Founder, Publisher and Editorial Director of the 9to5/Electrek/DroneDJ sites.
Seth Weintraub is an award-winning journalist and blogger who won back to back Neal Awards during his three plus years covering Apple and Google at IDG’s Computerworld from 2007–2010. Weintraub next covered all things Google for Fortune Magazine from 2010-2011 amassing a thick rolodex of Google contacts and love for Silicon Valley tech culture.
It turns out that his hobby 9to5Mac blog was always his favorite and in 2011 he went full time adding his Fortune Google followers to 9to5Google and adding the style and commerce component 9to5Toys gear and deals site. In 2013, Weintraub bought one of the Tesla’s first Model S EVs off the assembly line and so began his love affair with the Electric Vehicle and green energy which in 2014 turned into electrek.
In 2018, DroneDJ was born to cover the burgeoning world of drones and UAV’s led by China’s DJI.
From 1997-2007, Weintraub was a Global IT director and Web Developer for a number of companies with stints at multimedia and branding agencies in Paris, Los Angeles, New York, Sydney, Hong Kong, Madrid and London before becoming a publisher/blogger.
Seth received a bachelors degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the University of Southern California with a minor in Multimedia and Creative Technology in 1997. In 2004, he received a Masters from NYU’s Tisch School of the Art’s ITP program.
Hobbies: Weintraub is a licensed single engine private pilot, certified open water scuba diver and spent over a year traveling to 60 cities in 23 countries. Whatever free time exists is now guaranteed to his lovely wife and two amazing sons.
More at About.me. BI 2014 profile.
Tips: seth@9to5mac.com, or llsethj on Wickr/Skype or link at top of page.
Readers and Tweeters are reporting that Apple CEO Tim Cook is at the Palo Alto University Apple Store greeting new iPhone 5S and 5C buyers. Cook spoke highly of the nearby new design Stanford Shopping Center at the iPhone 5s/c announcement.
Update: We’re now hearing that Eddie Cue and Phil Schiller are at the new Stanford Store doing the same thing.
https://twitter.com/gizmosachin/status/381069272551669760
https://twitter.com/sqreone/status/381070388387512320
Some Tim Cook Tweets/images below:
The iPhone 5s repair experts at iFixyouri sent along this one, above ^.
‘Android Authority’ seemed to enjoy themselves a little too much in theirs…
TechSmartt too:
We’ll update with more as they come in.
So here they go. We got a whiff of a teardown earlier today from an Australian company but iFixit generally digs down a little deeper, has some great pictures, and damn, they got a GOLD iPhone 5s. What’s so good about the gold? Well besides the fact that it is the bling-iest phone in existence, it is also very, very rare.
This one was built in July.
Parts:
Nothing too terribly surprising here. The Battery is labelled “Apple Japan” for the first time. Also the a7 was fabbed in July and they couldn’t find the M7 (so small or part of the SoC A7?).
Update: iFixit has since given the teardown treatment to a blue iPhone 5c. Not surprisingly, the device is largely the same as the iPhone 5 on the inside, but it did find a slightly larger 3.8 V—5.73 Wh—1510 mAh battery compared to the 3.8 V—5.45 Wh—1440 mAh battery in the iPhone 5. iFixit also notes that “The battery has lost the 5’s convenient pull tab, and gained more resilient adhesive—it now requires heat and prying to remove.”
If you are a a developer and want to cross platform your game play, Amazon today announced that it had made its (not a copy of GameCenter) GameCircle available to iOS developers.
Amazon GameCircle and Whispersync for Games is live on iOS and Android! You can store game data in the AWS Cloud so players don’t lose their game progress, high scores, or achievements when switching between devices. We know programming for multiple platforms is standard practice for many developers—iOS support has been a frequent feature request—so we’re excited to make GameCircle available on a whole new class of devices. GameCircle and Whispersync are free for you and your players. Plus, when you integrate GameCircle achievements, you automatically get access to Achievement Reports as well. These reports help you get a better understanding of how players interact with your game so you can make sure they’re having a great experience.
Download the SDK from the Mobile App Distribution Portal, where you’ll also find full documentation.
If you are like me, you have your eyes set on a Gold (or white) iPhone 5s because BLING! But if you are planning to go camp out in from of a non-Apple retail establishment tomorrow, you are going to have a bad time.
Every carrier source we’ve talked to and every US retail outlet we’ve heard from has told us that they are only getting in Space Grey iPhone 5s devices for sale. That’s not to say some stock might arrive late tonight and throughout the day tomorrow.
Further up the line, we’re hearing that a few white/silver and even fewer gold iPhone 5s deliveries are trickling in the warehouses but hardly enough for wide dispersal by retail stores. Perhaps a few high profile flagship stores will have stock on hand but as we’ve been told by one retailer, ordering online maybe the best way to go:
Customers can of course order all colors online through us
We’ve long expected iPhone 5s shortages and as we’ve been seeing from international launches, the iPhone 5s in all colors is in short supply.
See you at the Apple Store tomorrow morning then?
Expand
Expanding
Close
From 9to5Toys.com:
For the rest of September, MacUpdate has a solid $49.99 9 app bundle on its hands. All of the bundled titles represent the newest releases and will be compatible with the upcoming OS X 10.9 Mavericks release. ($50 too much? ‘Name your own price’ for this bundle). The $49.99 bundle includes:
1. ScreenFlow 4 – $99.99 – The best way to record screencasts on a Mac.
2. TechTool Pro 7 – $99.99 – The latest version of the powerful system utility.
3. Civilization V: Gold Edition – $49.99 – Best-selling strategy game, packed with extra content
4. PDFpen 6 – $59.95 – The all-purpose, easy-to-use PDF editor.
5. Snapheal Pro – $39.99 – The easiest way to remove objects and enhance your photos.
6. DeltaWalker – $39.95 – Compare and merge files and folders.
7. Vitamin-R 2 – $29.99 – Boost your productivity by enhancing your on-task focus.
8. Choco 2 – $29.99 – Design gorgeous photo collages with ease.
9. Aurora 5 – $14.95 – The most versatile alarm clock for your Mac.
In addition, bundle buyers can save more with these optional upgrades:
Expand
Expanding
Close
We mentioned this use of an iPad to aim a weapon on Twitter earlier but war is obviously not the place for jokes. However, it is fascinating that iPads have now become part of weaponry. via Reuters
Expand
Expanding
Close
Ben wrote quite the controversial post Wednesday entitled ‘Opinion: Why I love the iPhone 5s, and why I’ll be sticking with my 4Ss‘. He listed plenty of good reasons not to upgrade to a new high end iPhone and if you look at the comments, he’s not alone in that thinking. The tl;dr is that the iPhone 4s does everything ‘good enough’ given that his iPad is his primary mobile device.
But I believe that I have some convincing arguments to upgrade this year (not just to iPhone 5c) and perhaps I can convince a few of you, if not Ben:
Not only did the iPod (Rasputin) Classic not die as predicted (again) today, Apple is wrapping the ‘old man of the iPods’ up with its Apple Care Plus plans along with the more popular iPod touch. According to the updated iPod support page, Apple customers can now purchase an additional year of coverage for the iPods as well as phone support beyond 90 days and most importantly, two incidents of accidental damage coverage (+$29 service fee) for $59 here.
Previously, only regular AppleCare as available to iPods and was grouped in with Apple TVs.
Apple also raised AppleCare+ fees today on iPhones from $49 to $79 and also launched in Europe.
Update: We have also learned that out of warranty replacements for the iPhone 5 (and presumably 5s) will be priced at $269, an increase of $40 over the past year. This inflated cost may make it easier for iPhone owners to justify the up-front cost of AppleCare+.
Apple just published three (and counting) videos from today’s announcements to its YouTube channel. Videos for easy embedding in your Facebook, Twitter, G+ or Blog follow:
Expand
Expanding
Close
One of the bigger questions remaining about Apple’s event tomorrow is the price point of the iPhone 5C. Some, including Reuters, have put the price point very low, in the $100 Android range. Others have put it higher at $500 and above. Assuming Apple goes with a 16GB base model, I’d personally guess about $450 or slightly lower. How about you?
We haven’t seen any LEDs behind the fingerprint-reading home button in parts leaks but that hasn’t stopped Martin Hajek from mocking up a ‘Lord of the Rings’ version (Gallery below) of the iPhone 5S based on the recent packaging leaks…
Expand
Expanding
Close
We’ve seen all kinds of iPhone 5S imagery from backs, fronts, ads and packaging and more.
Today we have a new one. Above, you can see what appears to be a slate/graphite or black iPhone 5S (notice dual Flash) but this one has markings on it including the CCC or China Compulsory Certificate. That means it is headed for the Chinese market which if legitimate would indicate that a Chinese (perhaps China Telecom?) version of the iPhone 5S is imminent.
It could also indicate that the Slate iPhone 5S isn’t just a prototype color as we’d originally considered.
Recently Barclay’s issued a report postulating that iPhone 5C would be the Chinese iPhone. This would seem to indicate that China will also see iPhone 5S.
Expand
Expanding
Close
I’ve spent a lot of time reviewing the best Bluetooth speakers out there (TL;DR: Overall winner, Best Value, Best sound, Best Portable/Sound, Charger too, Apps/Updates,more) and while they practically invented the category, Jawbone has largely fallen behind in terms of quality/price to Logitech, Bose Soundlink, and JBL.
Today, Jawbone follows its Jambox and Big Jambox with a Mini Jambox which is close to the size of the original Jambox but under an inch thin. Notably it includes support for Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy which will allow both the speaker and the device that is providing the music to last much longer.
The kicker, though, is the price: $179. That’s painful. For $20 more you can pick up the very high end UE Boom or Bose Soundlink Mini. For $30 less, the JBL Charge probably makes a lot more sense unless that sub 1″ thickness is a deal-breaker. Need something small and pocketable? I’m currently reviewing and loving the Divoom Bean which has impressive sound for its diminutive size. Price? $30
Still, if you are a Jambox lover who loves the apps and wants something that may squeeze into a pocket, you may want to pick one of these up in “Late September” when it is released.
Unbox Therapy looks at what the iPad 5 with its significantly smaller side bezels will look and feel like in this video. There really isn’t anything new in the video as we’ve expected this form factor since January, but it is interesting to see how the new iPad will fit in one (medium/large) hand and take after the Mini in design. For instance, the speaker on the bottom will improve sound when being played laying flat.
The new iPad isn’t expected at next week’s event but instead should probably be announced in October in time for the holidays.
From 9to5Toys.com:
.
Nothing gets kids pumped for school like some pop music. Good news parents and teens! iTunes is having a Back to School sale on just that kind of music and is sending an email around with some pretty good deals ($6.99/each):
Want a better selection? $7.99 gets you the following music
Want some good, free music? Remember Apple is offering 6 free tracks from the iTunes Music Festival that is currently going on in London.
We’ve previously covered the recent rumors of the 20 Megapixel Sony Wifi ‘smart lens’ which will attach to Android and iOS smartphones and connect to the phone via Wifi. Theoretically, you’ll be able to take much better pictures with the bigger CMOS sensor and Zeiss glass.
But is that black lens going to look good on your new gold iPhone? No, it is not.
Thankfully, the rumored gold iPhone now has a rumored gold lens attachment from Sony, according to a report from SonyAlphaRumors. According to the report, it will be announced at Sony’s IFA event in Berlin (which Jordan will be covering). Some other info about the new lens comes with the ‘smartshots’ above:
According to Rapidus.se (via TechCrunch), Apple has purchased a Swedish firm called AlgoTrim for an undisclosed price. The small company specializes in image and video, specifically JPEG, compression techniques on mobile devices which allow faster processing of images on power-constrained mobile devices.
AlgoTrim™ develops advanced solutions for mobile devices within the fields of data compression, mobile imaging and video, and computer graphics.
These solutions are designed to excel in terms of high performance and small memory requirements, making them ideal for mobile devices. Many solutions offered by AlgoTrim are codecs that are the fastest on the market, for example, the lossless codec for general data compression and the imaging codecs.
Apple could use these codecs in its camera and image viewing and manipulation apps on iOS. It is probable that the cost of picking up the company and owning the technology outweighed the cost of licensing the technology over its hundreds of millions of devices. This also could be an “aquihire”.
Apple is no stranger to the Swedish technology market. It picked up Polar Rose in 2010, a face recognition company and C3 a Swedish 3D mapping company in the run up to its Maps product launch. Cupertino has been on a bit of a startup binge lately buying such companies as Embark and Matcha.tv.
Last year, AlgoTrim reported a revenue of 3.0 million USD, with an net income before taxes of EUR -1.1 million. Until now, AloTrim has been focused mostly on Android development.
Update: The acquisition has been confirmed to TechCrunch:
Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans.
iPhone 5S Champagne
Bloomberg is reporting that shares of NTT DoCoMo are rising on rumors that Japan’s largest carrier will get the iPhone this year. The company’s rivals, KDDI and Softbank (who just bought Sprint) both currently carry the iPhone and saw their share price drop in morning trading.
[DoCoMo]Chief Financial Officer Kazuto Tsubouchi said there are compelling reasons for Apple and his company to reach an agreement, according to an interview published in SankeiBiz. For Apple, it doesn’t make business sense not to allow Japan’s largest wireless carrier to sell the iPhone, while DoCoMo wants to be able to sell most popular handsets, Sankei said.
The original Sankei article is here (translated) with the relevant bit translated by 9to5Mac reader Kazuto Kusakari:
A new iPhone from Apple is expected in September. The Japanese market are paying close attention to whether NTT docomo will be selling the new model or not. Having sold two other models as their main phones in the past summer season, the company is ready, as the vice-president Kazuto Tsubouchi has commented “the only problem is WHEN we are going to sell it.”…
Tsubouchi adds, “Nothing has changed. It will be difficult (to sell the iPhone on September 10th). But for Apple, it is not economically reasonable to not sell the iPhone on Japan’s largest carrier. As for NTT docomo, we must sell phone the customers desire. It’s a matter of terms.
Apple is also working on China’s largest carrier, China Mobile, which also doesn’t currently carry the iPhone. If Apple can hook one or optimally both of these two monster carriers, it will be able to sell significantly more iPhones in Asia.
Expand
Expanding
Close
Microsoft’s stock is surging, up 8% in pre-market on the news that Steve Ballmer will be vacating the CEO role within the next year.:
REDMOND, Wash. — Aug. 23, 2013 — Microsoft Corp. today announced that Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer has decided to retire as CEO within the next 12 months, upon the completion of a process to choose his successor. In the meantime, Ballmer will continue as CEO and will lead Microsoft through the next steps of its transformation to a devices and services company that empowers people for the activities they value most.
“There is never a perfect time for this type of transition, but now is the right time,” Ballmer said. “We have embarked on a new strategy with a new organization and we have an amazing Senior Leadership Team. My original thoughts on timing would have had my retirement happen in the middle of our company’s transformation to a devices and services company. We need a CEO who will be here longer term for this new direction.”
The Board of Directors has appointed a special committee to direct the process. This committee is chaired by John Thompson, the board’s lead independent director, and includes Chairman of the Board Bill Gates, Chairman of the Audit Committee Chuck Noski and Chairman of the Compensation Committee Steve Luczo. The special committee is working with Heidrick & Struggles International Inc., a leading executive recruiting firm, and will consider both external and internal candidates.
“The board is committed to the effective transformation of Microsoft to a successful devices and services company,” Thompson said. “As this work continues, we are focused on selecting a new CEO to work with the company’s senior leadership team to chart the company’s course and execute on it in a highly competitive industry.”
“As a member of the succession planning committee, I’ll work closely with the other members of the board to identify a great new CEO,” said Gates. “We’re fortunate to have Steve in his role until the new CEO assumes these duties.”
Microsoft’s stock has been flat since Ballmer took over the CEO roll from Bill Gates at the turn of the century. Ballmer has faced increasing criticism lately over the failure of the Surface RT and Windows Phones in a market dominated by Apple’s iOS devices and Android/Google devices. Perhaps his biggest gaffe was laughing off the importance of the iPhone (below).
Not gonna lie. I'm gonna miss Ballmer. Horrible tech visionary/leader but amazing entertainer
— Seth Weintraub (@llsethj) August 23, 2013
So if Apple is really doing this Gold/Champagne iPhone 5S, it could look a lot like the above from Japanese magazine ASCII.jp (via Nowhereelse/Sonny Dickson). Some additional photos from AppAdvice above.
Thinner font on the 5S matches iOS 7. “@9to5mac: Gold/Champagne iPhone 5S shell compared to white and black iPhones http://t.co/PsGR90CkY6”
— Michael Steeber (@MichaelSteeber) August 22, 2013
Also from Sonny/BestTechInfo, “Every color of the iPhone 5C”, below. Note there is no black there. He says that isn’t happening…
Expand
Expanding
Close
<a href="http://9to5mac.com/2013/08/10/new-mockups-claim-to-show-iphone-5s-and-iphone-5c-designs-gallery/">iPhone 5S/5C physical mockups</a>
KGI’s often reliable Mingchi Kuo is out with his latest Apple Watch forecast with some interesting new info. His latest findings:
Tim Cook’s talks with China Mobile’s CEO must have gone well because …
Expand
Expanding
Close
Cat’s out of the bag? It appears that Parallels is preparing an update to their award-winning virtualization software for Mac. Amazon Germany has a pre-order page up with Parallels Desktop 9 artwork and an expected delivery date of September 5th. Having a quick look around, it appears you can also order it now in the US at MacMall/PCM for $74.99 shipped:
Parallels 9? http://t.co/Q4t2QvPdXM
— 9to5Toys (@9to5toys) August 18, 2013
A variety of other retailers appear to be getting units in stock after a quick Google search of manufacturer part PDFM9L-BX1-EN-NT. The September 5th release date would seem to fit into Parallels’ schedule. Previous releases were:
Parallels allows Mac Users to run Virtual machines of Windows, other instances of Mac OS, Linux, Android and just about every other Intel-based OSes out there inside of Mac OS. Likely updates this time around would probably include OSX 10.9 Mavericks and Windows 8/.1 compatibility improvements.
Parallels has traditionally allowed users who’ve bought within 2 weeks of release a free upgrade to the new version but no such policy has yet been announced for this version. (Update: Here’s Parallels Tech Guarantee saying if you buy after August 15th (now) you are covered for a free upgrade when V9 comes out.) If you are interested in purchasing Parallels now (and it is a GREAT product), we recommend downloading a free 30-day trial of Parallels Desktop 8 which would conclude after the above early September update, guaranteeing you wouldn’t need to pay extra for an update to v9.
If Parallels 9 is indeed coming out soon, you can bet we’ll have a full review of the product and/or any iOS accessory products, should such products exist, as soon as they are available.
Thanks/Danke Tipsters!
Expand
Expanding
Close
We’ve had a look at just about all of the best portable Bluetooth speakers on the market but Bose, a company known for high (prices and) quality speakers, has never made our ‘best of‘ lists. Its regular Soundlink and Soundlink II products at $300-$349 have sound and features that lower-priced competitors, especially Logitech UE, JBL Charge and even the Beats Pill were able to handily beat.
All of that ended the moment I got the $199 Bose Soundlink Mini, a product that shows that Bose is willing to think outside of its “hyper-premium price” box without sacrificing the quality of its product…
Expand
Expanding
Close
