9to5Toys Lunch Break: Beats Studio Headphones $140, Apple Watch Portable Charger $34, JBL Bluetooth Speaker $50, more

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TODAY’S CAN’T MISS DEALS:

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Headphones: Beats Studio Over-Ear in four colors $140 (Reg. $200+), Bose SoundTrue Around-Ear $80, more

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Treat your Apple Watch with Nomad accessories: Nomad Pod portable battery pack $34 (Orig. $60, CA Tax only), more

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Daily Deals: JBL Charge Portable Bluetooth Speaker (refurb) $50, Amazon Fire TV Stick $35, more

iPad Pro 16-9

Apple 12.9-inch iPad Pro 128GB Wi-Fi + Cellular in all colors for $820 shipped (Reg. $1,079)

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Apple 27-inch Retina 5K iMac 3.2GHz/8GB/1TB: from $1,450 (Reg. $1,799)

Apple 21-inch Retina 4K iMac 3.1GHz/8GB/1TB (newest version): from $1,150 shipped w/ .edu (Reg. $1,499)

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Apple 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro 2.7GHz/8GB/256GB $1,200 or $1,150 w/ .edu (Reg. $1,499), more

Apple 13-inch MacBook Air 1.6GHz/4GB/128GB (early 2015) from $700 shipped w/ .edu (Orig. $999)

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Star Wars Pinball for iOS goes free for the first time in nearly a year (Reg. $2)

Star Wars KOTOR for iOS now matching its lowest price ever: $3 (Reg. $10)

App Store Free App of the Week: Readdle’s Calendars 5 for iOS goes free for the first time in years (Reg. up to $7)

Air Display 3 for iOS gets its first price drop to $10 (Reg. $15)

MORE NEW GEAR FROM TODAY:

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Networking: D-Link 802.11ac Wireless Router $25 (Reg. $30+), PowerLine Kit w/ Wi-Fi Extender $80, more

MORE DEALS STILL ALIVE:

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Add Apple CarPlay integration to your vehicle w/ this Pioneer Receiver: $350 (Orig. $600)

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iHome SmartPlug with HomeKit, Alexa and Nest support: $25 w/ in-store pickup (Reg. $40)

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Transcend storage upgrades for your Mac: 512GB Portable Thunderbolt SSD $284, 256GB Expansion Card $170, more

NEW PRODUCTS & MORE:

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Dyson’s new Supersonic hair dryer will leave your hair healthy and wallet empty

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This LEGO Imperial Star Destroyer custom build is nearly 5-feet long

Filed under: Tips and Tricks Tagged: 9to5Toys, Amazon, app deals, Beats Studio Over-Ear Headphones, Best Buy, Daily Deals, free apps, Gold Box, Retina 5K iMac, Retina MacBook Pro, video games

Widespread iMessage outage currently affecting users

Apple’s iMessage service appears to be experiencing widespread issues this afternoon. Numerous people on Twitter and several 9to5Mac staffers are having issues sending and receiving messages across iOS, Mac, and Apple Watch. While Apple has yet to confirm the issue on its System Status webpage, it does note that an outage affecting 0.5 percent of its user base occurred yesterday afternoon.

more…

Filed under: iOS

How-To: Disable or delete custom services in OS X [Video]

Yesterday, we showed you how to create a custom service using Automator for easily resizing images via the Finder. Today, we’ll show you how to find the location of the custom services that you create in order to remove them. We’ll also show you how to enable or disable Services using System Preferences. more…

Filed under:
How-To
, Mac Tagged: Finder, how to, Mac, Mac OS X, OS X, Tips and Tricks, video

Apple’s ‘cutting-edge technology’ means it will be allowed to open retail stores in India – local report

A report back in February that Apple would be allowed to open retail stores in India has been corroborated by India’s Economic Times. India normally doesn’t allow single-brand retail stores unless at least 30% of their products are made within the country, but Apple is reportedly set to be granted an exemption on the grounds that its products are ‘cutting-edge technology.’

A government panel has recommended exempting Apple from mandatory local sourcing norms, a move which would pave the way for Apple to open single-brand retail stores in the country. “The committee has found that the company’s products are cutting edge technology and state-of-the-art. It has recommended to exempt them from the local sourcing norms,” sources said.

The exemption is a pretty big deal for Apple …

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Filed under: AAPL Company Tagged: Apple India, Apple Retail Store, Apple Store, India

Apple’s sales slump part of overall market fall; Chinese brands Huawei & Oppo are the ‘headwinds’

Apple isn’t the only smartphone manufacturer seeing falling sales. New figures from Strategy Analytics show what the global smartphone market saw its first-ever year-on-year drop on sales, down 3%.

Linda Sui, Director at Strategy Analytics, said, “Global smartphone shipments fell 3 percent annually from 345.0 million units in Q1 2015 to 334.6 million in Q1 2016. It is the first time ever since the modern smartphone market began in 1996 that global shipments have shrunk on an annualized basis. Smartphone growth is slowing due to increasing penetration maturity in major markets like China and consumer caution about the future of the world economy.”

Apple’s fall was of course far more dramatic, iPhone sales down 18% year-on-year, with CEO Tim Cook blaming economic ‘headwinds’ – and Strategy Analytics’ numbers show that strong competition from Chinese brands forms a large part of those …

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Filed under: AAPL Company, iOS Devices Tagged: china, Huawei, iPhone sales, OPPO, Strategy Analytics

Apple’s CareKit has launched, four apps available today, more will follow

Following on from HealthKit and ResearchKit, Apple has today launched its third medical framework, CareKit. First announced last month, CareKit allows users to collect medical data that can be shared with physicians and other carers to provide an accurate log of symptoms and signs to assist with diagnosis and treatment.

The more you know about your health, the better you can look after it. With the right tools, you can play an active role in managing your own health. That’s why we created CareKit — an open source software framework enabling developers to build apps that help you manage your medical conditions. Rather than relying solely on doctor visits, you’ll be able to regularly track your symptoms and medications, and even share the information with your care team for a bigger — and better — picture of your health.

Four CareKit apps are available as of today …

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Filed under: AAPL Company, Apps

Philips releases dramatically improved Hue mobile app to control connected lights

I’ve been using Philips Hue white and color ambience lights around my house since they gained HomeKit support last fall, but the mobile apps that control the lights have never felt top notch. Earlier this week, Philips moved its Hue mobile apps to legacy status with a name change and icon tweak, and today Hue users are finally getting their hands on the latest and greatest Philips Hue apps for iOS and Android. The design improvements alone are dramatic and worth the wait, but Philips packs in some new features and tricks as well.

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Filed under: Apps Tagged: Philips hue