Tim Cook & Ethel Kennedy, RFK’s widow

Last week we learned that Tim Cook was set to receive the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights 2015 Ripple of Hope award, and last night the Apple CEO delivered his acceptance speech during the scheduled award ceremony. The RFK Center hasn’t yet posted video of last night’s event, but Bloomberg has shared excerpts of what it reports was a 12 minute speech across of a variety of political and social issues.

Naturally, Cook delivered his worldview on issues that he’s come to champion during his tenure as CEO of Apple, including voicing frustration over how some have responded to the Syrian refugee crisis, which Apple has raised money to aid through donations and a charity song.

“Today, some in our country would turn away innocent men, women and children seeking refuge,” Cook said, “regardless of how many background checks they may submit to, simply based on where they were born. Victims of war and now victims of fear and misunderstanding.”

Cook also cited the state of education in America, which Apple has made efforts to improve through technology in partnership with the government:

“Today, too many children are denied access to quality education simply because of the zip code they live in. They begin their lives facing strong headwinds and disadvantage they did nothing to deserve. We could do better, Robert Kennedy would say, and because we can do better, we must act.”

Finally, the Apple CEO continued championing marriage equality and LGBT protections in the US. Cook notably became the first leader of a major company to acknowledge being gay in a public essay published last year.

“Today, more than half of the states in this country still don’t offer basic protections to gay or transgender people, leaving millions of people vulnerable to being fired or evicted because of who they are or who they love,” Cook said.

Cook has also publicly called on Congress to pass legislation that protects LGBT workers across the US, mirroring Apple’s own policies, on numerous occasions. Apple under Cook’s leadership has publicly backed such legislation, while denouncing controversial legislation around the country.

We’ll update with video from the event as soon as it’s available.

Top photo via RFK Center

Filed under: AAPL Company Tagged: Education, equality, RFK Center, Ripple of Hope, Tim Cook, world issues

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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:

Best Buy makes a splash with the lowest Apple Watch prices ever, deals start at just $249

Algoriddim’s djay 2 for iPhone is now available for free (Reg. $3)

Headphones: SoundPEATS Sport Bluetooth Earbuds $17 shipped (Reg. $30), more

Twelve South blowout: iPad mini leather case $25 Prime shipped (Reg. $70), more

$100 iTunes Physical Gift Card for $80 w/ free shipping (20% off)

Justin’s Holiday Gift Guide: speakers, Lightning mics, storage, pocket synths & more to up your home recording set-up

Giveaway: SanDisk USB flash drives for iPhone, iPad, and Android mobile devices

MORE NEW GEAR FROM TODAY:

Grab a 2-pack of Apple certified Lightning Cables with MicroUSB Adapters for $8 Prime Shipped

• Samsung 850 2.5-inch Internal Solid-State Drives: PRO 512GB $198, EVO 500GB $138
• Games/Apps: Star Wars Battlefront $40, Xbox One bundles from $300 or 1TB $450, more
• Daily Deals: Bushnell Rangefinder plus Binoculars $150, more
• Amazon names the best-selling books of 2015, snag one as a surefire holiday gift
• Clothing/Fashion under $30: Levi’s Men’s 2 Belts In A Box $24, Hats, more
• Amazon Gold Box – Travelpro Luggage 70%+ off: two-piece Hardside Spinner set $110, more

Amazon Gold Box – Breaking Bad: The Complete Series on Blu-ray $50 (Reg. $100) wp.me/p1xTlR-L3x https://t.co/JaRFmOOHFG

—
9to5Toys (@9to5toys) December 09, 2015

MORE DEALS STILL ALIVE:

Anker USB Power: 20,000mAh Dual-USB Battery $28 (Reg. $40), MFi Lightning Cables from $7, more

Samsung Ultra-Slim 8X USB DVD-R Optical Drive for Mac/PC/Android: $18 shipped (Orig. $26)

• Apple iPad mini 2 Wi-Fi 32GB $269 (Reg. $319), iPad Air 2 Wi-Fi 128GB $600 (Reg. $699)
• Home Recording: ATH-M40x headphones + best selling Blue Yeti USB mic $130, more
• Sling Media Slingbox 350 1080p TV Media Streamer (refurb) $55 shipped (Orig. $180)
• Star Wars LEGO Sets: Kylo Ren’s Shuttle $99 (Reg. $120), more
• Bluetooth Speakers: URGE SOUNDBRICK PLUS $17 (Reg. $30), more
• Apple’s latest freebie is Afterlight image editing app for iPhone and iPad ($1 value)
• GoPro HERO bundles starting at $140, cases from $10, headgear from $7, more
• Fashion: Save 25% off at Amazon – Steve Madden Combat Boot $83 (Reg. $110), more
• Toys: Target BOGO 50% off – two Nerf Blasters $60 (~$85 value), more
• Media: James Bond Steelbook Blu-rays $10 (Reg. $15), Anime deals, more
• PlayStation Now drops to $100/yr (55% off)
• Grab Nomad’s gorgeous aluminum Apple Watch Stand: $41 shipped (Reg. $60)
• iPhone 6 (refurb) and one year of unlimited talk/text: $550 shipped
• Bluetooth Headphones: Jabra MOVE On-ears $60 (Reg. $90), more
• Amazon is giving away a year of unlimited cloud storage
• Home Recording: Mackie LE CR3 speakers $80 (Reg. $100), more
• Fashion 50% off sales: The North Face, PUMA, Patagonia, more
• Free MP3 Christmas albums from Mariah Carey, Blake Shelton, Josh Groban

NEW PRODUCTS & MORE:

The future is (almost) here with Moley’s robotic kitchen that prepares meals from start to finish

The latest Omate smartwatch for iOS/Android hits Indiegogo w/ instant success

• Amazon launches New Kindle Fire HD 8 ‘Reader’s Edition’
• Razor details its new Hovertrax Smart Scooter ahead of release
• Anova Culinary updates its sous vide Precision Cooker w/ Wi-Fi  for cooking away from home
• Mounts for the new Apple TV (4th gen) keep your HDTV setup looking super clean
• Host a Christmas party that doesn’t suck with these rowdy adult board games
• Sugr Cube enters the fray of Wi-Fi speakers with touch-based control
• MiTagg slims down its NuDock Mini for iPhone & Apple Watch plus adds USB-C

Filed under: Tips and Tricks Tagged: 9to5Toys, Amazon, app deals, Apple watch, Best Buy, bluetooth headphones, Daily Deals, djay 2, free apps, Gold Box, video games

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Microsoft has been offering the iOS version of its intelligent assistant Cortana as a small-scale beta since last month, and it’s now ready to go live. Cortana is available on the App Store now.

Don’t expect it to match Siri for functionality, however – with Siri deeply embedded into iOS and Cortana a mere app, it will have limited capabilities, but you can at least see how it compares when it comes to answering questions …

You’ll need to be running iOS 8 or later, and it will initially be available only in the U.S. and China.

Siri in the meantime just learned a new trick: as of yesterday, it can play Apple Music on the new Apple TV.

Photo: Windows Central

Filed under: Apps Tagged: Cortana, Cortana for iPhone, Cortana iPhone, Siri

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Aurora HDR, the Mac App Store Editors’ Choice-winning high-dynamic range (HDR) photography tool, is receiving significant updates ahead of the holidays. Released last month by Macphun and leading HDR photographer Trey Ratcliff, Aurora HDR automatically and intelligently merges multiple exposures of an image together, radically expanding details in light, shadowed, and colorful portions of the photo. It comes in basic (regularly $49.99) and Pro ($99) versions, the latter with a free trial.

Working directly with Apple, Macphun is adding OS X Photos plug-in support to version 1.1.1 of the app, enabling multiple images to be grabbed directly from the Photos library. Also added since the initial 1.0 release are new “realistic” HDR presets, a “super smooth” control that provides “extreme noise reduction,” and a faster, superior tone-mapping algorithm. Users of the Pro app can access many of the new features in version 1.1.0, out now, while the Mac App Store version will receive the update over the next week or so.

Aurora HDR’s Mac App Store version is currently discounted from $49.99 to $39.99, while the Pro version is offered directly through Macphun for $99. The Pro version currently includes a free bonus package worth $135, including the impressive noise reduction app Noiseless CK (reviewed here). Additionally, Macphun’s superb $150 six-app photo editing bundle, Creative Kit 2016 (reviewed here), is currently available at a discounted price of $99.99, including a collection of exclusive holiday gifts.

Filed under: Apps Tagged: Aurora HDR, Noise reduction, OS X Photos, photos, Plug-ins

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A year ago Algoriddim introduced djay Pro to Mac, the professional version of the company’s highly popular DJ software that ever beginners can love, and today djay Pro is coming to iPad. It’s a whole new app for the tablet with a super clean look, loads of new features, and a highly responsive design. That means features like Split View and Slide Over totally work, letting you mix in djay Pro and actually use a second app alongside it. And while djay Pro is one of the first pro class apps to hit the iPad Pro where it really shines, it’s fully available on newer iPads as well. Check it out:

The all-new djay Pro was built with the iPad Pro in mind with impressive support for iOS 9 multitasking through Split View and Slide Over in both landscape and portrait. Like all side-by-side apps, this works best on the iPad Pro’s 12.9″ display but also works on the 9.7″ iPad Air 2 and 7.9″ iPad mini 4. This lets you put djay Pro next to Safari, Tweetbot, or even Crossy Road for some mixing while weaving through traffic. It’s unclear if GarageBand will support Split View and Slide Over when it updates for iPad Pro, but ideally djay Pro and GarageBand running side-by-side would be killer and Algoriddim is ready.

Adding to the desktop level features, djay Pro supports more than 70 keyboard shortcuts for hardware keyboards including Smart Keyboard and Bluetooth keyboards. That’s more keyboard shortcuts supported by any single app I’ve seen yet that the shortcut list that pops up when you hold the Command key is paginated across multiple sheets. Compare to these to see for yourself.

This should be huge especially for DJs moving from the Mac to the iPad. djay Pro also features hardware integration with DJ controllers like Reloop Beatpad, Reloop Beatpad 2, Pioneer DDJ­WeGO, Numark Mixdeck Quad, Numark iDJ Pro, plus more, and multi-channel USB audio interface support.

Plus djay Pro now supports up to four audio tracks at the same time on the iPad, and up to two 4K video streams at 6o frames per second. You’ll also discover highly impressive video effects that mix right with the music including transitions, titles, and overlays.

There’s also Spotify integration for subscribers so you can have their massive streaming catalog right within djay Pro, of you can use your own music or a mix of both. And Cue Points, beat grid edits, metadata, and FX purchases sync now between Mac and iOS so you can access these on both platforms.

[YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gY6ZdiKsXx0&feature=youtu.be%5D

You can grab djay Pro for iPad at a launch price of $19.99 from the App Store today so both new customers and upgraders pick it up before it goes to its regular $29.99 price. Marking the djay Pro for iPad launch, djay for iPhone and Apple Watch is free for a limited time.

Filed under: Apps Tagged: algoriddim, Djay, djay Pro, iPad, iPad Pro, keyboard shortcuts, Spotify

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It’s a truism that insurance is a business where you bet you’ll break your toys and insurance companies bet you won’t – and that insurers have the stats on their side. The WSJ uses the example of a broken screen on an iPhone 6 to show how the numbers stack up, illustrating that most people are better off taking the risk.

Without AppleCare, Apple will charge you $109 for the repair. With AppleCare, Apple still charges a $79 deductible, and you laid out $99 for AppleCare in the first place, so you’re now out a total of $178. In effect, you paid $99 to cover a $20 cost.

Of course, you may manage to destroy your phone completely, and you may – if you’re an exceptional klutz – even manage to do it twice, when AppleCare could save you a lot of money. Some MacBook repairs are also very expensive, so again things could work out in your favor.

But overall, insurers make money because it makes more sense just to pay for things when they break. The WSJ got some simple advice from an economist on the most sensible approach for most of us.

Yet for most of us, here’s a better plan from Richard Thaler, a renowned economist at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business: “Every time someone offers to sell you insurance on a non-large purchase say no, and take that money and put it into a rainy-day account. With any luck, there will be plenty of money in that account the next time you drop your iPhone.”

The economics may be slightly different if you can get a deal on AppleCare. You can save a few bucks buying direct from Apple on Amazon, while B&H and Adorama also have deals. Apple’s education store currently offers the best saving if you qualify.

How has having or not having AppleCare worked out for you? Let us know in the comments.

Filed under: iOS Devices Tagged: AppleCare, iPhone repair

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Shortly after the iPad Pro launched in November, Apple acknowledged an issue facing some numbers of users (luckily not myself) where the tablet would become unresponsive after a period of charging. At the time, Apple said it was aware of the issue and was investigating.

Three weeks later, Apple has updated its support document that details the issue with some good news. While the fix was previously to hold both the sleep/wake button and the Home button for several seconds until it restarts, Apple now says to update the software to hopefully totally fix the issue.

Following yesterday’s release of iOS 9.2, Apple has updated the support document to add that the latest software update “might prevent this issue from occurring in the future.”

Come to think of it, I’d personally been running the beta version of iOS 9.2 on my own iPad Pro and hadn’t experienced the issue. The last beta version of iOS 9.2 and the shipping version yesterday featured the same build number, so hopefully iOS 9.2 is the fix for new iPad Pro owners.

Filed under: iOS Devices

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Yesterday Apple released tvOS 9.1 for the new fourth-gen Apple TV which adds support for the Remote app on iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch just like the previous Apple TV model. This makes setup and text input much easier from iPhones and iPads as you can use the software keyboard versus relying on swiping left and right across a keyboard, but many have wondered if Apple would update the Remote app to offer features more like the new Siri Remote for Apple TV. Eddy Cue says the answer is definitely, speaking with Buzzfeed, and it’s coming during the first half of next year…

“We’re working on a new Apple TV remote app that will give you the full functionality of the Siri Remote on your iPhone,” Cue said. “We’re hoping to ship that in the first half of next year.”

That’s especially good news to fans of the iPhone’s Remote app that just find it more convenient to use. The new Apple TV’s Siri features are neat, but it’s often easier to control it with the iPhone already in your hand rather than hunting down the little black controller. It’ll also be useful in situations where you find yourself needing to replace the $80 remote …

The interview highlighted Apple’s new Apps of the Year list, and Cue shared that Apple TV now has more than 2,000 apps available on the platform. He didn’t talk about the rumored TV service that has been expected from Apple, but he did discuss the new Apple TV as a gaming platform:

“I think the vast majority of people around the world probably aren’t looking to buy an Xbox or PlayStation. But that doesn’t mean they don’t enjoy playing games. I think Apple TV expands the gaming market to those people.”

And an opportunity for news delivery during the US election season:

“There’s so much interest in the current presidential election across so many age groups and demographics, etc. — there is a huge opportunity there. If was a news guy covering the elections I’d create an Apple TV channel. If I was one of the candidates I’d create an Apple TV channel.”

From my count, at least one candidate actually has an Apple TV channel so he may be on to something. You can read the full interview here.

Filed under: Apple TV

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Apple has named live video sharing app Periscope its App of the Year 2015, and Tomb Raider’s puzzle spin-off Lara Croft GO as its Game of the Year. iPhone automation app Workflow won Most Innovative app, while Instagram took home the prize for Best App on the iPhone 6s.

In all, Apple picked 25 iPhone apps each for both general and games categories. It also shared the top 10 best-selling paid apps, most-downloaded free apps and top-grossing apps …

The best-selling paid iPhone apps of 2015 were Heads Up!, Fantasy Premier League 2015/16 and Minecraft: Pocket Edition. For free apps, WhatsApp, Dubsmash and Messenger headed the list, while the top-grossing apps were Clash of Clans, Candy Crush Saga and – despite Apple Music – Spotify.

Eddy Cue told the Telegraph that the developer community never failed to impress him.

“You kind of have to pinch yourself, the developer community is a huge part of what we’re doing and they continuously impress the heck out of me and our customers with the apps they’re able to create,” he said. “Just when you think there can’t be anything new, they come and innovate and come up with things we didn’t think were possible.”

Apple also shared its best-selling downloads in other categories:

• Album: 25 – Adele
• Song: Uptown Funk (feat Bruno Mars) – Mark Ronson
• Film: Kingsman: The Secret Service
• TV Show: Game of Thrones
• Book (fiction): Grey – EL James
• Book (non-fiction): American Sniper – Scott McEwen, Jim DeFelice, Chris Kyle

Apple’s top 10 picks for Apps of the Year are:

1. Periscope
2. Enlight
3. Robinhood – Free Stock Trading
4. Workflow (Most Innovative)
5. Instagram (Best for iPhone 6s)
6. HBO Now
7. Hopper – Airfare Predictions
8. Darkroom – Photo Editor
9. Lark – Personal Weight Loss Coach
10. The Everything Machine by Tinybob

Its top 10 games are:

1. Lara Croft GO
2. Fallout Shelter
3. Mr Jump
4. Dark Echo (Most Innovative)
5. Warhammer 40,000: Freeblade (Best for iPhone 6s)
6. Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
7. Vainglory
8. Dungeon Boss
9. Puzzle Craft 2
10. PAC-MAN 256

Filed under: AAPL Company, Apps Tagged: App Store, Apple Apps of the Year 2015, Best-selling apps 2015, Highest grossing apps 2015, iTunes, Top-downloaded apps 2015

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If you’re looking for a pair of headphones with a Lightning connector, either because you want better quality or for future-proofing, there aren’t yet many options out there. Apple has now added one option to its online store – but they’re not cheap at $799.99.

The Audeze EL-8 Titanium Closed-Back Headphones are the real deal, however. An audiophile brand whose headphones more typically run into four figures, the EL-8 gets you a 28-bit DAC and the company’s planar magnetic driver – four times larger than most other headphones – borrowed from its high-end LCD Series. Industrial design is by BMW.

Apple describes the driver as offering “exceptional transient response and extended bass—virtually flat to 25Hz—along with the lowest Total Harmonic Distortion.”

As an aside, Apple really needs to sort out the accessory sections of the store: you get different results depending on whether you browse headphones within Mac or iPhone categories, with no discernible logic behind the differences (you don’t get lighter or smaller headphones within iPhone, for example).

Via The Verge

Filed under: iOS Devices Tagged: Audeze, Audeze EL-8, Audeze EL-8 Titanium Closed-Back Headphones, Audiophile headphones, headphones, Lightning headphones

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