move, all Chinese users' iCloud accounts will now be hosted on GCBD's servers, along with the iCloud encryption keys needed to unlock an iCloud account. Apple made the...

AT&T today announced a series of deals launching this Thursday, March 1 that will be available only for customers in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. The offers vary from city to city, and the carrier noted that each one will last for a "limited time" only. The city-specific deals are debuting alongside the launch of AT&T's new Unlimited Plus Enhanced and Unlimited Choice Enhanced plans,...

Apple has reportedly hired engineer Michael Abbott for an unspecified role within the company, according to information obtained by MacGeneration [Google Translate]. Abbott's job history includes vice president of engineering for Twitter, team lead for the Azure cloud platform at Microsoft, and senior vice president of apps and services at Palm, where he helped create webOS. More recently,...

The United States Patent and Trademark Office today granted Apple a patent related to a "Case for wearable electronic device," and it's described as an accessory that would let users charge their Apple Watch while on the go while also storing a few extra bands (via Patently Apple). Similar to portable battery packs, or Apple's own AirPods case, users would charge the Apple Watch case itself, and...

B&H Photo and Amazon have discounted the base model of Apple's new high-end iMac Pro desktop computer by $500 this week, offering it for $4,499, down from $4,999. Since early January, Micro Center has had the best deal on iMac Pro -- pricing the base model at $3,999.99 -- but this offer is unobtainable for those who don't live near one of Micro Center's locations, so B&H Photo and Amazon's deals...

Late in 2017, a crop of iPhone X clones began popping up in China, with each device deciding to copy the tenth anniversary iPhone's main identifier: the front-facing "notch." One such model was the "Leagoo S9," and at Mobile World Congress this week the company has announced new details about the phone, including a price tag of $149.99. Images via Leagoo Leagoo confirmed that the device has a ...

Over the past few days there have been multiple reports of a new update to the Netflix app on iOS and Android devices, which includes a design overhaul for the streaming service's navigation bar on smartphones. Instead of placing every piece of navigation within the top lefthand corner "hamburger" menu, Netflix has introduced a simpler tab bar at the bottom of the app with four tabs for Home,...

Sony today at Mobile World Congress revealed an upgraded version of its Xperia Ear earphones, called the Xperia Ear Duo. Sony previously showed the earphones in prototype form during last year's MWC, but the company has now officially announced a price point of $280 and release date of May 2018 for its latest smart assistant earphones (via The Verge). The main new addition to Sony's earphones...

Samsung today at Mobile World Congress revealed a new set of end-to-end 5G commercial solutions, which will launch later this year alongside Verizon's first commercial 5G network in the United States. The 5G fixed wireless access solutions include "commercial form-factor" 5G home routers for both indoor and outdoor use, and Samsung said it used its own in-house technology to create the first...

T-Mobile's iPhone and Apple Watch offers, announced on Wednesday, have now launched on the carrier's website today. The iPhone deal nets you a $200 rebate when purchasing the iPhone X, 8, 8 Plus, 7, or 7 Plus on an Equipment Installment Plan, received through a prepaid MasterCard card that you'll get in the mail about eight weeks after the order date. Check out our original blog post for more...

It's been just over two weeks since YouTube updated its Apple TV app with a major redesign, essentially bringing the app in line with YouTube on other products like Android TV, smart TVs, PS4, and Xbox One. While the original YouTube Apple TV app was never widely favored, the new update was met with even more blowback from some users, who referenced laggy controls, poorer playback UI, illogical...

Password management app 1Password this week got a new feature on the web, and developer AgileBits described it as a way for users to check and make sure that their passwords aren't "pwned passwords," or passwords that have been leaked online. While the launch is web-only right now, AgileBits said it will be coming to 1Password apps in the future. 1Password's new feature integrates with a newly ...

Affinity Photo, which Apple named the iPad App of the Year for 2017, was today updated with a suite of "more powerful professional features," according to developer Serif. To celebrate the new update, users can also download three add-on brush and filter packs for free starting today. Specifically, version 1.6.7 of Affinity Photo lets users shoot direct in RAW or HDR video from within the iPad ...

It's been two months since the Federal Communications Commission voted 3-2 in favor of repealing Net Neutrality rules that were put in place by the United States government in 2015. That decision has been made official today by being entered into the Federal Register, and will become law starting April 23, 2018. Following the vote, lawsuits began to appear in efforts to block the rollback of...

This morning, Loup Ventures shared new information on Apple Pay adoption, estimating that there were 127 million global Apple Pay users by the end of 2017, a jump from 62 million the previous year. Given that there are about 795 million active iPhones around the world, this means that about 16 percent of iPhone owners have activated Apple Pay. Of that 16 percent base, five percent are located...

T-Mobile today announced a new iPhone offer for customers thinking about purchasing one of Apple's latest smartphones. Following a BOGO deal from January, T-Mobile is now offering customers the chance to get a $200 rebate when purchasing the iPhone X, 8, 8 Plus, 7, or 7 Plus on a 24-month Equipment Installment Plan, received in the form of a prepaid MasterCard card. That's in addition to the...

Dish Network today reported official numbers for its streaming television service Sling TV, which marks the first time that the company disclosed the service's subscriber numbers separately from its traditional pay TV numbers. According to Dish, Sling TV had 2.212 million subscribers as of the end of 2017, aligning with previous estimates that the service had well over 2 million subscribers (via T...

In December 2016, Facebook Messenger rolled out the ability for users to create group video chats with up to six members participating, and today the company has further streamlined the feature. Before today's update, if users were already in a one-on-one video or audio call they had to hang up, start a new conversation, and choose every member to invite to the new group chat. Now, while in...

It's been just over one year since Fire Emblem Heroes launched on the iOS App Store in the United States, Japan, and over 30 other countries, and this week new data researched by Sensor Tower has titled the app as Nintendo and DeNA's "most successful mobile game to date." Over the course of its first year, Fire Emblem Heroes earned an estimated $295 million in player spending worldwide, helped by ...

Earlier in February, developer Snowman announced that "Alto's Odyssey" would be launching on iOS and tvOS Thursday, February 22, but the game has appeared one day early on both App Stores and is available to download right now for $4.99 [Direct Link] (via TouchArcade). Alto's Odyssey isn't featured yet on the United States App Store, but a search for it on both iOS and tvOS should surface the...