iPhone 6 and Apple Watch event: all the news from Apple’s big event in Cupertino – The Verge

The iPhone 6 is available to pre-order

2014-09-12T03:03:08-04:00

Apple's latest smartphones, the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, are now available to pre-order from carriers around the world. Shipping and in-store pickups are set for next Friday, September 19th, but as ever with iPhones you might want to act fast to secure the model you want. Stock of the 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus in particular may be thin on the ground, if various reports are to be believed.

As of this writing, access to Apple's online store appears to be very limited and you will likely have better luck with carriers. For all the information you need on how and where you can pick up your phone, read our guide below.

How to buy an iPhone 6

And …

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Apple Pay was this week’s most revolutionary product

2014-09-10T16:15:02-04:00

If you've paid any attention at all to the mobile payments space, you'll know that one of the most notable pieces of news recently is that the consortium of carrier oligarchs trying to create a payment system rebranded from ISIS to Softcard so that it wouldn't be associated with the militant group. The irony is thick enough to spread with a spatula, but that's just the frosting on top of the multi-layered shit cake that has comprised the mobile payments industry so far.

Paying with your phone has always been a confusing mess. It has always been a financial cold war between credit card companies, banks, phone companies, and phone manufacture …

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Sprint angling iPhone 6 buyers with new ‘iPhone for Life’ leasing plan

2014-09-09T20:04:18-04:00

If you're the type of person who buys a new iPhone every time one is announced, Sprint wants your money - and your phone when you're done with it. Today the carrier announced a new "iPhone for Life" program that will give you a free Apple iPhone 6 or 6 Plus up front, as long as you pay $20 a month to lease it. When you're done, you turn it back in, paying about $480 over the course of a 2-year contract, a figure that can go up if you choose to lease a higher capacity model.

Along with the new leasing plan, Sprint's offering iPhone owners an exclusive $50 monthly plan for unlimited talk, text, and data. That's $10 less than it's existing pla …

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For Apple, one size no longer fits all

2014-09-09T19:21:41-04:00

It used to be so simple. Steve Jobs would take the stage and tell us all exactly what it is that we'll desire and buy over the coming months. Choice was an unnecessary evil. There was just one iPad, one iPhone, and fewer customization options across the entire Mac line than you'd find on a single Dell PC order page. In one of his more humorous presentations, the Apple chief even poked fun at Microsoft's tiered Windows pricing by detailing five "different" versions of Mac OS X Leopard, each one costing $129. "Seriously, we have one version of Leopard, it's got everything in it," said Jobs, "and we hope you love it as much as we do." But now t …

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Apple, please don’t screw up notifications on the Apple Watch

2014-09-09T18:36:48-04:00

Notifications are some of the most fragile but important elements of our digital lives today. Some apps use them as a one-bit communication medium, while others use them to ping you with each and every comment on your latest photo. But there's one thing every notification does, which is make your phone beep, vibrate, or at the very least light up. With an Apple Watch, your wrist is now the thing vibrating. But a watch isn't as easy to ignore as the phone in your pocket. Without some smart software and user education, the Apple Watch could be Apple's most annoying gadget ever.

Having easy access to notifications is one of the most desirable …

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How does the Apple Watch stack up against Android Wear?

2014-09-09T18:24:02-04:00

Apple unveiled its big attempt at defining what a smartwatch should look like today with the introduction of the Apple Watch. There are already quite a few competitors vying to define what should go on your wrist, however: Google beat Apple to the punch just a few months ago by releasing Android Wear, and watches powered by it have been hitting stores all summer.

Update: Read our review of Apple Watch.

Both platforms have their strengths and their weaknesses. But Apple doesn't just want to compete, it wants to teach everyone what a smartwatch can be. So, is it really that good?

Telling the time

It's great that our watches can do more than …

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Are you considering ditching your fitness tracker for an Apple Watch?

2014-09-09T18:13:44-04:00

Sure, it's called the Apple Watch, but the wearable gadget unveiled in Cupertino today and scheduled for an early 2015 release does far more than keep the time. Apple CEO Tim Cook made a big deal about promoting the Apple Watch's health, lifestyle, and fitness tracking features, which include giving you personalized goals and keeping track of three different broad categories of activities: moving, exercising, and standing. And as my colleague Ben Popper found out, analysts are already predicting the Apple Watch will dominate the growing fitness tracking hardware industry (A Forrester Research study found that 24 percent of US adults plan on …

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Apple rolls out new iCloud Drive pricing with up to a terabyte of storage

2014-09-09T18:06:13-04:00

Making good on its announcement made at WWDC earlier this year, Apple quietly revealed the new, cheaper pricing scheme for iCloud Drive today. The new system puts Apple's cloud service on even footing with the competition -complete with the option for a full terabyte of space - though the cost for more storage is still a bit more expensive than what Dropbox and others offer.

According to the Apple website, iCloud Drive offers a range of monthly plans that's considerably cheaper than Apple's original annual pricing scheme. Confirming June's announcement, users can opt for a free 5GB, pay $0.99 per month for 20GB of space, or $3.99 a month fo …

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Watch all the videos Apple played today

2014-09-09T16:57:42-04:00

Apple truly had one of its biggest events in years at the Flint Center earlier today. But one of the best parts of these unveilings is always the videos the company produces for its new and improved products. With two new iPhones and the Apple Watch to build up hype for - along with a new U2 album to get excited about - Apple made no fewer than nine new spots. Watch them all here.

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Poll: Are you buying a next-gen iPhone? What about an Apple Watch?

2014-09-09T15:49:19-04:00

It's over. Apple made a few huge announcements today: the company unveiled two new iPhones and the all-new Apple Watch. The only question left is: How many people will buy them?

Admittedly, it's early; the three products were just announced. But some people have already made up their minds. If you're one of them (or haven't decided) cast a vote here.

Read the full story at The Verge.