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iMovie for iOS expands 4K editing to iPad Air 2, fixes iCloud Drive + Photos extension issues

iMovie iOS

Apple added 4K editing to iMovie for iOS last month, but only on iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, and iPad Pro. In version 2.2.1, iMovie for iOS expands 4K editing to also support iPad Air 2 so you can shoot video on your new iPhone 6s or 6s Plus and edit it on the latest 9.7-inch tablet.

You’ll need a new 4K 21.5-inch iMac or 5K 27-inch iMac (or Mac with a 4K display) for pixel-for-pixel editing, but it’s good to see Apple supporting the still top-of-the-line 9.7-inch iPad with powerful editing features; iPad Pro doesn’t launch until November. Apple introduced 4K video shooting for the first time on its products with the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus.

The update also includes bug fixes for issues with iCloud Drive, the Photos video editing extension, right-to-left languages, and more. Full release notes below:

What’s New in Version 2.2.1

• Create and share movies at 4K resolution on iPad Air 2 with iOS 9.1*
• Fixes an issue that could prevent users from creating new trailers in some languages
• Resolves issues importing and removing projects from iCloud Drive
• Addresses interface issues that could appear in some right-to-left languages
• Addresses interface issues that could appear in iMovie extension for Photos
• Performance and stability improvements

* iMovie supports 4K on iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPad Air 2, and iPad Pro

iMovie for iOS is available on the App Store.

Filed under: Apps Tagged: 4k, IMovie, iPad Air 2

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Glu’s new ‘Sniper X’ first-person shooter stars Jason Statham for its latest celebrity tie-in

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App publisher Glu today announced its latest game, which is also its latest celebrity partnership with actor Jason Statham starring as the game’s main playable character. The free game is a first-person shooter that some players will notice bears a similarity and seems to borrow from some of Glu’s past FPS games including the Contract Killer series.

“As Glu’s first male celebrity partner, Jason Statham’s over 55 million social followers add a new demographic to the company’s celebrity gaming platform,” said Niccolo de Masi, Glu Chairman and CEO. “Mr. Statham’s creative input throughout the game’s development has ensured a unique and authentic action-adventure experience his fans will enjoy worldwide.”

As part of Statham’s elite paramilitary team SPEAR, players work side-by-side to dismantle terrorists and rogue states that conventional forces can’t touch. Enemies of freedom can run, but they can’t hide from Sniper X!

The celebrity tie-in, featuring Statham’s name, likeness, and voice, follows Glu’s successful “Kim Kardashian: Hollywood” game that reports last year said was on pace to take in around $200 million.

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Sniper X with Jason Statham is available on the App Store now for iPhone and iPad. The game is free to download but includes in-app purchases for in-game items, which is also the approach Glu took for the successful Kim Kardashian game.

Official trailer from Glu below:

Filed under: Apps Tagged: app, App Store, glu, iPad, iPhone, jason statham, sniper x, sniper x with jason statham

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Now that iOS 9.1 is out the door, Apple turns its attention to 9.2 internally

iphone software update

With yesterday’s release of iOS 9.1, Apple has finally pushed out the last bit of iPhone and iPad software that it was publicly testing. With that out of the way, the company has internally shifted its focus to the next mobile OS release on its roadmap: iOS 9.2.

As seen in the chart below, 9to5Mac has recently seen a significant uptick in the number of readers running iOS 9.2, indicating that the software has moved into wider testing among more Apple employees.

ios 9.2

While iOS 9.1 introduced over 150 new emoji icons and Wi-Fi calling on Sprint devices, iOS 9.2 will likely be focused more on resolving issues discovered with the iPad Pro. That device will ship with iOS 9.1 pre-installed, so a quick software update after release to address outstanding bugs seems likely.

However, the exact changes in 9.2 are yet to be revealed, and it could include new features or enhancements that Apple has yet to announce.

As with all recent iOS updates, it should enter a developer beta very soon, then enter a public beta testing period a few weeks before release, though there’s no indication of exactly when this process will start.

Filed under: iOS Tagged: ios 9.2

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Chrome for iPad adds Split View, Slide Over, & Picture in Picture multitasking on iOS 9

Chrome iPad 2-1Google has updated its Chrome web browser for iPad on iOS 9 to support each of the new operating system’s new multitasking features on the latest models. Chrome (version 46.0.2490.73 to be specific) now supports Split View for running the browser next to other updated apps, Slide Over for referencing it over any app, and Picture in Picture for minimizing videos playing within Chrome to view from other apps including Split View mode. The release notes also highlight “improved handling” for RTL, or right-to-left, languages.

Chrome’s support for iOS 9 multitasking features is especially beneficial for iPad users as Safari doesn’t allow you to view two browser tabs side-by-side, but running Safari and Chrome alongside each other enables dual browsing on the tablet. Split View is supported on iPad mini 4, iPad Air 2, and the upcoming iPad Pro due out next month.

Older iPads that don’t support Split View can still benefit from Slide Over, which lets you view a slimmed down version of Chrome over other apps, and Picture in Picture with iPad Pro, iPad Air or later, and iPad mini 2 or later supported.

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Landscape with PiP

Chrome previously updated to support iOS 9 in general, but did not yet support iPad multitasking. iPad users can grab today’s enhanced version for free on the App Store.

Filed under: Apps Tagged: Chrome, Google, iOS 9, multitasking, Picture in Picture, slide over, Split View

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The State of Modern Meetings: 7 Revealing Trends You Should Know [Infographic]

Think of all the meetings you’ve been to in the past few weeks. How many of them left you with a real sense of accomplishment?

Now, how many of them did you spend daydreaming, checking your email, or scrolling through your Twitter feed? Be honest, people. This is a safe space.

Whether you like it or not, it seems that people are holding more meetings at work than ever before. This can vary depending on where you are in the world and even what season it is. For example, did you know that meeting activity doubles in winter compared to the rest of the year?

For their annual “State of the Modern Meeting” report, video conferencing service Blue Jeans analyzed more than five million Blue Jeans video meetings from 177 companies across all seven continents. Check out the results of their report in the infographic below. (And read this blog post to learn how you can run more effective meetings at work.)

What do you think of all these meetings? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.

free ebook: leadership lessons

9to5Toys Lunch Break: 64GB iPad mini 4 $460, proXPN VPN Lifetime Subscription $39, Bluetooth earbuds $17, more

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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:

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iPad mini 4 Wi-Fi 64GB in Silver, Gold, or Space Gray: $460 shipped (Reg. $499)

iPad mini 2 Wi-Fi 16GB in Silver or Space Gray: $230 shipped (Reg. $269)

Get a 64GB Wi-Fi iPad Air 2 for less than Apple charges for 16GB: $490 shipped (Reg. $599)

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proXPN VPN: Premium Lifetime Subscription for $39 ($375 value)

mpow-bluetooth-sport-headphones

Bluetooth Sport Earbuds w/ Prime shipping: Aukey Around-Neck $17 (Reg. $30), more

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Amazon thinks leaving your house is over-rated, expands Prime free same-day delivery service

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Dell Black Friday Ad Leak: Gears of War Xbox One w/ Fallout 4 + controller $300, VIZIO 60-Inch 4K HDTV $800, more

Amazon and Toys R Us give a peek at this year’s must-have holiday gifts

More new gear from today:

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Get ready for Halloween with Best Buy’s $5 horror Blu-ray sale: The Silence of the Lambs, Mad Max, more

More deals still alive:

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Seagate 4TB Portable USB 3 Hard Drive w/ 200GB Cloud: $150 shipped

New products & more:

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Garmin drops the bulk and adds color with its new Forerunner wearables

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D-Link’s latest surveillance cameras go wide-angle with “less distortion” than the competition

Filed under: Tips and Tricks Tagged: 9to5Toys, Amazon Gold Box, Amazon Prime, app deals, apple deals, coupon codes, Daily Deals, eBay Daily Deals, free shipping, iOS deals, ipad mini 4, itunes deals, Lunch Break, New Toy of the Day, video games, VPN

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Analysts predicting 45M to 51.1M Q4 iPhone sales ahead of next week’s earnings report

iPhone 6, iPhone 6s Plus

We’ll learn on Tuesday just how many iPhones in total Apple sold last quarter, but before then we’re continuing to gauge analysts’ best educated guesses ahead of time. Just as it did with Apple Watch — although with a comical range in that case — Fortune has published an interesting roundup of iPhone sales predictions from analysts for the last and current quarters, respectively.

What we do know is that Apple sold 13 million iPhone 6s and 6s Plus models over the new models’ launch weekend late last month, although only sales completed during the first half of that weekend are included in the upcoming quarter being reported. What are the analysts saying about the rest of the last quarter?

Fortune puts the average estimate from analysts at 48.72 million iPhone units sold, up from 39.72 million units actually sold last year during the same quarter which notably didn’t include China at launch. That also aligns with KGI’s similar forecast of 48.5 million iPhones sold last quarter as we reported earlier this morning.

At the low-end, Sundeep Bajikar of Jefferies predicts 45 million iPhones sold; Sherri Scribner of Deutsche Bank forecasting 51.10 million units sold at the high-end.

See the whole chart for yourself below, pros in blue and amateurs in green:

Fortune iPhone sales

We’ll be able to compare these guesses with the actual numbers on Tuesday afternoon — unlike Apple Watch numbers which Apple hasn’t disclosed separately — so stay tuned to our earnings coverage then.

Filed under: AAPL Company, iOS Devices Tagged: AAPL, analysts, iPhone, iPhone sales, Q4 2015

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Sluggish Chinese economy hasn’t dented Apple’s confidence in the country, says Tim Cook

cook

Apple CEO Tim Cook, who is currently visiting China, has told the official Xinhua news agency that nothing has changed Apple’s view of the country.

I know some people are worried about the economy. We’ll continue to invest. China is a superb place to be. Nothing has changed that … 

Cook has been making a series of posts to his Weibo account, celebrating the fact that Apple’s own operations in China now run on 100% renewable energy and is working with its suppliers to help them do the same. The CEO also posted a photo of himself hiking along the Great Wall of China, describing it as “simply breathtaking,” together with photos of his visit to the Wangfujing Apple Store in Beijing.

Apple recently announced that its largest retail store in China would open on Saturday, in the city of Dalian. The store will be one of the largest Apple Stores in the world.

I discussed in a recent opinion piece why Cook’s confidence in Apple’s prospects in China is likely well founded.

Filed under: AAPL Company, iOS Devices Tagged: Apple China, Beijing, china, Dalian, Great Wall of China, Tim Cook

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Instagram takes on Apple’s Live Photos with new 1-second video loop app, Boomerang

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Instagram is expanding its range of apps further today by introducing a new video-looping service to rival the likes of HTC Zoe and the iPhone’s baked-in Live Photos. Boomerang takes a quick burst of photos in-app, and then turns them in to a moving photo, or video, that loops forward and backward. Don’t call it a GIF though, it’s a Boomerang…

Boomerang joins Hyperlapse and Layout in Instagram’s portfolio of individual apps, and offers yet another way for you to share your life in short bursts with your friends and followers. As you’d expect, you can share your Boomerangs on Instagram and Facebook, in both portrait or landscape modes. The company announced its latest move on its official blog:

Capture a friend jumping off a diving board, defying physics as she flies back and forth through the air. Transform an ordinary selfie with your friends into a funny video. Get that exact moment your friend blows out his birthday candles, then watch them come back to life again and again.

Press a button and the app does the rest. Boomerang takes a burst of photos and stitches them together into a high-quality mini video that plays forward and backward. Shoot in portrait or landscape. Share it on Instagram. Boomerang automatically saves it to your camera roll. We’re inspired by the visual stories you tell on Instagram.

Boomerang is available to download from the App Store today, and supports any iPhone, iPad or iPod touch running iOS 7.0 or later.

Filed under: Apps Tagged: App Store, Apps, boomerang, Instagram, iOS, iPhone, iTunes, Live Photos

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Opinion: Putting Apple’s electric car project into perspective

carplay-apple

At this point the fact that Apple is working on an electric vehicle is all but confirmed. Recent reports show that Apple is searching for a private road-testing site, hired hundreds of workers with automotive industry experience and the company allegedly discussed licensing some technology from BMW. Officials within Apple have yet to confirm the ambitious new product, but CEO Tim Cook acknowledged that the automobile industry is ripe for disruption and it is difficult to imagine them backing out at this point.

The electric car is reportedly codenamed ‘Project Titan’ and it is indeed a project of titanic proportions. Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently made some comments warning the Cupertino company of the complexity of manufacturing cars. Those comments were surprisingly met by mockery from a lot of Apple fans. I think Apple can and will make an electric vehicle, but I’d like to put the project into perspective.

Read the full op-ed on our sister site Electrek.co


Filed under: Apple Car Tagged: Apple Car, Apple Inc, Automotive industry, Electric car, electric vehicle, Project Titan

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Runkeeper can now track workouts on Apple Watch without your iPhone

Runkeeper 2

We haven’t seen an awful lot of Apple Watch fitness apps update for watchOS 2 just yet — which lets faster native apps take advantage of sensors like the heart rate tracker — but Runkeeper is out with its iOS 9 and watchOS 2 update today.

Because Runkeeper 6.2 lets Apple Watch users track heart rate with the wearable’s built-in sensor, the app now lets you track runs with it directly on the watch without having to bring your iPhone. You’ll still need the iPhone if you want to track location as Apple Watch doesn’t have built-in GPS, but with a pair of Bluetooth earbuds and Runkeeper 6.2 you can track runs and listen to music using just Apple Watch.

Previously run tracking without iPhone required using Apple’s Workouts app. The updated Runkeeper for iOS 9 and watchOS 2 includes a few other changes as well including an interesting music analytics feature for workouts:

What’s New in Version 6.2

This one’s built for iOS9 AND watchOS 2. Here’s what that means for you:

– Standalone app for the Apple Watch. Hold the phone! That means you can run without your phone and still track with Runkeeper. You’ll also get heart rate data on the run, and can easily swipe right or force touch to pause an activity on the go. Also, you get to leave your phone at home (in case you needed a reminder).

– Post-activity music analytics. “Do I really run faster to Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’ or am I just imagining that?” Wonder no more! Run with music in Runkeeper (via Spotify, iTunes, or Runkeeper DJ), and after the run you’ll get a full rundown of your playlist and your pace for each song. You’ll also get to see the same for your Runkeeper friends. Have fun comparing notes!

– Spotify integration bug fixes. What do you mean? Nothing’s getting in the way between you, your run, and the latest Bieber hit.

– Workout rewards bug fixes. Redeeming those rewards should be a breeze, once again.

Runkeeper 6.2 for iOS 9 and watchOS 2 is available for free with optional in-app purchases on the App Store.

Filed under: Apple Watch, Apps Tagged: Apple watch, fitness, Health, RunKeeper, watchos 2

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PSA: Here’s how to keep seeing iPhone 6s Lock Screen notifications + wallpaper despite super-fast Touch ID

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“Faster” is almost always “better” with new iPhones, but the iPhone 6s’s lightning-quick Touch ID fingerprint scanner has created a small new issue: if you touch the Home Button to look at your Lock Screen, you’ll see that it disappears within a split-second. At a minimum, this is visually jarring, but it also impacts historic iPhone functionality: users have been customizing their Lock Screens with photos (most recently, Live Photos) and checking the date/time there since the first iPhone launched in 2007, and it subsequently became an easy place to view notifications and activate the camera.

If you want to continue using the Lock Screen for any of these reasons, there are a couple of workarounds:

  1. Start using the Sleep/Wake Button on the iPhone’s right side for all screen activations and deactivations. This is the easiest way to do a quick turn on and off of the display for notifications.
  2. Go into the Settings app, select Touch ID & Passcode, and remove your most commonly used finger scan from the list of stored Fingerprints. This will let you continue to activate the screen using the Home Button’s Touch ID sensor, without immediately moving to the Home Screen.

The choice between 1 or 2 will come down to personal preference, the way you hold your iPhone, and how you use your iPhone when it’s docked or car-mounted. For example, if you want to quickly check notifications when your iPhone is car-mounted (and your car is stopped), you may find that the Sleep/Wake Button is out of reach or inconvenient to press inward, making the Home Button a better choice. Removing your index finger from the Touch ID list will let you naturally use one finger for screen and Home Button interactions.

More From This Author

Check out more of my editorials, How-To guides, and reviews for 9to5Mac here! I’ve covered a lot of different topics of interest to Mac, iPad, iPhone, iPod, Apple TV, and Apple Watch users. I’ve recently discussed how to safely prepare and wipe your iPhone for resale or trade-in, and how to get the best iPhone trade-in price to help buy an iPhone 6s, amongst many other topics.

Filed under:
How-To
, iOS, iOS Devices Tagged: alerts, iPhone 6s, notifications, Touch ID, Wallpaper

Visit 9to5Mac to find more special coverage of iOS Devices, iOS, and iPhone 6s.

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Mini Review: Xtron, the compact USB battery pack that can power a 12-inch MacBook & iDevices

xtron

There’s no shortage of external battery packs for iPhones, iPads and other USB-powered devices. With occasional exceptions, the majority have little to distinguish them. But thanks to the addition of a USB-C port, the Xtron can power the 12-inch MacBook as well as iPhones and iPads … 

The 13,400 mAh lithium-ion battery can add about seven hours’ life to the MacBook, recharge an iPad Air 2 twice (almost) or charge an iPhone 6s every night for a week. This isn’t as much as the Vinsic Power Bank we reviewed earlier this year, but the Xtron is significantly more portable.

I’m sometimes a little wary of crowdsourced projects, which sometimes take a lot longer than promised to make it into production, and occasionally fail to make it at all, but I think there’s little danger of that this time. The prototype the company sent me is fully finished, and I’d defy anyone to tell it apart from production units. It’s clear that the company is prepared.

Looks-wise, the Xtron is something that looks like it belongs in the company of Apple devices. The enclosure is ABS plastic rather than metal, but you wouldn’t know it to look at it. The matte finish, available in a choice of black and white, looks and feels good. On the prototype, at least, the black is more of a very dark gray. The cap is silver, but does take on a bit of a gold hue in some lights.

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At around 9x9x2cm, it slips into most pockets, and is small enough to find a space in most bags. Weighing 180g, it’s probably not something you’re going to carry around all the time on a ‘just in case’ basis, but it’s not a burden for times when it is likely to be needed.

It can charge a MacBook and iDevice simultaneously, and also offers pass-through charging, allowing you to charge it at the same time as it charges connected devices. It’s charged via a MicroUSB socket.

The VIP early-bird price is $69, which is obviously more expensive than lower-end devices with smaller capacities and a cheaper finish, but is in line with higher-end competitors. For MacBook use, you’ll need to add $10 for a matching USB-C-to-USB-C cable if you don’t already have one.

The big question mark is whether the project will get funded: it’s currently sitting at 27% funded with 10 days to go. But there’s certainly no harm backing it.

Xtron is being crowdfunded on Indiegogo, with the campaign running until the end of the month. If you don’t need the MacBook charging capability, there are of course a great many USB battery packs available on Amazon.

Filed under: Mac, Reviews Tagged: 12-inch MacBook, 12-inch MacBook accessories, 12-inch MacBook power, battery, Lithium-ion battery, portable battery, power, USB battery pack, Xtron

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Developing Leaders Who Excel at Strategy Execution

Developing Leaders Who Excel at Strategy Execution
By Richard Lepsinger
In 2006, the NBA introduced a new basketball made of synthetic material. Spalding designed the new ball to be easier to handle and bounce better on the court. Despite the upgrades, many NBA players began experiencing cut fingers and torn ligaments, and the ball was sticking to […]

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KGI forecasts 23% year-on-year iPhone growth for Apple’s Q4, falling in following two quarters

iphone-6s-1

An investment note by KGI predicts that Apple will next week report year-on-year iPhone sales up 23.6% to 48.5M, but says that that holiday quarter sales will be down on last year, and that the decline will continue into the first quarter of next year.

KGI says that China is the big factor, included as a launch country this year, and hence contributing to calendar Q3/fiscal Q4 sales, while last year’s China sales fell into the holiday quarter. It estimates that 22M of the iPhones sold last quarter were the new iPhone 6s/Plus. Apple sold 47M iPhones in the previous quarter.

Both iPad and Mac sales will fall across all three quarters, predicts the report … 

KGI estimates that Apple will report a 9.5% year-on-year fall in iPad sales, and a 1.5% fall in Macs. For these products, Apple may instead choose to highlight quarter-on-quarter sales, where KGI expects rises of 2% and 13.3% respectively.

The company has significantly reduced its opening quarter forecast of iPad Pro sales, from 4-5M units down to 2M units due to supply constraints following quality issues with the Sharp display panel used. Bringing the more expensive Pro into the iPad mix will, however, offset declining shipments, it suggests.

The forecast presents a mixed picture for the stock price. KGI says that the stock will likely fall next week unless the company provides upbeat guidance for the following quarter, but believes that the longer-term outlook is good. Most of the issues it covers are largely already factored into the share price, it says, and the market will soon switch its focus to future growth drivers next year.

Apple will announce its calendar Q3/fiscal Q4 results on 27 October. Its guidance is for revenue in the $49-51B range, with a gross margin of 38.5-39.5 percent.

One number we’re unlikely to hear from Apple is how many Apple Watches it has sold. Tim Cook has so far only said that the company has shipped “a lot” of Watches, and that shipments are growing. Analysts are essentially just guessing wildly.

Filed under: AAPL Company

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Need Marketing Inspiration? Here Are 12 Places to Find Great Examples

In the marketing world, like most facets of life and business, there’s a lot of pressure to come up with original ideas. 

Trouble is, with seemingly millions of ideas being executed on a daily basis, it can be tough to cook up something truly original — that’s okay. An idea doesn’t have to be unique to be great. In fact, there are some really awesome examples of great marketing out there that you can lean on to inspire your next project. (Austin Kleon calls this concept “stealing like an artist.“)

But finding these examples isn’t always easy. That’s where we come in. We’ve collected 12 places on the web where you can browse and search for examples of great marketing — including website design, design in general, email marketing, and social media pages. Check them out, bookmark them, and use them to inspire your own marketing strategy.

Get 50 brilliant examples of website design now by downloading our free flipbook.

12 Places to Find Examples of Great Marketing

1) Crayon 

Whenever I’m looking for examples of beautiful website design, Crayon is the first place I go. Their database has over 15 million webpages — everything from homepages to blogs to landing pages.

Looking for webpage design for a specific industry, content management system (CMS), device, or traffic volume? No problem: For each of those categories, there are dozens of filters to choose from. It truly is a one-stop shop.

2) Awwwards 

Like Crayon, Awwwards is chock full of examples of website design, landing pages, and so on. It’s not just a collection of these designs, though: Every example on here is either a nominee or a winner of one of their awards for design, creativity, and innovation on the web. Their examples tend to include more examples of unique, digital “experiences,” rather than just cut-and-dry webpages.

They have some advanced filtering options to streamline your browsing. The categories you can filter by include things like “technology,” “design agencies,” “promotional,” “ecommerce,” and “hotel/restaurant.” You can also filter by color if you’re looking for inspiration for a particular color scheme. Finally, they have a lot of international examples to browse through, and you can even filter by country.

3) The Best of Email 

Looking for email marketing inspiration? Check out The Best of Email’s “Inspiration Gallery,” which has great examples of all kinds of emails you can sort through by type: newsletter signup pages, welcome emails, sale emails, holiday emails, birthday emails … the list goes on. You can subscribe to their daily newsletter if you’re in the market for inspiration on a regular basis.

4) Big Little Details 

This resource focuses on the nitty gritty details of web design that can make it so helpful, delightful, and inspiring. They’re curated via submission by Floris Dekker, senior product design manager at Etsy, and digital designer and developer Andrew McCarthy.

The posts themselves are super short — each one simply highlights a helpful design feature. Take the post below, for example: If your Twitter login attempt doesn’t work, Twitter offers to email you a one-click login link. Someone at Twitter thought through that little design detail and put it on the website, and these folks thought it was worth sharing:

5) HubSpot Academy

HubSpot Academy serves as a great resource for “HubSpot-approved best practices in action.” To make it easy to navigate, you can filter by page type. — blogs, landing pages, calls-to-action, thank-you pages, etc. You can also filter by category, like B2B, B2C, education, or nonprofits.

While the examples include only websites that were built using HubSpot’s software, they’re a great place to browse for ideas and inspiration.

HubSpot Academy’s library also includes emails and lead nurturing examples that serve as great inspiration for your efforts. All you have to do is filter by one of those two categories.

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6) The HubSpot Marketing Blog

If you’re looking for even more examples of “HubSpot-approved” marketing inspiration, we also have a ton of resources available on our blog. From social media to email to website design, the following posts represent some of our best roundups for inspiring great ideas.

Website Design

Email Marketing

Social Media

7) Abduzeedo’s Collections

Abduzeedo’s “Collections” section of their website is an awesome place to browse examples of cool design, from package design to desktop wallpapers to illustrations. What’s especially great about these examples is that they’re often accompanied by a short description or introduction, which helps put the designs in context or explain what makes them so great.

You can either browse all of their collections at once by recency, or you can sort by category, including architecture, logos, photography, typography, and more.

8) Dribbble 

Dribbble calls themselves a “show and tell for designers.” It’s a community of designers who share screenshots of their work, process, and projects — making it an awesome place to find design examples. Whether you’re looking for inspiration in graphic design, illustrations, icons, typography, logos, or something else, you’ll be able to find it on this site.

Each screenshot is called a “shot,” and you can browse shots by popularity, recency, designer, or by “featured playoffs.” Playoffs are “shots with rebounds from multiple players” — in other words, they’re shots that a lot of other designers have interacted with and shared.

9) Pinterest 

Never underestimate Pinterest as a resource for great design examples. We use it all the time to look for design examples like infographics, ebook covers, and page layouts.

Simply type a few keywords in the search bar, press enter, and scroll. They aren’t curated, of course, so you’ll have to sort through to find the good ones.

10) Creative Bloq 

You may know Creative Bloq for their articles on graphic design, infographics, typography, branding, and illustration. Turns out they have some really well curated “example” articles in a similar style to our own on the HubSpot blog. Here are a few of our favorites, and you can find others by searching for “examples” in the search bar.

11) Canva’s Design School 

Canva’s blog, “Design School,” is another place with a wealth of articles on design tips, including great example posts. They’re a little harder to find individually, but here are a few of our favorites:

12) Really Good Emails 

Really Good Emails is exactly what you think it is: a database of really good examples of email marketing. Its simple, Pinterest-style layout makes it super easy to browse. Another cool feature? When you click into an email, you’ll be able to see both the desktop and mobile versions.

The categories are a little more ad hoc than many of the other resources on these list, but useful ones include things like abandoned cart emails, events emails, product launch emails, and so on. They also offer a weekly newsletter if you want to receive inspiration on the regular.

Which are your go-to resources for examples of great marketing? Share them with us in the comments.

50 examples of beautiful website design

PSA: Don’t do an in-app sign-up to the new YouTube Red service next week, it’ll cost you more

youtubered

If you’re tempted by YouTube’s new ad-free subscription video service, YouTube Red, don’t subscribe to it via the iOS app. ArsTechnica reports that YouTube is taking the same approach as Spotify initially did to Apple’s 30% cut on in-app purchases: adding it to the monthly cost.

There is a big catch about that $9.99 price: $9.99 will cover Android, desktop, and the mobile Web, but if you purchase a subscription via Apple’s in-app purchasing on iOS, the price goes up to $12.99/month. Apple takes a 30 percent cut of all subscription revenue on its platform, and Google is passing that cost directly onto the consumer.

ArsTechnica says that Apple users will “most likely” be able to sign-up instead on the web for the normal $9.99/month and then access the content via the app, and I’ve confirmed in a chat session with YouTube support that this is indeed the case.

Once the service goes live on 28 October, simply visit youtube.com/red to sign-up, then sign-in with the app to watch the content on your iPhone and iPad.

Via Gizmodo

Filed under: Apps Tagged: YouTube, YouTube app, YouTube iOS app, YouTube iPhone app, YouTube Red

Check out 9to5Mac for more breaking coverage of Apps, YouTube, and YouTube Red.

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Majority of iPhone/iPad workers at Pegatron’s Shanghai factory exceed 60-hour work limit, claims China Labour Watch

FILE-In this Wednesday, May 26, 2010, file photo, staff members work on the production line at the Foxconn complex in Shenzhen, China. Foxconn, the company that makes Apple’s iPhones suspended production at a factory in China on Monday, Sept. 24, 2012, after a brawl by as many as 2,000 employees at a dormitory injured 40 people. The fight, the cause of which was under investigation, erupted Sunday night at a privately managed dormitory near a Foxconn Technology Group factory in the northern city of Taiyuan, the company and Chinese police said.(AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)

China Labor Watch says that an undercover investigation at a Pegatron factory manufacturing iPhones and iPads found that 58% of workers there were working in excess of 60 hours a week – the limit laid down by Apple for its suppliers. It also said that overtime, which is supposed to be voluntary, is effectively mandatory, reports CNET.

The report claimed that the standard shift was nine hours, but that – between September and December last year – staff worked an additional minimum of 20 hours of overtime each week, usually split up between an extra two hours each week day and one 10-hour shift on Saturdays. […] This overtime was essentially a requirement, according to the investigator, who claimed to be told by a trainer that working eight-hour shifts five days a week “does not conform to our hiring requirements.”

The report says that many workers in any case said that significant overtime was necessary to meet their living expenses, with wages at the local minimum wage of around $1.85 per hour.

The report also alleges that Pegatron falsifies documents shown to Apple to give the appearance of complying with supplier audit requirements while failing to do so in reality.

Despite providing only about eight hours of pre-job safety training—where Chinese law requires 24 hours—Pegatron forces each new worker to sign a form that “certifies” that she has undergone 20 hours of safety training. A worker also must sign a trainer’s name on the form. The factory has workers quickly copy answers to the safety information quiz. These falsified forms are the types of documentation that are provided to Apple in their audits.

The report notes some improvements since 2013, with partial improvements in sick leave and the ending of claimed discriminatory hiring practices. CNET says that neither Apple nor Pegatron responded to requests for comments on the report.

It’s not the first time that China Labor Watch has criticized working conditions in factories run by Apple’s suppliers. A report last year on another Apple supplier detailed claims of 22 violations ranging from hiring practices to safety concerns.

A BBC documentary based on an undercover investigation at another Pegatron factory prompted Tim Cook to say he was “deeply offended” by the claims and the show’s failure to include facts and perspectives provided by Apple.

Apple publishes an annual Supplier Responsibility Progress Report in which it details the issues it faces in its supply chain and the steps taken to address these.

Photo: AP Photo/Kin Cheung

Filed under: AAPL Company Tagged: Apple Supplier Responsibility Report, Apple suppliers, China Labor Watch, iPad, iPhone, Pegatron, Supply chain

For more news on AAPL Company, iPhone, and iPad continue reading at 9to5Mac.

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