A couple of readers have asked me about the super slim wood case I’ve had on my iPhone in photos accompanying recent reviews. The case is Minnesota-based Pad & Quill’s latest, and it’s a wood and Kevlar mix that makes for one of the thinnest and strongest natural wood cases around.

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Filed under: Reviews Tagged: case, dupont kevlar aramid fiber, iPhone, Kevlar, Pad & Quill, rosewood, walnut, Wood, zebra

Today, aftermarket Mac upgrade specialists OWC announced that the long-awaited PCIe flash storage upgrades for late model Mac laptops are now available. MacBook Pro, as far back as the Late-2013 product cycle, and MacBook Air, as far back as the Mid-2013 product cycle, are eligible to upgrade. Upgrades include a 480GB or a 1TB PCIe-based flash storage solution.

Considering that many of these Macs shipped with anemic 128GB or 256GB SSDs, this can be considered a major upgrade. For instance, with MacBook Airs that featured 128GB of flash storage space, a 1TB upgrade equals 8x the storage space, a significant increase in eligible storage. more…

Filed under: Mac Tagged: Flash storage, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro with Retina display, OWC, PCIe SSD, SSD, Storage, Upgrade

Google is on a roll lately with readying its iOS apps for the 12.9-inch iPad Pro announced last September and released last November.

Google’s YouTube app gained native resolution two weeks ago, but lacked iOS 9 multitasking features like Split View and Picture-in-Picture, then yesterday we saw Google Photos update with iPad Pro support in an update that actually includes Split View and Slide Over features.

Now it’s the Google Docs apps turn, at least to start, as the latest version of Google Docs for iOS adds native resolution support for the iPad Pro. more…

Filed under: Apps Tagged: Google Docs

Following a report last week that said Apple is looking to release an OLED iPhone sometime in 2017, Digitimes today reports that the company is planning a 5.8-inch OLED device (via The Motley Fool). While the report should be taken with a grain of salt considering the source, it claims that Apple is pushing to release the larger device sometime in 2018, or perhaps even earlier in 2017, which lines up with last week’s report.

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Filed under: iOS Devices Tagged: iPhone, iPhone 7 Pro, iPhone PRO, OLED, rumor

Keep up with the best gear and deals on the web by signing up for the 9to5Toys Newsletter. Also, be sure to check us out on: Twitter, RSS Feed, Facebook, Google+ and Safari push notifications.

TODAY’S CAN’T MISS DEALS

Apple iPad Pro Wi-Fi 32GB: $670 shipped (Reg. $799)

Apple iPad Pro 128GB Wi-Fi + Cellular: $930 shipped (Reg. $1,079)

Apple iPad Pro 128GB Wi-Fi: $800 shipped (Reg. $949)

Amazon Gold Box – Logitech accessories up to 60% off: Solar Keyboard for Mac $38, Bluetooth mouse $21 + more

The Room Three mystery-puzzler for iOS gets its very first price drop: $2 (Reg. $5)

App Store Free App of the Week: Toca Kitchen 2 goes free for the first time ($2 value)

Dr. Seuss Birthday iOS/Android App Sale from $1 ea: The Lorax, One Fish Two Fish, Horton Hears a Who!, many more

Get a $100 iTunes Gift Card for just $80 delivered via email from PayPal (20% savings)

Save $50-$100 on Apple Watch and get a free $50 gift card

Giveaway: Outfit your Apple Watch with one of Throne’s handmade leather bands ($330 value)

MORE NEW GEAR FROM TODAY:

Solartab: Powerful Solar Panel/13,000mAh dual USB battery in iPad form factor: $94 shipped ($35 off)

• Storage: Samsung 850 Pro 512GB 2.5-inch Internal SSD $199, Seagate 5TB Desktop HDD $120
• Asus Chromebit turns any HDMI display into a Chrome OS computer for $70 shipped
• Magazine bundles w/ titles from $3.50/yr: Wired, Dwell, GQ, ESPN, many more
• Media: $4.75 Blu-ray Sale – Gangs of New York, Cast Away, Dark Shadows
• Power banks: OLALA 4000mAh w/ Micro USB cable $9 (Reg. $13)
• UE’s highly-rated MEGABOOM Bluetooth Speaker for $200 shipped (Reg. $270)
• Daily Deals: Sharp AQUOS 43-inch 4K Smart LED UHDTV $450, more
• Grab a free short stack at IHOP in celebration of National Pancake Day
• New Nintendo Select title pre-orders now 20% off from $16 shipped

MORE DEALS STILL ALIVE:

Gift cards up to 20% off w/ email delivery: Best Buy, Panda Express, Michael’s, Applebee’s, many more

Put an extra 256GB in your MacBook Air or Retina Pro w/ Transcend’s JetDrive Lite: $139 (Reg. $155)

• This TP-Link 802.11n Wireless Travel Router is a no-brainer at $8 shipped (Orig. $40)
• Toshiba 1TB USB 3.0 HDD w/ 16GB Flash Drive + 16GB microSD card $50 (~$82 value)
• PNY’s LEGO USB Flash Drives: 16GB $7 (Reg. $13), 32GB $13 Prime shipped (Reg. $20)
• Amazon’s best-selling Kindle e-readers $20 off, deals as low as $60 w/ free shipping
• Canon Rebel T5 DSLR w/ 18-55mm & 75-300mm Lens Kit (refurb) $260, more
• Big screen 1080p 60Hz HDTVs: Insignia 50-inch $300, Toshiba 49-inch $300
• Mackie 5-inch studio monitor speakers w/ Bluetooth streaming (pair) $200 (Reg. $250)
• Mpow’s iPhone 6/s magnetic car mount is down to just $5 shipped today
• Bluetooth Headphones: Senbowe sweatproof earbuds $10 (Reg. $19), more
• Pebble Time Round Smartwatch $180 (Reg. $200+), Gear S2 $249 (Reg. $300), more
• Disney finally shares Blu-ray combo pack release details for Star Wars: The Force Awakens
• Logitech’s popular MX Mouse lineup is on sale today: Anywhere 2 from $53 (Reg. $70+)
• Macphun’s Intensify CK (Pro) image manipulation app for Mac: $40 (Reg. $60)

12-inch MacBook now $300 off: 256GB $1,000, 512GB $1,300 + extra $50 savings w/ .edu email

Apple Mac Pro 12-core Xeon/64GB/1TB: $8,799 (Reg. $9,599), more

NEW PRODUCTS & MORE:

The new DODOcase Virtual Reality kit for iPhone and Android hits Indiegogo

Amazon launches more affordable Echo Dot and Amazon Tap Bluetooth speaker

• New Normal blends style and PowerBeats-like design for a new take on wireless earbuds
• LEGO releases four new Minecraft sets
• How-to: Save up to $10/month on your cable bill by buying this $40 DOCSIS 3.0 Modem
• This attractive Kickstarter timepiece blocks out your schedule on its watch face
• DJI’s Phantom 4 drone is coming later this month with a new obstacle avoidance system
• Grovemade’s new wooden MacBook Dock offers a Made in America home for your device
• Brooklyn’s own Grado Labs introduces its first Made for iPhone earbuds w/ Siri control

Filed under: Tips and Tricks

One of the things that makes iOS special is its SpringBoard animations. The animations help orient the user around iOS using 3D space.

But not everyone is a fan of iOS’ animations — some for purely aesthetic reasons and others for health reasons. With this in mind, Apple has provided a way to reduce the animations using the Reduce Motion switch found in the Accessibility settings. Even with that option available, some wish to take the reduction of animations even further and disable them altogether.

Up until now, many of the available options for disabling animations relied on jailbreaking. But a new iOS glitch found by a redditor makes it possible to completely get rid of SpringBoard animations until you reboot your iPhone. Watch our step-by-step video walkthrough inside to see how. more…

Filed under:
How-To, iOS Devices Tagged: accessibility, animations, Assistive Touch, glitch, jailbreak tweak, noslowanimations, spotlight search, SpringBoard, video

Users of third-party Snapchat apps may want to delete them and change their passwords on the social media platform as soon as possible. New discoveries revealed today point to the fact that multiple third-party Snapchat apps are sending copies of user credentials over non-secure connections to their own servers.
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Filed under: Apps, iOS, iOS Devices Tagged: App Transport Security, Apps, iOS, Quick Upload, rdar, Security, SnapBox, Snapchat, Snapix, third-party apps, Verify.Ly, Will Strafach

Well, the e-book case that began in 2012 when the US government accused Apple of price-fixing finally ended yesterday  when the Supreme Court declined to hear Apple’s appeal. That left the original ruling intact, meaning that Apple is officially guilty of anti-competitive behavior and will have to fork out $450M in compensation.

There’s no doubt in my mind that the correct result was reached in law. Apple did deliberately set out to fix prices, it did strike secret deals, and it did intend to manipulate the e-book market. Emails from Steve Jobs confirmed the government’s claim that Apple struck the deals in the belief that consumers would end up paying more for e-books.

Throw in with Apple and see if we can all make a go of this to create a real mainstream ebooks market at $12.99 and $14.99. [Up from the typical $9.99 at the time.]

So far, so good. If you’d brought that evidence to me at the time Apple did the deals, I’d have agreed with the government that the company’s behavior was both illegal and morally wrong. But I’d argue that by the time the case was finally brought to court, it was already abundantly clear that it was not in the public interest to pursue it …

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Filed under: AAPL Company, Opinion Tagged: AAPL, Amazon, Apple Inc, ebook trial, ebooks, IBooks, Opinion, Steve Jobs

Yoink is a utility available on the Mac App Store that I find to be extremely useful. When you begin dragging a file on a Mac with Yoink installed, the utility’s interface appears on the side of the screen. Yoink serves as a temporary holding area for files on your Mac as you move them between apps, folders, and wherever else in the Finder.

There are few apps that I consider to be must-haves on OS X, but Yoink is certainly one of them. Moving files around the Mac is easier with Yoink installed, especially if you make the most of using full screen apps. Watch our video walkthrough inside to see how. more…

Filed under:
How-To, Apps, Mac Tagged: Apps, apps & updates, Mac, Mac App Store, Mac OS X, OS X

If you’ve been wanting to pay for your gas at ExxonMobile stations using Apple Pay, the good news is that you now can, reports CNET.

Apple Pay went live Tuesday in more than 6,000 Exxon and Mobil-branded gas stations across 46 US states. The service will be added to about 2,000 more stores by mid-year and will be available in nearly all of the company’s 10,000 locations by the end of 2016.

But if you were expecting to just wave your iPhone or Apple Watch at a reader on the pump, that’s not quite how it works …

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Filed under: Apple Pay Tagged: Apple pay, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Gas stations