Author: Jeremy Horwitz

Apart from thinning to reflect the miniaturization of technologies inside, Apple’s Macs are timeless—their aluminum bodies complement or upgrade even modern offices. If you’re looking to accentuate your Mac’s near-future leanings, Nimbus Lighting’s Force One LED Floor Lamps ($2,200 and up) offer some luxurious options. Designed by Rupert Kopp for the German lighting company, Force One is made from aluminum in your choice of white powder-coated, anodized, or polished finishes, standing just over six feet tall and three feet deep. Rather than a thin strip of lights, it packs tremendous power thanks to a box-shaped LED array, and comes in…

Though it’s not easy to make speakers that look or sound worthy of premium price points, Bowers & Wilkins has had a far better run than most Apple accessory developers. Starting with its flashy Zeppelin series and continuing in more conventional desktop and all-in-one models, B&W’s speaker lineup has remained at $400 and up for years. So while the average person might consider the new T7 ($350) expensive by portable Bluetooth audio standards, it’s actually B&W’s most affordable Apple speaker yet. But its handsome design is offset by only reasonable sonic performance and limited features, the product of compromises that…

For companies other than Apple, selling premium headphones has become challenging in the post-Beats world. Beats made big headphones cool again using Apple-inspired industrial designs and marketing, commanding $100 premiums while scaring better-sounding rivals out of the consumer market. Something different is needed to compete with the Beats juggernaut, and that’s what Alpine Electronics is attempting to do with the simply-named Alpine Headphones ($300). Par-priced with the well-known Beats Studio, the over-ear Alpine Headphones are targeting Beats’ biggest weakness — sonic performance — by building digital signal processors, digital/analog audio converters, and amplifiers directly into the headphones. We need to…

Billed as “the world’s first non-case protection solution for iPhone 6,” SwitchEasy’s new AirMask for iPhone 6 Plus ($30) is a set of two thin plastic stickers that attach to the front and back of the iPhone 6 Plus, providing 0.3mm-thick anti-scratch coverage without anti-drop protection at the same price as a regular case. The front piece has clear screen protection in the center of a faux metallic version of the iPhone’s normally white or black glass bezel, with holes for the front speaker, sensors, and Touch ID button. By comparison, the back piece is all faux metallic plastic with…

Four years ago, we reviewed Just Mobile’s original Xtand Go, a $40 car mounting solution for bare iPhone 3G and 3GSes. Then in 2012, we briefly checked out Xtand Go for bare iPhone 4 and 5 models. Both were initially priced at $40, but were subsequently dropped in price, then augmented by a somewhat less elegant but case-compatible version that was confusingly released under the same name. Now Just Mobile has released Xtand Go Z1 ($35), a sequel that restores the elegance of the 2012 model, yet includes both case compatibility and support for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6…

https://assets.ilounge.com/images/mac/bge90m-1.jpg https://assets.ilounge.com/images/mac/bge90m-2.jpg https://assets.ilounge.com/images/mac/bge90m-3.jpg https://assets.ilounge.com/images/mac/bge90m-4.jpg https://assets.ilounge.com/images/mac/bge90m-5.jpg We were intrigued when APC released the original $50 Back-UPS Connect some months ago, and now it has an even more compelling model called Back-UPS Connect BGE90M ($65). Occasional power interruptions are inevitable, and without a source of backup power, you can lose everything from home lighting to Internet connectivity and digital home telephone service in one fell swoop. Think of Back-UPS Connect BGE90M as the way to keep your cable modem, Wi-Fi router, and other Internet-dependent hardware running when the power goes out. It starts with a battery capable of fueling three power outlets…

One month after the release of iOS 8.0, Apple officially rolled out iOS 8.1 today with a major new feature: Apple Pay, the Touch ID-powered digital transaction software. As of now, Apple Pay is solely available for U.S. users of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, though it will also be supported — partially — by the iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3 once they are released later this week. Here’s a look at the Apple Pay setup process, which is somewhat more complicated than was initially expected when the service was announced in September. On U.S.…

The last time we reviewed an APC USB battery pack was all the way back in 2007: the handsome $70 UPB10 was capable of recharging the original iPhone twice, and came with its own wall adapter. Many new USB batteries have been released over the past seven years, but we haven’t seen anything new from APC until now. Thankfully, the M5BK ($40) and M10BK ($60) are impressively streamlined follow-ups to UPB10, sharing a nearly identical industrial design and feature set. Apart from their sizes, the only difference is their battery capacity: M5BK has a 5000mAh cell inside, versus a 10,000mAh…

Admired by headphone obsessives for its value-focused audio gear, HiFiMan has debuted RE300i ($50), a budget-priced earphone model targeted at iPod, iPhone, and iPad users. Featuring an integrated three-button remote control and mic unit, RE300i’s glossy white all-plastic construction and sparing collection of pack-ins have a distinctly OEM-style first impression. But the inclusion of extra filters — the little parts between the earphones and your ear — and the oversized, not-particularly-case-compatible 3.5mm headphone plug make RE300i stand out as designed with extra durability. We don’t really review $50 earphones any more, but we’ll be adding some brief impressions of the…

Every time Apple holds a media event, it delivers a pithy, upbeat spin on its new hardware and software—sometimes omitting good and bad details that prospective customers would want to know. Today’s iPad event was no different, as there were some interesting details left out about both the iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3. Here they are: (1) One iPad To Rule Them All. It didn’t happen with the iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus, but Apple’s cellular engineers pulled it off for the iPad Air 2: there is only one iPad Air 2 cellular model with all LTE…

Buried in other announcements today, Apple has introduced Apple SIM, a single pre-installed SIM card that “gives you the flexibility to choose from a variety of short-term plans from select carriers in the U.S. and UK right on your iPad.” Pre-installed on Wi-Fi + Cellular versions of the iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3, Apple SIM provides a list of participating national carriers—currently only AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile in the United States, with EE in the UK—that the user can choose from without having to swap SIM cards. Verizon apparently does not yet support Apple SIM. Additionally, although the…

Alongside today’s announcement of the iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3, Apple has updated the prior $39 iPad Smart Covers and $69-$79 iPad Smart Cases. Apple’s iPad Air Smart Cover now comes in seven colors—blue, red, yellow, green, black, white, or red—each made from polyurethane, and compatible with the iPad Air and iPad Air 2. By comparison, the leather iPad Air 2 Smart Case comes in five different colors, namely black, white, brown, blue, or red, and covers virtually the entire Air 2 when closed. It is not compatible with the original iPad Air.

During his introduction of new iPads today, Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed that 225 million iPads have already been sold—70 million of them in the last 12 months, outstripping the unit sales of any PC manufacturer over the past year. Cook also noted that the product has a 100% customer satisfaction rating, and now has 675,000 iPad-specific apps available.

Oddly released without any fanfare in beta form to developers back in July, iTunes 12 has officially debuted at Apple’s media event today. As noted in our What’s New in iTunes 12 article, the Mac and PC application has received a “flatter” cosmetic overhaul inspired by iOS 7 and iOS 8. It largely does away with the traditional sidebar found in earlier versions of iTunes — a feature that was hidden but still present in iTunes 11 — to embrace a more media library-heavy interface. Various types of media are now individually browsed and managed using icons at the upper…

Following earlier beta releases of iOS 8.1, Apple today formally announced the release of the first point update to September’s iOS 8.0. iOS 8.1 adds support for Apple Pay, the NFC-dependent wireless transaction technology introduced in the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, as well as bringing back user-requested features, including the Camera Roll. Apple is also using iOS 8.1 to debut the iCloud Photo Library tied in with the public beta of Photos, the new OS X Yosemite photo management and editing app designed to replace iPhoto and Aperture. During his introduction of iOS 8.1, Apple’s Craig Federighi also…

Apple Pay, the NFC-dependent wireless transaction technology introduced in the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, has been confirmed for an October 20, 2014 launch in the United States. A collection of previously-announced retailers will be the first to have Apple Pay in their stores. Five hundred additional banks have signed up to support Apple Pay since it was announced, including all of the major networks and a number of major retailers signing on to support by year’s end. Apple CEO Tim Cook noted today that Apple Pay payments can also be made online, not just at retail stores. Later…

Heading into Apple’s iPad and Mac event this Thursday, there’s no question that demand for their smaller brother — the iPhone — is surging. A record of 10 million iPhones sold in the opening weekend is reportedly on the cusp of being trumped by an additional 20 million pre-orders for China alone. According to the Wall Street Journal, iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus demand has so outstripped supply that Apple postponed a brand new iPad’s production in order to make more iPhones. That’s just amazing. But in recent months, iPad and Mac sales seem to have plateaued, leading iLounge’s…

SwitchEasy is often one of the first companies to offer cases for Apple’s new devices, and almost always a leader in pricing, as well. Three new iPhone 6 cases represent a fairly wide array of different protective options for the smaller of Apple’s new iPhones. The first is 0.35 ($15), a 0.35mm thick layer of soft plastic sold in five colors. So thin that it sounds almost like paper when you run your fingernails across it, 0.35 just barely qualifies as a case thanks to the top, side, and back coverage; the buttons, switch, bottom and screen are left entirely…