Amazon rolled out financing for its line of Fire HD tablets this weeks, even on devices that retail for as little as US$89.99. The retailing giant is allowing qualifying customers to purchase a Fire HD8, Fire HD10, or Fire Kids Edition and pay for it over five payments.
Bryan Chaffin
Bryan Chaffin is the cofounder of The Mac Observer and currently serves as Afternoon Editor. He has contributed to MacAddict and MacFormat magazines, and co-authored the last two updates of iPad and iPad Pro for Dummies with Bob “Dr. Mac” LeVitus and Ed Baig. You can find out more about Bryan at his personal site, GeekTells, or find his Twitter link below.
Articles by Bryan Chaffin
Fujitsu Begins ScanSnap Fixes for macOS Sierra
Fujitsu announced a schedule for ScanSnap updates to correct issues in macOS Sierra. The company has been dealing with compatibility problems that threatened PDF content for Apple’s newest Mac operating system. Futjitsu pushed updates to some users on Thursday and unveiled a schedule for other devices later in October.
VC Confessions: Apple 'Outrageously Expensive,' Hasn't Facebook Heard of Friendster?
Writing for Fortune, Polina Marinova has gathered up confessions from venture capitalists who passed on companies that would become massive successes. It’s a fun read (via The Loop), but it’s also interesting. Included are comments about Apple. BVP partner Neill Brownstein called the company “outrageously expensive” before Apple went on to what was then the largest IPO in almost three decades. Another VC at BVP passed on Ebay, saying, “Stamps? Coins? Comic books? You’ve GOT to be kidding.” And yet another to Facebook cofounder Eduardo Saverin: “Kid, haven’t you heard of Friendster? Move on. It’s over!” Check out the full piece, because there are lots more.
ROME: Total War for iPad Priced at $9.99
Feral Interactive announced pricing for ROME: Total War Thursday. The popular PC and Mac real-time combat and turn-based economy and politics game is scheduled for an “autumn” release. It requires iPad Air or newer or iPad mini 2 or newer. It’s been rebuilt for iOS, including developing gesture-based controls to replace the mouse-driven controls of its desktop beginnings. Between Civ VI for Mac and ROME: TW on iPad, I’m going to have very little free-time. In any event, it’s going to be $9.99 on iPad, and I can’t wait to see how it plays.
Roxio Toast 15 Titanium: $49
Toast 15 Titanium is a powerhouse for creating CDs and DVDs, including the ability to copy CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray Discs. You can convert web-based videos for watching on your devices, share to the usual social networking suspects, and capture video directly from your screen, portable devices, or the web. We have a deal on Toast 15 Titanium for $49, half off retail.
ACM 379: Apple’s Mysterious October Announcements and Who Cares about Google’s Pixel Smartphone?
Apple moved its quarterly conference call in October, and it’s set off a lot of echo-chamber debate and speculation. Bryan and Jeff weed out the balderdash. They also ask who cares about Google’s new Pixel smartphone line.
Lyrics App for iMessages Makes it Easy to Find and Share Lyrics
I’ve been having a lot of fun with the new features in Messages in iOS 10. Apps and stickers increase enjoyment and utility, both, and I have a great example of that for you with an iMessage app called Lyrics. It makes it easy to find, quote from, and share song lyrics. Bryan Chaffin shows you how to work it.
1Voice Bluetooth 100% Wirefree Earbuds: $52.99
Check out the 1Voice Bluetooth 100% Wirefree Earbuds. They include a speaker, Bluetooth chip, battery, and microphone in each earbud, and they work both independently or when paired. Batteries last for up to four hours of play time between charges. You can get them for $52.99 through our deal.
Siri Turns 5 Years Old, Feel Free to Sing to Her
Siri turned five years old Tuesday, having been launched on October 4th, 2011. She’s changed a lot in that time, grown up a bit. But she’s not too old to appreciate us singing to her.
How to Share an iTunes Playlist with Apple Music
Most of us have made our fair share of playlists in iTunes. With Apple Music, you can share those playlists for your friends or the world to enjoy with you. In that playlists are the mix tapes of today, Bryan Chaffin shows you how to share an iTune playlist using iTunes 12.5.x.
ibVPN Standard 3-Year Subscription: $39
We have a deal for you today on a three-year subscription to ibVPN, With this subscription, you get access to 90 servers in 41 countries, and you can browse with unlimited bandwidth, data transfer, and speed. It’s $39 through our deal.
How to Control Which Messages Photos Save to Camera Roll
Messages in iOS 10 changes a fundamental way your iPhone (or iPad) camera works: if you take a photo from the preview camera, it doesn’t save to your camera roll. But if you use the full camera app, it does. Here’s how to understand, manage, and control what gets saved where and what doesn’t get saved.
Apple Bumps Q4 Earnings Announcement and Call to Tuesday, October 25th
Apple announced Monday that it was rescheduling its fiscal fourth quarter earnings report and call to Tuesday, October 25th. The company cited an unspecified “scheduling conflict.” The call was originally scheduled for Wednesday, October 26th.
10' Lightning-to-USB Cable: 3-Pack: $22
We have a deal on three 10-foot Lightning-USB cables for just $22. If you’re the type who likes to have lots of Lightning cables lying around because you go through them too fast, this is the deal for you. They are MFi-certified and available now.
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II Hits Mac and Linux
Good news for Mac gamers: Feral Interactive announced the release of Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II for Mac and Linux. This real-time strategy powerhouse is set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe (obviously), where you are a Force Commander of the Blood Ravens Chapter defending the Imperium of Man. This game has very high system requirements—Feral Interactive specifies a number of video cards that aren’t supported. Make sure your Mac can cut it before buying this game. It looks very fun, and was a big success on the PC. The video included below shows off some game-play. There’s a theatrical trailer on the game’s site, too. It’s available on the Mac App Store, Steam, and directly from Feral. It’s $19.99.
A Game of Thrones Gets Enhanced Edition Exclusive to iBooks
ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG FANBOY SWOON! Apple announced A Game of Thrones: Enhanced Edition on Thursday—an iBooks exclusive. The new version of the massively popular (and utterly brilliant) book includes new artwork, a glossary, more information about the houses, and more. The entire A Song of Ice and Fire series is getting these Enhanced Editions, but A Game of Thrones: Enhanced Edition is available now for $8.99. You can preorder the others for $11.99. Apple has a video on the iBooks landing page for these new versions. It includes comments from George R.R. Martin about the series, as well as a great look at some of the new artwork. This is a huge score for Apple’s iBooks.
Get 8 Mac Utilities for Free
Our friends at Stack Commerce have put together a collection of eight Mac utilities, including: CommandQ, Export for iTunes, UnDistracted, SuperTab SE 1.4, Screenie, Total Video Player for Mac, iFotosoft Photo Viewer, and SQLPro for Postgres. And they’re all free. The details are on the deal listing, but grab them while they’re hot.
Safari 10: Hide Flash from Every Website Except Some
Safari 10 allows you to have Flash installed, but to control which sites know it (or access it). For many users, this would be the best compromise between having flash and not installing it all. Bryan Chaffin shows you how to do it.
Use 3D Touch in LINE to Read Messages without a Read Receipt
The LINE Corporation has done something very useful with 3D Touch, and I thought I’d tell you about it. When you’re looking at your Chats view, you can view recent chats, as shown below, without sending a read receipt. Bryan Chaffin shows you how.
Smartphone Photo and Video Certification Bundle: $29
We have a training bundle for you today designed to teach you how to use mobile devices to take better photographs, and modern video gear (including your mobile device) to make better videos. Both courses last one month, with 8 lessons and 12 hours of content each. You can get this package through our deal for $29.
ACM 378: Life Without a Headphone Jack, More Apple Watch, Siri on the Mac
We’ve had our iPhone 7s for a week and a half, and Bryan and Jeff talk about life without the headphone jack. They also discuss the differences between Apple Watch (Series 0) and the new Apple Watch Series 2. They close out the show talking about Siri on the Mac, using it, and the lack of “Hey Siri” support. Plus, Bryan is punchy from a lack of sleep, so silliness runs rampant.
MyMac Spotlight Interview on Bryan Chaffin
The good folks at MyMac were kind enough to put my through one of their Spotlight interviews. They asked me 7 questions and I gave them mostly meandering, far-flung answers that explored life, the universe, and everything. There’s some what-makes-Bryan-tick stuff in it. If you’re into that sort of thing. I don’t advise it. Thanks to Tim Robertson and MyMac for putting me in the Spotlight!
iOS 10 and Swift 3 Starter Bundle: $45
We have a tutorial bundle for developers today, called the iOS 10 and Swift 3 Starter Bundle. It includes five video tutorials designed to teach you Apple’s Swift 3 programming language and iOS 10 development. That’s more than 82 hours of video content and hundreds of lectures, and you can get it through our deal for $45.
Fujitsu Plans ScanSnap Fix for Sierra by Middle October
Futjitsu issued another update for ScanSnap customers and macOS 10.12 Sierra. The company narrowed down the circumstances and features of ScanSnap that cause a problem in Sierra to three (below). More importantly, Fujitsu said, “A fix for the above problems is expected to be made available in the middle of October, 2016.”
